Low Tech Weekend: 80's videogame pocket pinball games

Remember the days before X box? How about the days before PS1 or even the NES. Well, okay, NES was around at this point, so were the arcade games. This is a look at 2 old school pinball games. Not the big ones that were at the Arcade, No. these are the "Tiger electronics" equivalent.

Feel the power yet?

Anyways, to review these, I made a video on youtube!

Deadstocked - vintage building toy clean-out

I've decided to change gears for a while. I've gotten pretty dedicated with my local library trustees group which eats up a good chunk of my time, so I've been bouncing between work to meetings with little time to do much at home. By the time I get home, I'm tired and it's already nightfall and don't feel like writing much.

Other than that, I feel like my writings on old games are somewhat rambling and lacking in interest. Because I  focus on older games, and most of them have been done to death. I've only written 2 or 3 articles about them, I need to spend some time coming up some fresh new ideas.

 They could get better if I spent more time thinking them out but for now I think I'll dedicate more time to a different topic.

With that being said, here's the true intro to this article:

If you read my previous articles, you read about how I sold most of my old video game college to help pay for college loans when I couldn't find a job. 
In addition to the games I sold, I also hunted for merchandise like books, board games and other assorted things.

I've stumbled across various items that I bought, hoping to sell for a good amount online only to find out the item has a problem or there's a poor market for the item.

When I had begun to go merchandising at the various thrift stores and rummage sales, I took a "Grab what you can as long as it isn't too expensive and hope it's worth something" approach and wound up with quite a few things I couldn't sell for a number of reasons.

This line of business is a little like gambling. You go out, buy some items and see what you have. Some might be broken in the box, some might be worth a buck or two and then sometimes you hit the mother lode.

This article is dedicated to the various building toys I've found out there and got stuck with.

For starters, I love building things. Always have, always will.

You can't see into it but this box is almost a foot deep and 4 ft. square.

I've had my lego collection since childhood and thought I lost it in the tornado that hit our house back in 2009. When I found it in the back corner of the shed with some other stuff in a pile, I cried tears of joy that it had survived.

This is what I wanted to pass down to my kids and was happy to see that I still had it.

I've also got a decent K'nex collection but I'm a lot more fond of legos.
When I got into the collectibles business, I sort of had a second childhood, seeing things that I had been interested in as a kid but now had money to buy them. Primarily to resell online. So here's the lineup of stuff to build with that I've found but can't do much with. And to keep things interesting, a write up on the "mini figures" that come with the sets.

# 1- Tinkertoy

This tinkertoy set was from the 70s. I can't remember the exact age because sadly, I tossed the entire set away after opening the box. "Why?" you may ask...

Because these are basically untreated pieces of wood that have been stored someplace since the 70s. Some of them were broken when I found them. Others broke as I was messing around trying to assemble them. In short, Un-sellable.

Although I did get to make a stupid looking flower garden. Hooray?

This is the "figurine" that came with the set. Just a simple piece of yellow molded plastic with a simple face, 3 buttons and freckles. I would make a joke about it being sinister, but a figurine with no legs and stubs for arms isn't worth the time.

#2 Fisher-price Construx

This was a neat find. I got this at a yard sale that was closing up and the guy was like "You want it, I'll take a dollar for it" I handed him a buck and took it out to the car. I noticed it had a 10.00 tag on the back. I asked him if he wanted more. he said "It's one less thing I gotta pack up. Don't worry about it."

Construx came out in 1983, 5 years before I came into existence, so I had never seen one as a kid. I think my older cousin had a set but I don't remember well.
I didn't do much with this when I first got it, for the reason that I couldn't sell it online for a decent profit. It weighs around 5 lbs and is pretty bulky, so shipping it would have been a pain in the neck.

I finally got around to opening it...

The box was so full of parts, I had a hard time of re-closing it.
Much like everything else I've sold online, it needs to be inspected or playtested. At first this might sound like fun but in this case, not so much.

Construx have a strange wheel setup. The entire set is plastic except for the axel which is an aluminum bar that the wheels can attach to. I struggled to get the wheels on and built one of the models on the instructions.

