Move it, Football head!

Hey Arnold! has been airing on TV recently and they’ve got me glued to the monitor watching it -- hook, line, and sinker.  The last time I watched that show was waaaay back when it originally aired.  I loved it back then, and still love it today.  I’ve actually come to appreciate the show even more now with an adult perspective.

First off, hats off to Jim Lang for an incredible soundtrack!  Mostly incorporating jazz, a genre of music you wouldn’t expect to fit well with a cartoon for kids, actually does really well and gives the show a unique vibe compared to other cartoons at the time when it aired.  Sure, there was a mix of tracks that heavily used synthesizers (and a lot of slide whistles), but those were pretty good, too.  Here’s a short list of songs I found online as samples for you to listen to.

• Ending Theme (Stompin-Jim Lang)
• Groove Remote (LockJaw)
• Operation Ruthless End
• Home Wit Jerome
• La Femme Helga
• Dangerous Lumber

But what I was really impressed with was the background art.  Since the show takes place in a large city, it primarily includes urban settings such as skyscrapers, streets, sidewalks, highways, and buildings of all shapes and architectural designs.  I don’t know the art style, but backgrounds look like they are colored in with pencils.  This is easily seen with the night sky or a rounded corner like a bus seat.  Check out the image below of what has to be the best background shot.

Well, actually it’s a still shot that is shown for about 5 seconds before the episode ends, but look at it!  The red building the image is focused on is the Sunset Arms boarding house where Arnold lives with his grandparents.  The drawing also includes the neighborhood so you can see the surrounding buildings, the highway, and Mr. Green’s butcher shop.  It’s a beautiful image because of the angle of the shot and it occurring at sunset.  Because of these, you get great light and shadowing contrasts and the angle allows you to see the rooftops, the overall shape of each building, and the street.  Lots of details are in this drawing and I love it!

The image could have been better, but I had to take the screenshot on my phone instead of my laptop as Apple has decided to prevent users from taking screenshots of the QuickTime player on the desktop when copyrighted materials are playing.  I understand taking precautions for ripping video, but to take a screenshot?  Come on!

In addition, the stories are well written and do include moral values.  But what I didn’t expect was the show to have a few endings that were a bit on the depressing side.  I guess it’s to show how a decision can have a bad result and you just have to live with the consequences of your actions, but hey that’s life, right?

The show is also jammed packed with characters, so the focus can be pointed at different groups like the residence in the boarding house or someone at Arnold’s school.  This keeps the show fresh with scenarios so every episode is different and never feels the same as another episode.  In fact, Hey Arnold! contains 100 episodes, and to me, every episode is great.  Craig Bartlett created an incredible show and kudos to Nickelodeon for greenlighting it.

Page padding

Check it out!  For your convenience, I’ve created a link to the homepage for my games journal writings.  So instead of searching the blog timeline for each post, you can instead click this handy link on the right-hand side of the homepage to see a listing of all the entries for this feature.  It’s a bit bare now, but I’m planning to add more to it in the coming days.  Hopefully in a few months from now this feature will be full of games that it becomes as a sort of entertaining and useful resource of info regarding the games listed there.

The Guero UMD

Back in 2005 when the PSP was debuting, there was a lot of potential for the device in terms of content that Sony was demonstrating.  One example was the idea of having supplemented or alternative materials for a music album.  So when a band or music artist were to release their latest album, not only would you be able to buy a copy of the CD or download a copy of it, but there would also be a UMD that included not only all of the tracks of the album, but also bonus tracks and remixes, music videos, and behind the scenes content.  Think of it like an enhanced CD on steroids.

This was something I was actually excited for because not only would I obsess over the latest album from a group I liked, but I would also scan the internet and music video channels for everything related to it.  So having something like this released on the same date as the album for a portable device that played high quality audio and videos (for 2005), this was a no brainer: I would have to buy these dumb little UMD supplements.  But alas, this idea never really took off as they advertised, but there were a few that did come out.  Heck, I didn’t even know it actually existed as a product that was placed on store shelves until a few weeks ago when I was looking at the Wikipedia page that lists all of movies released for the UMD format.

