Lets keep moving down the list to a system that I don't think a single gamer doesn't love, The N64. This was the first system where I feel I earned my gamer card. I waited through delays, I stuck to my guns when competitors were released, and once I finally got my prize, I played with it until my hands went numb. Then I took a ten minute break and resumed gameplay.

4. Nintendo 64 and Anticipation

To be very honest I am a big Nintendo Fan. From NES on, you name a system they've released, I've owned it, even the Virtual Boy. So when I first heard about the Ultra 64, I wanted it more than anything else in the world. After seeing Cruis'n USA and Killer Instinct in arcades, reading about it in Nintendo Power, EGM, GamePro, and others, my mind was clear, I am getting this.


I still shudder when I hear Ultra Combo

It was April 1995, my birthday, and besides the action figures, video games, other junk on my list it was there, an Ultra 64. I explained to my mother, the system isn't out yet, it wouldn't be until my next birthday, but I will wait for it. I would take less gifts now if she'd get me it and two games when it came out. It was a hard sell at the young age of nine, trying to convince her that I wouldn't complain if I got little to nothing for my actual birthday. I guess something told her I really wanted it, and was truly willing to sacrifice a years worth of presents for it. My birthday came and went and I waited. The Saturn was released, and my mom asked if I'd like that instead, I firmly replied no and continued my waiting.


Sorry Saturn, while your library was kickass in japan, the Genesis burnt me out on Sega

I would read magazines trying to find out any new news about it, and during that summer my mom put in a pre-order at the Electronics Boutique at our mall after I found out they were taking them. A small step towards eventual victory. The Playstation came out next and she asked if I'd rather get that, I refused, Ultra 64 or nothing. For Christmas, aside from my video games and toys, I asked for two more games when it did come out and was given the ok. Then the heartbreaking news, it wasn't the Ultra 64 anymore but the Nintendo 64 and it wasn't coming out until next September. I was crushed, I was willing to wait a full year but now five months longer. I almost wished I had taken one of the previous counter offers, almost. To see if I wanted to change my decision, I rented a Playstation. The games were alright, but the loading times bothered me and I just to my guns.


If I was forced to wait a few more months for my 64, after Symphony of the Night and Final Fantasy VII came out, this might be a very difficult article.

Finally, September 1996 rolled around. I began fifth grade, got some heartbreaking news about moving from Michigan to Illinois, and I was going out of my mind in anticipation. I knew the release date, September 29th, but I had no idea that it wouldn't apply to me. After pre-ordering, I would hang out at that Electronics Boutique whenever at the mall, and the clerks started remembering me and my quest for my N64. I'd like to think unlike most of the kids they dealt with day to day, I wasn't nosy or annoying, I just enjoyed games, talking about them, and could hold his own in whatever fighting game they happened to have hooked up. So when they got their shipment in on September 26th, they called my house, telling my mom they had the N64, and if I wanted it three days early she could go pick it up. After nearly eighteen months, I had but one more hour to wait.


What did I learn from Electronics Boutique, be nice (IE don't be a dick) to game clerks, and they'll hook you up.

I brought in the manuals to Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 as proof for school the next day. My new toy, along with what I'd just have to assume the rest of the fifth grade realizing that I'd always been a nice well liked guy who was going away forever, turned me from just a normal guy with some close friends to a Mr. Popular. My personality is best taken in in a smaller group, after that people tend to understand and befriend me. In school, I had my own group of friends and tended not to branch out, so the 64 became a way to branch out with ease. Most of the time people would come over the first time to play N64, they'd get a change to understand and get who I am, and after that it was pure friendship. I even got a send off during the final week of school, with all four of my school's fifth grade classes taking off two periods for a going away party. I'd never seen such a thing happen in the school before, and I may bet since. When I moved to Illinois, the 64 got me through some lonely times, and helped me in making new friends here, especially with it's four player ability.


What better way to meet friends than saying, “Hey I got Goldeneye and extra controllers.”