Behold! The Tank thing... I wasn't thoroughly impressed. The plastic felt pretty frail and one of the braces that holds the rocket pylon was broken, so I threw it into the donation pile. 2 kits down, 1 to go.

#3 Tente

Tente has a pretty neat history. I found this at a rummage sale for 50 cents. I didn't find anything like it on amazon, so I threw it into storage.

The particular set I got was apparently an unboxed space set. Looks neat enough. I never got into space stuff but I'll take a closer look at it.

Ah, here's our trusty crew of "Astronauts". These actually look pretty neat. They remind me of the starmen from earthbound.

Most of this kit seems to be decently intact. Some of the thinner pieces like the exhaust pipes and antennas have some breaks but for the most part, it seems to be in decent shape.

 Anyways, I see that complete sets do sell for a decent amount on E-bay and maybe etsy, so back into storage they go!

Well, that's it for now. The weather's getting warmer and I'm going to try to clean out a bit more. I've got tons of neat nostalgic junk, so stay tuned!

Ya can't kill Mr. CC. ( At least not yet...)

Hello reader(s) and welcome back!

Last time I wrote on here it was to wish you all a happy holiday.

When I decided to revive this blog, I didn't have much going on. I thought I could dedicate a decent amount of time to it. I felt that I had a nice balance.

As seen here !

I've learned that every once in a while when you start to want to do something different, life has a way of saying "Ha, nope."

In November, I became a trustee at my local library which takes up a nice little chunk of time (But at least I enjoy it!)

January came along and started to mess up that fine balance further. My studies were complete (Yay!) But my job got a bit more confounded. I've had to increase my productivity and work harder and on top of that, My health took a hefty decline for over 2 months.

So yeah, for around 2 months, other than working, my time had been taken up trying to get better, but well, here I am, full of ideas for writing and a garage full of junk to clean up and write about.

Happy Holidays from CC

Hello there! CC here just wanting to wish my readers ( if there are any :D) Happy Holidays!

Mr. CC VS the NES Classic Mini

I have no idea where my hands are.

When I had first heard the news of the NES Mini coming out, My inner child leaped free from my body, shattering several of my ribs and causing a great amount of hemorrhaging as well as eating all available candy and cookies throughout the house...

Okay, not really, but I was pretty excited to hear that they were bringing the old system back.

I had imagined they were going to redo the NES like it used to be, the old cartridges that needed a good puff of air every once in a while, the simple 8 bit graphics and getting games that you didn't know were good or not until it was too late (We have the internet now, so that point is kinda null.)

But I wondered how they were going to do this. Would they cram 15 like games per cartridge? Would they make new games?
 HOW AWESOME WILL THIS BE?!

When I learned that it was a plug and play system with 30 pre-set games, I had gone from a "GADZOOKS I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! THEY'RE BRINGING IT BACK" to "Oh wait, never mind."

My small remaining interest with the system faded out with the scalping situation that's been going on with Wal-mart and Amazon.
At the time of writing this article, Amazon had them at $195 and walmart had them at $997.72

I know it seems to be routine to pick on Action 52 when it comes to high priced multi-carts, but in this situation, remember, you're getting 30 games, 22 games less than action 52's "games".
 If you get it from Amazon, that means the games are approximately 6.50 each (Not too bad) But from walmart, they're 33.25 (This price is actually closer to what they were when the NES came out so long ago.)
This leaves the other problem, are the games actually worth 6.50 each?
We'll get to that later.

But enough with the technicalities. This system reeks of trying to make a quick buck and get up the hopes of gamers that want a sense of nostalgia to share with their kids that didn't grow up with that feeling.

For the sake of this rant, I've decided to think up questions a younger version of myself would ask in regards to my adult self. That font will be in blue.

"But CC! This kind of thing isn't for you! You don't even have kids! Think of the people that do! They can share the memories the game system gave them!"

Okay, sure. Maybe. I do see it from a different point of view.
These games have all been released for the Wii at right around 2.99 a piece. Not only that, a lot of the games have been ported and reported by way of NES classics for Game boy advance, E-reader cards (Again, for game boy advance)
Nintendo seems to think that if they port the same games over and over again we'll keep buying them. And maybe we do but I haven't and I don't know may that have.

