Game collecting misadventures in 2020

Because this is a yearly tradition in this blog...

Previous years

2018

2019

At the end of the game-collecting blog for 2019, I finished it by saying 'Bring on 2020.' For many reasons, including the most obvious one, I really shouldn't have said that... 2020 has sucked on virtually EVERY level imaginable. Yet, I came away from it with less debt, more money and a few interesting items for the game collection. Funny how all that works out...

The sad trend of most games acquired during the year being digital has continued. However, the items that I could get on physical media have been pretty damned good.

2 January 2020

Got yet another eShop gift card, like I seem to do in the first week of every year. Is this becoming a new tradition?

28 January 2020

Bought a digital title of the Switch from the eShop called Apocryph: an old-school shooter. It's supposed to be a tribute to 1990's era first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Unreal, Heretic, Hexen, etc.

9 February 2020

Acquired Hyperide Vector Raid from the Nintendo eShop on my Switch for 9 cents' worth of gold points. It was on sale at a DEEP discount. It's supposed to be inspired by River Raid. However, it was a 3D title and felt more like S.T.U.N. Runner, Jeff Minter's Polybius and a few other 3D shooters with the player's view being behind the ship. Not a bad game, just nothing like River Raid. Perhaps the ads for it should say that the programmer felt inspired after playing that classic title from 1982?

27 February 2020

Decided to spend some of the store credit that I had saved up on the Nintendo eShop. Got R-Type Dimensions EX, the SEGA AGES re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and yet another pinball game called Titans Pinball.

Titans Pinball was acquired for a mere 87 cents through a sale & using gold points.

The R-Type title is actually a compilation of the first 2 arcade titles in the series, with the ability to switch between the classic graphics and some nice updated ones on the fly. That's a really nice feature.

Screenshot from R-Type Dimensions EX in the enhanced graphics mode.

This latest re-release of Sonic 2 has the Split-screen 2 player mode from the original SEGA Genesis release restored (since many of the previous re-releases cut it out for some reason) and Knuckles as a playable character.

In all, I probably spent about $25 for 4 games. That's the most I have spent on games (so far) this year. And there's still enough left in the account right now to purchase the pending re-release of Doom 64 on March 20th. That title is only going to be five bucks!


20 March 2020

Got that re-release of Doom 64 for the Switch. So far, all the old codes from the N64 original still work. It's also fairly easy to adjust the screen brightness, which is a good thing since this game is really dark. I'm amazed at how good the game still is after all these years. Bethesda even did a good job with the controls. :)

Doom 64 logo

3 April 2020

Found out there was a sale on the Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store today. Picked up a few things for my Switch since COVID-19 has made sure that I don't have much else to do right now. Those titles (and their prices) are as follows:

Arcade Archives: Elevator Action ($7.99. Wasn't on sale, but I do love arcade classics.)

Axiom Verge ($9.99)

Cosmonauta (9 cents)

Music Racer ($6.89)

I have also just noticed that I have only acquired 10 new games so far this year, all of them digital titles for the Switch. No thanks to COVID-19 and various other factors, I don't know when/if that is going to change. Also, all but one of today's purchases are platformers. That's an unexpected coincidence.

18 April 2020

I'm still stuck at home for this damned pandemic. However, that doesn't mean that game collecting has to come to a complete stop. Besides the digital games being downloaded from the Nintendo eShop and Steam, I can still get physical titles from Amazon, Wal-Mart and those other retailers that are still open.

So, I went through my want lists on Amazon and grabbed an old Atari Plug'N'Play that I didn't yet have for my collection and another gaming-related keychain. Pics and details below...

The last of the Flashback consoles that Atari made themselves.
All future installments in the series were made by AT Games.

The Flashback 2+ hardware is identical to the Flashback 2 in every way but one: Atari removed the mounting points on the motherboard for a cartridge connector. The Flashback 1 and 2 were made by a brilliant hardware engineer named Curt Vendel. In addition to cloning the original Atari 2600 hardware for the Flashback 2, he also included the mounting points on the motherboard for a cartridge input. He knew that there would be hackers that would want to add a port to play cartridges of 2600 titles that weren't included. However, Atari didn't like people messing with the hardware (and voiding warranties in the process) so, the Flashback 2+ model was released to stop that practice. Fortunately, I have 2 of that original Flashback 2 model and don't mind hacking one of them some day.

