World Of My Own Design

Retro Gaming Recap; Winter 2010/2011

2011-01-09T00:49:00.040-06:00

So here's what's been going on with retro gaming recently. We'll delve into it in chronological order, new to old...

Amidst rumors of SNK Playmore no longer publishing games, I have it on good authority that SNK Arcade Classics 0 may finally be on it's way. Word is new footage was taken and sent to the ESRB recently (as posted by developer G1M2 on December 22 on their Facebook Page), and that information should be publicly available soon.

First off, the PS2 release has been altogether scrapped, which isn't the least bit surprising (I wasn't even aware that games were still being manufactured for the old workhorse, although apparently they still are, with at least five games scheduled for NA release in 2011).
The PSP release might still be in the cards, and digital distribution in some form is the new blueprint, which might be the only way us non-handheld home console players will be able to access these classics - which would be unfortunate.

No word yet on why the game was delayed over a year from the PSP release date found in the Japanese comic.

UPDATE;
So there's finally an official announcement on SNK Arcade Classics 0.
It is set for an April 21st 2011 release for the PSP in Japan. No word yet on a Stateside release.
Sources; Andraisang.com, Gamesetwatch.com

Dreamcast Collection Due In Late February (Feb 22nd North America)
Four Dreamcast games are included in this compilation; Sonic Adventure; Crazy Taxi; SEGA Bass Fishing; and Space Channel 5: Part 2.

To call four games a "collection" is a real stretch. Since I already have most of the key Dreamcast games (only game in this collection I don't have is Space Channel 5, and I couldn't care less about it), the Dreamcast Collection will not show up in my collection.
Yes, Dreamcast games take up a larger amount of memory so there's a limit on how many titles they can fit onto one disc, but I was simply expecting more, and it's difficult not to compare it to the all-encompassing Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection which contained a grand total of 48 games (40 Genesis, 7 arcade, and 2 Sega Master System games). Additionally, two of the games in the Dreamcast Collection (Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure) are available on Xbox Live Arcade, and the remaining two games are planned for future XBLA release. My condolences to those who have purchased either Crazy Taxi or Sonic Adventures on XBLA for $10 a piece, when you could've just waited for the Dreamcast Collection for $30 and got 4 games for for the price of 3 Dreamcast titles on XBLA.
Putting aside the fact that there were only 4 games included, the game selections in this compilation were just far too predictable. Not to mention the fact that Crazy Taxi isn't really the authentic Dreamcast version, since the in-game advertising was removed and the soundtrack featuring Bad Religion and The Offspring was replaced, and Sega Bass Fishing just isn't the same without the Dreamcast Fishing Rod peripheral.

A few game suggestions;
18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (also ported to the PS2)
2K Sports series; NBA 2K2, NFL 2K2, NHL 2K2, Tennis 2K2 (aka Virtua Tennis 2), World Series Baseball 2K2
Alien Front Online
Confidential Mission (On-rail gun game)
Crazy Taxi 2 and Crazy Taxi 3 (which was only released on the Xbox)
Dynamite Cop
Ecco The Dolphin: Defender of the Future
Outtrigger
Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II
Racing games; Daytona USA 2001, F355 Challenge (also ported to the PS2), Sega GT, Sega Rally 2
Seaman and Seaman 2 (which was only released on the PS2 in Japan)
Sega Bass Fishing 2
Shenmue I&II
Skies Of Arcadia (the updated Gamecube port)
Sonic Adventure 2 (the updated Gamecube port)
Virtua Cop 2 (from Sega Smash Pack)
Zombie Revenge

I've heard many echo requests for Jet Set Radio and it's sequel, although I have no vested interest in it.
I'd suggest House Of The Dead II, but the House Of The Dead II&III collection on the Wii pretty much covered that.

Although the following games have no roots in the Dreamcast, I'd also like to see them include Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox) and Shinobi and Nightshade (PS2). Then again, they could always save the Shinobi games for an all-encompassing Shinobi Anthology.

I think Sega has been spiraling out of control with no one at the wheel ever since they left the hardware market. And they've been hemorrhaging their back catalog with games like the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and the upcoming Dreamcast Collection, not to mention auctioning off their back catalog to craptastic Atgames, most recently with the Sega Genesis Arcade Motion plug-n-play on sale at Walgreens. Which is all pretty good news for consumers, but more indicative of a company that's struggling rather than sitting well.

To Sega's credit, they did publish two well-rated games this past year, Bayonetta and Vanquish. Both demos of which I enjoyed, Vanquish more than Bayonetta (reminded me too much of Devil May Cry). Gamespot even gave Vanquish the dubious honor of 'best game no one played' award for 2010. AVP3 however, was up for the worst game everyone played award.

Krome closes down
"On 18 August 2010, it was reported that Krome had closed down their Adelaide studios and made significant staff cuts to their Melbourne and Brisbane offices - with as many as 100 staff let go. On 18 October 2010, all remaining staff were let go."
On December 22nd, the final game pack (unlucky number 13) was released.

Let's face it, Game Room was destined for failure from the very start. Krome did little to nothing to alter or improve the virtual service since launch, and Microsoft has done little to nothing to promote it since its launch. You can't have both the developer and the publisher not give a product it's full support and expect it to succeed.
Bring in another developer? Perhaps. But I'd prefer if they'd scrap everything but the title and the games already released, and start from scratch.

I doubt we'll ever see even half of the 1000 games initially promised, and why would we want to? As echoed by others, it's most assuredly all shovelware, and Konami should have included all of their bottom-of-the-barrel arcade offerings (along with their hits) on a $20/$30 compilation disc long ago.

I'm sure glad I didn't actually spend money on any of Game Room's offerings, and now that I know it's teetering on the brink of extinction, I surely won't!

Krome's brilliant (sarcasm) solution to the Konami arcade cabinets' missing artwork was to substitute them for the Konami Windy arcade cabinet, which was released in 1996, when all of Konami's Game Room games were released years before. The least Game Room could do is make their application historically accurate, but Krome couldn't even get that right. The Windy cabinets stick out like a sore thumb and are entirely out of place.
Sure sure "if you go to an arcade in Japan they will have ALL the games in these cabinets, including classics from the 80s". Well that's all fine and dandy but THIS ISN'T JAPAN nor is Game Room intended to emulate 1996-present day! Not to mention that Windy cabinets do not have a marquee so it's nearly impossible to even tell what game it is until you enter the game itself.

I logged into Game Room around the time of the Pack 13 release and it was screwy to the tenth degree. Booted me from Live, made me download a small update, booted me from Live again, told me I had to re-download game packs and if I canceled it would erase my Game Room history, it (temporarily) erased my custom arcade, clicked on arcade games to play in the shop and it'd go to a loading screen, and once the loading was done it'd just bring me right back to the shop. What a friggin' disaster! Krome really had no clue how to run this thing from the get-go. What was Microsoft thinking? Stick a fork in it MS, it's done.

Once again, scrap the WHOLE dang thing and try again with another developer - or better yet, DON'T and force Konami to release an all-encompassing arcade compilation at a budget-price ON DISC (which they should've done long ago), and have Atari and Intellivision put all their Game Room shovelware on Atari Anthology Volume 2: FUCT (Failed Under Continuous Testing) and Intellivision Lives! Volume 2: MEGO (My Eyes Glazed Over).

In regards to classic game compilations on disc vs digital distribution;
It's pretty simple really. More games for less money is better than more money for less games. Classic game compilations have been around for quite some time now, and they set the bar in regards to pricing. Then digital distribution came along and felt the added convenience and online options (multiplayer, leaderboards) were worth a 500% to over 1000% markup. They were wrong, and sensible consumers can and will always recognize that fact.
I do not understand some of Game Room's [digital distribution] biggest advocates voicing their support in having classic games in Game Room as opposed to on disc. You're not gaining much if anything at all by having it on Game Room. Owning it on disc, however, guarantees it won't ever disappear. Owning classic games released on disc is a win-win for consumers. Having them released onto digital distribution instead of on-disc and the developer/publisher has you the consumer over the barrel.

And you can blame publishers for having half a bit of marketing sense for that. Release a classic game compilation on disc for a budget price, then releasing the games separately on a digital distribution service for a 500% markup and consumers are less likely to jump if there's a cheaper option available.
Release them on a digital distribution service first, then releasing them on a classic gaming compilation on disc for a budget price after the fact doesn't make much sense from a business standpoint, unless the online game sales have already topped out - at which point releasing a compilation on disc is superfluous.
In example; Would you have paid $60 (4800 points) for 9 Namco Xbla games, or $30 for all those plus the 25 more games included within the Namco Museum Virtual Arcade compilation?
It's just an unfortunate fact that the more money consumers dump into classic games via digital distribution, the more prices rise and the less likely we are to see classic game compilations on disc.

So the big remaining question mark Game Room gamers were clammering about was; Where is Sunset Riders? "It's in the demo reel and also listed in the binary file" gamers wrote. Well it was a no-show, and to be honest, I think Konami would be making a mistake by releasing Sunset Riders in Game Room for a paltry $3 as opposed to XBLA. Sunset Riders deserves larger exposure, and it'd be a nice fan-service if they gave it some sort of enhanced graphics treatment (with an option to play with original graphics of course).

Microsoft claims to be still investing in Game Room, although they have been been silent on their plans for Game Room ever since developer Krome went under.
One sign that it may still have a future is the fact that certain games via the Game Room interface were introduced as playable on Windows Phone 7 at CES 2011 earlier this month. Whether Microsoft brings in another developer to work on the core Xbox 360 application, or simply let it sit unused and full of glitches, is yet to be seen.

Dotemu released IREM Arcade Hits for the PC, DRM free, download only, in December 2010.
The games included are;

Air Duel [1990]
Battle Chopper [1987]
Blade Master [1991]
Cosmic Cop [1991]
Dragon Breed [1989]
Gunforce [1991]
Gun Force II [1994]
Hammerin' Harry [1990]
Image Fight [1988]
In The Hunt [1993] *Released on PSOne in US
Kung Fu Master [1984] *Ported to NES, arcade-perfect port included in Irem Arcade Classics for both the Sega Saturn and Playstation in Japan.

Legend of Hero Tonma [1989] *Turbografx-16 port available on the Wii Virtual Console
Mystic Riders [1992]
Ninja Spirit [1988] *Turbografx-16 port available on the Wii Virtual Console
Believe it or not, Ninja Spirit for the Turbografx-16 was the first game in history to receive a 10 in Electronic Gaming Monthly.
R-Type Leo [1992]
Released only in arcades, R-Type Leo is the third and final arcade release of this classic series (all subsequent R-Type games were released only on consoles). The R-Type timeline indicates that the events of R-Type Leo occur before those of all the other games in the series.
Superior Soldiers [1993]
Undercover Cops [1992]
Vigilante [1988] *Turbografx-16 port available on the Wii Virtual Console
A spin-off of Kung-Fu Master

I've always wanted Irem to release an arcade classics compilation! And although I wish they could've included more games from their collection (the exclusion of the 1982 golden age classic Moon Patrol is somewhat puzzling, and they really need to release an all encompassing R-Type Anthology including every last console release), my big complaint is though, why not release this on consoles!?! IREM Arcade Hits deserves larger exposure. I think it's a mistake to only release it as download only for the PC. I'd gladly pay a mark-up to play this on the Wii with the classic controller. I'd suggest the 360 but I'm afraid that they'd try to hawk each game separately on XBLA instead.

DotEmu has stated that it [releasing the game on consoles] "is not so straightforward due to various reasons."

I only recently became aware of the Playstation 3's Playstation 3 Classics HD line with the release of The Sly Collection, which was released on December 1, 2010. In a way this was kicked off over a year ago by the God Of War Collection, which was the first release to include remastered versions of Playstation 2 games.
From Wikipedia; "Classics HD is the official name given for these compilations in Europe, no equivalent of such name exists in North America or Japan. However, these titles are easily differentiated in North America as they include the subtitle "Remastered in High Definition" on the cover."
These remasters also sometimes include 3D support.

The Prince Of Persia trilogy, remastered in high definition, was released in North America as download only via The Playstation Store. Why a hard copy option wasn't made available in North America I do not know. Shame on you!
Update: A hard copy was eventually released on April 19, 2011.
Note; If you own the NTSC Xbox version of Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, you might wanna hold onto it, because the Prince Of Perisa Collection does not include the original Prince of Persia & Prince of Persia 2 as unlockables, as the original Xbox version did (the only version to include Prince Of Persia 2 as an unlockable).

Some news I found exciting is the planned Q2 2011 release of Ico & Shadow Of Colossus. Two titles I own and love and would repurchase to experience them in high-def and 3D.

Update: The Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus Collection has a release date of September 27, 2011.

The planned Tomb Raider Trilogy doesn't quite fit into the formula, since all 3 games have been available in hi-def on this generation of consoles, albeit on the Xbox 360. But since neither Legend nor Anniversary were available on Playstation 3, this gives PS3 owners the chance to experience them all in one pack.
Update: Tomb Raider Collection was released on March 22, 2011.
"The collection includes the PlayStation 2 versions of Legend and Anniversary remastered in high definition plus Underworld, which was previously released on the PS3 in 2008, all on one Blu-ray Disc.
The two downloadable episodes available for the Xbox 360 version of Underworld are not included, and Crystal Dynamics has no current plans to make them available on PS3."

The Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Compilation is planned for release on August 2, 2011, and like the Prince Of Persia Trilogy, was originally listed for North America as download only, but that was revised.

Occasionally swaying from the Playstation 2 requirement, here are some of my suggestions of games worth compiling and revisiting to game pubishers for the "Classics HD" line of compilations;
ACCLAIM; Turok 1-4
ACTIVISION; Call Of Duty Finest Hour and Big Red One, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1-4/Underground 1-2, X-Men Legends 1-2/Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1-2
CAPCOM; Devil May Cry 1-3, Dino Crisis 1-3, Maximo 1-2, Onimusha 1-3 + Dawn Of Dreams
EIDOS; Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 1-3
ELECTRONIC ARTS; Burnout 1-3 + Revenge and Dominator, James Bond; [Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, From Russia With Love], LOTR: The Two Towers and LOTR: The Return of the King, Medal Of Honor 1-6 [Medal Of Honor/Underground/Frontline (*A remastered version of Frontline was included in the PlayStation 3 version of Medal of Honor)/Rising Sun/European Assault/Vanguard], NBA Street 1-4, Need For Speed 1-2/Hot Pursuit 1-2/Underground 1-2 + High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed, NFL Street 1-3, SSX 1-4, Time Splitters 1-3
INTERPLAY; Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance I&II
KONAMI; Hideo Kojima's Adventure Games (Snatcher and Policenauts, uncensored & localized), Metal Gear Solid 1-3, Suikoden 1-5
LUCASARTS; Star Wars: Battlefront 1-2
NAMCO; Ace Combat 1-5 + The Belkan War, Dead To Rights 1-3, Point Blank 1-3, Tekken 1-5 + Tag Tournament 1, Time Crisis 1-3 + Project Titan and Crisis Zone
ODDWORLD INHABITANTS; Oddworld 1-4
ROCKSTAR GAMES; Grand Theft Auto III/Liberty City Stories/Vice City/Vice City Stories/San Andreas, Max Payne 1-2
SEGA; Shinobi (2002) and Nightshade, Yakuza 1-2
SONY; Ape Escape 1-3, ATV Offroad Fury 1-4, Discworld 1-3 (Psygnosis), Gran Turismo 1-4, Jak & Daxter 1-3, Ratchet & Clank 1-4, Ridge Racer 1-5, Wipeout 1-6 (Psygnosis) [Wipeout, Wipeout XL, Wipeout 3, Wipeout Fusion, Wipeout Pure [PSP], Wipeout Pulse (PS2 port only released in EU)]
SQUARE ENIX; Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Secret Of Mana 1-4 [The Secret Of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend Of Mana and Dawn Of Mana]
THQ; Red Faction 1-2
UBISOFT; Destruction Derby 1-5, Driver 1-5, Myst 1-6
WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE; Champions Of Norrath I&II (Snowblind Studios)

The new Splatterhouse game was released in North America on November 23, 2010 and along with it came a welcome surprise.
Although the 2010 revival of Splatterhouse wasn't exactly met with critical fanfare, it is worth noting for including the original Splatterhouse trilogy of games as unlockables. And although you can purchase Splatterhouse 2 on the Wii's Virtual Console, and you'd probably be able to track down Splatterhouse 3 second hand off of Amazon or Ebay without breaking the bank, this is the first time the arcade version of the first Splatterhouse, uncensored without the changes you would find in the Turbografx 16 port, has become available to home console owners.
So because of the fact that Splatterhouse 2010 includes all 3 original games, even if Splatterhouse 2010 may not be a terrific game, it'd be worth picking up in the bargain bin someday.

The Medal Of Honor reboot was released on October 10, 2010, and the Playstation 3 version came with an added bonus. A remastered HD port of 2002's Medal Of Honor: Frontline.
It is one of only two WWII games I own (the other being Call Of Duty 2).
And while 2002 may not be considered "retro", MOH Frontline is a terrifc game, starting off with the D-Day Beach at Normandy level ripped right from Saving Private Ryan.

Dragon's Lair Trilogy (Dragon's Lair I & II and Space Ace) was released for the Wii on October 8, 2010 at an MSRP of $29.99. IGN Review
There have been many releases of Dragon's Lair over the years, but this is the first time both Dragon's Lair games and Space Ace have been brought together on one disc.

The Wii release features the same remastered footage from the Blu Ray release, though converted to 480p widescreen. The original games were filmed in 4:3 and the Blu-Ray was matted to 1:78:1 to fit a 16x9 frame.
The only thing missing is the extra behind the scenes footage produced for the DVD/Blu-Ray.

Yes, the separate Blu-Ray releases of Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace displayed in full 1080p resolution are the definitive versions, but they come at a cost. All three titles on Blu-Ray would currently cost you $123.97 off of Amazon.com (or $132.89 at Amazon MSRP), or a full $49.95 a piece off of Digital Leisure's site, for a grand total of $148.50!
Considering that each game "can be beat in 15 minutes flat" as someone states, the current price of $21.98 off of Amazon for Dragon's Lair Trilogy for the Wii, as opposed to $120 or more for the Blu-Rays, and considering that the Wii uses the same remastered footage (albeit displayed at 480p), the Wii version comes out lookin' like a winner.
Much like the Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack however (and Data East Arcade Classics), Dragon's Lair Trilogy might be difficult to spot at your local brick & mortar store, leaving online outlets such as Amazon your only reliable source of purchase.

Jean Shepherd - Not On DVD

2011-01-07T04:46:00.016-06:00

I'm both surprised and disappointed that the release of Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story on virtually every format (DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, with the 'Ultimate Collector's Edition' which was released on Blu-Ray Nov. 4th 2008, which features the same 2006 Blu-ray disc but in a metal tin which also includes a strand of Leg Lamp Christmas lights) and it running 24 hours straight on TBS during Christmas time, hasn't spurred the availability of Jean Shepherd's other (made for TV) movies.

Peter Billingsley then and now.
Even the soundtrack from A Christmas Story was released for the first time in late 2009 by Rhino Records.

A Christmas Story was playing when the theater I went to back in those days turned into a twin on November 18, 1983. Chances are I saw it in the theater there as well!

The Christmas Story House in Cleveland, transformed into a near-replica of the movie set, opened to the public on November 25, 2006.

The only other Jean Shepherd film available on DVD is My Summer Story (aka It Runs In The Family) from 1994, starring Kieran Culkin as Ralph, and Charles Grodin and Mary Steenburgen as the parents. This film is intended as a direct sequel to A Christmas Story, even though Kieran Culkin was technically younger (11) than Peter Billingsley in a Christmas Story (12) when My Summer Story was released in theaters. It's far from a classic like A Christmas Story, but worth watching nonetheless.

I'd really like to see Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven Of Bliss (with Jerry O'Connell as Ralphie) from 1988 be released on DVD.
Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss originally aired numerous times on the Disney Channel beginning August 6, 1988, shortly thereafter on PBS nationwide, and was released by Walt Disney Home Video on VHS in 1993. As of 2011 it has not been released on DVD.

I'd also like to see Phantom of the Open Hearth circa 1976,

Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters circa 1982 (Matt Dillon as Ralphie),

and The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski circa 1983

all be made commercially available on DVD for the first time in their existence.

Currently one of the only ways you can see them is by purchasing them from Sheptapes.com for $30 from a guy who transfers them onto DVD from old VHS recordings.

These films are also available from other sellers, who also include Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven Of Bliss (out of print but still owned by Disney), although as far as who's selling the best quality transfer I do not know. As far as we know they could all be using the same transfer and throwing in a VHS transfer of Ollie Hopnoodle as added incentive.
Here's the box cover for a four-movie set from onesmedia.com for $25

and a box cover for a four-movie set from ioffer.com for $45

Trivia;
Although the cast of Jean Shepherd's six films changed often, and the main character of Ralph was played by someone different each time around, there were a few actors/actresses who reprised their roles.
Both the actress who played the Mother (Barbara Bolton) and the actor who played Flick (William Lampley) held their roles throughout all three early Jean Shepherd films Phantom of the Open Hearth, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters and the Star Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski.
The Old Man was played by James Broderick in both Phantom of the Open Hearth and The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters.
The actors who played Randy (Jay Ine) and Schwartz (Jeffrey Yonis) held their roles in both The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters and the Star Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski.
The actress who played Miss Shields, Tedde Moore, was the only onscreen character from A Christmas Story who was played by the same actor in the sequel, My Summer Story.

