Gary's Video Game List (as of 02/22/2017)

I was going to type up a lengthy piece about my love for video games, how it started, & why it continues at nearly 40 years of age, but instead I decided for the time being to post my list of video games that I have in my possession. It not only gives me another spot to look up the list, but it also lets whoever sees this take a little dive into my nerdy madness. :)

Nintendo
Contra
Battle Chess
Maniac Mansion
Pro Wrestling
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet
Tetris
Super Mario Bros. 3
Final Fantasy
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid
Super Mario Bros. 2
Dragon Warrior
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Déjà Vu
River City Ransom
Duck Tales
Battletoads
Super Dodge Ball
Super C
Mega Man 3
Tecmo Super Bowl

Super Nintendo
SimCity
Pilotwings
Vegas Stakes
F-Zero
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario World
Tetris & Dr. Mario
Mario Paint
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
Star Fox
Secret of Mana
Super Mario All-Stars
Final Fantasy III

Nintendo 64
Goldeneye 007
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Wrestlemania 2000
WWF No Mercy
WCW/NWO Revenge
Pokemon Snap
WWF Attitude
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Japanese version)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Pilotwings 64
WCW vs. NWO World Tour

Sega Genesis*
Paperboy 2
Comix Zone
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs
Jordan vs. Bird
Skitchin’
Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye
* The Sega Genesis is a third-party model manufactured by AtGames.  The Genesis has 80 games installed in the system: 40 games made by AtGames & 40 games made by Sega.

Nintendo GameCube
Pac-Man Vs. / Pac-Man World 2
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Mario Party 4
Mario Party 7
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Ocarina of Time: Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition
Outlaw Golf
F-Zero GX

PlayStation 2

The Guy Game
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Singstar 80s
Singstar Amped
Singstar Rocks
Singstar: Queen
Disney Enchanted Journey
MVP Baseball 2005
Jackass the Game
Risk: Global Domination
Stuntman
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Activision Anthology
Parappa the Rapper 2
The Sims 2
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts
Twisted Metal Black

PlayStation
WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role
Chrono Cross
The Game of Life
Parappa the Rapper
You Don’t Know Jack
You Don’t Know Jack Mock 2
Ten Pin Alley
Monopoly
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto 2
Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
Tekken 3
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
My Disney Kitchen
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII

Sega Dreamcast
Sega Marine Fishing
Sega Bass Fishing
Grand Theft Auto 2

Sega Game Gear
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Poker Face Paul’s Poker
Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Game Boy
Super Mario Land
Dr. Mario
Tetris
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX

Game Boy Color
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Game Boy Advance
Grand Theft Auto Advance
Dr. Mario
Super Dodge Ball Advance
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past / Four Swords
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Final Fantasy I & II

Nintendo 3DS                  * Nintendo DS games
Frozen: Olaf’s Quest
Hello Kitty! Picnic
New Super Mario Bros. *
Mario Kart DS *
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars *
Nintendogs: Chihuahua & Friends *
Nintendogs: Lab & Friends *

Atari 2600
Pac-Man
Donkey Kong
Missile Command
Space Invaders
Ms. Pac-Man
Defender
Berzerk
Combat
Kangaroo
Frogger
Galaxian
Asteroids
Centipede
Pitfall
River Raid
E.T.
Breakout
Super Breakout
Yars’ Revenge
Kaboom!
Tapper
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Jr. Pac-Man
Q*Bert
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Dig Dug

ColecoVision
Lady Bug

Xbox One  *all games are digital
Angry Birds: Star Wars
EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
Goat Simulator
Goat Simulator: Mmore Goatz Edition
Grand Theft Auto V
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Madden NFL ‘16
Monopoly Plus
NBA Live ‘16
Pinball FX 2
Pool Nation FX
Rare Replay
Scrabble
The Crew
The Pinball Arcade
Trivial Pursuit Live
WWE 2K16
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
Mortal Kombat XL
Risk
Risk: Urban Assault
Battleship
Boggle

