Retro Ramblings

Welcome to the revamped Retro Ramblings newsletter. As some of you may have heard, Twitter is shutting down its Revue service, which I was using to produce the Weekend Edition newsletter in the past. But as the old saying goes, when a door closes, a window opens. In this case, it's more like when the window closed, a door opened. That's because I discovered Beehiiv which already seems like a superior option over Revue.

Enough about the behind-the-scenes stuff, what you're here for is the nostalgia. And going forward, I plan to pack a lot of nostalgia into this newsletter. And I'll be doing that via several features that will rotate in and out of the newsletter. Features like Retro Advertisements, eBay Archaeology, Kayfabe Memories, Junk Food Files, Tales From the Toybox, Retropedia entries, [=- and more. And of course, I'll pack out each issue with a curated selection of links to some of the best retro & nostalgia-themed posts and articles from around the world wide web.

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletters of the past, and I hope you enjoy this new take on what Retro Ramblings can be. If you enjoy it, please consider sharing it with your friends on your various social media channels.

-Mickey

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote about some of my old-school favorites from Burger King. One of the things I mentioned was the American Chicken Sandwich that was part of their International Chicken Sandwich lineup in the '80s. It makes me very happy to be able to share the news that it is returning on January 5th!

I know Christmas just passed, but I want to take a minute to highlight a Christmas present I got back in 1990 that I loved via an old ad for it!

I got Rollergames for Nintendo for Christmas in 1990. I was a big fan of the syndicated television show ROllergames, and somehow my Mom knew that and got me this game. It's also possible that I circled it in the Sears catalog that year.

Now as for the ad itself, it’s pretty swank. It does its best to make the game sound exciting by throwing out those blurbs about what you’ll face in the game. Unfortunately, some of those things just don’t sound exciting. The Karate Creeps and Combat Copters sound great, but when you have to start naming off things like Open Manholes and Vicious Dogs, it could be an indicator that your game isn’t exactly Contra.

But it does highlight some screenshots, and the shots they chose to show make the game look really good. The broken highway in particular makes it look like a game you’d want to play.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the game. I really liked it. The fighting aspect was fun in its own way, and the skating aspect added a degree of difficulty not often seen in side-scrolling games. Like, after you landed a jump you had to instantly react because your player would just keep going. While that doesn’t sound all that bad, think about all the spots in games where you have to make numerous consecutive jumps and land on little spots between them.

The problem this game suffered from was false advertising. I mean, if you were watching Rollergames on television, you were expecting a roller derby on a figure-eight track with the massive wall of death and alligators potentially on the track. But what you go was a side-scrolling fighting game. It’s like they had a game designed that they felt they needed to attach a brand to, and Rollergames was it.

They did keep the teams from Rollergames intact, as you had your choice of three playable characters. A girl from the Hot Flash, a guy from The Rockers, or “The IceBox” Robert Smith from the world-famous L.A. T-Birds. The managers of the heel teams were also represented, as they were featured as level bosses throughout the game.

The Rollergames TV show didn’t have a large following. I mean, it only lasted 13 episodes. So Konami was already drawing from a limited pool and the fact that the video game wasn’t like what was seen on TV further limited its appeal. But none of that stopped me from enjoying it. I liked the game for what it was and spent many hours on it. Especially on Christmas day in 1990.

Hardee's New York Patty Melt Burger

Back in 1992, Hardee’s stumbled across a major hit when it introduced its now-iconic Frisco Burger.  They combined grilled sourdough bread (in a round slice) with a 1/4 lb burger patty, two slices of Swiss cheese, bacon, mayo, and tomatoes and turned them into a culinary masterpiece.  After strong sales upon release, they were looking to duplicate that success. Enter the New York Patty Melt.

Introduced roughly 4 months after the launch of the Frisco burger, the New York Patty Melt was the heir apparent to their first hit.  Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sales of the Patty Melt didn’t come close to those of the Frisco burger, and it was dropped from the menu about 6 months after its introduction.  But man, that was a great six months.

The New York Patty Melt borrowed from its famous Frisco cousin and used a regional favorite bread by using New York Rye.  Sliced the same way as the Frisco (round), it too was grilled and paired with a 1/4 lb beef patty. A layer of a melted cheese blend, crispy bacon, and soft grilled onions finished off this burger.  Like most kids, I wasn’t a big fan of onions, but on this burger, they fit right in. But for me, the real star of this taste sensation was the rye bread. I had never had it before, but this burger moved the bread up my list of favorites in a hurry.

As is the case when doing a piece like this, I was quite disappointed when I went to order it one time only to be told that it was no longer available.  If my father hadn’t been standing there beside me, my fifteen-year-old self may have let out a string of curse words aimed in the cashier’s direction. Luckily, however, the Frisco Burger was still available, and it ranked pretty high on my list back then too.  But for me, the Frisco Burger was always the Sundance Kid to the New York Patty Melt’s Butch Cassidy.

From Cabbage Patch Kid craziness to '80s junk food, here are some things I wanted to share with you this week.

I personally don't care for modern New Year's Eve countdown shows, so I usually turn to YouTube to find an older one to watch. With that in mind, this week's Video of the Week selection is the MTV 1992 New Year's Eve Special.

Spend your New Year’s Eve enjoying this retro night of entertainment. It’s a 31-year-old time capsule featuring Cindy Crawford, MC Hammer, Bell Biv Devoe, Marky Mark, EMF, Naughty By Nature, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Guns n Roses!

Well, that does it for this issue of Retro Ramblings. If you know someone you think would like this newsletter, please forward this to them, and if you don't mind, don't forget to share it on your social media channels. Talk to you next week.