The included games are mostly the same ones. However, Pitfall!, River Raid, Wizard, Caverns of Mars, and Atari Climber (AKA Climber 5) have been removed. In exchange, a sports section was added that included the games Realsports Boxing, Realsports Soccer, Super Baseball, Super Football, and Double Dunk. I personally would have preferred to keep Pitfall!, River Raid and those 3 previously unreleased titles instead of some sports games that did NOT age well.

There are also now 3 hidden games on the Flashback 2+, as opposed to just the 2 that were on the Flashback 2 model. The third hidden game, Circus Atari, was added to the hidden menu that features the paddle-controller only games Warlords and Super Breakout. Neither the Flashback 2 or Flashback 2+ come with paddle controllers. So, these games can't be played unless the user has an original set of Atari 2600 paddle controllers. Thankfully, I have several working pairs of them. :)

To access the hidden paddle game menu, the user must press up on the joystick 1 time, pull down 9 times, push up 7 times, and pull down 2 times (this represents the year 1972, which is when Pong was first released). The code must be entered steadily and without pauses. Enter it too quickly and it won't work.

It lights up when you push the button... :)

I have several game-related keychains, all of which will be used for my future business: a combination of arcade & retro game store. The one pictured above will be used for the keys to the arcade and the coin-op machines inside. There are companies that make universal locks for arcade cabinets and I plan to use them since it will make operations that much more stream-lined.

I was a bit annoyed that the CR2032 that came with this keychain was dead on arrival, but it's not exactly hard to get more of them. That's probably the most common button cell battery on Earth. It's used for everything from PC Motherboards to old game cartridges to remote controls for my stereo and the HDMI switcher in my game room. The other keychains are mentioned/pictured in the game collecting blog post for 2018 on November 21st for that year. There's one of the Atari 2600, controller from the NES, PS1 & PS2. Those keychains will end up getting used for display cases in the retro game store.

22 April 2020

Got a book on the Atari Flashback delivered from Amazon today. Seems to be for the Flashback 8 series. I say 'series' because there's at least 3 different versions of that console. Different tiers/packages with different controllers, more or less games depending on the model, etc. It's kinda like buying a car instead of a game console. No wonder I stopped buying the Flashback after version 5. :P

List price is about $20. I got it for just under $7 before taxes & shipping costs.

3 May 2020

STILL trapped at home because of the Cantonese Coof. Picked up 3 games from the Nintendo eShop for next to nothing while they were on sale. They are as follows:

Arcade Archives: Double Dragon ($3.99)

Flashback: 25th Anniversary (99 cents)

Space Ribbon (49 cents)

I went to Steam to see what's on sale, but nothing on my list was currently for sale. Guess I'll hang on to the $27.53 in my account for now. I'll check back next week after my exams and the end of this current college semester.

Also, I beat Double Dragon on this same night. If I were pumping quarters into a machine, I probably would have spent at least 3 or 4 Dollars. That game was pretty tough.

9 May 2020

Got a game called Moto Rush GT, because it looked like a good racing game and was 90% off in an eShop sale. I bought it solely through using gold coins. Not bad, heh? Fortunately, it really is as fun as it looked. :)

While I was on the eShop, I got rid of a lot of things in my want list. There's no reason for me to get some of the old arcade classics that were in there when I already have various versions of these games on other systems. For example, an old 1984 Nintendo arcade title called Clu Clu Land. It's a puzzle title. I have the NES port on the eReader for the Game Boy Advance (Remember that thing?) and the NES port is so close to perfect that I can't tell the difference.

Also, I got a $50 eShop points card. So, I am now sitting at $92.49 for my account, including gold coins. I could go on a spending spree in the eShop right now, but I am feeling a bit hesitant. I have 31.4 GB left on the 128GB card that I installed into my Switch for file storage. Looks like I'll have to upgrade that MicroSD card yet again... Sure hope the prices have come down on them since I last bought one...

