http://custurd.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

On the list at Yahoo’s Most Annoying Flash Animation Contest, or whatever it’s called. I hadn’t seen the flash for this one, but the song’s cool.

Shenanigans in Britannia, from the Ultima V:Lazarus crew.

These guys have put together a compilation of emulated NES games with extensive use of “freeze” files which allow them to stop the game at any point, in order to beat the game in the shortest amount of real time possible.

Many might have seen the 11-minute SMB3 video. It’s here, along with the one where the player bankrupts the computer player at Monopoly in two turns.

Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of Pie-thagoras. Then have some salad.

It’s not that I’m devoting all my time to this lately, but what time I don’t spend working on U5: Lazarus, I spend thinking about it. Lately I’ve been helping to recruit more writers for NPCs, because I’ve recently become aware that the project needs, um, a lot more labor than I originally figured getting on board about two months ago.

A project listing for contractors (unpaid, of course) just went up at Gamasutra, and Tiberius (project lead) tells me he’s already had two inquiries for the 12 hours its been online. So if anyone wants in on the project, hit the Request More Information From Employer button.

Yeah, right!

These guys rock. It’s basically Jackass with a video game theme.

Their DVD is now available, published by SomethingAwful.

Well worth the $60 and the day-long wait to play it. Steam still has a ways to go before it’s perceived as the rock-solid integration of download, billing, authentication and multiplayer matchmaker it was made to be, but as for HL2 itself, it’s a worthy successor to the best FPS on rails ever made — the original HL1.

Though you can’t kill the good guys, at least not on easy setting. Which is not great for realism, but oh well. The airboat ride was fun.

More monkey business here.

My grandfather was drafted into the Army during WWII. He would really rather not have gone.
Continue reading Veterans Day…

A week’s passed since I updated this page, but it’s not as if nothing’s been on my mind. Just none of anyone’s freaking business.

Today I got my computer back. Well, part of it. The process of figuring out what was causing it to freeze up led Jon at Thunderbox to conclude that the hard drive, though possibly showing some signs of wear, wasn’t all bad, but the motherboard, integrated into the mini-box configuration he originally built for me, was bad. So it would need a replacement, which would mean that the whole case would have to be replaced, too, because it was all one unit. And while the hard drive was on warranty, the box and board weren’t.

Fuck. But, I’d had the original box nearly two years, which is long enough to go without much going wrong with it. I paid for the new box and the shipping, Jon worked on it over the weekend, and today I got it back.

It’s all shiny. The original case was unpolished aluminum, and this one is some kind of metal, but I’d have to read up on what it is. It’s a newer model of Soltek’s Qbic line, the EQ3, whereas the old 3000 I had before isn’t available anymore. The new unit features an internal fan system Soltek calls “Icy Q,” and is reasonably quiet, though the noise the box does make is somewhat disquieting — it’s low and grumbly, like an old hungry dog. Weird.

It’s working, so I’m happy. Hope I don’t have to send it in again anytime soon, and I’m looking forward to installing a DVD burner in it.

Other picture-worthy news:

This is the live album produced by the Minibosses. The “WHAT ARE YOU” was written on the plastic wrapping by someone other than me. I don’t know what it means.