What initially brought you to NA/VGS?

I was a victim of the 2012 “retro-gaming” fad, but for me the hobby never lost its luster. I kept hearing “NintendoAge” mentioned on YouTube videos, and I started lurking there around 2015, meticulously reading through years and years of forum discussions. Finally I decided to sign up and contribute to the conversation myself … exactly as GoCollect entered the scene and obliterated the site.
Luckily, enough people were flagging VGS as a haven for NintendoAge expats - and I was among the first to join the fun here in 2019. It was great timing for an early entry, too - since that allowed me the opportunity to help design our Sage mascot and ultimately become part of the VGS graphics team.

Story behind your username and avatar?

My original username was CasualCart - which is actually the name of a YouTube series I intended to start, reviewing classic games for “casual” gamers like myself. That series never actually came to fruition, though. And my avatar was a caricature of myself with a cartridge for a head. 

In an effort to unify my social media presence in 2023, I changed my username to T-Pac (my first initial, followed by part of my last name). It’s short ‘n sweet, and I like that it includes “Pac” like “Pac-Man”, which is what arguably inspired my love of classic gaming in the first place.
My current avatar is a more “universal” redesign of the CasualCart self-caricature.

Top 10 favorite games of all time?

1 ) Abadox [NES]
- An eclectic title that encompasses almost everything I love in a video game: It’s a shoot-em-up with mechs and bio-horror visuals, it’s an 8-bit title from arguably my favorite era of gaming, it’s relatively obscure, the gameplay is dead simple, the continue-system is generous, and … well … it's a lot of fun.

2 ) Solomon’s Key 2 [NES]
-One of the most straightforward puzzle games on the NES, with visuals so charming you can’t help but love it.

3 ) Bosconian [Arcade]
-Possibly the first space-shooter I ever played, and the most nostalgically-charged entry in my top-10.

4 ) Turmoil [2600]
-Simple, twitch Atari gaming at its finest. 20th Century Fox titles are way underrated in the 2600 library.

5 ) Bubble Bobble [GB]
-My favorite port of my favorite arcade-style elimination platformer. I love the characters, the countless wacky bonus items, and even the occasionally-janky bubble mechanics.

6 ) R-Type II [GB]
-The most accessible entry to the R-Type series. My favorite game-genre is strategy shoot-em-ups, and R-Type II is a brief, fun, no-frills strategy shoot-em-up if I’ve ever seen one.

7 ) Astro Warrior [SMS]
-A game that straddles early arcade-style shooters with more evolved scrolling shooters, and manages to satisfy my taste for both at the same time. It’s short, beautiful to look at, and under-the radar. Just the way I like it.

8 ) Sky Jinks [2600]
-The most aesthetically pleasing 2600 title as far as I’m concerned, with gameplay that’s somehow both relaxing and engaging at the same time.

9 ) Kwirk [GB]
-A solid block-pushing puzzler, and the one I’ve spent the most time with (but never managed to beat, unfortunately).

10 ) Star Parodier [PCE-CD]
-My favorite cute-em-up is either Star Parodier or Twinbee 3 [FC], so this slot in my top-10 could easily go to either of them.

Pets?  Past or present.  Or future…

No pets - I understand why so many people love their pets, but I just find them dirty and annoying. That’s why I like my neighborhood coyotes so much … they eat everybody’s cats and dogs.

But I did have a very special family-dog growing up. My dad worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency as the handler for their drug-sniffing German Shepherd, trained and imported straight from Germany (even his commands like “sit” and “follow” were in German). That dog was a crime-stopping machine, and when he retired he became our family pet haha.

Favorite book?

The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Graham.
I picked this up for the first time in college and fell in love with the idyllic and mysterious atmosphere of the whole thing, with surprisingly thought-provoking ideas threaded into a lighthearted children’s story.

Movie?

Princess Mononoke (1997).
I’m not a fan of anime (not since high-school, at least) - but I still consider this movie a masterpiece. The animation is beautiful, the characters and plot are captivating, and there’s a grand, spiritual aura to the whole thing that awes me in a way quite unlike any other film I’ve ever seen.

TV show?

Over the Garden Wall (2014).
This is a Cartoon Network miniseries that I watched as it released episode-by-episode, and immediately fell in love with. No TV show has ever eclipsed it for me, and I doubt any ever will.

Song?

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2008) by I Set My Friends on Fire.
One of the heaviest releases from a band that always brings me back happily to my formative years, and still holds up even though my tastes have since shifted from Metalcore to mostly Deathcore. (I know that makes me sound like a metal-genre elitist, but who doesn’t like to sort their interests into various, arbitrary categories?)