The Director of A Christmas Story, Bob Clark, was known for kick-starting the slasher genre in the 70's, and also directed Porky's (and it's sequel), which is credited as launching the genre of the teen sex comedy.
Tragically, Director Bob Clark and his youngest son were killed on April 4, 2007, in a head-on car crash with a drunk driver.

Scott Schwartz who played Flick in A Christmas Story, and starred in The Toy with Richard Pryor a year prior, decided to stick his tongue on other foreign objects and flirted with the adult film industry for a brief time, appearing in such titles as Scotty's X-Rated Adventure and Dirty Bob's Xcellent Adventures, among others.

The Goonies 25th Anniversary (and more)

2010-11-17T01:49:00.015-06:00

The Goonies has been released on Blu-Ray Nov 2, 2010 as the 25th Anniversary Edition!
Blogomatic's Report

Varèse Sarabande finally released the score in it's entireity, only 25 years after the fact, on March 2010 in a limited edition of 5000 copies.

You can download the score from soundtrackzone.blogspot.
Pay no mind to the fact that he has it listed as being from 1995. It is clearly the 34-track 25th anniversary edition.

The Goonies soundtrack was re-released in Japan on July 22, 2009. The soundtrack was digitally remastered and includes 2 additional tracks not found on the original release; the vocal mix of "Eight Arms To Hold You", and the dance remix of "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough".

From Wikipedia on Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough";
Before its inclusion on 'The Essential Cyndi Lauper' in 2003, the song was considered a rarity among fans, having never appeared on any of Lauper's albums or the 1994 compilation 'Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some'. Lauper admitted in an interview that she hated the song, which was why she had chosen not to include it on her first compilation.
The song has been covered by a few artists, such as Bombones, New Found Glory, The Advantage, and Haruko Momoi.
The song was featured in several iterations of Konami's Goonies video games, most notably the popular NES game Goonies II. It was also featured as an instrumental version in Pop'n Music 10 by Tomoyuki Uchida (as "Mr. T").

There were also numerous video games released based on The Goonies.
The Goonies for the NES/Famicom was never released in the USA outside of the arcade in the form of Nintendo's Play-Choice 10 cabinets. The game is similar to The Goonies II, but with a far greater focus on arcade-style action. Watch the speed run.
The Goonies II, a fictitous sequel, was released for the NES in 1987. You played as Mikey, your weapon of choice was a yo-yo, and your main goal was to save a Mermaid. Yeah, I don't get it either. I seem to recall renting this game back in the heydey of the NES and probably didn't get too far, and after watching the walkthrough, I can see why.
I am somewhat surprised that Konami didn't follow suit and release these games on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service for the Goonies 25th Anniversary.

The Making Of A Cult Classic: The Unauthorized Story Of The Goonies

The Goonies Reunion

The Goonies Vacation

Be sure to check out the funny new sitcom "Raising Hope" , featuring Martha Plimpton, who is terrific in it.

As for the possibility of a Goonies 2?
From Wikipedia;
"The possibility of a film sequel has been confirmed and denied many times in recent years by the original cast and crew. Donner said that he had a story he liked and Spielberg behind him, but in 2004 several of the actors from the original revealed that Warner Bros., the film's owner, had shown no interest in a sequel.
Sean Astin told MTV in October 2007 that Goonies 2 is an "absolute certainty.... The writing's on the wall when they're releasing the DVD in such numbers."
Donner has expressed doubt that the sequel will ever happen, as many of the actors had not shown interest in returning for a sequel.
Also in October 2007, Josh Brolin talks "Goonies" Sequel with Marcus Leshock said there was a script and shooting was to begin the following summer.
On October 15, 2008 in Variety, Richard Donner said' "We tried really hard, and Steven (Spielberg) said, 'Let's do it.' We had a lot of young writers submit work, but it just didn't seem to call for it.”
Corey Feldman stated in his November 25, 2008 blog post, "NO! There is no Goonies 2! I'm sorry but it's just not gonna happen.... Course now that I've said that they'll do it."
On the July 2010 release of "The Making of a Cult Classic: The Unauthorized Story of The Goonies" DVD, Richard Donner states a sequel to The Goonies is a "definite thing" and will involve as much of the old cast as possible. "It will happen," says Donner. "We've been trying for a number of years."
So the only thing for sure is that they've thought about it and tried, and they've gone back and forth on whether or not it will happen.

Other old school goodness being released on Blu-Ray;
The Back To The Future Trilogy was released on Blu-Ray Oct 26, 2010 as the 25th Anniversary Trilogy

The 2010 Scream Awards shot-for-shot remake of the original Back To The Future teaser trailer.

Alien Anthology was also released on Blu-Ray Oct 25, 2010

TRON was originally supposed to be released in November 2010, with no firm release date ever given, the month prior to Tron: Legacy being unleashed in theaters. Apparently the remastering process for the hi-def format has been completed, but it seems as if it's now more likely to see the release of the Tron Blu-Ray sometime around the release of Tron: Legacy on Blu Ray - probably around Summer 2011.

Now we just have to get the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Indiana Jones trilogy and TRON released on Blu Ray, and Blu Ray will be in like Flynn.

It was announced back in August 2010 that all six Star Wars movies will be coming to Blu-Ray in a Box Set in Fall 2011. That's great, but I don't want the three prequel movies stinking up my movie collection, and I sure as heck won't accept being forced to pay for them! Hopefully they'll sell them separately at some point.
As for Indiana Jones, there is no release date at this time. At one time it was said that the orignial Indiana Jones trilogy was to be released on Blu by the end of 2009. And as seen here, remasters have been done. So I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Here's to hoping they don't pack The Crystal Skull in, forcing you to purchase it to get the original trilogy.

Sci-Fi/Horror Not On DVD

2010-11-16T21:46:00.012-06:00

So I was going to post this before Halloween, but I can't even get leisurely activites done on time.

The good news?
War Of The Worlds 1988-1990
Wiki/Imdb/War Of The Worlds.org
Season one was released on November 1, 2005. The Second and final season was released on October 26, 2010, nearly five years after the release of the first season.

Tales From The Darkside 1984-1988
Wiki/Imdb
CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has released the first three seasons of Tales from the Darkside on DVD in Region 1, the fourth and final season was released on October 19, 2010.

- SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR NOT ON DVD -
The bad news is the following shows remain lost in time.

While the first season of Amazing Stories (Wiki (1985-1987) 2 seasons, 45 hour-long episodes) was released back in 2006, the second season is still missing in action! But for whatever reason, it is available in region 2 in Germany and Japan.

Darkroom 1981-1982 (16 hour long episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

Freddy's Nightmares 1988-1992 (2 seasons, 44 hour-long episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

Five episodes of the series were released ("No More Mr. Nice Guy", "Lucky Stiff", "It's My Party and You'll Die If I Want You To", "Dreams That Kill" and "Freddy's Tricks and Treats") on VHS through Warner Home Video in the mid-1990s. Those videos are now out of print.
In 1991, Braveworld Ltd. released The Nightmare Begins Again, a direct-to-video movie comprising two episodes edited together. The film was used to launch Braveworld's collection of Freddy's Nightmares episodes, usually consisting of two episodes per tape. The episodes in the feature were "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (directed by horror legend Tobe Hooper) and "Killer Instinct" (directed by Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris).
In 2003, Volume 1 (the first 3 episodes) was released on Region 2 DVD in Ireland and the UK, by Warner Home Video. Volume 2 was also planned for release later that year, however, sales were so poor, that Warner canceled the release of Volume 2.
There are currently no plans to release Freddy's Nightmares on DVD in the United States.

Monsters 1988-1991 (3 seasons, 72 half-hour episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1985-1989 (4 seasons, 76 half-hour episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

The new series lasted only one season before NBC cancelled it, but it was then produced for three more years by USA Network.

Otherworld 1985 (1 season, 8 hour-long episodes)
Wiki/Imdb
Cult TV Flashback Blog

Outer Limits 1995-2002 (7 seasons, 154 hour-long episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

On November 1, 2005, MGM Home Entertainment released Season One of the
New Outer Limits on DVD in North America. Due to poor sales, no
further seasons were released.
Several "grab bag" DVD anthologies have been released: Sex & Science Fiction, Aliens Among Us, Death and Beyond, Fantastic Androids and Robots, Mutation and Transformation, Time Travel and Infinity - all but one of which contains an episode from season one, and in the case of the Sex & Science Fiction anthology there are two episodes from season one.
Alliance Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons of The Outer Limits on DVD in Region 1 (Canada only).

Werewolf 1987-1988 (1 season, 28 half-hour episodes)
Wiki/Imdb

Werewolf: The Complete Series was to be released on DVD by Shout! Factory by October 6, 2009, but was later pushed two weeks to October 20, 2009 to include special features. The release was eventually canceled as Shout! was unable to attain the rights to several songs, when agreement could not be reached with the artists.
Reportedly because of only two artists who didn't want to "play ball". Two!
The main song most likely being Mike & The Mechanics "Silent Running".
I am so disgusted with the music industry over this. Furthermore, I just don't understand it. I think that if they signed the rights to have their music in a show when it aired, it should carry over. Rarely if ever is this a problem for movies on DVD.
It just baffles the mind. Music rights standing in the way of DVD releases SHOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE, PERIOD!
F$#@in' greedy ass music companies!

Blue In A Red State

2010-11-06T01:40:00.013-05:00

The polls are closed and the tally is in. Wisconsin State Journal/Wikipedia
After taking one step forward (by electing Obama as President) we've now managed to take two steps back.
Halloween came two days late this year, as the most frightening thing happened on Nov 2. I got a dose of the same dreadful feeling I got when watching the Bush Vs. Gore voting results come in.
I am fearful for Wisconsin's future. I am upset and frustrated. I am disappointed in Wisconsin voters. There are times I wish that Madison and Milwaukee could be somehow shielded & protected from the contrast of Republican/conservative votes of greater Wisconsin. Although to be fair, I have the feeling that a larger than usual number of conservative votes came from within the bubble this time around.
I do not like or trust Scott Walker. I'm tempted to egg the Capitol the day he takes office.

I agree with someone from the State Journal who said the close race is indicative of voters who voted Republican not really voting for the candidate, but voting for whom represented the most change, and republicans have piggybacked off of Obama's campaign for change (albeit change from Obama and Democratic rule) across the board during the 2010 midterm elections.

Almost everything I voted for got shot down.
Voting Scott Walker into office is bad for women's rights, stem cell research, state funded health care programs for those who need it, individual freedoms, and the Madison-Milwaukee high-speed rail project.

Although, thankfully, the funds for the Madison-Milwaukee passenger rail seem to have been committed just a few days prior to the election, so Walker's plan to derail the rail may have been made that much more difficult, and will hopefully be out of his destructive hands altogether.
Talk and plans for the Madison-Milwaukee high-speed rail have been ongoing for a good decade or more, and here we finally get the federal funding to make it a reality, and the guy who vows to stop it if he's elected into office is the guy who takes the seat?
I still can't believe Walker still vows to stop the Madison-Milwaukee rail because we'd have to cover what equals 1% of the federal grant money per year to keep the wheels greased. He's concerned about wasteful government spending when he should be concerned about progressing (not just maintaining) the State he's elected governor in. If he rejects the grant money it isn't going to go back to Washington anyhow, it'll just go to another State. The State of New York has already expressed interest in the money if we don't want it. It's every State for themselves! Rejecting the rail would be the most moronic move ever, and doing so may leave our state (and possibly taxpayers) with a tab for the remaining cost.

Now the current governor, Jim Doyle, has temporarily halted the project in anticipation of a new governor with a different set of views taking office, and to study the real life consequences of stopping the project dead in its tracks.

I voted for passenger rail from Sun Prairie to Middleton in exchange for a half cent tax increase. This was on the ballot for 45 suburban and rural communities in Dane County, and almost every last one of them failed.
Voters failed to realize the value in passenger rail and a chance to really connect Dane County in a unique way. Extending the rail out to business heavy Middleton, also home to Madison/Middleton's dubbed "Silicon Prairie", is a no brainer.
I realize that citizens are concerned about anything and everything that would increase their taxes in this post-recession recession, but other forms of connectivity/travel are desperately needed in Dane County. I feel it would be advantageous to plant the seed in varying communities now rather than later, and as we've seen, later means never. Unless you live on the Isthmus itself, Dane County is live & die by car. Madison is very much isolated from it's surrounding communities and vice versa which are generally only connected to the city by one, maybe two stretches of highway.

So suburban families will vote for a tax increase if it's for a new public pool or a new school for their kids etc., but not when it comes to something as important as transportation? It is selfish. It forces everyone to own their own vehicle and pay for upkeep, and not everyone who lives in these communities can afford it and it'd be beneficial to have an alternative.

I voted against the 133 million dollar referendum to pay for upgrades at Madison College, which increases taxes, but somehow that referendum passed.
So Dane County residents will vote against rail which includes a tax increase, but will accept a tax increase on the behalf of the growth of a bloated community college?
Why did I vote against it? Madison College (formerly known as Madison Area Technical College) is already a large enough institution for higher learning. Now that the economy is less than it could be, everyone seems to be flooding in towards Madison College in hopes of landing a job with their new set of knowledge, and pay the institution a good sum of money in return. Higher education is big business.
I feel like Madison is a city which offers too much higher education and too little in the way of job prospects, and having a city full of over-educated advanced-degree holding individuals competing for entry-level/mid-level jobs against those without degrees is dysfunctional to say the least.
As a matter of fact, dare I say that I'd like to see colleges (in the area and across the nation) decrease in size and function, and force the hand of local companies & businesses to provide more (paid) on the job training. And where are they all going to land jobs afterwards? Not all here that's for sure!

I voted to allow medicinal marijuana in the state of Wisconsin, and amazingly, this seems to have passed. Yes, I believe it's entirely possible that it's a guise in taking a step towards the legalization of marijuana altogether as one State Journal writer warns, and I have no problem with that. I may not use marijuana myself, recreationally or for medicinal purposes, but I think that legalization should at least be tried at this point, even if it's with baby steps.
But apparently, even voters in California were too afraid to take that step and failed to set the precedent and have the opportunity to lead the nation by example.
I think it's far time our government graduates it's citizens to adulthood, giving individuals more personal freedoms as opposed to less. It's time the fact that it is no more and no less harmful and addictive as alcohol is widely accepted as fact.

I've never strictly aligned myself along party lines, even though I've voted Democrat since I cast my first ballot as an adult in the Clinton election back in 1993. I've tried to keep an open mind and feel that if I like a particular candidate and their views, I would vote for them regardless of their party. Say perhaps if a likable Republican were socially liberal but fiscally conservative, or a Green party or Independent party candidate who I thought had a shot at winning and not simply taking votes away from the Democratic party candidate (i.e. Ralph Nader costing Gore the vote over Bush in the 2000 election).
But fearful of Republican control, this is the first time I've felt thoroughly secure in my decision to connect that line to Democrat voting Democrat straight down the line, and two months away from 2011 I'm that much farther away from the possibility of even ever considering voting for a Republican. The Republican party has become that much more scary over the two years since Obama has been in office, and the radical & conservative Tea Party certainly hasn't helped my view of the Republican party.

I'm sick & tired of citizens expressing their disappointment over Obama. If anything, Obama's shortcomings proves that you just can't fix 8 years of FUBAR in 2 short years.

Music Videos on DVD

2010-09-24T03:23:00.011-05:00

First music videos aired on MTV

My family didn't get cable until 1992, so watching (and taping) Classic Mtv hosted by John Norris which ran on Mtv throughout the early-mid nineties (which, at least at one point, aired twice a day at Noon and 6pm) was my way of playing catch-up on the last 11 years of Music Television.
Prior to being emblazoned with the "Classic Mtv" moniker, I believe it was named Flashback Mtv. One episode which I have on tape under the Flashback Mtv banner is hosted by Karyn Bryant, though I'm not sure if she was the regular host or just a fill-in for John Norris.
It's not like I'd never seen music videos before, but previously that had been relegated to visiting friends places. As a matter of fact I can still remember as a kid going over to visit a friends house a block away to watch Michael Jackson's Thriller video for the first time.

I cataloged my VHS tapes containing the program 'Classic Mtv' (aired in 1992-93) and it came out to 22 hours and 378 music videos.
Unfortunately all recorded in SLP so the quality is crap.
I was actually surprised at how few times most of the videos were repeated. At the top was a tie - 4 times each for Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and Peter Gabriel's "Shock The Monkey".
Most videos by one artist? Madonna at 12 separate videos.
Most curious exclusion? Not one video by Michael Jackson. Also, no Weird Al.

So, are there any DVD compilations of eighties music videos out there?
Surprisingly, Mtv is an absentee landlord when it comes to publishing their history on media available to the commercial marketplace. It's also become increasingly difficult to find any of the main Mtv networks airing older music videos. Perhaps they've now relegated all of that content to the VH1 Classic network.

I did a little digging so I'll answer my own question;
Apparently there are a couple DVD compilations out there containing music videos from the 1980's, like the DVD Pure 80's containing 14 videos

the Essential Music Videos DVD series which contain 6 videos each

and the 20th Century Master DVD series which contain 5 videos each.

Most economical would be the 4-DVD MTV 20 Collection (1981-2001) which contains a total of 52 videos for $24.99 on Amazon

or the 3-DVD Pure 80's Ultimate which contains a total of 45 music videos for $35.49 on Amazon.

Still, your best bet would be to track down a particular artist's merchandise for DVDs of their video catalog.

These are two which I own that contain all the music videos from each respective musical group.

Music videos from the late seventies/eighties from lesser known musical outfits? YouTube.

The Buggles

2010-09-20T02:02:00.012-05:00

Now that the 2010 Mtv Video Music Awards have come to a close...
Before the Ga Ga's and Bieber's of the world, back when Mtv used to actually air music videos and not much else, there was The Buggles.

Smile! It's The Buggles! Trevor Horn on the left, Geoffrey Downes on the right.

As many of you know, The Buggles poignant "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the very first video to air on the fledging cable network Mtv shortly after it's launch on August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. That song was The Buggles only charting hit in the US, which unfortunately led many to believe that they were a one-hit wonder when infact 6 more of their songs charted as well (although outside the US).
I know I was guilty of the one-hit wonder impression until I finally listened to the album for the first time within the past 5 years or so, and found it to be one of those rare albums that I could listen to from start to finish. Not a bad song in the bunch (although sometimes I'd skip the obligatory "Video Killed The Radio Star").

Trevor Horn then and now.

Trevor Horn is a legendary producer. Almost everything he's touched has turned to gold. Trevor rocketed many of the bands/albums he worked with/on to the height of their commercial success.
I mean just take a look at the Produced By Trevor Horn 2-disc album.
To name just a few...
In 1982 he produced ABC's The Lexicon Of Love album which contained hits "Poison Arrow" and "The Look Of Love", in 1983 he produced the Yes album 90125 (in which he contributed to their biggest hit, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and the dance hit "Leave It"), in 1984, he was a founding member of Art Of Noise and co-wrote several hits including "Close (To the Edit)", "Beat Box" and "Moments in Love", also in 1984 he produced Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome to the Pleasuredome album which included the hits "Relax" and "Two Tribes", in 1985 he produced Godley & Creme's album The History Mix Volume 1 which included the hit single "Cry", and in 1991 he produced Seal's debut album which included the hit "Crazy".

Geoff Downes is a keyboard player, songwriter, and producer, best known as the keyboardist for the bands Asia, The Buggles, and also his stint with Yes in 1980. He also produced the supergroup GTR's only album in 1986. When he was a keyboardist for The Buggles, he played multiple keyboards to achieve a New Wave technopop sound. He was once entered for the Guinness Book Of Records for performing with the most keyboards (28) on stage in one performance.

The Buggles released only two albums, The Age Of Plastic in 1980 and Adventures In Modern Recording the following year.

The Age Of Plastic was re-released in Japan in 2010 with an additional 6 tracks (on top of the 3 bonus tracks from the 2000 re-release).

The Buggles produced a total of 6 music videos. I'm leaving out "Video Killed The Radio Star" (although it can be found on the following blog post).

Living In The Plastic Age

Elstree

Clean Clean (I'm not sure if this is 'the official' music video)

To be a Buggles completist, one must also listen to the 1980 Yes album, Drama.
From Wikipedia; "Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles (who had recently had a number one hit in the UK with "Video Killed the Radio Star") were working in an adjacent studio, and being Yes fans, introduced themselves. The pair were invited to sit in during rehearsals, and were soon asked to join the band.

Drama featured a much harder-edged Yes with a distinct new wave flavor (in no small part due to Horn & Downes).

Although the songs are all group credited, "Into the Lens" and "White Car" are basically Buggles compositions (an alternate version of "Into the Lens" appeared on the second Buggles album Adventures in Modern Recording as "I am a Camera").
"Machine Messiah" was based on another Buggles composition, but with considerable input from the other three."

Adventures In Modern Recording was reissued by Salvo Records/ZTT on February 15, 2010 containing 10 bonus tracks.
The Buggles second album may not be quite as listenable from beginning to end as the first, but there are still some gems including the title track, Vermillion Sands, I Am A Camera, Inner City and Lenny.

Adventures In Modern Recording

I Am A Camera

In August of 2010, Trevor Horn announced on his website an impending Buggles reunion. The reunion took place September 28, 2010 at the Supperclub in London, North Kensington with all proceeds going to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. The Buggles were set perform The Age of Plastic in full for the first time.

Clint Eastwood Movies

2010-06-27T02:00:00.015-05:00

Last year, while waiting for a copy of Gran Torino on DVD to come in at the Library, I decided to have my own little Clint Eastwood film festival, which ended up spanning two months or so. Many were films I had seen before but wanted to refresh my memory, some were films I'd never seen or just hadn't seen from start to finish in all their unedited glory...

