Update: Pac-Man Upright Cabinet

A few months ago, I posted that I was attempting to fix up my worn Pac-Man Upright Cabinet.  Well, here's an update to what I've done since:

After I fixed the short in the power cord on the Pac-Man Upright Cabinet, I went to work on the control panel.  It was in bad shape. The first player button was broken to where it couldn't hold a switch, but the second player button worked well enough so I replaced it with the first player button.  Every direction worked on the joystick except for up.  The switch for the up direction was broken beyond repair.  I ended up replacing that switch with the good one from the player select buttons.  I purchased a soldering iron and removed the wiring from the joystick switches.  The joystick wiggled a bit, so I added some washers to fill the gap between the joystick mount and the control panel.  I then proceeded to solder the wires back onto the switches and attach the control panel back onto the cabinet.  Finally, I ordered new player select buttons to replace the old ones.

SNES: Star Fox

My first experience with the Star Fox series was on the N64 with Star Fox 64.  After completely annihilating the game and beating it completely, I decided to visit Star Fox on the SNES.  And as of today, I still have not completed the game.  I'm under the impression that the older the game, the harder it is to beat.  Or maybe I just have less patience for older games.  Anyways, below is the SNES Star Fox ending video that I've never personally experienced.  Enjoy!

SNES: Super Mario RPG

Super Mario RPG was one of my favorite games as a kid.  I love role-playing games and I've always enjoyed playing Mario games, so Super Mario RPG was the bee's knees for me.  I always found the game challenging (such as timing with Bowser to break down a door and doing puzzles in the right order) and the storyline was enjoyable.  I want to revisit this game due to the  impossible Final Fantasy-style boss fight with Culex.  I was never able to beat him and that fact haunts me to today.  Growing up, I always attempted the fight but ended up skipping it due to frustration. 

Something different...

So I've been thinking about changing the direction of this blog.  I have not decided on a specific theme or subject yet, but the change should occur soon.  But in the meantime, enjoy Hitler's end in Wolfenstein 3D, one of my favorite computer games as a kid (and my brother's all-time favorite classic game).  I hope this brings back tons of awesome memories.

Stay and Vote While You're Here!

If you do not know yet, the poll is up and ready for awesomeness.  On an unrelated note, I have been playing Super Mario Kart on the SNES.  I was amazed by the fact that I forgot Donkey Kong Jr. was in the game instead of Donkey Kong.  I knew this as a kid, but through playing the subsequent Mario Kart games, I forgot about this.  Of course I'd never race as him (I was always Koopa Troopa), but it's interesting that I forgot.  Have you ever been amazed at what you forgot about a game when you returned to it?

New Poll Part 3

Here is the final candidate for the best simple classic game that is still popular today and can be found/downloaded on current devices (consoles, mobile phones, etc.).  The other two candidates' information can be found below.  The new poll is up so happy voting!

Snake

Snake was developed by UPL and published by Sega-Gremlin in 1976.  Due to the game's simple design, other developers created their own version of the game and released it under different names such as Worm, Surround, and Chase.  Snake's popularity didn't surface until 1998 when Nokia included the game on their phones.  Snake has saved my life many times in airports, at doctor appointments, or anywhere else that involved waiting.  The gameplay is simple enough for anyone to pick up and enjoy.  There are many free versions on this game online (just Google 'snake' and viola!).

Variants by platform

    Nokia Snake 1 - The original first snake game recreated again by the original creator for nokia s60

    Worm and Hustle computer games, published by CLOAD, 1978 and 1979

    CGA-Snake - Late-Eighties version of Snake using Color Graphics Adapter technology

    GL Snake - Very realistic three dimensional variant of snake (openGL | Glut)

    Hustle - arcade game, TI-99/4A

    HYPER-WURM - TRS-80

    Light Cycle - Tron (fictional game) and its arcade implementation Tron

    Need for Snake - Simple online Snake in JavaScript

    Ophidia - Advanced JavaScript snake game with enemies, obstacles, and shooting

    Nibbler - arcade version

    Nibbles - MS-DOS (QBasic) some versions of suse linux

    Snake - A snake game coded in Visual Basic 6 (with source code)

    Plasmaworm - Microsoft Windows

    Rattler Race - Microsoft Windows

    Serpent 3D - First Person 'Eater' (openGL | Glut)

    Several ZX Spectrum games, of which Laser Snaker is one example

    Snafu - Mattel Intellivision

    Snake - as a TIFF homebrew game on the Sony PlayStation Portable

    Snake - BBC Micro

    Snake - MSX

    Snake - Texas Instruments TI-83 and TI-84 graphing calculators

    Snakeball - PlayStation 3

    Snakers - browser game (4 players on Wii)

    Snake II - Texas Instruments TI-89, TI-89 Titanium, TI-89 Silver Edition, TI-92 Plus, Voyage 200 graphing calculators

    SnakeTIX - Apple Macintosh (classic Mac OS)

    Snake Race (ksnake) - Linux distributions

    SpaceBall - LG brand mobile phones

    Snaky - VMU (MFE - Dreamfiles)

    Snaky 360 - An addictive Web game with original variants like Pac-Snake or Snake-Invaders, freely moving at 360 ° and offering over 5 hours of intense play

    Sneech - Original Commodore Amiga game by Paul Burkey, 1995. Now for iPhone, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows

    Tape Worm - Atari 2600

    Uncle Worm for the TI-83+/84+. Unlike Snake, where you can travel in four directions only, Uncle Worm can travel in no less than thirty-two directions.

