Daredevil Born Again Marvel Premier Collection TPB

 

TITLE-Daredevil Born Again

SOURCE-Marvel Premier Collection TPB

Ahh Born Again the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli Daredevil run that is now becoming the newest season of the Daredevil TV show. And I'm guessing that show is why I found this TPB from 2024 in a local Walmart. Couldn't pass it up for 15 bucks.

I was 11 when Daredevil vol 1 #227 came out. I had read most of Miller's first run on DD. But by this time I was deep into other Marvel titles and a few indie books. Thankfully the comic shop owner talked me into adding Daredevil back to my pull list. 

Sat down the day after buying this TPB and unlike most comics I didn't just toss it into a stack and leave it unread for months/years. Nah those first 3 pages of issue 227 caught my attention and about an hour later I had read Born Again for the first time since I'm guessing 2003.

So what is Born Again? This was when  Frank Miller decided to revamp Daredevil. He lost everything,his law firm,his license to practice law,his home. Lost it all. And all because his old girlfriend Karen Page had sold him out. She had moved out west years before to do movies. Ended up doing adult films. Got on drugs and in the first 3 pages we see her desperate for a fix. Telling her dealer "I know Daredevil's real name" handing this man this info. Then over the course of a week seeing this info make it's way up the chain to Kingpin. A man  who wants to destroy Daredevil. And armed with this info will do that.That first issue ends with Matt Murdock at his now blown up home. Holding the tattered remains of his costume. 

The next issue titled Purgatory has Matt going and confronting Kingpin getting beaten almost to death. Then placed in an old car and thrown into the river. He escapes barely. And Kingpin finds out the car was found but no body in it. Which haunts him.

3rd issue has Matt homeless living with the bums in the alleys. He gets knifed by a guy in a Santa outfit. Ben ,a repoter at the Daily Bugle that knows Matt is Daredevil,is told to not investigate the Kingpin's war on Matt Murdock. After the knife attack a badly wounded Matt ends up being taken to the care of Sister Maggie.

4th issue Karen makes it back to NYC,thanks to a dealer that takes an interest in her. Ben after having his life threatened almost kills the story on Kingpin. Kingpin has a Daredevil costume made for a violent mental patient. And Matt learns Sister Maggie is his mother. Who he had been told died when he was born.

Issue 231 has Matt fighting the fake Daredevil in a brutal fight for a code approved comic in the 80s. Ben keeps working on his story which almost cost his wife her life. And a somewhat happy ending with Matt and Karen re-uniting.

232 Karen kicks heroin. And Kingpin uses his connections to bring in the semi failed experiment on the Super Soldier project,this time a Nam era soldier known as Nuke. Who is a upper addict and being used by a black ops group to go fight battles the US proper can't be in. Sent to Hell's Kitchen this super soldier might be more than Daredevil,who is just healed from the beating in the second issue,can handle.

233 is just perfect. The Avengers show up and take care of Nuke. Daredevil delivers Nuke to Ben's desk at the Bugle and a few people that helped Kingpin take down Matt Murdock flip on Kingpin. Sure Kingpin will not do time but he lost a major amout of power. We end with Matt and Karen in Hell's Kitchen celebrating they made it through all this alive.

If it was just those issues ,and they are recolored,it would be worth the 15 bucks. Nah we get more. We get layouts from Mazzucchelli. Then the complete script to issue 233. Plus the covers of all the TPB collections of this. Every cover in this collection without the logos and stuff.

Just a loaded collection. Sure it is a tiny bit smaller in height and width than a normal TPB. Still for this cheap price it is worth grabbing.

Daredevil Born Again Marvel Premier Collection TPB gets a A.

The Dream Team DVD

 

TITLE-The Dream Team

SOURCE-Universal DVD

Talk about a forgotten comedy. Might be it got overshadowed by Keaton's other big hit in 89,some film called Batman,might just be this wasn't as big as I thought it was.

Michael Keaton is a pathological liar and has anger issues, which means he has spent the last year or so in a Mental Hospital in New Jersey. His therapy group has Peter Boyle,who thinks he is Jesus,Christopher Lloyd,a neat freak that believes he is a doctor at the hospital and Steven Furst ,who only speaks in TV soundbytes. Their doctor arranges for them to go see a baseball game in NYC. But on the way they stop for Furst to take a piss break.  I know the feeling when ya gotta piss you GOTTA PISS.

