12 Days of Christmas Day 2 - Console Games

When I was growing up, the best Christmas present a kid could ask for (and reasonably expect to get) was a video game system. I was about six or seven when I got my first, an Atari 2600.

I don't know for sure that the console was a Christmas gift, though I'm almost certain that my first game was Missile Command.

 

I didn't understand the Cold War reference at the time, but I've since become very interested in all the nuclear-era events from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Chernobyl disaster. 

A short time later, Nintendo consoles made their way into the homes of my friends and neighbors. Sure enough, my mom got one for me at Toys R' Us (or possibly Child World)  and it was under my tree Christmas morning of 1988. Looking back, it seemed like everyone had a Nintendo and yet I have this faint memory of my mom going to several different stores for games or the NES itself because they were such hot sellers that stores couldn't keep them in stock this time of year.

I remember having so much fun playing The Legend of Zelda one Christmas that I really didn't want to leave to visit my Grandma. Some of my other favorite games included Dragon Warrior, Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 (I didn't love the original) and Tetris.

It's pretty cool that gamers are still playing Tetris competitively.  

One of the few sports games I played on the NES was Tecmo Bowl. Everyone knows that Bo Jackson was virtually unstoppable in that game. However, it always bothered me that the first Tecmo Bowl didn't include every NFL team.

Once the Super Nintendo hit stores my mother bought one for me as a Christmas gift. Of all the game systems I've had in my life I think I enjoyed SNES the most. I had (and still have) a box full of SNES games, but my favorites include Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Tecmo Super Bowl III.

This was the first sports game I played long enough to accumulate a season's worth of stats. It was a lot of fun seeing the standings, stat leaders, and injury reports though every game week. My go-to team was of course the Packers, and it was a blast watching Brett Favre throw 80-yard touchdown passes to Sterling Sharpe. The running game was a struggle though, and I almost always lost to my neighbor Darin and his damn Dallas Cowboys. 

By the end of the 1990s I had stopped keeping up with current video games. I never asked for a Nintendo 64 and didn't have any interest in a Game Boy (my nephews had one and I couldn't stand the black & white screen.) The last console my mom ever bought me was a Playstation. When PS2 was released, the price far exceeded my interest in it - though I briefly considered buying a used console simply so that I could play 24.

The next console I owned was a GameCube, which my girlfriend bought for me (I think it was a birthday present though.) We had some fun playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour and SSX Tricky but I never finished the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker because I couldn't figure out the stupid seagull flight. 

Anyway.. a couple years after my wife and I got married she gifted me a Nintendo Wii. I had a handful of games (including a new Sim City) but I struggled to navigate the wireless controls for pretty much anything other than Wii sports. The only game I truly enjoyed was one that didn't require me to hold the control:

As soon as I saw the track list for this game I ran right out and grabbed it off the shelf at Target. Before my daughter was born I used to come home from work every night, head right for the game room (which became her bedroom less than a year later) and play Guitar Hero until dinner time. I wouldn't even change out of my work clothes, I'd just discard my tie and rock out. For some reason I was a lot more comfortable using the "lefty flip."

The main reason I bought this game was for the awesome international acts, including one of my favorites - a Swedish band called Kent. 

This game also featured a killer track from an Italian band called Negramaro, which I highly recommend even if you're not fluent in Italian (I'm not). It's also where I heard a song that sort of sounded like Smashing Pumpkins - and the band name looked like Smashing Pumpkins from across the room - but it was actually my introduction to Silversun Pickups. 

[Side note: my best friend came over one time and he had never played Guitar Hero before, but he was an actual bassist in an actual touring band. He schooled my ass!]


Last year, my wife brought this whole thing full-circle with a Christmas gift I had wanted since its release:

Unfortunately the TV in my room is an analog (well, it was before it finally died) and so I still haven't been able to play this. I'm hoping to get a new TV this Christmas so I can play video games again.


Have you ever received a video game console as a Christmas gift? Do you have any favorite video games from old systems like Atarti, NES, SNES, or PlayStation? 


Thanks for reading!


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Post-Christmas Post (and contest results)

This is going to be a long post because I had the day off today, so if you'd like to skip ahead to the contest winner portion of the post, I won't judge you...


I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. Overall I'd say mine went well, but it has been an up-and-down week. Having Fridays off means I had a five-day weekend (and another one coming) but that also means I did not get my Christmas bonus before Christmas..and I did not get any notice that the office would be closed (or not) today. 

