For some reason of all the sites I have visited since heavily getting into the internet in 1999 this one has the most eccentric overall appeal of any I have ever visited. The color scheme, the ramblings of a once active Syd and the passive aggresiveness from his brother Jeebus on various subjects have always fascinated me. Even though I have been loved and hated during my tenure here I still feel a sense of happiness everytime I read an old Syd article, especially the top 100 NES games of all time. As a 33 year old male with kids and entrenched fully into the real world this site always takes me back to a time where I feel even my own kids can't experience how awesome it was going into the world of video games when they were really starting to take off. I do not consider the true start of video games until the NES, Even though the 2600 came earlier I still feel the NES is the system that influenced gaming culture and still does to this day.

To me Syd and his family represent the true American 1980's working class family. From a nostalgia standpoint I feel his experience with the NES is the truest form of what excitement that system brought. We as 80's kids were in the trenches of a new technology that our parents had not grown up on or never experienced the way we were going to. We rented games from the local store, ate pizza and stayed up on friday nights looking for the game that could outdo Super Mario brothers or a game that we could talk about at school Monday morning. Our families were not rich and purely middle class from a Reagon standpoint. We as kids convincing them to buy a 50 dollar game was so much harder to do compared to spending 50 dollars now for our own children. The amount of heart and dedication we put into getting our own games the generation now will never know We were the generation that found creatives ways to entertain ourselves indoors in the most cost effective way. We werent into cars, we werent into hanging out at the local hot spot in town like our parents. We were the first generation of American children that brought card playing, video games and comics into the popular culture.

Syd's and Jeebus were the kind of guys you wish you knew growing up. They were the kind of kids you wish your family was friends with because you knew they had the cool games to play or were planning on doing so. They made the best of whatever game they had to play at the time when video game budgets in families were almost non existent. Their experience was no more unique than others if we get technical, but their experience means more because their creativeness in finding ways to entertain themselves in a world that was strictly middle class. While I am not into cards I find it as an extention of their childhood and its influences from the NES. They couldn't play the NES all the time so they found a way to take it on the go in a non conventional way. They kept the game going no matter what.

When Hacker died I think I was devastated on the level where I felt like he truly got this site and understood the spirit of it even though he was a generation behind us. There was something magical about the world Syd and Jeebus brought from their childhood to this forum and it felt like he appreciated it in the sweetest ways possible. People gave him shit for being to into it but I will always understood where he was coming from because this site taps into an unspoken vibe that we all felt at one time. The things we got excited about, the games that disappointed us, the shows we all watched since all of our parents either had over the air tv or basic cable. I was so into the Wonder Years and Video Games it was almost like fate that I would meet my future wife in 1995 after a viewing of the movie Clueless and playing Mortal Kombat 3 with her. I thought she looked like Winnie Cooper and was in love with her from that day forward.

While I did attempt to put into words what this site means to me I still don't feel I could properly put into words why this place is special to me at its core. Even though the level of inactivity is higher than its ever been this site can never be replaced or redone. It was lighting in a bottle from the start and as long as it is around I will always have a place where I can talk to friends and foes alike and know they lived the same culture I did and that we all understand each other on a subconscious levels thanks to Syd and Jeebus.