Flick Picks 24: Meridian

Hello Again, Streakers! Boog here, with part two of a four part review series, focusing on horror film company Full Moon Entertainment. From 2006, we go back to 1990, and one of Full Moon's first feature films, Meridian. Also called Kiss of the Beast. Warning: The trailer link, while not showing any naughty bits, still features nudity, as the film has a good amount of nudity in it. Also, SPOILERS! Now, I must say, as someone who has seen a few Full Moon features, I will admit that there is only one of the four films I'm reviewing for this series that I have seen previously (Demonic Toys), and that one I watched once about 6 years ago. This film, is far better than most Full Moon pictures, as it has somewhat decent acting talent, a great locale, and some decent behind the camera work, especially in the music department. However, this also one of the deplorable films I have ever had the displeasure of watching. Seriously. This film, based on one scene, made me want to actually hurt something. Then, this film had the balls to try and make that scene a freaking plot point.

Flick Picks 23: Evil Bong

Also, This is a lie. Chong has 10 minutes on screen, tops.

WARNING: The following review contains references to drugs, drug paraphernalia, and drug use. Potentially NSFW. Got that? Good.
Hello, Streakers! Boog here, having taken nearly a week to get my shit together again(sorry!), bringing you another Flick Pick, the first in a series of four, that, all things being kosher and awesome, will conclude with a retrospective on the man behind the films, and his myriad of companies required to get them funded (I know of about six, I think, at the time of writing this article.).  Now, on to the SPOILERS! The first film I'm reviewing this week, as evidenced by the DVD ad beside me, is 2006's Charles Band's Evil Bong. Yeah, the director's name is actually part of the title. That should clue you in. Also, that trailer is the nicest one I could find, but still features scantily clad women. You have been warned. "But it has Tommy Chong on the cover! Holding a chainsaw! And the rest of the title is Evil Bong! It's obviously dumb, so just sit back and enjoy!" You might say. But then the opening credits start, with "visual effects" that look like they were thrown together by a five year old using a back alley copy of Photoshop 2. The song playing over it is actually pretty good, though, and proper, considering the film doesn't even try to say it's a horror film. It actually wants to market itself as a comedy, but the problem here is, it's not, really.

Games You Should Know About... XBOX Live Indie Games 3: Dream Warriors

This just in: Thursday is the new Wednesday.  We now return you to your irregularly scheduled blogram.

A couple of video game classics are celebrating a birthday, this August.  The Super Nintendo turned 20 this week and Metroid turned 25 earlier in the month.  You know, so many damn games and systems came out 20-25 years ago.  Then again, a lot of games also came out 30 years ago, so I've got my work cut out for me.

This week, though, we're donning the scuba gear and hazmat suits again.  It's time to go back for another spelunking mission into the hellhole of XBOX Live Indie games.  I've brought two new games up to the surface, plus I'll be revisiting two games that I've mentioned before.  As always, these games have that classic video game feel that I love.

Wizard World Chicago

Yes, I know it's Thursday and I was supposed to post yesterday.  Better late than never.

So, a bunch of us went to Wizard World Chicago, which is a comic book convention in one of the biggest cities of the Midwest (or, at least, in its suburbs).  We all had fun and have fully recovered from our four day excursion.  So, what did we see and do?  Do tell, Anacronus, do tell.

First off, let me say that Wizard World Chicago was both bigger and smaller than the usual convention I attend.  What I mean by that is while there was plenty in the way of quality, the quantity was severely restricted.  Let me elaborate on that: quality-wise, there were lots of celebrities from the realms of comic books, fantasy art, television, webcomics, even pro wrestling, as well as a lot of dealers selling a plethora of items (for way too much, I might add).  However, the convention was only held in four rooms - that's right, four rooms.  Granted, one of the rooms was huge, but the other three were much smaller, in comparison.  The other thing that was small was actual convention time.  I'm used to conventions that open on Friday and close on Sunday - a continuous three day event.  This convention closed every night, early, no less.  I can understand the dealer room needing to close at a decent hour, but that kind of puts a damper on things when almost everything was happening in the dealer room.  Just about everything was happening at the dealer room.  We were kind of left entertaining ourselves almost every night.  There were a couple of things to do after the dealer room closed, but those usually let out around 9 or 10 p.m., so we, more often than not, just went to bed early.

