From last time where I left off, I did make some way into disc 1 and seem to be on track to complete this resolution.  This past month, is no different.  I went all old-school gamer boy to get my goal, my resolution, my bane of my gamer existence to be completed.  In fact, I think I went a little too gamer boy on this past month.  It was almost every waking moment that I had that wasn't tied into work and family time I was on my PS3 playing VII.

As far as progress has went, I was certain that I would be finished with the game by June.  But I wanted to saver this moment and by the end of the month I knew that I should ween myself back to take in all that need to be taken in.  So let me just start that I didn't think I would make it to disc 2 so soon.  But before I go any further, let me just start from where I left off.

So onward towards the Nibelhelm's Mako reactor in which what did most people would have expected to happen would be a Cloud freak-out.  But alas, it wasn't so.  Just a bunch of mid level monster bosses and a tad mention about Sephiroth.  But since the game must go on, we climb down on the other end of the great mountains and find ourselves a new plain of field to level up (and man was there some level upping being done, mostly because I was lost.)  Our party finally find their way to Rocket Town.

Why is it called Rocket Town you might ask?!?  Maybe it's because of the huge friggin' piece of 'failure to launch' sticking up like a sore pixelated thumb.  That's my guess.  From here you'll get your next member of our entourage, Cid.  We finally meet up with the Cid of the game, and as far as Cid's go in the Final Fantasy universe, this one is one of my favorites.  He's a formal pilot that got screwed by Shin-Ra when they scrapped the space program for more capitalistic agendas.  And now fat bastard Palmer is trying to steal his plane to chase Sephiroth in some other continent (obviously.)  So you kick his ass, try to take off in the plane but it gets shot down and is only a glorified water ski that can only go in shallow land.  Queue up the Final Fantasy fanfare music we have a new mode of transportation.

So now we go to what is needed to go to which is the Temple of the Ancients which is the other major plot point.  But just before that I realize that I am being tailed by some annoying teenage ninja (as if any other character in the Final Fantasy series isn't normally annoying.)  I beat her, she joins my team, and we are introduced to Yuffie.  And because I know what's gonna happen if I continue to go to the Temple, I decide to go to her homeplace, Wutai.  I get there, because why the hell not, let's continue with other people's storylines.  Big surprise, it bites me in the ass and the little bitch stole all my materia.  And to make it worse, she gets herself kidnapped with my materia by the Turks.  I'm almost like, kill the kid, but I want my materia.  Thankfully they're on holiday and don't want to get their hands dirty.  Let her go and my materia's a mess.  I then decided to go back to Nibelhelm to get Vincent but I made a blank at that time.

So I decide to go en route to the Temple, where I then find out the whole damn game up to this point is to obtain some powerful stuff called Black Materia.  Apparently it has the power to destroy the world by unleashing a giant meteor and causing the Ancients to heal the earth and eventually embody someone to make their second coming into the planet.  Which makes me think why would anyone want to rule the world if they're the only one in it; taking the master of their own domain thing too seriously I think.  So to keep things going, the team tries to get to get it before Sephiroth does.  But the Temple requires a sacrifice, so Cait Sith decides to let himself be it.  The team says, let the back stabbing double agent sunnuvabitch take the bullet.  And the team does the biggest mistake ever and let their schizophrenic leader take the materia.  Two seconds later, Sephiroth swoop's in and convinces Cloud to give it to him.  It makes me sick on how stupid this "Hero" is.  Oh, and along the way, Aeris leaves the party to go all Dog the Bounty Hunter and get Sephiroth.

We head north because, well, that's the only untreked placein the game.  We find the place that is called the City of the Ancients.  Man, these Ancients really get around.  This is where we finally catch up with Aeris as she is ready to return to the planet, whether she wants to or not.  Yup, THE BIG KILL SCENE where Sephiroth falls from the sky and impales our heroine as she releases her white materia into the pool.  We then lay her down to rest and end Disc One.

