-GRAND PRIZE: PS3 60GB Set-up: Alexander Lopez #839225
-Bottomless Pit: Phillip Allawan #839558
-NES System + Collection: Mac Decastro #840741
-N64 System + Collection: Samuel Cintron #840016
-Genesis System + Collection: Ronald Jordan #840011
-$50 Gift Certificate: Steve Gintler #840673
-Box o Swag: Miltayes #840276
-Generation NEX Wireless Stick: Ray #840442
-$25 Gift Certificate: TonyTheTiger #839460
-DP Teddy Bear: Kris #899990
-DP Tote Bag: TonyTheTiger #839458
-DP Clock & Retro T: Justin Rojas #840718
-1 Free Pass to the Basement: Caleb Olivar #839050
-Mystery Prize: Chris Gosda (in-store tournament winner)

Here is some video, covering most of the really good stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/share?p=50A85584C01B7CE9

Congratulations to all of the winners!

If you didn’t see the trailer on the goofy (yet lovable) Nintendo Week show on the Nintendo Channel, Excitebike is returning back to basics (after a stint with trucks and robots), with an interesting WiiWare remake of the NES game, Excitebike World Rally. It takes the “Rebirth” approach, reimagining the original game with updated features, in this case, multiplayer and an online racing mode, as well as a return of the track editor. It looks like a fun download, and it shows Nintendo is starting to take WiiWare seriously.

I started to wonder, what other neglected Nintendo franchises deserve this “Rebirth” treatment? One franchise that came to mind immediately was Kid Icarus. A side scrolling sequel to the NES games as it might have been imagined on the Super NES? Much like Super Metroid, a Super Kid Icarus could take the original game and expand and build upon it, and polish it up to become an instant classic. Pit’s arsenal could include new arrows that perform different functions, such as a fire arrow to light a distant torch. New skills that emerged in Smash Bros Brawl could also be included, such as a limited flight / glide ability, and splitting his bow into double swords for up close melee fighting. And it could all be done with beautiful 16-bit spritework and a glorious remixed soundtrack.

So the question I pose you, dear readers, what long forgotten Nintendo franchise would you like to see re-emerge as a new WiiWare title?

I’ve always enjoyed western movies and settings, so Gun.Smoke was right up my alley when I visited a friend’s house one summer. After playing a couple of the standards such as Duck Hunt and whatever lousy licensed crap we young kids were suckered into buying (I think it was the Back to the Future game), she popped in Gun.Smoke and we started blasting away.

It was a scrolling shooter, much like in the vein of Xevious, but you controlled a cowboy shooting away with a pair of six shooters. Shooting barrels revealed powerups, which increased your speed and bullet range, as well as a horse you could ride, which essentially gave you three extra hits from enemy fire. Shopkeepers would sell you new weapons, as well as a wanted poster, which you needed to face the stage boss. Without purchasing (or finding in a barrel) the wanted poster, the stage would loop forever, something me and my friend were unaware of, so we never did finish that first stage.

Years later, I came across a copy of the game at the local dirt mall (for those who have never seen Mallrats, that would be another term for flea market) and the guy running the booth offered to pop it in his NES to make sure it worked. He died pretty much instantly, then handed the controller off to me. Much to his suprise (and to mine, actually) I spent the next five minutes shooting baddies and dodging enemy fire, then defeating the stage boss.

“Wow,” he said, “You must have played this a lot!”

“Yeah,” I replied, lying.

Of course, the game ramps up in difficulty and to this day I still can’t get past Stage 3. But it’s still a game I enjoy popping in once in a while. It has a certain charm most other shooters lack, and it’s got a great soundtrack. My only suggestion if you’re going to play this game… do your thumbs a favor and pick up a turbo controller. They will thank you for it.

Turns out I didn’t miss much.

Good lord, if you played this back in the day… I feel for you. After the laughably bad CGI intro (though to be fare, it was probably cutting edge back in the early 90’s…), I tried to progress through the first cave, ending at a dead end with no idea how to progress. Lara controls like a tank, and her platforming skills are, well, nonexistant. I spent probably ten minutes trying to jump onto a ledge that was a foot tall, yet Lara could only jump straight up into the air. Oh well, at least I got some laughs by repeatedly pressing the dodge button, which makes Lara roll around like an idiot.

Then I popped in Virtua Cop and played a round to clear the bad taste out of my mouth. Now THAT’S a good game.

