Category: Gaming

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Gaming

A tangent in pixels

I really should be asleep, but a stray muse got hold of me, held me at gunpoint, and forced me to cook this up:

A test of Donkey Kong's mettle

It’s the same basic piece that you can find here free of charge; the giant pixellated graphics are the same basic ones I used in a menu on theLogBook in early October. The photos are all mine, either from my own collection (the tabletop) or from various and sundry run-ins with various machines at various venues (CGE, OVGE, 1984, etc.). Why I have it laid out for an ink-eating print/e-book layout, I have no idea. Really. It’s not like I’m suddenly jonesing to turn Phosphor Dot Fossils into a book. (Not that it’s a completely bad idea, mind you.) It’s not like I don’t have a zillion other projects I need to be working on, not least of which is being Mr. Mom.

Like I said, stray muse. Hey, at least she didn’t drag me into a craptastic movie (with a fantastic soundtrack) about opening a roller disco rink.… Read more

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Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Windows to the past…and Binky Blast!

I think I may be the only person, at this point, who looks over to the left side of the screen (assuming you’re looking at the actual Scribblings page instead of crossposts on Livejournal or Myspace, or the RSS feed box I’m trying out in a couple of places, etc.) to see what I wrote on this date X years ago. Over the past month, I’ve become almost obsessed with clicking on that for myself, just to see who I was, where I was, and what I was doing this time a year ago, before I assumed my new superhero identity* of Evan’s Dad. Today’s entry from a year ago is especially interesting to me in that regard, in that it illustrates a frustration that is simply no longer a part of my life. Man, how I don’t miss that place. As distressing as I’m sure it is for anyone still working there, it heartens me to some degree that everyone else working for the person in question followed me out the door within the past year. That validates it to some extent – it wasn’t just me.

But enough about that place. For some reason – possibly the combination of lack of sleep and being in the house too much – my creative juices haven’t been so much in overdrive as they’ve just been pouring out of every orifice in a viscous ooze. This is behind the sudden burst of stuff like the Doctor Who DVD covers and, now, presented to you here for the first time…my idea for an Odyssey2 homebrew game. … Read more

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Cooking With Code Gaming Home Base Music ToyBox

Random, irregularly-shaped chunks of thoughts

Burchuss. Now compatible with your Atari VCS.Oh man. I love the Atari 2600 Labelmaker site, but it’s gonna put label fetishists like me out of business. Doesn’t even pay to think about what it’ll do to the next AtariAge label contest to come down the pike. Just between you, me, and the entirely metaphorical lamppost, I had to resist a momentary (and utterly mad) geeky urge to do “Atari cartridges” for, oh, everyfreakinthing on the whole site. I’ll keep that option in my back pocket if the site ever undergoes some kind of radical rethink. 😆 Anyway, it’s an awesome idea, a neat (and rather alarmingly versatile and powerful) site to have some fun with, and I sincerely hope that its maker will consider expanding the repertoire to include such things as the “silver label” style, 5200 cartridges, and so on.

The DVD review section of theLogBook has now been rolled out, WordPress-style, and I think it’s lookin’ mighty sleek ‘n’ foxy. But then I guess I would, wouldn’t I? If anyone thinks they’re detecting a mad dash to get as much of the WordPress-ification of theLogBook done before the baby gets here, they are about 1000% right on the money. There are only three sections left to be WP’ed, and we’re already deep into the work on one of those, so perhaps we can whittle that down to two sections remaining by the end of the year.

I’ve got a big Stack Of Stuff piled up at the house that needs to be sold, mainly Star Trek and Babylon 5 and other sci-fi related stuff – action figures, models, Christmas ornaments, magazines by the truckload, and so on – and I’d really like to avoid eBay. If anyone out there would like some of this stuff, please drop me a line. I’m not inflating prices or charging the gross national debt for shipping – I just need the stuff out of here. I’m still drawing up a list, but I can tell you that there’s a collection of Starlog’s dedicated Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine that, if it isn’t the complete run, it’s damn close. I also have binders full of Cinefantastique’s annual ST:TNG wrap-ups – I remember around 1990-94 when Robert and I would descend upon the bookstores to find those every summer, and we’d study Mark Altman’s well-observed comments and reviews like devout Bible scholars. 😆

Over at NotNews, Dave has an in-depth after-action report from the Philadelphia Crowded House concert with Pete Yorn and Liam Finn (i.e. son of Neil) as the opening acts. Dave has also gotten to see R.E.M. live without having to venture to another state. Have I mentioned Dave lives in a real city? Heck, I bet Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is even playing in a theater up there somewhere. 😛 … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming

The Baby Scare

I’ve got to be up in about 4 hours, so there must be some reason I’m still bloody awake at 3:30. Oh yeah – must be that whole business tonight where we thought Jan was going into labor or something. She was feeling craptacular in the early afternoon, and after getting some advice from our doula she laid back down. Then she woke up feeling craptabulous, and then it was pretty obvious we were heading to the hospital, despite the lack of contractions. A few hours and some lab tests later, she was sent home, both for tonight and for tomorrow (meaning she’s not going to work). She’s gotten to sleep already, but I’m still having a hard time coming down from that scare, despite being effing exhausted at this point. So look out tomorrow: I’m going to be really effing exhausted.

