RH

What are you talking about, you spoony bard!

Ah, I have one because it’s a brag on the community After the whole, low stock debacle that was the NES Classic, the NA community decided to organize and create a list of people that decided to help each other out in getting SNES Classics. The idea was, we kept a first come, first serve list. If you were on the list, and found two SNES Classics, you’d pick up both, and sell one at cost to the person at the top of the list, and we worked our way down. Although the SNES Classic was way more accessible than the NES, I ended up getting my SNES about a month or so before I spotted one. We worked as a team and were fair. In the end, I think about 50 of us helped each other get a cool system at a fair (cough, as in non-scalped) price! Thanks participants! You all were awesome.

That is very true. You have no idea how many times I've wanted to give up my smartphone. (I'm willing to keep a feature phone.) The only reason I keep it is that I've had many jobs where I've not been on call, but on rare occasions, I have had to be available for important calls or emails. Ugh, I hate this aspect of working in IT. If a server breaks or an application is down, you've got to fix it ASAP, especially if it involves processes that run at night. I can get rid of a smartphone for any other reason. Even a GPS, which is a HUGE benefit can still be replaced with a dedicated device. I'm fine with that, or just going old school and printing out directions from MapQuest.

Actually, same here. They had a couple of game items out at the Salvation Army down the street. Some how, they had put something out on the shelf and another part was missing, so they let me rummage the stock in the back. OMG, there it was. An in-box Saturn and about 8 games. A few were sports titles, but the others were $20-40 games. I also picked up 3 wavebirds, and a GameCube. I think the whole lot was less than $50. By far, that was my best score. The next was picking up Azure Dreams for $3. It was a sad copy though. Everything about it was perfect, as if the original owner opened it and never played it. The game, manual and case were in perfect shape... but for one problem. Someone left it out in the sun a long time. I searched long and hard to see if there was a way to reverse sun fading, and there just isn't. I think I still got about $40 for it, though, which is over 10x what I paid.

*laughs in Canadian* "Aye, aye, aye, aye, aaaaaaayeeee!"

I don't think that's fair to women. Yes, they process life, the world and their emotions differently, I wouldn't call them "twisted or warped". Women experience a lot more emotions, often at once, in a way that's rather atypical to most of us males. This isn't a problem--it's a mystery.

I'll try to edit with pictures later. Currently, I think what's setting on my top isn't my most expensive title, or even one in the top 10. I've been looking for Game Boy game cartridge variants for a while. One of the harder ones to find is the Rated-E version of the Super Mario Land titles, which were released in 1996--quite a few years after their initial release. These cartridges don't come up. I know, because I look at every SML post on eBay and I've almost never seen them. Anyway, to my luck someone posted Super Mario Land 2... CIB in fantastic shape! Both the cartridge and the box checked out. The internal pieces also matched the era. A Greatest Hits Super Mario Land 2 isn't worth that much, but considering is extreme rarity as a cartridge, I'm really glad to be owning a CIB copy. I'll likely have it sent to WATA and have them photograph the contents, in time. It should get a fairly high grade and for now, its the... Gem of RH's Collection. PHOTO GALLERY (Incoming in a future edit.)

All humor aside, I'd like to interject and say that solving blame in these cases is a bit of a pointless exercise. Do you love your wife? Does she love you? I have no clue how long you've been married, but if you keep a stance of me vs, you, you can quickly get into deep problems. Part of the point of marriage is getting to know another person. TV and books have done a strong disservice to the our western culture with this idea that one person can "complete" another person, or two people can be soul-mates that are in perfect harmony with each other. That's horse hockey. What makes a long term marriage amazing is commitment. Good grief, my wife and I have had some knock down, drag out arguments. Tears have been shed and there have been nights where either I, or her, have slept on the couch. But, what makes marriage amazing is that even in those toughest times, you're committed to loving one another, working out the differences, learning how to forgive and how to resolve issues when, in fact, you can't agree. This might sound counter-intuitive but it grows both of you into better people. Both in relationship with each other and dealing with the world. Ultimately, this is a small argument. Your wife might have hurt feelings, and you should not blow those off. That said, you can use it as an opportunity to start with an apology and then ask, "how can we avoid this miscommunication in the future." This isn't putting the blame, or work, on her but it is letting her know she's heard and you'd like to improve the communication. Often times, little tiffs like this have little to do with the issue at hand. They are just a tip off. Maybe she had a bad day at work, or she's not feeling well. Seeing that "this request was missed" sent her over the edge--this happens a lot. The best advice I can give is to ask her to share her feelings. Don't blame/accuse her of having a bad day, just encourage her to open up about her feelings. She may start out yelling at you, but in the end, if she's had a bad day, she may end up in tears and more in love with you before the "offense". I'm not saying that will happen every time. It won't. But if you can learn to read that "this might not be the actual problem" at the appropriate time, it will communicate a LOT of love to her, if you can help her figure out her own self-issues. Godspeed my friend. Marriage is hard, but it's worth it. By the time you've spent 10 years getting to know and understand another person, it's amazing how connected you can be with them.

You're correct-- it was GEMS. When I saw the link, I recalled that was it. I only saw that one article/video on it, and it feels like it was a while ago. EDIT Woohoo! Meta-edit. I made it to the 500-post club. Now it's a long trek past 1,000 to see what's past "Toad" status.

This guy gets it. I'd love to get my wife a string of pearls and I would if she wasn't so adamant that she's wanted me to stop buying her jewelry for ages.

Ok, thanks.

You guys keep saying you watched it. Did you binge it? How many episodes/hours long is it?

