The Captains are big fans of The Chive. If you don’t know about them, check it out. They’ve assembled just what the title of the post says. If you grew up in that particular time frame you’ll more than likely recognize almost everything that’s featured in the article.
Relive the nostalgia here.
First Nintendo, Super Nintendo, than Playstation and now GameCube. Flintheart is making leaps and bounds into the world of Video Gaming. I bought a GameCube for $10 this weekend at a garage sale. Since this seems to be the system that time forgot I was wondering if anyone could recommend some games or anything that would be considered a high point for the console?
Old school Nintendo and Pink Floyd together? That’s right, break out the bong. This genius went back and made all of Dark Side Of The Moon as if it was 8 Bit Nintendo music, almost the reverse of the band the Advantage. It was hard to pick one song to show you from it, but “Money” is not only the most recognizable but also came out the best.
Thanks to Q for bringing this to our attention.
One of the greatest, most underrated video games of all time has to be Little League Baseball: Championship Series for the original Nintendo. Incredibly simple in it’s design, the game can be played right off the rip with stock rosters. But the beauty of the game is the depth at which it can suck you in to. Tinkering and tinkering with the rosters is the only way to maximize your talent, as there our hidden gems amongst the many first-named-only players.
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Without further adieu, your top 5 list…
1. Saul (New York)
Many of Saul’s detractors will say his mind-boggling stats are a product of the defense behind him, but you can’t overlook his absolutely ridiculous k/bb ratio of 37/3 in 18 innings pitched. He finished the tournament with a final line that looks fake: 18 ip, 1 er, 2 hits, 37 k, 3 bb. His fastball comes in at a major league equivalent of 97 mph, and his curve ball makes other 12 year olds shit their pants (Just ask Floyd). Saul received a full ride scholarship for baseball at LSU, only to shred his shoulder and never pitch again.
2. Sid (California)
Sid Vicious earned his nickname by pitching an entire game after getting hit in the mouth with a line drive that knocked out 3 of his teeth. This caused many in the stands to wonder why his parents would let him continue to pitch, which in turn caused many in the stands to wonder where his parents were. Sid never allowed a base runner to get passed second-base the entire tournament, but his penchant to give up the long ball was always his weakness, allowing 3 home-runs in California’s thrilling loss to Texas in the semi-finals. Sid now runs a pitching academy…and is still searching for his parents.
3. Joseph (Texas)
Experts used to say that Joseph had so much ‘late action’ on his fastball that he could have opened up a night club. Born into the bloodline of Sam Houston, Joseph is a direct descendant of the first president in the history of The Republic of Texas. Struck out 9 of 12 batters against the feared Mexican line-up and arch rival Paco (The Mexican Babe Ruth). Scouted by colleges to play shortstop, Joseph would pitch again in the minor meague system for the San Francisco Giants and has tallied 246 career saves for the Minnesota Twins.
4. Hirano (Japan)
With more movement than the Japanese navy on December 7th in 1941, Hirano once struck out 23 of a possible 24 batters in a 2 game stretch. Easily the silliest control of any pitcher in the entire tournament, some managers questioned if he was doctoring the baseball. It’s no surprise commercials promoting the World Series remarked that “in this world Hirano second chances”. The only pitcher to strike out Peter The Pump, and he did it three times. Hirano might be higher on this list, but Japan’s inability to field anything properly hurt him immensely.
5. Gao (Chinese Taipai)
The Taiwanese Technician, Gao was engineered from birth to be a pitching machine and deliver a title for Chinese Taipai. It was learned after demolishing hitters that Gao was an acronym for Get Americans Out. So fearful that any contact on a pitch would fall for a hit, Gao learned to keep the ball down in the zone which resulted in nothing but weak ground balls. This combination would prove effective, as Gao never gave up a single home run in the entire tournament, and Taipai turned a record setting 12 double plays with Gao on the mound. It was long rumored, but never proven, that Gao was actually a cyborg.
Honorable Mentions:
There’s really not too much to say here. This from an actual Nintendo Power (remember that magazine?) that this cool guy with the sweet mustache wrote into in the 1980′s. I snagged it from the amazing SeanBaby website. You can read more of his mustachioed misadventures here where the webmaster of SeanBaby found his address and began corresponding with him…
Thank you to “Crazy” Tom for showing me this gem way back in the 90′s
Some people think I’m crazy that I actually listen to this band in my free time and own both their albums… you know what, they are probably right. Never the less, The Advantage is a band that hails from California and only plays Nintendo songs. That’s right. Theme songs from 8 bit N.E.S. games, different boards, the end boss music…they do it all. Note for note renditions played by a live band, 2 guitars, bass and drums. They do all your favorites from Mario 3, Contra, that fucking level in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where you have to disable all the mines while your underwater and trying not to electrify yourself, Metroid, Zelda, Castlevania you fucking name it.
They even go on tour. You can visit their MySpace here or you can watch a live version of Megaman 2: Flashman Stage below:
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Note that after awhile of non stop listening every song begins to sound like the band, Franz Ferdinand.
TCM reader, Ben did a great write up over at www.dudusports.com about the top 5 hitters from the Nintendo game, Little League Baseball: Championship Series. The game didn’t make TCM’s Top Ten Nintendo list, but it just narrowly missed. If you’ve never played it, it’s worth tracking down. I’d consider it one of the better sports games released on the console.
You can read his article by clicking here
For our last Captain to highlight of 2009 we are using a long forgotten but Flintheart favorite, Captain N. Captain N was from a late 80′s/early 90′s cartoon called Captain N: The Game Master. One of the most creative TV show names in the history of the medium (The “N” stood for Nintendo).
If your not familiar with the show, the concept follows a 16 year old kid who was playing Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! on his Nintendo and gets sucked into the TV. He finds himself now living in the sweet, sweet land of Nintendo. Their is a hot princess in turmoil and he agrees to join her squad of mythic status Nintendo characters to defend the realm. We’re talking Megaman, Kid Icarus (which is strange since he comes from Greek mythology) and Simon Belmont from Castlevania, who for some reason they make into an ego inflated pretty boy. These form the core of the N-Team which also stood for Nintendo. Very, very clever.
It turns out villains from various Nintendo games have linked up to terrorize (and possibly rape) the princess. Fronted by the absurd, Mother Brain from the game, Metroid who is just a huge weird ass looking head in a jar…Krang eat your heart out.
Basically this show was my 7 year old self’s wet dream. This guy gets to hang out with Nintendo characters, use the N.E.S. gun and control pad to fight Nintendo villains and bang a hot princess at the end of the day. It’s kinda like Mario but without being fat, having a mustache and not being a Nazi sympathizer. Instead you get a varsity letter jacket.
TCM salutes you Captain N. When I was a kid you were the coolest 16 year old I could imagine. When I was 16 you were still cooler than I would ever be. We only hope you got a chance to give the power pad a work out with the Princess.
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