Wrapping Up Christmas 2019

Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. But every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me this year!

Stocking Stuffers

I freakin' love stocking stuffers! Ever since I was a kid I couldn't wait to rip into the stocking on Christmas morning to find the cool little gifts Santa had brought in addition to all the edible goodies inside. This year was no different. I got a lot of my favorite retro sweets including an Astro Pop, Bubble Tape, Bazooka Bubble Gum, a Kool-Aid Candy Cane and Crisp Kringle! In addition to these I also received a Hickory Farms mini sausage, mustard and 2 more Transformers mini figures to add to my collection!

CROSSFIRE

Freakin' Crossfire!!!! This game has been around since 1971, but one can argue that it really caught fire in the late 80s & early 90s with the amazing marketing campaign that was released to televisions and depicted two young men locked in deadly combat over their Crossfire board. One would be crowned the victor while the other would be spun out viciously to an unknown dimension of pain and humiliation. At least that's how read into it as a kid. Never had this game growing up, always wanted it and finally got it in 2019! Let me say, it does not disappoint. Me and my son had a blast playing it, but the old school marketing was very misleading as I won and there was no fanfare or twirling loser at the end. DAMN!

Basketball Cards

I have been a collector of basketball cards since the early 90s when Jordan was causing the market to explode. I still pick up a few packs each year and try to get cards of my favorite players and top rookies. For Christmas I got a box of 2019-2020 NBA Hoops cards in the limited winter design. I did snag some cards of Zion Williamson and Ja Morant in addition to Shaq, Giannis and my recent fave player from the Brooklyn Nets Spencer Dinwiddie!

Movies!

I rarely make it out to the movie theater to see a movie above a PG rating these days, so my wife picked me up a great selection of movies I have missed over the last year. Included are Spider-Man: Far From Home, Shazam!, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Aquaman, and Venom. Can't wait to find the time to watch these flicks!

Stranger Things: Palace Arcade Mini Game

This machine is pretty AWESOME! It has 20 games built in including classics like Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian and Galaga in addition to having Stranger Things games based on favorites like Breakout and Tetris. This has gotten a lot of use around my house between me and the kids since Christmas.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1up Arcade Cabinet!!!!!

I had no idea my wife was getting this for me. When I got up with the kids in the morning, there was no large box under the tree and I was extremely happy with the gifts I had gotten. Then we went over to my wife's sister's house for dinner and I saw it!!! Surprise!!! She had been putting away a few dollars every time she went shopping and got this game on sale during black Friday just because she knew how much this game meant to me. She really is great and I was very spoiled this Christmas and this just made me want to scream out in joy. In all fairness this is a family gift and anytime it is played, there are at least 2 Turtles on screen battling the Foot Clan. I even got my wife to play through the entire first TMNT arcade game with me! 

Well, that's it for this past Christmas. I hope yours was merry, bright and full of good tidings. Now enjoy this NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 commercial from the 90's to tide you over until next year! Merry Christmas!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 8/26/19

Throw on your orange bandana and grab your nunchucks as we take you back! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK...

Artist: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Song: Pizza Power
Album: Coming Out Of Their Shells (1990)

Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: The TMNT Coming Out Of Their Shells Tour began at Radio City Music Hall on August 17th, 1990. This tour was sponsored by Pizza Hut where you could buy your own copy of the soundtrack. This song was used by Konami for the intro music to their arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time! You can view the video below.

It's time to Skate Again!!

This past weekend, I took the family skating at the local rink. I had not been skating in about 30 years! It was a friends birthday party at a place in Bushkill, PA and I know it was 1988 because this was the first time I heard the new smash hit song "Nightmare on My Street" from the up and coming rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It was so much fun and I was hoping to create those type of great memories for my kids. 

The place was a total throwback! From the airbrushed graphics on the walls, the skate shop, disco ball and black light special skates it was like I was back being a kid in the 80s.

