Is now up - and Chris's computer is all fixed and happy again, woohoo!
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StarCreator's peanut gallery
Random stuff. Lots of it. Hard hats only.
10 July 2009 @ 12:37 am
10 July 2009 @ 01:41 am
Dear Netflix
Please don't tease me with just one season of Avatar. Can you please get S2 & S3 up so I don't have to wait on the damn discs? >:(
Please don't tease me with just one season of Avatar. Can you please get S2 & S3 up so I don't have to wait on the damn discs? >:(
09 July 2009 @ 11:32 pm
*FACEPALM*
From the weather office:
Issued : 4.00 PM MDT Thursday 9 July 2009
Tonight Clearing this evening. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light early this evening. Low plus 4 except plus 2 in the suburbs. Risk of frost
Screw off, weather. It's JULY.
From the weather office:
Issued : 4.00 PM MDT Thursday 9 July 2009
Tonight Clearing this evening. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light early this evening. Low plus 4 except plus 2 in the suburbs. Risk of frost
Screw off, weather. It's JULY.
10 July 2009 @ 03:40 am
I’ve finally implemented that “new idea” I’ve blathered on about for months. Visit the new and improved Tales of Shiranai at:
http://www.shiranai.org
09 July 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Another update to MAME 0.132 is now available on the Source Updates page. Now it's off to California Extreme for some fun!
10 July 2009 @ 03:15 am
As a gal who leans geek, I have attended San Diego Comic-Con practically every year since I was a junior in high school. Of course, back in the early 90's, it was not the behemoth that it is now.
I will be helping out a booth at Comic-Con this year since I can't stand not working at SDCC, but there are 2 panels I am planning on attending.
First of all, there's the True Blood Panel on Saturday evening. Well, 5pm is not exactly dark, but the actors who play vampires and other creatures will be out.
And the other panel, I want to attend is Sunday's Doctor Who panel.
I think having my yearly interaction with the Comic-Con geeks will give me the strength to go on another year.
I'm looking forward to it.
09 July 2009 @ 11:03 pm
I'm mad I totally missed this back in January. A japanese power metal ode to... Freeza?! 0:40 and 2:00 are sick sick sick. The vid's a fan piece, the song's by Maximum the Hormone.
09 July 2009 @ 07:40 pm
*watched episode 4 of Torchwood: "Children of Earth"*
*promptly starts bawling*
*promptly starts bawling*
Current Mood: 
sad
sad10 July 2009 @ 01:54 am
The Kindle 2 is now on sale on Amazon.com
I have read all sorts of reviews that have touted the usefulness of it as an ebook reader. There are a couple of things that hold me back. It's not just the money. It's that the Kindle
While I'd love to just download books magically (that sounds SUPER awesome!), I'm deathly afraid I'd drop the thing while reading in bed, thereby destroying my lovely lovely book reader.
That being said, the whispernet thing that allows you to download books on the fly where ever you are sounds amazing.
So if the $50 discount makes the Kindle
09 July 2009 @ 10:15 pm
you guys
This Book
is just
I can't
there are no words. there is only PAIN. PAIN and HILARITY. HILARITY and PAIN.
People! Friends of mine! I am not funny enough for this! I cannot adequately express the sweet, shallow mockery of all things literary that This Book--thin, dumb, FauxtoShop-covered prettykin Beauty & the Beast teen romaaance that it so desperately wants to be--without reading you entire eye-searing sections of it, plus all my scribbled-pencil notes in the margins of "WTF" or just "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT." It cannot be done!
Take this cup from me, O Lord. I am not worthy. It will take pirates, werewolves, McDreamy, Johnny Cash, opera singers, Olivia Newton-John, all casts of High School Musicals, and a pack of tapdancing mice to begin to exploit This Book to the heights of true hilarity it deserves. And none of this will actually make any part of it good reading material.
Take our hero, Lucius. Lucius is not like other boys. Or don't take my word for it, take everyone else's:
"He's like a prickly pear."
"With those topaz eyes, it's almost like he's a wolf who's been separated from the pack."
"There's a solidity to his voice, and yet it also sounds as though he doesn't use his vocal cords very much."
"The boy's got spunk."
"There's something that's just so raw about him, like he's lived in a jungle none of the rest of us can know."
Those last two would be courtesy of his love interest's FATHER, who probably wants his own hunk off that prickly pear, ogod.
