I've hard a hard time motivating myself to get some of my larger projects done over the last few months, but I think I'm finally coming out of it. I was able to finish a lot of pictures I started but never finished over the past few days, including this one:

Area 50.5 "Alternate Ending"

I watched the film Silent Running with my parents a few days ago, and a couple days after that, we were talking about it in the car. My dad remarked that he didn't find it as good as it was when he first watched it, and this comment segued into a general critique of the movie from all three of us as we noted how the dialogue seemed a bit amateurish and the special effects were a bit dated by today's standards.

Then my mom jokingly said to me, "I bet Mystery Science Theater 3000 must have had a lot of fun with this movie, right?"


Then my personal Irony Meter exploded.






(For those of you not in the know, the general setup of MST3K [one lone guy stranded on a satellite with three small robots as his only companions] was inspired by Silent Running.)

Congratulations, Team 17.

After Vivendi Universal attempted to revive a dead adventure game series with a game that failed to keep the spirit of the original games in every respect and made fans think that the series couldn't be violated any more, you had to prove them wrong and create Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust.

This game was not only considered even worse than its predecessor, Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude*, but has recently been placed in the #1 slot on Joystick Division's The Ten Worst Console Games of the Generation (So Far) list.

Bravo.

They say that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all...I'm fervently hoping that that's true in this case and people who read this article are inclined to check out the original Larry games. You know, the ones that didn't suck.



*I still find it ironic that the official VU boards had a built-in censor that blocked out the word "Cum" from their own game's title.

I just finished playing I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.



I think I need to be alone for a while.



That is all.

Something right outside my window was making this noise in the wee hours of the morning. I couldn't see it, but obviously, I did record it.

It was either a demon from Hell or a barn owl. Either way, it's just a little creepy.

I've been looking at several lists of banned and/or challenged books online, with this week being Banned Books Week in the States. The usual suspects appear many times, titles such as Fahrenheit 451, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, And Tango Makes Three, The Catcher in the Rye, The Satanic Verses, The Bible, etc., but there are a few more interesting titles I found on the archived Forbidden Library Page, which I thought I'd share here. The reasons why some of these books were banned range from the amusing to the outrageous to the downright pathetic. Enjoy:


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Ace; Bantam; Crown; Delacorte; Dover; NAL; Norton; Penguin; Random; St. Martin. Banned in China (1931) for portraying animals and humans on the same level, "Animals should not use human language."
[So all parrots should stop it immediately.]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl. Bantam; Knopf; Penguin. Removed from a locked reference collection at the Boulder, Colo. Public Library (1988), where it had been placed because the librarian thought the book espoused a poor philosophy of life.
[...Huh?]

The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher. M.C. Escher. Pan/Ballentine. Retained after being challenged at Maldonado Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz. (1994) for "pornographic", "perverted", and "morbid" themes.
[Golly, an artist whose work I've loved since I was a kid is "pornographic", "perverted", and "morbid"? Then again, I always thought there was something creepy about all those tessellations... (just kidding)]

James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl. ABC-Clio; Knopf. Challenged at the Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Fla. (1991) because it is "not appropriate reading material for young children." Challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wis. (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School library in Brooksville, Fla. (1992) because the book contains the word "ass" and "promotes" the use of drugs (tobacco, snuff) and whiskey. Removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Va. Schools (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults.
[I could nitpick and say that that last statement is ridiculous since James's parents are dead at the very start of the book and his guardians are so cruel that they deserve to be disobeyed...but nah.]

A Light in the Attic. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wis. (1985) because the book "enourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Removed from Minot, N.Dak. Public School libraries when the superintendent found "suggestive illustrations." Challenged at the Big Bend Elementary School library in Mukwonago, Wis. (1986) because some of Silverstein's poems "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient."
[i'm just laughing here.]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis. Macmillan. Challenged in the Howard County, Md. school system (1990) because it depicts "graphic violence, mysticism, and gore."
[Wow. Now that's irony for you.]

Where the Sidewalk Ends. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wis. school libraries (1986) because the book "suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents." Challenged at the Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa. (1993) because a poem titled "Dreadful" talks about how "someone ate the baby."

Where's Waldo? Martin Handford. Little. Challenged at the Public Libraries of Saginaw, Mich. (1989), Removed from the Springs Public School library in East Hampton, N.Y. (1993) because there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top.
[I like the page author's addition to this: "Yes, but did they find Waldo?"]

A Wrinkle In Time. Madeleine L'Engle. Dell. Challenged at the Polk City, Fla. Elementary School (1985) by a parent who believed that the story promotes witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons. Challenged in the Anniston Ala. schools (1990). The complainant objected to the book's listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders when referring to those who defend earth against evil.
[Again, wow.]

