Atari 2600 Project

Cystic Fibrosis Summer Camp '94: Charley and Jesse

July 1989 was my 2^nd year attending Cystic Fibrosis (CF) summer camp in Dowling, MI (outside of Battle Creek) and that’s when I met my 20 year old friend Charley. I was 10. Charley had been attending camp a few years prior to 1989 and we continued going until camp folded in 1996. Charley and I kept in contact through the years. In 1994 he sent me an Atlas book (still have it, looks new), because he knew I was taking Geography class my Freshman year in high school and figured I could use it. Charley worked at a map store in St. Louis, MO, where he and his family lived while attending local college. I received a B semester grade in Geography. Charley was proud.

No matter how busy Charley was, we kept in contact via postal mail and e-mail. There were summers that he didn’t attend camp, because of work or school, and I always understood. He was bummed when he couldn’t attend.

Through the years, my friend lived everywhere (laughs), in St. Louis, San Francisco, CA, Ames, IA (Graduate school- Iowa State University), Cleveland, OH, Minneapolis, MN, and his last residence was Omaha, NE, where he moved back home to live out his final months. Charley’s profession was a banker at KeyBank (Cleveland, OH) and later at U.S. Bank in Minneapolis, MN.

Charley died from CF on May 11^th 2007 at age 38. Through his death (years later) I’d meet his Mom, Alice, who I’ve known for 6 years. We connected quickly. I told her all the times I spent with Charley, the letters, and the things we had in common.

Last month she learned that I liked the Atari 2600 game console via my e-mail signature, when I noted that it was the 40^th anniversary (back in September) of the Atari 2600 system. She told me she still had Charley’s game system in the closet, where it had been for the past 25+ years. She asked if I’d like to have it? It could’ve been a rock that Charley had, I still would’ve said yes.

Atari 2600 Box (front)

Alice sent Charley’s Atari my way. I was hoping it worked, or I was going to have to do some repairs. I couldn’t believe that Alice still had Charley’s Atari in its original box. After waiting a week (had to order a part for it to hookup to a modern HD TV) I plugged it in and it worked. Alice sent along three games that Charley had, and would eventually send three more. I was waiting for fuzzies and lines to appear on the TV, being that Charley’s system was 36 years old. The picture was clear. If it wasn't, I would’ve had to order a radio frequency (RF) interference filter. I didn’t have to.

Charley's Atari 2600 (before) right out of the box

With accessing what parts I needed to order (and waiting for those parts) it took 29 days to make Charley’s Atari 2600 look new again. I replaced and restored a few things and made it shine…once again.

Charley's Atari 2600 (after) w/ new orange trim and shine

Below details everything that I did to Charley’s Atari 2600 to partially restore it. To see everything I worked on, please click on the link.

- Atari 2600 (CX-40) joystick –

* Washed washable parts w/ soap and water via toothbrush, soaked in vinegar

* Restored printed circuit board (PCB) due to worn contacts. Replaced w/ gold PCB board

* Replaced red (fire) button due to bottom nipple (worn) not touching the contact on new Board

* Replaced spring inside red (fire) button due to dark coloring caused by age

* Replaced white joystick handle (under the black joystick boot cover) due to two cracks

* Replaced black joystick boot due to age

* Replaced top cover due to 75% of paint coming off due to age

* Joystick had 65% of its function. Now has 100%

- Atari 2600 Top Case -

* Washed top case and faceplate in soap & water via toothbrush

* Painted trim (orange) on faceplate, lost 80% of its original paint due to age

* Mixed Acrylic Cadmium Orange Hue and Burnt Umber to get desired color

* Applied paint to Craft foam sheets and gently pressed front faceplate down on paint w/ painters tape for protection, let dry for 24 hours

* Applied a touch (little) of Pledge to top case and front for moderate shine

- Atari 2600 Bottom Case -

* Washed bottom case by hand with soap and water

* Fixed Atari Super Service (repair) sticker that was peeling off w/ multi-purpose adhesive spray, applied w/ q-tip

- Atari 2600 (Switchboard) Inside -

* Cleaned switchboard with compressed air

* Cleaned switchboard with 71% alcohol pads, let dry for 10 minutes

* Cleaned inside switches (Power (On/Off), TV Type (color b-w), Left Difficulty (a b),

