#and then i adored the game so much i bought a copy on sale on steam for myself

[princekirijo]

Uhhh… 1 and 4 for the video game asks!

Last game you finished.

So I think the last game I actually finished was Pokemon Unbound which is a Pokemon rom hack or fan game! It was really really fun, it reminded me of how fun Pokemon can be something I hadn't really felt since I played Pokemon Sun whenever that came out. It's prob the best fan game I've played, the story is really fun, the character customization is great (yes I played as Riku) and all the gym challenges are really creative! And it has hands down the best starter Pokemon in Larvitar, Gible and Beldum like what a combo (I picked Gible ofc Garchomp my BOY). I would recommend it to anyone who likes Pokemon I've been tipping away at the post game stuff too and it's just a really fun experience.

4. Do you like to get 100% achievements/trophies?

To be honest I've never been bothered by them. I think before I got Steam the only time I cared about achievements was like the Lego games? They were pretty fun to 100%. Now I rarely bother with it unless I love the game. The only one I've tried to 100% recently is Elden Ring but I love that game so much I'm doing it twice lol (Steam and Playstation).

[evercelle]

Hi! Just wanted to say that I absolutely adore your artstyle and youre literally one of my favourite artists. Your poses are so dynamic and fluid and the expressions!! and colours you use!!!!

it screams of so much skill and ohmygod

I'm a huge kokichi fan and the way you portray/draw him is just peak. I bought the comic pdf and I'm so happy to have it! its not only really well put together, but also just such a touching story too

So yeah, just wanted to express my admiration >>

Hope you have a lovely day!!

ouma is just lots of fun to draw and/or rotate in ur mind :)c it's fun sifting through those layers!! i'm glad you enjoyed the book. since the setting was pretty mundane, i feel like i didn't get to do anything too exciting with poses or composition (lol) but it sure was good practice for drawing expressions. woooorghhh

i'm answering more anon msgs related to saiou book today!!! sorry it took awhile:

it's a good hurt!! ....right (':

i'd love to hear your thoughts!! it's always interesting to see what kind of details people pick up when you draw or write stuff, or interpretations... someone asked me what game ouma is playing on the switch (it's pikmin 4 btw. lol) and it makes me warm thinking someone even noticed i drew a specific UI in there. haha

sorry, no plans to reprint a physical copy...! this was my first time printing a solo book, so i tried a different vendor overseas, hence no pre-order sale. i'm really happy with how it came out, but it also means ordering new copies is more expensive than i'm willing to charge for. but the digital PDF will be available til end of the year, so at least there's that!

cry count: +1

thank you for picking it up as well :') i spent long enough working on this little story that i was afraid it was straying into 'this doesnt make sense to anyone but me' territory, so i'm glad you felt it delivered!

[ottspot]

I Bought A 10 Year Old Nintendo 3DS Game And Loved It - My Thoughts on Fire Emblem Awakening

It all started one day in December, just one month before the year was over. I woke up with the sudden urge to buy one game I had been meaning to get all these years, a game that I've had interest in but just never got to for some reason... Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS.

I had been exposed to it a number of times via Club Nintendo promotions, "Best Of The 3DS" lists, praise from my friends, and even playing the demo all those years ago. I may be almost ten years too late but I bought it second-hand from a retro game store (cheaper than GameStop!), and I couldn't have been happier with my decision.

In the age of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch, many consumers would be baffled at the idea of buying games for older systems, like the Nintendo 3DS. Some people in this case would often ask, "why not emulate or pirate?" There are advantages to doing that of course, especially considering that Nintendo doesn't even make money off of second-hand physical copies, and they soon won't be able to make money off of even the digital versions, with the company closing down the Nintendo eShop of the 3DS and Wii U systems in less than three months as of writing this!

The thing is, even in a time where we can just get games and DLC for these older games without spending a cent, I still wanted to experience getting a game officially one last time. And that's what I did late November of 2022, where I bought... Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. Yeeeah, I thought the Zelda "Oracle" series games on the Virtual Console would be my last digital purchase, but I saw those two on sale and they were the only ones I was missing on 3DS, so... I bit the bullet. And those were my, as of now, final Nintendo eShop purchases on the 3DS system.

But just one month later, I woke up and thought about one game in particular. A game that I believed I should get not in a digital form, but a physical copy. Indeed, it was the one I stated before and the main subject of this post, Fire Emblem Awakening. I drove to my local retro game store that morning and I picked the game up.

The inside cover had some pretty nasty water damage, but I plan on getting a new case entirely at some point, so it's okay.

I booted the game up, and discovered that there was a save file already there! Thanks to my modded 3DS system, I backed it up before erasing it. That way I can go back to it and see how they played.

After making a new save of my own, I chipped away at the game bit-by-bit until I finished it on January 3rd. I would have finished it already by now but I had other plans in my life, as well as a few other games to play a little bit of as well. But regardless, I did beat the game! And let me tell you... I adored it.

Now, this wasn't exactly my first experience with Fire Emblem. I had played Warriors on the Switch a while back, and I played a hacked version of Fates (only the Birthright path) and they were alright experiences. But Awakening was on another level entirely to me. The story, without giving too much away, had lots of tension, pain, and moments where I genuinely gasped out of fear. The other games I had played never made me feel that way about the story before.

The gameplay is a favorite of mine, too. I really like tactical RPGs like this, even if I haven't played a lot of them. I appreciate games giving me some time to plan out my moves and selecting which units to have fight the enemy, or stay back so they don't die. In that way I really felt like a tactician, just like the main character.

Speaking of, all the characters in this game were very lovable. Their writing was phenomenal and I loved their little voice lines. Lissa is definitely a favorite, and was always one ever since I played the demo back when it first came out. And that's the thing! Even early on in the game I learned to love and care about these characters. That's how good I feel the writing is.

Overall, I feel that this game deserves the reputation that it has right now. After 16 and a half hours of playtime, that couldn't be more obvious to me, and it's easily one of my favorite Nintendo 3DS games now. While it's great to see new games in the series release due to the success of this one, I don't believe there will be another game that will match just how great this entry is. So yes, once again, I bought an almost ten-year-old Nintendo 3DS game and I loved it. And I think you should buy it too, because it's 100 percent worth the money.

Thanks again for reading! I hope this will push me to experience some older Fire Emblem games someday, and hey- it might get me to try Three Houses or Engage too.

Next up: My Journey With The Nintendo 3DS... Does It Still Hold Up?

[bmpmp3]

Girl I wanna read some 2009 creepypasta so bad. Girl if I don't read about a Pikachu crying hyperrealistic blood right this minute I'm gonna lose it.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

The "Marinette is in charge of a class trip and has to suffer at her classmates whims, finally snapping and getting her cruel, well-deserved revenge on everyone" plotline can die now. I see it and I just want to yeet Saltinette out of the story so she can stop warping the world around her and everyone else can get a nice field trip arranged by the teachers and the school, as is canon, and Saltinette doesn't get to abuse her authority to make people suffer.

@flightfoot So! . . . My brain took this as a challenge apparently.

-------------------

"Alright class! Settle down." Mme. Bustier clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Now, the school field trip to, uh, the beach?"

"Yeah, mine says beach too." Alya held up the script and nodded for the teacher to continue.

"Right! Remember to-"

"AHHHHH!"

"Juleka, that's not in the script." Mme. Bustier waved her copy for emphasis.

"Sorry, Mme. Bustier!" Rose supplied while comforting her girlfriend. "It's just- AHHHHHH!"

"That is it! What!? What is with the screaming!?" Chloe demanded.

Rose pulled one of her hands that covered her face and pointed at the script that had fallen open. "S-S-Saltinette's in the script!"

Pandemonium erupted as the class protested.

"Quick Markov! Run away before she reprogrammes you again!" Max yelled, holding the window open for his friend.

"Ugh! Why her?" Chloe pulled out her phone to post about how unfair it all was online. "She's even more intolerable than Dupain-Cheng! Always saying we're friends and telling me to agree with everything she says and-" she shuddered, "expecting me to be nice!"

Alya was shaking her head and making an ex with her arms. "Uh-uh, no way. This is not in my contract!" . . . Seeing Nino wavering in his seat Alya brought the trashcan over.

Nino emptied his breakfast into it as his girlfriend rubbed circles on his back. He lifted his head just long enough to say: "God, I hate her." And then buried his face back down.

Adrien stared off into space, eyes blank as his inner voices argued.

The one that looked suspiciously like a supervillain was grinning. "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just want to Murder?"

The Chat Noir-ish one tapped his chin before pointing at the supervillain. "You know? He's got a point."

"Guys, guys!" Glasses Adrien protested, wrapping an arm around their shoulders. "We've been through this. Of course we're going to murder!"

"-Adrien? Dude!"

Adrien snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that the bane of their existence had entered the classroom. He turned toward Nino. "So we all agree that it's only murder if it's a person, right? Anthropomorphic embodiments of selfishness and revenge fantasies don't count?"

Saltinette draped herself dramatically onto Mme. Bustier's desk. "Oh! See how cruel and mean spirited my former crush is!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Get over yourself."

"Is this- Wait, hang on." Saltinette leaned her head back and held up an eyedropper. "Ah, there. That's better. Is this any way to treat your class representative?" Saltinette wailed with tears in her eyes.

"After I slaved away at fixing that old junkyard bus and raised enough money to pay the driver, 'cause he only accepts payment in quarters, by having a sale at the bakery and coordinated everyone's schedule so we could all go together!?"

Mme. Bustier flipped through the script. "It doesn't say that."

"Oh! How Lila has shone your true colors!"

Alix turned her head from left to right. "Dude, she's not even here!"

"Even Alix has turned her back on me!" Saltinette continued, holding the back of her hand to her forehead. "An unforgivable crime unless she gets on her knees and begs me for forgiveness and helps me ruin everyone else's lives and then maybe, possibly, eventually I will deign to give her the Bunny M-"

"Marinette SMASH!!!"

In the blink of an eye Saltinette went sailing through the window and disappeared into the sky with a twinkle of light.

Marinette brought her smoking fist, which she had just used to uppercut Saltinette out of the story, to her lips and blew on it.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Marinette stumbled before righting herself with a grin. "I needed a running start."

The classroom erupted into cheers.

Adrien smiled proudly at her. "Go out with me, My Lady?"

"Absldbsbdj! Adrien! That, um, isn't in the script!" Marinette protested despite having sent the "main character" into the stratosphere, cheeks tinting.

"Sure it is!" Adrien smugly flourished his copy of the script to the page they were on. He'd attached a sticky note to it that said, 'Adrien asks out his future wife'.

"Eeeeeeeee-" Marinette's face became even redder as her grin widened.

"Nice going, sunshine," Alya teased. "You broke her!"

"What a paws-itively un-fur-tunate occurrence."

Marinette blinked as a terrible realization dawned. "Oh, no."

Adrien grinned as he pulled her into his side. "Oh, yes!"

Mme. Bustier smiled at the new couple while throwing whole pages of the script into her new shredder. Right then. Taking out her red pen she began to make corrections for what remained.

-----------------

"Ha! Ready to give up, handsome?" Marinette sent the volleyball back over the net.

"You wish, beautiful!" Adrien slid on the sand and managed to keep the ball in play.

"Heads up, babe!" Nino called as he shot it back to the other side.

"For me? You shouldn't have!" Alya jumped for the ball and sent it spinning onto the sand, to the groans of the boys.

"Aw, look at them!" Rose cooed from her spot next to Juleka. The bright pink towel and umbrella clashing with Juleka's black beach hat and swimsuit. "They're adorable even on opposite teams!"

"I know. Horrible isn't it?"

Rose giggled. Juleka sometimes liked to pretend romance was icky 'for the aesthetic'. Personally, Rose thought the matching necklaces her girlfriend had bought them were plenty romantic. But who was she to ruin Juleka's fun?

Her attention wandered to the water where Max and Markov were enabling helping Kim with something.

"You sure you're up for this little guy?" Kim asked.

"I appreciate your concern but I assure you my waterproofing will keep me quite safe!" Markov replied.

Max nodded, adjusting his prescription goggles. "Markov will time your swim and measure how well you've improved."

"Then what're we waiting for?" Kim plunged underwater with a splash. Markov following after him.

Ivan gave a warning glare in their general direction before turning back to Mylene. Who was floating happily in a tube float.

Sabrina gazed wistfully from where she held Chloe's tanning mirror. Chloe herself could be heard snoring.

"Psst! Sabrina!"

Looking around, she spotted Alix behind some large rocks. Blinking, Sabrina pointed at herself.

Alix rolled her eyes. "You see any other Sabrinas around here? C'mon!"

Sabrina stood, paused, opened up the Queen Bee themed umbrella so Chloe wouldn't sunburn and hurried to catch up.

Nathaniel chuckled from his perch on the rocks as he continued sketching.

"Okay, I have a plan." Adrien announced.

"Is it an actual plan or is it one of your regular plans?" Nino asked.

Adrien summoned as much indignation as he could- "Rude," -and turned back to the game without telling Nino the plan.

"Wait, bro, c'mon!"

"Too late!"

The volleyball flew back and forth as both teams went all out. Marinette saw her chance, reached for it and-

"Hey, Marinette."

Adrien's hair glistened in the sunlight, eyes smoldering as he gazed into her soul. His soft lips curling into a playful smirk and-

Marinette felt sand burst all over her hair as she fell.

Instantly she was back on her feet. "Cheater! I call cheating!"

Rose laughed good-naturedly, knowing that Adrien had just invited a reckoning onto himself. "Poor Nino."

Kim burst to the surface. "Ahhhhhh! What is it? Get it off!"

"Please hold still so I may assist you!" Markov zoomed around Kim, trying to use his arm to pull some brown thing off of him.

"Kim, it's just seaweed!" Max yelled.

The corners of Juleka's lips twitched. "Tragic." She clicked her pen and wrote something down in her notebook.

Rose smiled and offered a lick of their icecream.

Ivan narrowed his eyes at the commotion but just snorted and went back to making sure Mylene didn't drift off.

Sabrina straightened from where she leaned over a tide pool. "What was that?"

"Just Kim being dumb again," Alix replied dismissively. "Ooh! There's a good one!"

"Making Marinette angry is a terrible plan!" Nino panted.

Adrien just grinned. "How can she be angry when her boyfriend looks like this?" He struck a dynamic pose.

Marinette missed her swing. Again. Glaring at her smug cat of a boyfriend she rose to her feet. "That's it." Marinette pulled out her pigtails, letting her hair fall. "The gloves are off."

Adrien stared openmouthed as the next volley sailed centimeters past his face. A gleam entered his eye. "Game of cat and mouse?"

"We'll see whose the cat this time!"

"Uh, we're still here y'know," Alya reminded them.

Blushing sheepishly all four resumed their game.

Taking a sip of her non-alcoholic cocktail Mme. Bustier put the finishing touches on the script. That done she tossed it aside and smiled at her students enjoying themselves. All was as it should be.

[willowstea]

Book asks: 5, 12, 14, 23, 29

5) What was your relationship with books like as a child?

I read all the time. My local "library" (it's actually a not for profit) would host monthly books sales and children's books used to be 10 cents a book so I'd buy a few dollars worth every month on out of print and out of order series and do my best to read them in order. I've recently found that some of the authors/estates have bought back the rights to those series and released them for kindle which is exciting.

It actually took me a while to get into YA/Middle-grade books. Somewhere between reading everything with animals on the cover and getting deep into warrior cats I just assumed everything that wasn't those was some sort of terrible evil book I should never touch because they were marketed as 'Young Adult" and would thus be the book equivalent of an R-rated movie. I got bored on a ski vacation when I was 11/12 because at that point those 80-page chapter books weren't entertaining and I read the first book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles and decided maybe not all of these are going to be the epitome of evil.

Now I read everything I think I'll enjoy.

12) Do you need to finish a book before you can move on to the next one, or will you have multiple books going at once?

I'm in the middle. I'll generally have books going in different formats like I might have an ebook going for when I forget my physical and an audiobook for studying. But other than that, I finish one before I start another.

14) What is your favourite children’s book?

Don't ask me what the mane was but I had these two books about a baby dragon and a baby unicorn and in one the mother unicorn turns herself into a house to protect her baby from the evil dragons and in the other, some magician is trying to steal the baby unicorn's horn and they have to get it back. I loved them so much.

23) Nicest edition or cheapest edition?

Cheapest, you get more books that way. Recently I've been saving money by buying ebook copies, especially when they're on sale, and then looking for a physical copy only if I adore it.

29) Have you ever read a book in another language?

I've read some french books, mostly for school. I read a couple of the Amos Daragon series when my friend lent them to me. Sometimes I buy french copies of popular books because if they're the Quebec translation they're subsidized and cheaper.

Ask Game

[fantastic-bby]

Books & Poems I love

Hello, I am just dumping my favourite books and poems here because I like them and I want people to read them too bcs they're cool. Disclaimer: I haven't read some of these books in a REALLY long time, so the explanations might be a bit off since this is mostly what I remember from when I had read them. All will be under the cut and I hope someone out there finds these as enjoyable as I do!

Books

1. Huntress by Malinda Lo

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn’t shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people’s survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls’ destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

I cannot express how much I adore this book. It's so well-written and the entire book feels like such an adventure to read. I have to warn everyone who will read this that it is quite violent. I also love the WLW inclusion which is carried throughout the story. It's also mentioned in the beginning that Kaede does not want to marry a prince because she could never marry a man. It's filled with lots of romance and it's fantasy because I'm a sucker for fantasy reads.

My sister had bought this book for me after I had lost my first copy and my cat peed on my second copy. The first time, I had bought it from a Big Bad Wolf sale in about 2014. The second, I ordered it through Kinokuniya, but I'm pretty sure you can get it off of Amazon as well.

2. Teardrop by Lauren Kate

Never, ever cry . . .

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean.

And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense.

Can everything you love be washed away?

This is also a book that I've read multiple times. I've even read the sequel, Waterfall, but I don't think I actually got around to finishing it since I bought it right before my exams. Another love and fantasy novel, it covers a lot of grieving and pain that Eureka goes through after losing her mother and at one point, she actually wishes it was her that had died during the accident.

Her relationship with Ander is quite sudden since he just shows up out of nowhere and just happens to know practically everything about her. I, personally, enjoy this book out of the amount of angst that it's filled with. It's very well-written and I still have the first copy that I bought at the same Big Bad Wolf sale that I had gotten Huntress. I think I had gotten the sequal at Kinokuniya as well (?), but I'm not entirely sure because it's been a really long time.

3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time--and to find a future with the one boy she thought she's lost forever.

Another very angsty book. It centres around Juliette, a girl who, for some reason, kills everyone she touches. It's also written in First POV and in the format of a journal. It feels more personal because some of the lines are striked through to show a thought that Juliette had in the moment of writing that she decided to replace with a different approach instead.

The beginning is basically Juliette being locked away in some sort of a prison because of her 'gift' and she writes to keep herself from going crazy, but then one day some guy is put into the same cell as her. It's another romance novel and also a kind of superhero novel It also gets pretty... ahem... seggsy... at one point, but it's a good read.

I've read the entire series aside from Restore Me. I have it, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Shatter Me is also from the same Big Bad Wolf sale as the other two lol. Juliette is also trapped in a love triangle at one point, but I won't get into it. It also gets a bit violent, but slightly less graphic than Huntress is and is also another 'self-discover' kinda book. (can you see a theme here that I read lol)

4. Winter's End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Four teenagers escape from their prison-like boarding schools to take up the fight against the tyrannical government that murdered their parents fifteen years earlier. But only three of the friends make it safely to Jahn's restaurant, the headquarters of a secret resistance movement, where they discover the astonishing power that one voice can have in the fight for freedom.

As the battle rages, the three friends are in a race against time to save their companion, who has been forced to participate in a deadly, ancient game for the amusement of his captors. Will this new generation prevail, or are they destined to meet the same grisly fate as their parents?

This is also extremely angsty. It's also pretty violent as well, so that's a warning for whoever will read this. Once again, well-written, nice flow to the story and I just really like this book. There's a lot of uncovering in the book that makes you go HUH because the four students end up uncovering a lot about their government and the secrets that involve the four of them.

It has a very heavy dark tone to it, which I really enjoy. It's a bit different from the other three which is less fantasy and more of a dystopian book. It's a very heroic, determination feeling that follows the students as they journey throughout the book. Also something that follows the students are a group of dog-men... things... that I'm pretty sure I actually had small nightmares imagining when I had read this in around 2013 or 2014.

Poems

Disclaimer: Half of these were poems I did essays on in high school aside from L. These are my illustrations of it and they're the ones that stood out to me when I had first read them.

1. Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I read this in high school when I was taking English Literature. It's a poem that Wordsworth wrote after his wife had passed away. I love the way it's written and William Wordsworth is one of my favourite poets. It's filled with the feeling of being lost and rediscovering the joys of the small things in life. There's a lot of imagery that refers to the flower, daffodil, and overall, it's just a a very soft themed poem.

I think the reason this poem stood out to me was because I was feeling a bit lost at the time I read it (the end of highschool) and I was desperately trying to find something I could relate to in some way.

2. Winter by Andrew Young

Another one that contains a lot of imagery. It's a poem about the beauty of Winter and how, while it's seen as a dark and gloomy season, it has hidden beauties that you can see if you're able to look past the initial image of it.

This poem in particular, I'm pretty sure I have a soft spot for in my heart mainly because of the soft spot I have for Winter in general.

3. London by William Blake

This is a more dark toned poem. It covers what old London used to be like with the raging poverty at the time. A lot of child labour and sex workers that would struggle with making money when they would accidentally get pregnant.

It's quite a depressing poem that I like because of the dark undertone and I, personally, really enjoy William Blake's works.

4. L by Bernice Chauly

L is a poem about how her daughter had cut her hair right after going to the hairdressers. While Chauly's daughter is crying when she yells at her, Chauly is reminded of when she had done something similar when she had just turned five years old. She thinks back to it and remembers that, at the time, all she wanted was to see her late father.

This is also more heavy set and it makes me think of the way children must feel when they lose their parents at such young ages.

[ahiddenpath]

My Favorite Writing Stuff

One of the best things about writing is that all you need is a pen and paper!  But we all have our favorite tools and luxuries, and I thought it might be fun to talk about mine below the cut.  Lotsa pics, long post.

Word Processors

Scrivener

The single writing item I use most is my word processor, Scrivener, by Literature and Latte.  At some point waaaaaay back in 2012, I found myself writing Growing Up with You in Microsoft Word...  And having to wait ten seconds for the screen to adjust and load new text as I scrolled.  It was just too danged long for the program to handle.  Just reading my manuscript was a nightmare, let alone copying and pasting to move text, shuffle paragraphs, etc.  Making a new doc for each chapter quickly became a clunky chore.

THEN I FOUND SCRIVENER, AND IT’S THE BEST.

Scrivener is... not very user friendly; there’s definitely a learning curve.  But it was immediately so much better for writing long fiction than Word that I bought a book on the program and read it from cover to cover, which...  I don’t think I’ve ever done before.  That’s how much of a game changer this was.

The feature I rely on most is the binder.

This is the binder for Four Years, which currently has...  Forty-eight chapters.  I corralled the chapters into two folders, one for the first year of college (1), and one for the second (2).  

If I click folder 1, all of the chapters appear, each snug in their own folder.  Once the Scrivener file loads, there is no further loading time.  Each folder can be moved by clicking and dragging, as can each text file inside each folder.  FREEDOM!

This feature alone was worth the price of the program.  They offer a free trial, so please check it out if you’re interested!

Portable Word Processors

I’ve mentioned these before, but I have two portable gadgets that allow me to write on the go, distraction free.

Alpha Smart Neo 2

This might look like the baby of a toddler’s toy computer and a keyboard, but it’s actually my baby.

Just kidding!  Sort of!  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is a portable word processor that boots up in a second, is powered by three AA batteries for eons, and weighs about 2 pounds.  They are no longer in production (which is a crime), but there are oodles available on Ebay for about $20-30.  

(I used to own and talk about my Alpha Smart 3000.  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is the latest model before the company shut down, and the keyboard is nicer; it’s quieter and easier on the fingers).

I honestly can’t say enough about this device.  I rarely draft on a computer anymore; it’s just too easy to find yourself surfing the web, falling down a research vortex, or even reading your manuscript instead of writing.  Alpha Smarts can remember what you wrote until you delete it.  That’s it.  That’s all they do.  It’s beautiful.

