Sunday, October 20, 2013

The cool art that I bought from my friend, Nick Callihan.  Got a frame for it at Michael's for $5 (I used a 40% off coupon).  But I'm digging it.  It's now on my wall next to the Beastie Boys concert poster (transformers style art) and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendar from 1989 (hey, it was a very good year for SI swimsuit models). 

Anyway, Mr. Callihan participates in the live art show at the Movie Tavern (133 N Locust Hill Dr., Lexington KY) so maybe catch him there and say howdy.  Or tell him "yo mama" jokes.  Your choice.  

Jack N The Box is in Cincinnati!  This picture, taken Memorial Day Weekend, is proof of that (okay, so it's kinda old news).  But I'm still excited.  I'll list my Jack N The Box "eatage" from the past five years: October 2008 (trip to Hawaii), May 2013, August 2013, (and hopefully November 2013 and December 2013!).  If you couldn't add, it had been nearly FIVE years since I had the sweet sweet taste of Jack N The Box.  Yup, I think that's a valid reason to still be excited.

Oh yeah, and I guess I'm back on this blog of mine (for the time being).  

Sunday, August 21, 2011

UPS LAND Jr: Update

Pictured above is the title screen for UPSLAND JR. And below is a screenshot of the actual gameplay.
It looks a lot better than the earlier version. The sprites are crisp and clean. The UPS shield border looks sharp. And, of course, the background looks very kick ass! The game music is from the NES game, Kung Fu (grabbed it from here). And the know-how to make a title screen was learned from this youtube fellow.

As I said before, it's a simple game. Grab the goodies, avoid the baddies. But I'm proud of it.

Next up on the polish list: Fix the Kung Fu music to loop without a fade out.

If I can find a site that allows uploads, I'll upload UPSLAND JR on it.

UPDATE: Signed up for an account on MegaUpload.com and uploaded the game: UPSLand JR. Link will take you to my file for UPSLand Jr. No account is necessary to download from MegaUpload. I have to warn you though, this is an uncompressed file. So the download may take awhile.

Friday, August 19, 2011

UPSLAND Jr

This is a game I created with a program called GameMaker 8.1. The object of the game is to click on the boxes, hotdogs (safety dogs), gold coins, and Mystery Box. These items earn the player points. Avoid the poison sign (hazmat) and the anti-money sign. These take away points. And avoid clicking on the dark polo shirt, as this ends the game (you're fired!).

The GameMaker software was easy for me to use. No programming knowledge needed! It was easy to understand, yet still customizable. All of the game graphics were put into the game by me. I fully customized the sound that each piece makes (Homer's "D'oh" is played when you click on the poison sign; the hotdog sounds like the power-up mushroom from Mario Bros). It's a simple game (try to click on the pieces as they fly around) but I liked it. I think the software shows promise.

It might be what I need to create UPSLAND.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Roms in progress

This is the start screen to the NES game, Super Mario Bros. Using a text editor, some of the text has been changed (unless you remember playing as Gonzo or Duke).
And this is the Game Over screen with modifications from the same text editor.

Making modifications with a text editor is as simple as knowing how to spell. You simply substitute "Game Over" with "UPS Wins" and you've modified your game. There are a lot of rom hacks out there. A rom hack is a video game that has been modified. This can be anything from a lightly modified game (Mario without a mustache for example) all the way to a heavily modified game (basically a brand new game). Serious modifications usually involve a lot of programming knowledge, something that I don't have.

But I want to make a rom called UPSLand. I want to change the Mario and Luigi sprites (game character graphics), the enemy sprites, some of the background, and maybe the music. Of course, I'll be happy with the first 2 out of four. But that's my new project. Learn some programming. Make a game.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Taco Biff Baseball 2011

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Revolting Youth


It was damn good. Sorry, that's a piss poor review. But my shoulder hurts and I'm tired from work, so...it is what it is. Damn good book. Ordered Young and Revolting on ebay. It should be good.

And see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It was a damn good movie.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Spoiler Alert!!! Don't Read This If You Haven't Seen Inception Yet!

Okay. Now I'm going to talk about Inception and I didn't want to spoil the awesome movie for anyone. Seriously, if you haven't seen it and want to, please don't read this post. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Okay, hopefully if you're still reading, you have already seen it (or don't plan on seeing it). As you know, the movie has an open ending. Dom spins the little metal top and just as it seems like it might waiver and fall, the credits roll. So is he still in a dream or not? Of course there is no way to tell for sure. The movie ends before anyone knows. But here are some clues that I've gathered after my second viewing of the great movie.

-Since we don't know how much time has past between the last time Dom saw his kids and the present time, we have no way of knowing how much the children have aged. Maybe only a few months. Maybe a few years. About 30 minutes into the film, Dom talks to his children over the phone. His son sounds like a little kid (muppet-ish voice, asking kid-like questions). But his daughter sounds like she is 10 or 12. In Dom's memory, the children look like they are between 4 and 8 years old. They also seemed close in age. So the daughter couldn't be 10 or 12 and the son still a muppet sounding toddler. But at the end of the movie, Dom sees his kids again and they look exactly like they did in his memory. It makes it seem like a dream and since we can't see what happens to the spinning top (it only topples in reality), I guess that's the point. POINT: Not sure.

-Michael Caine plays Dom's father. At one point Dom has presents for his children and asks Michael Caine to send it to them. Caine says something about how stuffed animals aren't going to make Dom's children forget that they don't have a father. If Dom's children were a lot older, stuffed animals wouldn't be an appropriate gift. So the fact that his gift was stuffed animals makes it seem like they are still little. POINT: Ending was reality.

-At the end of the movie, Michael Caine is waiting at the LA airport for Dom, seemingly out of the blue. The Michael Caine parts in the movie go like this: Dom goes to Paris to see Caine, dropping off gifts for his stateside children and seeking new talent for this one last job. Caine recommends Ellen Page's character. 2 hours of movie go by and then at the end, Caine is there to pick up Dom at the airport. Granted, Dom could have called his dad and said, "Hey pops, I'm coming back to the states. I might be going straight to jail or I might be scott free. Either way, can you pick my ass up?" I mean, they don't usually show characters going to the bathroom or eating breakfast. It could have happened. And I know Christopher Nolan didn't include such a scene because it would have ruined the open ending. But I don't think it's likely that Caine's character was there at the LA airport. When we last saw Caine, he was in Paris. Dom flew into LA on a 10 hour flight from Australia. Is that enough time? And why didn't Dom's mother (or whoever is watching over his kids) pick him up instead? POINT: Ending was a dream.

-The little metal top is a talisman that Dom uses to verify that he is back in the real world and not still dreaming. When Dom spins it in the real world, it spins for a while, waivers, then falls down. While in a dream, the top spins endlessly. At the end of the movie, Dom spins the top, then sees his children and runs out to them. The top continues to spin while Dom is hugging his children in the background. Then the top starts to waiver and BOOM, the credits roll. From what we saw in the movie, the top wouldn't have waivered at all in a dream. The fact that it does start to waiver is a clue that gravity is in effect and that Dom is in the real world. POINT: Ending was reality.

After all that, I'm still not sure what it is. If it is a dream or reality. But Inception is a kickass movie. That much I know.