Well, Rocktober has come and gone. It wasn't quite as awesome as I'd hoped. It rained so much that many farmers still have crops in the fields (and if you live in the midwestern US, you know that's a pretty big deal). As for me, I'm dreading the holiday season for the first time ever. I've worked retail before, but I've always escaped before the silly season arrived. I don't think I'm going to be that lucky this year.

Enough of that junk...let's talk about video games, shall we?

I took down two more games this month, putting me within one of my goal of 24 completions for the year. The gruesome twosome were:

22. WCW Nitro (PS)
23. Shadowgate Clas sic (GBC)

Nitro is one of those games that I loved when it came out, but the shine has worn off pretty badly. It's a really ugly game with some definite control issues, but it has tons of the WCW wrestlers I knew and loved back in the day. It was the most lovingly nostalgic 5.5 I've ever given out.

Shadowgate Clas sic is a nearly identical port of Shadowgate for the NES (and, oddly enough, the first handheld game I've ever completed). The game itself plays exactly like the NES version, but there are a few cosmetic differences to assist with it's move to a handheld. It's the same game I played before, so it gets the same score.

I was a little more active in acquisitions this month. I set (and achieved) a goal of acquiring my 200th NES game this month. I got some great suggestions (especially from hart704 and usagi704). Unfortunately, due to availability and/or price issues, I wasn't able to add many (if any) of their suggestions. Instead, they're now on my wishlist for the future. At any rate, here's the month's haul:

-The Last Remnant (X360)
-Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2)
-Baseball Stars (NES)
-Elevator Action (NES)
-Ghostbusters (NES)
-M.U.S.C.L.E. (NES)
-Solomon's Key (NES)
-Track & Field (NES)
-Family Game Night: Battleship (XBLA)
-NFL Tour (X360)
-Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City (X360)

I'm still trying to knock out that last game to hit my goal for the year. I'm playing a bunch right now, but have settled into Saints Row 2 (again...I never finished it) and am about half done. I also need to finally get around to trying to beat the bonus mission in Medal of Honor: Underground (PS) and slogging my way through WCW/nWo Thunder (PS). Once Assassin's Creed II shows up, I'll probably forget about everything else for awhile.

Speaking of Assassin's Creed II, I have it preordered...and I can't wait. I played the first one on a whim and fell in love. I hope that I like it as much as I enjoyed the first one. I keep saying I want to pick up Batman: Arkham Asylum and Ghostbusters for my (newly repaired...or more accurately, replaced with a refurb) 360, and you can now add Brutal Legend to that list. And as always, I'm keeping my eyes open for any old-school gems I might find.

For all you North American 360 fans out there, I found an interesting little site a week or so ago. xboxamerica.com is a site where, if you plug in your gamertag and the state/province you live in, you get ranked according to other site users in your state and country. I'm currently ranked 237th in Illinois and 5,957th nationwide (as of yesterday). It's another cool way to obsess about your gamerscore.

Well, that's about it for this month. I'm hoping I survive the holiday retail season. We'll see. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have about a third of Stilwater to take over.

Rocktober is here! There are so many great reasons to love this time of year: The weather is starting to cool down, football season (both college and pro) is in full swing, it will soon be World Series time (unfortunately, my White Sox will be playing golf), and one of the most awesome holidays of all, Halloween, is coming (Pac-Man or Charlie Brown...I haven't decided which one I'm going to dress up as yet). As a matter of fact, you'll notice that I like this month so much that I (with the help of my best friend) gave it a totally unoriginal, yet also totally fitting new name: Rocktober!

The other great thing about this time of year is that, since it's cooling off outside, it's much easier to excuse staying inside to play video games. Which is good because, after the massive amount of games I polished off in July and August, I didn't finish a single game in September

*cue fail jingle from Super Mario Bros. 2 slot machine*

That's right...not a single one. Luckily, I've only got three more to finish to hit my goal this year. I do have Medal of Honor: Underground and WCW Nitro (both PS) nearly finished, so I'll probably be able to add those to my list fairly soon (if I can get past that stupid final mission in MoH:U, that is...).

As far as acquisitions go, it wasn't a huge month. I wound up picking up six new games:

-The Beatles: Rock Band (X360)
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour '07 (X360)
-Guitar Hero 5 (X360)
-The Bard's Tale (NES)
-Centurion: Defender of Rome (Gen)
-Shadowgate Clas sic (GBC)

I had planned on picking up Batman: Arkham Asylum at some point in September, but my 360 decided to crap out. It has just arrived in Texas for it's operation...I'm hoping to get it back soon.

