Featured Member February 2024: PII

[Splain | 2,571]

Thanks @PII!

Where does your username come from and how should I pronounce it in my head?
It goes back to my days of playing N64 during that console's o.g. life span.  When I was playing wipeout 64 I needed a handle by which to save my game and I came up with PII.  The negative space between the II's is a straight stretch of track and the P approximates a spiraling/corkscrewing stretch of track.  I (and most others) pronounce it "Pie" like what you have for dessert.  Unless I happen to be sitting on @Gloves couch, then it's "Pee" all the way.  

So then is this a curved track or just stylized?

It's approaching orbital speed.  The high velocity has warped it.

And the profile pic, is that your cat?
Nah, it's a pic I found online.  People tend to love cats but what comes out of the cat is not always as easy to stomach.

Do you have a cat?
Unfortunately no.  Several years ago I had a Pixie-Bob that was also crossed with some ordinary Tom-Cat DNA.  He was a very interesting and uniquely mannered feline for sure and the coolest buddy.  But currently no cat and no other pets either.  Silver lining is I won't have to decide whether or not to eat them down the road.  I'll probably never have a good opportunity but I've thought for some time that it would be great to crossbreed a male Pixie-Bob with a female Main Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat and get a bunch of really big fluff-a-licious short-tailed cats.

How did you come across NA/VGS for the first time?
I was lurking around NA in its final days, intending to join.  Then one day when I went to sign up it had vanished into thin air.  A short time later I found Sage and hopped on board.  What got me to both was the error/variant thread for NES games.  Specifically, it was my interest in the NES 5-Screw Oddity Carts.

Do you have a lot of 5-screw carts?
I've somewhere in the vicinity of half the 5-Screw library, like fifty-something carts + a few of the oddity variants.  I'm still missing most of the big ones and there's so much awareness around those now that I'll probably never stumble onto any of them for a song and dance but its still fun to find one of the more commons now and again.

Do you remember the first video game you ever played?
I'm not 100% but I think it was "Cave Of The Word Wizard" on Commodore 64.  The idea was you'd walk through a cave that had 4 levels to it, while avoiding various creepy crawlers.  There were also pits of non-doom that were easier to fall into than it was to find a ladder back up.  You had to find 4 glowing crystals and make your way back out.  All the while, the "Word Wizard" would recurringly materialize and demand that you spell some word or other and you'd get 3 chances.  IIRC there were 4 different difficulty levels as far as the words you'd have to spell.  It was a lot of fun.

Are you into modern gaming?
Not a whole lot.  I see things from time to time that get my attention, for example... I wanna say it was a couple or a few years ago I noticed that a "Ghosts And Goblins" game was coming out for Switch and I was like: "Damn, now I gotta get a Switch at some point."  The thing is, though, that I'm content to pick up a console once it's popularity has dwindled to nil and I can pick it up at a thrift store for like fifteen bucks.  Story of my Wii and more PS1s/PS2s than I care to count.

The brunt of my interest is in 2nd and 3rd Gen with a comparable level of interest in 4th and 5th Gen. or as I like to put it: C64 - N64.

Do you consider yourself more of a collector or a gamer?
For me the main point of collecting is to be able to Game the most interesting stuff, as much as possible as it was originally intended, emulating only when necessary.  Although as years go on, Everdrives look more and more attractive. I like having NES manuals to reference and I have a small box collection which can be one of the most fun things to collect but I generally go after Carts only except in the case of disc games that need a proper case.

What's your collection look like?
I always enjoy seeing the pics of everyone's game rooms where everything has been perfectly organized and all the consoles are lined up just so, and I can be like: Wow! Dragon Warrior Slime Plush Pillows On The Couch, Awesome!  My collection looks almost nothing like that however.  It would be cool to have everything together like that, but it can also be fun to have a particular setup for a particular console in a particular room with particular seating arrangements etc.  So I've currently got various consoles hooked up to 4 different monitors and I'm thinking about maybe using 2 more monitors.  My NES games are currently overflowing their rack, on top of which is a small box collection that goes to the ceiling.  It's like a big freeform abstract sculpture.  Sadly some games are not on permanent display and have to exist in places like drawers and boxes.  Rather than a perfectly set stage of distinct items it's more like an organism, like moss growing here and there and everywhere; always becoming.  Now and again I'll do something to further organize and display.  Lately I've been thinking about making a special rack just for my Sega CD games, for example...

