Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
This might make a killer RPG, too....

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:11 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Stuck In An Airport After Hours? Party Time!
A massive snowstorm leaves you stuck in an airport for ten hours overnight. What are you going to do?

For one Ashley Klinger, the question was - what was she NOT going to do? And she recorded it on video for posterity.



I gotta respect that! Especially the creative use of the escalator handrails at the end. Highly awesome!

Found via Boing Boing.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:26 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
My Computers Level Up!
It doesn't seem all that long ago that my old, now defunct, gaming computer was a brand-new, top-of-the-line model built in part to play the then-new RPG Oblivion at full graphical settings. It had two SLI-linked NVidia 7600s (these were, combined, well over a third of the cost of the entire system), liquid cooling, AMD Dual-Core CPU, a "massive" 300 gig HD, and a lot of awesome.

I bought its replacement from the same place I purchased the original, ibuypower.com. This is my third system I've bought from them, and I won't say for sure it'll be my last. They are a budget gaming system shop - not the only one - but they are kind of the "devil you know." My new system - as an emergency replacement - was a bargain-priced $700 system that came with a 1 gig NVidia 9800GT, a 750 gig HD, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16 gHz cores), plus the usual odds & ends. Including a mouse, keyboard, speakers + subwoofer, flash media reader-writer (apparently they picked 'em up on clearance and were adding them for something like $1 to systems), DVD R/W, etc. It's nowhere near the bleeding edge, but it runs rings around my old system. I blame, principally, the intel cores running about 30% faster than my old AMD dual-core machine.

After my wife's system had enjoyed an accident during shipping that broke the HD off the mounting rails and bounced it around inside the bay (needless to say, it didn't work anymore when it arrived), I went ahead and sprung for an improved packing option for this budget beast. I didn't want to have to wait for a replacement to anything. This packing option, from what I could tell, was simply one of those insta-pack bags that fill with foam over the main bay area opposite the motherboard, holding the other cards (all one of them, in my case) in place and cushioned. So they had about a 4x markup on the cost of those bags and a minute of a shipper's time to put it in there. Ah, well.

It may have helped keep the loose screw that was rattling around inside the case from flying out and damaging anything during transit. I was far more disappointed in finding that in my case. I guess QC doesn't shake the system to see if it rattles (probably a good thing), and heaven knows I have done that before when building a system. But it didn't fill me with warm fuzzies when I pulled the system out of the box.

Beyond that, however, the new computer seems to work fine. The only other pains I experienced were self-inflicted. I opted to use my old hard drive as the main HD. Lacking any extra mounting rails, I had to use the ones from the old system - which are a little too big. So now I can't close the side-panel on the system until I get new rails (or I get creative with a cutting device). Because the system was so sparse on the inside of the mid-tower, it was easy for me to plug in the second hard drive, and swap cables around to make the old one the default master.

Man, I remember when I had to change pins and plug in much uglier ribbon cables with a twist for the slave system to do this stuff - computers are definitely easier to work with on the inside now!

With that all done, the new system booted and with some adjustments and loading in of new drivers, it looked like my old system. I had to reactivate Windows, Symantec Anti-Virus, and a couple other pieces of software that balked at me changing all my underlying hardware. Unfortunately, one of the programs refused to reactivate due to server issues - Torsion, by Sickhead Games. It's an editing tool for Torque-based development. However, it still let me use it - with only a nag screen at the beginning - so it wasn't a crushing problem. (Update: Sickhead very quickly let me know that they are aware of the problem and are working on resolving it.)

I also had to remember how to set up the secondary hard drive, format it, and give it a drive letter under Windows XP. Yes, I'm still using XP. But a quick Google search refreshed my memory, and it's working great now --- with 720 gigs of space still free!

The new system doesn't have wireless, either... so I was forced (!) to plug actual cables in through my old switch. For my pain, I was rewarded with much faster Internet access, making me wonder why I didn't give up on the wireless-ness on the old system a long time ago.

So - except for the mounting-rail issue and Torsion's activation glitch, I seem to be good to go with the new system. Of COURSE I had to test it out, and I was quite pleased. Everything seemed to run faster. While I didn't notice a much faster frame rate in Left 4 Dead (it already ran very well on the old system), it definitely loaded faster. I blame the CPU.

And - major bonus - Fallout 3 runs on the new system! I never got far past the exit from the vault before, as I was dealing with crashes and hangs that often required a system reboot every 5-10 minutes. I had zero problems with the new system. So it feels like I have a new game to go with my new machine.

The joys of hardware upgrades weren't done there, however. A friend of mine recently upgraded the memory on his antique Dell laptop of the same era as mine. He gave me his old memory cards - which doubled the RAM on my laptop. A quick test (I didn't want to pull myself away from the new desktop) made me feel like I had an all new laptop. Apparently Windows, the anti-virus software, and the various drivers really, really want to combine forces to eat a half-gig of RAM all by themselves. Since that's all the memory the computer had to begin with, it made for a painful experience. Now, however, it is ripping along contentedly. Frayed Knights ran *GREAT* with the full gig of RAM. Previously "problem" zones loaded & lit very quickly. We're talking about about more than an order of magnitude improvement in load times.

The machine even seemed to boot faster. This makes me very happy.

So now I have two zippier computers to work with. Neither are souped-up gaming powerhouses, but they are plenty appropriate for my needs. For now, at least, geek life is good.

(UPDATE: Corrected the specs. It was late at night when I typed those --- apparently my brain had already logged off for the night).

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:49 AM (Permalink) 10 comments links to this post

 
Computer Destruction and Upgrade
My computer is fried.

I'm not exactly sure what happened, or how. But it's dead. Probably the motherboard, possibly the CPU. It's had a tendency to fry video cards since it was new. Maybe it heard me talking to my wife last week about how much longer I was going to put up with it before replacing it. It knew its days were numbered, and committed suicide.

The replacement is ordered. I think the hard drive should be okay, which is important to me, as that's got several days of Frayed Knights development on it which I don't have backed up yet (I was gonna do that Tuesday). Hopefully the replacement will arrive by the time I get back from Puerto Rico.

Ordering the replacement left me musing a bit about gaming PCs. Once upon a time, I built all of my new PCs myself. But these days, the discount gaming PC shops do a pretty reasonable job for really not much more than it would cost to build my own. Plus the old local hardware shops where I used to acquire my parts - and ask questions, since the technology had always changed every time I built a new PC - have largely gone the way of the dodo.

Back in the 90's, I'd get a new machine every three years or so, though I'd perform an intermediate upgrade in-between new systems where I'd swap in a new CPU, maybe add more memory, or whatnot. Back then (we're talking the 1990s, mostly), performance was based heavily on CPU speed, cache, memory speed, and video card (I really liked Matrox cards back in the SVGA era....). The most powerful of all-of-the-above would leave you capable of playing the newest games at reasonable framerates for about two years.

Nowadays, while all that remains important, it's mainly about the video card. Perhaps physics hardware may become a new bottleneck, but not yet. CPU clock speeds have all but hit a wall, and most games do not take advantage of dual-core or quad-core architecture. Having plenty of fast RAM helps, but the extra cores and RAM really helps the most by letting you with background tasks.

My now-deceased machine cost me over $1600 just four years ago, and I was planning on keeping it around another year. It was always a little quirky, having burned out three video cards (the first two were SLI-linked NVidia 6800s) and giving me a few other issues. It wasn't totally bleeding-edge, but it was a solid gaming rig when new. I tried not to think too hard about how machines at half the price could run circles around it only three years later.

Which is how much I'm paying for its replacement.

On a dollars-per-year perspective, buying a machine that costs twice as much that might only give you an extra 18 months of useful service before becoming obsolete isn't a great incredibly efficient. And while we're getting some games that demand cutting-edge machines, it's not like the 90's where you'd get several games each year that totally redefined gaming and demanded near-top-of-the-line hardware. And since I'm such an indie-game and retro-gaming fan, I'm very rarely running into hardware limits as it is. Though maybe I can finally pick up a cheap copy of Crysis and see what that was all about...

I can see the appeal of consoles. A $500 machine every five years is a lot cheaper.

