Patience is a virtue

Well, well. Look what showed up in the mail this weekend. It’s my physical copy of Amnesia Fortnight 2014 that I purchased back in…February of last year! Odd that it took so long to produce and deliver as the previous physical release of Amnesia Fortnight only took, I think, about four or five months. And earlier this year I was thinking of asking for a refund because I thought it was never going to come out. Glad I didn’t though as I wouldn’t have the physical copy of it in my hot little hands today. I love these documentaries that come from Double Fine. They show a lot of creativity that is condensed in a few weeks’ time to produce game ideas from employees at Double Fine.

In case you’re wondering, the physical copy includes three discs. One is labeled “The Prototypes,” disc two is labeled “The Documentary,” and disc three is labeled “Everything Else.” I’m curious to know what’s in the third disc. In addition, it comes with a redeem card. I’m not sure what that’s for, but I’ll find out soon enough. As for the prototypes, I wrote which ones won the contest back when the votes were tallied. You can check those out here.

I’m planning to do a write-up about AF 2014 like I did for the previous one, Amnesia Fortnight 2012. You can check the write-up I did for that one here.

Coming up for air

This week marks the end of an epic journey. I just finished playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP -- a game which holds a personal record for the longest time I’ve played with a game.

Before it, the longest game I’ve played was Resident Evil 4 where I clocked in 40 hours of gameplay. For Peace Walker, it’s just shy of 200 hours! Meowza!! I wasn’t expecting to play it for so long. When I played Portable Ops around a year ago it consumed 30 hours of my life, so I was expecting Peace Walker to be the same, if not shorter. For me, 30 hours is a lot since I play games that tend to hover around the 15 hour mark.

I played it off and on since February with many games played in between, but I’m glad I’m finally closing the book on Peace Walker so I can finally freakin’ just write about it (heck yeah this is going to be in my next release of game write-ups for the vg journal). Playing a game for that long for someone who plays relatively short games can be used as a measurement as to just how good this game is.

In addition, it’s interesting to note that I finished the game just shortly after the release of Metal Gear Solid 5, but I’m in no rush to start playing The Phantom Pain just yet. I just came up for air and I’ll need a long breather before I go back into the depths of another Kojima game.

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Part 4 of the Art of Pogs feature. This time with a second orange lava tube, but this time no slammers; all pogs.

Pondering possible counterfeit cookies

My brother went to Costco the other day and bought these snack I never seen before called Hello Panda. They are small treats that have a chocolate filling on the inside with a crisp cookie shell that’s roughly in the shape of a panda bear. Stencils of pandas are branded on the top of the cookie.

I knew I saw this snack before but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I kept saying Dunkaroos, but I knew that wasn’t right. I knew it was related to Australia, but I just kept thinking of kangaroos. Then I remembered: this is a straight rip off of Koala Yummies! That was a snack I ate so much of when I was in Elementary. It’s a shame it’s under a different branding (or if they just don’t sell them anymore; if that's the case, then whatever) but it tastes just as delicious as I remembered them, so even though it’s a knockoff, at least they got the taste right.

From the other side

From all the times I’ve gone to Dodger Stadium, I’ve always sat on the first base side. Maybe I’m just used to it, but it’s my preferred side to sit at. When I went there this weekend, this was the first time having seats at the back side on the right field.

It was a very odd place to sit at. First off, it was bleacher seating as opposed to having individual seats. Second, when someone needed to get up and leave, it was a very tight squeeze because the bleachers were so close to each other; this also made it difficult for tall people to sit as there was virtually no leg room. Third, you can see only one of the large screens. For us, we could barely see the one over the left field pavilion. We couldn’t see the one right above us because we were sitting under the wavy awning the stadium is known for. And lastly, where we were sitting was the absolute last spot for the sun to set. The game started at 6:00pm, but it didn’t set for us until around 7:30-ish. It didn’t help too that we went during one of the hottest weekends this year where we saw triple-digit weather.

But complaints and whining aside, fun was had by all. The right field pavilion has the benefit of having all-you-can-eat meals during the game. With each trip you can get: two Dodger dogs, popcorn, peanuts, nachos, and 32oz soft drinks. This is pretty generous and I didn’t know you get Dodger dogs (I thought they were going to be rinky-dink hot dogs) and such a large cup for sodas (I was thinking 12oz). I would say I probably ate 80 dollars’ worth of food. This was a great trade for cruddy not so good seating.

The back side of the pavilion is beautiful as well. It has a lot of gardens and lush landscaping throughout it. I thought about trying a dessert at the newly built Tommy Lasorda's Trattoria, but I’m still broke for the month due to my car maintenance from a few weeks back, so I decided to pass on it (plus I was stuffed from the all-you-can-eat meals).

When it came to the game, it was weird because I was paying attention to almost everything else but the game itself. I guess when you sit near the top from the first base side, there’s nothing to look at but the game. When at the pavilion, you can see all the weird stuff people are doing all around you, so my eyes tended to glance around at my surroundings and seeing things like ushers telling people to go back to their own seats, seeing a beach ball accidently drop into the bullpen, people acting crazy when the cameraman that shows the audience on the big screen when a batter walks up to the plate passes by.

