Cool Marvel MasterCard

Check out the new Marvel MasterCards. My favorite is the one featuring the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The CW Orders Riverdale Pilot

Expect romance, zombies, gun-toting vigilantes and crown-wearing time cops on Riverdale according to The CW is officially in the Archie TV show business.

The CW Picks Up Transylvania

Looks like another monster tv series is a go according to Monster series Transylvania officially picked up by The CW. It will feature an American woman in the 1880s teaming up with a Scotland Yard detective to find her father in Transylvania. Expect new origins of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolfman and other creatures.

To be honest, I watched the first season on The Vampire Dairies but wasn't all that impressed enough to tune in to the second season. I never watched an episode of The Originals but I do want to see the first episode of Transylvania.

Lucifer Starts Tonight

Just a reminder that the Lucifer tv series starts tonight on FOX right after a new episode of The X-Files:

The X-Files Returns Tonight

Just a reminder that The X-Files returns to FOX tonight and beware that it may appear later due to the ballgame:

I will be watching mostly for Gillian Anderson.

Rebirth of DC Comics

A small part of me is excited with the news at DC Comics set to recalibrate their comic books again with more movie and TV-centered line but most of me is rolling my eyes.

Archie Slots at Hit It Rich

I have been playing the new Archie slots game this week at Hit It Rich on Facebook. Reggie and Veronica are standing on the sides. Here is the loading screen:

Here is a big Betty win after getting eight small squares with Betty (the big wins are all animated and pretty cool):

Here is a big Archie win (I also won a big Jughead but I wasn't quick enough to capture the screen):

Here is the Pick Me game screen with Archie and the gang in a convertable:

DC's Legends of Tomorrow Starts Tonight

Just a reminder that DC's Legends of Tomorrow starts tonight on the CW as Rip Hunter travels from the future to put a team together consisting of the Atom, White Canary, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Firestorm, Hawkgirl and Hawkman (whew, that's a lot of superheroes on one show):

Women Wednesday: Woman Woman Featurette Video

Okay, I admit that I missed out on last night's DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League on the CW because my mom wanted to watch The Little Couple. Anyway, the buzz today is this amazing first look at the new Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot:

Johnathon Schaech Cast as Jonah Hex in Legends of Tomorrow

Great news for Jonah Hex fans according to ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Finds Jonah Hex in ‘That Thing You Do!’ Star:

He will appear in episode eleven and the series starts this Thursday night on the CW.

Batman the Animated Series Stickers from 1992

Here is an unopened pack of Batman: the Animated Series stickers from 1992 that was printed by Cleo in the USA:

There are a total of thirty-six stickers with each sheet having nine stickers. Characters include Batman, Penguin, Catwoman, Robin, Joker, Riddler and Batgirl. I believe I picked these stickers up at the local Alco's years before they went out of business.

Superman the Animated Series Stickers from 1997

This is a one sheet of stickers featuring characters from Superman: The Animated Series and was printed by Sandylion in Canada:

The character stickers include Superman, Lex Luthor, Brainac, Darkseid and giant robot. They are nice stickers but I would have liked one of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent. Other stickers included are stars, planets and the S shield. I believe it was originally attached to other sheets of stickers since the top and bottom both have perforated edges. I believe they were originally sold at Hobby Lobby as scrapbook stickers.

Connie Nielson Cast as Queen Hippolyta

Interesting DC Comics movie news according to Connie Nielson To Play Queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman:

Amber Heard Cast as Mera

Cool movie news for Amber Heard to Star in ‘Justice League’ and ‘Aquaman’ as Mera:

As DC fans know, Mera is the Queen of Atlantis and Aquaman's wife. I wonder if anyone will dare to call her Aquawoman.

Goodnight Alan Rickman

More sad news for Alan Rickman, Actor Known for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Die Hard,’ Dies at 69. While most will know him as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, others will know him as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest and so many other characters in movies. Few may know of his tv roles mostly on the BBC but he also was the voice of King Philip on an episode of the American animated series, King of the Hill.