    Worm - Nintendo DS Linux

    Worm of Bemer - Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, Commodore 64, TI-99/4A, and IBM PC/PCjr

    Worms - Commodore VIC-20

    Snake on the Wii Homebrew

    Snake Classic rated # 1 snake game on the iPhone/iPod Touch

    TiltSnake on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Uses the accelerometer

    Snakeworlds (3D snake game) for Microsoft Windows

    Schnarr Snake a game developed by Schnarr Team

    Snake game a mouse controlled flash version

    Snake360 - version for Xbox 360 with many added features

    AxySnake - 3D version for Microsoft Windows by AxySoft

    Snake - another flash version by Paul Neave.

    Snake - another flash version by bravo-games.com

    Star Snake - iPhone and iPod touch

    KDE-Snake - A simple Snake KDE-Game written in Python (for Linux)

    Snaked - for the iPhone and iPod Touch by Broken Thumbs Apps

    Arcade Classics (includes Snake) for Zunes 4, 8, 16, 30, 80, and 120

    Mobile Snake - classic snake game for iPhone and iPod touch

    Jumbo Snake™ - for the iPhone and iPod Touch by Boost Mobile Entertainment

    Boa, Spectravideo SV-318/SV-328

    A simple snake game in HTML 5

    Snake 7.0 - Windows Phone 7

New Poll Part 2

Tetris

Tetris was created by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union and released on June 6, 1984 .  Tetris is a puzzle game consisting of random sequences of tetrominoes (shapes composed of four square blocks each) falling down the playing field.  Tetris has even been played on every conceivable console and mobile device.  But the most impressive playing field is on the sides of buildings. The record for the world’s largest working game of Tetris belongs to the Dutch students of the Delft University of Technology, who in 1995, lit up 15 floors of their Electrical Engineering Department.  Tetris is the number one selling game on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color at 35 million copies sold.  Tetris is also the number one selling game on mobile phones at over 100 million games sold.

Tetris inspired the following game:

Hatris

Welltris

Super Tetris

Super Tetris 2 & Bombliss

Tetris 2

Tetris & Dr. Mario

Super Tetris 3 & Sparkliss, Magicaliss, Familiss

V-Tetris

Tetris Blast

Tetris Attack

3D Tetris

Tetris Plus 2

Tetrisphere

Tetris DX

Tetris 4D

Tetris 64

Tetris: The Grand Master

Kids Tetris

The New Tetris

The Next Tetris

Magical Tetris Challenge

Sega Tetris

Tetris With Cardcaptor Sakura: Eternal Heart

Tetris Worlds

Pokémon Tetris

Tetris Elements

Tetris: The Grand Master 3 - Terror Instinct[13]

Tetris: The Grand Master Ace

Tetris Mania

Tetris DS

iPod Tetris

Tetris Evolution

Tetris Zone

Tetris Splash

Tetris Party

Tetris Pop

Tetris Party Deluxe

Tetris Party Live

Tetris 3DS

New Poll Part 1

I'll be setting up the new poll about the best simple classic game that is still popular today and can be found/downloaded on current devices (consoles, mobile phones, etc.) after making a case for each candidate.  First up is:

Pac-Man

Released in 1980, Pac-Man was developed by Namco and instantly became a hit in the arcades.  This game franchise was so popular that an animated television series was created about its characters.  Davie Brown Entertainment's study showed that Pac-Man is recognized by 94% of American consumers.  Between May 21st and 23rd of 2010, Google changed the Google logo on its homepage to a Google Doodle of a fully playable version of the game in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the game's release.  I lost an hour of my time that day.  Pac-Man is the number one selling game for the Atari 2600 with 7 million copies sold.

Release years by system:

1980 – Arcade

1981 - Atari 2600, Atari 800

1982 – Commodore VIC-20, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit

1983 – Apple II, Commodore 64, Intellivision

1984 – Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX

1990 – Game Boy

1991 – Game Gear

1999 – Neo Geo Pocket Color, Game Boy Color

2003 – Mobile

2006 – Xbox Live Arcade, iPod Classic

2007 – Wii Virtual Console

2010 – Windows Phone 7

Pac-Man also inspired the following games:

Ms. Pac-Man

Super Pac-Man

Pac-Man Plus

Professor Pac-Man

Pac & Pal

Jr. Pac-Man

Pac-Land

Pac-Mania

Pac-Man VR

Pac-Man Battle Royale

Pac-Attack

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures

Pac-In-Time

Pac-Man World

Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness

Pac-Man: Adventures in Time

Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze

Pac-Man Fever

Pac-Man World 2

Pac-Man Vs.

Pac-Pix

Pac-Man Pinball Advance

Pac 'n Roll

Pac-Man World 3

Pac-Man World Rally

Pac-Man Championship Edition

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

Pac-Man Party

Note: I'm breaking up the game information into 3 parts with this being the first.  Next up will be Tetris followed by Snake.  If you have any other suggestions, let me know.  I hope these bits of information will help you vote when I set up the poll.