Category: Stream of Consciousness

Messiah Controllers

2013-03-27, 4:24 pm
Categories: Games, Stream of Consciousness

So what am I playing Zelda 2 with?

I'm using a Messiah wireless NES controller.

Remember Messiah? They put out the Generation NEX NES clone a few years back. It was a much-hyped, slick-looking system back in 2005, and promised built-in wireless, dual-mono audio output, and full compatibility with both NES and Famicom games and accessories.

And then it came out and turned out to be running the same damn crummy third-rate NES-on-a-chip as every other Chinese clone.

And so Messiah faded into obscurity.

Which is a pity, because despite the disappointing guts of the NEX, Messiah made some damn solid controllers. And while the NEX had a built-in wireless receiver, you can also use them on a legit NES with a dongle. (The gamepads, anyway; from what I understand the joystick doesn't work with a real NES. Don't know, never got one.)

The controller works well. It's solid and has a good weight to it; the buttons have a good response even if they're a little clicky.

The disc-shaped D-pad is a little weird but I haven't had any real trouble using it to play Zelda 2 -- I have a bitch of a time fighting Ironknuckles, but I don't think that's the controller's fault. I can see it being a problem on something that requires more four-direction precision, though.

It really is a pretty neat device and well worth the $50 Amazon's charging for a pair. (I got the Limited Edition set, which I see is now going for $175 used. I'm tempted to snatch up that $50 set and sell my limited set, but I do like the metal lunchbox.)

I'm kinda disappointed I never got the SNES set, because you can't get those anymore, but I'm seeing good reviews on the SuperRetro wireless SNES controllers. And they have good old-fashioned plus-sign D-pads, too, not discs.

Kind of a moot point, really; the state of SNES emulation and the now-standard design of its controller have meant I haven't hooked mine up in years.

Zelda 2: The One That Fucks Up Alphabetized Lists

2013-03-26, 12:10 pm
Categories: Games, Stream of Consciousness

Yep, got the bug from Jeremy Parish's excellent Anatomy of Zelda 2 series. I've started replaying Zelda 2.

Jeremy commented on the general unfairness of the game and said that he's using savestates. I'm using authentic NES hardware, but I do have a Game Genie.

When I played through the game as a kid, I only used one Game Genie cheat code: infinite lives. It's amazing how much it does for the game's balance to eliminate the outmoded concept of a limited number of lives (a holdover from the arcade age, of course). Frankly it's odd, in hindsight, that Zelda 2 played the old "3 lives and then Game Over" meme, given that the original game didn't. I mean, sure, 2's a side-scrolling platformer, but Metroid was too, and it didn't bother with giving you a limited number of lives either.

So I resolved to take a crack at Zelda 2 on my NES, once again cheating a bit against its unfair difficulty with the use of the infinite lives code.

And when I went to look it up, I found, via Game Winners, two more codes that weren't in the official Game Genie book and which serve to mitigate the game's lopsided leveling system. So here are the three codes I'm using:

Link has unlimited lives SZKGKXVK
Do not lose all experience when leveling SZVOUNSE
Do not lose experience when hit by enemies SXESIKSE

I think that, on the whole, those three codes go a long way to balancing out the difficulty of Zelda 2 and allowing its strengths to shine. It is a solid game.

Keeping Busy

2013-03-22, 10:58 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

Kept busy enough today. Filled out more paperwork, got a drug test, submitted a voided check for direct deposit, had a brief and unexpected phone conversation with a prospective employer.

Spent most of the evening just kicking back with my brother; he's heading back to Maui in a few days. Here is a picture of the two of us at my wedding.

Groom Thad and Best Man Hannibal

Don't see enough of the kid anymore; it's been about three years since the last time. Will try and make it out to Maui again one of these days once I've got some money saved up. Which is why I'm filling out paperwork and peeing in cups.

Also, while my cold is getting better, my allergies were just awful today. Yeah, I get it, it's spring now.

North Bumfuck

2013-03-21, 4:24 pm
Categories: Comics, Stream of Consciousness, Work

Well, I guess I did all right at at least one of those interviews, because I've got a job offer.

It's the one up at the damn northern border of Phoenix -- God only knows why I keep getting jobs way up there. It's a pay increase from my last gig, which will hopefully be enough to cover the extra wear and tear that a 70-mile daily round-trip will wreak on my car.

Still, pretty happy about it. Will be happier if I get one of the other offers, but still, this is a step up from my last job and a big step up from unemployment.

And it looks like it's good leverage. I met with the other agency today and it looks like they're pushing to get me more money and fast-track me into the opening. Fingers crossed, but the important thing is I've got a job either way.

Also while I was waiting in the lobby at the agency I saw the news that Quantum and Woody is coming back.

