If this was the case, then why is Beethoven an artist? Musical composition is basically just mathematics, putting musical notes into harmonious equations.
Or what about programming's end product -- the software (usually, anyways). Can a non-programmer appreciate the OS X interface or a nice well programmed web page?
It takes just as much skill to write a program in C as it does to write a good sonnet in English. The end product might be different, but the concept is pretty much the same.
Too bad there were no really good games for either of those extensions, though. As I recall, there was a horrible port of Doom on the 32X, and the SegaCD was plagued with interactive videos like Sewer Shark and Night Trap. Sonic CD and Eternal Warriors CD were supposed to be pretty good, though, but not enough to save the poor thing.
In the Phillipines, if you can prove you invented something first, you're given the patent even if it's already been filed and granted to someone else.
At least, I think. IANAPatent Lawyer Guy, but I seem to remember reading it, either on/. or for a term paper I did a while back.
100 screenshots really isn't that much. There are probably millions of possible screenshots for each game. 100 is a tiny fraction of the total number of possible screenshots.
According to what I've read, I think the 2600 was an 8-bit system. It had a Motorola 6507 CPU, which was a modified 6502. The 6502 was an 8-bit processor with a 16-bit address bus. The 6507 was the exact same processor with two modifications -- a 13-bit address bus and it had no interrupt lines.
I think Namco is in a fine position. Besides making a good number of console games, their arcade games are doing quite strongly in the coin-op world.
J
While we all know and love Duke, I believe "Rowdy" Roddy Piper spat that little phrase out in a film called 'They Live' many years before Duke got the chance.
A friend of mine bought the Atomic Edition with the bonus levels and screen saver and such, and man did we play that game into the ground. Back then, we didn't have no fancy LAN or ethernet cards in our machines, no sir. We used a frickin' null modem serial cable that delivered transfer rates up to a staggering 9600 baud. The only games we could actually play without major lag were Duke, Doom and a few other less network-intesive games. We tried Aliens vs. Predator and Quake 3 a few months ago with the same cable, just for the fun of it. AvP was somewhat playable, but Q3A was definitely not.
This article seems to be heavily slanted towards the United States and gaming. There's nothing really wrong with that, but there are other cultures out there. Japan is definitely more hardcore when it comes to gaming and have risen violence in the media to an art form. They have violence down to a science. Watch any old John Woo films, any one of dozens of animes or play any Resident Evil or Castlevania game and watch the bloody violence in all of its insane glory.
And yet there is no moral panic in Japan over video games. It's as much a part of their culture as pachinko and tentacle rape cartoons, and has been for years. It's much more integrated over there into daily life, where the premiere of games like the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest/Warrior series' are so huge and hyped that they actually have to close schools and businesses because so many people line up in anticipation for the game's release.
With all video games so embedded into their culture and violent cartoons, movies and games the way they are in Japan, you'd think that they'd all be violent criminals, at least if you went by Lieberman logic, and that there'd be a huge moral panic, given Katz logic. Well, there isn't. (At least not that I know of.) The violent crime rate is much lower, and the acceptance of video games as art and as culture is higher there than anywhere else.
But why bother with Japan. It's not part of the United States. The United States of course is the basis of all culture, so to hell with the rest of them.
As a side note, way to go there, Katz, prove your technical ignorance by quoting somebody else who is obviously technically inept. The PS2 is not that powerful. If you want to write for a geek site, at least research the specs of the machine and compare it to those million dollar systems of 1999. Don't take some chair for a television school's word for it. He probably hasn't played a video game in his life.
The Kids in the Hall -- the bestest comedy skit show ever
SCTV -- also the bestest comedy skit show ever, strangely enough. A tie I guess.
CBC's coverage of the Olympics, which destroyed any American coverage. I guess in the US, if an American doesn't make it to the podium, then why bother to continue covering the event?
Hockey Night in Canada -- without the damn glowing puck.
etc. etc.
Plus, there's all of our vast actors and artists resources. The funniest comedians always seem to come from Canada for some reason. Jim Carrey, John Candy, Phil Hartman, Martin Short, Eugene Levy (basically the whole cast of SCTV), all of the Kids in the Hall, Chong of Cheech & Chong, Rich Little, Norm MacDonald. Even William Shatner, who's funnier by accident than most American comedians. Then there's Donald Sutherland, Raymond Burr, Michael J Fox, Lorne Greene.
