MOVIE MONDAY! - Runaway Brain

Hey hey, it's Monday and you know what that means, right? Absolutely correct, it's MOVIE MONDAY!!! Today we take a look at one of the best Mickey Mouse shorts that probably hasn't seen the light of day since 1995.


Oh yes, I love the smell of forgotten treasures, don't you? Runaway Brain was Mickey's last theatrical short and for a brief time, was played before the movie "A Kid in King Arthur's Court." Honestly, I didn't drag my Mom out to go take me to specifically see that movie. No no, I of course just wanted to see the new Mickey Mouse cartoon. And this time, Mickey was edgy. He was hip. He was up to the times. Why?

Because he played videogames! Yes, the cartoon starts off with Mickey addicted to a video game and playing it in the dark alone at night. I could totally relate to that. Pretty different from the classic Mickey cartoons of the 30s and 40s, but I feel it was an accurate statement of life in the 90s.

Even look here, when the camera pans to Mickey's television, you see a Snow White game where apparently Dopey is fighting off an evil witch. It's fake, by the way, but it looks like it's trying to parody another game. Can anyone say MORTAL KOMBAT? See? Look, Dopey looks like he's going to pull off a ninja move, there's a lifeline over the witch, and apparently six other dwarfs died. K.O.s, without a doubt. I think Mortal Kombat came out around this time too, somewhere in the early to mid 90s. It's another statement that I think the animators were trying to make.


Basically, the cartoon starts off with the premise that Mickey was lazy, irresponsible, and totally into his games. This pisses off Minnie who has wanted to do something special for their anniversary and knows that Mickey forgot. That speaks to me. I truly think I can learn something from this cartoon, people. Yes, I have it! Remember to lock your door so your girlfriend can't interrupt you when you're on the last level. Okay, peace! I'm out.

Anthony

P.S. In case you're wondering, Mickey successfully makes up for his irresponsibility to Minnie after a harrowing but hilarious journey.

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Great Moments in Videogame Dining

Okay, so when you think of videogames, you of course think of a dining experience, right? Anyone? Anyone? No? I'm the only one here? Okay, fine. Be that way, you uncultured people.


Yeah but seriously, there were some nifty videogame-related foods back in the day. And by back in the day, I mean MY "back in the day" which would be the mid 90s. You of course had to have your Donkey Kong fruit snacks, your Kraft Super Mario Macaroni and Cheese, and then there was my favorite: Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta with Tomato and Cheese Sauce. Or as liked to call it: Sonic Spaghettios. Probably every other school kid did too.

Now it just so happened that this time period was the peak of the Sonic's popularity. Sonic was just about everywhere. He was on t-shirts. He was on a weekday morning cartoon. He was on a Saturday morning cartoon. He was a huge balloon in the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade. So obviously, character-shaped pasta was the next logical step. This stuff was made of the same ingredients as regular Spaghettios, which tasted pretty good in itself. But when the pasta noodles were shaped like Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik; that made it taste like 100% awesome. Yes indeed, seeing your pasta in the shape of your favorite videogame characters makes it taste better. I must have eaten a whole truckload of these over the course of my early school years. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't turn orange. A version came out later that had meatballs in it too, but I liked the non-meatball version better.

When it originally came it, it even had a coupon on the back of the label for a dollar's worth of free tokens at participating arcades. The list of participating arcades was a bit small. The nearest one to me was at the Disneyland Hotel which was actually quite a distance from where I lived at the time. But I did redeem a stack of those collected coupons on one of my annual trips to the Magic Kingdom. Aside from that small factor, it was just cool to think that I was being rewarded with the offer of free arcade games from eating my delicious Sonic Spaghettios.


As you can see in the photo above, it looks like the Sonic the Hedgehog Spaghettios lasted for quite a while from the Genesis days into the newer Dreamcast version of Sonic. I never had the two on the right myself, but I would have to say that it continued to be the most genius collaboration between Sega and a pasta company. I'm not sure if it's still around today since I've outgrown the desire to check the children's canned pasta section at the local market but I'll always remember the good times (probably unhealthy too) that I had with the old school Sonic Spaghettios.

Anthony.

Nintendo DS

I really enjoy playing the Nintendo DS. Its quite useful when you want to pass time or when you are bored. I remember when i was a senior in high school, it was the new buzz and everywhere you turned, someone had one in their hands. I always had to borrow one of my friends to play with them. I don't know why i never got one. But i'm glad i didn't because during that time they did not have the red/black ds. Black and red are my favorite color. Lol but when that came out i still didn't get it. But now that I'm in college, not having one is better. Because I can concentrate on studying, or else i would never have time to study.


Anthony was right about the bomberman game. It definetly is a very entertaining and simple game. I like playing with actual people in this game. I don't like playing with the computers, I feel like they are cheating. There are types of map on this game. I like the one where you try to be the last one standing. Or the one where you have to get the whole map your team color. However, when i play by myself and put the computers on easy, it looks like i'm very good. but when i play with my sisters, i actually suck at it. lol


Another game that I love playing is Tetris. I know this game has been around for decades but it still gives the excitement of clearing lines. Its a very simple game, just trying to put blocks together. I like how the DS allows you to play with many different players at a time. You can also play with people around with world with the Wi-Fi. I never get tired of this game.

NBA 2K9

NBA has came out with another basketball games. They come out with one ever year. Haha it took me a sec to understand what the K mean, but it was NBA 2009. :\ The game was released back in October of 2008 and has a 8 of out 10 rating on Gamespot.com The game is basically picking your favorite team and playing against another team of your choice. And you have control of your whole team. Each year, the games change because each year the Stats of real life players change. In my opinion, thats quite clever.


I've never played the NBA 2k9 version before, but i have played the other ones. I think it was NBA live, i'm not totally sure. I wasn't good at it. I just picked my favorite team, which is the Los Angeles Lakers. Then i just keep pushing the same button. If you push the shoot button, the game will automatically find a way to shoot the ball. I didn't want to learn all the techniques of the game, because i knew i was never going to play it again. It was fun trying to block the other team and etc.




If you want to learn more about basketball, you should onto another blog that is also in the ISDS 265 class: http://fullertonbasketballleague.blogspot.com/ .

PS3 Control like the Nintendo WII

For those of you who like the Nintendo Wii and hate how you have little control over the remote, good news is on the way. PS3 is coming out with a new remote with same technology as the wii remote, but better.


From the website gamepro.com an article about the new remote stated that "A real-time demonstration of the PS3's controller showed that players use the entire controller as a controller by tilting, flipping, and sliding the controller. This is in addition to the controller's standard button functions. The demo showed the upcoming PS3 game Warhawk in action, and the player can control the flight, rolls, and yaw of the jet simply by moving the controller accordingly."
There is also a video from the website, Gamenet.com that demonstrates how the remote is used.

I can't wait until the remote comes out, if it has more accuracy i definitely want to try it out. Maybe it will help me with my motion sickness. Because in ps3 games, i have a hard time trying to control the movements of the screen with that little joystick. I always move it too high or too low and it just drives me crazy. It actually makes me want to throw up and sick at the stomach. It has happened before, its not game related, but the movie Quarantine, it was moving around too much because the directing wanted it to be based on an actual person in the movie holding the camera. It was just moving around too much and i threw up in the theater.


Overall, I still like the games on the Wii more than I like the games on the ps3, so i just hope that nintendo comes out with a better remote.

MOVIE MONDAY! - Back to the Future, Part II

Hey hey, kids of the 80s! Today for Movie Monday, I thought we'd take a look at Back to the Future, Part II. Now if you haven't seen this movie (or the triology) then shame on you! This is one of the best in my book, especially because it shows us what life was like back then and how they thought the future would be. Hey, I'm still waiting for my flying DeLoreans and Mattel hoverboards.


Anyhow, this movie connects to videogames because of the Cafe 80s scene. It's kind of like how we view a 50s diner today, except that it's done 80s style with in-your-face Michael Jackson and Ronald Reagan among other crazy way out-of-style things. And of course, what would the 80s be without arcades and videogames! Hey look, there's a Pac Man arcade cabinet in the left corner! Aww, but it looks like it's out of order. Man, that's too bad. I was sure that this time I would be able to get to the kill screen. Yeah right... you know what that is, right? It's when games back then were continuous from level to level and eventually had a screen that automatically ended your game because there just weren't any more levels programmed into memory.


Lo and behold, what do we have in the other corner? Why it's Wild Gunman! And it still works! Now I honestly have never seen an actual Wild Gunman still out in the wild. If ANYONE knows where to find one of these bad boys, please tell me. Back to the movie, the main character Marty McFly tries to impress two future boys by telling them that he's a crackshot at the game and he goes ahead and instantly kills the pixelated desperados on the screen using just one virtual bullet for each with the light gun.


"You have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!" says one of the boys, and they both march off disappointed leaving Marty to look like an idiot. BWAHAHAHA.... pwned! Well back in the real world, it's getting awfully close to 2015 when this took place in the movie, and it looks as if we are STILL using controllers, guitars, maracas, light guns, and other peripherals. We had virtual reality for a little while in the 90s, but that seems to have faded into twilight. Of the inventions in the game industry we've had in the last couple of years, Nintendo's Wii is the closest innovation we have to moving away from controllers. That's it for today, people. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see Jaws 19, hydrate a Pizza Hut pizza, and bet some money on the Florida Gators.

Anthony.