A job and new Quantum and Woody? This is, like, the third-best day I've had all month.

2 interviews down, 1 scheduled.

2013-03-20, 10:28 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

I've never been very good at gauging my performance at interviews. 'Cept maybe that one in 2011 where they misheard me and thought I called myself a slacker. I was pretty sure that one wasn't going anywhere.

Anyway, had two today. Neither the ideal company but either I'd be happy to take, under the circumstances. We'll see how it goes.

The first one was way up north. I managed to drive past my old apartment complex and two of my old places of business. There was a traffic accident on the freeway, so I had to take a detour, but I'd left early enough that I still got there 20 minutes early. Which was good, because I wound up waiting at the gate for 10 minutes while the security guard confirmed I was really there for an interview.

After that I still had enough time to stop by Ray's for a couple of slices of pizza -- provided I was willing to put up with the certainty that I would hit traffic on the freeway if I took half an hour to eat.

The 17 was actually surprisingly breezy, but I ran into trouble as soon as I got on the 10.

And when I say as soon as I got on the 10 I mean it. Like, no sooner had I merged onto the on-ramp when someone in the next lane decided it would be a great goddamn idea to merge directly into the space that my vehicle was presently occupying.

I made it out without a scratch and with only a little bit of leaning on my horn. And still managed to make the next interview a half-hour early.

I've got another tomorrow, sort of. It's not an interview per se, it's a meeting with a rep at a new temp agency to prep for an interview.

We'll see how that one goes, too.

Q2

2013-03-19, 7:55 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, Work

I'm doing my usual app stuff this week. But I'm getting a lot more calls back than I'm used to. First quarter's ending; people are hiring.

I've got two interviews tomorrow, some two hours and 30 miles apart.

I wish I were going into them healthier. I'm still getting over this damn head cold, with the added bonus of nasty side effects from the antibiotics I'm taking for it. I'm not at the top of my game, and that's frustrating -- nothing like losing out on a job because they called you up for an interview when you had a cold.

But what the hell, I'll go in and do my best, same as any other interview. Maybe it'll go somewhere and maybe it won't -- but at least at the moment there's a window where I'm in demand, and hopefully it'll last a few weeks, anyway.

Bowties are Cool

2013-03-18, 10:42 am
Categories: Stream of Consciousness

Here's the video I used to learn to tie a bowtie for my wedding:

When that didn't quite do it for me, I also tried tutorials at Beau Ties Ltd and about.com.

In the end I guess I did a passable job but never really got the knack. The last step is the hardest, the part where you pull the second bow through the loop behind the first one.

Here are some pictures of my dad helping me with my bowtie. (He does not know how to tie bowties either.)

Before
The Fixin'
After

I'll probably get some more wedding photos in here at some point. Seems like I should probably post some with the bride in them.

Books I'm Dropping

2013-03-15, 5:37 pm
Categories: Comics, Stream of Consciousness

I observed, last month, that while I think Scott Snyder is an immensely talented writer and really gets Batman, his two major arcs up to this point really haven't been for me.

I decided to give him one more shot, that #18 would be make-or-break for me.

Well, the good news is, #18 really is pretty great. It brings back Harper Row, the main character from issue #7, my single favorite issue of the new series. #18 isn't quite as good as that one (among other things it lacks Becky Cloonan -- though Alex Maleev's work is fantastic and obviously Andy Kubert is no slouch), but it's a good solid continuation of Harper's story, and gives us a good street-level view of Batman freaking the fuck out following Damian's death.

There's fan speculation at this point that Harper is going to become the new Robin. That would certainly fit what happens in this story, and I wouldn't mind it -- but I'd much rather she stay Just a Regular Person. I've said before, often, that my favorite superhero stories are the man-on-the-street ones -- Ditko's Just a Guy Named Joe, Harmon and Jones's To Serve and Protect, Busiek and Ross's Marvels, Busiek and Anderson (and Ross)'s Astro City. I love supporting characters in the Bat-verse like Leslie Tompkins, or the guy who fixes up the Batmobile, or the lady who builds the supervillains' lairs. I would love for Harper to stay another one of those -- an ordinary person leading a relatively ordinary life that occasionally and extraordinarily intersects with Batman's. That, for me, is her ideal role.

But if she becomes Robin, I'd be down with that too.

(Course, I also won't rule out Damian coming back. This is comics. And it's not like Morrison's never done the "bring everybody back to life in his last issue" trick before.)

But now for the bad news:

If Batman #18 was the book that convinced me to stick with the Snyder/Capullo run, the news that #21-#31 are going to retell the origin story is probably going to convince me not to.

