Elf On The Shelf - Our Retro Gaming Repair & Maintenance Hero
When it comes to Christmas magic, we rock the Yuletide spirit! So we decided to amp up the holiday joy - Elf-style! Intrigued by the Elf of the Shelf, we adopted one, but things didn't go as planned.
The Elf On The Shelf is a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts an elf and gives it a name, the elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about all of the day's adventures. Each morning, the elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their elf each morning.
We followed all the directions, but the following morning we found our elf sitting next to the computer... where we left him. WTF!?! We forgot him and went to play some games. Strangely, the PSone was hooked up to the TV. It hasn't worked in years, but suddenly Namco Museum's N is loaded and fired right up! We were shocked. We also noticed a new 72-pin connector in our NES and all our 2600 carts were now alphabetized. Each morning we wake to more retro gaming repairs and astonishing cleanups.
We named our elf Nolan (after Mr. Bushnell) and he's a nightly warrior of retro gaming maintenance!
Elf On The Shelf
Before we try to pass off the Elf On The Shelf as a retro gaming console warrior, he's actually a part of this book & elf package. Parents tell the kids the elf is reporting their naughty/nice behavior to Santa. At night the parents move him to a new location under the auspices of the elf hiding. It's equal parts clever and deceitfully peculiar. Your lies don't make Christmas enchanting. Our letter from Santa warning us that the retro gaming Elf On The Shelf will try to avoid detection by constantly disappearing and reappearing in different places. Sneaky elf... Duct tape should take care of that. The official adoption certificate that we can use to claim ownership rights to our retro gaming Elf On The Shelf in case we need to report any damaged game consoles to Santa.
Elf On The Shelf - A Retro Gaming Console Warrior
Although we have several functioning Atari 2600s, Nolan kind of likes playing his favorite arcade classics on the larger TV.
Nolan won't admit it, but we know how late he stays up playing R-Type on our SNES. Retro gaming at it's finest!
I still remember Dana Plato on Different Strokes, but Nolan just likes setting the traps :)
Our Elf stays on top of his video game history to keep his cutting edge repair skills on point. Console Wars is a great read!
Nolan loves the Game Boy Advance even though it's nearly impossible to see the screen under any lighting situation.
One of Nolan's favorite Christmas movies is Die Hard, so naturally, he digs the Nakatomi Plaza game.
When the house was overrun by strange green Invaders, Nolan rounded them up to play Space Invaders.
As I agonize over whether or not I should open a sealed amiibo, Nolan sees it as a swell place to catch a quick nap.
The future is unpredictable, especially in today's volatile world. Nolan leaves nothing to chance and consults the Super Mario Magic 8-Ball on a regular basis.
While Nolan is a good natured Elf, Rick was having none of it.
Few things excite our Elf than a new game console. He waited patiently by the box as we set it up and got things going. When we sleep, his curses echo through the house as he attempts to attach the Joy Cons.
As soon as Art Of Atari arrived, we all fought over who got to read through it first. Nolan dutifully went about his maintenance chores knowing he could spend the entire night browsing this amazing book.
Nolan was excited about the Retro VGS console, until it became a bit suspicious. Once it was deemed a fraud, Nolan decided to sit on our translucent Atari Jaguar case until justice is properly served!
Nothing like a good book to captivate Nolan. While studying Brett Weiss' 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977 - 1987
Nolan got caught up in a Sharknado while he was playing on the 2DS.
While working out some kinks with our Colecovision, Nolan, took to the Colecovision Flashback for some quick Coleco gaming.
He's not just about retro gaming. Nolan is a big fan of Newtek's Video Toaster. Who doesn't love adding TBC cards to an Amiga?
Our Elf on the Shelf, Nolan, took a couple of Atari 7800 joysticks to make some repairs to his RV. No one likes those 78 sticks.
Not even a carnivorous T-Rex could Keep our Elf On The Shelf, Nolan, from cleaning the gunk out of our Atari 2600's Reset switch.
Oxidation is rampant here. Fortunately, Nolan is a master swabber and gets dirty contacts clean in no time.
Always pleasant, Nolan smiled sweetly even though he was unsure what an amiibo is. He politely greeted Fox.
It's well known that the average Elf On The Shelf relishes the joy of playing carts on one of the last consoles to support them.
It's not just about video games. Nolan turned us on to Fluxx card games. This year we got the Fruitcake fun Pack as a gift from Looney Labs.
We love our Colecovision, but our Elf on the Shelf is working on getting Expansion Module 1 repaired so we can all play some Atari too!
After close inspection our Elf On The Shelf was pretty stoked about the 2DS.
Nolan refers a "real" Sega Genesis.
Despite his good intentions, our Elf On The Shelf seems unaware that the Skylanders can kick his Xmas butt.... especially Halloween EyeBrawl & Tree Rex!
Joust for the Atari 800? I'd clutch it too!