A few corrections I'll make before everybody else does.
Jerry Siegel, not Joe Siegel, was from Cleveland, Ohio, not Chicago. Joe Siegel doesn't even come into the picture, since the team was Joe Shuster (of Toronto) and Jerry Siegel (of Clevelend). Plus, they were friends, not cousins. See what happens when you don't pay enough attention to those Canadian Heritage Moments? They call kind of get mushed together and screwed up. Beer doesn't help.
Saying that the early story was about a Nazi superman was a bit of an exaggeration. The original story, "The Reign of the Superman," had a character who looked very similar to Lex Luthor using his super intelligence to wreak havoc over the world. The word "superman" itself was based on the idea of the Nazi supermen that Hitler constantly talked of, so it would have been clearer to have said that Superman himself was based on an earlier story that was based on the idea of Nazi supermen. The story itself wasn't about Nazi supermen.
I had already posted this in another, private forum that very few of you may be familiar with, so I'll post it again here for no reason whatsoever, other than the fact that I'd like to share. It's a long post, so if you don't feel like reading it, that's okay. Or if you don't feel like reading it 'cause you figure I should just take off, that's okay, too.
**********
I saw this movie last week, and it reeked. Spoilers may abound, so read this post at your
own risk.
The story moves so slowly, so obviously, you kind of have to wonder what the point to it all
is. Sure, Willis and Jackson want to find their place in the world. At first, you're more concerned with Willis' place, but eventually Jackson's takes just as much precedence, but it's all so sad and brooding that you can barely give a shit about either of them.
Willis plods along, constantly sad. He's so sad, he can't crack a smile or do anything on screen other than be sad. Willis doesn't exactly pull this off well, and it ends up looking like
he's... overly sad, or something. Not just sad, but really fucking sad. Even sadder is the fact that (IMHO) Willis is a proficient actor. Too bad his proficiency is wasted here.
Jackson is fares a bit better, 'cause we can see some of the torment inside of him and we know he's a strong fella trapped inside of a fragile shell. When he freaks on the guy at the store near the beginning, we know he's not fucking around. Unfortunately and sadly, even someone as cool Samuel L. Jackson can't quite make comics as cool as they used to be. Exactly how many bad ass, dead serious comic book collectors are there like this in the world? It's like the whole premise to Duets, with its whole karaoke subculture thing, and it's ridiculous. The fat sarcastic guy comic guy on the Simpsons is more believable.
And then there's Haley Joel Osment II, who's the center of one of the most awkward scenes I've ever seen in a movie. The whole "shoot-dad-to-prove-superpowers" scene is supposed to be serious and somewhat poignant ends up being hilarious. The whole theatre was laughing at the absurdity.
The whole comic book thing sounds cool at first, until you realize that it most certainly isn't. And this is coming from a guy with a sizeable comic collection, who still likes to pick up Spawn and Superman and rumage through comic book stores for those crazy issues of World's Finest and the Justice League where Matter Eater Lad and the gang battle their sons or the Scarecrow gives everyone strange phobias. Somehow, you're supposed to seriously believe that Jackson might be on to something, that comic book superheroes are based on a hint of fact. Well, they aren't, they're based on a character created by a Canadian and his cousin from Chicago, a guy named Superman. Superman didn't have any basis in reality other than a hair's breadth kinship to an early story Joe Siegel did on Nazi supermen, which didn't exist in the first place.
Also packing on the absurdity is that Willis never realized he's never been hurt or sick before, despite the fact that he was completely uninjured in a disasterous car accident. Didn't he find it odd that he's (theoretically) never cut himself shaving? When he trained for football back in high school, did he never realize just how much he could benchpress? Wasn't there any personal contests with his teammates over such trivial things as weight lifting records, simply because it's the kind of thing that guys do? Or illness? Mono? Chicken pox? Anything? How the hell does it take 35 years to figure that out, especially with the help of a guy who collects comic books of all things? Of course, I've taken to a little conjecture here, but it seems pretty reasonable to me.
