PixlBit

First question: Where do you live? Follow-up: Where do you hide the spare key to your house?

First answer: You already know where I live. Follow-up answer: At the bottom of my pool, seriously. Thing is you have to wait down there 10 minutes before it appears. Now you'll need to find my scuba equipment...

No worries, I've got my own. Thanks for the tips. #3: What is the combination to your safe? #4: Where do you store your extra money and valuables, if not a safe?

But seriously, I'll get the ball rolling and ask how you really started collecting games. I don't think I've got nearly as many as you do, and I've been buying and keeping video game for pretty much my whole life. Any story behind that?

I'm not quite sure the collecting ever happened consciously. Going back about 8-9 years ago I was in high school and had a pretty small selection of games. Maybe a collective 50 or so stretching across the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Gameboy, GBA, and Xbox. Most of these were picked up over the course of my whole life for birthdays, Christmas, etc. The GBA, GameCube, and Xbox were the first systems I bought on my own and I did start buying games at a more frequent basis, but that didn't really start the collecting.

When Chessa and I had gotten together we really started to get into collecting. But it didn't start as collecting. We both missed a bunch of games as kids - she missed out on the SNES and N64 and I missed out on all the non-Nintendo stuff. So we started picking up older games so we could catch up on everything we missed. There was a story in the area, Game Crazy, which was a part of Hollywood Video, and they stocked games of all generations. They had lots of great deals, so we had grabbed a bunch of stuff that way.

I think things really started to take off into collecting territory when Game Crazy stopped having things we were looking for and eBay was our only choice to get stuff. So we started looking for huge lots of stuff with a wide variety of games that way we could knock out multiple birds with one stone. Turns out we really enjoyed having such a wide selection, so we kept picking stuff up. Eventually it snowballed into the conscious effort that's there today.

Now it's just a way of life and the both of us are always on the look out for good deals on classic games. For a long time, Chessa would buy me a bunch of games on my wishlist for Christmas. We got lots of stuff via her concerted efforts during the holiday times. The rest of the more modern stuff was picked up at Gamestop when they dropped the prices to extremely low levels. Of course review copies have helped as well.

I feel like there's a mission now to pick up the best games of past generations to have a really robust and encompassing collection. I think we're well on our way, but there's still plenty to go. I really look forward to bringing Nick up on all of these classic games and experiencing them with him. It should be something really awesome and unique that most kids his age will never get to experience.

If you had the chance to choose and eat one full course meal, what you would choose for:

Hors-D'oeuvre?

Soup?

Fish Dish?

Meat Dish?

Main?

Salad?

Dessert?

Drink?

Hors d'oeuvre - Mozzarella en Carozza

Soup - None, I don't like soup

Fish - Maine Lobster or Blackened Tuna, depends on the day

Meat - Filet Mignon (as if there's another choice)

Main - I'll use this for a pasta dish - Linguini, Chicken, and Broccoli or Penne Vodka w/ Chicken

Salad - None, don't really like it either

Dessert - This is a tough one, probably Apple Pie & Vanilla Ice Cream, maybe German Chocolate Cake or even Chessa's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Warm

Drink - With Dinner, Sam Adams Octoberfest or Jack & Coke, With Dessert Coffee w/ a little milk

All that being said, I'd probably explode about halfway through that meal. Way too much food.

Nick!

1. What made you decide to start PixlBit? What do you hope to gain from its existence?

2. Would you ever consider getting some PixlBit bumper/window stickers made? If so, I'd fully rock one on my car, right next to the Portal "falling" sticker.

3. What do you enjoy about video games? Is it the playing of video games itself, or the culture, or all of it? Just curious.

4. Would you consider requirements for your site giveaways? More often than not the people who entered @ 1Up weren't anything close to regular contributors....they'd create contest entries in hopes of recieving swag, with no regard whatsoever to what they've contributed.

"Ask NOT what PixlBit can do for you....rather, ask what YOU CAN DO for PixlBit."

I like free shit as much as the next guy (I won about 100 bucks worth of free stuff over the summer @ 1Up in contests), but I also put my time in there. It sucks when someone snakes a prize package and never blogs or contributes to the site again. I'm of the mind that winning a prize would KEEP me at the site, hungry for more. Sadly, that's really not the case at 1Up - just go take a look at the plethora of Sonic blogs that abound currently. Lots have a single, shitty, unthoughtful paragraph.

I'm betting the standards here are higher. Either way, I think it's really cool that you folks jumped into the giveaway and contest facet quickly. Shows me that you appreciate the readers/writers, and sincerely want to give something back to us.

And an observation: your staff here ROCKS.

Hey now, some new questions. Alright, I'll tackle these one by one.

1. I started PixlBit for a number of reasons, mostly selfish. I used to write for Nintendo World Report along with my wife Chessa. It had gotten to the point where we were unbelievably invested, spending a good bit of time working on things for them. Knowing that I had learned everything I needed to know, I figured I'd go and start my own web site where I could not only express and execute my own ideas, but cover games across all systems.

When I started the site, I was in a shit, dead end job that I hated. I hoped it would pull me out of that and make me and my wife totally self reliant. Well, that never really materialized as the site makes a negligible amount of money, so it became more of a fun hobby for a while. These days with all of the growth, I'd say I'm back on the warpath. I'd love to monetize the site and do it full time. It's my love and my passion and if you haven't noticed from the staff (seems you have), they have a love and passion for it too. It would be amazing to make PixlBit a gaming institution and I don't think there's much that can stop me from trying to make it such.

Balancing a family certainly makes it tough, but I'm hoping that things take off and I'm able to dedicate more time to it.

2. We've been tossing around a few ideas for swag - we're probably going to be making some shirts, but a bumper sticker sounds like a great idea too. I'll look into it and let you know - I'd rock one on my car as well :)

3. I enjoy pretty much everything about gaming. It started when I was a kid just enjoying the games, but it didn't take long to realize that I could really connect with other people talking about games and discussing strategy. As the internet came into play, it really opened up the world. It allowed me to learn the culture that was developing, learn the developers that make the game, and get a nice handle on the big picture. Joining the media only pushed all of the further along. I now personally know tons of people in the industry and have even been within arms length of Miyamoto at E3.

I think gaming is one of the most miraculous inventions because it's a completely different medium than any other. It's interactive, so it lends for wildly varying experiences. I think we've finally reached the point where people are beginning to challenge what a game can be and the results are some extremely unique titles that would never exist if the question wasn't asked. I can't wait to see where it goes in the future and I know I'll be there every step of the way. I hope my son is into games, because it would be amazing to share all of this with him (including the more than 1500 games I have amassed).

4. Yeah, we definitely carry some higher standards. Bottom line, I regular member will have a better chance of winning because they actually care about the site. Passer-bys will be considered for sure, but they don't earn the same respect from the staff. We care greatly about all of our readers and I'm of the mindset that building an army of dedicated readers is worth far more than thousands of infrequent one-offs.

As for the staff - I absolutely agree, they do rock. It's hard to find people willing to contribute their time and effort FOR FREE, but even harder to find people of the caliber we have hear. They do so much more than contribute their time, they invest their heart and souls. It literally warms my heart to know that PixlBit makes a real difference in people's lives and has had such an impact on a select few that they are willing to contribute in the capacity they do. It's remarkable to say the least.