Personal Top Lists & Rankings

1. sinking ships on the C64
2. Championship Manager

I haven't really branched out since then.

The absolute best place I’d rather be right now:



Though honestly, even the Opatija festival is pretty great. 😁

grandpa the du du monkey said:The absolute best place I’d rather be right now:



Though, honestly, even the Opatija festival wouldn't be a bad way to spend the time. 😁

I'm with you on that one 😢

As far as gaming goes, though—I can only really play Tetris.

Minesweeper

FreeCell
I guess that's about all I can handle 😬

Finally, some games I actually recognize... 😬

Then again, back in the day I had a PlayStation at home and was totally hooked on...

take a guess

...racing simulators. 😁

The absolute best:

Fallout 2
..and then, nothing for a long, long time.

Baldur's Gate 2
Starcraft
Doom 2
Quake 3 Arena 😍

New items at McDonald's that actually hit the spot.

1. The Bigger Big Mac. 🙏 🙏
It's massive. Like, bigger than the Big Extra. And it's good.

2. Veggie nuggets.
They remind me of those fried veggie bites you get at a Chinese takeout spot, but done the McDonald's way. They come with a sweet and sour sauce.

gentlepuma20 said:Minesweeper
freecell

Man, those are just games for people who think they're too smart for their own good.🙂

Solitaire! 🙂 🙂

Sean Lee7 said:1. A bigger Big Mac. 🙏 🙏
It's massive junk.

You clearly haven't had a burger at Benny's deli back in Chicago... ☕

Kevin Chavez3 said:You haven't tried that burger in a pita at Benny's yet... ☕

Where's Benny? If he's out in the ocean, why didn't we just head over to his place...

This thing is huge compared to the other McDonald's sandwiches...

We didn't make it because they close at 11 PM sharp

Compared to the rest of them, even those McDonald's sandwiches are huge, and the Dead Carrot is just as massive🙂

_____________
* They aren't even worthy of the letter "G"

I find myself once again spiraling down memory lane—though, quite frankly, it’s a bit of a descent into madness—thinking about Jet Set Willy. It’s one of those titles that stays lodged in your brain, isn't it? A beautiful, frustrating, absolute nightmare of a game. I remember sitting in front of the screen back in the day, convinced I had the patterns mastered, only to be absolutely humiliated by a single misplaced pixel or a jump that felt just a hair too short. It’s maddening! There was something about that specific era of gaming—that raw, unpolished, "figure it out or die" attitude—that you just don't see anymore. Nowadays, everything is so sanitized, so heavily guided by tutorials and checkpoints that feel like they're holding your hand through a nursery. Back then? You were on your own. If you messed up a sequence in Jet Set Willy, you didn't just lose progress; you lost your mind. I recall one specific afternoon—I think I was probably drinking far too much coffee at the time—where I spent three straight hours trying to navigate a single screen, only to get knocked into a pit by a sprite moving at a speed that seemed physically impossible. I nearly threw the controller across the room! It wasn't just the difficulty, though; it was the sheer, stubborn charm of it. The music, the frantic energy, the way it demanded total, undivided attention. It’s a relic of a time when games weren't just entertainment, but tests of pure, unadulterated willpower. Even now, looking back, I can still feel that familiar spike of adrenaline—and irritation—just thinking about it.
I find myself circling back to Manic Miner again—though, honestly, I’ve always felt that Jet Set Willy captured that specific era of gaming more effectively. There is something about the sheer, unadulterated difficulty of those early platformers that sticks in the back of your mind. You spend hours memorizing pixel-perfect jumps, only to be undone by a single misplaced input or a sprite you didn't see coming. It’s frustrating, yes, but there’s a certain disciplined rigor required to master it—a quality I think is sorely lacking in today's hand-holding, tutorial-heavy landscape. Back then, you either figured it out or you moved on. No safety nets, no "easy modes." Just you, the controller, and a mounting sense of disbelief at how hard a collection of colored pixels could actually be.
Lemmings
Tetris
Tetris

