I've been a fan of
New Wave Toys for quite
awhile because of their Replicade line of mini (working!) arcade games. If I
had the room, definitely would be collecting all their releases and
accessories to have a mini slice of 80s arcade heaven. But when they opened
pre-orders for their latest replica, I didn't hesitate.
Now, of course a lot of people associate our pal Zoltar with the movie Big and
there's no denying that movie did more for Zoltar's career than any arcade
ever would. But I also have a fascination with these automated fortune
tellers. If you pop over to
this Flickr gallery, you can see a few variations I've encountered.
I think it's tied in to my
feeling that amusement parks are places of fun but there's a little something
spooky just out of sight. Now that I think of it, I did record Something
Wicked This Way Comes off cable as a kid and watched it A LOT.
This month's flicks start off on the lower end of the scale and get better as we go along. If you feel the need to own any of these gems, clicking on the link will take you to Amazon and help support the site.
The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014)
I"m not going to waste a lot of keystrokes on this. If you're a Bell fan, there's probably no talking you out of watching this, but you can't say you weren't warned.
Rating: 4/10 Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
You know a horror series is getting long in the tooth when they go urban (or to space). After the last two, I wasn't expecting much, but this one's got some good gore thanks to Screaming Mad George. Where the previous ones fell apart at the end because of the effects, this one manages to at least get into the "so bad it's good" area.
Cool: Cornthulhu! Some interesting kills Lame: The child villain isn't sinister looking enough; If Attack of the Killer Tomatoes has taught us anything, it's that murderous plants/veggies can't be taken seriously Rating: 5/10
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
And we're back to a really bad movie. I honestly don't know how they keep turning these out...or why I keep insisting to myself that I have to watch the whole series.
Cool: Naomi Watts & Karen Black Lame: Not even a passing mention of He Who Walks in this one. Rating: 3/10
Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
And here the series becomes a fairly rote with teens looking to party getting hacked up. Poorly developed characters, poorly written story, poor me for making myself watch another one!
Cool: Hey look, Eva Mendes Lame: Who would have made a much better Final Girl that the forgettable one we're given. Rating: 4/10, at least we're back to He Who Walks, so it's a little better than the last one
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return
Supposedly a direct sequel to the original with Isaac somehow surviving. The plot is needlessly complicated, there's lots of confusing visions and prophecy talk and worst (for me) is that they don't seem to play by the cult rules of dying at 18.
Cool: I don't think I have anything nice to say about this one Lame: How does Isaac even have a daughter? I don't think he was even old enough in the first movie to make a baby. Rating: 3/10, I think this one may kill the series for me. I'm skipping the next one and going right to the reboot.
Duran Duran - Unstaged (2011)
Caught this for the "one night only" theatrical showing. The band, the musical guests, and music were all fantastic. David Lynch's directing, on the other hand, has made sure I will never willingly watch this again. It's in black and white/sepia, which is fine. But I don't think there is a single frame of the film that doesn't have at least one layer of non-concert imagery over it. The imposed visuals range from WTF to laugh out loud, such as a synchronized chorus line of mostly nude Barbie dolls to another scene with someone beating a spatula on a wiener filled grill. If you watch the video above, keep your eyes on the top left screen which is showing what I saw.
Rating: 9/10 (music), 2/10 (Lynch). Overall would have visually been much better in color and void of Lynch's fever dreams.
The Specials (2000)
Never knew this movie existed until the Cult Film Club podcast covered it. It's a comedy about the day to day of being in the 6th or 7th most popular supergroup and how the members interact with each other. Low on flash but high on character.
Cool: Plenty of people you'll recognize; there are plenty of memorably funny scenes Lame: U.S. Bill can get a little annoying Rating: 7/10, absolutely worth a watch if you're a comic fan
The King of Arcades (2014)
A documentary following one man's dream to run a classic arcade. If you love 80s video game culture, you need to see this. It also crosses over a little into the King of Kong world.