Over 2 months time I'd watched;
I kicked it off with two Clint Eastwood starred & directed westerns which both have supernatural overtones, High Plains Drifter {1973} (I love how he gets his drink on, his aggro on, and his lay on all within the first 10 minutes of rolling into town) and Pale Rider {1985}.

The Fistful Of Dollars Trilogy aka the "Man With No Name" Trilogy);
A Fistful Of Dollars {1964}, For A Few Dollars More {1965}, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly {1966}

Of the three, I'd have to say my personal favorite is 'For A Few Dollars More'. I really enjoy Clint's partnership with Lee Van Cleef (who plays the altogether different character 'The Bad' in The Good, Bad and The Ugly).
Now there's a lot of people who think that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the pinnacle of Clint's westerns, or even the best western ever made. But at nearly 3 hours long, I think it's a bit bloated, and I could do without the interjection of the Civil War.

Other westerns;
Hang 'Em High {1968}, Two Mules For Sister Sara {1970}, Joe Kidd {1972}, High Plains Drifter {1973}, Outlaw Josey Wales {1976}, Pale Rider {1985}, and Unforgiven {1992}.

And how about that Josey Wales. I laughed at Josey always spittin' chew spit on everything. But what did the dog ever do to you? Jerk!

I'd have to say that out of all Clint's westerns, my favorites are High Plains Drifter and For A Few Dollars More.

Next up I completed a 5-movie 5-night Dirty Harry marathon.
The Dirty Harry 5;
Dirty Harry {1971}, Magnum Force {1973}, The Enforcer {1976}, Sudden Impact {1983}, and The Dead Pool {1988}.

The character makes the films, but there are certainly better movies out there with Dirty Harry-esque characters.
I think my personal fave may have been Magnum Force, the 2nd in the series where he goes against the band of vigilante traffic cops.
Harry Callahan does seem a bit too much of a bitter old man in the last two Dirty Harry movies (filmed in the eighties), rather than the groovy fluffy-haired rebel he was in the first three.
That and I think the last three movies get bogged down by the 'chick factor'. Harry has to deal with his first female partner in The Enforcer, Sudden Impact centers around the scorned female killer, and lastly the pushy reporter in The Dead Pool.
Jim Carey's 'music video' scene where he mouths the words to Guns N Roses "Welcome To The Jungle from The Dead Pool is hilarious.

But yeah, it'd be great to tell your bosses to stick it up their ass, keep your job, and go run around the city playing judge, jury, and executioner blasting all the 'punks and hoods' you want and walk away from it scot-free and with a clean conscience to boot - who doesn't want that from time to time?

Other movies where Clint plays a Cop;
Coogan's Bluff {1968}, The Gauntlet {1977}, and Tightrope {1984}.

I enjoyed The Gauntlet (movie poster by the father of "Fantasy Art", Frank Frazetta), and thought that out of all the Clint Eastwood films with Sondra Locke, her role in The Gauntlet was her most pronounced performance.

World War II films;
Where Eagles Dare {1968} and Kelly's Heroes {1970}.

I really enjoyed Brian G. Hutton's two WWII films with Clint Eastwood, and they'd be strong WWII films with or without Eastwood. I have to admit I was taken aback at how well the WWII films played. The action, intensity and pyrotechnics were on par with many of the WWII films of the past 15 years. Make no mistake about it, these are big scale war films regardless of if they were made today or forty years ago.

And other films;
The Beguiled {1971}, Play Misty For Me {1971}, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot {1974}, The Eiger Sanction {1975}, and Firefox {1982}.

Clint Eastwood and Universal paid $25,000 to use the titular song, "Misty" by Erroll Garner in the film. "Misty" is a legendary jazz standard that will forever be etched into my mind, as it was in my Father's piano playing repertoire ever since I was born until the day he died. So I'd probably heard that song on and off for a good 25 years.

The movie Firefox spawned Atari's only Laserdisc based arcade game a year later. Watch Eastwood himself try out the arcade game in this video clip from Entertainment Tonight.
After all is said and done though, Firefox (the movie) is damn long and boring. It only picks up when he finally steals the dang thing and that's like 3/4's through the movie.

Finally was Every Which Way But Loose {1978} and Any Which Way You Can {1980} and I was all Clint'd out.

Movies and Television Shows featuring Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Orangutans in the mix was a recurring theme back in the seventies and early eighties. As a matter of fact, with the exception of The Ghost Busters which had a man in an ape suit, you could find a show featuring a real live primate on the television dial (including reruns) on one of the big three networks from 1975 all the way through 1981.
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp which ran from 9/12/70 to 9/2/72 on ABC, The Ghost Busters (no relation to the movie Ghostbusters with Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis) which ran from 9/6/75 to 9/4/76 on CBS, Ark II which ran from 9/11/76 to 12/18/76 (reruns played until 8/25/79) on CBS, B.J. and The Bear which aired from 2/10/79 to 8/11/81 on NBC, and finally a show entitled Mr. Smith which aired from September 23, 1983 to December 16, 1983 on NBC. Mr. Smith was based around the premise of an Orangutan who drinks an experimental mixture to increase human intelligence and after drinking the mixture is able to talk and is later determined to have an I.Q of 256.

+1 for Escape From Alcatraz {1979} (I own the DVD), In The Line Of Fire {1993}, and the Eastwood directed Costner starred A Perfect World {1993}.

As for Gran Torino {2009}

I enjoyed it, but I kinda felt like his self-sacrifice at the end was, in a way, symbolic in Eastwood making amends for his 'take no prisoners' violent filmography of the past, and that's just not something I can get behind. If it's time for the Man With No Name/Dirty Harry to take a fall, the only way he should go out is guns a'blazin. No concessions necessary.

P.S. I've never understood the appeal of John Wayne. There's a real generational gap there.

Konami Arcade

2010-06-27T01:56:00.015-05:00

This is an extension of the originating Game Room post.

Konami has been nickel & diming fans of their back cataloge for years, and now they are continuing that tradition by releasing their arcade games on Xbox Live Arcade's Game Room, rather than doing what they should've done long ago - release an all encompassing on-disc arcade compilation.
Activision, Atari, Capcom, Data East, Intellivision, Midway, Namco, Sega, Taito, hell even Tecmo have released arcade or console compilations. But Konami continues to hawk their arcade games on XBLA, and their old console games on Wii Virtual Console, all for prices well above the precedent that every other classic gaming company has set with their arcade and classic console compilations. Sure, one could say that Konami deserves credit for being the only developer to bring something exclusive to the table at the launch of Game Room with Battlantis, Finalizer and Jungler. But I say hold back the praise. Bottom line is Konami has no excuse for being the only company not to release an arcade classics compilation on the 6th and 7th generation (non-handheld) of consoles. And after having dropped $20 on 4 Konami XBLA games, I feel like they owe me that much.

Of Konami's 20 (at time of post) Game Room releases, the games which have never appeared on a compilation of any kind before are;
Battlantis, Finalizer, Jailbreak, Jungler, Juno First, Konami's Ping Pong, Mega Zone, Mr. Goemon, Rack 'Em Up, Scooter Shooter, Strategy X, and Video Hustler.

A total of 42 (at time of post) of Konami's arcade classics have been released on the PSOne, Plug'N Play, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Game Room, and the Wii's Virtual Console. Those games are as follows;
1) Battlantis
2) Circus Charlie
3-4) Contra, Super Contra
5-6) Double Dribble, Super Basketball
7-10) Gradius, Gradius II, Gradius III, Gradius IV (available on Gradius Collection for the PSP)
11) Gyruss
12) Finalizer
13) Frogger
14) Jailbreak
15) Jungler
16) Juno First
17-20) Life Force, Salamander, Salamander 2, Xexex (*on Salamander Portable on the PSP, only available in Japan)
21) Mega Zone
22) Mr. Goemon
23) Pooyan
24) Rack 'Em Up
25) Road Fighter
26) Roc'n Rope
27) Rush'n Attack
28) Scramble
29) Scooter Shooter
30) Shao Lin's Road
31) Strategy X
32) Super Cobra
33-34) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
35) Time Pilot
36) Track and Field
37) Tutankham
38-40) TwinBee, Detana!! TwinBee, TwinBee Yahho! (*on TwinBee Portable on the PSP, only available in Japan)
41) Video Hustler
42) Yie Ar Kung-Fu

In reality, every last one of these games should be available on a singular compilation. Keep in mind Namco Museum Virtual Arcade had 40 games and was released at an MSRP of $29.99.

Konami to release expensive compilation
"Konami Classics Volume 1 will feature Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, Frogger and Super Contra, while Volume 2 will feature Contra, Rush'n Attack and Track & Field.
Each collection will cost $19.99 in the US - which means the first volume costs the same as it would to buy them all on the Xbox Live Marketplace, but it also means the second volume costs $5 more than the marketplace."
A compilation of 3 XBLA games is NOT an "arcade classics compilation". And while Castlevania SOTN is a terrific game, it isn't an arcade title.

Once again, in comparison, take a look at Namco Museum Virtual Arcade as an example of how to release an arcade compilation with a few XBLA games thrown in done right, and priced right at $29.99. Namco Museum Virtual Arcade has a total of 40 games included, 31 of which are Arcade Classics on disc, 9 of which are games accessible through XBLA.

Even at a measley 10 games, Konami Arcade Classics was the closest Konami came to full-fledged classic arcade compilation on a non-handheld home console. It's now a rare find and those on Ebay and Amazon are (or were) asking quite a bit for it. The reason I say were is because now 7 (8 if you include Pooyan which is slated to be released) out of the 10 games on the compilation are now available on Game Room. The three games from the Konami Arcade Classics which are not yet on Game Room are Circus Charlie, Pooyan, and Roc'n Rope.

It's unfortunate that Gradius Collection for the PSP was not also released on the PS2.

Gradius Compilations
It's unfortunate that Salamander Portable was only released in Japan. Not really sure why it wasn't released internationally, since the first Salamander, renamed Life Force in North America, was a terrific and popular NES game and is the only space shooter I owned for the Nintendo. Would've been nice to see Salamander 2 in North America!
Life Force IS however available on the Wii's Virtual Console in North America.

"Despite TwinBee being one of Konami's most prominent series in Japan during most of the 1990s, only a select few titles were localized for the foreign market. Particularly the second console game Moero! TwinBee (which was released as Stinger on the NES in North America). The second arcade game, Detana!! TwinBee, also had a limited international release under the name of Bells & Whistles.
The first in the series, TwinBee, was officially released for the first time outside Japan as part of the Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS in March 2007, under the name RainbowBell in North America. TwinBee is slated for release on the Nintendo 3DS, and was featured amongst other games from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES to be released for the 3DS on a tech demo called Classic Games at E3 2010."

Konami Arcade Advanced for the Gameboy Advance contains 6 games; Frogger, Gyruss, Rush'n Attack, Scramble, Time Pilot, and Yie Ar Kung-Fu.
Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS contains 15 games; Basketball (aka Super Basketball), Contra, Circus Charlie, Gradius, Horror Maze (aka Tutankham), Pooyan, Rainbowbell (aka TwinBee), Road Fighter, Roc 'n' Rope, Rush'n Attack, Scramble, Shao-Lin's Road, Time Pilot, Track and Field, and Yie Ar Kung-Fu.
Although it's missing Frogger and Gyruss from the GBA and Plug'n Play, the DS Konami Arcade Classics Series: Arcade Hits is the best across-the-board arcade classics compilation on the handheld market.

Konami Arcade Advanced Plug'n Play contains 6 games; Frogger, Gyruss, Rush'n Attack, Scramble, Time Pilot, and Yie Ar Kung-Fu.

Aside from Konami's arcade games, to date Konami has released 16 of their console classics on the Wii's Virtual Console, PS2, and Xbox Live Arcade (Castlevania SOTN].
1) Axelay
2) Castlevania
3) Casltevania II: Simon's Quest
4) Castlevania III
5) (Super) Castlevania IV
6) Castlevania Rondo
7) Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
8) Contra III: The Alien Wars
9) Super C
10) Cybernator
11) Gradius 2 (MSX game on Salamander Portable for the PSP in Japan)
12) Gradius Gaiden (PSOne game on Gradius Collection for the PSP)
13) Metal Gear
14) Metal Gear 2
15) The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
16) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES game)
I think it's high time that Konami releases a Contra Anthology including all their iterations of Contra (arcade and console), and since 2010's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is going to be more or less a reboot of the franchise, it's time Konami release an all encompassing Castlevania Anthology.

Xbox 360 Arcade Sticks

2010-06-27T01:50:00.024-05:00

This is an extension of the originating Game Room post.

It is said that Microsoft has no plans to release an official arcade stick for Game Room. Although I think this is a big mistake by Microsoft, there are a number of third-party arcade controllers (designed for fighting games) by Hori and Mad Catz, albeit controllers that can be a bit on the pricey side.

As an alternative, one can use one of the numerous arcade sticks on the market, including the MadCatz Street Fighter IV arcade sticks, the Hori arcade sticks and Tekken 6 wireless arcade stick. All arcade sticks have 8 buttons on the face except for the Hori Real Arcade Pro EX2 and (the unofficial) Dream Arcade stick, and all arcade sticks are wired except for the Hori Tekken 6 stick and (the unofficial) Dream Arcade stick which are wireless.

For someone who hasn't had an "arcade stick" since the NES Advantage way back in 1988

this new day of arcade sticks and official japanese parts can be a bit confusing. Here's an attempt at a breakdown of Arcade Sticks for the Xbox 360.

Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Arcade FightStick

ThomGuestAcc from Please release an Arcade Controller says;
The mad catz SE stick (the white one) is smaller and more plasti-ey (excuse the phrase), and does not have sanwa or seimitsu parts, but was designed so that all the dimensions of the stick and buttons exactly match those of sanwa and seimitsus flagship sticks and buttons, so, you can easily swap the mad catz stick with a sanwa JLF stick and it works fine. Similarly, seimitsu's flagship stick (the LS-32-01) also is the same, a trivial swap. Swapping the mad catz buttons on the SE is a simple matter as well (to sanwa OBSF-30 or seimitsu PS-14-G). If anything, the main advantage of the mad catz sticks is the fact they are intentionally made to the exact specification that is used by the most popular sanwa and seimitsu lines of sticks and buttons, so changing or replacing parts if required is as easy as it can be since there is no soldering, no electronics modifications etc, it is simply a direct swap of a stick for a stick or a button for a button etc.

In summary the mad catz SE has mad catz parts which are inferior to the TE parts (which are sanwa) but can be replaced with sanwa or seimitsu parts with only a little effort required, while importantly, such a change does not involve anything other than direct swaps of parts that are not functional (ie no electronic modifications, no pcb modifications, simply swapping eg a bit of plastic with a bit of plastic etc...).

Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition Round 1, Tournament Edition Round 2, Sagar Scar design, Femme Fatale Limited Edition, and Marvel VS Capcom all have the same layout and design (they're the same Tournament Edition FightStick's, just with different artwork).

ThomGuestAcc from Please release an Arcade Controller says;
The TE stick is all sanwa parts, every TE stick has identical part numbers on the stick and buttons, just the colours of the ball top and buttons are different. If you look about, you usually can get TE's for the same price or less than it would cost to buy an SE+the sanwa parts included in the TE.

The mad catz TE sticks (round 1, round 2, femme fatale, MvsC2, penny arcade expo [sagat scar design] are all identical except artwork and colour choices, they all use the sanwa JLF stick and sanwa OBSF-30 buttons and OBSF-24 buttons for start and select.

Mad Catz Super Street Fighter IV Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition S (comes in White and Black)

ThomGuestAcc from Please release an Arcade Controller says;
The new design TE stick (for super SSF4) has identical parts (again, JLF, OBSF-30 and OBSF-24), but it has a slightly different construction in terms of the case.
The only functional difference between the TE and TE-S (The super one thats not out yet), is there is a switch on the TE-S that disables guide/start and select and auto fire, whereas on the intial design TE's, this switch only disables the auto fire panel. This 'change' was in response to requests from the SF4 community because accidentally pausing etc during tournaments results in a round disqualification.
Summary though is that all TE sticks have identical sanwa parts (stick and buttons identical, even in the new unreleased version). It is also worth noting that these sticks all use quick disconnects meaning if down the line something stopped working it is easy to get repaired, and the parts needed are a direct like for like swap (so the stick is identical post repair parts wise) and are available from almost all suppliers of arcade parts. Basically if your button dies etc you can replace it with an identical one and it will be identical afterwards (eg this is not some unofficial modification of an xbox device, it could be as simple as removing an OBSF-30 button and inserting an OBSF-30 button, no electronics or wiring or circuit boards etc ever enter the equation here, and if it is in warranty, mad catz do it for you anyway).

Hori Real Arcade Pro EX

The Hori Real Arcade Pro EX uses a Seimitsu joystick with Hori buttons.

Hori Real Arcade Pro EX-SE

The Hori Real Arcade Pro EX-SE uses Seimitsu joystick and buttons.

Hori Real Arcade Pro EX 2 (6 buttons)

The Real Arcade Pro Dead Or Alive 4 and Real Arcade Pro Soul Calibur IV Arcade Sticks are simply EX2's with specialized artwork ($10 premium). All EX 2's use Hori parts.

Hori Tekken 6 Wireless Arcade Stick (only available in bundle with Tekken 6)

The Tekken 6 Arcade Stick uses Hori parts.
ThomGuestAcc from Please release an Arcade Controller says;
The problem with most Hori sticks and some European sticks/parts is that they use parts which are not interchangeable eg many European buttons are slightly smaller than 30mm which means if you want to swap your buttons with the japanese arcade standard [sanwa or seimitsu] then you are going to have to do some work to modify your case to allow them to fit, while in some instances the buttons are soldered directly onto the controller pcb which means changing anything is extremely difficult and requires some technical expertise to do (I am not saying anything about the quality of the parts here you should note, just that the dimensions are different and in some cases the buttons are soldered directly onto circuit boards). Further, doing any sort of electronics modification, or even anything that is not a simple direct like-for-like swap of a bit of plastic (eg an identical button etc) potentially could get you banned from live, so not really advisable at all, and anyone who does anything like this is asking for trouble.

As of July 9, 2010 Hori's gargantuan $300 Hori Real Arcade Pro Premium VLX has become available in the USA. Unlike previous versions of the Real Arcade Pro which used Seimitsu parts, the Premium VLX uses all Sanwa parts.

Dream Arcades stick like the Tekken 6 by Hori is also wireless, but unlike the Tekken 6 stick Dream Arcades stick is not an officially licensed stick from Microsoft, so using it means risking getting banned from Xbox Live.
Video Review

- The Issue Of Paddle and Trackball Games -
I'd love to see a controller attempt to emulate Trackball and Paddle (aka Dial, Spinner) controls, although no matter if you're speaking of the Mad Catz Arcade Game Stick, the X-Arcade Tank Stick's trackball, or fitting your Mad Catz TE or Hori RAP with a Seimitsu LS-29 paddle/rotary knob from Gremlin Solutions...
Ruined says; "A trackball emulating an analog stick is just going to be a disappointment in the end. For a usable trackball MS needs to make mouse drivers for the 360, which do not exist at this point."
ThomGuestAcc says; "Until the 360 supports a mouse etc I really do not think we can do much better than what we have at present, certainly things like spinners/trackballs and other input devices are pretty much out."

The Mad Catz Arcade Game Stick may be the only controller to attempt to emulate a spinner, although from what's said on the Video Review it seems like the spinner portion was a disaster and did not work as intended.
*This controller is no longer manufactured or for sale.

The X-Arcade Tank Stick comes with a built-in trackball. All X-Arcade sticks require the use of a Xbox 360 Adapter.
More importantly though, X-Arcade is not an officially licensed stick from Microsoft, so using it means risking getting banned from Xbox Live.

ThomGuestAcc from Please release an Arcade Controller summarizes; What works best with retro games is extremely complicated, and in large will depend on whether you need a 4 way (left, right, up, down) stick or an 8 way (diagonals as well). What is best between sanwa or seimitsu is again complicated, game dependent (to some people), and also involves personal preference. You may want to read up at Slagcoin to gain some better understanding of what affects the choice of stick etc as no one can really tell you what you will prefer! Until the 360 (eg PS2, dreamcast etc), most people using sticks seriously were making custom sticks, now, it is probably fair to say that the Mad Catz TE stick is the standard stick. Even with all the tools and stuff required to make your own custom stick, the cost of the arcade parts alone, time and effort required to make a custom stick exceed that of the cost of a mad catz TE stick if you look about on the web and look for good deals, so pretty much everyone who needs a stick that I know (so this is in my experience, and only really is street fighter players), is using the mad catz sticks.

Ruined says; "The Hori Pad EX2 Turbo is AMAZING for Game Room. Great dpad and button placement."

"The Hori EX2 gamepad is a great controller for most of these games, as it has a superb dpad. Can also be used for SF4 with its 6 face buttons, or for analog games (i.e. crystal castles) with its analog controller."

"I have 4 arcade sticks (3 madcatz TE, 1 HRAP) all modded (with different types of gates, sticks, and one of the TEs I modded to be all Seimitsu build). I still end up using my HORI PAD EX2 for game room most often. First of all with some of the earlier games the TE sticks suck unless you mod them to +/cross gate (I did this with the HRAP) as you need the solid four directions without diagonals. Second there are some games that are completely useless like the games that used spinners and benefit most from analog stick roll (i.e. circus atari, kaboom, etc). The hori pad ex2 seems best if you dont want to be swapping controllers all the time.