Any collection pics? (or are they already up somewhere?)
There's a glimpse somewhere in one of last year's NES Weekly Threads and there might be one on an old Halloween thread somewhere.  I take a pic of this or that from time to time but it's kind of hard to take a serious collection pic when it's all as spread out as mine is.  I'd have to assemble everything and then put it all back.  Uggh.

Top ten games of all time?
10: Ghosts 'N Goblins
9: Milon's Secret Castle
8: Adventures Of Dino Riki
7: Jumpman Jr.
6: Cauldron II
5: CastleVania III (..or pretty much any other 2D CastleVania... Shout out for CV Overflow Darkness!)
4: Chrono Trigger
3: Q*bert's Qubes [Arcade, 2600, Colecovision]
2: All wipEout Games ( I just finished XL recently so that's the one I've been digging the most.)
1: H.E.R.O. [Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operator]
1: Toy Bizarre 

whew!  Now I feel like I'm going to have a nightmare about all of the Great games I left out, anthropomorphized and kicking the crap out of me.  Final Fantasy VI would be their leader and just lean in the doorway with it's arms crossed and a thin look on it's face..

Suggestion: Around here, I think, maybe we start asking people for no less than their top 100 games...

.........what are your top 100 games?
It's just a big bucket of Madden and Rock Star/Guitar Hero Games.  JK  That's a question that would be fun to answer properly but it would take some time, thought and decision making..

Jumpman Jr. and Toy Bizarre are core memories for me. Do you have a working Commodore?
I did not too long ago, but the monitor went out on me and I haven't gotten around to doing anything about it yet.  The disk drive also needs a little adjustment or a replacement.  Definitely a couple of tasks I'll need to get on sooner rather than later.  So many great games I miss playing...

What games are overrated?
I could just take the easy route and say: Everything post-5th Gen. but that's too general.  As I mentioned, I see things in the later generations that pique my interest from time to time but that whole time frame is mostly a void for me because I spent a time, nearly a decade (with almost no exception), not looking at any motion picture whatsoever including video games.  I didn't want to watch TV or movies at all and it's not really that I felt the same way about video games but simply that I was too busy doing real world stuff to have time for them.  Some of the things that gained popularity in that era that I don't find particularly attractive, or perhaps simply don't understand well are: games that come out ten or twelve times on the same console: Guitar Hero, Madden etc.  Every time I see a Guitar Hero "guitar" all I wanna do is Jimmie Hendrix the damn thing to death as it just looks to me like a giant baby's pacifier for people who dreamed of becoming rock stars but never bothered to even try and learn how to play an actual guitar.  I imagine some fans will not care for that statement, but it's honestly how I feel.  I remember for a while it seemed as though every game that I caught wind of was either a first person shooter or an open world RPG so big and never-ending as to be more of a real-life-consumer/replacer rather than a game that is a temporary diversion from real life.  It's not something I know a whole lot about, but from what I understand there are games that literally never end and companies are constantly coming out with new content = selling the buyer the same product over and over.  That all seems really unappealing to me.  I think I mentioned it somewhere before but to me the point of a video game is to see if I can beat the programming and following that, how much I can run circles around it.  And I like that best when it boils down to things like: speed, timing, position, delivery, pattern recognition etc.  And I like it when there's an end.  There are exceptions.  Chrono Trigger for example is not a challenging game, but it is an immensely fun experience to be swept away with the incredible narrative and character development. 

What non-video game hobbies do you have?
Reading and Writing.  I have a couple of Novels and a short story written that I haven't tried to publish yet + a few more that are mostly drafted and waiting for me to sit down and do it.  I like to spend a lot of time in the woods, foraging.  Gardening and Cooking.  Bikes/Motorcycles.  A bit of Golf/Disk Golf.  I was once a very dedicated musician but I kind of fell out of love with the song and got too old for the dance (Break) on a daily basis.  Just a little bit of drawing that had been on the back burner for too long, although I think @SuperJimtendo got me to move it to the front burner recently with his "Draw An Abobo" Contest during the NES Weekly DDII week.  And from time to time I like to familiarize myself with some other language sufficient to be able to drop into the corresponding society and comfortably make my way, using such important phrases as: "¡Get the heck away from me!"  And: "Which way to the Disko-Tek?"  My number one hobby for a while now though has been caring for an elderly parent with dementia.

