ckrtech

I am awake.

It is 1:18 AM.

What am I doing?

It is currently 28 degrees outside.

I don't want to have to wake up and work tomorrow. I suppose I could work, but I would like to skip the commute and the cold temperatures, please.

I am still debating re-buying Phoenix Wright for Wii when it comes out next week. Hmm. It would be nice to introduce Laura to it...maybe playing it via the Wii would be easier.

...okay so maybe not *directly*.



But how cool is it that the latest two-parter of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, with part two being my most favorite episode to date, contained the master of video game voice acting in a bit part? And how cool is it that this particular episode just happened to deliver some of the best character development in the series to this point for half the main characters?

Perhaps wherever Mr. Lowenthal goes, character development follows.

Hey everyone! (...all three of you)

ONE out of THREE people that read my blog made these awesome things for me a few weeks ago. May I present....video game sprites made out of yarn! (Most are about 4 1/2 inches in height). These are currently on my refrigerator.

Sprites are (left to right): Lander (The Guardian Legend), Alyssa (Heroine of The Guardian Legend), Minmei/Minmay of a Macross game (Robotech), Samus (Metroid), and a Metroid...from Metroid.

Thanks, Tony! I have narrowed my next set of sprite requests down to... about 1,000.

You know what doesn't really happen much anymore in the world of gaming? Physical notes, map making, graph paper, spell charts, etc. Most anything in a printed form is gone gone gone in the world of video games these days. Even manuals, while still printed and included with a game, are no longer really needed as most games are designed to either be extremely intuitive or include some sort of in-game tutorial. (Before ending this first paragraph, I should assure you that I in no way, shape, or form support the need to push gaming to digital downloads.)

I will on occasion load up an old retro game that demands the user take action outside of the game's virtual world. I loaded up the original Phantasy Star for the first time in 2005. I loved it. I had never played any of those games before, but the old school feeling sank right in. I had to make dungeon maps on paper, and I didn't mind one bit. Truth be told, I *did* go internet for the last dungeon as the pitfalls were just too cumbersome to have to deal with when map making. I have a few RPGs for the Commodore 64 I may start up soon, and they make need my map making skills.

All this in mind, I found myself taking all sorts of notes while playing Persona 4. I completed this game recently, and today I started to clean up around the gaming area. Ahh. There was my drafting board along with a small stack of notebook paper I used while playing the game. Personas, quests, fusion formulas, and all sorts of other game-specific information was scribbled down on there. Part of it was to stay organized. That's understandable. Why not just by a strategy guide? Well because see...I can get pretty anal when it comes to the line that separates strategy from cheating. I would much rather push through something with only my own brain (or someone else's at times) and my controller. So that's the other part. I want to do everything myself.

Anyway - I thought it would be fun to scan one of the sheets just to give you a more "earthy" example of some of my scribbles during gaming. I apologize for the handwriting - my writing is generally a lot better than this. That in mind, the page didn't turn out bad considering I didn't know how much space to leave.

This is the Persona sheet used to inventory the Personas I have obtained. I would use it as reference during battle and fusioning in order to see if I already owned the Persona yet or not. They are all classified by arcana type. I would write the name of the appropriate, associated person in parenthesis above the arcana when I established a new S-Link. Any of you that don't have all of the SLinks established may wish to look away from the sheet if you consider that information a spoiler. Otherwise...here is some insight into some of my note taking while gaming. I think my compendium completion was somewhere in the 80s when I completed the game. I guess my completionist attitude got dropped in favor of just finishing the game.

So I recently completed Persona 4 three times. Yes. The bad ending, the good ending, and the best or "true" ending have all been obtained. The game has been filed away on my bookshelf, and boy does that yellow ever stick out.

P4 was entertaining. I enjoyed being addicted to it. That said, I really need a break. I did manage to keep life going normally while carrying this RPG, but it was rare that I ever had time to truly relax. If I suddenly felt that I had some extra time, I was sitting on the couch and playing Persona 4. Seems everything clocked in inside the 80s. Total gameplay time was somewhere around 89 hours. My characters were all level 80 something. I feel about 80 years old, now. Life slips away when you play RPGs. What the heck? We are getting close to knocking out February 2009? Geez.

