Reminiscing About the Nintendo DS; Plus One Sock Off One Sock On.

Hey everyone! How's your Wednesday going? Today is the last day of the month so that means tomorrow is the first day of December and the 25th day before Christmas!

So recently the Nintendo DS turned 12 years old here in America as the original release date was November 21st 2004. I'm surprised how long it's been since I first got this machine and with this 12th anniversary I've been thinking back to my memories with this machine so I thought I would share some of these memories and thoughts with you guys.

My first experience with machine actually dates back to when I was in elementary school I believe that I was 7-8 years old and the DS had just been released. See my school let us bring things to entertain ourselves after we took this big test. I don't remember exactly what test it was, a LEAP test or an IOWA test it's been too long for me to remember, it was one of those big tests you took back in 3rd grade. But yeah I brought along my Gameboy Advance SP with my copy of Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (Yeah my memory game is on fire right now I'm remembering everything.) and I was sitting outside playing it. Of course all the other kids were sitting outside doing things too and this kid sitting close to me was playing on a blue Nintendo DS (The ol big chunky one too).

I was completely shocked to see him playing on this brand new dual screen machine, I had no idea the Nintendo DS was a thing at that moment (Either I didn't watch enough TV or Nintendo didn't advertise this machine at all). I don't really know what game he was playing but it definitely made my 7 year old eyes widen. That wouldn't be my last sighting of this machine though I saw someone playing NintenDogs on the bus just before Christmas break that year. Two screens? A touch screen? Yeah sign me up. Actually I don't think I ever told my parents this but I actually got a kid to let me play his DS for a bit... Mum if you're reading this I'm sorry for never telling you, haha.

Of course I then bugged my parents and convinced them to buy me the Nintendo DS for Christmas like any kid would... or at least annoying younger me anyway. To this day I still have the same DS and it still works! (Nintendo built this baby to last a long time.)

It's a little worn on the outside but it still works great. When I got this DS it came with this little demo cartridge for Metroid Prime Hunters. I never actually got the full version of this game it kinda freaked me out as a kid so I never really played it much. I only really liked it because it had Samus in it... who I only knew from Super Smash Brothers at the time. Games I got for Christmas with this machine was Pokemon Dash, a game where you flick the touchscreen to race against Pokemon in these awesome courses across all sorts of terrain (Though you only got to play as Pikachu... kind of a bummer.) and Super Mario 64 DS.

Oh Super Mario 64 DS has quite a big part in my memory of this machine. I was already a lifetime fan of the original Super Mario 64 and being able to play it on the go off TV with THREE new characters to play as? This game was and still is a blast. This game had quite a few control options too, such as the ability to move your character via the touchscreen, I swear I never used this control scheme. Of course it was a bit different from the original game as far as control was concerned because you were using a D-Pad instead of a control stick but have you tried plugging the game into a 3DS? The Circle Pad makes this game work even better. Super Mario 64 DS also had a multiplayer mode me and my sister would spend hours playing and a Mini Game mode with a bunch of cool mini games... including poker and other casino card games. Hey I can't gamble yet but when I'm 21 boy you better be ready casinos, Luigi taught me well.

Anyway another big part of my Nintendo DS memories were Pokemon... Yes I sure had a lot of Pokemon games for this machine, take a look.

Yeah that's a lot right? Hahaha yeah I could go on about all these games but this blog would end up a mile long. This isn't even my full DS library too. Yeah Pokemon, especially Pokemon Diamond was a big part of my Nintendo DS memories. I'll probably talk more about each individual games in future blogs. That reminds me of another great part of this machine... Well kind of. It had the ability to go online! I think it was mostly used on Pokemon games but the DS could actually connect to the internet, this was mind blowing and allowed for people to trade and battle Pokemon from around the world. Only problem was it didn't really like connecting to WPA2 Broadband access spots... Which meant my use of the DS's wifi was minimal, ohh well.

Another great thing about the Nintendo DS was the GBA slot. I could have a GBA game in my machine AND a DS game at the same time. Meaning all I had to do was turn off the machine and turn it back on to switch games. I had two games with me at all times. I was kinda disappointed when the GBA slot was removed from the DSi models (Which is a whole another story on it's own).

While I did love the addition of the touchscreen oh boy the styluses... Remember how tiny they were? They were lost so easily. I'm really glad in future models they increased the size of them. Actually the stylus was kind of awkward to hold in my hand too, which is why I ended up using larger separate licensed stylus products for the most part.

Overall this machine was and still is an incredible piece of work with a huge library of games, most games I never even owned (I only own like 2-3% of the entire library of games for this machine.). I'm glad this machine still works, yeah I have a 3DS XL but every so often I like to boot this ol boy up and play some games. This is also my preferred way to play GBA games now. (Truth be told my old Gameboy Advance SP doesn't work anymore.) 12 years and this machine still holds up as one of the greatest portable gaming machines if not one of the greatest video game consoles in general.

With that little nostalgia trip out the way it's time to put down the DS and pick up the needles... Or cast off the needles anyway because...

I finally finished my first sock... The FIRST sock. Yup still got one more to go but hey I'm just happy I finished this! I even used kitchener on the toe perfectly too. I started this sock project back on October 25th so it's not been all that long. Since I've written down everything my second sock should come along a lot faster, I've already casted it on and finished my ribbing. Now you're probably asking yourself... Why did Zach just knit a Christmas Stocking? Well I got giant feet so this was how big I had to make it, hahaha. To be honest on future sock projects I might come down to a 2.7 MM needle or a 2.5 MM needle, it is a lil big even for my feet but it doesn't slide around and this sock is also super comfy. So yeah that's about it on the knitting, I'm going full steam ahead on the second sock and my Shawl is still growing. Possibly going to be starting my cable hat project I talked about in a previous blog soon as well.

Mum also finished her socks yesterday as well! Both socks actually. Her socks are a lot more nicer and fancier then mine are but hey I'll get there. I purposely went for plain vanilla socks for my first pair because of the fact I have never knitted socks before. Before you know it i'll be making awesome socks just like these. (I'm learning at a pretty fast pace too.) Mum knitted these socks for Dad for Christmas so his feet will be pretty warm and cozy. Though Dad is getting these for this Christmas, Mum actually started these two years ago. Haha yeah I guess she kept putting them off but mum told me she knitted one of these socks per year. These have a reinforced toe as well, Dad tends to wear his toes of his socks out often so these reinforced toes should prevent that. Mum used Size 2.75 MM (US Size 2) Needles and Knit Picks Fingering Weight Yarn on these socks.

So yeah we're still going knit crazy, Mum actually started up a new pair of gloves project and I'm going good on my projects as well.

One last thing before I end off the blog. Sometimes when I'm knitting I have to (sadly) put the needles down sometimes and help out the the cooking for dinner.

You saw it here first folks... This is me cooking some Spaghetti. I do know how to cook and I make a pretty mean Spaghetti if I do say so myself.

Haha anyway hope you enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for reading! Tomorrow is December the 1st so we're counting down 25 days to Christmas Day! Expect some Christmassy stuff in the upcoming weeks. If you don't celebrate Christmas no worries I won't be flooding the blog out with it or anything. Anyway don't forget to follow me on my social medias, especially Instagram!

See you on the next blog!