About PlayStation consoles and backward compatibility...

I was doing some online research to see if I had any PS1 games that didn't work with PS2. I don't. There are only 2 titles for PS1 that I would want that aren't compatible with PS2 and I already have the N64 version of one of those games. However, during my research, I discovered that all PS3 consoles, regardless of whether they had backward compatibility with PS2 or not, still play PS1 games. The PS3 also sets up a virtual memory card for you on the internal HDD. That is freakin' awesome. :)

And what was the first PS1 title I tried on my PS3? What else...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/196540-a-collection-of-activision-classic-games-for-the

Some would probably say that my Atari obsession is getting out of hand. It's easy to see why since I have collected 5 of the 2600 console, numerous copies of the Flashback machines and more than 100 cartridges for the 2600 alone. Not to mention the 5200, 7800 and Jaguar stuff that I own... Hell, I drove 4 hours each way to a game store in New Jersey yesterday just to get more old Atari games. (There will be a blog about that tomorrow.) However, those people just don't understand collectors. There's also a longer list of PS1 games (and a few PS2 titles) that won't work with my PS2 Slim but, I don't care. I don't own any of them and I never will.

This doesn't mean that I'm going to get rid of that PSOne that I recently acquired for $20. However, it does mean that I don't have to have so many consoles plugged into a TV at the same time. That is a semi-big deal since I'm living in what is basically a studio apartment right now. However, that will change soon.

- Lord Publius

Doom Guy's Mind

Oo-rah! This guy is what I call a Fucking MARINE!!! Too bad that I never could have been that bad ass...

- Lord Publius

Brutal Doom Review

I MUST PLAY THIS MOD!!!

- Lord Publius

Why I think 'Autism Speaks' is a sick joke that no one should find funny...

I just read the editorial that made John Elder Robison decide to resign from his position with Autism Speaks. I don't blame him. The author portrays all autistics as being low-functioning and helpless. That is both patronizing and insulting, not to mention completely false. It's also why I think of that organization as a fraud and more of a hindrance to the neurologically different than an asset.

Also, I disagree with the notion of a 'national plan.' Educational programs should NEVER be decided by the Federal government. They have no Constitutional authority to do so and, as the No Child Left Behind Act proved, 'one-size-fits-all' solutions in that area just don't work. Different states have different needs from their educational systems.

For example, Michigan has a great need for auto shop classes since that is the home of the American auto industry. Oregon however, would not need quite as much in that area. My home state of Louisiana has a need for Earth Sciences and Agriculture because of our export crops (Sugar Cane, Soybeans, et al.) and the booming oil industry. New Jersey however, would not.

That is why the 10th Amendment specifically says that any power/responsibility NOT given to the Federal Government by the Constitution will automatically go to the States and the People. (In Constitutional language, 'the People' refers to local governments like City Hall, the County Seat, Parish Council, etc.)

I don't know anything about the lady that runs Autism Speaks (except that she obviously doesn't speak for me or anyone else on this 'Autism Spectrum' the Shrinks invented) but, she sounds like a Democrat to me. Advocating for National solutions that violate Constitutional law, using that overly emotional and logically fallacious 'It's for the children!' argument... Yeah, that sounds like a modern day Democrat alright. Lousy Statist...

When will those people learn that ANYONE with sense, including those of us on this 'Spectrum', do NOT want the Feds CONSTANTLY sticking their nose in our business? The only thing I really want from the Feds and people like her is to be left alone.

- Lord Publius

My collections have become Monsters...

I have some very large collections of varying forms of entertainment. Granted, it did take a lifetime to build up this collection but, I still feel mighty impressed with myself for acquiring them. Anyway, here's a brief list of the 3 major collections. I decided not to list the collections for things like Books and those toy cars (most of which are from Hot Wheels) that I have in storage for my future children to play with someday.

So, without further ado...

HOME VIDEO COLLECTION

Blu-Ray (BD) - 44 Titles, many of which are movie collections or TV Season/Series Box Sets.

DVD - 277 Titles, many of which are movie collections, TV Season Box Sets or bonus discs that came with a Blu-Ray release.

UMD - 18 Movies

VHS - 79 Tapes, some of which are episodes of TV Shows

MUSIC COLLECTION

Box Sets (All formats) - 16
Cassette Albums - 38
CD Albums - 400
LP Albums - 394
Singles (All formats) - 66

Grand Total:

832 Albums (All formats)
16 Box Sets (All formats)
66 Singles (All formats)
914 Individual Physical Recordings on all formats, the vast majority of which is Rock'N'Roll. \m/O_O\m/

VIDEO GAME COLLECTION

(Software only, not including Plug'N'Play machines and/or Pong Boxes. Many of these titles are 'greatest hits' collections, which is why there are more games for systems than titles.)

