Robot Claw

Yes My Friends, The Fated Day Has Arrived! It’s Time Once Again For The Christmas List!

December 7th, 2016

I got a postcard the other day with a kiwi stamp on it. On the back, next to the sketch of the extinct ‘kiwi squid’, was the following request: “Please blog a Christmas wish list!”
I think we know who sent it, so here goes.

Video Game Section

Slap Fight for the Megadrive is pretty high on my list, but – as with most Genesis shooters – is a real dog to find (boxed with manual of course). It’s a mostly forgotten game these days but I always loved it. Bernard may be able to use his contacts to obtain this, but he’ll weep quietly when he sees the price (>$350) so may want to consider this only-slightly-less-expensive alternate:

Taito Nostalgia 2 is a plug-and-play TV game, which includes a remixed Slap Fight amongst its handful of games. This is a 10 year old JP-only release and may be ‘challenging’ to find at a reasonable price 🙂

That’s a Sega Master System, an obsolete 8-bit system I’ve been getting more and more interested in. They’re not too difficult to find, and not prohibitively expensive, but of course they are nothing without games to play. And here’s where things get a bit chancey. Because if he gets me one of these, he’d have to get me some games as well.

These two are a good start. Other good options include Sagaia, Zillion, Master Of Darkness, Phantasie Star etc. Very likely each of these games will cost more than the system!

Speaking of games…

Bernard’s going to need the devil’s luck finding these two TG-16 games (boxed of course), and then open his wallet wide to get them for me…

RPG Section

This AD&D module was published a startling 31 years ago and is a legendary classic. It’s also bloody expensive and rarely complete (the complete boxed set has oodles of maps and handouts in it). I almost bought it myself about 25 years ago but chose not to knowing that in 2016 my brother would get it for me.

This is apparently a mostly stupid expansion to D&D that was put out in 1986 to keep stubborn gamers who hadn’t moved on to AD&D busy. I’ve always been intrigued but it’s bloody hard to find complete. And sticker-shockingly pricey. Thanks Bernard.

With a bit of effort, sacrifice and prayer Bernard should be able to get me one of these AD&D manuals for under a Benjamin. The Conan ones are apparently very short (one is only 12 pages I think) which means the cost/page is sky-high. Good thing Bernard spares no expense!

Toy Section

Gore Magala Girl just came out. As in last week. It would be challenging get it before Xmas to say the least, plus it’s expensive; more than I’ve ever paid for any figure. I’m putting it here mostly to show it off since you can bet I’m buying it the second I get back from Oz. In other words this was originally added as a sincere list item, but like the ZOID from 2014 I’ve now retracted it to buy it for myself 🙂

Computer Section

That’s a Casio FX 890P handheld computer, which (apparently) has several built-in languages. Just the machine for me to write the next (long awaited) Mercenary King game on. I’m putting any generic programmable handheld computer on this list, so Bernard can surprise me!

That’s a RetroPie handheld. It’s a lovely handheld MAME device based around a Raspberry Pi. Now I have conflicting feelings about emulation, especially of consoles, and frankly couldn’t be bothered setting up a Pi or (even less so) downloading MAME roms. But Bernard will do it all for me, because Christmas 🙂

Trading Card Section

Get me this and I promise you’ll get Tron stickers on postcards 🙂

MTG Section

My MTG basic land collection is pretty massive now and almost complete. But I don’t have any of the five stupidly rare and expensive ‘guru’ lands. If Bernards got about $2000+ lying around, he’ll get me these 5 cards for Christmas!

‘There’s only two weeks and this list is insane!’ Section

– Any Gundam kit
– A t-shirt (size L)
– An interesting jigsaw (suitable for framing)
– Any gamebook I don’t own (check the list on your network)
– No metal miniatures 🙂
– Glowworm stamps!

Posted in Blog, Family, Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

B & L’s Great New Zealand Adventure

December 3rd, 2016

Recently, as you may know, B and L went to New Zealand. Now they’ve both been a bit mysterious about this trip. Where exactly did they go? What did they see? What did they do?

I haven’t even gotten any postcards!

So I have taken it upon myself here to imagine how the seven-day trip may have played out. I’m pretty good at vacation planning, so I reckon this hypothetical NZ adventure is pretty much exactly what they did. So join me dear readers, as we experience New Zealand through the eyes of B and L….