While I didn't get to play Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, or Symphony of the Night, I had a blast with my N64. I also learned Nintendo systems weren't going to get every game, so it helped turn me from console specific, to overall gamer. While I got the Gamecube, and now own a Wii. I also picked up a Dreamcast, a PS2, and now my 360. It helped me become more patient, and to this day I'm very goal oriented, and am willing to wait to accomplish those goals. I look at the bigger picture, and then what I can do day to day to make the bigger picture happen. Finally it made me realize being yourself is important, and while I had a slip in High School with that, I tend not to change based on the opinion of others. I'd rather be happy as myself with a small core group of friends, than be miserable as somebody else in a mass of humanity.


This is one sexy machine, it's too bad the graphics now look dated.




OK three more left, next time, we'll be looking at something in gaming I dearly miss, Arcades. The places where you could game with people you didn't know, way before the internet and X-box live. I've decided that I will make my next article when I finish my top ten to be on The Super Smash Brothers, Professional Wrestling's 8-Bit tag team, then after that, I'll either do one on why I enjoy grinding, or start a second massive top ten on my favorite games ever. Questions, comments, ideas, any kind of feedback is always appreciated. Thanks to D-Toid for putting me in the top C-Blogs of the day, I'm glad the editors and everyone thought my Earthbound blog was epic. Thanks for reading, and remember Gaming shapes us in a good way, I just wish Jack Thompson would understand that.

As we enter the top five we're going to take a look at RPGs, one of my favorite genres of gaming. I think playing RPGs cemented me as a person willing to take their time with a game. I am one of those gamers who talk to every single person, in every city, to make sure I am not missing anything. Number 5 is about one of my favorite games ever, and how I nearly gave up on it.

5. Earthbound and Putting Time into Games

Earthbound may be my favorite video game of all time. It's one of three RPGs, along with Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, that I can play through without having to look up where anything is. It's full of bizarre and surreal humor that as I continue to grow older I continue to laugh at. In all honesty, I wish more RPGs were like it. The animations are simple, the weapons are awesome, the characters varied and interesting making the player come to appreciate them more and more through each play through, and the story is taking place all in modern times.


Mr. Saturn, you sir or ma'am are awesome.

I've got no problem with the far off fantasy settings of most RPGs, but how many Medieval times with magic can there be. Ness is just a normal kid, thrust into an adventure that he didn't plan to be a part of. Yes, a giant sword is cool, but wielding bottle rockets, baseball bats, and frying pans, much cooler. To this day, I'm looking out for a Holy Frying Pan to use in my kitchen. I'm pretty sure I had rented RPGs before Earthbound, though I don't remember any in depth, and thus was never into them. Hell I had no clue what RPG meant. I had seen ads in magazines for Earthbound, and the grade school humor of them amused me.


And now I don't know why I found them funny

I wanted to know what the game was about. I went to blockbuster, rented it, and was ready for anything. The cart I rented had a file saved already on it, but I wanted my own game. I clicked new game, named the characters after my friends and I, and was ready to have an adventure. I started playing, and got confused very quickly. I could make it to the meteor and back, beat the Starman Jr. but after that I had no clue. I should have been prepped after my Maniac Mansion experience for non linear paths, but I wasn't. I got frustrated, saved my data, and was ready to call it a wasted rental. However I decided to check out the other save file, and I was controlling four robots. I wanted to get there on my own and see how this happened.


Hell, lets be honest, the thought of playing as robots is Badass.

I continued to play through, started to work my way through Onett, but I would get stuck at times. The good news was when I couldn't reason things out, I had help from Nintendo. Aside from their 1-900 tip line, they had an answering service that would give you a menu of games, and then selections for each portion of it. Thankfully Earthbound was one of them, and I made continual long distance calls to Washington when I got stuck. After three straight weekends of renting the same game, my mom told me, “If you're going to keep doing that, why don't we just buy it.” Thus I got my very own copy to play, and a strategy guide so I didn't have rack up the phone bill.


This book saved my ass in Earthbound on a daily basis.

