Click on the picture to play the video.

"Cougar hugs and kisses" on Google Video
Cougar hugs and kisses

Hey everybody, it's Sandusky again. John's real busy at work this week because he is going up to Oregon to meet some mountain lions on Friday. I don't know why he feels he has to go the whole way up there. I mean, hello... Sandusky... mountain lion... right here!

Anyway, he has asked me, once again, to do his Live Journal entry. So, if you have any questions for me or the rest of "the cast"... fire away!

This week's strips are just "one shot" strips. A lot has gone on since we actually went to the park, so I guess John wants to show you all some of that. I think we went way back at the beginning of November. It's a lot colder here now. It's too cold to put the top on Scott's car down, and he doesn't like riding with me trapped in the back. I tend to get a little claustrophobic, as Scott puts it. I just think I'm afraid of enclosed spaces. Anyway, now I have to wait until it gets warmer again before we can go to the park or anything.

John says I have to make sure and keep "regular time" and "comic strip time" separate when I type in this thing. He doesn't want me to give anything away about the upcoming strips. But I will tell you this... there's a very funny picture of Bunker on Wednesday. It's hilarious! I have it pinned up over my bed.

John thinks I should have my very own message board, so I can comment on each of the strips one by one. He says, since I'm not very busy during the daytime, it should give me something to do. Scott agrees and thinks it'll be a great way to keep me from ruining the apartment on a daily basis. I don't know what he's talking about.

So, anyhow, go visit my new message board at http://sandusky.aceboard.com!

On Monday I'd mentioned a movie to which I loosely "paralleled" the strips of Sandusky's trip to the park. For those of you who didn't figure it out, that movie is The Wizard of Oz. Yes, it was quite a bit of a stretch, and many many many things don't line up at all with the movie. However, I hope at least a few of these references will make you realize I'm not totally crazy.

For those of you who would like to try and find the references on your own, I'll put the ones that were intentional behind a "cut".

( Click here to see the references. )

OK, so now we've found out that Sandusky has been on a catnip high for the majority of the trip (pun intended). Most of what he experienced was real, including falling out of numerous trees. However, his "friends" were all hallucinations. Steve the squirrel, Larry the Table Guy, and Mellencamp were all a product of Sandusky's altered mind. The good thing, for those of you who want Mellencamp back, is that Scott does give Sandusky a dose of catnip from time to time. So, Mellencamp will return. :) Also, Sandusky typically does enjoy the nip. In fact, he really enjoys the nip. It's just when he's not aware that he has been intoxicated that he gets upset.

There is a certain movie that I have "paralleled" in the strips about the park. It hasn't been blatant at all, so I doubt anyone would have necessarily noticed without prior warning. Hopefully, when it is revealed (more or less) later in the week, you all will be able to backtrack and find a few things that were suggestive of it along the way. Like I said, though, it has been far from blatant. If you have any thoughts before Wednesday's strip about what said movie might be (and what "hints" occurred along the way), I'd love to hear them. After Wednesday, it should be fairly obvious what the movie is. If Wednesday doesn't do it, Friday should certainly clinch it for you. Unless, of course, you've never seen the movie (I assume most of you have).

**EDIT**

In looking at Wednesday's strip, I've realized you all might get the wrong impression as per the movie to which I'm referring. Be sure to pay attention to the visual in the last panel, rather than the text to get the movie reference. To get the joke, however, do pay attention to the text. :)

* * *

This is my first Monday at work in almost a month, and, apparently, I wasn't ready for it. I think I could fall asleep at my desk without much of a problem at all.

OK, I'm not quite sure how I forgot to upload today's strip on time. Not a good start to the year, huh? ;)

Anyway, there's another crazy plot twist this week, and it has to do with Mellencamp. I guess I decided to throw all of these twists in during the holiday season, so I hope you're enjoying them. We should return to our regularly scheduled "plot-less" comic strip in the near future. :)

And don't worry about the Mellencamp twist... this isn't going to be the last we see of him.