Day 1: Auckland

They landed in Auckland, and spent mere seconds in the hotel before heading out into the city looking for postcards, souvenirs, postage stamps and the nearest McDonalds to try out the local menu item called the Kiwiburger (which doesn’t contain kiwi flesh). As time permitted during all this scurrying, they also did some touristy things in and around the city (such as bungee jumping from that tower).

Day 2: Te Puke

Got up at the crack of dawn and took a train to Te Puke (about 5 hours), arriving before midday. Spent the afternoon at the Kiwifruit theme park Kiwi 360, being sure to ride the kiwifruit-shaped road train, seeing the kiwi birds and eating lots of kiwifruit. After sunset bribed a local fisherman to ferry them out to Motiti Island to see tuatara by torchlight in the wild. Returned to the mainland and took a late taxi to a hotel in Rotorua (about 1 hour).

Day 3: Rotorua

Visited Tamaki Maori Village and were screamed at by ~~professional actors~~ Maori natives. Ate some kiwifruit. Went to the Polynesian Spa for a mineral soak in the afternoon and spend the evening sketching kiwis on dozens of postcards. Relaxed a bit this day, since things would pick up tomorrow.

Day 4: Waitomo

Took a train to Waitomo (about 3 hours) to visit the famous glowworm caves. Found the little buggers dazzling, and make special note to spare no effort in finding and sending brother the full set of glow-in-the-dark glowworm stamps that had been recently issued. After lunch wandered aimlessly through the forest looking for kakapo, and during the late afternoon siesta sketched worms on postcards and grazed on kiwifruit in the hotel. After dinner (kiwifruit pasta) spent time in souvenir shops supporting the local greenstone-carving industry. Had an early night, since things would pick up tomorrow.

Day 5: Tasman Glacier

Woke at 1 am and boarded a chartered helicopter to fly them to Tasman Glacier park on the south island. It cost a small fortune and was terrifying, but was well worth it since the boat trip through the glacial lake in arctic temperatures – or rather the brush with hypothermia due to insufficient warm-weather clothing – made them feel more alive than they had in years. Sadly the kiwifruit supply B was by now carrying in his backpack froze, but as he leisurely sketched frozen vistas on postcards while on the overnight train to Te Anau (about 12 hours) he knew it had all been worthwhile.

Day 6: Te Anau

Visited the other famous glow worm cave, all the way down the southern tip of the south island. They were as dazzled by these little buggers as they had been up north, although perhaps the crisp weather made this experience a little more memorable. Triumphantly found a glow-in-the-dark glowworm postcard in the souvenir store, and later on that day as he sketched glow-worms and wrote my address on the back in glow-in-the-dark ink after applying the full set of glow-in-the-dark stamps he knew that the pinnacle of their trip had been reached. Dinner was steak with kiwifruit jelly washed down with a light kiwifruit juice cocktail. Had an early night since tomorrow would be taxing.

Day 7: Middle Earth

Took a 3 am flight to Auckland (2 hours) and immediately hopped into a rental car and drove 4 hours to Mt Ngauruhoe – aka Mt Doom – since who would go to New Zealand and not visit Mordor? Both of them took turns videoing each other scrambling up the loose shale hills and almost fatally falling before sprinting back to the car and speeding off to Matamata, or as everyone knows it: Hobbiton (about 2.5 hours). Here they rented costumes and spent the afternoon running around as a lady Hobbit and as Gandalf the wizard (watch for a video on youtube soon) before once again driving back to Auckland for some last minute greenstone-carving shopping and then the final mad dash to the airport to catch the flight home.

As I said I haven’t received any souvenirs and/or postcards yet. But I know they’re coming, and they’ll be great. When I get the glow-in-the-dark one covered in glowworms, you can expect to see it right here on the blog 😉

Posted in Blog, Family | 2 Comments »

Thanks Mr Dever

December 1st, 2016

Most of you probably haven’t heard of Joe Dever, even though he was an author of over 50 books that sold more than 10 million copies combined in many languages. As the owner of more than 50 of his books (in several imprints), it was sad to hear that he passed away the other day at the age of 60.

