Okay, let's be realistic here — we've grown up. We all have fond memories of playing bulky gray Game Boys when we were supposed to be doing homework, or getting that sexy new Game Boy Pocket in the killer ice blue limited edition color. Maybe you still play it, maybe you sold it off when you got a GBA, or maybe it's collecting dust in some drawer. But chances are, you still have some Game Boy cartridge cases lying around somewhere. So what are we to do with all those old cases?
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I shop at used game stores a lot. The GameStop near me has been having "buy 2 get 1 free" since December, so I've been buying tons of games. The thing is, I always feel like they're judging me every time I buy something (usually many things). I'll get comments like, "Oh, well at least you're getting ______." So every other game I got is total crap? Listen, I know you work at a game store, and you don't know me, but that doesn't mean I just randomly pick stuff off the shelves because of the pretty boxes. I know what games I'm buying. What exactly are the qualifications needed to work at a used game store, anyway?

To be fair most of the people seem cool, and seem to really like games, but do they have to be so damn condescending all the time?
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I beat the game last week. The original content took me just under ten hours, and the whole game took about 13 hours, which is really short for an RPG, and even short for a regular game. I did avoid a lot of the side-quests (didn't really interest me, although I did get married twice, and totally scored like four times!), and there were plenty of other things to do — find all the silver keys, open all the demon doors, etc. Then obviously you can play through multiple times and try to be 100% evil, 100% good, a pure mage, a pure archer, etc.
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I realize I'm a bit late to the party here, as this has been written about many times before on the net, and even Nintendo has their own site about it. Unfortunately, I never saw any of those sites until after I got burned. I frequently scour ebay for good deals on games, particularly handhelds. One such good deal was a used copy of "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" for a crazy-low Buy-It-Now price of about $14 including shipping, when the stores sell it used for $27! I've gotten a lot of DS games for really cheap, and they're all in great condition complete with box/manual, so I thought it was just another good find. I grabbed it right away, being totally unaware that there are tons of GBA scammers out there.
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I recently bought the i am 8-bit book and I really like it. However, I noticed some of the pieces contain an attempt at the Konami Code. I say attempt because none of them is correct.

From the book:

Page 78: "Putting the Super in Mario"

Piece: Painting of Mario with Peach naked on a bed. Mario has the code written on his hand. The facing page has the title screen to Contra (dialogue: "Bro, that wop plumber jacked our moves."), so it's clearly supposed to be the code.
Code: U U D D L R B A start - Close, but missing the second L R. It's not even because there wasn't enough space, he could have put it right above the B A.

Page 111: "Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start"

Piece: Painting of a nude woman with many video game tattoos. Code is only in the title.
Code: In the title. Again, it's close enough that it's clear it's supposed to be the Konami code, but it's actually way off.

From the second exhibit (no book yet, just photos online):

Title: "The Many Different Stages in the Doldrums and their Constant Battles with Eternal Life"

Piece: Painting with a Contra theme. Shown is the Konami logo, Bill and Lance, and a ".Com" in the style of the Contra logo. The code is written on the right.
Code: U D U D L R L R A B A B select start - Contra themed art, and it's way off.

I'm aware that there are some variations of the code, but those usually involve switching B and A to other buttons (like X and O) to adapt it to a different controller. Some change the directions, like turning your controller upside-down and entering it, but the beginning is still always "same same opposite opposite," if you know what I mean. I also imagine some people are doing this from memory, and the code gets told differently by different people (everyone I knew thought it was select start at the end). Even so, if you're creating a whole art piece for an exhibit, don't you think the least you could do is google it to ensure accuracy? Even when I'm posting on a forum that two people will read, I still google names and things. Notice how I spelled "i am 8-bit" in lowercase, the way it's written in the book?

The exhibit is supposed to conjure feelings of nostalgia, and at the end of the day with all those mangled codes, I suppose it does just that.

Note: This refers to the original Xbox version.

First off, let me say that I love this game and had a fun time playing it. The first day I played it was for eight hours straight, so I must have liked it. However, there are no difficulty levels, and the game is way too easy! You can literally run through most of the game if you really want to, especially after you have feral speed. Even the final boss isn't very hard. He's certainly more challenging, but it still only took me three or four tries, and that was simply figuring out what was going on (apparently there's a huge glitch on the final boss, but I guess I avoided that). The rest of the game is a cakewalk, and here's why:
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Note: This was originally created 6/21/05, posted on my other site, here. Obviously we now know what the controller looks like and does, but I figured I'd repost this here anyway. I still think someone should make a standalone box. Update: We now know that the Revolution has been officially named the Wii.

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