Pase mis primeros y mas tiernos años de la infancia jugando con el, le ponía su fundita de hule serigrafiada con su nombre, esas que se vendían en todos los tianguis y eran para que no se empolvara, enrollaba religiosamente sus cables después de utilizarlos y estaba al pendiente que su transformador “No se calentara” por mi negligencia de jugar mucho tiempo; El Nintendo era mi posesión mas valiosa.

Aun recuerdo las tardes de chettos, coca,y pop dulzón de 97.7 mientras jugaba, o las otras en que lo hacia en grupo con los niños “Garcia” y mi hermano, donde peleábamos todos por ver “Quién era el que iba”.

Hace un par de días mi primo publico una muy mal lograda entrada de “Meditar, esperar y ayunar” que me hizo pensar en donde fue donde aprendí esas tres cualidades, y para mi sorpresa no fue Herman Hesse y su Sidharta quienes lo lograron, fue un maestro mas sutil y sabio: El Nintendo.

Esperar

“Monster Party” Fue un juego que me regalarón mis primos los Buenfil, sinceramente nunca entendí de que trataba, eras un chico de pijama verde que peleas contra mounstrous con un bat, te convertias en un dragon que lanza rayos si tomabas una capsula. El chiste del juego era ir avanzando por “Los Mundos” , si vencias a los tres “jefes” por nivel  recibias una llave que te permitia llegar al siguiente mundo. En el tres habia un “jefe” que solo “bailaba” si le pegabas se deshacia y volvia a aparecer, si le disparabas igual, después de 20 minutos de darle sus respectivos “Batazos” no pasaba nada, de repente me ilumine (Si, como un discipulo Zen comprendiendo un Koak de su maestro) Solo habia que esperar, no hacer nada,dejar ser al wey,  asi es que despúes de 5 minutos de espera desaparecio y me dio la llave para el siguiente mundo.

Meditar

En “Super Mario Bros 2″ descubrí que una mente serena no se desanima con nada y sabe aprovechar cualquier situación. Si te caes por ahi del segundo mundo en un lugar especifico, no mueres caes en una “islita” donde hay una de las soluciones rojas que sacan puertas y te lleva de “Warpazo” al mundo siete. Aqui lo interesante es darse cuenta que si algo salio mal no hay que deseseperar “Lo que viene conviene” y muchas veces nos caeremos y perderemos una vida, pero de vez en vez descubriremos algo que vale la pena.

Ayunar

Megaman IV Creo yo fue el juego mas difícil que logre acabar en esos tiempos, me gustaba demasiado, pero mi madre me permitia jugar poco por ser un chamaco desobediente y bruto en la escuela, asi que lo poco que jugaba los disfrutaba mucho, y trataba de pensar primero que es lo que iba a ser para aprovechar mas mi tiempo, Pues parece que cuando nos limitan los recursos es cuando nuestras verdaderas cualidades salen.

Eso sin contar que el nintendo fue la primera “computadora” que use, y creo que nunca me he podido despegar de ellas.

This is today’s release. Monster Party, an NES game release in 1989, is a forgotten gem.  It’s without a doubt one of the goriest games on the NES, but it also had a lot of twisted humor in it.  For example, one of the bosses is a gigantic piece of fried shrimp.  This game can at times be difficult and frustrating, but it’s quite a bit of fun to play.  You may have heard some angry reviewers on YouTube (such as the “original” Irate Gamer) take a shot at this game, but I wouldn’t take it from them.  You’ll get as much out of this game as you put into it.  One of the things I especially like about this game is the sound.  For 1989, it was a bit ahead of its time, especially in the effects department. See for yourself in this great video playthrough:

As usual, this includes an official-style manual and proper images to make this look like an official Nintendo release.  Enjoy!  Also, I’m taking requests for any NES games you would like to have injected as a WAD, so if you have any, just comment.

Download:  HERE

CUTE AND BOLD CREATURES!

Create lots of out of this world projects with these cute monsters and aliens! They are ready to have some out of this world fun!

Here’s an example party invitation you can create using the MONSTER AND ALIEN clipart.

• *OOZING GOOD FUN PARTY TIP
• Buy several jars of slime at your local dollar or department store, place them in a bowl and then get the fake eyeball bouncy balls at a party store to add in with the slime.  This can make a really fun sensory activity!
  
