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(Insert stupid Blog name here)

A blog by Nathan Strum

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About this blog

Mostly Atari-related projects, and other ramblings. Home of the Artie the Atari comic strip.

Entries in this blog

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Homebreviews - part 6

Well, between working on my entry for the Medieval Mayhem contest and other projects, I managed to get in some quality time with several of the new homebrews I got from the AtariAge store. I decided to tackle the Ebivision games first, since I've never played any of them before, and have been curious about them for some time. They've achieved a sort-of legendary status, probably due to the lack of readily available ROMs, more than anything. So, do they measure up to the hype? Ebivision Five-

November 14, 2006

Homebreviews - part 7

And the reviews continue... this time it's the games of UA Limited. (Okay... so these are reproductions, not homebrews. But "Reproductionviews" just doesn't have the same ring to it.) Cat Trax, Funky Fish, Pleiades Bundle (this will include all three reviews in the store review) 2/5 Lost games from a long-forgotten company, these have been rescued from obscurity and finally released more than 20 years after they were originally written. The newly-created packaging is first-rate, but the game

November 16, 2006

5

Draggin' Along

I finally wrapped up my contest entry for Medieval Mayhem, and sent it off to Albert. I spent quite a lot of time on this one, and it'll likely be my only entry (well... three entries, one illustration). This is the pencil drawing. Actually, it's a composite of four pencil drawings: the dragon, the castles on their hilltops, the mountain range and clouds, and the knight up on the wall: The knight was actually a last-minute addition. My other (abandoned) idea was going to use a k

November 11, 2006

Freshly (Home)Brewed

Here's my latest haul from AtariAge: At last... the mysteries of the Ebivision games will be revealed! Reviews coming soon!

November 7, 2006

Back to the drawing board...

I've been working on the manual for Four-Play, which includes the mini-game Knight Jumper. For the Knight Jumper page, I wanted to draw a cartoon chess knight. The first version I attempted (drawn in the computer) was, to put it kindly, awful. I tried re-working it and re-working it, until I finally realized it just wasn't going to work. So, I decided to dig out paper and pencil, and go at it "old-school". And after a few attempts, got something I really liked, which will be the one

October 13, 2006

One year later

So, I've been blogging for an entire year now. Funny, I've got quite a few less than 365 entries. I've been a little hit and miss in terms of consistency, but I figure that it's an easy standard to live up to, so why change? So look for more of the same in the coming year! Anyway, I've been making some progress on the Four-Play manual. I won't be able to work on it much over the next couple of days, since I'm teaching tomorrow (and still putting together tomorrow's lecture - students are

October 1, 2006

4

Goodbye, Maynard

Maynard Ferguson passed away yesterday at the age of 78. I won't try to recap his life or career. You can read all about that here. Maynard wasn't the reason I started playing trumpet originally, but he was certainly the spark that ignited my interest in playing jazz, and in fact, kicked off my love of jazz in the first place. He toured pretty much his entire life, right up until the end. I hope that I can find something that I love to do that much, and be able to leave something of

August 25, 2006

2

Free cartoons!

This years' showcase of student films from where I work has just been posted on our school's website. This is about 2 hours and 15 minutes (2 hours, 43 minutes Canadian) of the best films from the Character Animation program, as selected by our faculty. The entire Character Animation student show (which is not online) ran a whopping 7 hours 30 minutes this year. While there were some films that I think should've make it into the showcase that didn't, I think this is a pretty good representat

August 1, 2006

1

It's like eating potato chips

When you start getting homebrew games, you just can't stop at one. So that's what sparked the idea behind my new avatar. My 2600 just can't get enough new games - it seems to be sitting there saying, "Feed me! Feed me!" As soon as I finish playing one game, it wants another one right away. (Of course, if you've gone without food for almost 20 years, you'd probably be a little grumpy, too.) Besides all of the homebrews it's recently been fed, it's now able to absolutely gorge itself, than

March 25, 2006

One down...

I just finished the manual for Lady Bug! I think (hope) the proof-reading is all done, and I've sent it (and the label) off to Albert for printing. It's nice to have Lady Bug done, and it's incredible how fast the game came together (it was only started in January). I think the game turned out great, and I'm amazed John was able to pack so much of the arcade game into the 2600. I hope people like the manual artwork. John likes it (which is the most important thing) and I'm quite happy with t

August 24, 2006

5

Space Cadets (pt. 1)

I've been spending about the last week and a half going through my stuff. You know the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Everybody has some of it. Cardboard boxes, with stuff in them, jammed into the back of a closet or attic somewhere. Stuff that you haven't looked at in years. Years and years. In some cases... decades. (An aside: the fact that I'm measuring what I consider to be relatively recent events as having passed in "decades" bothers me.) I didn't think I'd really acc

July 11, 2006

6

Midwest Classic stuff

Man... what a couple of weeks. Things have calmed down though, and the last couple of days I've been cranking out stuff to try and get it done for the Midwest Gaming Classic. I can't go to the show, because, well, it's about umpteen-hundred miles "that way" (pointing in a vaguely Easterly direction). It'd be fun, but it just won't happen. But I'll be "represented" there anyway. I just finished up three labels for the show (Four-Play demo, Conquest of Mars and another one which Albert

May 30, 2006

CarZzzz...

Despite the blog title, Cars isn't really a boring film. Unless you're a little kid. Say, under 5. Maybe 7. Not having kids, it's a little hard for me to judge at what point stuff becomes boring for them (and it's been a lonnng time since I was 7). But based on kids in the audience (one of whom repeatedly kept asking "is it over yet"?), I don't think bringing really little kids to this film is a good idea. I went to see Cars last week, and I have to admit, it's a much better film than I

June 30, 2006

7

Time Marches On

And so it's March. Where January and February went - I have no idea. Anyway, I feel somewhat obligated to post a blog entry, just so I don't get pushed off the front page. Music seems about as good a topic as any. As I'm working on various art projects, I like to listen to music that ties into what I'm working on. For example, if I'm working on sprites for a sci-fi game like Colony 7 or Juno First, I'll listen to sci-fi movie soundtracks. Tron works especially well for this, since it's

Guest

March 8, 2006

5

To Do, To Do, Doo Be Doo Be Doo

Why yes, I am running out of "To Do" titles for my blog entries. Thanks for asking. Well, I'm gradually chipping away at my "To-Do" list. Although there are two more projects added to it now: Label and manual for Lady Bug - In progress. John has approved a couple of design ideas for me to take to the next step. Manual for Four-Play - The label is already done, so the cover for the manual is basically done, too. Incidentally, I'm still working on new illustrations for RPS. Not su

June 11, 2006

1

Once aTron a time...

Well, that was totally cool. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Hoozitwhatzit (the "Oscars" guys), held a screening Wednesday evening of a 70mm print of Tron at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, preceded by a panel discussion with director Steven Lisberger, VFX supervisor Richard Taylor, and animator Bill Kroyer. They went over the laborious process of making the film (including some info I'd never heard before), a few anecdotes about the production, and talked a little ab

June 9, 2006

Back to work

Sorry Bob, couldn't resist. Well, the second wave of the tsunami known as "work" came in, as I had to create and duplicate DVDs of our end-of-year shows the past couple of weeks. Last year, we sent them out for duplication (although I authored the masters), but we discovered that it was actually cheaper to buy a DVD duplicator, and make our own, than send them out. Plus, ours look way better. I was never really happy with the printing on the discs last year. So, I haven't done much

May 23, 2006

1

The Work Thing

Ahhh... the tsunami of work has finally subsided. Fortunately, I managed to hang onto some debris and survive. I don't discuss work much in my blog since, well, it's work. I don't really feel the need to discuss work much outside of work. But, I tend to do that anyway, since work pretty-much dominates my life (bad habit to get into - not recommended). So I work at CalArts as the technician for the Character Animation program. Video production equipment, a couple of Mac labs, file server

May 13, 2006

3

George ! ! !

So, it turns out that George Lucas has decided to release the original versions of the Star Wars Trilogy after all. Now, this is very cool news, because I'm a fan of the original Star Wars. "Episode IV - A New Hope"? Phooey! Ever since I first saw that appear in the opening crawl in 1981 it's looked out-of-place to me. The original "Star Wars" opening crawl synced better with the opening music, and well... it was Star Wars! The movie I grew up with, having seen it a dozen times durin

May 5, 2006

1

To do... or not to do...

Well, I'm buried at work for the next few weeks, so I'm not going to be getting anywhere on any projects for awhile. But before the sky fell in, I did manage to make some progress on a few things: The MGD manual is about 75% done. I just need to do the back page (assuming Alex approves the overall design... that is). I need to revise the label a little bit to better match the manual, too. Started some additional illustrations for the RPS manual. Also lined up someone to help me design b

April 22, 2006

8

Care and feeding of your Atari 2600

I really liked the way the 2600 I drew for my avatar turned out, so I decided to see what else I could do with it. Here are a couple of illustrations I did for an AtariAge flyer, which Albert is packing in with shipments from the AA store. They're black and white since, well, they get printed in black and white. Feel free to make up your own captions.

April 6, 2006

5

I'm so old...

I was talking to someone about malfunctioning computers the other day, and eventually the conversation turned to "2001: A Space Odyssey". This other person (a college student) hadn't seen it yet, so I recommended it to him. Then it dawned on me... that movie took place five years ago. Five years ago! What happened? It used to be the ultimate futuristic movie! I grew up with that film, marveling at its wonders, and would think of how old I would be when 2001 actually rolled around.

April 3, 2006

Six in a row!

I just realized, that as of yesterday, I've posted to my blog five days in a row! While this is a completely meaningless statistic, I've decided to try and go for a solid week of blog entries, and make it an even bigger completely meaningless statistic! So, with today and tomorrow left to deal with, I'd better come up with something to post about. Just putting up a mostly empty entry would be cheating. Umm... well, I did get a first pass at the Rai

March 27, 2006

2

Homebreviews - part 4

The last ones! (At least until I pick up some more games from the AA store.) Thrust+ 5/5 Thrust+ is one of the best games ever programmed for the 2600. It's a little more expensive than other homebrews, but it's worth every penny. The graphics are incredible, and the gameplay is absolutely flawless. Thrust+ is certainly a challenging game, but not unfairly so. The gravity and momentum that affects your ship feels just right, and even as the heavy Klystron pods you have to rescue cause yo

March 24, 2006

Homebreviews - part 3

Only "three" reviews this time - but that last one is a doozy! Ultra SCSIcide 4/5 Okay, it's time to dust off the paddles and spray a little contact cleaner in there. Fast-paced doesn't even begin to describe Ultra SCSIcide once it gets going. The game takes place in a hard drive, and it's your job to catch (or "read") colored data bits in the correct order as they go speeding by. Read the wrong ones or wait too long to read the right ones, and the hard drive will crash! It's pretty easy

March 23, 2006

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