Posts Tagged ‘Irem’

01
Oct
2020

I mean, honestly, this does not surprise me.

categories: personal; word count: 304 words

Regarding this school district and opening up what was supposed to be the first three weeks of virtual learning for everyone (since a judge mandated that no face-to-face learning could take place until, at the very least, after Labor Day due to the continued spread of COVID-19), I found out that in spite of the district having interested parents and guardians fill out multiple forms attesting to the need of a device or Internet hotspot… they did not order enough of either of these things, schools ran out at varying times on the first day on days that they had designated to give out schedules, supplies, and technology, and this effectively left students who were in need of technology in the lurch because they had no way to get online or do their work, especially if they were going to remain virtual students after Labor Day. So apparently the school had to inform parents and guardians that they would be extending a “grace period”, not holding students’ absences against them if they could not log online due to this, and not penalizing students’ grades for not being able to complete assignments due to this. Personally, it just blows my mind that this district had all summer to plan for this and this was exactly what happened. But I graduated from this district myself, so…

They had the whole summer to make this a clean, seamless transition, and they completely botched this.

Meanwhile, in my spare time I’ve begun to acclimate to our new PC controller, which I have in hand. Either this is less forgiving than I thought it would be, or Kickle Cubicle is less forgiving than I thought it would be. Knowing me, it’s probably a little bit of both. But this game is definitely not known for being an easy game.

12
Sep
2020

I caved and bought us a new PC controller, folks.

categories: arcade, computer gaming; word count: 313 words

Knowing my luck, I’ll find the “old one” within a week of having made this purchase, you all just watch.

I am going to keep this one where I keep our headphone and mic set, that way I know for a fact that it’s not going to grow legs and walk away the same way the other one did… although I had kept that one in the same place for years, and even checked the infamous “mess drawer” in my room (which was halfway organized, to my own credit) thinking that I might have put it in there to conceal it from Bub’s curious hands. Knowing that this could… walk off again if it walked off for the same reason that the first one did, I didn’t want to splurge too much on the second one though. I just wanted something that would allow us to play games on the computer. I mean, we have a lot of Nintendo games, Sega Genesis games, and Super Nintendo games that are boxed up that we can legally play emulated versions of because we own them, and I can introduce them to Bub that way. It would just help to own a controller to play them with, though.

And some of these are games that you can’t play elsewhere, such as Kickle Cubicle (NES) and Marvel Land (Sega Genesis), which were two of my absolute favorite games growing up as a child. I loved those games. If there were any other way for me to introduce them to Bub, such as digitally buying them on some of the newer consoles if they were available there, I would already have done so, but there isn’t. Well, not stateside.

Surprisingly, Bub does not mind playing older games with me.

He’s even played some old Castlevania games with me, to include the very first one that was ever made!

11
Aug
2020

Nostalgia bop for the ages: Kickle Cubicle.

categories: arcade; word count: 210 words

This is definitely something that the Gen Z kids won’t get. I was practically raised on this game, though, back when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was the most recent console out. And to tell the truth, I’m surprised that this game hasn’t been included for digital download on things like the Virtual Console for the Wii even in spite of its relative obscurity (I mean, a lot of the older Castlevania games have, even in spite of the fact that the Castlevania franchise is a much more popular franchise, but I’m about to get into why I think it should have been), because the difficulty of the game is right in that sweet spot of making you want to come back and finish it, but not being so hard that you can’t. It is also, to this day, one of the most adorable games that I have ever played… and I’m in my thirties, having practically grown up on video gaming, having seen almost all of the consoles since their inceptions, so I don’t take saying that lightly. At some point in the future, I would just love to be able to snag this game for digital download somewhere, play it, and play it with my child. Enough said.