I was dedicated in my quest to beat Earthbound. It gave me the feeling like I was truly on a mission to save the world. I poured hour after hour into it. Realizing the importance to magic attacks compared to solely using a weapon. Realizing that when a store offered to sell you a weapon, it was a good idea to do so, because it would increase the damage you caused. I met all the strange characters, Everdred, Apple Kid, Mr. Saturn, Dr. Andonuts, and The Runaway Five. I began to see the change of Pokey, from next door neighbor, to evil bastard. Slowly and slowly, I became attached to everyone in the world of Eagleland. Finally I got to that point where my party became robots, and I had reached my goal. I beat Giygas, and saved the world. Until I got that letter from Pokey, knowing that he was still out there, I couldn't wait to stop him again.


POKEY, YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

Unfortunately, since Mother 3 never got a US release, I never got the chance (I know there's a fan translation, I just haven't gotten to playing it yet). Nintendo's lack of respect for the best RPG they ever created didn't stop me from playing through Earthbound a dozen more times. The game is just too fun, and from there I got interested in RPGs, getting Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. I obsessed over both, but I never forgot what broke my cherry. Earthbound could be the game I've put the most total hours into, being that every year or so I break it out, and play through. Plus, it rekindled my love of reading, which is a passion to this day, simply because I had to read what everyone in this world had to say to further progress in the game.



Damn do I love this game, and am thankful I held onto my copy.




Once again, comments and feedback are always appreciated. I am very glad to see that people are reading and enjoying my blog. And as long as people continue to read, I will continue to post. Next time, a look at my Nintendo 64.

Number six deals with a hot button topic among gamers, emulation. My stance I love playing retro games, and a lot of the time the games I play with an emulator are ones I have no ready access to, for example I use MAME because I can't find many of the games it emulates in arcades anymore. But that's another debate for another day, this story can explain why I am a retro gamer.

6. Emulation and Collecting Classic Games

Myself and Emulation go back a good ways, when I was a month or two into 7th grade, I first saw something on the Internet called MAME. It boggled my mind, I could play games like Pac-Man, Galaga, and Frogger for “free” on my computer. Why the hell wouldn't I be interested, these are arcade classics that I don't have to drop quarters into. So any MAME ROM I could find, I downloaded.


I will own a badass MAME Cabinet like this someday, someday.

Later on that year I found out that there were NES emulators out there as well. The hunt continued, it didn't matter my NES was Up North, I could find and play any game I wanted. From favorites that made me waste my childhood, to games I never got to play or get too far into. I played my first game of The Legend of Zelda where I made it past the second dungeon on a copy of Nesticle. I could finally play and beat Final Fight as Guy instead of just Haggar or Cody. When friends came over or family visited I proudly showed off the new programs I discovered, letting them play some of their favorite classic games. I even had a floppy with Nesticle and a few games on it for when I was bored in my computer class. I would download anything I could find, even incredibly shitty ROM hacks.


Is a guy with diabetes and who likes oatmeal really interesting enough to base a series of hacks on?

I remember showing my brother and cousin a copy of Super Naked Punch-Out, I dunno the idea of Mike Tyson and company sans pants was funny to me at the time, and having to quickly close the window when my Mom came in telling us she needed help with dinner. From those two emulators my collection grew and grew. I played Gunstar Heroes and finally understood why my friends were in love with it in fourth grade. I finally played Super Metroid and saw why the hell every top 50/100/200/whatever game list had it top 5. I even got Stella the Atari 2600 emulator to play the shitty Pac-Man, the wretched ET, and the rapetastic Custer's Revenge, just to see how bad they really were.


I'm still wondering if it's based on actual events.

I still use emulators, I love them, they've helped me discover games I never knew, and rediscover ones that I played only briefly before. How has this changed me? Well, we've got to go back to that NES Up North. By Sophomore year of high school I was enjoying my emulators a great deal, but it made me wish I still had my NES so I could relive my past. I'd even been scoping Ebay for a good deal on a system and games, but would always lose the bidding. So I asked my cousins if they could send me the NES and games next time they went Up North. I got them back right before summer, and while Tyler and I spent time renting and playing from Blockbuster, we were also having a blast picking up and playing NES carts from the local Game Stop. Thankfully, both were in the same shopping center so it could always be justified to hit each store.


