David Beoulve's Blog

Eastern Promises (A Christian Movie Review)

2008-02-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

This film is so offensive to the morality and cleanliness of a Christian mind, I must urge people not to watch it. You cannot mix clean water with dirty water and get clean water; your mind is something worth protecting.

Without spoilers, I will list the offenses:

As with most mob/organized crime movies, most of the characters are deplorable, and the movie goes to lengths to shock us with how commonly, every-day brutal these people are. But what tips the scale is that the film deals with, essentially, human trafficking. As the name implies, the film shows how young (often underage) Russian girls are tricked into coming West and then forced into prostitution.

UNDERAGE CHILDBIRTH:
The opening scene of the movie has a grisly murder, but the very next scene depicts a 14 year-old girl coming to a pharmacy for help, and then leaking lots of blood from between her legs and feinting. She dies in childbirth (to go further is to introduce spoilers).

UNDERAGE SEX:
In a later scene, the son of the local crime boss and his second are enjoying themselves in the locked room where the forced prostitutes are kept. Some of the girls are enjoying themselves, but most seem scared and act perfunctory. The son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), forces Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen, "Aragorn" from the Lord of the Rings) to have sex with one of the girls to prove he isn't queer. Nikolai does so in a graphic sex scene with one of the underage girls, easily distinguishable by her underdeveloped breasts. It is hardly something I ever needed to see that particular actor do, let alone any two people in the world.

KNIFE FIGHT VERSUS A NUDE OPPONENT:
Another protracted scene features two men armed with knives attacking a naked mobster. During the fight scene, no effort was made to hide the victim's nudity, and several full-frontal nudity shots are presented. The fight is also accurate in its depiction of a knife-fight. As a weathered Jujitsu expert from Japan once told me, "If you ever get in a knife fight, expect to get cut. It's just going to happen. The goal is to live, not to avoid getting cut."

INNOCENCE DOESN'T MATTER:
Mild spoiler: In the movie, a baby's life is consistently threatened; in one graphic scene she is taken to a river to be drowned.

CLOSING:
So, while the quality of the movie is good, the acting is good, the movie is such an affront to the Christian mind that such kind, beneficent people really do not need to see this.

The Natural History of the Only Child

2008-02-08T09:23:00.000-05:00

Wired has a decent article on why family sizes are shrinking, called "The Natural History of the Only Child."

"exactly why families are shrinking is a mystery. Rising living standards seem to have something to do with it. It's certainly true that as living standards rose in England -- as children died less from diseases, as the country overall became richer -- the size of the English family shrank. When other countries became wealthier, their families shrank, too. These days, affluent countries tend as a rule to have smaller families than poor ones."

I have read and written thoughts about this before, but the key the author found was a good one: It is the biological idea of what it costs to raise a child. As the idea moves from "I have to feed them and have them so they can help me survive" to "I have to feed them and clothe them and send them to college" to "I have to feed them and clothe them and buy them lots of things and send them to college and I want a big screen TV", we have less children, just as animals weigh their ability to "pay" the cost of having offspring.

"It turns out that animals have evolved a balance between offspring and effort. Some can even adjust how many offspring they produce, depending on whether they are under stress or live comfortably. Ruth Mace, an expert on family size at Imperial College London, argues this week in the journal Science that humans are governed by the same kinds of rules. When the standard of living goes up, the cost of living goes up too. It takes a family in Addis Ababa (the urban capitol of Ethiopia) a lot more money to raise an additional child than a family out in the Ethiopian countryside. That may be one reason why the population is exploding in rural Ethiopia, while in Addis Ababa it is actually shrinking."

Of course, some people, such as myself, make the conscious decision that "I can't pay for all of them to go to college, so I will have to raise them to work hard and get good grades", in other words, downgrade what is perceived as necessary to raise a child, and then we have more children.

"If Mace is right, then as long as the world keeps creeping out of poverty, families will continue to shrink. How small they can go is an open question. But perhaps we should stop thinking of families with only children as some odd fluke of neurotic New York life. It's just human biology played out to a logical extreme."

iPhone: Security really means Lack of Liberty

2008-02-07T14:27:00.001-05:00

Two very interesting articles from Wired Magazine:

With iPhone, 'Security' Is Code for 'Control' by Bruce Schneier
iPhone's Security Rivals Windows 95 (No, That's Not Good) by Kim Zetter

The first details why companies are in love with "locking down" their devices so that no competition and worm its way in, and more importantly, how companies confuse "Security" for "Control" as a way of pulling the sheets over consumers, who are hindered, not helped, by such measures.

The second shows just how little real security the iPhone has, while its "lock-down" controls are so tight, updates can brick your modded iPhone.

That just goes to show you where Apple's concerns really lie.

ChristianAnswers.net selects my review of Rambo

2008-01-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

ChristianAnswers.net selected my review of Rambo (IV) and added it to their site. I was quite pleased to see that they had selected and made one edit to my review. It is the third "Positive" review, listed under my real name.

Their one edit is highly appropriate: they remove reference to the Missionaries in the film appearing to be Protestant (check the original review in the post before this). I have reproduced it here:

Positive - Many folks will go into “Rambo” expecting an action film, and, if critics are to be believed, a mediocre-to-poor movie experience. While horrendous, nihilistic films such as “No Country for Old Men” are lauded, Stallone's latest movie, daring to elicit images of faith and Christianity in a world gone wrong, is slammed.

True to form, this is a movie about the brutality and evil human beings are capable of; expect cursing, God's name called in vain, townspeople being killed in ethnic cleansing and sadistic games, local women being sexually assaulted (although the actual rapes are omitted) and a high body count as the rescue team / mercenaries clash with the Burmese Army, or SDPC.

As with the first three “Rambo” films, the fourth movie functions as a beacon to Western moviegoers to the plights of a people who are, for whatever reason, not receiving proper media attention. The first film was concerned with the treatment of returning Vietnam Veterans, the second film dealt with the possibility of American POWs in Vietnam, the third film was about Russia's War against Afghanistan, and the fourth film is about the systematic slaughter and relocation of various ethnic groups in Burma or Myanmar.

In the movie, appropriately, two theological camps are depicted:
While John J. Rambo, at the outset of the movie, seems atheistic, the mercenary commander (Graham McTavish) is openly so, famously saying to a Christian Missionary he is rescuing “God didn't save you, I did.”

The Christian Missionaries, on the other hand… speak to all Christian values, and this is important. At no time are any of them displayed as losing their faith, and the wife of the mission leader never casts an eye towards John Rambo over her husband, although she does attempt to reach him through words. The effect of this, you will have to see the film and wait for the ending.

The film is ultimately more complicated than its surface; it serves to educate through entertainment, without beating the viewer over the head as to its Christian message (which will appear subtle to non-Christians who don't know what to look for), but giving the viewer a thorough thrashing as to the harsh realities of war and abject cruelty of people over another, largely defenseless, group. Do not take your children, but do watch this movie.

My Ratings:

Moral rating: Better than Average
Moviemaking quality: 4.5

—David Rodriguez, age 32

"Rambo IV" is Deeper than it Surface: A Christian Review

2008-01-27T20:39:00.000-05:00

Many folks will go into "Rambo" expecting an action film and, if critics are to be believed, a mediocre to poor movie experience. While horrendous, nihilistic films such as "No Country for Old Men" are lauded, Stallone's latest movie, daring to elicit images of faith and Christianity in a world gone wrong, is slammed.

True to form, this is a movie about the brutality and evil human beings are capable of; expect cursing, God's name called in vain, townspeople being killed in ethnic cleansing and sadistic games, local women being sexually assaulted (although the actual rapes are omitted) and a high body count as the rescue team / mercenaries clash with the Burmese Army, or SDPC.

As with the first three "Rambo" films, the fourth movie functions as a beacon to Western moviegoers to the plights of a people who are, for whatever reason, not receiving proper media attention. The first film was concerned with the treatment of returning Vietnam Veterans, the second film dealt with the possibility of American POWs in Vietnam, the third film was about Russia's War against Afghanistan, and the fourth film is about the systematic slaughter and relocation of various ethnic groups in Burma or Myanmar.

In the movie, appropriately, two theological camps are depicted:

While John J. Rambo, at the outset of the movie, seems atheistic, the mercenary commander (Graham McTavish) is openly so, famously saying to a Christian Missionary he is rescuing "God didn't save you, I did."

The Christian Missionaries, on the other hand, feel protestant yet speak to all Christian values, and this is important. At no time are any of them displayed as losing their faith, and the wife of the mission leader never casts an eye towards John Rambo over her husband, although she does attempt to reach him through words. The effect of this, you will have to see the film and wait for the ending.

The film is ultimately more complicated than its surface; it serves to educate through entertainment, without beating the viewer over the head as to its Christian message (which will appear subtle to non-Christians who don't know what to look for), but giving the viewer a thorough thrashing as to the harsh realities of war and abject cruelty of people over another, largely defenseless, group.

Do not take your children, but do watch this movie.

Pandora: Spiritual Successor to the GP2X

2008-01-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

The "lead developers" behind the GP2X community have decided to create their own handheld device that answers all of the problems that the GP2X has (aside from having a very small userbase), and I'm quite jazzed about it:

That's a 3d render, not an actual unit.

It includes Wi-Fi, a touch-screen, dual-analog controls, a Directional (D) Pad, four game buttons (top right), a clamshell design (which the NDS and cellular phones have proven to be wonderful), it supports powered USB devices, has dual SDHD slots (high density SD cards and regular SD cards), has a 3d graphics processor (GPU), 128MB of RAM, will run X-Windows and has a miniature keyboard!

All for 200 GBP (Great Britian Pounds) or, with import fees, $320. I'd much prefer to pay $200, but this is still a neat device. Here's the wiki.

Here is what I posted in the big "Will you buy it?" thread:
Well I'm buying this, easily. I got all hot & bothered over the fact that the Pandora answers my every complaint of my GP2X, which honestly doesn't get used much anymore.

The GP2X:

Has cheap construction / joystick
Has no Wi-Fi
Doesn't support powered USB devices
Sucks as soon as you need a keyboard
Doesn't have Touch Screen (MK1 & MK2)
Can brick itself
Doesn't have SDHD
Doesn't have an analog stick, never mind two of them
Volume control was always wonky
Dual-core implementation just makes developers go bat-guano insane.
Did I mention the joystick was bad?

The Pandora, in one fell swoop, handles every single one of these problems. The Touch-Screen GP2X, to my knowledge, still has all but one of these problems.

I am so jazzed about the Pandora that I would like to pre-order one now so that I can be sure to get one later.

Plus, the Pandora:

Can feasibly run X-Windows
Has a 3d processing GPU
Can run PSX games, with an appropriate emulator
Can support a nice handheld application (something less clunky than DSorganize please)
Can get on the Web and run Firefox!
Has a keyboard!

As for everyone whining, I will point out that researchers at Harvard (those with doctorates, not undergrads) have found that people are actually very bad at estimating what will make them happy, yet it appears to be human nature to take your own advice, based on no empirical data whatsoever, over the advice of others who have tried and used something. Granted, that's hard to do here, but like Nintendo before the Wii launched, you either have faith in the designers of the product or you don't.

New Year's Day Adventure

2008-01-02T10:44:00.000-05:00

On New Year's Day my 3 daughters, baby boy and I hit a local public forest and traversed its unpleasantly frequented depths.

Lupita is 5'2", 117 lbs at 10 years old. You've seen her pictures on teh interwebs, and they are up to date (if not, make with the clickies, she's a cute kid). She is my Tiger.

I bought her a real, authentic Swiss Army Knife for Christmas and she took her first opportunity to use it (we were following a creek in the forest) to find out just how sharp Swiss Army Knives are and lanced her thumb. She didn't cry, she just said "Ow!" and then looked at me, and I could see this wave of shame wash over her face, and then she cried, not for the pain, but because she felt she'd done a bad job: I had trusted her with the knife. Mistakenly, she thought I didn't think this would happen.

I told her, "I knew that was going to happen." "You did?" "Of course. I had knives explained to me but it only made sense after I cut myself with them. Trust me, it's not a mistake you make often after the first time."

I hadn't, however, thought to pack bandages, antibiotic cream or anything else I used to take with me on horseback rides other than lots and lots of water. So I cut my undershirt and made a bandage and wrapped her thumb well.

So we hurried back; I had all of my kids with me. Alejandrita (alay-hon-dree-ta), my 5yo daughter, waited to trip until we were out of the forest and on the paved sidewalk, and Dulce Maria ("Sweet" Maria), my 8yo daughter, went down with her as they were holding hands. They screamed. Alay had a skinned elbow and Dulce a skinned knee. So I cut my shirt up some more after licking the wounds clean.

We came back home (this was all on New Year's Day) and Maria Alejandra, my lovely Latina, was much amused. Everyone but the two boys (myself and my son) were hurt.

Lupita also noticed that Jose Francisco found his younger two sisters' reactions perplexing. She caught the look on his face, he peered at their wounds, and then looked at Maria's thumb, which had bled a bit through the impromptu wrapping.

I put powdered vitamin C on Lupe's cut, which BURNED, but worked great. It was much better this morning. Dulce was terrified of it, so Maria applied neosporin.

So it was a good day. Life is not complete without crying daughters.

Penny Arcade Artist's WWII Veteran Grandfather Speaks

2007-12-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

"Gabe" / Mike had his aunt conduct an interview with his grandfather, a World War II navy veteran. Please read it.

At the end I noticed three important things:

Everything he had from the war was lost. He came home with the clothes on his back - his medals, his souvenirs, his diary were all lost. This creates a larger disconnect when you have nothing to hold on to; it's all in the mind, and coming home to the United States was different than Great Britain.
Once home, he married, returned to his job and stayed there his whole career.
He doesn't like WWII "First-Person Shooters" because the only interactivity is killing each other with guns (phrased differently but this is the core).

This made me think of the cyclical nature of the human experience. Prior to The Great World War (One), war was romanticized. Many Europeans wanted to fight. They were in for a rude awakening thanks to modern warfare and outmoded military generals and their tactics.

Here too, we see a new generation, unfamiliar with real war, experiencing it as they can. Instead of books, we now have First-Person Shooters.

I, for one, applaud that the (statistically) ignorant masses, victims of the American Public Education System, are seeing something, learning about the weapons, the uniforms and a bit about the places and battles, however imperfect (the proliferation of sub-machine guns in these games is completely unrealistic).

I embrace the fact that we have yet another generation unfamiliar with war, because that is normal. They will go and face (the 2nd Gulf War) and come home different, like Ralph did, amidst a public who still has no freaking clue what it's all about, what they went through, and what life really means.

Most people, unless their eyes are opened in this manner, are just destined to never understand.

10yo Girl versus Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 Online Players

2007-12-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

MoH:H2 is the first 32 player online Wii game.

Capture the Flag, in the map entitled "Sewers", 32 player map (16 people per side)

Kills	Deaths	Kill Steals*	Flag Captures	Team Rank
10	3	5	2/3	1st
5	0	0	3/3	1st
5	3	10	3/3	3rd
20	3	5	3/3	1st
1	0	0	3/3	2nd

* Kill Steals are approximate because Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 doesn't track that, but everything else Lupita copied down from the stat board at the end of each match.

These scores are incredible for an adult let alone a 10 year-old girl.

The last match, where she got 1 kill and all 3 flag captures, she said someone shot at her with a sniper rifle and she saw the direction it came from thanks to the heads-up-display, so she chucked a grenade that direction and found cover, and the sniper went "boom."

The 4th match (20 deaths, 3 kills) she got lucky and killed 4 or 5 people with one grenade. I asked her about that round, asking how'd she rack up so many kills, and she said "Well a shotgun and grenades go well together."

Gee, I think every red-blooded man would agree with that.

I asked her how she netted so many flags, and she said "The people on my team were so dumb. They'd run to the other side and then stop to shoot at anyone they met. So I'd just run past them and collect the flag while the enemy was busy shooting at them."

Another trick she'd pull was shooting in one of the two doorways at the spawn point of the enemy side and then ducking for cover; they'd look and see the people she was with, open fire, and then she'd go get the flag, effectively making the people around her targets. But, since they were stupid, this seemed an appropriate use for them.

I remain amazed.

Random Musings at the Drive-Through

2007-11-28T08:57:00.000-05:00

It's after 10pm (pitch night here). My 10yo daughter, Maria, and I were parked outside a fast-food store waiting for it to finish closing to pick up my brother and observed a customer pull up to the drive through. He pressed the button and sat there. We started laughing, sitting in the van. He just sat there, his truck's engine idling, for about four minutes, alternatively staring at nothing and at the voice box. Mind you none of the lights on the displays were lit, even the big "what you can order" sign was dark.

"Gee!" I mocked, "I pressidy button. Whie don't it vork?"

Maria laughed; then he pulled forward and tried the pick-up window. Finally he drove off.

Maria remarked "We should buy some of those 'OPEN' signs with lights and put them on other places and see what people do."

I think I laughed for about five minutes on that one alone.

N'gai Croal on Nintendo

2007-11-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

N'gai Croal is awesome:

"Nintendo, the company for which records were made to be broken. It's now the second most valuable company in Japan, behind only Toyota. Yes, I did say wow. It took ~~the third coming of Jesus~~ the third entry in the Halo series for the Xbox 360 to surpass the Wii, yet the gap was a mere 26,800 units. I expect the Wii to resume its lead in North America next month and do so for the foreseeable future."

Read the full thing.

The Iraq Affair

2007-10-30T11:07:00.000-05:00

Dr. Earl C. Carlson wrote this piece before the media hoopla about the upcoming Iraq war. I found it interesting, so I am posting it here.

A Fairy Princess: Lisell

2007-10-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

Fairies are cool. Out of all the games at www.y8.com (don't go there without Firefox and NoScripts and don't allow y8.com to run scripts on your computer), I pick the fairy dress up game. I must be gay.

Actually I prefer to think that I just like fairies. Fairies and mythological dragons are my favorite, but they don't have a "layout the Dragon's horde" game. :P

Lisell:
I can't make a character without making a story.

Lisell is the 9th daughter of Lynay. To avoid sexuality in my stories, fairies either procreate asexually or any two fairies can sprinkle each other with pollen and get the job done, effectively meaning all fairies are both genders at the same time; it all depends on the mood I'm in at the time.

All fairies are poisonous and most are herbivores, much to the plant family's chagrin. Moss & algae are fit for some, while others prefer fruits or leaves. A few kinds of fairies are omnivorous and opportunistic, eating bugs and things small enough not to be a threat and slow enough to catch.

Lisell is a Vasp fairy, the most venemous. As is custom among fairy keepers, she's been trussed up a bit by her owner and her venom glands removed, which precludes her from ever rejoining the wild.

Still, she goes outside with her owner's family on a wire string, gets plenty of food, and loves digging her tiny fangs into anyone who tempts her temper, especially strangers. She doesn't like most of the owner's children much, except the oldest, who is the most calm.

Her white hare is a tell-tale sign of her species, the Vasp Fairy.

She responds to many verbal words and gives the wry smile you see here when she chooses to ignore them, which is often.

Fairies, after all, aren't really domesticatable.

William Bouguereau

2007-10-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

One of my heroes.

My Belruel - Jam Sessions

2007-10-07T22:12:00.001-05:00

Because no one seems to get it right, I have posted the musical notes / music chords to "My Belruel" (actually Tycho's Ode) here:

A A - A
'twas the twelving day of Everfair
E E - E
when fell my maid of raven hair
D D - D F#m F#m F#m
beneath her cloven standard of the wren
E A A - A
and damn that roiling goblin horde
E E - E E
we'd almost slain the overlord
D D - D D F#m - E E
but i could never roll an elf again

A A - A
"The Queen of Bells and Battle-Downs"
E - E
she wore the title like a crown
D D - D F#m - F#m E
Foes so deep a man would drown, but she still stood alone
A - A -
a princess and a duchess both
E E - E
and sworn to nine prestigious oaths,
D D - D F#m E
her duties, they would take her to that twisting spire of stone

A A - A
Against his tower, a silhouette
E E - E
She called like a coronet
D - D D
And the green sea of his armies burst from warrens far below
A - A
The pacts he'd made with demonkind
E E - E E
Had rent his thin and tattered mind
D - D - F#m E
And hellish princedoms occupied the arrow he let go

A - A
They took her through the crowded square
E - E
And laid her at the temple stair
D D F#m F#m E
The sorcelled barb of Arudair beyond their healing arts
A
there stands a circlet on her brow
E
that turns the blades of men around
D F#m
But if Belruel could hear me now
E
This song would pierce her heart

A A - A
'twas the twelving day of Everfair
E E - E
when fell my maid of raven hair
D D - D F#m F#m - E
beneath her cloven standard of the wren
A A - A
damn that roiling goblin horde!
E E - E E
and damn their hell-bound the overlord!
D D - D F#m F#m - A E A
but i could never roll an elf again

Tycho from Penny-Arcade said this tune was based off of a default song in the preview build of Jam Sessions - I can't find any song that matches it in the final release.