Cool: So. Many. Video games! The dedication of the people involved is amazing. Co-Produced by Adam Goldberg (TVs "The Goldbergs") Polybius! Lame: Seeing what has happened to some of these machines since their heyday might break your gamer heart. Rating: 8/10
Sex Kittens Go to College (1960, uncut version)
Yes, the title makes it sound like an exploitation sleaze fest, but it's not...mostly. It's more of a sex comedy (1960s sex comedy, mind you) with a beach movie level of humor. There are two versions of it though. The uncut version that I saw has about 10 minutes of strip tease/topless dancing, which feels totally out of place. Especially since the sequence is supposed to be happening in a robot's dream!
Cool: Mamie Van Doren; Vampira has a bit part; Conway Twitty(?!); The robot Elektro (even though he doesn't do much) Lame: What plot there is is really silly. It involves a robot that can predict winning lottery numbers and race horses, gangsters that want to steal him and a sexy new professor who isn't what she seems Rating: 5/10, not a great movie by any stretch, but a good enough piece of fluff
The April 29th episode of The Goldbergs immediately became one of my favorites because it featured 80s video games. I have no doubt the upcoming Star Wars episode will be just as, if not more, awesome in its nostalgia-y goodness.
If you're a video game historian (or just old like me) you may have noticed one game in the arcade that you didn't recognize: Polybius. There are a couple times you can see it when the guys first arrive at the arcade.
The next time you see it is to the right of the new Punch-Out machine. I had to rewind it as we were watching to make sure my eyes saw what I thought they did.
So, what's the deal with this Polybius cabinet? It's a bit of a video game urban legend. It was supposedly some kind of government developed thing to test behavior modification software for the CIA. Rumor says it caused players to become addicted to it to the point of fights breaking out over who got next and some players reported amnesia, night terrors, and other side effects. Sounds fun, right? You can read all about it on Wikipedia, or if you want the TL;DR version, check out Nerd Out With Me.
The legend sort of reminds me of The Last Starfighter only with government Men in Black instead of aliens looking for their savior pilot. Big thanks to Adam Goldberg for tossing in this little Easter Egg for us video game geeks!
Update: prior to the Star Wars episode I tweeted a link to this post and the Man himself replied to it! I love when show creators are in touch with their audience.
Happy New Year! Break any resolutions yet?
I managed to fit in a few more holiday horror flicks before the year's end. I can't believe there are still some out there that I haven't seen yet!
What have you been watching? I'm always up for recommendations!
As always, title links will take you to Amazon where you can buy the movie if you like and help support the site (ie: me).
I Got Next (2011)
A documentary following some of the top Street Fighter players. I used to play SFII back in the day but was never anywhere near the level of these guys. It's not King of Kong, there's no real rivalry drama, but it can be interesting at times especially in the final rounds.
Cool: It's nice to see in the tournaments that even though the players are rivals there's no hate Lame: Can get a little boring as there isn't much of a narrative Rating: 6/10
I Am Street Fighter (2012)
Where the previous film was focused on the competitive players, this doc is more about the people who love the game and the buildup to Street Fighter 4's release. There is a little crossover with some of the players from I Got Next so it was neat having seen these one after another. There's also interviews with some of the people that worked on the game series, even the woman that created the sound effects.
Cool: This one is a lot more fun seeing how different people are into the game; Great music; The full movie is on YouTube (see above video) Lame: Nothing Rating: 7.5/10
The Conjuring (2013)
I'm torn on this one. I did really enjoy the 70s atmosphere and practical effects. And even though it delivers the creepy, sometimes it feels more "been there, done that" than it should. I know it's based on a true story but when Paranormal Activity has already done some of the scares, you can't help but think if it while watching.
Cool: Creepy ass doll; I was actually more invested in the investigators than the family they're helping Lame: The use of the score. I really feel when things are happening, the score should be minimal to bring you more into the movie and the horror going on. Rating: 7.5/10, might have been higher if I hadn't seen Paranormal Activity
Frozen (2013)
I think Disney took some chances with not sticking to the typical fairy tale/princess formula and it paid off big!
Cool: The movie is gorgeous from the icy effects to the set design and costumes. Lame: Don't get fooled by marketing! The reindeer and snowman have minor parts, it's not as kiddie as it looks in the ads. Rating: 8/10
Dear Dracula (2012)
This is more of a TV special than movie but I'm including it because I hadn't heard of it before and wanted to make people aware of it. It's a cute Halloween show suitable for the kids.