Yeah their prices suck, but they are the best option around me for used games, unless I wanted to travel to Downtown Chicago.

I originally used Emulators as a novelty and eventually they gave me my love of retro games. In life it's given me the idea, if you enjoy something, just do it, and fuck what anybody else thinks. While most guys were getting their drivers licenses, finding girlfriends, and living a “normal” life, I was blowing my cash in a search for any NES game I could find. Looking back nearly seven years later, would I'd have rather done what my peers were doing? Fuck no, the NES is kick ass, and was worth my time. I still got my drivers license, still lived what I consider a normal life, and learned that most high school relationships are shallow and not worth the




Alright, halfway home. Once again feedback, comments, whatever are always appreciated, and I'm giving you people out there an option as to what I write about after the list is over. I've got two ideas currently, Why I Enjoy Grinding, a simple bit about one of the most hated aspects of RPGs that I enjoy (in most circumstances). The other is, A Look at The Super Smash Brothers, hailing from the Mushroom Kingdom these men are professional wrestling's number one video game based tag team. Players Uno and Dos integrate gaming into their tag team and singles matches, with the names of their moves, the outfits they wear, and even the weapons they bring to the ring.

Continuing down the list. Next up is a portion of my life when I learned 3 things.
1. I didn't really like Sega Genesis
2. I really loved Adventure Games
3. Sometimes you have to remember the good times.

7. Maniac Mansion and My Cousins

After owning the SNES for a couple of years, and getting a Genesis, my brother and I made the decision to take our NES up to our grandparent's house in Northern Michigan, or as we just referred to it Up North. We figured, we've got the two newest systems, we don't need the NES. Sadly I just ended up not really being a fan of my new system. I like the Genesis, and it has some great games, its just I was SNES for life. After 3 years of ownership, 7 games compared to my 45 for SNES, and even owning a 32X, I gave the Genesis to my next door neighbors before I moved from Michigan to Illinois.


Surprisingly enough I didn't have a problem with the 32X, Doom, Virtua Racing, and Star Wars Arcade were all enjoyable to pick up and play.

Looking back I wish I kept the NES around because it limited being able to play it to two-three weeks a year. Every summer and winter, my family, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, all of that, would go up to our Grandparent's house in Northern Michigan, to spend some time together. During summer we'd go out on the dock or in the boat to fish, water skiing if people were brave enough, tubing if they weren't, swimming at any opportunity, off-roading on four wheelers, target practice with BB guns, and big family meals. Winter, similar plans, ice fishing, sledding, playing hockey, off-roading, and the family dinners. But what to do if there's bad weather, or if you just want a break inside? TV reception was crappy, and while they had a VCR the local stores didn't have much in the way of movie rentals. Thus the NES became our entertainment. My brother, myself, and four of my cousins would play on a good old piece of shit TV, complete with rabbit ears, a nob to pull out to turn it on, and clicking dials to change the channel.


Add an antenna on top, and you get the idea.

Anything and everything we owned was fair game, from the pieces of crap I talked about earlier, to classics like the Mario series and Mega Man 2. There were however two games that we played the most, one was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, which I'll be discussing later, the other was Maniac Mansion. My brother and I first played it with my cousins one Easter at their house. It fascinated both of us, it was unlike any game we'd ever seen, and rightfully so. Moving a cursor around with a joystick, ordering things to be opened, used, and picked up, it was confusing. Yet it was so much fun, strange characters, single actions that had repercussions, and we played until we had to leave. Our cousins must have known our enjoyment because for Christmas that year they got us our own copy. My brother and I played together, and separately, but never had much luck in the game. It wasn't until it was Up North and playing with our cousins that we got in depth into the game. At first we'd just pick whoever looked cool, usually Razor and Jeff (the worst character in the game).


Going down the line, Syd meh I'd rather use Razor, Dave mandatory and only good for pushing the loose brick, Bernard is a Badass he can do everything but befriend tentacles, Razor had better music than Syd, and Fucking Jeff.