Right Difficulty (a b), Game Select, and Game Reset with 91% rubbing alcohol w/ q-tip

* Cleaned metal Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shield case w/ 71% alcohol pads, let dry for 10 minutes

- Atari 2600 Motherboard -

* Cleaned motherboard with compressed air

* Made sure all (4) chips were clean and secured in place

* Accessed ribbon cable from the switchboard to the motherboard

- Atari 2600 Cartridge Connector -

* Cleaned cartridge connector where the game cartridge slides into the Atari 2600

* Cleaned contacts w/ craft foam sheet (inserted) and 91% rubbing alcohol, dry for 10 minutes

- MISC -

* Purchased Gold Plated RCA Female to Coax (male) Adapter to work with modern TV

* Replaced radio frequency (RF) cable with gold plated RCA stereo cable (goes from Atari to TV) for better secured connection, kept original RF cable for backup

* Replaced Atari 2600 power adapter due to age of original, which was very dry

* Cleaned all game cartridge plated contacts with Brasso & q-tips

* Cleaned all game cartridge plated contacts w/ 91% rubbing alcohol & q-tips to get Brasso off, dry for 5 minutes

- Atari 2600 Paddles -

* Charley never used the paddles, they look new

- Charley’s Atari 2600 Games - I Purchased Donkey Kong

* Top row, left to right: Combat (1977), Frogger (1982), Superman (1979), Donkey Kong (1982), SeaQuest (1983), Missile Command (1981), and Defender (1981) 

Spooky Memories

 Costumes by the company Ben Cooper were popular during the 1970's - 1990's.

Halloween was always fun while growing up. I started trick-or-treating at the age of 2 back in 1980. I don't remember it, but I was bundled up and ready to go that year. I was decked out as Ishy Bat (above), who was a character from Kooky Spooks, which were characters that were advertised on TV from 1979-1981. They were short lived.

Halloween was different back then. I'm not sure what happened through the years, as things started changing in the late 1990's, at least that's when I noticed it in my area. During the 1980's and into the early 1990's we us to have nearly 100 kids on Halloween night. That number dwindled down to 35- 45 kids by the mid 1990's. We roughly had 15-25 kids on Halloween night during the early 2000's and by 2005 we had about 10 kids. There were two years in the early 2000's that we had 0 kids.

Stranger danger might be some of it, but in reality, I think people just aren't taking their kids trick-or-treating as much because it's not the 'in' thing anymore, like Halloween us to be. A lot of parents may not want to walk with their kids, so they take them to something like trunk-or-treat or some place where trick-or-treating is done in one safe area/spot.

I remember reading about how Halloween was canceled in 1969 when the Zodiac killer was on the loose in the bay area, among other areas in California. Needles/blades in candy and apples were an issue during the 1970's as well. Stuff like that has always been around, but with social media and the news media the way it is today, you're going to hear about every little thing that occurs across the country. So things like that are still there.

1981 was the first Halloween memory that I had at the age of 3. I was a clown that year and remember being so tired from walking 2 hours, but at the end of the night my bag was full of candy.

 
I was Yoda from Star Wars in 1983 and it was my first costume made by the company Ben Cooper. More than likely you or your child has worn a Ben Cooper costume. If you don't remember the pain on your face and lips (from the plastic), than you probably never wore their costumes. They were fun and cheap on the budget, but by the end of the night you were ready to rip that mask off your face.

We moved to Highland, MI in August of 1984 and I was an Indian that Halloween. I don't recall dressing up as an Indian, but I do remember the wig I had on. It was always fun going to school and dressing up as something/someone else. In recent years I've seen teenagers dress up as nothing. They'll wear a white t-shirt and pants and that's it.  It's like... what the heck? It's Halloween. 

1985 I dressed up as an Executioner (Mr. X) and just by looking at this costume... it wouldn't fly nowadays. It was homemade and I made the axe myself. I used an empty paper towel role for the axe handle and cardboard to make the cheek (axe head) and I wrapped aluminum foil over it. I used duct tape to tape it to the handle. The aluminum foil covered up the duct tape. I put some dirt on my pants to make them look dirty.

It's not just trick-or-treating that has changed, but also the costumes. Teenagers us to wear scary costumes, but nowadays you hardly see anyone in scary costumes. The little kids I can understand, because a lot of their costumes are cute and some are actually homemade, which look awesome.