Xbox 360  * games on disc
You Don’t Know Jack *
Nickelodeon Dance 2 *
Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection *
Angry Birds Trilogy *
Grand Theft Auto IV *
Grand Theft Auto V *
Rock Band 3 *
Rock Band: The Beatles *
Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’12 *
Madden NFL ’13 *
3D Ultra Mini Golf 2
3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures
Assassin’s Creed 2
Avatar Drop
Bankshot Billiards 2
Bomberman Live
Brain Challenge
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Burnout Revenge
Carnival Games
Charlie Murder
Chessmaster Live
Civilization Revolution
Contra
Dead Island
Diner Dash
Doom
Doom II
Double Dragon
Fable
Hasbro Family Game Night
Feeding Frenzy 2
Fight Night Champion
Frogger
Galaga
Galaga Legions
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Halo 3
Halo: Reach
Happy Wars
Hardwood Spades
Hexic HD
Monopoly
Mortal Kombat Arcade Collection
Motocross Madness
MX vs. ATV Alive
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
NFL Blitz
Pac-Man
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX +
Paperboy
Plants vs. Zombies
Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Table Tennis
Sega Bass Fishing
Sleeping Dogs
Smash TV
Sniper Elite V2
Sonic the Hedgehog
SSX
Streets of Rage 2
Super Street Fighter IV
Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl / ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
The Raven
The Walking Dead
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD
Trivial Pursuit
UNO
Wheel of Fortune
Who’s The Daddy? 2
Wits & Wagers
Word Puzzle
Zuma
Zuma’s Revenge

The Great Unknown

         It was long overdue for me to wipe the dust off my blog & make an entry.  Sadly for me, it's for all the wrong reasons.
         I must preface this by saying that I will try to be dignified in this post, but my emotions are not in a stable state as of this writing so this could turn into a slanderous mess.
         This also will cast Kira in a VERY bad light, & while I have very justifiable reasons for my current feelings towards her, I don't expect everybody to judge her based solely on her actions.
         Since I'm notorious for "beating around the bush" & intentionally building things up for dramatic effect, let me cut to the issue at hand:  Kira & I have split up.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Pretty straight to the point. Well..........
          There's WAY much more to this than your average, drama-filled, soon-to-be divorce, & it's very hard to explain.  Only Kira can fully discuss about herself & her issues.  I have tried to be there for her when her depression hit all-time lows, but it was hard to relate when I've had such a good life (self-inflicted issues aside).  I'm also the first to admit that I'm far from the perfect....well, anything.  I have many faults as well, & a lot of these faults became one of the many reasons that led to where we are right now.
          However, regardless of who's right & who's wrong, the revelation I received yesterday made the whole thing that much amplified x100:  Kira had been having an affair that dates back to OCTOBER 2013.  Yes, that is capitalized intentionally. With a co-worker. 
          "Too numb to cry, too angry to reason" is a text that I sent to Kira last night, & it fits pretty accurately.  Questions flowed out of me: Why now?  Why did you wait this long? WHY DID YOU DUPE ME INTO GETTING THIS NEW PLACE & THEN DROP THIS SHIT ON ME?  You know, basic post-breakup questions.  Well, for what it's worth, Kira has taken the full brunt of this & has placed no blame on me, but her mental illness & what she has been going through.  I could try to be somewhat sympathetic, but I just can't right now.
          By the way, this is a recurring theme for me in regards to relationships:  girl dumps Gary, but makes sure to have a gentleman close by, kind of like a dick in a glass case.
          To fully try to explain everything would be a lesson in patience for myself, & my biggest worry right now is my children & my need to somehow remain cordial with Kira for the sake of them so it's hard for me to concentrate on multiple things at the moment, a bad thing to have given my line of work.  To say the timing of all of this (new house, Kali starts school tomorrow, etc....) is horrendous would be an understatement, but I have to press on for my kids.  I have to put my normal happy face that everybody is accustomed to, though my feelings are MUCH different.
          If anybody really wishes to talk about it with me, Facebook is the way.  I can give you my phone number if needed.  Despite what she did to me, I don't want to drag her name or reputation through the mud.  Her actions speak for themselves, regardless of whatever reasons exist for this split.

Friendship

Friendship.....you just can't live without it.

Everybody needs friends....people to turn to during stressful situations, people to build memories with, people who can rely on you for advice & guidance....& maybe people who will chip in on a 12 pack of beer once in a while.

I've been blessed with being able to make a lot of friends in my life. From childhood to the present time, I can't even begin to list all the individuals who I have come across. Each & every person has left an impact on me, whether good or bad, & I can crack a devious smile knowing that I can re-live those memories, be it in my head or through old videos & pictures.

But now I'm 32 years old & the brutal reality is that I rarely hang out with anybody anymore. A lot of it is life....you tend to go down your chosen path & end up not having any time anymore for those old shenanigans. But once in a while I still would like to believe that, one day, all of us could get together & re-live the experience one more time....for old time's sake.

Nowadays, there really isn't a group or clique that exists anymore. The last, tight knit group of friends that I have (known simply as "The Guys") rarely make appearences anymore. Pat & Mike are burdened by no transportation & Mike's current work schedule at Kroger's, Matt Keith has limited his appearences to mainly Wednesday evenings due to his thrid shift commitments at Wal-Mart, and Rob, for reasons only known to him, has decided to pretty much stop calling & coming over altogether...I haven't talked to him or seen him since May. Yet I still consider these guys my friends. No arguments, bad falling-outs, or anything like that...it's just the way the cookie crumbles, so to speak.

The world of Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with a lot of individuals from my past & it's been nifty....that's right, I said "nifty". The greatest thing about Facebook is that I've been able to locate the majority of my old friends from years past, people who I haven't seen or talked to in many years.

For starters, there's "The Brotherhood"....a ragtag group of trailer park hoodrats who made my childhood quite fun, to say the least. The list of misfits from that clan reads like a high school yearbook (or criminal defendant list, depending on who you ask)....Scott Cadell, Andy Carlson, Rob Smith, J.D. Nicholson, Jason Silva, Jake Slawik, Rhyne Spencer, Craig Scott, Jason McClaskey, Dwayne Tesch, Jeremy Williams & his stepbrother Mike K. These guys & I were a tight knit group of teenagers, causing chaos while having loads of fun doing it. We were all involved with an equally mischevious group of girls from East Peoria who kept up with us in every aspect....Erica Forden, Tiffanie McNeese, Sarah Hoffer, Kristina Sayers & Autumn Martin (who resided in Pekin), among other supporting cast members. Facebook has reunited me with almost all of these individuals (except for Andy, who is busy with work & family, although I do have his sister Juanita on my friend list, Jeremy because I have absolutley no interest in locating him as he was disowned long ago by everybody & Autumn, who has vanished from the face of the earth). Let me ask you this....if Facebook wasn't invented, do you REALLY think that we all would have kept in touch?

There also was "The Rock & Roll Society", my high school clique. Jesus H. Christ, Esq., were we ever a bunch of troublemakers! Rob Spear, Rick Miller, Jake Simonsen & Mike Johnson brought me out of the trailer park & into a whole new world of hell raising. To document our exploits would be a riot....it would also probably cast some of us in a non-favorable light. With the exception of Rick, I maintain FB contact with everybody else, & as mentioned earlier, Mike still makes occassional apperances.

My other friends have come from different eras of my life. Some were other childhood friends from the trailer park, some were other buddies from high school. There were the main trailer court chicks that I grew up with...& then there was everybody I met during the infamous Summer of '98, particulary those hip cats from Princeville, the lovely women from Metamora/Germantown Hills & East Peoria & other well-to-do people from the Tri-County area. Sorry if you're not named, but you know who you are!

I'm rambling here....

The point of all of this is that it's a honor to still consider all of you as friends. We may not see each other much, we may not hang out every weekend....shit, we might barely get the chance to even talk. But what matters is that we all can still (via Facebook, at least) keep up on tabs with how we all are doing. I would like to believe that while we may not physically be kicking it together, mentally we can still throwback to the days of yore, when there wasn't a damn care in the world & we did whatever the fuck we wanted to....with reckless abandon.

Maybe one day, all of us can plan a one-off reunion. Get everybody together & have a BBQ perhaps, or meet at some pre-determined location & have one last hurrah before we all dive back into our individual lives. Now THAT would be something for the books........

Random Mumblings

Welcome back, sirs & madams!

If any of you have ever followed my MySpace account, you'll remember that I used to post various blogs, appropriately titled "Random Mumblings". This was my attempt at stringing together various thoughts, ideas, & other general bullshit that I swept out of the diaries & memoirs inside of my brain. So without further ado, let's dust off the cobwebs & do this....

-The Fuson family vacation trip to Wisconsin Dells was amazing. It was much needed for all of us....for me, it was a much needed break from the daily grind of the Red Cross. For Kira, it was the epitome of stress relief...stress that comes with dealing with me & the kids. For the boys, it was a chance to blow off some steam & have some fun that didn't involve a computer or a Xbox 360. For Kali, it was her very first road trip & she handled it like a pro.
There were a few minor snags that made us think that some sign from God was trying to tell us that we shouldn't have made the trip....Kira's hospital visit, the car rental place denying me the van that we had already made reservations for due to credit problems (BTW...fuck Avis! If you really need great service without the hassle, go to Enterprise), my lack of directional sense that made the 4 hour trip up there turn into 7 hours...you catch my drift. But all of those problems were washed away when we saw our resort, hit the water parks (although many of them were closed due to it being the middle of the week & lack of tourists) & went out for family dinners in the evenings. All in all, an excellent time that I'm sure none of us will ever forget!

