Hiatus

I haven't posted in a few days. My laptop has a broken hinge and needs a part to be ordered which is coming in late this week at the earliest. I hate typing long things on my phone so I am taking a break from the blog until I get the laptop back. See you then!

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Intro

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  I'm about to start a long-term personal project relating to my video game collection. It's actually something I'm doing mostly for myself, but sharing it with others is certainly a nice little side perk. As you probably already know, I have a large video game collection that would make many nerds jealous! I did the bulk of my collecting from roughly 2012-2018. Now I don't buy nearly as many games as I used to. In fact, in 2021 my collection actually had a net shrinkage because I sold more than I bought. Does that mean I've just been a hoarder all this time and I'm slowly growing to regret my life decisions? HECK no. I feel quite satisfied and vindicated with the legion of games into which I've invested time, energy and resources to assemble and I've merely reached a point of satiation. I scratched all the most important stuff from my bucket list. I purposefully was liberal in my choice of buying stuff because I knew how to find deals and I knew that th
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Collection essentials #89: Ninja Gaiden (NES)

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Originally, Ninja Gaiden was an arcade game, but rather than simply bring that game to the NES, Tecmo decided to build an entirely new game from the ground-up, tailored for the console, and it paid off.  Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling action platformer that takes place across a series of linear levels. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja armed with a sword, the ability to cling to walls, and to use power-ups that you find throughout the levels which grant strong and important attacks with a limited number of uses. The controls are tight and the game just feels good to play. And what is perhaps most notable about this game are the cutscenes in between areas. Previously, the stories in most NES action games were pretty simplistic, and sometimes not even mentioned in the game itself, only the instruction manual. But Ninja Gaiden takes things to the next level in making the story an integral part of the experience, as you guide Ryu to get revenge against those responsible for his father’s
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Collection essentials #106: Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)

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Tecmo had previously released “Tecmo Bowl” nearly three years before this game, and while I don’t own it and don’t consider it essential, it was a very good football game for its time. But fans of that game had seen nothing yet. Tecmo Super Bowl provided a major upgrade, and is widely considered the best sports game on the NES, and some would even say one of the best sports video games of all time in general. The first noticeable difference is that Tecmo Super Bowl, unlike the original, got the license to use real NFL teams with their logos, and all the real players, which maybe sounds frivolous to a non-sports fan, but believe me when I say people who like sports enjoy controlling fantasy versions of their favorite teams and athletes much more than generic made-up counterparts! When making a sports video game, there are different ways a developer can go about it. The most obvious path, perhaps, would be to try and make it as realistic and true to the real thing as possible. That’s oft
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