While in an alley for Steven to piss,the doctor sees to corrupt cops kill someone. Doctor gets knocked out and taken to a near by hospital. Listed as John Doe. Furst gets back to their van but can't explain to them what happened.So you got 4 mental hospital patients loose in NYC and the wacky hyjynx start. 

Keaton of course is the lead. And I sometimes forget he was always great in comedies. For me though Boyle and Lloyd steal the movie. One scene has the four going into the  hospital to see their doctor. Boyle is dressed up like a nurse. Sees a man laying on a gurney in the hallway "You are healed my son. Get up and walk" Boyle tells him. They keep passing by and in  the background you can see the man attempt to stand and just fall flat to the floor.

Lloyd has a great scene where he goes to visit his wife and daughter. Both of whom he hasn't talked to since he went to the hospital. All thru out the film Lloyd has a clipboard with him. Won't let anyone touch it. But when his daughter asks for it to put her drawings on you can see him struggle to let it go but he does.

Of course our group saves the day. The corrupt cops get taken down. And all ends well. With Keaton even meeting back up with an ex-girlfriend.

While the premise is nothing but that part from Once Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,when Jack takes the guys out for a day in the city,just expaneded to a full length movie. What makes this stand out is the casting. While Keaton,Lloyd and Boyle are still remembered for how great they are/were,Steven Furst is forgotten.. Back then he was a bigger name cause of St Elsewhere.

The dvd looks decent sounds good. And it is an older DVD release. The extras are a trailer and a few TV spots. I do know this has a blu ray release and I plan on  tracking it down soon.

The Dream Team while not even in the top 10 comedies from the 80s is still worth seeing.

The Dream Team gets a B-.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids DVD

 

TITLE-Honey I shrunk the Kids
SOURCE-Disne DVD

By the time this was out in 1989 I was rarely seeing any Disney film. But sometime in 1990 my mother was home for the weekend. Wanted to rent a movie. So up to Homeport Video I went got this and something else. Watched the movie, enjoyed it and never saw it again.

Sure I watched the TV based on the film, but not until it was on THE HUB all the time. Never saw the sequels and really had forgotten most of this first film. Then weeks ago at a thrift found it cheap. 

Mom was wanting something to watch after dinner. I knew I had this so put it one. Ok why was Disney release movies in 4:3 format on DVD?

Rick Moranis is a inventor.  Working on a shrink ray. It accidently gets triggered. Shrinks his two kids plus the sons of the next door neighbors,who are played by Matt Frewer and the lady that was Buffy's mom on Buffy the Vampire slayer tv show. 

The kids get sucked up by a dust buster and then put in the trash. Ending up in the far back part of the backyard. Most of the film is the 4 kids traveling the back yard. With some great action parts. Like when the son of Rick and the neighbor's oldest son end up riding a bee. The fight between the ant the kids train and a scorpion is also well done. Then you get that bit near the end with the lawnmower. Of course being a Disney film you know the kids survive and get made normal size at the end.

The FX work surprised me in how well it hold up. Lots of this was done on sets with oversized props so looks amazing. The green screen stuff doesn't look as good. While still not looking like total crap.

No extras on the disc. Wasn't expecting any when I saw it was 4:3. The audio is clear. The picture looks crisp.

Honey I shrunk the Kids gets a solid B+

Doomsday Squad #1

 

TITLE-Doomsday Squad Issue 1

PUBLISHER-Fantagraphics

Now I had heard about this 70s John Byrne series for years. Might have even flipped through an issue before. But until recently never owned an issue never read an issue.

Was a nice day shocking warm for this time of year. Filled up my travel tumbler with drink,grabbed a stack of comix and was sitting on my back porch reading comix and looking out at the lake.

Had just got this Fantagraphics reprint. Oh yea while this serie started in the 70s,published as Doomsday + 1 by Charlton,it got recolored and reprinted in the 80s by Fantagraphics once Johny Byrne had made his name on a few titles over at Marvel. Recolored cause anyone that has read Charlton stuff can tell you the colors were either average or horrible.

Set in the new future a few scientists are on a space statio orbiting the Earth. A nuclear war breaks out and they watch it from outer space. Rations are almost out so they try to figure out where to land. Possibly they are the land humans alive. 

