GamEscape Online

The Haunted Sawmill - Merrill WI

2011-10-31T15:56:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, I, along with my family were treated to a journey through Merrill's first(and hopefully annual) Haunted Sawmill. A local chapter of boyscouts turned an old abandoned factory in town into a really excellent haunted house!

For many years I spent looking at the old Semco/Northern Specialty building just outside of my parents house. I've made little film projects, tried peaking in windows, and even turned the outside front door into Joker's secret hideout with my friends on the set of JPD's "Batman: The Enemy Within'! I always looked at it like it was such a waste of space! Why is this giant factory just sitting here untouched?

Then finally someone stood up to do something about it! Troop 599, a local Boyscout group put together a great Haunted House that features over 30 actors, tons of great costumes, eerie effects, a moving room, and took about 6 months to put together! On Saturday night, my two oldest boys and I sat in line for just over 3 hours (8:30-11:30pm) and we finally got into the door, for what we found to be the scare of our lives!! When we walked to pick up our tickets and get in line, I would say there was easily 400 or more people standing before us. The guy holding the tickets said it was about a two hour wait. O_O - the crazy thing was, they sold tickets till about 10:30pm... So I would guess they will be doing Haunted tours till at least 1 or 2 am!

The most impressive parts of the tour would be the moving room, the great makeup, and of course the great Actors that brought this event to life!

Another really great feature was the line for the Sawmill! While you wait in a creepy corn maze type line for the scare of your life, masked murderers, ghouls, and monsters of epic size were wondering about on the roof, peaking out windows and even coming into the line to....erm.. visit.

I just can't recommend this enough for anyone looking to go out this Halloween night. The Building itself takes about 10-15 minutes to get through, the scares are pretty intense, and you really feel like you get your money's worth. I really hope they do this again next year as we were all really freaked out!!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Spell Casting a Loom

2011-10-07T14:36:00.001-05:00

I remember picking up the newest copy of Video Games and Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) and seeing this amazing looking adventure game. Of course it was only available on PC. PC games had this 'nya nya, look at what we can do' feeling to them. The cut-scenes, the music, the game-play, this was like watching an animated Disney movie, and controlling everything. The game is Loom. By today's standards Loom is largely known as a classic point and click adventure game, that was short two sequels of being a legendary game series. Creator Brian Moriarty had at one time mentioned that Loom was to be the first story in a trilogy of games. The sequels 'The Forge' and The Fold, never saw the light of day, even though Loom sold a half million copies on various releases. One of those being- The TurboGrafx CD!

Loom on the Turbo Super CD is amazing. It took everything from the PC original and consolised it for Turbo fans around the world. If you experienced the PC version you won't be disappointed. All the scenery, storyline, spells, and characters are in tact! Aside from a few issues with the buzzing sounds of the distaff, and the spoken dialog being cut out of this CD release, it is the exact same game. Brian Moriarty's Loom brings an excellent adventure game to the Turbo SCD and ONLY to the NEC console.

The first time I plunged into the game I spent somewhere upward to 8 hours going through the game. A few friends and myself huddled around the TV set like we would a movie, just waiting to see what trouble Bobbin would get into next. Now when I play through it, it takes me around 2~3 hours. Always a great experience trying out different things.

It is mainly a puzzle based adventure game. You are Bobbin Threadbare. You encounter an issue, think about it for a while, look and talk to things, and then solve the issue, then move onto the next issue. Of course this is very similar to other graphic adventure games of yesteryear in the days of Amiga and DOS PCs: Monkey Island, King's Quest, and Beneath a Steel Sky. There were very few games like this released on consoles, which is why I think this makes Loom a really special release. The only other game like this on the Turbo would be the rare Beyond Shadowgate. There are pretty big differences between the two though. In Loom you use a 'mouse style' clicker to move about and look at things, whereas in Shadowgate you actually move your character around, dodging and punching bad guys. Loom has pretty much no fighting at all. There are very few parts in the game where Bobbin is in any situation where you need to use any dexterity to dodge monsters or kill anything. Bobbin is mainly just casting spells to change the color of Sheep to camouflage their colors from a overheard Dragon, and reversing a typhoon's spin to float over the water of a lake.

