[button link=”http://nerdbacon.com/blogs/the-cubist-8/” style=”emboss” size=”large” bg_color=”#15e62d” hovercolor=”#055408″ textcolor=”#000000″ texthovercolor=”#ffffff” icon=”book” iconcolor=”#000000″]Read The Cubist’s Latest Entries[/button]

February 27th, 2016 – 12:36am

Pay my respects to grace and virtue,
Send my condolences to good,
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could,
And so long to devotion,
You taught me everything I know
Wave good-bye,
Wish me well….

February 26th, 2016 – 6:54am

I am alive or thoughts that drift away?
Does summer come for everyone?
Can humans do what prophets say?
And if I die before I learn to speak…
Can money pay for all the days
I lived awake but half asleep?

February 23rd, 2016 – 1:47am – Amiibo 2016: Chapter 3

Ok, so as we all know (ok, maybe not everyone) the 23rd is the day for Gold Mega Man to drop, as a bundle with the Mega Man Legacy Collection for the 3DS.  It seemed like this might be one of the rarer Amiibos out there, so I preordered it from Best Buy when I got the shot.  Problem is, it wasn’t available for in-store pickup, only shipping.  From what I gathered at the time, they had it all worked out so that it would actually be at my house on the 23rd.  But then early this afternoon I just got the shipping notice from Best Buy, with no explicit mention of a delivery date.  UGH.  I’ll report back when I know more…

By the way, is anyone out there working on getting all of the Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards?  I’m sort of surprised to see that no one else is collecting them…anyway, I have LOTS and LOTS of Series 1 & Series 2 cards that I’d really like to offload, so if there are any that you need, shoot me an email and we’ll talk.  I’ll be willing to let them go for a fair price!

February 7th, 2016 – 2:33am – Tomorrow I begin on my journey with the Sega Master System!

I know we’re a week into Retroary already, but I haven’t been totally  unproductive.  Shovel Knight may not be a retro game in and of itself, but it definitely pays tribute to all the things we hold near and dear about retrogaming, and as such, I’ve been using the past few days to put together a full video playthrough of the game.

I don’t have any truly proper way to capture the footage, so my first order of business was to systematically stream myself playing through the game and “broadcasting it” on Twitch.  (Which I did in HD specifically for the capture; I usually don’t stream at such high quality.)  Then I had to move all that raw footage from Twitch to YouTube, which takes quite a while – even longer before YouTube will recognize it as “HD.”  Then there was the matter of downloading it all from YouTube, probably a good 5 GB all told.  With the raw footage on hand, it was time to edit.  I didn’t really think editing was going to be so hard; I thought I was going to be able to skip and around and easily navigate to what needed to be cut…well it ain’t quite that easy and I’ve had to watch much more of it, minute by minute, than I thought I would’ve needed to.  Currently I’m trying to break them into roughly 20 minute chunks without interrupting any in-stage gameplay.  After editing, slapping up a nice title graphic and intro card, I’ve got to then re-convert it to a new video, which also takes a hell of a long time.  Finally I get to upload to YouTube, and while the “uploading” goes pretty quick, sometimes the “processing” can be a real bitch.  I’ve been slaving away at this for the past 36 hours or so, and by about the time I finish typing this, Part 9 should be converted and ready to upload.

I’m not really sure how many parts I have left to go, but I’m definitely over half-way through the raw footage, and I know for a fact that quite a bit of time on the last file of raw footage is taken up by deaths.  My intention wasn’t to edit things in such a way that made me look like a perfect player, but then again there’s no point in having everyone watch me die again and again.

As the process winds down, I’ve got my box full of “SMS stuff” ready to go and a separate little TV set up in a separate room of the house.  Hopefully I will be up and running by tomorrow evening and cranking out those RETROARY pieces soon enough!

January 27th, 2016 – 5:43pm – Have you ever wondered why I call myself The Cubist?

