System Sellers

I always find it interesting to hear the first game people go out and buy whenever they get a new system. I’m not talking pack-ins or games they got with the system if it was a Christmas or birthday gift. I want to know the first game they went out and spent their own hard-earned cash on. Here’s my list. The game(s) in parentheses were pack-ins and/or games that were received as a gift when I got the system. The game below is the first one I bought myself. Looking back, I guess I’ve been pretty lucky. Not a stinker in the bunch.

Atari 2600 (Pac-Man, Star Raiders, Combat, Donkey Kong)
Pitfall

Nintendo (Super Mario Bros, Kung-Fu, Excitebike)
Rad Racer

Gameboy (Tetris, Qix, TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan)
Motocross Maniacs

Genesis (Altered Beast, M.J.'s Moonwalker, Sonic the Hedgehog)
Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion

Super Nintendo (Super Mario World)
Pilotwings

Playstation (Tekken 2)
Need for Speed

Nintendo 64 (Super Mario 64)
Pilotwings 64

Dreamcast (Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur)
Virtua Tennis

PC (Rebel Assault)
Mortal Kombat

Playstation 2 (SSX, Madden 2001, NHL 2001)
Tekken Tag Tournament

Gamecube (Super Smash Brothers Melee, Star Wars: Rogue Leader)
Wave Race: Blue Storm

Xbox (JSRF & Sega GT)
Splinter Cell

Gameboy Advance
Metroid Fusion

Xbox 360 (Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3)
Dead or Alive 4

Nintendo DS (Super Mario 64 DS, Feel the Magic)
Nintendogs: Lab & Friends

Nintendo Wii (Wii Sports)
Super Mario Galaxy

The Way it Should Be

I'm by no means a huge South Park fan, but I just found out that over at http://www.southparkstudios.com/ you can watch every episode of South Park ever made...for FREE! No registering, no signups, no downloads, no nothing. Just pick an episode & watch. Each episode has a commercial or two, but that's a small price to pay for 10+ years of episodes. Of course the episode Make Love, Not Warcraft is always good for a laugh. Kudos to you Matt & Trey! It seems like you guys get it.

Music That Matters

I’m pretty strange when it comes to music. I consider myself pretty open-minded musically, but when I find a song I really like, I lock onto it like a….really tight, sticky, lockey thing. As in, I will put the song on repeat in my car and it will sit there…for months. Some songs, I’ve had in the rotation for years. Seriously. So I thought I’d post (in no particular order) my top 10 life changing songs. When I say life changing I mean it. These songs have had such a profound effect on me that they have helped shape me as a person. I still listen to all of them monthly, if not weekly.

So for your listening and viewing pleasure, I found all of them for you on Youtube. Enoy! Most are the official music video (where applicable). Others have an original video, but the song is correct.

1. Are We Here? (Industry Standard Mix) – Orbital

2. Regret – New Order

3. Thunder in Your Heart – John Farnham (Skip to 3:35 for correct song - This song is from the movie Rad)

4. Children – Robert Miles

5. Boyz in the Hood – Eazy E

6. Eternity: Memory of Lightwaves – Takahito Eguchi (This is the prelude/intro to Final Fantasy X-2)

7. Rippin’ – Sir Mix-a-Lot

8. Loops of Fury - The Chemical Brothers

9. Message in a Bottle – The Police

10. Radical Dreamers - Yasunori Mitsuda (This is the ending theme from Chrono Cross)

Honorable Mention: Their Law - Prodigy

What's Next?

I am totally pumped about Super Smash Bros Brawl next week. I bought a Gamecube specifically to play Melee and it did not disappoint. Brawl looks like they’ve thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. I’m very excited to play the Pictochat stage where the “user” draws in stuff that becomes the level. I haven’t seen this since…well since Comix Zone about 15 years ago. I’m a total sucker for Nintendo nostalgia and Brawl has me falling all over myself with the classic characters, levels, music, references, etc. Hope to play you guys online! My Wii friend number is on the right. And while we’re on the Wii, where the hell is Pro Wrestling? This is an egregious Virtual Console omission. It was apparently announced as “coming soon” a long time ago, but I have been disappointed every Monday for weeks. C’mon Nintendo, put it out there!

In intellectual news, I was watching a movie over the weekend and the main character started talking about all of the major dreams/goals he has had in life. It got me thinking about my own. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a race car driver. Of course that never happened. When I was in high school, I just wanted to get the hell out. When I was in college, again I just wanted to get finish school so I could marry my college sweetheart. After I got married, I just wanted to be left alone with my wife and start a family. Now that I have children I realize that I don’t have any dreams anymore. It’s rare that you meet a person who has had all of his life goals realized, but not counting the race car thing, I am just such an individual. I understand how lucky that makes me, but now I wonder what’s next? I’m not even half though with my life and I’ve done it all. Yes, I still have fantasies; I’ve always wanted to set a pitching machine up at an MLB park to see if I could hit one out. I’ve always wanted to drive a Ferrari 355. I’ve always wanted to win the lottery and build a house with a basketball court, bowling alley, video game room and movie theater all in the basement. However, these fantasies are not likely to ever become reality for me. That’s not a concern. What is a concern is wondering if the fact that I have no more major life goals at the ripe old age of 30 is a problem. Right now, it absolutely is not. But I’d hate to get down the road and be screwed up as a result. So I guess I’ll focus on little goals. So for my next dream: I would like to go to Cedar Point for a week. That seems pretty doable. Of course it will have to wait several years until the kids are older, but this is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve never been there and it looks like a blast...despite the fact that I am petrified of most "big" rollercoasters! But more on my various phobias at a later time. This "dream" may seem trivial, but I guess if you are fortunate enough to have knocked out the big dreams (job, house, spouse, family) then the little guys will have to do.