Arcade Cabs in the Wild - Galaxian

Galxian

Location: Buzz's Coin Laundry Sherman Oaks

I found this cab at a local laundramat. It's not in the best shape, but the control panel and marque are still looking great. I played rounds while I waited for my clothes to dry and the thing still plays like a dream.




The side panels are scratched and faded, but it's still pretty cool too see the original side are, so many cabs now a days are refirbs with generic side art.



The front panel art is in a little bit better shape. The cool "invader" design still enticing to drop in a few more quarters.



check out the old Midway logo on the coin box. This hardware must all be original. Incredible!




The Joystick and fire buttons are a little grimey, but they still worked fine.



Like the joystick, the instructions have about 30 years of grime built up, but it's fascinating to see the instructions, this might be the only time I've seen an intact galaxian instruction decal.




My favorite part of this cab is the "Start Game" font. I just think it look so cool



From the Galaxian wikipedia entry:

Galaxian expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders. As in the earlier game, Galaxian featured a horde of attacking aliens that exchanged shots with the player. In contrast to Space Invaders, however, Galaxian added an element of drama by having the aliens periodically make kamikaze-like dives at the player's ship.

The gameplay was relatively simple. Swarm after swarm of alien armies attacked the player's ship that moved left and right at the bottom of the screen. The ship could only fire sparingly by default, but rearmed instantly when an enemy was hit. The player would defeat one swarm, only to have it replaced by another more aggressive and challenging army in the next screen. A plain and repetitive starfield scrolled in the background.

Galaxian was very successful for Namco and introduced several "firsts". Although true color (as opposed to a color overlay for a game that was otherwise black and white) began appearing as early as 1975, Galaxian took graphics a step further with multi-colored animated sprites and explosions, a crude theme song, different colored fonts for the score and high score, more prominent background "music" and the scrolling starfield, and graphic icons that showed the number of ships left and how many rounds the player had completed. These elements combined to create a look/feel that would set the standard for many other 1980s arcade games such as Pac-Man.

The "official" highest score in a game of Galaxian was achieved by Gary Whelan of Manchester, England on 13 August 2004 when he managed to amass a total of 399,290 points.

First (Long overdue?) Post about the trip to Boise.

Well, I've been back at work for a few days now, but I've been too busy recooperating to throw up a blog full o' pictures.

Becca and I just finished our summer time trip to the old man's place in Idaho. This trip was totally great. We had a big list of thing we wanted to do and we pretty much did them all. We:

-Saved money by having a bunch of delicious BBQs at Dad and Raleigh's place
-Floated down the Boise River
-Went out on the Boat
-Saw the Wilco concert with my 2nd Cousin Scott and his Wife.
-Went to the Idaho State Fair (twice)
-Went to (one of) Emma's family's (pretty posh) cabins.
-burned marshmellows and just ate the graham crackers
-Hit the Pawn shops (Boise has the most amazing pawn shops...must be all the meth heads and Mormons)
-Rode the Zipper
-Ate at Chappala's
-Had a few "Epic Bike Rides" with Dad on the Green Belt
-Watched Battle of the Planets with Calvin and Henry.
-Hit the little boutiques in Eagle (Rembrants coffee shop in Eagle, Idaho is a MUST VISIT if you ever find yourself in Boise)
- Went to the Tour de Fat
-Went to a rustic little Hot Springs
-Had corned beef hash at the Capri
-Hit the Farmers market
-Went to a crazy Idaho Goth Club
-Checked out an Art Walk
-Had some tasty pizza
- Took a chance on Kismet Vodka, the only Vodka you can buy outside of a bar in Idaho after 7PM. There is a reason you can't google it. It sucks.
-Played a game of Asteroids Deluxe with my nephew Calvin on a mint condion original arcade cabinet at a 50s resturant with hot chicks on roller skates.
-Had eggs benny at Goldy's Breakfast Bistro
-Had a Bowling tournament, where Dad and his Girlfriend Kicked our asses.

So as you can see it was a busy trip, and I have some great pics that I'll be posting over the next few days. To start it off, I'm going to post up all the "Random Snapshots". Just pics that I took randomly, that don't fit into a category like "at the cabin" or "on Lucky Peak". I'm going to experiment with Picasa's gallery feature to post these. Let me know if you like it or not. If you don't I'm just going to go back to my usual photobucket "big ol mess o' pictures" that take forever to load method.

Enjoy:



As an interesting side note, I kept coming accross this blog that Greg wrote about Boise, I was reading it going, man I wonder if this guy knows Raleigh and Greg cause he sounds like he hits all the spots...and then at the bottom of the window is a picture of Calvin and Henry...so turns out he knows Greg because he IS greg.

