Wow, pretty cool, Brandon. I didn't even know Game Pro did anything other than the magazines. Very cool!

PB - Glad you knew & remembered GPTV That's cool that your son got a Happy meal and it was Mario Actually yes, I knew a bit about it but not much. I believe the film was supposed to come out around the P!amDemic started and got delayed by so much. When this event took place and I went down wabbit holes I just stopped keeping track with holliweird's new movies. Once it comes out I hope today's generation is happy with it. It does look good and true to the concept especially recent stuff of Mario from the 2010s though I really prefer the classic stuff before GameCube. I say that because the first movie bombed 30 years ago this year in 93 and it was live action that nobody liked the realistic POV it had rather than a somewhat accurate game version like Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat did a while later. I think CGI is the way to go for a total satisfactory experience if you like the franchise a lot I mean it's basically a video game without playing it The cast & characters isn't revealed much. I like that the Kongs is in it. I hope Yoshi & Wario is as well cause their huge parts of the story. Brian Tyler is doing the music, he is a genius at emulating others' themes into his own scores so that will be a treat there One thing is that the Sonic films came out first for this generation and it was live action. If today's kids know their history of Mario and I hope they do via the web and/or their elders teaching them how wonderful old school Mario was/is then today's kids will have absolutely no prob connecting to this new Super Mario Bros. Movie plus there is a lot they could put in the sequels like Bowser's kids and another factor is Nintendo did Super Smash Bros. which has countless other video game licenses within that franchise like Zelda, Street Fighter, Sega Characters and more so there's that too

Acid - Huh, well that's cool that you didn't know this, I like surprising people with stuff and them letting me know about it

Thanks guys, I appreciate that very much

So here is the GamePro special that I said that was next in line. This is arguably one of the most crucial GamePro magazines ever for two reasons. 1.I got this in around late 2011/early 2012 at My usual Walgreens. I saw what was special of this one and it's one of the only ones they ever featured liked this and 2. which is the huge reason...at the time I had no idea that they were going out of business so this Winter 2011 was THE FINAL GAMEPRO ISSUE EVER They were already gone by the date of the "Please Display until March 2012, gosh this is depressing As I said before in My previous showcase as well as other times during My time as a kid and teenager, to Me they were the WWF of Video Game Magazines, everybody else came second. Take a good gander at the pic. When I first saw this book of course the cover caught My attention right away cause it was Chun-Li as a cover-girl and when she's on a cover that means gaming I hadn't seen a GamePro Magazine in quite a while since I had a long hiatus from Console Gaming (as I had explained before here as well as other topics) so the logo didn't appear to Me as well as it should cause GamePro had changed a lot since I last saw their great Magazines which really is a shame cause most of the time I hate change. So establishing that I saw what the points & features of this one and I saw TOP 50 FIGHTERS and really I was sold right away despite the price was $9.99 which is a far cry for prices I was used to before but oh well. Also it had a special 25 years of Zelda too so this one was packed with some cool stuff. Take a gander at the Cover I was just talking about



NOTE: Click the pics in a new tab, their huge to see a lot of detail

So when the Magazine opens Forza Motorsport is seen for the XBOX 360. A few short years later this would be My first system getting Me back into gaming and it's still a superb fun one :and I don't know if it's this one but I got a Forza game for free via their Xbox Gold rewards program



Here is some of the Contents with a Retro preview and Darkstalkers' Morrigan Aensland being presented here representing the 50 Greatest Fighters but what will her rank be




Here's a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ad and then the start of 2012: Year in Preview. Amazing the Ancient Mayans predicted that the world was going to end that year (though I think it did in some weird way cause look how pathetic everything is now ) yet GamePro didn't make it So there was only two games in this featured that I was interested in, the first was Aliens Colonial Marines which is a huge title since I am a huge Aliens fan that I got a few years later and the next/second reboot of Tomb Raider. I really had mixed emotions about it. If you saw My great Lara Croft/Tomb Raider showcase within this great topic of Mine then you know how much I loved Vintage/Classic Lara Croft. She was wow then. So with this reboot she's so young and girly looking with really nothing to even compare how the original or even the first reboot was cause even in that she was still busty & hot It seemed like 2011 was such a year of downgrading for humanity I mean Social Media really took off, everybody's staring at their phones and you cannot have a face to face conversation anymore, everybody's attention span is 30 seconds or less, women are looking less endowed, guys interests are really diminishing and rather be androgynous and tr@ns, every film has to be CGI, have a comical part & character and must have a hacker, geek or nerd and now over decade later look how things are...we are living in a world of androgyny and gender confusion yet how many people is paying attention and noticing all of this weird crap If you don't have a clue what I'm saying then you don't know what's going on in this current day and with everything on YT and all of the horrible things their teaching in schools with Drag Queens...I could go on So anyway this Tomb Raider is great and plays rather well and everything but unfortunately it was the start of today's homogenized society of being toned down I really liked how Gamepro made this appear




Here is an awesome Street Fighter vs. Tekken Ad



This was a cool Section of banned stuff I never liked GTA however the female art was always good and I was dang, they should a lot more with that, I'd love to see an adultish animated film like Beavis & Butt-Head o even 1981's Heavy Metal with that same style of illustration, shame this day & age won't allow for such feature t be made but dang just imagine how that could be, it would be so exciting & thrilling



Here is the really neat section of moments in GamePro HISTORY and really I find it quite odd that they did this cause it like a farewell and show how great they once were Now these is what I'm talking about, these were some classic GamePro covers and when video gaming was so fun. Look at all that great times of old like Luigi, Bart Simpson and even the great fun game of The Addams Family