I write about 800 words/hr on a computer.  I write about 1,500 words/hr on an Alpha Smart.  Distractions are so, so real.

When you’re ready to port your writing from your Alpha Smart to your word processor, all you have to do is connect a printer cable to your Alpha Smart, then plug the usb end into your computer.  Open your word processor, turn on your Alpha Smart, select the file you want to transfer, and hit send.  If you forget any of this, it’s written on the back of the Alpha Smart.

I know that no one should blame their success or failure on their tools, but...  I wouldn’t be able to write nearly as much without my Alpha Smart.  And if you ever do writing meet ups, you’ll be the only person who isn’t fighting for a power outlet!  It also fits easily into a tote bag or backpack.

Oh, Alpha Smart Neo 2.  My partner and friend!

Freewrite

The Freewrite by Astrohaus is... um.  Well, it’s a lot like the Alpha Smart Neo 2, except that it’s waaaay more expensive, much harder to use, and has terrible firmware.

There are cool things about it, for sure!  For one, it has this weird...  Pseudo typewriter feel.  It’s much larger and heavier than an Alpha Smart, and I’m not sure that I actually consider it portable...  But the thick, angled base practically functions as a lap desk.  It’s comfortable to use and has a nice mechanical keyboard.

It has wifi capability, so you can send drafts directly to your dropbox/cloud/email, no cords or transfers needed.  The screen is an e-ink scree, like a Kindle Paperwhite, easy on the eyes and readable in the sun.  It’s also backlit, which is the one major win over the Alpha Smart.

I bought mine used off ebay for a fraction of the list price (this thing is NOT worth $600 on any planet, goodness gracious mercy dang!  I paid about $180), and, um...  I still don’t know if it was worth it, not when I can buy an Alpha Smart Neo 2 for $30 tops.  I mean, I like the e-ink and the backlit screen, but...  There’s a lag between typing and the words populating on the screen.  There are no arrows to fix a typo.  I had to send 10 emails back and forth to tech support to get it updated and working.  It was not broken, and I understood all the directions...  It’s just god awful firmware.  I also lost a draft because it wipes your device if you open their Sprinter program while using your Freewrite.  

I still use it, though!  The tactile sensation is really nice, the keys make a satisfying clickety clackety, the E-ink screen is lovely, I adore the option to write in a not-that-well-lit room, and the wifi transfer is faster than my Alpha Smart’s wired method.  But I still can’t recommend it as long as Alpha Smart Neo 2s are available, not unless you’re some combination of the following: a writing nut who writes so gosh dang much that these toys are worth it, someone who is big on tactile sensation, someone who likes hipster stuff, or someone who would love an Alpha Smart but can’t read the electronic screen well.  If this is you, make sure you also have a strong grasp on how to talk to and understand tech support, because you will need them.

Just never ever EVER open Sprinter...

Notebooks

Leuchtturm1917, hard cover, A5, dotted

MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO MY LOVE, THE LEUCHTTURM NOTEBOOK.

WHERE DO I EVEN START.

The Leuchtturm is...  Just the best.  The hard cover takes abuse well, stickers hold onto it nicely, it has two ribbon bookmarks and an elastic closure, there’s a folder attached to the back inside cover...  The dot version is unobtrusive and encourages smaller writing, which helps the notebook last.  And it is available in a rainbow of colors!

The paper is lovely, the pages are numbered, and IT HAS AN INDEX.

I’m a scientist, and working in a Leuchtturm is just like working in a fancy, expensive lab notebook.  The set up is done already, man.  You just gotta jot down what pages contain what.  IT’S SO ORGANIZED, with almost zero effort!  Mi amor.

Sure, I could make an index page and number all of my pages manually...  But I’ve met myself.  I won’t do it.  When you combine all of these lovely features, you have one unbeatable notebook.

Plus, they’re easy to obtain in the states!  I order them off Amazon or buy them at my local Barnes & Nobles.

Midori MD Notebook, A5, grid

The Midori has even nicer quality paper than the Leuchtturm, but the cover can’t take abuse, and it lacks the nice features.  I truly appreciate the paper quality, but the other features bring me back to my Leuchtturms every time.

It’s a Japanese item and is more difficult to import to the states.  You can get them off Amazon, though!

Pens

I use Uni-ball Signo 207 gel pens.  They write comfortably, and using them feels satisfying.  They should be available in most Walmart/Target type stores, at least in the states!  

It should be noted that I’m just not a pen buff.  I tried fountain pens, and it was more trouble than it was worth for me.

Folios/Traveler’s Notebooks

Okay, so you found the perfect notebook!  Wanna make it SUPER DUPER FANCY PANTS?!  Well, you could try a traveler’s notebook.  

I only learned what a traveler’s notebook is about a year ago, so if you’re also in the dark...  It’s a leather cover that holds notebooks inside with elastic.  I own these chic sparrows, one for my Midori notebook (or whatever notebook I’m using at the time), and one for my journal.

My full name is etched into them, so please pardon my censorship XD

The chic sparrow traveler’s notebooks are so elegant and decadent and...  I won’t lie, I literally move one or both around the house with me, just so I can look at them.  

The one on the left is a Mr. Darcy deluxe, size A5, in the Wickham color.  The one on the right is an Enchanted Woods deluxe, size A5, in the Elderwood color.

They have lots of pockets on the inside, a pen loop, and elastics to hold multiple notebooks.  This one is strung with a Midori notebook.  I also have a smaller B6 one that I use as a wallet!  It holds a small notebook, so I can write down those ideas that always happen when I’m out and don’t have paper.  The pockets hold IDs, credit cards, and cash.

It’s just this... magical, opulent item.  While it’s likely the least practical thing on this list, it’s very special to me.

Lap Desks

I HAVE A HARRY POTTER RAVENCLAW STORAGE DESK FROM POTTERY BARN AND I FEEL LIKE A WITCH WHEN I USE IT.

Oh dear, I took a terrible picture, it looks so lovely in person.  

The top can slide in both directions, revealing enough storage for several A5 notebooks, pens, and more.  It’s a great way to cart your stuff into your favorite cozy nook for a writing session.  Plus, you’ll feel like a Hogwarts student!  It’s available in all four house designs, plus a Hogwarts crest version.

Pottery Barn puts these on sale occasionally.  I’d aim for 25% off before buying.

My Writing Bag

I decked out a tote bag in writing pins to carry my Alpha Smart, thesaurus, a notebook, and pens.  You can use any bag, as long as it accommodates what you need!  Here are my fave sources for writing-related pins:

Literary Emporium, who makes my favorite pin, “Still I Rise,” a Maya Angelou quote.  They have the most gorgeous pins.

When life gives you lemons, read them, advice for the ages

And fandom:

Digivice pin

My beloved Sailor Moon pin, the loveliest pin I’ve ever seen (not shown because it lives on my Sailor Moon jacket!).  All of the inner senshi are available!

THAT’S ALL, THAT WAS SO MUCH.  Please let me know if you try any of these out!

[stellar-chrondrite]

Back from Comic Con! For my third time I’m enjoying it more and more! It gets better every time in my opinion! Just like May I went as Seto Kaiba - now with a wig to better mimic his hair!

Keep reading for the full lowdown as this one’s a really long post!

There was so much to do this time round; lots of famous people, video game demos, the Yu-Gi-Oh YCS tournament (of which a friend participated in) ... I didn’t get to do it all but I had such fun!

Me and my best friend got interviewed for the tournament and we had tokens made with photos taken of us! There was no Kaiba template for me to pick, but there was a Yami Yugi one so ... guess who’s got herself a Prideshipping Token? ;D

So ... many ... cosplayers ... I saw a casual Callie, a professional cosplayer (as the Mighty Morphin’ Yellow Ranger this time!) and I reunited with a person who was Kisara in May again! And that’s only a few examples of who I saw ...

Lots of signatures this time too; way more than I usually get! Veronica Taylor is so sweet; it was a pleasure to meet her! I’d post a photo of what she signed for me, but it has my name on it so ...yeah. Unexpectedly, I also met Wayne Grayson and Jonathan Todd Ross - that’s right, the VAs of Joey Wheeler and Marik Ishtar/ Yami Marik! I found out they were going to be there the night before, so I had to find something for them to sign. In the end it was Scapeghost (I has no Scapegoats) and The Winged Dragon of Ra!

Both of them are so friendly so if you ever get the chance to meet them, take it! You won’t regret it!

(Bonus: Joey and Marik introduce us to the YCS here!)

Also unexpectedly, another Comic Con exclusive mat! This time Yami Marik and Joey are on it in their Duel Links artwork!

There was also a Duel Links mat for those who won 6 Duels or something like that, but I didn’t have time to do that. There was also the advent calendar on sale, but there was only one left for display purposes. 

Update on my Kaiba plushie search; no luck. To make matters worse, my best friend found and bought one of the final two Yami Yugi plushies! Argh! Why can’t I find that Kaiba plushie ANYWHERE?! I KNOW it exists!!!

... ok. Let’s move onto happier things. I may not have the Kaiba plushie, but I did find something else I’ve been hunting for!

Oh yeah! Capsule Monster Coliseum is finally mine! I’ve been hunting for this game in my local game trade shops for a couple of months now with no luck. But now I have a copy! I’ve wanted this game ‘cause it has FULL VOICE ACTING! That’s a huge tick in ‘video game attributes that I like’; plus now I can learn how to play Mokie’s favourite game!

I found my favourite stall in the last fifteen minutes and found some more Yu-Gi-Oh figures! In May I honestly thought the Yugi Jump Festa figure I bought was the only one of its kind. Nope! I found Yami and Kaiba just waiting to be picked up!

THIS ... is probably my fav purchase of this con. An adorable Mokuba figure!!! If I’m correct this is a One Coin Mini Figure by Kotobukiya and I know these little guys can fetch a hefty price; this one was £13. 

Short story is ... now I have two things to look out for. A Kaiba plushie and a Kaiba One Coin Mini Figure. 

Had to get a Sandshrew to go with my Sandslash. Even though one is from Kanto, the other Alola. I love Sandshrew and Sandslash!

I think this Bounsweet and Pikachu pack will make a great addition to Yami and Kaiba’s flat - whenever I get round to actually making the set! I totally want to pose Yami with Pikachu on his back.

Finally I picked up these Pokemon-related figures. The Treecko keychain is the only colour-accurate thing here lol! The top figures (Treecko, Haxorus and Mienfoo) are soooo tiny but I do want to repaint them so they’re more accurate. Grovyle is missing his head leaf but I can fashion him a new one. The Altaria, though, I’m going to leave as is - I’m gonna nickname it Stormcloud Altaria!

And that’s it for my purchases! I could barely walk after leaving Comic Con and my body still aches from the day but I’m glad I could go. There’s a con called HyperJapan coming up in November and I kinda want to go to that ... but it falls in term time and invigilating season is quite close. Plus it’s also in Kensington which is further than the ExCel. Boy do I wanna go though ...

I’m amazed if you read through this all! Hope you enjoy your day!

[ourlittlebitofnothinguniverse]

All for the video game ask. (do I need to mention only if u r comfy w/ it at this point). Love you!!

alright u done done it now bitchhhhhhhh are u READY 4 THIS SHIT (dshfa;lkj thamk i am so pumped ur my biggest enabler) i already answered a couple of these for anon but i’ll go ahead and answer them here as well

1. First game you played obsessively?hmmmm i wanna say the legend of spyro the eternal night? i played it so much i could beat the whole game in four hours. i’ve heard lots of ppl actually hated the legend of spyro trilogy but honestly they can suck my ass i loved them

2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc.uh besides my answer for anon of skyrim not many games have actually just straight up influenced my art style but i’ve been playing this game called Fe (not fire emblem just Fe) and i really want to draw fanart for it bc it’s super cute if that Counts as influence?