But on the brightest side of all - hopefully the new machine will have no problem running Fallout 3. I could never play it more than about fifteen minutes straight on the old system. And often less than five minutes.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:03 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
100 Gaming Cupcakes
Combining gaming.... and cupcakes! What's not to love?!?!?

100 Games Cupcake Game

Hat tip to Wil Wheaton for this one.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:07 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Am I a Terrible Manager?
I contributed to the distractions of my level-designer tonight. Played 45 minutes of Left 4 Dead with him and a couple other friends. Shame on me.

Somehow I'm not feeling all that guilty. Thanks, Kevin! :)

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:53 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
A Fearful Milestone
My darling daughter was born literally weeks after I started my first "real" job as a video game developer, only a handful of months after I graduated from college. She slept in her cradle in our tiny rented home behind me, as I played X-Com with the sound turned down. As a baby, her very first reaction to music was a delighted giggle to the sounds of the "Magic" pinball table in Epic Pinball. Her love of video game music continues to this day, though when I showed her the game three years ago, she shook her head at what she considered her horrible musical taste as an infant.

In second or third grade, her mother and I fretted because she was spending too much time playing video games... but I was horribly conflicted because it was one of MY video games she was spending too much time playing. As if my name in the credits made it okay! Well, okay, it kinda did. My paternal duty also involved explaining to her how the game kinda sucked, but she didn't care.

And yesterday, this darling daughter of mine obtained a Utah State learner's permit, making it legal for her to drive on the roads under direct parental or instructor supervision. The entire state should probably tremble in fear now. And, though the literal task of surrendering control of my vehicle to her hands as I sit helpless and screeching in the passenger seat fills my core with dread, another terror grips my heart as I wonder, "How did this happen? I'm not old enough to have a daughter who drives!"

Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:47 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Happy Star Wars Holidays
Just so you know, I don't really hate you. But I do like sharing the pain:



I originally saw this when it was aired on TV when I was a little kid. Even at the tender age of eight or whatever, I apparently realized that it sucked and I lost interest halfway through. Although there was a small part of me that wondered what happened after the Imperials got summoned back to their base (or something) by Lumpy or whoever modifying their computer. I figured I'd maybe catch it in a rerun.

That never happened. Strangely, they never aired this special ever again. Maybe because it sucked so badly that it made The Phantom Menace look like The Empire Strikes Back by comparison. And because the networks (and George Lucas) heard the sound of millions of young Star Wars geeks crying out in horror and suddenly silent (as they turned off their TVs).

Now this has been available for a few years online. But I still can't bring myself to watch the remainder of the video. So I still don't know how it ends. And somehow, I'm okay with that.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:48 PM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: 2:30 AM Ambushes
As usual, I started losing productivity after about 1:30 AM. And after 2:00 AM, I should have called it quits. But I didn't. Because I was ... almost done. I am just testing now, see?

Yeah, right. So now it's almost 2:30 and I find myself walking into an ambush, not remembering how I got here.

When I open my eyes (after just blinking for a moment... I'm sure), I find myself in the hobgoblin bunker. I realize I was in the middle of testing something, but for the life of me I cannot remember going through the entrance, fighting through two waves of attackers (I have a cheat key installed that auto-kills all enemies... it makes testing a bit faster) to get to the landing where I am now subjected to scripted arrow fire.

Vaguely I remember what I'm supposed to be doing. I've bypassed two guardrooms to get to the split-level chamber. At least I think I have. Since I've apparently been sleepwalking through the dungeon, I can't be certain. So what is supposed to happen is that two waves of reinforcements should arrive after this battle - not exactly an ambush, but a rough situation. Then, going back, I have to make sure that the rooms they vacated to reinforce / replace the archers are truly vacated.

I'm not entirely certain if this is going to play out to my liking. There is definitely an optimal path to try and ambush-the-ambushers, coming around from behind (after emptying out the guardrooms) to avoid the arrow fire and kill the archers. But aside from trial-and-error, I'm not sure how to telegraph this strategy to the player. It's not a make-or-break strategy - it's definitely a winnable combat regardless - but it does make things a bit easier.

Not that this occurs to me much at 2:30 - make that 2:35 - AM. This is about my sixth or seventh run-through tonight, and I'm more concerned about the fact that in the first guardroom - the one that rushes out to attack you instead of waiting for you to open their door - is still rushing to attack even though I killed them all in the previous room. not that a player would necessarily realize it's the same group... except I need to leave their door open. Yes. The guards need to open their doors when rushing out to reinforce the archers.

One more thing to put on the long, long list of Things To Do.

I make some changes to the script. Save. Run. Select start, which is currently hard-coded to load the Caverns of Anarchy. Wait through loading. You think load times suck as a player? Try being a developer and having to reload every single time you want to test a change. You folks who have scripted up Neverwinter Nights modules know exactly what I'm talking about.

Uh... where was I? I zoned out again. What time is it? 2:40 AM. Crap. I have to get up in less than five hours for work. Using the insta-victory cheat key I run through battle one, battle two, battle three with two sets of reinforcements... and then test the guardrooms (with doors still closed) - HAH! They are as dead as they should be. Nothing left to do but loot the empty rooms.

2:44 AM. Enough time to hopefully get four-and-a-half hours of sleep. Of course, when my head hits the pillow at 2:52, I still have visions of hobgoblin ambushes and gameplay concerns about the fairness of allowing hobgoblins to shoot at long range with impunity while the player must charge into melee range. Fortunately, sleep comes fast.

And the alarm clock goes off almost as fast, in subjective time. The day job beckons. Or, rather, demands. It's paying for this lifestyle, after all.

This is the life of a part-time indie game developer. Of this one, at least.

Labels: Frayed Knights, Geek Life, Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:00 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
A Thanksgiving Story
Happy Thanksgiving 2009, Rampant Games readers in the U.S. For the half or more of you that read from other countries: Happy Thursday!

Thanksgiving is a four-day weekend for many (non-retail) businesses here. Including mine. And it generally means a LOT of fun at the ol' Coyote Den. It wasn't always this way. As a kid, Thanksgiving often meant a feast involving a lot of relatives you really don't like, playing nice, and getting bored stiff. The food was good. The rest was sorta like one of those mandatory team meetings at work where the H.R. department is going over new policy. It needs to be done, but it's not particularly enjoyable. And then we had Thanksgiving leftovers we were eating all the way until Christmas. Hey, not that I am ungrateful for having an abundance of food - but it did get pretty old eating turkey sandwiches, turkey casserole, and ... more turkey... for three weeks straight.

My first Thanksgiving away from home was at college. I was going to school in Utah, lived on the East Coast, and couldn't really afford to fly home and back for a short weekend (especially when I'd be flying back for Christmas only three or four weeks later). So my first Thanksgiving, I spent with some relatives of my roommate.

Worst. Thanksgiving. Ever.

His uncle's family made me believe my own family was actually normal. I was immediately accused (multiple times) upon arrival of trying to smuggle alcohol or drugs into the house. Nevermind that I didn't drink, either. It all went downhill from there. I was pretty uncomortable the whole time. We had Thanksgiving lasagna which was more like soup. I hid most of the day Friday by watching the entire Star Wars trilogy down in their basement on a wide-screen TV... when I wasn't studying. At least I could retreat. While I appreciated them taking me in like they did, it was not much fun.

After that, I decided that staying on campus by myself for Thanksgiving wouldn't be nearly as bad. As it turns out, the following year we had a few other friends in similar situations. Most from our RPG gaming group. We called it the "orphans' Thanksgiving." Anybody we knew who had no place to go could join us. So we all brought food, chipped in together for a turkey, and got together for several straight days of Dungeons & Dragons, boardgames, videos, and eating Thanksgiving leftovers. On Saturday, the leftovers were mostly gone and we were sick of turkey sandwiches anyway, so we all ordered pizza.

It was the Best Thanksgiving Ever. With friends. Hanging out and having a party. And gaming. A lot.

We've been doing pretty much the same thing ever since. Due to all of us having real families now, we actually leave the Thursday of Thanksgiving alone for families (and friends who have no other place to go), though there's still some serious video-game playing that goes on. (Tetris Plus, for the original Playstation, is something of a tradition now). We keep things pretty "open house"-y, relaxed, and casual. Plenty of food, and hey - if things get dull, it's time for some Rock Band!