Album?

Acceptance Speech (2013) by Dance Gavin Dance. 
My favorite eras of Dance Gavin Dance are the Johnny Craig and Kurt Travis days, but surprisingly my favorite album from the band is their debut with Tillian. It marks a weird shift between their earlier, strictly post-hardcore stuff (which I love) and their later, pop-influenced stuff (which I strongly dislike) - and yet this confused, transitional, sonic mess of an album just works for me. 
As a very religious guy, I don’t like a lot of the anti-religious sentiments in the lyrics here - but from a strictly musical perspective, I can’t get enough of Acceptance Speech.

(Musical) Artist?

Louis Armstrong.
He’s one of the greatest musicians of all time. I love the rasp of his voice, the rhythm of his cadence, and the heart behind every note he sings or plays.

Hope you don't mind me sporadically adding extra doodles to a few responses after I've sent them haha.)

I think I speak for everyone when I say "Definitely do not mind."

What do you do for a living?

I’m a 2D Animator. I currently work at Disney’s feature-film branch, mostly doing shorts and legacy projects (but I’m actually on Moana 2 right now, since there’s a character named Maui who has a magic, animated tattoo of himself that the 2D department is handling).

In the past I’ve worked on Looney Toons Cartoons for Warner Bros., Green Eggs and Ham for Netflix, a few Nickelodeon shows, and even the title sequence for an Angry Birds series haha.

So what you're saying is as soon as I watch Moana 2 with my boys and the tattoo part comes up I get to proudly boast to them that my friend drew that part.  Because I'm totally doing that.

Haha possibly. I didn't animate EVERY scene of the tattoo, but I've done a bunch of 'em.

If you actually end up going to see it, I can tell you which scenes to look for : )

Prize piece in your collection?

As much as I love all my games, the prize piece of my collection has to be my custom multi-cade, because something about an arcade setup makes playing video games 1000% more fun. 
It’s the pinnacle of my ideal classic-gaming system that I’ve devised over the years … I have dedicated ROM dumpers for each of the systems I collect, and I rip all my own games to emulate in the multi-cade. That way I get the perks of gameplay-recording for my YouTube series, the convenience of save-states, and some peace-of-mind knowing I’ve digitized my library in case these aging game-carts stop functioning or get damaged.

Walk us through a day in the life of T-Pac

A typical weekday goes something like this…

4:30 - wake up.
5:00 - go for a jog (usually 5 miles, unless I’m dealing with frequent knee injuries).

6:00 - shower and breakfast.
7:00 - work on personal projects (a short film and my T-Pac Arcade series).

9:00 - work at the studio.

12:00 - lunch break (I like to go outside and read while I eat, then take a short walk if the sun is out).
1:00 - back to work.

6:00 - dinner time (the studio has a free cereal-bar, and I eat oatmeal with almond-milk and fruit every night before I go home).
7:00 - read a book or watch some classic tokusatsu. 

8:30 - bedtime. 

Weekends are for laundry, grocery-shopping, and church.

Hobbies outside of gaming and collecting

I’m really into classic kaiju films and tokusatsu series. They’re campy and fun, and they let me escape to a simpler reality when I’m stressed-out. Some of my favorites are…

Daimajin (1966)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967)
Invasion of Astro Monster (1965)
Dragon Showdown (1966)
Golden Ninja / Golden Bat (1966)
Ultraman (1966-1967)
Space Sheriff Gavan (1982-1983)

Mechagodzilla or Mothra or Ghidorah?

Mechagodzilla - because he's a robot! Duh.
Although my favorite robot in the Godzilla franchise is Jet Jaguar.

Where did you originally hail from?

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. Then I went to Canada for college and lived in Toronto for a few years. Now I’m back in the States, but way over in Los Angeles.
Interestingly - my Chicago accent isn’t strong enough for most people to tell that I’m not a Canadian or Californian, so I tend to blend-in well haha.

Best and worst parts about living in LA?

BEST:
1 ) I get to go for a walk in the sunshine almost every day.
2 ) I'm in the heart of the animation industry (at least historically).
3 ) No sales tax on groceries.

WORST:
1 ) It's hard to get around without a car, and I don't drive anymore.
2 ) I live in an "equestrian district", which means there's always horse-poop on the walkways.
3 ) I don't vibe with "SoCal" culture.

I'm trying to picture people riding horses in LA...