Article On Joystick Brands
G4 Arcade Stick Round Up
SD Tekken

E3 2010

2010-06-20T04:58:00.010-05:00

Official Site
Wikipedia Entry

Overall, surprisingly, nothing much I was all that interested in, and a series of disappointments.

One of the games I was looking forward to being there was Aliens: Colonial Marines by Gearbox (first announced way back in 2006). Gamespot listed it on their E3 show floor map (as they did the year before) and it was eventually taken down.

On the classic gaming front it would've also been nice for Microsoft to give some sort of update on Game Room, but no show of support there.
I was also looking to hear more info about SNK Arcade Classics 0 from G1M2/SNK Playmore listed as being for the PS2, as info on that title has been extremely scarce ever since it was found listed on the ESRB website last year, but neither companies had a show booth.

I could hardly be less excited for all the games showcased for release at and around the launch of Xbox 360's Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal). All family-friendly, one-note games with simple and colorful graphics.
I just love how everything demo'd is a near-perfect representation of the players own movements. I'm almost willing to bet money that the actual experience won't be nearly as responsive/accurate or immediate. It'll still be wonky, I'm almost sure of it.

This current day focus on online/multiplayer and motion activated/controller-less controls with Xbox 360's Kinect, not to mention music based games (Rock Band 3), and just this overall emphasis on casual gaming has really sidetracked core gaming and slowed it's momentum.
In regards to controller free gaming, I just don't see it replacing the controller. I like a controller's tangible aspect. Do we really want to do ten times the work and have a fraction of the actions available? How long do you think you could hold out your hands gripping an invisible steering wheel? Great if you're into 5 minute increments of play, not so great otherwise. Perhaps a day will come where everyone using a controller to game will be considered "old school", but we ain't close to there yet.

More of the same. Halo Reach, Gears Of War 3, Fable III (by the overrated as a game creator Peter Molyneux), and the Call Of Duty franchise exclusive to the Xbox 360 through 2012, starting with Call Of Duty: Black Ops, so they can release Call Of Duty sequels until we're all blue in the face.

The new Xbox 360 with a 250gb hard drive for $299?
Great, but what'd be even better is if they comped every existing 360 owner with a 250gb hard drive for their years of patronage and for suffering through the Red Ring Of Death!
Having vents on top of the console might cause trouble for some, particularly those who like to stack things on top of their 360, or those who had purchased the HD-DVD player and still use it to play DVDs (like I do) and place it on top.

There isn't much for the Wii I'm interested in other than the usual first-party games, Metroid: Other M and The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword which is slated for 2011.
I enjoyed the Metroid Prime series, but I'm thankful they're trying something new with the series. Metroid: Other M looks alright, but honestly kinda looks like it should be a $15 DLC game, and if it were on any other console it probably would be.

Somewhat disappointed that Nintendo changed direction from their initially planned "realistic graphics" with a more adult approach, over to simple and colorful graphics fused with cell-shading ala Wind Waker. They're going back to basics instead of going forward, and I didn't think they'd reached the ceiling just yet.
Also let down that they're reviving Kid Icarus, Pilotwings and Star Fox (remake of Star Fox 64) on Nintendo's 3DS, rather than giving them the fully realized Wii titles which they deserve.

For the PS3, I'm looking foward to The Last Guardian by Team Ico, who created the amazing ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus for the PS2. The Last Guardian was there, but no additional information was presented about the game.

Gran Turismo 5 is finally coming November 2 2010 after being in development for four years.
After such a long development cycle, even photo realistic graphics won't be enough to set a fire in my pants. The tracks in the GT games have always been rather boring and repetitive, and to progress in the game you're forced to race them over and over and over again.
I picked up GT4 for ten bucks at a clearance sale two years ago and have barely played it since.

Xbox Live Game Room Suggestion Box

2010-04-12T03:30:00.010-05:00

This is an extension of the originating Game Room post.

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject, with some of the more pertinent points from others from the official Xbox Live Game Room Suggestions forum, denoted with Green Text.

1) The Price Point
I'm going to break this down for you and give you the skinny.
Logistically, these games shouldn't cost the consumer any more than $1 a piece, and arcade machines should cost per-play no more than what they did back in the day (25cents rather than 50cents).
To put things in perspective;
The 21 games cherry picked from Atari Anthology and Intellivision Lives! would only cost you about $35 retail if you purchased the console compilations on disc (not to mention you'd get another 125 games on top of that).
If you decided to purchase them through Game Room it would cost you $63, or $105 if you wanted to have them available to play on both your Xbox and Windows PC.
If one day they included all the games from the aforementioned compilations, it would run you a total of $438 to play them on your Xbox in Game Room, and $730 to have them available to play on both your Xbox and Windows PC.
That's $35 for 146 games versus $438. I'm not saying the added features and convenience that Game Room brings to the table aren't worth anything extra, but they certainly aren't worth a difference of $403.

If you like a game enough to pay money for it, you'd be wise to purchase the XBLA version of Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, and Tempest over their Game Room counterparts. While Konami's Scramble is available on XBLA, it lacks the option to play with original graphics.
Because for an extra $2 you'd be getting the option to play in original or enhanced/evolved modes and get individual game achievements.
Centipede & Millipede on XBLA is actually a better value than Game Room, as you'd be getting two games (albeit incredibly similar ones) for $5 rather than the $6 it'd cost you to purchase two games in Game Room.
Many have voiced their opinion that the classic console games should only cost a fraction of what the arcade games should, and I am all on board with that thought. In many cases, you could go out to a used video game store and purchase the original games for $1 or less per cartridge.
You'd have to be an absolute idiot to buy any of the Intellivision games in Game Room for $3 a pop, when Intellivision Lives! is available through Xbox Live Originals for 1200 pts. That's $15 for 62 Intellivision games vs. $15 for 5 Intellivision games in Game Room!

ALL of the following are valid arguments.
Some feel as though Game Room should be absolutely free of charge, especially for Gold members.
Some feel that their should be a separate monthly subscription fee which allowed unlimited access to everything Game Room has to offer.
Some feel that game bundles should be offered at a discount price.
Some feel discounts should be given to those who've purchased identical titles on Xbox Live Arcade, otherwise known as "double dips".
Some feel that the Atari 2600 and Intellivision titles should be at a reduced price (i.e. 80 points per title).

2) The Interface
The interface is somewhat of a disappointment. It doesn't invoke the days of yesteryear, the level of interactivity is virtually nill, and the locked viewpoint makes it incredibly difficult to appreciate the detail that they've put into the rooms or game cabinets/artwork.

I was really disappointed to learn that the whole Game Room environment is 'on rails' and that your Avatar serves no purpose apart from illustrating which machine you're standing in front of. You simply click on an arcade machine and your Avatar magically populates in front of it. Why not include the option of having complete control over the Avatar, being able to walk from location to location in third-person view, with the option to switch over to a first-person view (like the old Playstation Namco Museum volumes)?

All the Konami machines are missing cabinet art. Strangely enough, some have brought it to our attention that some pre-release videos showed Konami cabinets complete with cabinet art. So something must have happened between design and release.
Sin4Profit speculates;
I have since found out that Konami had developed the games on the software side of things but it was Stern who manufactured and distributed the cabinets in the US. Also there was legal friction between Konami and Stern so it's a fairly good assumption that they had to use the generic cabinets because of those legal issues with Stern.

In "arcade view" you can see your environment (avatars walking around) off to each side, even if you are facing the wall, which is just weird and confusing.
In "cabinet view", after having tested all of the currently available arcade games (that's excluding the Atari 2600 & Intellivision games), the only two that I see so far where they've actually included part of the cabinet overlay are with Centipede and Red Baron.
In a true cabinet view, you're able to see more to the left and right of the screen, a good portion of the joystick board, and sometimes even a portion of the speakers above.

Oaklore;
I forgot about this and I feel quite strongly about this as well. GIVE US SOME SORT OF OPTION TO LOOK AT THE CABINETS. Seriously. They have so much detail and a lot of work went into recreating them, some way to actually inspect them would be a welcome welcome feature.

MMuggerr;
Give the option for a more open floor layout with endless positioning options. I would like to be able to design the actual architecture of the arcade (stairs, platforms, doorways, rooms).

angrydragon114;
Add a customizable lounge in the middle.

Rev618;
Much more freedom to design your arcade from the ground up. It doesnt have to be a super complicated interface or have the power to do anything you want....but you should be able to build and design an arcade. Something better than the current pre-made Mall-style arcade. Maybe like a Sims type game where you can choose the floorplan, put up walls, choose flooring type, etc. The place will have no roof as you will sort of look down into it at an angle. Maybe even allow you to design avatars to stand behind the counter as "employees" to really get a better "arcade feel and experience".

I much rather would've preferred more of a photo-realistic look to Game Room, and have at least one large arcade rather than a bunch of smaller arcades.
What could've been...

3) Content (Games)
The least companies can do is to bring something exclusive to the table. Of the first 30 confirmed titles, Konami is the only one who's done so with Battlantis, Finalizer and Jungler, as they've never been made available on a compilation of any kind.
Although don't mistake that as praise. Konami has no excuse for being the only company not to release an arcade classics compilation on the 6th and 7th generation (non-handheld) of consoles. After having dropped $20 on 4 Konami XBLA games, I feel like they owe me that much.
I'm going to dedicate a separate post focused on Konami!

Also, some feel that instead of downloading 'game packs', they should have the ability to download singular games instead, reserving precious hard drive space only for the games they actually want to play.

How about some Pinball? Perhaps selections from Crave's 'Pinball Hall Of Fame' Gottlieb and Williams Collections.
Or how about Redemption Games like Skee-ball, Mini-Hoops, Air Hockey, Wack-a-Mole and Claw Machine like Activision did for Arcade Zone for the Wii.

Zuckuss 02;
Have a ticket counter where special games give out tickets that you can redeem for prizes like avatar items and the likes.

Darth Smurf X;
Project Natal support.
Not for the arcade games, but for the "other" games people want to see. Imagine Skee Ball and that basketball hoop game with motion controls. Maybe even the air hockey game could benefit from Natal. Might be cool.

4) Content (Decor)
Then there's the "decor" when designing your arcade rooms. They are all entirely non-interactive. Not only that but they are incredibly generic. A good example would be the poster you can put on the wall, which is a non-descript 'Star Wars-esque' design. To make any sort of impression, they're going to need licensed material.

EricJan360;
I think it would also be cool to unlock game related stuff when getting better or further in specific games. Like unlocking artwork posters or stuff to put up in your arcade when getting a specific score or reaching a certain level or something.

Rev Sick;
More decorations and backdrops also more themed decorations and backdrops that are era specific. Since there's going to be licensing for games wouldn't it be great to have licensed deco, imagine hanging a Millenium Falcon from your arcade ceiling!

5) Authenticity
Another irksome fact is if they want to be historically accurate, regardless of the fact that the Atari 2600 and Intellivision consoles are pictured sitting on their respective machines, one shouldn't be playing Intellivision and Atari 2600 games in virtual stand-up arcade cabinets but in separate rooms with shag carpeting, wood paneling and bean bag chairs.

Cheese Touch;
As more and more games for the arcade come out it might be a good idea to have it so that the Atari 2600 and Intellivision only take up one spot. They could have a big, 80s-looking cabinet TVs sit in the back corners so they'd be easy to see. Going up to it and activating it would zoom into one of those old school cartridge holders and then you could move among the carts [like in Activision Anthology].

Allison Axe 87;
A graphics filter that simulates old CRT televisions, specifically for the console games.
Related Article

A big part of the arcade experience was watching others play while while waiting your turn, or simply to admire and learn from better players, or for cheap entertainment once you've run out of tokens/quarters.

GuyCC75;
And I'd want a "Spectator Mode" to be able to watch my friends play their game.

loopingstar;
Have realistic cigarette burns and chewing gum stuck to the game controls. Have a crowd of moody and mean looking avatars hogging one machine and not let you play. Have sad avatars wandering around looking miserable because they've run out of quarters!

EclipseDj;
Chuck in a miserable member of staff stuck behind a 'Change' booth, another one who just walks around with a set of keys but is completely unhelpful and include authentic sticky carpets and annoying children sitting in the driving game cabinets with no intention to play, and you truly will have a Virtual Arcade experience in your home!

6) Sound Design
Regarding the "authentic arcade sound" which when enabled permeates wherever you are inside of Game Room, regardless of which room you are in.
Now while it does seem the game sounds do change when you're in different rooms, they have no directional authenticity. Meaning no matter which machine you're focused on within a room, the sounds from the games within that room do not veer off to one speaker or another.
The "authentic arcade sound" completely cuts out once you 'enter' a game.

Foolius;
Agree 100% with having ambient arcade noise while playing. Pipe it through the rear speakers for those with surround sound.

PANdaRUS;
The arcade sounds advertised as "authentic" were also pretty good, but lacked the cursing, swearing, and general high pitched whining found around most machines in that time.

I grew up playing most of the games in that time frame in a bowling alley. How about adding the background noise of bowling balls rolling and pins dropping?

Thankfully you can stream all the eighties goodness you like off your hard drive while in Game Room, but back to the topic of accessories, how about a functional jukebox in Game Room to arrange & play music off your hard drive?

7) Controls
It is said that Microsoft has no plans to release an official arcade stick for Game Room. Although I think this is a big mistake by Microsoft, there are a number of third-party arcade controllers (designed for fighting games) by Hori and Mad Catz, albeit controllers a bit on the pricey side.
I would like to see a controller attempt to emulate Trackball and Paddle (aka Dial, Spinner) controls. Mad Catz did attempt to emulate a spinner with the 'Mad Catz Arcade Game Stick' (no longer for sale), though from what I hear the spinner portion was a disaster. The unofficial $200 X-Arcade Tank Stick does have a Trackball, though whether or not the Trackball controls correctly translate to games played on Xbox which originally used a Trackball is unknown.

Ruined;
A trackball emulating an analog stick is just going to be a disappointment in the end. For a useable trackball Microsoft needs to make mouse drivers for the 360, which do not exist at this point.

8) Diversions
SageClock;
Arcade Tycoon Metagame
It wouldn't have to be anything too crazy, really, just pretend that this arcade is open to the public and have it so every 24 hours there's new stats for each cabinet that's placed for how many times its played, and for each room how many people visited it, all simulated by A.I., like some simple algorithms based on placement and chaos and how many friends visited your arcade. Then arcade machines that aren't performing well you can move to another room or place or reposition everything in a sort of 'Feng Shui' of arcade machines, to improve those numbers. Then it can keep track of if you made any profits or not over the course of a year, and maybe if you are in the green after a year you'll get a free machine or something, something simple.

But basically it would reward people for visiting the game room on a regular basis and let people feel more like they actually own this arcade and the way its laid out matters.

Again, nothing too crazy, and you obviously shouldn't punish people for not keeping up with it (just don't reward them). Personally, I think it would add to the immersion of the experience.

Downhill Skiing

2010-02-18T21:17:00.012-06:00

Me at Wild Mountain in Taylor Falls, MN, 1988.

For years, my Father and I, along with my Fathers cousin (who was similar in age to my father) and his son (who is similar in age to myself) would get together and go skiing. Good times.
I cannot remember at what age I first took ski lessons, but I'm going to estimate the prime-time ski frame being from the early/mid eighties to about 1992.

I was never entirely confident in my skiing ability, and never mastered parallel turns. Oh and all you hot-doggers and snowboarders out there can kiss my ass.

The following is a list of all the ski hills I've been to.
History and interesting random Youtube videos included where available.

While living in Milwaukee;
Little Switzerland (Slinger, WI) 1941-Present
Where I learned how to ski.
Front side.

Went on "Big Deal" run first time January 18, 1987
Back side.

Sunburst (Kewaskum, WI) 1961-1971 as Wunderburg, 1971-Present as Sunburst
Went first time January 31, 1987
History;
The land that is now Sunburst Ski Area was originally a hill farmed by the Becker family. In 1961 two Milwaukee area families, the Casey's and the Christiansen's, who had been looking for a ski able hill near Milwaukee for their families bought the land from the Becker's. Together the two families cleared the hill for a main run and a beginner's run, installed two lifts, a 1,200 foot T-bar imported from Germany and a rope tow and "Wunderburg" was born. Soon the two families found out just how much work a ski hill actually was and in 1971 sold it to a group of investors from Milwaukee including Mr. Bob Niss who owned the Blizzard traveling ski club. This group renamed the area "Sunburst". They built a ticket office, rental building and added another rope tow and chairlift. Sunburst was a popular place for ski groups under the direction of the owner/manager, Herb Smith.
In 1984 Jim and Kim Engel bought the area and over the past twenty-five years have remodeled every building on the property including the chalet and ticket office. They also built a new rental building, increased the number of rental skis and added snowboards. In addition they built two maintenance buildings and purchased four state of the art grooming machines.
On the hill they have added two more chairlifts, two rope tows and lights on every run. An expert hill and three terrain parks were added to add fun and excitement for experts. In 1997 they added a snow tubing operation. They built a tubing chalet and developed a tubing hill with 20 lanes;12 straight chutes and 8 luge chutes.
Snowmaking is the name of the business in Wisconsin. Sunburst has 100% coverage for its snowmaking system with underground pipes and wiring to make it state of the art. Sunburst has been one of the first area in Wisconsin to open every one of the last 12 years. The earliest opening date was November 3, 2006 and the latest closing was March 21, 1998.

While living in Minneapolis;
Afton Alps (Hastings, MN) 1963-Present
Afton Alps was cool because it was like 3 ski mountains in one, with a separate chalet at the bottom of each.
*I'm not entirely sure if the following occurred at Afton Alps or Wild Mountain. If it was infact Afton Alps (which I believe it was), the scenario is as follows;
One time I came speeding out of Christina's Trail where it merges into Heidi's Playground (both at the far right of the trail map) and there was this idiot off to the side standing sideways talking to somebody. He then unexpectedly pushed himself backwards directly into my path (without looking mind you). I ran into him full speed and it knocked me onto my back and off my ski's, knocking the wind out of me, my binding's now busted sending my ski's down the hill without me. Turns out the guy was a ski ski instructor/ski patrol, and angrily told me that he could have revoked my lift ticket (but didn't). I still think it's his fault for backing up without looking.
That pretty much dampened my enthusiasm towards skiing for a while. Make no mistake about it, whether you're trying to avoid inanimate stationary objects (like trees, ice patches, moguls, ditches etc.) or animate objects which are in motion (like other skiers), skiing can be dangerous!

Badlands (Hudson, WI) 1970-Present
History;
Badlands Recreation was opened in 1970 by Peggy and Bernard Kinney and their 11 children. The idea for Badlands sprang from the desire to offer affordable winter fun the whole family could enjoy. Sno-tubing had already been around for a few years and after seeing how much fun it was, the Kinney's knew it was just what they were looking for. After visiting other tubing areas and working with the state of Wisconsin what emerged was Badlands.
The land just east of Hudson is known as the Hudson prairie, a bit further east the terrain changes into a hilly area known as "the badlands." Our original tubing chalet was the farm house where Bernard's father was born in 1888. Changes to Badlands have been made over the years as sno-tubing has become more popular. Two of the children now manage the operation and have added a snowboard park, snow making and improved grooming ability, a new chalet and even changed the name to Badlands Sno-Park. Badlands continues to evolve, but still strives to offer winter fun the whole family can enjoy! In fact, you may see some of the 4th generation of Kinney kids out on the slopes, or having a cup of hot chocolate in the chalet.

Buck Hill (Burnsville, MN) 1961-Present
History;
Ten thousand years ago, the last ice age receded from the northern half of the North American continent. The Minnesota River helped drain the glacier and just south of the river, a terminal moraine was formed which the local Indians later named Buck Hill.
In 1954 Charles Stone Jr. and his future wife Nancy Campbell obtained a lease from the landowner Grace Whittier of Northfield, Minnesota. Miss Whittier’s father had brought the land for the price of the unpaid back taxes. Many people had skied on the undeveloped hill in the past, including two Minnesota Governors. In the 1930’s Fred Pabst, founder of Bromley Ski Area in Vermont, started a ski area on this site, but the drought years with a lack of snow caused him to abandon the plan.
During the years from 1954 until 1961, Buck Hill was only open a few weekends due to very meager snowfalls. In 1961 the Stones added snowmaking and a T-Bar. This put a whole new perspective on the business and the area was able to operate for at least four months in the winter. In the following years, more lifts and trails were added, as well as a new chalet and rental shop, and the Sports Bucket Restaurant was added in 1978. In 2006, Buck Hill installed a new Quad chairlift at the south end of the ski area, and brought in over 100,000 yards of fill to raise the elevation of the top of the new chairlift.
Today, Buck Hill offers 15 different runs to skiers and snowboarders of all abilities, as well as snow tubing. Buck has 11 lifts including 2 Quads and a Triple chairlift. Buck also has one of the best snowmaking systems in the Midwest, enabling the area to operate even when Old Man Winter doesn’t cooperate.
Buck Hill is still operated with the family in mind, offering a full range of skiing programs for the young and the young-at-heart. Buck’s reputation as a quality ski area is known across the country. Our ski racing program is also nationally acclaimed. Ski magazines calls Buck the “Legendary Capitol of American ski racing.” In 2006, Erich Sailer, long-time coach of the Buck Hill Ski Racing Team, was inducted into the US National Ski Hall of Fame.