I tend to watch scary movies, not just on Halloween, but the weeks leading up to the night event. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is my go to network for classic horror, but over the air networks (free TV) like This! and Movies! are good as well.

I don't think Halloween will ever be like it was during the glory days of trick-or-treating, because if there's less people going year after year, there will be less people passing out candy. It takes two to tango. I'm glad and thankful that my Halloween days were fun and special.

 

Halloween 1992

View all my Halloween photos under the 'Halloween' section at the bottom my Flickr page. 

2017 NFL.com Fantasy Football (halfway)

My 17th year playing Fantasy Football has gotten off to a rough start for one of my three teams. It all boils down to several NFL players that are on my team not performing as they did last season. Carolina Panthers quarterback (QB) Cam Newton, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver (WR) Julio Jones, New Orleans Saints WR Michael Thomas, Chicago Bears running back (RB) Jordan Howard, and the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens defense have struggled.

Click below to view the halfway point of the 2017 NFL.com Fantasy season for the teams below.

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2017 Highland Executions (halfway)

1-6-0 

The Highland Executions (1-6-0) are coming off a 10-4-0 record and a 2016 division title, their 5th in team history (2000-2016). They were defeated in the 1st round of the 2016 NFL.com Fantasy Football playoffs and haven't been the same team since. The last season the Executions finished below .500 was in 2013. Their worst record in team history occurred in 2010 as they finished 4-10-0.

The Executions only win (thus far) is week 1, as they defeated their opponents 133.42 - 115.10 and played well with Carolina Panthers Quarterback (QB) Cam Newton as the starter.

QB 

Newton got off to great start, but slowed down after week 1. Miami Dolphins QB Jay Cutler (benched) was doing better in terms of fantasy points. The Executions never started Cutler over Newton until week 4, thus Newton decided to rack up 47.60 fantasy points to Cutler's 10.70. That seems to be the downfall of fantasy football. Executions started Newton for week 5 (put up another 40+ points) and has been the starter since. Cutler has played terrible in recent weeks and is currently out with a rib injury. The Executions picked up Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles (starter last season for the Executions) who will remain benched in favor of Newton.

RB

Week 1 starters for the running game were Detroit Lions running back (RB) Ameer Abdullah (who's been a disappointment) and Chicago Bears RB Jordan Howard, who's been good off and on. The duo continued to be starters until week 7 (bye) when Abdullah was replaced with Baltimore Ravens RB Javorius Allen heading into week 8. Allen has 15 more fantasy points than Abdullah. RB Joe Mixon of the Cincinnati Bengals (along with Abdullah) are benched. Mixon will get the start for week 8 in the flex position.

WR

The wide receiver (WR) position has been so-so thus far with a few disappointments. WR's Jeremy Maclin (Ravens), Julio Jones (Atlanta Falcons), Amari Cooper (Raiders), and Sterling Shepard (N.Y. Giants) got the start for week 1. Since then, only Jones and Shepard are the starters. Until week 7, Cooper has struggled this season. Maclin hasn't produced much points since week 2. Benched at the start of the season were New England Patriots WR Danny Armendola, who made the starting position in week 5 after Patriots WR Julian Edelman suffered a season ending knee injury. Armendola has started since.

WR Josh Doctson of the Washington Redskins never started due to a disappointing season and was released in week 5.

Seattle Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett never started a game until week 7 and put up some decent points. Another surprising player that has put up some good points this season is Shepard, who is a flex starter, though, for week 8 he's benched due to a Giants bye.

Jones, Armendola, Cooper, and Lockett are the current starters.

TE 

If there was a position that couldn't get anything going, it would be the tight end (TE) position. Carolina Panthers TE Greg Olsen got the start while Redskins TE Jordan Reed was benched. Both are good TE's, but struggled last season, at least Reed did. Olsen broke his foot in week 3 and will miss 6-8 weeks. The Executions picked up Falcons TE Austin Hooper off waivers, who struggled to get 2 fantasy points. Reed (struggling) was benched in favor of Hooper. 

With Hooper out due to a bye and Reed hardly putting up points, the Executions released Reed and picked up Ravens TE Benjamin Watson, who for week 5 only put up a lousy 0.60 points. Executions took another gamble and started Hooper along with Watson at the flex position, which means you can start a WR or TE. Both scored a combined 10.20 points for week 6. Week 7 saw the duo come back down to earth with a combined 6.60 points.