Street Fighter IV came out today. I was all over that thing like white on rice. You know what? It's awesome. You know what else? It's darn near impossible to play without a controller other than the stock PS3 gamepad. I thought about trying to fight with the guitar or drum set from rock band, but quickly decided against it. I would have picked up the official SFIV control pad, but Gamestop didn't have it yet. Maybe tomorrow if I have the time to go during lunch. Truth be told, I want that tournament edition stick. $150 is a lot, but it uses genuine arcade parts.

So the characters of Street Fighter IV have a new set of voice actors. Heck - some might be returning, but I was not paying much attention when the last SF game came out *10* years ago. I always play as Chun-Li in these things when I can. My secondary character is Ryu. Wow. I was really surprised to find out that Laura Bailey, voice of Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4, scored the role of Chun-Li. Wow. Talk about a segue. It's pretty much Rise yelling "spinning bird kick!" Kinda shocking at times, but I am usually in the heat of battle & getting my butt kicked as I scramble to get the PS3 gamepad to do what it is supposed to do.

I seriously wonder if I might spend the time "getting really good" at this game. I never really did that for fighting games, but I may have the patience for this one. They did a real bang-up job with SFIV, and the intro is INCREDIBLE when cranked up loud. It has to last like at least a full two minutes. Totally awesome in an artistic way. SFIV's theme is that of paint being slung onto canvas from a brush. Not buckets of paint or something uncoordinated like that, but slung from a brush in a very deliberate and Japanese way. Ahhh...you just have to see it.

Meanwhile, I shall immediately attempt to get a new controller as my left thumb hurts like you wouldn't believe.

Well one of my really good friends was in town this weekend. He lives out of state, but his family and in-laws live here. He picked up his Atari 7800 while at his parents, and then...well...his in-laws raided their attic and said "hey here - have this," and they gave him an Atari 7800, a bunch of 2600/7800 games, and some NES games. What does this mean? It means he turned right around and gave me the extra 7800, duplicate atari games & all the NES games.



Atari -
7800 Pro System
Circus Atari x 2
Choplifter 7800
Food Fight 7800
Pole Position 2 7800
Dig Dug 7800
Defender
Video Olympics
Asteroids
Missile Command

NES -
Zelda (reissue)
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Double Dragon
Adventure Island
Turtles 3 - The Manhattan Project
Duck Tales 2
Rescue Rangers 2
Disney Adventures
1943
Street Fighter 2010 The Final Fight
Baseball Simulator 1000
Super C
Bart vs. The Space Mutants

Got back in business this past weekend.

After applying the vinyl skin to the faceplate, the "spacer guide" I printed on my printer and taped to the back of the faceplate had deformed a little bit. This is because I had to use water to apply the decal. Had I known I was going to put a skin on the faceplate, I would have waited to apply the spacer guide.

While it was possible to spread it out and tape it back down, I figured I should just print a new one. I printed a new page, cut out the holes for the spacers and nuts, and superglued all of the various items to the back that are going to be required for holding the screen, controls, and back plate to the front of the case. That little metal strip you see in the picture is a thin strip of aluminum. I sawed this down to 25" in length. It will be used to create the "case wall" and be held to the front plate with superglue and epoxy. Can't remember the last time I used epoxy, but it has been a long LONG time. Whatever I used it on is probably still held together somewhere.

It will take a while to do the bending, gluing, epoxy work and a decent amount of time for the epoxy to fully cure after it has been applied. Not sure when I will get this done, but the next update should have some "3Dness" to it as the case will be quite literally taking shape from the bends and the gluing.

I finally - FINALLY - can give and update on the SNES portable and show a little bit of construction progress.

I completed (minus a tweak or two) the White LED screen mod. This was a fun little mod to do. As previously mentioned, I used white LEDs to replace the long bulb that used to light up the PSOne's LCD screen. This mod involved taking apart an LCD screen, replacing the bulbs, and putting it back together again. It was really neat getting to see the guts of an LCD screen and obtain a better understanding of how it worked. It was even better getting to put it together, fire it up and see that everything worked on the first try. (Victory! ...no bugs, please!)



There is one mod left to do to increase the brightness a bit. I have not decided if I want to do it yet. Excuse the crude photo above, by the way. I had to hook the screen back up to the PSOne chassis to see if it worked, and I quickly snapped the photo in the small work environment. The white LEDS are not as obvious when you view the screen at the proper angle.