Origin Stories Forever!
Image via CollegeHumor.
This fucking thing was on the inside cover of every DC comic a few months ago.
Apparently without any intention of irony.

I am not spending forty-four dollars reading Batman's fucking origin story again.

Like every sentient human being in the galaxy, I already know Batman's origin story. I've seen it. I've seen the Finger/Kane/Moldoff version. I've seen the Burton version. I've seen the Timm/Burnett/Gilroy/Derek/Kirkland version. I've seen the Miller/Mazzucchelli version. I've seen the Nolan version. I've seen the Tucker/Jelenic/Vietti/Beechen version. I've seen Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and various Kuberts take a crack at it. I've seen the Liu/Montgomery adaptation of the Miller/Mazzucchelli version. I haven't seen the Johns/Frank version. And I've got zero damn interest in the Snyder/Capullo version.

Look. I love Batman. And I love his origin story. It's a classic bit of comics history, it's one of the key elements to his story, and it's one of the reasons he's endured as an American icon for lo these 74 years.

But enough is e-goddamn-nough. Give it a rest. Tell some new stories.

Finger, Kane, and Moldoff told Batman's origin in a page and a half. There is no good damn reason to stretch it out to eleven issues at four bucks a pop.

I'm sick of the fucking relaunches, rehashes, reboots, retcons, repetition, and various other words beginning with "re".

I'm the biggest damn Batman fan I know. And I'm sick of this crap.

I'll probably read #19 and #20. And I'll probably stick with Inc as long as Morrison's writing, and maybe Detective as long as Layman's writing. But there's every chance I'll be a non-Batman reader before the year is out.

Also, I think I'm done with Animal Man. I finished the latest issue, did some reflecting, realized I genuinely did not give a fuck about anything that had happened in this issue or any issue since Travel Foreman left the series, shrugged, and decided that's another three bucks a month I could stand to spend on something else instead. Like air conditioning. It's supposed to be 94 degrees today. It is the middle of March.

This is really a pity, as Animal Man was absolutely the best comic out of the New 52. But that Rotworld shit went on way past its shelf life.

And here we hit the central problem, I think, with comics marketing for the past couple of decades: things like crossovers and reboots do sell -- but their popularity is unsustainable. Today's sales through cheap gimmicks come at the expense of tomorrow's sales through loyalty, goodwill, and repeat business.

The good news is, there's so much great shit out there right now from publishers who aren't DC or Marvel.

Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang

2013-03-14, 10:03 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness, TV

Originally posted Brontoforumus, 2009-12-05.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is commonly referenced as a fan-favorite episode, so I gave it a look. It probably didn't live up to the hype, but it was still pretty good. It's a Fourth Doctor/Leela story in Victorian England, where they face off against the eponymous villain, who's a gestalt of Fu Manchu, Jack the Ripper, Dracula, and the Phantom of the Opera. The Doctor plays a Sherlock Holmes-y role.

It's got a great setting, sets, and costumes, good characters, and fantastic Fourth Doctor dialogue. The main thing working against it is its stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese -- some of this, like comments made by the English characters, is simply an accurate portrayal of the time the story's set in, but the character of Li H'sen Chang, played by an Anglo in heavy makeup, is damned awkward.

Those blemishes aside, it's a great story, with nice visuals and writing, and one of the Fourth Doctor's best, which is to say one of the series' best.

The special edition is currently $25 at Amazon, while the non-special edition has inexplicably shot up from $15 to $28.14. $25 seems a bit much; I'd suggest waiting for a sale or for it to become available for streaming.

Aaaand I think that's the last of my old Who reviews. Guess I'll have to find something else for my phoned-in posts when I can't come up with anything new to write. Course, I've written plenty else over at the forums over the years that I'm sure I can plunder.

Sick and Tired

2013-03-13, 6:54 pm
Categories: Comics, Games, Status Updates, Stream of Consciousness

So I made it through the past couple weeks of being both sick and crazy busy with a wedding, without missing a blog post. So I guess I'd feel pretty silly to miss one now that I'm merely sick, and no longer crazy busy with a wedding.

Damn thing's still hanging on. Indeed, it's still in "too sick to go buy comics on Wednesday" territory. I'm improving, but not nearly damn fast enough.

Finally went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics. So, one more pill to take a couple of times a day; we'll see how it goes.

Mostly just trying to take it easy, heal up. Which is kind of a bummer because my dad and brother are still in town and I'd rather be out with them. Ah well -- plan on grabbing lunch with them tomorrow.

Reading: Just finished A Study in Scarlet. It spent rather a lot more time talking about the Mormon settlement of Utah than I expected.

Playing: Cthulhu Saves the World, and the original Half-Life in its new native-Linux version.