Consoles, Comic Cats, and Cartoon Aliens – Geekout 11

Coming to the end of week two of this challenge, I’m attempting to Geekout with this page-a-day calendar I’ve received. It asks me to list a set of things each day. Today, I’ll need to come up with Six Video Game Consoles, Two Comic Book Characters with Cat Attributes, and Four U.S. Cartoons with Alien Creatures.

These don’t look all that challenging. All three are open-ended questions again, so I think I’ve got them in hand.

Six Video Game Consoles

When I was a small child, my brother and I asked our parents for an NES for Christmas. My parents said that we couldn’t afford it, so we’d have to ask Santa. Christmas morning came, and no console was found under the tree. Later in the day, my family was all treated to small me screaming about something down in the basement. I assume my parents must have sent me downstairs to get something from down there. The console wasn’t under the tree, it was hooked up to a television in the basement. My first video game console. And boy was that a ride.

Nintendo 64

Nintendo’s venture into 64-bit consoles was something they’d been talking about for a while. I remember watching promotional videos Nintendo sent out on VHS tapes talking about the system. I read many articles about the system before its release.

The year that console came out, it was hard to find. Places sold out of them quickly. Somehow my parents managed to get one. My father had a cool idea for how to wrap it. I loved the idea so much then, and it has inspired me to do some creative work of my own.

The console was under our tree for a while before Christmas. It was wrapped together with games, additional controllers, and some extra pieces of cardboard. The interested part is that it was a uniquely shaped gift. It was shaped like some kind of poultry, maybe a chicken or a turkey. It was blocky, but you could tell what it was.

Playstation

When my brother and I were little, we saved our allowance money for years. We didn’t receive as much as most people we knew, but we also knew that saving it meant you could get better stuff with it. This is one example of that paying off. In fact, this console is not ten feet away from me right now and still works well, which is impressive for being the initial model to hit stores. We bought it when the price was still $300. This is one of my all-time favorite consoles, having been host to so many great games! I loved that this generation had both cartridges and discs, since both had advantages at that time. This system was a true marvel, being a success right out the gate.

XBox 360

Microsoft’s entrance into console gaming didn’t go as well as Sony’s. Their first console wasn’t as hugely successful, however, as we all say, the second time’s the charm. The 360 was a massive success, not just for having improved their game library, controllers, and system itself. Their true win was in their online support. Xbox Live may not have been free, but it worked so well that it destroyed its competition.

Sega Genesis

Being the only Sega console I owned, I had to name it here. It had some great games, including the more violent version of Mortal Kombat. The console was fun, however, Nintendo did have the better controller in that generation with the SNES. Sorry, Sega.

Atari 2600

This classic, famous console is old and goofy. I know some people love the wood-paneling along the side, but I think it just makes it look older. Joysticking was still the thing for this machine. Helping to contribute to the crash of game consoles, who could leave it off of the list?

Game Boy

Since I incidentally named other consoles in previous bits of text, I’m going to allow a handheld console in here. The original Game Boy was awesome; I played that handheld so much. My Game Boy is also within 10 feet of me right now. It’s right next to my two Game Boy Pockets and my Game Boy Color. I’ll lump those together for the most part, since Nintendo was brilliant enough to have them play the same games. Unlike the competition, Nintendo realized that quality games and battery life were far more important than colors an specs.

This brick of a handheld only showed images in shades of green, but it did so for hours on far fewer batteries than the competition. I remember using the magnifying glass and light combo adapter to use at night. I also was one of those people who caught the Pokemon craze immediately, picking up the game as soon as it released in the US.

Two Comic Book Characters with Cat Attributes

Thinking about what “Cat Attributes” might mean, I’m going to decide that naming actual cats would be outside of the spirit of the question, so Luna will not be listed. I do, however, think you can have “cat attributes” without physical feline traits; whiskers on humans will not be a requirement for this.

Cat Woman

Too obvious on this one? Cat-like? Absolutely. I will say that giving her a movie of her own may have been a mistake… She’s a fun character, because she’s not just a straight up villain.

Black Panther

They’ve brought him to the big screen, and it’s good. Great work, Marvel! Do this character well! I am looking forward to his having his own movie!

Four U.S. Cartoons with Alien Creatures

Well this is going to focus on some of the weirder characters from cartoons.

American Dad

While it’s not a show I watch, I’ve seen more than a few episodes of it. I included it, because it’s a show that prominently features an alien and isn’t sci-fi other than that (as far as I know).

The Flintstones

I’m sure you forgot or are trying to forget that this show had an alien! The great Gazoo, if I recall the name and spelling of that green, stereotypical alien thing.

The Simpsons

For as much of the Simpsons as I’ve seen over my lifetime, I’m blanking on the name of the two green aliens from the show. They’re cycloptic , tentacled alients wearing tall, nearly-cylindrical space helmets. Also, I didn’t want to list Futurama, since that seemed too easy.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

There are a couple of aliens here, including my favorite bean-loving idiot, Brak. If you’ve never watched this show, you missed out. It was one of my favorites as a kid.

Wrap Up

Yes, I’m going to playing a bit of catch up on these! I was unable to publish each day, so I’ll be doing a couple of these some days until I catch back up!