PII

@NESfiend  Jeez man, you were relentless.....

COINS - 226

TIME REMAINING - 926

1-1  59 / 259

1-2  35 / 239

1-4  45 / 223

1-3  87 / 205

2 hours ago, Link said:

How thin? It looks like about an inch in your picture; is that right?

It was approx. a half inch ( 3/4 in some places ) and I'll typically be using one that's close to an inch or more which I'll sear for something closer to 2 min. on each side followed by 1 - 1 1/2 min tops in the oven and then under the cloche for 5 min.  I wanted to make certain it didn't get overdone and so took some educated guesses that did the trick.

@skinnygrinny Are you going to transform back into a worm by next Sunday?

I used chuck steak which is a cut I don't think I've ever made before.  It's not what I would call an especially tough cut, but neither does it possess the nice tender quality of a strip and is a ways off from the succulent texture of tenderloin.  Didn't do anything too crazy, just rubbed it in oil and seasoning and then adjusted the cook times I'm used to, for a thin steak.  Seared it on each side at medium heat for 30 sec. and then popped it in the oven at 425˚ for an additional 30 sec. and finally left it under a cloche for 3 minutes.  All in all it was a decent piece of steak that I picked up for a rock-bottom price.  Passion Fruit for desert.

Just so that you're aware: Donkey Kong Land 2 and Metroid 2 are both still uncompleted over at the Beat The Game Boy Thread so you might like to stop over there and let everyone know that you've beaten those two.   

5 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

We used to go gome Sundays at 9 to watch, then we just started watching it later in the week lol. This would have made an even better series if it wasn't on AMC, but it's been a good show. Glad it got it got its screentime, just wish the writing would have been better and less emotional once Angela Kang took over. I'm not saying emotions are wrong, it was just simply an abrupt change for the style of the show.

Yeah, I remember; each new episode used to be an "event" and people were watching the way people used to watch tv where you had to catch it on a particular day at a particular time, not because they had to, but because they were excited enough to want to watch it that way.

 I'm not sure offhand when it was exactly that this problem hit a critical mass, but once again, I agree; there came a point where the show got so overly emo-blah-blah-blah, blah, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah, that I'd start to wonder: What the heck am I even watching here?  Is this the biggest, baddest take on Zombie Apocalypse ever or a "very special" Blossom?!

It's good they kept the walkers "Romero Style" as long as they did.  But after the show has been around this long with as many spinoffs as it's had I'm not surprised things have gone the way of evolution.  I'm behind on the Daryl Dixon series, only saw the first couple eps, so gotta catch up....

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

What Negan did was awful, but he did it as his position as a leader in the way he saw fit for the sake of maintaining his role of power and keeping people in line.

SPOILER ALERT

This is true, but I'd argue he also did it because he enjoys brutality.  It's a pretty well established character trait.  He even specifically said that he likes killing people -with a big grin on his face.

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

the episode when he kills Abraham and Glenn, sure it's brutal, but he did as he said he would and always maintained his word

He does tend to keep his word, but not always - "Half yer shit is what I say it is!"

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Rick has done things as well to others that may not be as brutal, but just as bad and has show he can lie to get things his way.

No argument here.

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Negan after being released from his cell has proven himself time and time again to do things for the greater good. I can't list all at the moment, but he has what some would say redeemed himself and proven his worth.

He has done a great deal, but I would argue that he has simply done what he needed to survive.  He got out of his cell once and came back on his own because there was nothing out there anymore for him and the only thing he had left was to try and win the trust of his captors who had proven to him that there was a better way to run things.  Someone that evil doesn't change because they get stuck in a cell for seven years.  There would have to be a profound spiritual experience for that.  Yes, I'm impressing reality onto a fictional story, but I'm ok with that.  The Liberian former warlord "General Butt Naked" is a good real life counterpart to make an example.  He's currently a free man pretending to be a really good moral guy because it's the only option he's got left for survival: to bullshit everyone into thinking that he's a changed man at some fundamental level.  The reason I think that's the case with Negan is this: When Maggie came to his cell to kill him, he played her like a violin, boo-hoo-hoo-ing all the way and begging her to kill him so he could be with his wife.  Then after she relents and lets him live because she's been convinced of his suffering w/o his wife, Negan is shown with a sly grin on his face.  He had one card left to play to ensure his survival.  He just had to figure out what it was and then give a masterful performance. 

