Also, I preordered the Super Mario All-Stars for Wii. I'm going to keep it in the box, as I already have the game for the SNES (I'm aware of the book and soundtrack, but it'd be nice to have some sealed games laying around).

Wow! I haven't been on in over a month, as I've been pretty busy with the new games I've gotten. I got Super Scribblenauts, Rythm Heaven, Metal Gear, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros. 2 for my birthday, and I've been playing all of those. I did make it to level eight in Bettletoads, but I haven't played that a lot. I got a boatload of games for free, and most all of them are a blast. Overall, I've had a lot on my plate.

Pssh! I made it to the sixth level in no time. The sumo-rat-Dr. Octopus thing was a little daunting, but the surfing only took a little while to do. As for my current level, some of those snakes can go pretty fast. I'll get it soon enough.

Fifth level!! The spinies are a thing of the past; there's only a couple challenging parts of the ice world looking back at it. I probably will end up working on the fifth level (surfing) for several days. It seems pretty tough.

Made it to the fourth level in Battletoads (the ice world). The evil orange Spiny-like things are a pain, but the level's okay besides that.

Aha - Game A is totally solo. Thanks for the clarification.

Awesome - do I see battletoads? Good luck. I see so often people talking about the 3rd level being so tough. You'll get it after some memorizing.

After a nearly month-long delay, I'm back!! During this time, I bought a Super Scope with 8-ish games for $40, only to find out the thing didn't work. I was quite sad I had to return it, but now I'm glad I did. I've decided to hold off on all game-related money spendage until I have enough funds to purchase the 3DS and 2-3 games for it. The blasted thing's going to be around $250-300! That's a lot for a handheld! Ah well, I'm buying it anyway (mainly for the new OoT). Anyway, I've beaten ExciteBike and Super Mario Sunshine over the course of the month, and dabbled in several other games (particularly Robotron: 2084, Sonic 2, and Sonic Adventure). I got my new Nintendo Power today, and I was amazed. It came with a retro-ish poster and a huge article dedicated to NES gaming! I sat and read all of it to death, soaking in the 8-bit goodness. Afterwords, I played some Battletoads, which has also been taking over my time.

Nice going on Excitebike. I actually noticed your update from the backloggery Main page. Could you refresh my memory about what is different in Game B? Making tracks can be fun. Prepare to make notes on what a "D" ramp is, and an "R" ramp, etc. I still remember the very first time a friend and I tried out the Track design - he kept wanting me to put jumps on top of the big structures.

I can't say 100% if you mash just the A button, or both the A & B on excitebike. By now, I'm sure you know. Whenever I played, I mashed them both. If you haven't finished it yet, I'm sure you're close. It's so fun to crash into the other bikers and wipe them out - you just have to make sure you are a little ahead of their bike on the track.

Yeah, I'm trying it out on Monday, and I'm excited for it, because I've heard mixed things about it, but I also want another DK game to hold me over until Returns.

Don't forget about mashing those A&B buttons when you fall off your bike. I discovered this years after I had purchased the game. I could not believe I overlooked that for so long! Yeah, once you get the hang of landing your bike 'flat' after jumps, and maximizing your turbo almost to the point of overheating, you'll have no trouble. It's a fun one.

Still going on Zelda 2 as well?

Updates:
I got Hey You, Pikachu! in the mail yesterday after ordering it from Amazon for $5. It's okay, but I'm pretty sure it was intended for a much younger audience. I finally got around to fixing my toaster NES. I thuroughly cleaned all around the 72-pin connector, and now the picture quality is like the day it was manufactured! I had been playing my NES games on my toploader, and it always displays these vertical lines on the screen. Couple that with touchy RF connection, and you have some pretty bad picture! Anyway, I've been contemplating getting a Sega Master System. Apparently, I picked up third party SMS 3d glasses at a garage sale in a lot with 8 NES controllers, 2 zappers, etc. I would still need the card to connect the 3d glasses to the system, but at least I'm halfway there!

So, any excitebike lately? I've had plenty of fun with the NES and N64 versions.

From the times I've looked on ebay, it didn't seem like the Nintendo Power mags were all that expensive. Those early issues were the best - they had much more hand-drawn art, which is why I think a lot of people tend to hold those in higher regard.

I love looking at the Official Nintendo Player's Guide (it's actually part of my banner). I never owned one originally, but my friend did, and I remembered having so much fun looking through that thing that I eventually picked one up on ebay. Oh, and I still have my Nintendo Power collection (issues 1-135 or so). My subscription started with the 2nd magazine, so again, I had to use ebay to get that first issue.

This is another great site, which has lots of scanned maps:
[Link]

Just watch out for spoilers - I noticed Zelda 2 had 2 Hyrule maps (one says "unmarked" and doesn't reveal any secrets). It's kinda fun to look at those gaming maps, even when not currently playing the game.

Swampert ftw!
(Sorry for your loss)

Thanks for all the excellent comments. And that's really too bad about all your lost games.

How often are you playing Zelda 2? Are you progressing pretty quick? Oh, and if you ever needed scanned instruction manuals for those NES games, you can find many of them over at replacementdocs.com

Hi there, I've tried the virtual boy once in a store, but that's about it. I'm afraid I have no plans to buy it right now. I am in the middle of my N64 library (60% finished games), and have barely touched my Gamecube & Wii at the moment. I have some awesome games for those systems (zelda's, mario's, metroid's all untouched as of yet). I'l get to them some day.

I haven't been on in awhile, so here's what's going on:
I recieved a Pearl Blue GameBoy SP AGS-101 from my cousin for $20. The backlight is amazing, and I've found a new respect for my (now very colorful, not washed out) GBA games. I've decided that, from now on, I'm going to try to get all of my future NES/Virtual Boy games only if they're in the box. I should have done this when I first got them, but I was rather ignorant when it came to the importance of boxes back then. I only have two of my games in box for the NES (SMB 3 and ExciteBike), and none for the Virtual Boy. That will soon change.