Absurdity aside, the picture itself is meant to be atmospheric, moody and mystical. Well, that's all fine and dandy, if it didn't come off so poorly. We follow Willis around all day, watching him eat cereal and shit, hoping Lex Luthor or the Joker are about to show up, but instead, we get to watch him read newspapers. Everything is dark for some reason, probably to add to the mood, but I ask you -- what fucking mood are we supposed to be feeling? The sadness of Willis? The mystical feeling of him being unbreakable? It's sad enough that he plays the part as a zombie, isn't that enough? No, apparently it isn't, 'cause everything has to be black and atmospheric to the point of being obvious. Yes, he's fucking sad. Let's make everything dark to make it sadder. We get the point.
The ending itself is probably the most obvious and dull of all time. Since I gave full warning of spoilers, don't blame me if you're still reading and didn't see it yet, 'cause here it is: Willis' direct opposite is his arch nemesis. Christ Almighty, what a fucking surprise. In between the constant deluge of sadness and the eating of cereal, we get some comic book insight, like this gem of wisdom -- comic book superheroes have exact opposites as mortal enemies. No shit. Superman, a man with a million superpowers and incredibly static and perfect hair, had Luthor, a man without any superpowers and no hair. Batman had the Joker, a very serious guy (except in the camporamic 60's) versus a guy who can't stop joking around. Even "modern" superheroes are just as bound to this rule -- Spawn, a lieutenant in Hell's army, has an angel as a predator.
So of course we have to wait through 99% of the movie to find out something we knew from the beginning -- Jackson is Willis' arch enemy. Wow. Blow my fucking mind. Jackson spends his entire life looking for Willis, who he just happens to find in his own backyard out of a global population of 6 billion, just so he can feel at ease with himself in his own insane, comic book loving, arch-nemesis way. And after spending his entire life looking, what do we get? A made-for-TV ending that feels more like an episode of Dragnet than a dramtic ending to a serious comic book superhero movie. (If there is such a thing. X-men and the original Tim Burton Batman probably come closest.)
I mean, I could almost hear the Dragnet theme with the guy reaming out the convictions at the end. I have witnessed some anti-climatic endings in my day, and this one is easily near the top of the list. What's the point of finding an arch-nemesis if you're not going to do some city-destroying battle or something? They shake hands and Willis puts him in jail. At least the Joker went mano-a-mano with Batman for a little while and Luthor fire nuclear missiles at Superman. Jackson just sits there and is sent to jail, with subtitles filling in the details.
How exciting.
This movie could have been cool. I wish it had been. Instead, it's a half-hour episode of the Twilight Zone stretched entirely too long and without Rod Sterling.
Maybe this will become something more. It's not much now, but who knows, maybe this is only issue one, sad holographic glitter cover and all. But if it isn't a one-shot and goes further with additional stories, I hope to hell they aren't as boring and sad as this one. I did mention it was sad, right? Good.
For some reason, it feels like the medium for this movie was totally wrong. The medium is the message, you know. If this was an actual comic book, under the wise, wise hands of Neil Gaiman or Frank Miller, this could have really been something. But in the end, it comes off pretty piss poor in this on-screen Festival of Dark Sad Cereal Eating.
But that's just my opinion. I could be totally wrong. And no doubt somebody will tell me so, but that's okay. That's the whole point of opinions.
Let's not forget that Nintendo isn't exactly strapped for cash or expertise. They might be a bit impoverished compared to the entire Sony corperation, but they're by no means poor. Last I heard, they had something like $15 billion in the bank, so they can afford some major marketing and absorb a few hits before they need to really make money back.
Besides, they still have Shigeru Miyamoto and a truckload of mascots. Mario, Zelda and (ugh) Pokemon aren't going to be seen on the PS2 any time soon, and they can all sell machines like crazy.
According to the interviews I've read with some of the Nintendo head honchos, they've learned their lessons from the N64's lack of a decent storage medium and its kiddie focus. The Gamecube should fare well.
The whole reason they didn't work with the N64 was mostly because of the lack of a decent storage medium. The N64 carts are tiny and seriously compared to, say, the Playstation's CDs, hence the switch.