Rating: 7/10
Critters (1986-1992)
I'm lumping the whole series together. Believe it or not, I'd never seen a Critters movie until now! I really like the first two with the second edging out the first as my favorite. I think C2 is that perfect kind of movie you discover as a young teen. It's got a tiny bit of toplessness, sci-fi aliens, comedy and some gore. C3 was ok, I like that they confined it to a single building. And C4...I don't know what happened to the series here. This one was boring.
Ratings (in release order): 6.5, 7, 6, 3
Insidious (2011)
I was a little worried about this one as I thought it was going to be just another Paranormal Activity/Conjuring type of flick. Thankfully, I was wrong! They took it in a completely different direction than I was expecting and it was amazing.
Cool: The paranormal investigator guys; The whole "going to get the kid" sequence Lame: You'll inevitably compare this to Poltergeist Rating: 8/10
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Picks up minutes (maybe even seconds) after the first movie. Can't really say too much about it because it's so interwoven with the first one. I was surprised to find out none of this was planned out while they did the first one. I say it's a safe bet if you enjoyed the first one, you'll like this one as long as you don't try to think to much about why the spooks do what they do.
Cool: the Black Bride; If the first was Poltergeist, this one is Back to the Future 2 Lame: The main baddie from the first is almost nowhere to be seen Rating: 7/10
Killer Holiday (2013)
I have a weird compulsion to see movies that happen at a carnival or amusement park. It's not often these movies are great and Killer Holiday keeps the tradition. The plot synopsis claims "a startling motive is revealed" but after watching it, I couldn't tell you exactly what it is. There are some good things, but it's not the plot or the acting.
Cool: The amusement park Lame: This movie has possibly the biggest douche of a killer in cinema history, he's like the Criss Angel of slashers; The metal soundtrack/score doesn't fit the characters at all Rating: 4/10, Redbox it if you must
A Cadaver Christmas (2011)
For a low budget indie zombie flick, this isn't half bad. It's funny and there's some decent gore.
Cool: The lead guy could be the next Bruce Campbell, he's got the jawline and attitude! Lame: Not sure if the drunk guy is really drunk or mentally challenged Rating: 5/10
Two Front Teeth (2006)
One of the oddest Christmas horror/comedies I've seen. This movie should be destined for cult status. It's awesomely bad! There are so many Christmas lyric references worked into the script I lost count.
Cool: Evil, cannibalistic elves; Vatican sanctioned ninja nuns Lame: The final fight is epic and laughable at the same time Rating: 5/10
JediJunkies (2010)
I like these documentaries about fandom when they're done well and don't make us look like a bunch of people that have no life other than the movies we love. This one focuses on a couple of interesting groups of fans. Some teach lightsaber combat, some make fan films and one guy even crafts unique lightsaber hilts in steel.
Rating: 6/10
Month Total
New: 15; Rewatch:0
Year To-Date Final Total
New: 94, Rewatch: 4
and just for fun... 2012 Year To-Date Final Total
New: 141, Rewatch: 16
For this week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment, we're going shopping again!
Go on a fictional shopping spree at Hake’s current auction #209 to make your collection a little more amazing.
Surprisingly, I didn't find a lot to get excited about this time around. Sure, I wouldn't say no to any of the vintage Star Wars toys, especially that Early Bird Kit with the double-telescoping Luke figure (it's not as dirty as it sounds, really!), but those would be more for displaying in their sealed glory than anything else.
If I'm adding to the collection, it has to be something special.
I'd been wanting to check out the geek subscription service Loot Crate for awhile now. As part of my "spending celebration" for getting a job I plunked down for 3 months worth of deliveries. If you do more than 1 month at a time you end up saving money.
Each month's crate has a theme to it and when I saw April's was "token", as in arcade, I was in! Although I'm still sad I missed the Star Wars and Doctor Who Crates recently.
Here's what I ended up getting.
The Crate (after being opened)
After digging out the cool stuff, I noticed the bottom of the box...
I know, I know. You're screaming "What's in the box?!" like Brad Pitt by now...