-A couple of plugs to mention here: everybody needs to check out my friend Dallas & his concept EP "Faces Vol. 1", as well as his CD "Yeah That's My Real Name". Midwest hip-hop at it's finest! Hit http://www.indyground.com/ for more information!
Another old buddy of mine, John Farmer, has a really good band he's involved in called The Aposematics. Really eclectic & worth listening to! Head on over to http://theaposematics.com/ to find out more!
Lastly, my childhood friend Spencer has started up his own woman's Roller Derby League! You can e-mail him at rivercityrollergirls@hotmail.com to obtain more info. Also check out the official website at http://rivercityrollergirls.vpweb.com!

-Speaking of friends, the main group has somewhat splintered off, mainly due to this wonderful experience we call life. Rob rarely comes over anymore due to other committed plans he always has, Matt still stops by but only for 3 hours on Saturdays due to his 3rd shift commitments at Wal-Mart, & both Pat & Mike have no transportation to speak of. Oh well....as Blink 182 once iterated, "Well I guess this is growing up...".

Well..time to wrap this up for today. Kira has headed off for the day to attend a get together for her mom & stepdad's 25th anniversary & I'm here with Kali & the boys so I must put on my "Mr. Mom" hat (whatever that may look like!) & get to doing some things around the house.

Remember....if you're gonna be good, be good at it & don't get caught!

Random Mumblings

Wow....where do I start?

It's been a while, kids, & I've found myself being a completely different dude than the Gary of years ago. Married, 3 kids, living in a modest 3 bedroom house in Bartonville & working for the American Red Cross. Years ago, I was unemployed, living with my parents & REALLY fucked up on various chemicals & liquids.

Goes to show you what maturity can do to somebody.

Not that I'm 100% mature....let's not get too jumpy here. I still play video games, still have my longtime friends over for weekend shenanigans (whatever they may be). There is really no way the inner child in me will ever grow up.

Ever since I turned 30, I 've been in a "reflective" frame of mind. Always reminiscing about years past, re-living stories good & bad, finding myself reaching for the wore out, yet trusty photo album. Facebook hasn't really helped my cause as it's allowed me to reconnect with numerous old friends & acquaintences. 108 friends.....and I know each & every one of them. Not to throw out any digs at people who have upwards of 500-1000 "friends" on their list, but everybody who has added me or I've added myself are family or friends who I can at least share one good story about, validating how I know this person.

As much as I dislike the city of Peoria, my roots are firmly planted there. That damn trailer park off of Knoxville St. was my longtime stomping grounds. Everything I learned about life was taught to me or self taught within the cozy confines of Royal Highlander Mobile Estates. The fights, the games, the days & nights of chaoticness that came with hanging out in our clique. Don't even ask about the Summer of '98....that's another blog for another time (I promise).

Every Saturday & Sunday, Lite Rock 106.9 plays their "Awesome 80's Weekend". I'll head downstairs to the basement & flip on the shitty JVC boombox that resides down there. The moment that first song hits, I'm in flashback mode. You ever heard about how certain songs take you back to a certain moment and/or place in your life? Add some early-mid 90's music to the mix & it's a fucking soundtrack to my life!

But as everybody knows very well, there's no time machine. Time only moves forward & all we can do is get old & plan our next course in life. That's not to say that it's necessarily a bad thing, it's just life....and I love my current state in life. I'm married to the greatest woman ever, my children are everything I could ever imagine (no matter how much of a pain in the ass they could be), & I find myself pretty content.

From the skinny, young rugrats to the East Peoria girls (both groups!)...from the Brotherhood to the Rock & Roll Society...from the hazy days of '98 to my self-imposed recovery in '00...it's been one hell of a journey. And I can't thank each & every one of you enough for being a part of it!

This blog will serve to mainly let me clear my mind once a while, but also to re-live some of those funny childhood/teenage stories. Nobody will be safe....including myself! :)

Welcome To My Brain!!!

That's right....I have now set up my own blog site! Nobody checks MySpace anymore & Facebook still doesn't really have a good blogging spot so here I am.

Feel free to read, comment, whatever the hell you wish...as long as it's not immoral and/or illegal!

I'll also be breaking out the old cut & paste method to some of my old MySpace blogs. Kinda gives you a peek at what little creative writing I have in me!