3. Who did you play with as a kid?if this is meant in terms of co-op games nobody bc we didn’t have anyif just in general, my sister for the most part. i’d watch her play things like resident evil and she’d help me with the hard parts in medievil and crash bandicoot warped (read: racing levels)

4. Who do you play with now?myself lmao i don’t rly like co-op and multiplayer games and i prefer to play most games by myself

5. Ever use cheat codes?like i told anon, no bc i don’t know how they work and i’d probably only use them for the sims anyways

6. Ever buy strategy guides?not really? once we bought the collectors edition for diablo II when i was little and it included the strategy guide which i stayed up all night to read (bc i had run out of other reading materials in the house) but like i don’t really use them idk

7. Any games you have multiple copies of?the sims three and i know you know the reason why but in case anybody else wants to know: i didn’t know they had actually completely changed the game since i had played it last probably a decade ago so i bought it @ walmart this year and then i got mad bc it apparently SUCKS ASS now so in search of a copy of the original version i bought a second one from amazon bc the Image being used WAS of the original case but it really was the new version so now i have two SHITTY SHITTY VERSIONS of a game i used to love that i will never play bc it’s shit except maybe i will bc apparently it has real life music in it just replaced with sims language which is amazing and this response is far too long for the question but i asked u if u were ready so u signed up 4 thisi also have an xbox version of it tht i got for like christmas or smth years ago and a,,,,,, ds version??? that i got last year bc somebody was selling “the original version of the game including every expansion pack” for only like $30 and it definitely said disk version but when i got it it was this Pre-owned Dirty Ds Cartridge Covered In What Looked Like Strawberry Jelly and when i tried to contact them they shut their page down so there’s that which equals four shitty shitty copies of the sims three and i will never be more mad about anything than i am about this

8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection?uh well back when i had a job i spent A Lot of money (to me it was a lot) to get the collectors edition of the last guardian so that would be my most expensive. other than that i would have to say one of the hardest to find (maybe not rare but not common)games i have currently is medievil for ps1 bc it took me like a week of searching to find a copy in good condition online for sale bc i rly wanted to own it again since we had to sell all my old games when we moved to oregon which sucked bc we had a Bunch of cool games (mostly early ps era)

9. Most regrettable purchase?did you see my rant about the sims three for answer 7? yeah

10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours?never lived in an area where that is A Thing

11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games?i wanna make a homestuck joke here (srsly probably not like i said i don’t rly do any type of co-op or multiplayer games so)

12. Ever get picked on for liking games?not really?? is that a Thing?

13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has?uh idk literally any COD game, basketball games, Fallout games, overwatch, anything that’s co-op, shooter games or sports related etc idk i’m a simple fellow these types of games don’t appeal to me

14. Favorite game music?idk what this means? like genre-wise??? idk abt stuff like that i just like good game music but i’ll tell you the fuck what, hiveswap music fuckin SLAPPED

15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick?fuck shit idk man i don’t rly want a tattoo maybe uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh smth that could be vague

16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL?idk rip lmao

17. Ever lose a friend over a game?Nah man i can’t even imagine smth as dumb as that unless they’re screaming racist or sexist slurs bc then friendship is terminated but otherwise like wtf it’s just a game,,,

18. Would you date someone that hates gaming?i mean?????? sure????????????? they don’t have to game with me??????????? unless they tell me I can’t game bc they don’t like it in which case Bye u controlling piece of shit

19. Favorite handheld console?u kno those games that used to come in sonic happy meals? yah (jk uh i don’t have much experience w/ handheld consoles besides nintendo ds-es and they’re cool)

20. Game that you know like the back of your hand?like i said i played spyro the eternal night so often i could beat it in four hours so probably that one.

21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now?the only games i didn’t like as a kid i p much still don’t like now

22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories?i am Poor

23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into?currently skyrim or stardew valley

24. First Pokemon game?I didn’t get to play any pokemon games until this year actually but i got myself pokemon y and ultra sun so those are my first two! although you Could technically say pokemon go bc i played that for the first time like One month before i got y and ultra sun but like idk if tht counts so *shrug emoji*

25. Were you ever an arcade game player?i never lived where arcades were a thing tbh

26. Ever form any gaming rivalries?Why

27. Game that makes you rage?there’s this absolutely adorable and INFURIATING game called so many me that’s a puzzle platformer but the controls are so ridiculously precise that it’s absolutely the WORST to play bc unless you do it just right at just the right millisecond you will die over and over and over

28. Ever play in a tournament?nah

29. What is your gaming set up?the livingroom tv and my mom’s xbox one or my bedroom with my ps4 i got for my birthday and my xbox 360 that i got like 7 years ago

30. How many consoles do you own?alright so If ds-es count i own,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, roughly seven? i have my new ps4 i got for my birthday last year, my 7 year old xbox 360, another xbox 360 i bought from a kid @ school, a ps1 i bought last year for the Nostalgia that’s in rly good condition, a rly old ds lite a rly old 3ds and my new pokeball 2dsxl. i would also say that the ps3 my aunt left when she died is mine bc my mom never used it and she had bought most of the games For Me and Her to play together anyways so the idea that she left it to my mom is,,,, Weird but my mom claims it was left to her so Shrug emoji

31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches?“virtual boy” i love it omg. uh not really i don’t use my ds-es that often bc i don’t have a just wild amount of games but when i do use them it doesn’t rly mess w/ my brain or eyes too much

32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic?probably not?

33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games?i don’t think so tbh

34. Do either of your parents play video games?my mom does but she really only plays like three games (the newest assassins creed, skyrim, and stardew valley)

35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop?nope

36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game?man have u ever heard of brotherhood a tale of two sons? mom told me abt it and she didn’t warn me abt how it ended and i had to leave the room and cry bc it broke my heart

37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination?i didn’t know that was a thing

38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like?i can’t think of any tbh. oh wait i take that back sonic unleashed it’s terrible but i love it

39. A sequel that you would die for them to make?maybe not a sequel but they rly need to come out with another stardew valley type thing or maybe expansions or smth so that you can talk to and befriend more ppl and stuff

40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls?never been able to try them but they look super fun and i can’t wait to see how they improve the technology

41. A genre that you just can’t get into?multi-player games period. also first person shooters and sports games. there’s more but i can’t remember the title of the game bc i don’t know what genre it would be lmao

42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness?i assume this means game related nerdiness not just my inherent nerdiness in general so probably the very first spyro game

43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else?all the time my dude

44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters?none

45. How are you at Mario Kart?probably shit i’m not good @ steering in games

46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon?i love them! i have like 100+ hours logged into stardew valley and i only got it in like november of last year

47. Do you like competitive games?not really

48. How long does it take your to customize your player character?so long. i either have to make them gorgeous or beautifully hideous

49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character?yah tbh lmao. i have like eight thief stone khajits in skyrim rn

50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create?i have a Lot of ideas and not all of them are good

51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep?forgetting to sleep, yes. forgetting to eat? no 

52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid?i was a very sheltered kid i didn’t know about new games coming out when i was little bc we didn’t have any way for me to find out About Them. i’m making up for it by begging as an adult for ni-no-kuni II and the new spyro trilogy remastered

53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days?depends on the game tbh some of it is good and a lot of ppl who make mods are rly talented but sometimes the big companies just make dlc to make more money so it can be rly shitty so it’s kinda a 50/50

54. Do you give in to Steam sales?heck yes rn i’m waiting for house flipper to go on sale bc i’ve been waiting for it to come out since i found out abt it

55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them?no my style of playing the sims was more along the lines of make a hundred houses that are all P Much The Same House and making a hundred familys and never playing literally any of them hadflskja;sdfjdslkhja i just liked building stuff and that’s why i’m pissed abt how much they changed the sims three bc it used to be Way Better

56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests?we didn’t have it but i did have zoo tycoon and i’d release the dinosaurs sometimes

57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements?legend of spyro the eternal night

58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick?uh!!! that’s too much pressure and i would get so bored playing them for the rest of my life even if i loved them so i will not choose

59. Do you play any cell phone games?sort of? i’m big into abyssrium and i like viridi if those Count?

60. Do you know the Konami Code???????????????????????? guess not

61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever?keep them forever!

62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game?i got the last guardian before getting the ps4 does that answer ur question? (jk that is not the only reason i wanted and got the ps4 but it was One big reason)

63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? nah

64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming?not really? i just use whatever i currently have bc i am lame

65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file?nope

66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it?not a nokia but we had this one handheld thing that had a bunch of games in it that included snake i just can’t remember what it was it had like letters and numbers and it needed like regular batteries and you could only play the games that came programmed on it 

67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share?i cannot think of any right off the top of my head even though i know i played a lot of video games and loved them when i was little. hm it might not count as like a gaming-related childhood memory and more of just a memory of a game but we did have one really interesting little game that i absolutely loved i think we only rented it but u were a scientist who could turn into a mouse and it was absolutely amazing i loved it i have no idea what it was called hm

68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool?not really we didn’t have arcades around where i grew up

69. In your opinion, best game ever made? there are a lot of rly good ones i can’t choose a best game

70. Very first game you ever beat? like i told anon i’m p sure it was crash bandicoot warped

WHEW this was rly fun thank u for enabling me it took me like two hours to answer this i’m so happy. ilu 2 man hope ur day has been rad!

[daleisgreat]

35 Years of NES - Flashback Special!

It took me 12 minutes to set up this shot of what encapsulates my NES fandom! Please sit down and listen for awhile as I recount my life and times as a NES kid! This October in a couple months will mark the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America so that means it is time for another flashback special where I recount my personal history with the NES. This is the 11th platform that has gotten the flashback special treatment from me in the little over a year I have been doing them and if you want to get caught up with the rest make sure to check out the links at the bottom of this entry! Furthermore, if you are looking for a more traditional anniversary piece chronologically highlighting the history of the system and its top games I have you covered there too. At the bottom of this article I have embedded old podcasts of mine I recently uploaded to YouTube from my personal archives where we highlight the system as a whole on its 25th anniversary ten years ago. I additionally have podcasts from my history of RPG and comic book videogame series highlighting the NES entries from those genres that are all featured at the bottom of this article to keep that NES anniversary train rolling for the rest of the year! Being Introduced to the Power

I will never forget the first impression the NES made on me because it was the first time I ever witnessed and played a videogame! It was the Christmas shopping season of 1988 and I just got home from Kindergarten class to see my older sister playing some electronic contraption that was absolutely foreign to me. My eyes soon gazed upon the TV where a crudely pixelated man in red overalls was running and jumping across the screen to the catchiest of background music jingles that will always stick with me. She soon enough passed along the NES’s vintage rectangular controller to me and within minutes I was hooked as I sunk my teeth into my first videogame, Super Mario Bros.. Our family got the ‘Power Set’ which had the 3-in-1 cart featuring Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet along with the Power Pad and Zapper accessories. I was too little to figure out how to operate the Power Pad at the time and rarely played World Class Track Meet, but the family did get a decent amount of playtime in Duck Hunt and groveled over how we could never shoot that damn dog! We always kept coming back to Super Mario Bros though. I had no idea what I was doing as a five-year-old at that time, but I knew I had to give it my all to get Mario to jump to the top (and over???) of the flagpole at the end of most levels. Eventually I stumbled my way accidentally jumping into hidden blocks that contained SECRETS like extra lives, bonus coin blocks and vines that lead to bonus coin rooms and warp zones! Much like today how I have to explore every nook and cranny in the latest open world sandbox game, Super Mario Bros. planted the seeds for that gaming mindset in me to jump around and explore everything to find whatever secrets Nintendo had in store for good ‘ol Mario.

