My Video Game Library: SongPop

    I first saw SongPop on Facebook, just there on the side where the games used to be. I have always been pretty good at music, so this was a clear for me. SongPop 2, as it was called back then, is basically a version of the television game show Name That Tune or a "reverse Shazam." A computer plays a snippet of a song from a category you chose (usually an artist, genre, or timeframe; although some categories can be based on features from the titles or lyrics), and you have to guess the song correctly as quickly as possible before the other player. You get more points if you guess correctly sooner, so that an incorrect guess doesn't automatically mean you lose, especially if the other player takes longer to get all of their songs correct. There was also a second game mode, Party, where you and four other players try to guess songs as quickly as possible. You get bonus points based on how fast you are. After the twenty-four hour Party is over, you gain a prize based on your ranking among the over a hundred other possible party players.  While I never got to play against of any of my Facebook friends, I still loved the game. I had a bunch of regular players that I vied against as much as I could.

    Then, SongPop announced that they were leaving Facebook at the end of the year. On that December 31, I played like I normally would, thinking I had until midnight to play. I was waiting until that evening to say goodbye. When I tried to log back on to the game, it had disappeared. Unfortunately, they had meant midnight their time, in England I think, not here. I hated that I never said goodbye. I even wrote a post on my blogcast about it. Sure, the game was still available as an app, but I didn't have a phone at the time.  Or a PC. So, I had to stop playing.

    But only for a few months.

    The following summer or so, SongPop finally developed an app for Macs. I even got an email about it.I quickly downloaded it, when I could. I still had a prize available from the last Party I never got to finish. All but one of my regular players had left me. Well, the computer opponent had to stay, but one woman kept with me during my absence. I would always try to give her a category she could compete with whenever we played.

    SongPop Classic, as it was now named, had added a few features. They now had challenges (daily, weekly, monthly, and expert) that one could finish to add points to a prize path. Some require playing the other SongPop game, which leaves me out.  For now. It took me a while, but I ultimately got to the biggest prize at the end of the month, and even the bonus ones available beyond that. Last year, they added Carnival mode, a themed group of challenges similar to Party mode, but available to everyone and not just the 200 or so for parties. The Carnival lasts seven day, and there is about one a month, or so. They are usually based around holidays or similar events. 

    I currently have a group of around thirty or so players that I compete with every week. Some drop me after a few times, as our musical tastes don't line up, or if they only want to get money from me. The number of players who want me to buy naked pics of them are way too many. Others, I drop if I don't hear from them after four or five months. I try to give everyone a real chance at coming back.

    Unfortunately, one of those players I had to drop was the one who stuck with me during my absence. She started to miss challenges, on a very frequent basis. She mentioned she was having problems, medical I think. Possibly financial as well. She was gone for a few weeks at a time. Then, she missed a few months. After a year, I finally deleted the game with her. I had kept her going as long as I could.  Even with the intentional and accidental deletions, I still needed the extra space I needed to maintain a minimum number of active games. While I hope she is okay, I'm pretty sure she isn't. 

    So, I'm still chugging along, playing at a fairly high level. I'm discovering songs that came out long ago that I missed, remembering oldies that I all but forgot. I keep up with new music too. I still wonder about the newer version of SongPop.  It has a number of new features and types of play not on 2. And I wonder what happened to all of the players who I had to delete their games.

    I'm sorry.

My Video Game Side Quest: Apps and Ads

    When I first got a computer, one of the things I couldn't wait for was solitaire. I knew from experience that many PCs had their own solitaire programs. I played it a lot in the 90s, since I didn't need anyone else to play. Well, I quickly found out by checking my MacBook, as well as a third-party manual, that Apple doesn't include a solitaire app with its Macs. They have Chess instead. Now, I played chess quite a bit when I was young, but I wasn't that big of a fan.  Since it took a few weeks after I got my MacBook for the installation of the internet at home, chess was the only game I had. Sure, I could customize a little, but I still didn't like playing it. At least there was also a sliding tile game widget hidden within a file. That I really liked. Too bad it got dropped in a later update.