And for me, it's not all about the games on the system, it's the experience of the system itself.

Let's talk about the original NES for a bit.
The NES I had was from 1987 and had let's just say... Issues.
I grew up in coastal Virginia where the temperature occasionally hit the low hundreds and the humidity made everything steamy and muggy. When it did that, My sister and I had to stay indoors so we played games. That would cause the system to overheat. and get moisture inside. I didn't think it could but it did.
My NES suffered some damage a few years later during a bad lightning storm, yet it still worked. It had the occasional problem, some pretty neat glitches, but it still worked.

"That doesn't sound fun at all. Wouldn't you want a system that works perfectly for your kids?"

I can't believe I asked myself a loaded question.
For me, My NES and collection was going to be more of an heirloom item. Something that meant something. Not just another plug -n-play system that had the "best of the best" games with no quirks or flaws shelled out by Nintendo for a quick buck.
Something that I had played, my mom and dad had played in happier times. sure it had problems, but isn't that the feeling they're trying to capture? That it wasn't perfect which made it perfect?
 ( Okay, now I'm rambling. I want to get to the points on what I was trying to get to.)

The game selection
When I saw the games that were on the list, it was my deal breaker.
I'm not trying to be a snob or a so-called hipster when it comes to the games of the NES. A lot of the games I used to play were based on cartoons that family thought I would enjoy, movies that my parents watched and got the game but the big thing was I had whatever the stores had. They were ones that just weren't on the list but I think they could do better.
I'm sure licensing and some of the legal stuff might come into play on this, But given the selection, I would say if it WAS the 60.00 it's supposed to be, it would be more reasonable, but the problem I have is that I couldn't see much interest in playing most of the games.

This is all done by emulation. They could have packed the entire NES library on the thing and they limited it to 30 games. Nintendo does everything they can to get Emulator sites taken down ( Which, legally it's their right) But why be so short about it? Anyways.

Let's take a looky-loo at the games, shall we? And seeing as how I've figured out the coloration for fonts, I'm going to color code this!

Games in blue are games I would love to play again
Games in red, I probably wouldn't play much or at all
Keep in mind, I'm basing this off of the combined effort of my adult self now and what I would have played as a kid. Also, I would most likely be playing this 1p as there's no one else to play along.


Balloon Fight-Meh. I've played this one. I might play it once or twice, but it doesn't do much for me.

BUBBLE BOBBLE-Okay, this is a good one. If you had the second controller, it is a good 2 player game. 

Castlevania- I'm undecided on this one. But I'm leaning more towards not being interested. I've played it to completion a few times and it is a good challenge. But I also had it on GBA and played it excessively.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest-Since AVGN started his entire fame by tearing this game apart. I can't help but wonder why they even bothered with this one. It is extremely flawed and it isn't even one of the good ones. Castlevania III Dracula's curse would have been better.

Donkey Kong-It's a classic and it does have some playability but it would get boring fast.

Donkey Kong Jr.-Much like it's predecessor (father?) Donkey Kong Jr. holds limited interest to me. Most of the older games are based on getting a high score. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 Repeat but a little faster.

DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE- This is one I was on the fence with again. I'm not really into fighting or beat-em-ups, but I do have a few fond memories of playing this. I doubt I would play it again though.

Dr. Mario- Dr. Mario is good. 

Excitebike- Meh. Not into racing games really. 

FINAL FANTASY-This is alright. I would probably play it again.

Galaga- Galaga is an arcade game. It can also be readily found several places online and in the namco collection. Why port it here? 

GHOSTS'N GOBLINS- Again, AVGN reviewed it and it is a flawed game. You have to play the entire thing TWICE to completion. The only good thing this time is that you can use savestates, but doesnt' that take away from the original feeling (Okay, I'll stop.)

GRADIUS- Salamander or Parodius would have been better.

Ice Climber-I didn't even know this game existed until I played Super Smash Bros Melee. It isn't a bad game but it's kind of generic and doesn't keep me interested for long.

Kid Icarus- See Kirby's Adventure

Kirby's Adventure- Kid Icarus and Kirby's adventure are 2 games that I missed growing up. I had Kirby's dreamland and Kid Icarus: Myth and Monsters for the original game boy but they're not really the same. I would probably play these.

