I Heart Jack

It wasn’t until the mid-to-late ’90s that I had semi-regular access to a PC. It was a rather big thing. Sure, I had used them at school and at friends’ places but this was a computer I could access more often. It was my grandparent’s computer, and frankly, I don’t really know why they bought it.

I remember my grandma (a.k.a. Nanna) telling us that she got it by calling a number on the back of a magazine advertising them for sale. When she called the SUPER AWESOME PERSONAL COMPUTER HOTLINE the salesman asked

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WarioWare: DIY – The dirty Dozen

I remember being impressed with WarioWare, inc.: Mega MicroGame$! the first time I saw it. It was in the means of a flash game advertisement and/or competition. It’s hard to remember exactly what it was but it made me want the game.

I enjoy all the WarioWare games but the one I played the least is the one I feel I should have played more than any other, WarioWare D.I.Y.

When Super Mario Make was just a pipe dream in every Nintendo fanboy’s eye, D.I.Y. gave us the tools to make our own microgames. See what I did there? Mario Maker… Pipe Dream… *cough*.

Sure it was a little flawed and missing some key functions and mechanics, but it still made it possible for the creativity to flow. And here I am now to showcase the twelve, count ’em, twelve microgames I actually finished making.

Before we get started I’d like to let you know how I came across my copy of the game. In April of 2010 Kotaku Australia ran a competition for Splinter Cell: Conviction. I don’t recall the prize, I assume it was a copy of the game. A quick google search just now and I discovered the prize was actually A Splinter Cell: Conviction Xbox 360 console bundle. To enter you had to have a real world photo with the stylised Conviction writing on walls, along with the Kotaku logo. This was my entry:

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Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. The longest saga.

I wanted to begin this by saying “It was December 23rd 2003” but after thinking it over and saying it in my head a few times, it just sounded cliched and overused. You know, kinda like an episode of one of those sitcoms where someone is reminiscing back about a time in their life when an important event or something memorable happened.

But I’m better than that. I’ve decided to go in a different direction. Instead, I’m gonna go with this pointless and in no way related to this actual blog entry introduction.

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You’ve met with a terrible overwhelming feeling of doom haven’t you?

Let me make myself perfectly clear.

I have never completed The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I have played it before but never beaten it.

I’ve tried to commit myself to seeing it through many times. First on the Nintendo 64, after my brother and I purchased it from a pawnbroker near where we lived.

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Three down, eleven to go

I completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time ever last night. Near on 100% too. I didn’t catch the Hylian Loach and I couldn’t get the Deku Nut upgrade because of a glitch in the 3DS version. Still, that doesn’t matter.

I finally finished Ocarina of Time. To put this in perspective for you, right now I am twenty-eight years old. The first time I ever played OoT, I was just starting high school. That was sixteen years ago. It took me sixteen years to actually get around to sitting down and playing through the game in full.

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The Adventure is Over: How Working in a Video Game Store Ended It – Part 1

Video games are something I enjoy greatly. Especially when there is an amazing narrative involved. Gameplay is king and nice graphics help too. Being able to immerse one’s self into a world of escapism for an unmetered amount of hours is an amazing thing. But for me, that’s not all there is to video games.

The lead up to getting a game used to be an adventure. The event of getting a game used to be an adventure. From reading about upcoming releases in magazines to booting the game in the console and all the events in-between is what used to make the adventure for me.

But… Working in a video game store took that away.

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The Adventure is Over: How Working in a Video Game Store Ended It – Part 2

The new era of adventures kicked in, but I can’t remember what came first, Game Boy Advance or Gamecube. I got My Gamecube at launch but not the GBA. I would check the receipt for the date that I purchased it, but it’s in the GBA box in the roof right now. I’ll lead with GBA though, as it was a split second decision to buy it, yet a mini adventure of it’s own.

It was 2001, I was 16 and I had a job at the local pizza place, so I had a bit of coin. We were in the city for some reason, and were in Toys R Us. They had a huge display of GBAs

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