PixlBit

So I woke up today to see my car covered in a thin layer ice thanks to freezing rain my area got last night.  Took me a while to get ot work today, but I made it.  I'm currently on my lunch break enjoying a ham sammich (that's right...sammich), nacho cheese Doritos, and a Canda Dry black cherry wishniak soda.  Good stuff.  Can't wait to go home.  I don't have much to talk about today, but I still wanted to make sure not to miss a day of BaD.

It’s been almost two weeks since my last game review and my, how busy things have gotten since then! I do plan on getting back writing more Review Rewinds, but first, I have to take care of a few things. I’m currently playing recently released PSOne Classic for review on PixlBit. Hopefully, I’ll have it ready by next week.

Well, the Seahawks totally killed it last night!  They earned that ring.  I was surprised that the Broncos barely scored at all during the majority of the game.  Anyway, that's enough about that.

Well-- I told myself I'd never participate in another Blog A Day challenge because when I finally participated last year on 1Up, the site closed down just when I was hitting my stride.  So I cursed BaD's name while shaking my fist in the air as thunder and lightening crashes in the background.

It's finally here!!

You might end up asking yourself that question with some of the Retro Rewind reviews coming up on PixlBit.  So I figured I should let everyone know that the few reviews I posted in my user blog will eventually show up on the front page.  At first, I didn’t plan on doing it because I thought it might be a waste of time for most of you that have read them already (doubly so if you were hanging out with my reviews back in the 1Up days).  I dunno...I’m always worried that re-posting things I previously wrote will annoy folks.

Well, it looks it’s that time of year to shop for deals for the holiday season.  Between everyone’s bargain shopping of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I actually came away with a rather interesting find this past Saturday.  The wife and I decided to go into a nearby Value Village thrift store and kill some time before taking care of a few things in the morning.  I knew I would find much in the way of video games.  Even if I did, I probably wouldn’t want to buy it since thrift stores are too organized in their pricing nowadays (they’re getting smarter about retro games).  Anyways...what I did find was this, nestled amongst other music CDs:

Yup, I did it.  I finally did it.  Formally known as Spunkyd99, I bit the bullet and joined the PixlBit writing staff.  Nick DiMola had encouraged me to join the staff back in June, but I ended up dragging my feet a bit…which would turn out to be months.    And after a much need sabbatical from blogging, I decided to return and contribute my thoughts to fine gaming site that is PixlBit.  After all, this place took me in when I needed a new place to blog after the whole 1Up “shutdown” incident.  I want help PixlBit be the best it can be.

Hey everybody!  I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I never left for good. Anyone that used to follow my 1Up blogs are more than familiar with bouts of absence from the blogging scene.   It just seems inevitable that at some point, I end up needing to take a break from blogging that ends lasting for days, if not weeks at a time when the need finally hits.  But this time around, what drove me to “silence” was the undeniable fact that there is no way I can blog with the same regularity (more or less) that I used to.  Without boring everyone with the details...I had many priorities that started falling to the wayside in favor of posting multiple reviews and blogs on here to satisfy this inner need I had to keep up with my Pixlbit friends.  So I had to take a step back from writing on focus my attention on the stuff I had been neglecting.

Contra is an iconic staple of the earlier days of 8-bit gaming.  It’s a game that virtually requires no introduction, though I’m giving it one anyway.  Originally released in the arcade in 1987, Contra exploded on the scene with non-stop run and gun action that would make an action movie buff grin with delight as they blasted their way past stage after of testosterone-soaked stage.  It would go on the find an even bigger audience when Contra was ported to the NES a year later on February 2, 1988.  This was the first side-scrolling shooter I had ever played.  I still remember when my brother, sister, and I played this game for the first time (my sister and taking turns as player 2).  I was hooked from the beginning.  So much so that, to this day, I still refer to the colors red and blue as the “Contra colors”.