Despite this, we did get to meet some cool people.  I got autographs from the stars of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (a show as old as I am).  It was great talking to Gil Gerard (he's just as glib and smooth talking as he was in the show - I mean that in a good way), but I totally embarrassed myself in front of Erin Gray (my apologies, Ms. Gray, for being a socially awkward moron).

On Friday, my wife and I were dressed like Luigi and Princess Daisy.  I left my felt mustache at home and one of the booths in the artist alley was giving out these paper mustaches attached to wooden tongue depressors.  So I picked up one of those.  When a lot of people took our pictures, they thought it was awesome when I "pulled out my mustache."  I imagine that booth got a lot of attention, because of that.  Also, Felicia Day told my wife that her costume was really cute.  Yeah, Felicia Day, no foolin'.

My wife and I also got to meet Steve Bryant, who is the artist and creator of the comic Athena Voltaire, which the eponymous character is this pulp heroine who has amazing adventures fighting Nazis, vampires, and esoteric societies.  She's a heroic woman who doesn't have to resort to the common trope of T&A, which my wife found refreshing.  Steve was a really nice guy and even signed both trade paperbacks that my wife bought from him.  If you like pulp action with a touch of supernatural, check out the Eisner nominated webcomic here and, if you are aching for more, go buy the graphic novel "Flight of the Falcon" and a TPB of the collected webcomics here (just scroll down to see them).  Steve's also finishing a third TPB, "Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess," which, hopefully, will be coming out soon.

My wife and her friends also spent a lot of time (and money) at the Interrobang Studios booth.  She bought some art cards with the characters from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.  The group also commissioned four drawings from them.  Needless to say, I think they made some new friends.

On top of the celebrity autographs, dealer tables, and artist's alley, the main room had a gaming area.  Gaming storefront Troll & Toad was running it and it featured a couple of games, such as the Castle Ravenloft board game for D&D, the Back to the Future card game (I talked about that one, before), and this interesting board game called Chaostle.

The other thing worthy of mention was this movie called Unicorn City, which was shown three out of the four days of the convention (it was one of the very few things to do during the convention at night).  It's about this guy who creates a sort of fantasy-rpg-LARP-camp-thing in order to get a job with an rpg publisher.  It's an extremely funny movie.  While a lot of its humor is based on role-playing games, I think anyone would get a lot of laughs out of this movie.  It actually won top prize at this year's Gen Con film festival.  Check out their website, like them on Facebook, do whatever it takes to make this move available in your town, then go see it.

So, that's Wizard World Chicago, in a nutshell.  We had fun, but I don't know if we would go back next year.  Surprisingly, we're all talking about going back to Anime Iowa next year.  That's not exactly set in stone, but we'd have to have a real good reason to go back to Chicago for next year's con.

Terribly sorry

Hello streakers. Boog here, with an update on myself. Like Anacronus, I had my own internet-less period, of about a month and a half. I just got it back last week, and have been putting things together for a good string of posts to make up for my lack of writing up to this point. While being without internet, I rediscovered a company I love for horrible films, and it's Lord and Master, Charles Band. I'm talking of Full Moon Pictures, the company behind the Puppet Master films. I'll do a proper retrospective on the company itself later this week, on Saturday, and every other day this week, I'll do a Full Moon Picture review, starting tomorrow with Charles Band's Evil Bong,a movie that has a bong, some evil, and Tommy Chong. If you don't who that is, go Google Cheech & Chong, right now. I'll be doing some of their movies early next year, as part of a planned 'Stoner Comedy' theme month. Oh, and no convention news for me, as my new job at the largest liquor store in my town has left no time to go anywhere for them. Until tomorrow, Streakers.

We're Back!

Okay, sorry for the impromptu, summer hiatus. But it ends now! We're back from the convention, Anacronus no longer will be the only one posting on this blog. Thank god one of us had the sense to do so.

We'll probably have a lot of posts about the con coming up, mostly reviews about awesome stuff we found, or awesome cosplayers we saw, etc.