It also had something to do with a sort of falling out with Nintendo themselves. I remember reading about the production troubles with the Nintendo/Square team up on Super Mario RPG, and I guess the tension it created, combined with Nintendo's adherence to the cartridge medium, solidified Square's move to the PSX. The fact that Sony shoved money down their pants didn't hurt.
There's been talk of Square developing for the Xbox, so anything is possible. If the system is solid, why wouldn't they want to make games for it? The storage question is practically a non-issue (unless Nintendo still insists on using its crazy licensing and production practices, as the Gamecube does use a proprietary format for the games).
I can see them making Gamecube games. But that's just my take.
Interestingly enough, one of the demos shown is the basis for a GBA Doom game. While not really completed, the photos shown from the Doom port use an actual wad from one of the original Doom games. I don't recognize the level, but I only really played Doom 2 and the shareware release and didn't do much with the other versions.
The system certainly looks cool (both the Gamecube and the GBA). I don't really mind the lack of a DVD if it means more features built into the system itself. Besides, by the time it comes out, I'll probably already have either a PS2 or a real DVD player. I've been without a DVD player for a month now and it sucks.
Again, I'll show my Nintendo and video game geekdom by informing everyone that the code for Street Fighter 2 on the SNES to let two players use the same characters was:
Down R Up L Y B
and you input it when the "CAPCOM" logo is on screen at the beginning. It also worked on a few other Street Fighter games on the SNES, like on SF2T where it gave you additional speed levels.
Sadly (?), I remember this code, too. And you nailed it. After the Mike Tyson license ran its course, Nintendo re-released Punch Out! without the Mike Tyson endorsement. The final boxer in the game was changed to a lame "Mr. Dream," who was basically Tyson with a skin color change and a different head.
I don't think there is a code for that game, but (and I doubt too many of you remember this one) EGM once ran a code that let you use Simon Belmont from the Castlevania games in lieu of a ninja turtle. The code was hopelessly complex, and I remember spending soooo fucking long trying to get Simon to beat up Foot Soldiers.
Of course, being the naieve kid I was, I never stopped to realize what month it was. Every April, EGM pulls an April Fool's joke on its readers. The year before it was Sheng Long in Street Fighter 2. Even the damn name on the submission was something like Fuld Ya Gen or something. The pictures looked real, dammit!
The next month they revealed, to the Nation's shock, that no, you could not use Simon Belmont in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the NES. A lot of people lost it on EGM's head at the time for printing the damn code, but it was pretty funny, even if I cried myself to sleep each night for a week wishing I could use Simon Belmont from Castlevania in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the NES.
... being one of those Nintendo kids, the code mentioned also works for these other games (mostly Konami):
Life Force on the NES at the title screen for 30 ships
Gradius III for the SNES, which dun blows you up when you pause
Operation C for the Gameboy at the title screen for level select
Gyruss for the NES at the title screen for 30 ships, although you have to enter it backwards (and Gyruss was released by Ultra, a subsidiary of Konami or something to that effect)
Legend of the Mystical Ninja for the SNES. Actually, you couldn't enter the code, but if you talked to somebody in the game, they mention the code as a bit of Konami history heritage
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time on the SNES. At the # of players selection screen with the second controller, it gave you 10 lives and a stage select
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project on the NES. At the title screen, it gives you access to an options screen
Tendrils for the Playstation's Net Yarouze. I'll admit, I never heard this one before, but I found it on Google and it's pretty funny. Look it up yourself.
There's also a band evidently called Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA Start. I think they're from Ohio or something.
I'm sure there's a few more games to use The Code on, but I can't remember any more of them. I'm surprised I could remember those ones. But that's what you get for trying to substitute real life for Nintendo's version of it.
Macross (or Robotech as I believe it was called after Americanization) kicked arse. I remember watching it every day after school back in, like, grade 6 or something.
It was like Dallas in space, only with bigger robots than the original Dallas and no J.R. Ewing.
Slashdot Mirror
If this was the case, then why is Beethoven an artist? Musical composition is basically just mathematics, putting musical notes into harmonious equations.
Or what about programming's end product -- the software (usually, anyways). Can a non-programmer appreciate the OS X interface or a nice well programmed web page?
It takes just as much skill to write a program in C as it does to write a good sonnet in English. The end product might be different, but the concept is pretty much the same.