He seems to poetically, or randomly, intersperse extra notes or fewer notes, and I have not annotated where he'd strum the guitar without holding a key, which makes a sound but produces no note.

NO one on TEH INTERWEBS has bothered to really try to write down each note on each line, just the notes that are on that line in the order they appear. I'm quite disturbed at the lack of interest of this particular piece - it is one of the finest pieces of work the author has ever done, and it's like it's just something he did and tossed, and so has everyone else.

In a way, that's the saddest fate of Belruel.

I am currently trying to practice this with my 10yo daughter, but without a proper music sheet and knowing what timing to set the metronome, it's about near impossible. I shall have to involve my lovely Latin wife, who plays classical piano, for aide. We spent almost two hours tonight (1:45) playing THE FIRST THREE LINES. After the first half hour even my well disciplined child asked "Do we have to keep playing?" I told her "This is drilling, sweetie." She was a trouper the rest of the time, no questions asked; we got our yucks in with all of our bloopers too.
or more)

A Wii Bit of Domination

2007-09-30T06:34:00.000-05:00

Grits, Jackalopes and Snow Snakes

2007-09-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

So Dulce, who just turned 8 on the 15th, calls me at work and asks me "Papa, what are grits?" as I'm holding the phone with one hand and trying to type with the other.

"Uhhhh," I answer, "Grits are small animals that live up north."

"Oh." she says. Emboldened, I continue "They look like little rabbits, with antlers."

"Oh." she says.

I continue "They're related to Jackalopes, who live in Texas, which are part Jack Rabbit, a large kind of rabbit, and part Antelope, because of their antlers."

"Oh." she says.

I say "Do you know what eats grits?"

"No." she says.

"Snow snakes." I tell her.

"Snow snakes?" she asks, puzzled.

"Yes. They live in the snow." I say.

Dulce asks "What color are they?"

"White, of course." I reply.

Dulce asks "Are they easy to see?"

"Oh, no, they burrow under the snow." I reply "but fortunately they don't like to come near people."

"Oh." she says.

I tell her she should go tell her older sister what she learned about Grits, Jackalopes and Snow Snakes, and then call me back.

No sooner do I tell Dove what I just did, then my phone rings. I answer.

Lupita says "Dulce just told me something about grits and snow snakes but she got me all confused, what is she talking about?"

So I retell her everything, and she says "PAAAPAAA! And she actually BELIEVED YOU?"

I cackled "Every word, apparently. You'd better to re-educate your sister before we do irreparable harm."

Kevin: How did grits come up anyway?

David: She didn't say, which made her question seem quite random to me, which is actually what made me feel like giving her an equally random response.

Kevin: Well just sort of an odd question in general, mainly from the fact that grits don't normally come up in conversation hehe

David: Yes, especially since my Latin wife hates them and refuses to cook them. The only time I get to eat grits is when I eat out, mostly. Not that it's some burning hole in my life, it's just something I select as a side when offered.

Transformers RP Session #16

2007-09-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

I'm late in posting this:

Transformers RP Session #15

2007-09-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

RP SESSION LIST:

Transformers RP Backstory & Setting

2007-09-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

Gender:
In our fiction, Transformers don't understand gender very well. Most default to male personas, but there are notable exceptions. Since they don't reproduce sexually, relationships are based on a need for community rather than procreation.

Campaign Setting Goal:
Even in a Transformers RP game, you have to know your setting and what you are setting out to do.

In Dungeons & Dragons, my goal was always simple: Create a consistent, believable world and let the players interact with it and change it. At the end of the campaign, redraw the map of the land to show how things had changed. "Draco" saw 7 campaigns, 5 of which had proper endings. It accumulated enough back-history over the course of ten years to fill a small wiki.

Here, however, I found I have a different goal: Make my children grow and learn by putting carefully constructed problems in front of them; more specifically, encourage my firstborn's (Maria de Guadalupe) natural aggressiveness, nurturing and bossyness and hon it into learning to be a leader, of which she has all the natural traits needed; in constrast to Dulce Maria, whom is a follower and I want her to learn more decision making and discovering her identity outside of what her older sister does, and making her own decisions while keeping to the Golden Rule of Sisterhood: Always sticking by each other. This is something I have drilled into my girls since birth; no girls were ever on Papa's team, it was, and is, always them against Monster Zombie Tickle Papa, or whatever incarnation I take.

Campaign Setting Basics:
AHC = Autobot High Command
DHC = Decepticon High Command

Why is travel to Earth forbidden?

Because Transformers have a real problem with being inventors, but humans don't, AHC and DHC were scared at how quickly the humans adapted what technology of theirs that they came into contact with, as well as human history of invention (ever watch "CONNECTIONS"?). This is the real reason AHC orbitally smart-bombed and used digital warfare against all human records of Transformer technology, and why AHC and DHC made travel to Earth or the Sol solar system forbidden.

Why are Decepticons Here?

(Armada) Battle clone Megatron had an idea to gain immense personal power - since Decepticons had already broken an ancient Cybertonian law and melded flesh creatures into cyborgs (the Dreadlords, or "Meatformers" as true Decepticons call them), why not use humans to invent new weapons and technology? He came to abduct scientists and attempt to have a controlled population. Human history shows that no one can retain control of a vast breadth of humanity for very long, but a smaller group seemed more manageable to him.

How did DHC know about Megatron's plan, or that he came to Earth?

Astrotrain betrayed him.

Why did Optimus Prime return? How did he know? Why not just alert AHC?

The real answer to this might blow your mind. Optimus Prime got an anonymous tip (who it was may blow your mind); he knew that AHC's response could be a full-scale war, which would decimate human cities and possibly destabilize Earth's fragile ecosystem, or it could be more purposeful and better handled.

The reason Prime chose not to tell AHC is because he has a different reason for returning: he believes that human beings, with their short lives and uniqueness with each individual, stand to teach the Autobots a lot about individuality, the value of freedom and life, which is something Autobots in general have handled largely by themselves and observing lesser lifeforms.

Who tipped off Optimus Prime?

**SPOILER ALERT** If you really want to know - Astrotrain betrayed Megatron just after he left; he told Soundwave, a Lieutenant Commander, because he was a survivor of the Earth wars and worked in DHC. Prior to forming his group that would usurp command from the battle clone of Megatron, Soundwave sent a coded message to Optimus Prime and warned him. He then deliberately didn't bring enough forces with him to destroy the Autobots he calculated Prime would be able to bring. Optimus Prime doesn't know who sent him the message, only that someone from Decepticon space sent it.

What are the Dreadlords / Dreadbots / Meatformers?

Ancient Cybertronian Law forbids any and all cyborgs and augmenting either alien races with Transformer technology, or grafting Transformers with living tissue. Decepticon High Command has, within the last 18 years (after the Earth wars closed and Earth was evacuated, only Starfire (G1 Skyfire) and Soundwave escaped), overturned this.

Decepticons came across a planet long since torn apart by war; the surviving intelligent species had so drastically genetically altered itself that they have incredible powers of regeneration; however, they'd also nuked themselves into the stone age.

Because Transformer brains are so difficult to make (the core of them are comprised of materials that are of extremely limited supply), DHC decided to create the "Meatformers", as true Decepticon soldiers call them, in order to augment their ranks and push back the Autobots.

This campaign has been effective in areas that the Autobots do not have a substantial defense network set up, enough success for AHC to view these creations with a certain form of... dread. Autobot brains are still hard to come by, just like Decepticons, yet Decepticons are throwing creatures intelligent enough to handle their bodies (dumb computers can just be outwitted or hacked, these can't), but more replaceable than Decepticon brains.

What's with Windrazor? Why does he idolize Optimus Prime? What is AHC doing wrong?

AHC has started to warp the phrase "For the Greater Good." Individuality, indeed the rights of expression and, of course, objection, are considered contrary to the greater good of the war with the Decepticons. This movement within AHC gained ground when, completely unrelated to the Earth-bound Transformers I grew up with, a treaty with the Decepticons fell through with drastic consequences that the current power-holders in AHC managed to stop (hence, their new found respect within AHC, and the willingness to accept a harsher way of doing things from other Autobots in general).

Optimus Prime, like a Bishop in Africa, was completely apart from all of these changes, and when he returned from Earth with his memories and adventures, was aghast at what he found. AHC tried, convicted and destroyed Starfire (Skyfire/Jetfire) for being the Autobot who fired upon Autobots from AHC who attacked the humans; Optimus Prime never got a chance to himself, but Starfire could fly fast and get into space. It was just their way of making an example of him. They stripped Prime of his command and made him a citizen, which Prime found out is now considered a "lower class" from soldier Autobots.

Optimus Prime dispersed his entire memory set, abridging only what he wouldn't want in Decepticon heads, as a way of making the Autobots remember what they stood for. AHC declared his actions against the war effort, and notified him that if he was ever destroyed, he was not to be rebuilt.

Around this time, as Prime was continuing to be engaged in this new underground movement, he got the anonymous tip that Megatron was heading to Earth.

Why did Starfire show up?

Ratchet remade Starfire with the memories Optimus Prime secreted within his own brain's memory banks. Starfire himself backed himself up before his trial (this one became Nightfire, and since it came from the source is, by Autobot law, the new original, not a clone). Both of them came for the same reason: their best friend called them. Starfire brought Jazz with him, an Autobot who has grown to know Prime over the last 18 years (I never had Jazz as a boy).

Why did Autobots Ratchet, Skyblast & Downshift come?

Ratchet needed a ride, so he found a willing taker in SkyBlast. He left after Starfire because he wasn't anywhere near Starfire at the time, and received a separate message from Prime. Downshift was recreated from the G1 Omnibot on Earth. Nobody knows it, but Grimlock and the G1 Omnibots are all still alive, just in hiding, possibly deactive in hybernation. Camshaft and Overdrive didn't want to revisit Earth and all the painful memories there. These guys don't know they are clones, they think the originals died on Earth.

Why did the Decepticons call in the Dreadlords?

DHC asked Soundwave what he needed to handle the Autobots on Earth without drawing attention from AHC, since DHC isn't dumb and figures that, if Prime's best friend was waxed by AHC, and Prime was stripped of his command, then Prime isn't there in an official capacity. Soundwave lied and told them he needed less forces than he actually did.

Clarification on Optimus Prime's Goal:

He's there to counter the Decepticons, for sure, but he's also there to continue learning from humanity. He was confident that, even if peace couldn't be reached with human governments, individuals would help change things. Daniel's betrayal has confounded the Autobot leader for the moment; he has realized that he is still a machine, and reading humans is difficult for him.

What does the "new" Megatron want?

To follow through with the old one's plan of using humans to invent new technology, only with the official sanction of DHC, and to crush the Autobots, especially Optimus Prime, since he's an Autobot folk-hero.

What does Soundwave want?

Good question. He's currently relaying orders from DHC to Megatron and keeping tabs on everything that happens.

Transformers RP Session #14

2007-08-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

It's here! [read the session]

Told from the Autobot's side; Once again there's no combat, although there are some dice rolls this time and the introduction of a new Autobot!

I apologize for entering a kind of "Dragonball Z" story phase where a lot of nothing happens, but little girls seem to enjoy things that boys would likely skip over until they're at the next battle or conflict.

I am also worried that the Cyber Spawn and other Todd McFarlane mecha character might be a bit much for folks to swallow, but there's a hidden truth to them and a reason they don't transform and appear to have... flesh! All to be revealed in the next episode of...

The Transformers RP Session!

Transformers RP Session #13

2007-08-28T07:40:00.000-05:00

It's here! [read the session]

Learn more about Soundwave's plan and what he is going to do with Megatron. The answer may surprise you, but reaffirm Soundwave's character. Plus! What are the Constructicons up to? That's not answered, but alluded to...

Transformers RP Session #11 & 12

2007-08-27T11:45:00.000-05:00

Read all about it.

RP SESSION LIST:

The Extra Degree

2007-08-23T15:29:00.001-05:00

At 33 degrees, water falling from the sky on a Saturday is a rainy day. At 32 degrees, children are building snowmen, riding sleighs and promising their parents that they're warm enough to stay outside five minutes longer. A beautifully uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed our every endeavor; you can reach exponential rewards in life by applying one extra degree.

From the book "212 - The Extra Degree" Author S.L. Parker.

I love this because it is so stupid. The extra degree gives exponential rewards in, as the example illustrates, very rare and specific circumstances. There are degrees 34 through, say, the surface of the sun (10000°F/5000°C, and even hotter above and below the surface). None of those lead to frozen water, although a great many of them lead to a molten surface on Mercury.

Transformers RP Session #10

2007-08-21T11:02:00.000-05:00

Transformers RP Session #10 marked the beginning of using a proper Photo Blog.

RP SESSION LIST:

Transformers RP Session #9

2007-08-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Maria controlled Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Jazz, Brute and Chip; I controlled Mirage, Downshift, Recon & Chaser. Brute, Chip, Recon & Chaser are Knock-Offs we gave names to.

Maria was contemplating what to have Optimus Prime do. She could feel something was wrong in the 9th session (the 8th we had Ratchet, Skyblast & Downshift arrive). Daniel, the son of the human they knew before the Great Cataclysmic War, had given the Autobots a safehouse - an empty warehouse his company owned. In return, the Autobots agreed to help refine his factory and its computer systems so the company could make more money - money which, in turn, Daniel would use to help procure supplies for the Autobots.

The warehouse base the Autobots inhabited and set up with Teletraan 1 was in Denver, Colorado. Daniel's factory was outside of the city.

Optimus Prime had all the jets and spacecraft stay at the base; Starfire (Jetfire / Skyfire), Harrier, Firefox, Skyblast & Rescue. Emergency asked to stay as well. Prime, Ratchet, Jazz, Downshift, Mirage, Chaser, Brute, Recon & Chip formed the convoy for the trip.

The convoy headed to Daniel's factory and noticed an un-marked helicopter following it from a great distance.

I made repeated rolls as the Game Master silently, and Maria tried to see if any of the Autobots saw or noticed anything, but kept rolling low scores. I'd tell her "Ratchet doesn't notice anything, but that's not the same as there being nothing to notice."

Drawing ever closer, when Prime spotted the factory far off with his amazing spot-check, he noticed it was made of reinforced concrete - concrete mixed with steel bars, like a bunker, and had a giant door tall enough for the original body of Starfire (Skyfire / Jetfire) to walk through. She made a intelligence check, and rolled a 6 and a 4. Plus Prime's Intellect score of 10, that was 20.

I asked her "Is your result higher than two?"

"Yes, of course." she answered.

"Twenty is higher than two?" I joked.

"Yes, Papa." she said.

As the Game Master, I said "It's rather obvious that no factories you know of are made of reinforced concrete, it's just too expensive to make."

Then Downshift noticed he couldn't reach Starfire. Maria asked "What can stop our communication?" "Well," I answered, "the curvature of the Earth, even Autobots can't send signals through the Earth's core, and Decepticons. You're not sure if humans can block your signals now or not, it's been 18 years since any of these Transformers have been here."

Still, she couldn't make a decision, so the Autobot rolled inside past the blast doors (which was the entrance). The doors closed behind them.

Once inside, the road went down. Still, she couldn't make a decision as to what to do. Then they met this:

Inside the tunnel, not in an opening but along the narrow four-lane road inside this bunker, they met a giant robot.

"I am a Super Fighter," the robot blurted at them, and marched forward with incredible weight; even the heaviest of Transformers could feel the ground tremor. Optimus Prime knew that the last time he felt that was when Omega Supreme was still alive. He was one of the Autobots whose memories was not backed up, and died in the last stand against the United States Army & Airforce.

"Enemies detected." the behemoth continued.

Over an intercom, a human voice said "Autobots, this is General Brad Langford. As you have come to the United States of America unannounced, and have already begun aggressive actions with your enemies in our cities and on our streets, you have left us no choice but to continue the War of Independence against alien aggressors bringing their wars to our shores. Allow me to introduce to you our solution. Perhaps you recognize it. If you don't, you should..."

General Langford finally shifts from his monotonous voice to one of force, "it's made of the melted-down bodies of your dead comrades."

(Cliffhanger ending)

Game Notes
The Robot: The toy robot really does blurt out "I am a Super Fighter," and then ambles forward a bit before saying "Scanning" and does a scan sound and looks left and right with his torso and then says "Enemies detected... FIRE!" but Esteban cut off his power just before he said that.

The War Reference: What the Transformers (Decepticons and Autobots alike) know as "The Great Cataclysmic Earth War", the humans know as "The War of Independance." Human governments spun it as ousting the alien aggressors from their planet, which, indeed, there was cause for doing.

Betrayal: It should be obvious, but Daniel has lead the Autobots into a deadly trap. One can assume that Starfire and the others are about to have some fun, too.

I found Mr. Drake.

2007-08-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

My American History teacher from 8th grade, and, unfortunately, the best history teacher I ever had. I wish I'd had some more years with him; thankfully, between him and my Uncle George, who used to sit me down to watered down stories of "The Great World War II in the Pacific," when I was 4-5, I came out with a love of history.

It really puts a different slant on how you look at things, when you study history, or anthropology, as my lovely Latin lady does. Human beings tend to believe their moment is more important than others, yet the famous quotation ... gah, I can't source it, but it went something like "Kids these days have no respect for their elders." It was said by a Roman Senator some 2,000 years ago.

But I digress. Finding Mr. Drake got me thinking about a lot of things at once.

Transformers: RP Session 7

2007-08-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

Last night we played the Autobots, although little was accomplished due to:

Jose Francisco.
Dulce deciding it was a great evening to cry.

We did, however, have some fun having the Autobots talk about their take on the action in RP Session #5, which was drastically different than how the Decepticons felt. Essentially it was like an Azumanga Daioh episode: a lot of talking and watching personalities play out, and very little else. For me and my firstborn, that was fun.

Different from usual, I played Optimus Prime last night. Usually Maria plays the Autobots she owns (Jazz and Prime).

Transformers: RP Session 6

2007-08-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

The Decepticons limped home (from Session #5) just in time to watch their transformed star ship's defenses ward off the Autobots.

We had a game last night, this time as the Decepticons. Basically, the RP centered around fending off the Autobots, who did come to attack the base, then licking wounds for five days, and then trying to think of a way to lure Soundwave to Earth. By this point, only my 10yo was still up, so we talked about his personality and I let her try to think of things that might hook him. She couldn't come up with much, so we got to talking about Megatron and why he came...

"Try to think about what Megatron has done, and that may help you answer what his plans are. So far, he has defected from Decepticon High Command's control and gone to a forbidden planet. All right. So whatever he is doing is either worse than these things, or will wash it all away. Think of a bank robber, who steals a car so he can have a getaway vehicle. He really doesn't care about stealing a car, he's going to rob a bank. In other words, he's going to do something worse, so a forbidden planet doesn't bother him. Or, he's going to reverse the situation. What do all Decepticons covet?"

On her third try, because I kept answering "It's more basic than that," she said "Power."

"All right. So if Decepticons desire power, what might make them forget that Megatron disobeyed them?"

Maria answered "If he becomes more powerful."

I said "Ahhh. And lastly, he might have already done something so bad that the Decepticon High Command wants him destroyed, does he care about coming to a forbidden planet?"

Maria said "No. They're already after him."

"So he doesn't care about getting in a little additional trouble. For all we know, he's already wanted for doing something bad before, he's on the run, why not come here?"

"So, there you have it, three possibilities. Now, because I play Megatron and you play Prime, you are going to have to figure out what the truth is. Megatron won't tell the other Decepticons the whole truth. So I'm afraid you're going to have to wait and figure it out."

That concluded our evening.

See my PhotoBlog of this event.

Jose Francisco, the Precocious

2007-08-13T09:41:00.000-05:00

Jose Francisco is a special case; my mom studied child psychology and recognized early on that he had a neurological rarity: his cognitive functions woke up immediately, when most children have them creep into awareness between ages 1-2. His mind was firing all this off while he was still flopping about, unable to effectively move his arms and legs.

Such children can have problems because of the lack of stimuli to a brain that craves it: they can become master manipulators because they quickly learn "I can't move, but I can do things to make others do what I want" and they sometimes "turn off," suffering from lack of stimuli, their brains give up and their cognitive functions reawaken around age 2, which is actually late.

Fortunately for Jose Francisco, with my mother's warning, and the fact that he has three sisters and his mother stays home, he had plenty of stimuli. While we've managed to counter his ability to manipulate for ill, his charisma is incredible; he's charmed 4 to 5yo girls he meets in stores several times, exception one that was just resolute on the idea that 2yo boys are babies and not to be paid attention to. Plus, he charms grown folks too when he wants to.