    At least I had internet access at work to download a few games until I got hooked up at home. The first solitaire app I tried was technically free, but you had to buy extra layouts after the limited ones included. The first tableau was impossible for me to solve. I think I accidentally skipped a few layouts, preventing me from ever trying to solve them. I stopped playing it fast. I also got Epic Solitaire, at least I think that was the name. It had different modes to play, customizable card designs and tabletop, and a daily challenge. I played the challenge almost first thing everyday when I turned on my MacBook, usually playing a second game, or more, as well. Every day until my first MacBook died. Of course, I got the game again three days later with my new computer, but it wasn't the same. I couldn't get the game to look the same. I wound up not playing the game ever again. (Like a dunce, I didn't realize that the original game was still on my iCloud. I could have just retrieved it. Oh, well.)  I also got two pool games. One had basic graphics, but an easy mechanics system. The other had much better graphics, but some of the mechanics weren't as intuitive. I played the former way more. I stopped with the pool games after I got the internet installed and I could play my Facebook games instead.

    The only other game I have on my MacBook is Songpop Classic, and I only have that one due to the fact that it got dropped my Facebook gaming. It didn't get a Mac version for months after that, but that is for a later post. I have yet to activate any of the free trials to Apple Arcade on any of my devices. Strangely enough, the Songpop app appeared on my iPhone the same time I got it on my MacBook, without me having to download it.

    I only got an iPhone because I needed it for SFA for my grad school.  I wasn't planing to use it for games and such, but that's what happened. Not only do I have Songpop Classic on my phone, but I have Golf Clash as well. I had to migrate it from Facebook after the game makers had some difficulties with them. At least I had a phone by then to make it work. (More on this it a later post.)

    One thing I noticed on each game is the huge amount of ads on the phone versions, many of them for other games. When on my Mac, there were few ads, and they were usually just there when a special offer was given or when switching between modes. On the phone, Songpop has an ad after every single match it seems, not just occasionally. It's why I try to stick to my MacBook. Golf Clash also had ads, and they can be more intrusive. At first, many of these ads were interactive. You could play a level to try out the game. Sometimes, the playing would stop just before you could beat the level, though. Instead of continuing, the ad would take you to the game's site so you could purchase it. Very infuriating.

    So far, the only game I've actually gotten was one of those fruit merging games, that I keep on my second phone, the one without a SIM. I've also tried different merging games on Bing and YouTube. No other type of game that I've looked at was enjoyable enough to download to my phones. I don't think that I'll get the chance to do it again. Recently, I've not been getting ads for games on Golf Clash. Instead, I'm getting ads for AppleTV, wild salmon, TEMU, and chair tai chi for seniors. I guess that I've aged out of the game demographics, although Clash seems to have a new ad partner as well. The number of possible ads has decreased a lot as well. 

     I just want another test run ad. I want to try out something else. Especially since I don't eat salmon and don't need to sit in a chair for exercise.

My Comic Book Journey: 2026 Update

    I'm taking a break from my current video game series to give the update for my 2024 series on comic book buying locations. (I would have done one on series, but so many have had multiple volumes over the decades, that it would be difficult for a non-fan to understand all the differences. Besides, the series is about the experience of getting the comics, not the enjoyment of reading and collecting them.) I have a lot to update about, so let's get started with the biggest news.

• Page 3 Game Zone:  After over a year of not having new books, Page 3 finally started getting new comics in March. I restarted my weekly pull in April. They still haven't been able to establish connections with all distributors/publishers, but I will be able to get the majority of my books from them. They had a soft re-opening last fall, with being almost full time this spring. Because they had to stop all orders after last year's flood, it took them some time to get back up to speed. Having major changes in the worlds of comic book distribution hurt them as well. That's why they can't get certain titles yet, such as Marvel. Still, I'm doing pretty good for now.

    When Page 3 closed last year due to flooding, I waited a few months before trying to find my comics. I had the mistaken belief that they would continue getting the orders they already had, but wait on any new ones. Yeah, I'm overly hopeful. Anyway, when I found out what was happening, I started making plans on getting my missing books. I started with the places I already knew about, then I started researching the entire state for places I could go to. I even looked into a few neighboring states, hoping for a lead. As such, I was able to maintain my hobby for over a year. This meant going to new places or returning to old ones to buy from, finally.

