Celebrating 10 years of Lost Levels

I meant to mention this anniversary--of one of the few blogs/sites I've been following since I first discovered such things existed way back when--a couple of weeks ago when it actually happened, but I was still completely obsessed with creating (and publishing) cushion designs for Animal Crossing: New Leaf at the time and as a result forgot to do so.

So, I'm mentioning--and celebrating--it today. (With the "it" in question being the 10th anniversary of Frank Cifaldi's LostLevels.org.)



If you've never visited Lost Levels, I'd obviously highly recommend doing so now (right now, in fact)--especially if you like reading about old video games that never made it to market.

I'm pretty sure this post about Final Fantasy 64 is what first brought me to Cifaldi's site, by the way. Even if it wasn't, it's unquestionably my favorite of all of Lost Levels' posts, as I obsessed over that not-meant-to-be title far more than I'd like to admit as a teen, and the writer's insights into its existence (or lack thereof) thrill me even today.

The Backloggery

As I'm sure some of you are well aware, I'm a sucker for social media. After all, I've got deviantART, Facebook, Flickr, Formspring and Twitter accounts at the moment.

Actually, I added one more site to that lengthy list a few weeks ago: The Backloggery.

What's the point of this particular site, you ask? Basically, it helps you keep track of your gaming backlog. You don't just use your Backloggery account to track the games you own but have yet to play, though; you also use it to track games you're currently playing (by giving each one a status update, of sorts) as well as games you've already completed (which can be tagged "beaten," "completed" or "mastered).



Another cool thing about The Backloggery: You can connect to other gamers and not only compare collections but compete with them--basically, you earn points for every game you beat--as well.

If that sounds at all interesting to you, I'd highly recommend signing up for your own Backloggery account here. (After you do that, be sure to add me--http://backloggery.com/thegaygamer--to your "multitap," OK?)