January 22nd, 2016 – 8:11pm – Amiibo Hunt 2016, Part II

As any of you geographically close to me might realize, this morning was full of ice.  A light snowfall kicked things off around quarter ’til 7, and by 7:30am it’d turned to sleet.  I was getting a little anxious about what might be open and what wouldn’t, but I’d also pre-ordered 2 of them at Best Buy and had the email that said they’d be ready. (They didn’t have the other 3 available for pick up at that location for whatever reason.)

Fortunately, the county went ahead and cancelled school last night, so that was one big hurdle I didn’t have to deal with even if it did spend 6 hours sleeting.  My first stop was my usual Target, and I swear, they are getting more and more disappointing with every release.  I got a very unconvincing “hrm drr not sure what you’re talking about, don’t see any new ones.”  Oh well.  So I went up to the next Target through all the yucky and sleet and ice, and there were all 5 new Amiibo, plus Series 2 AC cards, sitting right there on the shelves.

I got the 3 I needed (Blathers, Celeste, Kicks) and 5 packs of cards.  Then I came home, woke the kid up, and we waited about 45 minutes and then set off back in the same direction for Best Buy.  When we got there, they seemed closed, but we caught a guy outside who said they were open “for now.”  Got in, got Lucas and Resetti, and decided to hit the GameStop in the same strip mall.  Picked up 5 more packs of cards and was able to pre-order Roy!  They had all the new Amiibo as well.  Then there was another quick stop by Toys R Us for 3 more packs of cards.

The road had gotten noticeably worse in the interim, but it still wasn’t too bad because the freezing rain had yet to start.  From my 13 packs of cards, I got 56 unique ones and 22 duplicates.  I’m a little distraught at the ratio; the first time around I didn’t really start packing on the duplicates util I hit about 80 cards.  Oh well.  I’m also getting the duplicates listed on eBay very quickly, so hopefully I can make some real money here at the beginning!

And that’s the end of another short “Amiibo Acquistion” story.  Even with all the ice crazyiness!  I am starting to get a little frustrated with my nearby Target though…

By the way, if anyone else is out there buying up AC Series 2 cards, let me know and we’ll do some trading!

January 9th, 2016 – 3:33pm – Another Amiibo Adventure!

Most of my recent Amiibo acquisitions have been pretty uneventful…go to store, wait outside a few minutes, deal with confused cashier (optional), get toy, celebrate.  Well, there was the Mega Yarn  Yoshi misstep (and since there was no Japanese version I had to pay  almost twice the MSRP on eBay) but otherwise I’ve done well.

During this flurry of Amiibo activity at the tail end of 2015, Shovel Knight was conspicuously denied a release date, listed only as “Holiday 2015.”  Some retailers had December 18th as its release, though the date came and went uneventfully.  I was using Best Buy’s site to track the “progress,” hoping I could slip in and score a quick pre-order to keep things simple.  Soon they had changed their release date to January 8th, but as the day neared, they still didn’t have an option to pre-order.  Finally, 3 or 4 days before release, the pre-order option was open…only when I tried to add it to my cart, my cart was still empty.  I couldn’t figure out what the hell was happening; it took some digging before Best Buy’s site would actually tell me that “this item isn’t available for pick-up from your local Best Buy.”

Moving on to the 6th, it was time for me to figure out what to do.  Most of the time this entails showing up at Target 20 – 30 minutes early, but ever since a near-miss with the Retro Pack and my fumble with Mega Yoshi, I like to do a little bit of digging a day or two beforehand to make sure nothing has slipped by me.

Well, one of the first results I landed on was discussing the potential rarity of Shovel Knight.  There were no last minute exclusivity issues to worry about, but it looked as if initial numbers were going to be quite limited.  The report suggested that Best Buys and GameStops would be hit especially hard hit, possibly receiving only 2 figures!  (Is this possible though?  The Amiibo ship in boxes of 4 each…)  I’m not sure where this article got its information, but it went on to say that Target should fare a little better, with stocks of 2 to 8 per store, and Toys R Us should be the best bet with anywhere from 12 to 16 per location.