Disc Two starts with us making way further north to some snow resort where there has been a "Man in a Black Coat" sighting and they want to go down and get them in this snow maze.  After getting lost a couple of times, I finally able to find myself to get to the next place in the journey and fight another boss.  That leads me into a crater from the last Meteor attempt years ago.  We find a bunch of Sephiroth's oompa-loompa's making their way to the center and sacrificing themselves to give him, well, as far as I know, a god-complex boner.  No, it's to summon what they call Weapon, it's a beast that the planet created to protect it from harm, no matter what the cost is.  Of course I'm playing the American version of the game and there's three Weapons (more on that in future posts.)  The team makes it to him and then Sephiroth pulls some crazy jedi mind trick and tells Cloud that he's just a failed experiment and wasn't meant to be.  Hojo (the crazy Shin-Ra scientist guy), Scarlett, and the Turks come in and pretty much comfirms that Cloud was a failed experiment.  He finally realize that he's a threat to the team and abandons them to be Sephiroth's bitch in his hibernation status.

Oh, and the team gets captured and is prepped for execution, fan-fuckin'-tastic.  Well, Weapon comes and causes havoc where the team is being held for execution by Shin-Ra and it causes mass confusion and hysteria.  The party escapes and hijack's one of their airships.  And that's just about as far as I gotten in January.

I almost felt bad that I went this far and it's only been a month into it.  But keeping in mind that this game is a real pain in the ass to complete, it was worth getting as far as I did.  We'll see how February pans out and see what comes in next month's update.  Until next time...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Gameshow Videogames

It's been a long friggin' time since I've done anything videogame related.  It is indeed a part of my roots obviously, and it wasn't my intention to abandon it for other ventures such as music, television, and other random stuff.  Even though those things are indeed awesome, I digress.  I want to get back to the root of why I started to blog.  I wanted to present an obscure look into videogames and other subsets as well.  And what better way to do that than to bring back an old classic, the WTF's.  Now the last What The Phuck was not an official WTF PEOPLE!?!, so this is bringing it back with a vengeance.  So that's why I'm bringing to the table a view on videogames that I feel that have been lacking by most people and professional reviewers, the gameshow genre.


I know, I've done a Gameshow Month earlier this year, and well, this is not something that I forgot to include with that.  This is indeed something in relation to my choice of videogames that I play and, well, it's just damn good, so deal with it.  So without further ado, here is my rant of all things gameshows to ever graced upon home consoles.


Of course you know about my obsession with gameshows if you follow me at all (BTW, happy belated 7,500th. episode to The Price is Right) but when it enters in a home in any other way besides the television set, the end result is questionable at best.  Board games aside, you have to also look into the main heart of what gets my attention; an interactive method where I become part of the show instead of a houseparty rendering when we don't want to break out Scrabble or Monopoly (both of which gameshows that did not live a long as they should've) is the ticket.  And what better way to become interactive with a gameshow outside of being a friggin' contestant is to play it's videogame.  But there's some flaws in such, and sure as hell, I'm here to exploit them.  Not to be a complete douche (which I can be), but to make the experience better for the end user at the end.  One main culprit is the Merv Griffin duet of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.  It does bring the table the richness of it's game, weather it is questioning an answer or buying a vowel, it's no different than it's board game doppelgangers.   It just allows an error-proofing method with having a virtual host be a proxy between the player and the game's objective.  I remember the first Jeopardy! game for the NES way back in '87 or '88.  I played the begeezus out of that as a youth because I was a fan and a trivia whore.  My friends had Wheel of Fortune for the Genesis and N64 when we wanted to take a break from Mortal Kombat and Madden.  It was fun to a point.  