* * *

As for my non-Sandusky life, I got a couple of wonderful belated Christmas gifts in the past couple of days. The first one was today's bowl game victory by Penn State over Tennessee. I'm sure Wendingo will concur on that one.

The second gift (which actually was given to me first but will not take place until later) is a trip to visit some cougars at WildCat Haven in Oregon later this month. I can't thank them enough for their hospitality, and I'm very anxious to meet everyone up there. I'm currently working on an art donation for their fundraiser in March, and I plan on posting a copy to my website after the auction is over. Hopefully, I'll get some good pictures to post once I've returned, as well.

Once again, a very happy 2007 to everybody!

I hope everyone's holiday season has gone/is going well! I had a wonderful time visiting my parents and meeting my new nephew and brother-in-law. Of course, I returned five pounds heavier, and it will be weeks before I can even look at another cookie!

OK, I'm just kidding about the cookie part.

I also got to meet some of my "fans" in Virginia - my mother has probably gathered more regular readers for Sandusky than all of the comic lists I have joined combined. That's even more impressive, considering she lives in a town with less people than work on my floor at my office. I'm serious.

I did have some time over the past week and a half to work on Sandusky. I was able to finish some strips (minus the coloring), and I managed to actually get more than a week's worth of strips ahead in regards to writing. I have some more tricks up my sleeve in regards to Mellencamp, so stay tuned. :)

Now it's time for me to go to sleep. I was up at 4:45 am this morning, which is 2:45 Arizona time. Luckily, I have all day tomorrow to get my internal clock reset to the correct time zone.

Happy New Year!

I managed to squeeze in enough drawing during the week to get all of next week's strips complete. The strip for Christmas Day, however, will simply be the Sandusky Christmas drawing you can already find via the link below the daily strip on the main page. So, hopefully, none of you will be going through too much Sandusky withdrawal. ;)

While I am gone, I will still have some limited access to the internet, so feel free to leave all the comments you like. I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas!

As most of you probably know, I am going to be on vacation around the holidays (Dec. 16-26). I did a pretty good job this weekend of getting some strips finished earlier than usual, but I still expect to miss at least a couple of planned updates while I'm gone. I may have some time to do a little sketching while I'm away, but I know for certain that I won't have any access to Photoshop.

I have the next two weeks of strips written out, but I seriously doubt that I'll be able to get them sketched, inked, and colored before I leave on Saturday. My goal, however, is to, at the very least, "fill in" the missing days once I've returned. In the end, I don't expect to miss any strips. They'll probably just be a little late in arriving.

* * *

Several months back, the idea of a Sandusky animated movie came up in conversation on my LiveJournal. I was asked whom I would have as the voices of the various characters. At that point in time, I didn't really know them well enough to give them voices other than my own. Now that I know them a little bit better, I have kind of settled on the actors I would choose to play them. I'm sure these actors would all just jump at the chance to voice my characters. ;) Let me know what you think.

- Scott: Matt Damon - He can play both funny and serious roles quite well. He can be a bit of a goofball (Stuck on You), but he can also be quite serious (Bourne Identity, etc.). Most importantly, he's got a commanding enough voice to be able to keep Bunker and Sandusky in line (unlike Jon Arbuckle). Matt also happened to do a voice in the animated movie Titan, A.E., so he has some experience.

- Bunker: Zach Braff - For those of you who don't know Zach, he plays JD on Scrubs. He is also the voice of the puppy in the Cottonelle commercials, as well as acting in a few movies. For those of you who have watched Scrubs, JD's character is very similar to how I see Bunker. He's loyal and loveable, but he's also a bit of a dingbat at times. In addition, I could imagine Bunker having some sort of inner monologue going on in that head of his.

- Sandusky: Michael Keaton - OK, so he's a bit older than the other two. However, Bruce Willis seemed to fit in just fine as the voice of RJ in Over the Hedge. He may have actually been my first choice, but I think Michael Keaton would do just as good a job. He might be even better at covering the wide range of moods of your typical, everyday, run of the mill housecat. You only have to look so far as Multiplicity to see the wide range of his talent. He has also contributed his voice to The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Cars. Plus, he was the best Batman.

