I'll Play Adventure Island 3: World 2

After a very long break, I finally got around to making the next world video on Adventure Island 3.  I've learned a lot about making Let's Play videos since way back then, so I may re-record the first world (I should probably call them islands...) at higher quality of video and gameplay.

I'll Play Batman (NES) Level 5 and Ending

I got my Batman video files together to make the final edit and commentary only to find (to my horror!) all of the audio gone on the files.  I must have recorded them with the computer (or emulator) muted without realizing or remembering.  Oh well.

To stay on schedule, I had to re-record the final (hardest) level of Batman with no practice, having not played it for more than a month.  You'll all forgive me if the quality of play isn't up to snuff.

Next week, continuing with Adventure Island 3 after a loooong break on this blog.

I'll Play Batman: Laboratory Ruins

BATMAN continues his battle through GOTHAM CITY via the Laboratory Ruins.  Cool level with cool music, except all the wall jumping!  All the damage floors with their gears, belts, and spikes really make me wish this was a 3-D game wherein I could just walk around the gears... More wall jumping and the final showdown next week!

I'll Play Batman: Level 3

After destroying the Axis Chemical factory, Batman falls into a trap (?) and is sent to the Underground Conduit.  Batman fights (and dies) his way through two screens of underground water pipes and a final ascent through a dragon tank-inhabited cavern.  As he emerges (heroically) on the surface, Batman must take down Electrocutioner.

Just how many volts are 10 Mega-Giga volts, again?

I'll Play Batman: Gotham City and Axis Chemical

Well, we've finished off Dr.Wily (for now) and now we'll begin our trek to take on The Joker.  The classic Batman NES game brings back fond memories of wall-jumping and gun-shooting... because we all know how much Batman likes to shoot guns...

Anyway, Christmas 2013 is over and we're preparing for the New Year here in Dublin with some Bat-Manny action!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: The End

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone!  We've fought our way through the Fortress of Dr. Wily, and now we've reached the final showdown.  In this video, we face each of the eight robot masters (again) before fighting the alien illusion conjured by the evil Doctor himself.  Next week, we will begin a new NES classic!

200 Posts!

Angry Reader:  It's Monday, no travel post!?  No?  A lousy clip show post!?  No new, exciting, and parshally prooff-read content?  What a ripoff!  Oh well, might as well read the sappy emotional schlock and get it over with!  I'd also better click on the blue link text to read the articles referenced on this page, that is, if I care to.

Cory and Sara:  What a crazy time it's been.  It seems only yesterday we were sitting in our old living room 4000 miles away and thinking of a fun and creative way to share our moving experience with friends and family.  We never thought we would be daily bloggers putting out as much content as we have.  Seeing that 200 number approaching made me scroll back through the archives for buried treasures.

I remember when we first wrote about Sara's official job offer.  We wrote that when the feelings were still pretty fresh.  The clock had started the moving countdown, and there would be no going back.

Remember my sloppy I'll Play videos?  I hope you don't, because they were (and are!) pretty sloppy from those days.  Castlevania 3 probably wasn't the best game to start with video game videos and I fought, kicked, screamed, and save-stated my way through it.  One might have thought I'd gotten better by now...

We had to undergo our Great Jettison shortly after finding out about the move.  Of all the great success stories of that series, none was quite so exciting to me as that of the exercise bike in the basement.  Maybe when we move away the verdant shores of Ireland we will continue with the Jettison series...

When we first got the confirmation of our relocation, we weren't quite ready to make the announcement fully public.  The blog was up and running but was only shared with a few people while we tested out the functionality of a blog and made arrangements to announce our move.  When all of our professional arrangements were made, we were able to make the blog public and share the news with our social networks.

In May, we were still Jettisoning, Sara graduated, and getting lean with our worldly possessions.

The arrival of June saw us pack up the rest of the house, pile into our little car, and get on the road.  Oh, were we such wild-eyed dreamers with the whole world opening up before us.

July was pretty quiet, with our internet blackout keeping us from too much recreational internet use. We did make it to Ireland, and did our best to let our families know we were still alive.

In August, we got our home internet connection at last.  We began to write about our pastimes and the differences we noticed in our new country.

September set up the current format of the blog.  Monday as travel post day and Saturday as the video game day.  We were able to catch up on our knitting, home finding, and exploring posts.

Seems a bit early to reminisce about October and November, but what the hey.  We found some cool stuff, we griped about road signs, we did some brewing, finished the road trip posts, and let's not forget the live-tweet-holiday-event of the...minute.

Thank you friends new and old for reading and commenting on our blog.  Knowing that we have people who care about us and what is happening in our lives is very comforting to us in the big city so far from our homeland.  We are having a wonderful experience and meeting great people here in Ireland, but we never take the love and friendship of our family and friends around the world for granted and for that, we are ever grateful.

So here's to another two hundred posts.  More brewing!  More knitting!  More video games!  More travel!  More proof-reading-before-posting(!!)

Love,

Cory and Sara
The Narcissistic Expats

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Wily 3 and Wily 4

So long to the great music of Wily 1 and 2, hello irritating Wily 3 and 4.  Wily 3 goes so quickly I am barely able to describe it.  Wily 4 gives me some trouble due to an interesting programming choice regarding the boss, which is a, "This is a lovely room of death!" kind of boss.  I do play through most of Wily 4 twice by force.  Next week, working to the end!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Wily 1 and Wily 2

We have defeated all eight Robot Masters (for now...) and are on to fight the man himself, Dr. Wily.  First, we must fight our way through his fortress, four levels, in fact.  This week, we take on the first two levels of Dr. Wily's Fortress.  Dig that kickin' music!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Bubble Man and Heat Man

Many Some A few Maybe one or two caught my Mega Man 2 video posted on Thanksgiving this week.  No bother, here it is again in its usual Saturday post.

We had a great Thanksgiving, and I was able to take a few minutes to sit down and record and post this video just before the turkey went into the oven.  This time, we take on the last two robot masters before heading to Dr. Wily's fortress.  Marvel as the frustration level rises in Heat Man's stage!  Watch the first glimpse of Dr. Wily in his little spaceship-thingy!  See it all here!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Flash Man and Quick Man

Wish I could would have practiced Flash Man's level before recording my final video.  Watch Me Mega Man trip and stumble through Flash Man and his ice stage before a smoother level chasing Quick Man.  Getting close to the end of the eight robot masters part of the game, but don't despair, much more MM2 action awaits beyond!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Air Man

Fighting our way to the Robot Master Air Man and his NES-era obligatory cloud level.  We get a brief mention of one of our first bits of "high culture" in children's symphony concert.

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Crash Man

After some failed attempts at different kinds of video game movie production, we go back to the old tried-and-true.  Crash Man's stage is longer and more difficult than the Man himself.  Computer woes aside, real life is fine.  I have a large batch of cider fermenting, we figured out how to burn peat briquettes, and we even found a place to buy cheap fruit on the street!

Free Magic: The Gathering Tourney

One of my favorite middle school pastimes was playing the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.  It was first developed in 1993 as a card game that could be played with player-built, customizable decks.  It was a great business idea, as the best cards are the rarest, forcing players to invest lots of money to obtain all the best cards.  As an even better business plan, they keep releasing new sets of cards, so players have to keep investing in new sets and series of cards as they are released.  One final slap in the frugal gamer's face is the common tournament rule disallowing older cards in standard tournament play.  This makes cards older than a year obsolete in current tournaments.

It is still a fun game to play, even with my nearly 20 year old (!) cards.  Too bad I couldn't bring them out here with me as they are bulky, fragile, and require other classic card players with whom to play.  It was to my great delight that I saw an ad for an international anniversary celebration of the game.  At participating tournament sites throughout the world, players could report and receive a free deck of cards with two smaller (booster) packs of cards with which to build a deck for a mini-tournament.  "Free" was the only word I needed to see for this event, so I got directions to the game store in Dublin, and we set off for City Centre.

At the game store, a long line had formed for this event with its free card giveaway.  I got to the counter and asked for my free deck and booster pack.  I chose a deck of red colored magic (don't worry about the term if you don't know the game... or you could look into it yourself!) and got the booster pack with which to augment the deck.  

Free Magic Cards

It turned out that I needed to be a registered Magic tournament player to sign up for this tournament.  I was able to sign up for a player number for free and got my cards!  To get the bonus booster pack, I had to play three games of Magic with three other players and record the scores on a scorecard.  I played the three games and went 1 win, 2 (very ugly) losses.  It was great to meet some new people interested in games, especially talking with them about gaming within their own countries and cultures.  Nerd-speak is also hilarious to hear in foreign Irish, English, and other European accents.

Dice I bought just to support the game shop

With my record of 1-2 firmly in hand, I turned in my scorecard and got my hands on the other booster pack.  That was a total of 70 cards all just for the "effort" of hanging out at a game store, meeting some great new people, and playing one of my favorite games.  What a deal!  On my way out of the store, I decided to buy something to support them and thank them for hosting what turned out to be a huge event.  I love my dice collection, and wasn't able to bring the whole thing out with me, so I purchased a small set of blue gem dice for use in the Dungeons and Dragons/Pathfinder game I am playing.  One can never have too many dice!

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Metal Man and Wood Man

What are we to do after Monster Party?  Play a better game, that's what.  Mega Man 2 has a much better historical reputation than M.P., and it should be evident even in these first two robot masters.  In real life, it's getting darker at this latitude and we follow an interesting piece of news.

I'll Play Monster Party: Level 8 and The End

Finally finishing up with Monster Party.  We take on the cloud castle and the final boss who challenges Mark, historically, "COME AND DIE!"

In real life, the weather is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and Ireland is settling down into mid-Autumn.  In fact, Ireland celebrates the end of Daylight Savings Time a week before North America does.  Interesting, eh?  This means I will get to watch NFL football games a full hour earlier-just this one week.

Next week, we will begin the epic adventure of Mega Man 2.

I'll Play Monster Party: Level 7

In the World of Monsters, we are making our ascent through the tower on our way to the final level in the sky.  This level turns out to be pretty trivial with the help of our Bert-Power-Pills.  We examine the glitch(?) of having three bosses in the level but only requiring the defeat of two of them.  Facing and beating the third boss results in the key being taken away and forced in-game suicide.

In real life, we are settling back down from our Northern Ireland trip, and I almost get to talking about joining a social game club as we get under the gun.  Facing the last level next week will give us a longer time to discuss such trivial things are real life.

I'll Play Monster Party: Level 6

Continuing our adventures through the world of monsters, we take on the obligatory maze level of Monster Party.  This one is a real doozy, not so much in difficulty as in sheer frustration.  Luckily, you don't have to watch all of the trial-and-error I went through to find my way through this annoying complex.  Annoying music and sound effects don't help the maddening atmosphere of this pink nightmare.

In the real world, we almost get through the story of our trip to the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland.  Roll it!

I'll Play Monster Party- Level 5

Our first American visitor arrived last week!  We've been having fun, spending quality time together, and calling ourselves tourists again... for a while anyway.

This coming weekend, we are going to Northern Ireland to see Belfast, the Antrim Coast, and the Giant's Causeway.  We'll post some photos of all the good times we have here, so stay tuned.

In Monster Party, we are taking on the lake in level 5.  Sticking with MP tradition, the level is full of annoying monsters with predictable patterns and WAY too much health.  Bosses aren't inspired in this stage, either.  Watch out for dancing zombies!

I'll Play Monster Party: First American Visitor!

Last week, we were excitedly getting ready for our first family visitor from the States.  Today, we are all celebrating together.  In Monster World, we explore the darkest pyramids of level 4.

Next week, we'll have an update on the first week of visit-fest.  Today, enjoy level 4.