Sorry this is a little late, I was out all day and just got back into to post this and was having some issues with the site.

In this blog you will find my setup for Wii and Gamecube.

Nintendo Gamecube


This is my black Gamecube with my two memory cards.


The only accessories I have for the Gamecube, one purple and one black (which I just found to take the picture and forgot to clean first :( ) and the mic from Mario Party 7.


A game loading screen from Gamecube, which looks pretty good to me still.


Another view of the screen.

First up is my Gamecube. The Gamecube actually didn't belong to me originally, it was actually my brothers, but, he isn't that into games so he gave it to me after a year or so. My brother got this as a Christmas gift in either 2004 or 2005. It's a black Gamecube that came in the Mario Party 7 Gamecube bundle. With the game...

As requested, I'm going to be doing a series of blogs showing my Game Setups/Collections. Originally, I was planning to separate by company, i.e. Nintendo, Sony, etc. but I just decided it would be easier to show them as I have them set up since some are mixed together.

Right now, I would say my games are still a work in progress. I've been gaming since the days of the NES, but wasn't as serious about it until recently. As a kid I didn't play that often, just a few times a week and skipped a few consoles and a couple of the consoles I bought a few years after they were released when they were about ready to be replaced. I got a little more serious about gaming during the DS Lite / Wii time frame, but even then, I would game for a while and then stop for a few months. Generally, I would buy a new game, play it until I got bored or frustrated and then stop for a few months until I would get a new game or wanted to play again.

I got a new system last November...

Here I am again, with another debate

Okay, so anyone that has been reading my past few blogs already knows I'm interested in getting either a Gameboy Advance SP+ or a Gameboy Micro. I've been searching for a few weeks now, no stores around me have them new, which I really wasn't expecting to find anyway. I checked at Gamestop and Play N Trade, none of them have Micros, but they all have SP+ for $40. The biggest issue, is most of them are pretty darn scratched up. I'd like one in perfect shape, but that seems like it is impossible to do unless I find one that is new, which I don't really want to spend the money on.

Now, I'm pretty much ready to make the purchase, I just need to decide which way I want to go. So, here are my options:

Gameboy Micro with three games I'm not interested in at all and one I'm somewhat interested in, complete with box, manuals, etc. Comes with a case and such, also nothing I'm that interested in. System was owned by...

I have always been a gamer that has a ton of games and the majority of them unfinished. From the time when I first started gaming I would start playing a game and play it all the time, then get a new game and the one before it would get put to the side, usually never played again and definitely never solved. I realized recently how bad this has been getting, I have huge backlogs for all of my systems, all for games I've started and never finished. Now that I keep finding new games for next to nothing, my backlog has just been growing. I've now started working on completing the games that are in my backlog.

Even though I've been gaming most of my life, actually solving games is a new addition to my gaming experiences. Because I haven't solved many games it still feels like a great accomplishment to finish a game. Not only does it feel great to remove a game from my backlog, but it still feels great to make it to the end solve the game (Although, I've found with most games solving...

Keep track of the time spent on a game?

I've been wondering this for a little while, so I thought I would finally post and ask.

I noticed in all the reviews I read that most people list how long they spent on the game. My question is, do you have a special way of keeping track of this? I find it interesting to know how long a game lasts and I love that the Wii keeps track, however, to the best of my knowledge PS3, 360, PSP and DS don't have a way to do this. I've been trying out different things, but the best option I've come up with is to use my cell phone, ipod, etc. and use the stopwatch to keep track of time spent. I suppose this works, but it is kind of a pain to make sure I have it around, make sure I remember to turn it on/off, etc.

I figure there really is no special "trick" to this, but, I though, maybe, just maybe, you guys do something I don't know about



And again, anyone that is interested, I am...

I've come across a couple of games I would like to give as gifts to people I know, but I'm a little concerned and was looking for some advice. I have always bought my games and opened them within the same day, or at most two days of buying them. It always puts my mind at ease to open the game, make sure everything is okay, and pop it in the system quick to make sure there are no problems.

So my concern is, if I were to buy a game now, Christmas is still around four months away. As far as I know, no stores have a return policy that long and at this point most stores don't have the extended policy going. So, my first question, what are the chances of a game, for any system, being damaged and/or having a problem with being read, etc.? I would assume this isn't too high, but was just curious.

Also, I know a lot of people on here have games that they have had for months and sometimes years that they haven't opened yet. So what would you do you opened the game and...

I just finished another game from my always growing backlog

Today's game was, drum roll please (no really, I want a drum roll!)

Anubis II

This was pretty much my first deal as a CAG, I picked it up for $6 (at that time, I thought that was an awesome price ) after reading the reviews and impressions on the game I wasn't even sure if I should keep it. However, I thought it was only right to keep my first deal (and Kmart was too far away to take it back) so I kept it.

