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McDonald’s Memories

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

That’s the first Australian McDonald’s, which opened in Sydney the year before I was born. From what I can determine, the first McDonald’s in Newcastle opened when I was 7, and since it wasn’t far from where my Nan lived it was a frequent treat after we’d visit her house.

Since then I’ve eaten at Maccas hundreds of times, and over those 40+ years many memories have been made. Here’s a selection:

As a child the McDonald’s calendar was an essential purchase! Not only did we hang it on our walls, we also coloured it in and – most importantly – we used the coupons every month to get free food!
Happy Meals were my default order as a child, and the toys (in my memory) were much higher quality than today. I fondly remember some Star Wars stencils that could be used to draw characters, that I wish I’d kept to this day.
Ice creams in those days were self-serve!

Graduating to Big Macs was one moment in my life when I felt like an adult. I don’t remember who it was, but I was at Maccas with a friend once and he got a Big Mac and I ordered a ‘Junior Burger’ and he asked me why I didn’t eat Big Macs! This prompted me to try one and I never looked back 🙂
Back when we had our paper run one time the newspaper came with Maccas coupons for free fries. We ended up with loads of them and I recall I had a lot of fries during the weeks that followed!
During the 1984 Olympics I remember my group of friends used to go to Charlestown Maccas after school and watch the athletic events. A girl in my year was working there at the time and she used to surreptitiously give us free food.

I used to love the cookies! Australia didn’t have a strong traditional of ‘animal crackers’ so we didn’t know that Maccas cookies were basically the same. Even well into my teens I used to get a box of these with my order and eat them on the bus home.
I also used to enjoy their strawberry milkshakes, although I haven’t had one since I left Australia.
In my last year of High School we organized a treasure hunt and one item on the list was ‘one point for every McDonald’s cheeseburger you bring us’ and we had loads delivered (as well as a phone call of complaint from a McDonald’s!). This was when microwaves were uncommon so we (me and the judges) ate a bunch for dinner and – to my shame – had to throw the rest away.

The frozen cokes I’ve ordered at Australian McDonald’s. During my summer trips it wasn’t unusual for me to have two or three a day, but these past years – since I’ve traveled in winter – it’s usually been just one. It’s the best item on their menu 🙂
When I first returned to Oz in 2000 I wrote a series of postcards on alternate days in the George street Maccas. Entitled ‘The McDonalds Series’, these are some of the oldest and most nostalgic postcards in my collection.

During our trip to Germany we visited many McDonald’s, often not eating at all. The reason: I was hunting McDonald’s glasses with ‘coca cola’ written in various different languages!
At a Maccas in Paris – on the Champs-Elysees to be specific – I ate breakfast very early and was the only diner in the restaurant. A man came and sat down right next to me and bowed his head until it hit the table. I quickly finished and left, and later that day my hotel concierge told me he was probably a homeless man looking to scavenge any food I may have left on the tray.

I could do a blog post on Japanese Maccas memories alone, but two that stick out were the Superfries (read about them here) and not once but twice being seated at a very busy Maccas and finding myself sharing a table with a young ‘office lady’ working on her laptop!
The memory I’m most proud of would be my 2022 achievement of seven identical orders in seven days at seven different Maccas (read about it here). Will I ever surpass this? No man yet knows…

So many years of McDonald’s! The irony is I almost never eat it in the USA since it’s usually awful here, but you can bet that any foreign trip I ever go on will include at least one stop at a Maccas. Let’s hope there’s many more memories to be made 🙂

Posted in Food, Memories, Miscellaneous, Time | 1 Comment »

Game Centers and Gatchas

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024

Game Centers seem to have weathered the pandemic well and are as big and bold and fun as ever. As usual we’ve spent a lot of time in them and this will only increase during the last days of our trip.

I’ve of course lost more often than I’ve won, but it’s always fun and I’m sure I’ll win a few more items before we leave.

The above shows my famous technique for a type of game where you use a claw to pull an item down to release (and win) it. My skill is unparalleled at such machines, however they rarely have prizes I want!

The prizes in the games remain varied and eclectic, from food to figures to toys to house goods to just weird. We’ve played a lot of Kit Kat machines!

Gacha machines are still everywhere, and still have an insane variety. It’s easy these days to take photos of weird gacha toys. I should have got that tiny playable Go set shouldn’t I?

The above are warning posters posted at train . I’ve always liked how Japan use such methods to dissuade the population, and the above four (from top left, clockwise) are warnings against underage smoking, ignoring road rules for scooters, being a stalker or being a woman of loose morals!

Advertising increasingly uses licensed characters, and I could easily fill ten blog entries with examples. My favourite is the above Fist Of The North Star washing machine advertisement which includes the (paraphrased) line: “The dirt is already cleaned!” (That’s a reference to a famous line in the original manga.)

Yesterday I felt poorly so we just shopped and rested. The above was kristins dessert cake. Would you eat it?

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Pandamonium

Saturday, December 23rd, 2023

We visited Ueno zoo today, to see these guys:

That’s Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, the twin pandas born at the zoo in 2021. They were indeed cute as they sat and ate bamboo in the sun but what I found even more fascinating was the crowds there to see them.

For starters we arrived about a half hour before the park opened – not too unusual for us since we’re early risers – only to find a lengthy line ahead of us. It was quickly apparent that this was no random zoo line, and judging by the vast array of Panda-themed clothes, jewelery and accessory items, this bunch was here to see Pandas as well!

Secondly the line was very carefully managed to allow each guest exactly 2 minutes of panda viewing after which they were herded away by a man with a big stick (and yes I mean that literally). Naturally everyone followed the rules and it all went smoothly, and we only had to wait 30 minutes to see the beasts.

Thirdly the cameras were insane. These days we rarely see anyone with actual cameras since we all use our phones and that’s because all the cameras are at Ueno zoo with Panda groupies. The line was mostly middle-aged women and it seemed at least half had large digital SLRs with 30cm telephoto lenses and attachments to hold phones and other devices. It was madness.

For their part the pandas took the attention in their stride and kept munching their bamboo, and as you can see I was able to get fine photos with just my phone! After a time we too grew bored and moved on to the rest of the zoo, which was fun if a little simplistic and dated.

After lunch we went to Tokyo Dome City with a specific plan that sadly did not come to fruition. However we didn’t give up and we’ll try again tomorrow, so watch this space!

Two interesting ‘only in Japan’ purchases to round your day:

That is a strange little custard-filled mochi that was packed with a foil sticker from the series Hololive. Kristin ate this, and said it was ‘pretty good’.

And this was a bath bomb that melted away to reveal an UMA inside (I got a jackalope). Japan has a fascination with UMAs and OOPs and all things supernatural but that’s a blog post – nay a weekly blog series – unto itself 🙂

Posted in Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

2023 In Games (Part 2)

Tuesday, December 12th, 2023

This past year I kept a list of all the games I played as well as how long I played them. My notes also included short reviews/thoughts, and here they all are.

With two exceptions (noted after the game name) every game was played on Switch. The time I played each for is in parenthesis at the end (X hours) but for games that I played less than about three hours this is excluded.

Tactics Ogre Reborn: The original is a masterpiece, but this remake – while pretty – is unfortunately hamstrung by some questionable balance adjustments. I gave up when it became exceedingly grindy. (11)

Rogue Legacy 2: A 2D roguelike so addictive I had to delete it lest it suck up too much of my time. Is it better than the first one? Undecided. (15)

Katana Kami: Weird controls and floaty combat mar this C-rank rogue clone. (10)

Live A Live: This remaster of the beloved SNES multi-scenario RPG is perhaps not as good as its reputation deserves. I beat it, but had no desire to see all the multiple endings. (25)

Picross X: Picbits vs Uzboross: Not enough Picross in this frenetic puzzle game. A good time-waster regardless. (5)

Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen: I first beat this open-world RPG on PS3 eleven years ago, and KLS beat it about five years ago on PS4. Since I’d never played the expansion I returned for another full playthrough and had an absolute blast. One of the best RPGs of all time. (95)

Crystar: Tedious combat and half-baked gameplay loop failed to salvage a somewhat interesting story in this budget action-RPG. (20)

Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line: A fiendishly addictive rhythm/RPG hybrid bathed in Final Fantasy series nostalgia. Potential game of the year! (65)

Megaman Legacy Collection: Indisputable value, but holy cow are these old games punishing! (This collection contains nine old NES Megaman games; so far I’ve only played the first one briefly.)

Arkanoid Eternal Battle: A terrible online battle royale. Almost no players meant I could barely begin a match. Emulation of the original game is poor with a warped screen and bad controls. This should have been a free download.

Dragon Quest Treasures: A fun treasure hunt game with roots in mobile games that didn’t outstay its welcome. Would have been a great 3DS game. (35)

Mary Skelter 2: Competent but ultimately repetitive dungeon crawl. Lots of systems but itemization isn’t interesting and I would have preferred pixel art monsters. (12)

Demon’s Tilt: Nearly unplayable due to overly tiny graphics and erratic screen movement. I feel this digital pinball is misplaced on Switch and is probably a much better game than I experienced.

Octopath Traveler 2: A great sequel loaded with content, fun ‘systems’ and combat. Possibly overly long! (80)

Final Fantasy (GBA): Extremely replayable and always fun. I played this one on my GB Micro during my Oz/JP trip and beat it with an unconventional melee-only party. (17)

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom: Sequel to one of the greatest games ever made that somehow manages to top the original! This game possessed me until I unlocked everything. (165)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed: Amazing conclusion to the entire Xenoblade saga. A perfectly condensed Xeno experience full of nostalgia for long-term fans. (30)

Beholgar: Fun but frustratingly buggy. I ended up watching it completed on Bard’s stream. (5)

Diablo 3: A contender for the greatest game ever made. I’d already played for hundreds of hours over the last eight years but the cravings had returned… (55)

Labyrinth of Zangetsu: Very loyal to retro dungeon crawler design including punishing difficulty. Visual style is the main appeal but wears thin quickly. While it was thin on content and a bit grindy toward the end, I still enjoyed beating it. (25)

Vampire Survivors: Insanely addictive but very repetitive. I had a great time unlocking everything and moved on. (40)

Black Tiger: A 1980s arcade favourite of mine. I downloaded this one for cheap and had a great time beating it for the first time in years.

Exed Exes: Another nostalgic favourite. I remember have strong memories of playing this one in fish’n’chip shops. It would make a good score competition game.

Progear: I’m not a fan of the graphics, or of the fact it’s a bullet hell without an avoidance/bullet eating system. Also the perspective is weird and the point bonuses should move left not down! Not one of my favourite Cave games.

Giga Wing: Amazing bullet hell shooter with a great risk/reward system. Scores in the trillions are silly though!

Varth: Fun but pedestrian shooter with an unusual shield multiple system that adds very little to the game. A relic of an era before bullet hell.

19XX: The War Against Destiny: Very fun shooter with fluid motion and lots of popcorn enemies. Weapons could have more variety. I think the scoring system has practice potential.

1944: The Loop Master: Amazing graphics but very difficult even on the easy setting. I prefer extra lives to a power-based system, and with only one life this one feels particularly punishing.

Wargroove: An Advance Wars wannabe that didn’t grab me. Feels like a fan game.

Alwa’s Awakening & Alwa’s Legacy: Retro-style Metroidvanias that are both too slow and clunky. Probably ok if you give them time, but neither grabbed me.

Final Fantasy (Pixel Remaster): Yes I beat this twice in 2023! This is a great remake for modern consoles, and I’m sure I’ll return to it again one day. (12)

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society: This wizardry-like started strong with a good, solid first section (40 hrs) but then restarts with a half-finished procedural grind (hundreds of dungeon levels?!) that sucked the life out of it. Should have been half what it is. (67)

Heroes of Hammerwatch: Content rich twin stick RPG roguelike. I played for hours and hours and felt like I’d only dipped my toe in! I beat the game with one of ten characters and barely explored the dlc. I’ll return to this one… (60)

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa: Very mundane visual novel with boring characters and boring-after-one-go match 3 puzzles. I gave up quickly.

Harvestella: Much better than expected action RPG combined with a fun farm simulator. Very deep with fun boss fights. A genuine surprise that occupied me five times longer than I expected! (95)

Fire Emblem Engage: Ironically not as ‘engaging’ as previous games in the series. Too many systems that don’t offer enough to make their inclusion worthwhile. The story feels dialed-in, but the female characters are exceptionally cute. A rare FE title that I just couldn’t get into. (22)

Boulder Dash 30th Anniverary & Boulder Dash Deluxe: A bit of fun nostalgic distraction, but got frustratingly difficult quickly. Loads of content!

Gal Guardians: Acts like a metroidvania but it’s more like an old school castlevania clone. And ultimately, a not very good one with boring enemies and unsatisfying controls. A failed attempt that I gave up on early.

Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster): Initially off-putting due to the weird leveling system but the boost mode of the remakes made it bearable and ultimately the game was fun (if flawed). (13)

Trinity Trigger: An action RPG that starts well but rapidly becomes a simplistic by-the-numbers game that has less ambition that many mobile games. The bosses are damage sponges to an almost absurd degree. (15)

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Every level is unique and fun to play, and it’s hard to imagine this isn’t the peak of 2D Mario games. The ‘secret’ levels can be fiendishly difficult but are so satisfying to beat! I finished this one quicker than expected, and was surprised to find that many thought it may be too difficult! (14)

Paranormasight: Fun visual novel about people using curses to kill each other in 1980s Tokyo. It’s got a great style and the story keeps Kristin and I guessing as we play it together (we haven’t beaten it yet). Recommended! (10+?)

Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster): A wonderful evolution of the series, with a fun job system and a nicely paced quest. (20)

Baten Kaitos HD Remaster: Didn’t entrance me like the originals did two decades ago. I may give this a second chance one day.

Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher: I was looking forward to this one! I bought it in Japan but sadly – despite what I read online – it didn’t have any English so I couldn’t play it 🙁

Needy Girl Overdose: Misogynistic game where you play the boyfriend of a female streamer. Basically a text adventure with a slight graphical overcoat. Vaguely interesting but many abrupt endings and it has the stink of unprofessionalism. Some will find this offensive.

Metallic Child: Short and forgettable action roguelite not even 1% as good as Hades. Tightly designed though, and notably of Korean origin. (8)

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom: A very fun JPRG with extensive crafting. Easy to get into but complicated at the high end. Just the right length as well. A genuine surprise! (27)

Cat Quest 2 : Entertaining RPG-lite that was a bit too easy. Very similar to the first one, but no less fun. (10)

Silent Hope: Diablo-like with multiple classes but repetitive dungeons. And yet it grabbed me hard and didn’t let go until I’d beaten it on all three difficulty levels. An unexpected joy. (48)

Monster Train First Class: Too addictive. Similar but inferior to Slay The Spire, with not as many long term goals. I unlocked everything and moved on lest it grabbed me too hard. (20)

The Messenger: Starts off as an 8-bit style platformer but becomes a 16-but style Metroidvania after a couple of hours play. A well made game with a good sense of humor but I found it a little boring and gave up. (6)

Batsugan: Insanely difficult shooter even on easiest setting. Enemy shots move almost too fast to react to. It feels like it should have a bullet-eating mechanic (but doesn’t). Ideal for the arcade; not so great at home.

Steamworld Quest: A graphically and mechanically impressive RPG that lost me quickly due to its boring story and characters. Also I feel the card mechanic (to the combat) didn’t live up to its potential.

Afterimage: A fun Metroidvania with beautiful graphics and a nice challenge level. (12)

Puzzle & Dragons (iOS): 2023 was the year I surpassed 10 years of consecutive logins (3843 days as of this post) and I still play it every day. I can’t even guess how many hours I sunk into this one in 2023, but I’m positive this is and will ever remain the game I play most in my entire life!

So there you go, a record of considerably over 1000 hours of gameplay this past year alone. I guess I’m still as much the gamer as I ever was 🙂

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2023 In Games (Part 1)

Friday, December 8th, 2023

2022 was an interesting one in my game-buying hobby, since I only bought games for the Switch. Things were quite different in 2023, mostly due to two Japan trips during which I bought lots of games. In several ways, this would prove to be a historic year for my game collection.