10 June 2020

Picked up 6 new digital games from the Switch eShop in the last 4 days, including 2 this morning. Less than $30 was spent for all of them. The two arcade archives releases were regular price, but the rest were all on sale and together were less than 10 bucks. They are as follows:

Arcade Archives: Double Dragon II - The Revenge

Arcade Archives: Excitebike

Biolab Wars

Missile Command: Recharged

Pinball Lockdown

They came from the Sky

Now down to $66.04 in cash and 254 gold coins for eShop funds. These digital titles are all pretty cheap, but I do miss getting physical media on a regular basis.

Also made room on my MicroSD card by moving all the old arcade and console classics to the internal memory of the Switch. Free space on the 128GB card has now gone up from 31.4GB to 44.6GB. I am still wondering why all these ports of classic arcade titles that were originally just a few dozen kilobytes are now all a minimum of 70MB in size. Did the software engineers have to incorporate an emulator into the game's code to get it to work with the modern Switch hardware?

13 June 2020

I was helping my brother to clean out an old storage container that belonged to our father today. Much to our surprise, there was a video game in there. It was a copy of Assassin's Creed for the PS3. It's complete with manual and the disc was flawless after I cleaned it off. The plastic in the case is a little cracked, but that's easily replaced. This will probably end up being a game that I re-sell in the retro game store that I plan to open someday. It's not worth a great deal of money, but SOMETHING has to fill up the shelves. :P.

I am kinda wondering why my Dad had a random PS3 game sitting in a brief case in that storage container, though...

My future store's common shelf for PS3 isn't going to fill itself...

26 June 2020

Recently ordered several game-related items from Amazon, just because I can. I got some of those 1-Up cards that are supposed to help clean cartridges. We'll see if they work as well as advertised. If they do, they'll probably end up saving me a small fortune in Q-Tips over time.

I got Wipeout Pure not just because it was on my want list, but because it was still factory sealed and selling for $1.50 w/ $4.50 Shipping & Handling. Considering that that my game price aggregator site says a still sealed copy normally goes for $10, I think I did well.

Also, I found a decent used-but-complete copy of Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions for the 3DS for only 4 bucks more than a loose card would cost. I've had some trouble trying to find that game out in the wild for the last 2 or 3 years and there's no digital version in the eShop. I'm actually amazed that I could still find a copy for a decent price. This game seems to be highly sought after and expensive. It also first released on 26 July 2011, when the 3DS was still new. This game is also the last one that was on my list for the 3DS as a physical release. I looked over the digital titles that were still on the list a few days ago and decided that they weren't worth my while. So, for now at least, it looks like my collecting for the 3DS is finished. It's pretty rare that I ever manage to do that with any system, let alone one that's so recent.

Also, I'd just like to say that it's great to be getting my hands on some physical media again. :)

Physical Media, FTW.

16 August 2020

Bought a few things from the Switch eShop. 2 classic arcade titles from the Arcade Archives series and 2 new tables for some of my Pinball games, which were on sale. They are as follows...

Digital Download games

Arcade Archives: BurgerTime

Arcade Archives: Super Punch-Out!!

Add-on DLC

The Pinball Arcade - Doctor Who: Master of Time

Stern Pinball Arcade: Ripley's Believe It or Not!

The summer was pretty dry as far as acquiring new games are concerned. Blame that on the pandemic, if you want. I'm expecting the same for the rest of this year. Black Friday and Christmas might bring about a few new interesting additions. However, it will be hard to top last year with the 2 arcade cabinets that I bought.

7 September 2020

Bought two games on sale from the Nintendo Switch eShop.

Awakening of Cthulhu

Rise: Race of the Future

I don't remember what I paid for them now, because this entry was written about 2 weeks after the fact. School has re-started and that is keeping me busy. However, I can say that both of these two titles were less than $20 combined.

