Dec/090
Some Good Albums
I was just mucking around in iTunes and I made a playlist of albums that have an “average” rating of 5-stars (derived from the scores of the included songs). The list was kind of short, and included some that I didn’t expect. My at-work library doesn’t include all of my music either, but here are the results:
- The Arcade Fire, “Funeral”
- The Beatles, “Rubber Soul”
- The Beatles, “1″
- Beck, “Mutations”
- Beck, “Odelay”
- Belle & Sebastian, “The Life Pursuit”
- The Clientele, “God Save the Clientele”
- The Clientele, “Strange Geometry”
- Daft Punk, “Discovery”
- Espers, “II”
- Herbert, “Bodily Functions”
- Interpol, “Antics”
- Interpol, “Turn on the Bright Lights”
- Iron & Wine, “Our Endless Numbered Days”
- Iron & Wine, “Woman King”
- Kings of Convenience, “Riot on an Empty Street”
- Kula Shaker, “K”
- Kula Shaker, “Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts”
- Led Zeppelin, “Houses of the Holy”
- Led Zeppelin, “II”
- Led Zeppelin, “IV”
- Love, “Forever Changes”
- The New Pornographers, “Twin Cinema”
- Phoenix, “Alphabetical”
- Pink Floyd, “Dark Side of the Moon”
- Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”
- The Postmarks, “The Postmarks”
- Radiohead, “OK Computer”
- RJD2, “Deadringer”
- The Shins, “Chutes too Narrow”
- The Stone Roses, “The Very Best of the Stone Roses”
- Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend”
- Yes, “Close to the Edge”
I should clarify, this means that almost every song on these albums is one that I consider to be 4- or 5-star worthy. The above list is by no means complete, but it is a list of incredibly great music that I listen to a lot. For what it’s worth. 
Jul/090
Streets of Rage 2
Streets of Rage 2. For some reason, I can never get tired of this game. It seems like I should. At a glance it is merely another formulaic cookie; cut from the same mould established by golden-age greats such as Double Dragon and Golden Axe.
It’s embarrassing, too! My favourite game—Shadow of the Colossus—is a sensitive, meaningful masterpiece. However Streets of Rage 2—a game which revolves around punching badly-dressed hooligans in the face—would almost definitely sit somewhere in my top ten beside it, cheesy neon-accented brashness and all. But before this all starts to smell like another nostalgia-infused harkening back to the good ol’ days: sleepovers with friends, Coca-Cola cans piled high, chips ‘n’ dip and Genesis games, I think it bears mentioning that I am not alone in this. SoR2 is regarded as one of, if not the best beat-em-up game ever made. Almost twenty years after release, sit anyone down in front of the game and in five minutes they are having fun. That’s clever.
Like many other classics, SoR2’s most notable achievement was striking the right balance with all of its elements, but it didn’t hurt that the game was, and still is incredibly beautiful. Well, maybe “beautiful” isn’t… quite the right word. Kitsch, maybe. Vomit-inducing overindulgent 90s palettes outfit the outlandish ensemble of enemies. Denim-clad knife-wielders, wrestlers, kung-fu experts, ninjas, and bikers round out the more sensible side of the spectrum, while robots, S&M mistresses, jetpack-soldiers and overweight fire-breathing baseball players add a helping of the bizarre. While the cast is tight enough for you to become familiar with each enemy’s attacks, the variety—both in terms of appearance and challenge—is pleasantly diverse, even when compared to modern titles such as Castle Crashers. The heroes you play are similarly gaudy. Max, a gigantic wrestler, Skate, a teen who gets around on rollerblades, Blaze, a thoroughly underdressed martial arts expert and Axel, the American hero (completed with white T-shirt and jeans). Colourfulness is continued into the locations you are taken to as you progress through the game. SoR2 could have been another field trip to the wrong side of the tracks, but instead there are wrestling stadiums underneath baseball fields, secret jungle island bases and amusements parks. Yeah! Implausibility, that’s more like it! Even the more predictably styled early levels have charm. Low-key jazz plays in the first stage’s dive bar, the level boss Barbon calmly polishing a glass. Later, you challenge him to a fight out the back amongst the rubbish bags and trash bins, the rain pounding down. Brilliant.
Each character has marked strengths and weaknesses, and provide very different gameplay experiences. Although there is an impressively varied moveset at your disposal including holds, throws and team-up attacks, the game is very button mash friendly and can be enjoyed thoroughly without the more advanced techniques. Besides, it’s really more in keeping with what SoR2 is all about. Fighting feels brutish and solid. Loud cracks account the strength of each blow and screen shakes punctuate heavy impacts. Combos are delivered slowly and deliberately. It’s brash and grungy. Whenever I go back and play Final Fight I can’t help but think they were truly missing that feeling; the barbaric, severe dirtiness of street fighting.
