4Ks

It's okay. I looked up a guide on how to apply concealing makeup last week and I haven't sprouted a vagina yet.

I have my own personal set of red flags for video reviews. - Elaborate title sequences. You are not on network television, you don't need a big flashy logo. - Long, rambling intros. If you take more than one minute to get to the point, I will take my viewing elsewhere. This is, after all, a review, not a vlog. - Generic chiptune music playing in the background. You don't get geek points for constantly reminding me how totally retro-cool you are. Especially not if you're reviewing a modern game. - Schizophrenic editing. Often done as a cover for inept acting, and it's annoying as hell to watch. - Constant screaming, excessive vulgarity, and needless hyperbole. I blame the AVGN and his ilk for convincing the world that acting like an obnoxious, hyperactive child is the essence of humor. At least for him it was an act, many of his imitators give me the impression that they actually are that juvenile and feeble-minded IRL. - Weak commentary/unwillingness to actually talk about the game. Many reviewers are just doing it for the attention; they don't actually give a rat's ass about the games. You can always spot these types because they spend all their time spouting off lame gags and hypercritiquing insignificant aspects of the game instead of presenting an informed opinion on it. - Like this video and subscribe to my channel! I specifically don't subscribe to channels that resort to this kind of begging because I don't want to validate their attention whoring.

Back in 2008/09, my brother showed me pictures of some really old video games. We both laughed at the enormous pixels and simplistic spritework, but something in the back of my mind was sparked, and once he had grown bored of giggling at the crusty graphics I began to do some research. GameFAQs was my go-to gaming encyclopedia at the time, so my first instinct was to search "Atari 2600" and see what came up. Lo and behold, my first hit was the game my brother had just showed me: E.T. I knew even at this point how terrible that game was, but I still couldn't help being fascinated by the image galleries the site had of it. All I had been exposed to up to that point was PS1/2, and the idea that video games had been a thing as far back as 1982 damn near blew my mind. I wanted to learn more. I began hitting up every info site I could think of to find out everything I could about Atari. Wikipedia and GameFAQs supplied most of my kicks, and I also found a couple of new sites such as videogamecritic.net and Atari2600.com. I felt like an archaeologist uncovering a lost city, it was all so new and amazing to my 12 year old mind. After months of fact finding and poring over screenshots, I decided I wanted to experience it firsthand. Actually getting my hands on a 2600 proved frustratingly difficult. Ebay was clogged with broken machines and as-is listings that couldn't be trusted. I wound up buying three broken consoles before my Dad just said "screw this" and bought me a beautifully refurbished unit from a game shop in Chicago. That was when my Atarimania kicked in for real. I spent years playing basically nothing but Atari. Ms. Pac-Man and Pole Position became my personal favorites, and I actively participated in the 2600 HSC (though admittedly I had to use emulation pretty often for that). I had my own little collection going, with about 30 CIB and a dozen more loose carts. It wasn't terribly impressive, but I had to operate on a biweekly allowance so there was only so much I could afford. My library later expanded to include an Atari 8-bit PC and an Intellivision, but the 2600 always had the place of honor. It really stung when the console broke down on me. That was about three years ago, and unfortunately I've since pitched the broken carcass and sold all my games. 14 year old me didn't care much for keepsakes. I'll probably try to get it all back one day, when I have the money.

Jr. is the only "unofficial" Pac-Man I hold in esteem. It feels like a pretty natural evolution of the series formula. Ms. added alternate mazes and moving fruit, Jr. added scrolling mazes and fruit that blows up the dots. It's like Pac-Man designed by a Texan whose whole design philosophy was "make it BIGGER!" and I like it. Though I will admit, those king sized mazes can get a bit overwhelming.

it's clearly a game about choking out football players It's backin89's vision of ruling the world Would you knock it off with the backin89 jokes already? That dead horse has been beaten so many times it's just not funny anymore.