The minus world was the ultimate secret in videogames for so many years that it was the #1 secret of the top 100 secrets in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power. It took me about a couple years of trying over and over and taking advantage of all the warp zones and extra live secrets I could, but the original Super Mario Bros. was the first game I ever finished. When I thought I discovered all the secrets in the original Super Mario Bros. a friend or cousin would power it on and showed me all new secrets and tips that blew me away. First it was getting to time a jump just right on a koopa troopa coming down the block stairs so Mario would repeatedly jump on them to get near-infinite lives. Then they showed me the hidden warp zones….and then there was the day after much repeated attempts that my cousin showed me the much talked about ‘minus world’ in the game that perplexed me so much that I lambasted him with questions about said level’s eye-opening odd level design. ‘Why did the level never end? Why is this magical force sucking Mario through the bricks, cousin….IS MARIO A GHOST!?!?’ That tripped me out as a Kindergartner, but not as much as the most sinister-looking baddie in the game, the dastardly Hammer Bros!!!! No I am not talking about the adorably-huggable hammer bros. from Super Mario Bros. 3, I am talking about the spiky-squiggly-shaped monsters that chucked super-sharp-metal-thingies at Mario!!! The original Hammer Bros. petrified five-year-old Dale!!! Just see for yourself below…

Encountering the Hammer Bros. for the first time in a night level only amplified the terror they unleashed! I was terrified of them, but what was especially terrifying was how Nintendo gave them a paint of cuteness by their look in Super Mario Bros. 3 as you can see above on their right. You can almost look walk right up and give them a hug! Bring back the sinister OG hammer bro Nintendo! As much as I loved the original Super Mario Bros., I never got to put a lot of playtime into its sequels. I think they were always rented out at the local video store. I do recall watching my cousin finishing Super Mario Bros. 2 and watching in awe the quality of the ending ‘dream’ cinematic that stirs controversies to this day! I never played much original NES Super Mario Bros. 3 either until I got Super Mario All-Stars where I later played a ton of both of those games, but that is a story for another day. The Joy of Renting and Garage Sale-ing

Speaking of renting though, it was how I played almost all my NES games for the first couple years our family had the NES. I was too young to realize games could be purchased at the store and thought games could only be rented at the video store….at least that is what I think my mom caused me to believe anyways. Looking back I loved those early NES years perusing the local video store and only going by misleading box art on what to rent. There are four specific renting memories stood out from those years around the end of the 1980s. One is playing a ton of the first CastleVania and being perplexed at why the heart pickups did not restore health, second is perishing repeatedly in the original Mega Man right from the start which got me to swore off the franchise for a few decades (more on that later). Another time I freaked out at the video store receiving my copy of Tengen’s RBI Baseball and discovering how their black cartridges differed than the standard NES gray carts, but only to have the video clerk assure me they would work on the NES. Finally, my favorite rental memory was getting gleeful goosebumps as a result of the mesmerizing beats of what is my single favorite NES theme, yes I am talking about the ‘Moon Theme’ of Duck Tales. A theme so powerful it still gives me the shivers to this day.

Behold the single best NES stage music of all time!! Now listen to it for ten hours straight!!!! I mentioned in previous flashback specials how I grew up with divorced parents. I would visit my dad on the weekends and he would usually be a system a generation behind because he was big on garage sales and people were getting rid of their old systems typically when the next system was hitting. So when the NES was the primary system, I would play Atari 2600 at my dad’s on the weekends. Around the time SNES launched in 1991 was when my dad finally got a NES, and he would have another regular NES game or two every several weeks he found at another garage sale. I recall the first four games he got with his NES: Days of Thunder, Gauntlet II, Ikari Warriors and 10-Yard Fight!

My dad bought whatever he thought was a deal at the time of those garage sales, and the quality of games he brought back varied greatly. His garage sale bargain was how I first played classic hits like the original Legend of Zelda and Maniac Mansion. I was seriously into both of those games even though I struggled to make progress in Zelda because all I had was the packed in map to guide me in the pre-Internet and strategy guide days. I made my own dungeon maps in Zelda, and loved trying to figure out the way to get past its increasingly trickier dungeons and puzzles, but eventually got stuck after the third dungeon and could not deduce the pattern in its version of the ‘Lost Woods’ for the life of me. Maniac Mansion was the first adventure game I was exposed to and was instantly hooked, even with the clunky and censored NES port I was resilient in attempting to figure my way around the lighthearted obstacles of the mansion and trying to hide from its alien residents. Reflecting back on my fandom for Maniac Mansion, it got me confident that if I was aware of the PC gaming scene of the late 80s/early 90s instead of the NES scene that I would see myself being head over heels for the countless adventure games from Sierra and Lucas Arts at the time. There were other times however my dad would come back from a garage sale with not-so-desirable titles like XEXYX, Dash Galaxy and Rocket Ranger, but sometimes his picks were a surprise. I somehow got locked into the addictive nature of the stock market game of Wall Street Kid and played far more of that than I had any right to. My dad eventually got the four player adaptor for the NES and the family tried to do the unthinkable one day and dedicate an afternoon to finishing Gauntlet II. We loved that game, but never had time to finish it in a session because the levels just kept never ending and we presumed it had to end by level 100. So one of my favorite NES memories is when the family gathered determined to finish level 100…which we did, but our bravery was for naught when we were all stunned to see that was not the end of the game. I believe we got to around level 130-ish before we eventually threw up our arms and powered off the NES. How the hell were we suppose to know back then that the levels procedurally generated!?!

Gauntlet II and Ikari Warriors were two of the four games that came with the NES my dad purchased at a garage sale and thus we invested countless hours in both, yet both titles we failed at finishing! My dad, brother and I played far too much Ikari Warriors together. I know it is a sloppily designed game with a lot of glitches and other hiccups, but the setting and atmosphere of Ikari Warriors rode the coattails of the infectious Rambo-hype of the 80s. Ikari Warriors on the NES felt like more of a faithful videogame adaptation of that film than the actual Rambo NES games itself. Ikari Warriors was the next best thing by chucking grenades and wreaking havoc with a tank, especially with a second player in co-op! That game burned through lives to the point of where I expected there to be a cheat code to get more lives because it would hang at the game over screen for a good 10 seconds so eventually I mashed buttons until I memorized that ‘A,B,B,A’ unlocked three more lives! I was super proud of being able to figure out a cheat code on my own! The levels in Ikari Warriors went on forever though, and regardless of having near-infinite lives with that code, we would eventually get bored and/or confused at that awkward fourth stage with the bizarre piping the warriors would get hung up on. Over the years the odd gameplay quirks of Ikari Warriors I look back at fondly I came to discover that everyone else detested as one of the worst NES titles, which I feel is a bit much. If my words cannot do it justice, then James Rolfe captured the highs and lows of Ikari Warriors perfectly in an episode of Angry Videogame Nerd I highly recommend giving a watch by clicking or pressing here. Playing with a Different Sort of Power

Over the years I came to find out that the mega popular Nintendo Power magazine was the go-to source for NES fandom of that era. I am an outlier in this case as I was not aware of the magazine until well into the 16-bit era. I chalk this up to never buying games brand new at the time where most new games on Nintendo platforms came bundled with Nintendo Power subscription inserts which I did not become keen to until getting new GameBoy games in 1993. So where was I to get all my latest NES coverage in the late 80s and early 90s before the Internet and then completely oblivious to the videogame magazine market? Through super cheesy, early 90s videogame-themed TV shows! There was not an official Nintendo Power show, but there was an awesome game show on weekday mornings for a couple years in the early 90s called Video Power that showcased kids playing the latest NES games in various challenges. Nickelodeon had a videogame TV show too, which was another game show called Nick Arcade. They had kids answering trivia and competing in various arcade game and virtual reality-esque challenges. The magazine GamePro also endorsed a TV show at the time and it featured more traditional game coverage and I recall it having an over-the-top host showcasing the latest secrets and tips. If you are not familiar with these shows, they are fun to look back on as they capture the goofy ‘extreme kids’ nature that dominated the early 90s. James Rolfe once again does a nice breakdown video of Nick Arcade and Video Power I will embed below or you can click or press here to check it out. These three shows and the latest gossip with classmates and friends were the only ways I got my news about the latest NES games back then.

Nick Arcade and Video Power are dissected in the above video and those TV game shows were how I was initially glued into the latest NES games as a kid. NES ‘Rights of Passage’ For those that grew up with the NES, I bet you have a good idea where this is going. Anyone that owned the traditional rectangular NES with the flip cover of doom will know that model of the NES was notorious for only powering up games about half the time. Recess-rumors lead us all to believe that blowing into the cartridges made them work better, and while it usually did I still remember my dad buying cleaning kits at the store and insisting using it to clean the games instead of blowing into them…but I like many other NES-kids were super impatient and instead went with the blowing/jiggling the NES-cartridge ever so gently into place….and sometimes wiggling the cartridge up and down several times before firmly locking the cartridge into place and powering on the system. That was the way I convinced myself to get NES games to power on their first try with a 60% success rate! For younger readers here who are doubting me, I am not kidding. This was a thing….seriously! Click or press here for proof where the GameSpot crew of 2005 detail their near identical NES-troubleshooting demonstrations in their excellent video on the NES!

As the header above alludes to, that was one of several ‘rights of passage’ for all NES-kids of the era. The so-bad-its good animated show, Captain N the Game Master likely was part of your Saturday morning cartoon lineup (yes, I have the DVD set, be on the lookout for a review…eventually). Another one was ‘NES-thumb.’ I love Nintendo’s directional-pad, but on the NES longer play sessions with button-mashy-prone games would result in it leaving a scouring imprint on the thumb for hours! I feel safe to say a majority of NES-kids encountered an awful LJN-published game based off one of their personal favorite licensed properties of the 80s. For me it was the atrocious X-Men title, its agonizingly bad Back to the Future game and most of their WWF games. As much as I loved the Ikari Warriors code described above, the most popular code spread across several NES games was the ‘Konami’ code. Ask any then game player 35+ and they likely would be able to subconsciously spout it off to you instantaneously! John Cena turned the code into his best t-shirt design! Calling Nintendo’s long distance-fee heavy hotline for the latest tips from Nintendo’s endorsed gameplay counselors was another thing that got kids to surprise their parents with $100+ phone bills. The last big hurrah for NES-kids was going to see The Wizard at the end of 1989 to see a few precious minutes of Super Mario Bros. 3 gameplay a couple months before its release! I could go on about The Wizard forever, but that was why I covered it here on my blog last week instead so if you want to know all about the Nintendo adver-film, then click or press here for my entry on it! 8-Bit Sports Fun for Everyone! Talking to other core gamers and listening to many gaming podcasts over the years one irk-ing trend is of most ardent game players shaming sports game fans. I understand why the main EA Sports and 2K Sports games are sim-focused experiences that are not for everyone, but they continue to sell well and have their dedicated fanbase. Back in the 8-bit and most of the 16-bit generation, sports games were simpler pick-up-and-play affairs that worked for almost anyone, especially on the NES with its simpler graphics and only having two primary action buttons. The first sports game I got into on NES was Double Dribble which blew me away with its ‘cinematic’ dunks. Nintendo’s Ice Hockey was a huge favorite of mine and it featured fast, scoring heavy action, and had fights, overtime and shootouts all crammed into a NES cartridge. I thought it was the best hockey game on the NES, and then I discovered the more brutal and up close fights in Konami’s Blades of Steel! There were a deluge of baseball games on the NES and the two I got into the most were the original RBI Baseball and BaseWars. RBI Baseball had the illusion of realistic baseball, but simple enough for anyone to grasp. It had a twee-art style, happy-go-lucky background music to nod along with and was one of the first baseball games to feature real MLB players. BaseWars frigging ruled! Futuristic teams of robots duked it out on the diamond and would engage in battles when attempting a tag out!

For pigskin NES classics, the first one I got into was 10-Yard Fight! It had rather….particular…controls for a launch-era NES football game, but I eventually adapted to it. I know now that Tecmo Bowl and especially its sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl were the cream of the crop of NES football games, but I never got a chance to play them until many years after the fact (and I was still blown away by my friend’s first play he picked against me which was scrambling to the back of his endzone and unleashing a 100-yard touchdown pass!). My own personal top pick is NES Play Action Football, a gridiron game that will forever have a place in my heart! I have everlasting memories of my dad teaming up with me to take on the computer. The passing controls in this game are garbage so we only did running plays, but the players ran absurdly slow…and that was even when factoring in there was a turbo speed button! My dad and I however learned to own that ridiculous control scheme! I would hand off the ball to him and then I would take control of the linemen and block defenders for him as he ever-so-gradually-inched-his-way-across-the-field. I am not embellishing by saying it took a good two whole minutes to traverse about 80 yards. It was completely asinine, but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment with every first down and touchdown my dad and I accomplished with our teamwork! That covers the four major American sports, but there was also a lot of representation from the ESPN Ocho tier of sports games. I loved me some Super Dodge Ball and loved going through its world cup mode. Its adorable oversized character graphics carried over into Nintendo’s soccer game, Nintendo World Cup. Nintendo also delivered two excellent golf titles on the system with the self-titled Golf during the black box launch era of the NES, and a more fleshed out version of that game with a career mode and three courses in NES Open Tournament Golf. Konami’s pair of International Track & Field titles were excellent arcade conversions. Finally, I would be remiss if I was not to give Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out a little love here. I ate up the puzzle pattern boxing gameplay with its distinctive roster of foes for the affable Little Mac. I wish I was not awful at it as I could only get to Bald Bull before my inferior skills met their match.