What's your dream motorcycle?
In the past it looked something like this:

And in the future it may look something like this:

Did you ever play any instruments?
Yeah, Piano, Guitar, Bass, A little bit of Percussion, Trumpet, Trombone, Clarinet, Thai Flute, Turn Tables (arguably an instrument, arguably not, an enigma perhaps...)

Did something happen or did you just stop liking music?
A lot of things happened.  At some point I realized that in spite of how much I genuinely loved the whole song and dance, that being an active musician boiled down to creating a shallow backdrop for people to get fucked up and have degrading sexual encounters.  Like someone might create the finest piece of music the world has ever heard and the brunt of it's effect isn't going to uplift or inspire anyone to be their best anywhere near so much as it's going to drag people down because of the culture associated with it, because of the deliberately skewed tuning standard, the back-masking in lyrics and so on.  I watched people grow sicker and darker the more awful things they did.  I got sicker.  Maybe a Holy Man/Woman, which is simply to say a person of immense goodness, could operate in such a negative culture without being effected for the worse, but not ordinary men and women and not me.  After a while of watching bodies pile up I eventually had to admit to myself that there were things about this culture that are deeply and inherently wrong.  I got older and a lot less bulletproof (not that I ever really was.)  People started to disappear more and more for any number of reasons.  I know that I'll never see most of them ever again in all likelihood.  And if I do we'll just be shadows of our former selves.  We will never feel so alive together the way we were, ever again.  It all just has a way of making the present musical experience bittersweet at best.

Recently, I was reading somewhere or other online, I don't remember where exactly, and someone was talking about this warning that people would give a long time ago.  I'm guessing it was from the middle ages or thereabout.  But it went something like: 'If you ever happen upon fairy food, don't eat any.  It's sweeter and more exquisite than anything you could ever experience in the mundane world.  And once you've gotten a taste you'll never be able to stand going back to normal food again.  If you get used to fairy food and try to go back you'll only find that you can no longer bare to live.'  ...I'm paraphrasing from memory but it was something to that effect.  There are at least a few ways to interpret that of course.  But considering that Song & Dance meant everything to me once upon a time, a part of me is surprised that I never went through a phase of waking in the middle of the night screaming and crying for it.

What languages have you studied? What do you use to learn languages?
The simplest and most effective way that I know of to begin learning a language to some practical effect is simply to get a good pocket book (I like the ones titled "" language name here" ...At a glance."") and keep it on your person literally all of the time (exceptions for showering and bedtime) in a pants pocket or maybe a bag that goes everywhere with you so that you've always got it and again, literally, any time you've got a few minutes or more, pop that book out and learn something.  learn all the sounds first along with a few really choice expressions and then focus on memorizing all of the words that get used constantly: "who, what, where, when, why, how / in, on, at, to, etc. and learn to properly conjugate the most salient verbs: "To Have", "To Be" etc. and so on.  If you do that for say....., six months you should be plenty well versed enough to put your knowledge to the test in an environment where you've got to actually talk to other human beings in this new lingo and then listen to what they say and understand enough of it to get where you need to be or perhaps apologize for defiling their holiest relic.

Another good tactic is to watch a favorite movie, something you've seen a gazillion times for which you know every line and watch it with subtitles for the language you're learning.  When you tire of that watch it with the target language dubbed in and subtitles in English.

But maybe my favorite way is, similar to above, to pick a "comic" book you're super familiar with, like say "Garfield" or something like that where the characters have short dialog with each other and then get the same book in the target language and read that.  Reading news headlines and blurbs is good too.