With these types of games the only flaw, which is a big one,  is that once you're done with all the questions they present to you, you know what to expect.  Like I said, I played the begeezus out of Jeopardy! for the NES, and played it enough that I could get close to $50,000 in a single game if I time my daily doubles correctly.  Even with the computer at Kamehameha-Hard mode, I buzzed in within seconds of the question entering it in and keying it with my controller to become the Ken Jennings of the cartridge before there was even a Ken Jennings.  Ok I lied, there's a second flaw to this debauchery.  Keying in the friggin' answers are a pain the ass at best, especially on an NES controller, and with NES's limitations.  It pissed me off to no end playing my copy of it that the game's letter layout is alphanumerically listed and not QWERTY based.  It was even more of a pain because of system limitations (even stemming up to playing Wheel of Fortune on the N64) that the letter-selector-thingy wouldn't let you go to the other side once you're on the edge of a row of letters.  Obviously these games would be great for individual use on a PC or hell, even throw up a LAN party and play the hell out of that, of course if you were a bad ass back in the days of LAN parties, you were probably playing Unreal Tournament and I can see your point not picking up that.  I just know that with word games like these, a keyboard is a helluva good way to play it.


Now I bring to the table other gameshows that have entered into the realm of videogames.  The prize shows, most famously noted by that long running gem of a show, The Price is Right.  I grew up with the show, one of my earliest memories is watching this at my baby sitters while my parents were at work (said that watching the big wheel and screaming out "ONE DOLLAR" is a childhood memory of mine, but that's just me).  And since I never gotten to play the Atari version of the game I was crushed because there was not a console release of it for me to play, otherwise I would've done it in my youth.  Luckily when I bought my Wii about 3 years ago, one of the first games I got for it was The Price Is Right.  I was in Nerdtopia with I thought was the most original console out in the market and my most cherished gameshow that I watched for all my life in all of it's home console glory.  I spun the Big Wheel, I won both Showcases, I bid one dollar and won a chance to play, I played Plinko dammit, PLINKO!!!  The only thing missing was Bob Barker kicking the living crap out of Adam Sandler in tournament fight mode, but I digress.  It does have it advantages being the age of easter-eggs and all where if you unlock something you get to see an epic classic clip of the show.  Alas, it to fell to the monotany of once you've played everything, it doesn't present new stuff, just recycle the old prizes, hell, even the prize amounts are the same so I could get $65,000+ on a single game if the cards were right (I usually average around $32,000 if I make it past the Big Wheel).  And other games like that also fell to this trap like Press Your Luck and Family Feud, pretty much anything owned by Fremantle Media in this current age of gameshows.  It's not expansive.  Which is why probably the only app I play on a social network outside of Words with Friends is the Price is Right app on Facebook.  It's online, so there's always room for expansion.  


There's just need to be a way, and I'm pretty damn sure they could but either the game developers or the game producers don't want to include it, but have it so that if people want, they could pay for updated content.  In an age where gamers are on Steam to get new mods and there's an expansion pack for an MMORPG every friggin' week, what is stopping them to add such a thing on.  Hell, I would love to pay five bucks to get online expansion content on my game console for Jeopardy! or The Price is Right until the next version of the game comes out.  I'm sure that there's a lot of game junkies that would love to have that fix.  In an age where gameshows are interactive in the fact that they have play at home contents where people could call or text for a chance to win a prize or free third party advertising crap, why the hell not incorporate it for downloadable content on my PS3 so that I can beat Ken Jennings or play the accordion with Drew Carey on set with the Price is Right models.  Why deny us unsung sect of gamers that joy.  I think it's because the producers of the show don't give a damn about anything else but the show and just think that they could get a few bucks with a cheap-ass game.  That's a whole load of bullshit, and I don't care for it all that much.  Jeopardy! and Sony have a marriage on how it looks on set, they blatantly make sure that Sony is a presence on the show.  Why not bring a game and give me content to update via the Playstation Network, how friggin' ingenious!  But that would be logical, and we live in a would where videogames about gameshows are completely for the illogical, and that's just bullshit in my book.  In short, I do recommend that you at least try and pick up the games and play them.  I just with that there were more content to offer than what was, and that there was more of a following than just me and a bunch of desperate housewifes that watch nothing but soaps and GSN all the time.  So I'm just gonna leave you with that thought while I bring up my Price is Right mobile app and see if I can make it to the Showcase.  That and this following youtube video because it's funny and it's about gameshows.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