I rather stupidly suggested on the DP forums that next year’s CGE could feature a live MST3K-style treatment of some classic video game movies – Tron, Joy Sticks, take your pick. I also helpfully volunteered Tim Snider and Flack to help me (for which I’m sure they’ll be eternally grateful). The realization has since hit me that I may not be able to go next year, what with a not-quite-a-year-old child and all, but now that I’ve given voice to that idea, I’m seeing visions of replacing Crow and Servo with stuff like a talking Space Invader and a talking Yar (fashioned out of the most cheap-ass chunks of flexible packing foam you can imagine). This could really work. I just may need to start to distance myself from the idea that I may necessarily be the one doing it. (Sad thing is, we’d never, ever, in a zillion years, be able to include it on the DVD, which at the very least I hope I’m able to come and shoot for 2008 even if I don’t go all MSTie-eyed.) (Maybe I should finish editing the 2007 footage first before I get into all this crazy 2008 talk.) (Sorry about all these brackets.*)

I’ll have more to say later, maybe, if I get around to the whole regaining-consciousness thing. But I’m fading pretty fast now, so I think I’m blogging myself to sleep here. Probably having the same effect on you lot. If so, let me know when you wake up, and I can start selling my blog entries as a cure for insomnia.

* an in-joke that only a very, very few people will ever even consider getting.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gaming

You are not the ones to make me fly, and therefore are obviously not the ones to take me home

The trip home was fun. My barely-long-enough-to-reach-my-connecting-flight layover in Denver turned into what was nearly an all-night stay. The plane that normally makes the XNA-Denver run and back again was diverted to Colorado Springs due to severe storms…and then vanished off the radar. Well, that’s a good sign. I still don’t know what finally happened with that. Finally, they got us on a plane, some plane, any plane to get us out of there. We went around the aforementioned nasty weather at fairly close range and it was spectacular – moonlight illuminating the tops of the clouds, which were just boiling with lightning. Breathtaking stuff. There was a woman about two seats behind me who didn’t agree, however, though that may or may not have had something to do with how many bloody marys she’d had.

I touched down at XNA at around one in the morning, and was groggy enough that I took my time driving home. Of course the kitties were happy to see me, though I’m worried about Xena – she’s been eating very little, though I don’t know how much of that is the heat and how much of it is her missing her favorite human. I’m worried about her. The baby room painting is coming along nicely, but the rest of the house, to put it as charitably as I can, isn’t. So I’m trying to overcome a bit of mental jet lag and get back to work. … Read more

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Gaming

CGE Saturday highlights – BONUS LEVEL

Congratulations! You spelled out “EXTRA”! You get more pictures!

Crystal
From the auction: I was trying very hard to focus on Frog Frenzy instead of Crystal here. I can’t say I always succeeded.

Joe
Joe Santulli tries to get the huge number of DP forum regulars scrunched into one photo.

Me and Mr. Flibble
While everyone’s getting into position for the photo, I took my own. Left to right: Rob “Flack” O’Hara, Mr. Flibble, me, Paul “Pantechnicon” Cortez, and Drexel923.

QOF and Mayhem
Kristine “Queen of the Felines” and Mat “Mayhem” at the auction. Kris definitely has a “I hope you can fly back to London on the buoyant power of those Vectrex protos” look on her face here. 😆 The guy behind them is about to hurl at the thought of spending the kind of money Mat was bidding.

Solid Snake
Solid Snake went to pieces after Marty “marioallstar2600” bought him.

BREAKIN'
You’ve heard of bringing sexy back? Ian’s skipping that step and bringing breakdancing back. Either that or he’s sliding into home base in time for the group photo. At least I think that’s Ian – it’s a distinctly Ian-shaped blur.… Read more

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Gaming

CGE Sunday highlights

More songs about buildings (full of games) and food!

Chris Koehler and Bill Kunkel
Chris Koehler (Wired) and Bill Kunkel (Tips & Tricks, Electronic Games) at a panel on the future of video game journalism.

8 Bit Weapon CDs
8 Bit Weapon had a new CD available this year, and you know, I swear to God that every time I go to CGE, these and the latest Tony Fox offerings are the things that I enjoy the most for the longest time after the show.

