Wow, we were hit by a doozy of a storm on Monday, and I lost power and my internet connection until this morning. Judging by the leaning utility pole and the power lines running through my back yard, my restored power may be temporary, but we’ll see.
If you’ve sent me an email since Monday, send it again, I probably never got it.
And I’ve still got it.
Okay, I bet a lot of you are wondering what I was on when I wrote that above lyrics. Suffice it to say, I didn’t write it. It’s the lyrics to one of my favorite shows of the 90’s, ‘Video Power’. Not the crappy half cartoon monstrosity that was the first season, I’m talking about the pseudo game show that the second season became.
There are writeups all over the net about it (like here), so I won’t go into all the details. Go ahead and click on that link to read all about the show. I’ll wait on you.
Ok. Video Power was a pretty decent show. It featured really crappy tips for some of the older games out there, granted, but it was the first show that I can remember that actually talked up Nintendo games on TV.
The host was an absoulte spaz. “Johnny Arcade” would bounce all over the place generally making himself obnoxious and handing out the prizes/challenges/tips/questions/points on the show. He could get away with it because he had all the power (the Video Power!) to give the contestants a dream run through the maze at the end of the show and stick the games to their chest. Yes, I wanted his job. Heck, I still do!
Memorable Video Power Moment #328:Johhny Arcade farts on the air, and the footage was left in the copy that made it to air. This is the first time that I can recall that actual factual gas passery was aired on television, and the already overactive host got about fifteen times more excited. I swear I thought his head was going to explode.
I haven’t seen the show since it was cancelled in the early 90’s, and I’m really surprised that G4 hasn’t picked it up with the recent trend in retro gaming.
Certainly there would be a couple of live people in the studio bantering about the recent happenings in the game world. It would be a little bit of news, a little bit of opinion. A good mix.
Then of course there would have to be contests. Contests that the listeners wouldn’t be able to go to Google and look up the answers to. Something like ‘Name The Game Tune’ or ‘Trivial Game Trivia.’
Throw in other features like ‘Game of the Day,’ break it up with the occasional game audio track (there’s plenty of ‘real songs’ in games nowadays for that to not be an issue) and I think you could easily fill an hour or two.
Due to the overwhelming suckiness of my Internet Service Provider, access to this site has been sporadic at best for the last two weeks. Nobody is probably reading this message until the problems get resolved, but it makes me feel better.
So what is a superplay? A superplay is, according to one website, one or a combination of three things: doing a ‘speed run’ (finishing a game in the shortest amount of time possible), doing a ‘time attack’ (finishing a game as quickly as possible, and doing it as perfectly as possible), and aesthetic forms (doing amazing things within a game).
Watching some of these movies is simply amazing, especially the ones done without the help of an emulator.
Wait a minute. What do I mean, ‘without the help of an emulator’?
Most of the time attacks and aesthetic forms were created with the help of an emulator that allows games to be slowed down, and allow the game to be backed up a few seconds and tried again if a mistake is made. Oh, and that gets some people so mad. They go on about how it ‘doesn’t take any real skill to pull off a time attack when you can just go and redo all your mistakes’ or some such. Yeah, that’s true, but the end product is entertaining to watch, if nothing else. If that bothers you, then there are several more videos out there that aren’t made with the help of an emulator that are just as amazing (look for the Donkey Kong Country 101% in 50 minutes video for an example).
If you take the videos for what they are (entertainment) then you’ll get just that out of them. I like seeing some of the games that gave me so many frustrations in my formative gaming years get systematically picked apart, regardless of how it was done.
Yikes! I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t updated this thing in a week. There’s really no new article to speak of today, but I can tell you what I’ve been doing.
I decided to start another site, The Closeout Warrior to cover one of my favorite hobbies: buying and playing cheap games. Don’t worry, I haven’t forsaken this one, but starting that other one took a big chunk out of my time. I’ve already got a couple of reviews in the queue, and I just have to clean them up.
Other than that? Nothing really, but I expect regular updates to start next week.
Yep, it’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I am a Nintendo Fanboy, so this article is a little slanted in that direction. Throughout the hundreds of games that I’ve played through to completion, there are some games that I’ve never finished and, perhaps more shocking still, there’s some feats in some games that I’ve never been able to accomplish, even though I think I should be able to.
Now I don’t want this to sound like I’m some kind of video game lightweight. I’ve managed to complete the original Super Mario Bros. in under 8 minutes, and I can complete the NES game Nightshade without a map or a walkthough (it’s all upstairs, kids).
1. In Punch-Out!! for the NES (either version) I can get to Mike Tyson (Mr. Dream) usually without losing once, but I have never once beaten the last opponent, although I did manage to knock him down once a couple of weeks ago.
2. In Blaster Master for the NES, I can get to the Plutonium Boss at the end of the game, but have never managed to beat him.
3. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I can get to the last corridor in the Technodrome (with all 4 turtles, mind you) and still manage to lose the game.
4. In Mega Man 7 for the Super NES, I can get to Dr. Wiley, but have never been able to beat him.
5. In Final Fantasy 7 I’ve never managed to beat Ruby or Emerald weapon, even though I managed to beat Sephiroth without wimping out and using Knights of the Round (see, there’s stuff that I can’t do on other systems, too)
6. In Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest for the NES, I just plain suck at that game. From what I understand, it’s supposed to be the easiest of the 3 NES Castlevania games, but I can barely make progress in the game. Eh, maybe I need to invest more time with it.
7. In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the NES (which I *do* like, by the way, but that’s another article) I can get to the Thunderbird in the last castle, but I can’t beat it.
8. I consider myself to be a passable Killer Instinct II player, but I have yet to perform a 70 hit combo, I can only manage a piddly fifty-ish hits.
9. In Double Dragon for the NES, I can get to Willy (the guy with the machine gun) but can’t kill him off.
10. Lastly but not leastly, I bought Perfect Dark and can’t get past the Area 51 mission. Yeah, early in the game, I know. I tried and tried, but the game finished me off, maybe I’ll dust it off and give it a try sometime later. Much later.
So there you go, there’s 10 of the things that I should be able to do, but for whatever reason have never been able to accomplish. There’s some more, but not many! Hah! Nah, that’s just the first 10 that popped into my head.
I’m not that bad of a game player. Seriously.
The E3 is kicking off this week, and every site on the planet that covers games or anything that could be confused with games is all over it, and quite honestly, if I had the cash to make it out there, this site would be awash with me completely geeking out over all the announcements.
The announcements of the Nintendo DS (with wi-fi) the wireless adapter for the Gameboy SP, and the new Zelda game are pretty well all I needed to see for this year anyway, but it looks like it’s just going to get better from here on out.
What a coincidence, Mother’s day and my university’s graduation fall on the same day.
Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers out there, and happy graduation to all the new graduates out there!