This would’ve been some great information to have, if only it’d actually been even remotely true…

The Night Before – Knowing that Shovel Knight may possibly pose a problem to get, I wanted to get to Target earlier than usual.  My kid was excited, so I told him I was going to wake him up at about 6:45am (15 minutes earlier than usual) so that we could get ready and actually be at Target by 7:30am.  Seemed like the best proactive step to take.

7:31am – I wake up to the sound of my mom coming down the stairs asking me if I’d already gotten up.  Confused as hell and wondering why I was up at the computer and passed out in the chair, I wiggled the mouse to find out that it was 7:31am!  Shit, I wanted to be in Target’s parking lot a minute ago.  What had happened is that I’d woken up about an hour and a half earlier and I didn’t want to go back to sleep because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake back up in time.  So I was trying to keep myself awake – didn’t work.  Anyway, I scurried around the house getting my son ready, getting myself dressed, packing lunch, all sorts of stuff that I normally take care of at a leisurely pace.  It took us another 10 or 12 minutes to get ready, but all hope wasn’t lost yet…..

7:47am – We’ve made it to Target.  It’s freezing cold outside and even though it’s only 13 minutes, I really don’t want to spend a second longer than I have to out there.  Oh and it’s also all drizzly/foggy outside too.  So my kid and I carefully watch the front doors.  No one’s lined up.  There doesn’t seem to be anyone sitting around in cars.  We decide to enjoy the warmth of the car for a few more minutes.

7:53am – Now we’re waiting out front – no one else in sight.  This leaves us 3 possibilities: 1) no one knows about Shovel Knight (highly improbable considering past experiences at this Target); 2) no one cares (could be possible; we didn’t see anyone else around when Lottie was released (on a Sunday no less) and she was a Target exclusive); or 3) this Target didn’t have any to sell, and it was us who were missing some piece of information.

8:04am – We’ve been inside for a few minutes now.  A few other people are trickling in, but nowhere even near the electronics counter.  I’m waiting patiently, and my kid tells me that they’ve actually got a rack with a label for “Shovel Knight” over with the other Amiibo.  Well that’s a good sign, right?  Finally I hit the little help button and someone comes over.  We go through the usual exchange, he has to check with some other person, blah blah.  A couple of minutes later he comes back with his little scanner gun thingy and tells me that they’re supposed to have them, but the shipment hasn’t arrived yet.  He tells me to check back around 12:30.  Grr, we’re 0 for 1 at this point.

8:06am – We get back in the car and now I’ve got some tough decisions about what to do next, plus I’ve got to get the kid to school at some point in there.  I decide to rush up to the nearest Target (up by the mall) since that’s what we had to do when the local Target claimed they didn’t have any of the Animal Crossing 3-Packs.  Traffic was surprisingly kind to us and we got up there quite a bit sooner than I’d thought.

8:25am – Nothing on  the shelves here, so I ask the electronics guy about it, and he says that they’ve just sold out, but curiously remarks that they may get more in “tonight or tomorrow.”  (Weird?)  I asked how many they got, and he told me they’d only gotten 4.  Now I’m starting to get a little worried – I had a few options available to me, but in some cases choosing one option meant abandoning another.

8:27am – We’re back in the car.  I drive over to Toys R Us (in the same parking lot).  There’s no line or anything, and they’re opening in about 30 minutes.  Going off the info in the online article, I figured I should at least try to be at Toys R Us if I was getting desperate.  I didn’t want my kid to be too damn late to school, so I figured I’d go ahead and drop him off and time how long it took to get there.

8:42am – We pull up in front of the school, I get the kiddo dropped off, and disappointed as he is, I assure him that there’s still lots of opportunities left.