Hyland Ski (Bloomington, MN) 1964-Present
History;
The Park District acquired what was then called Mt. Normandale Ski Area in 1959 as part of Hyland Lake Park Reserve and began operating the ski area in 1964. We have a file in our records that includes a document written by Gorden Bowen in 1964 in which he described himself as constructing the ski area. Mr. Bowen stated that the ski area was constructed in 1952.

Powder Ridge (Kimball, MN) 1958-Present
*I'm not positive that I've been to Powder Ridge.

Spirit Mountain (Duluth, MN) 1973-Present

Trollhaugen (Dresser, WI) 1950-Present

Welch Village (Welch, MN) 1965-Present

Wild Mountain (Taylors Falls, MN) 19?? - 1972 as Val Croix, 1972-Present as Wild Mountain
History;
Wild Mountain was purchased by Dennis & Cam Raedeke in 1972. Prior to that it was a small ski area named Val Croix.

While living in Madison area;
Cascade (Portage, WI) 1962-Present
My last time skiing (in early 2000), and first time skiing all by my lonesome.

Childhood Toys Part 6 [What's Old Is New]

2010-02-18T21:13:00.008-06:00

Some toys from the 1980's (and late 70's in the case of Alien) have been reimagined and released with the adult collector in mind. Now I am not an adult toy collector, but a few of these figures are very well done and tempting.
The only toy I purchased as an adult, and I just couldn't help myself, was a Star Wars Lightsaber when Star Wars toys became popularized again on account of the prequels.

Alien 18" Action Figure by Neca
A great replacement of sorts for Kenner's 1979 18" Alien figure.

Transformers Classics
First came the Toys'R'Us Reissue of Soundwave then came the Hasbro 25th Anniversary Reissue of Soundwave (pictured below) which includes Soundwave and all his cassettes!

Masters Of The Universe Classics from Matty Collector
These figures are not mass-produced and seem to go quickly. That has unfortunately given Ebay and Amazon bloodsuckers free reign to charge what they wish.

Madballs
A company called Art Asylum secured the rights to Madballs and are re-releasing some of them.
Crack Head has been rebranded as the more politically correct Bash Brain to be more in-line with the times. How lame is that. They look inferior when compared to their original counterparts in my opinion.

The New Garbage Pail Kids
In 2003, Topps reintroduced Garbage Pail Kids with all-new cards, dubbed the All New Series (ANS). As of 2008, Topps has released seven "All New Series" sets

Garbage Pail Kids Flashback

"Topps will be releasing a "flashback" set on February 24, 2010, featuring characters from the original 1985-87 Garbage Pail Kids series (8 each from OS 1 to 9) and only two from OS 10 plus 6 unpublished characters along with the Where Are They Now subset which 10 classic GPK characters are drawn as they would appear today. Each card has an a/b twin for a total of 160 base set cards. Packs will contain randomly inserted chase cards including lenticular Loco Motion, hand-drawn Artist Sketches, authentic Printing Plates, and four levels of Parallels."

Transformers Classics/Wikipedia Entry
By Hasbro 2006-2007

The Transformers Classics line consited of all-new molds designed to resemble updated versions of several Generation 1 Transformers.

Star Wars Transformers/TF Wiki.net
By Hasbro 2006-2009
Star Wars & Transformers? Awesome! It's like a childhood wet dream come true!
What? Luke Skywalker can TRANSFORM into the X-Wing Fighter!?! (Head explodes)

Childhood Toys Part 5 [Pac-Mania, The Wild Side, Addendum]

2010-02-18T13:49:00.009-06:00

- PAC-MANIA -

Me and my 1981 Tomytronic Pac-Man. My first official video-game. I played the daylights out of it! {Photo from Christmas 1983}
It began turning off on me while I was playing so one day, a friend and I opened the thing up to see if we could figure out what the problem was. All that needed to be done was solder a wire back onto it's connector, and my Mom tossed it out!

Pac-Man Board Game (Milton-Bradley 1982)
X-Entertainment Article

I also used to have a bunch of Pac-Man trading cards, A Pac-Man Lunchbox, and I still have a small Pac-Man Wind-Up Toy.

- THE WILD SIDE -
My pair of western themed cap guns (model #272)

Ok, so the next one isn't really a toy per say. Switchblade Combs!

Hell yeah I had one!
About a year or two ago I ordered a couple off of Switchblade Combs just for the heck of it.

Inspired by Rocky, here I am with a pair of boxing gloves and the Super Punch Bag under the tree, which was made to fit into any doorway. If you didn't tighten the arms enough or punched too hard, the whole thing would come flying off. I punched my brother and friends with the boxing gloves for years to come.

{Photo Christmas 1981}

Ahhh the days of realistic looking toy guns, faux switch blades, and candy cigarettes.

Pack of candy cig's and firework in hand, cuz that's just how I rolled, baby.
{Photo Summer Vacation, Eagle River 1984}

REFERENCES;
General
80's Kid
Feeling Retro
I-Mockery
In The 70's
In The 80's
Nostalgia Central
Plaid Stallions
Retroland
This Old Toy
Toy Archive
Toy Info
VH1 I Love Toys/Wikipedia Entry
Vintage Toys Blog
Virtual Toy Chest
X-Entertainment
Specific Focus
Board Game Geek
Bug Eyed Monster
Dukes Of Hazzard Products
Gallery Of Monster Toys
Garbage Pail Kids Online
He-Man
Hollywood Diecast
Hot Wheels Collectors
Matchbox Monster Trucks
Nathan's Muscle Page
Nichols Cap Guns
Original Big Wheel
Pac Man Museum
Retro Pedal Cars Big Wheel History
Schaper Five Winders
Switch Blade Combs
Star Wars Collectors
Weird Sci-Fi
Wild Toys

Childhood Toys Part 4 [Toy Cars]

2010-02-18T13:34:00.004-06:00

- TOY CARS -
- 1973 -
Then of course there's one of the most popular boys toys of the 1970s, The Evil Knievel Stunt Cycle. Weird Scifi Entry/Feeling Retro Entry
I feel quite familiar with this toy, although I'm not 100% positive that I owned one myself.

- 197? -
Marx Cobra Big Wheel

I used to love my Big Wheels. I would ride that thing until my butt was sore, although with hard plastic seats, that didn't take very long. I made use of it until the plastic tires were shredded.
I cannot find the commercial on YouTube, but apparently it's contained within the Sold Separately: Classic Kids Commercials DVD.

- 1979 -
Hot Wheels City (Mattel, 1979)
City De Ville (Sto-and-Go) or the Service Center set. Both sets were very similar and were both released in 1979. Hot Wheels City has a car elevator while the Service Center does not. These tracks could fold together to form a briefcase of sorts, making them easily transportable.
I feel quite familiar with this toy, although I'm not sure if I owned one myself.

Hot Wheels Service Center

- 1981 -
Dukes Of Hazzard Electric Slot Racing Set (Ideal, 1981)
Ahhh the Dukes of Hazzard figure-8 race track with stunt-jump intersection. I remember settin' this thing up on a card table in the basement and just goin' at it.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeee-Hawwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

Although on second thought, I think I may have had the Automan version of The Dukes figure 8 set.

I also had Tyco's Daredevil 500 race track.

Other cool toy cars from the 1980's?
X-Entertainment Article on Toy Cars of the 1980's
Stomper's & Set's (Schaper 1981-1986)
Stomper 4x4 Site/Route 21 Site

Hot Wheels Crack-Ups (introduced in 1983 I believe)

Schaper's Five Winders (year introduced unknown)
Matchbox Monster Trucks (introduced in the mid-eighties)
Power Blaster pull-string motorcycle (year and co. unknown)
Tonka's Quick Silver wind-up dragster (1982)

The many Matchbox/HotWheels/Ertl novelty cars modeled after popular Television and Film, including the General Lee (Ertl)

the A-Team Van (Ertl 1983)

Spider-Man (Hot Wheels 1975)

the Batmobile, the Firebird Trans-am "Bandit" (Smokey & The Bandit), and KITT from Knight Rider.

Childhood Toys Part 3 [Action Figures]

2010-02-18T13:16:00.006-06:00

- ACTION FIGURES N'MORE -
- 1982 -
Tron (TOMY)
I may have had a TRON cycle.

I also remember having a glow in the dark TRON frisbee (or flying disc if you prefer), alhtough it could've just been a generic dime store glow in the dark frisbee.

- 1984 -
It's difficult for me to remember all the Transformers I used to own, although I know I was partial to the jets and smaller cars. All that remains is a lunch bag full of broken parts.
But the coolest Transformer was of course Soundwave (Hasbro 1984)

Soundwave transformed into a boombox with a cassette deck that could be opened to reveal a miniature tape that transformed into a "condor".
Transformers G1 Commercials

I even saw Transformers: The Movie when it was released in theaters in 1986.

Voltron (Matchbox, 1984)

I think I had the main "Deluxe Lion" character (pictured on the upper right), though I'm not positive. Voltron was a cool cartoon and concept. A bunch of characters coming together to form one big super-powerful one.

WWF 8' Figures (LJN, 1984-1989)
Wrestling characters that could take the abuse! My friend had the wrestling ring for serious rumbles. X-Entertainment Article 1, Article 2

Then one cannot go without mentioning LJN's WWF Thumb Wrestlers!
X-Entertainment WWF Thumb Wrestlers Article

They even made erasers out of them with Rock'n'Wrestling Erasers

- 1985 -
MADBALLS! AmToy (1985/1986)
Madballs Central/Wikipedia Entry/X-Entertainment Madballs Article
There were plenty of imitators, but Madballs were the originals and the best.
I was partial to Slobulous and Crack Head.

I actually still have my M.U.S.C.L.E. Men (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere) [1985-1988] I-Mockery Entry/Nathan's Muscle Page

I also still have the wonderfully disgusting Garbage Pail Kids [by Topps 1985-1987].

Out of all toy lines, I was the most feverish about He-Man and the Masters Of The Universe [by Mattel 1982-1988]. I created some of my own He-Men on paper, had two of the fan magazines, and even saw the live-action movie starring Dolph Lundgren when it was released in theaters in 1987. Even looking back on them today, I still think they are incredibly creative and remain unmatched.
It was around the age of 11 or 12, or 1986/1987, that I switched from He-Man (and toys altogether) over to Nintendo, and never looked back. I went from "I Have The Power" to "Nintendo Power". Sorry He-Man.

Childhood Toys Part 2 [Star Wars]

2010-02-18T13:11:00.004-06:00

- STAR WARS -
Of all the things I've had and lost...
Star Wars Toy Commercial 1977

Apart from all the action figures I once had, here are some larger Star Wars products I once owned.
Star Wars Action Figure Collector's Case (1979)

Star Wars Creature Cantina Action Playset (1979)

STAR WARS CREATURES
Star Wars Tauntaun (1982, open belly version)

The Hoth Wampa (1982) is the only one out of the bunch that I still have in my possession (loose).

The Rancor (1984)

STAR WARS VEHICLES
Star Wars Landspeeder (1978)
I loved the Landspeeder!

X-Wing Fighter (1978)

Twin-Pod Cloud Car (1980)

Speeder Bike (1983)
I think I had the Speeder Bike, though I'm not positive.

Childhood Toys Part 1 [Monster Toys]

2010-01-27T02:53:00.022-06:00

- MONSTER TOYS -
- 1977 -
Godzilla (Shogun Warriors, Mattel 1977) complete with action tongue and flying fist.
This was such a great toy. Godzilla's projectile fist had some weight to it and the spring was fairly strong, strong enough to knock a-many other toy figures down.
Why Godzilla you ask? Well, NBC ran a Godzilla Cartoon from 1978-1981, so that helped to fuel the fire.

- 1978 -
Suckerman by Mattel (1978)

I actually still have Suckerman (mine is red), although he's missing a sucker or two.

- 1979 -
Alien 18" Figure by Kenner (1979)
It was large, it had glow in the dark decals on it's head, it's inner-jaws came out via lever (they were sharp too!), and you could fasten it's tail in different positions. It was based off of an R Rated movie yet marketed towards children. Supposedly when my dad was in line to purchase it some woman asked who it was for and when he said "my son" she was mortified! "It's soo ugly!"
I was fascinated by it yet at the same time it scared the be-jeezus outta me. I had to store it in my closet so it was out of sight and out of mind. Yet that didn't always work because I knew it was in there. I think there were a few times before I became accustomed to it where I needed it out of my room altogether for piece of mind.
I was the one that asked for it, so I can't blame anyone but myself - and now I want it back (but hell if I'm payin' upwards of $400 for it)!

Krusher (Mattel, 1979)
A monster which you would crush (or Krush) and it would come back to life!
The problem with this toy is that after it'd been crushed too many times, it's surface would crack and begin to break off.

Krusher is nowhere to be found, it's too bad it sounds as if he's a rare find these days.

I loved the Megabug Gladiators (Kenner, 1979), of which I had the Scorpion and the Spider (not sure if I had the Fly)

Everything That Tastes Good Is Bad For You

2010-01-27T02:48:00.012-06:00

My last cholesterol test said I am in the "at risk" category, with a note from the RN saying that I "clearly need to be on some sort of cholesterol reducing therapy".

That was October 9th, 2009. Cholesterol was 263, LDL was 183. I started cholesterol reducing medication about a month or two later. I have yet to do another cholesterol test to see if it's made a dent.
Update: My cholesterol test from April 15, 2010 has my overall cholesterol at 208, down nearly 60 pts, and my LDL at 140, down 40 pts. So I guess the medication is making a dent.

So apparently my heart is pumping pudding.
You wouldn't know I have high cholesterol from looking at me. Sure, I could stand to lose 20-30 lbs., but I do not have a robust appearance.
I have no illusions. I realize that my diet could very well kill me someday. The men on my father's side of the family do have a history of heart disease (Grandfather had a quadruple bypass, Father died of a heart attack at age 52 at 210lbs). I am right around that same weight, but am taller and therefore more height-weight proportionate.

I am nothing short of addicted to caffeine, sugar, chocolate, red meat, and fast food. Cheeseburgers, pizza, sub sandwiches.
I've always been a bit of a junk food junkie.

I used to wake up early on Saturday mornings while my parents were still sleeping and sneak some junkfood to eat while watching Saturday Morning Cartoons. One time I was eating ice cream out of the carton and I made a last ditch effort to hide it behind a chair, and apparently I forgot about it because my parents found it all melted later on.
Once when I was a child, I rode my bicycle 37 city blocks to my grandparents house to eat cookies because my parents wouldn't allow me any junkfood on that particular day. They didn't know where I was off to, and when they found out that my grandparents unknowlingly gave me junkfood when I wasn't supposed to have any, my parents weren't too happy.

Funny thing is even today if I get strong hankering, a few times a year I'll find myself going to the 24 hour convenience store in the middle of the night for a big gulp and/or chocolate milk, and candy bar or donut if there's nothing in the house.

If there's anyone here who knew me when I was a child, or a teenager, and had me over for dinner, you probably have an inkling of how picky of an eater I was.
And really, nothing has changed since then. My taste buds didn't spontaneously grow immune. The only thing I'll eat now that I wouldn't back then are baked beans.

Don't get me wrong, my parents tried their darndest. My parents always had vegetables on their plate, and put vegetables on mine as well. I put up a fight. My parents tried the whole "you're not allowed to leave the table until you eat all your vegetables" thing. I remember sitting there for hours on a few occasions. I put up a strong fight, though maybe not as strong as this girl...

I do like some fruit. Apples, bananas and pears ...but that's about it.

Changing my diet is more of an obstacle to me than maintaining some sort of workout regimen. I was probably in the best shape when I was 24. I had a job that kept me physically active, and at one point I maintained a workout routine for 3-6 months (which is my personal best).

I tried to "eat healthy" a few years ago, and ended up losing more weight than I had anticipated. Funny thing is, it wasn't my intention to lose weight. All I ended up doing was eating less (which explains the weight loss), because I couldn't find healthy substitutes that I would be willing to eat.
I purchased a salad at a "fast food" place (Subway) and gave it my all. But I just couldn't do it. Every bite and my mouth and taste buds just go into shock. Everything my body tells me is that vegetables are poison to my system.

Everything that tastes good is bad for you, and everything that taste's bad is good for you.
I will never understand this as long as I live.
I mean, the other 4 senses work right. If you smell, hear, touch, or see something that is bad, it's probably bad for you. Same goes for the good.
I mean if you hold your hand under an open flame - OUCH! Your body immediately tells you that it hurts, therefore it isn't something that is good for you or your body.

Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, I think something went haywire. Something got lost in translation. Perhaps our taste buds evolved to perceive things that are bad for us to be good. You see, cavemen didn't have a grocery store. They ate what they could find and kill to survive. So maybe we are predetermined to crave red meat because our instincts tell us that it equals survival. But that still wouldn't account for vegetables tasting bad.

All things in moderation. Perhaps we as western society have come to lack self-discipline and simply gorge ourselves on the foods we enjoy most, while turning a blind eye to all the harmful effects they may have.

Perhaps processed foods "trick" our taste buds into thinking it's good when it's really bad, because the bad parts are disguised to form a good tasting whole. In other words, if a food product was compromised of nothing but the ingredients that are bad for us, it probably wouldn't taste good (would you drink a bottle of pure fructose corn syrup, or shovel spoonful after spoonful of sugar into your mouth?). But within a complex recipe things like salt & sugar enhance a products flavor.

In the end, I don't really want to change. I have a passion for eating bad. I wish that instead of slowly killing us, our human bodies would evolve to effectively process what's become of the western diet.

SNK Arcade Classics Volume 0

2010-01-23T15:30:00.022-06:00

The ESRB let the cat out of the bag on this planned installment of SNK Arcade Classics TBA for the PS2 and PSP.
"This is a collection of 20 classic arcade games comprising several distinct genres: action, fighting, sports (baseball, football, Olympics), shooting, platforming."

SNK released a previous volume, SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1, which was comprised wholly of Neo Geo titles. While it contained a solid list of titles at a great value, it is SNK's pre-Neo Geo titles I've always been more interested in. These are the games I grew up playing, a number of which had been ported to the NES (of which I own three; Athena, Ikari Warriors and Victory Road).

Moonco deserves credit for discovering the ad below from the Japanese KOF Vol. 4 comic, and identifying the games in the screen-shots. This entire blog posting is based solely on Moonco's discovery.

The big draw with this volume is the entire rotary controller, IKARI WARRIORS tree of games,

which are (in order of release); TNK III, Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, Guerilla War, and Ikari 3: The Rescue.

The only rotary controlled arcade game missing from the mix is Touchdown Fever II and Alpha Denshi's Time Soldiers (which SNK does own).
Some perhaps may even mistake Seta's two overhead rotary controlled games as SNK games.
The Seta Corporation/Seta Arcade Game Listing, which ran from October 1, 1985 to January 23, 2009, released two rotary controlled arcade games both in 1989, Caliber 50 and Downtown, which had a lot in common with SNK's rotary controlled arcade games.
Since Seta closed , I'm going to assume that all of Seta's former IP's now rest with their parent company, Aruze.
Aruze once had a working relationship with SNK. In 2000 Aruze promised financial backing for the failing SNK but instead instituted a program to liquidate SNK's assets. Sometime after SNK Playmore was founded, they sued Aruze for copyright infringement, claiming their use of SNK's intellectual properties was unauthorized by Playmore and won 57 million dollars. So Aruze licensing or selling Seta's IP's to SNK Playmore is something that won't ever happen. Probably the only way you'll ever get to play Seta's old arcade games is on MAME.

All in all, nearly half of the games in this collection (8 out of 20) of SNK arcade games utilized rotary controls in the arcade.
Replicating rotary controls at home has always proved to be a daunting task. And while dual analog sticks do work, they are not nearly as precise (if you've played Wild Western and Frontline on Taito Legends 2 you know what to expect) and will be less playable and therefore less enjoyable than they once were.
This is the largest number of rotary controlled arcade games emulated in one package ever to be released, and I feel like not including or selling a rotary controller of some sort is a disservice to retro arcade gamers everywhere. And since SNK is planning to release this on the Playstation 2 (that is, if we're lucky) instead of one of the three seventh generation consoles, you can expect little to no fanfare and no extraneous support.

The 20 titles identified from the ad are as follows;
Alpha Mission [1985] (vertically scrolling shooter)
Athena [1986] (side scrolling platform) Athena character overview
A punishingly difficult platformer. The NES port of which was one of the only games I owned for the NES that I never could complete, no matter how hard I tried! Even after all these years, I just had to look on Youtube to watch somebody complete that wretched game!
Bermuda Triangle (aka World Wars) [1987] (vertically scrolling shooter) (Rotary joysticks)
Gold Medalist [1988] (an enjoyable Track and Field clone)
Guerrilla War [1988] (Pseudo sequel to Ikari Warriors where you play as Che Guevara) (Rotary joysticks) Releases
HAL 21 [1985] (vertically scrolling shooter)
Ikari Warriors [1986] (Rotary joysticks) Ports
Ikari 3: The Rescue [1989] (Rotary joysticks)
Marvin's Maze [1983] (Maze game)
P.O.W. [1988] (Beat'em up)
Prehistoric Isle (In 1930) [1989] (horizontally scrolling shooter featuring dinosaurs)
Psycho Soldier [1987] (side scroller featuring the character Athena)
SAR - Search & Rescue [1989] (overhead shooting game featuring aliens) (Rotary joysticks)
Sasuke vs. Commander [1980] (the third game manufactured by SNK and the first to be in color)
Street Smart [1989] (unique in that it was the only one-on-one fighting game SNK produced pre-Neo Geo) Ports and Releases
Super Champion Baseball [1989] (a baseball game from Alpha Denshi. The Third game in the Champion Baseball series, with improved graphics and gameplay over the first two Champion Baseball games, which shared the same graphics engine.)
TNK III [1985] (aka TANK, Iron Tank for the NES) (the first game to use Rotary Joysticks)
Touch down Fever [1987] (overhead football) (Rotary joysticks)
Vanguard II [1984] (a vertically scrolling shooter. Unlike the original, there were no home console nor computer ports of Vanguard II released)
Victory Road [1986] (Rotary joysticks)

Here are some of my personal arcade high scores from back in the day;
Ikari Warriors;
Zach's Lanes (formerly Petroff's) at 54th & Burleigh Milwaukee, WI
High Score of 326,200 on Saturday May 9th, 1987
Victory Road;
Zach's Lanes (formerly Petroff's) at 54th & Burleigh Milwaukee, WI
Finished with a score of 1,238,990 on Monday April 27th, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,222,340 on Thursday April 30th, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,224,640 on Saturday May 9th, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,223,290 without losing any lives on Friday May 15th, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,226,240 on Saturday May 23rd, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,29?,??? on Sunday May 24th, 1987
Finished with a score of 1,23?,??? on Tuesday July 17th, 1987
P.O.W.;
Circus Pizza New Hope, MN
Finished game on $4.25 September 7th, 1989

OMISSIONS;
*SNK purchased ADK's (aka Alpha Denshi) intellectual properties.
The games I wish were in this latest compilation most are Time Soldiers [1987] (Alpha Denshi) (Rotary joysticks)

and Sky Soldiers [1988] (Alpha Denshi).