The experience is not one to miss really. It's the perfect afternoon romp. It really makes you think too with memorizing musical spells and figuring out the puzzles that Bobbin encounters. If you have a night with your family and friends, and are looking for a movie to watch, maybe pop in the Turbo classic Loom and try to get everyone involved in saving the world from chaos!!

Highly recommended!!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

The TurboGrafx Legacy

2011-09-27T11:53:00.004-05:00

What could possibly be better than having a giant high definition poster of every US TurboGrafx release hanging on your game room wall? Possibly actually owning every game on the poster is the only thing that comes to mind. Minus the recent Aetherbyte release Insanity X and the upcoming Mysterious Song by Frozen Utopia, this poster features EVERY US release for one of the finest consoles to ever grace video gaming history. Of course this library of awesomeness is dwarfed by the all encompassing Japanese library that the PC Engine offers, but these games still hold a firm grasp in all our hearts! Just look at this thing. This is it! This is the entire library in one screen shot! Damn! From the legendary Ys to the epic Ninja Spirit, Air Zonk, Bonk, timeless classics like Beyond Shadowgate to turds like Godzilla are all included in this amazing poster!! This would be the perfect Christmas gift for any turbob nerd!

This poster is available at http://www.cafepress.com/pcenginefx.260707543 for a little over $20. I think that is a steel, especially given the quality of the poster! I know this probably sounds more like an advertisement than an actual blog post, but something like this hanging on my wall would be so epic!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

New Linux Lappy

2011-09-02T14:40:00.000-05:00

I've decided at long last to go straight Linux for a new laptop project. I scored a Pentium D Dual Core Acer laptop a week ago. Special thanks to my old friend Pat Fisherman for doing most of the dirty work. You see, the laptop was sitting for ages, and nobody tried to fix it. (by ages I mean since 2008, when it was 'fried' by the then owner) The power supply attachment on the laptop busted and burned out the laptop. After buying a $20 part off Amazon.com Pat was able to install the new part and we were up and running!! I was amazed! This is a good $300+ laptop, that was basically free!!

When we got it running it was booting into Windows XP. Looks like the prior owner had only ever used Internet Explorer and it was running really sluggish. Tried to test out the wireless, after a little tinkering got that running. Wow... what would happen next? Pop up. Pop up!! Pop up!!

Holy shizah!! this thing was covered in viruses!! I quickly powered the thing down and looked about the room. I thought to myself, I might need to reinstall Windows... then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the new Linux Mint distro CD I made a while back... Hmmm, Linux. Do I go straight Linux? What about all of the applications that I love to use in windows world? I'm pretty much a linux noob, could I get the hang of a UNIX based OS? Aw, screw it! I slapped the disc in and ran the install completely wiping Winders off the laptop.

Linux came up, without any issues. Displayed a nice welcome screen, walking me through the entire install process. Before I knew it I was up and running. A quick connection to the Internet through a Ethernet port and Mint was able to completely and automagically update all drivers and bring me up to speed on all the security and application settings that I would need to get the most out of my laptop. I know what you're thinking right? What am I a freakin' Linux commercial? Well, seriously... it really is like this! It just runs better. No silly pop ups, no windows virus protection garbage, no dealing Microsoft period! And best of all. It's FREE!

So generally, I use my PC's and now this laptop for a few things. I do the regular browsing around, emails, facclerbooking..etc etc. who doesn't. I also do some(albeit crappy) film project editing, game playing, FTP uploading, website editing, and just general writing of papers/projects (Open office). So, for pretty much everything I do, I have found a Linux equivalent for. There are endless amounts of GREAT Linux games available(Probably another whole blog entry!) so I'm set there. FileZilla is great for uploading massive amounts of files, also Gtorrent, is a uTorrent copy and works exactly the same for any file sharing needs. Open Office is perfect for visio, or word projects, even comes with some good website development tools.