A couple pieces of "arcade candy."
A Mushroom Kingdom cinch bag. The inventory card in the box tells me this bag was available as a prize at arcades that had sit down 1 vs 1 Mario Cart games.
Street Fighter Guile Vs Bison keychain. The back has a move for each character.
Street Fighter Blind Boxed Vinyl Figure by KidRobot. I got E Honda. I would have preferred almost any other character!
A Space Invaders cabinet candy tin! The LEGO aliens weren't included, but the candy inside is in the shape of our favorite pixelated predators. This will be going right next to my other cabinet tin for Pac-Man. I hope this company keeps making more. I want a mini-arcade!
The Verdict
Do I feel like it was worth what I spent? Absolutely! I was fairly certain I'd enjoy this month's delivery because of my love for classic video games and arcade culture. Plus, the experience of discovering what's in the box as you open it is a lot of fun. There's only a couple things I totally love in the box but the rest will probably find its way to other bloggers.
Will I keep subscribing? That's up in the air. I'm still good for the next 2 months so we'll see.
I think what I'd prefer is to have a subscription but then being able to opt in when you find out the theme. For example, I still have 2 months left and I could pass or use 1 month when the theme is announced so that I could save it for something I know I'll really like.
So, if you think you might want to check out Loot Crate, head over to their site using this link and if enough of you sign up, I get a free Crate. Everybody wins! You can also scope out the site and see what goodies were shipped in previous months to help you decide.
You definitely get value for your coin, it's just a question of will you like what you get?
Thanks to the recent League of Extraordinary Bloggers post where we all put up stuff for trade, I got more than I bargained for. Literally!
I set up a trade with Jboy from Revenge of the Cosmic Ark to get a couple of LEGO minifigs and one of the new Battle Beasts figures. What did I get?
A box full of frickin awesome is what!
Just look at all that goodness! To start, he sent the two Atari Hot Wheels that I've been hunting all over for to finish the set. My wife recently went out to CO and I had her looking out there too. The Secret Saturdays was a favorite cartoon of mine since it debuted so it was cool to get this little set. The figures are neat considering they're only a couple inches.
I don't know if this Corps figure is a pilot, astronaut or some kind of android but he can pop and lock like nobody's business!
I might open this and see if the battery still works.
As a first gen Atari kid, it's cool to have for the Activision artwork alone.
These guys are from the latest incarnation of one my childhood favorite toy lines, Battle Beasts. I was very against the idea of these from the start because they were so different from the toys I collected. Also, I just don't like Mini-Mates as much as LEGO and Playmobil. Both of these guys have holes in their back so they can wear their weapons, which is a genius idea.
The snake is by far the better of the pair, he succeeds in all areas where the walrus fails. The walrus is an odd shape and that means using a Mini-Mates base body and putting custom pieces on them. I seriously cannot pick this figure up without at least one part coming off. I don't understand why they think he needs all that articulation if it means body parts falling off constantly.
Anyway, a huge thanks to Jboy for hooking me up with all this!
You can see what I sent him on his blog.
Way back in late 2011, I found out about the Kickstarter for what sounded like an amazing book: Atari Inc. - Business is Fun. It tells the history of Atari from its beginnings, explosion into coin-op machines, home consoles and computers to its near self-destruction during the video game crash. What was going to set this apart from other Atari histories (of which I've read none) were interviews with the people that worked for Atari during those times.
Being born in 1970, I've been able to experience the evolution of video games. Before I got my 2600 I remember going to a friend's to play Pong. Yes kids, there was a time when Pong was a home console. That's all it did. It let you play Pong on your TV. This particular version didn't even have wired controllers so you had sit right next to your opponent.
After getting my 2600, it made me an Atari kid for life. I spent hours playing Combat (which I think counts as the first home video game deathmatch) Adventure, Yar's Revenge and so many others. Yes, even the bad ones! I remember going to the corner store, the mall and even the YMCA where my middle school did PE classes and having to put my quarter on the screen for next game. Excuse me for getting a bit off track! My point is, I've loved video games since there have been video games, so this book was something I couldn't pass up!
