Going through some old photos tonight, I came across one that I took of a sample of my game collection. This was from March of 2004 when I was being interviewed for the CBC Radio 1 show Main Street.
In shot we have a boxed Nintendo Power Glove, Super Nintendo Super Scope 6 and Sega Master System arcade stick. Consoles on display are a SNES, Sega Genesis Mark I, a purple Game Boy Advance, a silver Game Cube, an N64 and a NES.
The microwave box contained the rest of my game consoles. The box at left front was all games, controllers, power adapters and connection cables, all mostly in labelled zip-lock bags (because I’m like that). The box behind it is a few more controllers and mostly Atari and Colecovision gear.
My nephew recently had a go with the Power Glove and was rather disappointed that it didn’t work like a Wiimote. Aren’t we all?
I think at that time I had maybe 22-25 consoles. One of these days I’m going to break down and get a Sega Megadrive to have here. Click on the Games link at the top of the page for a current list o’ my gaming bits.
One sunny Friday a few weeks ago I was off to Berkshire and visit Windsor Castle. I was there on my first trip to England back in October of 2005 and had been wanting to revisit for a while. Now that the weather is oh so lovely and I have some time off, it seemed the perfect time to visit the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.
So off I went, but not without being hit by the travel fail domino affect. My bus to the rail station in Cambridge was running late, so then I missed the 11:15 express train to King’s Cross, which meant I missed the 12:22 from Paddington to Slough and subsequently the 12:50 from glorious Slough to Windsor. In the end I got to Windsor just before 14:30, an hour and change later than I had hoped. I grabbed a quick bite to eat at a McDonald’s that used to be a Burger King. Oh how the place has changed! Well, I had hoped it would be quick. It was the slowest queue I think I had ever been in.
I was playing Super Mario World tonight (on my PAL Super Nintendo) this evening and found myself recalling some of my first and fond Mario experiences
Super Mario Bros. | NES I’m pretty sure my first exposure to SMB1 was at the local K-Mart, that was about a 10 minute walk from where I grew up. There was a game area near the front of the store where everything was kept in glass jewlery display cases. They had a small 13″ TV hooked up to a NES running Super Mario Brothers. I’d always get to around stage 1-3 before my mom would come and find me to tell me we were leaving. My neck hurts just thinking about how high up the TV was.
Later when I had my own NES I recall running the audio through our home stereo, into which I had plugged in a microphone and I would record a running commentary of my Mario 1 adventures. Oh yes. I could also play through world 1-1 with the TV turned off and just the sound played through the stereo.
The first copy of the game I owned was bought at the flea market at the Charlottetown Mall. When I got my NES, it was a control deck along with a game my dad picked out for me. A little something called Tetris. The flea market copy I got was the cartridge that was just Mario Bros. I thought I was pretty cool as everyone else and their dogs had the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge. Read more…
I woke up with an idea this morning. I’m rather particular about keeping things in good nick, and books are certainly no exception. It’s always tricky to pack a paperback just right into a bag so that its risk of damage is as low as possible. Then it hit me; why aren’t there any small portable paperback cases readily available?
A quick hunt on Google yielded big portable cases, but nothing small enough to fit in a bag. If humanity can manage this for a banana, surely we can do the same for books.
Kühlschrank.com, established 2003, is the personal site of Andrea Vail. She's a Canadian geek girl currently living in England who enjoys history, Macs, trains and a jolly good dance number in equal amounts.
I’m pretty sure my first exposure to SMB1 was at the local 