Friday and Saturday are serious, serious gaming days. All day. It's rough with so many children who need attention, so we take frequent breaks, but we have managed to keep pulling it off. We pool our Thanksgiving leftovers together for munching on throughout both days. And - as is our tradition - we're usually low on food by Saturday evening (and the remaining leftovers are looking a little scary), so we all pitch in for pizza. And we don't find ourselves eating Thanksgiving leftovers all the way to Christmas.

So, for Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a lot of things. I'm lucky to have a good job in these conditions. I have health, a wonderful family, and I live in an awesome era of history in a great country. But for me, this holiday has come to mean three things that I really value in life: Family, friends, and fun. It's a time to be happy.

I hope you are, too.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:13 PM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
The Gamers - Dorkness Rising
We got the DVD "The Gamers - Dorkness Rising" from Netflix yesterday, and watched it last night.

I will be buying the DVD shortly. It was... excellent.

Okay, a qualified excellent. It could have been cut by about 15 minutes (especially the ninja / pirate pizza delivery sequence), and it's very obviously a low-budget production by film-school grad types. Still, it is better (and longer, with less foul language) than it's also-awesome predecessor, The Gamers.

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is a parody of pen-and-paper roleplaying gaming. But it's a loving parody - in a similar vein to the most-excellent-comic Knights of the Dinner Table. It alternates perspective between the in-game characters and story, and the story of the players themselves in the real-world. It is particularly fun to see the effects of rules, retcons, and silly things players try to pull off in a game play out in the game world. But where that was pretty much all there was to the first movie, this one goes a bit further. Buried within the good-natured ribbing of things like male players playing female characters, asian-style monks in European fantasy settings, the bard class, and critical failure rolls, there is an underlying story of the players themselves and why we love these games.

And if you are a pen-and-paper Role-Playing Gamer, you simply Must See This Film. That's all there is to it. Even computer / MMO RPG players who have never rolled a 20-sided die in their life may still find a lot to enjoy here. If you have seen the previous movie, you may enjoy a few of the "inside" jokes thrown around referring to it, but otherwise this movie stands on its own.

And here's a trailer so you know what I'm talking about:



Enjoy!

Labels: Geek Life, Movies, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:32 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Muppets Do Bohemian Rhapsody
Too awesome not to share.



Man, I remember the days when the Muppets were a force of nature. This video harkens back to those days. Big time.

Interesting how they avoided singing about killing a man (that WOULD have been disturbing, wouldn't it?), and mentioning Beelzebub.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:41 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Twitter-ified
After holding out for months because its one of the most stupid things ever that I couldn't conceive of actually using, I'm on Twitter.

And it's actually, um, a little cooler than I thought.

So if you are interested in following me, well - here I am on Twitter. Woot.

Beware - like the forums, it can get a little bit more personal and informal there than I usually am on the blog. Anticipate weirdness. In 140 characters or less.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:06 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Dollhouse Eulogy
Well, it came as a shock to probably nobody that Joss Whedon's and Eliza Dushku's science fiction series Dollhouse was officially canceled last week. I guess what is more surprising is that they decided to renew it in the first place for a second season, and then only to cancel it four episodes in.

A friend of mine in the sixth grade told me her gauge of whether or not a movie or TV show was "great" was whether or not she was still thinking about it the next day, and it's actually served me as a pretty good rule of thumb ever since. Yeah, there's a few horrible shows that left me still pissed off and picking them apart the next day, but I guess great can be either good or bad.

I mention it because the most recent episode of Dollhouse really left me thinking. "Belonging" - directed by "Commander Riker" Jonathan Frakes - was probably the most violent and disturbing and brain-twisting episode of the series so far. And possibly the best.

And it made me realize: Dollhouse is great science fiction, but it is not so great television. It does what science fiction is supposed to do - ask questions about humanity and our relationship with the world and universe in a hypothetical context. In the case of Dollhouse, it very pointedly asks - and in a way, has answered (for itself) the question of what makes us who we are. Are humans merely computers with brains that can be reprogrammed? A set of behaviors generated by chemicals working through a neural network of learned responses? Is there a soul that is more than pure chemistry and physics at work?

The implied answer is "yes." So I guess Dollhouse did its job there. Human beings are programmed like computers - given brand-new personalities and skills for whatever their assignments may be. A new, custom person is created inside an old body. But - repeatedly - aspects of their "true" nature - their deep-seated desires, quirks, loves, and hatreds - keep coming through.

But it is never clear if this is something truly metaphysical, or simply some glitch or unmapped bit of brain that the Dollhouse / Rossum Corporation hasn't figured out yet. But it's been a very interesting bit of exploration - not just for the dolls themselves, but an exploration of how people treat or react to these reprogrammable people. And all the other questions it raises about morality, free will, and so forth. It's a very smart show, and it's good SF.

But good television? The "dolls" don't really have any character, because their personalities are constantly changing (which really shows off the actor's abilities). And the staff and ancillary characters? They are all, to some degree, morally corrupt. It's hard to get away from the knowledge that they are basically operating an extremely expensive prostitution / slavery ring. Sure, some of the 'dolls' may have originally signed up of their own free will, but after that nothing is consensual. They have surrendered control of their bodies completely to the corporation, which will make them do anything - even kill - without their knowledge.

So it's kinda hard to like these guys. They aren't the good guys. That's the point. It's deliberately morally ambiguous (at best). But it makes it very hard to relate or care about any of the characters. And that's why it kinda fails as a television show.

I'm gonna miss it. I do like the show. But unlike, say, Firefly ... I do understand why it's getting the axe.

Labels: Geek Life, television

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:10 AM (Permalink) 9 comments links to this post

 
The Horror of Big Bird
When I was a kid, I always assumed Sesame Street was as old as dirt. I thought it had been around forever. As it turns out, it was a few months younger than me. It first aired on this day in 1969. And I was among its most ardent fans a couple of years later.

I loved Big Bird. I think I even referred to the show as "Big Bird" when I was three or something. I wanted to watch Big Bird. All the other characters - Kermit, the Cookie Monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Ernie and Bert - they rocked, too. But for me, the show was all about Big Bird.

But periodically, my parents would ban me from watching the show. Because, while I consciously loved big bird, subconsciously he apparently scared the hell out of me. At night, when the lights were out, Big Bird would haunt my nightmares, with his smiling, dopey expression. And I'd wake up screaming and crying about Big Bird.

Not that I remember much of this. I take this on faith from my mother's telling of it. By the next day, I'd have forgotten the entire experience. I would want to watch more Sesame Street and provide my subconscious brain with yet more ammunition to assault me with the following night. Oh, yes. Ours was an abusive, dysfunctional relationship.

There is only one time I really remember Big Bird's reign of terror. I was for some reason pushing an empty cardboard box to my room. Big cardboard boxes are the ultimate toy for a four-year-old. Anyway, the box was so large that I could barely peek over the top of it. For some reason, the hallway was dark, and it was at night, shortly before bedtime.

You know how your eyes play tricks with you in the darkness, and you can't see very well when moving from a well-lit living room down a darkened hall? Yeah. Well, the after-image of the light (and television?) got jumbled up, and as I peeked into the darkness over the top of the box, I saw - faintly - the disembodied head of the Evil One himself, Big Bird. His head filled the hallway, and his smiling beak beneath his dopey eyes was wide open, ready to accept his next meal with cardboard and all. Fortunately for me, I'd had the foresight to look where I was going before stumbling right into that felt-covered gaping maw.

So I screamed and ran, howling over tears to my parents that Big Bird's head was in the hallway! The fact that it was trying to eat me was left unspoken, because that was just plain obvious. Why else would he have been lurking in the darkness in front of the door to my room?

Now, okay, I completely understood that it wasn't the REAL Big Bird in the hallway. And that this giant head was far too large to belong to the real Big Bird. And that the phantom-y transparent image I'd seen was probably not something of true physical form. But was I going to take that risk? HELL NO!

And as far as I know, I might not be here today if I'd kept going. Nor do I know if I was the only succulent little pre-schooler Big Bird had intended as his victim. How many other children fell victim to his appetites?

My parents renewed the ban on Sesame Street that night, much to my chagrin. It was no fair! Why wouldn't they let me watch Sesame Street? I wanted to watch Big Bird some more!