It's as natural as breathing to him; I've observed his behavior and body language and it's like watching an actor who knows just what to do, intuitively, to get the target person to respond. With his sisters, I have seen him summon 5yo Alejandrita because he knows she listens, and then 7yo Dulce follows because she finds herself without a playmate, and then he asks Dulce to get on a stool to get him something.

Transformers: RP Session 5

2007-08-11T21:12:00.000-05:00

Decepticon Base

THE FIFTH SESSION
In this session, we played from the Autobots' perspective; we generally switch each session.

When we started out, sessions one, two and three had already taken place, plus a fourth which wasn't written up: essentially Starfire (aka Jetfire) and Jazz came from outer space (ordered online from Hasbro) to reinforce their old friend, Optimus Prime.

The Players: Maria, my 10yo daughter, played her Optimus Prime and Jazz figures, as well as Harrier, a small knock-off.

Dulce played her favorites, Brute and Recon, as well as Rescue, all of whom were small knock-offs.

Dad played his Starfire (Jetfire / Skyfire) and Mirage, as well as Firefox, a small jet knock-off.

Autobot (left) and Decepticon Bases

HOMEBREW RPG
Here is the setup of the Decepticon and Autobot bases. Note that in the game world, they aren't that close together.

Extra Notes: We used stryofoam to make a better flooring than the carpet. The bases are doll houses bought from thrift stores; we took the 2nd largest and repainted it.

Autobot Base

BACK HISTORY
The Autobots are hiding in factory owned by a human family they knew before the Great Cataclysmic War of 1989, in which the Autobots and Decepticons threw themselves at each other in a great battle, and the United States, USSR, UK, France, and other countries around the world suddenly attacked any Transformers they could find with their militaries. Already weakened, both sides were annihilated within the year.

Maria & Dulce setting up the Autobots

BACK HISTORY, CONTINUED
By 1988, the human governments had grown tired of the Transformer war spreading on Earth, had realized the only reason it was here was because the two factions had "set up camp."

After Autobot High Command, in space, ordered that all Transformer technology that the humans had be destroyed, a surprise orbital strike, in conjunction from Autobots that arrived from space (most of those loyal to Optimus Prime refused the order), and digital warfare, accomplished this objective. Military personnel and some civilians were killed, but Autobot High Command felt this action was "for the greater good."

After this, human governments colluded with each other and built a plan, which became the reason behind the Transformers' ultimate destruction on Earth in 1989.

Though Transformers can back up their memories and be rebuilt from scratch, the Autobot starship, the Ark, had left; orders from High Command, which was disinterested in spending resources on Earth. Optimus Prime had kept parts of Teletraan 1, the mother computer.

However, Teletraan 1, in its diminished capacity, was unable to back-up all the Autobots who were destroyed when the humans betrayed them (as, indeed, the Autobots had in 1988). Prime, being deemed valuable by Teletraan 1, was one of the Autobots it backed up.

Now, Optimus Prime has returned in a new body, to a place forbidden by both Autobot and Decepticon High Command, because a few renegade Decepticons have arrived. Their purpose isn't clear, but the Decepticons are lead by a battle-clone of Megatron, a Transformer who turns into a tank. Already ravaged by war (thrift store rescue case), this Megatron is dangerous, if overly combative.

Dulce and Maria man (girl?) the Autobot base

RP SESSION 5 BEGINS
In RP Session 4, Starfire (Jetfire) and Jazz came to earth. Jazz was towed by the, now smaller, transforming spaceship.

The Autobots had struck luck early and learned where the Decepticon base was; in the last RP session, the Autobots learned that the Decepticons were attacking Atlanta, Georgia (at least, some of their jets were). Prime (controlled by Maria) felt this was a ruse, and rather than rescue Atlanta, he planned on leading his forces to the Decepticon Base while it didn't have its full compliment guarding it.

Starfire (as named in our fiction) is known as Jetfire or Skyfire in Transformer lore

BACK HISTORY ON STARFIRE
Starfire served with Optimus Prime "back in the day," and while he was destroyed in the Great Cataclysmic war, Starfire was wise enough to have an exact replica body made (I bought two Jetfires as a boy and kept one it its box); however, upon returning to Autobot space, he was arrested for treason, and destroyed. (My mom gave both of them away when she promised not to *cries*)

Fortunately, Optimus Prime, his friend, kept another backup of Starfire, and revived him. Prime was stripped of his command for refusing to obey orders in 1988, but remains an Autobot (some Transformers have no allegiance to either side).

Optimus Prime assembles his Autobots

A HOPEFUL PLAN
Optimus Prime assembled the Autobots, made up more by newly created mini Transformers than by Autobots made in factories on their homeworlds.

Starfire asked if the Autobots knew whether or not the Decepticons still had a spaceship in orbit (he is the only Transformer we have capable of intersteller space travel, so he knew they had to arrive by ship) or if, like the Autobots, they had dismantled it upon arriving for parts. Optimus Prime wasn't sure, so he called the officers to meet upstairs...

Recon, Starfire, Jazz, Optimus Prime & Mirage; Prime holds a private meeting with the officers; Jose Francisco has Recon join anyway

A CAUTIONARY GENIUS
Starfire, Jazz, Optimus Prime & Mirage discussed the possibility of whether or not the Decepticons had a starship in orbit, which "would affect our strategy," as Starfire put it.

Optimus Prime concluded that he doubted the renegade Decepticons had a starship at their disposal, and probably arrived in reusable space craft as the Autobots had: craft designed for dismantling for parts, a typical strategy both sides employ when coming to new worlds.

Mirage, who is a bit shy for a sports car, spent the meeting behind Prime. He's never been an officer before and fell into the role when he and Prime arrived alone on earth and constructed the younglings to help them.

Extra Note: In my fiction as a child, the only Transformer who matched Starfire's intellect was Soundwave; their processing cores were actually the same; however, one was instilled with an Autobot's will to do good, and the other... what no one knows is I have ordered a reissue of the first generation mold of Soundwave... oooh the fun when he arrives.

Prime relays final orders

A FEW GOOD PICTURES

Prime relays final orders to the autobots.

Extra Notes: That is Jazz, Prime & Mirage facing left, and Chip, a youngling Autobot who transforms into a police motorcycle. All of the newly created Autobots and Decepticons are knock-offs bought from Big Lots.

Starfire (Jetfire) and the other Autobots listen

"YES, SIR!"
Rescue, Starfire, Chaser (background) and Harrier & Firefox (blurred foreground).

Prime tells Starfire to leave his booster pack (his warp engines) behind because they don't have the parts necessary to fix it if it gets damaged in battle (you can barely see it between Starfire and Rescue).

Prime has such a great voice, we just can't get enough of him speaking

PHOTO OP
A decent shot is made so much better by a shift in angles... (see next)

Heroic pose

HEROIC PHOTO OP
I love how this picture turned out. The elevator in this doll-house catches the light well in the background.

That's Emergency up front.

Mirage and Emergency stay at the base and stay in communication through Teletraan 1 (tin foil viewscreen)

HOME BASE
Mirage, Emergency (pictured) and Chip stay behnd to monitor the Autobots from Teletraan 1 (tin foil viewscreen).

The other Autobots take to the road and sky.

The Autobots take the Interstate towards the Decepticon base

HIGHWAY TO DISCORD
Optimus Prime, Jazz, Brute (a small tank), Recon (a military jeep) and Chaser (a patrol car) take to the interstate.

Prime decided to avoid having the humans find them, since the Decepticon base was in a remote location, they would drive there rather than fly as robots.

Game Mechanics Note: In this alternate earth, humans use double-lane vehicles, which naturally can't drive on anything less than a four-lane road. Modern human semi trucks are typically this big, now.

It sucks when you need to pass one of these things.

They met some crazy human drivers along the way; and yes, Prime and Jazz take up two lanes of traffic

FIGHTING TRAFFIC
For a while we role-played the two hour drive (fortunately not in real time).

Dulce makes the game's first dice roll (2d6)

A SURPRISE ENCOUNTER
As the participatory game master, I made a few rolls and found that the mercenaries were patrolling routes leading to the Decepticon base.

Scalper, the double-lane red car, came up behind the Autobot convoy. Dulce made the game's first roll to determine whether Brute and Recon (the Autobots she was playing, who happened to be in the rear) noticed. They did.

Prime's stats were so high Maria didn't have to make a die roll for him to notice from the front of the convoy. Damn.

Starfire (Jetfire), Harrier (white), Firefox (red) and Rescue (chopper) follow their ground based comrades in the air

ANGELS IN THE SKY
Starfire, Harrier, Firefox and Rescue made official flight-plans with human Air Traffic Control, which took them to an indirect route to fly-over the Decepticon base and arrive when the wheel-bound Autobots would.

Starfire stymied Prime on the question of "Should I file an official flight plan, and risk the Decepticons being smart enough to have hacked local Air Traffic Control centers, and thereby realize our flight plan might be suspicious, or fly beneath human radar at 500 feet, at which point humans on the ground will see and hear our loud jets, but our surprise against the Decepticons, unless they have a starship, is guaranteed?"

Prime told him to file a flight plan, so he did. Once they spotted Scalper, an unidentified Transformer with no Decepticon or Autobot markings, he took his flight group off course and came towards the Autobot convoy.

Attacked! Highway pileup almost ensued, but Prime did some fast footwork (good dice rolls; Prime is slow) and avoided it.

ROAD WARRIORS
Recon impulsively transformed and attempted to land his feet on Scalper, who was tailing him, and shoot him point blank. It would have been a cool move, but Dulce's dice rolls were against her, so Scalper managed to hit the breaks and Recon's feet hit the pavement while still moving 70MPH; he tumbled to a stop and took some damage.

The rest of the Autobots transformed; human vehicles in front of them were fine, but Prime had to pull off some fancy footwork to avoid the ones directly behind him from smashing into his legs; he's a bit slow, but Maria's dice rolls were good.

Dulce, playing Recon (jeep) and Brute (tank) faces Scalper (the red & black figure with a sword)

COMBAT
Brute, angry for his friend, Recon, attacked Scalper ineffectually.

Scalper, a Decepticon, thought he would pick on the little guys...

"BUT YOU SEE, I HAVE THIS BIG SWORD..."
Scalper was amused at Brute's bravado; unfortunately he underestimated how long it would take the flying Decepticons to intercept his position.

Optimus Prime and Jazz fed Scalper hot plasma

FIRE A BROADSIDE
Jazz and Optimus Prime made short work of Scalper; Starfire's strafing run was the finishing move.

Extra Note: Prime has his shield generator (wind plane in truck mode) transformed into a sniper cannon; he wasn't worried about Scalper's firepower.

...that didn't end well for Scalper after a few turns

A QUICK DEATH
Scalper, ultimately, fell victim to Recon's impulsive attack, because there was no one to back him up once the Autobots transformed and had only one thing to shoot at.

Picture Notes: That's Recon on the left and Brute on the right of Scalper, who is on his back.

Jose Francisco with SkyShadow (left) and Megatron (right) before they entered the stage

A BRUTAL LEADER
I made some Game Master dice rolls earlier and determined that Megatron was too impatient to wait at his base (which has its own weaponry) for the Autobots, and instead ordered the Decepticons to fly (in robot mode for the majority who weren't jets) to intercept them.

Jose Francisco poses with the Decepticons before they've entered the game field (the interstate).

Maria as Optimus Prime: "Autobots, get ready, here they come!"

INCOMING
Maria had Prime prep the Autobots for the coming Decepticons. She also had Prime lift Scalper's sword.

Picture Notes: That's Jazz, Optimus Prime, and Chaser.

Both of these are Maria's toy figures; She had Prime lift Scalper's sword after he was downed

HEROIC POSE II
Yeah, they look fairly cool.

Optimus Prime wanted a chance to parlay with the Decepticons, which was at first thwarted when Recon jumped Scalper, but I rolled the dice and found Megatron couldn't resist gloating...

Starfire (Jetfire) lands to help his friends face the Decepticons on the ground

DEATH FROM ABOVE
Starfire had his band land to assist the other Autobots; his logic being that while doing strafing runs would mean his squad would receive less damage, it would also mean the Autobots on the interstate, who had no cover, would be juicier targets.

BATTLE RULES: As you can see, we use 2d6 for most rolls; you take a Transformer's base stats from the back of their box and roll 2d6 with it. To do a ranged attack, roll 2d6 and add it to your Transformer's Skill. To dodge (once per turn) an incoming shot, roll 2d6 and add it to your Speed. Every shot after that will hit you if the attacker's roll is greater than your speed.

Then you roll 2d6+Fireblast (attacker) versus 2d6+Endurance (victim) to see if the hit is moderate or severe.

Smaller Transformers do no damage to large ones on a moderate hit, and one point on a severe. Equal sized Transformers do either one or two points of damage per hit. A larger Transformer will do two to three points of damage to a smaller one. A Transformer is down once it has taken as many points of damage as it has Endurance, and completely destroyed beyond repair once it has taken twice as much damage as its Endurance. Nanobots in all Transformers continually attempt to repair them.

The Decepticons, of course, wanted to talk before the fight began; Megatron loves to gloat

PARLAY
Megatron couldn't resist giving a monologue.

"Optimus Prime, we meet in person at last." (I never owned Megatron as a child, he was always on Cyberton, and though this is a battle-clone of Megatron, he shares the memories of the real ones)

Prime was smart under Maria's command, she said "Megatron has a big ego so..." then she spoke in her Prime voice "Megatron, why are you here?"

I asked her why she thought he'd answer and she said "He can't resist." I smiled.

"Why Optimus Prime, you mean you don't already know? I'm so surprised." Megatron, sure enough, couldn't resist feeling superior to Prime. "Do you think we came all the way to this infested, treacherous planet just so you would show up? You're not that important!"

Prime pressed "Than why are you here?"

Megatron laughed "That's for you to find out, Prime." and he fired at Optimus Prime. (He dodged.)

Same as above, no flash

BATTLE!
The larger Autobots fired at Megatron, and the smaller ones fired at various Constructicons (the yellow guys); Herc, Drilldozer and Crane.

The Decepticons, under Megatron's orders, all shot at Optimus Prime; however, Prime had his shield generator up which, albeit temporarily, made him tougher than Megatron.

That was all the advantage the Autobots needed...

Optimus Prime, as seen through Megatron's legs; "Autobots: Attack!"

"CONCENTRATE YOUR FIREPOWER"
While those weren't Maria's words with Prime, that was her meaning. Because she knew the smaller Autobots could score a hit and still do no damage, she wanted them to fight the small Decepticons.

To illustrate Maria's plan, and because it was in keeping with Megatron's character, I had all Decepticons attack Optimus Prime, even the small ones; that didn't work very well.

Both sides focused their firepower, but Megatron got the short end of the stick

BATTLE RAGES ON
Optimus Prime's shield generator held up, while Megatron took real damage. Despite not having his booster pack weaponry, Starfire was able to lay into Megatron as well as Jazz and Mirage.

Maria had Prime stand his ground and didn't seem peturbed by the amount of fire directed at him; she saw where the damage was going (to his shields).

Megatron cries "Retreat! Decepticons! Retreat!"

"RETREAT! DECEPTICONS! RETREEAAAT!"
Once Megatron had taken 6 damage points (his Endurance is 10), and three small Decepticons were already down, he signaled the retreat.

Angered, Maria had Prime order to concentrate fire on Megatron, which everyone did. The larger Autobots got him down to 1 hitpoint (which starts out equal to the Transformer's Endurance), and then four smaller Autobots hit him, but did no damage (moderate, not severe hits).

As Game Master, I decided four ineffectual hits did, indeed, stack up, and Megatron went down. Much to Maria's chagrin, however, SkyShadow picked up his fallen leader and continued flying off.

All cheer

ALL CHEER
The Autobots had won the day.

Of course, they're still standing on an interstate, but I assume Maria and Dulce will either have them disperse and transform into vehicles and head back home in disguise, or press onwards towards the Decepticon base in the next session.

Dulce gushes over the game

DULCE LOVED THE GAME
I love her expressions in these next few shots, in which she was answering my questions "How did you like the game?" and "What did you like about it?" and "Why?"

Maria loved the game to, but not the camera.

She really liked it

HAPPY PLAYERS
"What did you like about it?" *snap*

I always ask why; here she is answering my favorite question, which took her a good four minutes

CUTE GIRL HAD A GOOD TIME PLAYING THE RPG
"Why?" *snap*

I doubt I will take the incredible amount of time it took to write up another session like this one; however, I still wanted to do this because I like to finish what I start and I realized that, if it's the only one I do in this detail, it's a great example of our play.

Skyfire / Jetfire and Jazz Return!

2007-08-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Skyfire aka Jetfire and Jazz have arrived from Hasbro Toy Shop .com. Maria bought the "Movie Deluxe" edition of Autobot Jazz, and I bought the "Classics Voyager" class Skyfire / Jetfire.

Jazz Sucks:
Maria still likes him, but the 2007 movie edition of Jazz sucks: the arms are too hard to transform and are hinged with three individual pieces of double-hinged plastic, all of which are small parts, all of which are easy to break (which makes transforming him not fun), and to boot the final step to merging the hood back together (which is what splits apart into four pieces to rotate, move and become his arms) is nightmarish.

Jazz does look good in car mode. Robot mode is decent, but he has tiny claws for hands, and his arms get caught in his chest and don't feature the full range of motion Jetfire / Skyfire does (pictured).

Despite all of this, however, Maria likes Jazz, so bear that in mind as I gripe and grumble.

Dulce with Skyfire:
I call Skyfire "Starfire" as I did when I was a kid. The G1 Skyfire (called Jetfire only in the cartoon) was a Macross VF-1 Yamato.

We role-played their return last night.

Skyfire Rocks:
This figure is better than Classics Voyager class Optimus Prime in overall ease of transformation & coolness factor (plus he doesn't lack a trailer), but not as robust.

Prime has fewer parts to wedge together and is, overall, easier to manhandle in robot or semi-truck form without some part shifting out of its socket that latches it to another part.

Weapons: Skyfire has a crazy amount of weaponry: two cannons hidden in his boosters, a double-barreled gun that splits into two single-barreled guns to hold under his undercarriage (in his hands) in jet mode, two photon torpedoes (the clear blue things), and his tiny antenna (two on each side of his head).

Not Suck: Cool bonus, Skyfire has a "helmet" that makes him look like his G1 counterpart, rather than the cartoon version; however, if you dig the cartoon look, you can remove the helmet. I have refused to remove it because, well, "Starfire" in my fiction never had an ugly mug, just a robotic head.

Poseable: Skyfire is nearly as pose able as "Classics Voyager" class Optimus Prime; exception being he has wings and a booster pack (removable) that can get in his way.

Teh Suk: The only bad things are that the figure is just smaller than the G1 original and, when the hidden booster cannons are extended, the interior of the boosters can be seen and it's hallow.

Summary: That said, the figure is sturdy, cool, and fun. I'm glad we picked him up before he was no longer available in retail.

Transformers: RP Session 3

2007-08-09T06:24:00.000-05:00

The Cast:
Last night, 2.5yo Jose Francisco was cooperative and, shortly after, not present.

7yo Dulce Maria tried her hand at playing Megatron. She/Megatron sent the Knock-Off Constructicons out to look for supplies, but gave no specific orders about not alerting humans to their return to Earth.

10yo Maria de Guadalupe took control of Crane and Drilldozer, while Dulce played Bulldozer and Herc. 5yo Alejandrita (Alay-hon-dri-ta) played Hawk, since Jose took Streak to bed with him. Pictures: [Herc, Drilldozer] [Crane, Bulldozer] [Streak and Firefox (not used, but they are shaped like Hawk, who is gray)]

The Adventure:
The girls set about sacking a construction yard next to a parking lot (complete with about 20 Matchbox cars all set up in parked positions). To show girls how the game worked, and to have a little fun, I had Optimus Prime and Mirage [Prime, Mirage & Laserbeak pictured] roll into the parking lot.

I told the girls "In this alternate human world, since their world was changed starting with the Transformers' arrival in 1984, now it is rather common to have double-lane vehicles; like real semi-trucks today, they can't go down residential streets." What I haven't told them is what kind of huge weaponry humans have developed; not all Transformer technology was wiped out by the Autobots.

Maria said "I can understand a big truck, but why would people need a giant race car?"

I answered "This (pointing at Mirage), assuming it was a human-built race car, could go way faster than that (Matchbox) Ford Mustang over there.

We made some dice rolls, and Prime and Mirage, while pulling into the parking lot, spotted the Decepticons first, despite their numbers. Optimus Prime was about to double-park, but pulled out and rolled into the construction site as if nothing was amiss. I had my girls roll again and a few Decepticons noticed there was encrypted communications going on between the giant semi-truck and the giant race car.