I invested countless hours into marginally satisfactory NES wrestling games. The cream of the crud pictured above is Wrestlemania Challenge and Tecmo World Wrestling. The wrestling nut in me begrudgingly admits there is not a five star grappler on the NES. All the WWF games range from middling to atrocious. WWF Wrestlemania Challenge I would say was marginally solid because it had functinal enough gameplay, a decent roster with wrestlers not seen in many other games at that time like Rick Rude & Andre the Giant, featured finishing moves and best of all one of the few wrestling games that played AWESOME chiptune renditions of the wrestler's theme music throughout gameplay! Avoid Tag Team Wrestling and M.U.S.C.L.E. at all costs, both of those abysmal wrestling games make all the LJN WWF games seem competently made. Pro Wrestling is good for a launch era game, but it is very limiting all things considered. I had a lot of fun with WCW Wrestling back then, but its unique controls have not aged well. I would have to give Tecmo World Wrestling the nod as my favorite NES wrasslin’ game because of solid controls, Tecmo’s trademark cinematics and its goofy announcer providing nonstop text play-by-play on the bottom of the screen that constantly had my attention.

Some of my favorite driving NES games seen above are Micro Machines on the left and Super Off Road on the right. A Micro Machines game with the same style of core racing mechanics has appeared in almost every console generation since! Super Off Road is probably my favorite four player NES game. Driving and motorsports were another favorite of mine, and the NES was loaded with them! My two favorites were Super Off-Road and Super Sprint. The former because it was a pretty faithful conversion of the arcade game and had four player support my family and friends clocked many hours with. Super Sprint had a similar overhead view of the whole track, but felt like it had more realistic handling, yet still contained many increasingly tough obstacles to overcome. In a strange twist, I later found a couple years ago the developers of Super Off-Road made a F1 style of that game that is also four player compatible in Indy Heat, but it also features pit stops where you can ram over the pit crew! Excitebike was an early childhood rental favorite as I loved going over the ramps and wiping out and randomly assembling a mish-mash of parts of a course in the track editor. I was bummed the NES never got the excellent OutRun from the arcades so I had to suffice with Square’s take on the checkpoint-based driving game, Rad Racer and its sequel a couple years later which were almost, but not quite on par with Sega’s flagship arcade driving game. RC Pro-AM and Micro Machines I am a huge fan of both racing games that feature an overhead camera that locks on and follows the car from a birds-eye view unlike the average behind the car camera perspectives that dominated that era. Collecting for the NES As the 1990s wore on a local video store selling its excess stock and a local game store called Tiger Play were my go to spots for a few years for used videogames. I will never forget lucking into a $2 copy of Tengen’s Tetris at the video store. Eventually eBay opened the floodgates to track down a lot of the NES games I rambled on about above. A regional annual retro game convention, The Midwest Gaming Classic, I attended several times over the past 15 years also attributed to many of my NES games. One year I was ecstatic to get a fan translation of the original Mother game that Nintendo would later officially release on the WiiU as Earthbound Beginnings. I was also ecstatic to get a fan mod updated rosters version of Tecmo Super Bowl. I eventually got a NES-clone system towards the end of 2000s that handled NES games exponentially better than the original Nintendo system and also allowed the ability to play Japanese Famicom games. At MGC I would buy one or two random cheap Famicom games a year to make use of the Famicom slot. I only wound up with several Famicom games, with highlights being Baseball, Tetris and Mighty Final Fight.

The last trip I made out to MGC in 2018 I went in with the goal to finish off my Power Pad game collection and hunt down the last three Power Pad compatible games I did not own to officially have all eight or nine Power Pad games. After perusing the many vendors there I was able to track down the much treasured copies of Athletic World, Eggsplode/Street Cop and Dance Aerobics down, along with a bonus homebrew NES cornhole/bag toss game, Tailgate Party, that also took advantage of the Power Pad. A couple years ago YouTube creator, Pat Contri released his exhaustive Ultimate Nintendo Guide to the NES Library coffee table book/tome that reviewed every single NES game. I read it over the course of a year via a few pages a night before bed. It naturally turned me onto several games I either long forgotten about or completely went over my head and I wound up tracking them down online. That book got me wound up on a NES four player game kick and I have about a dozen four player NES games right now. One night a couple years ago I did a four player NES party night and managed to have a fair amount of fun with some friends going at it in Super Off-Road, Gauntlet II and Super Jeopardy. Right now my preferred way to play NES cartridges is via the Retron 5 system. I know that clone system is a little polarizing because of its emulation software it uses, but I love its performance at playing NES games and other cartridge based systems on my HDTV without the fuzzy graphics and lag that happens when plugging in old composite/RCA cables that came with the NES. I also love that it allows save states and the equivalent of Game Genie cheat codes. A couple years ago I finally got around to playing through SNK’s action-RPG, Crystalis and I would be lying if I said I did not take advantage of save states and a couple of the cheats. Official Nintendo NES Preservation Nintendo has been doing their part, for better and worse, at keeping the NES catalog alive digitally going back to the launch of the Wii in 2006. I picked up several NES games digitally for the Wii at $5 apiece for the Wii’s Virtual Console. I did the exact same thing a few years later for the WiiU and 3DS. The Virtual Console was a handy feature I took advantage of somewhat, but I think it far benefitted younger gamers who were being introduced to those classics for the first time. Nintendo spawned the mini-console craze a few years ago with them debuting the NES Classic, which packed 30 first and third party NES games into a pint sized version of a plug-and-play NES. It featured a solid lineup of games across all genres and was a great bargain considering strong library of games. The emulation quality was leagues better compared to the Virtual Console and the NES Classic feature better implementation of save states and now the ability to rewind gameplay. I brought the NES Classic over to family gatherings and it was a hit all night long.

The NES Classic and NES Channel on the Switch are my two top legitimate recommended ways to digitally dive into the NES library! The best part about the NES Classic was how easy it was to mod and upload your own games to. I know the various RetroPi’s and Mister devices have been capable of this for awhile, but there is something special about the NES Classic’s interface that makes it the preferred way for me to re-experience these NES gems. For a little last minute prep for this article, I loaded up Nintendo’s latest way to experience NES games via the NES Channel on the Switch. Right now it has a little over 50 unique NES (and a small selection of Famicom) games available to play in North America. I dabbled with a few different game for a little over an hour, and finished off my session by playing through the first several stages of Super Mario Bros. again. Nintendo once again stepped up their emulation efforts here by having even better functioning save states and rewind features and now the ability to do online two player. I got my nephew to play with me online and it worked surprisingly well…..other than my fifth grade nephew initially being a little crabby at the graphics being ‘old’ at least. I do not hear many people touting this feature that much and I think it is awesome that Nintendo made this back catalog online and all things considered is part of a great value for $25 a year for Nintendo’s online Switch service.

If those two options do not interest you than there are a ton of other NES games that got re-released as part of collections on many systems over the years. On the current gen alone I would recommend the first Mega Man Legacy Collection that collects the first eight Mega Man games, of which the first six are the NES games. That was how I first experienced Mega Man 2 after the aforementioned boycotting of the brand. Yes, it was after decades of reading testimonials on how Mega Man 2 is one of the all-time greats for the NES I finally played it off that collection a few years ago and loved it. It also allows save states thank goodness, or else I would never be able to conquer that final gauntlet leading up to Dr. Wily! Other recommended collections would include the digital collections Konami released last year rounding up the early entries of the CastleVania and Contra games, both of which have all their NES installments. I highly suggest getting Capcom’s Disney Afternoon Collection that has six of the best licensed NES platformers such as both Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers games. SNK released an excellent 40th anniversary collection last year too which includes several of their NES games including my beloved Ikari Warriors and its two lesser sequels. The Double Dragon and Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle gathers the Double Dragon trilogy, and a ton of Technos favorites like River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball and nearly a dozen others that until now were exclusive in Japan. For younger readers not familiar with the NES library, these are all recommended ways to legit first experience a healthy chunk of some of the best games of the NES library! The Power Lives On…. I cannot believe it has already been nearly 35 years since the NES first launched in North America. Since it is the system of my childhood, I will always be super nostalgic about it. The NES introduced me to the world of videogames and I have been hooked ever since. My favorite game for it would have to be the original Super Mario Bros., with podium finishes going to The Legend of Zelda and yes, the dastardly Ikari Warriors. Whenever I go into a retro game shop or convention I almost instinctively find myself glomming towards the NES section in hopes of finding some long neglected title to have in my collection even though I constantly remind myself I have every game I want for it. Many thanks for making it through this beast of a read and indulging my lifetime of NES memories and I hope I have either introduced you to some new NES factoids and games here or at least had a fun trip down memory lane with me. If you want to indulge me in more NES retrospectives, but in audio form this time, I have embedded a few podcasts I recently un-vaulted from my archives below.

Here is the all-encompassing retrospective I did on the NES for its 25th anniversary 10 years ago.

And here is where we do a deep dive on all the comic book videogames on the NES.

To wrap it up, here is podcast deep dive on all the RPG games on the NES.

My Other Gaming Flashbacks Dreamcast 20th Anniversary GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary PSone 25th Anniversary PSP 15th Anniversary and Neo-Geo 30th Anniversary Saturn and Virtual Boy 25th Anniversaries TurboGrafX-16 30th Anniversary and 32-X 25th Anniversary

You have not lived the late 80s/early 90s NES fervor without watching a whole episode of Video Power. I present this episode above for your consumption!

Wait a Second, Did I Forget Some Games? Bonus Overtime!!!! I know, I know…I have rambled on forever so that is why I officially concluded this flashback just above. However, if you are somehow, someway still scrolling down and find yourself here I have a few more NES favorites and memories I would love to share so they do not remain on the cutting room floor. First off, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy on the NES I have to get some reflections on! That first game….what a mess of a platformer it turned out to be. I did love its theme music though! TMNT fever was ubiquitous during the NES generation and I was an ardent fan of the shelled heroes like almost all kids my age so I forced myself to put way too much time into it than I should have. Several years ago I revisited it and finally finished it, well after the help of Game Genie cheat codes that is. Even with the cheats that swimming level remains a tumultuous effort to persevere through.

TMNT II: The Arcade Game is exponentially better and is a pretty decent port of the first arcade game. While the graphics are dialed back significantly to run on the NES, that did not stop my friend Matt and I revisiting and romping through this and its sequel several times over the years. TMNT III: The Manhatten Project is a NES exclusive, and featured the same arcade brawling engine as its predecessor, but this one has colorful beach levels with foot soldiers that toss sand at the turtles!! Yes, I have played the NES version of TMNT Tournament Figheters and I will give props to Konami for mustering everything they could out of the NES graphically by late 1993 and making it the only proper 2D fighter on the NES, but it simply does not measure up to its vastly superior SNES counterpart. There are some first party Nintendo games I held off from touching on in the main feature because I have had only minimal experience with them. It is totally on me! There was one more renting memory I refrained from above, and that is dealing with Metroid. Bottom line, it spooked me too much around age six or seven to progress far into it and I remember being irate at going back a screen to see enemies I eliminated moments earlier had respawned again. I need to correct this and revisit it someday. Kirby’s Adventure I briefly played on the NES Classic to briefly try it out before moving on to different games and I never got around getting back to it. That is another NES regret I must rectify as I have played through and enjoyed past Kirby games before! Nintendo’s official licensed version of Tetris is a good playing and looking version of the classic puzzler, but it lacked one key thing the Tengen version had and that is multiplayer! My dad and I played a ton of competitive and co-op multiplayer of Tengen’s Tetris. The Tengen version also had the more Russian-flavored art style that made the visuals pop more. The co-op mode was surprisingly addictive teaming up with my dad to clear a wider, single drop box. I was surprised no other Tetris revisited this idea until it was announced days ago for the upcoming deluxe version of Tetris Effect on Xbox Series X.