J
Or are you just a clever ploy used by Slashdot to have a running gag in all of the user polls they do?
It's a conspiracy I'm working on, you see. A theory if you will. The Conservation of Cowboy Neal, or something. It's a work in process...
J
Too bad there were no really good games for either of those extensions, though. As I recall, there was a horrible port of Doom on the 32X, and the SegaCD was plagued with interactive videos like Sewer Shark and Night Trap. Sonic CD and Eternal Warriors CD were supposed to be pretty good, though, but not enough to save the poor thing.
J
In the Phillipines, if you can prove you invented something first, you're given the patent even if it's already been filed and granted to someone else.
/. or for a term paper I did a while back.
At least, I think. IANAPatent Lawyer Guy, but I seem to remember reading it, either on
Too bad this wasn't a Phillipino matter, eh?
J
Plus, if it's made out of mostly paper, I'm sure you could use it to roll when you're out of Zig Zags.
J
100 screenshots really isn't that much. There are probably millions of possible screenshots for each game. 100 is a tiny fraction of the total number of possible screenshots.
J
According to what I've read, I think the 2600 was an 8-bit system. It had a Motorola 6507 CPU, which was a modified 6502. The 6502 was an 8-bit processor with a 16-bit address bus. The 6507 was the exact same processor with two modifications -- a 13-bit address bus and it had no interrupt lines.
J
I think Namco is in a fine position. Besides making a good number of console games, their arcade games are doing quite strongly in the coin-op world. J
We've gone through this before...
2 31&cid=53
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/11/27/1648
From a previous Katz rambling.
J
While we all know and love Duke, I believe "Rowdy" Roddy Piper spat that little phrase out in a film called 'They Live' many years before Duke got the chance.
A friend of mine bought the Atomic Edition with the bonus levels and screen saver and such, and man did we play that game into the ground. Back then, we didn't have no fancy LAN or ethernet cards in our machines, no sir. We used a frickin' null modem serial cable that delivered transfer rates up to a staggering 9600 baud. The only games we could actually play without major lag were Duke, Doom and a few other less network-intesive games. We tried Aliens vs. Predator and Quake 3 a few months ago with the same cable, just for the fun of it. AvP was somewhat playable, but Q3A was definitely not.
The memories...
J
This article seems to be heavily slanted towards the United States and gaming. There's nothing really wrong with that, but there are other cultures out there. Japan is definitely more hardcore when it comes to gaming and have risen violence in the media to an art form. They have violence down to a science. Watch any old John Woo films, any one of dozens of animes or play any Resident Evil or Castlevania game and watch the bloody violence in all of its insane glory.
And yet there is no moral panic in Japan over video games. It's as much a part of their culture as pachinko and tentacle rape cartoons, and has been for years. It's much more integrated over there into daily life, where the premiere of games like the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest/Warrior series' are so huge and hyped that they actually have to close schools and businesses because so many people line up in anticipation for the game's release.
With all video games so embedded into their culture and violent cartoons, movies and games the way they are in Japan, you'd think that they'd all be violent criminals, at least if you went by Lieberman logic, and that there'd be a huge moral panic, given Katz logic. Well, there isn't. (At least not that I know of.) The violent crime rate is much lower, and the acceptance of video games as art and as culture is higher there than anywhere else.
But why bother with Japan. It's not part of the United States. The United States of course is the basis of all culture, so to hell with the rest of them.
As a side note, way to go there, Katz, prove your technical ignorance by quoting somebody else who is obviously technically inept. The PS2 is not that powerful. If you want to write for a geek site, at least research the specs of the machine and compare it to those million dollar systems of 1999. Don't take some chair for a television school's word for it. He probably hasn't played a video game in his life.
J
Quality Canadian broadcasting:
Plus, there's all of our vast actors and artists resources. The funniest comedians always seem to come from Canada for some reason. Jim Carrey, John Candy, Phil Hartman, Martin Short, Eugene Levy (basically the whole cast of SCTV), all of the Kids in the Hall, Chong of Cheech & Chong, Rich Little, Norm MacDonald. Even William Shatner, who's funnier by accident than most American comedians. Then there's Donald Sutherland, Raymond Burr, Michael J Fox, Lorne Greene.
