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Seaside Rendezvous

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Everyone on the west coast went to Santa Cruz yesterday, so naturally we joined them. This meant that a 40 minute drive actually took 90 minutes. Then we had to find a carpark, which was not easy. But eventually we succeeded, and made our way to the shore.

That’s the pier there (or ‘wharf’ as they call it), and the less popular side of the beach. We walked to the end of this pier, filled with fisherpeople, souvenir stores, restaurants and homeless guys. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant with a view, although B & L looks like they weren’t having much fun:

Must be my company 😉

At the end of the pier, Bernard’s mood had clearly not improved:

It’s almost like he was faking it isn’t it? 😉

Bernard took a panorama of the wharf on his phone. Strangely, I seemed to end up in it multiple times. Once again, it’s almost as if this was done on purpose!

As you walk along the wharf, you can hear suspicious sounds emanating from underneath. At several points mysterious stairs lead to platforms underneath, where visitors can view the source of the sounds. They look like this:

California sea lions! Cute little buggers; this photo was taken by noodling my camera around a chain link fence. I was about 2 feet from this guy, who I suppose could have nipped my fingers off in a millisecond had we not become fast friends on sight!

After we’d spent enough time out on the wharf to guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had sunburned my cheeks and the top of my head, we started back toward the shore and the Santa Cruz boardwalk.

As you can see the crowds were quite large. The lines for the rides were particularly long, and in most cases in the open, hot sun. Needless to say, I joined none of them. Lakshmi headed for the sand, while Bernard and I zoomed toward the principle reason we’d headed to Santa Cruz – the arcade 🙂

We had a tournament! The rules were simple: Play games that gave scores, and for each game won (ie. higher score) that person got a point. The overall winner would be the one with the most points. The following fifteen games were played: Track & Field, Soul Calibur 2, Strikers 1945, Kung Fu Master, Tempest, Dragons Lair, Pac Man, Street Fighter Alpha, Tetris, Asteroids, Ripleys Believe It Or Not (Pinball), an old-timey arcade light-gun game, Panic Museum, a very terrible DC comics fighting game and one other I can’t recall.

Kung Fu Master is still fun. It had been aeons since I last played it!

Strikers 1945 is an awesome shooter. If I lived in Santa Cruz I’d play it all the time. I wonder if AW recalls the time he and I beat this on two player in a tiny little arcade in the Randwick mall?

The overall results of the tournament was 13-2 in my favour. The Schmitz arcade legend it seems survives in only one of us these days ;P

So effortless were my victories in most of the games that when it came to Pac Man, in which I went first and set a score that Bernard deemed undefeatable, we agreed if he scored 25% of my total he would win. Even then I prevailed! In fact on one of his lives it was almost like he was demonstrating the absolute shortest path possible into the jaws of the red ghost 🙂

Note the advanced “one hand leaning on the cabinet” pose I adopted for Pac Man!

Right after I had beaten Bernard in SF Alpha, a guy who had been watching joined in and challenged me. He was about my age and (I suspect) planning to impress his younger daughter who was wit him. In Bernard’s words, here is what happened:

“What happened? Well he was destroyed! (laughing) He didn’t stand a chance. He was destroyed. He didn’t seem to enjoy it at all. (laughing) He was destroyed pretty decisively. I think you perfected him actually on the first round.”

The guy returned for a second game, in which I played sub par to give him a chance, but rapidly defeated him again. He looked crestfallen. Such is the fate of all who challenge a master 😉

You’re wondering which of the two games Bernard was victor in? Well the first was Track & Field. Were I a sore loser I may be inclined to mention I may have prevailed had my jump button actually worked. But the other game? It was this arcade light gun game.

Bernard beat me convincingly in this game. 20 shots were provided for a dollar. I hit 7 targets, he hit 15. He actually played the game three times and did well in each. Had our tournament consisted of 15 rounds of this, the results would have been reversed 🙂

Posted in Family, Games, Miscellaneous, Toys, Trip | 2 Comments »

Foodie

Monday, August 6th, 2012

The day I got here we didn’t do anything touristy; just went to some shops and grabbed some food and saw Total Recall in the evening. It’s always fun to be in a new place and catch up with old friends so it was a good time.

