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About this blog

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

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8-18-82

Twenty-six years, two months, and five days.   That's how long I've been waiting to post this blog entry!   Actually, back then, I didn't even know I'd have a blog now. Or what a blog was. Or would be.   The point is, I've been waiting for this particular day for that long.   "Why," you ask?   Y'see... back in 1982, Intellivision released the game Star Strike, along with a now-infamous commercial...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPB3H_a234s   Also back in 1982, the comic strip B
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6
 

Almost forgot!

Well, I've been so busy this month, I had almost forgotten that October marks the third anniversary of my blog.   Unlike my 200th Blog Entry Spectacular, I'm not planning anything special for the occasion. Mainly because I already missed it.   But it does give me an excuse for my annual reminder that once again - Baskin Robbins has pumpkin pie ice cream! I've already picked up my first quart.   (Don't forget to try it with a scoop of their chocolate. Good stuff.)   Anyway, I need to ge
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

Good riddance to bad rubbish... Part 2

So today I got rid of something else that had worn out its welcome. I promised you an ode (although perhaps not in the strictest sense), so here we go...   Oh Cable Company. How I hate you. Sure, when you were new, you were special. With more channels and better quality than a roof antenna. Or rabbit ears. But you took advantage of me. Raising your prices, and returning nothing. Making me pay for channels I never watched, and taking away ones I did. Offering yourself up for less money to
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

18
 

Send in the Clones

The Clone Wars started its run on Cartoon Network tonight. I never did go see the movie theatrical compilation this summer, since the previews just didn't merit spending $20 on a ticket and snacks to sit through it. I actually got about as far as the parking lot of the theater though, but common sense prevailed, and I went out for fish 'n' chips instead.   But now that it's running on TV which I'm already paying for, and therefore doesn't cost me any additional money, I decided to check it out
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

62
 

Good riddance to bad rubbish... Part 1

Time to start the next 100 Stupid Blog Entries.   Well, I got rid of my old printer this weekend. I had an Epson ColorStylus R200*. When (if) it worked, it printed very nice colors. The problem with Epsons, is they have awful problems with the print heads clogging up. Frequently. So you have to run a cleaning cycle, which spews ink through the heads to try and clean them out. Usually, I'd have to run the cycle several times, wasting more and more ink. Sometimes it would never clear the clog
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

15
 

200th Stupid Blog Entry!

Funny... it feels like only about 100 blog entries since the last time I did this, but here we are... at #200!   It's been about 15 months since #100, and somehow my blog managed to creep back up to being the most-read blog at AtariAge again...     I'm still trying to formulate a reasonable theory for this, and the best one I can come up with is that numerous people are under the mistaken impression that this is still going on, and they've been repeatedly submitting examples from my blog
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

14
 

Homebreviews - part 25

So you're on a long road trip and the kids are in the back seat jumping up and down yelling "Are we there yet?" Well, what can you give them to keep 'em busy? Why, card games and puzzles, of course! Poker Squares 3/5 Poker Squares is a solitaire version of poker, where your goal is to create the best five-card poker hands vertically, horizontally and diagonally, within a five-by-five grid. The more and better hands you can create, the higher your score. If this sounds familiar, then you may
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4
 

Homebreviews - part 24

What did we ever do to outer-space? They're always trying to bring us down with their interplanetary attacks and endless hoards of invading aliens! Buncha jerks... (Personally... I think they're after our CheeseKorn.) Backfire 4/5 In most "shoot the aliens before they reach you and destroy you" games, you're completely outnumbered by the enemy. But in Backfire, you have two cannons at your disposal, and only one enemy attacking which never even fires a shot. Sound easy? Well, you're more lik
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1
 

Homebreviews - part 23

Here are some of the latest releases from the AtariAge store... but are they some of the greatest? Bee•Ball 4/5 Bee•Ball is reminiscent of one of the first-ever computer games - Tennis for Two - but with bees. You control one of two bees (either against an opponent or the computer), and must fly around using a racquet to hit a ball over a net. You can bounce the ball up off your paddle, head-butt it, or spike it. But don't hit the ball out-of-bounds or let it touch the ground on your side, o
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8
 

Homebreviews - part 22

Twelve games. Twelve reviews. Two cartridges. It may take me awhile to recover from this one. Stella's Stocking 5/5 Stella's Stocking is a collection of five holiday-themed mini-games, originally sold during the AtariAge 2007 Holiday Sale. The menu for selecting the games squeezes amazing music out of the 2600, along with colorful graphics and titles that slickly scroll into place. Be sure to listen to the extra songs at the fireplace screen, too. This is one of the nicest presentations you'
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6
 