Nolan takes a respit on our Peach Pink 2DS with a Nerf protective wrap.
Nolan checks out the Retro Duo with Wario Woods.
Nolan is far more comfortable with our GameStick now that he's figured out how to disconnect other devices when he plays with it in the night. Our Elf On The Shelf is becoming a very well-rounded gamer.
Our Elf On The Shelf knows to use the 7800 for all those sweet Atari 2600 games.
When we found the Atari Flashback 4 next to the window, we suspected our Elf On The Shelf had tried to pitch it out. Thankfully he wasn't able to get the window open.
Pulling up a toadstool chair, our Elf On A Shelf rests while reflecting on where he left the Atari 5200 Field Service Manual.
Everyone takes a break for a new episode of Uncle Grandpa on Cartoon Network.
The PlayStation is one of our Elf On A Shelf's favorite consoles. He has a small case of polygon-lust.
Not wanting to mix details, our Elf On The Shelf took it upon himself to soak up an intense level of Atari info via Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg's book, Atari Inc.: Business is Fun.
We suspect our Elf On The Shelf is holding this case shut in the hope he can evade a Skylanders Giants beating. He's messed with the Giants before and his mischievous side is likely to get him in trouble.
Our Elf On The Shelf is debating which he prefers - the FC Twin or Retro Duo.
Our Elf On The Shelf knows there are a lot of retro gaming opportunities on the Ouya. He's down with emulators and side-loading ROMs. We suspect he wishes the Ouya controller was... better.
The GameStick seemed to initially stump our Elf On The Shelf. In the morning the manual and box were scattered around the living room. He must have figured it out since the memory stick was in the TV's HDMI port and all the other HDMI cables had been disconnected. Hope he enjoyed it.
It's hard to let go of Pac Man... even if it's too small to play.
You can't blame our Elf On The Shelf, Nolan, for wanting to step aside from all the technical jargon of game consoles and take in a novel about the golden era of arcade gaming. What better way than with Andy Hunt's novel, The Final Day at Westfield Arcade.
Nolan cleaned the contacts on this 7800 joystick and got it back in working order while we slept. Alas he woke us early shouting about his Food Fight high score.
Despite a Jurassic interruption, Nolan was able to clean out the cart slot on our Atari 2600. I hope he knows he needs to clean each game cartridge's contacts too...
While waiting for a new 72-pin connector to arrive, our Elf On The Shelf used the FC Twin to play NES games. Nolan doesn't like emulation, but at least it's a console.
Our Elf On The Shelf knows those cheap GameStop controllers for Nintendo's GameCube are pretty lame, but made it clear that if he threw them out, we'd cut his legs off. So far, we can account for all these cheap controllers.
Our Elf On The Shelf seems to think a power-up star will protect him from a Pac-Man ghost. Hell no!
Having mastered the GameStick, our Elf On The Shelf chills atop this odd gaming system.
Our Elf On The Shelf contemplates playing Turkey Chase on his Android phone. He knows that relaxing with a Happy Badger Studio game is always a good time, but he particularly likes the 8-bit feel of Turkey Chase. Nolan is all about retro gaming.
Our Elf On The Shelf, Nolan, invites us to pick a PS2 fave.
It's hard to resist a few rounds on the Game Boy Advance, but Nolan won't until he mods a backlight.
Our Elf On The Shelf got our Playstation back in shape just in time for some Twisted Metal.
After some 2600 and NES madness on the Ouya, our Elf On The Shelf needs to chill with a bit of Adventure Time followed by Regular Show.
No one can resist a round of Donkey Kong Country on the Super NES! Not even our Elf On A Shelf.
He wasn't impressed at first, but our Elf On The Shelf has a new affinity for Disney Infinity... after a few threats from Syndrome and Jack.
If this Sega Genesis built-in game console were any flimsier, our Elf On The Shelf would chuck it out the window!
As a retro gamer, Nolan is a bit confused by the Dino in the box.
Even Nolan gets a little star-struck when meeting a celebrity... like Skylanders Lob-Star! ... and Winterfest Lob-Star!
Repairing an Atari 5200 joystick is an annoying facet to enjoying this console. Our Elf On The Shelf Nolan, chose to test our unit with a few levels of Space Invaders.
No Elf On The Shelf can pass up an Atari 2600Jr. Awesome game library and constant fun. Nolan as several cart-based homebrews to share this holiday season.
A bit of confusion set in on our Elf On The Shelf when he found this Nuon controller, but was unable to find the Nuon console. Sorry Nolan. We don't own a Nuon - we picked up this controller to mark this odd DVD/Game console's place in gaming history.
I didn't have the heart to tell Nolan we don't actually have a Nuon. Then we'd have to explain why we have a controller. It's all about retro collecting.
It's nice to wake up and discover our Elf On The Shelf has downloaded a bunch of new games onto our GameStick. Go Nolan!
Our Elf On The Shelf has strong retro tendencies and goes for Joust '82 on the NES.