Jeremy Parish gives me a shout out on Retronauts!!!

Many of you know that I'm a big consumer of Podcasts. I have about 3 hours in the day that I'm either on the bus or on a Bike, so I have lots of prime listening time.

Without a doubt out of the thirty or so podcasts that I have in my RSS feed, my favorite would have to be 1UP's Retronauts. This podcast is well informed and so enjoyable. Far superior to the mostly rambling (although the Hardware Flashback is a must listen) Retro Gaming Radio or the hot mess that is Destructoid's Retroforce Go I always learn something new and interesting. This is mainly due to the host Jeremy Parish and the sommewhat regular guest Wired's Chris Kohler.

This week Retronauts posted their "Bionic Commando" show to coincide with the release of the excellent Bionic Commando Rearmed. As usual, the show was excellent, but this show was made even better thanks to the fact that Jeremy Parish read a response that I had written to him about a recent show that they had done on Act Raiser, which had just been released on the Wii Virtual Console. So Cool!! I was so excited I nearly fell off my bike. Anyway, I've edited this down to a snippet if you'd like to hear it below:

Retronauts Shoutout

Incredible Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack available for download.

Well, like I'm sure many of my fellow retro game enthusiasts, I downloaded Bionic Commando last night. And it did not disappoint. I haven't been this geeked out over a game since, I dont' know when. Maybe since, well since ever. It's such a great remake. I wish Commando and 1942 could have been this good.

Becca, who was a big NES gamer, had never heard of Bionic Commando before. I was a little suprised by that. I said, "we'll start it up and you'll see". She did not see, but that's OK.

Here one comment was, "I dont' know about the gameplay, but the music is awesome." And I have to agree. The music for this game is spectacular.

Luckily, The official Capcom Blog has posted links to a couple of site where you can buy the Bionic Commando sound track.

I don't have an ipod so I avoid itunes, but they claim that it's posted on Apple's music store.

I downloaded the sound track from Sumthing Digital. The sound quality is great, I'm listening to it right now and I have not complaints. I'm going to load it on my MP3 player for the bike ride home, headphones are usually a better way to determine sound quality. So I'll let you know.

Sumthing Digital also has the original NES Bionic Commando soundtrack posted as well. It's only 2.99, at that price you basically have no choice but to pick it up.

Ninja Cat video game could be the greatest entertainment ever released in any medium.

Ho. Lee. Crap. What every you're doing stop right now. Play this video. Looks like Tenchu 4 is going to have Ninja Cat action. Thanks to Kotaku for the amazing video below:

almost got hit by a car...

I'm sitting here blogging on my blackberry.

I just nearly got hit by a car who came zooming out of the countrywide lot without looking both ways.

I was riding down the wrong side of the street, but that was because I was about to turn left and there is a big cement embankment that gets in my way.

I let out the weakest "aaaaah" luckily I didn't get hit, but now I'm stewing in my adrenaline and embarassed that I almost got hit by a car and squealed about it.

Fuck! Gotta man up!

almost got hit by a car...

I'm sitting here blogging on my blackberry.

I just nearly got hit by a car who came zooming out of the countrywide lot without looking both ways.

I was riding down the wrong side of the street, but that was because I was about to turn left and there is a big cement embankment that gets in my way.

I let out the weakest "aaaaah" luckily I didn't get hit, but now I'm stewing in my adrenaline and embarassed that I almost got hit by a car and squealed about it.

Fuck! Gotta man up!

Fucking crazy alternateens and their myspaces...

I've been reading a lot of these so-called blog house blogs lately. Mainly because I like to be elitest and in the know. And it seems like there is a lot of hipster electro out there right now what with the internet being a great breeding ground for viral remixes.

It's kind of funny cause I download all these mixes and I never listen to them. I have a 2 hour bike ride home and all I listen to is podcasts. When I'm at work all I listen to is Psytrance and Space-bient internet radio stations...but eventually I will get around to listening to these mixes and maybe even post up a torq mix of all this stuff.

But that's not the main point of this blog. the main point of this blog is that of all these blogs, the one that I've been enjoying the most as a read is Hipster Runoff. As they would say, they are "bloggable". They had a great post up a loooong as time ago (I'm reading through their past posts) about a fucking Myspace page for the Providence Rhode Island American Apparel store.

