Sunday, February 20, 2011

Retro Gaming: "A thing of the past, or something of the future" by thedarkuniter

{NOTE: I would like to thank thedarkuniter of the FUNimation forums for his contribution to The Thought Corner with this short but sweet blog post}

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The Odyssey, the Atari 2600, the Intelevision, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis.....these systems and many more reminds part of retro gaming history yet people are continuing to play these retro goodies. Is it the innovation, is it the creativity, or could it be nostalgia from early childhood? The first system I've ever played was the original Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. I was only 3 years old when I've started to play it thanks to my grandma. The game was Super Mario Bros. Of course when you're younger, you don't really care much on the graphics however you do remember how much fun the game was. When someone mentions retro gaming to younger people, usually they'll laugh, say that current gaming have better advancements and better graphics. Why is it that way? Is it suddenly cool to bash older games? With each passing generation, advancements happens in gaming whether its better graphics, better gameplay or better resolution. However, does it render the games from the past generation useless. Just as recently as last Saturday while doing my job, taking out the trash, I've spotted 3 SNES games ( Mortal Kombat, Super Mario World, and Bulls vs Blazers) and 6 NES games ( P.O.W: Prisoners of War, Sesame Street ABC, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, WWF Wrestlemania, Double Dragon and T&C Surf Designs). I asked myself, "well, why would they them away in the trash. They could at least sold them at a vintage gaming store or pawn shop." Me, being the gamer I am, decided to keep them. Upon looking at the carts, a lot of memories are bought up again.

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When I bought the carts inside my job after I've found them, many people are in awe of what I've discovered and then they begin discussing older games such as Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog and how they've grew up playing those games. A thought occur to me: retro gaming does have a future. Despite all odds with current technology, most people would come back to their favorite games and continue to play them. One prime example is Street Fighter 2. The game is as old as me however, people continue to play it. And with the advert of clone systems, people can now play NES, SNES or Genesis on one system and relive those memories. Also retro gaming tends to be a lot cheaper than newer titles thus people lend towards cheaper games especially in the current recession we have. So the question is retro gaming truly gone or is it just only beginning a new future for many generations to come?

~ thedarkuniter (FUNimation Forums)

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Classic Gaming: Now you're playing with power!

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Since it’s “Retro Month” here at The Thought Corner I figured I would tackle a topic that is loved by millions of people all around the world, this topic is about something that everyone knows and loves and thanks to companies who never let their roots dry out it’s something we will probably never see die, I’m talking about retro gaming and ladies & gentlemen: “Now you’re playing with power!”.

Retro gaming remains huge to this day, if you search the web you will find hundreds of web sites and dozens of forums dedicated to the hobby and if you are familiar with downloading games via the current generation of hardware then you will see hundreds of classic titles available from the market, it’s a passion that just won’t die and personally, I’m glad it never will. Retro gaming is such a big hit because so many people grew up with classic systems like the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Colecovision, Intellivision and the Sega Master System, all of which combine for an outstanding 3,000+ games to discover and enjoy, and today’s gamers are finding classics for the first time and are finding out why the medium has become so popular by experiencing the classics first hand. It’s a hobby that has grown rapidly over the past 10+ years, and even though I could spend forever going on and on about systems of days past I’ve decided that I’m going to put a primary focus on the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, due to it‘s historical significance and mark it‘s left on the industry that is still felt today. The history of the NES goes way back to mid 1983 when Japan released the console as the Famicom and began gaining popularity with it‘s then arcade like quality, the system was a success and Nintendo knew that they wanted to find a home for their system in the United States but at the time the U.S was going through a video game backlash which has become known as “the crash”. The crash was caused due to high price points for games that lacked quality, Intelivision was all but insignificant by the end of 1983, as was the Colecovision, Atari’s VCS (2600) was spending millions of dollars on licenses that never went anywhere and they were being blasted by critics and fans for the lack of quality titles being released. Before long the gaming industry was in complete shambles and on the brink of death, there was no market for Nintendo‘s machine and had they tried to release it at that period of time then the face of gaming in the U.S would have most likely been different because Nintendo would have failed. Instead, the big “N” waited patiently until the sting of the crash subsided and people were over what had happened in 1983/1984, the company began releasing more and more arcade games at the time despite the fact that the arcade business was collapsing under itself as well, it was just a way to get their name out there as a viable video game company and to see if the games resonated with arcade goers.