Turns out he knows my taste in games all too well.

Boing! Docomodake DS, or as I’ve taken to calling it, Shroomin’: The Game, is a puzzle platformer in the same vein as Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. You control Papa Docomodake with the D-Pad (or buttons, if you happen to be left handed), and using the stylus, you can pull smaller shrooms off of his body and use them to activate switches, act as stepping blocks or even use them to attack enemies. The goal of each stage is to reach the exit, and along the way you will encounter coins and treasure chests. Though you don’t need to collect them to complete the stage, they do add to your total score at the end of the stage, and some chests contain additional shrooms that add to your total body mass. You can also use the coins to purchase unlockables, such as music tracks and cinema sequences.

The game progresses at a leisurely pace, with some relaxing music and a quirky story leading into each stage, and the game gently ramps up the difficulty leading into the final stages. Indeed, the last world can become rather frustrating, as you can easily get stuck and be forced to restart a stage if you don’t plan ahead. But overall, it’s a rather short, yet addictive game, and when it’s all over, you’ll be yearning for more.

If you enjoyed March of the Minis, you’ll certainly enjoy this title, and it’s at a bargain price too. The only problem I’ve found, as with most things involving shrooms, is that the trip is over far too soon.

The wallpaper on the PSP is the kind I’ve seen before – hot chick in skimpy clothing. Thing is, this “chick” looked an awful lot like my customer. No, it IS my customer.

“Is this you?”

She wasn’t in any way surprised or embarrassed, and answered “Yes, I’m a professional wrestler”.

Not knowing Jack about the professional wrestling business, I went about the usual diagnostics, though I did say “Suddenly I’m a little distracted while going about the usual diagnostics”. The customer proceeded to pick up the phone and call her husband, calmly explaining that he had left her scantily clad “lolita” photo on the PSP wallpaper.

I cleared the PSP but it’s going to be pretty hard to clear that image from my brain. Or my hard drive :)

All the in game screen shots I take are 1024×786. Whilst I wouldn’t want them quite that large on here it would be nice if they were big enough to actually, you know, see. Is it possible to make them a link, so you can click on them to get a larger version?

I recently bought a couple of Gameboy boxes to complete a couple of games I had. Sadly, though not unexpectedly, the boxes came without the old plastic trays that held the cartridge in place inside the box. Knowing that SNES game tray repros exist, I searched around for a Gameboy equivalent, but I couldn’t find any. No surprises there, since I’m sure Gameboy boxes are even less likely to survive than their console counterparts.

So I decided to make my own.

I used letter size cardstock and printed a template I made in illustrator. I cut out the shapes using scissors and an exacto knife, then used a flat edge screwdriver to score the folds. A few pieces of scotch tape keeps the box together.

It ain’t pretty, but it works pretty well. If anybody would like to make improvements upon this design, please feel free to make changes. The link to download it is here.

It’s a shame that Xseed doesn’t seem to want to release Retro Game Challenge 2 (which covers fake Super Famicom games), since everyone agrees that it is even better than the first one. But who knows, maybe it will eventually come out here too? I sure hope so.

I wouldn’t squander my winnings on expensive but otherwise readily available items. No, I’d also use this opportunity to get my greedy little hands on something truly unique like an RPG prototype. Something that I could look back on and tribute to winning this contest.

But most importantly I have boobs. So gimme.

Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded is an isometric shooter which harkens back to the days of Crusader and Alien Breed. Moving with the keyboard and aiming and shooting with the mouse you slaughter hordes of  evil aliens. As you progress you gain experience points and cash which can be spent on upgrading your stats and buying new weapons. AS2 doesn’t get any more complex than that. You enter the level, start killing, and leave to power yourself up.

There are two additional play modes under the heading “Survival” . One has you controlling a gun tower, having to repulse waves of alien attacks. The other has you on foot, having to repulse waves of alien attacks. Between rounds you can power up.  It’s not the most imaginative mix and adds little to the game on the whole.

Whilst AS2 is simplistic, even a bit repetative, it is certainly a lot of mindless fun. When things get hectic anywhere up to 100 enemies can be displayed on screen at once and each and every one of them will die is a satisfying spray of gore, the ground stained red with blood. When the game starts throwing bucket loads of bad guys at you, suplemented by some driving techno music, AS2 is at its frenetic best.