K 

Ravens kicker (K) Justin Tucker is one of the best in the league and has been the starter since week 1. Green Bay Packers K Mason Crosby was the backup (benched) until week 7 when he was released. Crosby only started when Tucker had a bye week.

DEFENSE

The Arizona Cardinals defense hasn't been the best this season. In terms of fantasy points, the benched Green Bay Packers are ahead by 12 points. The Executions picked up the Pittsburgh Steelers defense off waivers (when they released Crosby) and will start for week 8. Steelers are 28 points higher than the Packers.

CONCLUSION... Tinkering with the lineup after loss after loss hasn't done any good for the Executions. Heading into week 8 the team has decided to continue with the WR foursome of Jones, Armendola, Cooper, and Lockett. At RB will be Allen and Howard. Joining the flex position (benching TE Watson) will be Bengals RB Mixon. Hooper and Tucker will remain the starters at their positions while the Steelers defense will get the start.

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2017 Highland GraveDiggers (halfway)

3-4-0

Last season the Highland GraveDiggers (3-4-0) were inches away from making the NFL.com Fantasy Football Playoffs for the 8th time in team history (2001-2016), but their final game of the season ended in a tie. If they would've won that game they would've made the playoffs with a 9-5-0 record and not settling for 8-5-1.

With a nasty taste in their mouth to start the 2017 season, the GraveDiggers slipped away with a 54.00 - 51.00 victory in week 1. The Philadelphia Eagles defense helped the team earn a win with 25.00 points. The team suffered two losses in a row, both not close. Weeks 2 & 3 saw the GraveDiggers score the same amount of points...70.00. With a 1-2-0 record and two losses under their belt, the team did some position changes by starting New York Giants wide receiver (WR) Odell Beckam, Jr., though, he only scored 6 points. The team pulled away with a victory to get things rolling at 2-2-0. The GraveDiggers got a win in week 5 by only 8 points. The team would fall in the next two games to finish 3-4-0 heading into week 8.

QB

Green Bay Packers quarterback (QB) Aaron Rodgers was the starter until his season ending injury in week 6 (might return toward the end of the season), which was a huge loss for the team. The GraveDiggers ended up losing that game 29.00 - 72.00. Los Angeles Chargers QB Phillip Rivers was the backup. The GraveDiggers released Rodgers prior to week 8 and picked up N.Y. Jets QB Josh McCown as a backup to Rivers, which Rivers is now the starter.

RB

Detroit Lions running back (RB) Ameer Abdullah and Indianapolis Colts RB Frank Gore remained the starters until week 6. Philadelphia Eagles RB LeGarrette Blount took the starting position at week 5 in the flex position (wide receiver/tight end/running back can play). He hadn't played until week 6 when the GraveDiggers were 3-3-0.

Abdullah has been a big disappointment and was benched in week 7 (bye) and will continue to be benched for Minnesota Vikings RB Jerick McKinnon. Weeks 6 & 7 saw Gore score very little points and since the GraveDiggers have lost 2 games in a row, the team decided to give Blount the starting position over Gore.

WR

The GraveDiggers were solid at the wide receiver (WR) position at the start of the season. Beckam had been out due to an injury and was back for week 2, but only scored 2 fantasy points. Luckily the GraveDiggers didn't start Beckam. Beckam put up some good numbers until week 5 when he was injured and needed season ending surgery. This was a loss for the GraveDiggers as they placed Oakland Raiders WR Amari Cooper in his spot. With Beckam out for the season, the GraveDiggers picked up Arizona Cardinals WR J.J. Nelson off waivers. The GraveDiggers have yet to start Nelson.

Pittsburgh Steelers WR Martavis Bryant, New Orleans Saints WR Michael Thomas, and Cooper remained the starters until week 6 when Bryant was benched due to poor play. The GraveDiggers replaced Bryant with New England Patriots WR Danny Amendola. The team released Bryant after week 7.

Prior to week 8 the GraveDiggers picked up Los Angeles Chargers WR Travis Benjamin (when they released Bryant) and Dallas Cowboys TE Jason Witten for extra measure. Both players are benched.