I don't really get American Apparel. I mean the closest guy I know to what Hipster Runoff dubs an "Alt Bro" is Dave Wilson so it's fitting that he first told me about this place. When he took me to the store on Hollywood I was like, this is it? This is just cheap ass underwear and everyone who works there looks like a gutter punk with some sort of virulent skin disease and neck beards.

Not really "my scene". For one thing the sizing is fucking insane. I'm a big dude, so I'm used to not fitting into what banana republic calls an XL, but American Apparel is just ridiculous. It's not so much the sizing, it's the cut of these things everything I've tried on fits awkwardly. Their they hang funny. I guess it's because the clothes are designed to be layered or torn up and screen printed or something. Their cotton is fucking comfy...but I'll be damned what body form they're shooting for, my guess is tall and gangly.

I mean even becca who is basically the perfect American Apparel body type looks a bit wierd. I mean the bathing suit she got is HOT...but it's cut so wierd...it just not something that you can wear in public unless you're in an indie rock music video pool scene...I guess if you wear it over leggings or something...who the fuck knows...I still wear cargo shorts and t-shirts...so obviously American Appearl could care less what I think.

Anyway, I'm just going to link a couple of the pics from the Myspace profile because they are just, I dont' know, they are just fucking obnoxiously ironically stupifying:

The new Lara Croft PR media blitz keeps on rolling, and I parrot it here for you! (Allison Carroll)

This new Lara Croft model thing has been a big deal here on the blogs, but I'm suprised to see that it has been getting so much mainstream attention in the UK. I've seen a couple videos up on some print publications web sites, but in both cases it was region locked so I couldn't embed it.

Well, luckily (unluckily?) old GameTrailers came through with some good video as they usually do:

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Source: Joystiq

Tokyo Gore Police. Delivers on it's promise.

Now many of you may remember when I posted about the greatest film ever made. Turns out the same dudes have been hard at work and are ready to see another film released in the US. According to Japanator the film, which is called Tokyo Gore Police, will be released by Media Blasters in October.

Check out the trailer below:

Update: Schulemeister just sent me over a link to an even better trailer for this film. Why is it better? Well in his words "More action" and then he added "yes we are seeing this movie". What prompted this IM outpouring? See below

One for the ladies....

It's only fitting that on the same day that I'd put up a mess of pictures of The new Lara Croft that I'd balance it with a picture of a big old hunk of video game related Man MEAT.

I saw this first on Kotaku I think...but I already gave them a shout out today. I saw it again on Destructoid so I figured the time was right.

Anyway ladies...hold onto your butts, don't say I never did anything for ya:

Another game for me and the Beeb.

As many of you know, I'm big on the co-op gameplay. Pretty much at this point if a game doesn't have co-op, I wont' (can't?) buy it. I dont' have enough time to play games that Becca can't play. That's why I'm pretty excited about this video for Call of Duty 5 that was just released. No word on split screen yet, but I've got my fingers crossed:



Source: Kotaku

How the hell is Eidos finding all these hot english chicks.

Update: Some disgustingly HIGH REZ versions can be found at UK Resistance: Here. Here. And Here.

Olympics...schmoolympics. The only athlete I'm going to mention today is a "former gymnasit". Although given the fact that she isn't a horribly stunted 4'11" with the curves of a 10 year old school boy, I'm going to guess that "failed gymnist" would be more accurate.

That's not to take anything away from the Amazing swimming that's been going on over the weekend. But I know what my readers like, and that's video games and boobs. And really, if I didn't post new pictures of Eido's latest Lara Croft Model, I'd pretty much be ignoring the mission statement of Bitterness of Guns and Religion.

Anyway...this has been up all over, but I gotta give the nod to Kotaku,, who posted this picture along with their write up:

The Daily Mail, a UK newspaper posted sevarl pictures, which I have taken the liberty of including below. Enjoy:

G-Phoria 2008 winners announced. My Votes...your votes too?

I'm pretty much done with my Usual morning scour of the RSS feed and it seems like Kotaku is the only "major" site that mentioned the G-Phoria awards last night. Seems like last year there was a bigger hulla-ballo around these awards. Maybe it was the sites I was reading.

Maybe more people are tired of G4 now that they've basically done the Spike TV thing and turned into a Frat Bro rerun network. I still DVR X-Play and Code Monkeys myself, but I wouldn't really say I watch G4...and I definatly wouldn't take enough time out of my day to be part of their "community". But these awards were determined by exactly the kind of people who WOULD do that. As it's my understanding that these awards had a sort of "voted on by YOU" bent this year.