In other news, I took a graphic to a print shop to have it printed on adhesive vinyl. I elected to do my own photoshop work using some official artwork from a certain SNES game, and create a full color decal for the front of the portable. While the printed version had some artifacting to it, I would say that it still turned out rather well.

Here is a partial teaser of the faceplate with the transfer tape still over the image. I'll do the full unveil at the end.

Don't know what it is of late, but I have been filling in some of the gaps in my console collecting. I generally go after the stuff I know I want, but lately there have been a few dice rolls. Along with the dice rolls are a few good deals, and the collector in me sings while the gamer in me says "what the heck??"

First on the list is the Atari XEGS. The wha? Maybe you will recognize it with a picture.



Atari released this system in the mid 1980s. I remember seeing their super long line of consoles around that time. Despite the video game crash of a few years prior, Atari had the 2600, 5200, 7800, and XEGS on the shelf at Toys R Us. To a kid like me, it would seem like Atari was still the leader in home consoles at the time. I mean think about it - they had 4 systems! The XEGS fizzled into oblivion with the rest of Atari as the 1980s came to an end, but it had some interesting games. It was essentially an Atari computer "in disguise." While the Atari 5200 was also an Atari computer in disguise, the XEGS was a bit more obvious as it even had a keyboard. It played software for the Atari 400/800/XL computers as well as software developed for it. I didn't really ever consider this a console to pick up (actually...I practically forgot about it!) until I played it at the Houston Area Arcade Expo a few weeks ago. I may blog about some of the games later (I don't have many yet), but I thought I would give it a brief mention here.

Meanwhile, another system arrived this morning. Emphasis on morning. I got a call from Fedex to confirm my address at around 8:15 this morning. As I had only been asleep for 4 hours, this was not appreciated. I will spare you the details about the rest of my day.

This new console was none other than a Philips CDI. Yes. *THAT* Philips CDI. The one that is considered among the worst of all time and even got some Zelda and Mario games. What? Nintendo games on another console? Yeah. Long story short on this one was that Nintendo elected to NOT have Philips develop a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. They did agree (a legal "sorry about that?") to allow Philips permission to use Nintendo characters in games for their system. We got Hotel Mario, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure. The short story on this was "they all sucked," but sometimes one man's trash is another man's treasure. I wasn't hoping for that sort of stretch, but I finally had the opportunity to fire up one of these games to judge it for myself.

Yeahhhhh. So it had an FMV intro. Before you start thinking "holy grail of FMV just like Squaresoft in the 90s," think of this:



Now I know that you have probably seen that before and maybe watched the intro on youtube, but it feels really weird getting to play a game right after watching the video. That particular screenshot is from Wand of Gamelon. The Angry Video Game Nerd recently did a review of this game. The video was about 12 minutes long, and just about everything he said was true. I'll give you a short opinion on this game and why it is bad.

Generally when someone says "bad game," what do you think causes it to be bad? Monotony? Lack of an atmosphere? Hard difficulty? "This game has been done before a million times over" syndrome? Wand of Gamelon is a bad game, but because of the last thing I think about - control and interface.

You play as Zelda, and it is a sidescroller. It is difficult to control Zelda, position her on screen, attack, or do just about anything. This is more frustrating to me because it *seems* like this game could be pretty cool even with the cheesy cutscenes and voice acting. Up is jump, Down and Button 2 brings up your inventory (what the ..??), and Down also goes through doors. OOoh. Ouch. What if you are standing in front of a door and need to access your inventory? Well...you're probably going to walk through the door.

This game *begs* for a control scheme like Zelda 2 - both in controller responsiveness as well as button functionality. Use a button for jump! Use a secondary button (i.e. select or start) for menus!



When you kill an enemy, you get rupees (or rubies as they are called in this game). Sounds traditional, right? Yeah...except you have to stab the things with your sword in order to pick them up. Can you imagine having enemies coming from both directions, battling, and then all these rubies in the way that you are trying to stab while more enemies are attacking? I've seen videos of this stuff, but playing it gave me a whole new indication of the terrible controls. It almost begs for a *remake* if anything just to simply change up the control scheme.

No way they distribute this on the Wii download service. Nintendo's ambition stops at the gimmick (Wii, balance board, Wiimote, virtual console) alone.