Mario Bros.- What fun is a 2 player game when there's no one to play with.

MEGA MAN 2-I already have the Megaman Collection for PS2 that has 1-8 I play it once in a while but since I already have it, I wouldn't be playing it on here.

Metroid- I had this one on GBA when they re-released the classic games back in the early 2000's. I would probably play Metroid.

NINJA GAIDEN- A tough as nails platformer that's unforgiving and been reviewed by AVGN and others as being near impossible? Pass. I wasn't good at it anyways.

PAC-MAN- THIS GAME IS EVERYWHERE. I HAVE HAD CELLPHONES WITH THIS GAME BUILT ON IT. WHY PORT IT AGAIN?

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream- I never got into the punch-out franchise. I'm just not into sports or boxing, and although I've gotten far when I unlocked it in Animal crossing, It just isn't my kind of thing.

StarTropics- I got startropics when I was about 13. I wasted so much time playing it and loved all the interesting concepts of the stories, the things you had to do with your manual to reveal the secret code number ( That stuff can be looked up online now) It would be cool to go back and play it again.

SUPER C- I have no interest. Didn't have any interest in the original Contra game either. I beat it, it's done in my book.

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 3- There's a good chance I've spent more time playing these games than most people should. I've beaten them over and over again and their ports are already numerous. I've had all 3 on GBA and I still have Super Mario All stars for the Snes which is the same game with upgrades to graphics.

TECMO BOWL- I have a special beef about sports games. My grandparents got me John Elway's Quarterback to encourage me to like sports more. Instead of the desired result, I both grew to dislike football and played other games. ( I did take up ballet much to the chagrin of my grandparents.)

  I can't stand playing sports games. If you're going to play a sport, play a sport. Unless you're a die-hard football fan, what's the point. ( Also, I don't like sports Anyways.)

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link- Another 2 I wouldn't mind playing again. 

Okay, so that's 9 games out of 30. One was a maybe. So, 10 games out of 30. One third of the games that I have any interest in. Are the games worth 6.00 each? Sure. Any more than that? Certainly not.

Final thoughts- Thank goodness!

What I see is a situation that is somewhat sad. I've always been a gamer since I was 2 or 3. I've loved picking up something new and giving it a try and hearing that the NES was going to come back and it was going to be a quality product somewhat made me happy. I imagined that maybe nintendo would have some nifty tricks up their sleeve by releasing translated games from the famicom that I've never had the experience of enjoying or maybe porting some well made homebrew games and hacks that I've heard about. I even had a funny idea of them releasing 8-bit versions of some of their new games like skyward sword or splatoon. 
The wonderful meld of new concepts in games with old school graphics. This is what I hoped for. Instead it's yet another rehash.

 the possibility of seeing some games that could work flawlessly on a system sounded like (somewhat) of a great idea but it's cut short with a small game selection.

Ok. Rant over. Thanks for reading!

A funeral for my game collection 1992-2010

I started collecting games at a fairly young age. My mom and Dad got an NES right around the time I was born. They had the usual Super Mario bros, Legend of Zelda, that sort of thing.

By the time I learned to walk, I started playing games. Granted, I wasn't excessively good at them, but it was impressive to see a 2 year old make it past the first few levels of SMB.

A few years passed and I started playing more. My favorites were the Legend of Zelda and the Mega man series. I loved them so much My mom actually made costumes for me. I actually dressed up as Megaman for halloween once.

Anyways, Again, more time passed. I moved from coastal Virginia up to Northern Ohio where I learned about the wonderful thing that is a snow day. A day that it is too cold to go out and school gets cancelled so you get to sit around playing hours upon hours of video games.

           It was also around this time that I moved up from the NES and SNES to a N64. The first system I bought on my own. It was 200$ and I had done everything I could to save up for it. I wasn't the only person that played in my family. My mother loves Simcity for the Snes and Pokemon Snap for the N64.

 Over the years my collection had increased with games for the NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gamecube, PS2 and GBA.
When I started for college, I took an SNES and a gameboy for occasional play but didn't have much time to play.