Yep, Lucius is just different somehow. Darker. Edgier.More topaz-eyed Angstier. Couldn't pin a realistic psychological motivation on him if you tried, but by god, he is ANGSTIER. Possibly ANGSTIEST. After all, LESSER MEN show their pain by writing sonnets while using their bloody tears as ink. A REAL MAN wears his pain on his SLEEVES.
( For this man has lived in a jungle none of the rest of us can know )
This Book
is just
I can't
there are no words. there is only PAIN. PAIN and HILARITY. HILARITY and PAIN.
People! Friends of mine! I am not funny enough for this! I cannot adequately express the sweet, shallow mockery of all things literary that This Book--thin, dumb, FauxtoShop-covered prettykin Beauty & the Beast teen romaaance that it so desperately wants to be--without reading you entire eye-searing sections of it, plus all my scribbled-pencil notes in the margins of "WTF" or just "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT." It cannot be done!
Take this cup from me, O Lord. I am not worthy. It will take pirates, werewolves, McDreamy, Johnny Cash, opera singers, Olivia Newton-John, all casts of High School Musicals, and a pack of tapdancing mice to begin to exploit This Book to the heights of true hilarity it deserves. And none of this will actually make any part of it good reading material.
Take our hero, Lucius. Lucius is not like other boys. Or don't take my word for it, take everyone else's:
"He's like a prickly pear."
"With those topaz eyes, it's almost like he's a wolf who's been separated from the pack."
"There's a solidity to his voice, and yet it also sounds as though he doesn't use his vocal cords very much."
"The boy's got spunk."
"There's something that's just so raw about him, like he's lived in a jungle none of the rest of us can know."
Those last two would be courtesy of his love interest's FATHER, who probably wants his own hunk off that prickly pear, ogod.
Yep, Lucius is just different somehow. Darker. Edgier.
( For this man has lived in a jungle none of the rest of us can know )
Current Mood: 
sick. but GLEEFUL. but sick.
sick. but GLEEFUL. but sick.09 July 2009 @ 07:57 pm
Just found out there was a fire in my complex last night..... And I found out from a friend sending me a message on Facebook saying "OMG I HEARD THERE WAS A FIRE, ARE YOU OK!?" Yeah, I had no clue up until that moment. Had to walk around the complex to see what she was talking about and found the one little apartment that caught fire. Talked to the fire chief I think, about when it happened.
Thankfully it wasn't my apartment or really close to it. I'm also glad that there was no one home when the fire occurred so no one got hurt. I hope that whoever lives there didn't lose too many valuables in the fire. D: The cause of the fire is still under investigation too, so I'm nervous its an electrical problem or something. I'm scared that my house could be in danger too *clings to extinguisher*
Last night I stayed with my family that was up here for vacation at a local campground. It was my first night away from home... And this is what happens.
*paranoid*
Thankfully it wasn't my apartment or really close to it. I'm also glad that there was no one home when the fire occurred so no one got hurt. I hope that whoever lives there didn't lose too many valuables in the fire. D: The cause of the fire is still under investigation too, so I'm nervous its an electrical problem or something. I'm scared that my house could be in danger too *clings to extinguisher*
Last night I stayed with my family that was up here for vacation at a local campground. It was my first night away from home... And this is what happens.
*paranoid*
Current Mood: 
scared
scared09 July 2009 @ 05:53 pm
Drew and I ventured over to Manitou Springs today, which is this really neat town on the edge of Pike's Peak. Much barbecue and chocolate were consumed.
I'm trying to do a fair bit of biking, because a.) The weather is fabulous: sunny, rather warm, and when I sweat it immediately dissipitates, b.) it's an excellent way to get to know the area, c.) We're currently located on the edge of suburbia, right beside fields and country with horsies and such and it's really pretty, d.) the suburbia is a lot more bike-aware then Richmond's suburbia ever was, and e.) If I continue to eat copious amount of barbecue and chocolate, the biking will be highly necessary to ensure that I don't have to go spend entirely too much money on new bras. It's interesting, the suburbia here is so much friendlier then what I'm used to. Mind you, it's still rather inconvenient if you're trying to walk to the grocery store, and there is excessive use of strip mall-age. We're in an area where there's a lot of newer housing, and it's nice looking smaller houses. I'm used to seeing either new giant McMansion type buildings, or cheap and crappy new buildings. There's a lot of nicer looking 2-3 bedroom houses, with interesting architecture and rock gardens and such. Mind you, the architecture might just be related to the fact that I'm used to seeing colonials and whatever else they use all over the Mid-Atlantic, and here everything has more of a western feel. Also, there's sidewalks! Lots of sidewalks!