Discovering that thanks to a storm Greenland has low radiation levels that is where they land. Seeing on the way that the ice melting has caused almost all the coastal cities world wide to flood.

Landing in Greenland they see a Wooly Mammoth trapped in an ice flow. This melts and also what appears to be a ancient Viking is freed. After escaping this Viking joins the group and they start to a port to find a ship and head off. Hoping to find supplies and maybe other humans.

This is a very 70s sci fi series. Byrne at this time wasn't a great writer,and still this 1 issue got me to go order the rest of the run. There is 7 total. All easy to find in the Fantagraphics reprint run.

The art is that 70s/early 80s John Byrne. Back before he started going to fast. One of the female scientists has redhair and in Greenland puts on a black snowsuit. Making her look like mid 70s era Black Widow.

If you enjoy 70s sci fi and/or John Byrne art track this down. Bonus each issue has a new back up story with various properties Fantagraphics was publishing back then. Issue one  a  Dalgoda story. Always love the art on Dalgoda but the story has never caught and kept my attention.

Doomsday Squad #1 gets a B-.

Stray Bullets Issue 6

 

TITLE-Stray Bullets issue 6

SOURCE-El Capitan Comics 

I have heard for 30 years now how great Stray Bullets was. And over those 3 decades collected a stack of the 40 or so issues. Just never really sat down read any of them. 

Seems this issue is a one and done. We meet Amy Racecar, a young girl who is in something that isn't a coma but that is the closest I can think of to what she is in. She doesn't talk or move. And in her head she is talking to God and learns that when you die you fade into nothingness. Heaven isn't waiting on you.

After years of all kinds of doctors trying all they can ,Amy's mother is at the end of her rope. So when a group of feds show up and offer to test out the new experimental Truth Machine on Amy the mother accepts. Once the machine is turned on they all see Amy in Heaven with God and learn what Amy knows about Heaven. Causing the Truth Machines inventor to jump out the window.

Momma Racecar gets mad. Grabs a knife starts attacking her daughter. Carving up her face. Then Amy regains conciousness,and kills everyones in the house. 

Amy goes on the run ,becoming a bank robber. Thanks to a FBI agent that is in love with Amy she keeps escaping. Then finally she is caught put on trial and the Truth Machine is used on her again. The world now knows what Amy knows. Heaven isn't where you go when you die. And it causes all kinds of shit to happen. 

The President talks Amy into saying she followed the machine. After this she gets offered a job. Going around talking to at risk teens. But before she can accept she rushes off to an escape pod in the White house and flies off into space.

Now haven't read the next issue I'm guessing the entire issue was in Amy's head as she lays in bed in her Not Coma. But I have no clue.

Amazing art plus a great panel layout and good writing makes this a series I now want to read all of.

Stray Bullets Issue 6 gets a A.

Piranha DVD

 

Title-Piranha

SOURCE-Shout Factory DVD

Yea normally I save horror stuff for October. Just after watching this the other night I felt the need to write about it. Now I have covered the 90s remake and the 2000s remake on this blog before. And I've seen  the original many times. 

First time viewing it had to be when it premiered on network tv. Sure it was some channels Movie of the week,who else remembers that? Each major OTA network would have a night of the week where they showed cut for tv versions of big movies. Would be a big deal when stuff like Alien played tv for the first time. I had to be 8 or so when I first saw Piranha and I loved it.

The plot is Jaws but replacing the giant shark with a pile of mutated piranhas. They are heading to a water resort and of course the owner doesn't want to shut it down.

Cheesy and cheaply made this is still the best Jaws rip off from that era. Decent FX work,ok acting and a decent plot.

This DVD is loaded. Got a great commentary,that is full of info on  the film. A almost 20 minute long featurette with Corman and others that worked on  the film. They even dug up the scenes added back into the TV version. Back in the day lots of the time when  a film was edited for tv it would cause the running time to be too short,average movie needed to be 90 to 95 minutes so a 2 hour block would have 25 to 30 minutes of ads,so cut scenes would be added back in. Some films even  had new scenes filmed for the tv version.

I know there is a great blu ray of this out there. Betting a 4k is either out or out soon. This DVD is a great cheap choice if you want to try out the film

Piranha gets a B-.

The Jerk 26th Anniversary Edition DVD

 

TITLE-The Jerk
SOURCE-26th Anniversary DVD

Talk about a film I saw often as a kid and then haven't watched in maybe 30 years. Steve Martin is a white man born into a black family in rural Mississippi. He heads out to make his life and just has wacky adventures.