As I said, I pledged in late 2011 and the book was scheduled for July 2012 release. The actual release was November 2012 on Amazon. I just got my Kickstarer copy last month, February 2013. The authors were good about sending progress updates but there were people that were curious why it took so long for supporters to get their books and why we paid $15 more than the Amazon price. The answer about the price is that we were helping fund the last bit of the project costs to help get it published and the book was a reward for pledging.
My experience with other projects has been getting the product for retail, if not less than, as a pledge incentive. In all honesty, if I'd realized I could have pre-ordered for retail I would have but after finishing the book, I'm glad I could help make it happen.
That's my first completed "physical item" Kickstarter experience and doesn't change how I feel about the book: I love it! This thing is a beast at 796 pages. They deliver on what they promised and more. Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel have spent over 8 years putting this together. And what a couple of guys. Goldberg has been writing about gaming for 13 years and Vendel is the founder of the Atari Museum.
This is the first in a planned trilogy of Atari histories and covers Atari's birth up to the industry crash in 1984. The book is packed with b&w photos of employees at work and play, product ads and images, and assorted documents. The chapters are setup so that the images come at the end as a sort of visual recap. I think it makes the narrative flow well in that respect so I'm not getting distracted while reading.
I can't even begin to go on about how much is in this book, but here's a few cool things:
Nolan Bushnell went on to create Chuck E Cheese after leaving Atari.
Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak designed the original prototype for Breakout.
One of my favorite games, Yar's Revenge, was created in response to a proposed port of the arcade game Star Castle. I can't believe I never connected them.
Atari had a communications division called AtariTel that created a video phone.
One complaint I've seen is there is no index in the book, which is something essential for an almost 800 page book! The authors have addressed this on the Kickstarter page and in reply to an Amazon review. This was due to the publishing restrictions at Amazon so they're putting together a downloadable pdf with the help of some crowd sourcing.
Anyway, to stop this before I go on too long, I'd recommend this book for 3 types of people:
1 - The Atari Kid: Anyone that grew up in the 70s/80s playing Atari at home or in the arcade and wants to know more about the company that made their favorite games.
2 - The Video Game/Arcade Historian: If you want to see where the roots of gaming began to grow, this is a great place to start.
3 - Future Contestant on a Nerd Competition Show: So that you don't look silly after boasting to know all about video game history and then incorrectly give the creators of Pong as the guys from King of Kong, losing the challenge. And also so that you realize video games started way before PlayStation.
I've been making my way through the mammoth book Atari Inc.: Business is Fun, which I'll be posting more about when I finish it. It's gotten me very nostalgic for the golden age of arcades. Then I started thinking how some of my internet pals are around a decade younger than me. Those few years make the difference between experiencing the birth of home consoles along with the height of the coin-op arcade and growing up with a home console.
Now I know you youngins have likely been to some kind of arcade but to me the arcades of the early 80s are something I'm gratful to have experienced first hand. It was a time before they were mostly filled with multi-player driving, dancing, and fighting games and despite the limits of technology, there was an incredible variety from game to game.
My dad often took me to a local bowling alley called Capeway that had a decent sized arcade area with video games and pinball. To get this thing back on track, I wanted to share a particular pinball machine that you may not know about: Atari's Hercules. For me pinball is all about the licensing or it's got to have a great gimmick. This time, size matters!
Look at that thing! To give you a better idea of its size it uses a pool cue ball instead of the standard size pinball! Atari tried their hand at pinball for a few years ultimately getting seven machines out. Hercules was their final one and what a way to go out!
This video gives a comparison of Hercules against a standard sized pinball machine.
There's a bit of under the hood stuff as well for you electronics nerds.
If you want to see game play, skip to about 3:14 mark.
I think this is one of the few exceptions where something you remember as being huge when you're a kid actually is. If I had weighted wristlets at the time, I would no doubt have felt compelled to wear them to play this beast of a machine.
These topics get more difficult every week, forcing me to choose favorite things over one another and inevitably toss something beloved by the wayside. It's like having to choose which of your zombified children to shoot first.
You’ve been hired to program the ultimate Saturday morning experience for kids across the nation–create your own ideal Saturday morning cartoon schedule.