Combat:
The Combaticons all transformed and started to flee. Transformers get a free action right after Transforming, but none of them shot; they all took off. Prime transformed and, instead of using his wind plane as a shield generator, transformed it into a large sniper cannon, and opened fire.

Now the girls got to learn what those stats mean on the back of the boxes: Roll 2d6, add that to the applicable stat. Most of Prime's are 10's, including "Skill." On his lowest possible roll, Prime would make a 12. On their best possible roll (4 base state +6+6 die rolls) the Combaticons could make a 16; it rarely worked out in their favor, however.

Prime hit two Combaticons. Alejandrita was brave and refused to leave Maria and Dulce's characters behind, so Hawk stayed and fired, hitting Optimus Prime; the shot bounced off without leaving a mark (Firepower versus Endurance check). Prime ignored Hawk and refused to shoot Bulldozer, who was trying to get up, and instead leveled his guns at two seperate targets (for a -4 difficulty check) and made glancing blows on each (Herc and Drilldozer). Meanwhile, Mirage had been shooting at Crane.

In the end, Bulldozer got up but was shot while attempting to fly away, and was incapacitated. Hawk stayed there, shooting at Mirage and Optimus, until both Autobots leveled their weapons at him (two of Prime's and one of Mirage's) and all scored hits: since he had been hit three times by that point, Hawk was obliterated. Unable to carry off two fallen Decepticons (Bulldozer and Herc), they nabbed one, put him on the back of Prime in Truck mode, and sped off.

Epilogue:
Crane and Drilldozer made it back to report, but they hadn't seen the whole battle. Megatron was not pleased.

I told the girls "Now you know something about tactics."

"Yes!" Maria said, emphatically.

I continued "Now, if Megatron, SkyShadow and the mercenaries (Slipstream, Scalper & Driller [pictured]) had been there, that would have been a world of bad news for Prime and Mirage."

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the day the humans get a chance to respond with mecha of their own - Jose Francisco has a few toys that dwarf the Transformers and would serve well as the United States' solution to the Transformer problem. After all, I'm sure the U.S. government expected their return.

Transformers: RP Session 2

2007-08-08T07:22:00.000-05:00

We barely got started with the Decepticons; Maria played Megatron. I gave her some pointers on things he would and wouldn't do:

Never admit fault of his own.
Never admit a weakness. "Optimus Prime has a new weapon; but my main battle cannon is superior."
If someone goes wrong, it's because one of his Decepticons did it.
If something goes right, it's because of his leadership.

Jose Francisco kept interrupting play this time, rather than cooperating as with the first session, and after a few suggestions, we weren't going to press him to do what we wanted. With Jose Francisco, you can explain your case and make sure he understands; if he does not respond to this, and it is not an issue of obedience (in which case, there would be no explanation anyway, just "ZE ORDAH!" [the order]), then we let him be. It is more than enough that he responds to orders and he knows the difference between something we'd like him to do, and his duty as a son and a brother, which are things he must do.

DVD 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime reviews on YouTube
After 4 or 5 resets Maria and I gave up and watched YouTube reviews of "Classics" Optimus Prime ($20) and Mirage ($5 on clearance), and of the "DVD 20th Anniversary" Optimus Prime ($70-100) which I don't have.

Watching those reviews pretty much cured me of wanting the toy for a couple of reasons:

The toy is so heavy its joints have trouble staying in place, which means if they start out bad, playing with them (which I would) would destroy them.
The side and back of the semi-truck look awful. There are no side windows and you can see part of Optimus Prime's bicep untransformed between a very wide seam, let's just call it an open seam.
While the hands are articulate, along with every finger, it seemed to be difficult for people to make them hold something.
I realized it's a big display piece for collectors, not something fun to use. For $60, I could get 3 to 6 other Transformers, plus tax.

That's news.

Transformers: RP Session 1

2007-08-07T23:14:00.000-05:00

This big, bad long text is me and my daughter's setting for our Transformers and Knock-Offs, as well as our first RP session with them, which is different than the random "transform, shoot at each other" play we've had up until now. After this session, my daughters were hooked, though they'd enjoyed them already. As my 10yo daughter said "It's so cool that we can just talk and do what they do." Put one storyteller and two little girls together and that'd be the response I'd expect. My 2.5yo son and 5yo daughter enjoyed this too.

Scale:
Before we can explain setting, we must first explain scale. Scale is an ongoing issue since the Diaclone and Microman toylines were repurposed as Transformers, and has never let up. (See the Transformers Wiki on: Scale).

That aside, fans probably have varying ways of accounting for it.

As a child playing with the G1 toys, I simply assumed that, while I knew the scales were off, in my fiction, that's just the way they were. There were super big trucks and super small tanks. Since my toys couldn't magically change size, I didn't do that, exceptions being Soundwave & crew, etc. (I always wanted him to come with a small piece of plastic that was "him", transformed.)

Playing with my children today, we came up with a more inventive solution: Matchbox cars are the actual car size, making (Classics) Optimus Prime & Mirage overly big and humans, tiny; Humans mix vehicle sizes since their world has changed since 1984.

We had to settle on Matchbox cars or die-cast cars roughly the size of Mirage; either the mini Transformers were tiny cars, planes and tanks, or they were slightly big, and everyone else was huge. Matchbox won out because my son has 30+ of them, and only 8 die-cast cars. Props matter.

Inclusion of Other Toys:
Since humans are hostile to all Transformers after the alternate end to my childhood stories, my son's toy tanks and mecha are great "Human Solutions" to the "Autobot and Decepticon Problem."

Our Fiction:
Before the Great Cataclysmic War of 1989, which Optimus Prime only alluded to the newly awakened Autobots, in which basically all the toys I had and lost were destroyed in a horrific war (fictionally speaking), the Autobots destroyed all data humans had on their technology they could find, both by physical and digital means, ordered by Autobot High Command in space. This created a strong animosity between Humans and all Transformers.

Optimus Prime, in my stories, was simply the leader of the Autobots on Earth.

18 years later (from 1989), Cyberton having forbidden Transformers from traveling to Earth, two renegade Autobots have returned: Optimus Prime and Mirage. Unearthing Teletraan 1, which was left behind along with Grimlock and the Omnibots, they built new mini Autobots (the Knock-Offs of different combining Transformers). They have been unable to locate Grimlock or the Omnibots.

Old Conflict, Renewed:
The reason Optimus Prime came is that he knows a clone of Megatron (Armada Megatron, a tank), has defected from Decepticon command and arrived here, along with his Lieutenant, SkyShadow, and three mercenaries, Slipstream, Scalper and Driller, who gestalt into "Krieg." They have already set up a base and created small Decepticons of their own (again, Knock-Offs of different combining Transformers).

How Death Works:
Although Prime died on Earth in the Great Cataclysmic War, like all Transformers in my fictions, they are difficult to kill; so long as their memories remain, and a processing core compatible with their coding (either equally or more powerful than the original), they can be rebuilt. This, too, explains the clones of many Transformers, such as the renegade Megatron, and why Megatron has "existed" for hundreds of millions of years.

In my childhood, Transformers would be destroyed and rebuilt several times, only losing the memories of the time between their last "back-up". As machines, they just view life differently than people, and the Autobots understanding of natural life versus those of machines is one of their humanistic qualities; Decepticons care little for these things.

Different Pre-History:
The Ark crashed several hundred million years prior to 1984. The Dinobots were the first to emerge, molding themselves after the life found on the planet at that time. For eons, they rebuilt themselves and continued their trek across the planet, always guarding the Ark and waiting for word from Autobot High Command, which never came. Eventually a meteorite fell and buried them; as Grimlock later said "We just didn't spend enough time looking to the stars."

The Dinobots weren't dumb, just different. Unearthed millions of years later by the Autobots lead by Optimus Prime, their memories were partly restored by Teletraan 1 on the Ark, which had been running continual repair on itself over the millenia to keep itself in top shape. Grimlock being the leader the Ark chose long ago, but Optimus Prime being the new one, the two settled on Grimlock heading up the role of battlefield commander, and Prime being the overall strategic commander. Sometimes they disagreed, which would get Prime's muffler if it was in front of other Autobots.

The Earth War: 1984-1989
During my stories, Soundwave lead the Decepticons on Earth, while Megatron continued the war from Cyberton.

Hundreds of Millions of years ago, Cyberton itself had nearly been destroyed, and every Transformer was along with it; only a few straggling survivors buried on other planets (like the Earth-bound Autobots) re-emerged after the ages past; for a long time any who returned to Cybertron were destroyed by the nano-virus spread there. Once that was overcome, however, Cybertron was reclaimed circa 1462 A.D. (Easy date for a kid to remember, same as Columbus; my stories were always detailed and still are.)

A clone of Shockwave came to Earth and became the new leader; Soundwave only lead because he had to. Later, Galvatron, a "New Edition" of Megatron, one of numerous clones, arrived; he brought with him the coming of the Great Cataclysmic War on Earth.

You see, Grimlock had lead a number of Autobots onto a Decepticon-held planet and made a successful push there that was countered. All hope lost, Grimlock let lose the "World Bomb", essentially a device capable of creating an Extinction-Level Event on any Earth-sized globe. He made it back by way of teleportation with a few Autobots, and wanted little more of war afterwards. The Decepticon High Command, however, wanted revenge.

Optimus Prime, by this time, was old. He refused to leave his body and lay in the Ark giving orders from there, and sometimes remotely controlled Ultra Magnus, who became his 2nd in command.

Having spent so much time around humans, Optimus Prime had begun to feel that he was more than memories: he was the robot. For this reason, he refused to leave his aging body.

The Great Cataclysmic War:
I never got a chance to "play out" the Great Cataclysmic War because I didn't know it was going to happen; nor would I have wanted it to. My parents lost our horse ranch and me just about every toy with it. Grimlock, the Omnibots and my two Jetfires/Skyfires survived (one mint in box). My mother later gave away my Jetfires without me knowing; that left only four survivors. I thought I still had Topspin, my first Transformer ever (and one of my least favorites) but I didn't find him with my NES things, which I also still have.

2007: Present Day
So today, the Classics Optimus Prime (which belongs to my 10yo daughter) is Optimus Prime, finally in a new body. As with everyone else on Earth, he died in the Great Cataclysmic War; The Ark, before this war, had left Earth, and the parts of Teletraan 1 left behind were incomplete, and unable to back up all of the Autobots. Permanent death ensued for a great many Transformers; Optimus Prime has not said how many. He does know that Teletraan 1 saved his memories because it deemed him more valuable, something that weighs upon him.

Grimlock and the Omnibots survived the War, in which the humans participated in slaughtering all Transformers after the Autobots and Decepticons nearly ended each other; Grim, Overdrive, Camshaft and Downshift went into hiding.

(This is especially disconcerting for my 10yo daughter, because she knows I have both my G1 Grimlock and my "Robots in Disguise" Classic Grimlock still in its box. She wants Grimlock to return, but I am unwilling to open his box, nor use my G1 figure.)

The Autobots feature only:

The First Role-Play Session:
My 10yo daughter made me role-play Prime to help her get ready to fill his shoes. She took control of various knock-offs, as did my 7yo daughter, Dulce. Jose Francisco, my 2yo son, spoke Cybertonese, and we'd act like we understood him and answer in such a way as to make it obvious what he said; he loved this, discovering that you could do more with Transformers than shoot each other, and kept talking and listening. He started practice fighting with laser-beams later.

I had to get into the moment to take up Prime; it had been a long time, but having seen the G1 Cartoon episodes 1-7, the feeling had come back. Still, last night was the first time since, probably, 1989 that I played him. Took me a few moments to get ready, take everything in that had happened, and figure out what he'd say first.

Before Prime, in the largest doll-house, which was their new base, were all the mini Knock-Offs and Mirage, transformed into vehicles. That wouldn't do for a meeting, my first words with Prime were fittingly:

"Autobots: Transform."

My daughters sighed and giggled. We transformed everyone into robot mode.

Prime explained that it had been a long time since the Autobots last came to Earth, and that all of the mini Knock-Offs were newly created Autobots (which explained their lack of stickers, which the little guys complained about later). He explained their roles and the buddy system he expected them to use; the Decepticon threat and their superiority, and that he had put out a call for Starfire, but that his old friend could be many parsecs away (7-10 days shipping).

Prime explained that all Autobots have mini-hologram generators which will blend their seams, so humans won't be able to tell they are Transformers. Decepticons, of course, can see right through this, so the disguise won't work against them. Here too, when asked about the Doll House decorations they were surrounded by, Prime said "Those, too, are holograms; however, by our eyes they look flat and unrealistic, but to human eyes, they will look real."

My daughters smiled at that.

Note on Starfire/Jetfire/Skyfire:
Optimus Prime has sent a message calling Starfire (what I called Jetfire/Skyfire), but does not know how long it will take his old friend to arrive, but that, given Starfire's intellect and distaste for war and the Autobot High Command, he is sure to come. (Classics Jetfire is on order from Hasbro, as is Jazz, which Prime is not aware of: Starfire is bringing along an old buddy who defected with him; not that Starfire had to defect, he was never a soldier under Autobot High Command's control).

Back to Role-Play:
Brute, Recon and Chaser went out on the road; (Brute played by Maria, Chaser by myself and Recon by Dulce) we set up a freeway and put a lot of Matchbox cars on it. Brute hadn't bothered computer speed-reading the laws on traffic, which was problematic because he is a miniature tank. Chaser, a patrol car, quickly became the group's watchdog. Recon, while certainly a follower, provided his own quips.

Firefox and Harrier, two Autobot mini-jets played by myself and Maria, took to the air, and ran into Hawk, a Decepticon mini-jet Knock-Off played by Dulce. She attacked us, and the two Autobots quickly out-gunned Hawk. Foolishly, Dulce had Hawk fly back to the Decepticon Base, whereupon (Armada) Megatron blasted Hawk with his main battle cannon, destroying him for his idiocy, undoubtedly to be rebuilt later, perhaps the wiser. Megatron sent Laserbeak ("Real Gear" Booster X10) to follow the Autobots; Laserbeak's new power was turning invisible like Mirage, but Prime doesn't know that so the data he gave the brand-new Autobots omitted this ability.

Firefox and Harrier, however, were overly wary about being followed, and flew to Japan before heading back home. By that time, Laserbeak had grown tired of following them and returned home; two dice rolls failed to let the Autobots see him, nor get the Autobots to feel less paranoid. They returned and told Prime the good news: they now knew where the Decepticons were.

That ended our role-play and fun and games, as everyone but my oldest had to go to bed.

Current Situation:
As it stands, the Autobots are hopelessly outgunned if a full battle happened, so Prime ordered that, at all costs, their new base must be kept secret; even human governments might seek to destroy them.

On order, "Movie Deluxe" Jazz, my 10yo daughter bought with her own money (she paid me, I bought him online); "Classics" Starfire/Jetfire is mine.

That's all we know, for now. We haven't played the Decepticons yet.

Transformers: The Fortress

2007-08-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

Here is the fort! It's finished!

I made a stop-animation of my 10yo daughter's Optimus Prime transforming. She enjoys him so much she ordered the movie edition of Jazz online for $10. I ordered Jetfire / Skyfire from the Classics line for $20.

More on Playing:
Well playing with my brother is interesting; the men in my wife's family do not like to lose, even when playing Transformers. I don't think I ever saw Megatron shoot so many devastating rounds so quickly, or so accurately. Flying jets, racing cars, Optimus Prime, you name it, it was shot repeatedly.

Fortunately this only eggs on my oldest daughter, so she put up Prime's shields (the spoiler on his roof becomes a great shield looking generator once transformed; we figured that's what it was in both modes), ducked for cover and converted his shields to a really big gun:
See that monster in his left hand? That folds out into a shield in truck mode, and can be a shield generator on his back that you can put above his head or behind him in robot mode, or take off, convert into a super-powerful sniper cannon, and go blast some Decepticons.

That would work in a fair game; unfortunately we didn't have one of those, so the Autobots retreated for the day.

The Fortress:
Jose Francisco loves the new fort. Esteban did the paint job and it came out great (see previous picture). Usually the Decepticons inhabit The Fortress.

When Jose Francisco first saw it he gave a confused look; I think he recognized that it was one of his sisters' doll houses, recolored, but when he realized that we did it so he could have a fort (by taking a Transformer and putting it on the Fort), he smiled and ran straight for it and started setting up Transformers.

The Princess:
Dulce Maria has decided she likes Brute and Recon best, because she can transform them and they "look cool." Here they are on the right:
|
The Tank and the Jeep are Brute and Recon.

Alejandrita loves to play with her baby brother and prefers any of the small white ones, especially the two white jets.

Always Ask "Why?"
I have asked my lovely lady why our daughters enjoy Transformers when they don't enjoy toy soldiers, and she wasn't sure.

Behaviorally, they all seem to "click" with Transformers. Good guys, bad guys, who are cars, planes and other vehicles. Robots who shoot, fly and talk. They seem to appreciate the feeling of "doing it" when they learn a transformation, and enjoy repeating the process, once learned, many times during play.

However, I can't enumerate why the girls enjoy Transformers and not toy soldiers. Is it the slight abstraction of giant robots? If the human brain feels pleasure in having power, in doing something, accomplishing something (even if it's tipping something over, for babies), then some part of these toys certainly speaks to them in this aspect.

I'll think on it a bit more, but mostly I'm glad everyone is having fun.

2007-08-04T18:30:00.000-05:00

I figured out who all the Knock-Offs are KO's of thanks to two very helpful guys: tigertracks 24 & JelZe GoldRabbit.

TRANSFORMER BASE UNDER CONSTRUCTION:
My brother and I took the 2nd largest doll house and converted it for use as a home-base. My brother's been in the Mexican military (actually the Pentathlon) so he painted it in a military style, which my son will undoubtedly love.

Here it is, exterior:

and interior:

We got the doll house at the Salvation Army for $5. We have a larger one than that that's still a doll house, and a smaller one, which also gets used as an opposing Transformer base alone with nearby furniture from time to time.

OPTIMUS PRIME COMES TO A NEW GENERATION:
Optimus Prime was my favorite Transformer; bar none. Soundwave & Grimlock came next, but Prime was my guy. I used him so much his arms wore out so I had him command from Teletran 1 on my play shelf. So when I realized that my 10yo daughter, of all people, really, really liked Prime, I gave the figure I'd stashed away for me to her, and seeing her reaction was bittersweet...

My 10yo daughter, Maria de Guadalupe, didn't know that I had bought the figure; she offered three times to buy me one thinking I didn't have it (she said she was once, and then kept reminding me that she was as soon as we went to the store), and then enumerated to me why she thought (based on seeing the original 1st Generation 1984 cartoon) Optimus Prime was her favorite:

"He's a good leader, he's not so full of ego like Megatron that he gets things wrong all the time. He's always concerned about the other Autobots. He's brave."

Her words, near as I can recall them; I revealed to her that I had already acquired Optimus Prime and had him in hiding, and instead of giving him to me (my original plan), I gave him to her.

He's what I used to make my new avatar.

Oh, and here are the kids playing on a weekday using the doll house prior to it's repainting:

Even my 10yo girl enjoys this:

which is obvious because now she owns Prime, and, as she said just now, "I... think... he's so COOL!"

Transformers: Play Time!

2007-08-03T13:01:00.000-05:00

Jose Francisco fires up "Slipstream's" leg engines and takes off. "Mirage" is evading him from the ground.

I edited this photograph some - see the original.

Slipstream is a Knock-Off Transformer called an "Ultra-Bot: Space Warrior." He was hard to transform; word from the wise: the nose piece is virtually stuck in place by two braces; use a small flathead screwdriver to get it loose the first time. But hey, the toy was only $3.

Here everyone gets their game on. We may paint the 2nd largest doll house so we can have a real boy's home base for his toys.

The best thing is that, unlike toy soldiers, the girls really seem to enjoy the Transformers (Knock-Offs or official; doesn't seem to matter to children this young, though I think my 10yo, Maria, prefers the official ones - more articulate).

Alejandrita (alay-hon-dri-ta) enjoys herself. She already likes many "boy" games; having grown up with her baby brother (only two years apart) she dabbles in both little girl and little boy playstyles.

I don't care what they like to play; only that they share and play well.

She's playing with "Scalper," here, a Knock-Off Transformer called an "Ultra-Bot: Space Warrior."

In closing, I think it is a lot of fun to not only enjoy something I did as a child, but best of all, watch my children enjoy it and understand that if a parent just acts appreciative and understanding of a child's chosen plaything and playstyle, they'll have a lot more fun. My dear mother wasn't much for Transformers so I always had to play alone; my son summons me and says " 'Formers!" and points at their perch atop the Piano.

Transformers G1: Continued
We missed Wednesday as my son went to sleep early, but we caught Season 1's 3rd show (the end to the 3 part pilot).