The film is just one hour and almost 30 minutes of Steve Martin going wild on screen. With enough plot to connect the bits. 

For a bit he is working at a gas station. Which is a bit I remember seeing many times on  TV. Or when he joins the traveling carnival. Working as the guy that guesses your weight. He ends up hooking up with the lady daredevil motorcycle driver. Which brings one of the best scenes. Every few weeks Martin will mail some money home and send a letter. You get the famiyl all gathered around as Steve's mother reads this letter. "And I might be able to send more money next week getting a extra job,Shelia mentioned a blow job" And Steve's brother just busts out laughing while the rest of the family is puzzled.

Thanks to a tiny invention he made at the gas station Steve ends up rich. Married to Bernadette Peters and living in a huge manstion. Then he loses it all. But that money he was sending home his Dad invested it well and we end with the entire family back at the shack in rural Mississippi celebrating their new wealth.

The Jerk gets a A-.

Video Games and Me Modern times

 

In early 1997 I sold off most of what I owned. Left  a pile in the house. And moved two states to the west. Once out there and settled came back to see most of my old video game stuff was stolen. Just had a NES that had been stashed in the top of a hall closet.

Then not long before Xmas buddy from the comic shop told me "Look had to get my car fixed pawned my Playstation and the games. Here's the pawn ticket go pay for it and it is yours."

And that is how I ended up with a first model Playstation,3 memory cards and a stack of about 20 games. Thinking the rarest was Diablo. Over the next 2 years I would off and on buy PS1 games. Lots of the Namco collections. And stuff like that great collection of Activision Atari 2600 games. 

It was also the first system since my 2600 my mother would play. Not far from where I worked was a bowling alley. I never gave a shit about bowling but they had a diner. I could go there for lunch eat and smoke 2 cigs. Plus they had 2 pinball machines,always loved pinball. And a NEO GEO Cab. Which had Metal Slug and Bust a move 2. I had gotten Bust a Move 2 for my ps1. Mom was over saw me playing it asked to try it out. And yep not long afterwards she had her own PS1 and Bust a move and a few of the Namco Collections.

Sept 99 Dreamcast comes out. I am on my way to buy one. And tire blows. Well crap my spare tire is not great. Put it on and realize what I am about to spend on the Dreamcast I need for a tire. Was a bit over a year after launch a local game store had a deal. Dreamcast,1 vmu and crazy taxi for 100 bucks. By this time had a buddy that could burn Dreamcast games. And with the system looking like it was dead in the states it wasn't hard to find games cheap.

Between the emulation discs,could do 2600 to 16 bit era pretty well,and the 4 controller ports it became the party machine. Got friends over fire up the Dreamcast and put on some games. 

When Nintendo announced the Gamecube that came with the Zelda collection I got that. Played that and like the 2 X Men Legends games on it. Again it was another that got played if people were over.

Even got a PS2 for cheap. Barely got touched. I just had fallen out of video games. 

Fall of 2007 I moved again. Was bored one day and walked into Gamestop looked and saw like 10 games on the DS I wanted to play. Grabbed them and a used DS and for the next 10 years that is what I played. Still got close to 100 DS games. A good stack of GBA games. 

What changed it for me. Was getting  a Retron 5. Now I got a system that plays 8 bit thru 16 bit. Plus first 3 Gameboys. Yea the stock controllers blow. Was easy to get Genesis and SNES controllers. I got a smallish collection of retro games. Was lucky the area I live in now didn't catch onto retro video games for a few years longer than most. So was able to build a decent collection without dropping big money.

Now pretty much all I keep hooked up is that Retron 5 back in my bedroom. Then the living room....oh I got that tv loaded.

Pandoras Box-Yea finally got one. Found one that was 40 bucks shipped. Got two kind of ok at best PS3 style controllers. When I need to kill some time fire this up and got supposedly 10,000 games to play.

NES Classic-Oddly I played the hell out of this when I first got it. Now it sits. Not sure why.

Genesis Mini-Gets played often. 

Then the big thing. 2021 birthday I got the OG Evercade portable. And started getting the carts I wanted.
The Evercade is a portable and home console series of systems. They take carts. And the carts are full of licensed retro games. For example I love River City Ransom and Super DodgeBall on the NES. Those two cart only will run you 40 or more on the NES. I got Technos VOL 1 on the evercade for 20 bucks and it has those 2 plus 10 more games.