8:58am – I’m back in the TRU parking lot.  They take their sweet time opening the doors, and when they do, I shoot back to the electronics counter.  I notice a woman her tween-aged kids behind me, and recognize them from other Amiibo hunts.  “We usually see you in Wake Forest, right?” she said to me.  “Yeah, but that didn’t work out so I’m here.”  She begins to tell me that she’s called several places and has had trouble finding Shovel Knight.  She told me that the TRU in Cary had some, but she didn’t want to drive out that far.  After about 5 minutes of waiting, we flag someone down.  This employee – who looks like the offspring of a witch and a troll – waddles off mumbling something into her walkie.  One excruciating minute after the next passes, and she finally pops back up to tell us that,”there’s nothing coming out ’til the 22nd.” No but see, there is something coming out today…  Utterly futile.  Once these employees have answered your question they’re content to rush back off to doing whatever it is they’re doing, preferring to believe that whatever information you may have is a total fabrication.  Oh fucking well.

9:14am – I’m back in the car, and boy, did that “no” waste a lot of time.  I did have a small lead at this point though, the TRU in Cary.  I didn’t really want to drive out there either, but I was already in Raleigh.  Now I know Cary is a busy place not to mention a ways out – I didn’t want to get out there only for them to tell me they’d sold out and then have run out of time to explore any other options.  So I called them.  They were supposed to have several, but their shipment had not yet come in.  Great.  I call the TRU in Durham.  Apparently they’ve reverted back to their pre-holiday hours and don’t open until 10.

9:23am – I’m still in the car, driving back towards WF, wondering what to do.  Time is running out.  I’m weighing 2 options most heavily: 1) do I go ahead and make the 30ish minute trip to Durham and try to make it to that TRU as close to opening as possible?  Assuming the internet article is correct, I’ll have a better chance of snagging one from TRU, even if I’m not able to hang around outside for 30 minutes before opening.  Or 2) do I get to my nearest GameStop as quick as possible and hang around outside for 20 or 30 minutes?  Again assuming that there’s any truth to the internet article, GameStop may not have that many to sell.  But then again, if I go ahead and get there, and if I can be first in line, I’ll be able to get Shovel Knight even if they only have one.  Oh the agony.

9:29am – I find myself pulling back into the parking lot of the first Target I went to; maybe their shipment came in…?  Luckily I run into the guy from before as soon as I get there.  Nope, no word on the shipment.  This is starting to get kinda crazy….

9:36am – I pull into the GameStop parking lot.  No one’s at the door, so I decide to wait it out.  I decide that if they don’t have any, I’ll then call the Durham TRU after they’ve opened to see what’s up.  I’m about halfway up to the door, and what do I see?  Some people getting out of the car, and they look to be headed towards GameStop.  Now I’m really glad I made it their when I did.  Turns out it’s the same woman with her kids!  They had been carrying out their own hunt between Raleigh and WF since we’d parted in TRU.  Just about then, I notice a sign taped to the door: they have 4 Shovel Knight’s, first come, first serve.  Hell yeah!  Well, “hell yeah” assuming they’re not waiting on a damn shipment….

9:47am – Satisfied that they have 4, the woman and her kids went back to her car to wait.  (It was such a cold, damp, nasty day for standing around outside.)  This guy pops up and starts to go inside and asks me if I’m there for Shovel Knight.  I told him I most certainly was and related my morning’s failures in short form.  “Well, you’ll definitely get one here when we open.”  FINALLY.  No shipments, no “I don’t know where it is,” no sell-outs…they had them, right there, and there was just a few minutes left between me and it.  I gave the lady and her kids a “thumbs up” from where I was, and saw them dash out of the car a second later.  I told her that they had ’em, they were here, no strings attached, BOOM game set match.  The relief was evident.  She told me about how she generally avoided GameStops during these releases due to some shady shit she had seen before and some events her husband had witnessed a few times he’d taken the kids hunting also.  I told her that normally I didn’t hit GameStop either (mostly because Target opened 2 hours earlier) but that I’d gotten lucky more than once at this one.

