darkchylde28

Than some of their, stuff, yeah, but I'd argue that Krikzz still has the market cornered so far as other systems are concerned, like the NES/Famicom, SMS, and Game Gear. They might not be the end-all-be-all across the board anymore (or at least, for the moment), but I'd say they're far from irrelevant even with other options on the table. So far as I'm aware, nobody else has offered consistent upgrades to what their existing hardware is capable of the way Krikzz has versus just bugfixes, as well as hardware support well after the purchase date (and regardless of whether the hardware was purchased directly from him or not).

I'll agree with there not really being any true absolute unknowns in the list, I still say there are a lot of "art house" type picks that a critic would make over Average Joe. Like picking The Last Jedi over The Force Awakens (or Rise of Skywalker, even). There were a bunch of movies on there that just didn't appeal to me at all, regardless of however well they were made (like The Irishman, for example), but that were definitely popular across the board. There were also ones that, while they generated a lot of critical praise or talk, I would be hard pressed to name a single person I know (as a friend, coworker, acquaintance, "Internet friend," etc.) who actually watched them or, in the rare case that one or more did, had anything to say about them that was close to what critics were putting out. While my particular viewpoint on the world (not necessarily my opinion, but those I observe overall in the people "around" me) might be small, it generally aligns with what I see being expressed by the public more broadly (via Facebook, Reddit, online forums, podcasts, YouTube videos & comments, TV talk shows, etc.). To each their own, though.

It's an article published in 2019 called "100 Best Movies of the Decade," indicating the past decade (which would be 2010 to 2019 at time of publishing), so there's exactly zero wrong with it. A decade is 10 years, so unless you're specifically talking about a specific span (70s being 1970 to 1979, 80s being 1980 to 1989, 2010's being 2010 to 2019, etc.) it can be any range of dates, so long as it's 10 years total. Your definition is arbitrary at best, wrong at worst (if you meant into 2021, which would be an 11 year run versus ending at/before 2021, which would still be 10). Yeah, I felt the same on that one. I have a feeling that the people who picked these were true paid critics, through and through, meaning they're generally attracted more to whatever seems different for difference's sake to most folks versus what is actually popular with everyone. Hence why the scores for critics and us plebs differ so often on Rotten Tomatoes and such.

I've seen about 41-42 of these (was counting in my head while scrolling, so I might be 1-2 off), was aware of probably 50 or so of the others and only interested in seeing maybe 3-4 of those. Some of the stuff I definitely don't agree with, but I'm not a paid critic, either, so my vote doesn't count.

We played a lot of Duck Hunt as well (specifically clay pigeons, after a while), but after the initial fascination wore off, we found it to be better for running up an obscene score (or seeing who could run up the most obscene score) but lacking compared to the gameplay (and reaction time required) of Hogan's Alley.

I take what I can get. If I don't have something and a boxed, CIB, etc. copy isn't much more than game only, I'll gladly pick up that version, although it's not a requirement. For disc based games, I most often go for at least game + case, but in the instance of rare/expensive games, again, I'll take what I can get. While I like having a collection of games, they get picked up in the first place to be played, so cases, manuals (in most cases), etc. aren't really an impedance to that if they're not present and are just icing on the cake.

Wasn't aware of this, as I haven't ever spent that much time with them. Apparently the title screen is really the only difference, as Tengen ported Namco's Famicom version over to the NES for US release, then Namco re-released their own version afterward, as well as their own version of Ms. Pac-Man, while Tengen programmed their own Ms. Pac-Man. So Namco Pac-Man was a repeat and would qualify, but the Ms. Pac-Man versions would both stay since they differ substantially more than just the title screen.

Hey, the Spanish Inquisition was representative of "Christian morality" of a certain era, so you can't say he's just making it up as he goes, right?

I would disagree there, unless you're talking about the licensed versus unlicensed versions of Tengen titles (another variation I'd forgotten about in the moment). The Tengen and Namco ones are different enough to be worthy inclusions, even if they're the same game. As I said before, if you're going to eliminate something just because the cart plays the same named game, even if the gameplay/graphics/etc. are different, you're also helping make the case that there's really only room for one game of each sport since the others are then somewhat vestigial after that point. Why do you need more than half a dozen football games if they all play "football?"

