56ok.org

I write from experience.

Hello. This website is about people who enjoy console games, and who like playing against the world, but the video game companies tell them they need more speed, and no matter what the do, they can't get above that speed. I know that sounds like a very unpopular subject that no one likes to talk about. All the big tweeters and bloggers and twitchers have bandwidths high enough to start their own family of "cable channels" broadcasting out. I, on the other hand, am bandwidth impoverished. To explain why I have the knowledge about this, I have to explain my story. click here to read about my personal history, how I got in a bad situation both internet-wise and otherwise, and how I'll make it good.

On this webpage, I'll give you my experiences about which games seem to do better with the low bandwidth, which systems are friendlier to the velocity challenged, and individual games where, even though I talk about the game, and kind of review, the biggest weight will be given to low bandwidth friendliness. With a rating of "56ok" if it's okay for low speeds and "56ko" if you'll be knocked out trying to compete against someone. I may make other judgements, but the one you won't get anywhere else is, will it work with MY speeds.

Most Xbox 360 and Wii games will be judged by how my bandwidth was at the time, with 500 k in, 100-200 k out for my 3G connection, as I had a 3G hotspot long before that term was invented. Wii U, Xbox One and Switch games will be reviewed based on a connection of 1.5 meg in, 400 k out, being the "Extended range DSL", meaning I'm out of the 3 mile range needed to get a decent 24 Meg connection, but we got it because it was faster and cheaper than our then existing 3G, and we couldn't upgrade to 4G without paying by the megabit.

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Why the Sprint merger helps me.

Click here to read a letter I wrote to my federal and Ohio state epresentatives, and invited certain internet players and commentaors to read my letter. And I invited them to respond. I bring up the one issue no one pbrings up: How I'm relying on Sprint to trey to bring us decent high speed interent, and how their history shows their committment to wirelessly wiring houses for interent, starting with WiMax in 2009, and how the governemtn lets monopoly providers (or even a nullopoly of minimum+ providers?) can deny us, or at best require a citizen paya high-five to six figure sum to wire out donut hle, yet the governemnt hamstrings a company wiling to wireless let us access interent, dspite their official stance of universal broadband.

Satellite kills ping time

Do not get a satellite connection if your primary concern is competing against opponents. It takes 100 milliseconds to get up to the satellite, based on a 30,000 km orbit in space, another 100 milliseconds to get back, AND THEN FROM THERE it traverses the traditional internet, which is anywhere from 50-150 ms. You're already behind the 8 ball going satellite. If you just want to download games, you can do it with no problem, but watch out for data limits.

Cell phone was good for pioneers of cellular internet, not good now.

As soon as I got my cellular internet, one month later they introduced bandwidth limits, and that was in 2008. Cell companies claim they have unlimited data, but read the fine print. EVERY ONE OF THEM has limited Wi Fi mobile Hotspot data. And USB-based wireless cards are also considered WI-FI, even if you provide your own Wi Fi, or even if you just use it straight. It looks like mobile internet, which seems harder, is unlimited on a cell phone, but fixed mobile internet causes problems, clogging up the network, even though most of the places it's being used like that is sparsely populated rural areas. Despite the fact that you have to pay by the megabit, and I would have had to if I wanted to improve my speed, cellular is the best alternative if you do not have DSL or Cable available. For the purposes of gaming, it beats satellite, and it beats dial up, and a cell phone when I got it plus a VOIP would cost just as much as a landline and a dial-up account. Since this is being written about in 2017 and not 2008, I'd say if you're rich enough where data limits can be paid for, then you might want to go with that. But if there's a whole bunch of people in your sitch, you may want to pool the extra money spend by the Megabit, and allocate that to pool together money into a pot, get together with your local government, and let them bargain on behalf of your Cable/DSL consumers utility union. Try paying year in advance, sign a multi-year contract because you're asking new services to be piped in. But DON'T do what I fantasized about with in April 2017, rabble-rouse and riot for cable/DSL access.

How bad internet affects good internet connections:

And Fairlawn Gig said they'll come in and do what Spectrum won't, wire our street. I would like to point to anyone watching at Fairlawn Gig the case for wiring more area before you power up that network, instead of working the other way, powerig up exsiting Fiber lines and later expanding out at full power. Remember, there are always at least 2 victims of bad interent. The person who has it, and the person they are playing with/against. Click this clip to see live broadcast (on Twitch) evidence of bad internet affecting good connections.

