Super Mario: Profile of a Plumber

If you were alive in 1985, you were playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES. stomping on Goombas, dropping Bowser into lava and finding Warp Zones. This was pre-internet, so one of the only ways to find out the most valuable game secrets was by word of mouth. Sometimes these tips were total crap other times they were as valuable as gold. Who would have thought that over 30 years later these Italian plumber Brothers from Brooklyn would still be as popular and recognizable all over the world. Back in the 80s you had Mario's face on everything from t-shirts to fruit snacks and today you can still find him on...t-shirts and fruit snacks. Looking around my house, I guess I didn't realize how much stuff I owned with the Super Mario branding on it. Here are a few selections from the collection:

 World of Nintendo: 8-Bit Mario (JAKKS Pacific, 2015)

 Happy Meal: Mario Ball (McDonald's, 2006)

 Mario Kart R/C Racecar (Tomy, 2010)

 Super Mario Bros. Movie Card Box (Skybox, 1993)

 Super Mario Candy Filled Barrel (Au'some Candy, 2013)

Nintendo Comics System: Gameboy #1 Comic (Valiant, 1990)

Mario is such an endearing character. I loved reading the Nintendo comics from Valiant. These included Mario, Legend of Zelda & Captain N: The Game Master. I used to study those books, looking for recognizable characters. Ohhh, there's a Shy Guy! The art was great, the stories were fun and the characters are classic. Someone should really look into putting out a collected version of these comics sometime soon. I would pick that up in a second! Maybe this will happen around the same time they re-release Nintendo Cereal System?

Retro Arcade: Atari 2600

I was visiting our local classic gaming store/pawn shop a few months back. They have a great assortment of games for the old NES, Super NES, Genesis and any console since then. Usually the place is overpriced, but today they were running a sale on all Atari 2600 cartridges at $1 each! I dug through the pile and surprisingly they had no E.T. or Pac-Man games, but here is what I did find:

Adventure (Atari 1978)

Baseball (Sears 1978)

Basketball (Atari 1978)

Centipede (Atari 1982)

Pole Position (Atari 1982)

Q*Bert (Atari 1987)

Space Invaders (Sears 1980 & Atari 1980)

Overall, not a bad haul for just $8. I would have paid 20 times that amount for the artwork alone! Some of my favorite classic video games include Space Invaders, Centipede and Pole Position. I had never played Adventure before, but my interest was piqued when I heard that this game contained the first ever Easter Egg in a console game. Basketball and Baseball I grabbed just because I am a fan of sports and sports games and Q*Bert, where do I start. I get so frustrated with the game enough so that I claim "I will never paly this damn game again!" of course I do and then remember why I hate it so much. But Q*Bert the character is one of my faves. He is so iconic and AWESOME! He keeps dragging me back in with his cuteness. Who can forget his appearances in Wreck It Ralph or his cartoon show on Saturday Supercade? Why does this game suck so much! Is it time to get the Atari out of my Mom's attic and try this one again?