I was a little scared to get back on the skates since it had been so long, but my kids took to it almost immediately. We took a few laps around on the carpet just so we could all get a feel for the wheels, but after that we hit the floor and didn't leave for about 2 hours. Yes, there were some falls and yes my son did take me out a few times, but it was so much fun!!!

They also had a small but pretty nice arcade inside the building. There were your standard games...

like Skee-ball. Which my youngest daughter hit the jackpot on.

Then there was this retro styled 50-in-1 arcade cabinet that had all the classics like Centipede, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and a ton more. My son decided to play Congo Bongo. I have not seen this game in decades and it took him out pretty quick. He wasn't too upset about that, but he was upset when he learned this machine did not spit out tickets.

With the arcade tickets they earned, my kids were able to get a few piece's of candy and a plastic lizard. I am so glad we decided to go. Not only was it a fun and enjoyable family day out, but look at that carpet in the picture above!!! I wish I could carpet my entire house with this stuff! If you have not been skating in a while and you have a rink near you, I highly suggest checking it out. It really brought back some great memories for me and I hope it can do the same for you.

Daddy/Daughter Day 2018 #2

Last weekend I took my youngest child (by 1 minute) out for a Daddy/Daughter day. The first thing we did was head over to Toys R Us to grab her a "Star Wars: Forces of Destiny" Princess Leia doll. Then after that she wanted to head to the arcade. Her twin brother had talked about it so much that she really wanted to go. The game she wanted to play the most was "Crossy Road"! I can't stand this game! It is one dollar per play and you only get 1 life! It's a sort of a "Frogger" clone where the goal is to cross the obstacles without getting hit. The only problem is there is only one button! That button moves you forward. One bad move and there is no turning back. WHAM! Dollar gone! Before I could even load my 4 quarters into the machine to play co-op with my daughter her turn was already over! We agreed to never play this game again and enjoyed the other offerings at the arcade including Space Invaders, Pac-Man Junior and Mario Bros. I got to play the Robocop pinball game and a round of pool with my 6 year old. It was fun, but we were getting hungry and headed to...

McDonalds for a Snoopy Happy Meal. My daughter opted for the cheeseburger Happy Meal and got the Baseball Snoopy toy. I had my usual Double Quarter Pounder with cheese meal. This was the first time I have had McDonalds new "Fresh" beef patties, and I gotta say I prefer the old beef patties. Maybe it's just because I'm used to the flavor of the old recipe, but something tasted a little off. It wasn't terrible, just not what I'm used to from the Golden Arches. Anyway after lunch we were going to catch a flick at the local cinema, but we have to get some rations. So we made our way to...

CANDY TOWN USA! I love this place. It is so retro from the candies they have available to the old school soda shop inside the store.

You want gummies? They've got walls of them! How about licorice, jawbreakers or Runts? They've got you covered! There are literally hundreds of varieties to chose from! And you get to mix and match and make your own variety pack. So amazing!

Throughout the store they also have vintage coin op machines like a strength tester, guess your weight machine and...

FREAKIN' ZOLTAR! He is not as cool looking as his counterpart from the Tom Hanks movie "BIG", but he does tell fortunes, his mouth moves and crystal ball glows! FYI, I am still only 6 feet tall and did not grow to 7 feet to chase my dreams of NBA stardom! Still fun though! We spent a lot of time at Candy Town, but we had to leave so we could catch our movie. We grabbed some Haribo SMURFS Sour Gummies and were off to see...

Peter Rabbit! My Mom read me these books as a kid and I have read them to my kids, so I was more than happy with my daughter's pick of movies. It was a pretty good kids flick and when it eventually is released on Blu-Ray/DVD, I'm sure we'll get a copy to add to our Easter movie rotation. If you have kids, I say give it a shot. Well, that was the last kid/dad day for a while! I wonder what their mom has ready for them? 

A Trip To Bones Arcade

Every now and then I like to take my son out on what we call a "Dude's Day". This is a day for just me and my son to go out without the girls and do the things he wants to do. Last week he planned the day out for us and off we went! The first thing we did was stop at the Lego Store. While we were there my son picked out a few pieces to make a Lego volcano and a Lego Shark to put in the volcano!