The home console evercade is the VS got that. Love it keep it hooked up the living  room tv. Just a nice little system that not only has the older games but newer games made for older systems. Like the ALIENS meets SMASH TV inspired Xeno Crisis. Then 10 months the year you connect to VS to your home WIFI and get a free game. Yep the next year they collect all 10 games on the Indie Heroes vol ??? carts.

I mentioned Bust a Move in a part of this series. How my mother loved it and got a PS1 just for that. Well she wanted to play it again. Evercade put out a series of OG Gameboy looking handhelds,the Super Pockets. And they come with Taito games built in. So she got her Bust a Move to play.

As each video game generation passes I see less and less I want to play. Guessing this Evercade ecosystem is the last I will be part of.

Video Games and Me My teen years

 

It was 1990 I was flipping through a video game magazine, odds are it was EGM or Gamepro,saw the above and and knew I had to have one. 

Having already had a chance to play the Mega Drive. Short story. Once I hit 12 and was in Jr High one of my new friends had an uncle that had lived in Japan for years. Now lived back in the states but him and his wife would go back to Japan at least once a year to visit her family. So he,named Dean,had a Famicom. We would go over to my buddy's place and play Famicom stuff months before it got released for the NES. One day over there buddy tells me SEGA had a new console and Dean had it. I was tempted after playing the Mega Drive that day to ask Dean to buy me one next trip to Japan..

By 1990 I was working weekends and  school holidays/summer break on my dad's shrimp. Getting paid as a deckhand. So between my weekly allowance, which at the time was enough for me to get 2 CDs each week from Record Bar, and shrimping money I was doing good. But I didn't just want the stock Genesis I want it and a few games. So was looking at having to save up 300 or 400 bucks.

Then I got a good idea I had a huge comic collection. Knew the comic shop owner was a huge Carl Barks fan. I had piles of Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics. Got taken to the comic shop and walked out with 200 bucks. With the 150 I already had it was enough.

Once I got the Genesis that NES was moved and regulated to the tiny B/W tv in my bedroom. For years I had a 2 tv set up in my room. One was a 13 inch B/w tv that was my first tv back there. Once I got a color tv and got the NES I would keep my 2600 hooked up to the B/w tv. Then when I got my Genesis the NES got moved to that b/w tv.  Was times there was 2 of use playing the Genesis then 2 more playing the NES at the same time. All while a CD was playing on my bedroom stereo.

A year later and I had Sonic and my Genesis was played from when I got home until I crashed out. My father was now working in Southeast Texas. Mom would go out at least 1 weekend a month to visit him. I would stay home. Was up late one Friday,Mom is gone,phone rings and it is a buddy. Asking if I could run him into town to visit his pregnant GF. 

Go get him we go visit and on the ride home he asks if I knew the local party house owner. Told him I knew the guy's name but never been there. "Pull into the Exxxon's parking lot." In buddy goes he calls the party house and they are all up. Go over meet everyone and get asked what I was doing that weekend.

This group of people would go thrifting on the weekends. I got invited to go and the next day we found a Atari 2600 with 20 games and controllers. Was 10 bucks.

Buddy that owned the party house mentions he thinks his old Atari is back at his grannies home. So trip home we stop by there grab his system and games. That night we sit there drinking cheap beer and playing Atari 2600. Which made me realize how much I missed those old games. 

The next day I called up the guy I had given all those games too. Offered him 50 bucks for the games. Get told for that much I can have them and his NES with 30 games.

And so started journey into retro video games. Back in this era 2600 systems were 5 to 10 bucks. Carts were quarter to at most 5 bucks. We had no clue what was rare. But had games we thought were. Stuff like Chase the Chuckwagon,which I had 2 copies of. Or the infamous Custer's Revenge. Hell cause out of the now 400+ Atari games in the group collection we only had 1 copy of Pitfall II. Which made us assume it was rare.

Many weekends were spent at yard sales and thrifts. We all had a notebook we kept with a list of the games we had. Plus learned that no matter how much beer you drink you can still play 2600 games.

Yea the Genesis still got played. The NES sat untouched. But the 2600s got so much play.

Wasn't until 98 and a major move that I got back into modern games. 