10:00am – At 10 on the dot, they opened the gates, let us in, and the rest is history.  Oh wait, no it’s not; there’s still a little bit left to the story…

1:30(ish)pm – I’d been home for a couple of hours at this point, reveling in my hard-fought victory.  Then my mom wanted me to run some errands, and I’d been meaning to pick up one of those USB-to-SD card converter/adapter things for the big computer ever since the SD drive quit working.  So I went back out – to Target of all places – and began looking around for the adapter.  (Turns out they didn’t have one, but when I went to Walmart, they had like 4 to choose from, weird.)  Anyway, the same guy from earlier pops out and says, “Hey man, the shipment just came in!”  I was following him around the corner of the aisle and asked how many they got in.  Just as we reached the area, he pointed, “1, 2, 3…” hanging on one rack….then he dug around behind some AC Amiibos, “…and 4! … I couldn’t technically ‘hold’ this for you but I stashed it back there in case you came back!”  In this day and age where retail workers truly aren’t paid enough to give a shit, I was genuinely touched by the gesture and didn’t have the heart to tell him I found one 3 or 4 hours ago.  I thanked him profusely, continued with my shopping….and now I have 2 Shovel Knights.

January 6th, 2016 – 1:42am – Return?

Hey folks!  I probably should be dropping this in the Members Area or sending out an email but here it is instead.

Apologies for being a bit distant and disconnected lately.  As I’m sure was the case with most of you, the days up to and including Christmas were pretty busy.  Starting the night of the day after, I begin coming down with some kind of horrible stomach bug.  I’ll spare you the details (seriously) but in short I’ve been damn uncomfortable and not in the greatest of moods these last couple of weeks.  I’m guessing mild food poisoning or something similar, though the rest of the household seems to be just fine.

Anyway I’m starting to feel a little like normal again, so expect me to get back on track with those emails and the January Clean Up within the next couple of days.

I hope everyone had a great holiday, and if you’ve tried to contact me about something and I haven’t answered, please send it again and I’ll try reallllly hard to get it to in a timely manner.

November 20th, 2015 – 5:23am – I may not have Mega Yarn Yoshi but…

…Check out this piece of Amiibo-dom that arrived on my doorstep this morning courtesy of the Doc…

Right now this one is only available in/from Japan, but word round the campfire is that he’s scheduled for a 2016 release in the States!

And next is another good reason to grab the Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival bundle if you haven’t already – besides grabbing Isabelle and Digby of course: the 3 special Animal Crossing Amiibo cards!

If you want to see lots and lots and lots of pictures of Amiibo, go to our Flickr page!  Pretty soon I’ll open and photograph the new AC critters individually, and hopefully before too long I’ll be caught up with these recent releases and I’ll be ready for another family photo before the end of 2015,

November 19th, 2015 – 1:36pm – Remember this?

I remember the song well, but I never really internalized how clever the lyrics were!

Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina
She’s a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize
She’ll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Steal their Seoul in South Korea, make Antarctica cry “uncle”
From the Red Sea to Greenland they’ll be singin’ the blues
Well they never Arkansas her steal the Mekong from the jungle
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

She goes from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe
Chicago to Czech and Slovakia and back!

Well she’ll ransack Pakistan and pull a scam in Scandinavia
Then she’ll stick-em-up Down Under and go pick-pocket Perth
She put the “Miss” in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Botswana to Thailand, Milan via Amsterdam
Mali to Bali, Ohio, Oahu!

[Bridge]

Monday through Friday at five!

Well she glides around the globe and she’ll flim-flam every nation
She’s a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery
Her itinerary’s loaded up with moving violations
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

[Outro]

November 15th, 2015 – 11:16am – The Streak…is…Over…

I come to you particularly despondent today; my search for Mega Yarn Yoshi has ended in failure.  I rushed up to Toys R Us this morning and got there just a couple of minutes before 10am…and quickly saw a notice on the door about their hours changing starting in November…today they opened at 9am, not 10.  Still hopeful due to the recent state of things, I went in and asked, but they were already all gone.  I rushed to the one in Raleigh, they were gone as well.  Called the only other store in driving distance, the one in Cary, and they were gone as well.