So, to answer your first question I'm more of a dabbler that anything else, but I speak German pretty well, French and Spanish I have successfully taught myself sufficient for getting around purposes.  I also spent a time learning Sanskrit, but there're a couple of problems one runs into with that.  One, it's almost impossible to find another human being with whom to attempt conversation and two, once you've got your teeth into it and you're starting to get it, you'll run into a labyrinth of conjugation larger than any you've ever seen in another language.  It's like something that was designed for a computer to learn rather than a human being.  So you're either going to spend all of your time with it or move on.  From time to time I start to dabble in it again, like I've got this book with a large glossary in it and it's fun to just crack at random and start reading because it'll give you the word, a definition and then cognates and related words in Latin, Greek, German and occasionally Anglo Saxon or Gothic.  It's a fun way to learn about how all these lingos are inter-related and why a given syllable may be imbued with this meaning or that.  I've had a pocket book for Italian collecting dust for far too long.  Lately I've been looking at a cool old book that I found on Russian, which seems significantly more difficult than most of the aforementioned languages.  And also lately, (dear God am I actually admitting this?) I've gotten really into reading through a book I found called "The Klingon Dictionary", which is a constructed language used in Star Trek.  It's really creative how this guy went about constructing the language.  Having a knowledge of Sanskrit is definitely helping.  And learning about how it works is just too much fun for words.

What makes you want to learn different languages? And why Sanskrit?
There are a number of reasons, I think.  I grew up exposed to German a lot and I also spent a lot of time around kids who took part in Foreign Exchange.  Because of the latter, I think the idea that you don't travel to another country and expect the people there to speak your language to you, rubbed off on me.  You should always make your best attempt to speak their language to them.  Even if you do poorly, it will usually be appreciated that you at least tried.   Sometimes it seems downright bizarre to me that there are so many different languages and I like the idea that one can get to a point where they all start to seem like slightly varied manifestations of a single language rather than being completely different.  Which I guess brings us back to Sanskrit.  

People used to learn Languages like Latin and ancient Greek because they're ancestral to and related to a large number of Western living languages, and knowing them, in addition to allowing one to read some "Great Classical Literature" would make it easier to learn those related living languages.  In the East, Classical Chinese has been treated in an equivalent manner.  Somewhere in between we have Sanskrit, which is in the "Indo-European" language family and technically a "Western Language."  But, it also has many elements more suggestive of Eastern languages.  Although it is not universally agreed upon (at least the last time I checked), Sanskrit is often considered to be the oldest living language.  Ancient India had some pretty wild stories and it is even odder that Sanskrit appears to be a constructed language rather than a natural one.  From the beginning it can easily be seen that things are laid out in a very scientific manner.  The Alphabet for example is laid out more or less in a grid and sounds are partially classified by what part of the mouth, the tongue is pressing against: Velum, Soft Palate, Hard Palate, Teeth & Lips.  Another interesting feature is that there are changes in sound and the written boundaries of letters that occur as two or more sounds come into contact with each other, called "Sandhi."  So in addition to learning Consonants, Vowels, Semi-Vowels and Diphthongs one also has to learn a great many combinations of letters as well which is fun and not as hard as it might sound in my opinion.  

There has been talk for a few decades now about the connection between Sanskrit and programming languages, particularly with regard to A.I.  It often gets somewhat miscast as an Ideal programming language in and of itself when the reality is more along the lines of its being a source of ideas for those who write programming languages.  To give a quick idea, everything that gets communicated: number, case, gender etc. in a given sentence is encoded such that one could take any proper Sanskrit sentence, rearrange the words in any order desired and the meaning of the sentence would remain unchanged and clear.  

The ultimate origin of my interest in the language however goes back to my discovery of the band "Kula Shaker" who sing in Sanskrit and utilize a lot of traditional Indian instruments Like Sitars and Tabla in their music.  I used to listen to a couple of their records pretty obsessively, mostly the "K" album; Some of the best Rock music ever.

There's a Klingon course on Duolingo! Interested?
I'll give you a definite maybe on that one, no promises.  I've heard of Duolingo but I'm not really familiar with it.  Is it something you buy and download?  Once I get to the point of being able to speak and write a sufficient degree of mundane statements I think it would be cool to have someone to write letters back and forth with.  I'm sure if I get to the point of attempting actual verbal conversation with another person I will have a lot of laughter to stifle in order to make it work.  Currently I'm looking forward to trying out a couple of audio tapes.

Any tips for caring for people with dementia?
Yeah, as soon as you notice the person begin to loose their faculties get them away from anything emitting 5G or 4G radiation.  Get them away from any and all smart meters and everything else in contemporary society that is poisoning us all.  Move away from all population and feed the effected person a healthy diet of real unprocessed foods and pure clean un-fluoridated water.  My educated guess is that you'll see the person in question return to their normal healthy self.  If it's too late for that or just not possible, then try to remember that the person in question didn't ask for this to happen to them and they don't mean to be a major difficulty for you, and what you're doing is simply your best to make them as comfortable and happy as possible in the last stage of their life.