I must say, there were some pretty shaky parts and it has a lot of problems and moments (the game was really short too, if it weren't for some annoyances and some bugs in the game, you could finish this in a couple of hours. I generally just play one level and then stop so it lasts a couple of nights and I didn't play for a few nights because I played other games instead, but I would say maybe 3 hours, at the most for most people), but...

After hearing all the hype I finally decided to try Halo out. I was planning to just find a cheap used copy or possibly one from Xbox, but I was able to pick up the Limited Edition Halo 3 at FYE for $10. Since I like new games and don't think older or used ones would be much less, I decided to pick it up.

I've had it for almost a week now and had yet to put it, so I finally decided tonight to give it a try. I put it in, pretty excited based on all the followers of the series, and waited for it to load. When it was done I played a little bit (maybe 20 minutes) and then gave up. I don't know, I just didn't find it to be all that great. I will say the graphics were very nice, but other than that I just didn't see it being that great and that different (the only other game I own even close to this is Socom for the PSP and I don't see much difference, other than it being aliens or whatever those things are)

I'm going to give it another try, but in the short amount...

So ever since becoming a CAG I've found that my backlog has grown pretty significantly. Considering I was going start playing through my games and only buy a new game as I finished an old game, or stack them up so I could buy the new releases that are coming, that I am most likely to pay full price for. Finding games for $10 and under is just too hard to pass up, especially when they are games I want. Sure, I could wait and hope they come down more, and they probably will, but sometimes it is just too risky and $10 is still a great price, in my opinion (I left Prince of Persia the other day at Best Buy because it was still $20 or something, I went back the next week thinking I may get it and it was already gone) Unfortunately I'm not the fastest at solving games, so this could be a long process.

I'm still trying to get through my Backlog, but unfortunately it isn't going as planned. Finally, since becoming a CAG I have solved one of the many games in my log . Of course...

So I was browsing videos on YouTube the other day and came across a video I found of particular interest. The video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/jon4lakers#pl.../7/uX51RKx9F0I

Basically, the question being asked is "Do video games need a defense" This really got me thinking and I thought I would write some of my thoughts regarding the issue and see what your comments are regarding this.

In the video he questions why video games need defense as compared to movies, reading, writing, playing with Lego's etc. After thinking about it, I can see the reasons why reading, writing and building could be considered a better use of time than video games and watching movies. Obviously they are more educational activities and are ways to which one can gain more knowledge, so on and so forth. Obviously some games and movies can provide a lot of educational benefits, but for the purpose of this blog I'm just going to compare video games and...

That's right, you are reading the blog of a sad gamer right now. I was having a great time gaming, reading message boards, shopping for games, etc. and out of the blue the other day I just found myself totally burned out from gaming. I had some free time and was able to play some games once, but it just didn't sound like fun. I read some messages on the boards and nothing was of interest, even going down the isle to look at games when I was shopping wasn't as much fun.

This has made me quiet depressed. Games are pretty much my favorite thing to do and they just don't have the same results for me right now as they used to. I've found myself doing this on and off over the years and it never seems to get any easier. I still like gaming, but it just isn't the same for me right now. I haven't turned my PSP or my PS3 on in a couple of weeks, my other systems have been on, but not as much as normal. Worst of all, I just got my Xbox, so this is when I normally am at the peak of my...

I've recently admitted to the fact that I am addicted to games. I think about games all day long, I want to play games when I'm doing other things, I find my hands randomly simulating game play and I think I've gone out of control.

I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think about is games. What games should I play today, what system, when will I have time. I want to start gaming right away but instead go about my daily routine, get my work done and anything else that has to be done during the day. I find myself sometimes wondering away when I should be working, instead thinking about a game I was playing and got stuck and strategizing how I will get myself past the area, or what game I'm going to play when I get home. The days sometimes feel so long, waiting to be able to play when I get done, but I get through the day knowing at the end I will be able to play until my hands are numb.

When I'm not working I find myself shopping for games, both...

For me, getting an Xbox has been a long process in the making. I've been wanting an Xbox for some time, after getting a Wii I felt the Xbox was going to be the next best system for me. Every time I actually went to purchase an Xbox I chickened out. The last thing I wanted to do was invest $300+ on a new system and invest in games and accessories, only to find my system doesn't make it through the first year. I understand that all electronics are going to have issues and some are going to fail, but the percentage of failures on the Xbox always had me concerned.


About a month or so ago I finally decided I was going to get the Xbox. So I set out on a mission, I wanted to get a decent deal and find a Jasper chip. I started watching when I went to stores to find ones that were most likely to carry the Jasper and when Target offered a promotion for a $50 gift card with the purchase of an Xbox, I decided that was good enough for me. I headed out to Best Buy, price matched...