This week’s game review is the awesome new Odyssey2 homebrew, Mr. Roboto! (with many, many thanks to Jarett at Packrat for the “review copy” of the cart - seriously, I just started out asking him for a couple of JPEGs of the thing running on an emulator!). The first video piece I did - thanks in no small part to the AmpSwap (described in a pair of previous entries) - had no sound. Au contraire - this game has sound out the wazoo, from both the console itself and, if you’ve got one plugged in, the add-on Voice of Odyssey speech synthesizer module. Once I did some more work with the amp situation, I decided to have another go at it , and thought I’d see if I could record the Voice, which has its own speaker and doesn’t transmit its audio through the RF modulator, as with the console sound. Basically, this means you have to stick a microphone on the Voice and mix that in with the game sound.

Only one problem: I can’t seem to find my microphone anywhere. But here’s how I stubbornly proceeded to record it anyway. Continue Reading »

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Thanks to my wife promising her dad that sure, Earl would be happy to spend all of his Saturday night dubbing VHS tapes for him, the somewhat leisurely “I’ll get it done when I get it done” schedule for swapping out the A/V amps got ramped up to “get it done by 7 o’clock tonight so you can stay up all night dubbing tapes and then go feed horses.” Tomorrow we’re also supposed to get together with my wife’s cousin and her husband, who is home on leave after spending way too long in Baghdad. I’m not going to get into the politics of pulling out or not pulling out; put simply, I think it’s hard to disagree that one day serving in the U.S. armed forces in the danger zone in Baghdad is one day too long. Her cousin’s husband has been there a few hundred days too long.

Anyway, on to the completion of the AmpSwap project, which rapidly turned into an exercise in banging my forehead into the nearest solid surface. Pics aplenty, so… Continue Reading »

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The rumblings are already beginning, though I’m not sure where folks are getting their information, that Sci-Fi Channel is - supposedly - not going to heavily promote its newest acquisition, the #1 drama series in Britain in 2005, Doctor Who. Stand back and prepare for me to really go off here, both from a fannish perspective and from the perspective of someone who promotes TV for a living.

Okay, well, maybe go off is a bit strong. First off, it is just a rumor and I’m trying to keep that much in mind. Despite that, we’re less than a month out from the premiere - and Thursday night was the first night I’ve heard any reports of someone seeing an actual on-air promo for the show’s March 17th premiere. And we’re talking about a network that has been known to promote stuff months in advance of the premiere. So while I am skeptical of the nature of this “news,” on a certain level I can feel in my bones that it is probably true.

If it is true, then Doctor Who is falling victim to the same thing that plagued it in 1996 on Fox: even with decent ratings, no one’s going to give it the promotional TLC that will be needed to get a U.S. audience to watch a distinctly British series because It’s Not Their Product. In ‘96, Universal didn’t put any great pressure on Fox to look at the Doctor’s series potential, because they only had, at best, a 50% stake in the McGann movie (and even less creative control). They were much more keen on pushing Sliders to Fox, which Universal owned lock, stock and barrel. (That info comes from the excellent book “Doctor Who: Regeneration,” by the way, by Gary Russell and and ‘96 movie producer Philip Segal.)

The same thing applies here. It’s not a Sci-Fi Original, nor is it going to become one. While Canada’s CBC got into the game early enough to be labeled “co-producers” on the first season, Sci-Fi clearly dragged their asses on signing up for the new show. (But I’m not complaining here; the loss of Sci-Fi as a co-producer has killed stuff like Farscape in the past. So I’m not bemoaning the fact that Sci-Fi isn’t demanding a piece of the production pie here - the show failing on Sci-Fi in the States due to lack of promotion doesn’t kill the show everywhere in the world.)

In the meantime, keep in mind also that the BBC has exercised its rights to the Who franchise to release over a hundred novels, and, through outside licensees, dozens of audio dramas and other products bearing the logo and the likeness of the star of that 1996 movie, all of which has put absolutely nothing in Universal’s coffers. Oh, by the way, refresh my memory…who owns Sci-Fi Channel?

On the less conspiratorial side of things, the fact that Doctor Who was one of the BBC’s top ratings-grabbers in 2005 may well be working against the show in the States. It did so well in Britain, why pour a lot of promotional energy into it here? Memo to Sci-Fi: one of the reasons that it did so well was that the BBC launched a very carefully engineered promo campaign that positioned the new Doctor Who as a new series that anyone could enjoy, not the latest entry in a franchise with 40+ years of backstory and continuity wrapped up in several media. It’s just possible that Sci-Fi Channel simply doesn’t know how to promote the new Doctor Who. (When, in fact, the ample material created to promote the show on the BBC from late 2004 through early 2005 should point the way for them; simply adapting that existing material would be cost-effective, and it apparently drew viewers to their TV sets overseas.)

