Retro fridays and sega handheld games toys from mcdonalds

These came out in the early 00's to capitalize on sonic adventure 2 on ps2/gamecube and the sonic tv show on kids wb or at least that's how I remember it. Ok onto the games themselves, they were toys that were given out with a happy meal sometime in 2002/2003 at mcdonalds. They didn't cost extra and although it seems like a good deal at the time. The games were pretty simple, a lot of them were move to the left and right gameplay that you see in a lot of cheap poorly made hand held 'game systems" you see at swap meets

But I still wanted all of them and I would always get the sonic one and I owned the super monkey ball one and the tails one. Yes they still work and I also had the soccer one. I'm not sure why these give me a lot of strong memories

Retro fridays and baby got back

"I like big butts and I can not lie" words made famous about this song about butts among with "oh my god becky look at her butt" and that's all this song is about. It has no shame and is pretty blunt about butts, even the music video is all about (no duh) butts with it taking place on a gigantic butt. I remember it was all over the radio throughout the 90's and on tv ads for the cd. It quickly became a hit and "viral" in the 90's and had strong staying power

I mostly remember it for the commercial coming on frequently during blind date and the jenny jones show. Even though it was a 1 hit wonder by sir mix a lot. It is still used in movies and tv shows as a testament to it's catchyness. Anyways here is the link to the video

Samantha runnion's death has stayed with me throughout all these years

I'm not sure why because I didn't know her or her family but it made me extremely sad and still does that someone can do something like that to a little girl. Anyways some background on what happened and just a fair warning that there is no happy ending in this story. Samantha was born in 1996 and when she was 5 years old about a few days from her 6th  birthday, she was kidnapped by a man named alejandro avila who then sexually assaulted her and murdered her then left her in a forest. Yes he was caught soon after and is on death row. The whole idea makes me want to cry that this little girl's life had to end so soon. My grandpa dying didn't have me so sad compared to samantha. While time has moved on and other's may have forgotten, I certainly can not forget what happened to samantha. I have a sister that is the same age as her when she was kidnapped so I am extra cautious in public

I haven't abandoned this blog

I just have been so busy with my work and cleaning up around my house and generally doing everything since my parents and sister were on vacation. For example last week I worked 36 hours in a week and this week I am up to 28 hours. That doesn't seem like much but it is tiring when you close then open then close as it gets tiring and takes away a lot of your time. Anyways I will get back to working on retro fridays and saturdays monday and tuesday as I will have those days off

I haven't forgotten this blog and I don't plan to stop soon

Do you ever look back at your life exactly one year ago

Because that's what I did yesterday, also to make things easier, I have been writing in a journal every day since sept 2015 of what I did/bought/went to/things that occured. So one year ago on march 18 ir was also a saturday and I went to a yard sale event(it was post ponned this year) after which I went to 7 11 for bring your own cup for slurpie day so I got 2 cups. I also got 4 hot dogs(2 were 50 cents and 2 were $1). Then I was being sad because fate seemed to be laughing at me and at the yard sales I got some car magazines from 1991 and 1992. At home I was job hunting and fate decided to help me out a bit

I applied at a job on CL and a few hours later I got a call for an interview(this would turn out to be the job I would have before my current burlington one). Ironically, my family was in mexico and a year later they are also in mexico(yes they came back and went again). The more things change the more they stay the same

I'm going to take a break from retro friday and saturday this week

Mostly because I have been working so much (36 + hours over 5 days) this week so I don't have much time or energy recently to type up the posts for this week. No I'm not ending my flashback friday(I started it in 2012) or slowdown saturday(also started it in 2012) posts and I still have a lot of material to cover. I just need a break

Retro saturdays and nfl blitz

When released, nfl blitz was quite a ground breaking game. Despite the fact it was pretty much nba jam for football, it was a breath of fresh air to arcade and football games. If you have never played nba jam or nfl blitz, there are a lot less rules so by that basic formula it equals more fun. Everyone on the  field looks like roided up cartoonish versions of nfl players, it is 7 on 7 compared to 11 on 11. It takes 30 yards to get a 1st down instead of 10, pass interference is non existent among with roughing the passer, you can easily hurdle for yards and 50 yard bullet passes are common. Nfl blitz is a more extreme version of football so it was a hit

I only played it at the arcades and rented it a few times at hollywood video but I never owned it. The game is still fun to play once in awhile even though midway released a new version every year and the formula got stale

Retro saturdays and nba jam

Nba jam revolutionized sports upon it's release at the arcades. The popular basketball games were simulations that dragged on. Nba jam changed everything, it was 2 on 2 with a huge emphasis on scoring. You could dunk way above the backboard, fouls were toned down, the action was intense. It made for addicting gameplay especially when you played with friends. It was a big hit and quickly found home ports(even on the gameboy). What I most remember is mj and charles barkley not being in the game then there was all the half sequels like tournament edition and extreme and a college themed one called college slam

There isn't much else to say about nba jam other that it influenced nfl blitz and nba showtime but it still holds up held and the digitized graphics look good