The next stop was to a place we had been wanting to go to for a while! It was a new arcade that opened a few months back. They had so many games in that place from Mario Bros. to Raw Thrills' Walking Dead game!

There was also a place in the back called "Pinball Alley" were they had at least 20 different pinball games to play. My son played the Jurassic Park game and he picked the South Park game for me, but the one I wanted to play the most was...

the Back To The Future Part II table! Unfortunately this one was out of order, but that didn't stop me from drooling over the artwork on this thing. They got Doc pretty close, but Marty...not so much!

After playing around in Pinball Alley, my son and I had a few cheeseburgers with fries and Root Beer for lunch at the arcade. It was pretty good. Then it was back to the games! We hit up the "Classics" section and played some Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong and one of my fave old school cabinets...Centipede with the track ball controls! I remember playing this same cabinet every time we had to go to the dentist. Yes, our dentist had video games in his waiting room and it was AWESOME!!!

We played a few more games of Crossy Road, Pac-Man and Mario Kart we hit up our favorite games in the place. Mine was Turtles In Time! Yes, I have played this game many times over the years, but not on a stand-up arcade cabinet. There is just something about playing a game this way that makes it 100 times better. My son's favorite game was a huge version of Space Invaders. This game was incredibly fun. It was like original Space Invaders with a twist. Each level had it's own unique challenge and there were mega power ups to use against the never ending rows of alien intruders. We made it to level 6 together and had a blast doing it!

We finished up our defense of the Earth and then we hit up the candy store and grabbed a bag full of delicious Gummy Sharks. We needed the candy because next we were off to the movie theater to see...

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle! Myself and my son both enjoyed the movie and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. If you havn't seen it yet, I would recommend checking it out. There are nods to the original film in the movie, but if you haven't seen the Robin Williams flick, don't worry, the story holds up on it's own just fine! We left the theater happy with our movie choice and my son requested we make one more stop...

GameStop that is! I got a gift card from my parents for Christmas and my son has been on a huge Sonic The Hedgehog kick lately so he picked out the Sonic Lost World game and I grabbed a used copy of Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition for $9.99. It was a great day and we had tons of fun. This weekend I'm taking my oldest daughter out for a daddy/daughter day. We'll see where she leads us. I'm sure it will be fun!

Pop Culture League Challenge: Arcade Memories

This week’s challenge to the Pop Culture League is to answer this question, What’s your earliest arcade or video game memory? I already discussed one of my earliest arcade memories in a past blog about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game. So instead of rehashing that story, I'll tell anyone willing to listen about my memories of The Simpsons Arcade Game!

The year was 1991, it was summertime and my parents decided to take the family on a trip to Hershey Park in Hershey, PA. My kids still don't believe that there is a real town in America built on a Chocolate brand with an amazing amusement park, chocolate factory and Hershey Kisses for street lights. Anyway, we loved that place. My favorite ride was a roller coaster called the "Sidewinder". It would take you through loops in the standard forward style, then take you back through the whole ride backwards! AWESOME!

My parents gave us all an advanced allowance, so we could buy food drinks or souvenirs. I want to say it was like $10? Instead of these usual purchases, me and my older brother found the park arcade and spent almost all of our money on one machine...The Simpsons Arcade Game!

This side scrolling 4-player adventure game blew our minds! The graphics were so smooth and well rendered, it was like you were in control of an actual episode of The Simpsons where Homer, Bart, Marge and Lisa need to save Maggie from Smithers and Mr. Burns.

We played and played and played until we finally defeated Mr. Burns and saved Maggie, only to watch the Simpsons throw away the priceless jewel that Smithers was working so hard to protect. THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN SET FOR LIFE! This ending was not very satisfying for a pair of kids who just spent a weeks worth of allowance each and an hour of their park time on a game, but man did we have bragging rights on the schoolyard for years to come!

