- It took 13 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep, but I’ve finally recovered from the RetroRedux 24 hour game jam, which turned out to be a 23 hour event due to daylight saving, but when you add in the additional 2 hours of tutorials…
All that’s left is the awards ceremony later this afternoon to hear which game got the top prize (which is an old 2600 joystick affixed on a wooden base).
Does the game produced by Team SVA, aka the “Pixel Pirates”, have a shot at the win? I suppose…. it would certainly be nice and not entirely unreasonable.
I’m in the process of writing about the event and the game that it helped to produce, with all the highs and lows that came about, in a story for a Gamasutra which will be appearing very soon, which I’ll pass along as soon as its live.
There were some definite highlights, but the ones that weren’t directly related to the game making process were either playing Lumines for the first time, thanks to the PSP the guy from Game Informer brought along, or chatting with one of the Parson DT lab assistants because I saw her surfing YayHooray, and her discovering that I was the guy who’s post she just responded to; I did have some downtime for some light surfing, so I chose YayLite. The PeeBook, after some extensive cleaning during work on Friday, came in handy after all.
- On the Friday night before, MK and I saw Sin City, and all I have to say is that it’s tied with Ghost World in my book as the best comic book movie ever. It’s simply a fine example of how a comic’s form, pacing, and aesthetics can be translated and made to work in another form, yet stay 100% true.
The whole film was visually stunning and had numerous stellar performances. Its one of the few times where some big Hollywood talent has been able to breathe life, and depth, into a comic book character instead of being a patronizing distraction.
Funny thing is, I’m not even a fan of the source material.
- Earlier in the day, I went to Tekserve to return an iPod case, one that they recommended. I had it for just two days, but that was enough time for the piece of crap to scratch up my very new iPod and make it look as if its been carried about (unprotected) for months.
I’ve always tried to hold my tongue when it comes to Tekserve since I know of two cool people who work there, but no longer. I’m officially sick of the store’s bullshit and I now feel it is my duty to warn as many people as possible of their idiotic and irresponsible practices. They are a complete and total fucking rip off, and the people they have working there fixing people’s Macs are totally unqualified for the job. I personally know of 11 different friends and coworkers who’ve gone there over the years for a minor fix or upgrade, and besides being WAY overcharged, their Mac came back with a host of brand new problems, many of which I’ve had to personally fix.
Almost every experience just walking in that store has been pure hell thanks to their uber-hipster sales people who are beyond obnoxious, slow, dumb, rude, and above all, too cool for anyone, but especially, < .em>you.
Case in point: I went in that morning, and three trendster employees were at the ticket counter fucking around and therefore totally didn’t notice me (you have to get a ticket for any kind of help around there). So I went straight to the sales area, where about five people are behind the counter, also totally oblivious to my presence. Finally I get one’s attention by going “Hey, can I get some help?” and the dude flat out refused to talk to me unless I had a goddamn ticket. It was fucking dead, no one else was there, why fucking bother with tickets?! So I go back and manage to get the attention of the wannabe Suicide Girl back at the ticket counter and then return, only to be told to go to a totally different counter!
The guy who actually processed the return was nice and all, but when I went back with my iPod (I didn’t bring it in that day since I had no means of protection) and spoke to someone about perhaps getting compensated (after all, it was those fuckers that recommended me that I get some no name case even though I was clearly interested in one of the more popular cases, which I would have to assume is cheaper), this guy was a complete and utter dick who gave me a patronizing “you go get the address and bitch at the manufacturer yourself” response. When I suggested that they take down that brand since it’ll more than likely damage other people’s iPods, he just scoffed at me.
Again, fuck Tekserve, I’m never going to them ever again. Hell, they’re worse than the Apple Store!
Speaking of, I still have a problem with my iPod, and was going to go the Apple Store that day during lunch, but was saved the trip when a student told me that they have so many people going there for problems with iPods that you now have to get a number online (he was actually going to go there later in the day since he had an early afternoon “number). But he also mentioned that the number system is often bullshit cuz if you’re a celeb, they automatically let them cut in line. Apparently, last time he was in there, Courtney Love showed up and held him up for an additional hour.
And considering how I had to qualms yelling at Salma Hayek at the Film Forum for cutting, do you think I’m going to be any nicer? At least Hayek is a decent actress (plus pleasing to the eye), and not a complete piece of human garbage like Love.
- More bad news on Friday: the legendary Japanese noise band, the Boredoms, are playing at the Bowery Ballroom (its their first performance in NYC in… what, ten years?), and its already sold out (tickets went on sale just a couple days prior.
First, I miss Peelander-Z earlier in the week, now the Boredoms. Fuck!
- I also need to get hooked up to cable really soon; apparently, there was an episode of Robot Chicken that featured the Peanuts characters that was said to be hilarious, but it really pissed off the Schultz estate, so now it’s been pulled.
I hate it when stuff like this happens. I haven’t seen it, though I must assume that it can’t be that bad, and even if it was, its just parody for Christ’s sake. What’s worse is that I love Peanuts, so its always worst when the folks behind something you enjoy gets involved in bullshit legal crap. I’d like to think that, if he was still alive today, Charles would not have given a rat’s ass.
- Friday was also April Fools, and there were a ton of “jokes”, especially on the video game front, Perhaps the best was IGN’s announcement of NES lightgun games for the NES. That Zapper stylus is HOT…
It even beats my previous favorite bit of April Fools related Nintendo fakery…
Though I have to admit, Gamespot’s John Woo to direct Katamari Damacy movie was pretty funny as well.
- Gamespot also passed along some info from Japan relating to Xbox 2/360 and the folks who’ll be making games for it over there. Its interesting to hear so many people, like Mizuguchi, state that their vision of next-gen gaming match’s Microsoft.
And here’s a really interesting comment from Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy…
” One thing that gamers shouldn’t expect from Sakaguchi are games that play like watching a movie, which is exactly what he criticized about recent console offerings. Sakaguchi commented that modern games let bystanders get as excited as the player. But considering they’re interactive, Sakaguchi believes that games are really supposed to be something that only the person who’s playing should be able to completely understand and enjoy, which is what he expects his games on the next-gen Xbox to be like.”
- From the files of the “I know its old news to some, but maybe not others”, here’s some animations done via Pictochat.
Though on the other end of the handheld battlefield, the PSP now has a IRC client. Only a matter of time before there’s an AIM client as well.
- As much as I completely loathes G4TV, here’s a funny vid with a super huge NES controller.
- Speaking of huge stuff, here’s an Xbox built into a chair. Obviously retarded, but a tiny bit brilliant.
- Since I’m going to working on a web based fighting game soon based on Catfight later down the road, I’ve already been scoping the web for stuff that’s already out there. And guess what I found… Brief Karate Foolish.
This looks like the best fighter game ever. And I’m dead serious. Too bad its only for the PC, but there is a link to a demo on the page, so I’m going to try and install it on one of the lab computers here at SVA.
- And in honor fo the kick ass film, here is Frank Miller’s Sim City.
