Figure Painting Total - October 2023

  

I was hoping to get some figures painted while on holidays, but I got sick and did not get anything done.

I was finally able to get some mechs for the SSU faction of Dust Tactics.  I had a chance at the original starter for Dust Tactics at a good price but was too slow.

 

Bought

DCU – Cyborg Superman & Mongul – 2

Dust 1947 – Axis Grenadier X – 1

Dust 1947 – SSU Natalya/Nadya/Natasha – 2

 

 

Painted

 

 

 

Oct total – 5 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Running total 2023 – figures bought 156, figures painted 26

 

Collecting Intellivision - road to 55

 

Collection for older game systems is a bit of an odd hobby.  Unlike the 677 games for the NES, the Intellivision only had 125 Games release for it before 2000.  There have been some new releases by the homebrew community since then, starting with 4-TRIS – a Tetris clone which came out in 2001.  This can make collecting the entire set a bit tricky.

Because of the history, collecting the entire set is a matter of deciding what you consider a complete set.  Mattel Electronics released 55 games for the system, plus another 6 for the ECS (Entertainment Computer System) keyboard expansion.  There were another 41 games released by 1983 other companies like Activision (7), Atarisoft (3), Coleco (8), Imagic (14), Interphase Technology (2), Parker Brothers (6), and Sega (1). 

Dextell Ltd released 2 games in 1986.  And INTV released another 21 games between 1985 and 1989.  They also released some older games by other companies in INTV packaging.

This gives you a bit of a choice to what you want for a ‘complete’ collection.  You can collect the original 19 games – as noted by the number on top of the boxes.  You can collect the entire 55 Mattel Electronics games.  You can collect some, or all, of the games by other companies.  You can skip the ECS games or even the INTV games, which allows a smaller collection.  Or you can go for the entire 125 – or even 124 since the Super Spiker! Game is really hard to collect. 

 

Personally, I’m interested in getting the remaining 9 I need for the original 19.  I would also get Boxing to complete the games from 1981.  Depending on what lots I get which have other games, I would probably get the 6 I need to complete the 1982 set as well.

At that point I would have 10 remaining from the 1983 set.  Three of these are on the Flashback system, but I still might try to get them to complete the official 55.  If I am able to complete that, I might try to get the Atarisoft, Coleco, and Parker Brothers games.

I might get a few of the Imagic ones, as well as the rest of the Activision games, again depending on what I had gotten in lots to that point.  I have Pitfall! Already, and would only be interested in Happy Trails from Activision, and Microsurgeon and Beauty & The Beast from Imagic. 

I would only chase down the one Sega game, Congo Bongo, if I could get it for a reasonable price.  Being a solitary game from that company, it is easy to skip.  The same is true for the two games from Dextell.  Being that they were from 1986, it is easy to cut the collection off at 1983.     

For the non-Mattel games, you also have to decide on if you want to collect just the cartridges, or if you are trying to get the games with the boxes, rules, and overlays.  Unlike for Atari or Coleco, where the boxes were not as important and the games were simpler, because of needing a place to keep the instructions and overlays, most people who had Intellivision games kept the original boxes.  However, some games did not come with overlays originally.

 

Books Read - May to August 2023

 

May

Psychic Awakening 1 – Phoenix Rising by Games Workshop of Nottingham

The Cool Side of My Pillow: a book of essays by Bruce Campbell

War Dogs by Guy Lawson

Empire by Orson Scott Card

 

June

Warhammer 40,000: Codex Death Guard (8 Ed) by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Warhammer 40,000: Codex Adeptus Mechanicus (8 Ed) by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Warhammer 40,000: Codex Craftworlds (8 Ed) by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Blood Bowl Death Zone Season Two by Games Workshop Limited

The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming by Teri Litorco

 

July

Trader Vic’s Tiki Party! By Steve Siegelman

Cocktails for a Crowd by Kara Newman

Let’s Get Tropical by Georgi Radev

The Friars Club bible of jokes, pokes, roasts, and toasts edited by Barry Dougherty

The Mickey Mouse Club Scrapbook by Keith Keller

Warhammer 40,000: Codex Dark Angels (8 Ed) by Games Workshop of Nottingham

 

Aug

Supercade by Van Burnham

The Town by Chuck Hogan

The Name of God is Mercy by Pope Francis

Intellivision Memories - part 2

1982 was another big year, with 17 new games coming out, of which we got at least 12 of them.  The Intellivision II also came out, which shipped with Lock ‘n Chase up here in Canada, and Burger Time in States.  The Intellivoice, which had been advertised for the last few years came out, and we got one as well.

I am not sure if we got Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  I remember playing a fair amount, but do not seem to have the box for it.  We did not get Frog Bog, Shark! Shark!, Sub Hunt, or Royal Dealer.  These are all available on the Flashback.  I did play a fair amount of Shark! Shark! Back in the day, and would have played a lot of the Royal Dealer, which allowed you to play Crazy Eights, Gin, and Gin Rummy against a computer.