22 September 2020

Helped my mother pick up a piece of furniture from a thrift/estate sale store today. I went through their media section and found a few items of interest, all for $5 total. The PS3 game is worth about that much right now. I can't find a price for the Need for Speed game (so far) and I'm not sure about the price for the Diablo game, either. The price I found seems to be for the big box version of this PC game, which is currently worth $24.46 when complete. Pic below...

PS3

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Win9x PC

Diablo

Need for Speed High Stakes

Not bad for $5 at a thrift store...

2 October 2020

Bought some protective cases for my NES Classic Edition, SNES Classic Edition & SEGA Genesis Mini. Now, I can play them whenever I want without trying to fit them back in their original boxes, which tends to be a real pain. Pic below...

All of this was about $75,
including shipping & taxes from Amazon.

19 October 2020

Found out that SEGA was having a 60th anniversary celebration where they were giving away free games on Steam. I got Sonic 2 for free and paid the sale price of $1.35 (including tax) for Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I picked up Sonic 3 & Knuckles just because it's so hard to find a copy of that title on ANY platform as part of any collection these days. For whatever reason, SEGA just doesn't include them in any of their numerous home console retro compilations. I suspect it has something to do with the music royalties that would have to be paid out to several artists since their work was used/sampled in the soundtrack to Sonic 3, including the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. Yes, he was involved at one point.

Both play through a larger program that's supposed to play about 50 old Genesis games called SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics. It's kinda like the Atari Vault program that I also have on Steam, except I have the option of picking and choosing which Genesis titles I want. I could have gotten them all for less than $10 through this sale, but I knew I wouldn't play them all. I generally don't like sports or RPG titles.

9 November 2020

Bought the new Super Mario 3D All-Stars, just to guarantee free shipping from Amazon while buying my nephew's Christmas present. It's nice to have a portable version of these 3 classic Mario games.

Also got Hotshot Racing from the eShop for the Switch, because I love racing games and it was on sale for $13.99.

17 November 2020

Got the new Game & Watch Nintendo released to honor the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. being released in 1985. As of November 25th, I am at World 8-4 with a fire flower. I have rarely ever done that before. Nice to know that my skills have not atrophied. This device also has the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 as well. That game is insanely hard, but I am up to World 3-1 in that game. That's the farthest I have ever gotten in that game.

So much joy (and frustration) in such a small package...

25 November 2020

Just spent several hundred Dollars on Christmas shopping for both myself and my family members. Half was spent on them, the other half on me. Most of the expenditures on me were on 4 different Switch games that I got from Wal-Mart for $30 or less per title. They are (with pics below) as follows:

Gear.Club Unlimited 2

Luigi's Mansion 3

Mega Man Zero / ZX Legacy Collection

Super Mario Maker 2

There would have been 2 more if not for them being sold out...

Also realized that I forgot to mention the 2 different Nintendo-themed Christmas ornaments that I bought last month. Pic below.

The NES console has sound effects from the first Super Mario Bros. game. So far, it's been a big hit with my relatives. The Zelda cart is also pretty heavy. I hope at least one of the branches on my fake plastic tree can handle it...

2 December 2020

All of those Switch games that I ordered from Wal-Mart's Black Friday sale have arrived.

The game with a big sticker on the front is Super Mario Maker 2.
Good thing that sticker in on the cellophane wrapping instead of the actual case.

Here's what the shelf for the Switch games looks like now. It has expanded past its little slot next to my WiiU games in what I'm guessing is an old desk organizer. I am not sure what I am going to do to fix that slight annoyance, but I will think of something...

The way this looks is seriously triggering my Asperger's...

And finally, we have some slim cases originally made for Mini-Discs, which I am using for loose GameCube discs.

I bought them not just for storing these loose discs in a new way. It was also a way to get over the $35 minimum needed to get free Amazon Prime shipping on the order. The cases that aren't being used now will just get added to the inventory for the retro game store that I really hope to open someday. I have a lot of empty cases that can be used for loose games of all kinds on numerous platforms. These cases are for GameCube, GameBoy, GameBoyAdvance, GameGear, slim jewel cases for standard-sized CD & DVD discs, PS2, SEGA Genesis, etc.