The best thing is that all of my daughters seem to have something they can enjoy together with their brother aside from the many usual games of make believe, run-from-the-monsters, sword fighting, wrestling and "bring down Papa!"

You can see this morning's play session, with pictures, on my blog.

" 'Formers!" is a new word for my baby boy. He's figured out they aren't "Robots," which is what I first tried to tell him as words beyond two syllables can be difficult.

Knock-Offs:
The children don't seem to care about KO's versus real Transformers yet; however, I only have Classics Mirage so they seem to regard him as "Dad's". I can see one exception is my 10yo. She prefers Mirage and the Armada Megatron and Cyberton SkyShadow (I get that right?) for their complexity and articulation.

The documentation on Knock-Offs on teh Interwebs is virtually non-existent. I had a real hard time figuring out how to transform two KO's without breaking them: it turned out one's plastic clips were too long and, ergo, didn't want to unclip (small flathead screwdriver fixed that), and the other was latched together in such a way that the only way to unlatch it was to simply apply enough force; however, without directions, I spent 15 minutes figuring that out because I kept thinking there must be something to unlock it. I am referring to the "Ultra-Bots: Space Warriors", specifically the white jet/plane and the green drilling tank.

Sweet Child:
My 10yo daughter offered to buy me the Classics Voyager-class Optimus Prime. She said "Octopus" at first, which kept us both laughing for about 5 minutes, because she's seen the 2007 movie and knows the name, it just came out wrong.

I'm going to make sure she spends her money on something for her, but I haven't told her that yet. Father's day wasn't so long ago and she chipped in $100 to help her mother buy me a used 32" TV.

[Transformers] Starting a New Generation the Right Way: Using the 1st Generation Cartoons

2007-08-01T09:33:00.000-05:00

I write this because it interests me and because I know there must be some parents out there who are into Transformers. If you are a parent, please chime in on in the comments, I will be glad to read from you.

This blog is about introducing my children to the Transformers toys and story via the G1 cartoons, some Knock-Off toys, and a few official toys. If that doesn't interest you then TMTDNR and PDNR.

The Target Audience:
I'm the father of 3 girls (ages 10, 7 & 5) and a 2yo boy; Hasbro has nothing on my marketing abilities.

How to Introduce:
I know the Transformers: Animated show is coming out but until it arrives I won't know how different it is; chances are it will be good, but I'm not sure it'll be as great an introduction (the G1 cartoon was good about having lots and lots of Autobots and Decepticons in each show even if they don't speak much; the new show features less characters and cameos others - it also won't have Peter Cullen, my childhood favorite from Voltron and Prime).

What I Had, and what I Got:
The only toy Transformers I had were two large Decepticons from thrift stores (1997ish?), Generation 1 Grimlock, Overdrive, Camshaft & Downshift (1984-5; they survived the typical mother holocaust scenario), and a Classics (2006-7?) Mirage and Grimlock. The G1's sit on shelves, the thrift store specials (already broken) were general toys, and the Classic Mirage I'd play with my 2.5yo son from time to time, but never let him hold it without me. The Classic Grimlock stays in it's box.

First I posted here and met some nice folks who gave me advice on where to go to buy some toys on the cheap; the Big Lots idea panned out great.

My son, who loves matchbox cars and toy soldiers, went through several expressions to show how "cool" and "wow" the Knock-Off Transformers I got were. For $25.5 I got 23 Knock-Offs, but only "released" two of them.

Priming for the Generation 1 Cartoon:
I sat my kids down and let my daughters re-watch an episode of Azumanga Daioh, ate dinner (kids are more settled after this), and sat them down for their first 1984 original "G1 Cartoon" experience. I brought out one more set of Knock-Off's, an open top jeep and a tank, let my son hold those, and fired up the show.

Now psychologically, my son is Driven; he's the kind of personality that has to be doing something productive or he gets antsy. In the adult world, we know these people as super-annoying bosses and successful athletes. Normally he watches 10-15 minutes of a show, and if he likes what is going on, he then mimics it (Walker: Texas Ranger, etc).

Watching G1 Episodes 1-01 & 1-02:
My son sat through the entire first episode holding a Knock-Off Transformer in each hand; my 5yo daughter held one too, my older two girls (7 & 10) were acting like the toys were above them at this point.

I throw on the 2nd episode. Halfway through that was too much for my son, so he started to play. He wanted to SHOOT the Knock-Off my 5yo girl had, so she retailiated. He now understood Transformers; he'd always been trying to use his thrift-store Decepticons as though they didn't have guns. Guns are great for little boys: you can shoot people across the room and they die (we do, anyway; so does he if you "shoot" at him).

Playtime!
My 5yo & 7yo girl all wanted to play as soon as the 2nd show was over, so we all sat down and did that. I explained the made-up names, personalities and sides of the Knock-Offs and we separated into teams of two.

We had the typical scenario: a Good Guy was caught by the Bad Guys in the first battle, so we had to rescue him, so each side took a break: one to plan and the other to interrogate, before we did the next battle; it is amazing how involved children are with their play and it made me remember that I did the same thing as a child, only I had no siblings.

Epilogue:
Later, my 10yo came back and we re-watched the 2nd half of the 2nd show because she'd fallen asleep, while my 5yo and 7yo daughters went to bed. My son watched it and then we (me, 10yo daughter & the boy) played for a bit longer before he had to go to bed - but we couldn't take away the Knock-Off Transformers.

He ended up falling asleep on his mother's shoulder (that's normal) holding his two Transformer KO's (vehicle mode) and using them to prop up the bottle. My lovely Latin lady said when she tried to remove them as he started to close his eyes he'd say "Uhn Uhh!" and pop awake. Very cute.

Oh, and my 10yo had decided that Transformers were fairly fun. Like my son, you can't hand her her mind on things, although she is obedient to any order. My 7yo and 5yo had decided they were great; they don't like toy soldiers but they seemed to relate to fighting robots that turn into cars, planes and other vehicles. Interesting.

Why I'm Not Worried:
I am not a completionist and moderation in all things is something I teach my children, mostly by making them earn every dollar they get, and then watching them find out the hard way how easy it is to ruin all that hard work by spending their money on something stupid. I'll warn them, and then say nothing more on the subject. Apparently I'm prophetic, because my daughters come to a screeching halt if Dad warns them, and start questioning their motives behind their desires.

It's amazing to watch them (10 & 7yo) go back and forth down the toy isles, comparing toys, coming up with a top 3, viewing them all together (even if that means transplanting the toy to another isle), and then deciding on one, because they can't afford all 3.

I won't mind if any of them grow up and forget about Transformers or any of them grow up and continue liking them; I play videogames, my wife makes crafts and uses her sewing machine, we all need hobbies (though some are more productive than others). If the lessons in cost-benefit analysis and moderation stick, they'll be good teenagers and fine adults.

Closing:
I hope you enjoyed your read; if you are parents who have introduced or are introducing Transformers to your children please chime in. I admire the collectors here, but I can't relate. I would love to read from other parents, or even younger (or older) kids who actually read all this and feel compelled to relate your experiences.

Tonight we're going to have another quick pen & paper RPG session based on our Chore Wars characters, and catch another episode of the G1 cartoon.

Transformers

2007-07-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

I hit Big Lots and came away with Big Loot!

Knock-Offs
First let me say, these guys are poorly made. Some of them are recognizably KO's of G1 Autobots and Decepticons I recognize, such as Streetwise.

I Bought:

A set of 3 "Ultrabots" that combine for $3 each.
2 sets of 2 construction "Quick-Change" robots for $1.50 a set.
2 sets of 2 jet "Quick-Change" robots for $1.50 a set.
2 sets of 2 police/rescue "Quick-Change" robots for $1.50 a set.
1 set of 2 military "Quick-Change" robots (jeep & tank) for $1.50.
A set of 6 2/3rds sized Dinobot Knock-Offs for $6.

My son's collection has gone from 2 to 25 in $25.50 plus tax. Plus I won't cry if they break. My wife and I both had the idea that he'd only play with them when I'm around, otherwise he'll want mine because he always has access to his - plus that keeps down on the breaking.

My Collection:
I haven't bought anything new for me - I still have Classics Mirage, G1 Grimlock, Classics Grimlock, and the G1 Mail Order crew, Overdrive, Camshaft and Downshift.

Some of the Classics line looks good so I suppose I'll have to nab what I can before the Animated line comes out. The movie line is good but expensive; still, the ingenious transformations are impressive.

I want:
Thank God Almighty I am not a completist, just a favoritist. I want:

Classics Optimus Prime $20
DVD Optimus Prime $65-80
Encore Optimus Prime $50+
Encore Soundwave $50+
Encore Megatron $50+ - never had him as a kid, he was always on Cybertron in my alternate stories; Soundwave and Shockwave, later Galvatron commanded the forces on Earth.
Classics Starscream or any latest version that turns into a jet, not some Protoform.
Anyone who is cool and less than $15

Blasphemy of Blasphemies, I don't want Encore Starscream because, well, he's so stiff and immobile compared to the latest versions.

Obviously, these guys are overly expensive for a father of four - so in a pinch Classics Optimus Prime and Encore Optimus Prime are all I need. After that I'd go for either DVD Optimus Prime or Encore Soundwave... not sure.

Hasbro's website has a few remaining Classics they seem to want to push off the shelves. Lesser figures are desirable because they also cost less.

As an owner of TWO original Jetfires (I called him Starfire), I can't really get myself to like the Classics Jetfire.

Perplexing:
There is an aspect of collecting that perplexes me - first is the desire to own all of a set when the cost, in total, is so high. I'm glad some people enjoy that immensely; I have four children.

I am wary of the fact that some impulses hit me and then leave; the difference between collecting Transformers and Electronics is that the former doesn't seem like a bad choice with age; I think. I only just got "Stumbling on Happiness" by Prof. Daniel Gilbert, and it was weird getting the book the day after the desire to re-try Transformers hit me.

Update:
Starting a New Generation the Right Way: Using the 1st Generation Cartoons

Chore Wars: The Minions of Jose Francisco

2007-07-26T09:18:00.000-05:00

Reading Penny-Arcade, I found a nifty Web game that lets you turn your family into Role-Playing Game (RPG) characters and household chores into "adventures" worth experience, gold and the occasional battle with a monster. "Chore Wars," it is called.

Since the default settings are private, I can't link you to our party, so I have enclosed a ZIP file that has the three main pages:

Party - Shows our party, "The Minions of Jose Francisco." Celeste is Maria Alejandra. Mia is Maria, which is the nickname Jose Francisco calls her. Esteban is himself. Lord Soong is me, named after one of my more famous villains.
Adventures - Shows all the possible adventures to undertake.
Week - Shows what has happened this week.

I strongly recommend that any family group give it a try.

To make the rewards real I'm doing this:
Every paycheck allotting $50 to reward money. I'll take a look at what the kids have done and dole out the money based on how much experience they have earned.

Game Gold/Money will be useful for:

Trading game gold for US dollars, probably 100:1. So spending 100 gold gets you one real United States dollar.
Buying a day off, etc.
Spending the money in the pen & paper RPG portion of the game.

You will notice that I spend a lot of attention to items everyone can get. I'm a Dungeons & Dragons player and for years I've been waiting to introduce the kids to RPGs. Well every weekend they'll get to go on an adventure, just two hours long, and the items and stats (strength, dexterity, etcetera) they have will dictate what they can do. This should encourage them to look at the different chores and try to do them so they can get items not available otherwise.

Of course, my house is so disciplined that the girls have to do all these things anyway - this is my way of trying to make it fun. So far the girls love it, but they are both scared of the computer, the Web browser, and the interface.

I digress...
One thing I love about my brother, Esteban, living with us is that he is very self-disciplined, grew up in a loving but strict household, and has had no children until now. That means that, as any new parent is, he's loving, but very hard. This is actually good for the girls because he's pushing them in school so much, and while it's hard work, and they tend to lose privileges with their Nintendo Wii, they are learning and their academic abilities are increasing. He is re-teaching them their entire grade (before summer vacation) in Spanish over the course of the summer, so while he's paired down the amount of work, it is still a lot to do; but Dulce and Maria are doing it and I'm so proud of them.

And what I love for Esteban is that he gets a chance to have kids too. They look up to him, they talk about him with me, and this morning when Jose Francisco stirred awake he said "TIO?" loudly before orienting himself. Tio means "Uncle."

PS
Mom, please correct my grammar.

Single Player Games are Dying

2007-07-24T14:33:00.000-05:00

While the post "Are single-player games doomed?" contradicts my post "Best of All, No Multiplayer", I think there are some important points and the overall the assertion that humans are social animals is undeniable.

"The entire video game industry’s history thus far has been an aberration. It has been a mutant monster only made possible by unconnected computers. People always play games together. All of you learned to play games with each other. When you were kids, you played tag, tea parties, cops and robbers, what have you. The single-player game is a strange mutant monster which has only existed for 21 years and is about to go away because it is unnatural and abnormal." - Ralph Koster

In short, I agree on the aspects of human nature, and that women are a smaller percentage of the typical gamer personality type, as evidenced anecdotally by my daughters. Games will become more social because people are social.

New PSP?

2007-07-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

Amazingly, given the trouncing Sony has been getting, with even big names like Capcom bashing not only the PS3, but the PSP, they are putting out a new version of the PSP.

The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

2007-07-23T09:27:00.001-05:00

A fellow AAC Direct client found my blog and got in contact with me, so I have learned more about what happened to the fabled, ill-fated AAC Direct / All American Computers (AAC), owned and operated by Kyle Felstein.

The Downfall
In the closing months of AAC, when you purchased a computer, the money you paid wasn't spent on your parts, but the computer that had been built before it. AAC was using each new order to pay for the one before it - they were behind, but it was manageable for a time.

The hardware resellers, however, were not amused; their payments had to wait until the next computer was ordered at AAC. Because of this, they were reticent to send out new equipment to a buyer (AAC) who didn't pay them on time; this delay, in turn, prolonged the build of each computer, which made things worse for both AAC and the resellers expecting payment.

Some venture capitalists became a glimmer of hope; however, negotiations not only fell through, but because the LiquidXS the potential investors had ordered was two months overdue, they threatened to sue AAC for the bill.

The carpet was pulled out from under them rather rapidly after that.

The Fallout
I am not certain, nor was the customer, who had ordered a LiquidXS prior to my PureXS, but apparently Kyle's assets were liable for AAC's debt. This would include his car, his house, bad things. We speculated on that based on what rumors we've found on teh interwebs and a few forums.

A week or so prior to folding their store doors closed; gleaned from a local computer store mentioned in the comments of this blog.

Apparently my PureXS may have been one of the last complete computers built there, if not the last. I can't find anyone who had a full, successful build after mine, in which case I have a bit of a collector's item.

There was at least two computers that went out immediately after mine, and both were shipped incomplete - if debt collectors are after Kyle's personal assets, I'm sure everything in the building was seized. Since Kyle didn't have the parts needed to complete the order, he had the option of leaving it with the store to be seized or shipping it as it was to the customer.

Things went bad quickly after that; Kyle never had a chance to e-mail the customer what happened, so imagine his surprise. This created a bit of a stink online - as the customers couldn't reach anyone at AAC or find any way to contact Kyle.

My Initial Reluctance to Post My Findings
The initial reports came in badly worded English, slathered in vitriolic phrases. All I knew for sure (I checked) was that AAC was indeed dead; I wasn't about to publish what could have been slander without knowing what happened - it has taken this long for the picture to become clear.

The poor unlucky souls whose orders were after mine - they spent money and got an incomplete system back - at best. If I had known AAC was going under I would have gotten a Dell XPS; I wanted the support. Having the complete PureXS in my house, I have no regrets; I've seen Dell XPS's up close to compare the quality and performance and I can deal with one last computer I support, despite having four children.

To the people who were burned for hundreds or thousands of dollars, there is no amount of anger at the service rendered that is unjustified. I would tender to my fellow AAC clientele that it appears AAC tried to hold back the end; their last bid failed, and everyone suffered in the end.

[All My Blogs about AAC Direct / All American Computers]

A friend told me...

2007-07-18T15:39:00.001-05:00

"Act always with the dignity you admire."

A Wii Review - Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2

2007-07-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

There are many Dragonball Z games, a number of which have never made it out of Japan, and a few who have never made it to the USA, though they hit Europe. The Wii's iteration is the same game as seen on the PS2 and GameCube, revamped for the Wii's controls.

The game features free-roaming combat with large areas. There are no visible walls, just a circular boundary that appears as a polygonal shield if you hit the edge of the playable area. All characters can fly, have long range attacks (some medium) and melee.

It's great fun to go back and forth between melee and ranged attacks. Some characters charge up their power (needed for ranged attacks) with melee combat, some regain it over time, others have to stand prone and charge up.

The basics of the game are easy as sin - everything maps to a button. The one catch is that the Wii controls are difficult and imprecise; it is better to use a GameCube gamepad. For example, in order to dash left, right, forward or backwards, you have to hold the "C" button on your nunchuck and jerk the nunchuck that direction. The problem is that sometimes the game will register the wrong direction (if you are imprecise in your movements, which, under the duress of a fight, happens) or register two movements and dash and immediately stop (if you jerk your hand left and then move it back to center position, which your mind naturally wants to do).

A guy who had the GameCube version told me at first glance that the Wii version was graphically superior, in what way I don't know, but it's interesting to me that even my children have switched from the Wii controllers to their old GameCube gamepads.

That said, Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is the most fun we've had with a fighting game since King of Fighters 10th Anniversary, which wasn't that long ago (MAME). We also still play Super Smash Bros Melee, a GameCube game that works on the Wii. Prior to all of that, we sometimes played Soul Calibur II, but I didnt' like it, my kids did.

Console War: 120 million Wiis served

2007-07-17T07:35:00.000-05:00

"Nintendo's market strategy of attracting the casual gaming audience is having continued success. According to figures released by ELSPA and Chart-Track at the beginning of this month, over a million Wii units were sold in the UK over the last half year. [The Wii] accounts for over 50% of the overall market share in hardware units including the PS3 and Xbox 360."

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata is so happy he thinks the Wii could outsell the PS2's 120 million consoles sold record.

What does this mean? This means that the Wii's transformation of what gaming is - is well underway. Just as Sony changed gaming forever by marketing games to the cool joe, the average jock, the Wii will have a similar or greater impact.

It also means that all this stuff you read from videogame "journalists", and I use the term loosely, wherein they deride the Wii or cast it in an ill light, unsure of what it means, portraying it as a family, silly affair, is complete and utter crap.

Sony is struggling to keep the PS3 from becoming the next Sega Saturn. The 60GB PS3 is already dead - they aren't making any more.

There are many people who may be so stubborn as to never get buy a Wii just because, well, it's a Wii, or it was made by Nintendo. I find that silly. I have no brand loyalty. I left Nintendo when the N64 came out and never looked back, not even for the NDS (I acquired two after my kids got their Wii). Gamers can ride the revolution now or - wait.

There are two good reasons (for a gamer) to not get a Wii right now:

Not enough games you like, depending on your favorite genre(s), such as Roll-Playing Games, First-Person Shooters, Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, Hokey, Strategy Games, etc. Name your must-have genre that is absent on the Wii, and you have a good reason.
The best is on the horizon. Most gaming developers are playing catch-up, so if the plan is to wait until the menu becomes enticing, and you're well handled in the mean-time, then that makes sense.

There are some reasons it's not a good idea (for a gamer):

If you miss out on a Wii deliberately, you are in effect, if this thing sells as many units as a PS2 one day, or even comes close, writing yourself off from a large portion of gaming history.

Did you "miss" the PS2? Anyone? I'm sorry, you're not a gamer if you did. You are a PC gamer, perhaps, or a Nintendo fan-boy, but you are not a gamer, which is a beast that consumes all things games, regardless of platform. No, if you avoid the Wii, just because you don't want one, now you are, in effect, a platformist - someone who holds on to beloved platforms. Many of us have done it. Anyone here who didn't buy an XBOX? Oh! Hands, they do go up! And yet somehow, PS2 fans have bought in to the XBOX 360, begrudgingly - they even write songs about their lament.

120 million? I'm no optimist (I'm a realist), but I can see why Iwata had the balls to say that the Wii could break that record. I just think he should have had Reggie say it.

If there are 80 million PS2 owners out there (I'm sure some folks bought 2 PS2's, I have no idea how many), the current generation hasn't made much of a dent in them, and therein lies the reasoning: the current game console generational war is bigger than folks imagined, because I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of Wii owners who never had a PS2. And folks - they aren't gamers.

