Holy dream come true Batman Batman Batman! Ryan announced a Chrono Trigger Endurance Run on Tested's Oktoberkast! HOLY SHIT! That absolutely is the best news I have heard all year. I simply can't wait. This has literally given a reason to live again. I'm really looking forward to this. I hope Ryan and Patrick form a dynamic team; I really want this to be awesome.

Magnificient news!

I donated 15$ to Child's Play watching Tested's Oktoberkast. It's not a lot, but every little bit helps and I am truly amazed and proud that the gamer community gave 45 000 dollars to a worthy cause.

Good on ya gamers!

Oh man, I just watched an awesome documentary on Tetris called Tetris: From Russia With Love which details the fierce licensing war between Nintendo, Atari and Mirrorsoft. I had no clue that there was a messed up war for Tetris. I was aware though, that the game's designer, Alexei Pajitnov, got screwed out of his rightful earnings earlier on in the game's market history.

But what I found most satisfying was Howard Lincoln, former chairman of Nintendo of America. In the interview, he openly relishes his victory over Atari and mocks them thus: "We didn't take advantage of them, they were incompetent businessmen; it was competent business men taking advantage of incompetent businessmen." Also, after having secured the deal, Mr. Lincoln quipped: "When we flew back across to Seattle, every time I looked at Arakawa* or he looked at me, we started laughing because we knew we had not only the hand-held rights but we had the home video game rights as well and at the same time, we found a way to really hand it back to Atatri games." And he says it with smug self-satisfaction; that's how Americans get things done: balls! Also, on Nintendo's cease and desist order forcing Atari to stop selling Tetris games, he admits with glee: "[...] knowing full well that they would go nuts."

Quotes: "Back in America, the battle for Tetris was just beginning. A jubilant Nintendo plunged the knife in."

               "Like stopping a tank with your hands." -- N. E. Belikov, official in charge of granting distribution rights, describes the the pressures of the Soviet system.

Tetris: From Russia With Love, a must see for video game fans.



*Arakawa, Minoru. Former president of Nintendo of America.

Coincidentally, as I was checking out a computer fixing course, I happen to find Ubisofts' MoCap studio in Montréal. It was a neat surprise, like accidentally walking in to a movie studio's back lot. The studio is located in the former Angus Shops where they use to build locomotives... from scratch! 

Another bit of Nintendo Power nostalgia I have conserved is the character cards they sometimes printed. These cards featured characters from popular Nintendo games on the front and information on the back.

Some characters from Street Fighter Alpha 2. The Alpha series were a breath of fresh air for the franchise and I played the hell out of SFA2 on my SNES (which hasn't turned yellow... YES!)

I think I only played Super Mario RPG as a rental and I didn't understand it: i've always had trouble with turned based RPGs (which is why I love Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door; the turned based fighting being very easy to learn.)

Sharks are cool, therefore this game is cool.

Here are some bosses from Yoshi's Island.

Watch the fuck out for these bastards!

These wanted posters'll give you the skinny.

In 21XX, these are the assholes Rockm... I mean, Megaman has to deal with.

And last but not least.

Before 3D was 3D, there was the Virtual Boy... and it sucked. It also cost Gunpei Yokoi his job. Being the party newspaper, Nintendo Power obviously made a big deal about the VB. In fact, they made a 3D cover featuring the VB replete with slick transparent 3D glasses (not the old red and blue kind) and the above cards which could be viewed with said glasses. As a kid, THAT WAS AWESOME. I watched TV with those glasses and used them to view certain other magazines in 3D... (how long do you think it took me to realize I could do that?) But, I had to be stupid and lend them to somebody so he and his friends could use them when they got high, needless to say, the glasses were gone (any surprise that guy is now a follower of Lindon Larouche?)

That reminds me... What ever happened to Virtual Reality, you know, how in the 90's we were told that we would soon use equipment that would simulate being in another world? Didn't really happen did it? I mean, Jeff Fahey didn't take over the world like he was supposed to. Oh well, maybe if I wear a Power Glove and a Virtual Boy whilst playing The Sims with Tron and Reboot on in the background...

Well, those are all the NP cards I kept. I have some NP posters but they're too big for my scanner , will work on it.

Not satisfied with controlling the information about your own games? Why not sell some merchandise?
 

Here's some more renewal pleadings. Notice the art work that went in to them.
 
 

But what must that have been like for old J-Bomb?
 
Ouch! Well, it's like J-Bomb was gonna be around for any sequels... Anyone even remember Blast Corp?
 
 
 

Ever wonder how people renewed subscriptions before the Internet? Well, if you were subscribed to Nintendo Power Magazine (the video game equivalent of Pravda) you would receive a letter imploring you to renew. What? An actual letter, with my name on it and everything? Whoa! That's grown up stuff.