The Official Nintendo Magazine is currently running a contest to find two people to write blogs on the website. I entered but unfortunately did not make the final eight.

Here is my entry.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the first of March 1997 and there I was, downstairs in Virgin handing over the money that had taken me many months to earn. Taking on extra rounds as a paperboy and saving all of my Christmas tips for this special day.

The day of course was the release day of the Nintendo 64, the successor to the Super Nintendo.

After months of reading about the Ultra 64, then the Nintendo 64, reading about delays, about game line-up changes and looking at pictures of Mario 64, Pilotwings, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Wave Race amongst other games the N64 was finally upon us.

I picked up my N64 with Mario 64, handed them to the cashier and handed over my hard earned money, the blood, sweat and tears had finally paid off. I only had one obstacle to now overcome, the 35 minute bus journey home. Here I was walking through the city centre with my big bag containing the console and a grin the size of the bag and I still had to get home yet.

Finally after what felt like the longest bus journey ever (second to the bus journey from when I got my SNES) I get home, get my mates round and set up the N64. The cartridge goes in, the power gets turned on and the words Super Mario 64 appear long with speech. Wait a minute, speech, Mario just spoke. I click start and Mario’s face appears, he says Hello, whoa. I press the button on Mario’s face whilst trying to get to grips with the new pad and manage to stretch his nose. Oh my god, I just stretched his nose, now his ear, now his chin. Ten minutes later and I haven’t even started the game yet.

I click start again and I’m transported to outside Princess Peach’s Castle. Walking, running, jumping, sliding up to the door this is just amazing. I go into the castle, there is Toad, there are doors with stars and numbers on, they are locked. I open the door with no number on and behind it is a picture. I look around the room, what do I do? Where is the level? I walk up to the picture and jump into it, the ripples are amazing. I’m taken to a screen where I’m shown a title and suddenly I’m standing on some grass with a world around me.

I complete the first mission, another and another. I get the wing cap, I’m flying. I’ve flown before in previous Mario games but not like this, not around and around and up and down like this. My mind is blown. I fight Bowser; I spin him around and throw him into bombs. I get the Metal cap, the Vanish cap; Mario turns to metal and walks underwater, vanishes and starts walking through walls. The graphics, the sound, the game play, its Mario notched up by 100.

I’ve gotten a lot older since that day and played many games over the years on many consoles, but I still remember that day like it was yesterday.

Trades, aren't they fun.

I remember when I was young and I would trade my football stickers with my friends for that elusive one that I was missing that would finally complete the sticker album, even if it was a shiny and they wanted ten stickers for it.

Well since growing up I haven't traded anything in a while but recently i've started trading retro games. I've gotten to know some very fine people on a forum and we have started trading games that we have duplicates of or just don't want anymore.

So far i've only done two trades and have managed to pick up in one trade Galaxy Force II for the Megadrive and in the other Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for the Gameboy Colour and Metroid II: Return of Samus for the Gameboy.

Metroid II was a game near the top of my list of games to pick up and I wasn't having much look on E-bay or at car boot sales and due to the forum I met a really canny person who offered me Metroid II in exchange for a Cube game and a 32X that I was never planning on using. My eternal thnaks to them.

I'm now currently discussing a third trade and wonder what goodie(s) I will get from that.

Trades, you gotta love em.

Many many months ago (infact that many months ago I cannot actually remember when), the Official Nintendo Magazine did a list of the 100 greatest Nintendo games ever.

Now whilst I didn't agree with some of the list, infact a lot of the list Secret of Mana at number 82, I mean jeez, I did notice that over the years i'd managed to pick up a fair chunk of the games.

I decided to work my way through the list and to collect all 100 of the games that ONM consider to be the greatest Nintendo games. I'm then going to at some point somehow create a nice set of squares and within these squares will be photos of all of the 100 games as I pick them up and move closer to finally collecting all 100 games.

Right, I've neglected this blog for way too long now.

I'm into retro gaming and the aim is for me to review my games, which I have a lot off, for a bit of fun and to just offer my opinion on some classic and some not too classic games.

I'm going to try and update this as much as possible but at the moment am quite busy, hence the neglect.

I'm going to mainly cover gaming but every now and then I may steer off that and review films and music and also may have the odd occasional rant or musing.