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Maggie continues to have the hatred for Negan throughout Dead City after the countless times Negan has stepped up for the communities. Nothing Negan can do will bring back Glenn nor Abraham, but it gets tiring having her harbor the hatred after so long on someone that has saved coutless amounts of people along the way.

They kind of addressed this at the end of the regular series where Negan tearfully apologizes and she tells him he's earned his place but then tempers it with reminding him that some days she may not be able to look at him... I agree, it does get a little tiring, but then it must take a lot after someone brutally murders your better half right before you're about to have a baby.

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Not to mention, they go on a mission to save that brat of a kid that can't stand his own mom, Maggie.

I'll admit it, I found that kids attitude annoying as well.  I guess I just rationalized that he's a teenage kid and thus hates everything including the one person who'd do anything for him...

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Negan left to be on his own, but Maggie had to use Negan to try to save her kid. It's jusy silly after a certain point.

I actually thought that was a half-way decent plot point.  The power in New York wanted Negan, knew how dangerous it would be to go after him, and also knew enough about him as well as Maggie to know that kidnapping her child and giving her instructions to deliver Negan in exchange would result in him being willing to team up with her.  Either he truly does feel bad enough to want to right the situation, or he wants to nail the widow bad enough to go for the phony rescue.  He did mention once mention that he intended to make Maggie one of his wives and stated that it was possible to win the affection of a woman right after bludgeoning her husband to death.

Which is where I personally think all this is going.  It seems to me they want to get Negan and Maggie together as a couple, it's just going to take a lot longer than Negan thought and probably be only just-so shocking to the audience by the time it happens.

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Also, I think Glenn's last name of Rhee is mentioned in what feels like every episode after a certain point after his death, like give it a rest lol

Couldn't agree more, that got old fast.

3 hours ago, Mega Tank said:

Just saying in case the comics are actually following along with the show at this point, which I doubt.

I have no idea on that one.  It is an interesting thought though, that after so long of the show using the comics as source material things become inverted and the comics begin to use the show as its own source material?  For all I know it may have already happened, but if so it'd be new to me.

Anyway, if you've read this far just know it's not my intent to totally pick apart your perspective and ram my own into your skull like a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat for the sake of contrariness or something.  I just find it fun to pick things apart in general to see if I can figure what holds water or not.   

On 3/8/2024 at 5:31 AM, Mega Tank said:

Dead City continues with Maggie and Negan's troubled relationship which is very annoying.

They seem to be bound and stuck with each other in a twisted sort of way.  Just curious, what aspect is it that you find so annoying?

Oh yeah, and Bomberman turns up in the cut scenes of DoReMi Fantasy.

1 hour ago, rdrunner said:

2 hours ago, T-Pac said:

Wait - Bombjack is in Solomon's Key!?

NES version or arcade?

[T-Pac]

Can't vouch for arcade, but yes Bombjack is in NES Solomon's Key.  He's super-hidden though.  You need to bump a specific block with your head a bunch of times to make him appear.  Catching him turns all the enemies into fairies.  Works in two rooms, I believe.

Oh, and don't forget he's also the star of the final halftime show in Tecmo Super Bowl!

I forgot about that one.  That Bombjack, he pops up in the darndest places!

Bombjack in Solomon's Key.

1 hour ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Peter Pan & the Pirates is done. A suprisingly short and easy game for a 9-pointer this late in the challenge. The biggest difficulty comes from learning the awkward jumping and flying controls and then the later pirate ships levels, where you can pretty much hardlock yourself, if you're not careful.

For jumping you have to keep pressing the A button to get this really slow and floaty jump, but it's sufficient for most of the game. If you keep pressing the A button and up on the d-pad, then you can fly, but you will slowly drain your energy. This becomes relevant later on, because on the pirate ships you have to fly at certain points to get from ship to ship. Unfortunately, once your flying energy is depleted and you can't find any refill, it's pretty game over. Your flying energy refills after dying, but the refills scattered throughout the level don't. So that's the biggest hurdle later on. The flying is also rather awkward and hard to describe. You have to play it for yourself, to understand how weird it is. My recommendation would be to just rely on your jumping as much as possible and if you want to fly, then try to jump up straight and fly up. I feel like this gives you more control over where you want to fly to and you can even go through obstacles that are above you, like a plank or something to reach a power-up or a pirate or something.

The objective during the levels is to kill all pirates within every level. The exact number is diplayed in the upper right corner. You can only advance once they're all dead. Wow. What a violent children's game. Mass murderer Peter Pan even says, that it's fun being himself with a big grin on his face. What a psychopath. Anyway, the treasures that are scattered throughout the levels basically give you health. The upper left number on the screen is your health and you can stock up on it to some ridiculous degree. At some point I had over 200 health and enemies usually take 1 or 2 health points from you. So the actual enemies are laughable. The real challenge is not dying in any of the pits which is why you have to get used to the jumping and flying controls. Once you do, the game is actually somewhat decent. Or maybe my standards are so low at this point, that even a generic platformer feels good right now.

I've always kind of liked this one, although I haven't played it all the way through.  Also, I read somewhere, or maybe it was a youtube I watched, about how the original story of Peter Pan in book form was really dark and Peter was portrayed as a distinctly villainous character luring children to their fate or something like that, while Captain Hook was more of a misunderstood good guy...

On 3/7/2024 at 9:28 PM, fox said:

I’m VGS’s original Z-bots collector.  Don’t even try to step to me.

I knew I didn't imagine seeing this show as a little kid and I knew the letter "Z" was somehow involved.  I've been casually wondering from time to time what the name of it was and going so far as to type things like "name of show similar to Voltron" and the like with no luck, but now I finally know, it's Z-bots!

5 hours ago, skinnygrinny said:

I got the prototype!

You got the story to go with that pic?

Hear that @NESfiend!  I got a first wave!!

¡In yo face wit a can-a mace!¡make you cry all ova-da place!!!

Only a few weeks an-it's time to stoke this rivalry!

55 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

This schedule is incredible. Dont sleep on anarctic adventure. Cant wait for pro am. @PII better start practicing. Im pretty solid with the remote control cars

YOU AND I HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS.

ENTER....

......R.C. PENGUIN!!

Post it here:

4 minutes ago, RH said:

Yeah, since there will be a lot of games in this lot I want to sell, I was thinking about selling the game + card and start pricing them all out at the high end value loose copy.  The wall art sounds cool.  In fact... I might pick out the choice titles and see if I can make one for myself. I didn't think about framing these as one piece the size of something like a movie poster.

That would actually be pretty cool.  If somebody had the "right" box fronts for cheap eg. a bunch of my favorite games/favorite cover art I would probably grab 'em and frame 'em up.

If you're not looking to keep them, you could always do the work to frame 'em real nice, then hang 'em in your home and sell each framed work locally at your leisure.

The only thing I can really think of off the top of my mind would be to one: be a guy who buys and sells a lot of NES games, two: have or cheaply acquire a lot of those plastic cases, and three: when a given game comes along stick it in a case with the box front/back and charge something more than the going rate for a loose copy.

The only other thing I can think of would be to find someone who wants to make a giant piece of wall art...

3 hours ago, Gloves said:

Recipe please! 

MEATLOAF WELLINGTON W/MUSHROOM & MADEIRA SAUCE

(note: The recipe is for 2 loaves.  I cut the recipe in half and used one of two puff pastry sheets that came in the box.)

[also note: If you beat up 1 egg and split it 50/50 you will have the 1.5 eggs needed for one loaf and the other half of egg can be used to brush the outer portion of the pastry before you put it in the oven.]