Which neatly brings me to the soundtrack. Yuzo Koshiro is considered a decorated veteran of video-game soundtracks but in my opinion SoR2 was his best. The persistent squealing and chirping of old video game music can be pretty rough on the ol’ ears, especially since chiptech music has itself evolved into a sophisticated genre of its own and our standards have changed. SoR2’s tracks play the strengths of Genesis hardware masterfully. The techno-pop vibe has a dirty edge to it with plenty of distorted samples and thumping beats, and really helps keep the game moving at a wild clip.
The game as a whole has aged remarkably well. Although graphics and sound have improved significantly since its release, it thrives within the restrictions and stands as one of the most solidly presented games of its time. Beautiful pixel art, responsive controls, huge groups of characters on-screen, two player co-operative play, excellent music. It had everything. Castle Crashers, one of XBox Live Arcade’s best selling releases proves that people still enjoy this genre, and don’t require the expansion of scope that arguably killed off simpler games like this (well, until the cheaper price point of downloadable games came back). Even now it remains extremely popular, with downloadable releases on all three current-gen consoles.
The right words to describe why SoR2 is so good have for years eluded me. I think now it is finally clear; and that I was before delving too deeply. The “secret sauce” didn’t ever exist. SoR2 is the distilled, chimeral evolutionary finale of the genre. That’s not to say that it is some mad scientist’s amoral beast, haphazardly sewn together from the limbs of the best stock. No this was no fluke. SoR2 wasn’t created with hyped zeal, nor was it just rolled off the production line. It was created with a consummate, focused understanding of the beat-em-up genre; add more features and it becomes too complicated, take features away and the taste is bland. SoR2 is just right.
[10/10]
Jul/090
Arcade Cabinet Progress
Hm, I didn’t really keep updating my progress. Since the last update a lot of stuff has happened. The controls finally shipped as well as the keyboard emulator (I-PAC). The keyboard tray was added. I think of all the visible components it kind of looks the most hacky, but thankfully it will be almost completely obscured, so that isn’t really going to be a problem. Also, once painted black I have a feeling it will probably be much less obvious. Once the monitor arrived, I made a VESA mount out of some cheap pine and leftover blocking. It is definitely the most cheap looking part of the whole cabinet but it will be invisible except to the most prying eyes. Additionally, it seems that finding Metric M4 screws (VESA standard) is a big deal in the US. Plan in advance if you ever make your own VESA mount!
So, what else…
When we had friends staying over they helped me put the control panel together and get started with the wiring of the CP internals. That all went really well, aside from having a lot of trouble finding the right quick connects for the awkward size of the Cherry micro-switches. I’ll probably take some good pics of the inside of the CP when I am putting it all back together, at the moment it is more-or-less entirely disassembled in order to paint and finish the panels that make it up. Once all wired up I tried the control panel with Fet and then Ann later on. It felt incredibly responsive and authentic—I think it’s going to be very fun once all is in place.
A lot of things got in the way of progress for a little while, but Ann and I put some really good work in this weekend, filling all of the screw holes in and sanding the whole thing down so that it was lovely and smooth. On went the paint and suddenly the look of the whole cabinet is completely transformed! I’m happy with the result at the moment but there is still some more finishing work to do. Have the paint the CP and the keyboard tray, and possibly touch up the cab a bit too. After then, varnish!
The end is in sight! Hopefully by the end of the week it will actually be in some complete, workable form! Wish me luck.
Jun/090
Arcade Cabinet Project: Days Four and Five
Things are progressing, a little slower than I was expecting, but hey, I’m learning! It’s OK!
Firstly, I attempted to make the bottom access panel without using a frame. The door was too heavy! Major sagging and bad alignment issues. Even with the Euro hinges I only got about a 45 degree opening angle. Not good enough. Kept plugging away at it regardless and ended up with a result that I didn’t like. Well, as they say, there is an easy way and a correct way to do these things.
After some thought, I disassembled the access door and made a frame out of pine, glued and screwed it to the frame and put an overlaid door on top of the frame. Not only is this much simpler to align, but the overlay covers and minor alignment issues nicely. Plus, since the door is singificantly smaller the hinges support the weight much better. I used self-closing hinges so that also eliminates another step of the process. Nice.