Some were close to that vision of an all-in-one media extravaganza that supplements an album, but only one that I saw actually did it: the UMD for Guero.

That’s right.  Beck’s 2005 studio album Guero not only got a CD release, but also a UMD and DVD drop, too.  Different from movies on the UMD format, the spine of the UMD labels Guero as “UMD Music Video” instead of “UMD Movie.”  I guess it’s to note that it’s more of a music album (or more related to the music industry) and less of a video (in regards to a theatrical film).  As subtle as that is, I kind of like the UMD labeling.  It lets you know there’s more to this UMD than just a 90 minute video.  The musical note on the UMD case probably also notes the difference as well when compared to a movie UMD that includes an icon of a strip of film.

The Guero UMD is jammed packed with goodies including not only the original songs from the CD, but also remixes, music videos, and a visual version of the tracks by D-Fuse.  Below is the track list with some notes I jotted for each one, including the bonus tracks.

1. "E-Pro" - This is the first track I heard from Guero when it was played on the radio.  Cool to find out it sampled "So What'cha Want" from the Beastie Boys.  Never knew that, but it's stupidly obvious once you're aware of it.

2. "Qué Onda Guero" – I’m guessing it’s based on Beck’s life growing up in East Los Angeles.  Someone perfectly described it as, “It's like an entire Mexican street festival compressed into under 4 minutes.”

3. "Girl" - Another radio hit.  Love the guitar in this one.

4. "Missing" - Holy crud is this a good song -- and probably my favorite from the album.  Has a lot of strings, making it a very orchestral sounding song.  The lyrics are lovely, too.

5. "Black Tambourine" - First time I heard this was from Lumines II.  I think it’s found on the game when you play on the hard difficulty level.

6. "Earthquake Weather" - You can definitely hear the Dust Brothers in this one (and that's a good thing).  Very reminiscent of Paul's Boutique.

7. "Hell Yes" - Dope track with a nice electronic beat.

8. "Broken Drum" - This is where the album hits a lull for me.  I know this song is kind of popular, but it doesn't really click for me.  A bit too slow without much punch to it, but RIP to Elliott Smith for whom this song is dedicated to.

9. "Scarecrow" - Nothing to note here.

10. "Go It Alone" - The bass (done by special guest Jack White) and hand claps are a nice touch here.

11. "Farewell Ride" - Really dig this one.  Has a real western tune to it with the guitar, harmonica, and a stomp-clap beat.

12. "Rental Car" - Nothing to say but "this is a great song."

13. "Emergency Exit" - Ghostly with a twang (hopefully this makes sense if you listen to it).

As noted earlier, the UMD also comes with extra tracks not found on the CD version of the US album; making the total number of tracks on this UMD to 20!  Some of these are bonus tracks for other regions like Japan or were included on the DVD.  Of them all, I like "Clap Hands" the most.
(EXTRA TRACKS)
14. "Send a Message to Her"
15. "Chain Reaction"
16. "Clap Hands"
17. "Girl" (Octet remix)
18. "Broken Drum" (Boards of Canada remix)
19. "Still Missing" (Röyksopp remix of "Missing")
20. "Fax Machine Anthem" (Dizzee Rascal remix of "Hell Yes")

For the music videos, here’s the list for them, too.  The first three are the official music vids, but the last four are based on remixes by DJs 8-Bit and Paza Rahm.  The remixes are very chiptuned, which I think was very new in 2005, making people in their late-teens and early-twenties lose their minds.  It is a shame though that the official music video for “Hell Yes” was not included.  This is a glaring omission in my opinion as that was a pretty rad music video with those little QRIO robots dancing around on stage.  But I guess it wasn’t out yet when this UMD was released.

