The Grand Emperor's Retro Video Gaming Blog

In part 1 I gave a brief description of my experiences with Atari’s, specifically the 2600. I also left off telling you that I had finally gotten a 2600 Jr. I have been shopping for a another 2600 for about 2 months but had yet to buy, since as I said I have more important things money needs to go to. Finally though things worked out to where I had about $50 on me to get a new system, in mid-September. I started out on Ebay watching this “Darth Vader” system with games and adaptors, but I couldn’t get the seller to answer my questions and the thing sold very quickly. Luckily I had a few other systems in mind, but that weekend the pickings where slim. As I looked at all of them though there was one thing that had occurred to me most of them looked nothing like the 2600 I use to have, there where the “Darth Vaders”, the “Woody’s”, the “Heaver Sixers”, and so on. Then when I was looking at a 7800 it hit me that my last system resembled the 7800 with it’s looks and switches, b...

Do you have a favorite game that us totally obscure? That one game you spent hours playing that leaves your friends scratching there heads when you call out its title? I have to think no matter what the platform is we all have a game like that. Probably one my all time favorites was actually on the Commodore 64. It was an Activision title called Park Patrol. Let me guess you never heard of it. My Mom bought this home for me one day after "bargin hunting" at a local store that carried games. At first I wasn't to receptive, but after playing it for a while it became a favorite.  Park Patrol was a cartridge game for the C64. On my SX-64 the cartidge slot was under a trap door on top, I liked cartridge games on this system because they where as easy to use as a cartidge on a Atari and loaded up right away. The basic concept of the game was that you where a Park Ranger, yes I know go figure in a game named Park Patrol . Anyway, you play as either a male or f...

The year was 1990 and after getting an NES for Christmas of 1989 I decided I wanted to get a Gameboy that Spring. The portable gaming thing on the level of the Gameboy was still a fairly new concept, and after being one of the last kids out of the gate with my NES, I wanted to be the first out of the gate with a Gameboy. So I conned either my sister or my Mom to put the Gameboy on layaway at Wal-mart for me and with my allowance money paid it off after 10 weeks. I got my Gameboy only about a year after it came out, and I was the first kid at my school to have one. It was an amazing experience I could game away hours on Saturday’s sitting in the car on shopping trips, in doctors office waiting rooms, or while my parents watched something boring on TV. But with a Gameboy I had to spend a ton on batteries, and I had to choose to whether to buy NES games or Gameboy.    To say the least both my Gameboy and NES got set aside when I got into PC gaming in the mid-90’s. For ...

I’m not stranger to Atari’s, or its compatibles. As a small boy we had Coleco Geminis, Sears game systems, and actual Atari’s. I remember when I was 5 or 6 we fried a the Colecos, and the Sears, of course we are talking between 1983 and 1985 when these systems where a dime a dozen and my folks could pick up replacements for a few bucks. After we fried the last Sears system, my Mom came home with a 5200 and some games one day. No matter what anybody says about the 5200, I loved mine it was awesome, but that’s a story for a different time. By about 1988 it became apparent I wasn’t finding anymore games for the 5200, and for Christmas that year my folks and sister chipped in and bought me a 7800. One problem, though I plugged the 7800 in and it didn’t work, at all. So after the new year I got dropped off at Toy’s R’ Us with the receipt and I was told I could get a new one or buy what I want with the money back, which was a bit over $100.00 since 7800’s where $99.99. I decided...

So it's a rainy day here in Chicago and I have been listening to podcasts all day about retro gaming including one about old Commodore 64 games, and I was suddenly transported back to being a kid. You see on rainy chilly days like this that happened to occur on weekends my Mom and Sister would head to the mall, usually picking days my Father was at the firehouse so my Mom wouldn't have to sneak her newly bought treasures in the house .  Back in those days and by that I mean the late 80's to early 90's just about every mall had a computer store. Sure you could find NES games, and Sega games there but they made it about the computer. Do you remember that? It was all about the showroom, the carpeted floors, the few working display models on little  desks with office chairs.  In the late 80's I remember this one store that specialized in Amiga's and those very early IBM's and compatibles with Windows, but still very much DOS based.  You walked i...

The Grand Emperors Classic Post  -  Originally Published October 19th, 2013 I finished Assassins Creed 3 this weekend after playing it for the past 10 months, off and on. Being a gamer with a life, and having my eldest son being at a very impressionable age, I have often found myself having to play games like this after he and my wife go to bed late Friday nights. To say the least your talking 11:30PM or Midnight before I start playing, which after getting up very early to get to work on that same day leaves me slow to think and react in the wee small hours of the morning. The game was entertaining  in many spots, but to be honest I felt lost most of the time, and the constantly chasing people through the streets thing got old fast. So if you where to ask me if I think I might ever play another Assassins Creed game again I'd have to think about it.   Now, I know this is a retro-gaming blog and you don’t want to hear about Assassins Creed 3 , or XBOX...

The Grand Emperors Classic Post - Originally Published October 18th, 2013 Welcome to my Retro-Video Gaming Blog!! In case you can’t tell by the title I’m not a hardcore gamer mostly because I have a life going on, you know the whole full-time job, long commute, married, kids, scouts and sports on the weekend, taking care of the house kind of thing. When I was younger I was into games hardcore, I was a huge fan of the Command & Conquer franchise, I played The Sims for hours, I love any kind of combat flight sim,and  the Gran Turismo series on Playstation 1 & 2. Truth be told I have been into games of all types on a lot of platforms for a long time, and I remember having nothing but hours of time to sit around playing games on my downtime. Now though not so much, but you know what I don’t entirely mind, because (I know it sounds corny but...) being a family man is an adventure of its own.   Anyway to get on with it, I’m new to the retro-game m...