Now for editing movies. Apparently there are LOADS of options in the Linux world. I've done some research on a few distributions of some really powerful, free editing softwares, and I have to say, I'm impressed! I'm starting to dabble with OpenShot and LiVES. LiVES is way beyond what little experience I have at the moment. I have to learn to slow down and not just slop things together. Whereas I'm pretty comfortable with OpenShot already. It's an easy program to dabble around with. Seems a bit limited, pretty similar to Windows movie maker. Just better quality.

Well, so far so good. I made the transition, and so far. I'm not looking back. I have to use a Windows 7 OS at work, and that is enough for me to be done with the same old hassles of dealing with Windows Operating Systems. I really like everything in Linux Mint thus far, and I'll keep everyone up to date if I run into any problems!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Emerald Dragon journey part 1

2011-08-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

This week I started a quest playing what many consider an excellent Japanese RPG only released in the orient. The game? Emerald Dragon. My progress thus far: only about 1 hour 30 minutes. I realize that I am still at a very early stage in the game, I'm not even sure how long it really is, and at this point I don't really care. My experiences with completing a Japanese RPG from beginning to end is lacking. On the PC Engine/Turbob I can only think of two Action/RPG's that I've played all the way through. Ys IV and Gulliver Boy. Both I would consider excellent games, and while it can add some difficulty to the overall challenge of playing, the language barrier is something you just get used to.

After watching the opening cinema, which looks really excellent by the way, we see a group of Dragons standing around talking about something that I'm quite sure is important business. Maybe the lives of many are being threatened and they have to send off the young dragon on a quest to save humanity.... I'm not really sure, I'm playing without aid of a translation or a gamefaq-walkthrough. The Young Dragon (YOU) says his goodbye's to a young human female and it seems as if he has feelings for her. Then we are taking a few years into the future, we see the Young Dragon has grown to a slightly less younger dragon. We walk about talking to other Dragons in the village, then stop to have a conversation with the elder dragon. He tells us that everything will be fine, and says we must start our journey. Magically transforming the young dragon into a HUMAN!!

Just after this we wind up in a town for your usual RPG fare. There are inns, shops and people to talk to. Step outside of town and you chance getting into a random battle. I really got to tell you, I LOVE the battle system. It's so easy to get into! It almost reminds me of a mix of Ultima and Ys a bit! The battle system starts with a battle map with the baddies on one side and you on the other. When it is your turn to act, a number pops up over your head. You can either use items, attack, cast spells, flee or move. Usually when you're just starting out, you'll mostly just be moving and attacking. When you use the D-pad to move, you instantly move, like you would in say Ys, but when you take one step the number that popped up over your head goes down one. For example, if you started with a '12' over your head, and took two steps, the number would now show '10'! It's pretty awesome! It involves a great amount of strategy. Attacking depends on the character and sometimes the item they wish to attack with as well. Say a baddie is 9 paces from you, attacking costs you 4 points, and you only have 12 points per turn. You would only be able to move your character up to the evil doer, but wouldn't be able to get in an attack this round, so you might want to only move half way, so the enemy would waste some of their movements on their turn, then you could also use a heal potion or do something else this turn too. It just goes back and forth like that till one side is dead, and the other collects the spoils. I love it!

Once I got the battle system down, I started the search for allies to join my party. In the first towns bar I acquired a kick ass fighter that really helped in battle. Then after leveling up a bit, we headed out East and found our first dungeon. After playing around with the menus I found a nice Map feature that helps out a lot showing you a good amount of your surroundings. Kind of similar to Zelda: Link to the Past's over-world map. Really helps out if your lost. In the first dungeon we ran into the same young girl from the opening sequence! She's actually a pretty good healing character with some excellent projectile attacks, and she now joins the party. After running around a bit, we fought a pretty awesome boss battle and went on to beat the dungeon.

Our party of now 3 went back to town and stayed at an inn, healed up, filled up on weapons, talked to the towns folk, and continued onward. I remember a cave entrance to the East that I got my butt kicked early on when I first started to get used to the battle system, so we headed out that way. Got into the dungeon, leveled up a few places, and at the end we came to find a bald magic user that was casting some sort of spell on a giant statue coming out of the wall! He quickly joined our part (4 strong!) and we were able to defeat the monster! Now with our 4 person party I wondered about through the country side doing the level up dance, and moving south slowly to see if there are any other dungeons close by.