In 1985 Nintendo decided to market it’s video game system to retail partners but instead of calling it a video gaming machine they made sure to refer to it as a interactive home device, as if it was something high end that you would find in a home next to a VCR or a stereo system, but unfortunately Nintendo was having trouble finding retail partners and the project was almost dead before it was given life. In a last ditch effort to find a market for the NES in the United States the President of Nintendo of America, Minoru Arakawa, offered retailers in New York and Los Angelas a deal that they couldn’t refuse. Basically, he told retailers that he would send in a team of people to the stores to assemble displays for the Nintendo Entertainment System and that he would supply the television monitors that would display the games for the customers, the inventory would be delivered by Nintendo themselves and any remaining systems that were not sold would be purchased back by Nintendo as a “thank you” for giving the company a chance. A deal like this was a no brainer for retailers, even though they were skeptical to carry any kind of video games thanks to the “crash” of a couple years back they had nothing to lose and found themselves in a win-win situation. As Minoru Arakawa had suspected, the NES did will in it's limited release and it was time for Nintendo to launch the machine throughout the entire country, before long the NES had captured the hearts of family's from coast to coast thanks to the pack-in game called Super Mario Bros, a side scrolling platformer that featured the legendary Mario & Luigi combination.

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Nintendo began releasing other arcade hits for the NES in 1985 and 1986, some of which were their own titles and others being ports of previous arcade hits, but 1987 was the true breakout year for the console due to a slew of quality games hitting store shelves, one of which being The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo aggressively signed third party publishers during this period to create games for the NES and by Christmas of 1988 the company had over 150 games on store shelves and have already established successful franchises with their Mario Bros and Zelda games, Nintendo was in full domination mode and the company was steamrolling Sega's Master System and Atari's 7800 Pro System, outselling the latter by a ratio of 5/1. Sales were strong for the next couple of years and Nintendo had sold million upon millions of systems thanks to an army of software publishers who were churning out hit after hit for the NES, but 1990 brought the video gaming world the best selling non-pack in game of all-time, that game was Super Mario Bros 3 and Nintendo had gone on to achieve the impossible. The video game crash of the early 80's was all but forgotten and Nintendo had become the gold standard for video game excellence all over the world, a survey in 1990 proved that when millions of kids in the United States recognized Mario more so than they did Micky Mouse (Disney's cultural Icon). Nintendo's core characters were everywhere and merchandise like t-shirts, sticker books, action figures, lunch boxes, and posters were found all over major retail outlets, Nintendo had created an empire and played a major role in bringing video games into the mainstream which almost rivaled the popularity of television and movies, if it wasn't for that single promise by Arakawa to his retail partners then video games may not be enjoying the success that they do today.

As the 90's rolled along and Sega released their 16-bit Genesis, Nintendo knew that they had to upgrade their hardware to compete since Sega was quickly gaining market share and actually surpassed Nintendo in late 1991 (Nintendo would come back in 1993), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was born and support for the 8-bit wonder was beginning to dwindle down. As the SNES began to gain popularity and big games were being released in 1993, Nintendo decided to re-release the NES with a different design and with different controllers, eventually the original NES would see it's last true non-homebrew game released in Q2 of 1994 and about a year later the Nintendo Entertainment System was officially discontinued. To this day the NES remains one of the most influential and sought out video game systems for retro enthusiasts all around the world, it's roots are so strong that franchises that were created for the console back in the 80's are still going strong today and Nintendo continues to find ways to bring their classic games to the mass market through their online markets for both the Wii and DS systems. With support like that, how can one argue that retro gaming would ever die? Simple, it wont.

Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Spotlight on retro toys: WWF LJN & M.U.S.C.L.E!