Then again, there's Keanu "Whoa" Reeves.
But Natasha Henstrige makes up for him in spades.
JA few corrections I'll make before everybody else does.
Jerry Siegel, not Joe Siegel, was from Cleveland, Ohio, not Chicago. Joe Siegel doesn't even come into the picture, since the team was Joe Shuster (of Toronto) and Jerry Siegel (of Clevelend). Plus, they were friends, not cousins. See what happens when you don't pay enough attention to those Canadian Heritage Moments? They call kind of get mushed together and screwed up. Beer doesn't help.
Saying that the early story was about a Nazi superman was a bit of an exaggeration. The original story, "The Reign of the Superman," had a character who looked very similar to Lex Luthor using his super intelligence to wreak havoc over the world. The word "superman" itself was based on the idea of the Nazi supermen that Hitler constantly talked of, so it would have been clearer to have said that Superman himself was based on an earlier story that was based on the idea of Nazi supermen. The story itself wasn't about Nazi supermen.
J
I had already posted this in another, private forum that very few of you may be familiar with, so I'll post it again here for no reason whatsoever, other than the fact that I'd like to share. It's a long post, so if you don't feel like reading it, that's okay. Or if you don't feel like reading it 'cause you figure I should just take off, that's okay, too.
**********
I saw this movie last week, and it reeked. Spoilers may abound, so read this post at your own risk.
The story moves so slowly, so obviously, you kind of have to wonder what the point to it all is. Sure, Willis and Jackson want to find their place in the world. At first, you're more concerned with Willis' place, but eventually Jackson's takes just as much precedence, but it's all so sad and brooding that you can barely give a shit about either of them.
Willis plods along, constantly sad. He's so sad, he can't crack a smile or do anything on screen other than be sad. Willis doesn't exactly pull this off well, and it ends up looking like he's... overly sad, or something. Not just sad, but really fucking sad. Even sadder is the fact that (IMHO) Willis is a proficient actor. Too bad his proficiency is wasted here.
Jackson is fares a bit better, 'cause we can see some of the torment inside of him and we know he's a strong fella trapped inside of a fragile shell. When he freaks on the guy at the store near the beginning, we know he's not fucking around. Unfortunately and sadly, even someone as cool Samuel L. Jackson can't quite make comics as cool as they used to be. Exactly how many bad ass, dead serious comic book collectors are there like this in the world? It's like the whole premise to Duets, with its whole karaoke subculture thing, and it's ridiculous. The fat sarcastic guy comic guy on the Simpsons is more believable.
And then there's Haley Joel Osment II, who's the center of one of the most awkward scenes I've ever seen in a movie. The whole "shoot-dad-to-prove-superpowers" scene is supposed to be serious and somewhat poignant ends up being hilarious. The whole theatre was laughing at the absurdity.
The whole comic book thing sounds cool at first, until you realize that it most certainly isn't. And this is coming from a guy with a sizeable comic collection, who still likes to pick up Spawn and Superman and rumage through comic book stores for those crazy issues of World's Finest and the Justice League where Matter Eater Lad and the gang battle their sons or the Scarecrow gives everyone strange phobias. Somehow, you're supposed to seriously believe that Jackson might be on to something, that comic book superheroes are based on a hint of fact. Well, they aren't, they're based on a character created by a Canadian and his cousin from Chicago, a guy named Superman. Superman didn't have any basis in reality other than a hair's breadth kinship to an early story Joe Siegel did on Nazi supermen, which didn't exist in the first place.
Also packing on the absurdity is that Willis never realized he's never been hurt or sick before, despite the fact that he was completely uninjured in a disasterous car accident. Didn't he find it odd that he's (theoretically) never cut himself shaving? When he trained for football back in high school, did he never realize just how much he could benchpress? Wasn't there any personal contests with his teammates over such trivial things as weight lifting records, simply because it's the kind of thing that guys do? Or illness? Mono? Chicken pox? Anything? How the hell does it take 35 years to figure that out, especially with the help of a guy who collects comic books of all things? Of course, I've taken to a little conjecture here, but it seems pretty reasonable to me.
Absurdity aside, the picture itself is meant to be atmospheric, moody and mystical. Well, that's all fine and dandy, if it didn't come off so poorly. We follow Willis around all day, watching him eat cereal and shit, hoping Lex Luthor or the Joker are about to show up, but instead, we get to watch him read newspapers. Everything is dark for some reason, probably to add to the mood, but I ask you -- what fucking mood are we supposed to be feeling? The sadness of Willis? The mystical feeling of him being unbreakable? It's sad enough that he plays the part as a zombie, isn't that enough? No, apparently it isn't, 'cause everything has to be black and atmospheric to the point of being obvious. Yes, he's fucking sad. Let's make everything dark to make it sadder. We get the point.
The ending itself is probably the most obvious and dull of all time. Since I gave full warning of spoilers, don't blame me if you're still reading and didn't see it yet, 'cause here it is: Willis' direct opposite is his arch nemesis. Christ Almighty, what a fucking surprise. In between the constant deluge of sadness and the eating of cereal, we get some comic book insight, like this gem of wisdom -- comic book superheroes have exact opposites as mortal enemies. No shit. Superman, a man with a million superpowers and incredibly static and perfect hair, had Luthor, a man without any superpowers and no hair. Batman had the Joker, a very serious guy (except in the camporamic 60's) versus a guy who can't stop joking around. Even "modern" superheroes are just as bound to this rule -- Spawn, a lieutenant in Hell's army, has an angel as a predator.
So of course we have to wait through 99% of the movie to find out something we knew from the beginning -- Jackson is Willis' arch enemy. Wow. Blow my fucking mind. Jackson spends his entire life looking for Willis, who he just happens to find in his own backyard out of a global population of 6 billion, just so he can feel at ease with himself in his own insane, comic book loving, arch-nemesis way. And after spending his entire life looking, what do we get? A made-for-TV ending that feels more like an episode of Dragnet than a dramtic ending to a serious comic book superhero movie. (If there is such a thing. X-men and the original Tim Burton Batman probably come closest.)
I mean, I could almost hear the Dragnet theme with the guy reaming out the convictions at the end. I have witnessed some anti-climatic endings in my day, and this one is easily near the top of the list. What's the point of finding an arch-nemesis if you're not going to do some city-destroying battle or something? They shake hands and Willis puts him in jail. At least the Joker went mano-a-mano with Batman for a little while and Luthor fire nuclear missiles at Superman. Jackson just sits there and is sent to jail, with subtitles filling in the details. How exciting.
This movie could have been cool. I wish it had been. Instead, it's a half-hour episode of the Twilight Zone stretched entirely too long and without Rod Sterling.
Maybe this will become something more. It's not much now, but who knows, maybe this is only issue one, sad holographic glitter cover and all. But if it isn't a one-shot and goes further with additional stories, I hope to hell they aren't as boring and sad as this one. I did mention it was sad, right? Good.
For some reason, it feels like the medium for this movie was totally wrong. The medium is the message, you know. If this was an actual comic book, under the wise, wise hands of Neil Gaiman or Frank Miller, this could have really been something. But in the end, it comes off pretty piss poor in this on-screen Festival of Dark Sad Cereal Eating.
But that's just my opinion. I could be totally wrong. And no doubt somebody will tell me so, but that's okay. That's the whole point of opinions.
J
I'm sure Dr. Derek Smark, PhD., would disagree.
J
Let's not forget that Nintendo isn't exactly strapped for cash or expertise. They might be a bit impoverished compared to the entire Sony corperation, but they're by no means poor. Last I heard, they had something like $15 billion in the bank, so they can afford some major marketing and absorb a few hits before they need to really make money back.
Besides, they still have Shigeru Miyamoto and a truckload of mascots. Mario, Zelda and (ugh) Pokemon aren't going to be seen on the PS2 any time soon, and they can all sell machines like crazy.
According to the interviews I've read with some of the Nintendo head honchos, they've learned their lessons from the N64's lack of a decent storage medium and its kiddie focus. The Gamecube should fare well.
J
The whole reason they didn't work with the N64 was mostly because of the lack of a decent storage medium. The N64 carts are tiny and seriously compared to, say, the Playstation's CDs, hence the switch.