So happy birthday, Sesame Street. You taught me a lot about numbers, letters, and how human beings should treat each other --- and muppets. But most of all, you taught me the meaning of the word, "terror." I'd no be who I am today without you.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:56 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
I Want To Get Rich So I Can Take This Vacation
While I loved going to Hawaii again last month, here's where I'd really love to vacation at some point in my life:

Space Hotel To Open in 2012

So, uh, do hotel guests get any training on what to do in an emergency? Pressure leak, anything like that?

And most importantly - does it offer free cable TV and wireless?

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:56 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Castle as Malcom Reynolds
This week's episode of Castle didn't just offer a nod to fans of Firefly & Serenity - it treated us to a full 35-second inside joke (and then another couple minutes of Nathon Fillion walking around in a Captain "Mal" Malcom Reynolds-esque costume).



Has it really been five years?

I'm often wary of that heavy of an inside joke placed inside a show. I can just see someone unfamiliar with either Firefly or Serenity scratching their head. But hey, I guess I'm a fanboy. I loved it.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:52 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Happy Birthday, Internet!
Apparently, October 29th was arguably the 40th birthday of the Internet.

Happy Birthday, Intertubes. Life would not be the same without you.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:19 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
The Button
Heh - I could see this guy as a player-character in an RPG all too easily...

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:19 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
You Must Use The Force...
A Capella group Moosebutter (who I have seen live performing at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival) has a medley of John Williams movie scores - sung by quotes from Star Wars.

The twist? Not a single piece of music from Star Wars...



And the best part - the "Joss Whedon is my master now" comment at the end... ;)

Labels: Geek Life, Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:05 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
This Is Pretty Much My Eternal Backlog and Me
This too eerily reflects my own gaming habits...



One day I may actually get back to playing games on Day 1 of release. But it's iffy.

(A) The big hit games tend to come out around Christmas, and my wife has threatened to kill me if I pick up something she intended to get me for a gift. So I have to wait until December 26th to buy any games.

(B) I'm not as plugged into the mainstream hype as I used to be. That, or I'm too jaded and cynical to believe that the upcoming New Game That Will Revolutionize Gaming is going to be any more earth-shattering than the last 10,000 attempts.

(C) Back in the day - when game reviews tended to appear in magazines a month or two after release - a popular game could still be current and worthy of talking about six months or more after release. Nowadays, a game is relegated to historical insignificance in under six WEEKS. So if you don't pick up a game the week it is released, you may as well be playing a five-year-old game as far as anybody else cares.

(D) Thems that wait six months or more get to play with the worst bugs patched from the get-go.

(E) Them's that wait long enough years get the "Platinum Pack" with all the expansions fully integrated in and patched to the latest level for a big discount.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:00 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Stormtrooper "Truthers"
The Death Star being taken out by a couple of X-Wings?

Nah. It had to be an inside job.

Labels: Geek Life, Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:14 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Can I Be Cool Now?
My kids really don't understand how cool their parents are.

I mean, okay - I guess I've never really been cool in my entire life. That's never really bothered me - except for maybe a few weeks in the third grade or something when I really wanted to be like The Fonz. That didn't pan out.

I grew up in an era where playing videogames were not cool. They weren't strictly uncool, as pretty much everybody had plunked in a quarter in a Pac-Man machine at some point, or had played Combat on somebody's Atari with a friend. But anybody who really played videogames - who made a hobby of it - was an uncool kid from the nerd set. Just like those kids who regularly played Dungeons & Dragons. And a kid who did both? Geek for life.

While D&D never succeeded in pushing outside of the geek niche, videogames are now mainstream. And so I can't conceal some amount of pride when my daughters are into gaming. And responsibility.

Jeff Vogel's newest blog post, "Properly Molding the Gamer Child," strikes a chord with me.

But here's a variation on the refrain parents have been whining since our race first developed speech: Our kids do not appreciate the efforts we go through to support their gamerhood.

It doesn't matter that our house has three game-capable computers, SEVEN consoles (if you include the two joysticks that plug directly into the TV that have something like a dozen old Atari games on them), and that each of our kids have a Nintendo handheld (and we have an old GameBoy Color which I still play). Noooooo. What matters is that we do not have a Wii, and that's what their friends are playing.

It doesn't matter that when it's time to stop playing a game, we usually give them five minutes to get to a save point - because the stupid ^#$@ console games (the XBox 360 games typically being a notable, wonderful exceptions) like to make players have to work for the privilege of saving. No. What matters is that we didn't give them FIFTEEN minutes to get to the next save point after this one.

It doesn't matter that we're supportive of our youngest playing Wizard 101, her MMO timesink of choice. Nope. It's that we don't play it too.

It doesn't matter that we have all these cool console jRPGs for our oldest - age 14 - to play. What matters is that in spite of the fact that she watched me play some parts of Persona 4 and she's familiar with most of the cut-scenes of the game on YouTube, we categorically won't let her play any M-rated games just yet.

Oh, there are moments. When they get a new DS game or two for their birthday. And I think they don't mind it much when we round 'em all up for a family game of Rock Band. Or something. Or they join us for some Dance Dance Revolution. But those are fleeting.

Although I think secretly, though her emo-teen code of conduct may not allow her to say, I think our oldest little gamer may grudgingly admit that yeah - maybe we're not too horribly uncool.

Considering my extreme uncool status as a kid, I'm gonna call that progress.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:01 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Uninstalling Like It's 1999...
Wow. Today I checked out my hard drive, and discovered that all but 18 gigs of my 300 were used up. I actually had to spend some time uninstalling software and data to clear up space. I can't remember the last time I did that - but back in the early-to-mid 90s it was a frequent event.

Besides some videos, some of the ol' games to get nuked were:

* City of Heroes / City of Villains. Sigh. Loved the game, didn't have time to play. Might get into Champions later. But the whole MMO thing doesn't thrill me so much anymore.

* F.E.A.R. - Loved it. Not gonna go back and play it though.

* Age of Empires III - While I still enjoyed it, it was my least favorite of the AoE games.

* Half-Life 2 - See F.E.A.R.

* Battlefield 2 - In spite of it sucking, I've had it on the hard drive for a long time - and even try playing it again from time to time. But I am annoyed by its multiplayer (well, what I remember of it, anyway...), and A.R.M.A. provides a better single-player experience.

* Flight Simulator X - I think they crippled it for non-DX10 machines. I could never get it to run well. I found some hints online to fix that issue, but I still have the previous version installed and enjoy it plenty. Maybe I'll re-install it in a couple of years when I finally get an all-new machine again.

* Neverwinter Nights 1 (and a zillion modules, mods, etc) - it's been several years since I last ran this one. I'm not gonna finish the third expansion. I need to let it go...

Oblivion and Fallout 3 are on my short list of removal candidates, though I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I really don't know if I'll ever go back and play Oblivion again - I really put it through its paces for over a hundred hours before. And Fallout 3 - even after fixing my hardware, it still refuses to run with any level of stability.

I guess it shouldn't be a big deal to pull the plug on old games that are no longer doing anything but taking up hard drive space. But like moving out of an old apartment, there's a little bit of nostalgia associated with some of 'em. Some good times were had there.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:20 PM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
A Taste of Storytelling
Two days (and three evenings) of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival can be exhausting. But it was also a lot of fun. Just in case anybody at all is interested, here's a taste of what it was like - some clips of some of the tellers performing at other venues.

Two of Bil Lepp's Tall Tales
Bil Lepp on Marriage & Gift Giving - part 1 --- On Marriage & Gift-Giving, part 2

David Holt - who performed both music and some stories

Carmen Deedy - And no, she didn't use the "F" word even once in her performance in "Happy Valley" Utah this weekend...

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Timpanogos Storytelling Festival
It's the 20th anniversary of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival this weekend. My wife and I have been attending at least one of the events every year since year three or so. Since it's hit a big round number for the number of years it's been going on , they're making a big deal of it and have brought in more of the top headliners. Most are people you probably haven't heard of if you are not into storytelling, though Bill Harley has won two Grammies.

I have an RPG concept I had to put on the backburner simply because I recognized I wasn't quite up to the task (though I did do some early development on it - all of which will probably be tossed when I get back to it). It was partly inspired by an evening at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival - the "Ghost Tales" night (I guess it's now called, "Shivers in the Night). So I always feel like I'm doing more research on the game when I go. Tonight's event might also provide some valuable tidbits and inspiration for the game.