I think futurists have given up predicting this ages ago, but for many decades, when people looked to the future, they always considered that we'd invent new things to make our lives easier, and then use that "free time" to live lives of leisure. But, we don't. As a business worker, I really wish I had the chance to experience at least a few years of business life where there were no cell phones, and even email. It use to be, if you wanted to speak to someone "quickly", you had to call their home and hope they were there. They probably were because people didn't dine out as much as we do to day (even in the 80s and 90s) but, still, you didn't have multiple ways of communicating with them, all of which being accessible in their pocket. But, that doesn't mean the present (or our future) sucks. It's just... noisy. When I am most frustrated I want to go back to a "simpler" time. Many people point out that those former days weren't always "simpler" (the 40s had WW II, the 50s had Segregation, the 60s had Vietnam, and on and on...) but they were simpler in the fact that life wasn't filled with so many distractions. I miss that. Yes, I love video games and they are grand distraction, but they can be cut on and off. I miss the days when it was easy to sit still and appreciate the bordem of casual life.

In our household, I'm the "big spender" and my wife is the minimalist. My wife has told me countless times "please, please don't buy me expensive jewelry." She thinks it's pretty and at some point, if I did, she'd be appreciative but a little disappointed. That said, reading a wife's intentions is something you're only going to have to learn with time. I've been married for 14 years and I'm way better at it that I use to be, but I still miss "obvious" clues. This is the main problem--women are people and we all voice throughout the days and weeks stuff we like, don't like, point out that something is worn out or needs to be replaced. There seems to be a nuanced way women word and phrase these discussions and you have to learn to discern her way of saying either "this jewelry is junk and I'm just getting it out of my life" vs. "this jewelry is junk but replacing it would make a great birthday/Christmas gift." And, to be clear, just because they voice their opinion doesn't mean that something is missing or needs to be replaced doesn't mean that want that as a gift. Seriously. There have been many a men who've had disappointing Christmas mornings because 20 times throughout the year their wives said "these pots are junk!" and they bough their wives kitchenware. Some women love that as a gift. I've known a few women over they years who were offended by it. You figure this stuff out by learning the subtle details about the way your wife communicates. This isn't a problem, but it's part of the fun of learning to know your wife for a lifetime.

Thanks guys, there's some good stuff in here. Let's change this up a bit. A while ago, I read an article, or watched a video, (maybe someone posted it to NA, but I can't remember) about why the Genesis has such a specific "poor" sound. I disagree with the "poor sound" classification, but whatever. The gist of the article was that the sound chip of the Genesis was actually a really good one and quite capable at the time to produce some really nice audio tracks. However, supposedly there was either little documentation on the chip, or it was difficult to code for, so SEGA released an additional devtool which was basically an audio track maker. Within it there was a large list of pre-defined instrument wave forms and, though the Genesis could do a whole lot more, most developers stuck with the pre-defined instrument settings and that's where the "classic" Genesis sound comes from. So, with that said, which of these tracks (or others) actually threw out the devtool freebie, and pushed the audio hardware?

Might as well. Here's a shorter list of my favorite Disney cartoons/semi-cartoon movies. Loosely in order. Robin Hood Sword and the Stone Peter Pan The Great Mouse Detective The Rescuers Pete's Dragon Bed Knobs & Broomsticks Mary Poppins The Jungle Book Fox and the Hound Alice in Wonderland 101 Dalmatians And I liked most of the others from that earlier era, but I would have gravitated toward this list as a kid. Around the mid-1980s, there was a shift in how these films were produced, so I could add the Lion King and Aladdin to the list, as well as The Rescuers Down Under, but they just don't feel like they belong in that list. My Mom was the person who bought those Disney VHS tapes as soon as they were on the shelves, so I grew up on this stuff. I never saw The Black Cauldron. It actually came to VHS either before, or right when we got our first VHS player. I seem to recall that many people didn't buy it, so when the VHS tapes took a "collectible" turn, many people didn't have it. We also didn't have Sleeping Beauty but my Mom managed to find a bootleg copy at a Flea Market some time in the late-80s. True to myself, I was excited to finally get one we didn't own and as soon as I got in our car and looked at it, I could see all of the tell-tale details pointing out that it was fake. I was the first to notice and I was probably 8 years old. It's funny how nothing changes. I remember the box art, at a glance, looking decent but at close inspection the images of the printing were a bit blurry... just like boot leg art today on video games.

I had only one friend that had a Saturn and, subsequently, it was the only one I ever saw that wasn't on a store shelf.] But the DC. Everyone had a DC in college.

A gentleman of fine taste, I see. There's also The Great Mouse Detective.

Nice. I started collecting in mid-2016. Honestly, I'm not sure why I did. I was a born collector but when I went to college I sold all of that stuff and when I was married, we didn't have a lot of space, so I kept my game collection pretty limited. But, in 2016, something changed. I decided to "full set" something and without much thought, I landed on the Game Boy. My general reasons was that I LOVED it as a kid. It was also an older console (as in, it started in the 80s) and I felt that the Game Boy is by far the most important handheld from a historical perspective. I also owned a Game Gear as a kid and considered collecting for it (and I am now) but the Game Boy just felt right. Anyway, I'm almost to the end with only 14 games remaining to complete the set! I stick with mostly "great" condition carts, and when I'm done, I'm going to work my way up, replacing the lesser conditioned items, as well as looking for all US variants. Most are in good shape, though, so I'm happy.

Welcome.

I think this is what the kids would call "weird flex, but Ok". Am I using that right?

Oh man, you really are starting at the beginning! You have a lot of work cut out for you, but that's a really good start. It could certainly be a lot of pages to build up to NES Assembler code BUT that's good teaching material, especially for younger kids. If younger kids can consume it, then anyone can. I like it.

I didn't see it but I'll check it out now.

I just got the time to watch the trailer. All of you haters have to admit... This is the current generations "Super Mario Bros.: The Movie".