“E-Pro” - official
“Girl” - official
“Black Tambourine” - official
"Ghettochip Malfunction" (8-Bit remix of Hell Yes)
"Gameboy/Homeboy" (8-Bit remix of Qué Onda Guero)
"Bad Cartridge" (Paza Rahm remix of E-Pro)
"Bit Rate Variations in B Flat" (Paza Rahm remix of Girl)

Each of the 13 tracks from the CD release is accompanied by a visualizer.  This visualizer, created by D-Fuse, is different for each song so they are all unique.  Not much to say here, but they do move to the beat of the music.  They include a mix of stuff like abstract images, real photos, and video clips flying all around the screen; either quickly shown in a slideshow format or displayed in some artsy way.  My favorite one was for "Farewell Ride."  The rest were, I don’t know, well…let’s just say while I appreciated the effort put in for the visualizers, I would have preferred something else like a short video documenting the making of Guero or perhaps songs that were rejected and not included in the album.

UMD stuff aside, Beck’s Guero is a fantastic album and is as good as his 1996 album, Odelay.  Its tracks cover a wide range of genres like rock, electronic, hip hop, alternative, country/western, and…Mariachi!  It’s incredibly awesome that I have something that’s not only just a music album, but as something that celebrates an album in both an audio and visual form.  Kind of like an ultra-deluxe version of an album that would normally be released during its 10th anniversary, but instead getting it on the same date as when the album originally drops.  Hopefully there are a few more UMDs like this from other artists that I have still yet to discover, because if so, I’ll be snatching them up, too.

Los Doyers

It's been a while since I've been to a Dodgers game, but I finally broke my long-term absence with that yesterday when I returned to the stadium to see them battle the Rockies.  I had a good time and it was a fun evening had by all I went with.

We definitely got our moneys worth for our tickets as this game went into extra innings -- 12 to be exact!  But it was awesome to leave seeing the home team win the game.  Of course I had a traditional Dodger Dog, but later during the forth inning we stepped away from the game for a bit as my brother was looking to try the ridiculous Dodger Nacho Helmet.  This was a monolith snack that contained a grande sized nacho platter with all the fixin's placed into a 64oz Dodgers helmet.  This was a quest as this was only sold a few snack bars in the stadium.  We searched for a while but eventually found it; and you don't understand the size of this beast until you hold one in your hands.  Pepto-Bismol not included.

Prancing horses

OutRun 2

I wanna say the majority of arcades I visited in the ‘80s and the early ‘90s always had an OutRun arcade cabinet.  With this cabinet, three things always come to mind.  1) The cool ability to select the music you wanted to listen to as you raced.  2) The satisfying way the shifter “clunked” from the low gear to the high gear.  3) The way how the steering wheel you were gripping violently shook when you crashed your incredibly expensive car.  Twenty some-odd years later, there would be a sequel to this game called OutRun 2.  Now while I never played it at the arcades, I got to play it on the Xbox; where this port was successful in accomplishing 2 out of those 3 items above by replicating them, and improving on the 3rd by swapping it with another type of game mechanic.  Here’s a writeup about this fantastic sequel.

Bag + anime = bagime

There's a corner of a storage tub that’s full of interesting stuff I thought I threw away years ago.  One of which is this bag.

Yes, I know, it’s just a bag.  But man, what a bag!  I really dig the design of it.  I love color patter of black on orange.  The image is fantastic, too, but I don’t have a clue what series it’s from.  I guess you can take away my otaku cred because of that last sentence.

I believe I got this back in the year 2000 when anime was the hottest thing young America had seen.  What was in this bag, you ask.  Well, let me tell you it contained two glittery Dragon Ball Z stickers.  One of Goku and one with Vegeta, Trunks, and Goku.  You can give me back my otaku cred because of that last sentence.

The higher energy video game system

Christian Nutt over at Gamasutra wrote an awesome feature regarding the TurboGrafx-16.  It mainly covers the struggles NEC and Hudson had when pushing the console out to the US market.  It’s more like a documentary piece because Christian brought in and interviewed many people who worked on the TurboGrafx-16 project, so you get perspectives from all sides regarding the drama that surrounded the little console that could.