• Super Hero Creamery, Huntington Mall, ✓:  After avoiding it on my first trip to the Mall, soon after it opened there, I made a special trip that included my first try to retrieve my comics. I had a long list of books to get, and I wasn't disappointed at what I found. As I mentioned in a post last year, I was able to get over a dozen books, but I could've gotten more. In an effort to save money, I skipped a few series that I felt I could easily get later, as well as some that had gaps. I have since made two more trips there, with me getting about a month's worth of comics last fall. However, I was only able to get one comic this past January, and it wasn't the most current issue. I'm somewhat worried that they might be having financial problems. They don't carry many collectables beyond comics, aside from the ice cream parlor in the rear of the store. (Haven't tried it yet.) Maybe the just moved the current comics to a different place that I missed. (I'm a man; of course I didn't ask for directions. Also, most of the employees were in the back with the parlor.) Still, it is worrisome.
• Cavalier Comics, Norton, VA, ✓:  Late last May, I made my first stop in years here to search for comics. While I have been to this store many times, back in the 2010s, I never got anything here, due to Page 3. They had a nice selection, although they were missing quite a few titles I was missing. Still, I was able to pick up a few, as well as almost getting a few more if it weren't for gaps. While fairly close, I decided not to immediately go back. The roads along the shorter route through Knott and Letcher counties were very damaged from the recent floods, making the trip kind of bad. The longer way on US 23 in Pike was took an extra thirty minutes, and was very boring. Also, there wasn't much else to shop at that felt interesting.
• Comic Interlude, Lexington, ✓, + online:  Before my annual June trip to Lexington, I researched the various comic book shops to find one to get my missing issues. I settled on this one, due to a reachable location along my usual route. Unfortunately, my travel companion reneged on the deal the last second, thinking I was planning to shop online instead of in person. I missed out on about a dozen comics that had sold out in the time it took me to place the order and have it confirmed. Still, the joy I had a week later getting a package with over twenty comics I was missing was amazing. Not only have I placed multiple orders since that first one, I even managed to visit the actual store last November. I even wrote about how I geeked out about it in a post. If I ever move to Lexington, this is a strong contender for my new store. 
• Comic Book World, Florence (and Louisville), KY, online only:  After I missed out on a bunch of issues from Comic Interlude, I made another search for other stores in Kentucky. I settled on this one, as it had a wide selection of comics available online. I had to set up an account to buy them though, only to find out that they were changing the way they sold merchandise. I had to email them my order, instead of just clicking. Still, I was able to get almost all of my missing comics. I could have gotten all of them, but comics from their Louisville location weren't available for online sales. (I was finally able to get the three issues I was still down by buying the trade paperback collection they were in through my store.) I've set up a communication chain for the last few months, alternating with Comic Interlude for my orders. While the emails aren't always responded to on time, I've been mostly satisfied. I will probably make my last order with them soon, for the last new issues I'm needing until Page 3 can start ordering them again.
• The E-Bay Store, Prestonsburg: In desperation, I stopped here last summer to see if they had anything. I couldn't see any new comics I got, but they did have a catalog from a publisher I rarely get anything from.  Most of their older comics weren't things I liked either.

     Finally, I remembered yet another place that I forgot the first time around.

•   Unknown collectable store, Pikeville:  In the mid-90s, there was a collectable store on 4th Avenue, across from the Hardee's. I think I sent my mom in first, to see what they had, but I don't remember if I actually went in myself. They really didn't have comics, so I never went again. Some time later, the closed. Whether they went out of business or move, I never found out. The building was later torn down, with the space becoming a parking lot, next to the church next door.

    And finally, finally, in a few months, expect part two of this update. While writing this year's series on video games, I realized I may have missed a few things about buying comics I should had added. Expect part two in July or so.  See you Monday, as I return to video games.

