Strange Times

My Goodness!  Look at all the things that have happened in the world since I last posted!  Alabama and neighboring states have been devastated by tornadoes.  Osama bin Laden has been killed.  And most importantly, at least judging by amount of TV news coverage it has received, a member of the British royal family got married. 

I'm sure the Windsors are very nice people, and over the years they've done a good job "protecting the realm" or whatever exactly it is they do, but I don't understand why a certain segment of the US population gets all worked up whenever one of them gets married or dies.  Considering that we actually went to war in order to get these guys out of hair, why are we now obsessing over them, 200 years later?  I'll confess to a certain amount of naïveté in regards to the massive interest in the royals.  Years ago, when Princess Diana died, I heard the news and thought, "Oh, that's too bad," and assumed that the world would move on the something else the next day.   I literally had no idea that we would be subjected to round-the-clock media coverage for a week, followed by endless rounds of books, tributes and repeated exposure to Elton John.  I really had no conception of how much people were "into" Diana, and to this day I still don't understand why .

Also surprising: this site is receiving some traffic courtesy of a link on the blog of The Weekly Standard writer Jonathan Last.  I would never, in a million years, have imagined any sort of link between The Weekly Standard and this site, but Mr. Last has an interest in various geeky hobbies, it seems.

So what have I been up to lately, you ask?  Working on Chrontendo Episode 38, of course!  I've now completed Ninja Gaiden and am neck deep in 1988 computer games.  But I've also been up to other stuff, like seeing the world premiere of Planet of the Vampire Women!  This locally produced, low-budget horror/sci-fi movie had its first public showing Saturday night.  The film features a few people that I know, and my wife stopped by the set one day and worked a fog machine, or something.  Here's the trailer:



The basic premise behind the film is that if you throw in vampires, spaceships, blood, topless women, and topless women being splattered with blood, you end up with a pretty entertaining experience.  The trailer is the PG-13 version, but I think you will get the idea.  I have no idea what sort of distribution Planet of the Vampire Women will be receiving, but I advise you to keep an eye out for it, as it's far more entertaining than Transformers 2.

What's that?  You thought that was all I had for you today?  Oh, hell no!  This post is loaded with content and it's only getting better!  I also have a link to Matt McNeely's "micro-documentary" Unlimited Continues.  This uber-short doc about the appeal of retro video games contains a few words from none other than Dr. Sparkle himself, including a moment where I struggle to remember the name of 3D Dot Game Heroes.  Unlike Chrontendo, this is produced by someone with real movie making skills, so prepare to be impressed with its slickness.


Unlimited Continues from Matt McNeely on Vimeo.

And, while you're waiting, there's a new video up on the Chrontendo Youtube channel.  It's a preview of Episode 38 -- namely the segment that deals with Amagon, a wacked-out body builder-themed game from Vik Tokai.  Let me tell you kids something: this game gave me much more hassle than Ninja Gaiden.  Or, at least, the first few levels or Amagon are much harder than the first few levels of Tecmo's game.

And now, I'll continue to forge ahead on Episode 38.  Catch you later.