Still - I am probably going to (deep breath) play through this game and beat it just to be able to say "Yes, I have a Philips CDI. Yes, I have Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. AND Yes, I have played through and completed the game."

Major geek points for that one.

Alrighty. I need a cool enemy from Persona 3. Name your favorite. Maybe name one for which I can acquire relatively decent artwork. Need...good..monster.

...you may also have an idea of where this is going.

Persona 3's figure finally became available. Kotobukiya rereleased him. Thus, the goal to obtain 4 figures from the series is complete. Stick a fork in me, I am done. (Unless I change my mind and elect to pick up Metis and Elizabeth).



In other news - Worked on the portable SNES (still lacks a name. Guess I need to sit down and brainstorm) this weekend. I put the LCD screen back together. Everything fit into place, but I see some more metal I need to cut. I'll remove the metal shield, cut it, put it back on, and then begin to solder up some wires to complete the screen. I hope to do that sometime this week. If I get the screen work behind me, all I will have left is to print the front label (with a name) at a local print shop & I can hit the ground running. All other parts have been acquired.

Yoness to all.

I'll start with the most recent news.



I am not quite sure what percentage of my livejournal friends (cough...66%) are familiar with the software company Atlus, but they are apparently re-releasing Persona 2 for the original Sony Playstation. Persona 2 is a title I do not own, and it seems like this would be the best way to obtain it for my collection should it be an exact reprint of the original release. I would go so far as to say "gotta have the same copyright dates and all" and essentially be indistinguishable from the original release. It's the collector in me. I am a hypocrite though as there are too many "Greatest Hits" titles in my collection.

None of that really matters at the big rerelease was exclusive to amazon.com and is pretty much "gone now" according to the websites out there. I hit up Amazon and found used and new starting at like $65 or something.

Were these actual reprints? Were they simply unearthed copies of the games that were found in the New Mexico Desert? (Persona 2 is a far cry from Atari 2600 E.T., of course) Are there any secret copies to be had? Someone must know......Hmmm.

And in other news -
Ahhh yes. Let the games roll in. I have acquired a Panasonic 3DO game system. What a random gaming system to pick up! I bought it along with 20 games (mostly boxed and complete!) from a seller here in Texas. The seller bought it new, and he kept it in great shape. As a matter of fact, the original sales receipt is in there! Cost him about $510 for A 3DO and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo in 1995. ....wow. And I just gave him $60 for the exact same thing with 19 more games. (Many of these games priced at $69.99. He bought them at Babbage's). Actual picture of the haul:



Plenty of good ol' (or...bad ol' depending on how open-minded you are) FMV games in there. I plan on picking up a few specific games for this system and considering the collection "done" after they are acquired. There is no copy protection on the 3do, so it is easy to try before you buy. I will probably pick up the 3do versions of Flashback, Wing Commander, and Wing Commander III to name a few games.

$60. That's the first thing I think of when I hear someone mention a new game for one of these newfangled consoles. It's outrageous and ridiculous. Don't even get me started on the money I threw down to buy Rock Band 2 (and all the instruments...AGAIN) this past weekend.

Venting out of the way, let's get serious. (Not to be confused with "Let's get Dangerous" - a favorite line of Disney's Darkwing Duck. Okay. There is my Disney plug for this entry)



Mirror's Edge probably looks like a typical 3D FPS game. First person. Guns. General words that come to mind for me when I hear those terms are "boring" and "monotonous."

This game is different. It's about one thing - running. You run. You slide. You hit the bump, and take a dive. It's not Crocodile Mile, but there are times when it certainly feels like it.

Mirror's Edge stars a strong, female protagonist that does not need a body like Ivy Valentine. Her name is Faith, and she is a runner. The government has gone corrupt, and it is up to the runners to deliver messages in secret. Flying across rooftops, running through doors, dodging bullets and chasing people are the primary objectives of this game. You can disarm a bad guy and take their weapon, but it probably makes more sense to toss it aside (with the devoted triangle button) rather than start shooting up the place. The weapon is only going to slow you down. This isn't FPS - it is action-adventure.

One interesting aspect of this game is its storytelling. The time between chapters is usually told with cel-like animation. (Think about those Esurance commercials) The voice acting has been quite good, so far. The general talking scenes are pretty simple - nothing like Metal Gear Solid. Things are happening, and you need time to think. But you don't have the time - you have got to run.

