I meant to post about this previously, but there's a lot of things I meant to post about previously, and unlike those I remembered this one. Sort of.

What I meant to post was how if you played The Simpsons Road Rage on Christmas Day, you would be able top play as Christmas Apu. So, just in time for New Year's, I'll remind you that you can play as New Years Krusty (scroll down to "Seasonal Characters") on guess when, yep, January 1st. I believe there are cheat codes to play as these characters, and there's always the option of adjusting the clock on your PS2, but it's always more fun to discover this for the first time, on the associated holiday.

Happy New Year. (No exclamation point since I kind of just said it. In my head, there was no exclaiming, so no need for the vertical punctuation that we all love and probably tend to overuse.)

On that note, I believe !!! has a new album out.

A recent post (Mission in Snowdriftland) and the ensuing dialogue at Armchair Arcade reminded me of this Christmas oriented platform game. If the presents are already wrapped, and it's time to kick back with an egg nog or some hot cocoa, then visit the Playdo Christmas page and try Save the Santa.

It took awhile to find. Many Google searches proved fruitless. It wasn't until I found Save the Sheriff that I found my way to Playdo and the Save the Santa.

I hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I said that now in case there's not another post. I'm actually surprised there's even this one.

I'm not even sure if I should link to such a thing, ok I'm kindof (seriously, kindof should be one word, without the space, think kinda, then do the proper pronunciation, sometimes that's fun) sure I should since it is relevant (to what I'm not sure, social mores in post-milennial America perhaps.) Scantily clad women have long been a successful marketing ploy for beer, bikinis, beer, men's magazines, beer, women's magazines, lingerie, beer, calendars, and beer. Did I mention beer?

No longer are pixelated maidens alone on their glossy packaging in encouraging video game sales. Now we have real live amateurs baring much to peddle PS3s on eBay. (NSFW - Not Safe for Work, for you home gamers, because of ads for other adult sites). Oh, and one professional. (SFW, but a link could probably make it Not So Safe for Work (NSSFW) very quickly.

Here's a link with less pics, but more safe. (LSBMFFW - Less Pics, but More Safe for Work)

The Nintendo Wii needs no such marketing to sell. It's inherently sexy.

To quote Devil Ducky: I like go-karts... VROOM VROOM.

Any kid with an Advent calendar knows there's few days remaining before Christmas, Although I'm sure most really don't need that calendar to remind them, and there's enough of them that think the few are still to many (Patience, children, patience.) Nintendo has a nice twist on the Advent calendar. They call it Mission in Snowdriftland. Why not count down the days with a classic style 2D side-scrolling platformer? Quite fun. Not simple. And the teeth won't be rotted out from getting the candy behind each door. Here there's a new level to play each day as Christmas approaches. So since I'm a bit tardy in this posting, there's currently plenty of available levels for sinking your teeth into.

The game was apparently designed by extra toxic. I mention this because if you click through to their web site and then get all clicky with their navigation, the animated robotic fellow moving the mini-screen around is pretty unique. Nice job all around.

When I read this strip from Running in the Halls, I knew I wanted to post about it. I am that strange breed of adult that confounds the younger folk with video game knowledge. And it's really not so strange, my generation grew up with video games, and for the most part they are certainly more geared for adults than they were years ago. But I don't think it's the adult thing that stops many from continuing playing. It's the time thing.

I really just like this Running in the Halls strip. I'm not certain how I feel about this post. If this post was an action movie, some car chase scene with lots of explosions would try to save it. But it's not a movie. And car chase scenes don't save a piece of shit movie.

Not that I feel this way about this post. I'm actually starting to feel a bit better about it.

The lone blogger clicks save and rides off into the sunset.

Apparently the folks at Dueling Analogs do, as well.

I'm trying to find this other web comic I thought I bookmarked the other day. It's starting to irritate me, bookmarking is easy. I'm having doubts about my level of competence if I can't bookmark. Must be a software issue.

At least it lead me to Dueling Analogs. And perhaps I will check it out again before I forgot that it exists anymore like I do with most webcomics. Maybe I really don't know how to bookmark.

But I kow how to link. I will link to my other post about Beyond Good & Evil. It worked, didn't it?

Grand.

(I've never used grand like that before, but figured it was fair use of the word in a way it's no longer used in the common vernacular, or may never have been.)

I was picking up the kids' Christmas pictures (aka our Christmas cards) at JCPenney the other day, when I came across the Midway Arcade. The baby fell asleep in the stroller, and this arcade machine intrigued me more than shopping for Christmas presents. (Giving is cool, it's the shopping part that can be a nuisance.) Anyway the last player had been playing Defender, so I tried that out first. The controls were stiff, but the old games are much better played with a joystick than with your corporate-issue Sony Playstation controller. I tried Wizard of Wor next. I hadn't played that one since my Atari 800XL days, so that was a real treat, untril I got treated to a beat down after about three levels. Nowhere near "The Arena" (level 8), but they say those reflexes slow down with age, so I guess its downhill after age 11.

Scrolling through the selection screens I found something named Timber. I had never heard of this game before so I gave it a shot. You have X amount of time to chop down X amount of trees without them falling on you or getting hit with beehives hurled horizontally by an angry bear. Perhaps this was some sort of environmental statement against the logging industry when it was released. I have to admit it was kind of fun, a gave that game a couple plays, before moving on to Sinistar.

I know Sinistar has a strong following. All I remember in my arcade days was hearing taunt of Sinistar while I was busy with Galaga or something else. I don't know why the machine never piqued my interest, but I'm not ashamed to admit it. Needless to say I was not very good at it. Mining for crystals didn't get me too far before ol' Skullface reared his ugly head and put the kabosh on my futile efforts.

In addition to Wizard of Wor, Defender, Timber, and Sinistar, the Midway Arcade also includes Robotron, Joust, Root Beer Tapper, Rampage, Satan's Hollow, Bubbles, Splat!, and Defender II. For $379 (currently on sale, regularly $499), not such a bad buy. Personally I'd rather have a pinball machine, if I'm going to have a furniture sized piece of arcade hardware, but the price does not seem too bad.

Now I know I'm bigger now than when I was eleven, but I'm sure this has a smaller screen than the typical arcade game, and the placement of the screen was quite low. I would have preferred something with a more upright picture like Centipede, as would my neck if I was to put in the hours like I once did. A coin slot would be nice, too, then I could put it in the waiting room of my business, and have it pay itself off.

This post may or may not also appear at Armchair Arcade. Actually, right now it does under all blogs. Oh no, it looks like I have another blog.