Whilst there isn’t a whole lot of detail in the graphics they do animate nicely and the lighting and environmental effects are occasionally impressive. It’s a bit of a mystery why, on occasion, you will wait so long for it to initally load up, but once it does the action is pretty much non-stop. If you fancy disconnecting your brain for a while and indulging yourself in some frantic fun this could be the game for you. AS2’s ability to raise pulse rates and low price just about makes up for the lack of variety in the gameplay.

Quick Look Rating: 6/10

Why can’t we get a bit of a hint as to the meaning of 80023017 though? “An error occurred: 80023017″ is hardly very informative. It could mean anything. For all I knew “80023017″ meant that a gnome was cooking bacon on the processor but was unable to get it suitably crispy.

A silly sentiment, I know.

Would it really kill someone to stick a bit of text up there rather than a long and ominous string of numbers?

Anyway, my thoughts on the PSN store will have to wait for another day.

UPDATE: I log in to  my US account and what do I see but a message saying  “The Playstation Network is currently undergoing maintenance.”  Why can’t we have one of those?

It was Christmas 1990 and my sister and I were lucky enough to find brand new Gameboys underneath the tree. Along with the standard Tetris pack-in, we both also received an additional game… being a puzzle game fiend, I got Dr. Mario, and my sister got a little game called Balloon Kid, more than likely because it had a picture of a girl on the box. While I quickly got into and expanded my Gameboy library with titles like Super Mario Land and Ninja Turtles, my sister’s interest in the system was half-hearted at best, and her interest in video games in general waned as she got older (though she was surprisingly good at Super Mario World, beating the game even before I could). Needless to say, I ended up acquiring a couple of games from her collection when she decided to sell it a few years later, one of them being Balloon Kid.

A sequel of sorts to the NES Balloon Fight (which itself was a shameless clone of Joust), Balloon Kid took the concept and expanded it across eight large auto-scrolling stages. The heroine, Alice, was on a quest to rescue her brother, who had floated away while trying to create a large rainbow out of balloons. Alice could fly with the assistance of two balloons, and if they were popped by enemies, you could quickly inflate more by rapidly pressing down on the Dpad. She could also release her balloons and drop to the ground with a press of the B button, which would become manditory in the increasingly complex stages late in the game. Other than an invincibility move and the ability to jump onto certain enemies, Alice was defenseless, which made the game more about avoiding danger than facing it head on.

The game features two additional modes… Balloon Trip, which challenges you to cross a single stage without getting struck by lightning, and a battle mode, where you and an opponent try to pop each other’s balloons first… provided you’ve got a link cable and another copy of the game.

The graphics were simple, but charming. The first stage, set it Pencilvania, was decorated by, you guessed it, giant pencil skyscrapers in the background. The enemies were well animated, if a bit small, but that was par for the course for most Gameboy launch titles. The designers knew the game would have to be played on a small, blurry screen, so detail was kept to a minimum so the action could be easily seen. The soundtrack was just as good. Just a few minutes into the first stage and you’ll have the theme stuck in your head for days.

Though it was never followed up by a sequel, it was re-released twice in Japan… it was remade for the Famicom with the Hello Kitty brand, and it was also rereleased for the Gameboy Color, with color graphics and a save system to keep track of your progress. Sadly, the update never made it to our shores, and no other Balloon Kid games were ever released. Needless to say, Balloon Kid is a wonderful niche title that every Gameboy player should have in their library.

I didn’t have a lot of hope for Prototype at first. The developer, Radical Entertainment, hardly has a great track record. Whilst 2005’s Hulk: Ultimate Destruction provided a passing distraction the majority of their other work had been middling at best. Who could forget such classics  as James Cameron’s Dark Angel, The Simpsons: Hit and Run and Scarface: The World is Yours?

Prototype builds on what made Hulk an enjoyable game to great effect. You are dropped into a virtual New York City in the shoes of Alex Mercer, fairly irritated biological test subject, and left to explore the open world environment at your leisure. As with most other games of this type you visit various locations, shown on the map, to get story and side missions. So far it’s reasonably standard stuff. The character models look good, the city seems like it’s full of people and the voice acting isn’t too shabby. Where Prototype excels and stands apart from its free roaming brethren is in the feel of the game.

As Alex you feel surprisingly powerful. There is no waiting around for four hours to unlock all the good abilities. From the start you have a decent array of genetically enhanced super powers allowing you run at inhuman speeds and up vertical walls, jump massive disantces and to fall from great heights only for the pavement to crack beneath you. You can pick up cars, throw people around and generally cause chaos. your initial powers are upgradable and of course there are more to unlock. It comes close to feeling like you are a little over powered at times, but just as you begin to think this the game throws something new at you.

New York is infected by a virus that is spreading throughout the city, turning people in to monsters and zombies. As you complete story missions time moves on. The game does a very good job of showing the city change as more and more areas get infected. The military are trying to combat the outbreak and will fight with the mutants, although both sides are gunning for you. The battles are intense, fast paced and the combat is visceral and very pleasing.  You can hijack vehicles, cause spikes to rise out of the ground to impale your foes, turn you arms into whips or claws or use the military’s own weapons against them. To regain health you can consume civilians or the enemy – you literally pull them towards you and absorb them in a bloody mess.

The consumption mechanic is quite important. It helps progress the story at points as you absorb the memories of certain characters who have information about the outbreak, and it allows you to assume the form of the person that you have consumed. The latter is particularly handy for sneaking in to military bases.

Prototype may not be the deepest or the longest game in the world, but controlling Alex, seeing the city change and taking part in the battles between the humans and the infected is a whole lot of fun. There is probably a whole lot more I could say about the game and, if you haven’t already, you should check out a proper review.

Quick Rating: 8/10

Perhaps a little bit shallow, but ultimately a satisfying free roaming action title.

Dear Xbox 360, I knew you well.  When I first saw you, you were only six months old and a launch unit.  We enjoyed many games together, such as Mercs 2, Oblivion, Dead Rising, The Darkness, and many others.  We also spent countless hours together watching movies until that bullshit Netflix/Starlight problem, though that wasn’t your fault.  I remember the first time we playing online games together: it was Saint’s Row, and the horrible racial epitaphs and obscenities that I heard made me swear off 360 online games forever.  Now you are gone, and rather than send you back to Microsoft and paying some bullshit fee and shipping, I will instead lovingly box you up, and place you next to my old PSX on the shelf. Then I will buy an original Xbox, which is what I’d rather have anyways.  Thank you, Xbox 360, for the memories, and may flights of angels, etc. etc.

And almost as many of you know that our 8-bit era guide, better known as “the classic guide”, is long overdue for an overhaul. The last book came out in 2002 and is rather outdated. The team has been working on this for many years now and it has been 80% complete for many years as well. There have been a few sticky sections: those that are tough to tackle due to either lack of information or lack of interest. I’ve chipped away at many of these over time (hello, TI-99/4A and APF MP-1000) but one section that has demanded much more attention and continually stalled was the Atari 8-bit computer section, marked “Atari XE” in the guide to make it more gamer-friendly.

Earlier this year, my buddy Scott and I set a full day aside, hooked the 8-bit up to a big HDTV and enjoyed a full day of gaming in the name of research. Who are the designers? What kind of game is it? What was included in the original package? We tackled the library alphabetically, my entire collection sprawled out across the game room floor… and yet, we only got as far as the letter “H”.

Scott and I filled in a few gaps here and there in the months to follow but finally brought in some muscle to work through the rest of the library. A week ago, we all met back at my house and plowed our way through the letter “R”. Still, there were lots of gaps where none of us owned the actual game. Sure, there are always emulators but when it comes to THIS book, that just feel like cheating. Or at least a last resort. So yet another day was in order. One week later, this past Saturday, we re-convened in the Digital Press store. The following photos document the day.

Click here to view the photo gallery

John brought his massive cartridge collection, Scott brought his gaming skills (and wicked memory), Micky brought his hardware and emulation backup, and I just filled in the gaps, as always. Not only did we have a blast re-living a very special era of gaming, but we did, in fact, record quite a bit of information for the book. At least up to the letter “U”.

Clearly, at least one more day of research is in the works.

For a time, it seemed like Nintendo’s little dino Yoshi was their new “go to guy”. From a reskinned Panel de Pon to Yoshi’s Safari, Yoshi was all over the place in the early nineties after his debut in Super Mario World. And in 1993, he starred in a new puzzler, Yoshi’s Cookie, released across all three Nintendo platforms.

The gameplay was simple, but addicting. Line up rows or columns of the same type of cookie, and they disappear off the screen. Clear the entire screen, and you move onto the next level. Of course, as you play, more cookies come into the playfield, and the speed picks up as you progress. There were five different kinds of cookies to match, as well as a special Yoshi-shaped cookie, which would act as a wild card and match with any other type of cookie.

While the Gameboy and NES versions were essentially the same aside from color (and a four player battle mode in the Gameboy version), the SNES added a “Puzzle” mode. It was very similar to the not-yet-released Tetris Attack, in which you had to clear the screen in a certain number of moves. The graphics were also improved, featuring characters and backgrounds from Super Mario World.

I owned the Gameboy version of the game when I was a kid, and played the hell out of it. It got me through a long summer vacation, as I managed not only to beat the main game, but also played through (and beat!) all of the 89 bonus stages that you could unlock after defeating the first ten stages. The Bonus Mode featured classic Mario enemies in place of the cookies, a new music track, and a new obstacle to face… the Koopa Shell. A single shell would be placed into the field in every stage, and the only way to get rid of it would be to match it up with a Yoshi cookie. Needless to say, as the pace increased, it became quite hectic to both keep the playfield clear and to save any Yoshi cookies for matching up the shell.

Yoshi’s Cookie was also re-released on the Gamecube in the Japan-only Nintendo Puzzle Collection, which also featured a port of Dr. Mario 64 and the original Panel de Pon. It featured the same modes as the SNES version, but sported brand new graphics. (EDIT: The Gamecube version doesn’t have the Puzzle mode, but instead a “Story” mode, much like Dr. Mario. Thanks, Mogman) It also allowed players to download the NES version of Yoshi’s Cookie to a Gameboy Advance via the link cable. The NES version is also available on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

Yoshi’s Cookie is a fun puzzler that is well worth picking up. The version included with Nintendo Puzzle Collection is probably the best version of the bunch, with exclusive modes and a 4 player battle mode, but since most of us don’t have access to an import shop (and the game has actually gotten rather pricey over the years), download the NES version on Virtual Console. It’s a tasty treat you can’t put down. Just don’t forget the milk…

Well, I still am. But things got tough around here, and I’ll have to wait til I move out. So, if there’s anyone out there actually interested in this, I ask you to wait. I’m planning an article about brazilian piracy issues, and another one on the Megavision, the cooles Genny clone ever, in my humble opinion.

See ya soon, fellas.

I guess there are several reasons I collect.  Part of it is the thrill of the hunt, a feeling many of you share, I think.  Another is the enjoyment I get from watching my collection grow on a shelf (something like retail therapy maybe), because after all, nothing looks better next to a game than another game.  But often there is another reason that keeps me collecting: a reason that can either jump start a collecting frenzy or drive me away from the thrift stores.  The thought process behind these things generally take time with me, like the incubation period on the ebola virus; and the longer it takes, the more negative the effects are. This savior/killer of collections is nostalgia, and this time it started with a read through of one of my favorite articles, and a listen to one of my favorite podcasts.

Three weeks ago I read NES_Rules’ Treasure Hunt Chronicles #15 and noted the Tiger Electronic game.  It was a brief note, and I promptly forgot it after spying the CIB NES haul further down the article.  The other night as I washed the dinner dishes I listened to the lastest Retronauts (which was covering the history of handhelds).  About halfway through I had a brief thought, “Hm. Didn’t mention tabletop games.”  Of course they did closer to the end and I once again forgot.  No doubt at this point my subconscious was brewing something especially rose-tinted, and later that night (about 11pm) these two thoughts emerged, dripping with nostalgia from my childhood.  One involved a small and very cheap Tiger LCD game, and the other was a heavy and somewhat cumbersome to play tabletop arcade game.  The name of the game I could not recall.  All I could remember is playing a side-scrolling shooter while I kept warm at the heating vent in my room.  I would play it obsessively, and at one point finished it no less than three times in a row before being called down for dinner.  Thunder Blade, maybe.  Hmm.  The second, however, is a much clearer memory.  I remember a sort-of friend (more like a bully whom declared a temporary truce) tell me of a kid who traded video games.  I accompanied the sort-of friend to this kids house, and was quick to note there was not one videogame in the place.  I asked him about trades, and he seemed to remember a game, which turned out to be the Tomy game, Tron.  At this point I’d never seen a tabletop arcade game, and I was instantly floored.  I had to have it.  The problem was, while the douche-bag was finding the game, he also found a dull kitchen knife, and proceeded to try to throw it into his bedroom wall.  I think we can effectively blame the American Ninja movies and Michael Dudikoff for this kind of behavior.  The sort-of friend who had accompanied me quickly joined in, and things started to look glum.  There was a definite air of pre-pubescent testosterone in the air, which youthful experience had taught me an ass-whuppin’ was close at hand.  All the money I had left was a five-spot, which represented about two days of bottle hunting (in Michigan 1 bottle equals 10 cents).  This money was destined for the token machine at Little Caesar’s Pizzeria, I reasoned with myself, but that Tron game looked damn awesome, and my decision was made in the space of a few seconds.  I made a quick transaction, and hauled my geeky ass out of there.  What followed was about an indefinite, but long period of total bliss, and nothing would even come close until a friend down the road got an NES.  What happened to this lovely piece of hardware, I may never know.  I have my suspicions, which may or may not involve my father and a garbage bag.  However, I would not mourn for long, as in Christmas of 1988 I received a NES.  My mystery Tiger LCD game, along with my beautiful memory of the Tomy Tron tabletop vanished and lay dormant for over twenty years.  When the memory came back fully in my mind (the other night), I sat down in front of my laptop and researched for an hour or so.  Before long I had correctly identified the Tiger game as ThunderBlade from scanned instructions on Hasbro’s website, and watched video on YouTube that some blessed soul put up for the Tron game.  Needless to say I desperately want to re-experience those games, so I checked around a bit.  A no-go on the ThunderBlade game, but that was nothing more than I expected.  The Tron game was also a bust, but in a different way.  The only machine I found for sale were on eBay, and the owners aren’t willing to part with them for less than $120 (UPDATE: There is one for actual auction now, so we’ll see how that turns out).  I normally don’t like using eBay (or walk-in stores for that matter), as the hunt is pretty much what motivates me to collect.  I mean, I could walk into Destiny Games (a local gaming shop) and get an original Xbox or a N64 pretty cheap, but pulling one out of a cardboard box full of odd junk as if it were a baby being birthed by cesarean is much more fulfilling.

So here I am, in something of a strange situation.  My nostalgia for handheld games is unfulfilled, and since I’m a hunter at heart, I’m unlikely to get my fix anytime soon.  The oddity is that because of this, my focus is now on handheld and tabletop gaming exclusively.  I’ve since made a few finds in that department, which I’ll write about later (first: honey-do list).  I even passed up a NES with Tetris and MAX controller so I could look in couple more stores first( tight budget, you know).  But if this reads as if I’m complaining let me assure you:  I’m loving every minute, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Here’s to the memories. *clink*

I mention this because on Saturday evening I had some palpitations. I was in bed, trying to sleep and I could feel my heart beating (which is normal for me but usually I ignore it). My heart would skip a beat once in a while and I would start getting panicky about it. So much so I had a hard time getting any sleep that night. The next morning, I checked my heart rate and it was skipping on every beat!!! Oh, wait, that just means I had a slower heart rate. /embarrassed. Obviously I’m somewhat over anxious about this.

The thing is I had no chest pains or other symptoms that would indicate a heart problem so I’m sure it’s more of a mental thing (in fact I rode my bike 52 miles the next morning and felt fine throughout the exercise). I’ve had mild anxiety attacks before (typically only enough to deprive me from a sound sleep) and usually it’s not always about my heart rate but other things that normally don’t bother me (noises in the house, ex-girlfriends, bills, etc.).

In fact I remember once, when I was a kid, listening to my heart beat and then suddenly it skipped a beat. The heart skipped just that one time – it wasn’t a repeating irregularity – but that didn’t stop me from running out of my bedroom to tell my parents. “Mom! Dad!” I gasped. “My heart skipped a beat! I think something is wrong with me.” Both of my parents looked at me, looked at each other and then said, in unison, “Go to bed!”. I skulked back to bed, thinking sullenly the whole time “If I die in bed tonight, they’re going to be sorry.”

My conclusion is that I’m taking in too much caffeine. Daily, I’ve been drinking at least one cup of coffee in the morning and then I drink one or two soft drinks in the afternoon. Although the coffee intake has been normal (for the past four years, anyway), the soda intake is a significant change from a month or two ago when I was drinking no more than one or two cans of soda a week.

For now I’m going cold turkey on the caffeine. No soda or coffee for at least a week. I may resume to drinking coffee in a week but I’m going to stay away from the soda for at least another month or so. I may also switch to decaff coffee next time I’m in the store. Decaff coffee still has caffeine in it but only 10% the caffeine that regular coffee has.

That should help reduce the anxiety and palpitations, I would hope.