List O' Most Awesomest Cartoon Characters (An Alphabet Adventure)

I'm not gonna deny it.  I liked doing that Alphabet Adventure post from last time.  It challenged me as well as I hoped it challenged you to think outside the box of a top 10 or top whatever, and focus on one thing that is a constant all around; the alphabet.  Well, at least in my case the English alphabet.  I liked it so much (call me a glutton for punishment) that I decided to bring it back to another List O' whatever post.  This time; the most badass cartoon characters of all time (of course this is solely my opinion, but that's what you get when browsing into my blog.)  There's no time period restrictions or genre limitations in this list, just as long as they were animated.  No CGI phonies allowed here.  I want to see moving pictures of the cartoonish kind here.  So whether you're for kids or adults, serious or comedic, action or slapstick, it'll be on this list.

Just and FYI, I went a little link crazy trying to find links to support my decision on these choices.  Realistically just found the first good link that was represented each selected character that I could find off of Google.

So let me just shut up and get this list started... 

Aang (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : The most creative protagonist in recent cartoons.  If you're not a fan of the series, after the first few episodes will get you hooked.  He carries the show from beginning to the epic, and I mean EPIC finale.
Batman (Batman, The Animated Series) : The best cartoon in the 90's showcasing the most epic detective ever...  Need I say more...
Charlie Brown : He's the everyman, no doubt about it.  The epitome of Murphy's Law and yet because of his setbacks, he is well loved for the pure determination of the one lone chance of not failing...  I love ya Chuck, but you're a smuck...
Devestator (Transformers, Generation One) : A hodgepodge of transformers forming an ultimate distructive force, I felt like I found love again
Egon (The Real Ghostbusters) : I just love the movies and found that Harold Ramis' character was the most interesting of them all.  Figured that was the first E I could come up with... (onset is sinking in fast that this might be a harder task than I thought these alphabet things.)
Fred Flintstone (The Flintstones) : An icon in his own right, Fred and company were ahead of their time spawning new ground to what is now common place for cartoons; prime time television.  He was a mixture of cartoon slapstick and 60's era sitcom satire.  The Simpsons and Family Guy aren't that pioneering of cartoons now that you think about it.
Gohan (Dragonball Z) : He is actually the epicenter of the entire series.  He has the most power growth of them all and ideally, the series revolves around him, not Goku.  Take a good long look at it all and it'll make sense.  I'm sure of it.
He-Man (He-Man and The Masters of The Universe) : A protagonist that didn't need a story to be awesome.  In fact, I don't think it had a story, just a standard plot format for each episode.  Probably a good thing because if it did had an ongoing plot, that would've probably killed it.  Thankfully, we got the Dolph Lundgren movie to blame for that.
Iroh (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : Until recently I did not know that he was voiced by Mako before he passed away, which that in itself is awesome.  Plus the character is the wise sage of the series helping Zuko and giving consul for the heroes of the series.
Joker (Batman, The Animated Series) : Mark Hamill is insane, and this is just the perfect role for him.  The hell with Star Wars, this was his calling.
Kenny McCormick (South Park) : The early seasons were awesome, even though I heard the later ones are awesome too, I just haven't seen them.  Pretty much when they permakilled Kenny for like a season and then decided to not kill him after bringing him back, my interest faded from the series.  Plus the movie was sick too...