From my experiences so far, this game is incredible, and easy to get into! The battle system is excellent, the music and graphics(which I hardly touched on) is top notch, and I'm not finding it too difficult even with it being Japanese. After you get your feet wet with this adventure you would swear it was made by Falcom. It really sucks you in and the music sets the mood. The battles have the usual Turbob chiptunes, that we've all grown to love, and it has a nice transition from red-book audio to battle music and back to red-book between battles.

I'll keep chronicling my journey through this game here, sharing my thoughts and experiences. I was able to find Emerald Dragon a few months back on eBay for around $8($12 shipped) from 'hit japan'. It seems like a fairly common game, and not hard hard to find or too expensive for the average turbob head to own. For what it costs and how much I'm enjoying it thus far, I would have to say its already been worth it, and can definitely recommend it for anyone reading!

Till next time.......

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Castlevania part 3

2011-08-24T09:27:00.001-05:00

After playing through the Castlevania trilogy I was at a point where I knew for certain that I would be a nerdy gamer for the rest of eternity. My imagination went crazy thinking of how they could take the series in upcoming installments. I started to get wrapped up in dozens of NES game series' like Zelda, Ultima, Dragon Warrior, and Double Dragon which helped me grasp the concept of long and involving games with multiple paths and difficult challenges while still teaching the ways of quick hand eye coordination!! I was like an NES ninja! Learning from my master, mimicking his movements from my ca... wait... wrong blog post!
Anyway, I was pretty much fully sucked into the world of video gaming.

The 16-bitters were coming. Sometime during the time I was really getting hooked on the NES (1989 to be exact) the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 were released. If you had lived in the Nintendo Power world(like I did), you really had no idea anything else existed! I remember in 1991 picking up my first copy of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) and it had a headliner of 'Super mario Bros. 4'! I was like O_O OMG!! Mario 4?? When I purchased the magazine I saw reviews and games I had never heard of. The Genesis? Micheal Jackson has a video game?! Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I really had never played a 16-bit console till I got my SNES in 1992, so bear with me... matter of fact, you should probably know that I grew up in a small town. I ran with a pretty nerdy group of guys and we played lots of video games. We didn't know anyone that had gotten a Sega Genesis and knew even less people that had even heard of the TurboGrafx so seeing this gaming magazine with all these foreign consoles displaying crazy advanced graphics really blew my mind!

Seeing game reviews and going to some more arcades really helped me grasp the idea of what 16-bit games could look like. I don't remember where I was, but I do remember calling everyone I knew the day I saw the very first screen shots of Castlevania IV for the Super NES. How epic could this be? How amazing it looked! WOW! How many twists and turns would this game have, how many paths could we find or characters to rescue to play as!? This looked to be the greatest video game every created. And it was, but I wouldn't be able to play it till I got a Super Nintendo, so I had to do the unthinkable. I had to sell off my NES console and my collection to pay for the new 16-bit monster!! Regretfully, I did.

I spent a good chunk of late 1991 and early 1992 selling off my NES collection, and in May of 1992 I finally got the SNES. The day I got it, I called two of my buddies and we ran to the closest video store. We rented Zelda III, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and.... of course.... Super Castlevania IV. We quickly biked back to my place and we carefully placed the cart into the 16-bit Nintendo. And like magic the little purple beam of light passed over the screen and the legendary Konami logo appeared. The game intro(which we all watched in entirety) and the game's first stage were about as perfect as I could imagine.