(And yes - I'm bound & determined to get that game done. After Frayed Knights has taught me what it needs to teach me...)

What's extra-awesome is that my daughter (the younger one) managed to win a family pass to the event for the weekend in a storytelling competition a few months ago. It doesn't cover all evening events, but as a cheapskate, I'm extra-thrilled!

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:59 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Achievement Unlocked
Actually appropriate for yesterday as opposed to today, but this came in my wife's email this morning from a friend:


Wow. That sounds like a long time. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. We met when we were sixteen, and were married six years later. And yes, you can do the math there and it makes me sound way, way, WAY older than I feel.

And we still play Dungeons & Dragons. And Rock Band. Together. How cool is that?

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:11 AM (Permalink) 10 comments links to this post

 
Plan 9 From Outer Space - Live (Kinda)
I've felt a little sympathy over the years for the legendarily bad Hollywood director Ed Wood, ever since seeing the Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp and Martin Landau. Maybe it's because I sometimes fear that I may be the "Ed Wood" of videogames. Er, I mean the zealous-but-cluelessly-incompetent part, not the cross-dressing part.

However, I'd never seen his "magnum opus," Plan 9 From Outer Space, in its entirety. I've seen a number of clips from it which added up to about ten minutes of the film. What I didn't realize was that ten minutes was pretty much the entire film - the rest of it being pointlessly meandering and often contradictory dialog, stock footage, repeated footage, and a lot of scenes of people walking or running back and forth along the same 40-foot section of graveyard or driving a police car up the same dirt road.

Thursday night, we rectified this apparently glaring omission in my "bad cinema" experience. Like the total geeks we are, we attended the Live Rifftrax event at a local theater. This was a nationwide broadcast of the three principle riffers of Rifftrax (and, not coincidentally, alumni of Mystery Science Theater 3000) riffing live from Nashville on Plan 9 From Outer Space, as well as a very amusing short training film from the 1950s called Flying Stewardess. Jonathan Coulton was also a special guest, who sang The Future Soon and - appropriate for a movie featuring zombies - Re: Your Brains. With audience participation. He also joined in a song with Michael Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy called "Plan 9", which outlined plans 1 through 8 from outer space, and why they failed.

Lowtax of SomethingAwful.com was also there, and provided a couple of fairly entertaining mock-commercials. And the evening was MCed by Veronica Belmont, who did a competent if not particularly noteworthy job.

Of course, the main event was Plan 9 From Outer Space. With riffing. My wife told me her sides hurt at the end of the movie from laughing so hard. I don't know if it was the funniest Rifftrax ever, or even the absolute worst movie ever, but it's definitely in same elite league. We did have a great time, the movie was truly, truly horrible, and the jokes were fast, furious and funny.

But this was definitely one of those off-beat geeky fun events, and I'm glad we went.

Labels: Geek Life, Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:37 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?
Wow. This is hysterically funny in a staggeringly uber-geeky way:



This video was directed by Joss Whedon's younger brother, Jed. Music by Jed Whedon, Lyrics by Felicia Day. Starring the cast of The Guild.

Labels: Geek Life, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:26 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Don't You Know That You Are a Shooting Star...
Tuesday night (well, Wednesday morning, to be technical, but I count days from times-of-going-to-sleep to times-of-waking, so it's the previous night in my brain), my family and I watched the Perseids meteor shower.

My eldest (who is still on summer vacation) wanted to see it, and wanted me to wake her up before I went to bed. Since I normally don't go to bed until two in the morning, I thought it'd be fun to try and see anything. My youngest (who goes to year-round school and IS back in school) didn't want to be left out. As it was, they woke up without my help, and their whispering and grabbing blankets awakened up my wife - who had explicitly asked NOT to be awakened to watch the shower.

So we all went outside to watch the meteor shower - something we'd never done before. We camped out on the lawn. My wife acted all grumpy and kept repeating things like, "You all suck!" as we watched. But it was mainly for show. Since she was already up, she was intrigued.

Since we're fairly close to the city and had a streetlight next to us, we only saw the brightest of the rocks. Still, after seeing the first one streak through the sky, we were wide awake. The two brightest ones were pretty astonishing, though one was partly obscured through the leaves of a nearby tree. But we're talking fireworks-quality displays here... all natural events of the incredible universe around us.

My daughters were fascinated. I was more thrilled than I really expected to be. And yes, my wife was far, far less grumpy when we called it quits at 3 AM. She was downright tickled, if you ask me. :) I only saw about six of them in the half-hour, but that almost doubles the number of "shooting stars" I've witnessed in my lifetime.

This was just one of those neat little family experiences that I think we'll all remember fondly for years to come.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:43 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Day Job Fun That Has (So Far) Not Gotten Me Fired
Well, it has not quite been a year since I left the mainstream games business (again) for greener pastures in the simulator industry. I'm enjoying it a LOT more than at my last games job (though I still miss workin' at NinjaBee sometimes... though I do not miss the commute).

Apparently, I'm something of a generalist at work, as they've had me working on little bits of everything software-related so far - overhauling the audio software, installing the development environment and all libraries on new systems, converting older software to use the new IO system, overhauling the motion-base code, and a bit more stuff that would probably only make sense if you know the software.

My recent tasks have included the motion-base software, which was a little intimidating, as we've got cabs with a whole bunch of big plasma displays that each cost more than I take home in a month - not to mention lots of other expensive equipment. And a person, sometimes. Normally, if you have a bug that causes a crash in your software, it's no big deal. When working with the motion system, a crash is semi-literal.

Intimidating, but interesting to play with. Here's kinda what they look / move like:



So far, I've only had about three "incidences," and I haven't been fired over any of them yet.

The first was minor. Apparently somebody had set a power supply (like you have for a laptop computer) on one of the rails of the cab and forgotten about it, as it had been idle for a couple of weeks while we were working on other things. My first tests didn't cause enough motion to move it much. But as I was testing the yaw upper bounds, the force managed to hurl the power supply about four feet. I think it still works, though.

A couple of days later, as I was testing a sound bug as well as some motion issues, I inadvertently discovered a short in our safety interlocks. The motion system is not supposed to activate while the stairs are down, but in this case there was a short in the wiring that was telling the interlocks that the stairs were always in the "up" position. I was paying attention to the racket caused by the sound bug (it was starting a new collision sound every frame), and so I didn't notice the bad noise the stairs made when the motion platform raised up with the stairs still hooked onto it. Fortunately, the damage was minimal and easily repaired, and the hardware guys not only found the short but actually improved the interlock system so nothing like that will even come close to happening again. But that happened late on a Friday afternoon, so I had all weekend to stew over whether or not I'd have to clean out my desk come Monday.

And then I discovered what an uninitialized vector can do. An uninitialized variable is a horrible source of bugs in software, as it has never had an actual value assigned to it yet - so it uses whatever value happened to have been in that memory location at the time. Often, that value just happens to be a zero or something, which might behave very well. But then you get some value like -32768 or something like that, which might only happen when you are, say, running a release build (without debugging information) outside of the IDE. And with your project manager inside the cab at the time. When that particular value (994.00, in this case) ends up being assigned to the speed at which the motion base is supposed to "bump" to the left.

In feet per second.

On the very first frame.

Of course, the motion base has limiters to how far it can move, so it only yanked over at its maximum speed to its maximum deflection. Otherwise, we might need a new project manager. And I might need a new job. But it definitely gave us both some unexpected excitement the moment I hit the "run" button.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:11 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Your Skill In Fishing Has Improved!
Well, I'm heading off to spend some quality time this week in a cabin at Bear Lake. I'm not expecting much by way of Internet access. I have a few blog articles queued up which may or may not be published on schedule. But I will probably not be too responsive to comments.

Since the comments are often of much higher quality than my actual blog posts, this is a bummer for me.

Insane geek that I am, I plan on spending some of my R&R time playing Aveyond: Lord of Twilight and Deadly Sin. Since I don't plan to spend every waking hour on the laptop, I don't harbor any illusions about being able to finish them both. Hopefully Aveyond will fall to my mad RPG skillz. I understand it ends in something of a cliffhanger, and the follow-up - Aveyond: Gates of Night - is due out in mere weeks. I would like to have Lord of Twilight complete before then.