Video Games and Me The Early Years

 

I was born at the perfect time to experience that late 70s thru early 80s video game boom. Got vivid memories of being a kid of maybe 4. Standing on a chair so I could play Space Invaders. My older cousin standing there pumping quarters into the machine. 

And I was hooked. Every place had  a few video game machines. Grocery stores,corner stores,gas stations and I would ask for quarters. Go out to have pizza at Godfather's Pizza for dinner, that means I get a chance to play Tempest and Centipede. Dad wants to goto a nearby lounge to shoot pool, I want to go cause the place has Dig Dug and Zaxxon.

Then not long before I turned 5 and started Kindergarten two older cousins each got an Atari 2600. So visits to see them meant I got to play video games at home and didn't need quarters. I wanted a 2600 bad. Factoring in inflation that 2600 would be 250 or so in modern money. Which was way more than my parents would spend on me for Xmas or my birthday. Then thanks to the already mentioned Godfather's Pizza I found me a way to get one.

Godfathers had a contest. Was a picture of the mascot in the newspaper. Cut it out color it and there was 3 prizes. 1st place was trip for 4 to Disney World,which I had been too already. 2nd place was a Atari 2600 system. 3rd place I don't remember. I colored that picture. Got mom to drop it off. Then weeks later we get the call I have won second place. 

The ride to town and then back home felt like it was 5 hours long, when it was at most 30 minutes round trip. Get home dad hooks it up and we start playing Combat. Which was the only game I had. It is 2 player only. It was Friday when I won it. That night after I goto bed it starts raining. Lots of the county floods. School gets canceled for 3 days. So I am stuck at home with a new Atari. Only got a 2 player game and Mom don't play it. That Monday after dad got home from work   Mom went "grocery shopping" and said I couldn't come. Which was odd. Normally I would go with her and read comics while waiting. She gets home hours later and has me a new game Pac Man. Yep it is hated  now but I played the living fuck out of it back then.

From then and IIRC this was September 1980 until summer of 84 I would get like 2 or 3 games for Xmas and 2 for my birthday. Would trade games with my cousins and friends that lived nearby. And I had a decent collection built up. Even had the track ball controller. 

Then the crash of 84 hit. Now I had no clue what happened. Just that it went from being 25 to 40 for an Atari game to games being 10 bucks or less. Now I could buy them myself. Xmas and Birthdays went from gettiing 3 games at each to getting 20 games. By 86 my 2600 collection was over 100 games. Mom carried a list of what I had in her purse and at places like TG&Y and Woolco finding games for a buck.

1986 we get back from Xmas break. Buddy telling us he got a new video game system. The NES, with a pile of games. Seems his dad had to order it from some store up north.

Now those games looked ,to us back then,just like the arcade versions. No more "Oh this is so close to the arcade." Nope we had legit arcade games in the home. So again begged parents for a NES. Got told nope already got the 2600 and piles of games.

Too young to get a job. My allowance  ain't much. But I had a huge Hot Wheels,Star Wars figure and comic book collection. And all those Hot Wheels got sold. Buck for each car. There was 50 or so bucks. Sold the Star Wars figures for 2 bucks each,they had all their guns. Now I got right at 90 bucks. NES I want is 130. My birthday is soon. Will get cash so I will have that NES soon.

Day of my birthday I am opening gifts. Keeping a total in my head of how much cash I got. Between aunts and grandparents got right at 170 total now in cash. Sweet can get a NES and maybe a game too.
Then mom brings out a huge package. I open it and there is the NES. 

So next day I head to the nearest KB toys and got as many games as 170 bucks could get me.

The rest of that summer break was spent playing my huge stack of games. Being not only one of the few kids in the neighborhood with a NES but also having close to 15 games meant by 10am there was always a few kids over playing the NES.

Just like with the 2600 I would get a few games for my birthday and Xmas. Usually 2 at each. But by now I was working part time on my father's shrimp boat. So I had money. Maybe a year after this the 2600 stopped working. Knowing what I know now I am betting it was a faulty power supply, a super easy fix. But back then I just assumed I needed a new system. And yea the 2600 jr was 50 bucks. Still 50 bucks was 1 or 2 NES games. The 2600 got boxed up and put in the closet. That huge box of over 200 now 2600 games was given to the lil brother of a girl I was dating.

1990 is when it all changed. New system, rediscovered the 2600 and learned the joys of retro games.