It took time to learn that there's reasons behind why you pick each character, and that Dave was useless. With our minds working as one we made continual progress each summer and winter. We found the the in game jokes, like the security keypad that blows up the mansion, making the hamster explode in the microwave, and found the greatest Edison ever Dead Cousin Ted. We eventually could make it to the Meteor with ease, but it wasn't until a stroke of luck let us to beat the game. Normally we'd let the car in the garage fly off into space, one time we just forgot to do it, and at the end stuck the meteor in the trunk and did it. We beat the game, and our quest had ended. A year later I found a Lucas Arts game compilation with Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle, I loved the first one and so I picked it up. Also in the pack was Sam and Max: Hit the Road, and my true love for adventure games began. Bernard said it best in Day of the Tentacle "Sometimes I do stupid stuff, and I don't even know why. As if my body were being controlled by some demented, sadistic puppet-master." I love being that puppet master dammit.


A few from my collection, Sam and Max Hit the Road will always be king, and Leisure Suit Larry will always be the King's sleazy brother.

Playing through them I realized all the intricacies and bizarre problem solving I never understood in Maniac Mansion. Adventure games quickly became one of my favorite game genres, and I'm happy for their current return. In life, it helped me with problem solving sure enough, and lets me remember the better times. One of my cousins, Adam the only son of the family, passed away last year of a drug overdose. I couldn't bring myself to go to the funeral. My bipolar was at its worst, I was at a point where any small thing could cause me to break down, and I wasn't well enough to handle the whole extended family. Whenever I think about him now, I have to think of the fun we had, otherwise its too painful. Thankfully with the revival of Adventure Games, I can think of all the good times we had playing Maniac Mansion.


Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, Point and Click Therapy




And now a bit of an end note, I'm happy people are actually reading and enjoying these. Comments, feedback, ideas, whatever, everything is appreciated. While there are six more installments in this series I thought I might let readers have a say in what comes after these. I've got two ideas currently, Why I Enjoy Grinding, a simple bit about one of the most hated aspects of RPGs that I enjoy (in most circumstances). The other is, A Look at The Super Smash Brothers, a look into professional wrestling's only 8-bit Tag Team, with moves such as The Dig Dug Driver, The Final Smash, and Pac-Man Fever.

After a long delay due to my internet conking out on me, and having ten straight days of partying, I have returned. And I doubt anyone cares, but the hell with it I'm going to continue on my odyssey. Here's the eight gaming related moment that shaped me.

Blockbuster's Unlimited Game Rentals


I find it strange that as a kid I rented games every weekened, and now I haven't rented one in two or three years.

In the summer between Sophomore and Junior year of High School, I had two things on my mind, get ready for Varsity Football, and play as many Video Games as possible. Prep for football was easy, for the first five weeks of summer we had camp during the morning, and the last week and a half had single then double practices. The Gaming part was a little more difficult. While I had a PS2, and a decent amount of games, I had played through them all. While I could break out the Super Nintendo or N64, I kind of wanted to play something new. But, I didn't have a job, I still got an allowance thankfully which gave me a small amount of disposable income. Also, while I love gaming, at times it's hard to keep yourself motivated to play. Luckily I had two allies, first was my buddy Tyler, same grade, same kind of personality, and he had his license and a car. I was stuck on my learners permit because I took drivers ed outside of school and still had to finish a few driving lessons.


I'm in the front right, and Ty is the front middle, New Years Eve, and I don't do the whole photo thing so this was the best one I could find.

The second was Blockbuster Video, and their deal, unlimited game rentals for 25 dollars a month. I could only take two out at a time, but I could turn one in at any time to get a new game. It became a partnership, I covered the monthly fee and would throw in for gas every now and then, he'd drive, and we'd play together. I am not joking when I say that we may have rented every single PS2 game that they had. Whatever we saw, we'd rent, sometimes going back to the store two or three times a day because we picked a crappy game and wanted to try something else. Many afternoons were completely killed by us avoiding the outside, hell we were there in the morning what had changed? Nothing stopped us, not our other friends wanting to hang out. Not even pure shit like Fantavision, Driven, or the Army Men games.


