Image Courtasy of MobyGames
On to the next Quality Control column. This week (as I mentioned yesterday), the review is of Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, for the NES, from Capcom.
The game is available for purchase on eBay, but is not available on the Wii Virtual Console – probably due to the licence expiring. Continue reading
Well, I’m breaking my “no classic games” rule with, in this case, Super Mario Bros 3 – the 3rd game in the series (duh), and in my opinion, the second best (after the first game). In addition to having the video up on YouTube, I’ve got the video (in a hopefully higher quality version) uploaded on Megaupload. Continue reading
One of, in my opinion, the best documentary series on currently on television is PBS’s series Frontline. The show has won the Pullitzer prize, as well as multiple Emmy awards and Peabody awards and I generally consider it to be pinnacle of broadcast journalism today. Towards the end of George W. Bush’s final term, they did a documentary on the state of the War in Iraq, and how it got to where it is now, titled Bush’s War. A lot of documentaries have been done about the war since it started – how does this one hold up?
The Premise: So, for those who have currently been under a rock for 8 years – The United States currently in the midst of two wars. One war is in Iraq, one is in Afganistan. Both were fought against dictatorships, the former was a totalitarian dictatorship lead by a man with delusions of Blofeld-dom, the latter being a theocratic state ruled under a version of Islam that I can best describe as one that was “folded, spindled, and mutilated”. Finally, the latter (the one if Afganistan) was waged in response to the September 11th attacks, and the other (the Iraq War) was waged under false pretenses using bogus intelligence about weapons of mass destruction. This documentary is about that one (they did a seperate documentary about the war in Afganistan later.) Continue reading
The Cover of Nintendo Power #7
Well, Nintendo Power has begun its second year, and it’s starting off rather nicely, with a Mega Man II cover story, with some rather nice sculpture work on the cover. The magazine is still bi-monthly though, and it’s also significantly shorter than the past few issues, with it only being 100 pages long-ish.
Mailbag: Of note this issue is a leter about hard working gamer who put built his own arcade cabinet using at TV, a NES, two NES Advantage sticks, and, of course, his own arcade cabinet framework. He even painted the sides. Very nice. They’ve also moved their Power Players spotlight to the front, but as it’s basically people hyping how awesome a gamer they are, I’m skippingthis. I really don’t need to cover people showing of their E-Wangs (which is the same reason, basically, why I don’t cover high score lists as well). Continue reading
Get the original Night of the Living Dead at Amazon.com
Zombies are big right now. Really big. Soooo big, that if they ever actually killed Godzilla or Gamera, he’d come back as a Zombie. So, with this in mind, I’ve decided to go back to the zombie film that really started the craze – Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero.
The Premise:
Barbara and her brother, Johnny, are going to place flowers on their father’s grave. Barbara, being afraid of cemeteries, is creeped out by the place, and Johnny, being an immature git (and probably the younger of the two) decides to make fun of her fear. Unfortunately for them, the dead now walk, and one of the undead (they’re never actually called Zombies) kills Johnny. Barbara flees for her life to a farmhouse, where she is rescued by Ben, where she and a group of other people hole up, and try to decide to wait for help, or to try and break out to someplace where they can get assistance.
Why couldn't the cover have been like this?
Cover for Nintendo Power #5
So, we move on to Nintendo Power’s 5th issue, for March and April of 1989, with the cover game being Ninja Gaiden. I must admit the cover image isn’t as good as the images of the past 4 issues. It’s a guy in stereotypical Ninja black pajamas holding – I’ve got no freaking clue what he’s holding. If anyone who worked on this issue of Nintendo Power is reading this and you know what he’s holding, please let me know in the comments. This issue weighs in at about 106 pages, with a new section related to game previews in addition to the “reviews” (aka Strategy Guides) we’ve gotten previously.
Mail Bag: Well, as we reach the end of Nintendo Power’s first volume, we’re coming to one of our first notable changes in the magazine, one that I would say brings it more in line with most other video game magazines – they’ve moved the letters column to the front of the magazine. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it does a have a psychological impact – putting the focus early on to reader feedback, and their responses to the feedback. There are a lot of letters here from parents, and from senior citizens as well. Again, let it not be said that Nintendo consoles have, in the past, been unable to appeal to the moms and grandmothers demographic through hardcore games. We also get an letter from an honest-to-god educator (Steve Gibbs, an English teacher) praising Nintendo, particularly Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2) for promoting critical thinking skills. Continue reading
I got the Quake Pack from Steam a while ago, and finally gotten around to playing Quake III arena, except I can’t play it. When I try to join a server I keep getting prompted for a product key, and in Quake III Team Arena, the last portion of the product key is blank.
Now, I have contacted Steam for support, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.
So, Steam, are you going to get this fixed, or not?
