Greetings, Highlanders!

Gonna be another short installment this week. My wife and I moved into our new home over this past weekend, and now the unpacking begins. And that is going extremely slooow…

That’s why I’m glad I purchased my very own Flux Capacitor.

“What’s that?” you say? (Aren’t these made-up dialogues between us fun?) Well, let me tell you, over the past couple of years I’ve acquired the irresistible urge to buy authentic, prop replicas. It started with the Master Replicas Lightsabers (of which I own six), worked its way over to Thor’s Hammer from Marvel Comics (Mjolnir for those in the know), and has recently made its way to my newest purchase:

The Flux Capacitor.

That’s right, the device created by one Doctor Emmett L. Brown and used (and abused) repeatedly by his young friend – one Martin S. McFly.

And this sucker’s fully functional (No, this sucker’s electrical). Just 3 AAA batteries and this awesome piece of memorabilia does what it was best known for – fluxing.

And now that I have one of my very own, I intend to use it to go back in time to get all of this unpacking done…before I even started.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

….

But first I need to get me a DeLorean.

The Don is your density. No, that’s not a slip of the tongue.

Share This

Greetings, Replicants!

First, a quick shout-out to Aqws.  He knew what it was to be roasted in the belly of the Sloar that day, I can tell you.  Good job, man!

Second, today’s installment will be shorter than you are used to.  There, there.  No need to get upset.  I’ve got a good reason, I promise.

 
I’m moving.

 
Yep.  My wonderful, geeky wife and I are moving on up to the east side, out of our current dregs and into our first purchased home!  We’re leaving that silly apartment life behind, I tells ya!  Goodbye mile-walks carrying groceries and noisy neighbors, hello quiet suburbia and Dijon ketchups!

So, you may be wondering, “Does this rambling have a point?”  What I want to pretend you are wondering is, “How is moving different for a fine, upstanding geek like yourself in comparison to some sad, deprived dude who never knew the joy of Saturday Supercade?”

I’m glad I pretended you asked!

For a 33 year-old (shaddap) geek, moving will look slightly different to an outsider.  Let’s take a look at how:

 See you again next week, when I’ll be writing from my new home!

The Don likes the way you move.  Out of his neighborhood.

Share This

Thought I’d lead this off with an exerpt from a 2005 interview by user ”Cacophanus” for a U.K. gaming mag, <a href=”http://forums.insertcredit.com/viewtopic.php?p=281726#281703″ mce_href=”http://forums.insertcredit.com/viewtopic.php?p=281726#281703″>with Kazuma Kujo</a>, of IREM (R-Type III, Delta & Final, Bumpy Trot)

==================================================

Q: “Would you deem games as an artform, if so why?”
Kujo-san: “I think defining Art itself is difficult, but I prefer to call games as public entertainment, or something enjoyable. Viewing games this way, I think, fit better. When I am working on a game, I try to prepare something users want to see or touch rather than conveying my opinions to others. And if such game can surprise users, that would be best.”

==================================================

Interesting viewpoint!  And, admittedly with this author being a crazed shmup fan, it’s always good to hear from the sages.  Anyways, I’d like to find more creator quotes and words from industry professionals instead of relying on random conjecture and shaky definitions.  People like David Jaffe (God of War), Lorne Lanning (Oddworld series), Toru Iwatani (PacMan) or Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Lumines) all have very different ideas about both what constitutes a game, and where that intersects with the arts. 

I leave the investigations to you, readers.  Got a game you stand by as ‘art?’  Heard or read a philosophy that speaks to you as a noble direction for game development?  Or should I say, did a game director just say what you were thinking?

Give us some feedback!

Share This

“A moment of silence, for Optimus Prime, who gave his life in 2005…”

And that was how my new year of 2008 was kicked off.  A nice social gathering and a toast at midnight, with that reminder that here we are, still at the dawn of the 21st century.  And eight years in, we’ve not (yet) been assailed by robots from a robot planet, subject to some  time-shattering horror clawing up from the Earth’s core, and STILL we’ve not had the request for flying cars or giant space elevators satisfied… (Well, we’re at least DAMN CLOSE to a modern Babel Tower. Thanks United Arab Emirates!)

Readers rejoice, for science fiction (hard or soft, whatever your fancy) is slowly but surely making a ressurgence!  We’ve had plenty of time to enjoy all that the Lord of The Rings trilogy spawned, and I’m sure all the spoilers for Harry Potter have been spoiled.  Magic and swords and fightin’ polar bears continue to be cool, but it’s about time for classic space opera revivals, dimensional super powers and the dependability of plot-holes-via-time-travel-dysfunctions. 

We have the here-and-now monster movie jangling of Cloverfield, a new Star Trek revamp in production (Sylar as Spock?!  Choice.)  The Terminator is on prime-time television (and hey, that beats a generic Bionic Woman remake!), and even next-generation games like Too Human, Starcraft II and Everyday Shooter are making headlines and whetting appetites.

Rock/Mega Man celebrated his 20th anniversary this past Christmas too – that should immediately warm the steel-plated geek’s heart!   And for the Gradius fans out there, hey another (spinoff) game can’t hurt!  Of course, there’s also the venerable Transformers on Cartoon Network… in one form or another.  Be glad though.  It’s not Master Force.

 But, again rejoice and celebrate!  2008 looks to set the pace for another glimpse into the future, be it tomorrow or 2356AD.  And something to look forward to is always, always a good thing.

Share This

Clearly my efforts of becoming a relationship blogger are futile. So let’s just move on.

Energy independence would go a long way to make our homeland safe. Less dependence on foreign sources of energy would allow us to pull out of some of the more volatile regions of the world and stop pissing them off. I’ve heard President Bush talk about energy innovation and independence in his State of the Union addresses, but until there’s money set aside for specific programs, it’s all smoke and mirrors. As long as this war continues, funding for renewable energy sources from our federal government will be scarce at best.

I bring all this up because it has recently come to my attention that as early as 1975, we’ve had the technology to harvest and endless supply of energy. Imagine sending a satellite into low-earth orbit that was essentially a solar power collector and then beaming that energy safely to the surface. Sounds a bit far fetched, but as this video demonstrates, it is indeed possible to beam energy from point to point.

1975! Thirty-two years of siting on this technology and not implementing it. What a tragedy. Well, hope is not lost. It seems a little strange to say this, but this war may actually result in the development of space based solar power.

The Department of Defense may be now interested in developing this technology for practical applications. Last week on October 10, the National Security Space published a report entitled Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security. That’s a mouthful. The report makes four recommendations:

• Recommendation #1: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should organize effectively to allow for the development of SBSP and conclude analyses to resolve remaining unknowns
• Recommendation #2: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should retire a major portion of the technical risk for business development
• Recommendation #3: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should create a facilitating policy, regulatory, and legal environment for the development of SBSP
• Recommendation #4: The study group recommends that the U.S. Government should become an early demonstrator/adopter/customer of SBSP and incentivize its development

And look, there’s even a nifty CG demonstration of a prototype:

The fact that this is coming from the Department of Defense is somewhat alarming.  This technology should be used for the benefit of us all, not for some nefarious plan for strategic dominance.  But if it starts the money flowing and there’s actual funding for this technology, the benefits are tremendous.

Imagine.  Clean, infinite, renewable energy is just waiting for us on the other side of our atmosphere.  And we could have been harvesting it for years.

Share This