It’s Dan’s Self-Indulgent Webpage 2.0
My local morning show recently had a shakeup. They’re taking audition CDs from the general public to find a replacement co-host.
What do I have to lose? I listen every day anyway, and the worst they can say is no. (Okay, they could mock me on the air…but I expect that.) My four-minute CD goes in the mail tomorrow.
Most of Saturday was spent wandering around the Tech Museum in San Jose, playing old-school pinball machines and video games. I go every year and I’ve raved about it before. This year was no exception; I saw a lot of stuff for the first time, and rediscovered some old favorites. Here’s the highlights.
There’s always something I’ve never seen before, and this year, it was a game called The Act. It was copyright 2006 but I’d never heard of it or seen it before; apparently it was canceled last year and this was a completed prototype. It was tucked in-between Dragon’s Lair II and Super Don Quixote in the laser corral, but it was a hard-disk-based interactive cartoon with a unique control mechanic. It was all about subtlety and timing — giving a girl a flower took precise skill with a glowing blue knob. Turn too fast to the right and the girl will be offended by your forwardness; back off to the left too much and she’ll lose interest and walk away. The game consisted of several scenes like this — I tried one where I had to keep my window-washing buddy on the right working while calming down our angry boss on the left. It was really a fresh, simple idea, and the kind of non-violent game anybody could play. It also looked great (ex-Disney folks did the animations) and, more importantly, starred a redhead.
It was really a shame that it did not come to market, but there were plenty of protos on display that suffered similar fates (though not all were as developed and slick as The Act).
This is a prototype called Motor Run, probably from Atari. It was an early polygon racer with old-timey open-wheel formula-style cars and a lot of drones on the track trying to wreck you. Very floaty physics. But the coolest thing was the sticker that noted that it was the only Motor Run machine in existence.
Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! was a classic. Nintendo’s Arm Wrestling was not. I can’t remember seeing one before but I tried it and it wasn’t too good.
Mad Alien was worse. Picture a Galaxian rip-off with rip-off Spy Hunter graphics. That’s right — it’s the game that asks the question “What if the Space Invaders could drive?” And the answer, of course, is that nobody cares.
Can you believe Kat said no without even finding out how much?
This was an amusing bit of mid-80s pinball nostalgia. The game screamed HEAVY! and METAL! at you, plus played wheedlie-deedlie guitar riffs every time you hit a bumper, drop target, rollover, or apparently just looked directly at the machine. It was awesome for 45 seconds. Then I wanted to punch fake Eddie Van Halen in the backglass.
But I would never try to punch Ted Nugent’s backglass. He’s armed.
I also entered the trivia contest, once again as a mercenary with two other random guys I’d met in the hallway — Matt, a fellow video guy, and Dan, a pinball expert. We made it to the finals, thanks to the Other Dan being able to hold his own on pinball. I saved our butt a few times on video and made some dumb mistakes (What was the last Vid Kids machine for Williams? I totally knew it was Blaster, but doubted myself and stupidly said Cruis’n USA) but ultimately, in a team-knockout structure, it came down to me having to answer pinball questions, and failing to do so. I was the team goat. But I got further this year than I did last year, and we were up against the defending champs.
And it paid for my first semester of college. Those were the days.
The Watchmen hype is heating up. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m an obsessive fan so this is a time of great hoopla. The trailer was released, the website has launched into something resembling a promotional destination, and it’s this week’s cover story of Entertainment Weekly. Most importantly, the old merch is starting to show up on eBay for stupid prices. (Ethan – the guy who mentored me into a life of Watchmen, the way vampires add new recruits to the family — owned that back in the day.)
Ethan noted that Alan Moore is now and forever unhappy about the movie but as a diehard fan, I like everything I’m seeing. The trailer shows that they used the comic as a storyboard for shooting — which is exactly what I think needed to happen. The fact that I could say the lines along with the trailer the first time I saw it says something. Zack Snyder is keeping it real, as the kids say. It may have flaws when it’s done but it will have been attempted in the proper spirit, so on some level, I think it already wins.
So other than the Who being a personal highlight, I liked the show this year. Many people said it felt like a wake — we were back in the LA Convention Center but occupied a much smaller space and there were fewer people. I spun that as “an intimate show where I didn’t have to elbow 12-year-old Gamestop clerks in the face to get 45 seconds of hands-on time with a game so I could write a 300-word preview.” They got rid of the fat. I don’t see that as a downside.
I saw a lot of games I really liked. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed looks great in motion; I’m really excited. I think the Wanted game could be great fun. Rock Band 2, well, rocked. I didn’t get to see Gears of War 2 or Lips but heard great things. And I simply do not want to play You’re In The Movies.
It was the first E3 in ages where I did not see a new Tony Hawk game. I think they’re finally giving it a short rest, which is good. How can we miss you if you won’t go away?
E3 is like homecoming. It’s the only time we get to see each other in person. Hell, I got to spend time with a writer I’ve been employing freelance for a year now. The funny thing is I saw a lot of people who I see at all the junkets but have never really been introduced to and could not call “friends.” Last year, one of them memorably asked me where the bus was picking us up; when I said I didn’t know, they said “Don’t you work for Microsoft PR?” After all, there had to be a reason I was always around.
I was in the EA booth, minding my own business, when a guy from Goldman Sachs stared at my badge and asked, “Hey, you’re a reviewer — tell me, how would you review these games?” I said, “None of them are finished; it would be unethical and irresponsible for me to even comment.” And I walked away. Is this really how investment banking works — asking total strangers at trade shows what they think without so much as introducing yourself? I don’t care if you tell people to buy EA and EA buys Take-Two and Take-Two buys really fancy cars and homes. The media is not your focus group. That said, if you want to hire me as a temporary consultant or an analyst, we can talk.