It also had something to do with a sort of falling out with Nintendo themselves. I remember reading about the production troubles with the Nintendo/Square team up on Super Mario RPG, and I guess the tension it created, combined with Nintendo's adherence to the cartridge medium, solidified Square's move to the PSX. The fact that Sony shoved money down their pants didn't hurt.
There's been talk of Square developing for the Xbox, so anything is possible. If the system is solid, why wouldn't they want to make games for it? The storage question is practically a non-issue (unless Nintendo still insists on using its crazy licensing and production practices, as the Gamecube does use a proprietary format for the games).
I can see them making Gamecube games. But that's just my take.
J
To really get your motor running, ign just released some movies and stuff from the GameBoy Advance in action. Check it out:
http://pocket.ign.com/news/28336.html
http://pocket.ign.com/news/28384.html
Interestingly enough, one of the demos shown is the basis for a GBA Doom game. While not really completed, the photos shown from the Doom port use an actual wad from one of the original Doom games. I don't recognize the level, but I only really played Doom 2 and the shareware release and didn't do much with the other versions.
The system certainly looks cool (both the Gamecube and the GBA). I don't really mind the lack of a DVD if it means more features built into the system itself. Besides, by the time it comes out, I'll probably already have either a PS2 or a real DVD player. I've been without a DVD player for a month now and it sucks.
J
If you've played 2 players a lot, then yes, add the select.
J
Again, I'll show my Nintendo and video game geekdom by informing everyone that the code for Street Fighter 2 on the SNES to let two players use the same characters was:
Down R Up L Y B
and you input it when the "CAPCOM" logo is on screen at the beginning. It also worked on a few other Street Fighter games on the SNES, like on SF2T where it gave you additional speed levels.
J
Sadly (?), I remember this code, too. And you nailed it. After the Mike Tyson license ran its course, Nintendo re-released Punch Out! without the Mike Tyson endorsement. The final boxer in the game was changed to a lame "Mr. Dream," who was basically Tyson with a skin color change and a different head.
Fuck I was a Nintendo geek.
J
I don't think there is a code for that game, but (and I doubt too many of you remember this one) EGM once ran a code that let you use Simon Belmont from the Castlevania games in lieu of a ninja turtle. The code was hopelessly complex, and I remember spending soooo fucking long trying to get Simon to beat up Foot Soldiers.
Of course, being the naieve kid I was, I never stopped to realize what month it was. Every April, EGM pulls an April Fool's joke on its readers. The year before it was Sheng Long in Street Fighter 2. Even the damn name on the submission was something like Fuld Ya Gen or something. The pictures looked real, dammit!
The next month they revealed, to the Nation's shock, that no, you could not use Simon Belmont in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the NES. A lot of people lost it on EGM's head at the time for printing the damn code, but it was pretty funny, even if I cried myself to sleep each night for a week wishing I could use Simon Belmont from Castlevania in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the NES.
J
- Life Force on the NES at the title screen for 30 ships
- Gradius III for the SNES, which dun blows you up when you pause
- Operation C for the Gameboy at the title screen for level select
- Gyruss for the NES at the title screen for 30 ships, although you have to enter it backwards (and Gyruss was released by Ultra, a subsidiary of Konami or something to that effect)
- Legend of the Mystical Ninja for the SNES. Actually, you couldn't enter the code, but if you talked to somebody in the game, they mention the code as a bit of Konami history heritage
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time on the SNES. At the # of players selection screen with the second controller, it gave you 10 lives and a stage select
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project on the NES. At the title screen, it gives you access to an options screen
- Tendrils for the Playstation's Net Yarouze. I'll admit, I never heard this one before, but I found it on Google and it's pretty funny. Look it up yourself.
- There's also a band evidently called Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA Start. I think they're from Ohio or something.
I'm sure there's a few more games to use The Code on, but I can't remember any more of them. I'm surprised I could remember those ones. But that's what you get for trying to substitute real life for Nintendo's version of it.Damn you Nintendo. Damn you.
J
But when this sort of thing happens to Intel, it usually involves many thousands of chips, like that whole deal with the FDIV flaw from way back when.
J
Macross (or Robotech as I believe it was called after Americanization) kicked arse. I remember watching it every day after school back in, like, grade 6 or something.
It was like Dallas in space, only with bigger robots than the original Dallas and no J.R. Ewing.
J