As for this month, I have a rather dedicated goal in mind. When I was adding my newest games to my database, I noticed that I have 194 NES games. I'm going to try to pick up six more to give myself an even 200. Now, here's where you come in.

I've already posted this in a couple different locations, and now I'm going to ask you: what should I try to track down for my six NES games? Here's what I've got...what am I missing?

Random thought of the month: I posted this on Twitter (@jollyroger3251) a few weeks ago after spending a couple hours shooting holes in various pixelated bad guys. I got to thinking about how many digital dudes I'd shot, stomped, kicked, punched, eaten, and otherwise rendered devoid of life and I started wondering what the body count actually was. Has anyone else ever actually thought about how many enemies they'd killed throughout their gaming career? When I sit there and actually look back on all the years I've played all these video games, from lighting up robots in Berzerk to filling VZ soldiers full of lead in Mercenaries 2, I figure my kill count has to be in the millions. Kind of mind boggling, eh?

Well, this one was a bit of a rambler. The excitement that comes with this time of year does that to me. Have a happy Rocktober and I'll catch you all next month.

An abnormally cool summer continues (good) and my Chicago White Sox have officially waved the white flag and conceded defeat in the American League Central Division (bad). Football season is coming and that means even cooler weather, Halloween, and even more excuses to play video games.

I put a giant dent in my game completion goal this month. I was able to take down five games, putting me at 21 out of 24 for the year. The fab five include:

17. Earthbound (SNES)
18. Deja Vu (NES)
19. Uninvited (NES)
20. Tecmo Bowl (NES)
21. Castlevania (NES)

Earthbound is an absolutely legendary game. It's great fun and legitimately hilarious. It was a bit longer than I remembered, but totally worth the 20-25 hours I sunk into it. My personal favorite enemy is the New-Age Retro Hippie, especially when he uses a toothbrush.

Deja Vu and Uninvited are two of the three Kemco/Icom games (along with Shadowgate). Deja Vu was pretty good, with a kind of film noir-esque story and 1940s setting. Uninvited was just dumb. It was the third of the three and it seemed pretty obvious that the programmers were bored at that point.

Tecmo Bowl is one of my all-time favorite games. I played as Chicago (naturally) and rode the legendary PAYTON to the Tecmo Bowl title. I won by an average score of 44-9. I used RUN 1 and RUN 2 and only threw two passes the entire season (one completion, one pick). I loved this one as a kid and it's one of the few games that hasn't lost it's shine all these years later.

Castlevania rates right up there with Metroid for personal satisfaction upon completing it. It's one of those rock-hard games and I'm proud to say I finished it. Once again, huge thanks to usagi704 for helping me through a couple mega-tough parts.

August was the slowest month for acquisitions I've had in a long time. I only purchased three games all month (and I'm pretty sure I can hear my wife heaving a giant sigh of relief). We unexpectedly had to put brakes on my wife's car and that wound up shooting through the rest of our summer fund a bit earlier than I would have liked. So, here's the short list:

August acquisitions-
-The Simpsons: Road Rage (GBA)
-Metal Gear Solid (GBC)
-WCW/nWo Thunder (PS)

I plan on picking up a couple biggies this month. I'm hearing great things about Batman: Arkham Asylum and I'll definitely grab Rock Band: The Beatles fairly soon. I've got a few golden oldies that I'm going to start working on tracking down as well.

That's about it for this month. Catch me on Twitter @jollyroger3251 if you like. I generally use it to spit out random thoughts about whatever game I happen to be playing at that time. See you all next time.

If there's one thing I like about my new job, it's the ability I have to sleep until noon, work until 9:00 pm, and then play video games until about 3:00 in the morning. It almost feels like I'm in high school on summer vacation again. I just wish it paid better...

At any rate, it's been a fairly slow month. I haven't had too much going on, which has made it a banner month for completions. These put me at 16 for the year, 2/3 of the way to my goal of 24 for the year. The fallen games include:

13. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (PS2)
14. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PS2)
15. Champions: Return to Arms (PS2)
16. Metal Gear (NES)

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is yet another one of those mindless hack n' slashers that I love so much. Blue Warrior became a Level 99 Legend and saved the world. There isn't much to it and if you want to actually play the game to completion, you will do a TON of grinding (or, slappin' slimes, if you're in my family). But it's good to turn your brain off and just kill things.

I didn't like Max Payne 2 quite as much as the original, but it's still a great game. I'm not sure why, but as soon as I heard about the upcoming Max Payne 3, I decided that I had to rip through it NOW. I'm now looking forward to the third game's release so I can continue in Max's snakebitten shoes.