Shit.

Why the hell was I so unaware of the new store hours!?

Oh well.  I guess it’s time to get myself over to Amazon and pay a premium for a Japanese version; hopefully I’ll at least be able to find one from an American seller so it gets here soon…

Bleh, and I was doing so well when it came to the Amiibo….

November 13th, 2015 – 10:54am – My Amiibo Collection Remains INTACT

Well, today was an Amiibo release day, so as usual, I’m here to recount my tales.  If you haven’t already read it, the entry below details some very early morning hunting I did for the little figures, albeit with no results to speak of.

I had my son this week, which means I have to take him to school today (Friday).  Due to what I would consider a very unfair court ruling, I’m forced to make a round trip that lasts anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half…I get to do this twice a day…yay….anyway, he’s supposed to be at school between 8am and 8:30, but he’s more than happy to show up late in the service of Amiibo hunting!  We set off at 7:30, got to Target about 6 minutes later, and went to wait by the front doors with this fellow that we’ve been seeing a lot of lately.  Lots of other people started showing up during the last 10 minutes, and we were starting to get very anxious about what they were after since few of them were adhering to any sort of line.

Well the doors opened and most of us scampered over to the electronics.  Luckily the rest of the crowd fell in line, while a few veered off for whatever else they needed that was worth waiting outside for.  As has been the case during the last few releases, the employees knew very little about what was going on.  Initially he brought out 3 Mewtwos. We were quick to tell him that there should be 1) a bundle, 2) a 3-pack, and 3) 3 singles.  After a bit more rambling he came back with Tom Nook, Mabel, and the AC Amiibo Festival bundle with Isabelle and Digby.  After a lot of hustle and bustle and calling some other employee over and finding some keys and looking in some locked cabinets, they still couldn’t find the 3-Pack.  Finally the lady found it in the computer and said that they had ZERO.  She was very insistent despite the fact that her computer was telling her that they only had 2 bundles when the guy in front of me had one, I had one, and then there was a third sitting on top of a box that had to have contained at least 3 more.  Why she was unwilling to admit that there was probably an error was beyond me, but she was starting to get pretty pissy about it, and by now we were pushing 8:30.  She also claimed that there were 21 Mewtows (despite the guy only finding 3), but again, this is unlikely since the Amiibo ship in boxes of 4 each.  (If you pay attention to some of the very limited releases, it’s always multiples of 4; stores will have 4, or 8, 12, 16, etc. of a given figure.  Even back when Target was flooded with Dr. Mario’s they had  80 – that’s 20 boxes of 4 a-piece.)

Oh fucking well.  As it turned out only 3 of us were there for Amiibos.  The other folks in the electronics department were anxiously awaiting CDs from One Direction and the Biebs.  I suspect these 3 packs will pop up later today.

At this point I had to start thinking logistics.  After all, I did have to get my kid to school at some point, and we were already going to be 30 minutes late under the very best of circumstances.  The local GameStop has proven to be a viable option on release day provided I can get there at least 30 minutes early.  That meant 30-ish minutes to school, a few more to check him in at the office, and another 30-ish back this way – we’d be cutting it close.  Plus I know he wanted to be with me when I got them, but I couldn’t hang around here for another hour and a half letting him play hookie!

My other option was the other Target.  I was going to be going in roughly that direction anyway to get him to school.  If they had it then great, but if they didn’t, the process of getting there, going in, and then getting from there to school was really going to eat into my plans to be at GameStop by 9:30.  And besides, this was the Target that’s in the same shopping center as Toys R Us that had a line wrapped around the building nearly 2 hours before opening back when the “May Wave” dropped.  I decided to take the chance….