Jobwise, there is slight advancement. My resume is being submitted by a recruiter for a position doing web stuff with Barclay Card. It would be working with table-less design (and hand-coding at that, yay) and trying to make all their websites standards-compliant, which I'm decent at, so the job itself sounds interesting. I need to go look at YUI and see if it's in any way similar to Jquery, and either way I should try to learn some, as they're interested in having that as well. One downside is that it's located in Colorado Springs, and I was really stoked about being in Denver. However, I've explored next to none of the area, and I'm pretty sure I'd be fine staying in CS for awhile for a decent job. I'm just a sucker for giant cities with nightlife and such. I am also a sucker for mountains and paths that allow me to climb all over said mountains, so either location should work just fine for that.
I will now end this with two excellent pictures of Andrew. The first one shows him gliding majestically up a hillside:
The second shows him being, uh, less majestic:
I'm trying to do a fair bit of biking, because a.) The weather is fabulous: sunny, rather warm, and when I sweat it immediately dissipitates, b.) it's an excellent way to get to know the area, c.) We're currently located on the edge of suburbia, right beside fields and country with horsies and such and it's really pretty, d.) the suburbia is a lot more bike-aware then Richmond's suburbia ever was, and e.) If I continue to eat copious amount of barbecue and chocolate, the biking will be highly necessary to ensure that I don't have to go spend entirely too much money on new bras. It's interesting, the suburbia here is so much friendlier then what I'm used to. Mind you, it's still rather inconvenient if you're trying to walk to the grocery store, and there is excessive use of strip mall-age. We're in an area where there's a lot of newer housing, and it's nice looking smaller houses. I'm used to seeing either new giant McMansion type buildings, or cheap and crappy new buildings. There's a lot of nicer looking 2-3 bedroom houses, with interesting architecture and rock gardens and such. Mind you, the architecture might just be related to the fact that I'm used to seeing colonials and whatever else they use all over the Mid-Atlantic, and here everything has more of a western feel. Also, there's sidewalks! Lots of sidewalks!
Jobwise, there is slight advancement. My resume is being submitted by a recruiter for a position doing web stuff with Barclay Card. It would be working with table-less design (and hand-coding at that, yay) and trying to make all their websites standards-compliant, which I'm decent at, so the job itself sounds interesting. I need to go look at YUI and see if it's in any way similar to Jquery, and either way I should try to learn some, as they're interested in having that as well. One downside is that it's located in Colorado Springs, and I was really stoked about being in Denver. However, I've explored next to none of the area, and I'm pretty sure I'd be fine staying in CS for awhile for a decent job. I'm just a sucker for giant cities with nightlife and such. I am also a sucker for mountains and paths that allow me to climb all over said mountains, so either location should work just fine for that.
I will now end this with two excellent pictures of Andrew. The first one shows him gliding majestically up a hillside:
The second shows him being, uh, less majestic:
09 July 2009 @ 04:10 pm
Today, I went to attend a class I was looking forward to. When I was almost there, I realized I didn't have my student ID. Because I was late, I decided to get a replacement. An hour of being lost and $30 later, I find out that the class was moved, without prior notice, to a time I can't attend. FML
-sobs- wry game design wry
I would've said "and I missed the first class," but that didn't fit. ;_;
Also, I was stupid and didn't put my e-mail in the notification box, so I don't know if this will actually get on or not. OTL
09 July 2009 @ 04:09 pm
Sleep schedule wacked out for a bit there, but seems normal now. still occasional headaches. dry mouth is gone. Munchies seem to be gone? I haven't even smoked pot since I started, haven't felt the need until wednesday morning when i couldn't sleep at all.
I still don't feel suicidal so it must be working!
I still don't feel suicidal so it must be working!
09 July 2009 @ 05:49 pm
(I am splitting this into two posts: it's taking forever.)
Now that everything else is out of the way, we can get down to the meat of the thing. With the rights issue, the future of Guilty Gear has been questionable. Even as popular as GG is, it obviously doesn't make a ton of sense for Arc to push all their resources into a theoretical new title when Sammy/Sega are just going to swoop in and take a chunk out of the profits. Blazblue is understood to be Arc's new flagship franchise, if not a replacement.
A lot of GG fans were kind of weepy about this turn of events: Blazblue was put down as Arc making a knockoff of its own game, and having a few character designs-- Ragna, Jin, and Tager-- who were transparently based on GG characters didn't help matters much. There's some truth to this, of course, but it makes more sense to think of Blazblue as a Guilty Gear reboot. New lead designer Toshimichi Mori has taken a close look at Guilty Gear and rebuilt the whole damn thing from the ground up. I may be crucified for saying this, but I believe the game is better for the effort.