I'm also gonna be devouring Jim Butcher's latest Harry Dresden book, Turn Coat, so I'll be all caught up with my friends, who are tired of trying to avoid letting spoilers drop in my presence when they are talking about the series. I hope to give Frayed Knights some TLC as well - in those late night hours when my geek clock is still keeping me awake when everyone else is asleep (which is when I usually work on the game, anyway).

But the daylight hours will be dominated by some quality fishing, hiking, and possibly even caving activities. Weather permitting. It's been a weird summer out here.

Talk atcha soon!

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:14 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
The Ultimate House
Some close friends of ours just bought a house in our neighborhood. We're thrilled, as we do enjoy their company, and it'll be nice having them closer. Unfortunately, all that seemed perfect at first hasn't panned out to be quite as wonderful as they had hoped. The dishwasher has been malfunctioning with a pretty massive leak, there is a snake nest in the backyard, the kitchen is smaller than they hoped, and they've had problems getting the Internet.

I feel for 'em. I hope they aren't feeling buyer's remorse.

I am kinda glad they don't have Internet right now, though, because then they might see the house they COULD have purchased, and then they'd really be upset:

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:05 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Annual Trek to the Renaissance Festival!
I spent a good part of the day yesterday wandering around in costume at the local Renaissance / Medieval Festival ("And Fantasy Faire," the signs noted, making certain that those who prefer Gondor to Agincourt or Florence don't feel left out).

The local newspaper was there covering the story, too, which was cool. This was the first year they did, and this was a good year to do it. The festival has grown nicely over the last four years since it started. The first one, three years ago, it was kinda pathetic. Which is terrible to say, since my wife was performing at that one. But this year, the crowds were really turning out, and there was some plenty of fun stuff going on. Magic shows, stunt demonstration, musical performances, dancers, and of course the jousting.

I always love the jousting, though I have yet to see an unhorsing. I'm am always amazed at the size of the horses, and the amount of armor these guys wear. They hit each other with a respectable amount of combined speed and force. The lances take the brunt of the force, often shattering into several pieces that go flying across the field.

And there are plenty of ways to be parted with your money. Back in the 80's, if you were looking for a good morning star, you didn't have many other options besides the Ren Fest or a couple of mail-order places. Now in the Internet age, that's not a problem anymore, but it's still fun to browse the booths and see what's available. I was looking for a good battle-axe for my collection, but I didn't find one I really wanted. Maybe next year.

I did find myself cynically musing a little during the joust as what someone from the middle ages might really think of our modern, idealized, commercialized, edited-for-modern-tastes rendition of medieval life at these festivals. They'd probably find it unrecognizable.

But probably a lot more fun.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:01 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
I Am Going to Computer Maintenance Hell
So it started a couple of days ago with my computer suddenly shutting off suddenly and sporadically. Not a nice shut-down --- a shut off. Power suddenly going away.

A little bit of experimentation over the course of a day or two revealed that it was the cooling system. Or specificially, the fan on my really cool liquid-cooling system I bought three years ago to protect my then-awesome (and expensive) CPU.

Nowadays, the cooling system costs three times as much as the CPU to replace. Hmmm....

I'd configured the bios to automatically shut off the system if the CPU ever became too hot. Strangely enough, the cooling system worked okay without the fan as long as the system was just sitting idle or doing nothing more taxing than browsing web pages. But if I started playing a game or doing too much 3D editing or whatnot, it would shut off on me.

I have to either fix or replace the fan, but that might take a little bit of time. I have a bunch of old CPU fans from a graveyard of older PCs sitting in storage, so I began salvaging. Unfortunately, none of them fit. So I fit the fan in with one screw, and locked it into place with ... ummm.... a heavy-duty paperclip. I'm not sure if that is a step above or below spit and bailing wire.

However, it seemed to work great, and I was able to do some gaming without any CPU overheating. It's not a permanent solution, but it keep me going for a few days.

Speaking of hardware issues - you may have noticed that the website has been going up and down. We're working on a solution for that, and should be migrating the server to new hardware soon. So expect a little more down-time over the weekend, and then Rampant Games and Tales of the Rampant Coyote should be in a new home.

UPDATE: If you can see this, we should be migrated to the new server now. Seems the hard drive on the old system died, so we expedited a move to a new host. There are still some issues being resolved - game links not quite working right yet. But we're getting there. Slowly. Hey, Laxius Force is working, I think....

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:00 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Star Trek...
... kicked butt.

'Nuff said.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:47 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Twilight - Made Awesome
I have not read the book Twilight. Nor had I, until last night, seen the movie.

Since I am not a thirteen-year-old girl, I wasn't all that excited to see it. My wife and oldest daughter read the book and didn't like it. I've been a little overwhelmed on my reading list to add it to the queue. (But the idea of glittery vampires was just too hysterical for me to leave alone...)

I still have no reason to read it. But - when I saw Rifftrax had done one of their MST-3K style commentaries for it, I figured it was time. I'd finally know what people were raving about.

While nothing has quite compared to their awesome riffing of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, this one came close. They DO make riffs of good movies, too (Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, etc), so the fact that this riffing exists shouldn't be considered a necessarily scathing indictment of the film.

That being said, the film offered Mike Nelson and friends a WEALTH of opportunities to tear it to shreds. When they started humming "Yakety Sax" (popularized by the Benny Hill show) while Edward goes running up the hill with Bella on his back, I just about fell out of my chair from laughing. We had a good group together to watch it (the best way to watch MST-3K or Rifftrax videos), and it had us in stiches.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:03 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
My PS2, She May Be Dyin'...
It was bizarre. I'm on the trail of the (real?) killer in Persona 4, and we hit the ol' dungeon again. Well, the new dungeon. A fight begins, and Yosuke summons his persona...

... And nothing happens. He stays stuck in an animation with a magical tarot card spinning above him, wiggling a little bit. I can toggle "rush" mode on and off, but that's it for interactivity. The main game loop is waiting for an animation that will never arrive.

It seems to be the case (after I reset it and replay a dozen or so times) with any of the other characters, too. And not just this saved game, either, but also any past saved games. My own character can summon personas just fine (well, okay, I only tried with ONE, but it worked fine).

So - since things that were working in past saved games are now not working, it would seem to be that either my disc became damaged (while sitting safely inside the machine), or my seven-year-old 'fat model' PS2 is starting to die. A quick test revealed that though it seems to play some other games just fine, it refuses to acknowledge the existence of my Gran Turismo 4 disc.

Could be that the GT4 disc has gone bad, too, but it's smelling suspicious, ain't it?

Gah. What a bummer. More testing may be involved to make sure what's going on, but part of me thinks this might be a blessing in disguise. A forced vacation from Persona 4 for the next week or two might be a good thing.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:10 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Teaching D&D
My youngest daughter wanted me to teach her Dungeons & Dragons last night. Unfortunately, by the time she asked, we only had about 30 minutes. Usually my approach is to get somebody into a game as fast as possible. Maybe next time.

The sad thing was that I had my miniatures out, and she started pulling them out. As we were talking characters, she pulled out a miniature she liked and said, "I want to be this one!" Gah! Sounds like she's a recruit for fourth edition already.

I think teaching someone to play D&D is easier nowadays, because many people are familiar with some kind of RPG-like game that's out there... from World of Warcraft to Pokemon. And of course, in my daughter's case, she's seen and heard the grown-ups play. She plays Wizard 101 online. So the concept - which used to be so difficult for people to get their head around a couple of decades ago - is pretty familiar now.

The trick is, of course, the rules. Which edition of D&D? My favorite edition - 3.5 E (though Pathfinder is starting to steal that crown) - is admittedly insanely complex for beginners. Not that 1st edition AD&D was trivial. Castles & Crusades is perhaps the most streamlined and easy-to-learn "D&D-like." Probably the best edition for learning is the old 1981-era Basic and Expert sets (which, while not my first exposure to D&D, was where I cut my teeth). Unfortunately, that edition is no longer available in a convenient PDF version...

Well, my youngest child now knows the meaning of dexterity and constitution (though she immediately laughed at the latter, since in her mind that word only had to do with the basis for our form of government).

