{"id":3223,"date":"2014-09-02T20:25:38","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T20:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2014-09-02T20:25:38","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T20:25:38","slug":"winner-winner-chicken-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=3223","title":{"rendered":"Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can think of a few game-related birthday memories, but the one that sticks out the most is my 13th<\/sup>, which was in 1996.<\/p>\n

Hitting my teen years was quite the milestone for me.\u00a0 Being a \u201cteenager\u201d was so much cooler than \u201cjust being a kid\u201d, so I wanted to do something memorable.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t had a birthday party in a few years, but a bunch of friends and I got together and went to see the Kevin Costner movie Tin Cup<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure why we chose to see that movie, but there were only four theatres at this particular cinema at the time \u2013 the only thing I can guess is that the other three movies being shown weren\u2019t all that much more interesting.<\/p>\n

In any case, it was just a typical romantic comedy with some golf action thrown in for good measure.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t the awesome golf movie that Happy Gilmore<\/em> was (which is what I was hoping for), but there was a scene in a strip club that had me thinking seeing this movie was a good choice.<\/p>\n

C\u2019mon.\u00a0 I was 13.\u00a0 Gimme a break.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after the movie, we headed down to the same Greco restaurant I drive by each night when I come home from work.\u00a0 Although my taste in pizza has become more refined as of late, it was a damn good greasy slice at the time.\u00a0 I remember thinking it was a bit dreary weather-wise, but I ended up having quite the memorable day.<\/p>\n

There were two games I got as a present that day, and both were for PC.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"1992<\/a>

1992 – U.S. Gold<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had seen this game in the bargain bin at Zellers here in Fredericton, which was quite odd \u2013 not only were Street Fighter II<\/em> games still coming out at that point (which made it feel like the game was still \u201ccurrent\u201d), but the fact that there was a PC port blew my mind!\u00a0 A Super Nintendo or Genesis version of an Arcade game made sense to me, but a PC version of a fighting game did not.<\/p>\n

Another thing I was intrigued about was the sticker on the box (not seen above).\u00a0 Apparently, there was a Mega Man<\/em> and Mega Man 3<\/em> game included on the same disc as a bonus.\u00a0 With the memory of the whole Mega Man 3<\/em> debacle fresh in my mind (the one where my NES copy got lost), I asked for the Street Fighter II<\/em> PC game for my birthday.<\/p>\n

Initially, I was thrilled about getting it\u2026 and then I played the games.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looks<\/a>

Looks pretty derpy, doesn’t it?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was still in the early days of the Internet, and we didn\u2019t have it at our house.\u00a0 If we had, I would have been able to look up the horrible reviews that both the Street Fighter II<\/em> port and the completely new and original Mega Man<\/em> games had been getting.<\/p>\n

The SFII<\/em> game was the exact same game I knew and loved, but had some pretty serious frame rate issues.\u00a0 My PC was a 486, which was a pretty solid machine that ran Doom<\/em> and Commander Keen<\/em> games without any problems.\u00a0 For it to struggle with a game that ran smoothly on a 16-bit console was perplexing.<\/p>\n

I also had a Gravis Gamepad to play the game with, but even then, the game lagged so much that pulling off the special moves that made the game so fun was nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I especially liked the Super Famicom-like buttons.
COLORS!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And then there were the Mega Man<\/em> games\u2026 *sigh*<\/p>\n

Not only was I disheartened to find out these weren\u2019t PC ports of the NES games I loved so much, but they also didn\u2019t look and play anything<\/em> like them.\u00a0 The trademark music was replaced with the dulcet tones of your own breathing (I.E., there was none) and the three boss stages to be incredibly long and uninteresting.<\/p>\n

The Mega Man 3<\/em> game doubled the total number of stages to six, but kept the same awkward look and feel.\u00a0 To say I was disappointed with it is an understatement, and I actually felt bad about asking for it for my birthday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n