And what of the people who avoid the Wii? If this thing outsells the PS2, can they say they're a gamer? Or a knight of some forgone era? We call them platformists. They're great knights. They stick to what they believe in, and if an image or a line doesn't fit them, they don't wear it. There are Nintendo fanboys as well as Nintendo Haters, they're both knights with different banners to wear. Microsoft is corruption, they don't have knights that hold aloft their cause, they have mercenaries who hold up their XBOX Live banner. No one believes Microsoft is out to make the world a better place, but Nintendo and Sony fanboys do believe that, roughly - whatever their respected camp gives them speaks to a need within them that jives with their internal structure of how things ought to be.

Gamers, by our nature, are promiscuous. If it's a game and it's good, we'll try it. We're gypsies, neither knight nor mercenary. We're ignoble, cheap, easy, and frowned upon by the old guard. Do you know what I'm describing? I'll give you a hint:

I'm not describing today's definition of gamers, I am describing what's coming.

Human nature demands that there will always be Knights (fanboys, loyalists, whatever) to a given market brand. Humans like to look at something (such as a label) and feel safe in our purchase of it. Sony used to thrive on this - people paid more to have the Sony name on their TV, it used to mean quality.

But if you stay in the game long enough you begin to realize: It's not about the console, it's about the games. Every gamer knows this, yet so few live it.

Wooo Steve is back!

2007-07-11T08:24:00.000-05:00

My real-life friend who goes by the handle "Nightwind" is back! I was worried he had died of a staff infection or something - turns out his ISP had cut him off two days early and his local Library didn't give access to MSN, which had all his contacts saved in it. He's been working, he did have some medical problems but hasn't died from them yet ;)

I'm just very happy because I've been pestering our mutual friend TJ about him for almost a year, sending Steve's e-mail address periodic e-mails. If I'd known his address I would have snail mailed him.

At any rate, it made my day that's he's alive and well and back and missed me too.

Transformers (PC), Quick Review

2007-07-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

Fantastic fun if you use a trainer to circumvent the ridiculously difficult gameplay and impossible mission timers.

Hidden underneath the impossible difficulty of Transformers is a free, open city (such as seen in the Grand Theft Auto [GTA] series) with fully destructible buildings, throw-able buses, police cars, billboard signs, and of course, climbing up buildings like a monster in Rampage (or a Transformer in the recent movie). It's wild fun to run amok or collect brightly colored cubes to unlock content. Like GTA, the missions suck donkey hair.

If I were to use metrics, this game flip flops between a solid "8" and a solid "5". Every mission where the trainer works (cancels out nigh-impossible timers or makes defeating 10 Decepticons in 2 minutes doable with 1 hit kills) is good, mindless fun. Every mission where the trainer doesn't affect the clock, or can't combat the task at hand (speed out of a tunnel before it blows up a-la Return of the Jedi's Deathstar death throes, do it 6 times in one mission), inspires me to yell unpleasant words at my 32" TV.

Unfortunately, by default (without a trainer), Transformers: The Game doesn't let you do enough of what you really want to do -

run around, battling Decepticons
saving the day
possibly as a team with more than one Autobot.

The first two options are in the game, but hidden behind implausable time limits that are automatically set to "Expert." To get them right, you cannot make an error. Hit a barrier while you're racing in car form? Transform into a robot, move the stick left to turn your heading a bit, and transform again and hit the gas and the boost, because you don't have time to back up, turn, and go. That is stupidly difficult.

Still, the game has good graphics, shadows, effects, and the environment is highly reactive. In each "city" area, you can earn bonus content by making a super long drift, drive fast without being interrupted, throwing something high, high into the sky for maximum air time, etcetera (5 achievements total, I can't recall them all). Melee attacks and using heavy or light ranged weaponry are separate, blocking is easy - these things are fun.

Aside from the insane difficulty of the missions, there are only three things wrong with this game:

The camera isn't smart, but doesn't get in your way. Controlling it yourself when you're in robot mode works fine, but it'd be nice if it auto-snapped better. There's a setting for sensitivity and I haven't tried "maximum," just "low" (default), and "medium."
The automatic "lock on" is jumpy. You need to keep the target fairly close to your reticule, and that's difficult when you're not in a flight simulator, but a driving simulator. Robot mode isn't so much of an issue.
The sound effects don't understand what should be loud and what should be - nearly inaudible or not played at all (that seems to be the range). I've had plenty of car crashes where I barely hear a thing beyond my own engine.

All in all, I am surprised at the quality of this game - Traveler's Tales really put some love into it. I'm having great fun with it, as are my brother and my kids.

Overlord, Full Review

2007-07-10T11:22:00.000-05:00

Fun game hindered by its control scheme; running amok with goblins in town, collecting slave women & being evil is fun.

Overlord is a 3rd person 3d action-adventure game with RPG elements set in a fantasy world.

It's notable features are controlling a small horde of goblins (up to four kinds, each set with special abilities), rebuilding your Dark Tower, customizing your gear, and choosing to do benevolent or malevolent acts, which ultimately affects how much content you see and the ending.

Stylistically, the game looks like Fable 2 might if released today. Rolling hills, some narrow paths, townspeople wandering about; counter to Fable, Overlords areas usually loop back to one central point and are much larger, letting you traverse the world easily. Other areas are more open, and some complicated enough to get lost in (explorers rejoice).

THE BAD:
The game starts becoming un-fun once you find yourself battling the control scheme more than the actual game. The control scheme worked fine until the creators equated difficulty handling the key/button combinations with game difficulty.

For example, you can't create control groups with your minions, nor easily separate a certain number of goblins from their color group. This would be fine unless there weren't sequences where controlling disparate groups are required in the middle of a boss fight, with little margin for error. To move a group set to guard a banner, you have to aim at the banner and target lock it (if something else targetable is nearby, you might lock onto that instead), holding the target button, you then can sweep that group around like the rest of your horde. This is trickier than it sounds once you add in the fact that you are currently being attacked by a boss.

However, the majority of the game isn't filled with such instances.

There are puzzles which flip between testing your understanding of how to use your minions to solve the puzzle, and your ability to control them well enough to do it (example: boiling hot geysers that erupt and having to navigate your goblins through their timed sequences - it's obvious what to do, it took me far too long to actually get it right, and that's annoying).

There isn't much reason to play the game through again unless you like playing from both "good" and "bad" angles, the first of which is made difficult by your goblins defaulting to doing bad things whenever they can.

THE GOOD:
Rampaging though town, collecting slave girls, making the populace tremble at your presence and looting everything that your goblins can loot doesn't get old. (Unfortunately the slave girls are a single mission and they just mill about your throne saying the same catch phrases.)

While you can be "good", the game offers more to the "bad" player. It's difficult to keep your goblins from doing evil acts while moving about a city, or coming across a lonely shepherd and his sheep, so you'll find yourself reloading to keep your "good" status. Evil is definitely better, by design of the game.

Mixing up what goblins you bring changes the difficulty of your quests - coming across a horde of zombies (about 30-40 individuals) is difficult without "melee specialist" brown goblins up front and "fire throwing" red goblins in back. Green goblins can stealth at a guard marker you set and leap and pounce on any enemies that come near, surprising them. Blue goblins can resurrect fallen goblins, but die too quickly even when making a corpse run.

SUMMARY:
If this sounds appealing, buy the game. If not, try the demo, but be aware that the un-fun sequences are later in the game.
[original version]

My Cadaver is Worth $4,240.00

2007-07-09T14:20:00.001-05:00

$4240.00
I'm not sure I need to say much more than that.

Overlord - Review

2007-07-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

Try out Overlord. It's rather fun to run your minions (small horde of goblins) amok. Make sure to do bad things, it's more fun - you see more content.

The game starts becoming un-fun once you find yourself battling the control scheme more than the actual game. The control scheme worked fine until the creators equated difficulty handling the key/button combinations with game difficulty.

That said, it looks like Fable only with better shadows and wider, more open areas that all loop back and cross link (so you can wander a bit and, yes, get lost). If not wider, certainly the paths are more numerous and the areas 5-7x larger than the typical Fable one.

You get to customize your Dark Tower, enhance your gear, but I'm right at the point where that is starting to matter so I haven't explored this much other than to create a nifty sword by sacrificing a butt-load of goblins.

As I said before - the last chapter's end was more about me fumbling with buttons (as my brother and I have been trading off on a GamePad) than fighting the game itself. Keyboards help (I can select each group more easily) but you can't create or select Control Groups ala RTS, so splitting your forces becomes problematic; couple this with a few boss sequences where you have to - quickly and accurately - and that you have to target a battle banner to get that group to move by looking at them and centering your view on them - and that's pretty much stupid. I've had to do this only twice, however - once on a boss, and once while navigating boiling hot geysers.

I complain more loudly than the amount of content should proportionally show - evidenced by the fact that I played this game all weekend when I had the chance, or watched my brother, Esteban, play.

Open-Sourcing / Crowdsourcing Journalism: Why that's a stupid idea

2007-07-09T07:48:00.000-05:00

Referring to the article, "Open-Source Journalism: It's a Lot Tougher Than You Think". I joined Assignment Zero, and read the laments of Open-Source Journalism.

I'm an INTJ, so it is in my nature to identify problems in a system.

The problem with Crowdsourcing or Open-Sourcing Journalism (I use the terms interchangeably here, and some do not - one is member based, you're a member before the story starts, the other can imply wikis) is this:

The article states that Crowdsourcing can be a way of watchdogging local politicians and interests that the media at large is reticent to investigate. I see two problems with this.

There is the issue of "people not getting paid" for what they do. A select few will doggedly pursue the hobby, others will dabble in it and most will try and give up. I work in an Elections Office, I've seen a number of parties try to deal with "volunteers" who did volunteer, are in the same party, but obviously don't care to do real work. Hence why we pay our Poll-Workers - it's not much, but it takes "volunteer" out of the equation. The human mind just works differently when it's paid. The article mentions this problem, but obviously can't go into great detail.
Foremost, lets assume Crowdsouring worked. Lets assume 30% of USA cities had some kind of cohesive group that "watchdogged" their local government (good) and special interests (also good). This would continue to be good anytime there was a scandal, nepotism or something juicy, but how well would it work the 20th time some city said some developer was stonewalling them? In other words: There's a reason the current news that floats to the top is the current news that floats to the top. Humans don't want news they have to do anything about - they want news they can see and digest and feel secure in.

To expand upon this insight, first given to me by my friend Dove, take child abductions: Horrible! Horrendous! We feel for the parents! We hate the child murderers and rapists! But we don't have to do anything. We probably feel we keep our kids safe. We don't feel negligent (and if we should, have excuses built up already).

Now take this: On the local news - Colorado Rock Company is building a plant not to EPA specifications and stonewalling everyone. Their pollution will affect where you live and studies have shown it causes cancer, but it's inconclusive enough to sue anyone. People don't like that kind of news, but paradoxically, it's the kind of news that matters to them most.

So Crowdsourcing is a wonderful ideal - but will enough people write about it for it to become valid? Wikiality's Magic 8-Ball says "Yes." Will people care, once it becomes mainstream? Human Nature says "Not likely."

An Example of How Invention and Products Should Work

2007-07-09T07:40:00.000-05:00

...by way of an example of the antithesis. I've long held that patents should last 5-10 years, depending on whether the product is of digital or physical medium, respectively. The best way to keep inventing is to keep having pressure to invent - this is why we saw so much research coming out of World War II. It took us 30 years to piece it all together and perfect the work started there (and perfecting that work extends to modern times).

But in the world of big business, lobbyists have helped set up laws that stifle competition, that server the business interest, not other businesses or the people. That's rather stupid.

Take this article, for example:

[Source: If You're So Concerned About Piracy, Don't 'Invent' A Cheap, Easily Imitated Product - Techdirt]

Certainly anybody with patents, copyrights or other intellectual property has every right to enforce them, or at least try to. But a point we've made is that it often makes more sense for a business not to waste resources trying to enforce its IP rights and shut down its competition, and instead to focus on continual improvement and innovation. The WSJ's got a piece detailing a small company's fight to keep companies from selling cheap imitations of its product -- "a plastic cage that looks like a Wiffle ball and prevents bras from getting tangled in the spin cycle" called the BraBaby. The company of ten employees' boss apparently spends countless hours online and in Asia tacking down makers of the knockoff products, and from the sound of things, he's having little success, despite his patents and trademarks. So, with all that effort in mind, what's the point? If your invention is a cheap piece of plastic that's easy to copy, clearly you're going to have a problem dealing with imitators and knockoffs should it become successful. If you're a small company making such a product, trying to clamp down on those imitations is, as the article makes clear, going to be a long and difficult practice that stands little chance of success, so your resources would be better devoted to improving your product and staying ahead of your rivals. Contrast the approach of the company behind the BraBaby to that a maker of a similar product, the BraBall. That company holds a patent for its product that predates the BraBaby, but an exec says it doesn't plan to sue, instead, it's "competing on quality." If the only way you can succeed in the market is by keeping your competitors out of it, whatever advantage you have is fleeting. To remain successful, you need to continually have the best product, not the only product. And how does chasing the makers of knockoff goods to the far ends of the earth help you make a better product?

I make this post so I have something to refer to when I bring this up again.

Why Japanese Hate First-Person Shooters and Westerners Hate Dating Sims

2007-07-06T13:20:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine came up with a good answer to an earlier post:

This brings up a great question... why do Japanese people dislike First Person Shooters, and conversely, why do most North Americans hate (dating) Simulation Games? I'm struggling to think of what aspect of Japanese games makes them uncomfortable with FPS (too in their face?), or Westerners and dating sims (too lamer/loser?). I have no idea.

My friend's response:
Ooooh! Good question!

Mind if I speculate?

Personally I believe (from the experience of knowing a few Eastern gamers that have floated through the Gamer's Club I'm part of) that Americans, actually western gamers in general, love immersion. The good ol' "two hands on the control, giving everything to the game" type of attention. We, myself included, like to see ourselves as part of the game world, rather than as spectators or advisers from outside the screen.

FPS games and "American-style RPGs" cater to this need more easily than the more distant and social-oriented Dating Sims (Look at Japanese Dating culture and you figure this one out), 3rd Person Action Games, and RTSs.

Eastern Gamers typically make and play games that are less direct when engaging the "self" of our imaginations, though (as we all know) they are definitely NOT less difficult. More social situations from a 3rd person standpoint, more planned decision making, less split-second confrontation (unless we are talking about startle scenes in a horror game). They like our RTSs for example, but never really got the hang of HALO. (Not that I did either...but that's another topic.) The most recent Japanese fellow that has joined the club loves Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade, Age Of Empires3, Empire Earth, and Titan Quest. However when it came time to play Team Fortress Classic, Unreal Tournament 2004, Battlefield 2, or Call of Duty he was clueless. It took some time, but now he ranks fairly consistently in the upper mid tier of the club in FPSs and seems to get a real kick out of playing them.

Now that I've described what I've observed, here's my theory:

I think the real answer is more closely tied to the social generalizations of our cultures than some would like.

In short, we are just playing to our stereotypes because those are the ones we are used to, comfortable with, and in a way (deep within our unconscious) wish to perpetuate.

We all have the ability to branch out and enjoy other things, it's just that the games that most closely reinforce how we and others view ourselves are the ones we are more drawn to play. :P

Funny thing to me is that our game tastes evolved this way, it wasn't until the advent of proper FPS and console RPG games that our tastes divided. Granted...between Galaga and Centipede there wasn't nearly as much variety. :P

I think he's pretty much hit the nail on the head. The core issue is how our given cultures are used to identifying with the world around us.

I also find it insightful that gamers, as people normally do in other situations, can broaden their horizons. I have had that experience with many of the strange games I've played on my (black not pink) Nintendo DS, and when I've tried out dating sims, which usually makes me want to undress Maria Alejandra.

XBOX 360: Microsoft finally agrees - it sucks balls.

2007-07-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Microsoft has allocated over one billion dollars to extend all XBOX 360's warranties by 3 years, because so many of the machines are going bad.

The glitches, and the bad publicity, could weigh the company down as it claws for market share in the highly competitive console market. In May, the Xbox 360 ranked No. 2 in unit sales behind Nintendo's Wii, but still beat out Sony's Playstation 3, according to data from NPD Group.

Recall the failure rate of these things?

Bach said the company made some manufacturing and production changes that he expects will reduce Xbox 360 hardware lockups, but he declined to identify the problems or say which others might remain. Microsoft said it will record a charge of up to $1.15 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, to cover the additional costs associated with the warranty extension.

I'd love to know what gamers can expect to go wrong...

Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the independent research group Directions on Microsoft, estimates that Microsoft's entertainment and devices division has lost more than $6 billion since 2002.

Microsoft has written down larger amounts in the past - more than $10 billion in the late 1990s related to investments in telecommunications companies, and more than $5 billion related to antitrust issues - but a $1 billion write-down for one division in one quarter is significant.

"It suggests the problem is pretty widespread," Rosoff said.

I'm sure Microsoft is making this public before E3 so that it can focus on other news during E3, just as when Nintendo revealed that Project Revolution's name was the Penis, I mean the Wii. Honestly I've gotten used to that name - you can't make penis jokes when your 2 year-old says "Wii?" But I digress.

First Person Shooters hated in Japan, just as Japanese (Dating) Simulation Games do poorly in the West. Why?

2007-07-03T11:06:00.001-05:00

Do you think that [Nintendo hired Western developers] because first-person shooters are kind of a Western thing? Because as I understand it, Japanese gamers are not as enamored of first-person shooters as Westerners are.

Yeah, first-person shooters or first-person adventure games don't do well at all in Japan.

Do the Metroid Prime [FPS] games do well over there?

Not necessarily. It has nothing to do with the I.P. or the franchise, it's just that this style of game isn't popular. It sells well, as far as the genre is concerned, but it's like how traditional Japanese simulation games aren't that popular over here. So it would only make sense to have a Western developer work on a first-person game.

[source]

PS3, XBOX 360 news

2007-07-03T10:22:00.000-05:00

Shocker: Retailers confirm - the XBOX 360 is horribly unreliable (25-33% returns instead of the usual 3-5%).
Sad Fate: PS3 not only loses exclusive titles, but in some cases, the whole damn game.
Sega says the PS3 is too expensive, by way of saying Sony needs to reduce the price (that's the same thing).
Teh Interwebs agrees on this issue.

Sony corporate director Masanao Maeda said concerning the PS3 "Name brand, price and software are what count; since it's getting difficult to make software availability a differentiating factor, superior marketing and pricing strategy will be the key for Sony."

I think that's stupid. Price, Price, software, and then name brand are what count. Price has always "counted." Price is what kept the XBOX 360 from becoming the new, dominant force before Nintendo's Wii ever arrived. Price is what signaled the death knell of the PS3. Price is why you go to cheap doctors or don't get the best attorney or don't send you children to private school.

Price, mutherfricker, is the reason.

Nintendo was Right: Microsoft Agrees

2007-06-29T15:09:00.000-05:00

In typical fashion, Microsoft plans on taking over the world - now they're going to attack the "Casual Market" and focus on "peripheral based" gaming. Of course, in doing so they are validating Nintendo on every level possible:

Casual Gamers matter (I've explained exactly what those are, unlike everyone else who doesn't have a clue yet pretends to).
Motion Sensative Controllers and Pointing Devices trump dicking around with your thumbs using Gamepads.
Price matters.

Actually, we've yet to see if Microsoft can do anything about #3, as their Xbox 360 can't get much cheaper.

NOOOO! Dreaded Wii Videocard/GPU Pixels of Death

2007-06-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

I bought Resident Evil 4 and immediately noticed the issue.

That's what's happening, although that guy has it worse.

At first I thought something was wrong with my Sharp 32" 32SC26B, but then, once I knew what to look for, I saw the issue in every Wii game I have, just to a lesser degree (since, surprise surprise, WiiSports doesn't exactly tax the system).

So sad. I bought my kids' Wii in December. And here I was SOOO ready for RE4 - I made my kids leave the room, even my 10yo who doesn't scare easy, and my brother and I sat down and we were ready for some action. During the car ride sequence we started to wonder what was up.

Got TV-Out Working!

2007-06-28T07:58:00.001-05:00

All I had to do was plug the Adapter to the secondary port of my Master X1900 XT, not the main one, and turn off Crossfire, and then Pharra can "see" the TV and start outputting to it.

MAME LOOKS GREAT!

DVI to Component Out Adapter doesn't work

2007-06-27T15:32:00.001-05:00

The darn ATI DVI -> Component Out adapter [see post] I bought does nothing.

I set my resolution to 800x600, then went to Advanced, Adapter Tab, "See All Modes," set 640x480, 32bit color, 60MHz (didn't see 30MHz for interlaced TV), and shut Pharra, my PureXS [blogs|shrine], down. I turned on the Sharp 32" TV, rebooted, and nothing. The TV never got a signal.

Perhaps X1900 XT's can't do this. Perhaps I should turn off Crossfire... but not, it should have gotten a signal at least.