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Welcome to AWESOME-tober-fest Week 4. For those that are just joining us, AWESOME-tober-fest is my countdown to Halloween which includes spooky articles each week covering things like scary books/movies, candy, etc. I’ll discuss these things each week until we finally reach “H-Day” as I like to call it (or Halloween, for the layman). Since we are celebrating in October, and this is the Cavalcade of Awesome, the name of this countdown is AWESOME-tober-fest. If you missed any of the first three weeks, here’s a handy dandy list:

Week 1: I review gallons of Halloween sodas
Week 2: Some of my favorite scary movies
Week 3: I Survive Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights

All caught up? Good, let’s get started with today’s topic; Cracked Magazine’s Monster Party.

I was going through an old chest of mine in the garage a week or so ago and found my old stash of Mad Magazines.  Along with all my Mad mags, there was also a huge stash of Cracked magazines.  Talk about hitting the mother lode.  I loved reading Mad and Cracked magazine when I was a kid.  I would wait each month to buy the copy and read it endlessly until the new issues came out.  I even bought the Super Specials and Collector’s Editions which only reprinted material I already owned, but I didn’t care.  I loved the spoofs, parodies and humor of my Mad and Cracked magazines.  I saved every issue I bought of these magazines and stored them carefully in this chest when I was about 13 and it was left there until I opened it a few weeks ago.  I had found my own personal Arc of the Covenant.

Growing up in the ’80s I was right in the sweet spot to enjoy Mad Magazine during it’s prime. I loved Mad and for several years I subscribed to it. During these prime years, they had a few competitors, which I really didn’t like, except for one; Cracked Magazine. I started buying Cracked during the month or so between Mad’s semi-monthly publishing schedule. When I couldn’t get my Mad fix, I turned to Cracked, and they delivered.

For the most part, Cracked was considered the “cheap knock off” to Mad magazine. However, as much as a rip-off it is said to have been, I always enjoyed reading it. Their main artist, John Severin, was fantastic and it seemed Cracked was always cooking up something interesting to separate it from Mad. They were big on gimmicks, and one thing they loved cooking up gimmicks for was Halloween.

Sometime in the ’80s, Cracked started taking photo stills of famous monster movies and adding their own funny dialog. These became increasingly popular which lead to more monster humor. Cracked would create funny comics, stories, movie parodies and pictures all based around famous monsters like Dracula, wolf man, mummy and Frankenstein’s monster. Eventually, Cracked would reprint their monster material several times a year in Cracked Special Editions called, appropriately, Monsters. These special editions would also contain some new material in between the larger reprints. It was looking at these special Monster mags that I would come to love the images of famous monsters from TV and movies. Below is a Cracked Special Edition from 1984. It’s one of the earliest ones I own.

Cracked even created some monsters of their own to supplement their material. Here’s a pic of the Uggly Family. A more macabre version of the Adams Family that ran as a comic strip in most Monster Party issues.

Along with the Uggly Family, Cracked created their intrepid reporter, Nanny Dickering. She was used in parody interviews throughout the ’80s but was used in almost all Monster issues to interview famous figures in horror. Throughout her many years, her look changed. In the beginning, Nanny looked very much like Betty from Archie Comics. Here is one of those earlier interviews with Stephen King and Nanny looking like Betty (click the image for a bigger view).

As Nanny became more popular she took on a more decidedly “adult” appearance. She started to look more like Elvira than Betty. Here’s a later version of Nanny interviewing Freddy Krueger (click the image for a bigger view).

The reprints, and especially the newer material like Uggly Family, became extremely popular and led to more monster humor in the magazine as well as more special editions. Sometimes the monsters would even take over regular non-Halloween issues like the below August 1987 Cracked issue with Teen Wolf and Freddy Krueger.

Eventually Cracked would name their monster humor the Cracked Monster Party and would feature entire magazines of the Monster Party material around October every year. Below are two special editions of the Cracked Monster Party from the late ’80s. Each contained mostly reprints. The one on the right actually included some color material.

Cracked decided to spin its popular Monster Party feature to its own magazine in the Summer of 1988. Cracked Monster Party #1 debuted in July 1988.

Monster Party lasted for many years and contained a lot of classic material. You could find Uggly Family comics, monster movie parodies, monster funnies and many, many classic covers. Here are a few.

Cracked would even make fun of Nanny Dickering’s appearance being so similar to Elvira in Monster Party issue #4.

The (monster) party would finally end around 2000, when the last issue of Monster Party would be released. Later, Cracked Magazine would be bought out in a huge corporate deal and went through a relaunch in 2006 as a men’s humor magazine (a la Maxim or FHM). That relaunch lasted about 3 issues before Cracked Magazine was put to rest for good.  Cracked now lives on only as a website. New humor material is written, but most of the articles are in the form of funny lists. They don’t publish any more funny cartoons or movie/TV spoofs.  There are a few gems on the site, but the magazine as I used to know it in the ’80s is gone.

Cracked magazine will be missed.

Well, that concludes Week #4 of AWESOME-tober-fest. Ostensibly, next week would be the fifth and final week/article of AWESOME-tober-fest. However, I may have two more articles for you by the end of the month. Who knows, I may be writing checks my body can’t cash, but that’s just how I roll, people. Stay tuned for more AWESOME!!!!!

Local music man Travis McElroy of Thick Syrup records has some big news:  In October, Thick Syrup will release “Halloween Songs” by David and Jad Fair.  Right on!  Sounds like a great follow-up to the band’s Monster Songs for Children that came out in 1998 on the Kill Rock Stars label.

From Travis: 

“I’m very proud to put something out by the guys who helped shaped what i listen to today.

Jad Fair is a founding member of Half Japanese. He has recorded with Yo La Tengo, Daniel Johnston, Kramer, Monster Party, Jason Willett, Lumberob, Richard Hell, Strobe Talbot, The Tinklers, Naofumi Ishimaru, Mosquito, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, Phonocomb, DQE, John Zorn, God Is My Co-Pilot, The Tall Dwarfs, Thurston Moore, Eye, Moe Tucker, Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith, Mara Flynn, Kevin Blechdom, Terry Adams, The Work Dogs, Tom Ardolino, The Shapir O’Rama, R. Stevie Moore, Bill Wells, Tom Recchion, Isobel Campbell, Norman Blake, Steve Fisk, and David Fair.

Kurt Cobain had Half Japanese open for Nirvana on the group’s 1993 tour.  The band’s history and influence are chronicled in the 1993 documentary Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King.”

Congrats to Thick Syrup–this is a pretty damn good get!!

–Glen

This list last updated August 23, 2009.

8 Eyes
10-Yard Fight
720°
1943: The Battle of Midway
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
The Adventures of Bayou Billy
Adventures of Dino Riki
The Adventure of Link (gold cart)
Air Fortress
Al Unser Jr. TURBO RACING
Anticipation
Astyanax
Bad Dudes
Baseball
The Battle of Olympus
Bionic Commando
The Black Bass
Blaster Master
The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Captain Skyhawk
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
Championship Bowling
Code Name: Viper
Commando
Conquest of the Crystal Castle
Déjà Vu
Demon Sword
Dick Tracy
Donkey Kong Jr.
Double Dragon
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Double Dribble
Dragon Warrior
Faxanadu
Fester’s Quest
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Friday the 13th
Gauntlet II
Golgo 13
The Goonies II
Guerilla War
Gun.Smoke
Heavy Barrel
Hogan’s Alley
Ice Hockey
Ikari Warriors
Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
The Immortal
Karate Champ
Kings of the Beach
Kirby’s Adventure
Kung Fu
Legacy of the Wizard
Legendary Wings
The Little Mermaid
Little Nemo: Dream Master
Low G Man: The Low Gravity Man
Mach Rider
Mad Max
The Mafat Conspiracy
Metal Gear
Metroid
Monster Party
NARC
NFL
Nightshade
Ninja Gaiden
Operation Wolf
PIN•BOT
P.O.W.
Pro Wrestling
R.B.I. Baseball (black cart)
Rad Racer
Rampart
Renegade
Rescue: The Embassy Mission
Ring King
RoboCop
Rock ‘n Ball
Rolling Thunder
Rush ‘n Attack
Shadowgate
Shatterhand
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World
Skate or Die
Sky Shark
Snake’s Revenge
Solstice
Spy Hunter
StarTropics
Star Wars
Strider
Super C
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
Super Mario 3
Tecmo Bowl
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tiger-Heli
Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland
To the Earth
Track & Field II
Trojan
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Willow
Wizards and Warriors
Wizards and Warriors II: Ironsword
World Class Track Meet
Wrath of the Black Manta
Xexyz

Current game count: 116

Najaaa… Nicht wirklich, eigentlich wollte ich euch nur auch darauf aufmerksam machen, dass ich gerade in diesem Moment einige DVDs und Games zu SPOTTPREISEN auf Ricardo verscherble. Wer also lust hat, und sich vielleicht irgendwas kaufen will, der schaut mal hier, auf meinem Profil vorbei.

… Und wer mir trotzdem einfach so irgendetwas spenden will, der darf gerne auf diesen Link hier klicken.

greeez vom Lappenlosen Pfoff

Here it is, another one of those fantastic games blogs that the kids love so much nowadays. This isn’t going to be another Kotaku or anything like that, there is no possible way I have the time needed for such an endeavor. Instead, I or maybe I should say we, want to share opinions about games, the people who play them, where they are or should be headed and anything else that is deemed important.

Of course, it is quite likely that one might find reviews here and there and the odd bit of news but rest assured gentle reader there will be more in store for you. In fact the first real bit of content that will most likely be posted is a little review we have been toying around with around these parts.

So, lets get down to the nitty gritty of what is to be expected from the site and who we all are. Although right now I can only speak for myself, the other people who make this blog work will become more well known over the next few months. As for myself, I am employed at a successful game company doing QA (that means testing stuff). Although I am not at liberty to say where I work or what i work on, that just so happens to be what I spend at least 8 hours of my day doing. The reason I mention any of that is simple to stress the fact that we want to have some voices from inside the industry and that I actually know a couple.

What shape will all of this take? Well that is undecided as of yet, but for the moment there are a number of features planed, hopefully a couple interviews down the pipe and whatever else we can scrape together. Anything else we come up with for the direction we are taking you can expect to be shoved neatly in to the About page. Hopefully you will enjoy the things we do here at Thumb Jockey as much as we enjoy putting them together.

And for no reason the ending to monster party:

Ontem foi comemorado o dia das bruxas em alguns lugares do planeta. Foi por causa disso que recebi ontem uma URL que me convidava para jogar Monster Party. Claro, vNES é um site incrível, afinal de contas você pode jogar através do navegador de web clássicos como Mega Man 2 e Ice Climber mas eu não quero falar sobre essas possibilidades agora. Quero falar sobre Monster Party mesmo.

O que eu posso dizer? O joguinho é bem perturbador, considerando o fato de ser de 1989 e para o nintendinho.

Você vê Mark, um moleque que voltava para casa depois de ir jogar baseball com os amigos e acaba encontrando uma criatura Garuda/gárgula. O estranho ser veio do espaço e se chama “Bert”. O bicudo gosta do taco de Mark e o convida para ir exterminar umas criaturas em seu planeta de origem, que tem o sutil nome de “Dark World”. E claro, munido apenas com o bastão, o ingênuo protagonista topa encarar a aventura.

É de se imaginar que haja alguma festa dentro desse jogo, mas não, são apenas monstros, animais gigantes, pílulas mágicas e um punk sem pernas que você encontra pelo caminho. Nada de festas. Houveram duas coisas que ficaram na minha memória em relação a esse jogo da Bandai e que me deixaram extremamente desconfiado. A primeira acontece na primeira fase, não entrarei em detalhes para não estragar a surpresa, vai por mim, jogue um pouquinho pelo Virtual NES até o momento que você ver uma espécie de prédio/árvore verde. A segunda é o final. Eu nunca cheguei até ele, mas há alguns meses atrás eu o tinha visto no SydLexia.com. Poxa vida, depois de passar pelo último chefe você percebe que o jogo poderia ser adaptado para um roteiro de M. Night Shyamalan. Vou tomar a liberdade de usar as mesmas imagens do SydLexia para ilustrar melhor. Afinal de contas… Não é sempre que você vê um negócio desses.

Basicamente a aberração alada, Bert, agradece o pobre Mark por ter salvo seu mundo bizarro lhe dando uma caixa. O aclamado baúzinho de itens, de muitos outros jogos.

Chegando em casa ele o abre e dentro dele aparece uma formosa princesa vestida de branco. Claro tudo bem, provavelmente a coitada contorcionista teja lá só pra servir como um objeto, apenas uma princesa para passar o nome do reino de seu pai para o honrado Mark, para a fúria das feministas de plantão.

Só tem esse problema, a maldita princesa não passava de uma cilada, um cavalo de tróia do Dark World!

O pior de tudo é que sai algum tipo de Antraz dos infernos e justo o infeliz do Mark fica todo desfigurado, perceba que é possível ver os ossos de suas mãos enquanto o olho esquerdo dele ameaça sair de seu crânio. Nunca mais o coitado poderá rebater umas bolas com seus amigos.

Mas bem-

Até que no final das contas tudo acabou bem, era só um sonho, tem até um sol sorrindo para Mark, hahaha, que ótimo! Que reviravolta, não? Pelo menos ele não tinha morrido e não se lembrava.

Mas claro, merda acontece! O Passarinho tinhoso, segurando o taco de Mark pergunta se ele “quer mais uma vez”. Ah, por favor-

O final é estupendo, para quem jogava Shadow of the Colossus e sentia remorso ao ver o final do jogo. Ai está, Monster Party. E … Que filho da puta é esse Bert heim.