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More plastic windows into my junk
posted by Joe
03.10.10 11:38PM

Not nearly as filthy as it sounds.

Yes, I have an entire bin for Pokemon plushies.

And Neopets, but don't tell the Pokemon that.

I discovered a lot of board games that I forgot I had. In fact, that would make a moderately entertaining weblog entry. This bin has a selection of games covering at least 25 years, from The Three Stooges VCR Game through Travel Cluedo to Lord of the Rings Trivia. Never played Bootleggers.

And that's where Vapor's Gambit rests, folks.

Remember when Magic tried to branch out into family games themed to the M:tG world? I didn't either, until I saw that Earthquake game again for the first time in ten years.

Killer Bunnies, if you haven't picked up on my website's ongoing anti-Killer Bunnies sub-theme, is supremely terrible.

Here's some fairly recent acquisitions, a bin packed with video gaming paraphernalia. At bottom right is a stack of Game Boy instruction manuals. Right beside it is all my PlayStation Underground disks.

We just need to set up the carpeting appointment (and the cable outlet hookups), and then our new basement room is done. We're filling it with existing furniture so our little expense train comes to a temporary stop. We have already moved the Mappy down there... and shifting coin-op units down stairs is not their intended use. They were intended to sit on a ground floor dive and con kids out of quarters. Given that the basement has no egress other than those stairs, it seems highly probably that, should we ever move, the new owners will receive a free Mappy. That, or we'll have to install a service elevator. Which would be pretty badass.

My stuff, seen through plastic
posted by Joe
03.09.10 07:16PM

During the basement renovation, I was able to sort a lot of my junk. Toys, games, books, music all re-boxed and re-stacked on the unfinished side of the basement. We bought a bunch of transparent bins to help me organize, and I was amused to note how things look when smashed up against the side of a clear plastic box. These, then, are those pictures.

I once had a Lego city sprawled over a regulation-size ping pong table. Today those Lego bricks fit inside two plastic bins.

Seemed like more than that when I was a kid.

I think I have a complete collection of Food Fighters toys. Beat that! This box also has a bag of Dragon Ball toys, plus all my Ninja Turtles figs.

Super-hero action figures. There's Penguin from the Legends of the Dark Knight line. The Thing from the early 90s Marvel Heroes. Animated Two-Face. Thanos from the Fantastic Four cartoon. Aquaman as the middle of a Cyclops / Invisible Woman sandwich. And, of course, Fairchild from Gen13. I think that one was a mail-order.

I would have thought I had more Star Wars stuff than this. These toys are mainly from the Power of the Force line, which, for me, lasted from the Special Edition through The Phantom Killed The Franchise Menace. This box also has my few Gundam models and Simpsons figures.

This box is mostly filled with accessories, like the Kyle Rayner Power Battery and Iceman's cheap ice sled (or was that Blizzard's?) As I packed the other figure boxes, I had to dump some guys in here, like Earthworm Jim. There's a Dexter's Lab robot right behind him. And I think the orange shape is Nova's base (like, Frankie Raye Herald Nova, not stupid helmet Spider-Man D-cast Nova).

B&W Sunday Scan: Sam and Max - The Damned Don't Dance
posted by Joe
03.07.10 12:43PM

As I was cleaning up some old junk, I found these comic photocopies that I had hanging up in my college dorm room(s). They're probably all from Critters #50 (1990), but I'm too lazy to go double-check that. Either way, Critters #50 was an awesome issue.

Because these comics are so great, I'm going to queue up a bunch of them to auto-publish on Sundays. Enjoy!

Another Sam and Max adventure, one that I am not going to hold for the holidays.

The Week in Links | Joe, 03.05.10
No More Heroes 2 - Fast Money Trick (YouTube)
Great trick to big money in one of the No More Heroes 2 8-bit minigames. I noticed this potential when I played, but I hated the minigames so hard that I did not bother to investigate.

Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore (Kotaku)
A highly worthy half-hour read of life in Japan, from Tim Rogers' grumpy perspective. Portal updated with extended ending (Joystiq)
That's a pretty great idea for a short, updateable game like Portal: issue an update that slightly adds to the ending, to whip up some excitement for the sequel. [more]

Heavy Rain: Where Walking Breaks Immersion | Joe, 03.03.10

heavyrain-madison.jpg
Heavy Rain is about choices. Odd choices. Sometimes odd choices from the developer. It is a strange little game, the kind of release that really doesn't deserve the massive hype Sony threw at it... because most people simply are not going to want to play it. It is a polarizing game, because it is not exactly a game. At least, not as we think of them. Heavy Rain is closer to "game" than, perhaps, Noby Noby Boy, but it still veers far afield of most. I'll confess that I really did not have much interest in this one, until I played the demo. And even after that, Heavy Rain did not become a instant purchase. I could have waited for a price drop. The main reason I picked it up last weekend was because everybody else already is playing it and the game is so unfortunately spoiler-prone. It's a murder mystery, and despite the user having a major hand in how the plot unfolds, I gather that there's pretty much one solution to the mystery. Which, of course, is ruined up and down the internet. In fact, I'm maybe a third of the way through the game and I think I had the final twist spoiled for me by some dick on an unrelated message board two weeks ago. So that's great. [more]

B&W Sunday Scan: The Story of Beef | Joe, 02.28.10
As I was cleaning up some old junk, I found these comic photocopies that I had hanging up in my college dorm room(s). They're probably all from Critters #50 (1990), but I'm too lazy to go double-check that. Either way, Critters #50 was an awesome issue. Because these comics are so great, I'm going to queue up a bunch of them to auto-publish on Sundays. Enjoy! The fact that I had this Mark Martin comic on my wall about five years before I went vegetarian shows that I was already leaning in the right direction. This one is a little tough to read in scan form because Martin uses a three-column layout.