TE

Witten is the only TE on the GraveDiggers. The TE position isn't required in the league the GraveDiggers are in.

K

Philadelphia Eagles kicker (K) Caleb Sturgis was the starter while N.Y. Jets K Chandler Catanzaro was benched. Sturgis was injured (hip flexor) and placed on IR for week 2. The GraveDiggers went to the waivers and picked up a gold mine. The team picked up Tennessee Titans K Ryan Succop (#2 kicker in NFL.com fantasy football) for week 3 and started him over Catanzaro in week 7. Catanzaro had continued to outperform Succop every week (besides 2 weeks). Succop will continue to start.

DEFENSE 

The GraveDiggers have continued to start the Philadelphia Eagles defense over the Minnesota Vikings, which has been a toss-up situation. Both have been performing well this season.

CONCLUSION

The GraveDiggers are 3-4-0 and in 7th place out of 12 teams. They're 2nd in their division and two games back from taking 1st. They're still in good position to make the playoffs, but if they started today, they wouldn't be in the post season, as they're two spots out of the single wild card spot.

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2017 Highland LavaRockets (halfway)

5-2-0

Last season was a remarkable for the Highland LavaRockets (5-2-0) as they finished with their best record in team history (2001-2016) at 9-4-0 and earned a trip to the 2016 NFL.com Fantasy Football playoffs. The LavaRockets won their division for the 2nd time in team history, but came up short of winning their 2nd league championship. The LavaRockets had been struggling for several years and missed the playoffs three years in a row (2013, 2014, 2015) and were worse before that (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).

The team has gotten off to a great start, but things didn't look so well heading into week 4 with a 1-2-0 record. They won their first game in week 1 with a 104.20 - 54.30 victory and that's with New York Giants quarterback (QB) Eli Manning securing only 6 points. Manning hasn't had a good season, but the LavaRockets (somehow) continue to win games with him as their starter. Buffalo Bills QB Tyrod Taylor is the backup. Due to Manning having a week 8 bye, Taylor will start.

Houston Texans wide receiver (WR) DeAndre Hopkins, Minnesota Vikings running back (RB) Jerick McKinnon, Philadelphia Eagles RB LeGarrette Blount, and Baltimore Ravens defense helped the team get the W.

The team would lose their next two games. Week 2 saw both McKinnon and tight end (TE) Kyle Rudolph from the Vikings score very little points and the Ravens defense had a -4, which didn't help. 

With the LavaRockets 1-2-0, the team finally picked things up in the scoring department and haven't looked back. Weeks 4 & 5 saw Manning increase his numbers, while McKinnon and Rudolph increased theirs as well. Giants WR Odell Beckham, Jr. was back to playing football as he was recovering from his injury. He too put up some decent points. Beckham would later need season ending surgery due to being injured. He was released.

The team tweaked only two positions as they headed into week 6. The team started Los Angeles Rams kicker (K) Greg Zuerlein over Dallas Cowboys K Dan Bailey, who compared to the #1 K in the league (Zuerlein), Baily has struggled. Bailey had started since week 1 and was released after week 7. The LavaRockets picked up New England Patriots WR Danny Amendola (benched) off waivers and the team benched the Ravens defense (struggling) and started the Jacksonville Jaguars defense, who are #1 in the league. The LavaRockets got a week 6 victory, so the tweaking pulled off.

Due to a week 7 bye, Hopkins was benched and Amendola became the starter, but only scored an awful 1.60 points, but thanks to the Jaguars defense, the LavaRockets got the 79.86 - 62 victory to go 5-2-0 with their fourth straight win.

With a few players on bye for week 8, Amendola will get the start again, despite his awful week 7 performance. Hopkins is back in the lineup, so that should help. The LavaRockets picked up K Robbie Gould off waivers from the San Francisco 49'rs due to Zuerlein having a week 8 bye. The Jaguars will also have a bye, thus the Ravens defense will start. Week 8 could be challenging for the LavaRockets.

QB

They say if it's not broke, don't fix it. I guess the same could be said for Manning being the starting QB for the LavaRockets. He hasn't performed well, but the team continues to get victories with him at the helm.

WR

The LavaRockets have WR Hopkins and Amendola as starters, with Tennesse Titans WR Rishard Williams benched due to a week 8 bye. The Team picked up Los Angeles Chargers WR Travis Benjamin (benched) for some extra insurance.