Oh and for the most part we're getting rid of our post on a certain day schedule. We'll try not to overwhelm you with a bunch of posts on one day, but it was just to restricting for some of our members.

So I'll see you soon.
Thanks for sticking around.

It's Convention Time!

First off, taking a week off when you write weekly features for a blog only makes it harder to get back in the habit.  I doubt anyone will read this post (does anyone read any of my posts, anyway?), but I need to write something, or I'll never get back into it.

So, tomorrow, I leave for Wizard World Chicago, aka Chicago Comic Con, which is the first big convention I've been to in a while.  I guess I've been going to conventions for the past 10-12 years, so I'll recollect what memories I have of the conventions I've gone to.

My first convention was a tiny ass fantasy/sci-fi con in Louisville, KY.  I used to work at a comic book and gaming store, so I sometimes got the "privilege" of going to cons with the boss.  Let me tell you, you don't get to do very much when you are a dealer except sell shit.  Sure, I got to play a bunch of Diablo in the gaming room and I watched Princess Mononoke for the first time (a low quality fansub copy, before the Disney release), but that was it.  In hindsight, that convention kinda sucked, but it was my first one and I still remember it.  I found out that the convention died the next year - no big loss, really.

My second convention was more exciting.  I got to go to the Mecca of gaming conventions, Gen Con.  Right now, Gen Con takes place in Indianapolis (in fact, it happened last weekend), but I went back when Gen Con was at MECCA (Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena) in beautiful Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The boss took me and the girl I was dating (we both worked there) up there.  During the day, we peddled crap, but we did get a chance to actually partake a little in the convention this time around.  I purchased a metric buttload of AniMayhem cards (a card game that I may discuss in the future), got roped into playing the Spellfire card game (which I will never discuss, because it sucks), went to the Safe House (a fun, spy themed restaurant and bar -- if you're ever in Milwaukee, try it), ate at an excellent German restaurant, got to meet some writers and game designers, etc.  All in all, I had a good time, there.  It's a shame I haven't been back there since (more so that it's not in Milwaukee, anymore).  One year, I'll head up to Indianapolis with a few of my rpg buddies and experience Gen Con again.

After Gen Con, I didn't get to go on many conventions for work.  The boss left me at the home store while he went out for convention season.  My next convention wouldn't happen until I met my wife and we started dating.  As everyone was interested in anime, we decided to try a little convention, Anime Iowa, which wasn't that bad of a drive from St. Louis.  We've been going there for years, though a lot of us feel we've outgrown the convention and it's just not as fun for us, anymore.

We did go to one big anime convention, A-Kon in Dallas.  While I did enjoy the bigger production of a larger con (hell, they had arcade games), the two day drive didn't suit me.  On top of that, I will never stay in Muskogee, OK again (unless it was that decent hotel that gave us a room for $20 and had the Golden Axe cabinet).

So, that's about the breadth of my con experience.  I know, it's not much.  I wish I had the time and money to attend more conventions (I usually have one or the other, not both).  As far as Wizard World Chicago is concerned, I'm probably going to end up finding a couple of panels to go to and wishing I had more money in the dealer room (as it stands, I have none).  There are some celebs showing up that are of interest to me, but I'll probably just walk by their table, since I can't afford an autograph.  Maybe I'll have pictures to show -- we'll see.

Man, being poor sucks.

I know this post is a bit whiny, but I'm tired of writing it and you're not going to read it, so what do I care?

Um, experiencing technical difficulties...

So, for the past week, I have been acting under "radio silence" (aka: my internet was shut off until some kind Samaritan friend helped me and the Mrs. out -- thank you).  As it stands, I didn't think of anything to write for today.  In fact, I haven't been doing anything but playing Fallout 3 (I've had it for two years, but never got very far until recently).  So, consider this my week off.  I'll get back into it next Wednesday.  Sorry.

Forgotten Worlds - Galaga Turns 30 (Part 4)

(This post is going to be video heavy, so I hope you guys watch them.)