APB

When I go out to jog in the early morning, I’m always stalked by a vehicle.  No, not by a white paneled van with tinted windows or other stereotypical vehicles of sorts.  It’s a Pikachu car!

You know, those yellow VW Beetles that have Pikachu attributes like ears and a tail stuck to them with a vinyl sticker of the Pokémon logo stuck to the side doors that were used heavily to promote the franchise 15 years ago around the turn of the millennium.  Well, someone owns one near where I live and it’s always driving around early in the morning when I go out to jog.  Sad thing is this vehicle has lost its shine.  Its color is very dull and desperately needs a polish and some new vinyls.  I’ve never got a glimpse of the driver, but I believe is an aging Ash Ketchum; slowly stalking the area for unsuspecting victims to snag so he can continue his quest to “catch them all.”

If this blog is not updated in a while, this might be because I was captured and placed into a large Poké Ball.

Wicked realm

Evil Zone

A fighting game full of crazy made up words like Eretzvaju, I-Praseru, and Ihadurca.  More bizarre is the voice actor of Roy Campbell, placing his identifiable voice all over this game as both a character and narrator.  Adding to this is the voice actor of Duke Nukem, Jon St. John.  Even with all of this voice acting craziness, it’s a game still worthy of your attention.

Better late than never

OMG!  I was completely ignorant that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the US launch of the Dreamcast.

It was the console that did everything right, but still failed to get a firm grasp on the market.  Sure, there were a few factors that caused it to go down in less than two years from its US launch date on 9/9/1999, but it sure gave a lasting impact in the mind of gamers in that short amount of time when it was out on store shelves.

Originally acting like a home version of Sega’s own arcade games -- similar to when SNK made a home console (AES) of their arcade system (MVS)--, the Dreamcast would shortly grow its own legs by including an incredible library of unique and fun games developed by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party game studios.

I believe this was Sega’s shining years as they were, at the time, losing the race in the console battle during the Saturn years and were desperate to come out on top during the new console generation.  And as the old saying goes: desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sega of America would even go as far as to focus all their attention on the Dreamcast and ditch the Saturn a year before the Dreamcast’s scheduled release date; leaving Sega fans adrift without a console for months.  Sure, it was a jerk move, but it gave them time and money to invest in the Dreamcast’s marketing and games development.  It would also be a time when they would reorganize their internal development studios and create fantastic teams like Smilebit and United Game Artists.

Being a great emulator of their arcade games due in part of the Dreamcast being nearly the same as Sega’s arcade board Naomi, the ports were nearly identical to their arcade counterparts.  Some of these games included Crazy Taxi, The House of the Dead 2, Virtua Tennis, and 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker.  Close ally Capcom also built some of their arcade games on Naomi hardware, too; giving gamers incredible fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone, Capcom vs. SNK, and Project Justice.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Arcade games are great and all, but when it came to first and second party developers who built games exclusively for the Dreamcast, is when I believe Sega really brought the big guns in regard to creativity and style.  For example, to promote their online gaming services, ChuChu Rocket! had players connecting to each other via dial-up and trying to direct mice into rockets.  For music rhythm gamers, Space Channel 5 would be right up their alley with its upbeat and fast paced music.  And for people looking for something new, the ambitious adventure game Shenmue from creator Yu Suzuki and team AM2 should get their attention.  Other notable games include, but now limited to, Jet Grind Radio, Phantasy Star Online, Sega Marine Fishing, and Sonic Adventure.

Looking back, Sega during years 1999 and 2000 were probably at their peak in terms of high creativity output, and the Dreamcast was right in the middle of it all to act as a canvas for these artistic bunch of developers to place their ideas on to.  I am glad to see the gaming community always celebrating the Dreamcast every year in September to give it the praise it deserves.