Bleh. $25 for the adapter and $20 for the (far too short) component cable). And here all I wanted to do was run MAME.

I love N'gai Croal and Reggie Fils-Aime

2007-06-27T10:56:00.001-05:00

Put the two together and I get all hot in my pants.

N'gai Croal is the greatest videogame journalist I have found. Catch up on some of his work at Newsweek.

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, needs no introduction.

ATI DVI -> Component Adapter and Component Cables en route

2007-06-27T06:08:00.000-05:00

They're on their way!

Brand	SAPPHIRE
Model	100907
Features	DVI to HDTV Adapter

Brand	CABLES TO GO
Model	29112
Features:
	Velocity component video interconnects by Impact Acoustics will improve the performance of your progressive scan video sources by providing a much better interconnect solution than the “throw away” cables that are included with most consumer electronics products. The oxygen free copper center conductor and foamed PE dielectric work to maintain 75 ohm characteristic impedance. The dual braided oxygen free copper shields and aluminum foil sheath offer protection from environmental noise and interference. Robustly constructed using color coded molded connectors that attach to an ultra flexible jacket, Velocity cables are the epitome of easy installation and identification. 24K gold plated heavy duty connectors ensure long lasting, highly conductive signal connections. Connectors: RCA Plug x3 to RCA Plug x3 Oxygen free copper conductors for efficient signal transmission 100% Aluminum foil and braided OFC shield protect against noise and interference Bonded cable construction provides for neat and easy component video connections Molded connectors feature precision made 24K gold plated contacts to ensure long lasting quality Ultra flexible jacket for easy installation UL listed
Specifications:
Type	Component Cables
Length	3 FT
Color	Blue
	A high quality component video interconnect, a perfect upgrade to the cables that come with consumer electronic components. Ideal for connecting progressive scan video components to monitors and other devices. Weight: 0.38 lbs

Hopefully this will get my PureXS working with MAME on the 32" TV.

N'Gai Croal on Manhunt 2

2007-06-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

This pretty much sums up Manhunt 2 for me. Italics and emphasis are my alterations.

Croal writes:

The thing is, while I can quibble with the BBFC and the IFCO's descriptions of the game, for the most part, I can't really disagree with them.

Yes, there is a "bleakness and callousness of tone," though it's certainly not "unremitting," as evidenced by that one darkly comic sequence during our joint play session that prompted us to first drop our jaws to the floor before laughing out loud. (Since you were wielding the Wiimote and nunchuk during that scene, I'll give you the honor of describing it to our dear readers.)

Yes, the overall game context "constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing," though as you point out, the protagonist is sufficiently horrified by his first kill that he drops to his knees and vomits.

Yes, there indeed "is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged."

Yes, the game does have an "unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying," and there is a "sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer."

And yes, the game does include "acts of gross violence or cruelty including mutilation and torture."

My response to all of that is, so what? What does that have to do with adults like you, or me, or the aforementioned magazine editor making our own decisions as whether or not we want to play this game? What does that have to do with the countless number of adults in the U.K. or Ireland for whom the BBFC and the IFCO have decided to play nanny, wag their respective index fingers, and say, "We know better than you, and we in our infinite wisdom have decided that you can't play this game"? Unless they have good reason to believe that this game is an imminent threat to the public order, or that it will in and of itself incite adults to violence, their decision seems to me to be based on taste, and I will never believe in substituting anyone else's tastes for my own.

I am not a believer in censorship, although that doesn't mean all things appeal to me.

New Pictures

2007-06-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

Craptastic Camera Alert
I have uploaded new pictures to my Flickr account. Someone buy me a decent camera? Mine died (memory card writer died - can't take pictures without it as there's no onboard memory it seems) so I'm using my 10yo's "toy" digital "craptastic" camera.

Esteban with Dulce and Alejandrita
Dulce is marveling at the new Sharp 32” TV (32SC26B).

Esteban is playful with the children and, lacking a job and being Mexican (Mexicans don't like loafing around with nothing to do - they never had such free time growing up and they sure aren't sure what to do with it once grown up - so the tend to spend it on something constructive), has kind of made being a great Uncle his job.

Contrary to being spoiled, this has actually meant my children now have more chores, because Esteban cleans, cooks and fixes things in the house, and save for the last part, makes my daughters involved in everything he does.

NEW 32" TV!

2007-06-22T10:10:00.000-05:00

I got a Sharp 32” Standard-Definition Digital TV (32SC26B).

Some hyper-rich college student named Brianna was selling it because, she said, she's moving to Iowa to enroll in Law School. I found it on Craigslist, which is classifieds specific to the city you are in - if you don't use it try it out.

I say "hyper-rich" because she lived in a gated, passworded, ritzy condo complex. She was thin, blond and prissy, and had two or three girlfriends who were much the same, and one tall, skinny white guy with them.

I brought with me my daughter, Maria de Guadalupe, and my brother, Esteban.

First Test: WiiSports (Wii)
To test the TV we attached the Wii and its component cables and tried WiiSports. The women didn't want to touch it but the guy wanted to try bowling. Maria joined and the white guy was surprised he and I were not only being beaten, but trounced upon by a little girl. Esteban whispered to her in Spanish and they'd chuckle. "Who's winning? Lu-pi-ta!" emphasis on the "little girl beats grown men." She and Esteban giggled until she beat us 287 to 237 and 239, mine being the lowest score.

Second Test: Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
The birds in the distance, just a few pixels big, look blurry on my wife's 32" Sylvania (RCA inputs), and looked clearer, but shimmered on the Wal-Mart special, the 32" ILO (IWT3206) that I had to return. But the 32SC26B supports 480p, not just 480i. The birds no longer shimmered, and the picture was much clearer. MAN! What a difference between 480i "SDTV" and 480p "EDTV".

White People Are Funny
So it came time to pay $200 (for a $369 new) TV and take it home. The white guy offered to help carry it, and I said "Sure, I'll let Esteban take my place, he's stronger."

Well the white guy tries to heft this thing and mind you, he's only about as big as me, only taller, and with GAP clothes... so it's not long before he starts to lose it. His face turns red and he starts to slip, so Esteban, perplexed, just leans into it a bit and ends up hefting most of the TV across the street to Rafael, my wife's minivan.

By the time they get there, the white guy's face was about as red as Esteban's (brilliant red) shirt, and my brother and my daughter start laughing. I go back inside with the guy to pick up the TV stand and come back, and they're still laughing about something.

"What?" I asked. They made shushing noises.

"What? What's so funny?" They shook their heads and made motions to be quiet, while they kept chuckling.

"Okay, sirs, well I'm gunna go." the white guy said and left with one of the prissy girls. Then Esteban and Maria burst out laughing.

Esteban said "He looked like he was about to pop. He came up acting so strong and I'm thinking 'What's the matter? Pffft this isn't so heavy.' so I just carry more of it myself."

Maria pointed out "His ego was stronger than him." Esteban and I got a kick out of that observation.

Internet / Gmail on the Wii
Gmail is not only easy to read, the TV cuts off less at the top and bottom of the screen, which was a bad problem on the junky IWT3206. Maria is quite happy.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
The component cables I got for the Wii also has adapters for the XBOX 360 and PS2/PS3 (which appear to be the same).

Not only does the game look crystal clear (so clear, some textures shimmer, but overall I'd say the detail is more pleasing to the eye than a blurry picture with less apparent shimmer), but the TV allows you to arbitrarily set it to 16:9 format! The craptastic IWT3206 didn't - it supposedly recognized wide-aspect cable feeds and adjusted itself accordingly, but it had no idea if a videogame was using that resolution. The 32SC26B allows you to just set 16:9 anytime you want - so I can play Shadow of the Colossus in widescreen and see more area left to right if I want. I can probably do this with widescreen Wii games if there is a setting I can get to to make the game use that mode regardless of what it thinks the TV is.

Summary
I am very happy with the TV and first and foremost grateful to God. It is so frequent that he blesses us on a special day (Father's Day, a Birthday, etcetera) by giving us something that seems bad (that TV I had to return) and ends up even better (a TV better than the one I bought if it had worked for less money).

I went without a 32" TV for two nights - returned it Tuesday, got the "new" one on Thursday evening and had time to play WiiSports at home, and show Esteban Shadow of the Colossus after Maria went to bed.

Kids at Play and Esteban

2007-06-21T09:04:00.001-05:00

I've uploaded some pictures taken with Maria de Guadalupe's craptastic camera. I even snagged two of Esteban, but my poor brother hadn't had a chance to come his hair yet.

Also featured is "Jose Francisco versus: The Dirt" and "Jose Francisco versus: The Cold Sprinkler Water"

As for this shot of Alejandrita, I liked the depth and pose here, look at her arm and the curve of her back and her dress - quite cherubic and innocent.

By all means, see the Flickr collection of photos if you like.

My Brother from Mexico Has Arrived

2007-06-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

Esteban's Arrival
Esteban arrived on Monday night at 11PM at the local airport. I recognized him from far off because he really does look like my wife, only he was born a boy not a girl. Oddly, given that description, he's quite handsome. He also speaks great English for someone taught by English courses. Maria, my 10yo, was with me to greet him.

Esteban got stopped and questioned by INS three different times, basically every stop but the last, each time he said he could tell they were comparing notes from the interview before, even though it was different people in different airports and cities. I'm not sure why the US has taken such a horrible turn against immigrants that aren't Canadians, but they have. Being Hispanic can't be confused with being Muslim, but Hispanics are definitely not "in". It's basically open season. He didn't mind, he just realized what they were trying to do - catch him at a different answer.

Esteban is like...
Esteban is quiet and thoughtful, hardworking and observant. He's a good cook. He says that if the choice for his father is getting his daughters Magdalena, Gabriella or Marisol to cook for him, dad will ask them to fetch Esteban. I ate way too much of his cooking at lunch on Tuesday.

Mighty Tuesday
I took the day off from work on Tuesday and took my extended family to the Salvation Army, where we bought Esteban more clothes than the one suitcase he brought. Esteban told me that he's studied psychology, philosophy, theology, Mexican history (as opposed to world history), and trained incoming workers how to put together computers at an IBM factory.

We dropped by Perfection Auto and saw Mr. Nuñez, our mechanic who runs his own shop. Mr. Nuñez spoke with Esteban in Spanish. He gave Esteban his card and said in English "Call me as soon as you get your papers sorted out." Mr. Nuñez has a specific way of talking and emphasizing things.

I asked Esteban, realizing what I thought just transpired (he just got offered a job, tentatively) "Do you know how to fix cars?"

Esteban smiled lightly and nodded "Sure, yeah."

My mom hit the issue a bit more clearly: my great grandfather, who went on to become the Governor of Colorado, hit the train tracks as a hobo for a year. Got his head straight, saw the country, carried around Shakespeare with him. My mom said "Back then, this was an excepted thing to do - often you'd find hobos were really just men seeing the country, not homeless or drug addicts like today."

When Esteban lost his job at IBM (first in, first out, and Mexico has felt the same small downturn we have in the last year) there was just no reason to not come here. Clearly, it was not for lack of education or the ability to walk into another job, which I knew already, but I didn't know how many things Esteban knew.

At any rate, since I've returned my 32" TV, I've asked Esteban for help considering what to do - buy computer parts for $300 and have him build one (with me helping), or buy wood working equipment so he can have fun with that, or something else, or just put it back into savings.

Jose Francisco Meets His Uncle, Esteban
So Jose, my 2yo boy, woke up early on Tuesday and came out into the living room to find someone sleeping on the couch (transformed into bed-mode). He decides it is appropriate to wake up this person and show him his toy Matchbox cars. Then, tired, he gets into the bed and naps with his Uncle until 7AM. They'd never met until this moment, and nobody else was around.

Other than feeling the jealousy of there being another man in the house, this has been how they relate ever since. Esteban and Jose Francisco took turns following each other around in the stores and places we hit. Jose quickly found that Esteban just ignores him when he whines about something, and tells him no when he tries to do something he shouldn't.

My mom told Esteban that it must have been the pheromones that Jose Francisco recognized - he knew Esteban was blood the moment he met him.

Esteban Meets the Wii
(WiiSports) He enjoyed Bowling and didn't understand Tennis any better than real life. He loved Boxing, and hunkered down and jabbed and hooked like he was really there, practicing on some tethered ball in front of him. He still lost because he couldn't figure out how the controllers wanted to be held to block. He laughed a lot, which is something the Wii brings out given the game you play.

Summary
So we're all happy Esteban has come to live with us. He has no return ticket to Mexico, which might be another reason INS was so interested in him. I'm just as happy as can be. The van fits everyone, exactly, even when the little ones grow. My wife is happy that her youngest brother is here and he's happy to be here. My kids love him and he's quickly seen what he expected: we are as Mom has told him and as we've represented ourselves on the phone. I don't think he had any surprises, even Wal-Mart didn't seem to surprise him.

Don't Buy This TV / Father's Day

2007-06-18T10:31:00.001-05:00

I had a fantastic Father's Day, complete with:

Homemade Breakfast.
Homemade Father's Day cards.
A 32" TV with component input and 480i.
Back pain medication since it was acting up, coupled with cuddles when I napped. I kept feeling the kids swapping who would be on the couch with me as they played around and I lied there, intert.
Lots of attention from kids.

Whatever you do, however, don't get that TV, an ILO 32" IWT3206. Mine came with a permanent color problem on the left hand side - I'm taking it back as soon as I find a vehicle that can fit it.

Naps are Good
It was great having my back pain medicine on a day I didn't have to work. I never feel like getting up from naps when I come home for lunch on those days, and on Sunday, I didn't have to. The kids took turns riding the horse in Shadow of the Colossus, or playing Wii Sports, and someone would always end up on the side of the couch with me - mostly my 7 and 4 year-old daughters, as my 10yo is getting a bit big and didn't have room. I'd drift in and out of sleep and hear their voices. Children are so cute when they giggle and talk to each other saying "My Daddy's asleep."

Wii + Component Output = Good
The Wii works great with Component Output - text that was unreadable on Gmail was now readable on the 32" at 480i... my wife's 32" lacks this input or resolution and you can't read the text even on a big screen. Whatever replaces this TV will also feature 480i at least.

Jose Francisco, "The Strong"
Jose Francisco is quite the baby boy. He stuck a crayon inside the power-button hole in the old TV that just died, and I smacked him on the leg for messing with electronics (which he knows not to, it was just too tempting). In hindsight, I think he was trying to make it work - he loves to try to fix things. Rather than cry and then fall into my arms like my daughters, he kept a grudge for about two hours, and didn't want me around him. I did not press him, knowing that you have to give Jose Francisco his own time to decide things - playing with a sprinkler (something else we did on Sunday), anything. Afterwards he came out and we played cars and games with the giant TV box.

Many adults I meet don't have the strength of personality of my two year-old boy. That's why my wife and I spend so much time trying to give him exactly the right upbringing: obedience that isn't blind, decision making (for him) that isn't abdication of parenting (on our part), and rewards for anything tough or clever he does, from falling (tough) or lifting things (same) or attempting to redirect my attention from reprimanding a sister (clever, he often comes up with something new).

On the surface, he's remarkably emotionally detached from things, but that's only if you don't get to know him. He picks a sister and gets a hug in the morning - it's not always his little mama (my 10yo). He handles each sister a bit differently:

Alejandrita (4yo) is his playing companion and friend (he'll often grab her to show her something he wants to do or join in her activity).
Dulce (7yo) is both his help, his target (for wrestling or chasing her around the house with something that scares her, like my belt, which he has learned how to swing overhand quite well), his sympathy magnet (Dulce's a sucker for anyone out of sorts or crying) and sometimes his playtime companion.
Maria (his oldest sister) is his partner in crime (he knows she won't tell on him unless it's dangerous or strictly forbidden, and even then she handles disciplining him herself and rarely involves me or my wife - strengthening the trust), his help, his little mama, and his playtime companion.

Father's Day was great, if only because I got to see my kids alllll day, and my wife got a chance to rest - the older two had to cook all the meals.

Where the PS3 and XBOX 360 Failed

2007-06-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

Dove cued me into an excellent revelation:

The real failure of the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are the same: Sony and Microsoft both made the console that their fanbase said they wanted. They assumed that people would answer "within reason" or "within how much they would be willing to pay for what they say they want."

Of course, people don't do that. The first rule of usability is "don't listen to users." (Instead, watch what they do.)

Nintendo came along and said "Well, our research says they'll spend $250. What can we cram into that?"

The PSP is what everyone said they wanted - a GameBoy Advance that plays 3d games. Then the NDS comes out with less power and trumps it - because it lets you do something new, to interact in a new way. The Wii is essentially the same. It's called "Blue Ocean" strategy in business leet speak.

GP2X versus PSP
This is something I see come up a lot, for some reason. GP2X versus PSP? Not truly comparable, because the GP2X is such a niche device. If you want a handheld that does non-3d emulation, you get a GP2X. You are already "not normal" for even wanting emulation, let alone open source.

If you could only get one, as always, the question boils down to "What kind of games do you want to play, and how much are you willing to pay for them?"

Maria de Guadalupe discovers: The Joys of Multiplayer Disconnects

2007-06-14T14:11:00.000-05:00

The wireless router (Ativa) that's gotten our Wii online also let Maria and I try out Mario Kart DS via WiFi. We both choose "Worldwide" and eventually came up with different opponents - sadly, it seems you can't game with friends and worldwide opponents, which is gay.

She's played the game extensively and claims to know every track. I sat there configuring her NDS while she played on my black one and after a while she said "He left."

"Who left?" I asked.

She looked puzzled. "The fourth player."

"The losing one?" I asked rhetorically.

Later still, she said "Now the third place person left! It's just me and the other guy."

I told her "They leave because they are tired of losing."

Before she won the cup, the 2nd place person quit too. She was not amused.

I figured she had a bad game - she'd won two cups before this, but then she kept winning and I realized "You're really good at this."

"Thank you, Papa."

"No, really. Anyone still playing Mario Kart DS should be good."

So we called up Billy's house and I thought Sarah answered, but the voice replied "No, I'm Zach."

Doh. Way to make a boy feel manly. Mistake him for his mother. I fall over myself by quickly saying "Hey I was trying to reach you anyway, what's your Friend Code? Maria and I have a wireless router and want to try out Mario Kart DS with you." Actually I wanted to chat with Billy but this worked.

Zach helped me find out where to find what our Friend Codes were, and I discovered that if Zach was my friend and I was Maria's friend but Maria wasn't Zach's friend - we can't connect. No error message, you just time out after 5 minutes of tedium. We rectified this. I let him and Maria chat on the phone a bit before we switched off again.

Zach then did merrily trounce upon our bodies, karts and all, winning three cups in a row. Partway into cup 1 I heard his mother call him and he whispered on the phone "I can't talk." I hanged up and hoped I wasn't supporting child delinquency and called Billy after the games.

I tried to tell Billy that Zach's achievement (the summary trouncing of Maria and I) was no small deal given that Maria had won nearly every online cup she'd played in "Worldwide" opponent mode, but of course Billy just chuckled.

I don't know. *whispers loudly* I think he knows.

Learning from Milton Friedman

2007-06-14T13:52:00.000-05:00

While I have very mixed feelings about Michael Roberts, father of MP3.com and Linspire, he educated me about Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist. Michael wrote:

I flew up to San Francisco and visited him [Milton] and his wife Rose in their San Francisco apartment. They offered me a cold glass of water and we talked about my Internet and business experience. Then I asked Milton the question I had come up with. "How do you make the world a better place?"

His answer was, "If you want to improve the world you have to create more capital. While creating non-profits makes people feel better, the only way to fundamentally improve living conditions is to create more business." I left the meeting puzzling over that answer. It was a bit more abstract than I was hoping for. Later he sent me some photocopied pages from several books with a nice note.

Over the years I've had time to think about his response. I've come to the conclude it was the most succinct and accurate response possible. Capital is gasoline for the great engine of economic development which creates jobs, grows wealth and responds to consumers needs and desires.

Nothing is free, a friend is fond of telling me. I shall ponder this further. I'm not even sure if I agree with Milton (nor that I'm qualified to disagree) but that one quote makes me want to research further... Milton Friedman's entire series titled "Free to Choose" is now available via streaming video.

Stars & Stripes reports: Rehabilitation with the Wii

2007-06-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

I prefer leaving my blog as a non-news service because who the hell comes here for news? But I found this interesting, especially how aware the military is of how many young men play games today.