NOTE: Here will be a kind of a brief write-up like a critical teenage Brandon would do when he read GamePro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Informer and others way back in the day

So here we go with the Top 50 Fighters. Gosh, SF's Blanka is 50 & Q is 46 and I can't believe that Nintendo's Kirby was even a consideration here I mean come on...really Mortal Kombat's Shang Tsung is only there for his age of 500 years old + Meat is 46. Marvel's Wolverine is actually here yet MK's Sub-Zero beats him out Virtual Fighter's Sarah Bryant is 35 and amazing that Barbarian is 34 (more on this title as a special bonus at the climax MK's Goro is ranked #33. He has such a huge backstory yet really he's been used as a stepping stone and really was really underused



So Tekken's King is ranked 28. MK's Cyrax beats out Sektor ranked at number 26 and why Because he's YELLOW Isn't that a very smart & ideal choice to pick your fave for a greatest fighter simply because of his or her color Now none of these were ranked and darn shame cause their good but their their here in a Showing Some Skin Category Now when I saw Soul Caliber's Ivy depiction from the fourth entry for the first time I was astounded about it as her body looked so ideal of how I loved big bodacious babes of the past. She's such a great one. DOA's Tina Armstrong is fine but she's not My fave of that series. Holy crap, they got MK's Kitana mixed up with her twin sister Mileena, what the heck There's King of Fighters' Mai Shiranui and one of the most well known of all female fighters. She's arguably My favorite of all because of so many reasons, she is just so wow. SF's E. Honda is here which they rank him #1 but in this case I really don't give a Rat's@$$ since he's not a woman however as I grew up with him and then seeing WWF's Yokozuna the same year of 1992 I loved to see his skin because of how huge he was and how his flesh moves. I especially love it when I see guys like Abdullah the Butcher and his Flaps



So SC's Sophita is 25 and Pikachu is 24 (you gotta satisfy that Pokemon craving crowd!) and MK's Scorpion & SF's Guile is 23 & 22, unbelievable SF's R. Mika is 21... where is her hero & mentor Zangief and Cammy is 17, she's way better than that DS's Felicia is ok but I think she should be placed lower. SF's M.Bison is 13...oh you gotta be kiddin' Me, he should be at least top ten and MK's Lui Kang is 12 Same as Bison



Link is number Ten...LINK IS #10 So here's the answer to previous question about Morrigan as she ranks six and beats out Ryu at number 7 of all fighters yet succumbs to Ken Masters at number 5 then Dhalsim defeats them all at #4...wow is this crazy or what Now their Top Worst 5 is so-so and I can't believe they considered Shaq's Shaq-Fu here, I thought he was pretty good. Now for the top 3...3 is DOA's Kasumi, she's really good but. Kilik from SC is great at the number two spot and the number one spot belongs to CHUN-LI which is quite obvious since she was on the Cover Even though I find her overrated at times, I must say she deserves the rank and to be the champion of this GamePro finale because she was one of the first female fighters and she kept her legacy going so congrats to the lovely and sometimes hot thunder-thighed beauty that is Street Fighter's Chun-Li



Here is a couple ads of GamePromedia.



Here is the special look at the 25th Anniversary of Zelda. Like I had said before. I was never a Zelda player but I thought it was always fun seeing My friend Donnie's NES Zelda games when I'd go over to his cool house




Here is an ad for Halo which is Xbox's Mascot. It's cool but I really never got into the franchise. I always thought of it to be a replacement of Doom for that generation that never played nor knew about Doom And here is the Back Cover of this last GamePro Magazine EVER and it's World of Tanks



So here is My local Walgreens on Gravois that I had showcased before where I got this great final GamePro Magazine Notice the Red Box that drove Our Blockbuster Video across the street away for good as I have talked & showcased about in My Odds & End's Glory Days of Video Rentals



SPECIAL BONUS!!

So as I said before there was going to be special bonus of Palace's Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior (amazing that it's called that, WWF'S Ultimate Warrior debuted THE SAME YEAR of 1987!). I never had the chance to play it despite it was available on Commodore 64. I was taking a long hiatus from the system when the game came out in 1987 because I was still going bonkers over a new game console called the NES I'm not sure if I could have had the game anyway cause it was basically an adult themed game with a big boobed sword-woman and tons of violence that predated Golden Axe, Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat by years even though I saw lots of violence in films and was beginning to notice women and the female body/form during My youngster years and been a lover of it even more as I matured



NOTE: Again i do not own this game, pics are from various sources, just edited by Me

So here is the game Front & Back Covers of this great. Your main characters are played by Michael Van Wijk (1992's Gladiators) as the titled hero and his love is Princess Mariana played by UK's Page Three & Sun Model Maria Whittaker. Here is some cool pics along with the game's creator




They made a sequel called Barbarian II: The Legend of Drax, Here is some great pics of it as well.




Here is Michael Van Wijk, I was never familiar with him but dang, looks like he could have been a great villain in a film or even a wrestler I mean look how ideal he was



So here is Maria Whittaker, she was a UK Page Three & Sun Model and she was such hot stuff back in the [b]80s, she was great looking, had big boobs with a nice booty and thick & curvy body She was so sweet and really she was basically all you ever needed Because of today's pathetic means, it just doesn't allow the awe of great stuff of yesteryear such as this to be in the now



SUPER SPECIAL FEATURE!!

Since GamePro didn't have certain fighters there, some their decisions were really questionable and many are absent on gamer's minds I decided put a top one of My own of both male & female so here we go

Shadow Warrior's Lo Wang is actually a FPS character but I don't care, he still used a mighty Katana and he was one of the best heroes you could ever be Sega's Streets of Rage's Axel Stone is great, how can you not mention him and you gotta be kiddin' Me that they never chose SF's Sagat, he's always been one of My favorites of all-time and he was such an incredible fighter The TMNT has got to be included I mean they were so great in their fighting games especially all of the versions of Tournament Fighters! Mike Hagar was the main guy of Final Fight and he is so powerful will all of his wrestling moves, like Zangief I guess he was booted out cause he was a wrestler yet they chose R. Mika Unbelievable that there was no mention of fighting icons Jimmy & Billy Lee of Double Dragon nor the Battletoads MK's Shao Kahn has always been a huge fave of Mine with his great voice and one liners, he was always a tremendous fighter and he will always be one the top video game fighters of ever of all-time within My book



As for the women, I enjoy them even more than the male fighters just not cause their female and all that but they fight smoother & quicker and have better moves (imagine if more male wrestlers did what the women ones do like Saraya's PTO & Ripley[s Riptide!) so here is a list of video game fighting babes I loved and was like gosh no mention of them so here is some of My picks. Spin from Zero Team is easily one of the most underrated and most forgotten about of all FVGF and she was one of the hottest ones ever. She had so many cool moves. Tyris Flare was superb, how in the world can you not mention Golden Axe even though it came out after Barbarian Another one, how in the Sam "freggin" Hain can you not mention Blaze Fielding when she was arguably the first female hero of beat'em ups I mean she was so great too Asuka was arguably the funnest female fighter ever with his booty bombs and it has always been a darn shame that she was only in TMNT: TF which the Japanese version if My fave of the SNES ports. MK's Tanya is great and one of most ideal fighters you could ever play. Now since GamePro goofed and said Kitana was a monster under her face covering which she isn't it's her twin sister Milenna and out of the two I've always loved the latter. She's more violent, hotter, sexual and she has her Sais! Sheeva is like the most powerful of them all not to mention most wowing with her 7 foot plus stature, uncanny strength and unreal body! Now of course Shadow Warrior's Female Ninja is a FPS character but she fought and resembles Meleena a lot. I' have always digged her but holy cow, how can you not mention Sonya Blade, she's like best of the best! Now SC's Setsuka is probably the most underrated of them all, she looks great and has a fantastic arsenal of maneuvers however Taki is like the one to take the spot of any category. She looks so good, fights like a true veteran with tons of moves and is quite fun to play as



So that will do it for this huge special of GamePro's last & finale issue they ever published. It took Me a while to do it I hope there's others out there that loved GamePro as much as I did or at least took the time to see the cool stuff that was always in there magazines. Still I cannot they are no more. So many great things of the past are disappearing and so very few people are doing anything about it but Me, I'm trying My darnedest about this because I hate it when things fall to oblivion especially if I loved it. One day i hope find My GamePro collection and I specially want to find this one of 1996 cause it featured N64's Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire with Boba Fett on the cover. Once I find'em I'm gonna showcase'em I hope you liked this unique showcase. Next up will be another special, until then I'll see you around

With the internet it's impressive they lasted that long. I used to flip through them for cheats and codes, now you can just do a quick google search for free. Van Wijk looks like the serial killer in every 1980s detective movie, lol. I misss Gladiators. The Hulk Hogan version from a few years back wasn't the same. The NES game was pretty cool, though.

Yes it is was impressive and really as great as the web can be it kinda ruined the fun of looking for codes in books Indeed he does, I was never interested in those Gladiator shows for whatever reason and same goes for the games I see the Hulk Hogan resemblance Thank PB

So today is a big anniversary, I've been waiting of for this day for a very long time, it's the 30th Anniversary of Mortal Monday, September 13th, 1993 of when the original Mortal Kombat first came onto the scene of all four of the major Video Game Consoles of the early 90s when video gaming was still great and it it was the beginning of the code, button smasher & hidden character era, a time that seriously overshadows today's by such a margin on many levels



I'm posting more on this tremendous subject in My regular Video Game Topic here ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/post48555.html#p48555 as well as PB's Toy Commercial Topic here ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/post48554.html#p48554 so you can visit those for more of the history. What the special feature here for this special day is this which I'm probably one of the only very few people that is even celebrating this anniversary because of not only is it in the past and people tend to never look back but also because their making a reboot of the franchise that is redoing everything that US true Mortal Kombat fans know & love which if you have been following Me & PB's Movie Trailer Topic then you know I'm sick of the reboots & remakes and that it's a way that TPTB is making this generation not follow the originals and to forget about the past So with that being said and like I said I'm one of the very few people you'll see on this very day do anything like that. Here's My entire MK Collection from the original 1993 Video Game. So what I have here is the MK Advertisement that is the Back Cover of My WWF Superstars VIII/7 Magazine that also came out in 199 which was a very fun year for wrestling despite what people like WrestleCrap has condition you to think otherwise Here's My two MK Strategy Guides that I originally showcased on the very first page of this very fine topic of Mine Their by GamePro & CyberQuest Next is My MK SNES Game & Instruction Booklet. Next is the great Sega Genesis which proved Sega didn't care about the censoring. Now this actually came out in 1994 but I'm including it anyway which is My MK Sega CD Video Game. Notice the Ratings on the games, MK is the franchise that is responsible for video games to be rated that continues today in this androgynous age which this generation probably has no clue about it because of their not caring mentality but they should because this is such a huge historical part in gaming Now the Booklets with the Ads there is all from WWF Wrestling Games.WWF really advertised MK back then on WWF Programming, magazines & Games, it was such a cool time. These books are the back covers of the great video games of Gameboy's WWF King of the Ring, Genesis's WWF Royal Rumble & Sega CD's Rage in the Cage Now I also included the Mortal Kombat Album that was by The Immortals that was released in 1994, it's such a fun album, I've listend to it countless times which that is one of the things that I have always loved about Mortal Kombat is that it has such great music in the games & movies. Here is how wonderful it all looks together



I'm quite thankful that I experienced the original era of Mortal Kombat in 1993, that I followed the original timeline in the 90s and that I was able to put all of this together for this presentation that I waited to do I hope you liked this special little showcase, I have more Mortal Kombat items & games to showcase in the future plus much more great stuff coming soon. Until the next update I'll see you around

Now right off of the heels of My special Collection of Mortal Kombat, 30th Anniversary of Mortal Monday Showcase when things were just beginning for that great franchise, here be something different from another franchise that's...



Yes, this is Accolade's Hardball and one of the very first editions of the game ever! My Mom got this for Me when I was a youngster for her Commodore 64 Computer because she knew I'd like it when I was learning things and experimenting what I liked and what I don't like. I have been showcasing a lot of Baseball Specials in recent weeks in My very important Topics of My Vintage Action Figures & Odds & Ends as I deeply express My origins of loving the sport and so much more. If you haven't seen these then your really missing out because they are tremendously visual showcases that I put together plus I'm one of the only people you'll find on the entire Net that is doing these things that I do I have also showcased some of My classic Commodore 64 Video Games previously and as a matter of a fact last year in this very good Topic of Mine I presented a very special spooky one for Halloween so if you haven't seen that do so soon especially since Halloween is around the corner So here's My Accolade's Hardball Front Cover of when Video Games really had some of the most fanciest packaging. Notice it says it's designed by Bob Whitehead who was the co-founder of Accolade As I have explained before, these were the days when Video Games weren't made by a team of dozens if not hundreds of people in multiple countries to make so many things so complicated in this modern era, no siree Bob! Times were so much simpler and IMO it was way, way better & funner and I hope plebeians really wise up about this especially this generation and look to the past because the right good stuff is all there Now even though I wasn't a big Baseball fan then and really didn't know much about it during My young tender age here cause hey, I wasn't even in Kindergarten yet but My Mom & Grandparents were teaching Me lots of things early on I thought this game was fun and really this is the first sport I knew. Very recently I posted in My Odds & Ends as I showcased My Baseball Origins but really this is My TRUE ORIGINS RIGHT HERE I would play the heck out of this game for years and as I matured I would understand it more and all that. It's such a great game and such a memorable one too



Now when you open this up it's like the other great games I showcased before, it opens up like a book and there's such a wonderful picture here of a man ready to catch a baseball in his glove. It's really a pretty picture with the background being a partly cloudy sky, something you really don't see much anymore these days Look at that



However it opens up even further. When you open that page, there's something unexpected there...



It's a really clever and rather a great paragraph there to read



Now the Game & Booklet are inside the sleeve...




Here's a close-up of the Floppy Diskette, these were the software that was before Cartridges but by this time in 1985 they were very slowly taking a backseat to the newer Cartridges because while Atari was using them prior, they made it to Commodore 64 which I have some including the original Donkey Kong then of course Nintendo & Sega would use them for their upcoming video gaming consoles NES & Genesis and it would be the most preferred type of devise till Sony trended it come 1995 with Compact Discs despite Sega did it with their system Sega CD at least a couple years beforehand. It's so amazing how the second one of anything catches on more than the original or first with the majority of the public, this has always annoyed Me in many cases and don't get Me started about the resetting times of reboots which really when I was a youngster I really liked the Floppy Disks and their design and really even to the late 90s as well. This Hardball Floppy Disk looks pretty good, I love the Blue Label that it has and check out all that info too and yes I knew how to enter the codes and start it up by Myself, My Mom taught Me and let Me be



Here's the Front Cover of the Booklet.



There's a lot of directions for how to play the game. This was a long time before companies were really cheap and not putting instructions in within their products about how to used them not to mention thinking that everybody knows everything and that their not novices/noobs and relying on the mighty web



Here's the Back Cover of the game, it's fairly nice with a great write-up with a few screenshots as well as info.



So here's the 1985 Commodore 64 & Accolade Copyrights. Notice the Gold Sticker saying about the Joystick There is very little info for what they could put here cause like I said a while ago, the classic games weren't made by hundreds of people like they are today because they didn't need to be. It's cool that they put the composer there which was the late great Ed Bogas who did a ton of great stuff including Charlie Brown. I keep talking about how fun it is following composers cause ya never know what they wrote music for and it could be your favorites I really liked the original little tunes he wrote here, their very catchy and made the game really exciting



Next is this classic that came out nearly a decade later



So I got Accolade's Hardball III for the Sega Genesis. I believe I had rented this originally at My Holly Hills Blockbuster I've showed many times previously. I got this from the Biker Guy at his great but very brief existing store on Hampton, notice the nice $2.00 Price Sticker on there which more on that in a few minutes. Remember Me talking about Cartridges just a little while ago Look at this beauty, this is when Sega was really experimenting of their designs since they had Genesis & Mega Drive. Really I've always liked these types rather than the standard ones that would be used in 94 till it's last game because they looked so different compared to other Cartridges for other consoles.



Here's the Back of the Cartridge. Notice the Accolade Logo & Warnings are sculpted on there rather than using a label. This was also a cool thing they were doing then



Now this has it's 30th Anniversary this year as I speak as you see the 1993 Copyright, look at that



Now here's a close-up of the Price Sticker and yes, he only wanted $2.00 for it which was so darn cheap in those days. Sure, it didn't have it's Protection Box & Booklet but sometimes you just gotta make exceptions and with Me, if I have an opportunity to do something minus a little a less, I take it



Now here's all the important info about where, when & how I got this classic. You can check out the whole showcase plus the start of My Commodore 64 Halloween Special that I mentioned earlier all right here on Page 8 ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/video-game-figures-strategy-guides-primagen-t1097-70.html

BrandonDaCollector wrote:So where did I get these wonderful pieces of video game history Well, I was quite late to the party as they say so I didn't get them when they came out in the early 90s. It was one day in the mid 2000s I was out and about with My Grandma MiMi going shopping on Hampton like usual as I have discussed this historic area in many of topics & showcases especially just recently in My Odds & Ends. Next to House of Phideau Pet Shop (they moved down the street later on and changed a lot) there was a grand opening of a little video game shop that I don't recall it's name so I'm just calling it Video Game Shop on Hampton. I was very excited about it yet quite curious about it. I said to her let's go check it out. So We did and it was a very large store despite the appearance of how it looked outside. It was owned by a big guy that looked like a biker from a biker gang, something from 91's Stone Cold or FX's Sons of Anarchy. He had long bushy curly hair and I think he had glasses too. He was the solo employee there and despite his appearance, he was a gamer, he knew all what I knew and then some but he was also a businessman as well. He wasn't well organized yet as he had just tables you see like at a wrestling event with all kinds of games on them for sale in a somewhat dimmed lighted room. It wasn't scary or anything but it was a rather strange setup but none the less it was a legit store and he was cheap too. He was almost as cheap as the great Almost Everything Sports Store further down on Hampton (I showcased them greatly in My Odds & Ends, you gotta check out that superbly fantastic time I had with them!). He really only had Super Nintendo & Sega Genesis. I do not recall him having TurboGrafx-16, Atari Jaguar and/or Sega Saturn items cause if he did I would have been extremely tempted to get them systems cause I have always wanted them. I think I recall him actually having some SG 32X games but I already had them. So I saw only a handful of things that I wanted from him and that was SG's Tazmania for $7 and My foreseen SNES & SG Game Genies. He wanted $19.99 for the SNES version but only $5 for the SG one and all of this was brand spanking new There was a major price difference there and I don't think I ever asked him why but hey, sometimes you just don't

Here is his old school Price Stickers

BrandonDaCollector wrote:So here is the arguably the most imperative section of the whole showcase and one of My biggest parts of My mission is showing the old locations of My area's past So here is the Video Game Shop on Hampton. Now I had already posted much of the info above, if you need a recap just scroll up. There was a major moment I had with the Owner I mean We got into a big discussion and possible business deal. I was looking for one game in particular and that was Konami's 1995 SNES Dracula X. I couldn't get it before years prior. When it was close to Christmas time & My Birthday Sears had sold out on it already and then it became one of the most sought after games in history thus becoming one of the most expensive video games ever before the digital age and Nintendo's Virtual Console. There I was asking him if he could get it in and he's like yeah, it'll be hard but I think I can. We talked about it for a while. I was so excited about I'm like I might be able to have it next week. I check in with him the following week or so and he's like I haven't been able to get it yet but I'll try again. A while later I was checking up on the status of My possible prize...much to My surprise or rather very disappointment is that he WAS GONE...I MEAN GONE...like OUT OF BUSINESS GONE....FOLDED GONE I didn't know what to think and neither did My Grandma. His shop was empty like he had never been there . I was so disgusted. I have no clue what happen there and it's going on 20 years and I still have the foggiest of what happen. I don't know if he wasn't getting enough business or what I mean there was only 1 place on Hampton that sold games and that was Target. I believe Blockbuster Video/Music was out of business already, Hollywood Video was much further away, Almost Everything was no competition because it was a sports store and Schnucks had a very small Video Club I mean he was basically a vintage video game guy cause Nintendo Game Cube, Playstation & XBOX was already a big thing. In fact he was one of the first places I had seen in person that made you sadly realize that all of your gaming experiences of the past WAS the past and it all was collectibles and soon to be nearly forgotten by a future generation Thinking of this debacle really makes Me depressed and this is one of the reasons why I went into such a long hiatus and doing PC gaming like I did years before until I wanted get back in the game in 2014 by getting My XBOX 360 and eventually get My Nintendo Wii U & Playstation 4 in 2015. So much had changed since then but the new era would offer a lot of new & exciting games that's really fun and there is still classics to be played there too plus great multiplayer games such as EA's Star Wars Battlefront & Battlefield. So with all that being said and despite how questionable the Video Game Shop on Hampton was or what happen to it, I never forgot him nor do I ever so here is where he once was where you see the open sign at

I hope you read that because I'm trying to preserve My history plus other crucial things all over My great Topics as well as elsewhere. There's probably hardly anybody around in My region that recalls his Video Game Store and if they do I hope their doing something about it because everyday that goes by I see so little of anybody doing anything to preserve the stores & people they once knew which is really deplorable Here's an updated picture of My small collection from the Biker Guy on Hampton. Since I just found My Hardball III Game, it's complete now. Here's My Galoob SNES & Sega Genesis Game Genies, SG Tazmania & Hardball III. I'm so grateful that I was able to put all of this together



As this concludes, Accolade went out of business in 2000 which they were taken over by Infogrames video game company then not to long after that they were bought out by Atari SA Here's a special picture of My Accolade Commodore 64 Hardball & Sega Genesis Hardball III together, take a gander at that



I hope you liked this special Hardball showcase while Baseball season is still underway. Next will be a big presentation of the rest of My Baseball Video game Collection Until then I'll see you around

9 times out of 10 I don't began My showcases like this but I must make an exception here before I actually begin as I must pay tribute Tim Wakefield whom past away the other day. I watched him for many years playing for the Boston Red Sox which he retired as a Boston Red Sock back in 2011. I have some Baseball Cards in My Collections of him and he is in most of these Baseball Video Games that I am about to present. Here's the news about him



Halloween time is approaching so this means that Baseball is heading into it's Post Season stages so here's My final Baseball Showcase of the season and this will deal with all of the Baseball Video Games I have in My whole collection. I have talked about a lot of this in My other Video Game Topic here --->http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-discussions/video-games-consoles-you-have-the-power-t1218.html

Here's a cool Video Game Console Logo Collage that I made to present all the great systems that they are for



NOTE: This isn't in a particular order as when I got them but they are in mostly is a yearly order with exceptions. Many of these games I got used at Out local Loughborough & Hampton Schnucks locations used of their Video Club when they were making room for others like Nintendo Game Cube & Sony Playstation.

Here's SNES: Super Bases Loaded (Jaleco - 1991) & Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (Nintendo 1994): Both are great. I first played Griffey at My Mom's Boyfriend Alan's house with his kids around September & October 94. It was a pretty fun time, they had Mortal Kombat 2 as well which I recall this like it was yesterday




SNES: Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run (Nintendo 1996), Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball (LJN -1991) and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball (1995 - Acclaim): All of these games are superb. I would love Thomas when I got to know him when I became a major MLB fan in 1998 and it was awesome seeing him stand next to Mark McGwire. Now My favorite of these is Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball, I have played this tons of times and it has these really cool feelings of the Autumn & Post Season and really it's the only sports game I've played that felt like that



So moving on to Sega Genesis, here's 1992's Sports Talk Baseball that was made by Sega, it's really a good one and was kinda revolutionary at the time Notice on the back of the Case the Price Sticker says it's property of Schnucks in Hampton Village so you can clearly see where i got this one at




Now this one is has a special place with Me. In 1994 when I was bad sick and getting adjusted to My new life, My Grandma MiMi took Me to Grandpa Pidgeons cause I loved that store and they had a big sale on Video Games. She got Me many Sega Genesis games that day cause they were so cheap. My favorite of the bunch was Tommy Lasorda Baseball. We played this together a lot. Now the game was actually the first 16-Bit Baseball Video Game ever in 1989 but she got Me the cool 1992 re-release, it's a very fun game




Here's the 1995 Sega Genesis version of Acclaims's Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball.



Here is Sony's 1993 EPSN Baseball Tonight for Sega Genesis & Sega Genesis CD. My Mom got Me the CD version from Funco for Christmas in 1996 or My Birthday 1997 when they had a ton of clearanced games because of newer systems and changing times. Me & My grandma MiMi played the CD version the most, it was just so much cooler and hearing Chris "Boomer" Burman commentate is quite fun See, Sony was always wanting to be in the Video Game Industry, back in the early 90s look where they were and look where they are now since 95 with Playstation These great games are celebrating their 30th Anniversary right now as I speak from 1993





Here is Sega's World Series Baseball 95 & World Series Baseball 96 that I got from Blockbuster. These were so revolutionary at the time with the graphics & camera angles. These also sported the newer sliding Boxes that took the place of the harder Protective Cases. While I really don't prefer these types, these are fine too. These are still some of the best Baseball games you can play and Notice Manny Ramirez is the coverboy of WSB 96




Now here is when Baseball Games + Games in general were truly going to the next level, here is Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. & Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest. My Grandparents got Me these in 98 & 99 respectively for Christmas for My Nintendo 64/N64 that they got Me in 98 which I wanted over Sony's Playstation. These games were made by Nintendo, were exclusive to the console and they were like the most top of the line Baseball Games ever seen and they were so darn cool for Me since I was a new fan of the sport. I was loving the stadiums and all that in real life and seeing how realistic it was in these games were so fun especially when you play these games, see Bush Stadium then hours later to a real Cardinals Ballgame in person These have no commentary but it has the actual MLB Announcer announcing every player and you hear sound effect like the crowd, sirens and all that stuff you hear for real. This was so mesmerizing and really it's still remarkable




Here's a bonus feature, this is an Ad of Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugest in one of My cool Game Informer Magazines



Now here's Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 99 & All-Star Baseball 2000 which are the successors of Acclaims's Frank Thomas games. My Mom got Me these in 98 & 99 for Christmas respectively. These are completely different having a more realistic simulation style than the arcade style of the N64 Griffey Jr. games. This has a commentary team and you can do many things including going to the minor leagues drafting players. It was so cool doing this with the St. Louis Cardinals bringing those guys up The commentary team is a duo consisting of John Sterling and Michael Kay. On the covers is "The Cardinal Killer" Larry Walker & Derek Jeter




Here's another bonus feature, a All-Star Baseball 2000 & WWF Attitude Poster. Seeing this just makes you think how much funner, cooler, radder and better these times were compared to now



Here's EA's Triple Play 2000 with "Slammin" Sammy Sosa on the cover that My Grandparents got Me in 99 as a special treat for Me over at Sears in Crestwood where My Grandpa PoPo worked. This is a great game and has the cool sports feeling to it with commentary by Jim Hughson. Now this here is GT Interactive's Mike Pizza's Strike Zone that I got for Christmas from My Mom in 98. This is arguably My favorite Baseball Video Game of all-time. It's realistic and quite the arcade game. I love how the selection screen and how the team logos spin and it's got such greatly fun techno music as well however I find it hilarious with the commentator with the things he says and really just overall how the game is




So now forward in time which you can clearly see a different here, really it seems like another reality or something cause gaming changed a lot in the Early 2000sI mean Nintendo was discontinuing the N64 for their Game Cube, Sony already released Playstation 2 and Sega's Dreamcast was fading quickly and Sega was gone as a Video Game Console competitor and Microsoft launched their XBOX. Now I took a long hiatus from console gaming as I became an avid PC Gamer until 2014 when I decided to get My XBOX 360. I had to learn a lot and do My research about the Backwards Compatibility because not all of the older XBOX games play on the newer system. So with Me knowing all of this I got a lot of great games. Two of them were Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 2003 & All-Star Baseball 2005. I was bummed that ASB 04 wasn't compatible but I'm sure glad that these were because they became two of My favorites. ASB 03 has it's 20th anniversary this year. Now they both feature Derek Jeter on them and you can see that they are for the original XBOX and they are quite classic. They have a dynamic commentary team of Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons and features in-game trading cards to win & buy. ASB 05 has a great video intro and this is My favorite of the duo. Barry Bonds isn't in ASB 05 but he is replaced by "Wes Mailman" whom is fictional. Sadly ASB 05 is one of Acclaim's last games ever





Then all of a sudden here's comes Take-Two Interactive in 2005 when they took over Visual Concepts whom made sports video game series' like NBA 2K, NHL 2K, and MLB 2K I've always found this weird that Acclaim went out of business whom was the premier leader of video games in the late 80s - early 2000s that was My favorite of all that released so many great games then nearly instantaneously 2K is the one that is on top here in the sports category of video gaming. I mean I recall like it was just last week when they took over THQ and became the one to WWE Games not to mention one of the only major companies in gaming besides Electronic Arts & Bethesda It really pains Me that nobody talks about any of this especially Acclaim So with that being said I got MLB 2K7 & MLB 2K13. Now I must say that these are two of the greatest Baseball Games I've ever played. MLB 2K7 features Jeter on the cover and has a great commentary team of Jon Miller & Joe Mogran which I have always loved them and when you play this it;s like your watching a great real life ESPN game, it's that authentic. Now MLB 2K13 is even better, it's like an actual game an dreall this is the absolute most realistic Baseball Game I've ever played. The commentary is by a trio this time with Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips and John Kruk and David Price is the cover-boy of this one.





Now these are arguably the funnest of this whole showcase which is simply titled 2K's The Bigs 1 & 2. Iwanted these big time because their like the Ken Griffey Jr. N64 Games. Their realistic but their very much of an arcade game. If you like WWE Legends of Wrestlemania & WWE All Stars then you'll loves these because these are the Baseball versions of those I love the points you can build up for power hits & pitches. The commentary is by Damon Bruce. Cover-boy for The Bigs 1 is Justin Morneau and for The Bigs 2 is Prince Fielder.





Now this is My final physical Disc Baseball Game that I bought. It;s for My Playstation 4/PS4 that I got in 2015. It's called MLB The Show 15. It's a superb game and it;s very similar like MLB 2K13 but in ways it lacks full game play that MLB 2K13 has like camera cuts and stuff like that. I'm being a bit picky there but this is tremendous video game. the commentators are Matt Vasgersian, Eric Karros and Steve Lyons.




Here's a special Copyright Collage of the years that My Baseball Video Games are from, look at that history



Now I got some good ones digitally, Xbox's Indie Home Run Challenge is a very sweet game that you can play your Avatar in. Now on My PS4 I got all three of Atari's Flashback Classics that has many Baseball Games to choose from. I got 2 of SNK's NEOGEO from the early 90s, 2020 Super Baseball which is a cool futuristic game that has both men & women on the same team and also Baseball Stars 1 & 2. BS2 is My favorite of these and really reminds Me of Roger Clemons's MVP Baseball hence the reason why I wanted it



Now for My Nintendo Wii U in 2015 I got for the Virtual Console Nintendo's NES Baseball & Jaleco's Bases Loaded. These are really fun too



Locations!

The locations of where I got things are very important. Nearly most of this world's population disregards this & their own history but I never will I have mentioned the places I got these great games at so here they are This is Schnucks in Loughborough Commons how it looks currently. While it's still on the same parking lot, the newer building and really the whole area is absolutely nothing like it was in the 90s & early 2000s and I miss that




Now Schnucks in Hampton Village is pretty much the same minus their video club of course. All Schnucks discontinued it in at least the mid 2000s because ya know, times were changing during the first stages of Red Box & Netflix basically annihilating the fun times of Video Rentals Now I've showcased this area a lot in My great topics. just recently when I showcased My Accolade Hardball III I showed that good but very brief Video Game Store. I have also showed in My all crucial Odds & Ends Almost Everything Sports Store which was the absolute cheapest place you could go to and it was so nice. Hampton is such a good area but in recently times it is really getting some crime which is a darn shame. Now here's a recent picture of Hampton Village's Schnucks. The little building that is connected to it used to be B.Dalton's. Also look to the far right, there's the newer Target. Now to the left is where JCPenny's was plus where Johnny Brock's Dungeon was next to it. His family has major history with the St. Louis Cardinals. I've showcased all of this in My very imperative Odds & Ends, check them out soon



Now here's where My local Blockbuster Video was in Holly Hills. I have greatly showcased them in My Odds & Ends Showcase - Glory Days of Movie Rentals. It's one of the most must see presentations I ever done and if your like Me and loved going to the Rental Outlets then this is one showcase you never want to miss here ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-odds-ends-insane-keychain-t1176-40.html



So here's Sears where My Mom & Grandpa worked at in Crestwood. My Grandpa got & surprised Me with many games and My Mom surprised Me with great stiff as well over time. I'm counting this as Sears Wish Book Catalog too.




Now here's Grandpa Pidgeons, I originally showcased them in My Vintage Action Figure Topic, they were one of My favorite stores to go to and I still recall going there getting Tommy Lasorda's Baseball. In fact I recall many things which I've talked about this before including a figure of Galoob's WCW Series AA Arn Anderson which I believe he was there from 1990 - 1994, possibly even till 1995. I always found it weird that nobody wanted him and they just kept him there on the peg on the far left of the action figure isle I never wanted him because I already had him along with the rest of this great series I already showcased This was such a great store and this what Grandpa Pidgeons looked like



Now the thing is GrandPa's was taken over by Value City. After My Mom decided to quit Sears in the very early 2000s. She then chose to work at Value City on Chippewa. It was always very bitter sweet for Me to go there because I never forgot all those times I went to GrandPa's, it was never the same Now here's a recent picture of it. Notice the empty building on the right, that used to be Shop 'n Save which thanks to the P!amDemic, they went under, taken over by Schnucks & took all of their locations much like they did to National 2 decades prior



Now in this picture you can see a closer look at Value City and even see a bit of Shop 'n Save which this is back in 2015 here. Now here's something I really liked when i was a youngster going to GrandPa Pidgeons. See all of those pretty trees on the left That's a big hill that forms a plaza were Dierbergs,(the Kenrick Theater was right down the street from there!), it used to be a large Railroad and when I get to the parking lot and near the entrance doors of GrandPa's I heard many Train Horns there. Oh it was such good times especially at night time



Now here's My final entry of this very special showcase and it's...



Yes, now finally I'm actually showcasing them a bit after talking about them here and there throughout the forum. Like I said previously, they took phone call & web orders only. My Mom got Me a lot of Sega CD & 32X games there when they were really cheap for Christmas & My Birthday. Here's a sample of the Storage Cases for when you got their affordable used games which these are fitted for NES, Genesis & SNES.



Unfortunately they went out of business when they merged with Babbages' and this formed GameStop Here's some cool selections of Ads I chose of FuncoLand from a few of My Game Informer Magazines. Notice the N64 Ken Griffey Jr. Games that you just saw a few moments ago. Look at all of that N64 goodness including GoldenEye 007 and there's even Game Boy Color There's Sega's Dreamcast and Playstation's Croc 2 I love seeing these and how it was back then, it was so cool when gaming was still superb




LINKS!

So I've showcased a lot of Baseball specials this year and if you like old school Baseball and like to follow Me and see all of this great visual history that I provide then look no further here:

Here's the link to My special Kenner Starting Lineups

http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-vintage-action-figure-collection-willow-1988-t1087-320.html

Here's My 12" Hasbro Starting Lineup Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa 1999 Set!

http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-1-6-12-figure-collection-huge-post-t1162-20.html

My Hasbro MLB St. Louis Cardinals Sports Spuds are located here ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/post48456.html#p48456

My McFarlane Mark McGwire Big League Challenge & Hasbro Starting Linuep Figures are at this location ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-miscellaneous-modern-collection-poze-m-by-play-mind-t1086-40.html

And My special Five-Part Baseball Origins & Mark McGwire Collections is here at this link ---> http://www.dctoyrevolution.org/general-toy-discussions/my-odds-ends-insane-keychain-t1176-100.html

Well that will conclude My special Baseball Video Game Collection & FuncoLand Showcase and I hope you liked it and I hope your were surprised about at least one thing here Next will be a big presentation of My Horror & Spooky Video Games that you may not expect for this Halloween season, until then I'll see you around

I was very saddened to see Tim Wakefield passed away. He played several years with the Buffalo Bisons since he came up with the Pirates, and was a very popular player. I was fortunate to see him pitch in person a couple times and watching a knuckleball on TV doesn't do the pitch justice. It's a weird thing to see from the side.



Those are some good baseball games. I really liked the original Bases Loaded for the NES. Trying to get a beanball brawl was always fun, and I remember for Kansas City there was a player in the game named Baker that seemed to always charge the mound if you hit him, lol. That's how often I played that game!

I probably stopped playing them in the early 2000s, though my son has the latest MLB The Show for X-Box One and my how complicated they're become. There's so much more to them these days then just pressing a button and aiming, lol.

Oh that was good trivia that you saw him in person PB and yes, I'm sure seeing a knuckle ball would be. Yes, all of these are good. I really never invested a lot of time with the ones I have on the Wii U. I'll have to see about that one day and that's good you played it a lot PB I see and indeed they are more complicated. MLB 2K13 can be difficult but I got used to that but darn it, MLB 2K7's batting is so hard, I've still never mastered it because it's such a different way they got it set up. MLB The Show 15 is kinda like MLB 2K13 controller wise. Thanks for checking this out and your reply PB, I appreciate that