My Video Game Library: Candy Crush

    Last year, in a trial of sorts for this series, I described my history with the various Candy Crush games. I don't want to go over everything, just a few months later, so I will just give the highlights for this post and give a few recent updates. Yes, a lot has changed since I first talked about Candy Crush about seven months ago.

    I started playing Candy Crush Saga on Facebook about the same time it debuted as a game show on CBS. It was about the time they started phasing out most of the story elements from the game. When it began, one needed to win each level in a stage to complete a story element, such as repairing a candy factory or refilling a lake. Now, new players have no idea why they have to rescue baby dragons or use a flying saucer as a power-up, because those story elements have gone. Sure, some story beats roll out whenever a special event starts, but it has basically been allowed to fade away. The levels, obstacles, and power-ups have changed, even some before I started playing. Even the layout is different, going from a stylized game board to a scrolling line of repeating backgrounds. Just this week, some artistic elements has been updated, while a glitch with a daily bonus still hasn't been fixed after a month. At one point, I was winning so much, that I was in danger of reaching the end of the game and having to wait for new levels to drop. Now, I'm lucky to beat a few levels each week. I can go for days without a win, only to go on a streak soon after. I'm nowhere near the end any more. Currently, I play once or twice a day, usually at work in the mid-morning or afternoon. Rarely do I play at night any more.

    Candy Crush Soda Saga has the same issues with story elements, possibly to a greater degree. At least you still see the characters sometimes in the original game. The Facebook version barely has a background anymore. I don't even get the chance to play in events. Not a one has ever shown up, while other players get them all the time. I'm still enjoying the random extra bonuses that popped up for a few weeks last year whenever I played. I'm only now starting to get back into the double digits, although I have used up most of my gold.  Way more than I should have. I am facing worse setbacks here than in the original game. I usually play a few rounds first thing in the morning, only occasionally playing at other times.

    Candy Crush Jelly Saga is the only game that still has some of its story elements out in the open, if only because of the competitive challenge levels. Like Soda, I have yet to experience an event for Jelly. I think they are out there, just not for my version. Recently, I accidentally befriended a bunch of strangers, and I now get life requests and gifts.  I hate that, but it somewhat makes up for not beating levels as fast as I could otherwise. I usually play at night, losing a few lives, then stopping. I return and finish later in the evening, after those lives replenish. 

    There are other Candy Crush games, but they are only apps and not available on Facebook. (I'm not counting the recently added brainteaser version on Yahoo. I've solving it since February, but it hasn't updated the game for a few days.) While I probably keep my progress if I switchover to the apps, I don't want to. I've already got enough games on my phone that take up a lot of my time. I don't need any more. Unless forced to, by having Facebook finally dropping the games. Maybe. 

My Video Game Library: Cartoons

    Before I got my first video game system, I got much of my fill for gaming from cartoons. At one time int he 80s, you had Pac-Man and Dragon's Lair on ABC, a compilation that featured Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, Kangaroo, and Pitfall (with later seasons featuring Donkey Kong Jr. and Space Ace) on CBS, and Captain N on NBC with Simon Belmont (from the 'Castlevania' games), Kid Icarus, and a very inaccurate Mega-Man, with appearances by Link and Zelda, on NBC. There was even a Super Mario series mixed in with live-action segments in syndication by the early 90s. I mostly missed that one, since it was on a time when I couldn't watch. 

    The 90s would also bring a fairly accurate Mega-Man cartoon. The season/series finale even brought in time-traveling characters from Mega-Man X. There was also a cartoon based on 'Street Fighter II' on USA, although it featured many elements from the live-action movie. I didn't like the animation style for the last season, although they brought in elements from Street Fighter Alpha for a surprise. Fox had some cartoons from games I didn't actually play, such as Monster Hunter. I think the show had a fairly deep plot, but I'm not sure it really reflected the actual game. There was also Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego? I really liked that one, as Rita Moreno voiced the titular villain, even though the only episode the visited Kentucky had them at a generic coal mine. (I also liked the PBS game show for kids. It was a nearly perfect blend of education and entertainment. The follow-up Where in Time leaned too much into education.) I even seem to remember a cartoon based on Mortal Kombat, but I never watched that one that much.