Lex Luthor (Superman: The Animated Series) : This guy was the epitome of what a diabolical genius is supposed to be.  Wealthy, smart, had a political grasp over Metropolis' day to day running of business and archetype as well as practically everyone there, this guy was seemingly untouchable.  Unless you're the son of Krypton.
Megatron (Transformers, Generation One) :Another prime badguy, so cocky yet he could back it up most of the time.  Plus I got to give him credit for putting up with such a whiny little snake that is Starscream.
Nelson Muntz (The Simpsons) : Trust me, I tried to think of someone for N but I couldn't, and I felt like the list was going 'ha ha' to me, so Nelson was the obvious choice.
Optimus Prime (Transformers, Generation One) : His voice alone presents leadership and respect from his comrades.  And until this day, I still tear up a little bit seeing him die in the Transformers movie (which brings me to the following statement; Michael Bay, you can suck it!)
Patty Mayonnaise (Doug) : We all had jones'd on someone hard as Doug Funnie did for her in our youth at that age at one point or another.  This is for that person that we all wanted but couldn't find the balls to approach them.
Q (You really think it's easy to try to find anyone with the letter Q, none the less remotely awesome?!?  I dare ya to try.)
Ra's al Ghul (Batman, The Animated Series) : Who wouldn't be a little freaked out buy a guy who is practically immortal.  He organized world wide crime syndicates and when he's near death, he just takes a dip in the Lazarus Pit and BAM, back in action to cause more hell.
Spawn (Todd McFarlane's Spawn) : Speaking of hell, he's all like been there, done that, got the t-shirt.  A former Marine turned special ops merc (I supposed, it's complicated even if you'd read the comics.) gets killed, goes to hell, exchanges his soul for another chance to be with his wife, and has came back as a hellspawn to complete a demon's needs.  And for a twist, he defies the demon and goes rouge.  The only bad thing is that the series ended before it's time (a shame if you knew what happens in issue 100, one of my favorite comic book issues ever.  But that's another list.)
Tick (The Tick) : It was so random, so bizarre, and yet, so brilliant.  This guy had a few to many screws loose and that he somehow manages to get the bad guy at the end of every episode (with the obvious collateral damage caused in chasing the poor bastard) makes me want to go back and see the blue oaf over and over again.
Unicron (The Transformers: The Movie) : A transformer that transforms into its own planet and is voiced by one of the most notable voices of all time Orson Welles.  Can't get much more epic than that.  Once again I like to add on that Michael Bay can suck it, just for good measure.
Venom (Spiderman) : Probably the best rendition of the villain to the comic book source.  They really tried to make it as close as the person inside filled with the rage to get even with Peter Parker as possible, even though it rarely followed the story arc.  Character-wise, Venom gets my vote.
Wolverine (X-men) : He is hands down the best mutant out there.  Period.  It would be an injustice to talk about Wolverine without missing out a thing or two.
X (Hey, just be glad that this time I was only unable to find things for Q and X in this list.  Be greatful why don't cha.)
Yakko Warner(Animaniacs) : Just one part of the trifecta of loony (the others obviously Wakko and Dot) Yakko makes it in that of all the others, he was easiest to find a letter for.  But seriously, him and his siblings started the degeneration of cartoons and pushing the censors to the limits.  And for that I salute you.  Plus I still can't get the song about the countries of the world out of my head.  United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama...
Zuko (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : The story of a tortured soul who is trying to find his destiny.  In the end he finds his place in life helping whom he thought was the enemy and striking back those whom lead him to his dark path of destruction.  Perfect way to end the list.

