Scribblings From The Public Restroom Stalls Of The Gods

Testing to make sure I’ve got the dimensions right before I go shuffling off to Office Despot to get ‘em printed up.

As Joel and the ‘bots were known for saying, “What do you think, sirs?” More »

You’ve been wondering what the cover artwork for Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 will be like? So have I! Until my graphic design muse landed on my head on Saturday evening, that is. I think it’ll look like this:

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Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2, the follow-up to the successful Phosphor Dot Fossils documentary timeline DVD released in 2008, will make its debut on Saturday, April 11th at the Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo, on the Oklahoma City Community College campus in OKC.

Like the original, Level 2 will cover a wide swath of video game history, including arcade, home console and computer games, from 1972 through 1987, with shots of the games in action, historical notes for every game shown, other trivia, and even vintage commercials from that era. Also like the original, Level 2 has an easy-to-follow visual design, a concise menu system to allow instant access to any clip on the entire DVD (which is once again estimated to have a running time of around 3 hours), and an original music score. Level 2 will cover games not featured in the first Phosphor Dot Fossils DVD, from Atari’s early post-Pong arcade efforts and blasts from the vector graphics past, through the era when the Nintendo Entertainment System revitalized the American video game scene after an industry-stalling crash in the early 1980s.

Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 will be released at the 2009 OEGE event at a special “show price” of $15; orders will be taken via theLogBook.com Media the same day for those unable to attend the show, at a price of $20 (shipping inclusive) in North America, and $25 for the rest of the world.

Based on the award winning web site of the same name, Phosphor Dot Fossils and Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 were written, produced, edited and scored by Earl Green at theLogBook.com Media. DVD specs: NTSC DVD, 4:3 standard definition aspect ratio, running time: approx. 3 hours.

The original Phosphor Dot Fossils DVD is still available, and will also be available in a 2-disc bundle with Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 in April. Phosphor Dot Fossils is also available from Digital Press Videogames in Clifton, NJ.

After our mid-morning meal – ravioli, peaches and a few veggie crackers for Evan, and a big ol’ baked potato for me – we guys were sitting around the house, our bellies full and both of us verging on full-blast sleepy, when a random Google search lead me to MisfitMAME. Put simply, MisfitMAME is a modified version of MAME that allows you to run various and sundry… well… unofficial versions of certain games. Some of these are well-known graphical and game play hacks that apparently don’t make the cut for MAME itself (such as Popeye Pac-Man, the game for which I was Googling), and some of them, frankly, are user-made. Some of the user-made hacks are as cheesy as, well, the multifarious useless hacks of Atari 2600 games that are floating around out there. But there’s something neat about the fact that they hacked arcade code. Now, yeah, much like the 2600 hack scene, you wind up with completely pointless modifications such as a version of Pac-Man where the ghosts all wear Elton John glasses (WTF??), interesting mods such as Pac-Man Unleashed and a hack that turns the graphics of Pac-Man into a replica of 2600 Pac-Man, and actual seen-in-the-arcade hacks such as Popeye Pac-Man. Stuff like Pac-Man Unleashed and 2600 Pac-Man at least show some humor and imagination; the two zillion minor graphical or speed hacks of Pac-Man, I could do without.

However, Popeye Pac-Man is a case where I really have to take issue with the actual MAME team: it was out there, in the arcades. I remember it. I played it. It should be in MAME proper, like fellow Pac-bootlegs Hangly Man and Pirhana are. I can understand the position that MAME and its ROM set shouldn’t be loaded down with every stinkin’ Pac-hack that ever existed, especially not newly-concocted variations, but I have to take issue with this selective eye toward the historical record of what was in the arcades and what wasn’t.

So in that respect, I recommend MisfitMAME. There’s a lot of silliness going on in its ROMset (which, FYI, happens to be sitting in alt.binaries.emulators.arcade at about 45 days old), but there are also some valid entries that have been buried. This is one trip to the island of misfit games that’s worth taking.

MisfitMAME latest version: link
MisfitMAME ROMset: link (first page of several)

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Ever since I moved into this house – heck, the very day that I started moving stuff into this house – my game room has been, for better or worse, probably the most thought-out-in-advance part of the place. Building on the game room I’d put together in our previous rental house, I wanted the game room to instantly say to anyone who walked in, “This is a place where classic video games are played.” But it’s time for a rather major rethink: now this is a place where classic video games are played, and where my little boy lives and plays. More »

OMG. This just knocked any and all of the Star Wars or Star Trek ornaments off of my lust list for this year – thanks Hallmark!

I just wish I’d known about this earlier. :-/ Hopefully Santa was more “on the ball” than I was this year.