Here’s the lunch that day, at a burger joint named Lumpy’s:

That’s of course not our entire lunch. That’s just the potato. Lumpy’s has a gimmick where you pick your own potato they then turn into your fries. Anyway the food was good at the time, but I seem to recall the double-patty burger gave me meat sweats!

Shortly after, in a mall, we played Miss Pac Man…

Now Florence had never played this, and was initially impressed by my (actually not great) skills. Only when I suggested we make it a competition did her game drastically improve even as mine diminished. The final score? See for yourself:

A couple more random shots:

That was last nights dinner, which was barbecue. It was quite delicious!

There’s a patriot just driving his pickup. Not long after this was taken we were cut off by what looked like an Aryan driving out of Chik-Fil-A in a massive pickup with ‘THe world is better because of Jesus Christ’ written on one side and some anti-Obama insult to liberal voters on the back…

There’s me enjoying a Costco hotdog. Florence seemed amused I bought one, since I was only supposed to get a drink and had claimed meat sweats only minutes before 🙂

Posted in Food, Games, Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

Sound Interface Devices

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Before I start, open this in another window and listen to it while reading.

That’s a piece of commodore 64 game music being played by the SID chip, which was the sound processor inside the C64. This particular tune was composed by one of the maestro’s of the SID, Ben Daglish.

Wizball was a another classic Commodore 64 game. In my opinion, maybe the best I ever played. It had great graphics, great gameplay and famous music. Listen to it here, and marvel that Martin Galway managed to coax that tune from a (now) 30 year old 3 channel sound chip! Apparently he based it on the work of Jean-Michel Jarre, but it just sounds like Kraftwerk to me. I was in my early teens when I played these games. I can recall for a long time having the C64 in my bedroom, and I’d often load up games (including Wizball) and leave them in the attract mode while I did other stuff. Cauldron 2 was another example (and another great theme), I’d be plotting my path via a map while listening to the songs. And Sanxion was another. In an interview I recently read with the composer of the Sanxion theme, he said that at the time he looked at his tunes and disposable. Not so Mr Hubbard, you and your ilk created an entire genre of music that persists today!

Game music is a funny thing. Much like songs by our favourite artists, the music of the games we play stick with us as well, and can trigger powerful memories. This post was originally going to be about SID music exclusively, but after starting I found myself thinking about – and then listening to – beloved music from a lifetime of gaming. Such nostalgia!

In 198X I used to wait on Hunter Street, for the bus, in front of an old arcade. This would not have been coincidence – likely the money for the bus was the only cents I had left after spending everything else in that very arcade. I even sometimes skipped food and drink for a few extra games. At the time of this memory, the arcade prominently featured Gauntlet II at the entrance, speaker turned up to 11. To this day, the theme tune evokes powerful memories of my youth.

Many of these games are almost lost to us now. I can’t easily play Wizball or Gauntlet II anymore. But the music lives on, and I suspect will live on longer than the games ever can. Some of the tunes have already become immortal, such as this one or this one. They were both composed by the same person: Koji Kondo. Games containing his work have been played by hundreds of millions of players, and his signature themes have become as important to the series they were created for (Mario and Zelda) that they have survived and evolved through 30 years of sequels.

18 years ago, when I reviewed Final Fantasy VI for SNES in my fanzine, with regards to the sound I said: “This game exceeds in every possible way!”

Even then I may have occasionally exaggerated, but with regards to this comment I can look back and say I was indeed correct. Final Fantasy VI was a masterpiece of game design, with incredible graphics, gameplay and innovative and complex game systems. That it has barely been equalled – much less surpassed – by the 7 games in the series since 1994 is testament to just how great it is. But what is perhaps most remarkable is that the best feature of the game is the story, and specifically the way the story is intertwined with the soundtrack.

Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the music in Final Fantasy VI was not digitized, and all created by the sound chip in the SNES. Although only about 10 years had passed since the heydays of the SID chip and C64 music, you’d never tell by listening to what Uematsu managed to achieve from the SNES. Take this example, Terra’s Theme, which isprobably my favourite game music of all time (and yes, this is played by a SNES):

The game was loaded with impressive music, and many fans (including myself) would just pause the game to enjoy the music by itself. A pivotal and very emotional scene in the game was played out via an opera scene with modulated simulated voices. This signature scene (shown in full in the video below) is one of the most inventive and successful ‘cutscenes’ in game history – all realized with 16 bit animations and chip music from an SNES. Even watching it now it brings back powerful memories of the entire game. Because of how much I grew to love the music in this game, Final Fantasy VI was the first game soundtrack that I ever bought.

These days virtually all our music comes from computers. Since the technical limitations are gone, there is no longer a distinction between ‘game music’ and ‘real music’. Where once the composers had to create not only beautiful tunes, but also cram them into impossibly small amounts of memory or sound channels, now they can utilize complete orchestras and record as much music as their budget allows. And yet far too often game music is still seems to be an afterthought (especially the worst offending games, which just license charts hits and play them in the background). But the best games are often as good as they are not just because of gameplay or graphics, but because of music as well. I’m sure that 18 years from now the music of the games I remember playing at age 40 will still be strong in my memory.

Posted in Art, Family, Games, Music, Tech, Time | Comments Closed

Super Ox Wars

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, Llamasoft released their latest game for iOS, Super Ox Wars.

It’s a vertical shooter inspired by Star Force that includes an Ikaruga-like polarity system. Depending on what pickups you obtain (and seemingly what you kill) your bullets will be blue stars or red hearts.

It’s frantic, fun, and gets challenging very quickly. Although it’s not difficult to obtain massive amounts of firepower, the same is so for the enemy, and after a few levels the game becomes a real bullet hell shooter.

It’s even more difficult than, say, a Cave shooter since Minter included no slowdown when the bullets start to take over the screen. I love it!

And I reckon you’ll love it too, especially if your a fan of 1980s arcade shooters. Or any other Llamasoft game for that matter!

I’m currently ranked 8th in the world in ‘Pure’ mode (and SFL is snapping at my heels). Can you beat me?

Posted in Animals, Games | 2 Comments »

Magic 2013 Prerelease Report

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

Yesterday I went to the prerelease of the latest MTG core set, Magic 2013. The format was the same as all the others I have attended: you get 6 boosters, and have to form a minimum 40-card deck from them using land provided at the store. Four rounds would then be played (each round is best of 3), and the top 8 of the 32 entrants would enter a series of final rounds for prizes.

I hadn’t looked much at the set prior to attending, but expected I’d end up playing a green/white deck since that’s usually what I do at such events. However when I started opening my boosters I just kept seeing good red and black cards. In fact once I’d opened and sorted everything, not only where the red and black piles slightly larger than the other colours, but the cards themselves were better as well. It was therefore an easy solution to play a black/red deck.

My deck contained the following (notable in brackets):
– 9 black creatures (Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis), Duty-Bound Dead)
– 4 red creatures (Goblin Arsonist x3)
– 4 black spells (Murder)
– 4 red spells (Reverberate)
– 2 artifacts (Ring of Xathrid)
– 2 dual lands (Dragonskull Summit)
– 9 swamps
– 6 mountains

2013 introduces the exalted keyword to black cards, and there are quite a few of them containing it. Exalted proved to be popular with many players at the prerelease, and in fact every single one of the 6 decks I played against utilized exalted cards (ie. contained black or white colours).