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:00 PM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Dollhouse
Maybe I'm jest a brainwashed Whedonite, but I'm really starting to warm up to the TV show Dollhouse.

Of course, that probably means that they're going to pull a Firefly on it, and cut it off after four more episodes.

It's weird, twisted science fiction about a company that can reprogram people - wiping or giving them memories, personalities, and skills for whatever their high-paying clientele desires. Eliza Dushku (who played Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is one of their "actives." Which means she plays a different person every week. Mostly.

But there are layers and layers of intrigue going on, and you are never really sure who the good guys and who the bad guys really are. And the technology isn't as perfect as the tech guy, the highly egotistical geek Topher, believes it is. Some things are not getting wiped. Memories are resurfacing, and the actives are, perhaps on a subconscious level, the actives seem to have some kind of conspiracy of their own going on.

And, as good science fiction always should, there are a lot of real-life questions raised about --- well, everything --- using the science fiction as a magnifying glass. Questions about morality and ethics and what makes a human a human. Fun, mind-twisty, Phillip K. Dick kinda stuff.

Unfortunately, that means that it probably isn't mass-market-y stuff, so we may never see how it plays out. But here's hopin'.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:06 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
This Way, I Won't Lose It...
So we were getting ready to leave for a short trip to visit my in-laws. I'm taking my laptop, and working on Frayed Knights (among other things) while I'm down there. But I needed to transfer everything for development over between my desktop and the laptop. While wireless is okay for this, I'd prefer a USB drive.

I used to have one. It was a nice, 2 Gig drive that I'd purchased back when 2 gig drives were hot stuff. I got a steal on it for only a little over $60. I'd used it for just this purpose, back then. But then it vanished. I didn't know what happened to it. I'd searched for it for months. Since it's been over half a year, I figured it was finally time to give it up and replace it.

I got a new 8 gig thumb drive for about $30. A good deal, especially for something four times larger than my missing thumb drive.

After putting everything (I HOPE!) I need on the drive, it was time to pack it all up for the extended weekend. I was looking for a safe pocket in my laptop bag where it wouldn't get lost or fall out. I found one pocket that I had completely forgotten about with a zipper and everything. It would be perfect!

And it was... deep. Deeper than I imagined. I rummaged around in there, and thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if that was where my missing USB thumb drive went?"

You can imagine what happened next.

D'oh. But hey, now I have two.

Have fun!

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:51 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
"Sci Fi" sounds too much like those geeks we can't stand...
Not specifically game-related, but this has me fuming:

Sci-Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name

How concerning is it when the executives of a company are embarrassed about the company's product, and resort to narrow, unflattering stereotyping to describe their core audience?

A quote from a "TV Historian": “The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.” Uh-huh. Yeah. Dude, you are a freaking "TV Historian," and you are calling other people out for being geeks?

And yeah, only dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements play video games. Sheesh! That wasn't even close to true in the 1980s.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but it seems to me that the new name, "Syfy"could only be considered cool and hip by an aging executive or a desperate marketing consultant.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:13 AM (Permalink) 15 comments links to this post

 
The Watchmen
We went with another couple to see The Watchmen last night. My wife had read the graphic novel just last month. I'd re-read a little bit of it while my wife had it checked out from the library, but otherwise hadn't read the thing in twenty years. Another friend had read it several times, the latest being about two years ago, while her husband had never read it.

We all left the theater appropriately blown away. Those of us who had read the graphic novel were impressed by how incredibly faithful they were (aside from nitpicks) to the source material. The friend who'd never read it told us it had hung together really well without requiring his familiarity with the original. It seemed incredibly well done.

When I left the theater, I felt ambivalent about whether I really liked it, or really hated it. Which was about how I remember feeling about the graphic novel, too.

It was also a bit too heavy on the sex & violence for our tastes. We'll not be owning it on DVD in the future - probably won't ever watch it again - but we were glad we went to see it once. It was - like the graphic novel - important. And far removed from the escapism of your average super-hero movie.

How's that for a wishy-washy review?

The laugh of the week is for those people on forums who are complaining about it ripping off core situation in The Incredibles. That's pretty much like complaining that the Lord of the Rings movies ripped off Dungeons & Dragons. (Though I honestly and truly LOVED The Incredibles, something I can't really say about The Watchmen).

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:36 PM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
An Objectivist On Bioshock
Okay, only a few people might find this interesting, but I was fascinated. Twenty Sided's Shamus Young managed to find an Objectivist who had played through Bioshock. As you may know, Objectivism is a philosophy based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. And Bioshock's world - the undersea city of Rapture - was pretty much an Objectivist paradise gone horribly, horribly wrong. The city's founder was even named "Andrew Ryan" - a deliberate reference to Ayn Rand.

I'll just link to it here. You can read it, and come back. Or not.

Bioshock: An Objectivist on the Objectivism

I only read Atlas Shrugged a couple of years ago. I resisted it for a long time because my parents loved the book, and so naturally I couldn't possibly enjoy it. Though when I found out that the drummer and principle lyricist for my favorite rock band - Neil Peart of Rush - was a fan (even a self-professed "Randroid" for a part of his life), I was a little more predisposed to read it.

I finally got around to it, and was impressed. Not that I subscribed to the philosophy. I felt that Rand's vision of society had the same fundamental flaw as Communism - even though it was, in many ways, the direct opposite of Communism. And it's the problem suggested by "The Inspector" in his discussion - it requires a societal change to the point of suppressing human nature in order for it to work.

Human beings may be self-interested by nature, but we also have an amazing tendency to engage in behaviors contrary to our long-term self-interest. I may recognize that it's in my best long-term self-interest to eat better and exercise more to live a happier life in the long-term, but that doesn't make it easier for me to turn down a cheeseburger or to take the time out to go to the gym.

Bioshock did point out some of those flaws with the faux-Objectivist utopia. Take Adam & Plasmids, for example. It is apparent that their long-term use has some nasty side-effects, but the corporate bordello of Rapture allowed them to be marketed and sold without any kind of supervision or regulation. They needed no testing. So by the time the game starts for you, almost all survivors have gone insane. As you can tell from the recordings, the final weeks and months of Rapture's civilized existance consisted of a war over "who controls the Adam."

(It doesn't take much to shift the 1960's alternate history story to the real world of the same time period, and hear the recordings talking about "who controls the atom.")

What would be really interesting would be to see another game's take on Atlas Shrugged from 2009's vantage point. In a lot of ways, we're living the early chapters right now. My feeling is that Rand extrapolated upon the events and government policies during the Great Depression, and extrapolated them to the nth degree for her story. Businesses not being allowed to fail, government intervention in the name of preserving the status quo which does more harm than good. That kinda thing. We haven't quite gotten to the point where the world's entrepreneurs and executives have decided to go on strike, yet.

Theoretically, there's a movie (trilogy?) planned for 2011 based on the book. And there's a Bioshock movie planned for next year. Now THAT could be an interesting contrast, particularly since both will probably be simplified a bit to appeal to the broader market's tastes.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:06 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Web TV Series: The Guild ... and Gold
I don't play World of Warcraft, which is probably why I was the last person in gamer civilization to not have heard of this web-TV series written by and starring Felicia Day (also of Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog and Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It's about.... a guild of MMORPG Players. In an online game that sounds suspiciously like World of Warcraft, though you can probably substitute your online gaming addiction of choice.

The Guild

Umm... yeah. It's already in its second season. Am I with it, or what?!?!? Each episode is about five minutes long. I haven't watched them all yet, but so far they have proven both funny and cringe-worthy. For anyone who's ever met their online guild-members in a "real world" setting, it'll be particularly amusing.

And flipping it around to deal with a fictional world of professional dice & paper gamers, you have the monthly series:

Gold - an RPG Web Series

This one deals with a game suspiciously like Dungeons & Dragons called "Goblins & Gold." It's about two teams of roleplayers preparing for the big showdown in the next world championship. Ah, if only. Warning: This one doesn't bleep out the language like The Guild does.

So long as it feels like gamers making fun of themselves, it's all good fun.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:02 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Teaching Apocalyptic Survival Skills With Video Games
The experts debate:


Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

I personally think that these experts are providing us with a disservice by not recommending a more well-rounded selection of games to educate the younger generation. The young gamer who confines himself to a single game genre may be cutting himself off from a broader understanding a multitude of valuable survival skills.