A few days ago, my ancient HP Deskjet 882C printer ceased functioning. Upon closer inspection, I found that the belt that the carriage holding the ink cartridges rides on had snapped -- not only that, but it was, frayed and crumbling in several places.

I was tempted to get a new printer, but fortunately, I was able to find an online store that supplied replacement belts for obsolete printer models.

I tried installing the new belt on my own, but ran into several problems almost immediately. The printed instructions that came with the belt differed from the illustrated ones online significantly (and as it turned out later, some of the steps weren't even necessary to installing the belt!) and I was unable to get the side panels off of the printer without snapping one of the tabs holding one of them in place. When I asked my dad for help, he ended up snapping the three remaining tabs.

An online chat with a person from the company that supplied the belt admitted he wasn't a tech and directed us to the company's two tecchies. We were only able to reach one, who informed us that he wasn't familiar enough with our particular printer model to give us specific instructions.

After a couple hours of frustration, confusion, ink staining and unfamiliar technical terms showing up in the instructions that even Google couldn't identify, we got the belt installed, put the whole mess back together, and I tentatively plugged it in, powered it up, and printed a page.



It worked.

It's always satisfying to repair something without having to pay a few hundred dollars getting it repaired or replaced -- and I honestly doubted that poor printer would work again, considering what we put it through.

There is a van that I've seen parked in various places in my town as well the neighboring towns. It has been painted silver and covered with writing warning all that gaze upon it that the end is nigh, along with a number of newspaper clippings and Bible verses to "prove" this. I got into the habit of calling it the Doom Buggy until I discovered that the carriages in The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World were called that.

Anyway, several months ago, I noticed a large banner stretched across the top of the van reading "9-9-09: MAGNITUDE 9 EARTHQUAKE." No specific locations or hours, mentioned, just that text. I thought about this a few times and eventually forgot about it until today.

Well, it's almost midnight here in California (arguably the most earthquake-prone state in the union), and we haven't gotten any earthquakes, and according to this site, no part of the world suffered any earthquakes over 5.7.

How disappointing. :(

I discovered one of these little fellows outside my house, and thanks to the Internet, was quickly able to find out what sort of critter he/she was.

A Diabolical Ironclad Beetle. Now that is a cool name. Its scientific name is pretty nice too -- Nosoderma diabolicum.

An impromptu trip to the thrift store where I bought the Roberta Williams Anthology today turned out to be a very good idea: I discovered and purchased a copy of The Neverhood (Dreamworks Interactive made this game? I had no idea).

However, the CD wasn't in its original case, but one of these things. I've never seen a CD caddy before, let alone heard of one. The metal sleeve is similar to the one on a 3.5" floppy disk, and it took me the better part of a minute just to figure out how to get the thing open (by pinching the two tabs on the bottom).

You know you're in for a hard game when it takes you that long just to get its CD out of its box...

Today's time on Impressive Title was one of extreme contrasts.

First I come within about two hits of hitting the much sought-after Great Wildebeest when it wounds me. As I'm recovering, my connection times out and it vanishes.

But then I find and successfully kill the not as sought-after but still pretty impressive Overgrown Gazelle, so everything's fine.

Then, after a very long time searching for a Dire Fennec Fox to tame, I finally find one and lead it away from the other players. As I'm trying to tame it, another character appears. I stand between him/her and the fox, frantically typing out "Please don't kill this fox!". He/she kills it anyway.

Then I get obtain of the rarest items in the game from an animal that I didn't think even dropped items when killed.

So all in all, the negative moments seem to balance out the positive ones to the point where this was a fairly neutral IT day.

I captured this video of Xandra with a glitchy gazelle on Impressive Title, and it was so mind-explodingly cute that I had to share it here.

A few interesting observations I've made using YouTube's Insight feature:

(Note: The Hot Spots feature displays a graph showing what portions of a video are being watched the most)

The Hot Spots graph for Memorable Lines and Moments from SQ6 shows a dramatic peak right before the clip where the narrator says, "Wow! This makes my nipples hard!", then steadily slopes downwards until the end of the video. Conversely, the graph for Part 2 bounces up and down but doesn't reach its highest point until near the very end.

The highest peak on Memorable Lines and Moments from SQ4 is when the clip where the player is smelling and tasting the Monolith Burger condiments (and getting responses from them) begins.

The Hot Spots graph for my Woodruff and the Schnibble montage trends gently downward for the first half of the video, then spikes at the point where Woodruff is escaping his padded cell.

The KQ7 Intro Storyboard's highest Hot Spots point is at the beginning of Rosella's solo, but it peters out shortly after the last line of the missing verse ends.