We hit the 2nd Target at about 8:40, my son scampered over to the Amiibos, and I could tell we’d hit gold from the look on his face!  There were no lines, no waiting, no nothing.  In fact, there was a pile of bundles on the checkout counter and the remaining Amiibo (the 3 singles and the 3-pack) were all already hanging on the shelves.  Game, set, match, BOOM.

They also had a standalone Green Yarn Yoshi, which I noticed because some asshole was buying up 6 of the Yarn Yoshi’s….it’s that kinda shit that’s made the Amiibo craze so awful to begin with.  Fortunately, I think he’s about 6 or 8 months too late to fully cash in.

Here are some first pics of the spoils of war – enjoy!

November 13th, 2015 – 3:52am – Walmart, you’re about as useful as a turd sandwich.

In a few short hours I fully intend to have my ass planted outside of Target in anticipation of today’s fairly massive Amiibo drop.  However, at about 2:30 (about an hour and a half ago) I decided to see if I could get a head start on the rush at the local Walmarts.  I went to the first one which is pretty close to my house…nothing on the shelves, no price tags or labels to indicate that they would be stocked, yet they had a good many boxes over in electronics that had stuff stamped on it in big ol’ letters like “DO NOT STOCK BEFORE 11/13” so I was sorta hopeful.

I asked the guy if they had any of the new Amiibo…”Abibibobo what?” he replied in African-tinged English.  He said he’d “check” and I thought he was going to make a real effort – you know, like punch some shit into a computer or radio to someone in the stockroom.  No no, he just wandered around the electronics area looking at shelves (everything from the laptop bags to the clearance PC games) and then came back to me and told me that didn’t have any…or something to that effect, hell if I know what he said.

I was about to go home, but I realized that I’d be able to make it to the next nearest Walmart in almost no time since it was almost 3am at this point.  And I retained some hope, because they seemed to kinda have their shit together back in March when the Super Mario series dropped.  So I got there, nothing on the shelves, but there was a tag labeled “AC Amiibo Fest. Bundle” in the game case, stocked with a few of those new Snoopy games.  Does Walmart actively try to hire subhumans?  I found a group of 3 of them cavorting near the cellphones and asked.  The one apparently in charge was yet again clueless.  What’d he do?  Walked me over to the fucking Amiibo shelf.  I said “it ain’t there, it’s probably in a box somewhere” and then he said “oh, she dun stocked ova hurr lak den minuts uhgo.”  Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.  It’s like they go out of their way to be unhelpful.  I’m a goddamn paying customer.  I know what’s going on.  Get your ass on a computer or your little walkie talkie and give me some real goddamn information.

Oh well.  I’m pretty confident that Target will supply me with all that I need, I just get a little anxious out there waiting and then going inside and waiting for the employees to get it together…..running up on one or two (or more) in an empty Walmart in the middle of the night would’ve made it a little easier.

Stay tuned folks.  We’ve got about 4 hours to go on the countdown, and I’ll report back here with my spoils just as soon as I can!

By the way, “Wolf Link” (whatever the fuck it is) looks pretty badass don’t it?

November 4th, 2015 – 6:31am – Amiibo Family Portrait, and Thoughts on the Mario Challenge

For anyone wanting to see pictures of the newest Amiibo and a “family portrait” of all Amiibo as of November 1st (minus the Animal Crossing cards, which I have pictures separately), go to NB’s Flickr page.  We would love to host pics that the rest of you have to share as well, so send ’em my way!

As for the Mario Challenge, I’m pretty excited.  I went through a period where I gathered up pretty much every Mario game I saw and even went out of my way to procure others, so I have quite a few Mario oddities scattered about.  I know I don’t have every US Mario game, but I can’t be too far off.  Here are a few that are floating to the top of my list (to review):

