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Games that made it past my first cut of a score of games were: Dragon Warrior [NES], Romance of the Three Kingdoms [NES], Nobunaga's Ambition [NES], Fist of the North Star [NES], Defender of the Crown [NES], Super Mario Land [GB], Military Madness [TG-16], Golden Axe [Genesis], Phantasy Star II [Genesis], Herzog Zwei [Genesis], Final Fight [arcade], Sky Adventure [arcade], Tecmo Knight [arcade], and Warlords [PC]. My first choices were Herzog Zwei and Fist of the North Star, but Herzog Zwei is rare and not ported anywhere and my friend picked up Fist of the North Star for me after I started my third choice, TuboGrafx-16's Military Madness. It's available on Virtual Console and I had points left over - done.

My friend Mark just reminded me there is another Con in my area. It's Retro Con (http://retrocons.com/ ) at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. on Sat and Sun of Sept. 27th. You thought that was in Philly but it's actually just outside Philly not far from one of the biggest malls in the US., The King of Prussia Mall. It's also not far from Historic Valley Forge Park, one of the places rendered in Assassin's Creed III.  The Expo Center is also very close to one of the few Movie Taverns on the east coast. There you can see a movie and get served food and drink, all at the same time. It's fun! Additionaly my friend Mark will be having a yard sale of his old video games and systems at nearby Chesterbrook Village on Sat (PM me if you want details).

After a whole day of EDF 2025, I finally got my Ranger to 1000 armor and an achievement by grinding on, I think, level 30. Oh boy, only 2000 more to reach an acceptable level to beat the game on Inferno difficulty. I think not. 

Went to Jay Street Video Games in Mall. Saw Front Mission 3 for $15, no manual. Buy on PSN instead. Saw Pokemon Stadium for $25 loose. Can get it for $15 online. Would've got it for $20. Not today. Asked for Dynasty Tactics. Salesman said no copies. After hurting him, still no. Left angry.

Well, my friend Mark finally has his gamer-tag up and running again on Xbox 360, and so it's back to modern gaming as usual, playing co-op in new and exciting virtual worlds. I expect to log twenty hours or so in EDF 2025 this weekend.

"Give me a little bit of bass with those 88s" sings The Capitols in the song "Cool Jerk". . . What to play then. For NES we've got: Metal Gear, Zelda II, Double Dragon, R.B.I. Baseball (I mistakenly put it with '87), Contra, Ikari II, Super Mario Bros 2, Bump n' Jump, and Castlevania II; for Arcade: Super Contra, Splatterhouse, Altered Beast, Gradius II, New Zealand Story, Vindicators, Alien Crush, and Double Dragon II; for SMS: Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors, Shinobi, Wonder Boy, and Ys: Vanished Omens (good year for SMS!); and for PC: Ultima V, Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance (the first of the SSI DnD games), Exile, Bard's Tale III, and Wasteland. I must've been in a bloodletting mood because I chose Splatterhouse.

I had a pretty reasonable pool of games I wanted to play from 1987. Arcade games: Contra, Street Fighter (begining of the fighting game scene?), Double Dragon, 1943, R-Type, Sky Shark and Xenophobe; NES: Mega Man, Legend of Zelda, Ikari Warriors, Rygar, Arkanoid, Kid Icarus, Wizards and Warriors, R.B.I. Baseball, Metroid and Castlevania (what a year for NES!); Nothing for Sega Master System's debut; and PC games: Leisure Suit Larry, Dungeon Master, Head Over Heels, and Maniac Mansion. I decided to go with Ikari Warriors, but when that went too fast, I added Sky Shark.

I went through a bunch of lists for this year and came up with some titles to consider for my visit to nostalgia land. For NES it was: Commando, Ghosts n' Goblins, and Gradius. Sega Master System it was: Alex Kidd, Space Harrier, and Alien Syndrome. Arcade it was: Return of Ishtar, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Out Run, Rygar, Gauntlet II, Darius, Ikari Warriors, Jackal, Joust 2 and Victory Road (the sequel to Ikari Warriors). PC/Mac it was: Star Flight, Wizard's Crown, Space Quest, Might & Magic Book 1, and Dark Castle.

1985 and home console video gaming makes a huge comback with the release of Nintendo's NES. Disguised as a VCR (that's a videocassette recorder for those who don't know) and coupled with a toy robot so nobody would call it a video game machine, the NES reignited home console gaming. Super Mario Bros. was the big hit that year, but I'd played that and had a copy of Mach Rider waiting for my attention, so I went with that. But before I started, I watched a bunch of video of other games that came out that year like arcade game Tiger-Heli, and PC games: Tau Ceti, Oregon Trail, Ultima IV and The Bard's Tale. 

1984: consoles pretty much dead with the crash of '83; the arcades still pretty good with titles like: 1942, Punch-Out, Marble Madness and Space Ace; PC doing well with King's Quest, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein.  I looked at a lot of video of these games and more from this year and decided on replaying 1942 within Capcom Arcade Cabinet on XBLA and within Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded on PSP.