That was the first and last time I ever played this game. It never received a proper home release on any Nintendo or Sega Systems. There was a Commodore 64 and an MS DOS port that were released, but those were not readily accessible. Then in 2012 an HD port of The Simpsons Arcade Game was available through Xbox Live and Playstation Network, but nothing can replicate the magic of playing a multi player arcade cabinet in public with other kids whose only bond is beating the game and having onlookers cheer you on til the end.

For more League Arcade Memories check out these guys:

The Last Hometown remembering Space Invaders

Mr. Smith reminiscing about Space Wars

Retro Ramblings: A Winner Is Him!

Green Plastic Squirt Gun visits Musée Mécanique

Nerd Nook takes us to Pizza Hut

Coleco Donkey Kong Arcade Game

Every summer our town has a huge flea market which I try to make it to. You'll find everything from used tools to artwork to vintage toys. This past year I was able to score a few carded WildC.A.T.S figures a box of Deathwatch 2000 cards and some Nintendo DS games. But the best pickup of the day had to be this vintage Coleco Donkey Kong table top arcade game from 1982!

The seller wanted a pretty high price for this item. He claimed it was something he didn't want to get rid of, but his wife was making him do it. I passed and figured I'd go back later and if it was still there, it was meant to be mine. I went back after searching about 100 tables and Donkey Kong was still on the table. I made an offer to the seller. He refused. In the end I paid him the asking price, but he did throw in a few Hot Wheels cars to sweeten the deal!

It worked and immediately reminded me of the scene from Gremlins where Stripe and his Mogwai buddies were playing the same game under the Christmas tree while Gizmo tooted his horn in the spirit of the season.

This past year a Reaction figure of Stripe was produced and included a mini version of the game. Of course I had to own that too. I added it to my collection this past holiday season.

I attempted to snap a pic of the screen, but it came out all blurry. Thankfully I was able to grab this off the website Geek Vintage. My kids and I enjoy playing this game from time to time. Sometimes it is frustrating and other times satisfying. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you reach the top and save your girl...only to have her get nabbed again by DK!

The artwork on this game is fantastic and definitely from the 80s. With a classic depiction of Mario and the pre-Donkey Kong Country DK without a tie. I always wanted one of these as a kid and the dream was realized in my 30s. Better late than never! Now enjoy some retro ads for the Coleco lineup of mini arcade games!

 

NECA Konami Turtles!

I may be a little late to the game on this one, but NECA will be releasing 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boxed sets based on the classic 1989 Konami arcade game! I must have these! Unfortunately, they will only be released as exclusives at this year's San Diego Comic Con. So this means that I, or the average Turtle fan will have to pay a premium to scalpers on ebay if we want the chance to own these beautiful figures.

One figure 4-pack will include the 4 Turtles, while the other includes 3 Foot Soldiers (Purple: Generic Foot, White: Knife/Sword Foot & Orange: Shuriken/Machine Gun Foot) and Shredder in all his 16-bit glory! Here is the description of the figures from NECA:

 "Cowabunga, dude! This SDCC-exclusive box set is based on the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4-player co-op arcade game and features brand new figure sculpts and deluxe packaging. Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael stand approximately 6” tall and feature over 30 points of articulation, including double knee joints to fully showcase their mastery of the martial arts. Special paint deco reflects the Turtles’ in-game appearance. The box set is packed with accessories, including signature weapons, interchangeable hands, pizza power-up and more. The set comes in gorgeous, display-friendly 5th panel window box packaging that re-creates the look of the actual arcade cabinet!"

Seeing these made the memories flood back. Not to brag but, me and my brother beat the entire game at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. The whole time we were freaking the Foot and mangling Mousers on our way to save April, kids were watching and waiting to see what would happen on the next cut scene. It was so satisfying to see the Technodrome totaled at the end. We felt like super stars that evening. I don't believe that these toys will ever make it to retail shelves, but I will hold out hope. For more info, pics and a video visit the NECA website by clicking HERE.