I still remember the excitement of watching the network's Sneak Peek shows that showed off what was coming Saturdays in the fall. I realize the traditional heavily promoted time slots didn't start til 8 am but I had to squeeze all this in one morning! So rub that sleep out of your eyes and grab a giant bowl of sugary cereal!
6:00 am - 7:00 am WB Power Hour
Start your morning off right with classic Looney Tunes. Not this newer stuff, not even the '80s stuff. I'm talkin good ol fashioned, cross dressing, lipstick wearing, Elmer Fudd kissing, Bugs Bunny! I'm sure these must still be in rotation on cable somewhere but I feel today's kids are missing out on them. I can't tell you the number of times in my life these have been quoted.
Followed by a half hour of Animaniacs and Freakazoid shorts. They were both ahead of their time in terms of writing and gone too soon.
7:00 am - 8:00 am Hero Time
Challenge of the Superfriends
Arguably the best incarnation of the Superfriends, the episodes featuring the Legion of Doom are certainly among my favorites of the series. Unfortunately, they wouldn't introduce one of my favorite DC heroes, Firestorm, until the Super Powers toy commercials...er, episodes.
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
It was a tough call between these two, so I included both. Spidey introduced Firestar to the Marvel Universe and had a lot of great guest star episodes. I nearly lost my mind during 7 Little Superheroes when Dr. Strange showed up.
8:00 am - 9:00 am Fantasy Land
Dungeons & Dragons
I had just started exploring D&D around the time this started airing so this was extra special for me. Hank's bow is awesome but I really wanted Sheila's cloak. Just about everytime I play a computer RPG I'm some kind of thief. This is one of those shows that really needed a toy line. While there was a D&D toy line, they never made action figures of the kids.
Thundarr the Barbarian
One of my absolute favorite cartoons. Magic, super-science and sorcery in a post apocalyptic setting. What's not to love? Also sorely needed a toy line during its original run.
9:00 am - 10:00 am Super SciFi Slot
Space Stars
Honestly, this slot was originally going to Space Ghost. I totally forgot about Space Stars until I started poking around Wikipedia's Saturday Morning schedules. Space Ghost AND Herculoids? I'm in!! I kind of liked Teen Force too. It didn't hurt that they had an occasional crossover episode.
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
There will always be a place in my heart for Battle of the Planets, which was something I played with my friends a lot. But since being exposed to the original, unedited, not cutsified for round eye kids version, there's really no going back. The original would never fly on Saturday morning in the '70s/'80s due to its violence, mild profanity and transgenderism.
10:00 am - 11:00 am G-G-G-GHOSTS!
Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated
The modern day version of those meddling kids has elevated the series beyond the monster of the week formula. Not only is there an over-arching plot to the series, but the main characters actually have personal lives and are growing and changing. There's also plenty of pop culture references and the occasional cameo of characters from other toons. I never would have imagined anyone could take the Scooby gang in this direction.
The Real Ghostbusters
What better companion to Scooby-Doo than the Real GBs?
They came, they saw, they rocked our Saturday morning.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Monster Hour
Land of the Lost
Wow I forgot there was even a '90s version on Nick. As dated as this looks now, it was some of the best writing on Saturday mornings. It was like Lost of kids! I think the time is right for this to make its way back to TV. Kids always love dinosaurs and Sleestaks. And I'm going to go right on pretending the movie was a drug induced hallucination.
The Aquabats Supershow
Originally, this slot was going to be Krofft Superstars featuring rotating sci-fi shows like Electra-Woman & Dyna-Girl, Wildboy & Bigfoot, Dr Shrinker, Far-Out Spacenuts and the Lost Saucer. Then I remembered this show. It sort of encapsulates all that plus some Power Ranger crazy-ass-ness. Why not combine the original idea and put Land of the Lost in the rotation? Because it's just that important to me.
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm The "Aww, I Don't Wanna Go Outside Yet" Slot
Starcade
Nothing to do with wrestling or the CBS cartoon block.This..is..STARCADE! If you're around my age, this was the game show you wanted to be on. Playing arcade games for achance to take one home? Yes, please! Unless it was one of the crappy non-A list games.