11 December 2020

I found a small work of art/display sign of the Atari Fuji logo on eBay a few weeks ago and ordered it ASAP. It arrived today and looks quite good sitting on top of the shelf for loose Atari 2600 cartridges in my game room. Pics below...

I put my copy of Alien vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar
behind the sign, just to give you an idea of its size.

Also, I did reorganize that shelf with the Switch & WiiU games in a way that does NOT trigger my Asperger's...

I am running out of room for more Switch games here. Not good.

26 December 2020

This Christmas was mostly movies and TV shows on DVD or Blu-Ray, at my request. I bought my own games during this year's Black Friday sales. There was only one gaming-related item for Christmas this year: a 3rd party joy-con grip for my Switch. I had a lot of trouble finding a listing for this device and any pictures. I did eventually find a listing on eBay, which is where I snagged this picture.

Would not have imagined my mother finding
something like this at a glorified dollar store...

I have never heard of this brand before. The box says it was distributed by a company called 1616 Holdings, Inc. That's the parent company for Five Below. I thought their primary demographic was teenagers. However, that would not necessarily stop my mother from looking around in a new dollar store. She's always hunting for bargains and always tells me when she finds good ones. You'd be surprised how little we end up spending on things like household cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, et al. just by going to Dollar Tree.

Anyway, The eBay listing was trying to sell this same item for $19.99, plus shipping and handling costs. Mom picked it up for $10. Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment purchase that became a stocking stuffer.

31 December 2020

Logged into Steam to see what, if anything, from my wishlist is on sale. Well, there was a lot. So much so that I am going to have to go get some more points cards to buy more games before the Winter Sale ends on January 5th. Today's purchases (and the last game purchases this year) were both Doom games. Specifically, Doom 64 and Doom Eternal. How fitting that a year that was nothing but doom and gloom would be finished off by Doom games that combined cost me around 26 bucks. Both are downloading as I write this entry in the blog post.

Doom 64 logo

Doom Eternal logo

And there you have it, folks. The end of a truly terrible year for all Mankind. I will not even say that I hope 2021 is going to be better. I am not expecting it to get better that quickly for a lot of reasons. Come what may, I still take solace in two important facts:

1.) The Lord is Sovereign.

2.) I am very well trained.

Best of luck to you all in the future. I hope that we have another of these game collecting misadventures posts for 2021.

- Lord Publius

The 'prepping' phenomenon and why it's a GOOD idea.

I'm going to split this up into easily digestible chunks. Expect salty language and lots of shitpost jokes. You are, after all, dealing with a Veteran that has ZERO fucks left to give.

1.) What is 'prepping' anyway?

'Prepping' is literally what it sounds like: Preparing for any and all imaginable emergency situations. That includes natural disasters, riots, war, disease outbreaks, alien invasions and/or the same kind of wrath that God unleashed on Sodom and Gomorrah. (Which you really should be worried about if you live in a place full of deviant sinners like California.)

The media will tell you that this is something that crazy people expecting World War Three or the Boogaloo would do. (More on the Boogaloo and the Media's lies about it will be discussed later in another blog post.) The Fake News Media used to call them Survivalists or Extremists, but they don't bother to hide their disdain anymore. They are, after all, assuming that all Preppers are Trump supporters, Republicans, Libertarians & gun enthusiasts. The truth is that Preppers can be anyone. 

They badmouth anyone who decides that getting ready for a potential crisis situation as being nuts. And as usual, the Media is full of shit. Prepping is not crazy at all. It's something that everyone does to an extent. Did you buy some non-perishable food, a 20 lb. bag of ice and extra consumable supplies before a hurricane? Did you make sure the car's gas tank is full before that hurricane? That's prepping right there! Being a New Orleans native, I can assure you that we all regularly do this kind of prepping down here, regardless of whether or not a storm is heading towards us. (Especially those of us who remember the really bad storms like Betsy, Camille and/or Katrina.) Even when we're not in hurricane season, I am still making sure that I have more-than-adequate supplies on hand. After all, some of that stuff is actually cheaper to buy when we're not in hurricane season.