Last time, I looked at the sequels to Galaga, which is a sequel to Galaxian.  By that logic, it would make sense that Gaplus and Galaga '88 are sequels to Galaxian, as well.  To some people, they are, but there actually was another arcade game that can be considered a direct sequel: Galaxian 3 (which would mean that Galaga would be "Galaxian 2").  Though there really wasn't much of a story to these games to warrant sequels.  After all, the only plot we get from Galaxian is "We are the Galaxians.  Mission: Destroy aliens."  So it's hard to tell how the games flow into each other.

That changed with Galaxian 3 (which has the subtitle Project Dragoon).  While you could only fill out a few pages with the plot, the game does tell the story of a United Galaxy Space Force gunship known as the Dragoon.  It is called out into space to prevent this race of mechanized aliens from destroying Earth with the planet shattering Cannon Seed.  The game used a combination of a traditional arcade board and laserdisc players, similar to some of the laserdisc games of the 1980s.  The laserdisc players provided the backgrounds while the arcade boards made the on screen enemies and other effects, such as explosions or your targeting reticle.

Instead of piloting the Dragoon, players are gunners that aim the ship's turrets at the alien armada that awaits them.  The interesting thing about this game is that it was made for large groups.  In its initial incarnation, in 1990, Galaxian 3 was actually a theme park attraction that had its own building.  The first one, the GH-28 model, actually seated up to 28 people!  Imagine a 28 player video game that wasn't online.  How insane is that?  Only two GH-28 models were ever made, but Namco also created a GM-16 model, which housed, you guessed it, 16 players at once.  While the GH-28 was used in big conventions, such as Osaka's Expo '90, the GM-16 models were installed in Namco's Wonder Eggs amusement parks.  Both models have a similar design: all the "technical stuff" was at the center of a circular room.  The consoles where the players sat ringed around it with the players facing outward.  The game was projected on the outer wall and divided in half (the screen was broken up by the entrance and exit on opposite ends of the room.

 Here's a diagram of the GH-28 model.

The "pilot" and "co-pilot" are the staff that operate the ride.  I say ride because, at least for the GH-28, the central area was actually a platform that had a hydraulic system.  This allowed the platform to rock back and forth while the game played, giving the feeling of the Dragoon listing as it took damage.  From what I've seen, it doesn't look like the GM-16 had this hydraulic system, so that's one of the few differences.  If you look at this promotional video, you'll see the GH-28 in action (as well as other Namco attractions, such as a ride based on the arcade game Tower of Druaga).

(By the way, if you want to find these theme park versions of Galaxian 3, don't bother.  They were all shut down at the turn of the century.)

After creating these attractions for theme parks, Namco was interested in creating a version of this game for game centers (which is what they call arcades in Japan).  Of course, they would have to scale down the number of people who could play to fit the game in smaller buildings.  Namco worked on designing the arcade version, but, for some reason, scrapped the project.  However, something did come out of that research, but it wasn't Galaxian 3.  Compare these two videos: the first one is footage from the arcade version of Galaxian 3 (you don't have to watch the whole thing -- just skip to the middle of the video).



The second video is footage from another Namco arcade game that came out in 1991: Starblade.



If you notice they look a lot alike, it's because Starblade was the remnants of their project to turn Galaxian 3 into a one player arcade game.  My guess is that they felt that Galaxian 3 needed to be a multiplayer game -- one player wouldn't have the same effect.  So they changed the name and released it into arcades.  I actually remember playing Starblade.  The sit down cockpit with a concave mirror display made it feel like you were surrounded.  I also remember the strobe light right above the player's head.  Each time you got hit, it would flash.  Heaven help you if your ship was about to blow up, because that strobe would go nuts on you.  You know those warnings about how certain video games can induce seizures?  This was definitely one of those games.  Anyway, Starblade gets an honorable mention -- it's not really considered part of the Galaxian series, but it is a distant cousin to Galaxian 3.

After a few more years, Namco finally revealed the fruits of their labors.  In 1994, a six player version of Galaxian 3 arrived in arcades, known as the Theater 6 system.  While it definitely was diminished from the GH-28 and GM-16 models, it was still a behemoth.  The "cockpit" was practically the size of a large bathroom.

I could probably set up a sleeping bag

and, theoretically, live in there.