As you might already know, Blazblue is the first 2D fighting game to be drawn from scratch in HD resolution (720p, in this game's case). It can't be overstated how hard it is to draw and animate good 2D sprites: from what I've been hearing, games like King of Fighters XII and the recent freeware labor of love Vanguard Princess both took their artists three to four years to get good-looking sprites done. These games have lower-resolution (smaller) sprites than Blazblue. Only Street Fighter II HD Remix was done in a higher resolution (1080p), and as a redraw of long-existing work, that game doesn't really count. We can only imagine how long Blazblue must have taken. Maybe they answered the question at AX?
It paid off: character art is extremely crisp, and considering the immense size of the sprites, the detail is pretty impressive. The animation is a little more fluid than that in Guilty Gear, but it doesn't come close to games like SF3 or KOFXII. I actually think the very busy 3D backgrounds are more impressive than the sprites: I can't recall the last game I saw where 2D and 3D graphics meld so seamlessly. Usually, when a 3D background is used in a 2D game, the results are two very disparate aesthetics-- see Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, or many of SNK's Dreamcast ports-- but in Blazblue the look stays consistent.
Blazblue smooths out Guilty Gear on a fundamental level, starting with the button layout. The Guilty Gear layout is an odd cousin of the later Samurai Shodown games. You have punch, kick, slash, hard slash, and dust. This naming system never really made a lot of sense, being as not everybody had an object for slashing with in the first place. Dust is an oddball button that performs a variety of miscellaneous actions. Though the button layout is near and dear to us GG fans, it's pretty weird and certainly confusing to the first-timer. Blazblue has four buttons: A, B, C, and D. The first three are attack buttons, weakest to strongest, and the last is the Drive button.
The Drive button is a smart design decision, in that it does a little something for every player. The D button does different things for every character, and usually has something to do with the gimmicks that define each character. For the casual player, this means that the character can do a lot of very fancy-looking things very easily. Mori said this back in the Gamasutra interview:
"Sure, people like us who work with games, or fans of fighting games can do a hadouken or a shoryuken without thinking much about it, but for somebody just getting started? Those moves are pretty tough! You can't expect new players to just whip those moves out every time."
So Mori's game has a single button that makes Taokaka fly back and forth around the screen, or Jin pop a glacier out of his hand, and so on. When I first read this remark, I was a little surprised to hear it coming out of a guy who works on the most complex games in the genre, but seeing a system like this, I understand where he's coming from. This isn't going to turn anybody into an instant expert, but it's going to open up a little more of the fun of the game to a bigger audience. The home version also has special attacks mapped to the right analog stick, if you can't do the moves or you're just feeling that lazy.
For the serious players, the Drive button typically serves a gimmick that defines the character. These gimmicks range from the simply cool-- Ragna's Drives are heavy sword strikes that steal life-- to the truly unique: Rachel can control the wind, Carl has a helper character controlled solely with the D button. Every character has something distinct that makes for really complex, interesting play styles that feel genuinely fresh. There isn't a single character here that I don't intend to take a long, hard look at.
Next is a more in-depth look at the engine.
09 July 2009 @ 12:50 pm
Someone needs to remind me to put my phone off vibrate every night. Or actually bring a real alarm clock.
09 July 2009 @ 10:10 am
Heh, this (and moving people) has kept me very busy and quite offline the last while...
BUT, it's that time of year again. That time of year, where Yuuki says to herself, "Damn, woman, you have too much crap that you never touch."
So, it's Anime Stuff Sale Time
You can have at my boxed-up collection!
There's stuff from:
- FullMetal Alchemist
- Ouran Highschool Host Club
- Tsubasa & CLAMP
- Prince of Tennis
- Final Fantasy
- Princess Tutu
- PeaceMaker Kurogane
- Chrono Crusade
- and a shit-ton of other stuff
All the fun details are beneath the LJ-Cut below.
( The Epic Sale )
That's it! (for now... *potentially ominous*). Leave a comment if you're interested :)
And yes, yes, yes! Pimpage of this sales post is very very welcome @_@ virtual hearts and paopu fruits for pimpage <3
BUT, it's that time of year again. That time of year, where Yuuki says to herself, "Damn, woman, you have too much crap that you never touch."
So, it's Anime Stuff Sale Time
You can have at my boxed-up collection!