Castlevania IV is almost like a retelling of the original Castlevania. The hero is once again Simon Belmont, the gameplay is more linear style only offering challenging level after level, and there is no allies this time around. It's Simon vs. the world of darkness! One of the best things I fell in love with in Castlevania III was the ability to go in different directions and find allies to join your quest for peace, you would think that those features being absent from this offering would bother me, but it didn't. There were three things that really stood out to me when I first got a chance to play this game, that were brand new to the series; the music, the graphics, and the controls. The music was.. ,screw it, IS a masterpiece I've never felt this into a game before, every tune sets the mood, and opens up a whole new world of possibilities! The graphics are just so out of this world! Parallax scrolling, spinning levels (thanks to Mode 7), zooming monsters in and out of the screen! When I imagined what a 16-bit Castlevania would look like, I never quite thought it would look this good. There were certain parts that just really took my breath away. The controls: this is the point of the game that is the absolute perfect. Simon Belmont moves so fluidly and naturally. It almost makes the first three games in the series feel clunky in comparison. I would have to say that Castlevania IV absolutely perfected the control of a castlevania hero. The whipping in every direction, the whirling it around to toy with baddies, the jumping, stairs, falling, jump controls even, and of course moonwalking are all perfect!

After Castlevania IV I really couldn't wait to see what a possible Castlevania V might look and play like!! Could we see the same controls and music/graphics of this type mixed with a more open style of game similar to Castlevania III? I paid very close attention to EGM's and Nintendo Power for most of 1992 all the way through the beginning of 1993 and I didn't see anything about a new Castlevania game. I mean, what gives? Where is castlevania V? Maybe I was spoiled rotten for so long. I had gotten the original Castlevania around 1988, Castlevania II in 1989, III in 1990, and we got the amazing Super Castlevania IV in 1991!! I was used to battling dracula on a yearly basis!! Was the series dead? Did Castlevania IV undersell?

Then suddenly it happened. EGM had an article in March of 1993 talking about something called 'Dracula X' by Konami. At first I glanced over it saying "Dracula X" What was this some kind of movie game? But then apon looking closely I realized it was a new Castlevania game!! It was coming out in 1993, and was being released on the PC Engine. It wasn't coming out in the US!! WHAT?!?! WHY!?!? I was really not happy about this. Then after doing a bit more research I found that the PC Engine had actually been released in the states as the Turbografx 16!! All this time, and I hadn't even realized! This would bring on a whole new obsession that pretty much turned me into the biggest Turbo head that I know, but alas, that is something that should be saved for another series of blog posts! (_joshuaTurbo's love connection with the TurboGrafx16!! LOL)

The game looked awesome (Dracula X)!! It was 16-bit. Was a Super CD game, with cut scenes, and CD red book audio! It had multiple paths, and even had the possibilities of finding and playing as other characters. This seemed like the 16-bit sequel to Castlevania III the more I read about it.... but, again. It was still not coming out in the US. Why the hell didn't TTI/ Hudson pull some strings and get this released here?!? This was one of the big three at the time that I feel could have REALLY helped the system! (What are the big three? again.... I'll do a blog post about that.)

Now I had always been a pretty big Nintendo nut up till about 1993. I was pro NES over the Master System and Atari 7800 and I was pro SNES over Genesis. I knew that there was never anything on the Sega systems that would draw me away from my precious Nintendo consoles. It almost drove me to a hatred for the Sega Platform. Whenever a good game would pop up on the Genesis, I remember thinking 'oh those bastards, I hope Nintendo makes a better game' and couldn't help on looking down on the general library of Sega games. Boy did my world flip when I saw in an early 1994 EGM that Castlevania was making the jump to Sega Genesis!! I was like OMG! What are they thinking?? At first I was seriously butt hurt. It was almost like my feelings were hurt. (At this point it had been 3 years since the last Castlevania console release (and no I don't count the Gameboy games, didn't really like 'em)) Why didn't we get a new Castlevania game on the SNES!?!?

Most of the first screenshots/teasers were of pretty bad quality. I remember thinking 'boy this is going to suck'. Hoping that maybe Konami would realize this was a bad idea and quickly release a new SNES game of equal awesomeness as Castlevania IV!! I had started hanging with a guy that owned a Genesis (Finally) and played around with some more of the library. While I will always, and still do, say the Genesis library isn't as good as the SNES library, it is pretty awesome. And it was good to see a guy that was able to love both the Genesis and the SNES. I was still learning how to do this. The day finally came for the release of Castlevania; Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis. We picked it up at the video store and brought it to his house. I took it out of the case, and put it in the Genesis.