The new series doesn’t require a full knowledge of every episode of the “classic” series to enjoy it, but the audience needs to know that. Hell, the audience needs to know where and when the show is. I hope the rumors of minimal promotion will be proven false in the coming weeks; I’d love to find that I’m jumping the gun on this one (even if it lumps me into the craignotbond.com camp ). I’d love to see the new Who find a steady spot in the U.S. TV schedule; I’d love to be able to see it without dipping into the questionable waters of downloading or getting tapes from across one border or another. Sci-Fi could have yet another hit on their hands here, and could make Sci-Fi Fridays a year-round ratings-grabber.

But first they have to put some time and effort into it. Something more than just buying the rights. Call me, Sci-Fi. We’ll do lunch. If you won’t listen to the BBC’s marketing experts, who successfully launched this show into the stratosphere, I’d be more than happy to help.

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Think of it as Wife Swap, without the traumatized spouse and children, and with lots more RCA ports. Today I disconnected everything from the back of my original A/V amp so I can swap it out with the one in the living room. I labeled everything, albeit temporarily, as I unplugged it, and believe me, every plug on the back of this thing had something in it.

I’m curious as to how my wife is going to like having my amp instead of hers, for one simple reason: mine has no remote control, so one has to get up and adjust the volume manually. We’ll see how well that goes over. Continue Reading »

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OK, so I’ve got this goofy project I’d like to pull off with a minimum of effort. The problem is that I’m about as much of a handyman as my cat is. Actually, my cat’s handier than I am - he can dig a hole to the other side of the world in his litterbox while I get winded moving the same amount of dirt with a shovel. So any ideas would be welcome here.

Basically, I want to recreate, on a small scale, a portion of a retail store for a photo/video shoot. I’ve come to the realization recently that I’m way behind on opening action figures that I’ve bought, and/or there are some I’m deliberately leaving on their cards. But as a result of this, I’ve got this wild variety of different action figure ranges represented, sometimes in fairly substantial numbers - Star Wars Episode II/”blue Saga packaging,” Episode III, greeen Power of the Force, carded Babylon 5, Doctor Who, and even some Star Trek: TNG and DS9 figures still in the original packaging. I’m trying to figure out how I can mock up a section of the “pegs” these puppies would be sitting on in a store and get some pictures (and maybe some video) for a future incarnation of thelogbook’s toy section of what amounts to an impossible dream assortment of pristine product still on the pegs. And I’m trying to figure out how to do this with a minimum of cash (or, actually, in the complete absence of cash) and without having to build some permanent monstrosity that’s always going to be taking up space in the house. It doesn’t need to be perfect with price tags and particle board with peg holes in the background; it just needs to give an impression of that little slice of the retail environment.

There’s a method to my madness, and a reason for it too, but for now, I’m all ears for any ideas anyone may have. Me and my crazy ideas, huh?

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…I followed a Sci-Fi Wire link to CraignotBond.com, one of the most humiliatingly immature things I’ve ever seen any stripe of any fandom put out there for all to see. I’m not a rabid Bond fan, but I do enjoy a bit of 007 from time to time. I’m curious about the new casting choice and only just learned about the “reboot” of Bond continuity as of the next movie. I suppose I’d be more worked up about a reboot of Doctor Who or Star Trek, but then again, look what it’s done for Battlestar Galactica. Who can really say anymore?

Look, if the fans (assuming there’s actually a collective of people behind that site, instead of one disgruntled overbearing loudmouth with a web hosting account) who created this site are pissed that Pierce Brosnan wasn’t brought back…that’s okay. That’s acceptable. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and to the freedom to voice it. But they’re also entitled to hear others voice their opinions of the original opinion when it the foundation of that original statement is badly constructed. If the person behind that site is trying to construct a logical argument of why Daniel Craig isn’t a good choice to be the new James Bond, he falls short of the mark. The basis of his arguments tends to be an unfavorable opinion of the actor in question, but that opinion is stated in the form of insults that seem to be bordering at times on hysteria (i.e. “his blunt features are more suggestive of a pugilistic victim of Rocky Balboa than of suave secret agent”). There seems to be a lack of acceptance that Craig is an actor capable of exploring new territory with his performance; the writer lumps Craig the actor in with a series of lowlife characters he’s played in the past. And even potentially juicy tidbits, such as the possibility that Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen were under consideration, are, despite being key parts of the writer’s argument, admittedly nothing more than rumors. Worse yet, toward the bottom of the “Craig is not Bond!” page, the writer’s arguments descend into a childish tirade that seems to climax with a little whiff of homophobia. (I’m not saying that Bond should be bisexual all of a sudden, but again, the writer of that argument is confusing the actor with a past character, not seeming to take into account that other people wrote and directed whatever it was Daniel Craig was in - it’s not like he showed up at a random movie set and said “Hey, I want to play this character because that’s who I am in real life!“)