Different enough to make it a separate entry, even though the concept is the same. If you disqualified one or the other just because they're both playing "Tetris," you'd have a good argument to remove all but one of each sports game. Regarding other unnecessary games, I'd say the SMB/DH/WCTM combo cart or the individual games there and the Nintendo World Cup / Super Spike V'Ball combo cart or the individual games. Good call, I didn't even think about the reissues. That would cover the yellow label Metroid as well as the gray releases of Zelda 1 & 2 and the red label reissue of Blades of Steel. If you want to get really technical, a lot of the other label variants which weren't billed as reissues, like the additional art for Untouchables, Wayne Gretzky Hockey (3 different carts), and slightly different versions of SMB3 and Punch Out!! (not MTPO).

I picked up Zombie Nation and Panic Restaurant for $2 each out of the bulk bins at my local flea market in my mid to late teens, back when NES stuff had gotten down to 5 for $10 or $3 each. Picked up a CIB Action 52 around the same time for either $10 or $15 (can never remember, but the price tag is still on the box) at a local used game/movie/CD store that's since gone out of business. Beyond that, nothing that's amazingly expensive, although a lot of the uncommon games I added during those years have definitely shot up in price since.

I, too, went for SMB, but my non-Mario vote would have gone to Hogan's Alley. There were a lot of good games in the bunch, but Hogan's Alley always brought my friends and I back time and again while other titles would get forgotten about and/or discarded for months and months at a time.

Finally got around to making time to get the photo from my phone onto a computer so I could gt it posted properly. Thanks to my Secret Santa for some Sega Genesis goodness! I'd tag them, but I'm not sure who they are. Never owned (or played, believe it or not) 3 of the 4 and happy to have a spare of the last one!

Our mall was built back in the early to mid 70s and thrived through the 80s and 90s, and even the early 00's, when I worked there for a few years. The beginning of the downfall for ours was really mall management (the mall's owners, really) being totally unreasonable about little things that they technically didn't have a say in (the pizza place I worked at wanted to put in a TV, the mall wanted half as much as our rent to place a dish on the roof, so we attached it to the top of our rooftop AC unit...then the mall manager himself went up there, tore it down, then held it hostage in his office until our chain's lawyers contacted him) and then keeping rent high and spiking it further as more and more stores found it easier to pay for construction of new space elsewhere versus staying in a mall that had been long since paid for decades before. The real final nails in the coffin were when Belk, the first of three anchors, decided to close up shop and move to the new shopping plaza being built without much notice (something like 2-3 months from "Hey, we're leaving" to cobwebs in the windows), then both JC Penny and Sears started succumbing to their own financial woes, ultimately leaving the place with no anchors. It had already been around half empty at that point anyway, but Belk leaving plus the other two anchors' longer term statements about closing their doors made most everyone else move out in a hurry. Just before they closed permanently, I think the last tenants were the bridal/tux rental shop, the local Bath & Body Works, KSS (a local/regional school supply retailer), and a local indoor playground/inflatable bounce place. The only one left when they officially closed the doors was KSS. At present, a CBD oil production facility moved into the area where JC Penny used to be and the city and a developer are trying to turn the rest of the facility and surrounding property into a "big time" casino and resort (now bragging that they've talked the Hard Rock Cafe folks into managing the proposed facility--too bad casinos/gambling is illegal in the state!). This was after the place was auctioned off twice, the first time for something like $35M, which the bidder ended up defaulting on, then something like $2-3M, which thus far has stuck. Sad days.

Might be taking some time out from this for a while. I got to spend a good portion of the morning and early afternoon getting back into this (had last saved it just after "completing" Zeffo the first time and being told to head to Kashyyk), but fear that I'm stuck well and good at the moment. I played through the first run of Kashyyk, went back to Zeffo, then finished that to go back to Kashyyk, climbed to the tippy top of the Origin Tree and and am now seemingly permanently stuck at the ridiculously unfair and OP Ninth Sister fight. Every time it seems like I make some progress in the fight, all of a sudden I'm beaten to death (while blocking) in just a couple of hits, and non-unblockable/red ones at that. About the 10th time through I just powered off the PS4 after getting annihilated, before the "Respawn" message could come up. Would like to continue through the game, but not having any fun at all at what I'm seeing as more and more ridiculously OP boss fights, most of which seem to be based primarily off of luck moreso than skill.