Also, the brawler Gang Wars [1989] (Alpha Deshi) and the on-rail gun games Mechanized Attack [1989] (SNK's answer to Taito's Operation Wolf), Beast Busters [1989] & Beast Busters - Second Nightmare [1999] (One of only seven games to run on SNK's Hyper Neo Geo 64 Arcade Hardware).

Others include shooters Chopper I (aka The Legend of Air Cavalry)[1988] (vertically scrolling shooter featuring a helicopter), Sky Adventure [1989] (Alpha Denshi) (vertically scrolling shooter) (while Sky Adventure is not officially the sequel to 1988's Sky Soldier's, it can be thought of as a psuedo-sequel due to the similarity in gameplay), and The Next Space [1989] (vertically scrolling shooter).

Sports titles such as Fighting Soccer [1988], Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf (aka Country Club) [1988], Paddle Mania [1988] (tennis), and Touch Down Fever II [1988] (Rotary joysticks).

There is a noticeable lack of Pre-1985 or "Golden Age" arcade titles listed for SNK Arcade Classics 0. Although I suppose most won't miss them much, as (apart from 1981's Vanguard putting SNK on the map) it wasn't until the mid-eighties and the release of Ikari Warriors that SNK really began to hit it's stride, and the ensuing years are what SNK is known for moreso. The golden age titles omitted from volume 0 are as follows;
Gladiator 1984 [1984] (horse jumping), Jumping Cross [1984] (motocross racing, overhead view), Lasso [1982], Mad Crasher [1984] (futuristic cars in a 3D isometric view, similar to Sega's Zaxxon), Main Event [1984] (boxing), Munch Mobile [1983] (overhead race game), Ozma Wars [1979] (SNK's first game), Safari Rally [1979] (SNK's second game), Satan Of Saturn [1981], and Vanguard [1981] Ports and Releases
Excerpts rom Wikipedia; "The game is known as one of the first scrolling shooters ever made. Also, unlike other comparable games at the time, Vanguard was unique in that the player must focus on avoiding obstacles while firing in order to survive; which made this game a precursor to Konami's Gradius and Irem's R-Type."

The following titles are game series which began in arcades (pre-Neo Geo), and followed with sequels on Neo Geo hardware.
Alpha Mission II [1991], Baseball Stars Professional [1990] (Baseball Stars 2 on SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1), Ghost Pilots [1991] (sequel to 1989's Sky Adventure), and Prehistoric Isle II [1999] Game runs on the Neo Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo Geo AES home console.

Terminator Salvation

2010-01-17T00:48:00.016-06:00

Praise
While it didn't match up to James Cameron's Terminator and Terminator 2 (big surprise), and overall, despite my criticisms below, I was entertained and satisfied with this new installment of the Terminator saga.
It was much better than T3, and introducing a new cast was better than having Nick Stahl and Claire Danes return as John Connor and Kate Brewster (which was what had previously been planned).

Also, I loved the grinding sounds of the machines.

Criticism
Foreword;
Perhaps I'm being overly critical towards a franchise that features time travel (which is something I believe is a scientific impossibility) and the T-1000, a robot which can turn into liquid and mimic the form of almost anything it touches.
The more illogical speed-bumps one must endure makes it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the fantastical at face value. The premise of a science-fiction story is a delicate thing. Even with a solid premise, too many reaches and it will unsteady the foundation and the house of cards can come falling down.

The seeds of something better were visible, but just didn't come all the way together in the end.
I felt the supporting cast was somewhat weak & unfitting.
I didn't really feel like Bryce Dallas Howard belonged in this film, and I'm tired of seeing musicians/rappers (Common) getting sympathy roles in big budget productions.
Although Bale's performance may have fit the character, I have a problem with the flat one-note, heartless performances of Christian Bale leading both the Batman and Terminator franchise. It's just too much Bale to stomach.

In all previous Terminator films they never showed John Connor in his future leadership role. I feel as if the character of John Connor was over-exposed in Terminator Salvation. In the early script drafts, John was a secondary character, and I can only imagine 'what if'. Less could have been more.

The future doesn't quite capture the visions of the gritty downtrodden future shown in T1 and T2.
"The idea that events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines altered the future also allowed them to be flexible with their presentation of the futuristic world."
That was flexibility that director McG, who made his directing debut with Charlie's Angels (sigh), should not have been allowed.
The problem with having the freedom to alter the perception of the future, is that the dystopian future shown in T1 and T2 is what all Terminator fans wanted to see fully realized in a full-length film all along.

In regards to Skynet creating an infiltration unit in Sam Worthington's character, you'd think Skynet would just override his hybrid brain and force it to kill it's primary targets upon discovery.

Are you telling me that this gargantuan 50 ton machine shows up without anyone hearing it approaching? And that it forcefully scoops up people with giant metal claws without killing, let alone injuring them? I don't think so!

I can't tell you how sick & tired I am of scenes of people interacting with robots/supercomputers (i.e. The Architect from The Matrix etc.) which can mimic human form without fault, complete with all the complexity of human facial expressions and voice inflection. It's more than a reach, it won't ever happen. Not to mention machines will never develop emotion. To me it just takes thing from science fiction into a realm of fantasy, and makes everything less believeable. Save that for films more rooted in fantasy rather than science fiction.

"The original ending was to have John killed, and his image kept alive by the resistance by grafting his skin onto Marcus' cybernetic body. However, after the Internet leak, Warner Bros. decided to completely change the entire third act of the film."
It's ashame the original ending got cut, because it could have added an unexpected dimension and altered what we thought we knew. It'd almost make more sense and be more fitting that a half-man half-machine would go on to lead the resistance against the machines, and that John Connor's role in winning the war was cut short and not nearly as important as once thought.

Although entirely unrelated to Terminator: Salvation, I did happen to read through Darkhorses' Terminator Omnibus Volume 1 and Volume 2 comic compilations a month or so prior to seeing the film, which continued with the Terminator mythos starting in 1989.

Here's a comical dance remix of Christian Bale's profanity-laden rant on the set of Terminator: Salvation

Don't play the following clip unless you've already seen the movie!

Xbox Live Game Room

2010-01-17T00:44:00.031-06:00

Official Xbox Live Arcade Game Room Site
XBLA Game Room Site (Unofficial)

- Xbox Live Game Room Suggestion Box
- Xbox 360 Arcade Sticks
- Konami Arcade Compilations

Microsoft Details Game Room Titles and Pricing Jan 7, 2010
Excerpt from Gamespot;
"Centipede, Crystal Castles, Tempest among some 30 coin-op classics headed to new social hub for 360, PC this spring; cost ranges from $5 to own to $0.50 per play.

The Game Room goes live this spring.
Microsoft has now offered additional details on the Game Room, which was developed by Krome Studios and will be available through Xbox Live and the Games for Windows - Live PC client this spring. As part of an announcement trailer, below, the publisher rattled off some 30 games that will initially be available. Games on the docket include such Atari and Intellivision classics as Centipede, Crystal Castles, Red Baron, Yars' Revenge, and Tempest. A full list can be found below. With plans to expand the Game Room to more than 1,000 titles, Microsoft intends to release additional offerings on a weekly basis. An average of 7 new games will be added to the service every week, starting in late April.

The publisher also announced a pricing structure for the downloadable classics. Games can be purchased for play on both the Xbox 360 and PC for MSP 400 ($5), or for an individual platform at MSP 240 ($3) apiece. Alternatively, gamers can carry on in the coin-op tradition by purchasing single rounds of any individual game for MSP 40 ($.50). Players can also sample games purchased by their friends for free by visiting their game rooms.

Up to two players can compete in online or local multiplayer in games that support competitive or cooperative action. The Game Room will also support Xbox Live Avatars, as well as voice chat, 1080p graphics, cross-platform leaderboards, and achievements."
Note: That last sentence is a bit misleading.
You have no control over your Avatar within the Game Room application, the games themselves are boxed-in and presented in their native aspect-ratio (as opposed to upscaled), and the achievements are not on a game by game basis, but are "logged against the Game Room application instead." "Basically, each arcade game will reward you medals and these will count towards your overall achievements."

Hands-On Video From 1Up.com

While this is pretty big news for fans of retro games and the potential is exciting, I do fear this has the possibility of deterring companies from compiling and releasing affordable compilations (on physical media) in the future, and instead releasing games from their library singularly into Game Room for a higher profit-margin.

FAQS;
1) Will they import golden age arcade titles which have been previously released on Xbox Live, into Game Room?
Answer: No. XBLA games are not interchangeable with Game Room.
2)Will you be able to play music off your Xbox hard drive while in Game Room?
Answer: Yes you can. Both while in the Game Room environment and while playing games within Game Room.
3) Can you stream music from Last FM while in Game Room? Streaming an eighties station into Game Room would be fitting.
Answer: The ability to stream Last FM while playing a game was stripped from the Xbox application, and that carries over to the Game Room environment and it's game emulations as well.
4) In pictures of Game Room you see Avatar's playing machines, will you have to line up virtual quarters in order to secure your place in line just like back in the day?
Answer: This was not meant as a serious question, though I found the question was infact asked in one of the video's and the answer is of course, no.
5) When customizing my own Game Room, how many unique machines can I fit in?
Answer: [Courtesy of Mansquito XL] There are currently 12 rooms with capacity for 8 machines per room. If you wanted to have 96 unique machines at the current price of 240 points each, it would cost 23,040 Microsoft points (or $288)!
6) How many achievement points can I get from Game Room without purchasing anything?
Answer: 80 Achievement Points. See Game Room Achievement Guide/Roadmap
7) What would be the bare minimum cost to get all the Game Room achievements?
Answer: [Courtesy of FunkDog] The two determining achievements are "Reaching Level 20" and the "Have Your Whole Arcade Use Unique Themes."

It takes 20 "points" to rank up a level. The most you can get on a single game that offers three gold medals is 15 points. The fewest amount of games you would need to buy, assuming they all offer three gold medals (some of the console titles only offer 1 gold) would be 27 titles (400 points for level 20 divided by 15 points per game equals 26.7). Assuming each title is $3.00, 27x3 = $81.00.

Next is the unique theme achievement. This is dependent on whether or not themes are included for free in future game packs. If so, then this achievement is a non issue. Just wait long enough for enough free themes to be released. However, if you don't get any for free and are forced to unlock themes, then it looks like you will need to play until you get your level into the 40s or 50. In order to do that, you would most likely have to spend over $160 to purchase enough games so that you could get your level up high enough to unlock all the themes (getting to level 40 would cost you $162.00, getting to level 50 would $202.50).

Of course this is assuming you BUY all the games. You could cut this cost down dramatically if you use the 50 cents per play option and can unlock two golds in one or two plays.

FYI, if you buy all the titles initially released with Game Room, and get all golds on all of them, you will end up mid way between level 18 and 19.

Confirmed Microsoft Game Room Titles;
I'm going to preface this list by saying that so far, there's really nothing to get too excited about. EVERY Atari and Intellivision game can be found on Atari Anthology and Intellivision Lives! respectively. The only games to make note of are those from Konami, who has yet to release a gaming compilation on a non-handheld next-gen console. Of the confirmed Konami titles, only 3 of them have never before been released on a gaming compilation of any kind.
- ATARI -
All following Atari titles, both Arcade and Atari 2600, are available on Atari Anthology, which was released on November 22, 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.
Asteroids Deluxe (November 28, 2007), Centipede & Millipede (May 2, 2007), and Tempest (December 19, 2007) have all been made available on Xbox Live, complete with classic and evolved versions.
ATARI ARCADE TITLES
Asteroids Deluxe [1981] Legacy/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Centipede [1980] Ports/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Crystal Castles [1983] Ports/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Lunar Lander [1979] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Millipede [1982] Ports/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Red Baron [1980] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Tempest [1981] Ports and Sequels/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry

ATARI 2600 TITLES
Adventure [1979]
Combat [1977]
Football [1978]
Outlaw [1978]
Outlaw was originally released as an arcade game, but it's the Atari 2600 version that's in Game Room, as that was the version in Atari Anthology (which all confirmed Atari titles are culled from) and the fact that the arcade version was in black & white.
RealSports Tennis [1983]
Star Raiders [1982] List of adaptations, sequels and tie-ins
Yars' Revenge [1982]

- INTELLIVISION -
All following Intellivison titles available on Intellivision Lives! (Intellivision site/Xbox site), which can be purchased through Xbox Live (Xbox Originals) for 1200 points (the equivalent of $15).
Armor Battle [1979]
Astrosmash [1981]
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing [1988] (basically an updated rendition of U.S. Ski Team Skiing from 1980)
Sea Battle [1980]
Space Armada [1981]
Space Hawk [1981]
Sub Hunt [1981]

- KONAMI -
All following Konami titles are arcade games.
Battlantis [1987] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
*Never made available on compilation
Finalizer [1985] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
*Never made available on compilation
Jungler [1981] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
*Never made available on compilation
Road Fighter [1984] Ports and Related Releases/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Available on; Konami Arcade Classics (PSOne) and Konami Classic Series (DS)
Scramble [1981] Legacy/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Available on; Konami Arcade Classics (PSOne), Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced (GBA) and Konami Classic Series (DS), Xbox Live Arcade (Enhanced version lacking the option to play with original graphics. Released September 13, 2006)
Shao-Lin's Road [1985] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Available on; Konami Arcade Classics (PSOne) and Konami Classic Series (DS)
Super Cobra [1981] Wikipedia Entry/Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Available on; Konami Arcade Classics (PSOne)
Tutankham [1982] Arcade History Entry/KLOV Entry
Available on; Konami Classic Series (DS) as "Horror Maze"

If you'd like to know everything that's been made available since launch, the Wikipedia Entry on Game Room seems to cover everything. I'm probably not going to edit this blog entry and insert every game that has been added to the service since, nor will I start up new blog entries on the subject. Honestly, nothing too exciting has come about, and really only the arcade games interest me. Activision has joined the fray with some of their Atari 2600 offerings, and Namco is slated to join the party sometime in the future with games like Galaxian and Pac-Man.

Dave & Buster's Coming To Wisconsin

2010-01-17T00:28:00.016-06:00

Dave and Buster's Wauwatosa
Dave & Buster's Official Website
Dave & Buster's Wikipedia Entry
Dave & Buster's Facebook Page

2201-2215 N. Mayfair Road Wauwatosa, WI
21 and up
Guardian age 25 (6 minors to 1 adult maximum)
Sun - Thurs: 11am to 11pm
Fri - Sat: 11am to 1:30am
34,000 square feet
210 employees

D&B's opened on March 1st at 2201-2215 N. Mayfair Rd., near the Ewald dealership space and a one-acre strip between the auto dealer and the DSW buidling. The location is kitty-corner to Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, a suburb just west of Milwaukee.
This is the first Dave & Buster's in Wisconsin, and the structure was built from the ground up rather than converting an existing structure.

Dave and Buster's whirring to life Feb 17, 2010
Dave and Buster's targets March 3 opening Jan 5, 2010
Tosa overhauling development structure to lure projects July 24, 2009
Dave & Buster’s pays $5.7 million for Tosa site January 30, 2009
Council clears the way for Dave & Buster’s restaurant November 5, 2008
Committee puts brakes on Dave & Buster’s October 30, 2008
Wauwatosa wins a Dave and Buster's location July 11, 2008

I was initially a little irked by the continued pressure for reduced hours by a few Wauwatosa City Councilmen, which were moved from 2am to 1am on Sun-Thurs and 1:30am Fri & Sat, with the minimum age of entrance without supervision bumped up from 18 to 21, all in the name of accommodating "community concerns".
I realize that Mayfair and it's immediate area has it's share of security concerns, but in regards to Mayfair, isn't that mainly dealing with teens? And if I'm not mistaken, Dave & Buster's is strictly 21&up after a certain time (9pm).
"Alderman Craig Maher said he was concerned about the proposed hours of operation, which, according to conditions set by the Plan Commission, would have Dave & Buster’s closing at 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Maher motioned for the hours to conform with those at McCormick & Schmick’s (a high-end Seafood & Steaks restaurant), which closes at 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Wood said the corporation would work with the city to reduce hours if necessary, but requested those hours be extended slightly.
“An 11 o’clock curfew for an adult establishment, folks, is a little on the early side,” Purins said.
The motion to add an amendment reducing the hours failed, 12-3, with Maher, Dennis McBride and Tim Hanson supporting the motion.
Because the hours of operation are set by a conditional-use permit, the council may revisit the item at any time."

After all is said & done, the hours set for the Wauwatosa D&B are in line with the nearest D&B's (the 2 in Chicagoland and 1 in suburban Mpls).
In reference;
Addison, IL (opened Nov 1995) (21&up)
Sun-Thur closes at 11pm
Fri-Sat closes at 1am
Chicago, IL (opened Jan 1996) (18&up)
Sun-Thur closes at 11pm
Fri-Sat closes at 1am
Maple Grove, MN (suburban Mpls) (opened Nov 2006) (21&up)
Sun-Thur closes at 12am
Fri-Sat closes at 1am

Be that as it may, I still think it's silly to limit hours to an adult establishment (21 & up that serves alcohol) just because it has games. It's a double standard.
They don't have reduced hours at nearby Bigg's Roadhouse, Jojo's Martini Lounge, or Mo's Irish Pub now do they?

It's just ashame that "arcades" aren't really relevant anymore.
While the Dave & Buster's and Gameworks of the world may stock a couple newer games, the vast majority are outdated, and not in a vintage "golden age" kind of way rather games from 1995-2005 that should've been permanently retired a few years after they were released.
Sure there's Time Crisis 4 and House Of The Dead 4 and Tekken 6 (which are still 3, 4 years old), but fact of the matter is that there just aren't enough new games/installments being manufactured to keep gamers coming back.
If you take away that attraction you're left with food & drinks, which you can get elsewhere for less or for a comparable price in a more appropriate environment.

I still have a hard time accepting the fact that most arcades still have Daytona USA, a game that's over 15 years old now. The draw is of course the linked cabinets that allow for head-to-head competition, but as a racing game I never thought it was very good. If this location ships that outdated hunk of junk in, that's strike one.

Now we just need a Dave & Buster's in Madison. The Chuck E Cheese on Grand Canyon Dr is a sparce wasteland for arcade games.

Data East Arcade Classics

2010-01-17T00:24:00.031-06:00

Data East Arcade Classics Feb 16, 2010 $19.99
Data East site
Wikipedia Entry
Amazon
Data East began in 1976 and was a solid player in the 1980's and 90's arcade scene, releasing seminal titles such as Burgertime, Bump 'n' Jump, Karate Champ, Karnov, Bad Dudes, and Robocop among others.
Data East went bankrupt in 2003, and "most of Data East's intellectual properties were acquired in February 2004 by G-Mode (To see the list of games, check the Wikipedia entry on G-Mode), a Japanese mobile game content provider." G-Mode now licenses out Data East titles, and it's G-Mode whom you may thank for this compilation. It's important to note that this is the first compilation ever of Data East titles to be released.
Why this game is being released exclusively for the Wii I don't know. It deserves the added attention which would come from a multi-platform release, and it'd be nice to have Xbox 360 achievements and not be forced to purchase added peripherals to make the experience more authentic (as with the Wii's 'Classic Controller').

The included games are as follows;
BurgerTime [1982] and Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory (the rare sequel to Burger Time) [1984]
Bad Dudes (vs. Dragon Ninja)[1988]
Bump 'n' Jump (aka Burnin' Rubber) [1982]
Caveman Ninja (aka Joe & Mac) [1991]
Express Raider (aka Western Express) [1986]
Heavy Barrel [1987]
Lock 'n' Chase [1981]
Magical Drop III [1997]
Sly Spy (aka Secret Agent) [1989]
Side Pocket [1986]
Street Hoop [1994]
Super Real Darwin [1987]
Two Crude (aka Crude Buster) [1990]
Wizard Fire (aka Dark Seal II) [1992]

My only other complaint (aside from being released exclusively for the Wii) would be that some titles are missing in action, the most puzzling omission being that of Karate Champ [1984], a benchmark one-on-one fighting game credited for paving the way for all future fighting games like Capcom's Street Fighter series.