Lock ‘n Chase was based off of the arcade game, which was based off of Pac Man, and we played it a fair amount.  Night Stalker was a maze game, and we played it a lot as well.  Sharp Shot was aimed at a younger crowd and had 4 simple games on it – Football passing, Space Gunner, Submarine, and Maze Shoot.  I played this one quite a bit with the younger siblings.  While we did not get the arcade version of Tron for the Intellivision, we did get the two Tron games that they did release – Deadly Discs, and Maze-a-Tron.  Of the two, I played Maze-a-Tron more.  Space Hawk did not get played a lot.  I played a lot of Reversi, and was able to beat it regularly.  USCF Chess should have been played a lot more than we did but, if you played at the higher levels, the computer took too long to calculate its move.  I did like Utopia, and would have played much more if I could find an opponent to play against more often.  We did get all three games available for the Intellivoice, but can not find the box for Bomb Squad.  I played Bomb Squad the most of the three, followed by B-17 Bomber, and the least of Space Spartans.

 

Of the 12 games that came out in 1983, we only got two of them.  Which is unfortunate as most of the games from this year do not appear on the Flashback.

We did not get Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Loco-Motion, Mission X, Motocross, Pinball, or the Intellivoice game Tron: Solar Sailor.  Of these, I would have played the AD&D, and the Loco-Motion the most, and Bump ‘n’ Jump was a game I played in the arcade a bit.

We did get Vectron, which I did not play a lot, and Burger Time, which I played a lot in the arcade and quite a bit at home.

 

We did not get a lot of games by other manufacturers.  I have only 4 cartridges in the box.  Pitfall from Activison was played a lot.  We also have three from Coleco – Carnival, Donkey Kong, and Lady Bug.  Of those three, we only played the Carnival a bit, while we played more of the Donkey Kong.  I played the most of Ladybug, which I had first been introduced to on my friend’s Colecovision.

Of all of the rest of the games that came out by other companies, the only ones that I should have gotten was Donkey Kong Jr from Coleco, and Pac-Man from Atarisoft.  We didn’t get the Pac Man as we had played their version on the Atari 2600 and it was so terrible that we did not get their version for the Intellivision which actually looked pretty close to the arcade.

 

Intellivision memories - part 1

 When we got an Intellivision in 1980, there were only 8 games out for it.  In addition to the Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack that came with the system, we bought an extra 3 games to ensure we had a variety to play.  We never did pick up the remaining 4 games, but I might grab them if I get a chance, just to complete the original collection.

We did not get NBA Basketball, ABPA Backgammon, Checkers, or The Electric Company Math Fun.  I probably would have played the Backgammon the most of these.  Versions of all of these are available on the Flashback, including the Super Pro version of Basketball which allows you to play against the computer.

The other ones from this year we did get were Major League Baseball, NFL Football, and Armor Battle.  We did play Football a bit, but you needed the playbooks to really make it work.  The Armor Battle was played a bit more, and we really played the Baseball a fair amount.  At least until I got really good at it, and very high scoring runaway games became the norm.  I also played a lot of the Poker & Blackjack, since you were able to play that solo.

 

Eleven games came out in 1980.  We ended up getting five of them.  We did not get the NASL Soccer, NHL Hockey, or PGA Golf but all of these are now on the Flashback with the Super Pro versions which allow single player against the computer.   Not wanting to promote gambling, we also did not get the Horse Racing, or the Las Vegas Roulette, both of which are on the Flashback.  The Electric Company Word Fun was considered too young, so we also passed on that, and it also appears on the Flashback.

We did get a few of the Sports games.  We did get Auto Racing which we played a lot.  We got the Tennis, and US Ski Team Skiing, both of which we played a little.  The Skiing did not make it to the Flashback.  We did get Sea Battle which we also played a bit, but preferred Armor Battle to it.  We also got the first game under the Space category, Space Battle.  This one I played a lot of until the following year when the new games came out, but even then, it remained in rotation.

 

Of the seven games that came out in 1981, we got all of them except for the Boxing, which also appears on the Flashback.

We played the PBA Bowling a surprising amount.  We played Snafu a lot, being very similar to the Tron light cycles.  Triple Action had three simple mini games in it and got a lot of play as it had an airplane combat, a tank combat, and a racing game.  Astrosmash got played the most of the Space games, and I got very good at it, able to roll through all the backgrounds.  Space Armada was a Space Invaders clone, and we played it a fair amount.  Star Strike was based off the Star Wars trench run but wasn’t great.

Figure Painting Total - July 2023

I was finally able to get some zombies and gorilla for Dust Tactics.  Which was the whole reason I wanted to get into the game in the first place.

My package from BlackSite studios finally showed up.  It had been delivered to the wrong address and when whoever got it opened it, they realized it wasn’t for them and they dropped it off on our doorstep.

I didn’t get anything painted yet, but did pick up the new model in the month from Games Workshop, or Warhammer as they now like to be called.

 

Bought

Unmatched – Brains and Brawn – 3

Unmatched – Teen Spirit – 4

40K – Primarus Marine – Infernus – 1  (model of the month – July)

DLB – Taste of Vitae – 1

DLB – The Gourd Reaper 3 – 4

Dust Tactics – Axis – Gorillas – 3

Dust Tactics – Axis – Zombie – 5

 

Painted

 

 

 

July total – 21 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Running total 2023 – figures bought 151, figures painted 26

Figure Painting Total - June 2023

 In June I was able to get the special edition Leviathan box for the tenth edition of Warhammer 40,000.  I started with Space Hulk and Rogue Trader and, while the last few sets have been placeholders, this return to bugs versus Marines may be the push needed to actually play this edition. 

 

Bought

Unmatched: For King and Country – 3

40K Leviathan – 72

 

Painted

 

June total 2023 – figures bought 75, figures painted 0

Running total 2023 – figures bought 130, figures painted 26