Well, there you have it! I think I did my inner kid proud by including the Saturday morning staples: classics, superheroes, fantasy, sci-fi, ghosts, monsters and video games. Now if we can get smash those all together, we can run that show all morning long.
Of course there's still hours upon hours of stuff I didn't touch on: Trans-Formers, GI Joe, all the relatively recent DC animated shows, HB greats like Yogi Bear, the Banana Splits Show, live action like Isis and Ark II, any of the Force Five...Oy!
Here's what other Leaguers posted
That Figures has a few of the things I dropped from my line-up
...or whatever you call it when a new program is created. Since derezzing is the end, would initialization or rezzing be the start of electronic life? Anyway! 30 years (and two days) ago, TRON was released in just under 1100 theaters in the US.
I don't remember seeing it in theaters but it's been a presence in my pop culture consciousness for a very long time. As a young geek, I got to experience Pong as a home video game console. A console that only played a single game with no cartridges, can you imagine?
It was around '82/'83 when I got my first computer, a TI-99/4a. 256k RAM, baby! I bought computer magazines so I could manually copy line upon line of BASIC code to play games. I learned about hexdecimal code and sprites so I could change the ships in a Space Invaders knockoff to look like ships from Star Wars. There was just something about computers that grabbed me at an early age. Not to mention, computers were the "it" thing in the '80s.
If you think about it, computers were to '80s cinema what the atom age was to '50s cinema...the next big thing that could destroy the world!
I never had any of the toys. Maybe I was just too into Star Wars collecting at the time. I remember seeing the ads for the Tron figures and lightcycles and wanting to get them but for whatever reason I never did. Maybe they were hard to find?
I remember creating a Tron-inspired game that I played with a friend. It was similar to Disc Wars but the goal was to get a Frisbee past your opponent, and not hit them with it! Each player had a plastic tube that was used to deflect/stop the disc from going past them. I also remember trying to teach myself to throw a Frisbee like they do in the movie...not so much success there. It would be another year until Return of the Jedi's speederbikes became the pretend vehicle of choice when riding bikes, but until then it was lightcycles all the way!
And the video games! I was an Atari kid but there were few times when I wanted an Intellivision so I could play the Tron games. Never had the one cart released for Atari. I played the arcade games a lot. I remember getting out of middle school and going to the mall across the street to play the Tron game. There was a tiny room near the back entrance that was about 10' across but it was long enough that they had five or six games in there. One local arcade had the step-in version of Discs of Tron which was awesome.
Bee-yoo-ti-ful!
Arcade games were often rotated out to make way for the latest and greatest. Soon, the last connection to Tron was gone and it moved on to that place in my brain that holds on to special things.
In 1994, ReBoot premiered on Saturday mornings and rezzed up memories from over 10 years ago. Ever since then, I'd always wondered why Tron was never made as an all CGI cartoon. In my mind, it was the perfect way to tell stories set in the same digital world. ReBoot ended in 2002 and still has a strong fan following today.
A 20th Anniversary edition of Tron was released on DVD in 2002. I devoured the special features which were previously only available on LaserDisc. New segments included peaks at the artwork for following year's PC game Tron 2.0. They also hinted at the possibilty of a true movie sequel. New Tron material after 20 years!
The PC game Tron 2.0, was considered to be a cannonical sequel until production for Tron: Legacy started. The game had a great story line although the hero was Alan's son instead of Flynn's. A series of four figures were released based on the game. There was a follow-up sequel done in comic book form called Tron: Ghost in the Machine, which is a sector of Tron lore I'd gladly reformat.
The teaser trailer for TR2N was shown at Comic Con in 2008. It was a similar to the first Phantom Menace trailer: I had to find a bootleg version online and I watched it a whole lot!
I followed, and played along, with the Alternate Reality Game online. I won a few pins, a couple of postcard ads featuring Encom video games and an Encom employee photo ID badge complete with lanyard.
In October, our local AMC theater participated in a free 23 minute preview in IMAX 3D. There weren't a ton of people there but it what I saw got me even more excited for the premiere. Also, Marvel Comics released a two issue prequel titled Tron: Betrayal. It made a lot more sense after seeing the movie and having the proper context to place the new story.
I got the soundtrack when it was released and instantly fell in love with it. Daft Punk's melding of electronica and orchestra was just as unique as Wendy Carlos' original Tron score. It's a perfect album to put on to zone out or while working at a computer...which are not mutually exclusive. There was a remix album released a bit later and seemingly endless unlicensed fan remixes.
Legacy opened on December 17th. My parents were taking us to DisneyWorld for Christmas that year and amdist the hubaballo of getting ready for a week long trip, I made my wife go with me before the trip because there was no way I was missing this in IMAX 3D! I loved the movie. I wish they'd been able to explore Tron a little more and it would've been great to see Cindy Morgan back.
This year brings us Tron: Uprising. Finally an animated series! The show takes place prior to Legacy with Tron training a young program to take his place in the revolution. The show is scored by Joseph Trapanese who worked with Daft Punk for two years on the Legacy film score. Until I found this out, I had no idea it wasn't Daft Punk. I need a soundtrack from the show!
And that brings us up to right now. Word has it a new movie is being worked on but no details have come out yet. Maybe something will be revealed at Comic Con this week...
If you're still reading, I applaud you! I really didn't mean to go on at such length, this was really just going to be a Happy 30th. But as you can probably tell, Tron is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. There's two Holy Grail's out there for me: the original board game and Kevin Flynn's White Identity Disc
Skipping out on the standard Friday post to bring you some photos from a favorite spot of mine in Salem: the Salem Willows "amusement park." That's what they call it on the signs leading you there, but once you get there it's just Salem Willows Park. I think if this was my first time (far from it!) going here I would be seriously disappointed at the use of the phrase "amusement park" to describe this small area. It's bigger than it looks below though. Off to the right is a large grassy area right on the water perfect for picnics and other outdoorsy family activity, there are even a few tables.
I didn't grab individual photos of the food stands because they're not visually noteworthy. However, there is a decent variety of junk food: burgers, a pizza place, ice cream, a Chinese place that's popular with the locals for its chop suey sandwiches and a stand that sells popcorn and a multitude of flavored taffy. I think it's required if you have any kind of park near the water on the East Coast, you must sell taffy somewhere.
Aside from needing to get out of the house, the inspiration for this photo shoot was a recent post over at Lair of the Dork Horde about finding a retro game haven. The arcade here isn't bad considering how hard it is to find 80s' video games around here. They have more games that I didn't take pictures of including a few more recent shooting and racing games and about 8 pinball machines. There was one that I forget the name of but it had a ton of classics built into it and you can select which game you want to play. In addition to the "big kids" arcade, there is a place next to it with ticket redemption games.
There is also a run down, "blink and you'll walk right by it" mini-golf course and the "kiddie" area with rides and a very cool carousel which was built in 1866. I don't know what it is about these car carousels but I can't get enough photos of it!
Watch out for that shifty mouse in the back corner
Grab Rufus and head to the phone booth, because this week, we’re going back in time! Dial up the year you turned 12, and revisit the last official year of your “childhood.”
While posts to the weekly topics are always varied, I think this week will be especially interesting because we weren't all 12 at the same time...well, I'm guessing most of us weren't. By the way, if you didn't get the "Grab Rufus and head to the phone booth" reference above, you need to see Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure!
This week, the League of Extraordinary Bloggers wants to take you out to the ballgame!
America’s past time has been prominently featured in pop culture for over a century, so this week, we’re talking baseball in an open-ended way!
In my years in the corporate world, I've worked for a few different help desks. On occasion, someone will ask where I'm located and when I mention the Boston area the usual conversation goes like this:
"Oh, so you're a Red Sox fan, eh?"
"No."
"Patriots?"
"No, I don't follow sports."
"Wow you don't follow sports and you live near Boston?!"
That's right! I am one of the least sports-centric people you'll ever run into. Something my wife and I happily share. About the only sports I enjoy watching are volleyball and skateboarding. I never go out of my way to find them, these are the things I will not suffer through if they happen to be on.
Anyway, my extent of baseball experience as a kid was racked up on my Atari 2600, and not even the RealSports version...