About the feds getting involved:

This is a difficult issue because Net Neutrality supposedly make internet a utility, which means it's regulated. If it did/would have passed, does that make it a federal guarantee that everyone has the ability to access 20+ Meg fixed location internet? Of course it's not a requirement, the government is not forcing you to get the highest speed possible, or any internet, so if you don't need the speed, or don't want to participate in the internet at all, you can opt down or opt out. But I was concerned that the content would be censored on the internet. The FCC argument that there are limited channels is absurd, because adding or changing one letter makes a new "Web channel" Websites subdivide, like Youtube and Twitch, which has individual TV channels as many as there are users. So you don't have to own a dot com name to have your voice heard on the internet. And the right to free speech does not mean you have the right to be listened to, but any listeners who come willingly you are allowed to talk to and hear from. You're not guaranteed an audience, but you have the right to acquire an audience. I was afraid that in the quest to limit Private Company "censorship" (technically only the government does it, it's censorship, private people and companies have a right to do what they want), Net Neutrality was a backdoor way to install Government Censorship. It's like of like Jim Crow in the South. The politically correct thing to say was that companies were treating blacks like dirt. That is false. But in actuality, the government in certain states FORCED businesses to segregate by color and offer substandard toilet and water faucets to blacks. You technically have a right to be racist, but in this day in advertising, if you have any standing, and you actively are racist, there will be a thing called the boycott used against you. And if you lose too many customers, your racism could put you out of business. If you believe you have a right to try what you want and fail, then you should believe you have a right to be a racist, and fail under that bigotry's own weight. If I were a racist , I wouldn't have Jamal "Zophar321" Nickens as a friend. As far as racist words are concerned, Jamal asked me to call him the ALTERED with an A instead of an ER name. I never thought of calling him that name, even the 3 or less times when I was angry at him. (I mentioned the incident at his wedding, saying if that word means "friend", like how a lot of rappers use it, then everyone at the wedding were "all nigments of different pigments.") By the way, when I was mad at him, I argued with him on the substance of the issue, not his skin color. The thought never crossed my mind to refer to his skin color. Only when I reflect on racial issues and controversies, like when brought up in the news, does it even remotely cross my mind.

Now there is divided balkanization. Visit here to read about a cultural issue. In this era of advertising, some people go out of their way to cater to this group, others go out of their way to not serve or hire this group, and both sides think they are heroic. I take a moderate, best combine compassion and logic, and I get harassed by my family about it, mostly on the side of denying this group.

BATTLE OF THE SYSTEMS

When Jamal won me and a bunch of his other friends Original Xboxes and 1 year Xbox Live Memberships, I said thanks, but I had dial up. At that point, I was determined to improve my bandwidth. There was no DSL company, and the Cable company surrounded my area, but never went in. Satellite had its problems above, so back in 2008 I could get a 500k in, 100-200 k out signal. Near the end of the Original Xbox's life the the minimum ceiling, meaning if you have this amount or more, you can play every game made for the system, for the Original Xbox was 256 K in, 128 k out. So I was good to go. Then Jamal won me a 360 playing Bomberman 360, so I got a 360. Click here to read about how I help my friends at thrift stores, as a small but earnest payback. By the way, the Original Xbox I have is the one Jamal won for me as a prize on Life to the Power of X, 2 years earlier. I even got a year gold membership I wasn't sure I could use until I heard of Cellular internet.

Then the 360's requirements were 1 meg in, 500k out. But they told me that was a minimum to play EVERYTHING, which means certain games would work with less bandwidth. Then, just as the Wii U came out, DSL finally moved into our area. We have extended range DSL, which is only 1.6 M in, 400 k out, and was $20 cheaper than Sprint 3G, so we thought, why not.

Then Xbox upped the ante with the One. Now it's 3 Meg in, 1 Meg out. So that got me to thinking, what were the speeds needed to compete in other systems. Nintendo never had an official answer during the Wii and Wii U eras. They said DSL or faster. Did Nintendo know DSL can be as slow as 1.5 Meg in 400 k out, or are they assuming a "within 3 mile" range of DSL that is normal? They said with my 3G at 500k/ 200k some of the games which require precise wii-mote movements in all 3 dimensions, and games with more than 4 people might be jeopardized. They thought ping time would be bad because they assume Cellular uses Satellites to transmit messages. SO NOT TRUE.

