Gaming is an interesting hobby.  There are many facets of gaming that draw people in.  Enjoying the games themselves, competing with friends, playing online or with friends in person or simply collecting games that you love or trying to complete a collection.

Like most gamers I don't fall into just one category.  I get a lot of enjoyment looking for games at garage sales, thrift shops, game shops and anywhere else a deal might be found.  I wouldn't call myself a collector as I think of collectors as the people that have unopened games that just fill shelves and look amazing but fail to fulfil their true purpose.  I do still get something out of looking at my collection neatly organized across an array of shelving solutions.

So I'm going to post some pictures of my gaming collection and my shelving solutions.  While its not the prettiest or most glamourous set up in the world it gets the job done.  I am however very pleased with my wire organization and the fact that all of my systems are ready to be played at any moment.  Many people have to plug things in then unplug them when they're finished, yuck!  I need the comfort of knowing that at any minute I'm ready to play my Turbografx, Jaguar, Saturn or ps3 and Xbox 360.  I don't know if I could spend two minutes plugging in a 3DO when I want to get in a quick game of Wing Commander III.

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As you may well be aware of I'm a fan of something called video games.  What you might not be able to tell is that I'm a fan of the hilariously genius comedy magic duo Penn and Teller.  So when I found out about their Sega CD game Smoke and Mirrors I had to know more and I had to play it.  The game was never actually released but there were review copies sent out to gaming publications of the time.  It's from these review copies that the game was leaked to the internet.

Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors is a collection of mini games for the Sega CD.  There's a side scrolling adventure game, a verticle scrolling shooter, a psychic Gorilla named Mofo and what is perhaps the single greatest driving game of all time.  The mini games exist for the sole purpose of fooling your friends and pulling practical jokes.  The game Desert Bus however was made in response to something idiotic Janet Reno had said about video games.  At the time violent video games were very controversial and Janet Reno thought it would be a good idea to make a realistic video game that could teach real life skills.  So in response the world got Desert Bus.  The purpose of the game is to drive from Tucson Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour.  The road you're traveling on is perfectly straight, there's no scenery except the occasional bus stop and rock on the side of the road and you can't pause the game.  The bus veers to the right and if you drive on the side of the road to long you get stuck and the bus stalls which magically summons a tow truck that you never see that will take you back to Tucson.

To get to Las Vegas it takes eight real life hours to make the trip.  You have to be there to steer the bus or else you'll get stuck on the side of the road.  If you stop the bus on the road to go take a leak it'll stall after about 10 seconds and the tow truck will come and get you.  There's no way around it.  You have to play the game for 8 hours to score 1 point.  Upon arrival you get the oppurtunity to drive back to Tucson which takes another 8 hours to earn your second point.  You can keep making the trip back and fourth racking up a max score of 99 points a project that would take about 41 days.  The game is made to be boring, real boring, just like an actual drive through the desert.  This game is extremely realistic in that regard. 

While poking around for information about Desert Bus I came across the comedy group LoadingReadRun's Desert Bus for Hope.  They've been running an annual charity for the past 3 years that's rasied $233,678.47 for the Child's Play charity.  That's where I stole the idea for the Desert Bus challenge.  To accomplish two things...bring in some new subs for my youtube channel and it also promote the Desert Bus charity I would drive 1 mile in the game for every 1 subscriber I got on youtube from January 5 to January 31st 2010.

I made a video explaining the stunt and asked all of my youtube friends and subscribers to post videos of their own promoting the stunt and spreading the word far and wide.  In just under a month I had 300 new subscribers and 300 miles to drive through the desert.  I was just a few miles short of a full 8 hour run that would earn me one point in the game.  So I decided why the hell not just go for it.  How many people have earned one whol point in the game Desert Bus?  I wanted to be among the elite Desert Bus point earners.  I had previously reviewed the game for my youtube channel but decided I needed to record the 8 hour run.  I couldn't record it all non stop so I've got several two hour bits of video.  I skipped recording a few miles as I use a DVDr to record my game footage and had to swap discs mid drive.

Before the drive I prepared a few sandwiches, some grapes and bananas in a little cooler and got myself a gallon jug of water.  Neaerby of course was a cup to take a leak in.  Eight hours is a long time to go without taking a leak after all!  And I was set.  The only regret I had at the time was I couldn't live stream the event.  I tried setting up a blog TV account and streaming it through my webcam.  Problem was my web browser would implode every time I tried to activate the web cam.  So I made a video and invited people to join me in an AIM chat room I had set up...after about an hour of driving.  Very half assed and un prepared. 

The drive wasn't bad at all.  The chat room made the time fly by and before I knew it I had earned 1 whole point in Desert Bus.  After my drive my legs were stiff from sitting down longer than I've ever sat down before.  I made my challenge and I followed through.  It was a fun little publicity stunt for the youtube channel.  I also hope that I brought a little more awareness to the charity. 

Desert Bus 4 starts November 19, 2010.  I hope you'll check it out this year and if at all possible donate what ever you can. 

So far I've only uploaded 2 hours of my own Desert Bus oddyssey.  You can check that out here.  Perhaps someday I'll upload some more of my Desert Bus trip.

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I've always had a fascination with online play on a home console.  I didn't really have access to the internet until 1999.  My father had a PC and an internet connection as early as 1995 but for some insane reason he wouldn't let me anywhere near his PC. So the internet remained mysterious and elusive until I got my grubby mitts on a PC of my own and started paying for internet access in late 1999.  Because of this the idea of accessing the internet on the Sega Dreamcast without having to buy a PC always appealed to me and seemed like a good alternative.  See I have this glitch in my brain that won't let me play games on a PC so if I were to game online it would be on a console and as far as I knew at the time you could only do that with the Sega Dreamcast.

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Christmas 1998 my idea of video games changed.  I had to stop and rethink video games as a medium of entertainment.  It was the day after Christmas and my friend from across the street Michael had come over to ask me a very important question.  It had been a long time since I really hung out with Michael so it was a little odd that he came over at all but his mission was important.  The first thing he asked me was "Did you get Metal Gear Solid?!"  He was beaming with excitement.  "Yeah I did get it actually."  I answered curiously.  I hadn't really heard of the game, I had seen the hilarious commercial but hadn't really thought much about it.  Back then Dr Jerry Terrifying wasn't a hardcore gamer that followed all the news in the gaming magazines and primitive internet.

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I remember the first time I ever read about Ad Hoc Party thinking about how useful and cool it would be. A free app on the Playstation Network that lets you play Ad Hoc only games with your friends over the PSN. Being a brilliant idea and extremely useful it naturally didn't come out in America until a year after the Japanese release.

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