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Hey guys, Manga4life here to bring you another exciting blog as “Retro Month” continues here at The Thought Corner, today we will be taking a look at some of the great (and weird) wrestling based toys that the 80’s had to offer. Well, more specifically we will be taking a look at two specific toy lines that dominated much of the 80’s for me, these particular toy lines were some of my favorite while growing up and it’s my pleasure to write an article covering the classic WWF LJN action figure line and the M.U.S.C.L.E (Millions of Unusual Creatures Lurking Everywhere) series of mini galactic wrestling toys.

If you grew up in the 80’s then you have a clear idea of what toys I am talking about here, these two toy lines rank among the most popular of the 80’s alongside the He-Man, TMNT, Thundercats, Transformers, GI Joe, and Ghostbusters action figures and their legacy still lives on today due to collectors all over the world still showing interest in collecting and completing these sets. First off, I think I’ll cover the WWF line of action figures since they have such a high demand with today's hardcore vintage toy collectors and because I used to love these things so damn much, as do most fans who grew up with the WWF back in the 80’s. It’s funny, there isn’t really much “action’ to be had with these figures due to the fact that they were 8 inch rubber sculpts designed with one pose in mind and hardly any movement unless you pulled really hard, doing this could cause the figure to bend and become stretched which usually rendered the toy useless in the end. The LJN line of WWF toys were really a strange beast in the fact that the figures themselves were very large and weight close to a pound each, they had no movement and came with limited accessories, basically LJN placed a huge rubber action figure on a backing card that looked like a wrestling ring and packaged them with a mini-poster and kids all over the country ate them up in droves. I guess LJN and Vince McMahon knew what they were doing back in 1985 when the line first debuted, sales were strong and the first series was officially a hit which led to the toy makers releasing a new series of characters every few months or so, before you knew it almost every major wrestler in the WWF roster was available on store shelves and Vinny Mac was realizing his dream of making the World Wrestling Federation a world-wide phenomenon. Soon after the standard line of figures became a hit LJN would release other toys based on WWF wrestlers at the time too, they began selling mini versions of the 8 inch figures that featured bendable wires inside the sculpts so you could pose them and stretch the superstars into wrestling holds, soon after that they released a line of thumb wrestlers as well as a home video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, other novelties would follow.

WWF merchandise was running wild and a lot of it was based off of the success of the original 8 inch rubber toy line and how well they were received by the consumer, but as the 80’s moved along the relationship between JLN and the WWF was coming to an end and Vince would soon sign a deal with Hasbro in 1990 to launch a new set of action figures and other merchandise. The last series of 8 inch WWF LJN toys were released in mid 1989 and to this day remain the rarest and most valuable that the company has produced. They were released in Canada first and featured some of the newer stars the WWF had acquired over the most recent year (1988-1989), soon after they were released in Canada LJN released them in limited quantity in the United States with no fanfare behind the launch and only those who were looking for them were able to hunt them down, these days the figures in the last wave of toys can go for upwards to $500 per figure if the packaging is still in good condition. Personally, I would probably rank these toys as some of my favorite that I had back in the 80’s as a child, my memories of going to the store and picking out a new wrestler was certainly a highlight of my younger years and I’ll always remember playing with these big rubberized grapplers fondly.

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Now it’s time to fondly remember a very unique line of toys that graced us with it‘s presence some 25 years ago, these tiny little pink/flesh colored action figures could be found in mass quantity almost everywhere you went during the 1980’s and if you still live in the same place as you did in your childhood you probably are still finding them stuck in vents and small crevices throughout your household. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’m talking about M.U.S.C.L.E, the toy line that fused intergalactic wrestling with creatures from outer space!