Also shading away from most FPS games (granted, I am not really "up" on recent FPS games and story/character development), comes the cutscene interaction between Faith and the characters she encounters. The cutscenes in the middle of the chapters are done in the game's 3D engine. Towards the beginning of the game, Faith has dialog with her sister. The scene takes place from your own eyes. When Faith get a bit emotional, she looks away and walks around the room. When the two part ways, Faith gives her sister a hug.

Remember - all of this is happening in 1st person. It is really interesting to experience a narrative told from the main character's point of view. While I like the scenes that use the 2D animation, I have to wonder what the game would be like if it was exclusively told to the player's eyes for the entire game. I certainly hope to get some more emotional 1st person storytelling from Faith as the game continues. I believe I am starting Chapter 3 here soon.

There is a demo available on the Playstation Network. I recommend that you check it out if you get the opportunity.

I actually preordered this game from Gamestop. This means I got the little item that comes with it. This time, the item was actually pretty cool. It's a backpack "just like the one Faith wears in the game." Sweet. I am all about getting "props" from a video game. It's weird - replicas of things that never really existed in the real world.



What's next? Will the next Ace Attorney game come with Maya Fey's Magatama? What about the next Zelda game? The Master Sword? Will Final Fantasy XIII trump them all and come with a real live Chocobo? Only time will tell.

But back on topic - give the Mirror's Edge demo a try. The gameplay is pretty addicting.

Not a whole lot to report as far as actual construction progress is concerned, however it has been pretty tough getting all the parts I need! Home Depot and Lowes do not carry the types of screws (among other things) I need for this project. I hit up several other hardware places (Grainger, Northern Tool and Equipment) and didn't have any luck there.

After calling a local Ace Hardware and finding out he was closing early because "I have to go somewhere," I broke down and ordered screws off the internet. Yes. I bought screws on the internet. The bill was huge, totaling about $4.50 because I elected to buy a screw-sizing chart for an additional $1.50. So add shipping to that and...well shipping was 2X what I paid for screws.

Same story happened with Radio Shack - they didn't have everything either. Had to order stuff online for electronics as well. I fear what the total cost is of this project at this point, but the fun is putting it together.

SO! Actual *progress* to report. The screen I showed from earlier this year (for the PSOne) got a bit of a mod tonight. There is a thin light bulb (think super small, florescent-like tube bent around the entire screen) that had to be removed and replaced with 3 white LEDs. The reason for this is because the white LEDs use a lot less power than the fancy bulb, and will therefore allow extra power to be used for the SNES.



The bulb I removed is the square with the little plug on it. The white LED in the middle is a single example of the three bulbs I will place inside the "light box" of the LCD screen. I still have some hotgluing and wiring to do. Perhaps the completed screen will make more sense. I'll snap pictures of that, but probably not until I am done as the actual work is more important than the documentation.

So I have done some graphic work for the portable SNES (better to apply graphics earlier than later so the screen, buttons, etc aren't in the way).

Thing is...I don't really have a *name* for it. What should I name it? Should I name it? I thought about putting the official red letters on black background Super Nintendo logo on there, but I thought perhaps a name with a semi-logo at the top (in addition to the faceplate graphics I already made) would help round things out.

Thoughts?

All throughout our childhood, my sister and I had a fairly routine Halloween. Change out the costume from last year, hit the usual houses, get a lot of candy, come home, throw all the candy out in the floor in front of the TV and watch Disney's Halloween Treat.

Oh it was a treat alright. My sister recently reminded me of this because she planned to buy it on DVD, have me over, and just press play. Unfortunately, it does not exist on DVD. That being the case, she sent me a youtube link of one of our favorite shorts from that compilation. I will discuss it in detail shortly.

But first...a little on the show. Disney's Halloween Treat (or DHT for blogging purposes) was a collection of various could-be-Halloween-related-if-we-wanted-them-to-be Disney shorts from years past that were placed in a fairly long show (over an hour) and narrated by a live action (I am not kidding) Magic Mirror from Snow White. DHT used the shorts as well as clips from a few of the full length feature films as it highlighted some of the best villains (to that point in time). The show was created in the early 80s, and was first narrated by a talking jack-o-lantern. I was unaware of this until some internet research I did recently. I always though DHT was hosted by the magic mirror because that is what it was every year we watched it. One year, we even recorded it on VHS. That tape is somewhere at the parents place.....

