Rip, rip, tear, tear

I received a lot of really great gifts this year. I got a number of books, a couple of jigsaw puzzles, and some Legos (Thanks Mom C). Roland got me the soundtrack to Rent, Cinderella on DVD, some awesome video games, some delicious hot chocolate, and some silly hot chocolate:

The picture didn't show it terribly well, but the hot chocolate turns pink when you add the hot water. In the package is also blue and purple so we will have to see how they look. How fun! My uncle got me a calendar of photographs of his hiking expeditions, a kitchen scale, and a book of how to do Sudoku puzzles. SWEET, now maybe I can be cool like Jason.

My sister and Karl got me a video game for the DS ( which they got all of their supporting cast at their wedding - the best attendant gift EVER). It is called Animal Crossing: Wild World. My sister has had Animal Crossing for a long time and has been addicted to it for as long as she has had it. With the DS version we can visit each other's towns and chat with each other from anywhere. Yesterday we got together and I visited her town and she visited mine and Karl visited both of ours. I haven't been to Cow Town (Karl's - that is Karl with a K, but Cow Town with a C) yet, but I'm under the impression he has been teaching his townspeople naughty things to say, so that should be interesting. They are much further along in the game than I am but I have done a lot of fishing and caught a few bugs.

The other game I'm into is one Roland got me, also for the DS. It is called Trace Memory and it is in the Myst vein, less shooting more figuring. I hadn't heard of it, but it's just perfect for me. Although I am a little stuck right now...I'm sure I will figure it out. To sum up: Christmas was great; good food, good presents, good company. It was a little lonely at times, but Roland made it all okay.

Doodley-doo, doodley-doo, doodley-doo

Flashback: Susan sitting at the Commodore 64. She inserts this month's LoadStar Magazine disk and types the letters that will allow her to descend into gaming nirvana.

load "star" ,8,1

Yeah, sure there was all sorts of other stuff on the disks but, come on, I was just there for the games. On this month's disk is a game that will keep her in hours of near drooling arcade-like fascination. Qix. The original Qix, with the crazy laser line pattern representing Qix.

Today: I was reading WWdN and he linked over to an review he did on some lame-o knock off of Donkey Kong. And there, at the bottom in a seemingly innocent section about all the other games that the makers have ripped off was the line "Out Line (Qix + Amidar)."

The memories flooded back. The triumph of that one time where you trapped Qix in about three seconds and claimed 95% of the board with a near miraculous corner trap. The frustration of being trapped between two sparx and Qix. Oh, the agony of getting to 74% claimed...and the fuse catching up to you.

So naturally I googled it and found a version and played it for like 2 hours! Heaven.