The storm

My third year of college was difficult. I was on academic probation thanks to a rough couple of quarters the year before, My sister was on campus because the two years before were tough on her at home and she had a sort of separation anxiety.

On February 11th, 2009, I was over at the college police station. My buddy was a dispatcher and I hung out with him when there was nothing better to do. Right around midnight, I decided to call it a night and go to bed.

The next morning, I went to work as a janitor. As I was mopping my hallway, I could hear my phone in my room ringing.

It was my mother. 

"Where have you been? I've tried calling you all night." I could remember the worry in her voice.

"We had a tornado. The house is wrecked."

I felt my heart skip a few beats. My mother was alright, a bit scraped up but the house was a loss. When I told my sister, she made it a goal to get up there and do as much as she could.

If you haven't been through a disaster, It's a real pain in the neck. Insurance companies have to come out to take a look, friends and family do come together to help you out, but you're at your worst, the house is a biohazard of sorts and it's extremely taxing on your health in general.(my mom still hasn't recovered.)

The other thing is the things that survive the disaster have to go somewhere.
Most of the furniture was transferred to a storage trailer. ( Ya know, the things semis pull down the road.)
It became a guessing game where all of our stuff went.
Most of the contents of my room went into our shed in the back yard.
While all of this was going on, My sister and I were urged to stay in school and complete our studies, so we did.

The NES and the games were given to my cousins for safe keeping. They stored them in their barn and of course, a month or so later, it burned down. The games that had survived a tree going through the house went up in smoke.
15 years of collecting, 75 games, gone. I still had my SNES and my N64 games though... Until 2010.

College isn't free

I graduated in June of 2009 with my Associate's degree in Wildlife management. Around August of the same year, we were in temporary housing because our house wasn't built yet, I had started to get phone calls from the various companies I had taken loans out on demanding upcoming payments.
My loans rang up to right about 200 Dollars a month. Normally this is an easily attained goal. However, I couldn't find a job.
Not knowing where to turn to next, I had read an article about selling things online to make money. I eyed my collection and calculated out that my collection (save for the ones that weren't worth anything to sell) Were worth about 2,500 bucks. I spent 3 years going to yard sales, thrift stores and rummage sales searching for old video games, game systems, game guides, antique books and board games to hawk online.
I learned that old pokemon red and blue cartridges were worth A LOT if they had a functioning save ability.  This was the opprotunity to turn a 2.00 "broken" game into 40.00 worth of profit. So, I learned how to change the batteries.
For 3 years, I had a well functioning business with somewhere around 120 sales a year. I was paying my loans off well enough but I knew it wouldn't last forever.

So, why not rebuild?

When I started my saddle shop IT job, My amazon store sales fell considerably. I didn't get to sales as much as I used to, and I had steady income so I didn't need to find things to sell.
 I had a few friends that knew I sold my collection ask if I was ever going to get back into collecting.
My short answer: Nope.

... Oh, you're still here. I take it you're curious why...

1-It's way too expensive to get the games back
 When I started collecting games in the 90s, NES games didn't cost much. There were newer systems coming out so they were marked as obsolete and all the game stores had super low prices on them. Remember places like funcoland? (I think they became babbages and then became gamestop) Those stores and the little independantly owned stores practically gave them away.
There was a store in the city near me that had a deal of buy 4 for 8 dollars. It was there that I got some of my more rare games like Fire N' Ice and rainbow islands
Granted, there's a lot of them out there at a decent enough price, but that brings me to my next problem.
2-They won't mean as much as they did before
A lot of the games I had in my collection were bought for me by family members for birthdays, christmas, that sort of thing. Getting them online now probably won't feel the same.
The internet has a funny way of putting a negative light on anything. Much of the games on my lists have been reviewed by AVGN, Armake21 and other gamers that get their kicks from reviewing "bad" games.
They might be bad, but it's what I grew up with. I couldn't stand the contra games or battletoads and those tend to be on a lot of people's top 10 lists.