Inspired by some comments about Space Channel 5 in the Recent XBLA Releases thread. For me, it's Just Dance. I played this game at a library once, and besides that fact that I'm supposed to mimic the onscreen dancers EXACT movemements (which is embarassing enough), there was some other guy standing at the end of the room watching me play. After he said "Put some feeling into it!", I put down the remote and quit. I was just one "Shake it, bro!" short of blushing.

Well, since my parents bought me a 360 as a Christmas present this year, and I really want a good version of Doom, this stinks! Guess I'll just have to find a PC version that will run on my machine...

After two seasons of play, here's where all of our high-scorers stand: 1. zylon 624 2. roadrunner 460 3. Sonic R 300 4. 4Ks 151 5. Austin 78 6. JibbaJabba 72 7. Cebus Capucinis 62 8. feldhaus97 56 9. bigbee99 50 10. CRV 30 11. patbb 22 12. darthkur 20 13. JacobZu7zu7 20 14. JayWI 14 15. davepesc 12 16. thegoldenband 12 Congrats to zylon for being the most pwning-est player in the HSC!

Bump

I'm not going to be doing to third season here. Between the low participation, difficulty in finding quality games, and the fact that I'm frequently too busy to update regularly anymore, I just don't think continueing this is a good idea for me. However, anyone who wants to pick this HSC up themselves is perfectly welcome to do so. In fact, I'd really like that. Any takers?

Season 2 Results: zylon 422 roadrunner 368 Sonic R 128 4Ks 90 feldhaus97 56 bigbee99 50 JibbaJabba 42 CRV 30 CebusCapucinis 54 patbb 22 JacobZu7zu7 20 thegoldenband 12 Thank you for playing!

Star Fox: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 320776846234 Swordquest Waterworld: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 320776963429 Fantastic Voyage: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 320776958186 Alien: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 320776959078

Here's Serpentine and Turmoil.

Played River Raid (bridge 50) and Beamrider.

Just updated the first post to be more clear on how progress is determined. I hope there won't be any confusion.

Woah, I just realized that I haven't been playing here in a week! I'd better get cracking! I'll start with River Raid (bridge 1), for now.

It's got about as many games as Intellivision (maybe a bit less), though much fewer of them are expensive. AFAIK, Meteorites and Bounty Bob Strikes Back are the only truely rare and expensive games.

The time: Space Century 3240. The place: The Algol Star System. It began when King Lassic turned evil and let hordes of hideous, magical creatures run amok on the three planets. When her brother was killed, Alis vowed to avenge his death and put an end to Lassic forever. Join her in a journey across time and space to worlds where creatures speak... where magic and science combine to take you on the ultimate video quest. PHANTASY STAR IS TOTAL ADVENTURE ROLE PLAYING with towns full of people and shops... 16 level dungeons full of traps and treasure... three companions who will help you if you find them and some of the most awesome graphics ever put in a video game. Deadline for progression is October 13, 2011. - This is something of a special round, as evidenced by the fact that we're playing a game with no score. This time, the objective is simply to start a new game and get as far into the main quest as you can in two weeks. Progress is determined by the number of dungeons completed. There are no gameplay restrictions here, just a time limit. You can either give regular status updates, or post your total progress at the end of the two weeks. Advice is very much appreciated, so try to share your strategies. Now, start up your SMS (or GBA, or Wii, or PS3, or whatever) and start grinding! - Hints and Tips: None yet. Current HSC Points: zylon 422 roadrunner 368 Sonic R 128 4Ks 90 feldhaus97 56 bigbee99 50 JibbaJabba 42 CRV 30 CebusCapucinis 54 patbb 22 JacobZu7zu7 20 thegoldenband 12

You could try 5200. Or Game.com, if you're feeling masochistic.

I got 39,750 points on Lode Runner earlier today, but didn't manage to get a screenshot. Apparently, once you enter your score onto the leaderboard, you can't see it again unless you manage to get another high score.

Sounds fine to me.

Link, please? I love reading about things like this.

PSP 3000 and GBA SP ver. 2 both have really nice screens. They're as bright and sharp as a TV. As far as non-lit screens go, Neo Geo Pocket Color deserves mention for being so easy to see.