What happened next really blew my world.

Next: Castlevania on the flip side!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Castlevania part 2

2011-08-23T10:26:00.001-05:00

After Castlevania 1 and 2 were behind us, we occasionally went back to them in passing, playing casually just to pass time. Get good at some of the harder parts, at one point I actually had memorized much of Castlevania II from beginning to end using one little code that allowed me to start with all the items needed to make Dracula appear, so I could just play through the game to Drac's castle and blow him away. It was a good romp! When we finally had moved on to other games, we really thought Castlevania opened us up to more challenges in the video game world. It was almost a gateway drug to some other games that most would say was too hard. We quickly started feeding into our addiction with series' like Ninja Gaiden, Batman, Metroid, Blaster Master, and even TMNT. While non of these games quite had the same addicting flavors that Castlevania offered(Batman came close, but that is for another blog article!), they were a great diversion until we saw the mighty 'coming soon' section in an early 1990 issue of Nintendo Power. Castlevania III was coming!!

Castlevania III pretty much made us crap our pants. Our little game group of two guys huddled in our bedrooms playing video games quickly escalated to about 5 kids staying up till the wee hours hanging on the edge of our seats conquering level after level of this epic game. Let me just say this first, well not first but before you read on: if you haven't played through this epic, or at least invested a great amount of time into Castlevania III, stop reading right now, and get the hell to your nearest NES or emulator get this game and get playing! It is absolutely EPIC! It's damn near the perfect game. i'm dead serious, it is the BEST 8-bit Castlevania and easily a top 3 NES game of all time. Ok with that said....

Simon's Quest gave us an open world to wonder and discover. The original Castlevania was linear and kept you going from stage 1 to stage 2 and so on. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was somewhere in between. While the gameplay shares a closer relationship with it's older brother the original Castlevania, it does give you options on which direction you can go in with different path choices. You can also find allies along the way that will actually join your party! Sypha a spell caster, Grant the Pirate, and the son of Dracula; Alucard! Finding these allies can also change the directions you can go in through levels and even changes the endings of the GAME!! It REALLY adds so much to the experience you just have to play it to understand. This adventure takes all of this and adds it to the style of gameplay seen in the original. It is truly the perfect culmination of all the working pieces of the series all wrapped in one.

I'd love to tell you we had some great epic tale of how we played through this game with nightmares and stories of how we battled Dracula and his many forms for months and months, but in all honesty we were able to play through to the ending of this game in about 2 weeks. Could be that we had so much 'experience' with the series, or that we were just getting a bit older and our 1337 skills were starting to show, or the fact that this game is just clearly the most polished 8-bit castlevania. It is even complete with a password system, a unique one at that with a grid and symbols that go along with the user name you played with. Changing names with the password? It won't work. The user name you used is yours for life, unless you start over. Pretty genius.

Don't let this fool you, Castlevania III is a hard game. Some of the later levels are the most frustrating I've ever seen. The thing is, with the passwords, you are able to continue on from where you left off each time. This saves on a TON of the replay of some of the earlier levels. Also having multiple ways to go adds loads to the replay value of this classic.

Over the coming months afterward we spent great amounts of time uncovering secret passageways, unlocking characters and seeing all the different endings the game had to offer. Over that time, news of the passing of the torch from 8-bit to 16-bit has started to circulate at a rapid pace. The TurboGrafx and the Sega Genesis were all the news in most video game magazines, and news of Nintendo's upgraded 16-bit powerhouse was all over the place! Our first thought was could we see a 16-bit Castlevania!?!? I remember seeing video and screen shots of 16-bit/ arcade games that reminded me of Castlevania (Legendary Axe) with the muscle of 16-bit and thinking... 'wow, what might Castlevania IV look like?'