I’ve sat through many a vituperative fan rant in my life - near-threatening tirades against producers like Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and John Nathan-Turner; endless and ultimately pointless debates over continuity; and overwrought second-guessing of where what is ultimately someone else’s creation should be headed, because damn it, the fans know best - and after all, who should the show be aimed at, fandom, or a wider audience? But the CraignotBond.com site comes damn close to taking the cake. I’m all in support of voicing one’s opinion, but to cloak it as “fact” - i.e. “Bond/Brosnan fans will not put up with this!” - and then “support” it with overblown rants…well, this guy is doing Bond fans everywhere a disservice, whether or not they agree with the casting of Daniel Craig. I’m sure he’s not the only person who doesn’t dig the actor in question. But hopefully the folks making the movies realize that he’s not representative of Bond fandom in general. Or any fandom, for that matter.

I keep quietly hoping this will all turn out to be a clever parody. I’m not holding my breath though. The writer is welcome to share his opinion…but should be aware that making himself look less than reasonable in the process only hurts any chance that the opinion will be taken seriously.

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Check out this quiz, which determines which science fiction crew you would best fit into. Curiously enough, I came up with SG-1; when I backed up and answered my “tie breaker” question differently, the quiz assigned me to the crew of Serenity instead (!). I was curious, since the quiz title said it was “part II,” so I found and checked out the original version of the same quiz, which had me serving aboard the Nebuchadnezzar from The Matrix films (!!!). (I’d like to think I would fit in aboard the TARDIS better than any of the above, but it’s not even an option. Neither is Red Dwarf or the Liberator or Lexx. What gives here?) Give it a shot and let’s see who you’re shipping out with.

Ironically, I’d apparently be a goner if I tried to sign up aboard the Enterprise-D or the FBI’s X-Files division. I don’t doubt the latter…

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I just can’t have nice things. Need proof? In the space of the past four weeks week, all of the following has happened:

1. My region-free, Macrovision-free DVD player has stopped playing…well…much of anything. Burned discs. Store-bought discs. International discs. Domestic discs. Stuff that it played just fine a couple of weeks ago. Nothin’.
2. My A/V amp has stopped outputting any kind of video. Making it more of an A amp since it’s not giving me much V, now is it?
3. My main monitor, which is admittedly 20 years old but also has the throughput port that feeds video to the LCD video monitor on my desk, has started going on the fritz. Sometimes it’ll show you a nice bright picture. Sometimes a dim picture, like all of the video levels have been sawed in half. Sometimes nothing.

To put it mildly, this series of system failures completely sucks. When I set up my game room in late 2003/early 2004, I had carefully mapped out where everything needed to go to connect to stuff and do the things I wanted it to do. Just diagramming all that out - normally I don’t get that elaborate - took at least a couple of weeks. The idea was that this time I was going to Do It Right, and not have to mess with it again. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

The DVD player business I find particularly disturbing. I have a region-free, Macrovision-free player for a reason, and contrary to what the manufacturers and studios think, it doesn’t have anything to do with rampant piracy of their content. In the years since I got this modified player (in 2002), it has become next-to-impossible to find these puppies. The amp, which I’ve had since 1999, has never shown this kind of flakiness before, so that too is disturbing (especially since it drives my entire A/V and gaming setup). The monitor is kind of a big blow, but I have an identical twin backup for that particular piece of equipment.

What I can’t figure out is why it all seems to be happening at once. The DVD player started going on the blink a few weeks ago; the amp and monitor problems began in the past few days. I can’t find any evidence of a voltage problem, and what’s more, those two items aren’t even plugged into the same strip or outlet. And it’s a depressing problem because they just don’t make stuff like they used to. They don’t make these DVD players like they used to just a few years ago, and they don’t make these broadcast monitors with signal throughput and selectable PAL output like they used to. Well, okay, they do make those. They just make them at broadcast prices that I can ill afford on broadcast wages.

Oh, to have everything working again like normal. And it used to be such a nice setup. Now I have to start tearing it apart, bit by bit, trying to find the culprit.

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