I’m glad I tried the new viewpoint by sitting at the pavilion side of the park, but I think next time I’ll stick to my favorite first base side from now on. If you want to try it, the all-you-can-eat tickets are for the right field pavilion. I don’t know what the left side gets but maybe a weird look from an usher and them saying you picked the wrong side for the unlimited meals.

Musings from an armchair designer (aka: what if...)

The Apple Watch doesn’t seem be making a big of a splash as Apple originally thought. Makes sense though as the Apple Watch is a piece of hardware that is catching up to devices that already exist.

I have the opinion that creating a watch is something that Steve Jobs would have rejected because it’s a device that had already been brought to market by someone else and is just a little more than a glorified notification announcer that you've received a text or a call while your phone is in your pocket. Steve didn’t seem like the type of person to follow trends but to rather create them. In addition, he wouldn’t introduce a product to market that does not offer much value to someone’s everyday life.

If you look at Apple’s devices within the last fifteen years, they take something that already exists but then turn it in to something you have to buy because of its intuitive interface and sleek design. MP3 players already existed when Apple released the iPod, but Apple made it in to something worthwhile, having consumers turn their heads towards and wanting to buy it. Smart phones were always around, but Apple turned the industry on its head when they released the iPhone. Same thing too for the record industry when it came to purchasing music online with an a la carte style of selecting individual tracks as opposed to full albums.

When it comes to the iPad, this is a device that Microsoft had tried so hard to make popular for nearly a decade, desperately trying to sell it to the average home consumer before they stared backing away from it. It was around that time when Apple picked up the baton and ran all the way to the bank with it. How did they make it popular? By ditching the stylus and not using their desktop operating system, OS X, as the interface to work with. This was something Microsoft didn’t get. They tried to force users to interact with their desktop OS, Windows XP, but with a stylus. This led to a clunky session that never really felt right. Their Desktop operating systems are designed for mouse and keyboard and not a stylus that you poke at the screen with.

The only device that wasn’t bonkers popular would be Apple TV. It’s a great device that just wasn’t fully fleshed out. So what I’m saying is if Steve Jobs were still alive, I’m guessing he wouldn’t have went with the Apple Watch but instead would have improved on his weak product by creating the Apple TV, meaning a television designed by Apple.

Think about it. Apple takes great technology (like the digital music player, a smart phone, and a tablet) but then makes it simpler to use, sleek and fancy, and a must have device. What better device in the home to improve on than the television and all of its related services and devices. It’s great technology that everyone uses but doesn’t have that “perfect” user experience.

When it came to designing the iPhone, that was Apple taking a big risk as they never made a phone before. Not only did they have to make it work as a cell phone, but they were also allowing the real web to be accessed on it (not that fake Internet called Wireless Application Protocol that cell phones used to connect to). For the Apple television, they would only be taking a smaller risk because it would encapsulate a number of their existing products, but making it all work in just one device.

For the conference where this product would be introduced at, Apple would more than likely tease it first by showing a bullet list of items that this new device would give its users:

• A simpler channel viewing experience.
• A cleaner entertainment center.
• A greener way of life.

Ok, those examples could have been written better, but I’m not a writer. Deal with it.

The Apple television would first be…well, a TV. It would be a design based on their work with their Cinema Display and Thunderbolt Display line of monitors. Yes, I understand there are differences between televisions and computer monitors, but with a company as large as Apple, I don’t see it being too difficult to bridge the gap between designing one versus the other. Second it would include the Apple TV device, but built into the television. This would allow you to stream all of your iTunes content on your shiny new Apple television without the need of connecting a device to the TV. Adding the Apple TV directly to the set would go in direct competition with Samsung’s Smart TV. And if you just plan to stream movies and TV shows, this could a reason to remove the DVD or Blu-ray player from your entertainment center.

The next one, and the big one, would be Apple introducing their own TV menu guide for viewing cable channels. It would be a super slick looking interface that only Apple could bring to the table. Leaping over what traditional cable and satellite companies failed to achieve and what Microsoft couldn’t do when they tried to combine a television viewing experience for the Xbox One. In relation, Apple would taunt the idea of having a big, ugly looking cable box orbiting near your TV. The solution? To introduce the mainstream to cable cards. Just insert your credit card sized cable card into the slot on the back or side of your Apple television and voilà! No more ugly box to look at!

But what about my DVR capabilities, you ask? Well, Apple would answer this by including internal flash memory to the TV, allowing users to record hours of their favorite shows. And depending if you have a 3rd party DVR player, this is another device removed from your entertainment center.

The remote control would be something very simplistic. In Apple fashion, it would include the bare minimum buttons needed to navigate the menus, but they would tout using your iPhone as an alternative to navigating with your TV set.

