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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

Announcing... The Countdown!

After an absence of 6 1/2 months...   The moment you - faithful readers of this blog - have been waiting for!   Even if you weren't aware of the fact that you were waiting for it, it's coming anyway!   Like it, or not!   Want it, or not!   The time is nearly here, for the biggest single event to ever hit this particular blog so far this entire year!!   (Drum roll, please.)         (Hello? Drum guy?)         (Okay. Forget the drum.)     Anyway...   Artie the Atari will
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Realsports Baseball

I'm not that much of a sports fan. But I still watch Seattle teams when they're on TV (especially if I'm up there on vacation), since that's where I'm from originally, and it's my hometown.   Although I couldn't care less about basketball. Never liked it.   But that's okay, since the Sonics left last year anyway. Now, even though I consider that a plus, a lot of people thought losing the Sonics was a "bad thing".   2008 was a year of "bad things" in Seattle sports.   The Seahawks were pl
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8

So much for that...

Well, I was going to try to go through the entire month of February without a new blog entry* (just to see if I could), but decided I couldn't let something pass by without griping about it: The Annie Awards.   The what?!   The Annie Awards. The animation industry's annual awards for (supposedly) excellence in animation. Well, actually, it's ASIFA-Hollywood's awards. What is ASIFA-Hollywood? It's the L.A. chapter of the The International Animated Film Society (how they got ASIFA out of that
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7

Two very empty islands...

The world of entertainment lost two legends this week...   Ricardo Montalban passed away at 88.   Patrick McGoohan passed away at 80.   To me, Ricardo Montalban will best be remembered as Khan. Coincidentally, I watched Star Trek II last night - it was showing in HD on U-Verse's "free preview" week - and I relished his performance. He was the only villain to really match Kirk's bravado. Space opera at its finest. Most articles today I've seen refer to his stint on Fantasy Island. Of course
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

10

Predictions for 2009

Well, last year I made my predictions for 2008. Let's see how I did... "Apple will release a lightweight MacBook." - Right. "Apple will release a touch-screen tablet computer, with a stand/docking station that basically turns it into an iMac (with the addition of a wireless keyboard and mouse)." - Wrong. I have no doubt Apple has a touch-screen tablet computer in their labs, but I doubt they'll bring it to market. The market just isn't there (especially with the iPhone filling a lot of th
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

12

Movie review - Quantum of Solace

Well, it took me awhile to see the new James Bond film - Quantum of Solace - but last week, see it I did.   I thought Casino Royale was an excellent restart to the Bond franchise, which had really ground to a halt. As much as I thought Pierce Brosnan should've made a good James Bond, the films he was in just never distinguished themselves, and seemed to all sort of blur together.   In Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig firmly establishes himself in the role, much in the way Sean Connery did. Th
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Movie review - Bolt

The last number of years* haven't been kind to Disney. They haven't had a real hit animated film in a very long time.   * That number would be 14. It's been that long since The Lion King came out. But since I hated The Lion King, I'd put the number at 16 (Aladdin). Of course, the reason for that is because they haven't had a real good animated film in a long time.   The move to CG didn't help any, as Chicken Little was one of the worst films I'd ever wasted my time seeing, and Meet the Robi
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8

Homebreviews index - part 2

It's time for an update to the Homebreviews Index. There are now 84 reviews, arranged alphabetically, by score.   Reviews added since the last index are labeled New. All reviews are for Atari 2600 homebrews, unless otherwise noted.   5/5 2005 Holiday Cart: Reindeer Rescue 2005 MiniGame MultiCart 2007 Holiday Cart: Stella's Stocking - New Asteroids Deluxe (7800) - New b*nQ (7800) - New Beef Drop (7800) - New Colony 7 - New Conquest of Mars Fall Down Four
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2

Homebreviews - part 26

I never reviewed this one, but I meant to...     AtariVox USB Interface 4/5   The AtariVox USB Interface allows you to hook up an AtariVox Speech Synthesizer to your computer via USB cable. This is absolutely essential for developing AtariVox speech and sounds for Atari 2600 homebrews. The interface lets you use programs like Phrase-A-Lator to develop your audio and be able to hear it played directly through the AtariVox. Perhaps even more important - it allows the AtariVox to work with e
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

Incoming! parts 3 and 4

I'd only planned on doing two contest entries (and therefore two blog entries) for Incoming!, but things happen. So with that, I present parts 3 and 4 of the 2 part series on the making of my Incoming! label contest entries.   Part 3   After the first round of entries were posted for the contest I was thinking, "what else could I do that would be different?" I came up with some vague idea about using the gun sights of a tank, but didn't have a clear design for it. So I started Googling for t
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7

Incoming! part 2

When we last left my Incoming! contest entry, I decided it needed a little something extra - an explosion!   The original artwork had the tank dropping into the scene, and bouncing off the sand dune. Since the tank was already in the air, and pieces were falling off of it, it lent itself very well to having an explosion underneath it, without having to do much additional work.   Painting an explosion is something it took me awhile to figure out. Once in awhile I'd manage to put one together
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

Incoming! part 1

I'm splitting this "making of" into two parts. The first part will go over the usual "how I made the label" thing (is this getting boring yet?), and part two will be more of a Photoshop tutorial.   After the Lead contest, I really wanted to do something that felt more like a painting, or a loose illustration. Not really tight and fussed over as my Lead illustrations had been. A lot of the early Atari 2600 artwork has a loose feel to it, where you can still see some of the pencil art underneath
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

10

Streaking!

Well, since I've had a number of people* tell me that they really liked my 15th entry in the Lead contest, I thought I'd post a blog entry about it.   *That number would be "three".   This was by far the easier of the two illustrations. No 3D here. Just drawing. As always, it started out with some rough sketches. The idea I wanted to convey was a sense of speed, as the player's ship hurtled past the energy walls, and fired away at oncoming ships. So I wanted lots of streaks and blurring to g
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4

How do I not know about these things?

Funny how you can be on the internet for some 14 years, and it takes you that long to run into an awesome site like: TelevisionTunes.com   Not everything is in there, but it's surprisingly comprehensive. I even managed to find some gems like: Battle of the Planets Star Blazers   They have hundreds of classics like: The Six Million Dollar Man The Match Game Love American Style Emergency S.W.A.T. Wide World of Sports Sanford and Son Chico and The Man   Do you remember... After M*
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

9

Using 3D for reference

It's been awhile since I posted a "making of" for label artwork. Mainly because there hasn't been anything released in quite awhile, so there hasn't been anything to share. (There are a couple of labels I've been working on, but until those games are released, the art will have to stay under wraps.) However, since the Lead contest just wrapped up, I can show some of the steps in making one of the illustrations I did for that.   Originally, my concept was to have a group of alien pilots standin
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2

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
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