X-wing
I’ve been revisiting some old flight sims lately—trying to recapture that specific feeling of sitting in front of a CRT monitor back in the day—and I found myself pulling up TIE Fighter again. It really makes you wonder about the current state of the genre, doesn't it? Back then, there was a level of tactile, unforgiving precision that felt almost visceral. You weren't just clicking icons on a menu; you were actually wrestling with the physics of the craft. Even when you compare it to something like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is a technical marvel of modern computing, the soul of that old-school dogfighting experience feels fundamentally different. One is an exercise in pure simulation, while the other is a high-stakes dance of survival. It’s funny—I remember sitting in my basement in Chicago, staying up way too late, trying to master those specific maneuvers without getting shredded by an X-wing. There was a steep learning curve, sure, but once it clicked, it was pure magic. Nowadays, everything feels so sanitized, so "user-friendly" that you lose that sense of genuine achievement. You don't get that rush anymore when you finally nail a difficult run because the game is practically holding your hand through every turn. We used to have to earn our wings.
Blue Max
IL-2 Sturmovik
Microsoft Flight Simulator

The order doesn't matter. 🙂

I can only ever order a basic cheeseburger at McDonald's because they shove that stinking green lettuce and all that other damn vegetable crap into every single other thing on the menu... ALL I WANT IS MEAT, ONIONS, AND SOME GOOD OLD-FASHIONED SMOKY BBQ SAUCE OR MAYONNAISE!

Kevin Chavez3 said:a burger in a pita from Benny's☕

well, I was already thinking along those lines, you know.
thank God that thing probably starts working around 11 PM, once the booze finally kicks in.😬

analogharbor442 said:all I can ever eat at McDonald's is a basic cheeseburger because they shove that stinking green lettuce and all that other damn vegetable crap into everything else... ALL I WANT IS MEAT, ONIONS, AND SOME GOOD SAUCE.

I'm with you there, though I don't think that processed cheese sauce is ever going to be the right way to go. 🤮

My absolute favorite kind of service alert

Between these dates, due to some construction on those specific streets, the #31 and #34 light rail lines will be replaced by buses.

The MTA crew 😍

mainscream said:I can only deal with a basic cheeseburger at McDonald's because they put stinky lettuce and all that damn veggie crap in everything else... Just give me meat, onions, and some spicy relish...

Man, you should just get a double cheeseburger then.
It's honestly one of the best sandwiches out there...

Honestly, you only hit up McDonald's when you’re at rock bottom. Last time I found myself there was on the drive home from a Beatles concert... I had about fifteen beers swirling in my skull and knew I had to be at work first thing in the morning. So, naturally, my brain decided I needed a massive mountain of greasy, heavy food. I stopped by a local diner—can't remember if it was a Denny's or something similar—and ordered a double, maybe even a triple portion of everything on the menu. Somehow, I actually made it to work on time. I even survived the day, handling loud questions and all sorts of sensory overload without breaking a sweat. Then I just went home to die, which, unfortunately for me, didn't quite work out...

stormyviper11 said:So then I went home to die, which unfortunately didn't work out for me.

Good grief, how am I even supposed to top that line...🤣

1. the seventies 😍 🙂
2. the eighties
3. the sixties
6. the nineties
4. the fifties

The top three spots are set in stone. There’s just no changing them.

dmj said:The only time I ever set foot in a McDonald's is when I’m at rock bottom. Last time was driving back from a Beatles concert; I realized I had about fifteen beers swirling in my gut and a shift starting early the next morning. I figured I needed a massive hit of grease to soak it all up, so I swung by and grabbed—I can't remember exactly—maybe a double or triple portion of everything they had. It worked. I made it to work on time, survived the day, and even managed to handle the loud questions and physical chaos without folding. Then I just went home to die, which, unfortunately for me, didn't happen.

Well, a buddy of mine once caught salmonella at a McDonald's and spent two weeks in isolation, so apparently, dying after a Big Mac is actually a real possibility.😲

dmj said:I only ever hit up McDonald's when I'm at my absolute breaking point. The last time was driving back from a The Beatles concert—I realized I had about fifteen beers swimming in my head and had to be at work first thing in the morning. My logic? I needed a massive amount of greasy, heavy food to soak it all up. I stopped by Krug, grabbed a double—maybe even a triple—portion of everything, and just went for it. Somehow, I actually made it to work on time, powered through the whole day, and even handled loud questions and physical stressors without flinching. Then, I just went home to die... though, unfortunately, that part didn't quite pan out.

🤣