In Which Ralf23 Is A Creepy Internet Stalker, And Invites You To Be, Too.

So recently, the website Openbook came to my attention. It's a search engine specifically for Facebook status updates. It's motto "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Whether you want to or not." invokes an ominous tone, so I guess it's supposed to be making a statement about online privacy or something. But then, I've never been quite sure how private people really wanted or expected Facebook status updates and other forms of Twitter-esque microblogging to be. In any case, I'm pretty much on the fence on whether this thing is really creepy, or just kinda creepy in an an obtuse, indirect way.

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I decided to spy on myself first, and compare notes with the rest of the Facebook community regarding opinions on that new Windows 7 commercial (where they included an overdubbed and re-appropriated version of the "Zombie Vs. Shark" viral video). I'm not particularly reassured by my findings.

For entertainment purposes, I've plugged in searches for favorite Dorkstuff topics (mostly vintage computers/games) and got a surprising number of relevant hits for many of them. I was actually trying to see how obscure I could get with a couple of them, but apparently people still dig 8-bit stuff on Facebook. Check it out:

23 Enigma (Hey, there's me again!)
Apple ][e, ][c, ][gs
Atari 2600
Castlevania
Clash At Demonhead
Commodore 64 (and related search "C64")
Rankin-Bass
Ren And Stimpy
River City Ransom
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
TRS-80
Turbografx 16

The Handheld Game Museum

A while back, I saw an item like the one above advertised as a RARE 1980 JAPANESE CASTLEVANIA HANDHELD ARCADE LED GAME, and almost flipped out. I totally love the old early 80s LED handheld games that were shaped like miniature arcade games, and I'm a huge fan of the Castlevania series (particularly obsessed with the early games), so this seemed like a dream item for my collection. Of course, my spider sense should have blinked on at the fact that this item was made six years before the release of the first Castlevania game, but I guess I wasn't thinking straight.

Thanks, however, to a little research at The Handheld Game Museum, I found that the game was 1) Not associated with Castlevania in any way shape or form (it was released by Bandai) and 2) The game engine itself was a clone of Donkey Kong. Man, would that have been a hideous dissappointment when it arrived.

And now I know to keep an eye out for this guy:


And I also found out about this game, which I didn't even know existed (I have the Wizards and Warriors handheld):

All Three Endings To Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest