My play time has bounced around quite a bit. For a while I wanted to play my Steam Deck during a lunch break but of course I never could take a break when my deck was there. Ugh.

I have gotten a little Atari 2600 play in with some Pitfall II. As my hardware ages, I am looking at retro-alternatives for play on modern TVs. I currently have my eye on the Atari 2600+, even though it IS a software emulation box. It is just becoming a GREAT emulation box, but it's best played with actual carts (though a Harmony cart can be used, but only loaded with one game at a time, but I don't know if I want to keep flashing it to change games). I bought a loose Pitfall II cart for a decent price from a local toy store, so after giving it a good clean I played that for quite a while. I will admit my memory really sucked on this title as I couldn't remember it had ladders as my CRT only showed "holes" to fall down (which I thought was the gameplay for a bit until I thought how this didn't seem right). My TV's brightness was too low (which I never noticed on ANY other game but this one so far) and after turning it up, the ladders appeared. I played a MUCH better game after that.

Earlier I got down with some original Sonic action on the first Genesis Mini. I have never beaten this game in what, 34 years or so give or take? I usually got as far as the second or third act of the Labyrinth Zone (or the "Water Level" as I told my kids) and that was that. The frustration level tipped over my threshold and I never got back around to playing it again. Thanks to the magic of save states, I finally got past that damned zone! I'm now in the "Scrap Brain" Zone and saved it there. I also have 4 chaos emeralds.

On Father's Day I went to a different arcade, "Hero's Venture" in Two Rivers, WI. as opposed to the Garcade in Menomonee Falls. I found it interesting that it had a "pay as you go" side and then the all day play-for-one-fee side. My overall experience was underwhelming. The "Pay as you go" side required the use of rechargable point cards instead of just taking cash or quarters, which I think is worse than having to buy tokens. The games there were mostly the really "big" machines, like a couple VR style systems, a lot of redemption machines and....pinball. The ONLY pinball they had in the place you could only play using a card. There were none in the "all day fee" side.

The "All day" side did have a nice selection of mid 80's games on up. I haven't seen Black Tiger, Lifeforce, Ghosts n' Goblins, Operation Wolf and such for a very long time. The games were in their section of sorts (fighting games of many ages in one area, sit down driving games in another, etc.) and they had about 4 air hockey tables along with a pool table. Sounds like paradise, right? The problem, for me anyways and my daughter (my son...he didn't seem to care but got bored near the end of our stay), was that there were a decent number of games in states of disrepair. Both Pac-Man and Mr.s Pac-Man were near unplayable because the joysticks were wonky. Pac-Man's stick had problems going down, meaning I'd have to slam it a bit to register. My son didn't say what his problem was on Ms. Pac but it was also joystick related. Pole Position's screen was off color, Ninja Baseball Bat Man's panel was lifting up while I played, Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom had joystick problems....the list went on. The "back room" past the first room with the air hockey tables with the black light ribbons, floor tape in the shape of a Tron Recognizer and such looked like a dingy garage someone set up arcade machines in.

Overall, Garcade spolied me. Even though the outside of the place is part of an aged old strip mall, the inside is very inviting and has a lot of games of different genres from different ages. And I can count with maybe a couple fingers on one hand the problems I had with an arcade game there. On top of that, you can play ALL the games there on free play with an all day pass....including pinball.

Also on Father's Day I got some time in on Full Quiet for the NES. It is a pain in the rump trying to get the second cabin open! I watched a walkthrough and I was on my way to getting the place unlocked BUT I took too long and got killed by the monster that comes out at midnight. I guess you really have to manage your time in this leg of the adventure and if you don't know your way, you are scah-roood. I did notice my TV gets a bright glow on the lower right with the NES, so I'm not sure if I have to keep adjusting the brightness when I play Atari and then NES? Or if my TV is starting to show signs of impending failure (it was a refugee from a renter who just up and left the apartment they were renting from us, leaving most of his stuff behind).