I hope once again that you appreciated this unique trip to cartoon awkwardness...


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

I'm an O.G.

I like to consider myself as an O.G., an Old-school Gamer. I like the feel of the game play. Minimal buttons, simple control, and that subtle nostalgic feeling that I get reliving my childhood over and over again. Such a great feeling versus the same old polished pieces of crap that seems to be put out in the industry. And by that I mean for you to just think real hard and find a game within the past 18 months (hell, the past 36 months even) an original title that was good. I bet you that it will be less than 10 or so out of the 100's that are being cranked out for the herd that buys them out of the pure aspect of the title that it's trying to carry.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the new stuff, some of it at least. I give credit where credit's due. Little Big Planet and Wii Sports for example are great original titles (well, original title and technical demo on how to use a controller) and the fundamentals of it are phenomenal. But when I see a rehash of Metal of Honor or yet another Madden title, the ball falls short in my book. They seem so uninspired, so safe, closed to the cuff, and they know that it will play to those who don't want to stray from their precious safety bubble. I at least try to get out of that and look for stuff off the beaten path.

But I guess early video games have traveled the then unclaimed frontier and yet my bias towards that is where my allegiance will lie. Of course after the video game crash of 1983 what bold new outlook came into the picture? An 8-bit sprite of a plumber that ate mushrooms and stomped on killer turtle looking creatures to defeat a fire-breathing, badly drawn dragon to save a princess and her kingdom of toadstools; and it was good. And that brought forth a gauntlet of other games to peoples homes to play and kick butt in. And it brought forth competition from other manufacturers to overtake it's throne and the rest is history, video game history, and I'm proud to have had a part in it as well as being a product of it.

That resurgence of such brought back life to the culture that is what it is today. But we have lost track of such. Now it seems that creativity has taken a backseat to greed and demand for more of the same old lame old. Very little forward motion is happening and I fear that video games are not in the foreseeable future but will decline to a crashing halt.

We need to get back to our roots. Just the other day I went and bought out my old NES to play Wizard and Warriors for a couple of reasons. One was nostalgia and the fact that it was not available for download on the Wii Channel. Two was because I needed something other than the majority of the crap that is out in the market today. Three, well it didn't occur to me but after the fact it was the motivation of making this post trying to find my video game identity again. I was really in it, working on the game for about an hour and a half, on the last stage, and then my kids were playing in the living room as well and bumped into my console (probably a good time to mention that my NES was a top loader model) and glitched my game. Those types of games did not have save spots because it relied on a simple concept of replayability. It brought you back again and again even if you've beaten it to try and do it again. Of course I was mad that my work was lost and I had to start over again, but the fact of the matter is that I would happily start over again because of that factor. Games nowadays don't have that. They're practically disposable and you sell them or trade them in for other pieces of crap.

The fact of the matter is that we need games. Good games. Original games that us O.G.'s can pick up and cherish for a long time. Until next time, I'm gonna play me some Ocarina of Time that I just downloaded on my Wii.

(How funny, I just caught the irony of an old-school gamer playing Ocarina of time.)

BootLeG sampler.. siging out...

List o' Greatest Videogame Cheats, Glitches, and other Cheap-Ass Tricks

Yeah, it's been quite a while since I'd did a top whatever list, so here's my contribution to something that I felt has been once again, overlooked.  More or less we have all played a videogame that at one point or another, there's that brick wall that we just can't get passed without a little help.  Some games seem that they're just made not to be beaten while others are so unbalanced with it's level of difficulty that winning in it is not just a far off dream, but a hellish nightmare to even attempt at trying.  This is why developers gave us various tools on our side to show those games who's boss; I'm talking about cheats.  Ya gotta love 'em.  They're there to take some of the slack off to make a game easier to play and beat, but then again there are some that are just there to completely obliterate any opposition that comes upon you.  Here is my homage to the best videogame cheats, glitches, and other cheap-ass tricks.  And always remember, this is completely opinionated so if I forgot something at the time or completely ignored, burn me on the comments, it's just all that I had in mind at the time.

 

Just a small disclaimer: this list is in no particular order, it's just the first few things that I could come up with off of the top of my head.  It's not a top list, it's just a list of tops.

 