Nintendo's Tetris is on the left, Tengen's Tetris is on the right. I love the unique aesthetics and music in both of them, but Tengen's version had an excellent 2-player VS. and co-op modes that made it highly sought after, especially after Nintendo got it banned from stores! The only traditional RPG I put a lot of time into on the NES was the first Dragon Warrior. I rented it, and borrowed it another time from a friend later on and enjoyed the early parts of the game before I ventured out under-leveled and was too young to grasp the concept of grinding to level up in order to properly square off against the tougher foes. I eventually got much farther into it when it was re-released on GameBoy Color. Wait a second, does Zelda II: The Adventure of Link count as an RPG? I have heard for years people argue whether the Zelda series is considered a true RPG and I have always been on the side of classifying them in the action-adventure genre, but Zelda II is incredibly different from all other entries in the series and has leveling up and experience points involved so I would make an exception that Zelda II be considered an RPG. Unfortunately, it was another one that was too brutal for me in my childhood and I never got that far in it. I want to finally wrap this beast up by applauding the preservation market for unearthing several prototypes and lost games that were finished, but never released. Some of the more famous examples of this are Capcom’s California Raisins, a NES version of SimCity and last year the UWC Wrestling title that was canned at the final minute before resurfacing with noticeable roster and gameplay changes as WCW Wrestling. I also want to commend the smaller publisher and indie game scene for finding the resources to release new games on actual physical NES cartridges. They may be unlicensed, but it nevertheless puts a smile on my face to see new NES games being released today! Okay, with that I am finished for real this time! Many thanks again for spending an afternoon powering through this!

You heard my favorite NES background music earlier with the Duck Tales' 'Moon Theme.' Now behold the worst NES music...no 1942 does not qualify. I am talking about this grinding, ear screeching exuse for music that is the general background stage music for Back to the Future. You are Still Here!? Even after all these videos and links and over 6000 words of my babbling of NES nostalgia? I guess then I have one more story to share since you made it this far. This one is not a moment I am proud of. Sometimes being a NES kid brings out a…..darkness among rival NES kids. I was spending an afternoon at a cousins playing NES games all day. The same one who showed me the Super Mario Bros. 2 ending. The same one who we decided to put on hockey gloves to mimic the fights in Blades of Steel, though thinking back in hindsight I think we got our mimicking of the hockey fight in reverse and we should have had gloves off.

My cousing introduced me to some of my favorite NES sports games like Double Dribble and Blades of Steel. And as you are about to see, it brought out the worst in us! Anyways, this day he was showing me Double Dribble and we played it all afternoon. It impressed the hell out of me by having the national anthem opening and its cinematic dunks! Towards the end of the day we were playing other games when my mom arrived to pick me up. As I was getting ready to leave and my cousin was distracted playing a different game my NES-darkness overtook me and I thought I could ‘borrow’ my cousin’s copy of Double Dribble without asking him. I think I slid another game in Double Dribble’s place where it was on the carpet and I was super slick by flipping it upside down so he would not see the label. Yeah, I only made it out about halfway to my mom’s car outside when he came barreling out and we play-wrestled on the ground for a brief moment until I forked over that copy of Double Dribble. I must have been around eight or nine at the time and one dumb kid to try and pull that off……I should have went for his copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 instead! I am kidding of course, kids do not be like dumb NES-kid Dale and mess with your friend’s games! Extremely not cool, hugging out with a heartfelt apology, now that is cool, no wait, it is emphatically…..Totally Rad!

[typeaadventures]

I was tagged by @lilymaidofgallifrey

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

I mean, if we’re talking literal shelves, everything just got put on this one when I moved back home two years ago. But of all the books on there, the oldest is a ratty paper back of Stormy, Misty’s Foal which is quintessential girl-horse-book phase that I actually had to travel all the way to Mississippi to steal back from a friend who borrowed it for about eight years. 

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

I am currently reading both Frank Herbert’s Dune (which is crazy weird) and beta reading for a fellow writer. Last book I read was Neil Gaiman’s The Sleeper and The Spindle which I highly recommended to anyone who likes graphic novels/fairy tales because the art is GORGEOUS. On my list after I finish these two is probably Dianna Wynne Jones House of Many Ways (although I might have to reread Howl’s Moving Castle first for proprieties sake ;) )

Oh wait! but I’m supposed to read Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt next for @bymylights because she loved the book so much. 

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

I mean, Catcher in the Rye was the bane of my existence in high school but I think most people dislike that now. Actually, a lot of classics are that way for me. Hated Wuthering Heights and all things Ernest Hemingway. Also the big YA series (Hunger Games, Divergent, even Percy Jackson, but mostly cause I was older when it came out) don’t hold my interest in the way that most people adore them.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

I mean, I’ve been saying I was gonna read the Jungle Book for months now, but I’ve been putting it off for months now. I really hope I do get to it though. I’m hesitant though because I really didn’t like Man Who Would Be King.  

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

I was not aware this was a thing. I will never run out of books to read, I think, so I’m not really worried. 

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Usually I’ll leave it til the end. Sometimes if I don’t really care about the book, I’ll skip. I used to be much more prescriptive about not skipping but I’m kinda over it now. 

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

I love acknowledgements. The first few are usually really interesting and personal before they go all Oscar speech and just start acknowledging everyone. But they give you little glimpses about the author, like dedications. 

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Eowyn, Lord of the Rings. No hesitations. No regrets. Let me be Eowyn, please I beg you. 

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Sooooooo many. I have a memory associated with where I read pretty much any book, but to keep the list short, probably Magician’s Nephew. It will always remind me of my mother, incandescent lights in a dingy trailer in my grandparents backyard. 

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

I have a copy of Terry Brooks Magic Kingdom For Sale which I got at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. My sister really loves Terry Brooks books, I kind of got it on a whim as my souvenir from Paris. I have a book of Breton fairy tales in German for the same reason. Basically I bought books everywhere during my year on exchange and those are my favourite bookes. 

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I did a book exchange last year and gave my sister’s friend a copy of Robin Mckinley’s The Hero and the Crown and wrote her a whole letter on the inside cover telling her why I loved the book. Apparently said friend loved the letter and the book and that was really heart warming, because I found the protagonist of that story so inspiring and I was happy it only inspired another young woman. 

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

Ooooooh, I don’t know. I don’t often take books with me more than once? Probably my copies of Lord of the Rings since if I’m not reading anything in particular I’ll bring them with me in case I get bored or need emotional support. But now that I have an eReader I tend to bring that instead. 

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

No. The books I hated in high school I still hate vehemently. 

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

A dried rose. That was pretty cool, though. 

15. Used or brand new?

Both have their own benefits and aesthetics. I think hard cover (if I EVER buy hard cover) I prefer new, but mostly I like used books for two reasons. 1) They’re much, much cheaper and 2) I prefer the older illustrated covers. If it’s a book that has a movie or even just most modern books and their life-like people (I’m thinking a lot of the Throne of Glass series here). . . I don’t like that. I find it off putting. I want crudely drawn, water-colour or just flat matte colours with geometric designs. You don’t tend to see many of those these days. 

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

Gotta admit, never actually read any Stephen King. Probably should. 

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

See, often I’ll like movies better because I didn’t read the book, like the first Percy Jackson (not the second dumpster fire) or the first Maze Runner (again, not the second). 

OH! The Princess Bride, duh. The book is hilarious in it’s own right, but the book is a parody/satire of romance, whereas the movie is a true adventure romance. So I love them both for different reasons, but I grew up watching the movie and it just hits every note perfectly and I love it. 

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

Ugh, the Eragon movie was a nightmare. I didn’t like the sequels anyway, but the first book was really good and the movie just ruined everything except Brom. Poor Jeremy Irons didn’t stand a chance, though. 

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Oh my gosh, Sunshine by Robin McKinley and literally every Redwall book. I dunno how Brian Jacques makes animal food sound soooooo good but it’s basically food porn. 

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Ooooooh, I don’t think I’ve found that person. I try to take all advice and genuinely look into books recommended to me, but I’m so busy I’m picky about what I actually dig into. 

I’m gonna tag some of my fellow betas, cause I’d love to know what you guys have been reading: @jltillary, @jennalasby, @imtheperkiness, @tcstu, @brynprocrastinates. Also gonna tag @thecaffeinebookwarrior, @raiswanson, @bymylights, @ravineofwillows, and @dwobbit-under-the-mountain if you guys feel like it :)

[oldnintendonerd]

The Nintendo 64 Collection

This system was a bit of an anomaly in 1996, while Sony and Sega were well into pumping out disc based systems, Nintendo opted to prolong the cartridge era. I cannot say I am sad about that, since cartridges seem to last for-abso-freaking-lutely-ever. Early Disc based systems are already starting to show “Disc Rot”, where the silvering on the top of the disc that holds the data starts to break down and crack, ruining the disc. Cartridges from the 70’s are still going strong, so I have no doubt I’ll be playing Mario Kart 64 in the year 2035 and beyond with no issues. Well, if I can still see the TV or operate the controller at that age. Ha!

Another console in really good shape. Not much in the way of marks or scuffs, dings or dents. This was the first console I bought with my own money, and apparently that triggered something with my need to hang onto the box, because I did! BAM! There it is. Not mint by any stretch but for being carted through five moves, and sitting in a garage for like nine years after the 5th one, it looks pretty darn good.

Complete with styrofoam. I stored it in this box for probably the last 2 years. Before that the box sat empty in the garage of all places, while the N64 was in a box of other video games. I saw it way up on a shelf and went you know what, no reason I can’t put the 64 where it belongs. So I did, and there it sat until I pulled it out recently.

Now, I thought I had a problem with my 64, it would randomly reboot on me for no reason. But come to find out this is only a common problem with the power supply module. I did not buy a new module, but rather just make sure I am careful when I insert it to make sure it is firmly in place, and then not to bump the console too much after that. Generally it is fine forever, so there isn’t anything wrong with the console. Whew!

The collection though, has a little to be desired. It has some great titles that I still love to play, but could use a little tweaking. Take a look.

Mario is Missing. Wait! Wrong system. But, no really, Mario 64 is missing. That is top on my list to get in here. Will be looking out for that one. Along with Mario Tennis and Mario Golf. Super Smash Bros should be here as well. All in time.

In all seriousness. Mario Kart for days. So many good memories of battle mode with my wife and friends.

Could not have played any more Mario Kart 64, I’m surprised this cart didn’t melt it spent so much time in the console. Excellent game play both single player and multiplayer, in both Grand Prix / Race mode and Battle mode. You just cannot go wrong with Mario Kart 64.

Pilotwings was a good used pick up in the late 90’s. I loved the SNES version and couldn’t wait to get real 3D environments to fly around in. Spectacular views, good controls, not excellent, but good. Very solid game.

Moving along, I adored Doom 64. Was a huge Doom fan, played on the PC, the SNES, and the Playstation. Even bought a second Playstation and a second copy of Doom so my brother and I could play co-op. So fun. When I saw an exclusive N64 Doom title, I was SQUEEEEEEing.

So dark, completely re-skinned with new sprites and textures, new sound effects and new music used, but the same Doom. On steroids. I loved what they did to the chain gun in that game, it sounded so incredibly satisfying it was not even funny. Just a screen shaking, thunderous barrage of bullets. Compared to the firecracker like pop pop pop pop of the original DOOM games. Not taking anything away from those games, I love them, but the chain gun is magic in Doom 64. They even tweaked the engine a bit to get a little more true 3D type maps with floors that could go under each other in some places.

Doom 64 stands alone as the only one of its kind. No sequels were ever made, the skins, sound effects, sprites, textures, and music lived and died on that cart right there. It is a shame, but it is so worth playing. 

Man oh man. F-Zero X. So fast. So smooth. This game melted my face when I played it the first time. Couldn’t get enough after that. Still one of my favorites.

They had to leave out some visuals, and some model and track detail to ensure this game ripped your retinas out of your eyes at a blazing fast solid 60 frames per second. I think the only game capable of touching this is of course, F-Zero GX on the GameCube. But that is another post entirely. HA!

I love this game, I will always have it and pull it out from time to time. Looks great, controls amazing, it is easy enough to start out with but in the higher cups and the higher difficulties, it is mad hard. Really, really good game.

Is there anything else to say? Nintendo’s line up of three consoles through 1996 are stellar, have an astounding library of games to choose from, and last forever. I don’t care what anyone says, these consoles are tanks. Have the red ring of death on your XBox after you sneezed in its general direction? Hell, run your N64 over with a Sherman tank, it won’t even flinch. Mario Kart will start right up like nothing happened.

No finds or pickups to date, though I am looking when I can. Like I said in the last post, yard sale season is only just getting into the swing of things. Something will surface. We are still rocking $83.09.

2017.04.27

[katzirra]

frostedulcers: How have you not fuckin murdered anyone??

So, I had a really great boss at GameStop...