Now for the short. My sister and I really loved the short "Donald and the Gorilla" from 1944. The basic premise was that a gorilla escapes from a zoo and just happens to show up at Donald's house...err..MANSION (it's huge!). The gorilla (named Ajax), Donald, and Donald's nephews create quite a show.

Looking back on this, I am amazed at the energy level! I mean I have always known that Disney was a genius, but sometimes it takes watching these things as an adult (and a guy that almost minored in telecommunications) to truly see how well his stuff comes together. I'll present the clip and then break down some of the major positives including my favorite part of the short.



1: First of all, color palette. The darker colors (a bit darker still with youtube) help set the mood. It's meant to be funny, but also spooky.
2: Get to the point storytelling. It opens, says a gorilla has escaped, and Donald immediately starts to have fun with Huey, Duey, and Louie.
3: At 1:30, Donald starts to read a book and just happens to have a huge sucker tucked into his uniform. How random is that?? But you know what? Who cares!? It adds to the humor of the scene.
4: When Donald gets scared after realizing he is sitting in the lap of the (fake) gorilla, he jumps up and "treads air" before running away. This was, in my opinion, a GREAT mechanism for both the Disney characters running away in any given scene as well as general comedic timing. Did Disney invent it? I don't know. Did Disney use it well? Yes.
5: Time: 2:09. One of my favorites related to running in place is the head staying in one place while the rest of the body is moving. Donald jumps out of the basket holding an umbrella, drops a "why you...!" on his nephews & keeps his head in place while his body runs all over the screen. Add the umbrella inverting itself when he starts to run, and you have great animation once again.
6: 2:25 - Donald's eyelids blink along with the music. Actions w/ music are common with Disney.
7: 3:53 - Donald has webbed feet but can still tiptoe.
8: 4:10 - Donald's tail forms a hand, confirms the gorilla, and gives him directions...the hand would come back into play later.
9: 4:34 - The chase scene! Listen to the music and watch the actions.
10: 4:50 Donald uses a ladder to divert the gorilla and THEN....
11: 5:03 starts running with the ladder! Haha! Again...head in place, body going crazy. Music kicks up even more...
12: 5:10 Favorite Part! The stilts and shoes! Funny on its own, and the music makes it better!

The rest is pretty good. Look at the pacing from that run with the ladder, slide down the table, shutting of the gorilla's mouth, and the "leaf ejection" as Donald tries to run the other way.

I could have said more, but this entry is already long. What a great short.

Due to a recent conversation that I considered an insult to my intelligence (long story), I have picked up the portable Super Nintendo project. This time, it is full steam ahead.

The primary thing that caused me to have trouble getting the ball rolling was the case. I knew it was going to be a problem because I hadn't done it before & didn't really consider it to be the fun part of the project. Most of my interest was in the electronics. Truth be told, the project as a whole is fun - Creating something almost from scratch that yields an awesome end product.

I ended up starting by purchasing a small kit from this one website. They essentially cut the front and back plates of the case for you out of plastic. Along with a few misc cutouts, it is up to me to do the rest - create the risers, buy the screws, bend the aluminum to make the walls of the case, and go crazy with the epoxy, superglue, and hacksaw.



I suppose I can trade off working on the guts and the case for a little while. Completing the case will probably help motivate me to work on the guts. I bought quite a few supplies tonight, and I still have some other major parts to buy tomorrow. And heck - the parts I have purchased are all for the case. So considering I paid money for the SNES, PSX screen, case cutouts (more than the SNES and PSX screen combined!), and various case parts...I would say I am financially committed to this project and am ready to see it through!

As was the reason for creating this livejournal profile, I will blog progress on the project as time goes by.

To give you an idea of the scale, here is a picture of the front of the case with Starfox (which I played and beat for the first time just an hour ago, believe it or not):



Starfox's theme (Stage 1 - Corneria) somehow became the anthem of the project as I was doing research for it earlier this year.

The Playstation 2 is cool?
The Playstation 2 was cool.
...The Playstation 2 is still cool.