Photo courtesy of Fotoset
Perhaps they ran into difficulty figuring out a control scheme for the Wii (the arcade utilized dual joysticks), without forcing players to purchase the classic controller. To quote Gamespot in their review of SNK Classics Volume 1, another gaming compilation, in regards to the fighting games included within; "The GameCube controller isn't suited to fighting games and the (Wii) remote is outright allergic to them. If you want SNK Arcade Classics for the fighting games, the classic controller is your best bet..."

Other titles missing in action which I'd personally like to see included in a Data East compilation;
Bloody Wolf [1988] (shoot'em up)
While the Turbografx 16 port of Bloody Wolf is available through the Virtual Console service, an arcade-perfect port would've been the superior choice.
Break Thru [1986] (a horizontally scrolling shooter where you drive a military vehicle)
Cobra Command [1988] (a horizontally scrolling helicopter battle game based on their 1984 laserdisc game of the same name)
Double-Wings/KLOV Entry [1993] (Vertical scrolling shooter)
Gate Of Doom (aka Dark Seal) [1990] (fantasy hack-n-slash with an isometric view)
Dark Seal II (Wizard Fire) is included in the compilation, but not the first Dark Seal (Gate Of Doom)? Why not include both games, rather than skipping to the second in the series?
Darwin 4078 [1986] (Vertical scrolling shooter)
Again they've skipped the first in the series, fast-forwarding to the second with Super Real Darwin.
Desert Assault (aka Thunder Zone) [1991] (soldier shoot'em up)
While Desert Assault is a stand-alone title, it could easily be thought of as a spiritual successor to games like Heavy Barrel and Bloody Wolf.
Gondomania [1987] (Data East) (Rotary Controls)
Hippodrome [1988] (one-on-one fantasy themed fighter)
The Joe & Mac Quadrilogy
Why not just go ahead and include the entire Joe & Mac (Caveman Ninja) series, the Super Nintendo only sequels Congo's Caper (Joe & Mac 2) [1993] and Joe & Mac: Lost In The Tropics [1993] (known as Joe & Mac 2 in US and as Joe & Mac 3 overseas) (I realize this is an arcade compilation, but Capcom broke that rule by including Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts within Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1 just to cap off the trilogy, and I thought it made sense to do so), and finally the last game featuring the Joe & Mac characters, the arcade game Joe & Mac Returns [1994]
Midnight Resistance [1989] (military side-scrolling shoot'em up)
It would've been nice if they included Midnight Resistance, the sequel to Heavy Barrel. Both games used a rotary contol in arcades (first introduced by SNK's 1985 arcade game, TNK III), and I do wonder how the Wii remote will handle that. Even with dual analog sticks at your fingertips (something the Wiimote and Nunchuck lack), replicating rotary controls at home has always proved to be a daunting task.
Night Slashers [1994] (horror themed Final Fight style beat'em up)
Shoot Out [1985]
Super BurgerTime [1990]
Both Burgertime and it's (rare) sequel are included, why not complete the circle by adding Super Burgertime as well?

It would've been a treat if they were to include Data East's two Laserdisc arcade games, which are Cobra Command [1984] and Road Blaster [1985].
These two games were released on a single disc compilation as "Interactive Movie Action - Thunder Storm & Road Blaster" for the PSOne and Sega Saturn. Although it was never released outside of Japan.

Unfortunately, some of Data East's assets, including Karnov [1987] and Atomic Runner Chelnov [1988] (both side scrolling platformers) are owned by Paon Corporation rather than G-Mode. Karnov is a Data East favorite of mine and an arcade-perfect port has never been released. Many (like myself) may be most familiar with the NES version.

IP Unknown
Ring King [1987] (a boxing game, which laid the groundwork for games like Taito's Kageki and others).
The IP for Ring King is said to rest with either Namco or G-Mode, and will most likely remain unconfirmed.

Games that were created from licensed properties will remain lost in time, such as;
Captain America and the Avengers [1991] (Marvel) (side scrolling beat'em up), Robocop [1988]

and Robocop 2 [1991] (MGM) (both side scrolling shoot'em ups), and The Real Ghostbusters/KLOV Entry [1987] (Columbia Pictures) (an overhead shooter).

Now we just need to get Technos (another defunct developer, now owned by a company called Million), Irem, and especially Konami to release comprehensive compilations, and SNK to release their 'SNK Arcade Classics Volume 0' which features their pre/non Neo Geo Arcade games...

Hot Tub Time Machine

2010-01-17T00:18:00.007-06:00

Yeah, I'm gonna have to see that. It looks funny, and just a plain old good time.
It's almost like paying an homage to Cusack's character Lane Meyer from 1985's Better Off Dead, revisiting the ski resort featured in that film.

Though, I was surprised to read that Cusack hated Better Off Dead, and told the director “You know, you tricked me. Better Off Dead was the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don’t speak to me.”
It broke director Savage Steve Holland's heart (who also directed One Crazy Summer starring Cusack) and made him "not care about movies anymore".
Cusack; “The director wanted to do absurdist comedy and that’s just not the thing I like to do.”
I guess Cusack thought he was above the material. Cusack is said not to ever talk about Better Off Dead or One Crazy Summer, even though those films played a big part in introducing Cusack to the world.

Here's some more of Cusack hatin' on the eighties;
John Cusack Hates The Movies You Loved In The Eighties
Cusacks Transformation From Cool To Sad Sack
And as witnessed on Cusacks March 24th, 2010 appearance on Craig Ferguson, his feelings on the eighties haven't changed, nor is it likely they ever will. It's something fans of his have just had to come to accept. The problem isn't his honesty, it's that it comes across as jaded.
John Cusack; "No, at the end of Hot Tub Time Machine I think you find out that the eighties are not worth revisiting except in a very very broad black comedy or unless you're probably on psilocybin (a hallucinogenic) or some sort of drugs."

I'm going to assume, hopefully, that he's wised up and gotten over himself - since he is starring in a movie about a "Hot Tub Time Machine", and that's a premise about as absurd as they come.

UPDATE 8-21-08;
So I finally watched HTTM on DVD 8-20-2010, and it was pretty forgettable. The previews made it look a lot funnier than it actually was. None of the characters were very likeable so it was difficult to feel sympathetic for them.
A shallow one-note blanket representation of the eighties, showing that it takes a lot more than just costume design and an eighties soundtrack to capture an era on film.
You know what the best way to re-experience the eighties (on film) is? To pop in an actual movie from the eighties. Cusack can take as many pot-shots at the eighties as he'd like, but when it comes down to it, the movies starring Cusack which I'll purchase to own on DVD/Blu-Ray will be the ones which were actually filmed and released back in the 1980's.

Nintendo Wii Online Improves

2009-12-23T00:38:00.003-06:00

So I turned on my Wii for the first time in a long time recently and was pleasantly surprised.

One, they revamped the Nintendo Channel on September 14, 2009 and expanded the settings to include the option to view videos at high quality (yes please), not to mention started a weekly video review entitled "Nintendo Week" starring Gary and Allison. Nintendo Week's weekly installment's are too long, unfocused and juvenile, but overall a welcome addition.

Two, they've made the Internet Channel free for download again (previously it was 500 points, or $5).

Three, they have five WiiWare demos available on the Wii Shop Channel for download free of charge through the end of January. Of the five games, I highly recommend checking out Bit.Trip Void, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits and World Of Goo.

Now if they'd only break and begin offering demo's for Virtual Console games, and perhaps sell a hard drive add-on, I'd be turning on my Wii more often. I know that I would part with $50 for a hard drive peripheral.
There's a lot of games on the Virtual Console I'd love to try out without being forced to purchase. Konami for example has been reviving some of their IP's in classic 2D form under the ReBirth subtitle, starting with Gradius and Contra with Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth on it's way.

Resident Evil

2009-11-02T16:22:00.016-06:00

- Resident Evil -
Resident Evil Fan
For anyone who wants to review, it looks like an insane amount of work went into this thesis.

What's to say about the Resident Evil franchise that hasn't already been said? It's the game that brought 'survival-horror' to the masses. While Capcom may not have technically invented the style of gaming, nor was it the first game to feature zombies, it was the first to really make an action based survival-horror game playable and popularized zombies within the gaming world for years to come.

I've been with the series from the very beginning. I own and have played through RE 0-4 (+Code Veronica).

People forget about Code Veronica and that it was one of the Dreamcasts great exclusives (it wasn't ported to the PS2 for another year and half). Personally I think they should have given Code Veronica the official "3" numerical value and RE 3 something else, like "Resident Evil: Code Rebecca", as RE 3 was more of a side-story than Code Veronica was and took place during the events of RE 2 featuring some of the same environments.

I popped the Gamecube RE (remake), RE 0, and RE 4 into my Wii to clear out some memory blocks on my GC memory card and ended up revisiting those games longer than I had planned. I really liked the Gamecube RE remake, and wish that Capcom would've given RE2 and RE3 the same treatment.

If you've never played Resident Evil, or haven't played it since it's Playstation debut, I highly recommend picking up the Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero remakes which have been re-released for the Wii under the 'Resident Evil Archives' moniker.

As for RE4, I don't know how anyone couldn't get into that game. It was terrific - and having 3 entirely seperate environments made it almost feel like 3 different games rolled into one lengthy adventure.

- Resident Evil 5 -
Release Date: March 13, 2009

The titular character Chris Redfield is back! Chris hasn't been the main playable character since the very first game, and as a secondary playable character 3/4's of the way through Code Veronica.

I do wonder how Resident Evil 5 stacks up in the creep factor. One thing about all the other RE games is that the environments alone were always traditionally & stereotypically creepy.

While I'm sure we're probably get our share of lab/factory/underground settings somewhere in RE5, it's the main village setting which raises doubts. I'm not saying a remote african village full of killer 'not zombies' can't be unsettling in it's own way, but it's out in the open and mostly from what I've seen takes place during sunlight hours. It seems more of a setting for a Tom Clancy game than your traditional Resident Evil fare. I guess you gotta give props to Capcom for not rehashing the same environs for the umpteenth time though.

As for downloadable content, an episode entitled "Lost In Nightmares" is due February 17th, stars Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, and takes place in a RE1 throwback-esque style mansion setting.
The second episode entitled "Desperate Escape" is due March 3 (no details have yet been made available about it's content).
Finally, Resident Evil 5 "Gold Edition" is going on sale March 9, and will contain the two episodes and some other extras. If you don't already own Resident Evil 5 (like myself), you might as well wait until the Gold Edition drops.

The only games I don't own/haven't played in the series are Resident Evil Outbreak I & II on the PS2,

the gun games - which are Survivor on the PSOne and Dead Aim (also known as Survivor 2) on the PS2,

and The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles both for the Wii.

- The Resident Evil Movies -

Resident Evil (Live Action)
The first live-action Resident Evil film starring Milla Jovovich is really the only salvagable film of the trilogy. They just get worse from there on in.
A fourth in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, is set for 2011.
Resident Evil: Degeneration
I was impressed with Resident Evil: Degeneration. It features Leon (from RE2 and RE4) and Claire Redfield (from RE2 and Code: Veronica) and takes place after the events of Raccoon City. It has great graphics...errr uh CGI, and is much more in-line with the video game franchise than the increasingly bad live-action films starring Milla Jovovich.

It is also interesting to see what happened to the US after the events of Racoon City, as everything after RE2 and RE3 (Code: Veronica, RE4, RE5) has taken place in countries other than the good ole' US of A.

Resident Evil: Degeneration along with Final Fantasy: Advent Children (not Spirits Within, that movie was garbage) are great examples of how to do CGI movies based around video games right.

Halloween 2009: ZOMBIES!

2009-11-02T16:13:00.020-06:00

- ZOMBIE FILMS -
Find Me A Zombie
Zombies Bite

I like the Zombie genre, but unlike zombie movie fanboys, I think a truly great, epic zombie film that's truly scary with serious tone has yet to be done. Infact, I'd go as far as to say that a good 99.5% of zombie films are crap, unfortunately.

How do I like my zombies? I like 'em gruesome and slow, I don't believe they should all be capable of running, and I prefer my zombie flicks as straight-ahead creature features sans any heavy-handed social commentary please, thank you.
The infamous Tarman

My favorite zombie films;
Some of the films listed below are not true-to-spec "zombie films", but in the vain that any living dead are zombies, regardless of whether it was from airborne toxins, a virus, being buried on cursed ground, a comet, or taken over by slimy slug like creatures from outer space. If you're the walking dead, you might be a zombie.

Ahhh George Romero, "father of the zombie".
I've never been that much of a fan of the original B&W Night Of The Living Dead or Day Of The Dead, and Diary Of The Dead was an utter piece of crap.
I fell asleep during the Dawn Of The Dead remake starring Ving Rhames (yes, it was that good. I guess I'm just not a fan of Zack Snyder, I feel his movies are somehow devoid of substance), which took place in a fictional suburb of my hometown of Milwaukee, and I haven't seen the direct-to-DVD remake of Day Of the Dead directed by Steve Miner (also with Ving Rhames).
I'll check out Romero's newest, Survival Of The Dead, when it secures an official DVD release.

Even though I may think that Romero's zombie films as a whole are overrated, I do like select films in the Romero series/Home Page Of The Dead
Dawn Of The Dead[1978], Night Of The Living Dead [the 1990 remake by Tom Savini], and Land Of The Dead[2005],

Return Of The Living Dead I[1985] & II[1988],

Night Of The Comet[1984] and Night Of The Creeps[1986],

Pet Sematary[1989] (not really a "zombie film", but does feature the undead),

Shaun Of The Dead[2004], Slither[2006], and Planet Terror[2007],

28 Days Later[2002] and 28 Weeks Later[2007],

and Quarantine[2008]

Other notables;
Resident Evil[2002] (the first film in the live-action adaptation of the video game was the least worst of the series), and the CG film Resident Evil: Degeneration[2008].

As for the pre-1980's so-called "classics", I've seen 1971's Amando de Ossorio's Tombs Of The Blind Dead and Return Of The Blind Dead for the first time a year or two ago.

Tombs Of The Blind Dead is sometimes recommended as a zombie film, but "Ossorio objected to the description of the living dead Templars as "zombies," insisting that they more resembled mummies and that, unlike zombies, the Templars were not mindless corpses.", and I agree with that assessment.

Holy mackeral, that was some seriously laughable shit. Not only did I not find it scary, but also rather exploitative as well with the whole lesbian thing, rape, and you get to see almost every girl in the movie topless at some point.
The sequel had a couple of the same actors (who died in the first one) playing different roles, but looking nearly the same! More topless shots, and one attempted rape.

I have yet to see Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 from 1979.

-Video Games Featuring Zombies -
It's almost hard to believe there was a time when those pesky undead weren't running amuck within the video gaming world.

One of the first post-golden age home console games to feature a zombie theme was Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Super Nintendo version pictured above), which was released back in 1993.
The SNES version was recently released (Oct 26, 2009) for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console.

The Resident Evil series, debuting on the Sony Playstation in 1996, is the title best known for bringing Zombie's to the forefront of gaming for years to come. (See upcoming blog post)

The House Of The Dead series is a popular "on-rails" gun game which debuted in arcades in 1996, and has subsequently seen numerous home console ports starting with the first in the titular series for the Sega Saturn in 1998. Though it may be better known for the near arcade-perfect port of House Of The Dead 2 for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999.

House Of The Dead 2 & 3 [2008] and House Of The Dead Overkill [2009] were both released exclusively for the Wii (Overkill having the dubious honor of being the first video game to receive the Guinness World Record title of most swearing in a video game with 189 counts of the "F" word).
Here's to hoping Sega decides to release House Of The Dead 4 on the Wii as well.

Taking a page from George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead with a shopping mall setting, Dead Rising was released for the Xbox 360 in 2006, it's sequel planned for a Q1 2010 release date.

Left 4 Dead for the Xbox 360 was released in 2008, while it's sequel is set to be released November 17, 2009.

And lastly, another fun game is Zombie Apocalypse, which was released for download on their respective consoles through Xbox Live and Playstation Home in 2009.

Halloween 2009: DOOM

2009-10-30T17:48:00.021-05:00

DOOM Offical Site Of The Games
Doom Wikia
Doom World
Planet Doom
Wikipedia Entry on the Doom series
Doom has been a series of games that has both entertained and scared the pants off of me.
It took a pair of twisted minds, John Romero and John Carmack, to create the phenomena.

- DOOM 1 -
Wikip edia Entry
The Doom Bible
John Romero's Doom site
Old Doom

- Doom Playstation -
Moby Games entry, Doom Playstation Wiki
I was first introduced to Doom in late 1995 (roughly two years after it's initial release on the PC), when the Playstation port was released. Along with millions of others, I spent countless hours playing Doom. Years later, I picked up Final Doom for the Playstation used.

Unique to the Playstation port, a dark, sinister and more ambient soundtrack by Aubrey Hodges/Moby Games entry replaced the PC's Bobby Prince's corny-ass heavy metal-esque soundtrack. My Doom experience is inexplicably intertwined with Aubrey Hodges bone-chilling score, and playing/listening to the original PC game, I have difficulty understanding how the PC version even scared people.
You can download and listen to Aubrey's Playstation Doom soundtrack in it's entireity (2 CD's worth), HERE. It's creep factor stands on it's own even without the game.

A 2006 photo.

Even when compared to future installments, with it's outdated graphics and old-school gameplay, there's still something very unsettling about the original Doom to me. Perhaps it's the seemingly neverending non-sensical maze-style stage layouts, complete with a punishingly large assortment of switches and secret doors. Afterall, I can't think of anything more hellish than being placed in a infinite maze you can never seem to find your way out of, but are given just enough incentive to make you think you can. (By comparison, to raise the level of realism they tried to make the mars base of Doom3 a tad more sensical, and I was thankful for that!)

- Doom Novels -
I only read the first book in the series (out of 4), partially on account of the fact that my library system had 1, 3 and 4 in the series, but was missing #2. That and the plot takes the "alien race is growing the creatures" angle in the 3rd & 4th books, which I wasn't interested in exploring.

There were theories presented in the first book (Knee Deep In The Dead) which did not interfere with the Doom games. Information which wasn't "fleshed out" in the games, but perhaps implied.
-THE STORYLINE-
1) The facilities were built around "the gates" to take advantage of the artificial gravitational field they created (which was about 1/2 of earths, whereas phobos' was near zero). The teleport pads, gates and gravity generators were all there when humans first arrived on mars.

2) Deimos gets transported to hell, and eventually into earths orbit (in the book).

3) They were taking our nightmares, what we fear, and making them real. Our conception of hell.

4) It's all a test to see how humans react. Ultimately to effectively stage an earthly invasion. The invasion of the moons of Mars is a war game. Rats in a maze.

-THE CREATURES-
1) The "sour lemon" smell illicits rage in men. It raises testosterone and brings about an adrenal rush making one berserk.

2) One "brain" per set of demons (Imps in the book). Kill the head and the rest turn on eachother. The mind behind the invasion had the power to manifest itself through only one or two individuals in a group.

3) They genetically engineer, breed & raise, the demons and farm human flesh & organs in attempt to create "super-zombies".

4) The Spider Mastermind has telepathic powers. It controls the demons (who are all basically mindless & careless and fight amongst themselves without orders), and can even speak through lesser demons (it speaks through an Imp near the beginning and tells main character if he surrenders and helps they will let him live). The Spider Mastermind can also (telepathically) cause hallucinations evoking terror upon it's target. A wave of hypnogenic horror.
In the book the Spider Mastermind's telepathic abilities were powered by a central unit, however.

- Doom 3 -

Some critized Doom3 for being overly simplistic for a next-generation game, but that's Doom, and I enjoyed it just the way it was. So much so, that later I picked up the Doom: Resurrection Of Evil expansion used.

This was the first Doom game not to have continuously running music, and before I played Doom3, I was a little nervous about this fact considering how much I admired Aubrey Hodges work on the Playstation ports of Doom. But it turns out that the relative silence worked wonders in Doom3.

My main criticism of Doom3 would be that I didn't think a design overhaul of every DOOM baddie was necessary. A graphic upgrade yes, an entire redesign no. In most cases they made the creatures a bit less "demonic" and more other worldly. Also, I felt in many cases the creatures in Doom3 were overly detailed, and that the player gets few chances to really appreciate that detail. And since you're usually gunning them down at a distance, that detail is wasted.

I didn't appreciate a few of the creature redesigns and found them to be a downgrade, most particularly; The Imps...

I preferred the Imps grunts and more humanoid appearance in the original games.
The Cacodemons...

In the original games, the Cacodemons were large lumbering creatures, who let out a satisfying low-register moan when killed. The Cacodemons in Doom 3 were smaller, faster, and missing it's identifiable cyclops eye.

Note the removal of the iconic horns from the Barons and Lost Souls.

Although to their credit, in Doom: Resurrection Of Evil expansion, The Forgotten, a Lost Soul-variant was added. It more closely resembled the Lost Souls from the original games, being a blazing horned skull without any cybernetic parts.

They also revamped the Pinky Demon's. While the new creature design was awesome, where the Pinky Demon got upgraded to a large-class creature, I also kinda missed the old Doom Pinky Demons.

The most disappointing exclusion from Doom 3 was that of the Spider Mastermind. A promising sketch was made in preliminary development, but was not implemented.

Doom III Documentary

Mesh Does Doom 3 Compilation

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

- Doom Movie [2005] -
Wikipedia Entry

Not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. On the 'movies based on video-games' scale, I'd probably put in the upper-echelon (along with Max Payne, and the first Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat).