• Super Princess Peach (DS) – Started on this forever ago – probably 2 or 3 years back – and never finished it.  It was sort of difficult to latch onto at first, but playing with Peach’s emotions gets kind of interesting.  I wish Nintendo had followed up on this, but I doubt they ever will.
• Mario is Missing! (SNES) – I was reminded of this title as I put the poll together for the next Nerd Bacon By Request (by the way, click here to vote now for Watchman’s November 23rd broadcast if you haven’t already) and remembered having a fairly good time with this kids-oriented edutainment title.  I was close to finishing it at one point but never did; maybe it’s time to revisit and review!
• Super Paper Mario (Wii) – What an awesome game that nobody ever talks about!  I went through every dark corner of this game roughly a year before The Bacon was launched so I haven’t yet reviewed it, but I remember this being a hell of an awesome experience.
• Mario Sports Mix (Wii) – For anyone who hasn’t played a Mario sports game, they probably don’t sound all that interesting.  While there are varying degrees of quality, most of them are a lot of fun, even if you’re not an avid fan of said sport.  Sports Mix is a sort of tangential title for the Wii that doesn’t cleanly fit with any of Mario’s other sports ventures, but so far it’s the only Mario game to feature dodgeball, volleyball, and probably a couple of others.  “Mario Dodgeball” sounds too fun to pass up!
• Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GameCube) – I’ve played a round or two of this here and there for years, yet still haven’t really sat down to properly explore all it has to offer.  It’s a great mixture of fun and frustration, and probably the best golf video game I’ve ever played (not that I have too much to compare it to…).
• Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U) – I’m already knee-deep in this faithful continuation of the Yoshi franchise, so why not?  For those with fond memories of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Woolly World is a beautiful rendition of similar gameplay and mechanics.  I hope to finish up enough of this soon to give it a proper review.
• Mario Clash (Virtual Boy) – Mario Clash isn’t much more than a slightly retooled version of the original Mario Bros., but I might go ahead and spend a little more time with it just so I can get a Virtual Boy review under my belt.

So that’s what’s at the top of my list; what about yours??

Oh, and as promised here it is – can you find anyone missing?  No?  That’s because nobody is missing!!!

November 1st, 2015 – 9:20pm – Mii Fighter Amiibos!

My Amiibo stories are getting shorter and shorter…not wanting to risk wasting my time going to my usual Toys R Us in Raleigh (about 20 minutes away), I set off for the one in Durham  (about a 40 minute drive), which stays pretty deserted.  I’m not sure how many they had total, but we got up there at 10:03am (3 minutes after opening) and I’m pretty sure we were the first to pick up one of the 3-Packs.  No one else was even in the store except for a young family who weren’t even making their way to the electronics area.  The clerk had 4 behind the desk, and another 4 were hanging on the actual rack (unusual).  We picked up our pack without a hitch, and thus ends the tale of another 3 Amiibo!

Now we’ve just got to make it through that massive wave on the 13th…

October 18th, 2015 – 9:59am – Yarn Yoshis

Here they are, the three newest Amiibo!  I might add that these bitches were $16.99 instead of the usual $12.99! (Or a buck more if you’re shopping at Toys R Us.)

October 18th, 2015 – 7:56am – Hell Yes

I love ad jingles from the early 90’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHujBU-9mdk

October 16th, 2015 – 9:44pm – UCB

Does anyone remember the Upright Citizens Brigade?  I was a little too young to totally understand what I was watching at the time, but I’ve always been drawn to that sort of absurdist anti-humor humor.  It’s the same part of me that can’t laugh at shit like Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler.  Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is a superb example of the style.  Most people can’t even figure out what to laugh at, and I’ve found that even though a few will find it funny, most people aren’t laughing at the right parts.

Oooooh….

Life on a nutsack nutsack nutsack, 

Nutsack nutsack nutsack nutsack,

Nutsack nutsack nutsack nutsaaaaack….

Thank God I’m a nutsack!

Yee-haa!

I’ve got to buy this shit up on DVD one day.

[button link=”http://nerdbacon.com/blogs/the-cubist-6/” size=”xl” icon=”file-text-o” bg_color=”#15e62d” border=”#a1a1a1″ text=”dark” class=”dark”]Read Previous Entries[/button]