3-I'm falling out of gaming as it is
My most current system is an X-box 360 which I use to play a few games.
The problem I have with the new games is they just don't look like my kind of thing. I'm not really into shooters or multiplayers,  and all the new systems seem to have the same problem: There's only one or two games each of them that I have any remote interest and it doesn't warrant me buying the system.
That, and I just don't have time anymore. Balancing a job, more education,  a social life, family life and a Library committee doesn't leave too much time for gaming.

While I won't be getting the old collection back together again, I can still remember the good times that were had. (And how badly my grades suffered :D )

Ornithology in Video Games

Hey, What's up! If you haven't read my intro, give it a quick look, You'll see that I like things like old school video games and nature (What a combo!)

I want to do a few of these articles... Have it be a little bit educational and entertaining at the same time. We'll see how well these play out.

One thing I have focused in on within my love of nature is birds. They're everywhere, they're drastically different between families and locations and they're just so neat.

So Majestic...

Anyways, Along with My second fascination : Video games, I decided to take a look at some of the birds in a few of the games. Not all the games, and definitely not the Pokemon games... That would take forever...

And, for the sake of keeping this somewhat biological, Robot birds, alien birds and bird-people don't count.

PART 1: GAMES WHERE YOU PLAY AS A BIRD

Before I go too far in this, I am not going to mention the angry birds game. I never played it ( I don't have a cell phone and I just don't like those kinds of games) and the birds are just purely fiction. So instead, I'm going to mention a few oldies that come to mind.

#1 Percy the potty Pigeon

Yes, this exists

Originally, this spot was going to be for Flicky, but I felt that it didn't stand out as much as this game. I was looking around on some gaming sites and found this, and thought "This sounds more interesting."

Now I haven't played this personally but I found a good video that does a good job reviewing it and showing some gameplay.

If you don't feel like watching the video here's the simple version: You are a pigeon gathering twigs for a nest. You have to defend yourself against cars, other birds and moths! Your defense? Pooping on them! It's a simple arcade game for the Commodore 64

Now for the fun part! Pigeons! People call them feathered rats, disease bags and well, they're not Far off. They can cause bird flu, and a bunch of other stuff.

Because I live out in the country, I don't experience much with pigeons. Granted, they're at the farm down the road but I hardly see them.

Percy's attack is in reality more damaging than you'd think. But we'll get to that later!

#2 Birdweek

I like how the predator bird is like "Wow, a 4 course meal!"

Now, I played this once at a game store that was selling Japanese Famicoms as well as the plug-n-plays you see every once in a while at flea markets and county fairs. 

I only played for a few minutes and got the gist of it.While you appear to be again some kind of song bird, this time your young are completely altricial, relying on you for food and protection. You have to move quick as your babies can starve.
You also have a bigger predatory bird, Most likely an Accipiter, Maybe a Goshawk  Judging from his bird hunting behavior stalking you from the beginning. You can drop a mushroom on him to get him to back off for a short time while he presumably trips out or is too sick to fly.

In any case, levels are made up of seasons. In the later levels, there's more enemies that can kill you in a hit. ( I think one is supposed to be a frog, but who knows...) The music is pretty typical for an NES game from 1986. 

#3 Tiki the Kiwi- New Zealand Story

Okay, Tiki the Kiwi is AWESOME. If real kiwis kicked as much butt as Tiki, they wouldn't be endangered. Tiki can use arrow, lasers and bombs to take out his enemies.

In real life, Kiwis are actually decently strong enough to keep themself from being killed off by predators for the most part. That is except for the ones brought over by man. Pigs, dogs and cats have damaged their populations heavily over the years.

While the kiwi is flightless in real life, (Except in Depressing animations) Tiki can fly after he murders an enemy and steals their jet pack or hot air balloon. 

I believe I can fly!

Part 2- Birds that help you

Sometimes, a bird is your best friend. Here's a couple of avian allies that I feel stand out.

#1 Peter the Parrot (Star Tropics)

Peter is a talking parrot from startropics. When he is found, he won't talk to you unless you give him a gift ( A yummy worm) Afterwards, he gives you the musical code to open Captain Bell's Memorial, allowing you to progress.

Parrots can learn to talk and often understand what they're saying if taught correctly. Parrots mimic other birds in their area, and will mimic people around them So chances are, Captain bell pretty much programmed Peter to repeat the phrase after being fed a worm. Cool beans!

