Monday Update: 4/28/14

I turned 19 this week, for what that's worth.

MechAssault (XBOX): First Appearance

Remember this game? I do. I only had a chance to play it on one of the old "EXHIBITION" demo discs for the XBOX back in 2003. I had only been able to play about two missions from the game, but I never could beat either of them and never knew exactly what was going on. I enjoyed the hell out of it, more than anything else on any of those discs. (For the record, I had two of them, the March 2003 and July 2003 discs.) (Actually, I'm having a bit of a nostalgia trip looking at the list of what was on those. MX Superfly had this short 2:00 minute run mode, and I'd just try to do a double backflip for the whole time. All-Star Baseball 2004 had a home-run derby between modern players and legends. I would just accelerate on MotoGP 2 and crash into things.)

Anyway, MechAssault was one of the first games on XBOX Live (which I desperately desired despite the fact that I was only eight years old and my dad wouldn't let me have an account), and I never owned it until 2011. I played through about half of it then, until I had to stop myself from playing video games due to slipping grades. That XBOX died, then the next XBOX died, then we got to April 2014 and I've started playing MechAssault again. MechAssault is strange, being a part of the MechWarrior franchise, but being developed for the XBOX controller on a series that was already well known for mouse-keyboard controls. I imagine that this was an issue for some of the series' fans, but I didn't go online and look that sort of thing up at that time. But hey, it works on the controller, and it's actually genuinely enjoyable. I'd love to play the multiplayer sometime, though.

Pro Wrestling (NES): First Appearance

I don't really know why, just felt like it.

Ten-Yard Fight (NES): First Appearance

Dear god, this is the SLOWEST FOOTBALL GAME EVER. Why is it enjoyable, though? I can't put my finger on it, but I actually had a very good time with it.

Maniac Mansion (NES): Second Appearance, Last Appearance on 4/14/2014

I need a guide or something. Typically I'm not this dumb, but I'm so used to games that only use one protagonist, and the way that you switch characters throughout the game is really refreshing but still difficult to get used to.

NBA Live 2003 (GCN): First Appearance (I think)

TWO FUN GAMES OF NBA LIVE 2003

FIRST: Michael Jordan versus the Memphis Grizzlies. "Michael Jordan" is a game I invented at camp 2013, originally in NBA Courtside 2002 for the Gamecube. You pick Michael Jordan, and score every point with him. Nobody else puts up a shot. Nobody. Even if he fouls out. If he fouls out, you freeze after half court and wait for the game to end. Here's how it went:

SECOND: Shorts versus Talls 2003. The shortest players (Celtics) versus the tallest players (Hawks). It worked as you may expect. The shorts only had one really good player in Damon Stoudamire. The talls had two in Dikembe Mutombo and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. I might do a deeper look at this particular game in a little bit, actually.

Others That Don't Warrant Mention®

NBA 2K14 (X360): Sixth Appearance, Sixth Straight Appearance: Played nearly one game, but got bored. 2K's reign may end this week

RollerCoaster Tycoon (PC): Second Appearance, Last Appearance on 4/14/2014: It takes some time to get going sometimes, especially on Dynamite Dunes, so I didn't play too much.

Golf Quest

Gamefaqs

This post will be a bit of an odyssey, so hold on, buckle your seatbelts, place lap-bars in their locked position, keep hands inside the ride, don't sprinkle your dead relative's ashes everywhere etc.

On the morning of Saturday, March 28th, I entered Gamenut. It's a really nice store in downtown Lawrence where they sell used and new games ranging from the earliest age of games to modern consoles. They have a commitment to quality that they uphold very well, and they have one of the best selections of games in the state of Kansas (which has a surprisingly solid number of game stores, actually. Gamenut and Gameguy in Lawrence, Gamecycle in Gardner, Pittsburg, Iola, and Olathe, Vintage Stock throughout most of the larger cities).

Atop the main shelf sit a number of stacks. Stacks of older cartridge-based games complete in box. N64, Sega Genesis, SNES, NES, and all of that. The cartridges themselves are in the glass cases by the register.

This paragraph might seem like a digression, but it leads into the rest of the story, please don't worry. I don't typically buy CIB games unless I really, really like them, or I am particularly interested in the box. In that weird second category stand the original NES "Black Box" games, documented in this video by Pat the NES Punk

They come in all uniform black boxes with art from the game instead of any sort of drawn representation. I like the aesthetic of these, and I try to buy them whenever I see them for a decent price. Gamenut, on Saturday, March 29th, 2014, had Golf in-box (no manual, unfortunately, but hey). Fifteen dollars. Of course, I make the transaction. 

They keep all of their boxed games (that includes disc-based and cartridge-based) in the back for understandable reasons. So the guy working there goes back and looks for a cartridge. He can't find one in the usual place. He looks in another place. It's not their either. He looks in the racks of unboxed carts. It's not there either. He goes upstairs. No luck there, either. There is no Golf in this store. Along with being one of the first, Golf is one of the most common NES games, so I'm actually sort of surprised that any store could feasibly run out of Golf because not many people go looking for a Golf cartridge and a lot of people had them back in the '80s, but that's not important in this case. Point is, Gamenut on that day, Saturday, March 29th, 2014 is a Golf-free zone.

He then offers me a way out of this. "Buy the box here for 14.99, then go to the store on Iowa street, and show them your copy of the receipt and they'll give you the cartridge, they have a few."

So, me being me, I buy an empty box for $14.99 and go on my way. Upon reaching the other location, I am presented with one of the most bizarre transactions of my life. I walk to the counter, with my empty box, and say "Hi, this is weird, but I was just at the Mass. Street location and they said you guys have some copies of Golf for the NES." The employees there knew what I was talking about, thankfully, and gave me the cartridge that they had.

Anyway, the point of this shaggy-dog-esque story here is that on Saturday, March 29th, 2014, Joe Bush spent $14.99 on an empty box.

This story will eventually become my award winning Twine game.

THIS MAY AS WELL BE THE MONDAY UPDATE 2/17/14

Two weeks (actually maybe three weeks) in a row posting this shit up on a Monday is TOO MANY and I don't know what to do other than just change my whole schedule up. It'll be out on either Sunday or Monday. I'm really tired by the way, and to make up for it, I didn't play very much this week at all.

Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa (PSV): First Appearance

I should have preordered this game because I ended up barely having a copy of it. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much enjoyment out of it as I thought I would. It's well written, but I don't love the premise of it too much. This is really my bad, I should have done more research and I would have found out that the style of humor is much darker than what I'm typically into. I won't really say that I don't like Danganronpa, but it's not for me.

Kung-Fu (NES): First Appearance

NOW THIS HERE IS MY SHIT

YOU'RE A DUDE AND YOU GOTTA KICK ALL THESE LITTLE DUDES WHO COME UP TO YOU AND GRAB YOU AND YOU CAN DO A JUMP KICK AND KICK THEM IN THE FACE AND THERE'S THIS ONE DUDE WHO THROWS KNIVES AT YOU AND YOU GOTTA JUMP OVER THEM AND KICK HIM IN THE FACE THEN IF YOU KILL THE ONE GUY AT THE END OF THE LEVEL YOU GO UP TO THE NEXT NE IT'S LIKE GAME OF DEATH IT'S SO COOL.

RBI Baseball (NES): First Appearance

This game defined my first month of freshman year in college somehow. I originally played it on one of those browser-emulator sites like nintendo8.com and I think I wasn't supposed to on the campus internet because they monitor that stuff but oh well. I had a 4 hour break between my first and second classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I would come back to my dorm, play RBI, and read EDSBS.com for most of those days in September. Eventually I bought a physical copy and the story ends with me, yesterday, playing RBI Baseball on my NES in my bedroom.

I was the Mets against the Twins. I ended up with a one run lead in the bottom of the ninth with them batting. I don't know how exactly it happened but they got out of the inning with one run and we went to a tenth. Nobody scored in the tenth. I think I scored one in the eleventh. Dwight Gooden went out and was replaced by someone else whose name isn't important, but the point is I think it was Gaetti who hit a Walk Off three-run home run and ended the game.

But shit, this game is great. I don't even like baseball that much for some reason but I'm actually sort of excited for this upcoming baseball season and I might go to some games actually this year which is a terrifying idea for me because I haven't been to a baseball game since 2008. I honestly owe any resurgence of baseball interest in me to RBI, actually.

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I had built up so much steam and it all went to waste this week. It was a busy week. Next week will be different because I'm going to be on RTM and also I don't have a thousand papers and stuff due this week.