That being said, this blog post is not just about being ready for a predictable natural disaster like a hurricane. It's going to be very generalized and I'm going to operate on the premise that you're on the run, fighting for your life in a warzone. Why? Because that is the ultimate disaster scenario. If you're prepared for that, you're prepared for anything else that's likely to happen. 

2.) Unusual methods of prepping that aren't necessarily for 'natural' disasters...

There's more to being prepared than just having extra food and ammo. Other things you keep around the house can also be useful in preparing for disasters. For example, keeping a few extra gallons of fuel in the garage. In addition to things like a bag of ice in the freezer, I tend to keep a few gallons of gasoline in my garage at all times. It's for my lawn equipment, but I can just as easily use it as fuel for my car or (if you're a veteran like me) ingredients for a number of booby traps and improvised weapons. No, I am not going to teach you how to use gasoline and other petro-chemicals to make your own incendiary devices. I don't need the Feds knocking on my door and you can find that info online with great ease. In fact, you can actually buy the Army field manuals that tell you how to do these things from Amazon. I am not kidding at all. I have looked them up and they are readily available and cheap. 

That being said, DON'T BE A DUMBASS and actually try any of that shit. Chances are good it won't be much help to you if you're under siege from Antifa Commies in your neighborhood. Just save the gas to burn their corpses after the firefight is over and you've emerged victorious. Can't be leaving garbage like that lying around. That would promote disease and then, unlike this Kung Flu bullshit, we'd have a REAL pandemic on our hands. :P

Speaking of which... when everyone panicked at the start of the COVID crap and bought all the paper products they could, I just laughed. I usually have months' worth of supplies on hand of items like that, as well as household cleaning chemicals, hand sanitizer & ammo for my weapons. In those areas, life was 'business as usual' for me because I was well prepared for supply interruptions. I was actually more worried about the food supply. Thankfully, food wasn't too much of an issue. The worse that happened was not being able to get my favorite brand of peas or any cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes for a while.

Why would I keep month's worth of Toilet Paper in my household inventory? Well, Sam's Club only sells it in bulk. For me, just one of these enormous boxes of paper towels or asswipes are enough to last me for months, maybe even a year. Prepping is pretty easy in that area. Yay Capitalism! I had lots of hand sanitizer on hand because I like keeping my hands clean. That's something you become rather obsessive about when you go through Basic Combat Training for the military. The Drill Sergeants will insist that you have a bottle on you at all times. Trust me, you want to keep as clean as possible in that environment. Living in a large bay with 50+ other recruits can get pretty toxic. That's also the same reason why I keep a lot of cleaning chemicals like bleach on hand. Nothing cleans the house better.

As for the ammo... Well, I remember the kind of chaos that happened after Hurricane Katrina. Chances are good that's going to mean needing much more than one or two boxes of rounds for a hand gun. So, I stocked up over the years. If that kind of post-hurricane anarchy (or any other kind of anarchy) happens again, I will be ready.

3.) Time to bug out...

"But what if I have to evacuate my home/leave town?" you ask. Well, there's a solution for that too. It's usually called a 'Bug-out bag' or something similar. Essentially, it's a bag with clothes, equipment and supplies that you keep at the ready in case you need to disappear fast. Some people keep it in their vehicle's trunk or backseat, some leave it at home in a state where they can just grab it and go. It can be similar in composition/load out as a hiker's backpack or a soldier's pack. However, that's largely based on what you want in the bag. It's up to you to decide what you will need for your unique environment/situation. I can only relay some general advice in this area.

Here's what the (perhaps self-styled) experts will say you should have...

- Water purification supplies (Portable water filter, purification tablets)

- Food Supplies (Snacks, Non-Perishables, MREs, can openers)

- Warmth Supplies (Cold weather gear, poncho, survival blanket, microfiber towels, et al.)

- Shelter and Bedding Options (Sleeping bag, tent)

- Fire Starting Tools (Waterproof Matches, windproof lighters, lighter fluid, flint sticks.)

- First Aid Supplies/Prescription Meds if applicable.

