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Election Day this and that… and vote!

by Aaron Williams on November 3, 2020 at 1:17 AM
Posted In: Cineplexia, Mystery Clip Theater, Science ahoy!, You call that noise "music?"

Just vote. I mean, at the very worst, one can think that by doing so they’re sticking it to someone they don’t care for. It’s not the healthiest reason, but hey, perhaps it’s enough to get the nation engaged again. I’ll be headed to the polls with the family sometime tomorrow morning. I suspect they may try to vote me out of the house, but hopefully that’s not on the ballot.

Did I mention we all need to vote? Vote!

And there’s this:

• Just when I thought I couldn’t think Tom Lehrer was any more amazing, he’s releasing his songs into the public domain. Now, so far there’s none of his performances or mp3s or anything like that, just the sheet music and lyrics. But if you want to re-record “The Old Dope Peddler” (something 2-Chainz had to ask permission to do a while back) and can produce decent musical output, go nuts!

• Perhaps this shows that A.I. is more worried about humans than we thought, as a computer-driven camera covering a futbol match in Scotland decides to target a bald ref’s head rather than the ball.

• If you don’t quite recall every hit song of 1990, this mashup should refresh your memory.

• It’s rumored that Oscar Isaac is in talks to become Marvel Comics’ Moon Knight for a Disney Plus TV series. I like the direction they’ve taken the character in the comics, as someone who’s probably only behind Deadpool for being considered out of his mind. My only question about these shows is if they’re integrating other bits of the MCU or trying to make it stand-alone.

• In the Mandalorian series, we were introduced to a couple of speeder bike troopers who were a lot more self-aware than most of their fellows, noticing they couldn’t hit anything with their blasters. The Auralnauts took that idea and ran with it, giving us the Existential Troopers.

• Like a few thrift-store artists, one “Dave” at Arrowhead Vintage & Handmade Goods makes stale generic paintings into more nerd-worthy images. I like how it’s not all Star Wars, especially when classic away teams from the USS Enterprise show up in a landscape.

• And finally, if you don’t mind a little tension (and something that was more appropriate for Halloween), here’s Horror Poster Nightmare. You have a limited amount of time to find six differences in eight sets of horror movie posters or the dynamite some madman is dangling between the images will go off. So I guess it’s from an upcoming Saw sequel?

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Because I like to hope for things on occasion that may never happen…

by Aaron Williams on October 19, 2020 at 4:51 PM
Posted In: It's got Robots and Lasers, Video Gaming

Here’s a gameplay trailer for a hopefully-someday overhaul mod for Fallout 4 that lets you play Fallout New Vegas in F4’s game engine:

Also, since Microsoft now owns Bethesda Softworks as well as ineXile, that means they now run the two biggest post-apocalyptic role-playing game franchises, Fallout as well as Wasteland.

So I’m wondering how long until the Wasteland franchise becomes a West Coast prequel to the Fallout series? I mean, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing done to the lore, right?

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In the spirit of the way Star Trek and our current world is going, we have a new t-shirt!

by Aaron Williams on September 25, 2020 at 3:26 PM
Posted In: T-Shirts

In the spirit of when whoever your favorite ‘Trek captain is goes rogue, bends the regs, or (in the case of the Picard series), tells the Federation to go warp core breach itself, we’ve got a design perfect for commanding your unaffiliated starship in. Drawing from the classic “No Gods, No Masters” slogan and the anarchy symbol from countless punk rock posters, we’ve got a delta shield for an increasingly chaotic frontier.

It’s just the thing for when you decide that giving phasers to cavemen would be pretty fun to watch and making crop circles on planets that haven’t discovered warp drive yet is a great means of creative expression. And until October 5th, you can use code AWILLIAMS20 to get 20% off of any of the shirts I’ve designed! So if you’re not ready to thumb your nose at the Admiralty, we’ve probably got something else that’ll round out your wardrobe.

You could even wear it under your uniform, and they probably wouldn’t know… unless there’s some kind of really disturbing scanning technology I didn’t know Starfleet used. Maybe check to make sure it won’t show up in the transporter pattern buffer first.

Note: Management is not responsible for any demotions or loss of command, though if that does happen, you’ve got your outfit ready, right?

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“Tell me of your homeworld, Usul…”

by Aaron Williams on September 10, 2020 at 3:25 PM
Posted In: Cineplexia, From the Mouth of Madness, It's got Robots and Lasers

If you haven’t seen the new trailer for the 2020 version of Dune, here you go:

I’m a pretty big apologist for the David Lynch version of Dune, especially given when it was made. They didn’t have wire-fu down yet, so they had to make the fighting technique called “the weirding way” in the book into a sonic weapon. What made that interesting to me was how they leaned into it, going so far as to make Paul’s Fremen name, “Mua’dib” an utterance that would make the sonic gizmo fire out a lethal blast. I also think they nailed the costumes and sets for a decadent galactic empire, the cast was top-notch, and I still love the soundtrack by Toto, especially the closing melody, “Hold My Hand.”

I also still quote the scene where Emperor Shaddam IV meets with the Guild Navigator, who remains one of my favorite practical effects in a sci-fi movie.

Anyway, in the new trailer, I’m not too jazzed on mumblecore Paul who can’t even say “yes” clearly, and he’s the second lead actor this year (the other being Robert “Batman” Pattinson) who looks like casting directors are big fans of The Cure’s Robert Smith. Still, the sets, costumes, and actors have a sufficiently alien-future look to them. What really caught my eye is the ornithopter vehicles. They were basically mechanical dragonflies, and a casual image search shows that a lot of Dune media, video games, etc. just made them insect or bird-shaped airplanes, not wanting to try to literally make a craft that flapped its wings, as the book described. From what I see in the footage (at the 2:06 mark), they pulled it off without making them appear like some kind of steampunk contraptions that you’d expect to see on a world of giant bugs rather than as a standard imperial craft.

So it looks pretty good, but it’s got to beat seeing nerd-favorites Kyle MacLachlan, Brad Dourif, Patrick Stewart, Dean Stockwell, Sting, Max Von Sydow, etc. all in the same film.

On a side note, the actress that played the creepy spice-altered Alia has gone on from being the most adorable child to ever wield a Gom Jabbar to having a mile-long IMDB entry. I’m sure this was foreseen by the Kwisatz Haderach. Or she beat the odds for child actors and had a really good agent. Whichever. 🙂

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A song from 1985 is the basis for a D&D-based Kickstarter.

by Aaron Williams on September 2, 2020 at 4:14 PM
Posted In: Tabletop Gaming, The Internetonomicon, You call that noise "music?"

Who remembers The Dead Milkmen? They were a punk/rock group from the 80’s, and one of their most well-known songs is one called “Bitchin’ Camaro.” If you’ve never heard it, you can hear this send-up of rich kids talking to each other right over here.

Anyway, this song has apparently resulted in an adventure module officially endorsed by the band called “Lost Tomb of the Bitchin’ Chimera.” There’s a bit of salty text in the pitch, so any younger eyes you’d rather not view such things might want to look away:

Can we maybe convince Weird Al to do a line of RPG products at some point? Maybe a special splatbook for Bards?

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Yakko Warner sings the names of the countries of the world (that Americans can currently travel to without restrictions)

by Aaron Williams on August 28, 2020 at 4:24 PM
Posted In: It Came from the Internet, Nostalgia!, The Idiot Box

Here in America, our COVID-19 response has made us a bit too risky to just allow us to wander the globe willy-nilly, so Wakko Warner of The Animaniacs has an updated version of his “Nations of the World Song” listing the places that don’t mind USAsians popping in on the spur of the moment:

If you’re nostalgic for the original version (perhaps to use as a homeschool study aid), here you go.

Look for the original voice cast to come back on Hulu’s Animaniacs revival this November. Maybe we can get Frekazoid someday, too?

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I’m still finding stuff on the interwebs…

by Aaron Williams on August 20, 2020 at 12:22 AM
Posted In: Articus Pharticus, It's got Robots and Lasers, Mystery Clip Theater, Science ahoy!, Video Gaming

It’s been a hectic time for everyone, I know, and I’ve fallen behind on passing on the strange and interesting things I’ve run across. Here’s hoping these go some small way to amending that. First up, here’s a plastic tankard I decorated with an oil-based Sharpie to look cel-shaded like objects in the Borderlands video games:

If you want to try your hand at it (or could use such a vessel for cosplay and possibly even beverage consumption), I found it at my local Aldi. The tag had the URL for a company called Cool Gear on it, but their site seems to be having issues, so… good luck?

In other news…

• A new mod designed to remove one of Bethesda’s trademarks in voice acting has been created for Fallout: New Vegas. It’s called Brave New World and it seeks to make NPC voice dialog more unique and fleshed-out, eliminating a lot of the lines that become memes and situations where the same voice actor is randomly talking to another character they voiced. Now I may have to re-install New Vegas yet again…

• Also from Bethesda, sort of, is a statement their parent company, ZeniMax released about a recent death: That of Robert Trump. I had no idea he was on their board since 1999. I’m curious how much of their corporate culture he contributed to.

• The Boys on Amazon will have a third season, and Supernatural star Jensen Ackles will play the superhero “Soldier Boy”, a Captain America analogue… with baggage.

• Not that I’d be cheering much, but Star Trek Discovery beat a copyright suit against it. Yes, their story about spacefaring tardigrades didn’t infringe on another story about spacefaring tardigrades. I think I need to post about Alex Kurtzman one of these days…

• At least according to a group of researchers, the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke has been solved. My favorite version of the explanation was from Stephen King’s Storm of the Century, if only for the villain’s performance. Provided it stays up, you can see the whole miniseries/movie on YouTube from an age of less spacious aspect ratios.

• My skateboarding son is forcing me to post this here, so here’s “Explosions of Color: Skateboarding in Slow Motion”. If anyone finds huge swaths of colored chalk in my neighborhood, my kid totally didn’t do it, even if the tracks lead to our house.

• If you like sokoban-style puzzle games, you might dig Riko. Push blocks with your giant raygun (even while turning), blast switches and put weights on buttons to reach the exit. If you’re like me, you’ll need “R” to restart levels a lot.

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I’m kind of impressed this is still up on YouTube…

by Aaron Williams on July 13, 2020 at 10:37 AM
Posted In: Mystery Clip Theater, The Internetonomicon

Disney is reopening, and some clever person decided using the footage with the opening music track and some footage from The Stand would result in a bit of gallows humor:

My only nitpick: How hard would it have been to find footage of some “dead” stormtroopers? Although I suppose it’s ironic if they’re not bothered, and they are wearing masks, so… Fine, complaint withdrawn.

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Fallout is coming to your streaming device via Amazon.

by Aaron Williams on July 3, 2020 at 3:48 AM
Posted In: The Idiot Box, Video Gaming


Bethesda Softworks is teaming up with Amazon to bring you Fallout: The Series, or perhaps it’ll have no secondary title. According to Variety, it’s going to have “the games’ ‘harsh tone,’ which making sure it is still ‘sprinkled with moments of ironic humor and B-movie-nuclear-fantasies which players of the epic franchise know and love.”

It’s from the same people making Westworld, so I expect it to be competently written. I’d say that it’s going to be a hard sell for new viewers given the setting is “what if the future was Atompunk that then got itself nuked,” but then again I wouldn’t have bet that a show involving android cowboys would work in this day and age when westerns are about as hot as any hopes of another Young Guns sequel is. I can see a few other things this show will have to establish that may or may not fly with viewers and/or fans:

• Radiation and nuclear stuff is magic, and technology is a heck of a lot more robust than in real life. Two of the conceits of the Fallout franchise is that radioactivity (with the help of a Forced Evolutionary Virus) creates mutated creatures, and computers that run on vacuum tubes (as well as their power sources) can function for over 200 years. Of course, we’ve had some pretty similar tropes in Star Trek and the like, so maybe this won’t be as difficult as I imagine.

• For the most part, everywhere looks like the Australian desert. This is mostly in keeping with the Road Warrior vibe of the first game as well as it taking place in the desert southwest. When Fallout 3 came out, it’s been 200 years after the bombs fell and the DC ruins are still full of burned trees, no vegetation, and sunbaked soil. Maybe they’ll blame climate change?

• If it’s set in the same place as one of the existing games, the lore is going to be all over the place. Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 did a number on previously established canon, especially when it comes to certain factions, ghouls and if they need to eat or drink, etc. A TV show is going to either have to either set up its own continuity (kind of like how comic book movies do) or they’ll do the best they can with what Bethesda gives them. I think it’s best if this is front-loaded to the viewers somehow so they know what to expect.

• Aliens exist, but I hope they stay out of the show until at least season 2. They started out as an Easter Egg and then they got their own DLC in Fallout 3, leaving the game with a ship in orbit that… I’m not sure why they were there in the first place. I’ve seen theories that they may have helped cause the Great War, but even if they didn’t, I’m not sure why they stuck around all this time. And apparently the ship *has* been around that long, if not longer, given the game has frozen humans dating back to feudal Japan on board.

That’s all the panicked thoughts I could come up with while not heavily caffeinated. Again, this could be a decent production, if not actually good. I’m just hoping Todd Howard stays out of the creative process. He’s not great with main quests, and since a linear narrative is pretty much one big main quest, perhaps he should leave it to others and maybe go back to fixing bugs with Fallout 76?

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Probably the best game/thing value for money right now, and a good cause…

by Aaron Williams on June 14, 2020 at 4:40 PM
Posted In: Video Gaming

Itch.io is selling a Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality right now, which consists of over 1,200 items, most of them video games. Among the ones I (and my son) liked:

• Sky Rogue, a retro-ish air combat game that takes me back to my misspent youth playing Skyfox.

• Hidden Folks, a black-and-white hand-drawn “Where’s Waldo” sort of game where all of the sound effects are made by someone with their mouth.

• Celeste, one of the better platformers I’ve played in recent memory.

• The White Door, from the developers of the Lynchian Rusty Lake series of point-and-click adventures.

• One Shot, a game where the less you know about it going in, the better. But it’s good.

• Knightmare Tower, one of the launch yourself as high as you can games, where you can buy upgrades and stuff, but you also have arcade-style combat on your ascent.

And that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. If you want new RPG rules, settings, or just sourcebooks to crib from, there are *loads* of them in the bundle, as well as assets for making your own video games. Anyway, it’s available for just over one more day as of this posting, and it gets a thumbs up from my kid and his library of games his mother wishes he wouldn’t spend so much time playing!

Banner image above is from Syscrusher, a retro-ish first-person shooter where you blows up robits. It’s also a part of the bundle.

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