Remember what I said about Gauntlet? Well, the same could pretty much be said for Champions: Return to Arms. It's a little prettier and a little more complex, but it's the same idea...and that's not a bad thing. I finished the story mode in this one, but it also has several side missions that are almost impossible to complete with just one character. I have yet to bother with some of those.

Metal Gear is one of my childhood favorites. I played the hell out of it when I was about 12 and I surprised myself with how much I actually remember about it. It took me about four hours, but I took it down in one sitting. Now I just have to get through the awful Snake's Revenge (the existence of which isn't even acknowledged by Hideo Kojima, if I remember correctly).

I was finally relatively successful in scaling back my acquisitions this month, although I do have an interesting story. First, the list:

July Acquisitions-
-Dark Sector (X360)
-Forza Motorsport 2 (X360)
-WCW Nitro (PS)
-Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (PS2)
-Fracture (X360)
-Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party (PS2)
-Comix Zone (XBLA)
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Arcade (XBLA)

Short list this month. Now, see Fracture on that list? It's a relatively nondescript purchase, until I tell how I obtained it.

I had taken my wife out to dinner at this little restaurant in our town. They had advertisements on the placemats, one of which was for this little secondhand shop that advertised a ton of video game stuff. I went over there the next day and, while they didn't have much, they did have a couple things I was interested in. Unfortunately, they didn't accept debit cards so I had to go back with cash a couple days later.

When I returned, I nearly fell over when I saw my aunt working behind the counter. It turns out that she and my cousin run this little place so they have something to do. I had no idea they were the owners of the shop. But now I have another place to go look for stuff.

As for the upcoming month, I don't foresee much in the way of acquisitions, but I'm hoping for a little more of a dent in my backlog. I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Earthbound (SNES) and have Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden hanging out next to my NES for practice. I'm ahead of my pace right now, so anything I finish this month just puts me farther ahead. I'm kind of ready to get this over with so I can play something a little more involved. I've got some great games sitting there waiting on me...I just need to find the time to knock them off.

Before I leave, here's a couple more places to find me if you wish:

Twitter: jollyroger3251
Backloggery: jollyroger78

Add away if you like. Until next time...

Well, my unemployment lasted exactly zero days. I was able to find a job at Sears in the receiving section. It's not exactly lucrative, but it'll pay the bills (and buy the occasional video game) until something a bit more permanent pops free. Then it becomes toy money and a 10% discount on things like TVs and sound systems (and more video games).

I was only able to knock out one game this month, but it was a big one for me:

12. Metroid (NES)

I am embarrassed to say that, despite owning the game pretty much since it came out way back in the late 80s, I had never finished it. I got Samus to take her helmet off, which is pretty good for the first runthrough I guess. It's an awesome game and I'm glad I can finally count it among my completions.

It doesn't look like it, but I actually did cut the game buying back a little this month. And what I did get was rather hit and miss. There's a bunch of Singstar and Buzz! games in there for my wife and most of the other stuff was picked up on a couple of trips out of town. So, all in all, it was a relatively slow month (as always, these are in the order that they found their way into my collection):

June Acquisitions-
-Singstar: Legends (PS2)
-Singstar: Country (PS2)
-Alone in the Dark (360)
-Clive Barker's Jericho (360)
-Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (360)
-Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
-Two Worlds (360)
-Tourist Trophy (PS2)
-Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (NES)
-Gun.Smoke (NES)
-WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling (SNES)
-Silent Hill (PS)
-Buzz!: The Hollywood Quiz (PS2)
-Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam (PS2)
-Mojo! (PS2)
-Singstar: Pop (PS2)
-Mojo! (PS2)
-NASCAR '08 (360)
-Stuntman: Ignition (360)
-PBR: Out of the Chute (PS2)

The collection stands at 927 games. I hadn't actually planned on hitting 1,000 this year, but it's starting to look like a possibility. We'll see.

The Iron Maiden track pack has me playing the heck out of Rock Band 2 (360) again. Maiden is one of my all-time favorite bands, so I was pretty excited when they announced the songs. I wish they would have included "Wrathchild", but you can't win 'em all. I've also been playing a lot of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (PS2) and since Blue Warrior is now a level 60 Champion (!), I'll probably finish this one off very soon. I'm not sure what's next after that. I'm eyeballing Metal Gear (NES), Max Payne 2 (PS2), and STILL want to go back and clean up some of the 360 games I've got started.

Oh, and something I don't always do: a random song suggestion of the month! If you're a hair metal fan at all, check out "Shake & Tumble" by Firehouse. I have had this song for years, but had never listened to it. Then I jumped in the car after work and it was on. For all the crap they take for looking stupid, no one can deny that most hair metal bands were excellent musicians.

That's it for now. June was a ridiculous month...I'm hoping July is a little more relaxed. Catch you all next month.