Atari

Atari 2600 - 91 Titles, 91 Games
Atari 5200 - 12 Titles, 12 Games
Atari 7800 - 6 Titles, 6 Games
Atari Jaguar - 5 Titles, 5 Games

Atari's main competitors in their glory days

Colecovision - 10 Titles, 10 Games
Mattel Intellivision (INTV) - 11 Titles, 11 Games

Microsoft

Microsoft XBOX - 14 Titles, 14 Games
Microsoft XBOX 360 - 3 Titles, 3 Games (All of these were included on the same disc as the versions for the original XBOX.)

Nintendo

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) - 68 Titles, 72 Games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) - 21 Titles, 33 Games
Nintendo 64 (N64) - 47 Titles, 53 Games
Nintendo GameCube (GCN) - 44 Titles, 145 Games
Nintendo Wii - 38 Titles, 67 Games
Nintendo WiiU - 6 Titles, 6 Games
Nintendo Gameboy (NGB-GBA) - 49 Titles, 78 Games
Nintendo DS (NDS) - 32 Titles, 162 Games (includes the 3 titles built-in to the DSiXL)
Nintendo e-Reader (ERDR) - 14 Titles, 14 Games (105 Cards Total)
Nintendo 3DS - 9 Titles, 9 Games

SEGA

SEGA Master System - 3 Titles, 3 Games
SEGA Game Gear - 4 Titles, 4 Games
SEGA Genesis - 22 Titles, 27 Games
SEGA Saturn - 4 Titles, 4 Games
SEGA Dreamcast - 14 Titles, 14 Games

Sony

Sony PlayStation (PS1) - 7 Titles, 7 Games
Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) - 17 Titles, 124 Games
Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) - 16 Titles, 97 Games
Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) - 12 Titles, 12 Games

OTHER

DVD Games - 3 Titles, 3 Games
IBM-Compatible PC - 49 Titles, 431 Games

And these collections only get larger by the day... Well, the game collection anyway. I haven't added much to the music and home video collections in the last 2 months or so. Believe it or not, I haven't run out of space yet. And it's going to stay that way since I'm going to stop collecting for a while after my Christmas shopping is done. 2014 might be financially difficult since I'm switching careers. Also, if all goes according to plan, I will be making some additions to the number of game consoles that I own. However, that is another story for another blog post. Stay Tuned...

- Lord Publius

ADDENDUM - 14 Nov 2013:  The weekend hasn't even started and I've already made some pretty sweet addition to the game collection. Another post like this one with the updated list will be made available once the weekend is over on 18 Nov 2013.

Wheelin' and (perhaps shady?) dealin' in the local used game scene...

I had an interesting experience tonight while out spending money on old video games. I may have mentioned it before or not but, there's a small independent game store here in Frederick called Play Raven. I buy from them all the time. The owner and I are on first name basis. I'm not sure how that happened so fast but, it doesn't bother me. He's also aware of this blog's existence and has seen the posts of mine about what I'd do if I owned a record/game store. He liked and used some of my ideas. I told him he could use whatever ideas he wanted since any future store of mine will be in NOLA and definitely not compete with his at all.

Anyway, I went there tonight to get an old NES game he had been holding onto for me, Captain Skyhawk. I have been trying to find this game again for years. In addition to that, I managed to score a few other things on my list and some things that just screamed out 'buy me!' The complete list of stuff I got from him tonight is as follows:

NES

Captain Skyhawk
Gauntlet (Tengen cartridge)

GBA

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
The Legend of Zelda (Classic NES Series)

N64

Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition
Tetrisphere

Unfortunately for me, the labels on Bust-A-Move 2 and Gauntlet are either damaged or covered by a damned Blockbuster sticker. That makes me glad that Blockbuster is largely a thing of the past. Bastards... However, both of them combined were $8 so, I won't complain.

Now, comes the interesting (and perhaps) shady part. Some strange guy from another town came in with a few items to sell, including a purple GameCube and various titles for N64, GCN, Dreamcast, PS2 & PSP. The store owner did buy/trade for the GameCube and a N64 game that people had asked him for: Ogre Battle 64. This guy also had an old Atari Jaguar game cartridge in that box he brought in with him: Cybermorph. I had that game once, back when I owned an Atari Jaguar. It wasn't all that great then and it hasn't aged well since. It was also the cheapest Jaguar game that I bought new back in the day. I believe it was only $10 but, it could have been $20. Either way, it was probably the worst choice for a pack-in that Atari could have chosen. Not only was it flawed but, it didn't show off the console's power at all.