Alan Rickman
(February 21, 1946 – January 14, 2016)

Still A Video Gamer At Heart

If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, then you may have noticed that I occasionally write about games. The majority of the gaming posts seem to be about online games that I mostly play at Facebook. But recently, a company called Man Crates contacted me and got me thinking of my start as a gamer. If you don't know them, they're a cool company that creates wacky gifts, including a gift card encased in concrete! I remember actually playing pinball as a kid while my old man drank beer at the local tavern on Saturdays. This was Kansas in the 1970s and before arcades exploded locally. When someone finally opened a local arcade, I went after school and squandered a few hard earned quarters on the various arcade games including pinball. The arcade was usually packed so I mostly watched others play. I remember that Asteroids, Pac-Man and Space Invaders were big back then.

My younger sister and I were surprised when we got an Atari console with a Space Invaders game cartridge as a shared Christmas present in 1980 or 1981 (a few years before that we got an EZ Bake Oven). Of course, we fought over who got to play first. I remember that it had two paddles and two joysticks. There may have been other games with the console or they came separate. I do remember getting Asteroids, Breakout and Pac-Man, which my sister was so much better than I at playing. We got a few more games for the Atari console but most of them are lost in my memory at the moment.

A few short years later, we upgraded to the Nintendo Entertainment System and it blew Atari away. We got the NES console as another shared Christmas present along with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers. I admit that I loved shooting that dog more than the ducks. While I enjoyed Super Mario Brothers, my sister was a much better player. We picked up a few more games for the NES including The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Finally, these were games that I could play and I spent many hours doing so.

Our local arcade closed up in the mid to late 1980s and became a video store. The only places to find video games was at the local various convenience stores (there were actually about seven at one time) and the two pizza places (Pizza Hut and Big Cheese Pizza). I remember my favorite arcade game at this time was Kung Fu Fighter and my friends were all trying to beat each other. I wasn't great at the beginning but I spent countless quarters and time getting better. Then without warning, the local convenience stores got rid of their arcade machines. We rented a few video games from them but they usually didn't work or didn't have the instructions so we stopped.

I can't remember when exactly we got the Super Nintendo console but I'm thinking it was another shared Christmas present to my sister and I from our Mother (our parents had been divorced for several years at this point). I remember staying up countless nights playing Final Fantasy III and IV on it. Cheetos were my snacks of choice while I drank either Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew or Pepsi. I was big into Dungeons and Dragons so these fantasy types of video games were more my style.

I have to put in a good word for Game Genie here. For those who don't know, it was a cheat system that first came out in 1990 that attached to the game cartridge. I picked one up for the NES and was able to actually complete and enjoy the video games that were frustrating me like Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers. It was fun to be invincible and have endless lives. I later picked one up for the Super NES so we could complete Super Mario Brothers 3. I don't remember ever actually finishing any video game before getting a Game Genie.

After the SNES, I got a Playstation console for my birthday along with a Spider-Man game. That was the only game I got for that system. My younger sister got more games for it and more or less took it over. I ended up playing games on the computer mostly the SimCity and WarCraft series. Since then she has gotten the GameBoy, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS systems. She still plays her DS games while I play the Facebook games. While she still likes to play the Mario games on occasion, she has switched to mostly puzzle games. I hate playing the hand held games for the controls and screens are way too small for me.

While I haven't played any computer games for the past few years, I still play online games on Facebook mostly House of Fun slots, Hit It Rich slots and Nords: Heroes of the North. I greatly enjoyed playing Superhero City but then it got dropped. I played FarmVille but grew bored with it fast and I played Candy Crush for a while before I got stuck on a level. I wish Game Genie would come back with codes for Facebook games.

Yes, I do feel old after writing this post and sharing my memories about the various video game systems and games that I have had through the years. Maybe it's because I just realized that I will be turning fifty-one one month from today.