Next, I cut the piece for the speaker panel. Started with just a normal rectangle and then did a 45 degree bevel cut down one side (to the best of my ability) with the Jigsaw. Worked out to be reasonable accurate, a tiny bit off in the middle of the cut but nothing some sanding won’t hide. Measured and created templates for the speakers, drilled some 1/2 inch holes and then just kept enlarging with the jigsaw until they were the right size for the speakers to fit in there snugly. Looks really cool with the speakers in – they have a bout 4mm clearance. Need to decide on a cuttable, attractive faceplace material to hide the 1-2mm gap around the edges of the holes, though.
Also cut and mounted the marquee retainer piece. No complications here, just a rectangular piece of wood!
Here’s what it looks like now:
Hard at work!
Jun/090
Arcade Cabinet Project: Day Three
Third day of actual construction and things are going well!
6' Tall and proud, at last!
Not much to say, managed to get the sides nice and even and fit the blocks and trays. Did a lot of sanding to fix minor measuring errors. So far nothing more than about 1mm here and there, so hopefully that won’t have a significant effect on it. The whole deal certainly is starting to look a lot more like an arcade cabinet now and it’s quite interesting to get a sense of the scale of the thing. It will be quite comfortable for two people to stand at, I think!
Next up I will likely be trying to install the rest of the exterior panels and trying to figure out some way of making the access doors work nicely.
-JJ
May/090
Arcade Cabinet Project: The Introduction
I should be recording this.
Okay, so, for the longest time I’ve been interested in the idea of owning an arcade cabinet for MAME, fighting games and general gaming tomfoolery. For the longest time this hasn’t been even concievable – living in an apartment pretty much makes it impossible. Buying one outright is ridiculously expensive, even at the lower end of the scale. So, how about making one? Well, in order to build one you need several power tools that are inhibitively expensive if you don’t already own them, then you need a lot of time. Oh, also, you need a lot of room to work in. You also need to meticulously plan almost every phase of its construction. For me, this taxes every area of skill I consider myself to be proficient in, and some of those I am not. My experience in design, IT, illustration and research need to somehow work in harmony with my almost complete inablilty to do complicated mathematics, woodworking, technical drawing and electronics over a prolonged period of time to somehow come out with what I am after. It is easily the most complicated and challenging task I have assigned myself. I am also incredibly excited about it, and have managed to keep myself dedicated to it thus far.
But.
Even if you have all of that, you more importantly need to have an awesome wife who will be perfectly okay with having an angular black monolith with knobs sticking out of it in the middle of her living room. Fortunately, that box has a neat tick in it. And a few underlines. And a little sparkly star sticker.
Things are progressing decently well. So far I’ve done about two months of planning and two days of construction, leaving me with two of these:
Cabinet Side
Which, if we are honest. Doesn’t look like much. Working within the limitation I have I am pretty pleased with how it has gone so far, though. It is good progress, however, given that (I think) making these two sides will be the most complicated part of the whole construction – although likely not the most work intensive.
I am working with some restrictions. The main thing is trying (and generally failing) to keep this as inexpensive as possible. I am hoping to do all of the construction for the cabinet with only a jigsaw and a drill, which I have been told a few times is totally ridiculous and impossible. This is the kind of challenge I am up for. But, aside from that, for those who are interested, here are some (in some cases speculatory) statistics about the cabinet plan:
Dimensions:
Height: 6′
Width: 2′6
Depth: 2′6
Main construction materials: 1″ Hardwood Ply, 1″ Solid Poplar, 1.5″x1.5″ Solid Poplar blocks, 1/16″ acrylic sheeting for bezel and control panel cover
Audio/Video:
Display: 24″ ASUS 16:9 LCD
Sound: Logitech X-240 2.1 PC Speakers
Control:
Sanwa JLF joysticks
HAPP Long Competition Style buttons
UltimARC i-PAC keyboard emulator
Some random keyboard and mouse
Some random computer cobbled from parts around the house etc.
“Features”:
Interchangable control panel
Hinged control panel
All controls are “quick disconnect”-able
Cabinet door access on front and possibly on the back
Area to put your drink (possibly cup holders, later on.. 
)
Rollout keyboard tray
Doesn’t take up much room, for a cabinet!
Jan/090
Twenty Five Things
So everyone seems to be doing this for whatever reason. I kind of hate facebook so I’ll do it on my own turf.
1. When I get angry and yell at someone I feel very faint, and often almost pass out. As a result, I have a really hard time yelling at people.
2. I used to play the clarinet. I want to do it again, it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
3. When changing the volume on a stereo with a numeric display, I feel uncomfortable if the volume isn’t a multiple of 2 or 5.
4. I really hate having my hair cut, so usually I don’t.
5. I’m making a video game with a friend.
6. I used to be an amazing athlete… a long time ago.
7. My favourite book is “The Snow Goose” by Paul Gallico. You should read it, because it’s beautiful and it only takes about an hour.