At any rate, here's this years dubious list of winners:

Game of the Year
Halo 3

Favorite System
Xbox 360

Best Graphics
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Best New Character
Niko Bellic - Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Party Game
Rock Band

Best Strategy Game
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Best Sports Game
skate.

Best Action Game
Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Shooter
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Best Racing Game
Mario Kart Wii

Best Role-Playing Game
Mass Effect

Most Original
Portal

Best Online Multiplayer Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Best Downloadable Content
Rock Band

Best Handheld Game
God of War: Chains of Olympus

Best Voice Acting
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Best Soundtrack
Rock Band

Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie
Turok

Longest Lasting Game presented by Stride
Grand Theft Auto IV

I did this Last Year, so I'd have to do it again. Basically, I'm going to list what I would have voted for. I should say that, I'm not sure what the criteria for time frame is, but since Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto are both in there I assume it's what ever came out since last years show. Looking at the nominees, since Bioshock makes that cut I figure that's a safe assumption. Anyway, i dont' have a PS3, so this is going to be extremely biased against that system...but there is only one real exclusive PS3 game...so I'm going to say it doesn't matter.

Anyway, here's my picks:

Game of the Year
Halo 3 - Based on Time spent playing, I'd have to give this the nod. Honestly, I think Bioshock is better, but Bioshock doesn't have split screen co op and I haven't spent hours of my life playing it so, yeah, I'm a lame Halo 3 fan boy I guess.

Favorite System
Xbox 360 - No contest. I love the 360.

Best Graphics
Bioshock

Best New Character
Andrew Ryan

Best Party Game
Rock Band

Best Strategy Game
Dawn of War Soul Storm

Best Sports Game
Big Beach Sports (come on it has Bacci Ball)

Best Action Game
Assault Heroes 2

Best Shooter
House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return

Best Racing Game
Burnout Paradise

Best Role-Playing Game
Puzzle Quest XBLA

Most Original
Audio Surf

Best Online Multiplayer Game
Halo 3

Best Downloadable Content
Puzzle Quest XBLA Expansion

Best Handheld Game
Korg DS - 10

Best Voice Acting
Battlefield Bad Company (I actually laughed at that game)

Best Soundtrack
Silent Hill Origins

Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie
Catz

Longest Lasting Game presented by Stride
Pinball Hall of Fame Williams collection

So there you have it. What do you think? Agree? disagree? what would you choose?

Just got Apocryphon.

When I got home today I found that I had got a little Care Package from InSoc HQ. I got two shirts, which means I"m now only one shirt away from having an InSoc shirt for each day of the week.

And I got a copy of their now (old) album Apocryphon. It's basically a collection of older stuff. As well as a digital remaster of the InSoc EP and their first album Creatures of Influence.

Naturally I have already spent about 150 bucks on the vinyl version of each of these albums, but it'll be nice to have good digital version lying around the house.

I'll post som impressions of the unreleased stuff on Disc 2 later on...but for now I'm geeking out.

Sweet...(Originally posted on MySpace on Dec 6, 2006)

More (fake this time) Wii safety guides!! (Originally posted on MySpace on Dec 6, 2006)

Yesterday I put up some pics of the Wii Safety Manual that Brian Ashcroft had posted over on Kotaku. Today they had a link to a set of pics that Kotaku forum posters created spoofing the Manual...classic stuff. Check it out

Here

For a little taste of whats in store, check out this gory pic of true video game violence:

Andrew HErman’s guide to dealing with your pinko friends (originally posted on MySpace on Dec 6, 2006)

For two long years now he's endured and been the Robert McNeil to My Jim Lehrer. In fact it was his fantastical stories of intrigue and romance that inspired me to start blogging in the first place. Lately his blog output is falling off a little bit (most likely due to the fact that he has a grilfriend now and doesn't need to spend to much time on the Ol' internet). But for those of you just joining us here is a retrospective of Comments leveled at me by the Kudos Mad Screenwriter from the Reddest State in this fair nation, Andrew Herman:

I told Hugh about your delightful internet journal entries during our last match of squash at the club two weekends prior. He made me promise we would drink a mint julip in his honor at our annual Independence Day festivities, but alas I was indisposed.

Posted by Andrew on Friday, July 08, 2005 at 11:49 PM

Back in my prospecting days I spent many a moon under a lean-to next to 'ol Topaz Lake. Some say there's Indian gold hidden up there. I heard tale of many a gringo finding a piece of it, then coming to an untimely end. Cursed says the old timers. But I don't believe in any of that mumbo jumbo. I'm keeping the necklace I found and nobody is gonna . . .What's this? Hold on for a second. It seems someone is knocking at my door. Well it isn't so much a "knock" as a "scratching/ gutteral growl". Anyhows, let me go see who it is first, then finish this post. BRB as they say . . .

Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 at 11:28 PM

May I shower accolades upon your Father for his exemplary performance in the field of robbing tha kradle. I was dating a 16 year old once, so I know how he feels. . . Although I was 17 at the time so maybe I don't. Food for thought. KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDOS!

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 11:49 PM

Could you do me a giant favor and stop posting thingss like this on the INTERNET. My "associates" and I have put allot of time and work into our gas scam. You can understand why they are breathing down my kneck when they see a friend of mine linking Dickster and Dub to the oil companies. While I enjoy your prose I beg you use a little less candor.



Posted by Andrew on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 8:19 PM

We're gonna fight the battle of Antietam next weekend, maybe this time the South won't lose as many of her braves young men. You in? And yes, we'll let you be General Lee this time.

Posted by Andrew on Saturday, September 03, 2005 at 3:14 PM

Does this mean you aren't going to join my fantasy football leauge? I figured we could each buy a copy of the new Madden and replay all the games that are player every week, thereby recreating the entire season.

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 12:59 PM

What about Rhapsody?

Posted by Andrew on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 4:35 PM

A shinning example? TWO KUDOS!!!!

Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 8:45 PM

I was going to make fun of you for using tester languege in real life context, but that would make me a bit of a hypocrit. We spent the last month using terms from W.O.W. to relate to the real world. I hate myself right now. KUDOS!

Posted by Andrew on Sunday, March 05, 2006 at 11:21 PM

As far as the first paragraph: Aaaahhahahahahahahahahahahah

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 at 9:50 PM

Were you called into the office for blogging? Also, thanks for ingoring my marriage proposal.

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 11:38 AM

Oh come on Arnold, you have to admit this has been my most hilarious caper EVER.

Posted by Andrew on Monday, June 19, 2006 at 9:25 AM

I must disagree with your offhand comparison of POTC2 with the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The legend of the Kraken predates Lovecraft's works by a few centuries. Further, while I will ignore the fact that Cthullu was a god like entity that answered to no one, and the Kraken was obviously under the power of Jones (or whoever possessed his heart), is it not more likely that Lovecraft derived his description of Cthullu from the old world descriptions of the mightyy Kraken beast? For further insite you might want to check some of my latest fan fictions entries on the Lovecraft message board, you rember the one you are too "Post-Anne Rice Horrorist" to visit.

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 11:22 AM

Did you leave out the DVD set of the short lived Rush Limbaugh television series because you already got it, or because you knew I would buy it for you anyways?

Posted by Andrew on Friday, September 08, 2006 at 3:41 PM

How about a pacman rip off, based on a scathing critique of today's political climate. The head of George W. Bush could travel around the maze, eating oil dereks, only to be chased by likenesses of George Soros and Ariana Huffington. Judging from the world of warcraft message boards, this is the kind of high brow humor today's mainstream gamer is clamoring for. CLAMORING.

Posted by Andrew on Friday, September 01, 2006 at 2:06 PM

Maybe I can sell you the rights to my Cos-Play MMORPG idea.

Posted by Andrew on Thursday, August 31, 2006 at 10:21 PM

I'm sure you'll come around and understand the "right" (ha ha) point of view after perusing some of the fair and insightful political websites/blogs that I read. For an unbiased take on these topics start at www.rightwingnews.com. If you want to delve a little deeper into way the main stream media has skewed these topics you could hop over to www.ohthatliberalmedia.com.

For lighter fair you can always scan the forums at rightnation.com, or read the delightful citizensmash.net.

Don't worry, after a while you'll feel all right (lol, i love that joke!)

Posted by Andrew on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 9:30 AM

Gears of War? More like Gears of Bore, ha ha HA. Anyhow, stop fooling with those lame console games and enter the warm embrace of WoW.

Posted by Andrew on Friday, November 10, 2006 at 9:16 AM


Then of course there was the following Flame war he started after my Ladytron post...that one had the a record 15 comments...wow! Let's take a look:


Did you know that Stephen Colbert is gay? I was talking to one of my Comm proffesors in college about Strangers with Candy and he was all, "you realize the whole cast, except for the chick, are gay?" and I was like, "ohhhhhhh, really?" True story.

Posted by Andrew on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 9:22 AM


Stephen Colbert is also married and has two kids. Not to mention, he's not really a republican. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Posted by AaronFlux on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 11:25 AM

He's not a republican? What are you talking about?!?!?!? Obviously you haven't seen the Colbert report, because on that show he really gives it to the Dumbocrats and their Smellfare programs everyday.