    Of course, the biggest video game cartoon was Pokémon. I knew about both the game and the cartoon before it debuted in America, mostly from the now banned episode that caused so many kids to have seizures. I watched it from its start in syndication through Kids WB onto Cartoon Network, where it went all the way through Gen VI. The show then went to streaming for the next to generations, before ending with the original human cast. A new cast was created for the current games. Never saw them.

    The late 90s brought the unusual knock-off Digimon. This cartoon had an overarching plot line that made much more sense. The first block/seasons of episodes feature a bunch of kids transported to a digital world, meeting up their Digimon partners. They managed to get back to earth, and they saved both worlds, only to have their partners return to their world. The second block had a flash forward of a few years, adding many new cast members, as the older ones mostly kept to the background. A similar menace arose, but this time, the two worlds managed to merge, allowing everyone on earth to bond with their own Digimon partner. The third block took place in a different universe with different characters. I couldn't understand much of it. The fourth block moved to a different network, and existed in another universe again. I missed large sections of it, but it was easily the weirdest one of all.

    Since the 2000s, there haven't been many gaming cartoons that I watched. Some, like one based on a Mega-Man spinoff, weren't really interesting. The latest Pac-Man cartoon from Discovery Family was barely watchable. There was also a highly-rated Castlevania cartoon, but it was on a steaming platform I didn't have. Frankly, so much is now streaming and not on cable, that there aren't any cartoons I can watch any more.

My Video Game Side Quest: Social Media

    I have mentioned many times in this blogcast about how I first joined Facebook. I was only trying to get publicity for my store by creating a page for it, only to be forced to form a page for myself first. The rules had changed after I had read an older book, I guess. I didn't even try to get friends for a few months, after a disappointing birthday message from Facebook. One of those friends invited me to join a game he played. Since I wanted to be nice, I tried it out, even though it wasn't the type I usually liked, sports. Specifically, Golf Clash. (I would later realize that he got an in-game bonus whenever he invited someone to join the game, and they accepted.)  After that, I finally started trying out various games. Of course, the first one I chose on my own was Bejeweled. Their version wasn't exactly the same as the one I was familiar with, but I played for a few weeks before I decided to drop it. I would try out a bunch of other games, abandoning them for one reason or another. I quickly got rid of this weird diner-based matching game, once I found out it was from China. I would go on to find other games, most notably the "Candy Crush" games. I even looked into the game Chats that Facebook had with some of the games.  That feature slowly faded. At my height, I had around ten games that a cycled through. Then the shoes began to drop.

    I hit a wall on one matching game. Try as I might, I couldn't get through this one level. I was all but out of special resources, and I saw no way out to push through. So, I deleted the game. I deleted another game after I accidentally reset it back to the beginning. There was no way I was going to start over, so the block breaking game was history. A third game got deleted after it began to freeze up. While I was getting the daily check-in bonuses, I couldn't actually play the word-building game. I was gone too. One game that I really, really loved was SongPop 2 (don't ask about the original). I was taken down when Flash support was ended. I was in the middle of getting ready to say goodbye, when the game was taken down earlier than I expected. At least I managed to get that game back later. (See a future post.) Even Golf Clash was affected for a few weeks by a dispute with Facebook. I was froze out of the game while things were sorted out. The game came back, but left the platform shortly afterwards. (I managed a way to play this game too. Again, later post.) 

    With all of the upgrades that Facebook has gone through, many of the games I left behind aren't even mentioned in my History any more. Only the four games I still play daily are left. I've mentioned the three "Candy Crush" games before, and I will feature them in a separate post soon. The only remaining game left is Cookie Jam. I don't remember how I got attached to this matching game that is quite similar to "Candy Crush." It has similar themes and rules, but the game has always had features unique to themself. In fact, "Candy Crush" has been implementing some of those features, or something close to them. In some ways, Cookie Jam is a better game with their newest features. I find myself playing for longer periods than I do with any "Candy Crush" game. I just seem to rack up longer winning streaks in it. In fact, I sometimes feel that Cookie Jam lets me win. That's how easy it gets at times.