• The Contra Code ::  It's the epitome of all codes.  This code is so infamous that practically all Konami title either has it or mock it in some form or another.  It's so popular that it's just known to as "The Code" and is forever engraved as a part of our videogame culture.  Hell, it's so popular that even Facebook adapted the code for a neat little easter egg if you try it.  Here's how to pull it off... up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter (that's if you haven't already tried it out.)
• The Game Genie ::  Now this mo-fo was the king of all cheap tricks.  It made the unbeatable game beatable.  It gave birth to such features such as infinite lives, invincibiltiy, unlimited anything, and all the other stuff that makes a hard-as-hell game seems like you're playing a baby's toy.  So I solute you Game Genie, the Rosetta Stone of hacks and codes.  Without you, I would've smashed my Genesis with a sledgehammer 10 times over as a kid.
• The Koopa Shell in Super Mario Bros. World 3-1 :: We all know that one.  A quick way to get 99 lives and hopefully not lose them all cause you would've sucked at later levels.  This has to be one of the first cheap-ass moves I've ever experienced as a gamer.  Especially once you reached 100 lives, you die, game over, and all those 1-ups were just a waste of time.  This game still all so many years later gives me nostalgic angst in the fact on how cheap some things are in this epic title.  Of course if you really want to be cheap...
• The Running 1-UP on any Mario 2D platformer :: that's as cheap as you can get.  A ba-jillion points and a 1-UP at the end of it all... that's eff'd up.  Not to mention in Super Mario World that in some cases you could get a 2-UP... A FRIGGIN' 2-UP!!!  NOW THAT'S TRULY EFF'D UP!!!
• God Mode (any single-player FPS) ::  I remember my first time using this code.  It was DOOM.  Just tearing through imps and demons and well, hell itself.  Knowing that I could just kill any hellspawn with only a chainsaw or my fist...  Bruce Campbell would be so proud (single tear rolls down cheek.)
• Big Head Mode (any game) ::  Quite possibly the worst thing to put on unless you're happen to be playing NBA JAM, big head mode is useless.  So I'm categorizing this as a cheep-ass trick.  Especially in the aspect of multi-player FPS's (Goldeneye comes to mind).  Enable this, and you might as well just shoot yourself and get the misery over with.  Such a huge target, so many weapons to frag it with...
• The Blood Kode from Mortal Kombat :: The arcade cabinet trumps the console versions for one reason only, blood.  Instead you had white sprites to simulate blood and that was pretty lame.  Until you enter the Blood Kode.  Let the epicness begin!!!  Unless you're playing the SNES port then you're screwed...  XD
  
• The Warp Whistles form Super Mario Brothers 3 ::First introduced in the movie The Wizard months before the release of the game, it's the most effective way to move throughout the game.  Especially if you're smart and get the two whistles in World 1 to get to World 8.  Then at that point if you didn't get any power-ups along the way or you just plain suck at 2D platformers, you're screwed.
  
• Unlocking Super Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 :: The best way to play that game.  Let's do the math here; you do the code, play as normal, and as soon as you collect 50 rings, jump and transform into Super Sonic.  Quite frankly, the simplest and most effective way to play any platformer in my opinion.

And that's all of the classic codes that I could think of just off of the top of my head that could be worthy of this list.  That's not to say that the others were all crap, it's just that these I have a great fondness to and I would like to think that as a gamer, you guys do too.  These games were epic even without it, it just that when in use with the codes, it was a while different experience.  Whether it helped you or pissed you off because someone was being cheap with it, these are the ones that will outlast the test of time for any cheat for any videogame.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Transmissions in Analog

Let's take a pause for the moment right now and I want to take you back in time. How far you ask?!? We'll see and find out how dated you really are or not.

Now, I like to consider myself a connoisseur of old school and new school with everything; from television, to fads, to methods of day-to-day living, to just about most things. But this is a topic that I'm sure you're all know is a fancy of mine if you have read other posts here on my blog. And especially from the title of this post you should be aware of what that topic is about... MUSIC. Such a great topic and my personal favorite thing to talk about being a musician and all (duh). Lately I've been thinking of how technology nowadays although gives us a vast medium of music delivery devices and production of music, it also kind of in my opinion alienates the true art and passion of what it was. Digital anything is friggin' awesome don't get me wrong, but my allegiance belongs to good old analog.

This has to go to what I grew up with. Let me take you back to the mid-80's where the only thing that was digital was the watch you were wearing on your arm. My family were just now getting into cassettes as a new medium of listening to music but we mainly had old records of Wild Cherry, Cameo, Four Tops, you named it, we had it on vinyl. It was then that we jumped into cassettes and a new genre of music was emerging; rap. It was times where if you wanted to get recognized that you passed out mixed tapes and took it on the streets (see, viral campaigning was cool way back in the day even ). And then we (friends, family, and I) made mix tapes of what we heard on the radio and started dubbing our own stuff pretty much what I believe music should still be like, shareware. And if I continue with that concept this is going to end up being a rant on DRM and for yours sake I'll stop right there. But that right there was the last great renaissance for analog as far as recorded media. Sure nowadays they're some bands that want to put out vinyl exclusives to some of their albums (Pearl Jam's self titled album having to be my favorite of the bunch), but that's just about as tongue and cheek as someone from the ghetto wearing a Michael Jordon throwback jersey, very cheesy and almost forcing a lackluster approach mocking the great media.