One very unique thing about this line of toys is the way that they were packaged in retail, you could purchase a 4 pack of assorted M.U.S.C.L.E men, a 10 pack “trashcan”, a 28 pack box, a mini arena playset, or a championship belt which turned into a wrestling ring and storage center. Soon after the success of M.U.S.C.L.E in the United States they decided to re-released these guys in multiple colors, some were evn exclusive to the wrestling ring playset, but it was just another way to get kids interested in the product and it worked like a charm. Kids everywhere had M.U.S.C.L.E figures and there were so many available that there was always a reason to check the racks to see if you can spot someone who you haven’t gotten yet, it was always tough to complete the collection because they always came in multi-packs and the selection was assorted so you couldn’t just go out and purchase a single M.U.S.C.L.E man for lets say, $.99 or so. Still, everywhere you went there was a display of these little wonders and the sales of the toys were so strong that it led to a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System as well as a board game, not to long after these hit store shelves other merchandise was spotted bearing the brand’s image and for 3 or 4 years the M.U.S.C.L.E line was a huge success in the United States. The idea for this brand was originally born in Japan through a series of manga called Kinnikuman, after the manga became a success a line of toys called Kinkeshi was released and soon the popularity traveled from Japan to America, what’s even more impressive is that some 13+ years later a cartoon called Ultimate Muscle was released and dubbed to air on a Saturday morning cartoon block by 4Kids. Now that’s longevity! Over the years quite a few of the figures within the line have become quite rare, one or two even fetching over $25 a piece on eBay, but usually you can complete an entire set (236) of these classic figures for about $50-$60 through online auctions, there are lots of collectors still out there and vintage toy collections have a big market so there will always be M.U.S.C.L.E’s floating around online and throughout flea markets throughout the United States.

Well guys, that's all I've got for you today, please continue to follow The Thought Corner throughout the month of Februrary for more exciting articles and other goodies pertaining to classic material from the 80's! As always, reach for the stars and enjoy the ride guys!

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Classic cartoon intros: We will never forget.

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One thing that comes to mind when I think "retro" is the opening themes and intros to some of my favorite cartoons of the 80's, they don't quite do them nearly as good these days as they used to back in the 80's and some of these classic themes have lived on through the years and have spawned quite a following with the internet crowd. So, I figured it would be kind of cool to add some of these to my post today to help ring in Retro Month here at The Thought Corner, this should spark some nostalgia for the older crowd and be a new experience for those who may be on the younger side, if you are younger than about 20 this should be a nice preview of what you were missing by virtue of not being born yet..., you young whippersnappers. I'm not going to overload this post full of too many videos, instead I'm going to pick intros from some of my favorite retro shows that have themes that will keep your head nodding during the video, so kick back and relax folks because it's time to go RETRO!



The above video is the intro and opening theme to one of the biggest cartoons of the 80's called He-Man & The Masters of the Universe, the show was extremely popular with children despite it's limited animation (thank you Filmation)and it spawned a massively successful toy long that actually propelled adults and television groups to see this show as nothing more than a 30 minute toy infomercial to promote Mattel's action figures. Still, the show was a smashing success and He-Man became an iconic character, the show even made a comeback in 2002 and sparked a new series of toys and even a slew of comic books, though it's success would never rival that of it's 80's origins.



Ah yes, the catchy intro and theme to the 80's smash hit, Thundercats. Much like He-Man % The Masters of the Universe, Thundercats spawned a popular toy line and other such novelties and became a huge hit among children, the show was almost perfect if not for the annoying lesson that they tried to teach you at the end of the episode, something He-Man also tried to do as well when the show came to a close.



The intro to Alvin & The Chipmunks is one of the most catchy cartoon songs of the 80's and the show was pretty damn awesome too. It featured Alvin and the gang getting into adventures and other such mischief and they also did little music videos segments to some of the biggest pop songs in the 80's, it was an interesting mix of story and music that was a nice re-introduction to the group after being absent since the 60's cartoon titled The Alvin Show.



Inspector Gadget was an interesting show about an idiot police detective and his niece Penny and her dog Brain, the plot basically revolved around the detective screwing up an investigation and his niece having to come to the rescue and solve the case for him without his knowledge. Inspector Gadget wasn't one of my all-time favorites or anything but the theme did rock the party, it's catchy tune has been used in everything from television promo's to modern day rap music and I'm sure we will see it pop back up somewhere in the near future.



