There’s not much that gets me to turn on my Xbox 360 these days. A new Halo game is usually a guaranteed buy, but I find myself wanting to play newer video games less and less for some reason. I’m also usually pretty excited about new consoles, but this year I haven’t even gotten excited about the Xbox One or the Playstation 4.

However, Disney Infinity caught my eye a long time ago. The combination of a video game and cool little collectible figures as well as the ability to mix Disney characters from different properties sounded like a lot of fun, despite the high price tag. It’s obvious that Disney wanted a slice of the Skylanders billion dollars a year business model, but they created a game that is a lot of fun and (in my opinion) has a ton of potential.

Taking advantage of some launch-week sales and deals, I snagged the Xbox 360 Starter Kit as well as a few extra figures and gave the game a spin. Usually I leave game reviews to the experts, like my buddies over at Horrible Night, but I’m sure a lot of you are wondering if this game is any good, and hopefully I can help you out. Now, on to the game.
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When I was a kid we had an Atari 2600 in a box in the basement left over from either my Dad or my sisters’ curiosity in video games from a time before I was born. I played it some when I was little and my sister took our (or her) NES to college. There were also a few stores in my hometown where Atari games could be found for dirt cheap, so there’s always been a weird, it’s-better-than-no-video-games kind of nostalgia in my heart when it comes to Atari.

A few years back I found this little booklet at my Mom’s house and stashed it in one of my many junk boxes. I recently dug it out and I knew I had to scan the pages and post them here on the site. With Atari graphics being so horrible, they had to rely on these cool watercolor illustrations to advertise the games, and it’s really fun to look through. So here is, in full, the 1981 Atari Video Computer System™ Catalog.

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I was digging through stuff at my Grandpa’s house last weekend to see if there was anything I found sentimental and wanted to keep (he didn’t die, he’s just moving to a retirement home), and among the old photos, fishing paraphernalia, and random mothball-scented things, I found a 1993 Sears Catalog. I spotted it from a mile away and almost knocked my sister over who was looking through our Grandmother’s Christmas decorations trying to get to it.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a Christmas catalog. If it was, I would have snatched the whole thing and spent hours (days?) scanning the entire toy section. Alas, this was just a regular-type catalog which meant no toys. However, I remembered that even these boring catalogs still usually had video game sections and I quickly flipped past the pages of clothes, exercise equipment, and antique-looking computers to find them. I wasn’t disappointed.
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When I started an Instagram account for Top Hat Sasquatch a few months ago, I never thought I would enjoy it so much or “meet” so many cool people. I just created the account so I could regularly post geeky/nostalgic photos instead of flooding my personal account. Five months and 800+ followers later, I’ve been having a blast on there.

Pretty soon after I joined I found the Retro Collective group. Browsing photos with various retro gaming hashtags inevitably leads to a few cool folks like @BowserIsKing, @SBKRetro, @Dano_Brown, @WTFIsThisNerdShit, and @Matchu_Payne. These guys were building a retro gaming community around a hashtag and eventually expanded it to an Instagram account. There are a few weekly hashtag-based contests around things like Complete in Box (#CIBSunday) games, Sega, game manuals, and more.

The coolest thing about the group though is the sense of community and the general awesomeness and generosity of everyone involved. Whether it’s someone mailing you some old Game Boy manuals or trading a game they have doubles of, the Retro Collective folks are always there to help. They also have a bitchin’ logo that I was lucky enough to snag on a t-shirt, and they have a new Duck Hunt inspired shirt up for order right now.

If you’re on Instagram and you’re a fan of retro gaming, make sure you go and follow all those guys and start browsing the #RetroCollective hashtag. I’ll see you there!

I lumping hate Monopoly. It’s long, it’s boring, and I never win, but my love of Adventure Time is much greater than my hatred of Monopoly. That’s why I’ll probably be playing it sometime soon just so I can use Finn on a raft or Lumpy Space Princess in a car as my game piece. Collecting properties in the Land of Ooo sounds fun, and using Treehouses and Castles sounds way better than houses and hotels.

Adventure Time Monopoly is available on Amazon now and hopefully will be in my hands in a few days. We’ll see if the art and humor of the show makes the game fun again. I’m crossing my fingers.

Via The Mary Sue. Ps – The Mary Sue is right, how did an Adventure Time Candyland not happen first? That would be ridiculously appropriate.