Posted by Andrew on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 12:32 PM


Well, he's still hot in my book! I like gay republicans and now they'll be crying like babies in the new 'House o' Reps'...GO BLUE!

Posted by BECCA on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 9:57 AM


Yeah we really handed it to those republicans...and what was there first move...hell not even 24 hours after the election and Rumsfeld already cut and ran...

Posted by T. Ryan on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 1:12 P

Obviously, none of you are paying attention to what Steven Colbert is saying! He is an Independant who identifies with Republican idealism, and he strongly supports the president...but he doesnt really like either side. Sure he makes fun of the democrats, but he also makes fun of Mark Foley and Donald Rumsfeld. And as for the gay/straight thing, he has spoken out against gay marriage many times, its that he claims he doesnt see people in terms of COLOR...

Put that in your pipe and smoke it! I freakin' loooooove that show...

Posted by Trojan Girl on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 1:23 PM

What I was trying to say was that "as Steven Colbert sees no color...I see no sexuality...". I didn't realise all these guys were such Colbert-o-philes...still in Andrew's defense I believe he was being ironic...but I could be wrong...

Posted by T. Ryan on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 2:16 PM

You can identify with Tori Amos? Whenever the Mode listens to her, I'm reduced to screaming, "What the hell is she talking about?!!" Pants in her hair, happy sky diamonds, freckles fainting- I cannot translate her Crazy Talk, even with the help of my ovaries.

Posted by Emma on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 8:42 PM

That's the whole point...she's made a carrer out of being suffocated by those who don't understand her..I mean half the time I'm talking to the guys in the Mastering Lab about renewable energy and open immigration policies I might as well be saying "pants in my hair" I realise that "People don't understand me" is kind of a teen angsty experience...but that is probably why I haven't actually listened to Tori Amos for several years...although I did by the Box set at a Tower that was going out of business...and I mean to listen to it...someday.
Posted by T. Ryan on Thursday, November 09, 2006 at 2:16 PM

When did strawberry shortcake get so HOT?!?!?!?

Posted by Andrew on Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 3:41 PM

Must be nice to have access to not one, but TWO of those fancy new Xbox 360s. I spend my time drawing pictures of what I think video games look like in this smooth patch of dirt behind the apartment.

Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 9:42 AM

So you're gonna spend all the target money on me, right? Jesus said it is better to give than receive, and since you haven't shown up to bible study in a while I thought I should remind you . . . KUDOS!!!!

Posted by Andrew on Friday, December 01, 2006 at 11:56 PM

A few foods I hate. (Originally posted on MySpace on Dec 5, 2008)

Isn't it funny how some people can absolutely love something that you can not stand. I mean food wise. I mean...some people out there must LOVE pork rinds...cause if they didn't then simple economics would ensure that no pork rinds were sold. I saw a thing on history channel about how they make porkrinds...I was so disgusted...like to the core of my being...like how I'd feel if I liberated a concentration camp...like that feeling of, "how can anyone stand by when there are millions of pounds of PORK SKINS rendered each day for rinds. I have to admit, though it's not because of animal cruelty. NOw don't get me wrong. I love animals. And I don't want them to suffer and I don't think they should die so I can have a nice fur coat. But I'd be a big hypocrit if I wore my new (sweet ass) Pearl Izumi gloves and talked about saving animals. I mean, unfortunatly cheesburgers taste good. Does that mean I want to go to a slaughter house and see a cow get turned into a cheeseburger. Not really. NOt at all...in fact just writing that kinda makes me woozy.

But anyway I'm a little off topic here. The thing that brought this on is I was just in the break room starting a pot of Coffee. I have a ritual. Come in clock in. Start a pot of Seatle Blend. Go to the Lab. Turn everything on. Check the queue. Go back to the break room. Fill up on Seattle blend. Start a pot of Vienna Roast. Well I was startin Vienna when the night wathcman saunters in and phlematically leers, "you ain gon star(huh-HEEM) no Vanilla nut.?"

Uh-No."

"Well why" he says resting his hand on his mace can...letting me know who's in charge.

"Well" I start, this guy has a habbit of coming by the Mastering Lab every morning and going 'Hey...what'd ya jus stick in yer pockit?' to which I turn from my work and simply blink hoping that what I'm silently conveying is something along the lines of "Listen asshole...that wasn't funny when you said it to me the day we moved in here three weeks ago...and it isn't funny now...I'm sorry that I'm the only one that works here as early in the morning as you...but that doesn't make us friends..now GET". But what I say is, "For one thing...you can' t stop this thing once you hit "Brew" so It's got another ten minutes brewing Vienna and I'm not gonna stand here all morning, and for another thing I hate Vanilla Nut, it's not real coffee, it's for tourists."

