As longtime readers know, Budget Guitarist is a labor of like for me. I like writing here. But sometimes I get burned out on all the guitar stuffs and I want to do something different for a while. Don’t get me wrong – I love playing guitar and I love gear. But after putting out my last album, which took a lot out of me, I went back to another hobby for a while – video games.
It’s not what you think. I don’t play games where you run around and shoot people or steal cars. I’m into classic gaming. Think arcade games from the 80’s, Nintendo, and Super Nintendo. Maybe some Game Cube and a little Wii. Right now I have two big gaming projects going on – I’m building my own MAME bartop arcade cabinet, and I’m learning Gamemaker Studio 2 and I’m going to program some video games.
My home arcade cabinet is put together and up and running, but I don’t have all the buttons or any of the artwork for it. I have a joystick and four buttons so far. Mostly I’m playing Galaga on it. It is very much like having a home arcade. FUN. I’m loving it. I’m having fun learning Gamemaker Studio 2 also. I know how to code, so it’s not rocket science for me or anything. But it’s a pretty deep program. Still, it’s lots of fun.
Here’s the thing – I’m sick of the YouTube guitar channels. For fuck’s sake, how can anyone get excited about a new fucking fuzz pedal at this point? There are 287 fuzz pedals on the market already. I’ve got 14 electric guitars. I’ve got three great tube amps. What else do I need? I still love to play, but the lust for gear has definitely faded.
So I likely won’t be posting much for a while. The site’s pretty deep – if you haven’t explored it, check out the back catalog of blog posts. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my video game stuffs. Maybe I’ll post some of that stuff here, in case anyone is interested. I bet some people would be.
🙂
Richard aka The Budget Guitarist
