I live right down the street from a most epic thrift store. Why so great? you may ask. Well, that's because it is the Mormon Church's thrift store and I live in the goddamn holy grail mecca of Mormonism! So every good Latter Day Saint is going to donate all their old video game gear to my thrift store.



It takes time and patience, but a motivated person can amass quite a haul in the long run. Just for reference sake, I have purchased the majority of my console hardware--> there at a severe discount from ma & pa shops, not to mention the meta-pricing (gouging) of the net.



This includes the most recent two purchases: NES (no cables or controller) $3.00, and today - Genesis (1 six button Sega turbo controller w Sonic 2) $5.00. As for the NES, I found a suitable power supply (and A/V cables are obviously no problem), but all the local ma & pa shops are plum out of NES 'trollers. For the Genesis, I searched my bag of tricks at home and conjured up a fantastic stereo A/V cable for this model II unit. But no suitable power source.



So after killing a few hours, I went back to my thrift store to search for said power source, but achieved success in an unsuspected way. A girl I know (that also happens to work there) is outside taking a smoke break by her car. We discuss (as we usually do in these encounters) the items I have procured recently, only to discover that she has also come by an NES recently. But for some odd reason, she really doesn't care for the game she got with it. So in the trunk of her car, she pulls out The Adventure of Link - Zelda II. You receive Zelda II NES!



Gee, you know? God really does work in mysterious ways. Now if only he could have made it Zelda 1. *grrrr* (Also, God, I need an NES controller and a Sega Genesis model II power supply. Mmkay? Thx).

Mathew Valente (TSSF) has been sequencing game music for quite a while. His skills have really improved with time, culminating in this ambitious and totally righteous project of restoring the MegaMan 10 soundtrack to native NES format.

You can download this here and read more about the process in his readme. In addition to the NSF, he has provided the source file for those wishing to listen to and watch the sequencing in FamiTracker.


(NSF playback utilities)

Many active and avid consumers of the current gen technology and gaming.

By way of introduction, I find myself as more of an avid gaming historian. While I have neither the resources or ambition to stay current as a gamer, I am able to stay informed by reading your blogs, watching friends game the latest at their homes, and of course, following the actual success and evolution of the market.

My passion began at the earliest of ages, as I know many of yours did as well. I was 5 in 1980, starting out with 2600. Games like Pac Man, Yar's Revenge and Berserk gave me my first fix of what was sure to be a life-long addiction. Skipping ahead, the release of NES was like a revelation from god that video gaming was the greatest thing ever created for human consumption.

Late 80's early 90's provided my personal golden era. 16-bit will forever be my most cherished era in gaming, both in terms of intuition and style. The release of Zelda: Link to the Past was a spiritual experience surpassed by none. Incidentally, I was always a huge fan of the arcade scene as well. At this time, Street Fighter II was doing the same thing in it's own vein - creating an epicenter of enthusiasm the likes of which had not been seen since the Arcade's golden era.

With the advent of 32-bit, timed with a coming of maturity, I never followed the gaming industry in the same way again... I used to hang on every release and put as much money as possible into obtaining the greats as they came down the line. What replaced this was a more calculated consumer agenda based on collecting older titles in an effort to complete a quality historical collection. This concept adapts and updates with time. In our current era of gaming, systems from Dreamcast to GameCube have become the trough from which I dreg. Bargain bins and favorable used prices make this possible.

I stay a bit more up to date with PC gaming. It is easier for me to build a high-value/low cost PC and maintain it's usefulness a great deal longer than the average consumer lifespan of a next-gen console. Additionally, I am more of a LAN gamer than an online gamer. I enjoy the fun of gathering together, setting up hardware, making an experience of it... and then getting serious into the gaming.

I do a lot of solo gaming, which seems to be characteristic of the Mid-core gamer. Admittedly, I have yet to beat every 16-bit era RPG on my to-do list. This escalates with the fact that translation crews are always active in bringing some new localization to the English world. It's comfortable and easy to stay within beloved genres/eras. Where I branch out most is in PC FPS and Strategy. Staying fairly current here has been a pleasurable task.

Lastly, I am simply excited and energized by all things gaming. Following your blogs and my friend's gaming interests; watching documentaries; reading books (like the fabulous 'The First Quarter' or 'Masters of Doom') - all things feeding my need to stay current in an auxiliary way. :)

Thanks for the great reading!