A few weeks back I picked up Hannibal Rising and gave it a read. I really enjoyed it as it gave a history of Hannibal Lecter’s past and the reasons he became who he is. I wanted to read the rest of the books in the series, and as luck would have it Goodwill had a copy of Red Dragon in their book section for $.50. Yoink.
Red Dragon isn’t necessarily a bad book, but I don’t think I would consider it good either. It’s well written and evolves rather well, but the book ends so abruptly and, in my opinion, anti-anticlimactically it just leaves you stupefied with what just happened. The ending feels so tacked on, like the book was going on too long and he just tacked on some hokey pokey crap to end the book. In the last few chapters Dolarhyde (the Red Dragon) obtains a love interest in a blind woman, Reba McClane. The end of the book entails him now having an emotional fight against the Red Dragon to protect his new love from him/it while still wanting to Become and have her be a part of his Becoming. You’ll really have to read it to understand what’s going on, for me to explain it I’d have to write 10-20 pages of backstory.
I downloaded the movie to watch to compare to the book (haven’t watched it yet). I did the same with Hannibal Rising and was really disappointed. The movie skipped from the beginning pages of the book to just past the middle, totally overlooking character development and even totally ignoring a few persons who were explained in depth in the book. Hopefully Red Dragon the movie won’t disappoint.
I think I’m gonna read Da Vinci Code next and afterwards pick up Silence of the Lambs from Amazon for a couple pennies.
Mr Foster and myself went to see what has been the longest anticipated movie in history, The Simpsons Movie. The movie that has been rumored among school-aged children for generations has finally been produced, and it’s absolutely worth the wait.
I won’t ruin the plot for anyone reading who has yet to experience the hilarity, but chances are good that you already know the basis, Homer risks the lives of thousands for his own selfish needs (free donuts) only to become their savior at the end of the story (hurray!).
Even for an 11am showing of the movie on the holiest of all days, ye Sabbath (which I toil not on) it was still a fairly full house. The line outside waiting for the next showing was absolutely insane tho’. They were backed up outside the lobby just to get their tickets ripped in twain so they could be seated.
If anyone wants to catch another showing any time this week or next weekend just call me or send out a note on Pownce (btw, thanks to Jon Blazatronics for the heads-up on this new proggy, it’s pretty sweet!).
Get it… hits my DS… it’s a drum game… anywho…
So Taiko Drum Master DS released in Japan this week. I have been eagerly awaiting this title as I’m a big fan of the music simulation games, DDR, Para Para, Beatmania, Guitar Hero, etc… and I’m also a big fan of the DS in general. As giddy as a young school girl I downloaded the rom for my flash cart and fired it up in my DS.
I was not at all disappointed. This game is everything Taiko Drum Master is in its full arcade or console form, but now shrunk down for drumming on the go. There is a wide selection of music available, including a Super Mario Bros mix as well as a classic Namco arcade mix, both are really fun songs. Throughout the game as you beat songs you’ll receive mail (which as it’s all in Japanese I can’t yet read it) and some letters will have presents attached to them. You can use these presents to customize your personal little Taiko drum. Some items include a doggy face, a headband/bandanna, an innertube, a smaller Taiko drum that sits on your back, and other goodies.
As I was playing it I thought, I’ve gotta actually import a copy of this game for myself. So I fired up both eBay and PlayAsia. Fifty god damn dollars for this game. I’ve imported DS games before and they’re usually in the $30-$40 range so I was a little disheartened when I saw a $50 price tag. I’ll eventually snag myself a used copy off eBay, for now tho’ I’ll be satisfied playing it off my DS flash cart. I’m gonna put up a game play video soon of me playing a song and going through the menus and whatnot. Keep an eye out for it.
Jon Hamilton (from high school) and myself got together this past Sunday to just hang out for a bit in lieu of the usual playing Magic with the guys (as the other guys are pusses and didn’t want to play).
We shot out to Microplay for a bit to look for anything new to play, nothing stood out so we left after a couple minutes. We agreed to stop over at the Fairgrounds Square Mall across the street from Microplay. The Time Out arcade there used to be a favorite haunt of mine when I began my mallratting so many years ago.
Continue reading ‘Why people stray away from arcades’
Saturday it happened, Sunday the news hit. PSP hacker group NOOBZ (www.noobz.eu) had found a new memory overflow error allowing homebrew code to be run on Playstation Portables via the PSP launch game Lumines. Noobz first released just a practical demo of the exploit, a simple Hello Program, with the promise of a working firmware downgrader to come in the near future.
Knowing that as soon as the Grand Theft Auto exploit for PSP came out those games dried up damn quick and the price on them skyrocketed through the fucking roof, I stopped out at Microplay Monday afternoon and snagged myself a copy of Lumines for $20. I suggested to the owner that he orders as many from his supplier as he can, knowing there would be a surge in sales (I stopped in Microplay again tonight, they were sold out already. Hope Doug was able to order more). Checking eBay now and then turned up copies of Lumines averaging $50-75 with a few oddballs breaking the $100 mark.
Tuesday the downgrader was already upon us. Psyched that I could finally play some of my favorite console games on the go, I grabbed my PSP and hooked that bitch up to my PC. It’s a surprisingly simple process. I copied the hacked save file to my PSP, fired up Lumines and the hacked file patched my PSP. Then I loaded the downgrader and ran it to flash my PSP back to firmware 1.5. After that was done, I found the files I needed to upgrade my PSP to the homebrew version of the 3.40 firmware, 3.40oe-a. After about 20-30 minutes I had a hacked PSP that lets me play pirated games, but more importantly lets me play NES, SNES, Neo Geo, CPS2, Atari, Intellivision, MAME, and so much more on a little unit that sits in my pocket.
HO HO HO! One of my favorite arcade games that anyone under the age of 21 has never heard of is coming to the DS!
A developer you’ve never heard of, Wizardry Engineering will be bringing Dirk and Daphne to the DS in all their full motion video glory. Apparently the game will include an ‘arcade perfect’ mode as well as a mode which include the cut scenes which were added back in for the home releases. Dragon’s Lair DS will also support the Rumble Pak, presumably to let you know you have just sent Dirk to his untimely demise.