Six players sit, side-by-side, in front of a huge projection screen.  Other than that, its almost the same thing as the GM-16.  Later on, Namco made another game using the Theater 6 system: Attack of the Zolgear, which was the sequel to Galaxian 3.  Sadly, I've never seen one of these in person.  I have heard that some arcades re-purposed the Theater 6 for other games, but I doubt that I will ever find an original Galaxian 3 in the US.

Both Galaxian 3 and Starblade made their way to the original Playstation in 1996, but only Starblade (renamed Starblade Alpha, with an enhanced graphics version) made its way to the States.  Meanwhile the Playstation version of Galaga 3 (again, not available for US Playstations) only has four player support, but adds a new sequel, The Rising of Gorub.

And so ends my Galaga retrospective -- 30 years of classic gaming and still going strong.  If you ever happen to pass by any of these games in an arcade, bowling alley, or neglected corner of a movie theater, drop a quarter and give them some love.

Until next time, keep your scores high and the Earth free from alien bugs.

(Special thanks to the forums at dragonslairfans.com, especially user DarthNuno, who compiled a lot of information involving Galaxian 3.  Images and videos on this post are courtesy of him.)

Forgotten Worlds - Galaga Turns 30 (Part 3)

Given the runaway success of Galaga, Namco wanted to see if they could make lightning strike twice.  There have been a few sequels, not to mention remakes and arrange versions, but none of them seemed to capture the gaming public quite like Galaga.  This isn't to say that they aren't enjoyable, so don't discount them so easily.

In 1984, Namco updated the formula started with Galaxian further with Gaplus.  This time, Gaplus added loads more new features than its predecessors: faster action, power-ups, collecting parts to get a 1-up, secret "easter eggs," and the ability to move your ship up and down (instead of just left and right).  One of the power-ups you can get from shooting the "Queen" Gaplus (similar to the "Boss" Galaga) is the capture beam (again, similar to the "Boss" Galaga -- the poor guy).  Getting the capture beam allows you to capture dive-bombing Gaplus and use them for extra firepower.  You would think that this makes the game too easy, but, in later levels, it's really hard to survive without some Gapluses (Gapli?) backing you up.  The "Challenging Stages" have changed, too.  Instead of trying to shoot a bunch of enemies that swoops by, you have to juggle them by continuously shooting them.  Each time you hit one, the game slowly starts to spell out a word.  Complete the word and you get a bonus (all of this should make sense in the video below, even if you don't speak Japanese).



Despite coming from a pedigree of great shooters, Gaplus wasn't a big hit.  It was renamed Galaga 3 because some people thought the game strayed too far from Galaga to be recognized as a sequel.  Even so, the video game crash of 1983 sealed this game's fate.  While this game is not as well recognized as others in the series, you can still find this game, especially if you have a Nintendo Wii.  It can be found on Namco Museum Remix or available for the Virtual Console for $6.

That makes no sense.  Where's Galaga 2?

 Three years later, Namco tried again with Galaga '88 (yes, that means it was released in 1987).  This time, the gameplay didn't stray too far from the original Galaga -- gone were all of the features of Gaplus.  Instead, they significantly improved the graphics and sound.  The only added feature to Galaga '88 was the ability to travel to higher dimensions.  Higher dimensions have different looking enemies with increasing difficulty, but reaching them nets you bonus points.

Even though Galaga '88 was better received than Gaplus, less units of the arcade game were made, so it wasn't as widespread.  There are only two ways to play this game (with the exception of the Galaga 30th Anniversary Collection for the iPhone, which I don't own), on the Namco Museum 50th Anniversary collection for last-gen consoles or on the Wii's Virtual Console.

In 1995, there was a compilation arcade cabinet in Japan that included arrangement versions of Galaga, Xevious, and Mappy.  Galaga Arrangement is of note here because it's the only Galaga game to support two players simultaneously.  Other features, such as faster shooting and new rules for "Boss" Galagas, have been added, too.  This version of Galaga is only available in the US through Namco Museum for last-gen consoles.  I really don't know very much about this version, so I'll let this video speak for itself.



Well, those are the direct sequels to Galaga (not including that mediocre PS1 title, Galaga: Destination Earth -- Namco didn't even make that one).  There are a few more games dealing with Galaxian, though, but we'll save that for next time.

Until then, keep your scores high and the quarters flowing.