    Facebook isn't the only social media site that has games now. (The games are a big reason why I prefer the site over the mobile app.) LinkedIn added games over a year ago, but I don't really play them. They just feel like digital versions of traditional pencil-and-paper games. In fact, I actually do many similar games in puzzle magazines. Classmates.com is adding games, but the few they have can be found elsewhere. Even Apple News has digital versions of classic newspaper puzzles, as well as few of their own design. These games are usually locked behind a paywall, so I ignore them, but the emoji-based one is similar to puzzles I've made. Small world, I guess.

My Video Game Library: Backstreet Billiards

    I've always been partial to pool. There was something about the colored balls and geometric shots that thrilled me. I was disappointed that I never got a toy pool table like one my cousins got for Christmas. One of my great aunts lived in a house that once was a pool hall. Another relative had a pool table in their attic area. I only got to go up there once, and I never got a chance at the table. Considering how young I was, I couldn't have done much anyway. I started watching 9-ball pool matches on ESPN my junior year of high school. I was just amazed it was on television, but then ESPN didn't have the best variety of sports to choose from back then. The restaurant next to my high school had a table, from what I heard from those who had went there. I only went once, to pick up an order for another student, so I never had a chance to play. I think both colleges I went to had pool table in their rec areas, but I didn't know anyone to help me learn how to play.

    That's why I was very happy once previews started to show up about the first pool games for the PS1. I think there was one on a demo disc, but I didn't like it too much. I was leaning to another game that kept getting previews, Backstreet Billiards. I didn't know which one to get, until I saw a billiards magazine on a shopping trip to Lexington. They were reviewing pool video games, and they rated Backstreet as the slightly better option for the PlayStation. Slightly better graphics and gameplay. That was the one I asked for Christmas.

    The game had two primary options, Story Mode and One-on-One. In Story Mode, you were going after the pool shark who ruined your father's life. You went around town, beating various opponents at pool to get information, while collecting token to increase your stats. (To be honest, I don't think the stats added anything to the game.) As each one was defeated, the bosses, and their pool rooms and background music, would be added to the other mode as playable opponents.  However, after the fourth boss or so, the game stopped. There was a scratch on the disc I didn't notice, and it was causing the game to freeze. My mom returned the game to Walmart.  She got the money back, but they didn't have another game to replace it. I had to wait about a month until my birthday trip to the Huntington Mall to find another copy.

    I played it that evening after the trip, using the saved data on my card to continue. I made it to the next to last boss, when I faced a new problem. I had just picked up a new token to raise one of my stats. However, I had chosen to raise that stat previously using another token that could be used for one of two different one. The new token would push that stat over the max, thereby freezing the game again. I had to start the game over from scratch, making sure to use the tokens correctly so that it wouldn't happen again. I had maxed out all my stats just before the seventh, final boss, and beating Story Mode. 

    My favorite part was One-on-One. There was something about the special tables and music that just hit me the right way. I mostly chose 9-ball, occasionally going with 8-ball if I wanted a change. There was even a snookers table for playing straight billiards. I didn't know enough about the rules at the time, so I barely played that one. I'm thinking there was a two player mode as well, but since I didn't have anyone else to play with, I just used the game's opponents. I couldn't tell much of a difference in gameplay among them, although their stats and styles were supposedly different. I would usually end a gaming session with a few rounds after everything else. I'm fairly sure that I played this game for fun more than any other, as opposed to just grinding away to get every possible challenge in the game.

    After the I lost my games in the flood, my outlets for pool dwindled. I found some online games over time, but done exactly matched the mechanics and graphics of Backstreet. I got a few pool books for my store, but reading is never the same as actual playing. I least I got caught up on the history and rules. As ESPN started to get the rights to more pro and collegiate sports, the need to air pool across their family of networks slowed down. I don't know if they still have the matches anymore. At least at I time I would watch them. Other sports networks have aired pool as well, including a dedicated channel in the upper, upper reaches of my cable box at one time, but it is never at a time I would watch.  I still want to play, but I have yet to get my chance.