As we have our gaming foot firmly planted into the current generation of video game consoles, the previous generation is on its way out the door. Gamecube and Xbox were dropped almost immediately after their successors hit the market. Sure there was a bit of overlap, but it didn't take long for them to fade. I suppose I could write another entry about how the Gamecube should never have been made, but I will leave that alone for now.

So what about Sony and the PS2? It continued to get a decent amount of games for a while. Some of them were games that had to be localized after an already "late in the life of the PS2" Japanese release. Other games were just flat out new games. Even now, Guitar Hero and Rock Band will see their latest entries hit the PS2 - an obviously solid platform for a system that has been entering homes in the United States for *8* years a week from this journal entry.

But new games and consoles overshadow that "old stuff." People buy new games, play them, and trade them in. I collect them. I buy them and keep them. I'm sentimental like that. Gamestop is a business and therefore has to play to the masses. You see OLD used games on the shelves in their store these days! Games like....Burnout Paradise, GTA4, and Metal Gear Solid 4. I could build a tree house out of the MGS4 boxes at the Gamestop near me. I guess the game was terrible and didn't sell well. Yeah either that or people went through it and traded it in to move to the next popular game.

So enter me. I am the guy that walks into Gamestop to either pick up a pre-ordered game or go straight to the used bins. I'm the guy that wants a really good price on an old PS2 game...so long as it still has the proper case available and not the generic, cartoon network reject artwork case.

I picked up a few games recently. I picked up Oni for PS2. It was made by bungie. I believe it was about $3.99. I also picked up Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Wow. Never owned a Gran Turismo game. Played a bit of GT2 for PS1. Neat...but it took dedication & wasn't mine. Now I have my own and it cost me....$3.85 after tax.

More games continue to trickle down the price list. There were a few other games I wanted to buy, but they were all "really expensive" at prices like $9.99. I will probably reconsider, but greed would dictate I wait even longer and pounce when the time comes.

Check your Gamestops.

Wow.

As my Blu-ray collection continues to grow, I occasionally find myself picking up things I already own. I double-dipped for Justice League Season 1, Narnia, and just last week - Sleeping Beauty.

Yes. That's right. I'm a guy that owns Disney stuff. Yes, I want to own their movies. No, I didn't buy them because a girl told me to do so.

With that out of the way, this release is INCREDIBLE! There are times when you want to just freeze frame the thing, take a picture and hang it on your wall. The film was ...well I will let this write-up from blu-ray.com do some explanation.

Disney had a web conference where Sara Duran-Singer (Senior VP of Post Production) explained restoring Sleeping Beauty from the original negative. I'll put it in simpler terms after the quote.

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Sleeping Beauty was shot in the Sequential Technicolor process; fine grained, high quality black and white film is exposed through 3 successive filters of pure red, green, and blue to create a 3-frame perfect, unfading record of the colors. Using a photo optical process, these 3 color registers are then recombined to make one image. "What's really great about this is not only is the image sharp, but because it's shot on black and white film stock, it doesn't have any fading issues that we get in this current color negative," Duran- Singer explains. Because of this successive exposure process, three times the amount of footage - the entire film in cyan, yellow, and magenta respectively - had to be scrutinized and cleaned up accordingly. Scanned in at a 4K resolution, the film is restored and saved as a digital file - a new generation of negative, in some respects.
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So basically they have separate images of this film for the three different colors that are combined to make the picture. What does this translate to? FREAKIN' AWESOME COLORS!

Sleeping Beauty was the last film Disney did where the animators sketches were inked by hand. This process was dropped for 101 Dalmatians because of a new technology called "Xerography." (Once upon a time in the 80s and before, photocopying a document was called "Xeroxing") This is why, in my opinion, 101 Dalmatians looks...kinda ugly.

Anyway - Buy Sleeping Beauty on Blu-Ray! Don't have a blu-ray player yet? No problem. The DVD edition is included with the blu-ray version.

...Maleficent = best villain ever, btw.

Alter continues to impress me. I dropped by the post office this morning and finally secured Aegis. She looks really good and looks even better when placed next to Mitsuru. I don't really know where to begin. Alter nailed the pose, paint, and sculpt with this one. Her facial expression - especially the eyes - illustrate that she knows exactly what she is doing.

It is too bad Alter's next P3 character is Elizabeth. Not that I have anything against Elizabeth, but it seems like Yukari would have been the next obvious choice.

In any case, here is a snap of Aegis.