Starting in 1984 Joe Dever was the creator and sole author of the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks that continued for 29 installments and spun off into other gamebook series, novels, computer games, audio books, role-playing games and even a phone-based adventure game. It’s still going strong (more or less) with iOS games, reprints of the books and even a new installment which was released a few months ago. Lone Wolf was every bit as important as the Fighting Fantasy series, and is as much-loved today by it’s legions of fans.

As a 12-year old already caught up in gamebook mania via the Fighting Fantasy series, I ate up the Lone Wolf books when they were first released. Unlike the FF books, they were all set in the same world and told a continuing narrative where you played the same character through each book. You could even use your old character sheet, which was remarkable in those days! The world of Lone Wolf, inhabited by the jedi-like Kai Lords (and more powerful Magnakai) and the evil Daaklords was exotic and dangerous and fascinating and illustrated by the wonderful art of Gary Chalk.

In those days I had no way of knowing when (or if!) a new book in the series would ever come out so it was a real treat when I went to the bookstore and found the latest one. I must have played through at least ten in the series before I grew out of them (as a youth at least). As an adult, when I fell back into gamebooks about a decade ago, it wasn’t long before I’d acquired most of the low-number Lone Wolf books. My collection grew to include a mishmash of USA, UK and Australian imprints and would soon expand to include Dever’s other gamebooks (Combat Command, Grey Star and the Mad-Max Freeway Warrior) as well as Long Wolf novels and the (long sought-after by myself) The Magnamund Companion Lone Wolf Atlas. All of these are now important parts of my collection.

And yet to this day even in my expansive and encyclopedic gamebook collection there are a few books that remain elusive. And many of them are from the Lone Wolf series. I have books 1 through 20 (in some cases, multiple versions of each) and then book 25. This leaves 9 books out there to be one day found, with evocative titles like The Hunger Of Sejanoz and Vampirium. These books had small print runs, are quite rare, and very expensive (hundreds of dollars for some). One day I may own them.

I’ve read every Dever book I own and enjoyed them all. The gamebooks in particular are among the best written, and the quality of the Lone Wolf novels was a great surprise (since my expectations were influenced by the for-kids FF novels). The Lone Wolf books though are the keystones of his legacy, and I’m just one of millions that have enjoyed them now for over thirty years. Apparently Mr Dever was still writing new installments up until he fell ill. Even though those books will never be read, I believe the many works he left behind will keep readers entertained for many years to come.

Posted in Blog, Books & Comics, Gamebooks, Otaku, Time | Comments Closed

It’s Time Again To Talk MTG

November 29th, 2016

The five new Commander 2016 MTG decks came out a month ago and as I usually do, I played them against each other to get their measure. Here’s my conclusion: they are the least fun Commander decks Wizards has put out.

This is not to say they are bad (or even poorly designed). The problem is that as four colour decks they play very slowly, lack focus and (as you can see above) quickly become extremely complicated.

I played 10 games, matching each against the other four, and found them to be mostly well balanced. With three wins the ‘Saskia the Unyielding’ deck (BRGW) seems strongest overall (look at her her leader ability) and the weakest deck is ‘Kynaios’ who only managed one win. The other three had two wins apiece.

Of course I’ve already dismantled the decks to use the cards in other decks and as usual they are well worth it (in my opinion) just for the wealth of powerful cards they contain. While these examples were not as fun as decks themselves, I still think Commander is the best MTG product being released these days.

And while I’m on the topic… Australia 2017 is fast approaching and as always I’ve crafted a few decks for some down under card flopping. Adam’s made a bunch himself (which are no doubt evil…) and even Bernard’s making some. The competition will be intense this trip.

At the risk of revealing my cards – literally! – here’s a rundown of the three I’ll be taking with me.

My first deck – which I call ‘Bang A Boomerang‘ – isn’t that new, being mostly a refinement of a deck I made about five years ago. It’s a control deck based around the above with a couple of other tricks up its sleeve and is both the most successful deck in my playtests and the one that’s least fun to play. I may replace this with a mono creature deck…

I love the bicolour enchantment cycle from Eventide and crafted an entire deck – I call ‘Deathlink’ around the one shown above. This is a very conventional creature based deck that I already know is vulnerable to the gimmicks of both A and B’s decks. While I think it’s fun to play, I’m not expecting many wins from this one in two player, but perhaps more success in multiplayer.