INGREDIENTS

3 Eggs

1/2 Cup Ketchup

2-1/2 Teaspoons Seasoned Salt

2 Teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Mustard

1/8 Teaspoon Pepper

3/4 Pound Lean Ground Beef

3/4 Pound Each Ground Veal And Pork  (note: I picked up a package of Beef/Pork Mixed.  It said 80% Lean / 20% Fat, and I used 1-1/8 lbs. to make 1 Meat Loaf.  {I'm not big on creating more demand for dead baby cow, but that's just me.  Apparently it used to be common for people to buy all three of those meats in one package specifically intended for meat loaf and then they'd mix them all together...})

1/3 Cup Chopped Onion

3/4 Cup Dry Bread Crumbs

1 Package (17-1/4 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed (Thaw time was 40 minutes at room temp for the one I picked up and it was easy to unfold and roll out.)

MADEIRA SAUCE

1/4 Cup Of Butter

5 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

2 Cups Beef Consomme

1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Rosemary, Crushed

1/4 Teaspoon Browning Sauce, Optional

Dash Of Clove Powder

1/2 Cup Madeira Wine (note: I read somewhere or other that dry Madeira is more typically used for cooking, however, I used sweet Madeira.)

2 Cups Sliced Fresh Mushrooms

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

In a bowl, beat 2 eggs, ketchup, seasoned salt, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and pepper.  Crumble meat over mixture and mix well.  Sprinkle with onion and bread crumbs; mix gently.  Shape into two loaves, about 9 in. x 3 in.  

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each pastry sheet into an 18-in. x 16-in rectangle.  Invert meat loaves and place in center of each pastry; fold short sides of pastry over loaf.  Fold long sides over loaf and pastry; seal seams.  Place, seam side down, on a rack in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan.  Beat remaining egg; brush over pastry.  Bake at 350˚ for 60-70 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160˚-170˚.

Meanwhile, for sauce, melt butter in a saucepan.  Whisk in flour until smooth.  Stir in the consomme, tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, browning sauce if desired and clove powder.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Stir in wine.

In a skillet, sauté mushrooms in oil until tender.  Serve the mushrooms and sauce over meat loaf slices.  Yield: 2 meat loaves (5-6 servings each) and about 2-1/2 cups sauce.

The vegetables I just chopped and put in a bowl with some olive oil and seasoned salt, mixed em up and then put them on a baking pan and slid it in below the meatloaf about a quarter of the way through the meatloaf's bake time.  I crushed some garlic cloves in their skins for that as well.  Mainly I wanted to have some grilled parsnips with it because that seemed like a perfect accompaniment to me but ended up doing a mix: Parsnip, Carrot, Potato, Sweet Potato, Garlic, Onion.

I made "Meatloaf Wellington w/Mushoom & Madeira Sauce"  I had this once a long time ago and the chef had a prob w/too much grease seeping into the bread dough.  I think that was probably because they neglected to use "lean" meat as prompted by the recipe.  I really like this meal a lot.  I would recommend it in particular for those who believe that they do not in fact like Meat Loaf.  I like meat loaf fine, but this one is on another level.  If anyone decides to make it themselves def don't leave out the mushrooms, they def belong there in between the meatloaf and the sauce.  One taste and you'll know what I mean.  Recipe provided upon request.

On 10/26/2019 at 12:17 PM, TrekMD said:

I'm currently reading a Star Trek Voyager novel:  Atonement.

I find these fun to read from time to time, plus it's the only way to get a new episode.  I haven't read Atonement though.  Curious to know what you think when finished..

6 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Hey, is DE worth trying? It looks intriguing to me, but I've seen a lot of negative opinions on it.

I think the brunt of negative opinions are probably from people who pop it in and have no idea what to do or even how to operate the ship in the space levels.  It's def a read the manual kind of thing in my opinion.  Personally, I thought the space levels were really cool and fun but a little too easy once I got the hang of it.  And the base (shooter) levels are pretty standard and good but the last one or two are formidable.