This morning I showed up to the office at 9am as per usual. The doors were locked. That's happened before, at the old office. I knocked a couple times. Peeked inside and saw that no lights were on. Two cars were parked in the parking lot, but they didn't look familiar. I stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street. Waited until 9:30. No one arrived, so I went home. 

Last year on 12/26, a similar thing happened. The door was open that day, and some lights were on. Only one attorney was working (he left the firm when we moved) and said that most of the staff had scheduled to take the day off so the others were allowed to stay home, too. He apologized for not telling me, and it was the easiest working day ever. 

That's probably what the remaining attorneys decided to do last Friday, when I wasn't in. As for the Christmas bonus..one of our former attorneys was the one to hand them out (around Dec. 10) so I doubt there's one waiting for me. It's one of the reasons why I didn't go to the baseball card show when I was in Connecticut.

It was not a card-less Christmas though. My wife grabbed two packs for me while shopping for the girls, and I got a blaster from the same sister-in-law who got me some godawful junk wax last year. 

That's more like it. I had just finished cataloging my football cards on Christmas Eve, and when the Mrs. handed me a pack of baseball and a pack of hockey I was a little relieved that I could still consider myself 'done'. Not that it would take long to catalog these:

The Davon Godchaux auto appears to be a blue parallel. And unlike Des Lawrence, "Davon G." is currently on an NFL roster - though Des has a nicer signature. 

My girls aren't interested in sports (yet?) but they're young enough to giggle when I tell them I got a Butt in my box. 

The base cards are colorful, and I couldn't have asked for a better selection of players. Rodgers, Favre, Gore, Watt, Tomlinson, and Manning are all players I collect. 

Most of you who received cards on Christmas scanned or snapped a pic of your haul before you opened the packs. I considered that, but decided it wasn't enough of a 'haul'.

Here's the pack of 2018-19 Upper Deck hockey:

Yikes. No Young Guns, no Devils, and only one star player. At least I got my first pack-pulled Golden Knights card.

Thankfully, D also picked a fat pack of 2018 Topps Update baseball. Much better value here - four times more cards than UD, for less than two times the price:

My first cards of Bote and Muncy, and possibly the last card of Colon. "Big Sexy" might be on a card in 2019. Heck, he might be on a big league roster in 2019.

Plenty of star power in this pack including Acuna, Baez, Lindor, and 2500th Career K. 

Inserts, etc. There were four Athletics in the pack, including this Chapman. No Red Sox though. 

It's always nice to get cards for Christmas, but the best gift I got this year was being able to spend some time with my mom on Christmas weekend. Or seeing the joy in my girls as they ripped open dozens of LOL surprise dolls.

Or maybe it was this:

I told D this was the only thing I wanted for Christmas last year. They were very tough to find so I sorta gave up on getting one. Luckily these were not as scarce this season :)

Even though I had an unexpected day off today I didn't play this. Instead I watched my girls play with their new toys, did some shopping on COMC, and listened to the ALT 92.3 countdown.

I wasn't able to catch the entire countdown of the Top 92 Alternative Rock songs of All-time, and there doesn't seem to be a complete list posted anywhere, so I wrote down the top 25 in real time. Hope you can read my handwriting...
 

I momentarily mixed up Green Day tracks.

Some thoughts before I reveal the winner of my Guess The Second Best contest...

• This was definitely decided by listeners; the DJs (and the suits) would have picked a different Green Day track. Same for Beasties, Blink, Offspring, and Muse - though I'm psyched that any Muse track cracked the top 20. Also I'm happy that the Offspring entry was not "Come Out And Play" or "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)".
• Who are these people voting for Chumbawumba? Is that even an alternative song? I never would have considered "Tubthumping" in a million years. By that rationale I'm surprised Smash Mouth's "All-Star" wasn't ranked this high.
• There is one song in the top 25 that I have never heard before. I'm ashamed to admit it, so I won't tell you what it is.
• Evanescence is underrated. I'm not saying "Bring Me To Life" should be higher, but whenever I hear it I lament what a damn good band they are/were.
• Two Fall Out Boy songs in the top 20. Yusss!
• For a moment I thought Fuji was going to win this, since he picked "Wonderwall"...

Alas, I was wrong. Even the DJ said he was surprised Nirvana was not #1. Congrats to Night Owl, who correctly guessed "Under The Bridge" would be the closest to #2. 

Here's third-party proof that my account is correct (in case you're in disbelief it's not "..Teen Spirit") Greg, send me an e-mail with your preferences for a mix CD or cards. 


Thanks to everyone who entered. It was fun to 'talk' music with you guys. 




 

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