We never were much Playstaiton 2 or 3 online gamers, mainly because the PS2 was an over-glorified DVD player, and the PS3 was an over-glorified Blu Ray player, I rarely played it until it became an over-glorified 3D Blu Ray player, but because I got the worlds most successful 3D TV, the Playstation 3D Display, and used it to watch 3D movie and as an HDMI TV for my games, (does anyone notice a pattern that has been broken by the PS4? The PS2 was the world's cheapest DVD player at the time, the PS3 was the cheapest Blu-Ray-player at the time, (and the Xbox 360 could have been expanded to the world's cheapest HD DVD player for the same price, but the 360 was more of a gamer's machine, and less bought specifically for movies) when the 3D update came for the PS3, even if you never bought a PS3 before, it would be the world's cheapest 3D disc player, and even more so if you did, and the PLaystation 3D Display was the cheapest 3D TV at the time, and none came out since cheaper, even in the future as TVs got bigger in 3D. Considering the fact that the PS2 killed the Dreamcast and was number 1 against Xbox and GameCube, and the PS3, despite the fact the games weren't selling compared to Wii and 360, had about 30% of the gaming market being primarily a Blu-Ray player and 3D Blu-ray player with the update, and the PS3DTV was the number 3 model of 3D TV of all time, and the only 2 ahead of it were 2 larger Sony TVs, and most people didn't use the 3D on those TVs, which means the PS3DTV was the number 1 3D TV for those actively seeking the 3D feature, why the beancounters decided not to add a 4K Disk player to the PS4 Pro made no sense. Ever since they decided not to add a 4K player, but the Xbox One S DID, is that the reason why the console wars are getting closer? ) Dad didn't want me occupying his TV for game time, and bought a $100 3D Blu Ray Player for the upstairs primarily for movies. I played a couple online Wheel Of Fortune and Press Your Luck games, but nothing much beyond that. When I called about the PS4, not because I owned on, but wanted to see if it was more efficient than an Xbox One or a Switch, they said you need 5 MEG OUT, and 7 Meg In to play. They emphasized the 5 meg out as that is the more important number.

By the way, I put off buying my dream ambidextrous joystick in order to buy a Nintendo Switch on day one. When I found out the network requirements. Most people said 1.5 Meg in, 1 Meg out. A couple said 1 Meg in, and have no specific out number but said 400k should be good. One said the Xbox's 3 Meg in, 1 Meg out. And everyone said that is the safe level. You could play certain games with less, but your mileage may vary.
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So in review here are the Systems I test and review, and the links will take you to a games list:
Nintendo Switch - a safe minimum anywhere from 3 Meg in 1 Meg out pessimistically, to 1 Meg in 300 k out optimistically, to the most frequent answer of 1.5 Meg in, 1 Meg out.
Xbox One - almost always saying a safe minimum is 3 Meg in, 1 Meg out, and said some games will work with less.
PLayastation 4 - Only one or 2 of my offline friends own a PS4, and the way they think upping the bandwidth is a good idea, are probably the only 2 reasons I'll probably buy one when it gets in Thrift Store territory. Street FIghter V, and if the VR is cheap enough, VR. (Sony, and third party Sony Publishers? Am I wrong? Does your game work with less than the advertised bandwidth Sony throws out there? Do you not want to write off the tin can internet crowd and think people like me would find your games fun and winnable online with low speeds? If this site becomes big, put a PS4 and a those bandwidth friendly games on the line.) They say 5 Meg OUT, 7 Meg in, like that's a good thing.
Wii U - They said 1 meg in, 500 k out. And some could run with less.
Wii - Never specified, but said broadband. May have conceded Cellular was not preferred but as a last resort vs dial up and satellite, ok, once I told them they go from tower to tower along the land, not into space and back.
Xbox 360 - They said 1 Meg in, 500 k out.
PS3 - Never had speed issues with it, but it was mostly my movie player, so I have few games.

About my gaming tastes.

It's kind of hard to make a website dedicated to low bandwidth gaming. We don't know how big that audience is. Also I'm on Social Security, and the other gamer in the house is a mooch, my brother who had a hard separation, but not a legal divorce from his wife, and has never seen his daughter in over 10 years. He is an amateur self-taught philosopher. He said if it's exclusively about low ping gaming, he doubts the audience will be big, and if it succeeds, imitators will abound. Don't be THE website for low bandwidth gaming. Instead be MY gaming website, whose unique feature is dealing with low bandwidth online gaming, but I will make other judgement calls. So you know what perspective I'm reviewing from, you'll better understand the reason why I give something a review I give. It also explains the selections on games, as I buy all my games in my collection. Maybe if this succeeds, developers and publishers would want to comp me a copy, especially if they are trying to pass the message that their net code is efficient and welcome bandwidth-crippled gamers. If they say everyone has the minimum bandwidth, suck it up and get better internet, 1) they're wrong, and 2)they can give me the game to see if it's enjoyable offline, and if you're honest about online rankings, I'll give a 56ko online ranking, but because this is not the totality of the game, I'll review it based on local single- and multiplayer modes, and give it my honest review.