RB

The team has a great core of running backs (RB) who haven't been talked about yet. New Orleans Saints RB Mike Ingram has been terrific thus far. Ingram is in the flex position, which means a WR or RB can fill that spot. The team currently has no backup RB, thus Ingram would fit that position if need be. His spot would be replaced with a WR in the flex position. Philadelphia Eagles RB LeGarratte Blount has performed well, but hit a slump last week, though he tends to do that. The surprise is RB McKinnon from the Vikings. He's had a wonderful year and continues to put fantasy points up on the board. I don't see any changes to those positions.

TE

Vikings TE Rudolph continues to be the starter and has been since week 1. For the first three weeks of the season Washington Redskins TE Vernon Davis was the backup, but was released heading into week 4 due to poor performance, but the past two weeks (weeks 6 & 7) he's picked up some steam. The LavaRockets picked up Los Angeles Rams TE Gerald Everett, who hasn't done any better than Davis.

K

You can't get any better than having K Zuerlein as your starter. The LavaRockets had K Gould on their team as the starter a few years back when he was with Chicago.

DEFENSE

Who would've thought the Jaguars would have the #1 defense? They've proved that with knitting a victory or two for the LavaRockets.

CONCLUSION

The LavaRockets are on the path to taking their division and heading to the 2017 NFL.com Fantasy Football Playoffs. They're currently 2nd in their division, but tied for first place. They're ranked #6 out of 16 teams. Out of those 16 teams, five have a 5-2-0 record, including the LavaRockets. If the playoffs started today the LavaRockets would be in.

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Video Game History

 Atari 2600 Commercial (Dec 17th 1977)

Video games have always been apart of my life, a window to an imaginary world. The first video game console that I played was the Atari 2600, which made its debut in 1977 and discontinued in 1992. I didn't own an Atari 2600, but had played one over at my older cousin's house and really enjoyed it. My favorite game for the Atari 2600 is Pitfall! (1982) by AcTiVision. The video game I hated for the Atari 2600 was Superman (1978) by Atari, Inc., because it was so annoying. You can find it on YouTube. That game about blew my ear drums to pieces. I also enjoyed Ice Hockey (1981) by AcTiVision, Galaxian (1983) by Midway and Breakout (1978) by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600.

 Pitfall! Commercial (1982)

Christmas of 1985 I received my first video game system, which was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), (control deck) which came out on my 7th birthday on October 18th 1985. At the time Super Mario Bros. (1985) didn't come with the control deck (some systems did), thus you had to purchase the game separately. 

If the weather was icky, my Dad and I would play for hours on the weekends. The video game was something I had never seen before, especially the color and graphics being much better (as they should) than the Atari 2600. The first three games that I had for the NES were Super Mario Bros., Tiger-Heli (1987) and The Legend of Zelda (1986). The first and last game, along with Tetris (1989), are my favorite games for the NES. Tetris originally came out in 1984, but 1989 on the NES. My least favorite game on the NES is The Adventures of Bayou Billy (1989), that game is crazy tough.

I also had the Power Pad, which debuted in 1988. We later returned it to the store because we had issues with the connectors on the pad. I also had the NES Zapper, which was bought separately in order to play Duck Hunt (1985) among other games that included having the zapper.

I had my NES for 7 years from 1985-1992. Like others, my NES games stopped reading and the 'red flash' syndrome took over my NES. I had always cleaned my games and kept them dust free inside those NES plastic cases (last image in this blog). Years later (more like 25) I find out that it wasn't my games, but the console itself. The 72-pin connector (has 72 metal pins) needed to be cleaned, along with the connectors inside the NES, which only required a Phillips screwdriver to take apart the system. We didn't know anything about cleaning the inside of a game console back in 1992. The NES will forever be my favorite gaming console.

I was 14 years old and into my teen years. I was looking at a Sega Genesis system instead of Nintendo's Super Nintendo (SNES), which was released in 1991 (U.S.A.). Sega was more targeted toward teenagers while SNES was targeted toward kids, like the NES. I'm not sure if I received it on my birthday or Christmas, but I did get a Sega Genesis Model 2 in 1993. I liked the look of the model 2 better than the original model of the Sega Genesis (here), which was released in 1989. Later a model 3 was released, which was quite small for the time.