Finished Children of Dune sometime last week and am somewhere between 2/3 & 3/4 done with God Emperor of Dune. Still enjoying the books thus far, but am really starting to wonder how much more real content there can be beyond this point as well as what Brian Herbert has been filling all of his followup books with beyond window dressing for people who just couldn't stand for that world to no longer push forward.

Nope, although a friend's parents did. They had a bunker's worth of stuff "prepped" and ended up having trouble using or getting rid of it all after the fact. My parents stayed up to watch the ball drop then went to bed while my brother and I stayed up a few hours more to watch any incoming reports of the pending robot uprising. Sadly, we only saw reports of a few, seemingly random, slot machines, ATMs, gas pumps, etc. glitching, but beyond that everything proceeding as normal. Oh well, maybe next year, SkyNet.

The wife and I planned to hang out downstairs playing Minecraft with a friend while watching the ball drop. What ended up happening, instead, was the kids staying up until after 11 playing and screaming at one another and our friend passing out in his recliner while waiting for his wife to go to bed so he could play (while she helpfully put his phone away, on the charger, so he couldn't hear any of our texts or calls coming in). We didn't get to do what we wanted, but we still spent time together, so while it was still a decent night.

I've been offline since after work on 12/20 and just getting back on today, but will update when I get a chance, hopefully later this evening!

I picked it up about two weeks ago and got in a relative few hours since? So far I've mostly enjoyed it but am a bit annoyed with its habit of making you take a lot of not obvious paths that can be a real PITA but super simple once you get beyond that point and pick up a new Force power. Can't really complain, though, as I got it for like $20 out of a Redbox kiosk (since they're getting out of gaming), so good investment on a relatively brand new game at the very least.

Secret Santa stuff that I haven't yet posted about (been offline since leaving work 12/20 and just getting back in the saddle during a slow period at work), Witcher 3 Complete for PS4 from the wife and kids, money from the in-laws and a, "Dammit, will you just pick something so I know what to go buy you?" from my brother (who was trying to last minute shop for/with me and couldn't find anything I particularly wanted). All in all a good year, although I think most of that is due to getting to stay home all day with my kids and having my family (my brother, at this point) come over and spend the day and evening with us.

Honestly, nothing insane for me. While it's pricey, I'd just like to come across a copy of Stadium Events to complete out my collection without it costing the equivalent of putting one of my kids through college.

I remember getting all of these as they were released and showed up in the Scholastic Book Club flyers we'd get.I couldn't give you any specific dates, but by the time they re-released the original 4 books (the first 4 became available in a boxed 4 pack, which I got despite having the books already--just wanted the cool slip cover, really), the reprints came without cards inside. I ended up taking my original print run copies and putting them in the bundle slip cover and either packing up or giving away the spares. I haven't found all of them yet, as only a couple of boxes of my childhood books showed up in the storage unit housing stuff from my parents' house when my brother and I cleaned it out, but I'll give a look and see what all I've got on hand to confirm and keep an eye on this to update as we clean and clear up more of the house to find the rest of my books.

Honestly, I can't recall what Zelda tasted like for the life of me but generally remember the Mario side being kind of sweet and fruity smelling (maybe something akin to Smurfs cereal from the really early 80s), so I went with that. I recall that I really liked them both, but couldn't tell you for the life of me at this point which I ate first or enjoyed more, most likely because I only managed to find it and get a box 2-3 times at most. Given that a lot of the formula stuff for this is simply archived by the manufacturer, I'm surprised that they've never come out with it again, even if the presentation was different (and not tied to Nintendo). Hell, General Mills popped out Fruit Brute for the first time since like the 60s or 70s a few years ago, so it seems hard to imagine that whoever did the Nintendo Cereal System couldn't cough up a taste-a-like lickety split.

Here's a good article for the doubters. Yeah, a lot of the variety show type stuff is faked, but the actual technique/process itself is a real, documented thing. Just like all things, it doesn't necessarily work on everybody. Now before folks get their panties in a bunch, don't be so quick to jump on that one, as you wouldn't claim that opiates or novocaine aren't real drugs, and yet due to whatever quirk of genetics, neither really works as intended for various members of my family. For other immediate family members they've never worked, for me they worked once or twice, but not beyond that. https://www.healthline.com/health/is-hypnosis-real