If there's one thing I'll request from one particular hobby developer, it's a copy of a Dreampi hardware device , which lets you play ONLINE Dreamcast games on a 2017 enthusiast's network with a broadband adapter. I got 5 games I'd like to review that I remember were fun. Unfortunately, I have the worst of both worlds, not enough bandwidth to play modern games, but people say Voip connections, even though they can technically do websites and downloads on a Dreamcast no problem (albeit at dial up speeds), and on Alien Front Online's bandwidth test, I get 45K on a max 56K game with my Voip, the fact the the internet combined with the voip service causes too big of a ping time to be playable online makes online worthless. I'll give Alien Front Online 2017 and All currently playable Dreamcast online games a 56ko WITH A CAVEAT. I would play except, 90% of the time, I get connected then either thrown off or come to an empty room. Dreampi works through broadband and not through the phone network. Voip taps into the internet, then phone, and for Dreamcast games, back to the internet, which accounts for the ping. Unfortunately the only way you can get a Dreampi is to build the components and make it yourself. I'm not asking to be comped. I know you have plans online for building a Dreampi, but I'm neither an amateur electrtical engineer nor a Raspberry Pi programer, even with the plans in front of me, it's greek to me. Also I have a Mac and don't know how easy the software portion is. If you normally don't build Dreampis, make a special arrangement where I'd buy one at your estimated retail value assuming it's built one-by-one. And I'll use my site to drum up DreamPi business, especially if I test it and give a 56ok rating.

Luckily, I found a website, where I get a consumer assemleable DreamPi without any soldering or coding or special knowledge necessary. It's Dreamcast Live. I'm going to let people who watch my twitch stream (coming soon once I get better bandwidth, which is promised by Spectrum by the end of the calendar year 2018) decide how I spend my next $100 from a few choices, one of them is a DreamPi from the above webssite.

I know someone else who would be interested. He's a rare Sega nut who had everything from the Master System to the Dreamcast AT THE TIME THOSE WERE MADE. Jamal on his Life to the Power of X qualifying video said he camped out for a Dreamcast on 9/9/99, and I remember that day, before stores had preorders. After that, game stores made of policy of reserving games by paying in advance. He bought Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn on the one day it was at Electronics Boutique. He bought Popful Mail and Rayknight Magic Earth the same way. That's why his Dreamcast name is Zophar, but just plain Zophar was taken on the Dreamcast network, he tried a few numbers, the first one he liked he could get was 321, thus Zophar321, and later the Countdown321 clan was born. He can hype the Dreampi. If you want to see his national cable TV championship debut visit Jack Of All Games TV's Jamal's biggest wins pages.

My Gaming History

I started gaming during the Pre-crash era when I was 7 and my brother was 12. Our system of choice was the Colecovision. There we grew up on Smurf, Zaxxon, Mr. Do, Donkey Kong, DK Jr., Mr. Do's Castle, Mouse Trap, Lady Bug, Q*Bert, Popeye, Frogger, FroggerII, Q*Bert's Qubes, and when the crash started, our Dad would buy liquidated games from stores that don't want to carry ANY VIDEO GAME and were stuck with them. Dad found 1 dollar gems, that we wouldn't have bought if they were full price games, but for a dollar who can go wrong. We picked up Tarzan, Squishem, JukeBox, Pitfall, Pitfall II, Hero, There was No NES to replace it yet, so we bought an Atari 800XL and played bootleg floppies,

(Why were they called Floppies? Because they flop when you wiggle them! The next format in line I mistaken as a Hard disk. I didn't know that was a floppy, even though it wasn't floppy in texture. One time in High School I brought a wiggly floppy, and they said that's not what they wanted. They showed me one, and I said, "oh you mean a hard disk." They said that was a floppy. And I said "Why doesn't have a floppy texture?" he said that's just what they're called.)

(I admit this, therefore I won't play these on Twitch, as I only publicly play games I legally own, so even though I have "busted" games, mainly my brother's decision with his contacts in school, and I was getting games, so what did I know back then? I didn't get them, and everyone else saw them as free games. Now the shoe is on the other foot. I caught someone copying my "Poker Radio Game Show" as a bit-for-bit A/V reproduction, have more hits than me. I was trying to get a hold of the youtuber saying thanks for propagating my media, from now on may I have a percentage to be negotiated for using my media. I won't short change you because you are spreading the show. He never answered, so in month, I told YouTube to take off the copycat as the original content holder. He just played it straight through. It wasn't part of a bigger show on Poker, it wasn't an article of top 10 newcomer poker people. He got my one video from beginning to end with nothing new added.)