But that's not to say that analog only existed in the delivery of music, that's the tip of the iceberg. I'm a big fan of the acoustic sound, the original analog transmission of music. Before drum beat machines, before synthesizers, before electric guitars, there were music that was *gasp* unplugged. In fact if I could I would be playing an acoustic bass right now out on Mill and Fifth in Tempe right about now finding someone else that plays guitar and jam into the night. It's just the sound and feel of playing to a close group of people without the aid of an amplifier; it seems that it gives the art a more intimate feel when you're playing and the audience appreciates it more. I know I do from both sides of the coin. Besides, that can incorporate other instruments into that intimate feel, such as violins, flutes, steel drums, and xylophones (yes, I think of these combinations to make it sound good to me, but what do I know as a starving artist). Let the orchestra run wild as it all jams into the night air with sweet, unadulterated sounds. That's what I say...


So that's my short ode to analog. I hope that this short (compared to all my other ramblings) synopsis of the great transmission doesn't die off or fizzle, but to live on in a way that is most appreciated by all musical enthusiasts. Rock on...

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I miss old school gaming

If you're a gamer like me, old school gaming is our baseline on how epic we can judge any game that is current or next gen. We crave for old school schananigans to come back and resurge into a new renaissance (well, at least I do.) We love the feel of a good classic NES controller and all of a sudden, memories of playing Super Mario Bros., Castlevania, Double Dragon, or Contra surface and we enter nostalgic bliss. I can honestly say that dusting off my old copy of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and popping it in my NES is a helluva lot better than downloading Punch-Out featuring Mr. Dream on the Wii's Virtual Console and playing it on a Wii-mote. It's just that I need that natural feeling of an NES controller, a Genesis controller, even an Atari Joystick with it's one button action. ONE BUTTON, INFINITE POSSIBILITIES...

There lots of things that the old school have that the new school doesn't. Although I love the innovation of what possibilities our consoles can produce, I miss the imagination of what the games of old had to offer. And in regard to keeping it old school, there's plenty of variety out there paying homage (sort of speak) to old school titles and systems as well. If you're a gamer like I am, you're probably already know about such internet phenomenons as The Angry Video Game Nerd, Game Heroes, and others out there that speak of exclusively on old school gaming at its finest (or worst in some cases, AVGN and Irate Gamer for example.) But it's kind of like a breath of fresh air to see the old school titles once again.

It's even a sad state of affair when such platforms such as the Sony Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, and even the Nintendo 64 are considered old school. I understand that it's been at least a decade since these systems were available new in the market, but these systems in particular broke ground in making a bridge from then old school to current ventures. The Sony Playstation for mastering first the delivery of a videogame via an optical disc in a graphical sense. Sure other systems tried, but Sony was the one that perfected it first. The Sega Dreamcast mastery of controls on its games and introducing triggers on controllers were phenomenal. Also having an on-board modem that made the system online capable out the box was pioneering to how current generation systems evolved; having broadband readiness available such as wi-fi and ethernet capabilities for a LAN connection. And the Nintendo 64 being the last great cartridge based console. Bringing such unforgettable titles such as Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and Goldeneye. Classics that have been the baselines for titles in their respected genres; dungeon crawling RPGs, platform games, and first person shooters. Nintendo was the baseline for what gaming should be for the consumer.

So I employ you not to forget old school gaming. Not to forget your gaming roots and pay homage to such. Go to your local used game store, breathe in the stale air of nerd and nostalgia, and even if you don't pick up an old game, at least look at it as a trip through time. A modern day historical museum of videogaming. I know I will.

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