I don't know if any of you remember me mentioning a major plot twist that was coming up for Sandusky, but it is finally arriving this week. Of course, you may be thinking "How can you have a plot twist when there is no plot?" You'll see. The lives of two of the characters will forever be changed. :)

* * *

I also wanted to give everyone a fair warning that I may not be able to update Sandusky over the Holidays. I'm going back to Virginia to visit my parents and my younger sister (and my newest nephew). I'll be gone from the 16th through the 26th. I will probably not get everything done before then, and I don't know how much time I'll have to draw up the strips while I'm there. So, there may be a week without Sandusky around the Christmas holiday. I'll be better able to tell next week what the schedule may look like.

I'm pretty pleased, so far, with the fact that I've never missed a scheduled update for the strip. I've been a bit late with a few of them (such as this morning), but those were either due to my stupidity in forgetting to simply load the already completed strip (such as this morning) or the ComicGenesis server being down.

I'm getting better with regards to the amount of time it takes me to color and shade each strip, too. Hopefully, my "shortcuts" are not noticeable, and the strip has been able to either retain or even improve in quality over the months. On that note, I can't believe it's already been six months! Man, how time flies!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! For those of you who don't live in the states, I hope you had a wonderful regular weekend. The tryptophan in the turkey is still having obvious effects on me, as I was hard-pressed to wake up this morning even after a good eight hours of sleep. Of course, the Monday factor might have had something to do with it, as well. Regardless, it was worth it, as I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

* * *

Yes, Sandusky has gotten himself up in another tree. It's that predatory instinct to always want to be looking down on things that gets him into trouble. He spends a lot of his time on top of the refrigerator, on the back of the couch, and on top of the TV when he's at the apartment. So, it would only make sense to see him climbing trees out in the wild.

Of course, while he has the predatory instinct to climb the tree, he still doesn't have the knowledge about how to get down.

And, yes, I did just see Over the Hedge for the first time recently. You may have noticed the similarities between Sandusky's new friend and Hammy from the movie. If you haven't had a chance to see the movie yet, I highly recommend it. Perhaps Dreamworks will some day decide to turn my comic strip into a full length animated feature.

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a million dollars, too. ;)

Happy Turkey Day everybody! I decided to draw up a quick little Thanksgiving picture for all of you. I'll be posting a larger version to my website later this evening.





I wonder what they're going to wish for...

I, too, have decided to pen a hypothetical book on "if I would have killed Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman, this is how I would have done it". I figure if OJ's getting $3.5 million for it, I could get at least a few hundred thousand. He, of course, has won a Heisman Trophy, and, more importantly, played Nordberg in all three of the Naked Gun movies. On the other hand, I have not brutally stabbed two human beings to death. So, I suppose most people would probably call it a draw.

It just makes me sick that, 12+ years after ruining so many lives, he is living better than most people could ever hope to live. The population of Florida should be ashamed that their laws have loopholes which allow for somebody such as Simpson to not have to pay a dime to the families of the two people he butchered. He can make $3.5 million off of a book/TV deal, as well as the money from countless autograph sessions and his NFL pension. And yet those families won't see a penny of it. Talk about a f&@%ed up system.

* * *

I haven't quite figured out yet when exactly the "big plot twist" in Sandusky is going to be taking place. These so-called "plots" tend to get rather stretched out with only three updates per week. One of these days...

Oh, and the big plot twist isn't the fact that Sandusky seems to be narcoleptic. I actually think most cats do have a touch of narcolepsy. ;)

Also, Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. Discuss.

That's right, Sandusky's gotten himself stuck in a tree. You see, the claws work really well going up, but not quite so well going down.

As I'd mentioned last week, all of the background pictures of "the park" are from the Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon area of Arizona. It's about an hour and a half north of Phoenix (depending upon the traffic). Some of the pictures are ones I have taken during my numerous visits to the area. Others, I had to grab off of the internet. I didn't have enough of my own to be able to match up the backgrounds to look as though they came from the same area without just re-using the same pictures over and over again.