So, fun facts about working at GameStop? We took care of the customer, but within STRICT company guidelines? If a customer was REALLY nice to you and went along with shit? You wanted to find loopholes. If a customer was a regular who was super sweet and understanding of you and your time? You REALLY went digging. That’s why people LIKED me at my store.

Because I was a really just manager and if you were understnading and kind to me? I treated you really well and would give above and beyond customer service. I called game companies, I called for warranties, I looked shit up the backdoor route if you were willing to let me do you and other customers at the same time.

People really made me feel good about being a manager there. I miss it at times.

When I first got hired on as a seasonal worker though? I had a guy walk in. Wanted to return and get a warranty replacement on his PSP. I told him sir, I can’t do what you’re asking. He gets mad “Well get me someone who CAN.” I give Jimmy The Look(tm) ...

Enter Jimmy, my boss... the store manager. Smiling “What can we do for you, sir?” Turns out he bought a PSP from us. Wanted a warranty because it was damaged. Warranties cover electrical or fucked up damage that isn’t YOUR fault. That’s any warranty for ANYTHING ever in the world. His daughter.... had RIPPED the back panel off.

Jimmy prints out and shows him our warranty policy, guy tries to take it. Sorry sir, that can’t leave the building. He gets outraged. YOU MEAN IF I TOOK THIS OUT AND YADDA YADDA YADDA - like as much as this website SHITS on GameStop? They’re not awful depending the store and who runs it? The whole game return price joke is funny but it’s also really annoying to me on a level because I understand the business model. We made money off used games. The incentive to BEAT YOUR GAME and turn it in for credit towards a NEW GAME was that you got like 70% of your money back?? You got like... $37-45 on a new game within the first week and with membership and promos you could get 15% more than that.

The business model is like that to fucking encourage trade ins, because we ONLY make money off used games. Benefit of buying used versus new was always if you hate it, you have 7 days to bring it back. Versus new; you’re stuck with it. You could WORK this system, if you didn’t abuse it.

I’m off track but man just GameStop is actually a decent company and has a really GOOD and smart business model? It’s just made fun of a lot because the way games depreciate in value so quickly, but that’s because we want used copies on the shelf ASAP when a new game comes out, to drive sales etc.

IT’S SMART!!! And I mean, some games are still worth a lot years later? I always don’t get the fucking mindset of people who make the jokes because what, did you expect me to pay you EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID for a used game?? USED?? Also, like... man. People who bitch about us not taking unopened games? Do you realize the theft rate turn around at GameStop from like WalMart and shit? Fuck off with that noise??

idk. Like they’re not perfect or WOW THE BEST, but I mean... their business model is smart as fuck and it makes me mad because of it.

BUT ANYWAY SO THIS GUY IS BUSTING JIMMY’S ASS ABOUT THE WARRANTY, and Jimmy is just the type to always smile and tell the customer sorry, and you know he’ll do what he can to help fi you’re nice and that was my first point. I loved Jimmy so much. He was such a GOOD boss and such a GOOD influence when it came to customer service??

The guy started asking WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT? YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? And he just kept saying “No, I just can’t do anything for you sir.” and the guy left PISSED. I felt so bad and Jimmy just shrugged it off, said he would have worked with him, had he not been an asshole unnecessarily to me, who he observed being kind and patient and explaining the warranty JUST LIKE HE DID, and offering options.

Jimmy always in my frist few months, would DODGE CUSTOMERS so they talked to me, because I was the only girl in the store. I also kinda like set my dominance in my store because I didn’t take shit from people in terms of their bowl over opinions? I was fun. I liked that job decently. It’s not the hype it gets, and it’s awful now with all the trinkets and merch you can get there... but I really was a good manager and I got a sense of accomplishment working there and doing what I did.

But Jimmy taught me you can’t help everyone, and attitude is key when it comes to retail. Don’t tolerate tantrums and let it be seen as approved behavior. Snuff that out as much as you can, and do what you can without getting in trouble.

Jimmy was a great role model in management behavior. Until he stopped caring about his job. But hey, whatever man. He’s doing his thing at a different company and is way happier.

So to answer your question; I was trained to not give a fuck. I was trained to shrug and say “You can say that, you’re wrong. But you COULD say that.” and to point out when people are wrong, and what I can do for them, and assess how far I can go with the right attitude.

one coupon per customer, if you’re nice to me? I’ll do two transactions to let you use it twice, sure. If you’re nice to me and you forgot your ID? Sure I’ll give you that discount you’re applicable for.

Fuckin’ had a lady fill out her tax exempt form the other day so she could get a discount SOMEWHAT, saved her like $30. She was losing her shit. She said she never thinks of using it because she lives in bumfuck nowhere, and I told her well lets try and see how much it saves you.

Bam.

So I mean, I’m... really great manager material, I just don’t fucking care enough about a store of THIS volume, and a company who says the customer is always right. I can’t do manager shit that way. I like my company - love it even at times, and I adore my store at most times because they mostly get shit, but I can’t manager for it when we just take care of customers who wanna be little bastards about $3.

[whenwewereoceans]

11 Questions

I was tagged by the sweetest @sarcasmfish to answer their questions, and ask some of my own!

1. What’s your favourite holiday? Why? My mom is very Christmas-crazy, so I would have to say Christmas. We grew up with a lot of traditions that turned Christmas into this month-long affair with lots of chocolate and baking and excitement. Even though our Christmas has changed much over the years (due to the death of my granddad, my brother moving away, and that we are all adults now) and it no longer has the magic it once had, I still really appreciate the time spent with my family as we hold true to the traditions we still have left.

2. How did you first come to play Dragon Age? How did you hear about it? Why did you decide to play it? I had saved up my tip money for like 10 months, and come Black Friday sales I got myself a PS4. It came with 2 games, 1 of which I’d already played 3 times (The Last of Us) and GTA V, which I had no desire to play. I looked up good games for my new toy, and came across Inquisition. I knew vaguely of the other 2 games, but had never played them. It sounded like all of my gaming dreams come true - character customisation, fantasy world, MULTIPLE ROMANTIC OPTIONS. I traded in my other game and bought the last copy of Inquistion the store had (much to the dismay of my younger brother the following day, who went to that very store to buy Inquisition himself. Oops). I then proceeded to sell my soul.

3. If you could return to any point in your life and start over, would you? I think I would. With the knowledge I have now, I would have made better financial decisions. And started working out earlier and maintaining my younger physique haha. But beyond that, I don’t think I would change much; I value the relationships I’ve made on the path I’ve taken and want to keep them.

4. If you could gain any single talent (drawing, singing, writing, etc) what would it be? Something musical, that’s for sure. I can neither sing nor play an instrument. But drawing would also be awesome, because then I could make graphic novels.

5. What part of the world that you’ve visited do you love the most? Why? I really adored Italy. I felt at home surrounded by such ancient places, and the countrysides are just bonkers beautiful.

6. What’s your favourite international food? I hate to say I’m not much of an adventurous eater; I have a super sensitive digestive system and its easily upset. However, we have some great Mongolian stir-fry places here, and they’re amazing.

7. Are you planning to play Mass Effect: Andromeda? Hell yeah, it looks beautiful!! But I might a little late to the party; Horizon Zero Dawn comes out like a month before and I’ve been peeing my pants over that game for a year, so I might still be in deep.

8. Out of all the Bioware characters you’ve created, who are you most alike to? Honestly, probably none, since Inquisition is my first Bioware game and I created Inquisitor’s not alike myself. Perhaps we’ll see about my Mass Effect character??

9. Would you become a Grey Warden, if given the chance (and possibly take the chance of dying during the Joining)? I don’t think so, I’m not quite that brave!

10. Which are more cute, puppies or babies? Don’t get me wrong, I like babies, but I’ve never cried about how cute a baby is whereas I do that with puppies like 3 times a day. 

11. Which Dragon Age companion do you feel you’d be best friends with in real life? From what I know about Hawke’s gang, I think I would fit in relatively well - but, ironically, I think Cassandra and I would be good friends. Fawning over books is a character trait you can’t help but bond over.

Whew!! Thanks for the ask, friend! Those were awesome questions. Now for my own:

1. How do you take your coffee?

2. What’s your favourite kind of weather?

3. If you could go back in time, where would you visit?

4. What’s the weirdest song in your music library?

5. If you could invent a national holiday, what would you celebrate?

6. What would you like to be famous for?

7. What is the thing you have loved the longest?

8. What would you name your pet dragon?

9. Is there a kind of food you can’t stand, but everyone else likes? Or vice versa?

10. What is your favourite literary genre?

11. What is your favourite thing about yourself?

I’d like to tag @m0th3rw4r, @zombolouge, @kmandergirl, @beragera, and @kiggidykev for their answers!

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani (and Damian) here.

This post should have been written and published yesterday, but after driving home from the convention on Sunday, we did a lot of sleeping and a lot of staring at our very nicely sized convention haul. It was a lot to deal with and so this post didn’t get written up on time. Oh well, better a day late than not at all, right?

So the final day of the convention, I had no panels planned. The only events at the Writer’s Symposium were read & critiques and those actually filled up very very quickly. Plus, you know, I didn’t really have anything written to be critiqued. Oh well, perhaps in a future visit to Gen Con. We’ll see.

Instead we planned on getting a little bit of a late start to the convention center and then just wandering the show floor, demoing some games, and making some last minute purchases. I didn’t have a cosplay for this final day, but Damian brought out his most ambitious costume, and I think he looked great. The only bad part was that it was the hottest day, and he ended up only being able to wear the costume for a couple hours.

We demo’d a game called Dice & Dragons, which is sort of like a quick dragon fighting dice game. Each player picks their class (warrior, cleric, ranger, rogue, wizard) and there are different attacks, buffs, and heals that can be done based on dice roll combinations (sort of like Yahtzee, but with symbols). Damian and I enjoyed the game play, and the game was on sale for $20, so we bought a copy. I think it’s the only game we picked up this year, aside from the Warhammer card game that Damian got.

We also decided to finally finish our collection of the Looking for Group series, especially since they had a last day of con sale where each volume was only $10. Now we just need to read them all. Both of us, at one time or another, had been reading these online, so some story segments will be re-reads for us. But I can honestly say that it has been years since I’ve read LFG, so it will all seem pretty much new to me.

Finally, I should show off what we added to our respective dice hoards. Damian and I both really enjoy buying dice for playing Pathfinder and D&D, and we tend to choose a few sets for each character we play. So some dice get used more than others, but as much as possible we try to fit the personality or magic of the character. For example, when playing my clerics, I typically use what I call my holy dice, a set of gold glittery dice, or if I play a wizard obsessed with fireball, I have a red and yellow set that looks just like a raging fire. That same fire set will be used with a druid, though I pair those dice with my water dice, earth dice, and air dice. Overall in the course of the four days of Gen Con, I think I added 18 sets of dice to my collection, which is a lot. I have a dice collection problem, y’all. lol.

But my favorite purchase on this final day of Gen Con happened when I walked past the Worldbuilders booth. Worldbuilders is a geek-centered nonprofit supporting humanitarian efforts worldwide, and a lot of the products they have in their store are based on characters or games in books, etc. So you can buy signed copies of books and graphic novels, as well as shirts, mugs, dice trays, and more. And okay, these books may cost a few dollars more than if you bought them in a brick and mortar store, but the profit is going to support humanitarian efforts around the world, which I think is very worthwhile.

So my purchase from Worldbuilders was a plushie Oberon the Irish Wolfhound from Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles. Plushie Oberon even has a sausage in his mouth, which is utterly adorable. I fully admit it that I squealed a little bit when I saw him. So yeah, he was totally worth the cost. Expect him to pop up in an Iron Druid Chronicle photo shoot on my Bookstagram in the future.

That was pretty much the entirety of our day. After walking the show floor for a few hours, we headed back to our car and made the long three hour car ride back home. Damian pretty quickly fell asleep, and our buddy was watching Magic the Gathering videos on his phone in the backseat, so it made for a very long, kind of boring, drive for me.

That is all from the Gen Con experience. I hope you’ve enjoyed Damian and I’s daily wrap up. Now we’ll get back to our normal bookish content schedule.

Gen Con – Day Four Hey all, Dani (and Damian) here. This post should have been written and published yesterday, but after driving home from the convention on Sunday, we did a lot of sleeping and a lot of staring at our very nicely sized convention haul.