For example, let's talk about the acquisition of water for a moment. Gamers specializing in particular genres or categories of games will exhibit the preferences to the following solutions:

FPS Gamer: Kill everyone who might attack you. Storm their base. Take the water that they drop or that are found inside of crates which can be easily destroyed with a single crowbar hit.

Real-Time Strategy Gamer: Zerg rush the enemy compound and seize control of their moisture collection factory.

RPG Gamer: Kill all the mutants, take their gold or bottle-caps, and then use it to buy water at the conveniently located stores which have water in infinite supply and at a fixed price.

Turn-Based Strategy Gamer: Assign X survivors the task of collecting water. Sell the excess to neighboring camps for money with which you can buy weapons to eventually conquer them.

Casual Gamer: Find the hidden water bottles in rooms filled with cluttered junk and seahorses in the wallpaper.

Adventure Gamer: Find a human skull lying nearly hidden amongst some rubble. Find a cracked vase. Find a stopper. Find some ceramic bond. Use the bond on the vase to repair the crack. Leave the skull in a specific place at night to collect the morning dew. Pour the dew into the vase. Stopper the vase with the stopper. Drink it the next time you are thirsty. Adventure gamers fortunately only have to do this once, after which they will never feel thirsty again.

Rhythm Gamer: Dance and play air-guitar in the street until someone takes pity on you and gives you water.

The MMORPG Gamer: Spend two hours each day looking for a water-collection group, until you say, "Screw it" and grind it out solo.

The Sports Game Gamer:Manage a team of water collectors, but only one member of the team can really collect the water at a time.

The Third-Person Action Gamer: Just run around the wasteland jumping from ruin to ruin and occasionally performing timed sequences of simple actions to have water magically appear in your inventory.

Did I miss any?

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:30 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Dagorhir: Yes, Those Were My People
Frighteningly enough, I know at least one of the guys in Wreckreation Nation's episode on Dagorhir. Dominus (the bald guy who leads the Romans) was the sub-commander who fought Kaltor to the death in my story at The Escapist, "Weekend Warrior."

Part 1:


Part 2:


Yes, this is how I used to spend my weekends. And some weeknights. Ah, those were way fun. Though the group was a little smaller back then, and big multi-chapter events were just barely getting started. We'd only recently had two new chapters form in Ohio and ... I think Pennsylvania.... because people were tired of driving so far for weekend battles.

The show did an outstanding job of showing what the game is and how it plays. Granted, nothing quite compares to actually being there. But this thing was my LIFE through half of high-school. Jussincase there was ANY reason you had begun to doubt my geek cred or anything.

But this is also why I have to chuckle when people laud the "realism" of real-time combat in computer RPGs versus turn-based. Compared to something like Dagorhir - which is itself many levels removed from "the real thing" - real-time mouse-wiggling and clicking doesn't seem any more or less realistic than old-school turn-based combat. When you are fighting one-on-one, it sometimes feels a little like a turn-based game. You are thinking two or three moves ahead (once you know what you are doing) - figuring out how to get your opponent to open up his defense, and how to exploit it, before it happens. Of course, when it gets into a grand melee like the big battle at the end of the show, it's pretty chaotic and you really don't know what's happening half the time. You just know your tiny piece of the battlefield, and usually don't even have a clear picture of that.

Anyway - it's great watchin'.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:22 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Of Vomit And Modems...
As I was getting ready for work Wednesday morning, my wife told me, "The Internet is down. And the dog vomited on the floor."

I made an assumption that the latter point was simply a statement of no-longer-current events, and that she was simply informing me of this so that I would be aware of the dog's illness. So I ignored the stinkier matter of concern and asked my wife, "So did you reboot the modem?"

She fumed at me slightly. "Yes, I tried to reboot the modem." After a pause, she said, "OKAY! I'll clean up the vomit, you fix the Internet."

It sounded like a reasonable deal to me. Silly me. I wasn't sure why my wife was mad at me for not volunteering to take on both tasks.

I spent two-and-a-half hours getting bounced between my ISP and... QWEST. In, uh... India. No problem with India, or Indians (I am friends with many), but apparently this particular outsourcing shop is paid by how quickly they hang up on customers. I was volleyed like a tennis ball between both providers, as they used me to point the finger to each other. After a while, I learned that the first thing I needed to say to the "technical support" script-readers from QWEST in India that "I was just sent here from my ISP, please DO NOT TRANSFER ME to them until I've explained this to you!" Otherwise, after getting my information and the "nature of my call," I'd get a perfunctory, "This is a problem with yout Internet Service Provider - I can transfer you there directly. Thank you, call again!"

A long conference call between all three parties resulted in a questionable solution. "Something must be wrong with the modem. We'll send you a new one - you'll get it tomorrow. Thank you, call again."

So I got the new modem on Thursday. Thursday night, I tried to set everything up. Same problem. Two more hours were spent on calls to QWEST and my ISP resulted in very little progress, and I was told that the high-level tech people who could help me would not be in until the morning.

By this time, spending time with tech support started involving ten to fifteen minutes for the tech support person to read through the very long list of notes left on my support ticket, followed by fifteen minutes of repeating the exact same troubleshooting procedures I'd been through approximately sixty times earlier over the last two days.

So Friday, I ended taking the day off work. I guess if I had the flu, it would have been a worse day off. But otherwise, it sucked. Six more hours, taking my modem OUTSIDE to hook up to the exterior phone access, a zillion more experiments and and a visit to a friend (who also had DSL) to test both modems proved that:

* the modems weren't at fault
* my house wiring wasn't at fault, and ....
* woops, sorry, it's Friday evening, everybody's going home, call us tomorrow.

Tomorrow being Saturday (now today), several calls to tech support revealed that the problem was PROBABLY some obscure weird thing at my ISP. Unfortunately, nobody on the Saturday crew has high-level access to be able to fix the system.

So I have to wait until Monday (or until one of the chief tech people decide to answer the page and cancel their weekend plans to rush to work to fix some problem for an obscure, complaining user. And THEN find out whether or not the fix actually works.

I won't begin to list the number of high-priority issues that have occured this week for which we needed Internet access. Murphy's law was in full force. Maybe this wasn't the worst week possible to lose access, but it's close. My frustration level is through the roof.

And yeah, I'm typing this from a friend's house tonight.

Next time, I want to clean up the dog vomit!

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:11 PM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Bummer. Another Legend Passes
I just learned that Majel Barrett Roddenberry died last week.

She was the wife of late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and in my opinion probably did more than her husband to promote science fiction television and cinema in general. She even had a guest role on "rival" SF show Babylon 5.

Word has it that she had already finished recording the voice of the computer for the upcoming Star Trek movie.

Labels: Geek Life, Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:28 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
The Grateful Gamer
For those in the United States who read this: Happy Thanksgiving.

For everybody else: Happy ... uh, Thursday!

In the spirit of the day, here are just a few things I am thankful for as a gamer today -- in no particular order.

* Yngwie Malmsteen on Rock Band this week. I didn't know the songs, but that was okay - he basically recycles the same twelve pieces over and over again, so I was right at home.

* It's a tiny thread of silver lining in really horrible stormclouds, but at least politicians have been so concerned about far more important things the last few months that there hasn't been a lot of push to legislate videogames. I guess that's something they do when they are bored.

* The holiday weekend - our geeky tradition is to have friends over and sling twenty-siders around. And play Tetris Plus on the Playstation. Rock Band no doubt figures prominently this year. And LOTS of D&D.

* A stable job. When the economy is in the tank and several friends are out looking for a job (a lot of them have landed very nicely, something else I'm thankful for), I am glad to be where I'm not (currently) worried about it. Knock on wood.

* Indie Gaming! I love mainstream games, but it's so awesome to go out there and find weird, quirky, FUN stuff with all kinds of personality and charm and new ideas that doesn't have to pass through a committee of suits to be released.

* You guys! I don't know why you do it, but I appreciate you folks dropping by and contributing to the conversations here. Most of the time, the value isn't in the articles posted here, but in the conversation threads here and on the forums. Thank you!

* A wife and family that not only understands, but are gamers themselves.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:50 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post