Before I get to the purchases, I made another game sale this past year. I sold off my Wii, Wii U, PS3 and PS4 collections: a total of about 270 games. I made much less than my previous sales, but I had little attachment to any of the games and it was an easy decision to make since it freed up considerable space and helped me consolidate my remaining collection (still >1000 games) into one part of the house.

In terms of adding to the collection, I bought 95 games for 11 different systems in 2023. Here’s the breakdown by quantity

The Switch saw by far the most purchases: 65 in total (in addition to a second console). Second was the Playstation 2 with 5 games, and the remainder had only 1 – 3 games each. Here’s the breakdown by dollars spent:

An interesting result, since the Switch had nearly 70% of the purchases but only 63% of the dollars spent. The reason why will be discussed later.

Unpacking the above graphs with some actual values: in 2023 I spent ~$3900 on games (about 40% of which was in Yen). This is by a wide margin the most I have ever spent on games in a single year, and also the third most games I have ever bought in a single year (2006 and 2009 were both higher). The average cost per game – $41 – is also the second highest ever, only beaten by a whopping $51 average all the way back in 1993 (when I bought 14 games). These are astounding numbers, but what if we focus on Switch games only? Even then I spent $2480 on 65 games, both of which are considerably higher totals than 2022 or in fact any year since 2007!

I suppose 2023 was the year I doubled down on the ‘collecting’ part of my collection 🙂

The above two games were blogged after Japan trips but I’m including them again here because they’re notable: At about $163 (for Black Onyx) and $148 (Wizardry) they are the two most expensive games I have ever purchased. During the pandemic the prices for ‘retro’ games have skyrocketed, and while this is one reason I have sold out of large portions of my collection, it also makes buying such games an expensive proposition. As I have sold my collections I chose to focus subsets of each, such as basic lands for Magic, R2 units for Star Wars figures and Wizardry video games. And to paraphrase what a retro store attendant in Japan told me in June: “Only maniacs collect Wizardry games!”

That said I more or less have the Wizardry games now (unless I venture in computer versions…), and while a lot of the purchases in 2023 were Wizardry related – 22 of the 95 games were Wizardry – I daresay there won’t be any more going forward. I think it’s a given that 2024 will be less than 2023 both in the number of games bought and dollars spent, but I’m still fairly sure the Switch collection – now over 200 games – will continue to grow 🙂

Time for my three favourite games of the year, in no particular order:

Diablo 3 (Switch)

A return from a game that made a similar ‘best-of’ list way back in 2015? I had a craving to replay this one, so I bought it (for the 4th time…) for the Switch and played it like a monster for a few weeks. I started with a Sorceress, and once she reached the maximum level I then switched to a Barbarian and maxed him in one day. I went on to earn over 1000 paragon levels while hunting best-in-slot gear for both, and ended up reaching the highest levels of difficulty I ever had in the game. And I loved every minute of it 🙂

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom (Switch)

In some ways this was a ‘more of the same’ sequel, but considering it followed one of the best games ever made it wasn’t at all surprising that the latest Zelda was a masterpiece. This was another game I dove right into and that owned me while I was playing it. I saw everything, found everything, unlocked everything, and when I finally finished it about 100 hours later I wished another game in the series was already available!

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (Switch)

Another sequel, but this time to a DS game from 2014. This is a rhythm game based on Final Fantasy and was an absolute joy to play. Once again I unlocked everything and enjoyed every second of it. It’s an enormously satisfying game to play, especially when you do well, and I think the engine would lend itself to many other games (such as a Zelda or Mario version). As much as I loved this one, I have to say I’m humbled watching videos online of players beating the seemingly impossible highest difficulty levels. I think they’re probably the greatest levels of video game skill I’ve ever witnessed!

This was a difficult trio to select, since I played a lot of very good games in 2023. In fact I played a lot of games in 2023, which is one reason why this post is titled ‘Part 1’. For the first time ever I’m following up with a bit of a crazy second part, but it’s going to take some work to complete. Watch for it in a few days…

Posted in Collecting, Games, Miscellaneous, Retro | 1 Comment »