Homebreviews - part 21

Well, it's time to start catching up on some of my reviews again. And since last week's theme seems to have been the 7800, we'll start off with four games for that system. Beef Drop VE 5/5 Beef Drop VE is an exceptional port of the classic arcade game Burgertime. You take control of a chef tasked with assembling giant hamburgers, while avoiding enemy frankfurters, pickles and fried eggs (apparently they're trying to avoid becoming your next culinary creations). Your only weapon is a pepper s
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4
 

Rollin' Along

Today's episode is brought to you in color!*     *But only because it makes the joke work better.   41 < PreviousIndexNext >
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

Cos and effect

Well, the San Diego Comic Con happened recently. One of these days, I must really go and see it. Not because I'm into comic books (I was cured of that particular disease years ago), but because of the whole spectacle of the thing.   Yes... I'm talking about Cosplay again.   This is what happens when Gorfs intermarry   There's a rather impressive bevy of barely bedecked babes, people who've packed on ponderous poundage, comedic creative costuming, and just some stuff that you have to see
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

Summer Full 'o Movies pt. 7 - The Dark Knight

I hated the Tim Burton "Batman" film. Michael Keaton was a chinless, scrawny twerp and Jack Nicholson was a puffy, over-the-hill buffoon. The series actually got worse after that, with each film further devolving into camp versions of the original comic books, making the 60's TV series look like serious drama.   When Batman Begins came out a couple of years ago, it seemed to be a very promising reboot of the franchise. It took things much more seriously, had far better casting and directing, a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

14
 

New old music - part 3

Once again, Sleepy Night Records digs through their vaults an old trunk, and dusts off some more "Lost Tapes":     Maynard Ferguson - The Lost Tapes Volume Two, revisits some more vintage demos and live recordings of Maynard and his big band from 1968-1974.   As with Volume One, these were never intended for release, and are presented warts and all. These are recordings for fans, to be sure. Fans of Maynard, or any fans of hard-core, heavy-hitting big-band jazz. Yes, that's a weird descri
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

B-cos, that's why!

Oh sure... you may love Anime, but do you love it as much as these people?     Well, in that case, you've likely been at the 2008 Anime Expo. Even more likely, you're into Cosplay.   And frankly, you're creeping me out just a little right now.   That said, it's time to check out the Expo's Cosplay photo galleries, and play everyone's favorite game...   Dude... or Chick? Play along at home! Just peruse the galleries below, and ask yourself whenever you see someone festooned in all the
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

21
 

Summer Full 'o Movies pt. 6 - Wall-E

And the Summer movie-fest rolls on!   So, another research trip to... okay... we skipped work again. But if anything qualifies as research to those who work in an animation program, it's Wall-E.   Prior to the feature, is Pixar's latest short film: Presto. This is a wonderful throwback to the classic animated short films of Warner Brothers and MGM from the 40's and 50's. It's silly, fun animation, for the sake of silly, fun animation. (And you can buy it on iTunes for $1.99 if you want.)  
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

iThink i'llPass on the iPhone

So AT&T announced their iPhone rates today.   Thanks, but no.   The minimum is $70 per month, all the way up to $130, and that's assuming you don't do any text messaging. You want that? Another $5 - $20.   I don't use my existing phone all that much (land line only - no cellphone), and even though the iPhone is an extremely cool device - I just can't see dumping that much extra money per month down the dumper just to use the thing. Especially since there's no sign of the one third-part
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

The Return of Cheep!

So, what I'd planned to post about yesterday, was that I've built my first CheepTech project in awhile...     What is it? Well, it's an Asteroids controller for the 2600/7800 of course! Doesn't it live up to all of your wildest expectations?   No?   Not even the duct tape?   Man... there's just no pleasing some people.   If it looks familiar, then you've probably been bored enough to snoop around my CheepTech site and found this page. What I did, was gut out the old home-made switch
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3
 

You get what you pay for

Update: The domain info is now fixed! To be fair, the IT people where I work are desperately over-worked and under-staffed. Sure, it's annoying when something gets messed up, but they've been pretty good to me about fixing things when that happens. I didn't expect anything until next week, since they're off Fridays during the Summer months. So you can ignore most of the snarky comments in this entry... ____________   As part of where I work, I have free webspace for my CheepTech site. That's
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2
 

Is it Wiirth it?

First of all... it's 110° outside today. For the second day in a row. Tomorrow will be the same. Fortunately, on Sunday, it will finally drop "down" into the high 90's. This is one of those days where you're only outside long enough to run from one air-conditioned space to another.   Last wiikend, however, I got to go down to my friends' place in Redondo Beach, where it was nice and cool. It wouldn't take a whole lot of convincing for me to move down there, except I'd absolutely have to get a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
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