For years I’ve wanted a dedicated gaming room for both video and board games. We just never have the room for it. When we build our home, this will be a priority that’s for sure.

One luxury we both want is theater seating in the game room. It would be great to blast the bad guys while sitting in a comfortable theater chair.

While we are still getting ready to build our home, we can plan out each room and what we would like. A game room with lots of shelves and maybe a small kitchen would be ideal. If you’re going to dream, dream big right?

Well we’ll be fortunate to have a gaming room at all. Still it is something needed and would be enjoyed by the whole family.

I’m not much into playing online games. It could be because of our satellite Internet since it’s almost impossible to play them without killer lag. When I did play online games, some of my favorite were found through a forum. They had an arcade section that have some very fun games.

Also when you had the high score there would be a trophy by your name. Nothing is more rewarding than having two trophies to show your dominance not just at one game but two.

That’s one thing I miss with standard broadband. Maybe one day it will be available here and we can once again enjoy the Internet to its fullest. It would be so nice to regain one of my trophies again.

The E3 Media and Business Summit is taking place this week in Los Angeles. The press-only event is a venue for game publishers to show their latest and upcoming wares.

I am covering the Wii aspect of the summit at Wii Rally and DS news at DS Cache. There will be little casual game news, so not much will be posted here at Romperz. But there are a few games that should be of interest to casual gamers. When I have time, I will be posting screens and information about each game.

Sadly I’m not at E3, so I have to rely on getting information from the Internet. Actually it might a better this way since E3 is so chaotic(or so I’ve heard) that to have to information in a deliverable format makes it easier to digest and write.

So it may take me a few days but look for a lot of E3 information from now until probably August as there will plenty of news I will miss but will be worthy to share.

You know when something cool happens in a game and you just have to take a picture of it? It can be difficult to take a picture of a TV screen since the refresh rate can cause issues. I get better results with my DSLR than I did with my Canon Powershot.

Adjusting camera settings will help to capture a better picture when taking it of your TV screen. I was playing with the shutter speed. The faster shutter speed worked better. It’s nice to catch those high scores and other defining game moments with my camera.

I haven’t thinned out our video games in about a year, so we are getting a nice pile of them that we rarely play. Usually I just sell them on eBay for a few pennies but am thinking of trying something different this time.

After reading about Swaptree.com, I might try trading them there for some games I really want. Swaptree.com is a place where people can swap DVDs, books, and video games. Make your want list and then make your have list. Swaptree will then cross-reference the two to see if you have anything that someone has on their list.

I’m still not too sure about it. I had tried some other swap meet website and was disappointed. If I don’t do the swaps, then I’ll just sell on eBay and buy used games.

My husband brought home some old office supplies that included a roll of blank Dymo labels. At first I had wondered just what we could use them for, but I found them to be very handy for organization.

They are the perfect size to write the content of storage boxes. This is handy when we are storing old video games and then have the urge to play. It makes it easy to find the right box at a glance if they are labeled properly.

They are also good to label bookshelves, baskets, and any where else you might be storing stuff. It makes me feel a lot better when things are in their proper place and with labels it is clear where that proper place is for our stuff.

It looks like we’ll be either heading to the zoo or the movies this weekend for some summer fun. It just depends on the weather. Right now it is raining, so I’m not sure what the weather will be like tomorrow. Either way it should be fun. The zoo is always interesting and a movie is always entertaining.

My most recent casual game download to try is Dairy Dash. I was very excited since it is a spinoff of Diner Dash. I enjoyed Wedding Dash and have noticed that Wedding Dash 2 is now out. That will be my next download. Dairy Dash was OK. It’s not as fast pace as the diner. Maybe the levels increase the complexity but the first few rounds were lackluster to me. It will be hard to get motivated to play it again.

I have two Big Fish game credits, so I need to find something. I just hate having those sit in my account. Maybe I’ll at least spend one on some more weekend fun.

Time to pick out some new casual games. I’m getting quite a collection of Big Fish credits. I’m thinking about going for another seek and find adventure. Those are always fun especially find objects like watches that can be either like Nautica watches or pocket watches. Those clues are the ones you use hints to find.

Anyway, I was hoping to find Scrabble Blast but it looks like Big Fish doesn’t have that one. Peggle Nights hasn’t been released yet, so there’s nothing that is just standing out that I really want to play. Well, when in doubt, consult the top 100 to see what everyone else is playing.

I may have to try Dairy Dash since I’m absolutely mad about Diner Dash. This is made by the same folks, so could be fun to try. Of course, the girl really loves the Dora game, so I can always get her another game. It’s time to spend some and play some new games.

At the beginning and end of each season, Wal-Mart finally will put items on clearance. Yesterday i stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a site to store order when I noticed some clearance items in electronics.

I couldn’t stop for long but did notice some Wii classic game controllers with gloves marked down and those DS game packs that feature games like Elite Beat Agents. Those were marked down to $10. I’ve been interested in playing Elite Beat Agents, plus I get a case for my DS. They had a lot of other items but since I was in a hurry, I didn’t have time to sift through everything.

Since it seems I can’t stay away, I’m sure I will be at Wal-Mart within the next few days and will have more time to look at all the clearance items. Check your local store to see what they have on clearance. Some stores have better deals and more clearance items than others.

Romperz.com was the first domain that I ever registered. I did it to have a spot to play on the Internet. The first year it was through a lot of transformations like beng solely about GameCube to being a website about Sunday School lessons. I finally decided to go with a subject close to my hear and chose casual games. The first blog on it was a php script called Orca that I absolutely loved. It was a blog that you could stick anywhere. I used Cutenews for my content management and just stuck the Orca blog on the front page. Then my ISP updated PHP and Orca no longer worked. So that’s when I made the switch to WordPress.

I’ve really enjoyed blogging through the years. It keeps me up to date on casual and video games. It also gives me a platform to talk about games at large. It is definitely a great stress reliever and also since becoming a mom, it’s nice to have a blog that is just mine. My blog helps me to keep my identity as a gamer and also be a mom, wife, and anything else I want to be. I also love checking stats and hoping that my ramblings turn on a gamer to a game or steer then away from buying something that they wouldn’t like.

Here is a little video I did that pretty much sums up why blogging makes me happy, especially blogging here at Romperz, my very first domain.