We would find out in late 1991....... O_O

Next time - Castlevania Vs. 16-bit

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Castlevania part 1

2011-08-22T12:06:00.000-05:00

When I look back on the Castlevania franchise from my childhood, I look back on the greatest puzzles, most challenging levels, greatest soundtracks, and mind blowing graphics of any game series ever released. If you know me at all, you know that my fondest memories of the series are from the 8-bit/16-bit era where nearly every game released in the series was a perfect 10 out of 10. While I do think that a great Castlevania game or two have been released since the SNES days(which we'll get into later) I will say the series has died down on my radar over the past 10 years. Castlevania in 3D? It's just ... not Castlevania man!

I first experienced Castlevania in a Pizza Hut downtown. The game had an eerie feel to it, and some of the most difficult evil monsters to overcome I had ever seen. Then I saw that it was also a NES (Nintendo) game. I was floored. We must rent this! My friends and I got Castlevania in our grubby little hands and played it till the wee hours of morning. It caused nightmares. It had tunes that I would never get out of my head. And also, this was before every game had a save feature, and it had no password feature. Meaning you had to play from the beginning every time you wanted to start playing. It was unforgiving in later levels. You mess up. You die. Period. Level Start. We rented it several times getting farther and farther into the game, when finally after at least the 5th time renting it we encountered Dracula!! He was tough, he did double damage, and his routine was hard to predict (for the first outing!). Time after time, we took part in the epic battle between Simon Belmont and Dracula, and time after time we died trying. Until finally my friend Rob managed to take him down. We watch the flames come up as Dracula had died, we cheered, only to start shrieking as A hideous beast appeared where Dracula laid! The fight was NOT OVER!! The beast jumped and shot fireballs, to an ominous boss music that to this day I still can hear!! We did not manage to defeat the beast. We brought Castlevania back to the Rental joint defeated. We had had enough. We moved on. There were Zelda's and Mario's to play!!

Then my first issue of my first ever Nintendo Power Subscription came in the mail. What is this on the cover!? it was indeed Castlevania II!! I quickly showed my friends, we studied the screen shots and strategy hints. We biked to the rental place and sure enough the new release of the day was Castlevania II. We brought it home, and while still having the Castlevania feel to it, it wound up being a completely different game. You still had the whip, and it was still a battle against the armies of Dracula's undead. But now we had a save feature. The game setting was open, you could go wherever you wanted. You had an inventory. There were towns to visit, places to purchase goods, people to save. It was almost like a Castlevania RPG!! We instantly fell in love! Rob had liked the game so much he actually got it for Christmas that year! I remember going over during the holidays and staying up all hours of the night. There were fewer challenges in Castlevania II as opposed to the original, but was still a difficult game. Having passwords helped. We didn't have to start over every time we attempted to slay Dracula. In Castlevania II we had to find assorted secret items that would 'bring out' Dracula. Taking these items to Dracula's castle (which was oddly absent of any bad guys) walk through and fight Drac himself. The battle Vs. Dracula in C2 was a bit of a let down. It was super easy, but we knew better than to think that was it. After Dracula became inflamed, we waited anxiously for the best monster to reappear and give us nightmares for the next two years. But... that didn't happen. Dracula started on fire and died, then the ending credits came up. Castlevania II was conquered. I quickly followed suit and at home later borrowed the game and beat the game. While it was a great experience, and a memorable time, beating it felt a little empty. I felt like something was missing. We both knew what we had to do.

We had to revisit the original and take down that bastard!! How could we live with ourselves with beating Castlevania II but not the original?!?! We couldn't. Rob actually had asked for the original for a Birthday gift and received it. ((If you're wondering about why Rob keeps getting all these games, its because at this time, I didn't own my own NES yet. I would soon remedy this the next holiday season (1989)) I had grown up with a Tandy CoCo2, and had acquired a Colicovision from a rummage sale for $20, so my parents thought I had enough video games) So we had finally gotten our hands on the original. During this time, Rob spent a majority of the time playing through to Dracula, because I just couldn't get my act together (That's right, I wasn't as good a gamer as Rob was... sue me). Rob had once again defeated Dracula and went on to fight the Monster that emerged from the flames. I remember this time so well, that I actually started to play the boss music on a little play piano that I had, and I was getting pretty good at it!! Finally Rob was able to defeat the bastard, and we were able to see the ending to one of the most difficult video games in existence. It was bitter sweet, because the ending was good, but it paled in comparison to Castlevania II's ending(which actually had multiple endings by the way).

