When a year draws to an end there are always two things that amaze me. One is looking back on how fast the year past, and two is looking back on how slowly the year past. I know it’s a very contradictory statement, but sometimes a year can be all too fast when it comes to something like spending time with your family and watching your kids grow, and too slow when it comes to those many moments that didn’t make your year the best.

When it comes to gaming though it’s actually been a pretty good year, and again another area that time passed to quickly on. When I look back and my New Years Resolutions posting from the end of last year I see that I actually did a lot of what I struck out to, even if I missed in some other areas. But before I get into rehashing that I wanted to talk about my blog a little bit.


Articles with the most hits have been:


8-Bit Fridays: Out into the Late Night Rift – Part 3: ABC & NBC 2009


Starcade: Nostalgia in the Arcade


Trekking Through Games: Celebrating the 25th on the 50th


System Saturdays – 3D-Oh-No


The Journey To MAME: Part One – We Gather Together


To be honest I was shocked at how popular my Out Into The Late Night Rift series was since I don’t really write about TV a lot. I will say that it was interesting to write since it bought up a lot memories I hadn’t thought about in years, some of which were really good times.


I was also pleased with my Trekking Through Games series as well, and I have some more of those upcoming in the next year. I was actually hoping to get an article on STO up by the end of this year, but time hasn’t worked out for it, yet. Although my starting this series in 2016 on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek was nothing more than a coincidence. .


All of these articles were fun to write though, and I want to take a moment here to thank everyone for reading them. Getting positive feedback on Google +, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, e-mail, and even on the comments section of my blog itself make it all worth it.


One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to also get this blog transferred to a proper website this year. Sadly that didn’t happen, and it’s mainly been a time thing, and just trying to find the creative energy to put into it. Maybe in 2017 though.


Now, for my year end review based on my 2016 New Years Resolutions


100 SNES Titles by the end of 2016 – Not even close! I have 48 titles in my collectors app, plus another 7 in  my backlog, so 55. At least I’m more than halfway there.


200 NES titles by the end of 2016 – Done! This was accomplished within days after writing the article.


Have 300 Atari 2600 titles by the end of 2016 – 227 plus 1 backlogged. To be honest the NES and Atari 2600 now run nearly head to head in the amount of games.


Systems I would like to add in 2016
-Sega Game Gear – Done
-Atari Lynx – Done

-Sega Saturn – Done
-NeoGeo AES – Debating getting an MVS instead, but American AES aren’t easy to come by
-Xbox (Original) – Done
-Arcade Cabinets?? – Air Combat, and an X-Arcade


Also added in 2016:


-Atari ST
-TRS-80 CoCo
-Ti-99
-Sega-CD
-New Desktop
-Retron 5
-Atari 2600 portable
-Swing Along pinball machine

 


Games I would like to add
–Super Metroid – Nope
–Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen – Yes
–Double Dragon Advance – Nope
–Tank Commander – Nope


My List of Shame – Don’t ask! I played a little more of many of those games but finished none, and even added a few more


The Return of 8-bit Fridays – Yes, I’ve added multiple entries in 2016


Attend a Gaming Convention – My family and I attended Midwest Gaming Classics in April of 2016


Finish My Gameroom – Not even close, looks the same as my 2015 picture.


Support my Local Gamestore – Not working one town away anymore has meant my visits are few and far between.


This years surprises:


As I said I was happy to get such a huge reaction to my Out Into The Late Night Rift series, since I kind of kept it on the down low, not being a video game based article.


Another big surprise was finally digging through and playing a load of 7800 games I have had (mostly NIB) just sitting since early 2015. All said it done it was a huge push through to get played over a single weekend, yet I did and now I’m only 9 games shy of have a complete Atari 7800 collection.


Than there’s Swing Along a pinball machine from 1963 we bought at Midwest Gaming Classics. Going there I was mainly looking for games and a Sega-CD, but I had thought about maybe seeing if an arcade machine was a possibility. To say the least leaving that Saturday knowing I bought a pinball machine was a unique feeling.


As far as actual arcade machines finding my Air Combat machine for $150, and the X-Arcade for $0 were also surprises, but I will admit I had my heart set on a Moon Patrol machine. Staying on the subject of arcade machines there is also my Coleco Pac-Man mini arcade, which was a surprise find and just one aspect of a fun fall day out with my family.


So what am I hoping for 2017? I don’t know but rest assured I will have a 2017 resolutions following this in a few days.

Again, thank you all for visiting my blog in 2016, and Happy 2017 to you!!!!!