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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

Tron: Legacy (spoiler-free review)

I saw Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3-D today, after months of waiting and anticipation.   With much effort, I did manage to avoid spoilers - although some twit in the audience was talking during the film and guessed one during the movie. Here's a suggestion to all of you who are going to movies and like to talk during them... BE QUIET! You aren't at home watching TV, and nobody wants to hear you talking during the movie they're paying to watch. If you can't stand not hearing yourself talk for the dura
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

27

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

Homebreviews - part 38

Back to the venerable 2600, and two games that have some of the best label art ever!   K.O. Cruiser 5/5   K.O. Cruiser is a boxing game that harkens back to the arcade classic Punch-Out!! You control the transparent outline of a boxer, throwing punches and dodging blows from your opponents. You win by either knocking them out or going the distance and getting the judges' decision. If you get knocked down, you have only seconds to get back up before you're counted out.   K.O. Cruiser is a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5

Summer Full 'o Movies pt. 5 - The Incredible Hulk

Okay... so I originally said that I wasn't going to see The Incredible Hulk. But I did anyway. A friend of mine wanted to go, so I figured - "why not?" At the very least, we could make fun of how bad it was afterwards.   However, it wasn't that bad of a film. Actually, it was pretty decent. Nowhere near the level of Iron Man, but probably somewhere between Fantastic Four and X-Men.   Edward Norton made a good Bruce Banner, and most of the rest of the cast was fine, although Liv Tyler spent m
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8

Unfiltered noise

What are meetings good for?   Sketching, of course!   Some of my favorite drawings have come in the form of spur-of-the-moment little sketches that I've done while waiting for meetings to end.   I'd been thinking about Fred's SuperBug game on the 2600, and started sketching VW bugs. I don't know if he's planning a contest for the label or not, but I hope so. I've loved drawing cars since I was a kid, and the bug is probably the most fun car to draw, from a cartoonist's perspective.   So
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8

Frozen - Spoiler-free review

So I went to see Frozen a few days ago. Opening week, Black Friday, afternoon matinee, packed house, tons of kids. Now I've been in movie theaters before with lots of kids, and if the movie doesn't completely hold their attention, it's a miserable place to be. They get restless and bored, never sit still, and never stop talking. If a movie is too complex for them to follow, they never stop asking questions. If it's too scary for real little kids (and the parents too irresponsible to recognize th
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5

The "Weird Al" Curse

The is nearly upon us. And if you're a pop culture icon... be afraid. Be very afraid.  Of course, if you are a pop culture icon, the odds of you actually reading this blog right now are pretty-much zero.   Anyway, you've heard of the "Superman" Curse, the "Diff'rent Strokes" Curse, and the "Poltergeist" Curse, right? Where a string of seemingly improbable deaths or tragedies are all coincidentally related to a single pop culture event or phenomenon?   Well, I've got my own theory: The
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

100th Stupid Blog Entry!

Somehow, I've stuck with this whole "Blog" fad long enough to crank out 100 entries. And much to my surprise, just this past week, I passed Manuel's Blog as the "Most Viewed" at AtariAge:     So to all of the people who have been reading my blog, all I have to say is...   ...don't you have something better you could be doing??     Seriously though, thanks for reading. Hopefully some of it has been interesting, and maybe, occasionally, even useful.   Pffft! Ha! I knew I couldn't k
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6

Snowpiercer (?) - Spoiler-free review

Yeah... I'd never heard of Snowpiercer before, either. This despite it having a fairly-star-studded cast including Chris Evans (Captain America), John Hurt and Ed Harris.   I think this film is the reason for a bit of Avengers trivia. In The Avengers' shwarma end-credits scene, Evans is hiding his face with his hand. The reason being, he had grown a beard for another movie, and they couldn't completely hide it. And in Snowpiercer, he has a beard.   So I'm guessing Snowpiercer is that movie.
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

19

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

Homebrew Art, part 6 - Warring Worms: The Worm (re)turns

Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)turns (2005) Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)turns was my first non-contest label. I was asked by Billy Eno to create the label for his update to his earlier game Warring Worms. WW:TWR is sort of like Surround but the players have weapons and the game variations number into the thousands. I don't recall if it was Billy or myself who thought of the concept, but basically it was a riff on a line from Austin Powers about sharks with "frickin' laser beams attached to thei
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
To-Do Lists

Twenty-three Skid-to-doo

Well, I figured before the last list hit three years old, I'd better replace it with a new one - clean out the completed projects, update existing ones, and add a few more. Latest updates are in red.   Homebrews in development:   Rip Off (was "Zombie Project (does not contain any actual zombies)")* Game graphics: In-progress. Development status: Early proof-of-concept build. 1-10-24: First pass at new graphics complete. 1-14-24: Added to to-do list. 2-1
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in To-Do Lists

48

New time, new station!