Sega Genesis model 1 (original) commercial

I didn't have a lot of games for the Sega Genesis, but I did have one game that caused a lot of controversy and that was Mortal Kombat (1992) by Acclaim Entertainment, which caused the development of a rating system for video games in September 1994 due to the violence and blood (Mortal Kombat) in video games. Nintendo released Mortal Kombat as well, but replaced the blood in the game with sweat. You can guess which game sold better on which system. Sega. That being said, Sega developed the famous 'blood code', that would let the gamer punch in a code and blood would appear in the game. This was Sega's way around the controversy and still able to sell the game. Mortal Kombat is my favorite game for the Sega Genesis.

I also had Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992), which came with the system. I've never been a huge Sonic fan. I also had NBA Jam (1993), which was a fun game. It's hard to believe I only had three games for the system for the next 4 years. I'm not sure what happened to my Sega Genesis, but I decided to purchase a Nintendo 64 (N64), and while some might wonder how the name came about, it's because the system had a 64-bit processing unit. The original NES only had 8. The N64 came out in 1996, but I purchased mine in 1997.

Nintendo 64 Commercial

After 4 years of having my Sega Genesis, I decided to go back to Nintendo, because I was interested in Madden Football 64 (1997), which was sold exclusively for the N64. I had a few games for the system. My top three favorite are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Madden NFL '99 (1998), and WWF No Mercy (2000). I didn't own any Super Mario Bros. games, mostly because I was more into the teenage video games at this point in my life. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite game for the N64.

I was excited back in 2001 when Microsoft came out with their first game console called the XBOX (2001). The built was simple. A big box with a huge black X on top of the console. It was larger than my previous system (N64), but I liked the design, though, it was quite heavy. This was the first console I purchased that used CD discs instead of cartridges like the NES, Sega Genesis, and N64 had.

I decided to give my younger cousin my N64 and purchased an XBOX in 2002. I had a lot of games for the system, but my three favorite are Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003), and Batman Begins (2005).

The artwork for the box is unique, as it's the first gaming system that I had that the console wasn't shown on the front. 

Original XBOX console (image)

My favorite game for the original XBOX is Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002). It's my 3rd favorite game of all time. It's an amazing game and the music is breathtaking. I actually have the soundtrack for the game. Michael Giacchino and the Northwest Sinfonia in Seattle did a marvelous job. The soundtrack for the game was recorded in the Spring of 2001.

My XBOX went dead in 2008, thus I had it for 6 years (2002-2008). It could've been something simple as the power supply, which would've been easy to fix. Instead, I purchased an XBOX 360, which came out in 2005. I purchased the premium package (60 GB) and by this time all the kinks were out of the XBOX 360 consoles, at least most.

This is the system that I currently have and just recently replaced the entire DVD drive after having the console for 9 years. It might be time to upgrade to the XBOX One S. ::chuckles:: The XBOX 360 is my 2nd favorite video game system, next to the NES.

Like the original XBOX, the XBOX 360 doesn't show the game system on the front box. This was the first game system that I was able to get onto the Internet and XBOX Live with. It reminded me of the days of the Atari 2600, but with the 2600 you could actually play video games at home, and not just at the arcade anymore. The 360 was just something new to me, especially being able to have Internet access. You could with the original XBOX, but you had to hook it up directly to a modem/router via an ethernet cable, there was no WiFi on the system.

I stuck with Microsoft because I never had any issues with my original XBOX (until it went dead 6 years later), so I chose to stay with them.

The 360 is the longest game console that I've ever had (9 yrs). I opened it up last year to clean out all the dust inside, which was very little, including both fans. One year later (as mentioned above) my DVD drive started acting up. I found out it wasn't the laser, just the drive itself, even though the DVD tray worked fine, the laser wasn't reading the games, which my games are spotless and still look new. $35.00 later and learning how to solder, I got my 360 working again.

I have a lot of games for the 360, but my three favorites are Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007), and Madden '09 (2008). Batman: Arkham Asylum is my favorite on the system.

My favorite game system of all time is the original NES along with my favorite video game being Super Mario Bros. for the NES. My least favorite video game is definitely Superman (1978) for the Atari 2600.

You've been warned.

Games In Photo: 

Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), and Tiger-Heli (1987)