I was at E3 yesterday. I was supposed to leave on a late afternoon flight but I was implored by Jeff Casteneda to stay overnight and not miss the Rock Band 2 party. He just said that I could not miss it, particularly me. We’d talked about music at length when I was doing the Rock Band cover story so I know he knows my musical tastes. He was very emphatic. So I rearranged my flight for the next morning and planned to pull an all-nighter in the airport, during which I wrote most of a feature.
This was the ticket.
This was the club.
And this was the band.
You can’t really see them, but you’ve heard of them. It’s the Who.
Yes, THE Who.
Pete Townshend has been a huge guitar and songwriting influence on me for years but I had somehow never managed to get my ass to a Who concert. Seeing them in a 2,000-seat venue…unreal. I had great balcony seats in a small venue and got to enjoy the show with friends from Future. I don’t think they caught me welling up a few times.
It was worth staying up all night to make it happen, even though I suppose I could have gotten some sleep. I was in the mood to work so it was all good.
You may find photos of me singing or playing fake guitar in pre-show rounds of Rock Band 2, but know that they are all falsified in Photoshop and I would never do any of that in public.
Joss Whedon fans, unite! When there’s a strike, our hero writes a supervillain musical starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, then releases it for free. It will only be online for a limited time — all three parts will be posted by Friday, and then they all get taken down Sunday. Unless you buy them on iTunes. Which you should. Because it’s Joss Whedon.
Go, watch, and spread the word.
I threatened promised to share some of my early favorite iPhone apps and games, and so I shall:
Texas Hold’Em ($5)
A touchy-feely update of the awesome iPod poker game, this is so worth its asking price. Great AI, stunning presentation, and a functionally different view when you rotate the unit:
Shazam (Free)
What’s that song on the radio? Who does that cool cover I’m hearing in Chipotle? Fire up Shazam, let it listen to about 20 seconds of the song in question, and wait another 10. BAM — it shows you what the song is, who does it, what album it’s on, and a link to buy it on iTunes. Not just a little awesome. It’s not foolproof — I found quite a few obscure songs that it didn’t know, like game show themes (which did come out on CD!), and of course, indie stuff like albums my friends recorded weren’t represented in the Shazam database. But that seems like a question of when, and it actually works.
Scrabble ($10)
I’m a sucker for it in just about any form, so I bought it immediately. Not bad — I’m used to Scrabulous so picking up and dragging every letter was a little awkward, but the computer has multiple skill levels and the game lets you cheat a bit if you like. “Best Word” has the computer play up to four turns for you if you want it to. You can also shuffle the tiles by tipping the phone over at a 90-degree angle. Neat, but not as convenient as just touching the Shuffle button.
PhoneSaber (Free)
Does what you’d think: Makes lightsaber noises as you move your iPhone around. Move it fast, and it makes clashing noises. Kat has it too so we can have fake lightsaber battles. It makes us smile.
Aurora Feint (Free)
Probably the most advanced free game I’ve seen on the system so far. Remember Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League/Planet Puzzle League? It’s that with a touch interface, the ability to slide tiles around by tipping the phone in different directions, and an RPG structure to give it some context (I call this “pulling a Puzzle Quest“). Why is such a cool game free? Because it’s built on the classic model that made the guys from id into millionaires: Give away the first episode, and ask them to pay for the later ones. This is apparently the beginning of an MMO. An MMO for the iPhone. That’s a phrase I never thought I’d see, but okay. I’m having fun and I would be willing to buy the next step. Let’s see where this goes.
You can find all this fun stuff in the App Store within iTunes. Go get ‘em. (And if you’re wondering, take iPhone screens by holding the Sleep button and tapping the Home button. When the screen flashes white, you’ve done it right. Check your Camera Roll for a PNG of the screen.)
Yes, I was one of those people who got up early to get an iPhone this week. My contract with Verizon was up, my Razr was starting to die, and I resented having to hack it to do shit it should do in the first place — transfer files, homemade ringtones, copying off photos I’d taken, charge from my computer’s USB jacks, stuff that Verizon locked out. I was grateful for the hacking community that made all those things a reality for me, but I also had bad gadget lust when the iPhone came out.
Kat had it even worse, and as a freelancer she has a business reason to have a smartphone. It’s a miracle she lasted this long without one, but the plan for the last several months was to get the 3G iPhone — and when there was that false start a month ago, those plans became solid. Kat woke up (that is, didn’t really sleep anyway) at 4:30 to go get in line. I thought she was nuts; isn’t the iPhever over? No, she was 13th or 14th in line, sitting behind people who’d brought a camping mattress. I had to travel Friday on short notice but I wasn’t going to let that screw this up for her. I joined her in line at 7am and was stunned to find 50, then 100 people stretching around the AT&T store. She was right again — people were losing their minds and had gotten there as early as 10pm the night before. So, thanks to her forethought, we were both able to get 16GB black iPhones. (I almost got white. It’s going in a case anyway, who really cares?)
Due to authentication troubles, I had to take my trip without the iPhone in hand, but since it switched over my number while I was in the air, I wound up not having any phone at all in the trip. Doh. But when Kat picked me up…I gotta say, this thing was worth the hassle.
The Good:
The Bad:
Overall? The timing was right, I’m glad I waited, and I’m happy so far.
Of course, I haven’t actually gotten a phone call on the thing yet…
Blast yourself into the Fun Zone!
This is officially favorite voice-over job of all time. Also, I got to act all excited in my orange shirt.
All props to Dane, Dave, Jeremy, and the Qore team at Future. I was so happy they let me take part.