Another year has come and gone. And no, you didn't collapse into a coma and wake up seven months later (well... for all I know you didn't) - rather, another school year has come and gone.   And as usual, the annual screenings of our student films have been taking place (here's the obligatory link to last year's blog entry).   The Open Show, where we show all films from the Character Animation Program, took place in the Main Gallery at CalArts at the end of April. Here's a wacky fish-eye phot
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7

Homebreviews index - part 4

Another year, another update to the Homebreviews Index. There are now 109 reviews, arranged alphabetically, by score.   Reviews added since the last index are labeled New. 2600 Reviews are listed above, 7800 reviews are listed below. All reviews are for homebrew games, unless otherwise noted.   2600 Homebrews   5/5 2005 Holiday Cart: Reindeer Rescue 2005 MiniGame MultiCart 2007 Holiday Cart: Stella's Stocking Cave In - New Colony 7 Conquest of Mars Duck Attack! - New
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

11

To-Done?

Another year, another To-Do list. This one's pretty late. Usually I write these early in the year, but this year there wasn't really much to update. I'd finished up most of the projects on my last To-Do list and decided I wasn't really interested in taking on anything new. This new To-Do list (half-written in January) originally wasn't going to contain any homebrew projects. Between Star Castle, Ixion and Stay Frosty 2, I pretty-much got burned out on working on homebrews last year. I ended
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

19

George, Walt. Walt, George.

So Disney bought Lucasfilm today for $4 billion. Lock, stock and Jar-Jar.   I'll admit this took me by surprise, even though Disney and Lucas have teamed up in the past: Indiana Jones (the ride), Star Tours and all of its related merchandise, plus other more questionable crossovers like this:     As a friend of mine who works for the Big D pointed out, Leia is now a "Disney Princess". (shudder)   Anyway... the question is - is this acquisition a good thing or a bad thing?   Well, let'
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

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

Bringing the funny

A few weeks back, "Weird Al" Yankovic released a couple of Blu-ray discs: Alpocalypse HD and "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! The Alpocalypse Tour.   "Weird Al's" last live DVD was released in 2000. Doesn't seem all that long ago...   Anyway... Alpocalypse HD is basically just the videos from his recent album, in HD. The only bonus material are three videos from his previous album (Straight Outta Lynwood) which were made too late to be included on that CD/DVD combo disc: White & Nerdy, Do I Cr
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6

Not even "Weird Al" could save it...

Over my Christmas vacation, it was with a tinge of sadness that I noticed that the Radio Shack I had grown up with had closed its doors.   My Radio Shack.   I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised though, since I was often puzzled at all of the other Radio Shacks that were still open.   More surprising, was that when I went to go see a movie that week, this commercial ran in the theater beforehand. "Weird Al" Yankovic singing the joys of holiday shopping at Radio Shack, in a Radio Sha
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

16

The death of "Cartoon Brew"

Let's see, what bad things have happened in animation recently?   Well, DreamWorks is reportedly laying off 20 - 25% of their employees.   Rhythm & Hues is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.   And the website Cartoon Brew is dead.   Where did I read about all of these? Why, Cartoon Brew, of course!   Cartoon Brew has been, for better or worse, a central source of animation-related news and opinion for the last nine years.   Co-founded by animation historian and author Jerry Beck a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0

The Peanuts Movie - Spoiler-free movie review

Wah wah wah wah, wah wah, wah wah wah wah. Sorry... couldn't resist. I've been a Peanuts fan as far back as I can remember. I read Peanuts books and drew Peanuts cartoons as soon as I was old enough to read a book or hold a crayon. I've still got a picture I drew as a little kid of Snoopy's dog house (a cutaway view showing the inside and all of the stuff that he had in there), and there's a photo somewhere of me standing in front of a chalkboard we had at home drawing Snoopy on it. I had
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

10

Captain America: Civil War - Spoiler-free movie review

I'm just about to head off for a late-night show at the ArcLight. I'll be posting a review either much later tonight, or in all likelihood, tomorrow. I hadn't quite planned on going to see the movie this soon, but it's getting really difficult to avoid spoilers. I've really been looking forward to this movie, since Winter Soldier was so good. But on the other hand, Age of Ultron was quite a disappointment, so I have no idea how this will turn out. Except, of course, that it will be much be
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

21

Stella at 20, at 20

Okay... that's a bit of a cheat. Technically, it should be Stella at 20, at 19. But that just doesn't sound as cool. Bet you never thought you'd see another post about this project... did ya'? Well, at a certain point, neither did I. Eleven years ago, almost to the week, I received the original camera tapes for the two-volume documentary Stella at 20 from Glenn Saunders, with the intent of re-editing it into an expanded version of the documentary. The goal was to put it out on DVD, since it
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

9
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