A Bit of History

2007-06-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

That's all, just the link. I found a number of the old items interesting - you can look up "Nintendo Museum" on YouTube. I did and found these:

	Nintendo Museum Tour - Osaka Rare Nintendo toys from 1889-1970s, attended by the creators of Super Mario Kart and Nintendogs. Honors for This Video: #40 - Most Viewed ( (more) (less)	From: GovernorWatts Views: 53,811 Added: 2 months ago
	Time: 08:37	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part One - The Toy Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 118 Added: 1 day ago
	Time: 07:34	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part Two - The Video Game Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 55 Added: 21 hours ago
	Time: 05:56

Game Reviews: Continuing to provide us what we don't want

2007-06-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

I'm glad that someone is writing about how games are reviewed, because the current model is utter crap. Examples otherwise are far and few between.

First of all, game reviews start out with the fictional setting of the game and its story, when gamers really want to know first and foremost "What kind of game is it?" If it's a 3d game, what kind of 3d game is it? 1st person? 3rd person? What do you do? Drive cars? Wander a haunted, indoor environment?

Also important but often omitted: Does the game have cooperative play? Versus play? If there is a multiplayer component, what is it like? How does it operate?

Many NDS games to date have woefully pitiful explanations as to what the multiplayer mode is or does.

After the mechanics of the game are settled upon the fictional setting can be told.

GP2X and Retro Gaming

2007-06-12T09:56:00.000-05:00

Retro Gaming
I didn't know there was a GameCube GBA Player. I feel, humbled at my lack of knowledge. I try to not let anything worthwhile in gaming pass me by - a lesson I learned from missing out on the heydays of the SNES and some GameCube games.

I didn't miss out on Shadow of the Colossus! I think I have the 'net's only remaining copy of their technical rundown of how they made the game in English.

GP2X specific Retro Gaming
MAME on the GP2X seems baaad. ROMs that run craptastically in MAME run great on the CPS2 emulator.

Different NEO GEO games like different settings so I'm trying to figure out how to create indifidual "CF" settings files for the Rage2X frontend of the GnGeo emulator. One shoe does not fit every iteration of Samurai Shodown.

NEO GEO Retro Gaming
My 10yo has found she enjoys the Samurai Shodown series (she hasn't seen the bad ones yet, just I and II) and the penultimate 2005 ROM of King of Fighters.

In King of Fighters I pick ... this really big guy who has a toddler son ... and press heavy kick. To mock her, I put my right hand on my head and use one finger - that rests on the heavy kick button, and every time I attack I say "Kick to the Head!" She can't figure out how to approach me, either while walking, jumping, or attacking while doing either of those, without receiving "Kick to the Head!"

She did find a guy who wields a pole-arm that beats this strategy quite well.

My other trick is saying "Block Low." I can pick any fast character and do this, though it's funnier with the drunken master. I run up to her and say "Block Low" just before I attack (I say "Kick to the Head" after or as I kick). While she has kind of figured out how to "Block Low" she hasn't figured out what attacks always counter a low attack, so I usually end up either KO'ing her or knocking her down a lot.

Until she found the guy with the bo-staff I could go through all 3 of her characters with "Kick to the Head!" My right shoulder was almost bruised the first night, so I warned her I'd hit back the next night.

This all makes it sound like she can't play : Samurai Shodown proves she can, and she can pull off several special moves in King of Fighters. She just doesn't understand timing well, or when to block - the old adage of "I know my opponent is about to attack, I'll block now and hit him next." Unfortunately for her, these are the perennial necessities of fighting games. She'll learn it eventually, because I don't always choose my "Kick to the Head!" character.

But at any rate, we've been enjoying nightly sessions of MAME. There's only, like, a thousand game to try. For some reason she asks for Samurai Shodown and "Kick to the Head!" I mean King of Fighters.

Wii Online: Stupid for Techno-geeks, Perfect for the Average Person

2007-06-11T08:18:00.001-05:00

Using the Wii's Virtual Console, Shopping Center, and Opera Internet Browser.

I noticed a strange phenomenon this weekend: people like simplified, easy to use, easy to understand controls better than more complex controls that give them increased capability.

Written like that, it makes sense, but we techno-geeks rarely think about it.

My 10yo daughter has fallen in love with the Internet not on a computer and a mouse (which she has been exposed to), but on her Wii. I observed how she surfed to find out why.

She pointed at links and clicked a big, round A button on the Wii Remote to go to pages. She pulled the trigger and dragged the direction she wanted to pan on the page. She pressed the + and - buttons to zoom. This was all intuitive to her - only the zoom took the first 5 minutes to understand (she was using an option on screen). She found the trigger's function accidentally and moved on.
She had trouble aiming at hyperlinks, so she changed how she was sitting, just like she does when she's playing the Wii in a competitive game. Eventually she reclined again, having found a position the Wii Remote liked (it disliked hitting things at an oblique angle, and she was far to the side of the TV). She didn't seem to realize why things had changed (she had centered herself when she sat up and then relaxed again), and it didn't bother her.
She was able to add favorites (bookmarks) easily, by clicking on a star at the bottom of the screen while viewing a page. The favorite gets a screenshot of the Web page you are on and the title (usually concatenated). I saw her add favorites and then go to another she'd made a Favorite for few minutes before - essentially task switching between pages by keeping favorites she didn't plan on keeping forever. (Dad's note: She did not bother arranging or deleting favorites, though I tried these features out - just two of the three buttons in your Favorites view: add, move & delete.)
She zoomed in to read different parts of pages. If a website formatted badly for a Wii, she still looked at it, but spent less time on such sites before moving on (~1 minute as opposed to 3-4).
She didn't mind that it takes more time to do all of this than with a mouse and keyboard, because for her a mouse and keyboard involves these things:
1. Turning on the computer, and signing in.
2. She's not accustomed to the keyboard and isn't a touch typist (although she's used typing tutor programs).
3. The computer browser is confusing.
4. She has to go to the computer room, sit down, and plan on spending a while there.
5. She stated that using the Wii Remote and just turning on her Wii and getting online was much easier than all of the above, which she enumerated in simpler terms.

I found some of her assertions amusing - as human interface engineering teaches you "Don't listen to what your users say, watch what they do." Why? Because users lie, even though they don't think they are. Maria spent more time on the Wii than she might have at a computer, but it didn't bother her because it was more in tune with her usual life.

Maria used the Wii's online Opera Browser to research Virtual Console games - to find out what was good and worth her money. She paid me and her mother $20 for us to buy her "Wii Points" online, with which she could buy old emulated games the Wii runs.

She found that the only thing worth downloading, she bought first: Bomberman '93. Every other good game was either single player (vast majority), or two player, both of which I can emulate for free on my computer. I don't have 4 or 5 joysticks, so Bomberman '93 on the Wii for $6 made economic sense: extra USB gamepads for the PC run $15 a piece at least.

I was proud of her research (she wrote her findings down, whereas I would have used Firefox's tabs) and the fact that she got it all done - on the Wii.

Truimph of the Wii

2007-06-11T08:17:00.000-05:00

Gamers have yet to realize: the war is already lost / won.

Bad Things

2007-06-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

Censorship on the Internet: Bad according to BBC, Amnesty International
It's official, censorship on the Internet is changing people's perceptions and allowing governments to control what people know.

Worst Buy Still BAD
Worst Buy really is bad: They scam people and outright lie, or sign you up for digital subscriptions which cost you money without you knowing it.

Supreme Commander did get better...

2007-06-07T09:38:00.000-05:00

Recall the beta review (which was still true post-release) where I ripped Supreme Commander for playing like frozen crap pushed through the grating behind your computer's power supply.

Things have gotten remarkably better.

The game doesn't become a jerky, choppy, chop-fest anymore. The game does, however, slow down. Basically it's as though the game speed itself was automagically scaling (some RTS's have a game speed slider most of us leave at "100%" - well imagine that that slider automatically decreased as your computer begged for mercy, and that's what happens). I still find this annoying because a 4v4 game will become slow and drawn out; however, it is actually playable versus before where you couldn't accurately click on units.
Supreme Commander no longer has a CD check. Just install the game and play it.
Choosing where each player's start location is in a Skirmish / Multiplayer match is now easy - the menu color codes things for you so you can tell.

Ordered Payback for the GP2X

2007-06-07T09:04:00.000-05:00

WOOT! From GP2Xstore.com

Order Content

Product ID	Product Name	Price	Quantity	Total
003	Payback SD Card Game	$29.99 (Tax 0.00%)	1	$29.99
Subtotal Amount :				$29.99
Discount :				$0.00
Shipping (USPS - Priority (2-3 day delivery)) :				$5.60
Tax Amount :				$0.00
Total Amount :				$35.59

GP2X returns - working!

2007-06-07T07:50:00.000-05:00

It's Back!

WooT! Thanks to Grahf!

I'm also now a member of GP2Xtorrents.com - they have some good stuff with nothing that would make me dislike them (like the full version of Payback). Speaking of Payback I need to buy that! Woo!

I've updated my emulators; having installed a 2gb "image" onto my 4gb SD card, I'm liking that I spent $90 on it oh so long ago right about now. Carrying my GP2X into work with me reminded me of why I like it - I noticed I didn't bring my black NDS.

My GP2X plays music, has a 4gb SD card, plays movies, lots of emulated games and homebrew. My NDS can hold between 5 and 12 games, 7-8 being the usual number, using the G6 Lite, which has 512mb of space. The PDA homebrew ("DSorganize") for the NDS won't work on my G6 so...

China Displaces 1.5 million People in Prep for Hosting Olympic Games

2007-06-06T08:36:00.000-05:00

Read it an weep, but be sure to read about Atlanta, Georgia in the USA too.

Wii continues to trample people, competitors alike.

2007-06-05T08:46:00.001-05:00

4.7 million Virtual Console titles sold, 100 available to buy. That may not me Microsoft XBOX Live's Marketplace, but it kicks Sony Online Entertainment's PS3 Home right in her tender middle, then knees her in the face on the way down. But lately, beating on the PS3 is easy.

If a Wii Hard Drive does come out, I will scream "THAT'S SO FUCKING STUUUPIIID!" Why? Because the Wii should allow you to plug any USB Hard Drive into it - and then let Nintendo make money on the Virtual Console sales. Who cares how they download it? Just get them to download more!

Some proprietary Hard Drive Box comes out and I will scream. I really will. You just won't hear it from where you're sitting.

Bill Gates thinks motion controllers are hot, but is such an asshole he can't admit Nintendo gave him that idea, and tries to say his idea is different than the Wii. Who does he think he's fooling? I suppose experience has taught him it doesn't matter: getting a product out people buy does.

Wii: Six Month Review and Metroid Prime 3: With or Without Multiplayer - good reads if done so in order.

Sorry for not posting links but I've read so much lately - the Bill Gates thing was over a Tennis Racket - he said "You can't use a Tennis Racket with your Wii" uhhhh okay - yeah. Try asking Joe Schmoe to swing a tennis racket around for two hours instead of a Wiimote and see what happens to his arm.

"WHY THE AMERICAN FLAG IS FOLDED 13 TIMES"

2007-06-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

THIS IS FALSE. For one, anyone who can read all of this and believe the original flag folders had all of this in mind is silly. For another, "Symbolizing George Washington's hat"? That should send off another BS meter.

Apologies for being gruff but everyone needs to wake up and start checking sources, so pardon me for taking a page out of Patton's modus operandi...

I am amazed, flabbergasted, at how much stuff people forward without checking for sources. This is one thing that helped spread hatred of the Jews in France - people just listening to a few and not thinking for themselves, only saying "Hey, that's what I wanted to hear anyway!" and latching onto it. Somewhere out there - Muslim fathers are forwarding each other horror stories describing what happens when men let their daughters lead their own lives, and they eat it up.

Whenever I get this stuff I check it on www.Snopes.com, so much so that a friend of mine now does so just to avoid me correcting him.

It doesn't matter if something says what you want to hear (remember Anti-Semetism, and recall that a lot of people back then were predisposed to such thoughts), it matters what is real and valid. We should base our lives around truth, not fantasy.

I always teach my children to question things. "I like this." "Why?" "Because it's fun." "Why?" The annoying repeater is the father, not the child. By age 10, my oldest daughter has become so adept at enumerating the whys of things that come under her purview that she came home from a weekend with her grandparents and told me "My grandmother is better without her medicine if she just drinks water, so whenever she asked for soda I gave her water."

All I can do is just stand there and look shocked, and await the day these powers are used on me (lovingly, but it'll happen).

Everyone here is an adult, right?
So ask "Why?"

Note: I sent this in a reply to a general forward I got. Aren't I a jerk about truth?

It's a great time to come back to the GP2X scene.

2007-05-30T18:06:00.000-05:00

My GP2X joystick broke a while ago, and a seemingly random member of the community of GP2X owners offered to fix it for me *swoons*. Now I'm back and it's actually cool - here's what I posted in the forums...

Apparently GBA emulation is not only possible, but really happening. When my GP2X joystick broke, folks still thought this was an impossible dream.

CPS2 emulation is apparently gotten so good you can run some games at 200MHz. I can't wait to try out Magic Sword again, heck, maybe Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom or Shadows of Mystaria will work. OMG, the link has the D&D title screen on it (jizzes self & feints).

There's this cool cradle which apparently can be had for less moola from Nubie's link; I'm guessing there's something in North America that does that too.

There's wireless Internet access, which is something I wanted since before I bought my GP2X. Who's going to arrest you for piggy-backing carrying that around?

EvilDragon is busy. Good to know.

Folks are making an open source Firmware for the GP2X! This could really help the device as it ages if it enables us to do more with our GP2X.

Maybe if I make a GP2X game I'll become famous enough for Hooka to interview me. *dreams*

There's a lot of homebrew to catch up on - and honestly, since I have an NDS and a G6 Lite, that's high on my list of priorities.

I can finally buy Payback. My joystick broke while I was playing the demo. It was xnopasaranx's wondering about me and Sam Fisher and PokeParadox getting back in contact with me that got me to reiterate my problem, which Grahf saw and PMed me offering to help.

If xnopasaranx hadn't written nicely about me, Pokeparadox never would have pointed me to the thread, and Grahf would never have seen my issue, and my GP2X would still be sitting next to my wife's MP3 player (when she's not using it). Thank you guys.

It's great to see Squidge is still here, Telcolou - I hear Epicenter left on bad terms and I'm saddened for that but such is the nature of humanity and the hardships of the world.

I've been having great fun in life - my kids are fantastically well behaved - my 10yo daughter cooks food, as in dinners. My 7yo daughter cooks scrambled eggs without making them too dry or soggy. My 2yo son scribbles on the wall in red permanent marker. Hey wait that's not good... oh he protects his sisters if I'm chastizing them. And my lovely Latina is STILL fun to chase around.

Why the Wii will Prevail

2007-05-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

It's all summed up here:

The console is systematically outselling every other new generation game console (XBOX 360 and PS3) every month.
Games cost less for developers to make, and take less time.
Whereas XBOX 360 and PS3 caters most to men, the Wii has a greater success rate at getting everyone in the family to play it - this means that the Wii should sell more games than a console the family buys for their teenage son who plays it in his room.

That's what Nintendo is banking on. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are played primarily by young men, the Wii is played on average by more people in each household. That means Nintendo has a good shot at selling more games per console than its rivals, said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing.

"Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself," Harrison said. "Now, the whole family is playing."

Dave's take? It's obvious, and anyone who thinks otherwise lets their emotions rule them too much. Welcome to a changing market.

My Etrian Odyssey

2007-05-25T14:10:00.000-05:00

For this next bit - sometimes I try to be a funny guy. This is one of those times.

I bought Etrian Odyssey and spent a very long time trying to hack the savegame - the game is gorgeous (see my review) and fun, but also unforgiving and hard. A party-wipe means "start over from the last time you were at the town's inn." Ouch.

My plan was to take one character and make her into a version of "Lord" Benedict, from Final Fantasy Tactics - a character who a faulty PSX 3rd party save card corrupted and suddenly could learn any skill (max it out) as soon as it was available. His level didn't change, but he was the master at anything he could do. It was like having Michael Jordan on your team. He couldn't carry the battle, but man he was awesome.

I did get Skill Points happening with my Protector / Paladin, Madrigal, and maxed a lot of her skills out, even though she's level 5 (now). Basically, my catch for trying to survive a party wipe. Sometimes folks drop, but not Maddy. Oh no, Madrigal's a resourceful gal. Not invincible, but how many level 5's do you know who can do almost every trick in the book? And, to keep the game fun, 98% of the time she either attacks or does Front Defense during combat, and that's it.

I had heard folks complain in the forums about a certain beast on the very 2nd level of the Labyrinth that was wiping parties out just because it could. The Ragealope. Some kind of angry Antelope or some such rubbish. I figured folks were diving in early.

Baring this in mind, I can tell you ... WITH ALL THE CERTAINTY IN HEAVEN ... with the very assurance that ON DAY, Jesus Christ will come again and judge the living and the dead... with this level of assuradness, I... assure you...

It is NOT the "Ragealope".

It is the "RAPEalope".

I seek the thing out with my party - Maddy's got Stalker up so nothing runs into us and wears us down. Everyone's 5th level. Standard party: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Mage. Or is that Gay Germanic Word for Fighter (Landsknecht), Call it What it is Paladin (Protector), Rangers do More Than Survive (Survivalist), Clerics Without Gods (Medics), and Mages Without Magic (Alchemist)?

Anyway.

The battle starts and I have Maddy put up a frontal defense, and tell Pharra (my fighter) to Cleave, Glen (my ranger) to haste the party, Lia (my cleric) to brace herself, and Vera, her sister (my mage) to use Volt (a nice lightning attack).

Rapealope is MAD. Rapealope CONFUSES puny Ranger and Mage.

I think "Oh dear." I recalled in FF7 how my party of "rape the enemy and steal their candy" was annihilated by creatures who just kept casting confusion on them.

Rapealope is ANGRY. Rapealope hits ignorant intrudors for massive damage.

Lia (cleric) tries to remove status ailments, but it doesn't work on confusion. Glen (ranger) dies horribly, her guts still entangled on the beast's antlers. Pharra (fighter) uses Cleave again, while Vera (mage) casts more Volt. Maddy attacks. I have 4 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is DISPLEASED. Rapealope confuses pitiful Paladin and Mage.

Vera (mage) dies in a similar fashion to Glen (ranger). Pharra takes another stab at the beast. Lia tries to heal folks.

Maddy comes out of her daze in time to look around and sees only she, Lia (cleric) and Pharra (fighter) are up. She cheats. She breaks an oath and uses Smite. Calling upon her forbidden Goddess, she smashes the Ragealope. I have 3 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is AMUSED. Rapealope kills puny Cleric, and knocks Fighter silly.

I have 2 out of 5 characters left. With Pharra almost dead, and the Ragealope badly injured but still powerful, Madrigal flees to the first floor and takes Pharra and the bodies with her.

And that, my fellow, was my encounter, with the Rapealope.

Man Arrested for Using Unsecured Wireless Connection

2007-05-23T13:45:00.000-05:00

Uh, this is stupid. It seems the world of computers is "Don't get caught." Because reality and law aren't meshing well. I won't bother defending it or going into the issue - only state that it's another example of the way people working changing faster than existing models can cope.

GP2X about to be saved!

2007-05-22T18:47:00.000-05:00

My GP2X thumbstick / joystick broke a while ago (October of 2006 I think), and a friendly person in the GP2X community who repairs cellular phones has offered to fix it for the low, benevolent cost of - of - OF... shipping!

So Grahf gets the Mensch of the Month Award.

I've even torrented a 2GB image of a GP2X SD card setup and everything. I'm stoked.

Outmoded Market Models get More Help

2007-05-18T11:31:00.000-05:00

As part of my RIAA posts...

As If Big Copyright Didn't Already Have Enough Lobbying Clout...
from the "lobbyists doing more lobbying"? [source]

You would think, given their ability to pass ridiculous self-serving legislation solely to protect their dying business models, that the folks behind "Big Content" wouldn't need another lobbying group... but you'd apparently be wrong. The RIAA, the MPAA, the Association of American Publishers and companies including Disney, Viacom and Microsoft have teamed up to create "The Copyright Alliance."

You would have thought that these groups already had enough lobbyists and misleading spokespeople, but I guess if you can't get real grassroots support, you just keep forming industry associations to make support look stronger than it really is. The group will be led by Patrick Ross, who recently left the Progress & Freedom Foundation, though not before making the case against fair use and bizarrely claiming that changing the DMCA would be inefficient regulatory tinkering without explaining why creating the DMCA wasn't inefficient regulatory tinkering in the first place.

In other words, this is going to be more of the same tortured logic pretending that without stronger copyright law, the content creation business would be in trouble. The truth is this is a front group to protect the interests of big copyright holders allowing them to prop up obsolete business models against more innovative new business models.

However, since those big copyright players tend to be big political contributors, politicians such as Howard Berman, who chairs the IP subcommittee and is known for being a big friend to big copyright (representing parts of LA explains that), welcomed the formation of this group without bothering to question why it's even needed in the first place.

I copy these articles because I'm never sure if they'll stay on the 'net :P