Flack and Chris Bieniak
Flack schmoozes with former Tips & Tricks editor Chris Bieniak.

Racing games
Bit of a generation gap here.

Joe and John
Joe Santulli and John Hardie at the last panel of the show, celebrating 10 years of CGE.

Cav Kong
Cav sneaks in a game of Donkey Kong in the DP Living Room.

Bum rush
This is the stampede that resulted after a “50 cent on all games special” was announced at the CGE Services table.

BONUS 1000 POINTS
End of level.… Read more

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Gaming

CGE Sunday morning musings

Whoever said there’s nothing worth watching on TV in a hotel obviously hasn’t seen this channel:
Alphagen Image Capture ROCKS!
Seriously. Best thing on the in-house TV system. It helped me get to sleep last night.

While I’m wolfing down the blandest turkey sub ever recorded in the history books of either human or turkey, a few musings. The Expo’s been fun so far – really no hassles. I was truly appreciative of the DP forums’ own PapStu for winning my PS1 StarCon proto at the auction last night – I got $10 more than what I paid for it a few years back, so I’m happy. I wasn’t crazy about selling it, but it’s baby time back home and This Will Help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I think you guys are gonna dig the auction on DVD. John Hardie at his best, the CoronaCam 😆 , and plenty of the lovely Crystal for ya, guys. 😛 It was quite a blast, lots of really active camera work (I haven’t had to sweat that much since the days of running live camera for sporting events). I can’t wait to get home and start editing this stuff together.

Huge thanks to Scott “Stonic” Stilphen and Scott “Tynstar” Williams for looking after me yesterday while I was hobbling around gathering video. I just didn’t get a chance to “break for lunch” yesterday and they at least helped me stay hydrated. Joe and John checked on me every chance they got to see if I needed anything. And I’ll admit I got a big kick out of being up on the auction stage with them, joining in the banter (“Well it’s not a very solid Snake then, is it?”) and mouthing “WTF!?” to the crowd when something sold to the book.

On the shuttle bus ride from the airport to the Riviera, I passed a place with a big sign out front that said CATHOLIC CHARITIES CHILD CARE CENTER. As God is my witness, I swear on my heart that the first time I glanced at that sign, I thought it said CATHOLIC CHARLIE’S. Um……no further comment. 😆 Come on down! Free balloons for the kids!

I didn’t make it to the Pinball Hall Of Fame Museum last night either just for myself or as part of the Retrotopia party. Dammit. I hope they’re open tonight.

My apologies to anyone to whom I’ve blurted out really vague greetings to, such as Mezrabad and Atarigirl. I wasn’t trying to “get rid of” anybody, I was just…on the move and on the clock, so to speak. If there’s anything that’s kinda bummed me out about this year’s show, it’s been that the camera work didn’t leave me huge amounts of time to catch up with old friends. Granted, Rob and Brian can see me any old time since they’re in the neighborhood more or less, but it’s not every day that I get to see everyone else. The keynote speeches end a bit earlier today, so maybe I’ll have a chance to shoot the bull a bit more. When I got back to my room after the auction last night and finally got off of my feet, which weren’t just content with killing me but were actually torturing me for information and then slicing bits off of me slowly, I felt like I had been eaten by a hideous grue. I didn’t move again until my wife called me this morning to wake me up at the appointed hour.

Jarett from PackratVG.com and I were talking baby stuff Saturday when, after about 5 minutes or so of talking about it, he reaches under his table and brings out the baby himself. I was amazed that kid could sleep in the roar of the crowd and the throaty thump of 8 Bit Weapon in the background. 😆 We spent a bit of time talking about how we don’t want to see the superstars of the Odyssey2 homebrew scene get burned out like some of the superstars of the 2600/5200 homebrew scene have. We’ve been spoiled with a glut of homebrew and repro stuff in the past 2-3 years, a lot of it really good, and it’s easy to let yourself think that Ted S., Rene and Dieter will keep cranking this stuff out. My take on it is: only if they’re encouraged politely and patiently. Calm the beef min and let these men do what they do best, rather than pestering them for constant updates.

This CGE may be my all-time lowest-spending gaming event, not just because I’m broke, but because I’ve had Important Work To Do. I’ve spent the following amounts on the following incredibly rare items:

1. $7 on a Startegy X for the 2600 with a decent label on it

Um…that’s it. Otherwise, I’ve been spending more time talking to people, listening to people and shooting people. (Um…with a camera – let me rephrase that.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you come to CGE and pass up the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones and put faces, names and voices to folks you only know online…you’re missing the best “CGE Exclusive” of them all.… Read more