And he took a long hard look at me. He licked his chapped lips in frustration. His mind worked it over..."This guy doesn't LIKE vanilla nut?" he thought to himself. To him it was akin to someone saying, "I sure wish the Russians had one the Cold war...at least we'd have free health care."

He began to stammer...and I capped the old Sharky's cup and walked out...he can brew it himself.

But then I started to think like, "What if everyone just boycotted that vile Vanilla Nut." Would they keep stocking it? Would they eventually just give up on it? It's not likely a boycott would stick. To many fatties work here with a bowl of powdered donuts they need to wash down every morning.

Oh well...at least I can sip my elitest Seattle Blend safe in the knowledge of my coffee superiority.

Oh and one more thing. The internet radio station "Elektro-Statik" is great...good mix of industrial, noise, and even some electro-clash. highly recommended.

wii is dangerous!!! (Originally posted on MySpace on Dec 5, 2006)

This classic image came from the EXTENSIVE Japanese Wii safety Manual. More pictures are posted here at Kotau

Settin up lights with the in-laws. (Originally posted on MySpace Dec 3, 2008)

Man. I am broke. For those of you who don't know. Jeff moved out of our place on November 1st. This is month two of Becca and I paying twice the rent we're used to. It has pros and cons. I think that it was really time for Becca and I to live on our own. And in all likely hood if we moved out we'd be paying almost the same for a one bedroom. But man. It's a LOT Of scratch. especially for Becca. She's paying almost an extra 400 bucks a month.

The downside of this is that it means that Becca and I will not get to be the insane santa clauses that we have been in years past. We have had a lot of fun shopping for people and doing lists and all that stuff. But most likely this year it's gonna be home made pine cone christmas ornaments or something.

That doesn't mean there aint no christmas cheer. Far from. Ol' Becca and I went over to her folk's place yesterday to set up Christmas lights. We've spent the last few holidays and Mom and Jim's (Christmas) and Dad's (New Years) and we felt like we should spend it with Becca's folks. Little did I know that was gonna sign us up for several days of Christmas preperation. I spent most of my time yesterday on a ladder listening to Larry and Andrea screaming at each other about lights in the drive way. This was before we moved in side to help Becca with the Tree (great job by the way BEEB. I'll post some pics when I steal them from you phone) and then we got to hear her parents go at each other about which CD had the best Christmas music. It was classic holiday times. And to top it off Becca's mom and dad bought us a (fairly good, I'd say a 3.5 out of 5) Thai Food dinner complete with an anachronistic Optimator Spatten (which actually was a little to rich for me. I've been laying off the beer lately.)

I even had a brief moment of disagreement with Larry over who was singing...I said Bing he said Frank...turns out he was right (I never should have even argued)...a young Frank sounds a LOT like Bing with all those melodramatic lilting vibratos....I think Frank turned into more of a Belter in his later career.

That's about it. Oh...that and I created a new Xbox Live Account for the Mastering Lab Xbox 360 so I can play online on my lunch breaks. The new name is TotenMensch. So if I add any of you or if anyone wants to add me...here's what his gamer card looks like:

My main Xbox Live account is "Teknohed":

Feel free to add either one.

I miss MST3K! (Originally posted on MySpace on Dec 3, 2008)

This is kinda cool. I stumbled across this site called rifftrax. It is basically a series of MP3s created by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Michael J. Nelson. You download the MP3s and then sync them to a DVD or video. Classic MST3K style stuff...classic. Anyway check it out here .

David Jaffe gets drunk...tells handler to go fuck himself (Originally posted on Myspace Dec 3, 2008)

Here's a tasty video I got from Kotaku . I can't help but watch this and think that this is why the Arnold Brother Video game company is gonna need a professional PR guy. I mean this would have been me if I was as drunk as this guy. For the record "this guy" is David Jaffe, who is the creator of the PS2's greatest (in my opinon) game God of War. Eventually he tells the smarmy Sony guy to go "fuck himself" classic stuff. I tried to look up some of the blogs he slurringly makes reference two but I can't find anything called "neo gaff" or "gamingage"...I'd be interested to know what the criticism was. And I know he says he fucked up his PSP game...but I don't know if that means it came out and was bad or if it got delayed or what...I'll have to look into it. I know he was Sony-Style hyping it as the greatest PSP game that would ever be...and given how good God of War was I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway...check this out

gaming goodness down undah!!!! (Originally posted on MySpace Dec 2, 2006)

If you, like me, can't get enough of those damn grumpy aussies over at Angry Gamer have posted another profanity laddened anti sony screed!!!

