matt hackmann - web developer - artist - nerd

I'm going to do something interesting this week and post all sorts of nonsense top 5 lists. Why? Because I can. That, my friend, is the beauty of the internets.

Top 5 Games I Wasted Too Much Time Playing

5. Guitar Hero (I and II)

I will go on the record and say this is probably the best game of this generation. If I were getting paid per hour to play this game the same amount I'm getting paid to push carts I'd be freakin' rich. I figure I've probably played Freebird alone somewhere around 50-100 times and it's a ten minute song. It never really gets old.

4. Final Fantasy VI

Only the best RPG made for the SNES, nay, of all time. I've fully completed this game three times, partially many more, and I plan on playing through it again before I head off to college. It's that good.

3. The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past

I remember the first time I finally made it through this game. I'd been playing it for darn near a year. I probably explored every nook and cranny and thensome. I've since made it through twice on GBA and clocked many more hours on PC via emulation. Defeinitely one of the best games ever.

2. Super Mario Bros. 3

The very first game I ever played. I haven't played this one to completion as many times as other games (due mainly to the fact that there's no save in the original NES version) but I did play it almost every day for pretty much the entire life of my first NES (two or three years). I have it on for my NES now (and I crack it out once in a while) and have the GBA version. This game pretty much set and holds the standard for all patforming games. Nothing's come close since.

1. Tetris Attack

Oh, my gosh. Where to begin. I've clocked more hours on this game than probably all the others combined. I've spent countless hours writing this game on five different occasions (and am currently doing so again). I haven't bought Plant Puzzle League for DS because I'm a Tetris Attack purist. Give me Blargg or give me death! Actually, I probably should buy it just for the online play, but I'd use standard controls. None of this touch screen crap.

I do need to mention that Rogue Squadron, Episode I Racer, Zelda OoT, and Mario 64 are close runner ups. So, there you have it. Day one completed. Stay tuned for more inaninty on here at dxprog.com.

Link in Love

In my opinion, the best artwork I've done to date. Not necessarily the best joke ever, but it was good enough to hit the Joystiq poll so I call it even.

Pedophilia

I'm sorry. I did a Michael Jackson joke. Please forgive me.

Firstly, today's comic.

I'm not sure if I've said or not, but I'm currently in the middle of my two week hiatus from Wal-Mart (unpaid, sadly, but I'm not one to quibble when it means two weeks of care free goodness). One of the things I vowed to do in my two weeks of freedom was teach myself how to play piano. Overall I'd say it's going pretty well and having a keyboard that totally rocks helps ;-). But don't take my word for it, here's me playing a little piece of Zelda music (actually, I've been passively working on learning this piece for over a year :-P):

I'm hoping that by next summer I'll be proficient enough to play the song in its entirety (without screwing up) along with some others (Final Fantasy X's To Zanarkand being of them).

Speaking of FFX, I am currently enjoying being beaten by the game. The story started off kind of slow (almost to the point of me deciding never to play again), but it's picked up to the point of having me completely sucked in. So I've been playing a bit lately (excluding all my annihilations I believe my play time is somewhere around 26 hours) and hopefully I'll have beaten the stupid thing before I have to go back to work (at which point I'll start playing FFX-2).

I've started on a DS game. That's all I'll say because I tend to make these announcements with all sorts of grandiose promises and give up after about five minutes of coding. Yeah... it's dumb.

Okay, now you're all caught up for the next several months. I'll probably post something again before I go to college next fall.

Comic

Another comic, yay! Anybody who has ever played multiplayer FSA will know exactly where I'm coming from... force gem hogs!

Indeed, they don't. To start my day off I was awakened with the news that my copy of Zelda: The Minish Cap came. And on top of that I also got my first trial issue of Nintendo Power. Of course, this was all dampened by the news that American School sent me Geometry. Fun....

Okay, so that was all cool in and of itself (except the geometry). I then carried out my normal routine of checking ACC, YPN, and Slashdot. After that, being at a loss of what else to do, I decided to see if a verdict had been reached on the game contest I entered. I was expecting the "Judging is now taking place" message which has greeted me so many times in the last three weeks. But instead, there on the front page were screenshots of my game and in glorious, itilicized large font "Winner: TAttack". Now, you tell me that if that were to happen to you you wouldn't be a little eccstatic ;-). So I will now be awaiting my free copy of VB.NET standard (which, ironically, is the same promotional thing I got rid of just a couple months ago :-P). I plan on finding some sort of cheap .NET book at Gardener's this Saturday and selling the whole kit and kaboodle on eBay (just like last time). I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the money yet, but for the moment I'll think I stash it into savings for safe keeping until I pick up my copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess in Novemeber. Chances are, though, that I'll have a job by then and it won't be an issue.

This day was a long time in coming, and it'll be a long time till something like that happens again. But I'll be waiting ;-).