Where do you live?
Wisconsin.

Are you a cheesehead?
Actually I'm one of the folks here who can resist the urge to place a large foam wedge of cheese on my dome and the drop in dignity that comes with it.  Besides, NFL football is officially a "Sports Entertainment" and thus, no more real than WWE.  Nothing against sports and certainly not Football as I played a whole lot of it with friends growing up, but all the big spectator sports are fixed and scripted.  And once you see it with your own two eyes and figure out what sort of narrative is being pushed it just becomes utterly boring.  Any time there is a ton of gambling going on around a sporting event a predetermined outcome is guaranteed.

Favorite Book?
My favorite work of fiction is "Watership Down."  There's something intriguing and relaxing about the way Richard Adams describes the facets of nature while telling the story which is an epic about survival and transcendence.  My favorite work of non-fiction is "The History Of The Conquest Of Mexico" which is a fascinating account of what took place between Cortez et el and the Aztec Empire back in the early 16th century, by William H. Prescott.

Favorite Movie?
Hmmm.  I tend to think of movies in terms of "Comedies" and "Everything Else", the everything else being my primary go-to and made up mostly of Sci-Fi/Horror.  I think my favorite is probably "Messiah Of Evil" from 1973.  It's a work of art.  Once, many years ago I was trying to explain the funeral scene in "The Godfather" to someone.  The whole thing moves really slowly and it's mostly just shots of Michael sitting in a chair and sizing everyone up trying to figure out who the traitor is.  So, anyway, I said to this guy, about that scene, It's less like watching a movie and feels more like watching a painting that moves.  That's how I feel about "Messiah Of Evil" to a large extent along with a lot of my other favorites in the genre.  It's atmosphere and goings-on are  so wonderfully Creepy with so many details about what is actually going on just beneath the surface..., every time I've watched it so far I've come away realizing that it's not as violent or schlock-oriented as I want to remember.  I also like Fred Astaire Movies.  For comedy I'll call it a tie between "Clue" and "Spaceballs" lol.

Favorite Album?
Though there have been countless over the decades and I still have a large vinyl collection of rock and electronic dance music, I don't think I have one anymore per the previously mentioned falling out.  I just don't listen to music the way I used to.  I kind of avoid it and only put on something "Classical" or "Jazz" oriented from time to time.  I've always loved the Ramones and I simply adore the later records by "The Damned" like "Anything" and "Phantasmagoria" and there is this Italo-Disco Artist called "Clio" who made a little of the best dance music ever, with the help of producer Roberto Ferrante...

Favorite Cartoon?
Definitely all the old Warner Bros. stuff but especially the Roadrunner/Coyote and the Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog Cartoons.  Those always crack me up, they all do really.  Foghorn Leghorn is another great one.  He's such a loudmouthed windbag!  I love it.  They just don't make 'em like that anymore...

Favorite Shoes?
Same favorite shoes I've had since the 1st Grade: ¡Converse All-Stars, Baby!

What are your life goals?
I feel like I may have had a lot to say about that at one time.  Maybe some of it is done and the rest has just passed on, but primarily I'd say, to write as many novels as I can based on the material stewing around in my brain.  That, and somehow figure out the best way to go about allowing people other than myself to read and hopefully enjoy them while gaining something positive in the process.  I also think it might be interesting and really nice to survive World War III.

[Splain | 2,571]

June 2022: Estil
July 2022: RH
August 2022: Brickman
September 2022: Code Monkey
October 2022: OptOut
November 2022: Lynda Monica
December 2022: a3quit4s
January 2023: Mr. Wunderful
February 2023: G-Type
March 2023:  Link
April 2023: Tabonga
May 2023: Renmauzo
June 2023: Sumez
July 2023: DarkTone
August 2023: Fox

September 2023: TDIRunner

October 2023: DefaultGen
November 2023: guitarzombie
December 2023: avatar!

January 2024: GPX

[T-Pac | 7,560]

@PII - well I'm certainly not surprised to hear that you're an author - all these responses are so witty and well-written haha!

Also - how can you possibly belittle your collection setup when you've got the best lineup of novelty tube-TVs on VGS!!?

[T-Pac]

[PII | 1,886]

10 hours ago, T-Pac said:

well I'm certainly not surprised to hear that you're an author - all these responses are so witty and well-written haha!

Also - how can you possibly belittle your collection setup when you've got the best lineup of novelty tube-TVs on VGS!!?

Thanx!  That's a really nice compliment from such a voracious reader as yourself.  Though I've always been a reader myself it's sometimes funny for me to think about how much I've grown to enjoy writing, as it wasn't always the case.  English was the only class I ever got an "F" in.  It's also the only class I ever got a "D" in.  And it's almost the only class I ever got an "Incomplete" in.  Look at that, three sentences in a row that end in a preposition!

You know, I've never really thought that that might be the case.  Coming soon, I've got an old Panasonic with big knobs that's encased in some creamy off-white plastic that I'd like to start using.  I've been thinking of hooking my SNES up to it.  Just gotta figure where to set up, but I'll be sure and snap some pics to post.

[SuperJimtendo | 1,123]

Hell yeah you were like one of 3 people that drew abobobo!

[Dr. Morbis | 2,090]

17 hours ago, PII said:

You know, I've never really thought that that might be the case.  Coming soon, I've got an old Panasonic with big knobs that's encased in some creamy off-white plastic that I'd like to start using.  I've been thinking of hooking my SNES up to it.  Just gotta figure where to set up, but I'll be sure and snap some pics to post.

I've got a fully working 1958 Philco Predicta and I've been meaning to use it for a score photo during one of the NES weeklies as a gag, but I've never gotten around to it.

Anyway, your responses are the most thought-provoking of any I've yet read here on VGS.  I also went through the whole dementia rigamaroll too, but we gave up and put her in a home before the end.  Definitely a challenging time in one's life, that's for sure...

[JamesRobot | 5,807]

Man, what a bleak view of music.  Though I understand where you're coming from.  Particularly the point of view from the scene.  It's quite hedonistic.  A performance where the artist/band comes together to experience the music collectively has virtually no sustain by its very nature.  Honestly, when a good crowd is in sync with the performer, a great concert is analogous to a divine religious experience.

Maybe that's the crux.  The euphoria of live music (especially for the performer) is completely addictive and utterly fleeting.  It only makes sense to incorporate other pleasures by association and extend that high.  Sex, drugs, and Rock n Roll as it were.  And for the weak willed, it's difficult to break out of that cycle.

Still, I'd argue that music in general is wholly inspirational.  For the regulars in the scene, it's something they need and can't do without.  But for the general audience that isn't at the venue every weekend looking for the fix, music is the soundtrack to their lives.

Maybe I'm just rambling too much.  I'm pretty much out of the scene myself, but I still love it.  Thank God for recorded music.  Not quite the same though.

[PII | 1,886]

6 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I've got a fully working 1958 Philco Predicta and I've been meaning to use it for a score photo during one of the NES weeklies as a gag, but I've never gotten around to it.

I looked up some images.  You should def. post some glamour shots sometime.

3 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

A performance where the artist/band comes together to experience the music collectively has virtually no sustain by its very nature.

Not sure what you meant by this.  Otherwise, I tend to agree.

[GPX | 1,370]

Great read @PII!

You're quite talented in various fields! In fact, I’m starting to realize this forum is actually filled with multi-talented geeks, rather than just plain game geeks!

I’m not quite sure on your stance on the music thing. Maybe it was the type of music that you were playing that was more associated with depressive scenes? Lately, I’ve been heavily into sports and fitness, and music has been inspiring me to find my best self-version as opposed to a lazy hack that I used to be. 

Good luck with your novel writing endeavours!

[JamesRobot | 5,807]

5 hours ago, PII said:

Not sure what you meant by this.  Otherwise, I tend to agree.

Just that the experience of live music is fleeting by nature.  It's an in-the-moment kind of thing.  

[Hammerfestus | 3,860]

Any tips for caring for people with dementia?
Yeah, as soon as you notice the person begin to loose their faculties get them away from anything emitting 5G or 4G radiation.  Get them away from any and all smart meters and everything else in contemporary society that is poisoning us all. 
 

lol wut?