Retro fridays and gamepro magazine

Gamepro magazine was the video game magazine in the 90's among with EGM and it gives a lot of 90's teens/kids warm fuzzy nostalgia. Some of the earlier 90's issues were huge(page wise) but towards the middle and 1998 part of the decade it trimmed down but lost not of the good writing. I would frequently check the magazine stand at stater bros and lucky's to check out the newest issue of gamepro. In 1997 and 1998 is when I really started collecting them. I had a lot of issues that I would take with me to the laundro mat while my mom did laundry. I would read the moves list for mk4(the best way to know to do a move was read gamepro) and marvel super heroes vs street fighter and that made me the game player I am today

Gamepro magazine is well known for their picture icon ratings they give games, every game was rated in 5 areas on a scale of 0.5 to 5.0 with different icons indicting the rating. Another thing they are known for is the protip, it is what it sounds like(a pro tip) with a screen shot and yes some tips are better then others. What I almost left out is that every writer or editor has a "stage name" and hand drawn art for the stage name. We don't know the real names of the writers or what they look like, for example there's major mike, miss spell, scary larry and dan elektro

Sadly all good things come to an end and so did gamepro magazine but not without leaving a lasting legacy

Retro fridays and the lost world:jurassic park

It may seem hard to tell but the lost world is the sequel to the surprise hit movie jurassic park. Released in 1996(off the top of my head) it had more dinosaurs and more action and more settings. This time there is another island where dinosaurs roam free (man made ones that were abandoned by the park) which also echos it's namesake the lost world by sir arthur conan. The only things I remember from the plot is that there are plans for a jurassic park san diego and a trex gets tranquilized and taken to san diego in a boat, then it goes on a rampage and the island is left alone

What brings a lot of memories to us that were kids at the time is renting it on vhs and rewinding the scene where some of the ingen hunters ummmm... hunt some dinosaurs on the island. Oh and the arcade game and the ps1 game were pretty popular among with the toys. All of my friends had the stegosaurus toy that had the removable rib plate so you can see it's ribs. When released, the lost world was a pretty big deal

So I am home alone again

My parents went to mexico among with my sister and I stayed behind because I am scared of airplanes and I work but I am ok with being alone. I am finally able to organize my things and take pictures of hot wheels that I been putting off. Now I just have to sell and put some things under my bed. Anyways I will go to bk on friday evening because that's what I used to do a lot when I was little. I have many good memories of going to bk with my mom and brother and getting a kids meal and a hersey's sundae pie and onion rings. Sometimes I would get a whopper combo. Sure it wont be the same but if I wear zubaz and blast 1979 by the smashing pumpkins, a little bit of my childhood comes back even more if I get a big kids meal

I will also go to frank and son's as I have never been there and it seems interesting. I will go to the library and to the swap meet, to take pictures on a hiking trail, to taco tuesday at del taco and numerous other places

In case your wondering why I didn't post a retro saturday again

Well the short story is that I was busy on saturday(yesterday) as I went to the swap meet. Yes I did get some cool stuff and even some of my finds were retro. I got some hot wheels from 1991, a bunch of pogs and slammers, a maui and sons hat from 1994, mints and gums and some burt's bees and honey chapstick for 50 cents(yes it is new and sealed). I got a call when I arrived at the swap meet from my manager if I could work today so I said yes and I started at 4 but they weren't sure if I got out at 8 or 11

It ended up being 11 so I didn't have time to post yesterday and sundays aren't retro so next week I will post retro saturday

Retro fridays and wwe ice cream bars

Although I call them wwe, these were better known as wwf ice cream bars and you would usually get them from the ice cream truck(more of a van really) for $1 as parents loved to give kids just $1 for ice cream and the wwf/wwe bars were always a solid choice. They are a sandwich on a stick with a layer of chocolate followed by vanilla ice cream and topped off with a brown cookie with a picture of a wwf/wwe star. I got most of mine in the attitude era and I would usually get the rock or stone cold or mankind. Just hearing an ice cream truck makes me want to run to it and get one or 3 for old times sake

I highly suggest you try one at least once

retro fridays and wwf no mercy

When released in 2000, wwf no mercy was the huge bombshell that changed wrestling games. I'm not exaggerating either, it was that good and that influential upon release and still is to this day. Released only on the nintendo 64, wwf no mercy was a wrestling video game however it's gameplay is what changed the game and also makes it highly addicting.   To give you an idea, wwf attitude was the main game and it's controls involved convoluted button presses and long combos to do a signature move or a grapple

No mercy simplified the controls by using the A and B buttons a lot, for example with b you punch and with A you grapple. If you hold down A then you do a strong grapple and you can do stronger moves. Once you have an opponent in a grapple you press a direction and the A button again to do a move. It's a lot simpler then up down left left left up up right triangle. The rest of your moves like running or switching who your facing is handled with the yellow C buttons and counters and reversals are mapped to the L and R buttons. It seems simple but it was quite a breakthrough

No mercy also has a unique branching story mode. Rather then doing things in a linear fasihion, the story changes depending whether you win or lose certain matches. But wait there's more, a lot of the unlockables can be purchased in a store called the smackdown mall and there is a royal rumble like match called survival(you can also pin or cause opponents to submit) where you earn money for your eliminations

. You can edit the appearance of wrestlers and each one has 3 alternative costumes, there are a lot of hidden characters and something about the gameplay makes you want to come back for more. If you have never played wwf no mercy you are in for a treat as long as you ignore the playdoh graphics