There's stuff from:
- FullMetal Alchemist
- Ouran Highschool Host Club
- Tsubasa & CLAMP
- Prince of Tennis
- Final Fantasy
- Princess Tutu
- PeaceMaker Kurogane
- Chrono Crusade
- and a shit-ton of other stuff
All the fun details are beneath the LJ-Cut below.
( The Epic Sale )
That's it! (for now... *potentially ominous*). Leave a comment if you're interested :)
And yes, yes, yes! Pimpage of this sales post is very very welcome @_@ virtual hearts and paopu fruits for pimpage <3
Current Location: Canadiana
Current Mood: 
good
goodCurrent Music: Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes - Fallout Boy
09 July 2009 @ 09:31 am
Who did you pay to sleep through the translation of the Lucky Star manga?
I realize I do not know enough Japanese to get through the JP versions (Which I also own), but come on.
The thing reads as though the translator (Rika Takahashi apparently, IIRC) took a JP->English dictionary and just went to town. Occasionally, things make no sense. More often than not, phrases come across as not outright wrong, but extremely awkward to read. I'm fairly certain the copy editor (Other Japanese person, I can't recall the name offhand) didn't do a damned thing.
The best (worst?) thing about it, is that I've tried finding reviews of the book online, and in addition to people complaining about this same issues, I've come across others that say (and I QUOTE) "Overall, the translation is flawless." What the fuck? Did you fail English 101? You can't seriously believe that this is a flawless translation.
At work now, examples when I get home again. Fuck, I think I'm even gonna break out my kanji book and dictionary and try my own hand at the damned panels that I think are messed up.
-edit-
Ok, thanks to![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ayumiin I have some examples of my ranting last night on IRC:
[10:28 pm] (Crescens|laptop) WTF does "But each year this atmosphere that pretends to be normal but with fleeing signs of tension is really ticklish." mean???
[10:40 pm] (Crescens|laptop) "All things said, you hang out with us for short detours before going home." What?
[10:45 pm] (Crescens|laptop) And then there are just things that I think are worded wrong like "Don't you hate how there is so much rain lately?"
11:03 pm] (Crescens|laptop) "Don't be stating something unnecessary in the middle of a conversation that is hard to delve into!"
I realize I do not know enough Japanese to get through the JP versions (Which I also own), but come on.
The thing reads as though the translator (Rika Takahashi apparently, IIRC) took a JP->English dictionary and just went to town. Occasionally, things make no sense. More often than not, phrases come across as not outright wrong, but extremely awkward to read. I'm fairly certain the copy editor (Other Japanese person, I can't recall the name offhand) didn't do a damned thing.
The best (worst?) thing about it, is that I've tried finding reviews of the book online, and in addition to people complaining about this same issues, I've come across others that say (and I QUOTE) "Overall, the translation is flawless." What the fuck? Did you fail English 101? You can't seriously believe that this is a flawless translation.
At work now, examples when I get home again. Fuck, I think I'm even gonna break out my kanji book and dictionary and try my own hand at the damned panels that I think are messed up.
-edit-
Ok, thanks to
ayumiin I have some examples of my ranting last night on IRC:[10:28 pm] (Crescens|laptop) WTF does "But each year this atmosphere that pretends to be normal but with fleeing signs of tension is really ticklish." mean???
[10:40 pm] (Crescens|laptop) "All things said, you hang out with us for short detours before going home." What?
[10:45 pm] (Crescens|laptop) And then there are just things that I think are worded wrong like "Don't you hate how there is so much rain lately?"
11:03 pm] (Crescens|laptop) "Don't be stating something unnecessary in the middle of a conversation that is hard to delve into!"
Current Mood: 
annoyed
annoyed09 July 2009 @ 10:10 am
Greetings, Hobbits!
I’ve got a couple of projects that are dividing up my attention currently, so this Meeting will be brief. Oddly enough, I’m going to use this time to talk about something that is a tremendous time-waster.
And I’m hooked on it.
Most of the known world is either on Facebook, or is at least familiar with it (except for Ignorant Unknowington – he’s a bit out of the loop). I kept the Tome of Visage at bay for as long as I could. But, it comes for everyone. Eventually, it came for me.
Over the past several months, I’ve found that the Mug Manual has proven to have some merit after all – I’ve reconnected with several old friends from high school that I haven’t talked to practically since I graduated all those years ago. It also allows me to catch up with all of my other friends conveniently and quickly without all the time consumption that comes with pouring through Live Journal.
It also sucks my time away with pointless quizzes, surveys, and games.