Then Came the Nintendo NES, we had less games for it at the time. My favorites were, Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Mario Bros., (even though we liked the Atari 800 version, (which is really a raspy-sounding 5200 version) better because it had icicles, unlike the NES version) Donkey Kong 3, Gumshoe (which was a combined platformer/light gun game) Super Mario 2 and 3, Legend of Zelda 1 and 2, and played Ghosts N Goblins until we were frustrated by the troll level. We had about 20 total games at the time, but none of the other ones stood out as extremely fun that I played a lot. I'm doing this list off memory. I could tell you which ones we had at the time and which ones I liked by looking at the collection downstairs, but what's the fun in that? Around that time, Jamal moved in, he made a deal with a friend at his school, that Jamal would buy the Master System, his friend would buy the NES, one would buy games for the other one they don't have but would like to play. And believe it or not, BOTH NEVER REGRETTED THAT DECISION. His friend never took him up on Master System games, and I don't know Jamal bought games for his friend.

During the Genesis vs Turbo Grafx era, my brother bought a Genesis on day one, and the most successful launch title that wasn't packed in at the time and destroyed NEC in one day, Ghouls N' Ghosts. Before this time, he beat Ghosts N Goblins the first time around at home and quit when he realized he had to play again. This is when we thought "Games have no end, they just keep repeating and made harder, until it can't be made harder." So he gave up yet considered it beat, not knowing of the second quest. He learned to play Ghouls N' Ghosts in the arcade well enough where at his peak he could beat it in one credit. And the midway cinema made it more obvious that you just have to play just one more time through, but it will be harder. You must acquire the super weapon during the second trip, and then beat Satan for the real ending. I guess 1 meg on Ghosts N' Goblins wasn't enough to explain you have to do it JUST one more time. It just said it was a dream. Well he beat Professional level, which sets it on the second go-round difficulty the first time and has an even harder trek the second time. The only 3 other games I was real fond of was Forgotten Worlds and Golden Axe and Thunder Force 2 once we realized how to get to the side-scrolling part. He says any game worth playing is a game no one expects can be beat on one credit, and doing it on one credit. He has about 5 arcade beats that most people thought couldn't be beat on one credit, but he had the time when he was an arcade machine change-man and oversee-er. He had plenty of time to practice. He heard the Street Fighter machine have Ryu and Ken say "Dragon Punch": "Psycho Fire" and "Hurricane Kick", instead of "Harooken" and "Shoryuken". Also it had the 2 buttons that were pressure sensitive to 2 bits, meaning there's 4 levels, unpressed, light, medium, and heavy. That was before they had the 6-button layout. That machine got broken because everyone was pounding the Punch and Kick buttons going for the hard attacks, thinking harder is always better. And they thought it was a true analog button, like a mechanical game, and not a 2-bit psuedo-analog button. I never played it so I don't know if that's the case, except for a Wii TG16-emulated Fighting Street. but that had TIME LENGTH of holding button determining hardness, not strength, so when going strong you had to commit to an attack, and could be considered telegraphed, so light punches and kicks came in handy. I don't know about the arcade, if light attacks were in any way strategic, but knowing Street Fighter 2, it probably was.

Then he sold the Genesis to buy an SNES, and Super Mario World, Castlevania 4, Contra IV, Super R Type, Smash TV, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario All Stars, Starfox, Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Super Mario Kart. Super Metroid, Super Star Wars, and Super R-Type were the games we bought at the time I remembered were real fun.

Then Jamal won a Genesis, I don't remember whether it was a luck contest or a game playing contest where he won it. I bought it from him for $65.01 because the other friend who doesn't have a Genesis and wanted one was willing to pay $65.00. And he heard my brother sold my Genesis out from under me, I bought Street Fighter, Tiny Toons Acme All Stars, all the Genesis Sonics except for 3D blast. My favorite of those was Spinball. I got a Sega CD for a Christmas once I got my Genesis. I remember Willy Beamish, Night Trap, Eternal Champions CD, and Silpheed being the great games fro that system.