The Ghostbusters theme was actually a hit song by Ray Parker Jr. back in the 80's that was used in the soundtrack to the live action movie and in the intro to the animated television series. Like He-Man, Thundercats and TMNT, The *Real* Ghostbusters spawned a line of action figures that were very popular with kids as well as other merchandise such as video games and clothing, The Ghostbusters were a huge hit and their theme song ranks as one of the best of the 80's.



The Super Mario Brothers Super Show was an interesting mix of live action segments and cartoon segments that featured the WWF's Captain Lou Albano as Mario, the show mainly took place from the Mario Brothers plumbing headquarters and the duo often interacted with celebrities and often found themselves in quirky situations which would lead into a cartoon feature. One thing that was fun about the show is that Monday-Friday the cartoons revolved around the Mario Brothers and then every Friday they would air a cartoon based on The Legend of Zelda, it always gave fans of the show something to look forward to.



Probably the most catchy and famous cartoon theme song of the 80's was from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, oddly enough I couldn't find the original intro on eBay without the theme song being altered because it was changed for international viewing. Seriously, I scanned eBay for 20 minutes trying to find this video and theme but to no luck. Anyhow, TMNT was one of the biggest and most successful franchises in cartoon history and spawned everything from toys, games, clothing, trading cards and lunchboxes, it even made a successful comeback in 2003 with a show that would spawn seasons for the next several years. The original series aired for 8+ years and the turtles themselves have been the stars of a trilogy of movies that came out in the early 90's as well as a CGI movie that was released in the mid-2000's. Now that's "Turtle Power!".

Well, that's it for now. Basically I just wanted to showcase a small handful of the cartoon intros that helped to make my 80's cartoon watching experience a joy to be a part of, there are tons more that I could post on here but then you'd be watching and reading for quite some time, so consider this just a small taste of what it was like to love cartoons in the 80's. Just so everyone knows, I'm not glorifying the 1980's as the best time to be a fan of cartoons or anything like that, the 70's and 90's both offered fantastic shows with themes that are just as memorable to those who watched them, this Retro Month that I'm bringing to you is just a trip down memory lane for myself and a large part of my "memory lane" is comprised of shows and products of the 80's. I just wanted to get that out of the way for those who may be reading this and thinking that I hate all animation that didn't come out in my childhood, those who know me from the various forums I'm a part of know that I'm a fan of all kinds of animation and from various decades (including current day). So, with that said, I truly hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane and if your discovering these shows for the first time then allow me to thank you for checking out these videos, I have a lot more fun stuff planned for this month and I sincerely hope that you stick with The Thought Corner for the entire month of fun, joy and retro.

Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Welcome to "Retro Month" at The Thought Corner!

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Hey there Thought Corner readers and welcome to a new month and a new concept that should be pretty exciting to those who are into classic cartoons, toys, video games and comic books from the late 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, today kicks off Retro Month here at the blog and this is our generic “welcome” post to formally introduce the idea behind everything that will follow. Enjoying it? No? Well, you will, you can trust me on that one.

I’ve had a few people ask me this recently as to why I was dedicating an entire month to classic stuff from my childhood, my simple answer to the question was that I wanted to do it all within a week but with the amount of content I had in store for my readers I wouldn’t have enough time to create and post everything within that allotted amount of time, so one month to revisit my roots was much more practical. Over the course of the month of February I will be posting everything from classic pictures, vintage gaming videos, awesome cartoon intro’s, fun facts, interesting memos, cool commercials and a whole lot of insight, so please, kick back and relax because it’s going to be one hell of a retro-ride down memory lane for some and a burst of “what the hell?” for others. For me, it’s all a part of my childhood and what made being a kid in the 80’s so damn fun, the memories I have of these days of yonder will live with me for a lifetime and in a way I would say that many of the things I loved back then have helped to mold me into the person I am today. Scary isn’t it? Or maybe partly pathetic? Well, I guess you had to be there to understand just how special of a time period it was to be a kid back in the 80’s, or even the early 90’s when retro was beginning to die out and the modern age of everything was quickly taking over, either way I’m confident that this month here at The Thought Corner will give fans of all ages a bit of a nostalgia boost that I feel sometimes we all need.

Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC