So yeah, I bought a job load of ebay-ed GBA games to play on my DS Lite the other week and I have them all now. Just look at my collection, anyone would think I was some games nut, seriously, I’m as casual as casual gamers get. But yeah, my main reason for going mad on the the second hand GBA front was to catch up on some Zelda action. Those 2 GBA carts at the topmost of the pic are Zelda 1 “The legend of Zelda” and Zelda 2 “The adventure of Link”. These 2 games were originally on the NES… Nintendo’s first ever console (or the famicom in japan), it was an 8-bit machine, not great compared to today’s standards, and these 2 GBA games are direct ports, nothing has been tarted up. But ya know, I grew up with a ZX Spectrum, I knew crap graphics. So I knew what to expect, but I also thought that 8-bit graphics weren’t any reflection on the game-play and fun to be had. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Both Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 are incredibly frustrating, fiendishly hard with very little payoff. Also, I kinda figured that playing the very very early zelda games would shed some extra light onto the whole Zelda saga, and maybe uncover some lesser known secrets I wouldn’t know from playing the more modern incarnations. Sadly, it also turns out that the NES was too underpowered to have much of a story-line with these games. In fact, the first zelda has sod all dialogue at all. So sod that, anyone want a couple of free zelda “NES Classics” games?
Zelda 3 “Link to the Past” was originally release on the SNES (Super NES, or Super Famicom, or that one that had a shitty looking bolbus case in america but had a nice slimmer and more colourful case everywhere else for some reason, as if they figured american’s would only buy it if it also had a fat arse) and the difference between that and the 2 NES games is incredibly stark. I now can’t believe what a jump in technology it was. It must be particularly stark with this Zelda game because the artistic design was a triumph. It looks beautiful because the use of colours and the bitmaps are faultless. And so is the gameplay, I had forgotten what games are like when they get your adrenaline pumping, because I haven’t played a game that manages it in so freaking long. When you reach a boss at the end of a dungeon in Zelda 3 you perspire and shake with desire to throat the bastard, and when you finally manage it you can hardly walk straight with a buzz. I haven’t played Animal Crossing for 2 days, Gabi is going to be so mad at me.
Just so that you hate NeoOffice more than you already do it sometimes, upon loading it opens a browser window with their homepage. Thanks, I’m sure all your users really appreciate that. Well, the jokes on them, because when it opened last, you’ll see from this screenshot that one of the Google Adsense Adverts had quite an unpleasant word to say about your mother.
I think i might give up on watching Coronation Street, it’s on too damn often, it’s started to own your life. Whose idea was it to put it on twice on a monday with a half hour gap in between just to make sure that if you fancied going off to do something else for a bit you won’t have time to even get started before it’s bleedin on again.
Bit depressing actually because up until completing it i’d be waking up of a morning declaring to myself “ooooh i can’t wait to see what zelda has in store today.” Now i’ve no zeldery goodness to look forward to.
This is Mr Side-Saddle, double barrelled name, very posh. Oh, could be a sweet-heart and 