During the 32/64 bit era, I bought a 32X on day one because that was the next system Sega was promoting. And it set the day 1 record at the time with a $150 system. Little did I know there was infighting between the American and Japanese divisions of Sega. They almost literally spoke up on day 2. So I got stuck with a 32X that Sega of Japan wouldn't support well. The coolest game, Sonic Xtreme, would have defined 3D platforming with accolades that are now reserved for Super Mario 64, but due to this conflict, a shadow of what could have been.

Then came the offer from my friends, one of them being Zophar321. It was: if the Nintendo N64 came out earlier than expected they would pay me the cost of the Saturn. But the date was well off and I had a job, so I said why not, and found many fun games on the Saturn, like Guardian Heroes, Virtua Cop 1 and 2, Virtua Fighter Kids, Bust a Move 2, Die Hard Arcade, Nights, many different pinball games, Baku Baku, and Saturn Bomberman (we had parties where I brought Bomberman, 2 6-player adapters and we pooled controllers together for 8-10 player local games.) I even made a trade with Zophar321: giving Hi Octane for receiving Rayman. Best trade ever. I even bought a foreign adapter / RAM Cart and played X Men Vs Street Fighter. We had a joke, if neither of the first 2 fighters jumped out after 10 seconds, we'll say, "I can't tell if this is the Playstation or Saturn version." Then someone substitues within 3 seconds, and then I say, "Saturn offers what Playstashuns." I even found 2 versions of World Series Baseball where my dad, the guy high on Nintendo, played a full season and liked it. On Hard, he went 140-22 and won the World Series as the Indians. His all star staring lineup had 8 Indians, over .500 batting averages for the season and "batting around" more than once in a game was not that uncommon against the hard CPU from my dad.

Before the N64 came out, I found a used Playstation 1 for cheap. (I know "Playstation 1" is a retronym coined when the PS2 came out.) I played a few games, and none in particular stood out in my mind for being fun longer than a month. It was in general, a disposable system, but I bought it because it was so dirt common, even before the N64 came out. I bought a partially broken one that had a memory card port damage, unbeknownst to me, for a cheap price. Later, when they went down to $200 new, I replaced it and was able to sell it the old one to a Funcoland, to make up some of the cost. I remember I won a $50 lottery and bought Gex 2 for the PS1. It was definitely the first 3D platformer, but most of the ideas they got from previews of Super Mario 64, and was a kind of rushed version of a 3D-platformer, just to get the title of the first. Pac-Man World was one I remembered fondly, and Time Crisis and Point Blank 3 were cool. So was Soul Edge. (notice they are mostly Namco games.)

Then Dad bought me an N64 which was reserved at Toys R Us. By the way there were 3D glasses that work with Super Mario 64 that came with the Toys R Us package. I think they were either Chromadepth or Pulfrick glasses. Neither Nintendo nor Toys R Us know which effect was used. Other fun games were Starfox 64, Legend of Zelda 64 (at least until a point where I got stuck with apparently contradictory advice saying go somewhere, I did something somewhere, I advanced to the next step, and then it tells me to nebulously go back without any reason why) Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mario Kart 64, and Super Smash Bros (64, as sequels would come later)

It was during that time, where I started to go to the used game outlets and thrift stores and yard sales to find new games and systems. During this time through 2001 alone, I bought an Intellivision, an Atari 2600, an Atari 7800, an Atari 5200, a Sega Master System, a Bally Astrocade, an Odyssey 2, a Virtual Boy, a 3DO, a TurboGrafx 16, an Atari Jaguar, a 2600 Supercharger, plus MANY $3.00 or less games at the thrift stores from 1996 and beyond. Then Came the Dreamcast, where I remember Chu Chu Rocket, Next Tetris, Unreal, Alien Front Online, Marvel Vs Capcom 1 and 2, House of the Dead 2, Typing of the Dead, Crazy Taxi 1 and 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter 3, Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, Ms Pac Man Maze Madness, and Bomberman Online. And when guests came over Samba de Amigo with the original Maracasa was awesome. I even bought a DC-X foreign disc player, just to play Samba 2000. And this system I give the most literal 56ok for back in the day being able to play anyone online.

Then came the world's Cheapest DVD player, AKA the Playstation 2. There were not too many memorable games. i remember playing Risk online at 56k, Time Crisis 2 was a cool game, but it was mostly a DVD player until Dad bought a separate DVD player.