We get to meet Bunker's love interest, Sierra, at the end of this week. I guess she did have a speaking part earlier on in the strip when she was getting her sponge bath, but that was prior to me deciding to make her Ashley's dog.

I don't know if it's noticeable or not, but there's a lot of stuff that I just make up as I go along. :) Heck, most of the time even I don't know what's going to happen next. I try to plan the strips out a few weeks in advance, but I typically end up changing things right up until they're inked and colored on the weekends before they are put online. Heck, the whole Sierra thing was just a filler strip in the midst of the vet storyline. I just wanted to spoof the Seinfeld episodes where George visits his mother at the hospital, and the sponge baths are taking place behind the curtain in her room. Little did I know she'd end up as a recurring character (beyond just the sponge baths).

Along the lines of me just making stuff up as I go along... there's a bit of a plot twist that will be revealed later on in the visit to the park. I hope it comes as a surprise to everybody, but some of you may figure it out beforehand. The way I work, you might even figure some of these plot twists out before I do! ;)

Well, it's that time of year again for me. On Wednesday, I turn the big "two-eight". Yeah, I know. It's a big one. Typically, there are two easy ways to tell it's my birthday (aside from looking at a calendar):

( Read more )

* * *

When I first started the Sandusky goes to the park storyline, I didn't realize it was going to take me more than a month to actually get them there! I guess it wouldn't be as bad if I were updating seven days per week. If somebody wants to pay me $50,000 per year to do it, I'd be more than happy to update the strip seven days per week. If you know of anyone, please contact me. ;)

FYI, all of the background pictures you will find in the strip are pictures I have taken myself. Today's background pics are from Sedona, AZ. It's an absolutely gorgeous area, even for color blind folks like myself. :)

As you may or may not have noticed, Sandusky has undergone a bit of an update in terms of shading techniques. Being color blind, there's only so much I can do on my own with regards to coloring. I hope that this new "system" of coloring will make things more betterer. It is taking me longer to color each strip this way than it did before, but I think I'll be able to cut into the time difference with some more practice. Baby steps.

Also, Sandusky's finally going to the park this week! Well, sort of. At least he's leaving for the park this week. ;)

As for Scott's line about rickshaws in today's strip, I have to admit I stole that one from Steven Wright's new Comedy Central special. He's one freaking funny guy. And he can do it without having to resort to profanity. Well, except for the joke about the dog he had as a kid. It was born with two vaginas. They named it Snatches. :) But, other than Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby, there aren't too many really funny comedians that I'd let my kids watch.

Not that I have any kids anyway.

Anyhoo, today's entry is going to have to be a short one. Unlike most of you, I didn't get that extra hour of sleep last night. Of course, I also didn't have to go around the house changing all of my clocks this morning. I do have to keep in mind that all of the sporting events will now start an hour later than usual for me. Luckily, they're smart enough to keep all of the prime time network shows on the same schedule year-round.

I did, in fact, finish today's strip on time.

You can see it here.

* * *

Also, I asked Sandusky and Bunker to dress up as the scariest things they could imagine. Scott has also decided to dress in his Sunday best. Personally, I think they all went a little more "crazy" than "scary". ;)



Click to see the full-size version.

I've been thinking recently about the types of shows I watch on television nowadays. There are only two comedies that I "can't miss", and they are Scrubs and The Office. Of course, Scrubs won't air any new episodes until January, because NBC feels that all of these stupid reality shows and mind-numbingly repetitive game shows are a much bigger draw. The sad thing is that they are right.

Anyway, I have ultimately come to the conclusion that laugh tracks are the root of all evil. Or at least they're the root of all that is unfunny. They should be banned from this planet.

It all started with Everybody Loves Raymond. Now don't get me wrong, the show was pretty good when it first started out. However, the material ran dry after only a couple of years, and the same old jokes told over and over and over just stopped making me laugh. But the show's ratings just kept getting higher and higher as time went on.