The design intent behind my deck was speed coupled with buffed single attackers via exalted. I also through in a bit of direct damage and graveyard love (Rise From The Dead, Disentomb). It only took me a few minutes to put it together, and a few test-deals I made before starting seemed promising. Happily, the deck ended up working quite well, and here are the results of the qualifying rounds:

Round 1: My opponent was playing white/red soldiers token deck with a bit of exalted. His deck couldn’t hope to match the speed of mine and I easily defeated him 2-0 without ever losing a single point of life:

Round 2: A face-off against a very similar (red/black) deck to mine. I had more creatures, he had more spells, including 3 Murder’s (to my 1) and 2 Disentomb’s. My best play was to Reverberate one of his Murder’s to kill his irritating Xathrid Gorgon after he’d buffed it with several enchants and was about to kill me with it. Although I won 2-1 overall, the battle was hard fought.

Round 3: A battle against another green/white deck, full of weenie creatures that he was trying to buff. My 3 Goblin Arsonist’s really came into their own during this round, since I often used them as blockers to kill 2 toughness guys or to kill two 1 toughness guys each. Also, in every single of the three games against this guy I Reverberated his Captain’s Call, much to his amusement. I won overall 2-1, and was chuffed when – to the surprise of my opponent who didn’t know it was possible – I used the ability on the Ring of Xathrid to regenerate my Nefarox after he cast Planar Cleansing (note to MTG nerds: this action is why Wrath of God will never be reprinted; it’s too powerful). When I did this, he said “That’s why you deserved to win” 🙂

Round 4: My final qualifying opponent used red/black as well, and his deck was the strongest of the 6 I played against. Not only did he have astonishingly lucky rare draws (2 Nefarox’s, 1 Xathrid Gorgon) but he also had 2 mythic’s (Chandra the Fireblaze, Vampire Nocturnus). 2013 reprints Gilded Lotus, and of course he had that as well. It was quite astonishing to play two games against him where he had close-to-perfect draws and got his big guys out quickly and beat me 0-2 in the same way I had beat my first opponent! He was a nice guy though, so even in defeat the games were fun.

After the qualifiers I was 6-4-0, and made it into the top 8! This meant I was guaranteed booster packs as prizes, I just didn’t know how many yet. The win-loss ratio’s are wiped in the finals, so even though I had lost one qualifier round I still (theoretically) had a chance. I was realistic though: that last guy’s deck was a monster and I knew he’d beat me again if we faced up.

But it was not to be. The first round of finals paired me against a black/green deck heavy on removal (again 3 Murder’s!) and exalted creatures (note to Florence: this was ‘viking’). The first two rounds were traded 1-1, and it was down to the third. This proved to be an epic game, where he had a Xathrid Gorgon out and kept petrifying my creatures as I cast them. However he couldn’t attack, since I had more blockers than him and kept drawing creatures. Furthermore, he had a Ring of Xathrid on his Gorgon, and I had one on my Liliana’s Shade, and both had over 15 tokens! It was a classic standoff; we were both top-decked and alternated inactive turns until the 30th (!) draw when he drew the guy above, cast it, and put 18 1/1 Saprolings into play. I was doomed, and he won 2 turns later with only 1 card left in each of our libraries. I got the impression this opponent was not used to defeat (he had gone into the finals 8-0), since he became increasingly more serious and attentive as the rounds went on, to the point of being fixated during the last game which could have gone either way.

The finals were single-elimination and I was knocked out in round 1. My eventual standing was tie 6th, which netted me 3 booster packs as prizes. In one of them I found the reprint of one of my favourite cards of all time, with brand new art by my favourite MTG artist of all time. Happy day!

What’s that you ask? I mentioned 6 opponents?

Good catch! The store owner had cancelled one of the four prerelease events due to low signups, and therefore had extra boxes of boosters he had to distributes. So he was running a side-contest “Beat me for booster packs!”. He made his own deck, and played any challenger and gave them a free booster if he won. I accepted his challenge after I was knocked out of the finals, and actually lost! But since it was a good game and we had a good chat (I discovered he worked for Wizards Of The Coast for a year about 10 years ago), he gave me a booster anyway 🙂

Posted in Games, MTG, Otaku | Comments Closed

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