Later my brother wanted some games that were on the Game Cube, so we bought one, once my social security check came in. The original main attraction was Metroid Prime, but that didn't live up to expectations. I don't think making it 3D made it better, just bigger and slower and with over 50,000 positions the joystick was in, and it also depends on perspective with another 50K possibilities, so it's hard to reproduce hard parts over and over, with not much room for error. My favorite games were Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda Four Swords, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with Bongos, Wario Ware, and the one that sealed the deal, Pac Man Vs. I bought it when my brother was with his wife, and we needed a 3 player game to play together. I found Super Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash when they were cheap. they was good but 80% of the fun was facing humans, not CPUs, and Nintendo didn't enter network space yet. We bought it late in its life because it was a cheap system and Playstation 2 was stopping their 56k titles, so if I were going to play a system, and not be online, play one with better games. The games were pleasant at the time, but none stand out too much except for those mentioned. The best thing I bought for it was an Official Nintendo Component Cable, when we got a basement 480i component CRT TV. Now it's going for $200, and I bought it and an S-Video cable (both official, direct from Nintendo, because I couldn't find them in stores) which also works on an SNES and N64 for $30 including shipping.

Then Jamal won Life to the Power of X. I got an original Xbox. I was scurrying the used game stores, trying to find gems, in hopes I could play them online once I got cellular. This was the system I investigated Sprint PCS Internet for, and it was worth it. Games I wanted to play online were Street Fighter Anniversary, Capcom Vs SNK 2, and Star Wars Battlefront, and a couple other games that looked fun, like Tetris Worlds, Whacked, and Godzilla Save the Earth. Though by the time I got it, the 360 was out and most people weren't playing with the Xbox Prime. Luckily (a year or less later) Jamal came in second in an online Bomberman 360 tournament and gave me a 360 for it. (he would have got first but the first placewinner cheated by playing his 3 friends most of the time 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, and the friends would throw the matches, just to rack up wins. If the championship were a top 64 elimination tourney, he would have won the grand prize, because Jamal, due to all that Saturn Bomberman practice, never lost online. He even faced number 1, challenged him, won, and then #1 kept ducking Zophar321's challenges just to win on points. If the judges can review his play records, over 75% of #1's wins probably came from the same 3 people.) The game I remember most for the Original Xbox was Dragon's Lair 3D. It advertised itself with the same look as Dragon's Lair but wasn't a quick reaction game like the first 2. The levels are stylized exactly like the original, yet it wasn't on a linear track of a laser disc game you had something you didn't have in those other games, more freedom. But gamer freedom is a double edged sword in video games. Soccer (in the United States, or Soccer-Football in Germany, where both Soccer- and American Football co-exist, or just plain Football everywhere else except Australia and Canada.) would not be Soccer without the restriction that everyone except one player and that player ONLY in a designated area can't use anywhere from the shoulder to the fingertips to touch the ball. You need some restrictions, or else it's a game of a different nature. Restrictions define a contest. If anything goes, you can murder your opponents to "win" at the game on earth, (even though a lot or religions will say you "lose" the game of life and of the afterlife.) Even UFC, the contest where, if the ref didn't stop the fight, they could kill each other if they hated each other as much as pro wrestlers "say" they hated each other, have about 10 basic rules, the 3 I know are, no foreign objects, no eye, ear, nose or mouth cavity attacks, and you are allowed to go for a low blow, but knowing that in advance, you're allowed to protect yourself from that with a cup.

Then I somehow got a Wii. I forgot whether it's a present or I paid for it. I camped out all night at Gamestop, and it wasn't even opening night. The game I remember as fun were more plentiful, like Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Mario Strikers Charged, Mario Party 8, New Super Mario Wii, Super Paper Mario, Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Wario Land Shake It, Mario Kart Wii, Mario and Sonic Olympics 2008, and the most improved game in the series Super Smash Bros Melee, which was both a single-player side-scrolling platform/beat em up in quest mode, as well as a multiplayer battle you can take online. And in the "Battle of the Skies" (Skyward Sword vs Skyrim, and this was at the time Skyfall came out in theaters REALLY confusing things) I waited until it was on sale and got Skyward Sword, and, I can't say this for every Zelda game, I finished it. It parcelled out a little freedom, with the wiimote sword, with different techniques affecting different enemies differently, and it even had Hyrule's version of Power Rangers's Bulk and Skull: Groose and his toadie friend. Classic bafoonery. And in the end, Groose turned out heroic doing the little, yet irreplaceable, part he could do in saving Hyrule.

Now Jamal won the 360 for me, and the games I remember were Rayman Origins, Sonic Generation (in 3D), Street Fighter IV, and the various add-ons, MK v.s DC, Injustice, Virtua Fighter 5, and an Online Version of Wheel of Fortune. I didn't have too many disc games, but where I went to town was on the arcade and indie games. I have over 400 purchased games, and another 200 demos that i will get to once they are on sale, or have free money. And the reason why I bought so many was because, AS A SYSTEM STANDARD, any 360 game that wasn't available on disc had to be offered as a free trial, to test to see if you like, and I took advantage of that big time. I tried about 1000 games, and bought 400 indies and 100 Arcade games. Super Meat Boy was fun and tough. My brother got the Golden God achievement, but didn't pick up the "20 levels without dying" achievement. Once he does that (I suggest level 1), he'll have a perfect 1000, and that's a game I'm challenging Jamal to beat. Not necessarily at the Golden God level, but I'm stuck on the last main level before the final boss, so If Jamal beats it, he's doing better than me. There were a lot of games I bought because I liked the online version and Jamal or Gavin would promise to play with me something they already had, so I looked on their lists and found a few games like Bust a Move, Puzzle Fighter, Simpsons Arcade, which, because I am the Arcade world champion score according to Twin Galaxies which I bought to see if anyone can do better, Uno, Arkanoid, and a few indie gems, most of which, when they had an online component, I couldn't find anyone online, but I did find one opponent, the creator of Avataaaah! at that game, and at the taping of the Jack OF All Games demo show, I convinced a contestant who wanted to use Tetris to use Opposites, a similar game but with a more direct competition, where one person's positive space (blocks) is the other person's negative space (open air) and vice versa, and you played to the same board at the same time.

The Blu-Ray player, er PS3, didn't have too many games I bought because only Zophar321 was on PS3 among my friends, and he had to because it helped his profession as a GameStop employee, who showed the corporate higher-ups he loved games enough and did his job well enough, where he is, and is marrying, a GameStop manager of some sort, so he had to at least be aware of enough games to talk shop. Imagine helping people find video games by playing video games, what a dream job. But being the Blu Ray player it was, I only had time for Wheel of Fortune, Press your Luck, Little Big Planet, and 2 of the Motorstorm 3D games.

In portable games, the only ones I dealt in while they were alive at the time were Game Gear, Game Boy Advance SP (which I bought for Pac-Man Vs.), and a 3DS, (which I bought for 3D videography.) Unfortunately, most 3D converters don't recognize the 3DS's native 3D and assume it's a 2d picture when converting. But before I bought the 3DS, I bought the Wii U on request from my brother. I would have rather bought a 3DS first so I can film friends' weddings as a 3D videocamera. To straight guys, the ladies in formalwear look more beautiful in 3D. Oh well, the ladies I filmed were in 2D, and I blew it with the one I was trying to woo, because I didn't remember her name during the second time, which was in 3D. Also I didn't understand lighting settings on my 3DS camera the second time, so that was a waste. I don't know if I had a chance with Sandy Watson, but she's probably married now, and even if she wasn't, we only saw each other twice, what are the odds she'll want to see me. She forgot my name too, and I said "we're even", but she remembered the guys calling me "Beast", hence why my Nintendo Nickname is Beast321, because tripletopper would be too long for the nickname. As for the games, most of the games were weak versions of better games on home systems or arcades. The 3DS had a few downloads, and is the system I'm least involved in. The games I remember were Crush 3D, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes and A Link between Worlds, Super Mario 3D Land, and a few download games, like Nano Assault, Woah Dave, and VVVVVVVVV.

As for the Wii U, I liked New Super Mario U, including the Luigi pack, Super Mario 3D World, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8, Sonic Lost World, Super Smash Bros Wii, and on downloads, Wii Sports and Dr. Luigi

Then came the promise, my friends, mainly Jamal, said they'd (meaning he'd) play games on the Xbox One, because he and his friends would rarely be on the 360. Apparently, when I eventually bought an Xbox One and then tried to see them, they shut off their doorbell and don't want to talk to me, not because they are being rude, but because they are watching media and don't want to be disturbed. In one generation, Xbox has gone from the most friendly system to the least, and these are my offline friends I'm talking about. When I page, no one hears me. Games I remember playing that I like are Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat XL, Divekick, Lethal League, and Atari FLashback Volumes 1 and 2. It's hard for me to find opponents, and since none of my friends are playing games on the One, unless this site makes money, I'm not renewing Gold.

Which leads to the Switch, I promised my brother I would buy it before buying my dream joystick. And I went gaga, reserving and buying Zelda Breath of the Wild, Bomberman, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Mario Kart 8, and have in reserve, Arms, Street Fighter 2, Splatoon 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. Bought just one download, Shovel Knight Treasure Trove. Just wondering if the network will let me have more gaming on the games I want to play.

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