Why?

Because people were told it was funny.

I don't think that the majority of the population today has a very well-developed sense of humor (besides all of you who read Sandusky, of course ;) ). I liken the majority's sense of humor to my eyesight when it comes to color. As most of you know, I'm color-blind. While I can see some colors well, there are other colors that really run together on me. I can tell you something is blue or red or green if it's a true blue, red, or green. However, when you start asking me whether something is olive green or forest green, or which color is "redder", I'm completely lost.

I think it's the same way with humor. If somebody tells me something's green, I'll usually believe them (unless it's obviously not green). If people with a limited sense of humor are told something is funny, they'll believe them, as well (unfortunately, this is true even when it's obviously not funny). These people are "funny-blind".

I have a number of friends and relatives who suffer from funny-blindness. I can tell when I watch TV with them that they're only laughing because the people in the "live studio audiences" are laughing. My friends and relatives are not stupid. In fact, many of them are quite smart. However, some of them are stupid.

The absolute worst cases of funny-blindness can be found in the studio audiences of America's Funniest Home Videos (yes, it's still on the air). To me, that show is like a traffic accident - no matter what else you have going on at the moment and no matter how much you try to look away, you just can't do it. These people go absolutely crazy over things that can in no way whatsoever be construed as funny (only the tapes involving animals are ever funny any more). A family will win ten thousand dollars (or whatever they pay now), because their child opened up a gift and screamed his or her head off for five minutes straight because it was exactly what they'd asked Santa for. What on God's green earth makes this funny?! Some kid screaming bloody murder over a Tickle Me Elmo is not the least bit funny. In fact, the parents of these children should be taken out into the street and shot. Why the hell would somebody broadcast to the entire nation that their son or daughter was an uncontrollable screaming jackass?! And even worse than those parents who thought it would be a good idea to embarass themselves in front of anybody who may happen to own a televisions set, are the people sitting in the audience laughing their heads off because they think it's the funniest thing since Baby Bob. Give me a cat falling off the top of a TV any day. ;)

I'm sorry to ramble on about this (I could write 50 more pages), but it really ticks me off, and I could use a good George Carlin-like rant every once in a while. It keeps me sane.

The reason I get so upset about this stuff is that they're using up valuable air time that could be used to air good shows. Good shows get canned because of poor ratings, while crappy shows stay on the air for ever and ever and ever because people are told they're supposed to be funny and just tune in to make it seem as though they have a sense of humor. I miss shows like SportsNight, Ed, and Father of the Pride. Just because there isn't a tape of people laughing at the jokes doesn't mean that those jokes aren't funny (it's often quite the opposite). I guess I should just consider myself lucky that Scrubs and The Offce haven't been canceled yet.

*shudder*

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed talking with Sandusky over the past week. I needed some time to get back on track with the strips. I'd gotten myself behind, and he was kind enough to bail me out. I think he did an admirable job, and, if the demand is there (or if I get behind again), he may just come back from time to time.

As for this week's strips...

One of the things that's difficult when you only update three times per week is that days of the week in the strip don't typically match up with the days of the week of the strip. If they did, then we'd never see the gang visit the park, because the strips aren't updated on Saturdays.

Did I just say "the gang"? What is this, Scooby-Doo?!

Anyway, to make a long story short, we've got another week's worth of strips until Saturday comes in Sanduskyland. I figure I'll make you all suffer just as Sandusky was made to suffer. ;)

Hey guys! This is Sandusky. John was too lazy to put together a LiveJournal entry for this week, so he asked me to do it for him. He said if I did a good enough job, he might let me do it every week!

Normally, I'm asleep at this time of night, but I just learned we get to go to the park this Saturday! That's like Christmas for me! I'm already counting down the minutes until we go (Bunker says it's 7,665 more minutes). Of course, John has no real concept of time when he's documenting my life, so you probably won't see "this Saturday" until a couple of weeks from now. I don't know how he expects to cover my whole life story with only three comic strips per week. I give him a week's worth of stories every half hour, so he's probably got ten years worth of ideas just waiting to be put on paper. He must have the easiest job in the entire world!