To me, the big failure lies within altering the biggest core element of the story (first on the novels based on the game and now the film). For some reason fighting off genuine 'creatures from hell' isn't satisfactory for many writers and they have to tinker with the formula which makes Doom, Doom. I mean, that's one of the things that differentiated Doom in the gaming world. There is a plethora of games where you fight alien invaders, but few where you battle with demons from hell. It made Doom stand out from the crowd.

In the movie they wrote it that an extra strand of DNA gives people supernatural abilities and dependant upon whether they are genuinely good or evil it transforms them into either creatures/zombies or gives them supernatural powers without disfiguring their body.
The first-person sequence (5:28) was fun. Barons/Hell Knights do not wield chainsaws in the games, and why would they need to with their imposing stature?

What's next? Doom 4 is in development, but reportedly we'll have to wait until Quakecon 2010 in August to hear news on the project.

Halloween 2009: The Thing

2009-10-27T20:31:00.018-05:00

The Thing is one of my favorite creature features, second only to Alien/Aliens. From the cold and secluded atmosphere to the pulsing drone of the score by Ennio Morricone.

One of the great things about The Thing is that the film doesn't spell everything out for you, and the many unanswered questions which the viewer may raise during the course of the film. Even the actors who played MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs (Keith David) cannot tell you (do not know) 'til this day who is who (or what) at the conclusion of the film.

The FAQ page of Outpost 31 (the ultimate Thing fansite) tries to answer many of these questions. Though I still have a few of my own which are not addressed there;

1) When/how was Palmer assimilated?
I tend to believe that it was Norris' shadow intended to be on the wall in the infamous "whose shadow was on the wall" debate (the actual physical shadow was cast by a crew member, and not one of the actors), when the infected dog enters the room.

2) What is 'The Thing's' TRUE form? (The "Blair Monster" is an amalgamation of everything it had assimilated, other than perhaps it's head which, hypothetically speaking, could have been from an other worldy creature it had assimilated prior to landing on earth). Does it have a "true form"? Or is it merely 'a disease' or biological warfare formulated at a cellular level?

3) Is 'The Thing' consciously malevolent, or is it simply on "auto-pilot" with an innate sense of survival driven towards the repopulation of it's species? If the former is the case, one could make the arguement that the human-race and 'The Thing' aren't so different.

What say you?

The Comics
Like Dark Horse has done for the AVP/Aliens/Predators franchise, one can only hope that they re-release their out-of-print and hard to find comics line for The Thing in their Omnibus format when the "companion piece" of The Thing nears release in movie theaters.
"John Carpenter himself has mentioned (both in print and at public appearances) that if he were to do a sequel he would base it on the Dark Horse comics."
I shot an email off to Dark Horse, and Spencer from Dark Horse Comics responds; "There are currently no plans for such an omnibus, but I will definitely hold onto this email as a tally for suggestions that go to our Editorial dept."
The Dark Horse comics are as follows;
The Thing From Another World and The Climate Of Fear which is a direct follow-up to the film,

(as it stands right now those on Amazon & Ebay tend to ask upwards of $200 for the out-of-print graphic novel!)
Eternal Vows 1-4,

and Questionable Research 1-4.

There also was a video game released for the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Windows platforms in 2002, and (like the Dark Horrse comics The Thing From Another World & Climate Of Fear) is set after The Things ending. It garnered solid reviews, and although I've never played it I'd love to pick it up from the bargain bin or Ebay someday.

In 2007 Universal Studios Orlando ran 'The Thing Assimilation' as part of it's annual Halloween Horror Nights/Official Site. I thought it looked pretty cool, wish I could've seen it!

Here is a music video from french duo Zombie Zombie, which utilized GI Joe action figures with stop motion animation to create an homage to The Thing.

An infected 'The Thing' fan even made his very own 30 minute fan film. I can't give it a thumbs up, but the work he put into fabricating the creatures is astounding!
The Thing fan film Part 1 (of 4)

Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

The Thing Prequel

Release date: April 29, 2011
Wikipedia Entry/IMDB Entry

From Wikipedia; In early 2009, Variety and Bloody-Disgusting reported the launch of a project to film a prequel—possibly following MacReady's brother during the events leading up to the opening moments of the 1982 film— with Matthijs van Heijningen as director and Ronald D. Moore as writer (later replaced by Eric Heisserer). In March 2009, Moore described his script as a "companion piece" to Carpenter's film and "not a remake.""We're telling the story of the Norwegian camp that found the Thing before the Kurt Russell group did," he said.

Armed with a budget of 38 million, the prequel is due to be filmed in Toronto, Canada on March 15, 2010 until June 17, 2010.
Relative unknowns, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Final Destination 3D) and Joel Edgerton (Star Wars: Episode II) will play the lead characters of Kate and Sam.
We can only cross our fingers and hope that after all these years, The Thing's legacy doesn't deteriorate into a 'teen slasher' flick.

And as far as remakes and the casting of young actors, from one of the featurettes on the 2005 remake of The Fog;
John Carpenter;
"I've heard several reasons why horror films are being remade. One is I think probably is, the simplest explanation is a lot of kids have heard of these movies but they've never really seen them. Maybe their older brothers or their parents talk about them so it's in their consciousness but they've never really paid attention.
But in general there is a cultural mindset right now that says anything over 15 years old is kind of dead and old fashioned. And so in order to make it viable again we need to take it out and kind of give it a fresh coat of paint and try to revise a corpse."
David Foster (producer of John Carpenter's The Thing, also a producer on the prequel);
"From a business point of view, horror films are young peoples films. So we specifically went out and said, Ok, lets get some popular attractive young actors & actresses in this film."
"It was really a specific plan to go after fresh young faces that are popular with the young people today."

I just hope that wasn't the mindset of whomever the producers are on The Thing prequel. But considering the casting choices, I wouldn't doubt it.

21st Century Madison: East Side Developments

2009-10-18T19:10:00.004-05:00

Rising in the east; 52 acres of prime real estate are fueling dreams of redevelopment February 2, 2007

Royster-Clark Fertilizer Plant

Habitat for Humanity agrees to build homes on Royster-Clark site September 23, 2009

Garver Feed Mill

Public To Weight In On Arts Incubator April 1, 2009
Give Garver project a green light April 2, 2009
Garver Feed Mill Arts Incubator April 13, 2009

Photo courtesy of Letters From here blogger

From The Archives; Creative Workplaces In The Madison Area

2009-10-13T18:58:00.011-05:00

I'm a big proponent of creative design in regards to the workplace. No, it's not everything. But I would appreciate it if I were fortunate enough to work for a company that had creativity in mind when commissioning the building/workspace. Anything to make a job seem less like a job and more like super happy fun-time is OK with me.

A few years back I commented on (the lobby in) Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc. in Middleton after reading an article in the WSJ.

I once saw a piece on the new EPIC Systems Architect site/Company site/Art Installations/Voyager Hall & Epicenter Construction building in Verona on channel 5. Now I knew it was an expensive and expansive project, but I didn't know they had taken liberties with the conventional workplace design, as sampled in the photos below.

Top four photos courtesy of Pointy Kitty Studios.

Top two photos courtesy of 90 Degree Studios.

Top two photos courtesy of Sarah Best's Flickr page

Hallway photo courtesy of Glenn Loos-Austin's Flickr page

Is it safe to say that the EPIC Systems campus in Verona is the most architecturally creative building in the greater Madison area?
Sidenote; They've spared no expense in creating a "cool" work space, but I've heard that EPIC Systems is notorious for hiring recent green college grads (a minimum of a bachelor's degree is required to work there) and turning them into corporate slaves with 60+hr work weeks. Not exactly super happy fun-time!

Are there others (on a smaller scale) that have taken risks in the aesthetics dept. which I am not aware of? Sonic Foundry? Raven Software?(I'd been in the lobby of Raven Software and while it had nice clean lines and game poster's on the walls, it was still 'just a lobby').
How about Full Compass' new headquarters?

Are there any buildings in the east side business park (or the east side in general) that are architecturally creative?
The corporate headquarters of Madison's largest privately-owned co., American Family Insurance, surely didn't seem so. I heard some employee's used to refer to it as a prison. Almost does look like a supermax from a distance. WPS also seemed fairly standard, although I hear the older buildings are the worst. The Virchow Krause (now Baker Tilly) headquarters certainly isn't anything special. The lunch room is different but nothing spectacular. And the window-seat stools are really uncomfortable.
One would not expect businesses like accounting and insurance to design their buildings with creativity in mind. But then again EPIC Systems designs software for the health care industry.
So what about IT and (educational) software? The EDS (now HP Enterprise Services) Bridge st. building (especially the lower level) is dismal. Douglas Stewart took some liberties with the new area for their marketing department, with a warehouse like feel and loud colors. That would be a good example of creative design not always being to everyone's liking.

21st Century Madison: Growing Pains

2009-09-27T15:00:00.024-05:00

Madison, stop dragging your feet. Stop eyeing everything from a defensive stance and coming up with alternative plan upon alternative plan and forcing developers to compromise on their original vision. To view every larger scale proposal with such trepedation. It's tired. It's annoying.

- DOWNTOWN -
Approve the Edgewater Hotel Redevelopment plan.
A big boost for Edgewater: Mayor Cieslewicz will support $16 million in funding for hotel August 28, 2009

Approve the plan for the new Downtown Public Library/Developers Site

To be honest though I don't have much personal interested invested in the Library and Edgewater plans. Neither would change much of anything, like connectivity or Madison's social & cultural landscape. I use Linkcat and am in and out at my local library branch, and in all the years I've been here I've never had any reason to go to the Edgewater. And is there really a need for more hotel rooms on the Isthmus?
Central Park and Commuter Rail however, I would actually utilize.

Remove the outdated building height restriction [PDF] (after a couple years of living here, you've seen enough of the capital to last a lifetime) which really came into focus when a developer "dared" to propose a project that would alter Madison's skyline.
Proposals For East Washington Protect View Of The Capitol December 21, 2005
How High Is Too High? April 2, 2006
Confront city's fear of heights October 18, 2009

That project was Archipelago Village, a 27 story development proposed by Curt Brink along the 900 block of East Washington Ave back in 2005.
E. Wash Colossus Planned The Massive Building Would Be The City's Costliest Ever March 13, 2005
Developer Plans 27-Story Project For East Washington March 16, 2005

It didn't pass go initially, but it did succeed in stirring discussion.
27-story complex stirs urban growth debate April 7, 2005
Where the project stands today;
Exciting Development Plan Is 'Alive' But Smaller September 20, 2008

Another East Washington project that didn't go through? Avenue 800 on the Don Miller lot. Gorman dropped the Avenue 800 housing and retail project because of a $2 million difference with the city over public assistance. A missed opportunity?

Next, onto areas of Madison more in need of redevelopment. Of all the main thoroughfares of Madison, the two which should take priority with redevelopment in mind are East Washington Ave and Stoughton Road (US 51). Not far behind the list would be Park Street (work has been done to redevelop Villager Mall/Developer). For far too much attention, money and development has been given to the west side over the years.

- EAST WASHINGTON AVENUE CORRIDOR -
The East Washington Avenue Reconstruction Project (in phase 4)

Make Central Park/Old UOSF site (archived) happen in it's most grandiose incarnation.
Surrounded By Reality's Central Park summation.

‘Millennium park’ may come to city (an early article when the location of Madison's 'Central Park' wasn't yet determined) March 15, 2007
Central Park Plan Priorities Panel Recommends Madison Build 'First-Class Urban Park' March 5, 2008
What Happened To Madison's Central Park? It May Still Be Years Away June 30, 2009

Where "Central Park" stands today. All that's been done is the planting of a few trees. Not exactly the grand vision planners had in mind. Photo courtesy of Madison Views.
Mayor gives big boost to Central Park in capital budget September 2, 2009

P.S. NO MORE CONDOS! Madison already has a gluttony of new (and unsold) condos.
I don't know anyone (myself included) who desires to purchase/live in a condo. Most like myself want to buy homes, or live in (affordable) apartments until that day comes.
With Glut Of Condos Still On Market, The Biggest Projects Are Apartment Buildings August 9, 2009

The economic downturn has inevitably caused many projects to downsize, stall or put on indefinite hold (Central Park, Union Corners). Not to mention stir up more opposition and in-fighting.
Central Park panel backs bare-bones, affordable plan July 15, 2009
Consortium eyes stalled Union Corners development October 5, 2009
Council members want referendum on library, Edgewater redevelopment October 9, 2009

Additional reading on development in downtown Madison;
The Sky's The Limit: Downtown Madison Keeps Growing Up David Medaris February 20, 2009
Welcome To Boom Town Marc Eisen 2/18/2005

- STOUGHTON ROAD CORRIDOR/EAST SIDE -
Let's get things moving on the Tradewinds Business Center! (Consulting Firm)

Southeast Business Park Breaks Ground August 5, 2006
Marcus Plans New Cinema For Southeast Madison August 8, 2006
Marcus Proposes 12-Screen Theater August 9, 2006
Entertainment Center In The Works August 11, 2008
Motel, Bowling Alley, Theater To Break Ground Soon August 12, 2008
More entertainment options for Madison's east side August 13, 2008

The Stoughton Road Revatilization Project [SRRP Brochure in PDF format]
Simply put as the website states; "Stoughton Road from East Broadway to Highway 30 is not visually welcoming. It is not aesthetically pleasing. And it does not profile Madison as a high quality urban space."
I was pleased to hear about this. I've traveled up and down Stoughton Road/Hwy 51 probably more than any of Madison's main thoroughfares, and it ain't ever been "pretty". A makeover has been long overdue.
I just think it needs some beautification. A better front. More trees, updated street lights, improved intersections (The Dept of Transportation identified Stoughton Road as having Madison's most dangerous intersections), make it pedestrian friendly. Perhaps more attractive/desireable retail & business along the Stoughton Rd/Hwy 51 corridor. Sometimes I'll drive up & down Monona Drive as an alternative (even though it's slower and has more stop lights) just because I find it to be more of an aesthetically pleasing route.
I don't necessarily believe that it needs to become a "freeway" to achieve success.

Stoughton Road Business Developments;
Stoughton Road As A Freeway March 17, 2006
$40 Million Hotel Condo Proposed April 20, 2006
Talula replaced the failed Mexicali Rose, which had replaced the long-standing CJ's
Restaurant To Open At CJ's Site June 6, 2006
Talula Starts Off On The Right Note June 29, 2008

- THE BELTLINE CORRIDOR -
Madison really got screwed over on the 32 mile power lines along the beltline. As if the beltline isn't ugly enough as it is!
Beltline route chosen for power line as PSC approves 32-mile project June 12, 2009

It's good to see that Arbor Gate has made full use of space off of the somewhat dismal Todd Dr and W Beltline exit, where most pre-existing structures do not make the best use of space.

I've always thought that there should be more ways to get from one end of Madison to the other, and while I wouldn't have been regularly utilizing the hotly debated North Beltline (RIP), if it would've helped to ease congestion on the Beltline I'm still for it.

In Closing; If Madison wasn't always trying to be a model city seated at the head of the class perhaps things wouldn't be so difficult for business owners and those who think outside of the box [it took nearly sixty years for Frank Lloyd Wright's vision for the Monona Terrace to be brought to reality. I could just see Madison's city leader's sitting in a locked room for sixty years debating the possible positives & negatives of the project.]

If you want to be a legitimately dynamic city, and not just a one-trick pony "college town" with Westowne on one end, Easttowne on the other, and The Capital, State Street and the University in the middle, you need to take some chances. I realize this is a planned city and not a city that just happened by accident, but sometimes you just have to let things happen and allow things to run their course. I'd like to see Madison grow around me. I've been here over 15 years now and while Madison has made some great strides in that time, it sometimes seems that the more things change the more they stay the same.

I realize there's much pull in the opposite direction. I can only sympathize for all who long for the Madison they discovered when they first moved here, for those who moved here to escape the perils of larger city life, or for those looking for the perfect & quaint small to mid-size city to widdle away their years. But the momentum of growth has already gained speed, and to stop it now would be a big red mark against the city.
As for all the growth that's taken place, I feel that it's given much more than it's taken away.

Local Development Links;
City Of Madison Department Of Planning
Competitive Wisconsin
Future Wisconsin
Wisconsin Business
Wisconsin Development News
Wisconsin Planners

From The Archives: 21st Century Milwaukee

2009-09-20T15:41:00.023-05:00

Discovery World opens it's doors.

The new 63.7 million dollar facility opens along the shores of Lake Michigan, adjacent to Lakeshore Park which had it's formal opening in Spring of 2007.
"Discovery World has launched a "Year of Discovery" to unveil its exhibits as they're completed." Discovery World's project completion date was September of 2007.

I used to go to the original Discovery World in the building across the street from the MPM. Back in the day it was more of the hands-on alternative to the Milwaukee Public Museum.
"Discovery World first opened its doors on the top floor of the Milwaukee Public Library in 1984. Then operations were moved over to Milwaukee Public Museum in 1994 and most recently at the Pier Wisconsin location in 2006."

Quoted from the Milwaukee Journal, here are some of the upcoming exhibits to appear;
LifeJet City
A "think tank" village where visitors can incubate ideas and "identify their own passions, and turn what they love to do into wealth" through ideas and prototypes, according to Discovery World spokeswoman Cynthia Johnson. Includes manufacturing, bank and ad agency areas where people can create a business plan and their own marketing program.
Johnson Controls' TechnoJungle
Will have four major areas, including a "base camp," (a video orientation), secret lab (where visitors can piece together notes and diagrams left behind by a "lost engineering team"), Smart Vehicle display (where visitors can prototype and test interior safety technologies), and TechTopia, (where visitors can share their experiences, with access to body-scanning and other technologies).
Briggs & Stratton's Milwaukee Muscle
Demonstrates the history of machinery, from lifting devices of the 1800s to cars of the future.
Badger Meter Corp.'s Liquid House
An urban house built of water introducing concepts of water flow and measurement in the household setting.

State's Largest & Most Advanced, The Daniel M. Soref Planetarium opens for business November 10th, 2006.

I thought Sonic Vision sounded pretty cool; "With a mix by Moby and featuring tracks from Radiohead, U2, David Bowie, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, Prodigy, The Flaming Lips, Fischerspooner, Spiritualized, Audioslave, Stereolab, Boards of Canada, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Goldfrapp, Zwan, White Zombie, and Moby, the music ignites this one-of-a-kind computer-generated musical and visual experience, which uses next-generation digital technology to illuminate the planetarium's dome with a dazzling morphing of colorful visions."

Pabst City

Once upon a time there was a plan to renovate the old Pabst Brewery into a $317 million dollar entertainment oriented project named "Pabst City". Pabst City was to include a House of Blues music venue, a Gameworks arcade & restaurant, an authentic German restaurant hall called the Hofbrauhaus - similar to the famous Munich restaurant, and a Marcus owned downtown theater.
On a local scale, pabst City was somewhat similar to the 2001 renovation of Block E in Minneapolis, albeit on a larger scale (over twice the development cost), and with a House Of Blues in place of a swanky nightclub and a German Beer Hall in place of a Hard Rock Cafe.
The project called for a $41 million dollar loan from the city, which was to be repaid by the additional property taxes the project would generate. The Milwaukee council voted it down and thus the project was dead.
Yes it's true, the project was large and risky and may have been based on a partially outdated plan for downtown revivial. But still, I for one am really disappointed to hear this. Personally I see this as denying a great opportunity and works against the revitalization of downtown Milwaukee. I'm with OMC when they said that "Killing PabstCity is an embarassing vote for status quo" July 26, 2005.

The latest on the Pabst Project? They've went with a much more fiscally sound, and less exciting plan to incorporate condos and office space. For a while Marcus was still on for a theater in Pabst, but eventually they too dropped out. Marcus says they're still interested in putting a theater downtown, just not within the Pabst Project.

Asian funds sought for redevelopment March 28, 2008

Bayshore Town Center opens

Bayshore emerges from cocoon Oct 29 2006
Grand opening was November 2nd, it was a reported 360 million dollar project, and it opened at 70% capacity.
"The new Bayshore Town Center adds several new buildings to the existing Bayshore Mall infrastructure to create 45-acre "town center" concept featuring 1.2 million sq. ft. of retailers, restaurants, office space and residential space, as well as a town square that will host public events and concerts."
Bay shops want to keep up with new neighbor Oct 29 2006
Bayshore Town Center feels like a little retail village November 2, 2006
Take the Milwaukee Challenge: Bayshore vs. Mayfair Dec 20 2006
The grand opening of Bayshore Town Center in Glendale has brought the Milwaukee area a maelstrom of new shops & restaurants. Much of the tenant listing reads like a who's who of what's hot today. A Trader Joe's, an H&M (with Men's clothing), Brooks Brothers, and an Apple Store.
On the restaurant front Bayshore has scored Wisconsin's first California Pizza Kitchen, a 2nd Milwaukee area Cheesecake Factory, and a 2nd Milwaukee area Bar Louie's/OMC Article.

Move over Greenway Station (Madison), you've been one-upped.

Harley Davidson Museum

The museum, a $75 million dollar complex, opened to the public on July 12, 2008
Harley museum's debut set, July 12 will be opening day for anticipated major tourist attraction May 6, 2008
Harley-Davison Museum is a slice of Hog heaven August 29, 2008

Milwaukee Public Market
Public Market prepares to swing open it's doors Sept 28, 2005

Bradford Beach Water Garden
http://www.friendsofbradfordbeach.org/
Bradford Beach Group Unveils New Design Ideas July 28, 2005
Bradford Beach house poised for makeover May 15, 2008

A Milwaukee Chinatown? June 17, 2008

Other Milwaukee Development Projects
Department Of City Development
Park East Development
Third Ward Development