The biggest offender of siphoning away my aging stream is a little Facebook game called “Mafia Wars”. How does this simple-to-play, easily addictive game manage to only take a few minutes to play, yet continuously subtract minutes and hours of my life away?
The game isn’t complicated at all. Create your character by giving him a name and picking a specialty. Add other folks on your Facebook friends list who also play to your “Mafia”. The more members you add to your mafia, the more benefits you get for different elements of the game. Once you got all that set up, start doing jobs to earn money and experience points. The more money you earn, the more weapons, armor, vehicles, and properties you can buy. The more experience points you earn, the faster you level up. Leveling up allows you to earn skill points that you can put towards your health, attack, defense, energy and stamina. The higher in level you get, the better jobs you can get that allow higher pay-offs. But beware – you can attack and be attacked by other folks who play the game. You can also be robbed and put hits out on others. All this is going to require more money so you can do repairs to yourself or your properties. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The role playing elements are light, so the game doesn’t become a complex weight to bog you down. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You have a finite number of energy points that you can upgrade regularly. You need these points to do jobs. Each job requires a certain energy cost. Once you have spent all you energy points, you have to wait for them to regenerate. Because of this, you can play this game in five to ten minute spurts. Not to bad, right? Just a couple of minutes in the morning or evening, and you can go about your day.
This is where the game is deceptive. Because it only takes a few minutes to play every time you bring it up, you find yourself visiting it frequently throughout the day so you can see if you have enough energy to do one or two more jobs. Then, once you’re back in, you can start doing damage control if anyone has attacked you or robbed you while you’re away. See? This is how they get you. Just a few minutes of your time, Mr. Joe Schmo. Oh, back so soon? Oh no – you’re going to have to repair the damage to your businesses! Oop! Someone sent you an energy pack that you can use to replenish all of your energy early! Whelp, back to doing some jobs so you can buy more properties and weapons.
Of course, it doesn’t matter that “Mafia Wars” has succeeded where Jehovah’s Witnesses and Amway have failed. I’m still completely addicted to this pariah of the Puss Catalog. In fact, as soon as I finish here I need to see if I can do a few more jobs before I get back to my other writing projects.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The Don has an offer you can throw in the refuse.
09 July 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Wow, what a pathetically long stretch of time not to post a single thing! Of course, once you have the "not posting" momentum, it's easy to keep on going. So what on earth would make me revive this blog-like news thingy? I mean, it would have to be something so exciting, so astounding, that I'd choose to break my silence and shout it to the world.
What could it be?
Well, as you all know by now, I did a few year stint at LucasArts Entertainment Company, initially working on the Macintosh ports of such illustrious titles as Dark Forces and Full Throttle. But my true love was the LEC adventure games, and so while I was there, I also dove in and ported Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road to the Mac — even though nobody had asked me to.
Flash forward a few years. I had left LucasArts behind for working at Connectix (who were eventually purchased by Microsoft). I happened to run into some of my former LEC colleages and told them, it would be great if we could port all the SCUMM games to modern Windows, just let me know and I'd be happy to make it happen. Nothing came of it initially, but we eventually managed to work something out, and I was given the go-ahead to put together modern Windows-compatible versions of both Full Throttle and Sam & Max.
But why stop there? Being a bit of a completist, you can imagine that I was compelled to get more than just those two games up and running. But LEC decided to focus on the two original games they requested, and they were eventually released in a limited fashion, which was in the end a pretty big disappointment for me, as I had envisioned something much more mainstream. And maybe even involving some of those other games I had ported — even though nobody had asked me to.
Of course, I fully understood the logic behind not releasing the remaining ports I did. After all, for LEC to release them would mean running all the games through QA again, solving bugs, and committing to fixing customers' problems. I periodically pinged my contacts, hinting that they should consider alternate, "unofficial" ways to release the games, but I never really got the sense that anything would ever happen with my ports.
Until a couple of days ago.
That's when LucasArts announced — to everyone's general astonishment — that they were going to release 10 of their classic games on Steam, including 4 SCUMM games (Loom, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). Of course, I was immediately curious to know if this meant they had revived my now years-old work to port the games, and it turns out that yes, some of my work is finally seeing the light of day! (After some additional improvements and bug fixes by the team at LEC, naturally. Thanks for cleaning up the details, guys!)
I honestly thought this day would never come. And now that it has, well, that's a great excuse to break the radio silence. I only hope that these re-releases are successful enough to warrant a second round. Because, while I can't reveal the titles of the other games I ported, I am somewhat of a completist.... :)