OK, I've just been told that it isn't really a "job" unless you get paid for it. What do I know? I'm just a mountain lion.

Anyway, I'm so excited to go to the park again! We haven't gone for a really long time. Last time we went, Scott told me that we'd only go again when monkeys flew out of his butt. I saw some monkeys on Animal Planet earlier today, and I must say that it had to have really hurt him to have monkeys do that. I didn't see any flying monkeys, though, so maybe they're a lot smaller or something.

Anyway, going to the park is great, because I don't have to wear that stupid dog costume or get dragged around on the end of a rope. Scott says that nobody ever goes there, so I don't have to dress up. He says most people are really scared of mountain lions. It must be our rapist wit. People are always intimidated by someone with a good sense of humor.

John told me to tell you guys to go ahead and ask me any questions you want. He said I have a lot of fans in cyberspace, and that I'm "kind of a big deal" (whatever that means). I don't know where cyberspace is, but it sounds pretty cool. Is it anywhere near Siberia? That's where Bunker's from.

Speaking of Bunker, he wants to play Solitaire on the computer now, so I have to go. Scott says we have to share the computer, and Scott's the one that buys me food. A mountain lion has to have his priorities in order.

Bye!

So, now we have a crazy Communist midget dictator in eastern Asia who isn't afraid to test a nuclear weapon. Between presidents Kimmy of North Korea and Aquavelvajad of Iran, the world has a couple of major Napoleon complexes on its hands. I don't have anything against short people (I was short once ;) ), but I have to imagine there's some sort of an inferiority complex at play here. Maybe they both have little tiny "you know whats" - unlike Mini Me from Austin Powers, who is apparently a human tripod. ;)

As far as nuclear bombs go, I am under the impression that this one was rather pathetic. It's likely similar to the quality of the "long range" ballistic missile they fired off in July. It flew for about a minute and a half. I've had paper airplanes that have stayed aloft longer than that. Of course, that even a crappy nuclear bomb is something to be gravely concerned about... especially when that nuclear bomb is in the hands of a crazy Communist midget dictator.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Iran, Syria, or even our amigo Hugo Chavez do something devious in the very near future, now that much of the world's focus is on North Korea. There's a giant "look at me" syndrome circulating around the world, and it's quite contagious.

If you aren't aware of how backwards and fucked up North Korea is, check out this nighttime satellite photo of the Korean peninsula. You wouldn't even need the borders drawn in to know where South Korea ends and North Korea begins.



* * *

OK, speaking of obnoxious "midgets"... we're meeting another character today. ;) I can't tell you too much about Dickens (Dingus, as he's known around the apartment), because, like the other characters, I prefer you to learn about him throughout the course of the strips. Also, I change things quite a bit as I go along, because I don't want to be "stuck" with an unwanted character profile. Dingus will only be here for a few strips this time around, but he will definitely be a recurring character (part of the "B team" along with Doctor Rumack, Sierra, and some other yet to be revealed characters).

Like our friends in North Korea and Iran, you'll find Dickens has quite the Napoleon complex himself. He is one of the neighbors' dogs, but you won't meet that neighbor until later on.

Dickens is a Havanese. He is the type of dog that a lot of people like, but a lot of people love to hate, as well. It's a rather misguided hatred, as Havanese are known to have a very playful, friendly temperament (unlike many other toy dog breeds). I went with this particular breed, however, because of the dichotomy between the typical temperament of the breed and the way I plan to portray Dickens. I don't want the stereotypical "bully" neighbor dog. I want one that's all bark and no bite... well, maybe just a little bite. :)

Personally, I can't stand most toy dog breeds, so a lot of Dickens' character will be me venting over the various toy breeds. I especially can't stand dogs with long white fur that is always tangled and filthy (even immediately after a bath). On the other hand, I did love our long-haired miniature dachshund (Schnapps) very much. Her fur was brown, though, not white (it was still mighty tangly).