Who in the hell enjoyed these games, I don't think a single person did.

We hung out so often that I became like a second son to his mom, he became the third brother of my family. It's still like that to this day. In all honesty, I can really only remember one game that we kept for longer than a week, and that I eventually bought. That was Grandia 2. We played through nearly the entire game before Football season began, and brought an end to our quest. We still planned on beating it at some point, but it never happened, he got a girlfriend, we became part of a larger group of friends, and there was never really time. About a year and a half after we graduated High School we disconnected, he had found a new girlfriend who was just bad news. She was once a friend of our group, but became absolutely batshit insane. She became persona non grata with our friends, and he left with her. I ended up beating Grandia 2 away at college, having not even realized we were nearly at the final battle. Thankfully he came to his senses, left her, and we've resumed being best friends. Our bond was cemented in a single summer, prior to that we were good friends, after it we became like brothers.


One of the best RPG's I've ever played

Before I start #9 I have taken the feedback into consideration, and added pictures and video about this choice.

9. The Rocketeer and Dick Tracy on NES

I dug them out of storage to tell them how much I fucking hate them

My Psychologist told me when he was working at AA one of his patient had this mantra, “To get to the good, you gotta work through the shit.” If that were ever true with me and games, it's right here. I enjoyed both of the films when I was a child. Dick Tracy was a bad ass, and who didn't want a rocket pack? I got Dick Tracy first, as a gift of some sort, and I was excited to play. Turns out I shouldn't have even taken it out of the box.


Its free roaming, like Grant Theft Auto, except with no possibility of having fun playing.

My young mind couldn't comprehend what I was supposed to do, where I was supposed to go. Even as I grew older and played it, it still made no fucking sense to me. Even my beloved Game Genie couldn't help, it couldn't tell me I need to go to this building, followed by that one, then meet with Mumbles here. When I figured out how the game worked, I still couldn't do anything, it was just way to easy to get killed. When I used the Game Genie, I'd quickly end up bored and fed up. My typical session of play would go like this, I pop in the game, can't find where I'm supposed to go first, end up going into a random building to fight some enemies, die, get frustrated, play something else. Yet I'd subject myself to the torture that is Dick Tracy biweekly prior to getting my SNES, and to this day I can't explain why. Thank god it was easy to die in it, otherwise I probably would've wasted even more time on it.


A typical screenshot of me playing Dick Tracy five minutes in.

After I saw that there was a Rocketeer game coming out, I was overjoyed, I saved my money up, and finally the big day arrived. I went to Toys R Us, picked up the slip, got it from the guy behind the glass, and I was ready to fly around and save the day, or so I thought. Looking back at the film now, there's a lot of deeper themes than I remember, but as a kid it was all about the Jetpack. So as an NES game, marketed towards children, one would figure it would be about flying around.


I should have known from here that it was garbage

What I got instead I can't even describe. In all honesty I think my mind blocked it all out. I had to look on Youtube for game footage, and I found what I needed and a commercial which I'm sure enticed me to buy it. In the commercial, clips from the movie are spliced in with game footage showing the Rocketeer flying around.


The thirty seconds that cost me forty dollars.

I don't know when you get to fly around in the game, I never made it that far, come to think of it I probably never made it past the first level. Dick Tracy pissed me off but it was a gift, but this was my own money going towards a game. I even think it was the first, if not one of the first games I bought and paid for all on my own. I felt ripped off then, and still feel ripped off.


A stage I never saw as a child, and don't think I'd have the patience to get to as an adult.

I later felt vindicated hearing The Angry Video Game Nerd bitch about Dick Tracy and ScrewAttack saying Rocketeer was shit, so I wasn't the only one. But, it did teach me to always read reviews, get friends opinions, and in the days when I rented games, to try before I buy. It also helped me realize as a little kid, it's not always the best idea to save up for something specific, because it can easily lead to buyers remorse.