Click now and listen...classic.

THQ Holiday Party (Originally posted on MySpace Dec 2, 2006)

We're back from the THQ holiday party.

Total blast. Becca is HAMMERED!!! she is giggling and lurching around the house right now!

I gorged myself on lobster and chicken breasts!!!

And for the first time in my nearly 3 years of being at THQ I won something!!!!

100 bucks at Target!!! should I be sensible and buy stuff for the house...sweet and buy presents for Becca or selfish and buy a wii? we'll see how far I can stretch 100 bucks!! Cool.

Now for fun here is a link to a shitload of funny cat pics!!!!

New Damnation Trailer.

This game is peaking my interest. Between Damnation, Darksiders, Dark Void, and Dead Space there a lot of new games coming out that I think will have the goods.

Here's a trailer. I'm hoping for splitscreen co op:

Great audio resource for indie game developers.

I got tipped off about this site from Dave Wilson. He could kind of be viewed as my resident "Flash / Indie Development" insider.

Anyway, he forwarded over a link to 8-Bit Rocket. This is a pretty useful site. The main draw is that it has a bunch of fair use samples for use by indie game developers. The songs are all really great (although the samples are attempting to open in Quick Time, but I know several of my regular readers are big iTunes users...so that should be a problem for "those types").

The site also contains some excellent tutorials detailing some programing tips and tricks for adding the audio into your games, as well as a well written blog and some links to games that use the audio.

The danger of a site like this is that the sounds would become ubiquitous and played out. But the first time I listened to several of them, I was defiantly impressed.

Two games in the same week on VC that I might actually download? What the hell is going on?

For a long time now virtual console on the Wii has really sucked. It's clear that from their E3 Press Conference and some off the collar quips that Nintendo really doesn't care about the core gamers upon who's wallets they rode a wave of hype to become famed as an object of desire among alpha moms and the elderly.

This has been covered a lot online. And I can't say I disagree. For a long time I'd say, "well I have a Wii, but really all I do with it is play virtual console." and for a while that was true. For about a year we were getting three games a week. And for a stretch there was usually at least one game that was keeping me on the little white waggle box. Hell, there was even a period when we were getting games that up until then had only come out in Japan. It was amazing. I could over look a few years of Wii Fit E3s if Nintendo kept bringing home those goods. However, that trend did not last forever. It seems to be that Nintendo is settling into autopilot, dolling out the bare minimum releases. I suspected that eventually they might even stop all together in favor of Wii Ware titles.

But the releases this week have redeemed themselves.

First a quick aside. There's a lot of places you can get information about Wii Virtual Console releases. You can never go wrong with Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler over at 1UP. These guys know there stuff and their Virtual Console Round UP is a great place to get the scoop. The only problem I have with it is that, like Retronauts, it is somewhat inconsistant and does not always come out on a predictable schedule. The guys at IGN Retro write up stuff. My one complaint aobut this site is that, like most IGN stuff there isn't a lot of cohesion. I wish there were more specific RSS feeds. I wish I could get Virtual Console reviews without subscribing to a bunch of Wii shovel ware reviews. Also most of hte links in on IGN seem to blast you all over the site. Basically, if it's not from the saftety of my Google Reader, I hate IGN's layout and mish mash of inter linking. For this reason I recommend keeping tabs on the RSS feed from VC Reviews. This site has consistant updates, decent reviews (althugh I should say not as informative as Parish and Kohler's).

Anyway, today in my RSS feed was news that both Splatter House 2 and Mega Man came out this week. I don't think I need to say much about Mega Man. It is my favorite in the series, yes I like it better than 2, cause I sucked at 2 and I've never gotten over it. I haven't played much of Splatter House 2 or 3. I hear 3 is better than 2. But I'm a huge fan of the first, so I'm planing on checking this one out as soon as I can.

I'll post up impressions later on. For now I'm just glad that there is a brief glimmer of hope for Virtual Console. Hopefully this isn't the last gasp before oblivion...then again what do I care, if VC went belly up, I'd just have more time to play Soul Calibur 4.

Update: According to Chris Kohler's Wired blog, Mega Man is apparently NOT coming out today. Oh well. Looks like Splatterhouse 2 is still a go. Should have known it was too good to be true.