* * *

NOTE - I just want everybody to know that I do not use the word "midget" when I am referring to actual "little people". I fully understand that many little people find that term derogatory, and I would never wish to use such a term in that manner. I use it here, because it is meant to be derogatory in this instance, and it is not in reference to actual little people. I cdon't want people to think I'm ignorant or anything. </disclaimer>

Drawing this week's strips has invited a trip down memory lane in regards to all of the football video games I've ever owned. I spent a good part of my waking hours playing each and every one of these games at one time or another. See how many of these you can remember (and if there are some I may have omitted).

Most of these pics were taken from the GameSpot site below. It's a pretty good source if you want to learn more about some of these games.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6130897/index.html

*Please note that every single one of these games was freaking awesome when I had them.*



I used to play this one under my covers until well past midnight when I was about ten years old. My parents never knew... until I scored a touchdown and it started making noises at me. Of course, you'd never get to play defense, and those 9 volt batteries required frequent changing. I still remember the taste of a 9 volt. Come on, who didn't ever try licking the top of one of those as a kid?



OK, so it's technically not a "video" game, but how could I not include electronic vibrating football? I still wake up to nightmares of my opponents running right past me while my defenders spin helplessly in circles. And then there was that gigantic orange quarterback who could throw those little foam footballs about 30 feet across the room but couldn't hit a receiver an inch and a half in front of his ugly plastic face.



Have you ever played football with three men on each team that look like kitchen appliances? I'd do it for hours and hours on end with my Atari. Then I'd start to get blisters on my hands from the joystick, so I'd switch to a game that used that circular controller and start to build all new blisters. After recovering, I'd switch back.



I remember playing 10 Yard Fight in the arcades moreso than at home. Since I wasn't old enough to bowl in my parents' league, I'd go through twenty bucks a night trying to beat the... red team...or was it the blue team? It doesn't matter, I'm color blind anyway. The best part about this game was the fact that when you'd "dive" on defense, your guy would pretty much fly for a good 8-10 yards in slow motion. Neat.



Ah...Tecmo Bowl. There were only four plays to choose from (2 passing plays and 2 running plays), and if your opponent chose the same one you did, you weren't going anywhere. I can still hear the quarterback going "DOWN! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT! HUT!" (remember that scene in Blues Brothers?) until I decided to finally snap the ball. Boy, my sister really hated it when I played that game!



Tecmo Super Bowl may still be the greatest football game ever released. All the teams, almost all of the players (except for QB12 Philadelphia and a few others), and a full season with playoffs and all. How can you beat that? I remember renting this game over the weekend, and I wouldn't eat or sleep (or poop) until I'd won the Super Bowl at least a dozen times. Merrill Hoge was awesome for the Steelers!



Play Action Football really was bad looking back on it. However, it was one of the first games that offered college teams (even though Penn State was "State of Penn" because the game wasn't licensed), so I still played it all the time. There was a top 25, bowl games, and everything. The fact that it was played diagonally and pretty much in slow motion didn't really matter to me back then. I still remember whooping up on "Tremble" (Temple, I think).



I'm pretty sure Madden '97 was the first Madden game I owned. I never upgraded after Super Nintendo, so all of my Madden games for the next 6 years were for the PC. Then I splurged for an X-Box (because it became too expensive to keep upgrading my computers). There always seemed to be glitches in the new games, and it always seemed as if the previous year's version was better. But when you go back and compare Madden '07 to Madden '97, you know there have indeed been some improvements.



I haven't purchased Madden '07 yet, and I don't know if I will or not. The fact that they put Super Bowl runner-up Shawn Alexander on the cover rather than one of my Super Bowl champion Steelers kind of ticked me off. But John Madden has hated the Steelers ever since the Immaculate Reception in 1972. Perhaps it's a good thing, since Alexander has suffered from the Madden curse by breaking his ankle. Of course, Ben Roethlisberger was almost killed in a motorcycle accident and then had appendicitis a couple of days before the season opener. So, maybe it didn't really matter.