Some people move to LA to become movie-stars. But the REAL reason to move to LA is to become a cowboy...

What drew you to Canada?

Sheridan College in Ontario was the best animation school that I could A) get accepted into, and B) afford. I still miss Canada every day.

My dad grew up in the suburbs of Chicago: the Dyer and Munster areas of Indiana.  Ever eat at Giovanni's?

Good 'ol midWest suburbs - the most unassumingly essential pillar of American society.

Never had Giovanni's, but my dad took me to Uno's once for some proper Chicago deep-dish pizza. It was never my thing, though - even back when I ate dairy, I always preferred garbage-pizza like Little Caesar's haha.

What member of The Breakfast Club are you?  ..this is basically a boomer question, asking if you're the nerd, the jock, the outcast, eh.  Because those labels all still perfectly apply to this day and age of the modern Homecoming Kings who are also Magic the Gathering players 

I’m as neurotic as the basket-case and I dress like the stoner, but I’m 100% the nerd.
Although in high-school I was the star of the cross country team, so that would make me a total jock still the nerd. And the prom queen was my date to the dance, but only because she was too nice to turn me down, so that would make me … still the nerd.

Wine, liquor, or beer?

xVx - vegan straight edge for life. No meat, no drugs, no alcohol. The world would be a better place without booze.

Coffee or tea?

Water, please and thanks.

SNES or Genesis?

SNES. As crazy as it may sound, the Super Nintendo is my favorite platform for shoot-em-ups. And that's coming from a guy who also collects PC Engine games.

NES or 2600?

This is a brutal question - these are my two most beloved systems, but I think I have to go with the Atari 2600. I feel like it just suits me better, even though on paper the NES would probably win-out every time.

N64 or Saturn or PS1? Cube or Xbox or PS2? DS or PSP?

I ... uh ... don't collect or play anything beyond the 16-bit era. It's just not to my taste, even though I grew up on the GBA, DS, and Wii.

DS or GBA or Wii?

Haha okay - GBA, but that's just because it's where I played ports of SNES games.
In a parallel universe, I might've even ended up as a GBA collector, but nostalgia isn't much of a factor for my gaming or collecting (as weird as that may sound for someone in this hobby).

Give it time.  Nostalgia becomes a hell of a drug once you're old and creaky 

Well I’m already heavily nostalgic for stuff like childhood Christmas traditions and my dad’s old punk music, so it’s only a matter of time…

Dream vacation?

Simple answer - but my dream vacation is just spending a week with my family for the holidays, just like I do every year. The comfort of staying at my childhood house, the security of having my family around, and the stress-relief of being pulled away from projects and work for a little while.

Last year I spent the week watching Godzilla movies, playing Sega Genesis, skateboarding with my dad, losing at Scrabble to my mom and sister, going to Christmas Eve mass at my old grade-school parish, and generally just relaxing. It was perfect.

Tell me what comes to mind.  Be as verbose as you wish.

1980s

Classic arcade games.

(I know Space Invaders was technically from the 70s, but it led the way for the 80s classics...)

1990s

Radical X-treme sports.

2000s

Flip-phones.

2010s

Peak metalcore.

(And no - I cannot play guitar, unfortunately...)

2020s

The fall of humanity.

Ever consider doing artist work in some kind of gaming capacity?

Yeah, it would definitely be a neat intersection of my interests. Not so much "in-game" animations - but I've always wanted to work on one of those "over-the-top 2D action fight scene" video game trailers that you see from studios like The Line.

I have very little experience with that sort of thing, though, and I fear it might be beyond my skillset haha. But maybe one day.

What would be your dream project for film or  television?

As far as working on existing properties, animating for an official Winnie the Pooh project would be a dream-come-true.

But as far as creating my own thing, I've been dreaming up a miniseries called "Galaxy Super Squad" - a comedic action cartoon about a team of space heroes who fight monsters created by an evil Moon villain. I've even written an outline for a pilot episode, even thought it's probably too ambitious for me to actually make haha.

Dream gaming project?

This is another one that's "too ambitious for me to actually make", but here's a concept for my perfect game. It's a hybrid Game Boy game called "Zapparatus", where the levels alternate between auto-scrolling runner stages, shoot-em-up stages, and block-pushing puzzle stages.

No solicitations (yet) from programmers to collaborate on such an idea?

Nah - but if I were to make my "dream game", I'd want to do it all myself anyway. (Which is why it'll probably never happen haha.)

I think I'm generally a good collaborator when working on other people's projects, but I'm an insufferable tyrant when it comes to my own.