#2 Kaepora Gaebora

Kaepora Gaebora, AKA The owl, AKA "DARN IT, I HIT YES WHEN HE ASKED IF I WANTED TO HEAR WHAT HE SAID AGAIN!" Is a wise sage of a bird within the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time Universe. He gives you helpful advice when you're traveling around but once you've beaten the game once, you don't really need to know what he says unless you completely forgot what he said...
 Kaepora, like most owls in literature and cartoons is portrayed as being wise. A lot of this portrayal comes from ancient Greek mythology where a symbol of Athena (A goddess related to concepts of wisdom and knowledge) was the owl.
Not all cultures portrayed owls as intelligent however. India associated the owl with foolishness.

Scientifically, some tests have found owls to be a little lacking the the smarts department...

Should I repeat that? Yes Or  NO. NO PLEASE NO.

#3 Cutrus(8 eyes)

I thought about this one for a while. There were a couple of choices but in the end, I thought to myself "Hey, what was that one game where you were a falconer... It was like castlevania but nowhere near as fun..."
8 eyes is a platformer game for the NES. It has a long convoluted story about the apocalypse or something but that's not important. What is important is that you are a swordfighter named Orin that has a falcon named Cutrus that helps you hit switches and certain enemies are only hurt by him. Cutrus even has his own health bar, he dies, he's gone.

There's only one other game to feature falconry (that I know of) But for what it's worth, Falconry has a long and fascinating history that dates back Thousands of years and is still practiced today and it's highly regulated.

Part 3- Birds that want to kill you

Not all birds can be heroes or helpers. Some are jaded jerks that want you dead, others... Well, it's just their nature. Can't really blame them, can you? of course you can't.
Let's take a look at the birds that want to peck your eyes out and use your corpse for a nest.

#1 Buzzard- Puss in boots

I got a hold of Puss in boots: Pero's great adventure pretty early in my life. It was among one of my favorite games. You're a cat that shoots things, drives a submarine, a plane, a car... What's not to like!!! Well, when you get to stage 3, You're in Saudi Arabia driving a car. Some of the enemies include a weird little drilling car looking thing, a wolf in a flying cart thing and the "Buzzard"

In the US, the buzzard is a sort of localized name for vultures. In Europe, a buzzard is a common name for a whole line of birds of prey, mainly members of the Buteo family.

Anyways, in the game, they have 2 attacks. They fly in a straight line at you, which If you're airborne like in the plane level, this makes sense because a bird can seriously mess up A plane.
Their second attack is to drop these things...

Yep. We're going to talk about birds pooping again.

I know the nes didn't have wonderful graphics, but COME ON! THAT'S DEFINITELY poop!

This isn't the first time I spotted this in a game. The second time came from a disney game.

Taken from Level 2 of Mickey's mousecapades

So... Yeah. Birds pooping. While getting messed on by a bird isn't excessively detrimental to your health, It can be damaging to the environment.

Certain birds, such as the cormorant have a history of having nutrient rich guano that can be used for fertilizer and other stuff. It also destroys the environment they poo on because it's extremely acidic. Some places even have control issues where Cormorants have become overpopulated.

For what it's worth, being pooped on by birds is pretty darn gross.

It's happened to me and it's not pleasant. 

#2 Owls from Castlevania III

Of course... More owls.

I was somewhat haunted by this game as a child. It almost made me afraid of the woods at night. 

Owls are encountered in the mad woods of Castlevania III Dracula's curse.

I liked this level's music and the graphics were alright. And then the owls showed up. They start out as 2 eyes appearing in the black of the forest and then they dive out and attack.

Along with their quick movement and dive pattern, they were no match for me as a kid. That and they would knock me into the nearest pool of water.

I know it might be nitpicking, but owls are known well for their silent flight. In the game they kind of have this weird "Card shuffling" sound which isn't exactly accurate, but who cares. They scared me back then and I felt it was worth mentioning.

#3- Meh. I give up

By this point, I got torn between cuccos from LOZ, and countless other birds from other games.

Wow. this was sort of a dumb article but it was fun working on it.