The third deck – let’s call it ‘Overload’ – was inspired by the above card, which is in one of the Commander decks. Currently in flux, this is a high concept, very unusual deck that has a very fragile win condition but should – I hope – create spectacular multiplayer games. Fingers crossed!

I can’t wait to play these. I can’t wait to see Adam’s decks. I can’t wait to lose to Bernard’s evil black deck not to mention see what his other one is. I’m pretty sure there’s some titanic flopping in the not-too-distant future…

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

My Collection: Wonderswan

November 17th, 2016

In 1999, Bandai – no doubt tempted by the oodles of cash Nintendo were raking in via their Gameboy – released their own handheld system called the Wonderswan. It was notably designed by legendary hardware engineer Gunpei Yokoi (who created the Gameboy and many other Nintendo products) and was less expensive, more powerful and had longer battery life than the Gameboy. Bandai leveraged their contacts within the anime industry to deliver a wealth of licensed games unique to the system. It was quite a success in Japan in the first couple of years, obtaining almost 10% of the portable market. Then along came the Gameboy Advance, which killed the Wonderswan almost immediately, and despite two updates in as many years, the Wonderswan was discontinued in 2003. It was never released outside of Japan.

I bought mine in Japan in 2004 for Y3600, or about $31. This was the final iteration of the system, called the SwanCrystal. It boasted better battery life and a colour screen compared to the original version, but is reverse compatible with all Wonderswan games. Mine came with two games and I bought 7 more at a total cost of an additional $45 (approximately). Here are the games I bought that day:

I bought it in Akihabara, on the first or second day of the trip at a branch of ‘Super Potato’ if memory serves me correctly. Of the games shown above, only Final Fantasy IV (Y1900) and Front Mission (Y1800) cost much at all – Densha de Go! was an incredible Y80 (about $0.70)!

I still have fond memories of playing the system in the inn at night during that very trip to Japan. In those days, this was extremely advanced handheld technology.

The system uses a single AA battery and has a (non backlit) 224×144 resolution colour LCD screen. It’s very reflective, which made taking photographs difficult. As you can see the cartridge-to-system ratio is enormous, and the cartridges for the WS are not just big compared to itself, but amongst the biggest handheld system cartridges I’ve ever seen. The pool game (Sidepocket) was made before the colour version came out and is B&W only. Here’s a shot of the graphics:

The Wonderswan feels more like a toy than it’s competitors, but delivers in the gameplay department. The screen refresh is much better than it was on the gameboy, and the graphics and sound are still impressive today. I forget the battery life but it was surprisingly long for a single AA, and I very much enjoyed playing the FF games on this system long before ports came out for the Gameboy Advance. As you can see, it took me over 28 hours to reach the end of Final Fantasy IV:

The game is of course all in Japanese (as would be virtually every game for the system) but I had played it multiple times before so that didn’t bother me. Here’s a photo of the fight against Bahamut:

Note the unusual controls of the system, specifically the two d-pads on the left. This was so the games could be played either vertically or horizontally, or even by two people at once. No game I have supports vertical (or 2P) mode so I don’t know what it’s like, but the small size of the system would make holding it vertically uncomfortable for an adult.

As with most retro game systems, and despite being at best a footnote and at worst unknown, the WS seems to be appreciating in value these days. A boxed SwanCrystal can be picked up for about $80+ on ebay, although apparently mine is one of the less common colours (‘blue violet’) and may cost twice that. Games range in price from a few dollars up to over $1000. And yes, that’s no mistype: go and search ebay for ‘Judgement Silversword’ to see what I mean. I just checked ebay for the ‘value’ of my games and found most of the WS Colour ones to be going for about $20-30 each (boxed).

However to me my most prized game is actually this one:

It’s an adventure-type game based on the Uzumaki manga by Junjo Ito. It’s B&W since it was for the basic WS, and virtually unplayable for me due to the language barrier, but I’m a big fan of the manga so I couldn’t resist buying the game ‘for the collection’ when I saw it a few years after I’d bought the WS during a later Japanese trip. Here’s a screenshot:

This game was also the reason for the one-and-only Wikipedia edit I ever made. But that’s another blog entry…

Posted in Games, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Retro, Tech | 1 Comment »