Well, I’ve got a double-feature for you all, as I decided to watch episodes 3 & 4 of Burn Notice at a whack. I also want to let you all know I’ve started another Where I Watch on RPG.net, for Silent Mobius, which can be found here (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=9508505). So, enjoy!
I just thought I’d give you an update on a few other things I’m working on. On RPG.net (where I post under the screen name of Count_Zero) I’ve been working on several Where I Watch threads for, in addition to various wrestling evens (which I’ve been mirroring here), several anime series. Currently, I’m working on Black Lagoon, which I’m posting on as soon as I get the DVDs from NetFlix, and I’ve just finished recapping Berserk. My next series I’ll be working on is the complete Mobile Police Patlabor (all 3 movies, both OVAs, and the TV series) which I hope to review for Bureau42.com), as well as Silent Mobius.
Once I get my next Where I Watch thread started, I’ll make sure to post here about it.
Now, you may ask, “Why don’t you post these threads here?” Well, I reply, you lot, don’t comment enough to support doing such threads here – though we do get traffic from my reviews and recaps. Still, for a Where I Watch, you really need some steady feedback.
Just doing a quick post to direct you all to a review I have up on Bureau42.com for Full Metal Panic. The review can be found here. I’m going to be having 2 more reviews going up for Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, and Full Metal Panic: the Second Raid. Hopefully, I’ll be able to turn this into a steady gig for them.
What does this mean for the blog? Well, I fully intend to keep updating the blog – Bureau42 is dedicated to science fiction and fantasy material, which means that a lot of the material I’ve been putting up right now (like wrestling recaps) would not fit there. Likewise, if I review any material that they’ve already reviewed, I’ll post those reviews here instead.
That said, Bureau42.com is a good site, and definitely worth your following, and I look forward to seeing comments from you there as well.
“Doctor Who: The Sea Devils,” which features the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant is a pretty good serial, with some very nice costume and set design. It does, however, take a bit too long to get the ball rolling, and frankly has a bit of material that could likely have been cut out to shorten it. All in all, it does make for enjoyable viewing.
Pink Floyd: Reflections and Echoes aims to be the comprehensive documentary on the history of the band, covering its history from it’s very beginnings as a Psychedelic live band to their final performance at Live 8, and it mostly succeeds. However, some serious flaws in the presentation prevent the series from achieving greater heights.
So, I’m getting started a Let’s Play thingie for Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with the way the concept works, a Let’s Play is where I play through an game, while taking a video or image record of my play, and then posting it for all to read and enjoy, and laugh at my failures and awe at my successes.
At the moment, my attempts to upload my gameplay to GameTrailers and GameVideos aren’t working as planned, so for the moment I’m uploading the videos to MegaUpload for download from there, so, without further ado –
Introduction: Wherein my Captain gets a bridge dropped on him, giving me a shot at the big chair.
Download Link
Episode 1: Wherein I learn the ropes from Captain Jean-Luc Picard, take on a few Romulan Warbirds, and can take comfort in the fact that my crew is actually competent at their jobs, so I can give them their orders and get out of the way, rather then having to micro-manage in traditional space-sim view, at least so far.
Wrestlemania V
I’m doing a few different things with this Wrestlemania recap. By this time Wrestlemania had become a big deal, as had Wrestlemania Debuts, so from here on I’ll be keeping track of Wrestlemania Debuts. A few people of note who debuted at Wrestlemanias prior to this: Bret Hart and “Macho Man” Randy Savage at Wrestlemania II, Ted DiBiase & The Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania IV.
Prior to Wrestlemania V, the gold had gotten between the Mega Powers, with the two men’s egos both backstage and on screen colliding, leading to a heel turn by Savage. Furthermore, the Intercontinental Title, once held by Honky Tonk Man in his legendary title reign, was lost to the Ultimate Warrior in about 45 seconds, completely burying HTM. Finally, the Hart Foundation turned face, and turned on their former manager, Jimmy Hart. Furthermore, Ted DiBiase, after continually failing to win or buy the WWF Heavyweight Championship, decided to introduce his own belt instead – the diamond-encrusted Million Dollar Championship. Also, Demolition turned face when Mr. Fuji turned on them, instead siding with the tag team of the Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord).
Now, we come to April 2, 1989, and Wrestlemania V, again returning to Trump Plaza at Atlantic City. Leading us in, singing “America The Beautiful” is WWF Women’s Champion, Rockin’ Robin. While she works her way through the song the song, let’s think for a moment. Rockin’ Robin is the WWF Women’s Champion. She’s not defending the belt. She is, however, singing “America The Beautiful” which has previously been sung by Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.
Our hosts this evening are once again Jesse “The Body” Ventura on color commentary and Gorilla Monsoon doing Play-by-play announcing, as we go to our opening match. Continue reading
