Robot Claw

The legendary tournament was fought, and now I am proud to deliver the results!

The competitors were Adam, Bernard and myself. The field of battle was none other than a $5 plug-and-play TV game system. I present, ‘Dream Gear’:

The rules were simple:

1) Play every game that had a score
2) A maximum of 2 minutes per player per game
3) The winner of any game went first on the next game

No practice games! No advance warning of systems, controls or scoring. This would be a battle of giants, where experience, know-how and video gaming wizardry would reign supreme!

Of the 45 games on the Dream Gear, 26 were eligible for the contest. Sadly, such gems as Wonder Rabbit, Mirror Devil World and Goblet Tower lacked scores and were quickly skipped. Of the games played, every possible genre (except for quite a few, actually) were included: jumping games, driving games, sports games, shooters, puzzle games and even simulations.

We were dazzled by the variety. One moment we were navigating a sprite ripped off from Adventures of Lolo (the classic NES game) through a poorly scrolling background in Forest Adventure, and next we were catching gifts thrown at us by a barbaric Saint Niklaus in Mad Xmas. We even entered the world of criminal evidence collection as we played the role of Police Dog Lasy!

The tournament took two nights. The games ranged from terrible great (Fish Story) to criminally incompetent simply average (Dune War), and much enjoyment was to be had as we reviled played each and every one. We were in had so much agony fun, it was a merciful release tearful moment when we completed the last game and put the marathon tourney behind us.

And so, the results! I’ll present two charts before I get to the awards. Firstly, a breakdown of score share per game (click for full size):

Not bad eh? You can see that some games were higher scoring than others, and some players scored higher than others! Here’s a chart of overall score obtained by adding up the scores from each game played:

Some Interesting results there. To save you the trouble, and since a tournament deserves a winner, it’s time for the final results and the final scores.

Awards were presented in three categories:

1) Highest number of wins – awarded to the player who obtained the highest score in the most games
2) Highest overall score – awarded to the player who obtained the highest overall score
3) Overall winner – awarded to the person with the greatest tournament score (see below)

On to the awards!

Amanda Seyfried Award for Highest Number of Wins

And the winner is…. Me! (14 wins in total)

Amanda says: “Yay Robert! You rock! Thanks for watching me in ‘In Time’! xoxo”
I say: “B and A were 100 years too early to beat me this time!”

Mila Kunis Award for Highest Overall Score

And the winner is… Me! (Overal score: 101981)

Mila says: “As a fellow gamer, I’m impressed! You rock! My next film will be great; please see it! oxox”
I say: “Even Sheng Long stood no chance against me!”

Olivia Wilde Award for Overall Tournament Winner

This award – the only one that really matters – was calculated as follows: 3 points per game win, 2 points for second and 1 for third. The final results were as follows:

3) Bernard: 46 points (with 7 wins)
2) Adam: 56 points (with 9 wins)
1) Robert: 58 points (with 14 wins)

Therefore the winner is… Me!

Olivia says: “Tron Legacy gets better with repeated viewings! Also, Mila is older than me! And I was also in ‘In Time’! Oh yes, ‘grats Bobby! xxoo”
I say: “What a close result! I had more wins that Adam, but more losses as well. If he’d  made even a single extra jump in Frantic Mouse he would have been the one getting a kiss from Olivia today. I’ll have to keep this in mind for the rematch!”

And so, another legendary game tournament comes to an end. When will the next one be held? What games will be played? And can I defend my title? Only time can tell…

This morning we visited a most unusual place indeed…

It’s called Exxopolis and is an inflatable art exhibit set up for three weeks right next to the Opera House. Here’s what it looks like outside:

It’s made from transparent plastic which lets the sun through, creating the colours seen when you are inside:

We were both incredibly impressed with the design, engineering and architecture of the piece. If you ever get the chance, don’t hesitate to visit one!

Since we were there anyway, we had to indulge in some tourist snaps:

The rest of our last full day in Sydney was spent eating…

Shopping…

And packing, before – far too late at night – we completed the game tournament begun yesterday.

I’m far too tired to give the results the sort of analysis they deserve, so this must wait for a future post.

In fact I’m just exhausted after 3 weeks with very little rest. My batteries are drained and I’m soon going to need a relaxing vacation. Anyone know of a good way to re-energize me?

Yesterday we drove to Sydney…

Arrived at Adam’s…

Headed up to Randwick for some lunch…

Went into Chinatown for some gaming…

Shopping…

And UFO-catching…

Before having a second lunch…

Yesterday we went on a cruise through Newcastle Harbour and up the Hunter River toward Raymond Terrace. This was our boat:

I’d never been on the harbour, not even on a ferry, so this was quite a new experience. I learned for instance that Newcastle exports 148 million tonnes a year, 142 million of which is coal. A further half a million tonnes is wood chips that are sent to Japan to make high-quality photographic paper. Yes this blog can be educational 🙂

That’s Stockton bridge, which marks the end of the Harbour and the start of the river. Do you see the silhouettes in the foreground? Here’s a better photo:

Yes, we saw dolphins! Bottlenose to be specific, apparently following a school of mullet. There were maybe half a dozen in total.

That’s Hexham bridge, about half way up the Hunter to Raymond Terrace. It’s a lift bridge, and it had to raise to let us through.

It took over two hours to get to our destination, and after a delicious lunch (and a pokey flutter) we reboarded for the return trip.

That’s a shot of some origami boats that dad, Bernard and I made on the return trip. The folds are the same, but the paper size differed. The tiniest one was made from a sheet less than a centimeter on a side.

The above was my entrant in a photo contest judged by my parents. They deemed Bernard’s shot the winner, which shows they simply don’t appreciate fine art.

I very much enjoyed the cruise, and I’m glad we did it. The same company does similar cruises including whale watches, and were I here at the right time I’d certainly take one.

In the afternoon Bernard and I went to the beach for some – you guessed it – long exposure photography!

We saw a hang glider circling low above the beach…

And watched him land right on the sand:

While Bernard was taking his snaps I watched a guy in what looked like military fatigues and wielding a speargun disappear into the surf:

I also met a talkative kiwi who was obsessively searching for octopi in the rock pools. She lived in one of the apartment buildings adjacent to the beach and told me about the dolphins and whales she frequently saw from her balcony. I was jealous 🙂

At night we played cards using new scoring rules, which resulted in wacky strategies and a lot of laughs.

It was a good final day in Newcastle.

Yesterday I went for a walk.

Then we went to the mall and saw Smaug.

Then had lunch.

Then went home, rested, and had dinner.

Then went to bed 🙂