- Core Survival Tools (Compact Shovel, compass, multi-tool, folding pocket knife)

- Lighting Tools (Military Flashlight, glow sticks)

- Communication Devices (Extra cell phone batteries, solar chargers, walkie-talkies, pocket radio)

- Self-Defense Tools (Knife, Gun, Ammo, etc.) 

Source: https://americanpatriotsurvivalist.com/bug-out-bag-checklist/

My recommendations for additional bug-out supplies:

- Plan the bag for 72 hours' worth of misadventure. Anything more will make the bag too heavy to carry on your back. Pack 3 days of clothes, hygiene kit (This includes package of baby wipes for wiping after you shit in the woods. They take up less space than a roll of TP.), snacks, multi-tool, folding knife, med kit & sleeping bag in the backpack. Be sure to put clothing and towels into plastic/waterproof bags to keep them from getting wet. You may have to trudge through a river or get caught in the rain. You'll want to have dry clothes on hand to change as soon as you're in a dry place again. Walking around in cold weather soaking wet is just a good way to get sick. Also, be sure to have lots of extra socks and change them often. Otherwise, you'll eventually get athlete's foot or trench foot from your feet sweating inside your shoes/boots. Whatever weaponry you have should be hanging from your hips in holsters. Long guns (Rifles, Shotguns, et al.) should be carried at low-ready with a shoulder strap for when you need your hands free.

- Use a really durable bag. Military duffle bags are great for this purpose and easily/cheaply acquired at you local Army surplus stores. (Or, in my case, taking them home with me when I left the Army because the Central Issue Facility didn't want them back.) You can use specially made backpacks for this kind of thing like the EVATAC Combat Bag, but I don't want to spend the extra money. I already have the duffle bags from my time in the Army and I'm cheap/usually living paycheck-to-paycheck. If I don't have to spend money, I usually don't.

- Multi-tools are your friend... And reduce the amount of stuff you'll have to carry. I personally recommend using the Gerber Truss tool like the ones that I used in the Army years ago. They are durable and useful in all kinds of ways you'd never expect. I still keep them in my toolbox to this day.

4.) My recommendations for weapons:

- Have at least two knives: A good folding pocket knife and a KA-BAR. The pocket knife is essentially just another tool. The previously mentioned multi-tool has a blade, so you could substitute that for the folding knife, if desired. The KA-BAR is, obviously, intended to be a weapon here. It can be used as a tool, which Service-members have been doing since 1942. It's also your last line of defense when you run out of ammo... or you were a dumbass and let the enemy get within arm's reach. If that happens, use the KA-BAR to embrace your inner Michael Myers and gut that fucker like a fish. Speaking of fish, DON'T use it on any kind of food you plan to eat w/o thoroughly cleaning it first.

- Have a hatchet on hand to chop up tree branches for firewood. I personally recommend the Army Ranger Tomahawk or something similar. It has both an axe head and a knife blade, which will give you a third knife. (Or fourth, if you include the blade on the Gerber.) Yes, you do need ANOTHER knife. You can never have enough knives. Yes, you can also use this Tomahawk for a weapon. Why do you think they are issued to Army Rangers?

- Have a semi-automatic pistol with a large caliber round. If you have to shoot a wild animal or a Communist (which, honestly, is really two of the same thing), you're going to want to only have to shoot him once. A good 1911 chambered for .45ACP works great in this application. It puts a man down with only one round, and that bastard is going to stay down.

Screw Glocks and all this new-fangled plastic shit with no hammers. You want something relatively low-tech, reliable and easy to use/maintain. Remember, Civilization is probably dead and you're on your own here. Don't get fancy and leave NOTHING to chance. (Revolvers also work in a pinch, but keep in mind that they will not have as many shots before needing to be reloaded.)

- Have a good, easy to maintain rifle. Make sure it's semi-automatic and has a magazine for its ammo. Screw bolt-action. You need to be able to send rounds down range faster than that if you're in the middle of a war zone. (Snipers can use bolt-action if they want, since that is the standard for their weapons.) 

