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King Kong & the Merits of Character Interplay

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Team synergy & animal isolation on Skull Island.

Fatal Frame 3 (PS2)

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Fatal Frame 3 is to Fatal Frame 1 and 2 as one rock is to another rock. Sure, the differences are there, but can you really tell?

Nintendo: Bad for Business

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At least, that's according to the waitress of Darwin's Bar & Grill. In Chicagoist's recent article concerning the pub, they state that an NES, a long-time fixture there, was removed by the new owners because it was considered 'bad for business'. I'm not exactly sure what that entails, whether they mean that patrons had something other than their drinks and the wall to stare at so they drank less, or whether the NES attracted riffraff and scared away more affluent locals, but apparently it really brought the place down.

That's a shame, because it's tough finding public places embracing games in Chicago, even if it's just on an NES. Sure, there's the landmark Dennis' Place arcade (where you can game, but can't drink or eat), or if you want to head downtown, Dave & Busters (where you can drink and eat, but have to put up with too many three year olds). Hell, back in the day when unitdaisy and myself organized club events we always managed to drag out a Dreamcast and a video projector, just so those who weren't so into the music could bask in big-screen Crazy Taxi or Soul Calibur goodness.

It's possible the NES didn't necessarily work into Darwin's evolutionary motif, but that's what additional consoles and televisions are for! They could have a mini-Game On, right in the pub! If so, I'd certainly make the effort to add it to our routine pub list (along with the Riverview Tavern, Duke of Perth and early morning football/soccer at Ginger's Ale House). Oh well, there must be another local pub out there that has something other than Golden Tee on the gaming tap, right? Right?

Tripping Over the Backend

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Yes, we've been quieter than normal over the past week but that was not our intention. The Friday before last, our Movable Type install started causing serious problems, yet again, forcing us to basically shut down our backend. We then had the following options:

1) Shell out a few hundred dollars, resentfully upgrade to Movable Type 3.x, and still feel restricted with what we can do as long

or

2) Bite the bullet and migrate everything to a different content management system.

I decided on the later, and immediately commenced work on moving over to Drupal. I'll save you the long story, but after much hair-pulling and swearing, just about everything has been moved over. Sadly, it did take longer than expected (I hoped to have things up and running on Friday, and instead spent all weekend working on the darn thing), but I think it has been worth it.

Guitar Hero & the Joy of Pretense

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It is simply instrumental.

StarROMs Closes Its Doors

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Retroblast notes that StarROMs, the pioneering company who brought legal arcade ROMs to the general public, has shut down their site. If you head there now, all you get is the following message: Since October 2003, StarROMs has provided a...

LEGO + Video Games - Sanity

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So some of you know may know that I'm a bit of LEGO fan.

Fanitic.

Whatever.

And obviously, I dig video games as well. And I've been known in the past to enjoy combining them. And so it has happened again, although this time with more retro!

This time it's not just me! No no, I've conned three more into playing with the devilish plastic bricks: the newest members of Brick Flick: Jason Dunn (who posts here as Otherland), Jason Wilson and Mike Yang!

Animal Crossing DS: Rod the Rat names his Pecs

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Negative Juan?! Unfortunately, this quirky rat does not live in my town. Over the weekend I visited a friend's place to trade fossils and items (although my quest to finish my Parasaur seems doomed) and I met this fine...

Anyone want $5?

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$5 off a future Lik-sang purchase that is! I have a $5 coupon off of any Lik-sang order $40 or greater, and I don't have anything to import at the moment so I figured someone else may be able to...

humanfindsrobot

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This wasn't mentioned in the oft-delayed Game On 2.0 article, but the best part of going down to the Museum of Science & Industry was seeing their cleverly named robot exhibit, Robots Like Us. Full to the brim with loads...

Game On 2.0

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The international travelling video game exhibit is back in Chicago, marketed as a 2.0 revision. We put the show through its paces to decide whether it's worth another day's dime, or whether you should wait for 3.0.

I ♥ Gameboy Camera

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ARGH!

I want a GameBoy Camera and Printer so bad. I want to take awesome grainy B&W images and print them out on calculator paper! I want to create photos that with any other camera would just be boring and ordinary, but with the GameBoy Camera instantly become something more. I want to share these pictures and prove that the GB Camera is actually quite worthwhile (others have done it with grand success!)

WHY!? I DON'T KNOW! It just seems... cool. And necessary. Dammit. I must have one. I will have one!

I'd don't suppose anyone out there actually has these two radical electronic bits. And would be willing to sell them?

Hey Turner -- go Garagesale me one. TIA!!

Game On 2.0 Image Gallery

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Don't live in Chicago or are afraid of underground travel, unable to brave the subway or the Museum of Science & Industry's parking lot? We have you covered with a gallery of approximately 99 photos of revised video game history fun.

Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution (Literature)

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Smartbomb is an engaging introduction to the events and personalities of the video game industry, but can it transcend its source material?

robotfindskitten

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So I stumbled upon greatness today...

Long ago there was a contest for which the entrants needed to submit a depiction of "robotfindskitten." The details of this contest are not important (and can be found elsewhere) although it should be told that most entries (2 out of 3) were images of a robots annihilating kittens.

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