Anyway, I began talking to the guy. After selling me a loose copy of Jet Force Gemini for N64 with its manual right there in the store (sorry if I over-stepped my bounds, Victor), he mentioned having a treasure trove in his car trunk. 'Treasure trove' are my words because I don't know what else you call a bunch of mint condition complete-in-box Jaguar games in a car trunk. I have to admit that it sounded too good to be true but, they were really there.

I look through the wares and he did indeed have some of the games that were on the printed list I bring with me to that store. Next time I go, I should bring a laptop so I can show Victor the HTML manifest (and the original spreadsheets) of my collection so he knows I'm not exaggerating when I talk about my game collection being huge. There was all kinds of unusual things in that trunk, including European Dreamcast games and a Jaguar CD game that I knew to be crap. However, I was more interested in the Jaguar cartridge games. All of them were mint condition and complete in the box, like he said. It was a sight that was almost too good to behold. I had heard of virtually every title in that trunk and for $42 cash (the answer to the ultimate question!), I walked away with complete copies of Checkered Flag, Club Drive, Hover Strike, I-War & Iron Soldier.

I had Checkered Flag and Iron Soldier back in the day. I wanted Hover Strike but, the Jaguar left  the market before I could get a copy. The other two are just games I want to try, despite having bad reputations with critics. Also, when I say 'complete in box' I mean the cartridge, instruction manual and box. Not all of these games had the overlay for the number pad on the Jaguar controller. However, the games that really needed one have them in the box. Also, I don't believe Checkered Flag came with one. I don't remember having an overlay for that game in the 1990's.

Anyway, I have Jaguar games again and that strange individual (whose name is Craig) has a way of contacting me when he finds the other Jaguar stuff on my list.

I have a few reservations about making these deals in the parking lot outside of Victor's store. Craig wasn't going to sell/trade those games to Victor anyway (I don't know why) but, something about this seems a bit wrong. That's why I used the word 'shady' in the title for this post. Sorry if I stepped on any toes, Victor.

Two things are certain though:

1.) For $100.88 (including tax), I have added some really cool stuff to my collection tonight.

2.) I can now add to the number of systems for which I have games but, no system. That list is as follows:

- Atari 5200
- Atari 7800
- Atari Jaguar
- Colecovision
- Mattel Intellivision (A friend at home in NOLA has one to sell me when I move back home.)
- SEGA Game Gear
- SEGA Master System (A SEGA Genesis Model 1 with the Power Base Converter will also do.)

At this rate, I just might have enough old games in stock to open an old game store someday, as I have dreamed about for at least 10 years now. Lord knows I have enough duplicates of certain very popular titles. That, however, will be for another blog post...

- Lord Publius

Is this your jam?

The place where I work plays various Satellite Radio stations on the PA system. There's also this guy there (a mechanical contractor working for a company contracted to upgrade the HVAC systems) that constantly asks me if the song playing on the PA system at work is 'my jam.' Usually, I don't like or dislike the song. I simply just don't care about the kind of lame Pop music that SiriusXM usually plays on their '70's on 7' and '80's on 8' channels.

I'm not even sure that I would want to use the phrase 'my jam' or anything derivative of it since that little shit-stain Justin Bieber recently described a few old-school MetallicA songs as 'his jam' (as if that band didn't have enough issues with it's public image as of late...)  but, he keeps asking... Every damned day I see him... At least a hundred times... and he never gets the hint that he's being a pest. They could put on a Country station (bleech!) and he'd ask that damned question. Even after me answering him with something like 'Fuck no, I don't like this Hillbilly-fucking-your-sister-in-the-back-of-a-beat-up-old-Ford-truck-BULLSHIT', he still doesn't get the hint.

Anyway, the conversation with the contractor normally goes something like this...

Contractor: Is this your jam, *real name redacted*?

Me: No.

Contractor: Then, what do you actually like? You seem to know all the songs they play but not like any of them.

Me: The stuff I like is the stuff the company wouldn't have the balls to play on the PA system. The reason I know these songs is because I've heard them all a million times.

However, if he really must know, then here is something that could be considered 'my jam'...

Black Sabbath - God Is Dead?

Sorry you asked? :P

\m/O_O\m/

- Lord Publius