Choose whichever rifle you want. AR-15s using .223 rounds are popular and plentiful. Just keep in mind that they are NOT the same as military M-16s & M-4s or use the same rounds. For me, I think I'd prefer something a little more old school and well-proven against the Forces of Evil, like a M-1 Garand chambered in .30-06 Springfield. If they were good enough to help my grandparent's generation to smash the Axis Powers to rubble, they are also good enough for me.

- If you're going to be stuck in an urban environment currently suffering a societal breakdown, shotguns may be preferable to rifles. They take up less space and are much easier to wield when clearing rooms in buildings. Keep in mind that they cause a lot more collateral damage and do not have much in the way of range. They're still great for using as a 'trench broom' to clear out a whole nest of Commies all at once, though.

Also, shotguns can be a great makeshift flamethrower, if you have some rounds called 'Dragon's Breath' at your disposal.

I have never had a chance to fire some Dragon's Breath rounds, but I really do want some. Imagine shooting at some Antifa Commies with that stuff while said Commies also had a Molotov cocktail in their hands. The resulting fireball would give them all a taste of the Vatican's fictional 'Fire and Brimstone' Hell before they go and cause chaos in their ranks. Enemy infantry (for lack of better term here) is much easier to pick off when they are disorganized, demoralized and scared shitless.

- Keep a few condoms in your pack. Yes, they can be used for sex, but that's not why I'm recommending them here. They should be on hand so you can put them over the rifle barrel in bad weather or when hiking through muddy terrain. The condom will keep the barrel from getting full of sand, dirt and/or mud, all of which can really mess up your rifle. I picked this up from some Vets who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It worked wonders for them.

5.) Emergency Cash 

Not every gas station or small town general store takes credit/debit cards (especially in the middle of a disaster when power & internet access is probably out), so having some cash is quite advantageous. I recommend a minimum of a few hundred dollars in bills no larger than $20. Yes, places like this do still exist in the early 21st century. You may have to go to some strange place like rural Oklahoma to find them, but they do exist. 

Also, using cash makes it much easier to 'go off the grid' and hide out from whom/whatever is looking for you. That could be a hitman that the local mob boss sent after you. (Should have paid your gambling debts to your bookie...) Or, it could be something even scarier like a psycho ex-girlfriend. Use your imagination on that one. The possibilities for scary things are, unfortunately, almost endless. Remember the proverbial shit has officially hit the fan. You can't afford to take unnecessary risks. DON'T leave any paper trails.

6.) Technology isn't necessarily your friend.

Cell phones these days can be easy to track. I would recommend turning them off when you're on the run. This depends on who it is that might be chasing you and what kind of tech skills they have, but why take chances? Better yet, pull the battery and put the phone/battery into a metal box to block any chance of a radio signal getting to/from that phone. Remember, you're on your own with little chance of any help from anyone in anyway. Make yourself impossible to track.

Also, if you can afford it, I recommend having an old-school 4x4 that uses a carburetor and has ZERO electronics in its drivetrain. That kind of vehicle would be immune to electronic hacking & electromagnetic pulses. They're also relatively simple to work on yourself. The meme below goes into more detail.

I made a few other memes based on that theme, but those were for situations when you were staying in a city or hiding in plain sight. This one with the old-school 4x4 is for when the world has officially gone to shit. And that leads us to...

7.) Welcome to Hell, Soldier.

Assume the worst and be ready to do whatever is necessary to survive, escape, evade, resist and sabotage the enemy. Even if the enemy is just a bunch of idiot kids pretending to be 'Anti-Fascist', you should still assume the enemy is just as capable as you, if not more so. That means using asymmetrical & guerilla warfare tactics against them. Those Army field manuals are also available online and easy to find. (I am seriously surprised that Amazon would actually sell something like that...)

Finally, you have to mentally prepare for the absolute worst. You may well have to take life to protect your own and/or your loved ones. Remember, civilization is gone. You don't know when (or if) it's coming back. Until then, man will behave more like the beasts. Under those dreadful circumstances, the only law is the Law of Natural Selection. Act accordingly, or you may not live long enough to see civilization again.

- Lord Publius