So, the Apple television would be one device that combines: a TV, Apple TV, a cable box, a DVR, and a Blu-ray player. This would be a way to get rid of all the clutter in your living room and having a minimalistic way of looking at the TV area. The side benefit to this would be having no longer the need to have all those wires behind your TV. At the minimum, you will just need one power cable and one coax cable. The extra side benefit would be a green incentive as you have removed four devices from the living room, saving that much money from your power bill every month.

If people are really fed up with traditional television service from the big companies like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, or DIRECTV, then Apple can go in the same direction like Sony did with PlayStation Vue and create their own service that includes tiers of channel packages, or the kicker, a true a la carte channel selection, allowing you to pick only the cannels you want and nothing more.

I’m sure something like this would be pretty expensive, but I’m sure if you were to ask someone in 2004 that a cell phone from Apple would cost nearly 700 dollars (without a contract), they would do a spit take. Today, we’re used to the price. Also, everyone is now familiar with paying the “Apple tax” when buying an Apple product so they would expect it if this were a television that came from Apple.

To me, the television market is one that Steve Jobs would have tried to take over instead of jumping into the wearable technology market with the Apple Watch. But don’t get me wrong as I think the watch is a beautiful looking device that only Apple could have designed, but there’s just somethings about it that are goofy and dumb, like ability to send drawings between watches or sending your heart beat. Tying it to health and fitness is a great idea, but it would need at least two other great ideas like that to make it a worthwhile product. But in the end, with the unfortunate short life Steve Jobs had, it makes you wonder how many more devices would we have gotten from him? What other industries would he have tuned on their heads? Could it have gone as high as the automotive industry with an electric car from Apple? Unfortunately we’ll never know.

Image credit for the concept menu system

The meat and potatoes

Part 3 of the Art of Pogs feature: the blue lava tube.

A short story

Time sure does fly. I can’t believe it has already been two years since I got a copy of the DVD, The Best of International Rocketship. It’s a compilation of 12 animated short films from the animated film production company International Rocketship Limited. I originally found out about this DVD months after someone posted that he received a letter from the studio’s founder Marv Newland that he created a limited set for sale.

Figuring he was out of stock by the time I learned about the DVD, I sent Marv a letter to let him know how his shorts are a very memorable part of my childhood. No foolin’ too as his animated shorts were shown constantly on Nickelodeon in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Kids from this era probably know what I’m talking about.

If memory serves me correctly, his most played shorts on Nick were Sing Beast Sing, Dog Brain, and Waddles. These shorts normally ran after a show ended, but when there were still a few minutes remaining before the next show started. So instead a cramming more commercials for kids to watch, Nick had the cool sense to show instead neat animated shorts like from International Rocketship.

Although, not all shorts were from IRL and some were odd and probably not a good idea to show to kids. For example, The Killing of an Egg was one that spooked me out as a kid and I never understood the extreme amount of hate Mr. Johnson had towards the cat from The Cat Came Back.

Anyways, back to the letter. In addition to the shorts shown on Nick, I reminisced about going to an annual show called Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation and seeing a bunch of shorts from independent studios that were in the same vein that IRL did; to which some were created by people who used to work at IRL!

When I sent the letter, I wasn’t sure if he had anymore DVDs, but I was just happy to let him know what an impact his shorts had on my childhood and how the rocketship in the IRL logo is so memorable and etched into my brain. A few weeks later, and to my surprise, not only did he have a DVD to send my way but he also enclosed with it with a small handwritten note! So cool!

I also questioned him about seeing the rocketship logo on a short I saw back in 2000, but I couldn’t remember the name of it. He knew exactly what I was talking about and replied back with the answer: the short was called Deadly Deposits. Two years ago this short didn’t exist online, but now you can watch the entire thing on Canada’s National Film Board’s website.

The DVD itself contains 12 short with a total running time of about 53 minutes. All the shorts were digitally remastered from their original 35mm camera negatives and cover nearly a span of four decades, with a concentration during the 1980s. All the ones I mentioned earlier like Sing Beast Sing that were shown on Nick are all here too.

Some shorts were a big surprise to me. For example, I didn’t know Danny Antonucci (the creator of Ed, Edd n Eddy) worked with IRL to create a few films. One of his shorts called Lupo The Butcher was even picked to be used as a commercial for Converse during the ‘90s. I remember the commercial but I didn’t know/forgot it was something that came from the mind of Danny Antonucci.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers some of these shorts. Marv Newland and his production company sure did foster a lot of creativity and I’m sure had to have inspired many kids to go in animation and media in general. Some shows airing today may have been sparked from minds who grew up watching some of his short animated films. If you haven’t watched any films from IRL, then I recommend checking some of them out! Oh, and by the way, not all of the shorts from IRL are kid friendly. Keep this in mind when viewing some of them. You’ve been warned!

Balki, now in polygonal 3D

I just discovered the website where someone created a game based on the television show Perfect Strangers. All I can say is…amazing.

Get a lot for what you’ve got

Today is a day that starts with the letter ‘T’ and you know what that means, right? It’s taco niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!