The first noticeable peak in the FPFP Outtakes video is right at the beginning of the sword fighting outtake, while the most dramatic dip is near the end of the same outtake. The highest peak is shortly afterward, around the time when Antonio growls, "Thatsa what I theenk of your lousy ants!"

Also, most of my Sierra videos have views primarily from the USA, but for some strange reason, most of the viewers of my Woodruff and the Schnibble video are from Spain, most of the viewers of my KQ7 Intro Storyboard video are from Germany and most of the viewers of my trailer for Adventure: The Inside Job are from Norway.


One more (somewhat related) thing: Death Gate is a damn good adventure game, and I'm not saying that just because I was able to complete it without any external hints whatsoever. It's not nearly as morbid as the title would suggest, and it has to be one of the most original fantasy adventures I've played. The puzzles are equally refreshing and original, and the various worlds of the game are wildly imaginative. This game was based on a series of books, but I'm a bit hesitant to read them, since whenever I've tried reading a book series that a game was based on, I've been somewhat disappointed, and I'm not sure if this third try will have the same result or not.

I think I've mentioned before that I love Roy Zimmerman's music.

So I'm just sharing the love here.

Jainism is probably the most non-violent, peaceful religion in the modern world. Its members believe in inflicting as little suffering as possible on other living beings, human and non-human, in order to reach a pure spiritual state. Jains are strict vegetarians, many of which don't even eat root vegetables like carrots and garlic because that would mean ending the life of the plant.

Some of its more devout members (in the past, at least) only eat fruit once it has dropped from a tree and wear cloth over their mouths when they are outside to keep them from accidentally inhaling flying insects. They even use a broom to sweep the ground in front of them clear while walking, so that whatever crawling lifeforms that might be in their way aren't stepped on.

And somebody has apparently put me on a mailing list for a Jain dating site.



WHAT?

Holy flame-broiled mother of Dionysus...

Apparently when Hell got frozen in Telltale Games' last Sam and Max: Season 2 episode, it froze over for real sometime afterward.

"Telltale and who Presents"!?!?

Elaine's eyes are green again! And Guybrush...

...has a BEARD! A visible BEARD!!

One of my High School English teachers said that Walt Disney has become this generation's prime storyteller. For many children (in the USA, at least), their first exposure to classic fairy tales like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast is through the Disney adaptations of the stories, which are often considerably different than the original tales.

On a topic directly related to (although not at all influenced by) this, I think that a YouTube video series comparing the Disney adaptations of pre-existing stories to the stories themselves would be a great idea (if such a thing doesn't exist already). Though a lot of the stories like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are pretty well-known and have been around for centuries, ones like 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone are based on more recent books, which are pretty obscure.

I just think it would be a nice way to educate folks who have never read the stories that Disney mangled somewhat in their movies. It may not be the most interesting subject for everyone, but I was interested to find out that Perdita had brown spots and wasn't Pongo's mate, Sleeping Beauty's mother-in-law plotted to eat Beauty's children after Beauty and the prince were married, there were two genies in the story of Aladdin, and Arthur and Merlin confront a giant at one point in their adventures.

Using screenshots or footage from Disney's movies would undoubtedly get the videos taken down due to violation of copyright, so the video would probably have to be made up of original drawings or animations, which doesn't seem like that big a sacrifice.

Just an idea I had.

One evening, feeling utterly bored and not feeling like doing anything productive, I said to myself, "All right, I've played The Lion King PC game enough times to win it with my eyes closed. I want to play another action game with a non-human, quadruped protagonist."

After much searching, I found what I was looking for...

( Read more... )

Two years ago, someone requested that somebody make a version of Adventure Game Studio without the default font (which happens to be from Space Quest IV), since the prospect of making a free game that uses a font from a 17-year-old commercial one was causing him some moral conflict.

Two years later he resurrects his own thread and makes the same request, this time asking for a version that doesn't have MP3 support, advising all who read the thread to "Repent and turn from sin to God". Remarkably, one of the members of the forum was thoughtful enough to actually do what this person asked, creating an entire new version of AGS just so this person wouldn't have to be tempted to the default font or import MP3s into his game.

Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it have taken a lot less time and effort for this person to, say, delete the default font and use one of the many others available to download? Or only use MIDIs or Ogg Vorbis files instead of MP3s?

And then he starts another thread essentially asking for a Christian version of AGS. When you start acting in such a way that even other members of your religion start criticizing you, I'd say it's time to step back and start re-evaluating things.


And just to show that I'm not completely full of negativity, after a month's absence, my tablet is finally back, fully repaired and almost good as new. It's been so long since I used it that I had to retrain my drawing hand for a bit.