8. I almost completely lost my big toe in a cycling accident, but it completely healed.
9. A doctor had determined that my mother was incapable of having another child due to previous birth complications before I was born. HA!
10. Playing video games with other people is my favourite thing. Ever.
11. I have saved someone’s life.
12. When I was young I stole a pack of Transformers cards from a local deli. I still feel guilty about it, I mean, it even had a stick of gum!
13. I only wear dress socks, no matter what the occasion.
14. My secret dream professions are: fashion designer, pixel artist for video games, children’s book illustrator, teacher, UI designer for an OS.
15. Apple juice is my favourite non alcoholic drink, Baileys (on the rocks) is my favourite alcoholic drink.
16. I am infatuated with cetaceans.
17. At primary school, I had a book about learning black magic confiscated from me. Really!
18. I love coats… and windmills.
19. It’s far too hard to decide on what my favourite movie is since I love so many, but my favoruite TV series is “Twin Peaks”.
20. I’ve been fired, once. I didn’t deserve it.
21. I wish I could live closer to my brother again.
22. I find it hard to eat pasta. Once I got a stomach infection from some pasta which put me in hospital. It was the most painful experience I’ve ever had.
23. Eucalyptus oil is my favourite smell, although I also love the smell of sawdust and band-aids (unused).
24. I once competed in, and won a Judo tournament.
25. Grappa.
Jan/093
Gallagher the FAIL.
So! My SoRR sprite-smithing venture didn’t work out. Well, it did and it didn’t. Technically, I learnt new techniques and made some great sprites, but unfortunately that’s not an end of it. No-one in the community seemed to like my artwork and the general tone of the members was inappreciably snippy. I don’t know what I expected, after all it is the internet and—even worse—they are forum dwellers. It isn’t all bad though. Afterwards, the experience left me feeling somewhat sour but also made me think about Paraplu again.
Resultantly, I pretty much just sat down and drew 20 items right off the bat. Then I updated Grubby Metal Statue (to look more “goofy”, at the request of my cohort). Last time I attempted to make item-sprites for the game it was a major brick wall for me; finding an appropriate tonal angle was frustrating me intensely and ultimately it was likely what halted my last creative streak. I honestly think drawing Gallagher was what gave me the perspective to bring me to my feet again, studying the original early-90s SEGA art taught me some really useful things about animating sprites, namely:
- You can do it with even fewer colours than you think you need
- Fewer colours makes animation easier
- You can do it with fewer frames of animation than you think you need
- No-one will notice if you copy and paste parts during animation
- Motion blurring is easy and can save you from fully drawing tons of original frames
Animating a sprite that was about 5 times bigger than anything I’d ever attempted before seemed very daunting; but when I look back at some of the best sprite art I’ve ever seen I realised just how cheap they were about creating these things. It doesn’t have to be hard, you just have to be clever. Even that’s not specifically true… it’s not really about cutting corners, it’s about knowing which areas to concentrate your efforts on.
Something that I’m bad at, apparently.
-LEARNING POWER -
WE CAN ALL LEARNING.
LEARNING WILL GET THE MOUSE TO THE CHEESE PLATE.
Jan/090
Gallagher the punk
Gallagher WIP
Here’s the progress so far on the SoRR punk. Mine’s the one on the right, and the guy on the left is a standard common enemy from the game. Now I look at it, the colours are really weird out of Photoshop. Anyway, pleased by the progress so far!
Jan/090
The renascence of phantasm: 2009!
I just realised this hideous design is not only cluttered, but also quite dreary. Furthermore I don’t even NEED or use the sidebar and I totally have to redesign it lest the magnitude of my insanity reach new heights. What kind of a fool-man made this damn theme? Not one I’d choose to associate with, that, my dear friends, is a sure thing. Thus, I’m preparing a crisp, clean one wrought with the twin powers of whimsy and elegance, a single-column layout to bedazzle even the most jaded of globular oculars.
Additionally, I feel like I want to revivify my right-hemi and get back into some artistic projects. Paraplu particularly, but I think I need to get there by way of a few more bite-sized aperitifs.
Idea the first: Redesign this blog
- Less cluttered, single-column approach,
- No external links,
- RSS button,
- A lighter theme,
- Incorporate some new piece of artwork, however minor.
- Small, finishable project
- Good warmup for Paraplu art
- Contribution to a project that I would love to help with
- A good challenge for my level of skill
- Emphasis on use of minimal colour palettes, a key spriting skill
- Good exercise in large sprite animations
Everyone who knows me should endeavour to bug me into doing this until my ears are bleeding with regret for having mentioned it.
“One of the symptoms of approaching a nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” – Bertrand Russel
- GET IT MORE -