 [more]

Oz books 5, 6 and 7 | Joe, 02.27.10
Our Oz streak has continued, uninterrupted only by blizzard conditions that kept me stuck at work. We're on book #10 at the moment, but here's a rundown of 5, 6 and 7. The Road to Oz (1909) "Road" introduces the Shaggy Man, who is one of Baum's classic Kindly Old Man fixtures who consistently pair off with his young leading ladies on adventures. It rings odd today, for sure. I mean, Shaggy Man is essentially a bum, but because he has the Love Magnet, everybody likes him. Creepy! He meets up with Dorothy, who is brought to Oz for her fourth visit by way of Ozma screwing with her and intentionally getting her and Toto lost. They also find Button Bright, a young boy (younger than Dorothy although by the time we see him again in Scarecrow of Oz he seems much older and smarter) who is moderately annoying. Luckily, Dorothy's companions this time also include Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter... who is one of my favorites if only because she is one of the female characters who inspire Baum to literary fits as he tries to explain how mind-meltingly beautiful she is. By this book (#5), the pattern is clear. Dorothy is somehow warped to Oz and collects and bizarre entourage of followers and she explores an even more bizarre section of the Oz countryside. As per usual, the end goal is the Emerald City where Ozma and her older friends await. This time, Dorothy's arrival coincides with Ozma's birthday celebration, which attracts penitents from all over the land, including books Baum wrote that were not even set in Oz. [more]

The Week in Links | Joe, 02.27.10
Rittai Kakushi E Attakoreda (YouTube via Kotaku)
Wow, this is balls-out the coolest thing I think I've ever seen on DS.

Superman's debut comic book sells in NYC for $1M (Yahoo News)
Wow. This is how we know mankind will never invent time travel, because there would be a lot more issues of Action #1 in circulation. Why Apple Declared War on Titilation (For The Women and Children) (Kotaku)
I can't say I never cringed when I saw some BOOBIES app show up under the Entertainment category right alongside downloadable sudoku. But I don't like the idea that some faceless shadow office gets to decide what is acceptable and what isn't. Age-gate it, Apple. [more]

Full archives available at fourhman.com.

game reviews:
Bully | ps2
game review by Joe 01/13/07
When I initially walked through the gates of Bullworth Academy, the first student to walk past me yelled "I hate you!" Later on, I had that same kid eating out the palm of my hand. That's pretty much the character arc of Bully. You, as career ne'er-do-well Jimmy Hopkins, show up at a new school full of fools, and you end up as Mr. Popular. Not really the school slaying simulator that certain crusading lawyers and easily-swayed-by-the-press-release media outlets would have had us believe. Whether Rockstar intended Bully as a colossal bait and switch for the video luddite crowed, or... [continued at fourhman.com]

Cooking Mama | nds
game review by Joe 11/09/06
Two years out, the DS has nicely matured. We’re past the days of tech demos being sold as full games (ahem, Yoshi’s Touch-n-Go). We have enough new-concept, high-profile games to outweigh the launch day panic of N64 ports ahem, Super Mario 64DS). And thanks to the GBA’s agonizingly slow price point death, Nintendo finally feels confident enough to stop selling their first-party DS games at the $35 level (ahem, Pokemon Trozei). The DS rode out that initial wave of gimmicky criticism and has positioned itself as a must-have, just in time to lateral a little of that mindshare over to... [continued at fourhman.com]

Starfox Command | nds
game review by Joe 09/12/06
I've been sitting out on the Starfox franchise for years, thanks to all the lackluster offerings during the GameCube era. It sucks, because I really liked Starfox 64 and I really want a new hip iteration in that style. For some reason, Nintendo is bound and determined to avoid that classic, blistering on-rails shooting action... giving us Starfox-as-Zelda and Starfox-as-Rogue-Leader-2 instead. Starfox Command is a return to the game's roots, but not in the way we all expected. Most franchises are ridiculed for not offering enough change-up. Starfox is the rare bird that gets smacked around for not maintaining enough... [continued at fourhman.com]

Odama | gcn
game review by Joe 05/24/06
I'm only about ten minutes into the first level when the thought occurs: "This is a pretty crappy game." That's never a joyous realization - especially when $50 was tossed like so much salt over the shoulder - but it is particularly grating when the game in question is something you've been anticipating for months. Odama is exactly the kind of offbeat, undefinable game that pulls me in. Games that offer up more than just various degrees of running / jumping / shooting / driving. I live for the thrill of locating games like this. They're underappreciated, underplayed... and in... [continued at fourhman.com]

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