Next- Castlevania III and the idea of a 16-bit trilogy!!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

The Lords of all Thunder games

2011-08-16T16:20:00.000-05:00

Lords of Thunder for the Turbo Grafx/DUO Super CD Console platform will forever hold a spot in my heart as one title that simply took my breath away the first time I popped it in. Back in '94 when I first got hooked on Turbo it was the first game I ordered by mail. I instantly fell in love with its metal soundtrack and blazing visuals! (8-bit? shut yo mouth!) The gameplay took a nice twist on the usual shooter style, giving you a sprite on the screen that was a floating avatar blasting all the baddies with a power bar, so you could take damage rather than doing the usual one hit kill. Which in turn is both a blessing and a curse as when you get hit you tend to lose a good amount of your weapon's firepower and your as good as dead anyway :P.

So what brings on this random blog post about lords you ask? Well it just so happens that the mighty Lords of Thunder has once again fallen into my lap. Yes the same crazy lightning guitar, face melting gameplay and sharp as a tack controls Lords of Thunder. The game that won a perfect 5 out of 5 in gamepro magazine (not that that was hard) and also scored game of the month in EGM magazine! One of only two Turbob games to achieve that in all of 1993!

The game story is your usual hero vs. ultimate group of badguys and stars the powerful Landis, pictured here. Lords is widely considered by all as the sequel to Gate of Thunder. Even though it shares only one common thread between the two. (The word 'thunder' in their names) As GoT is more of a scifi space shooter, where LoT is more of a fantasy setting Magical Chase through land, sea, air, and ice!! The game features mega gigantic bosses, crazy amounts of paralax scrolling and dozens of baddies and bullets on the screen at the same time.
If any of you have actually never had the opportunity, nay the pleasure of playing one of the finest shooters in the history of gaming, then what are you waiting for!?! This title is also available on the Wii Virtual Console, so it's pretty much available for everyone.

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

E3 Review and Video Game thoughts.....

2011-08-01T10:38:00.000-05:00

Another E3 has passed us by. The E3 event, the one time a year that video gaming takes center stage! Developers and publishers come together to show off everything that they have been working on so hard since last year's showing. Some companies show off new hardware (see the Wii U), and like Microsoft did with Kinnect last year, some show off new peripherals for existing hardware (see the Wii U...?). This isn't new phenomena, or even a new gaming reveal convention. For many years before E3 came around, many got their big reveal news from another Electronics Expo. It was called CES, or Consumer Electronics Show. If anyone was coming out with a new console or a new video game, it was sure to be teased or early versions of the game would be on hand for thousands of eager consumers to take for a test drive.

So how has the E3 we know today differ from the CES show years ago? The CES was a convention that showed off anything and everything having to do with electronics. E3 is just focused on video gaming for one. The CES today is still alive and well. It is a jam packed show full of everything having to do with electronics. This includes phones, games, computers, and other electronics. So the difference could be the focus. But what is a video game nowadays?

Are we to consider Facebook and iPhone apps video games? They are featured at events like E3 and CES, so I would assume this is the case. There are more people playing Facebook apps then there are people on Sony's Playstation network in the US. So is Facebook a direct competitor with Sony? I think the big picture here is that the video game industry as a whole is much broader then it was in years past. People are finding new ways to play games. More people than ever are playing digital electronic games. Almost everyone in some way is a gamer! Is all of this a good thing?

? I'm not really sure all of this is a good thing actually.

Looking at the evolution of gaming; I just cannot see what people are excited about in video gaming these days. What is so epic that is coming for the Wii, the PS3, or the 360? What has happened over the past 5 or 10 years while we're at it? How have video games evolved in this generation? As far as I can tell video games have actually de-evolved with the rebirth of 2D gaming and 10 year old concepts being called 'revolutionary' and different. People got so used to playing these glorified motion video games where they are basically hand held during the entire game process that they've forgotten what a video game is supposed to play like! Unless of course you’re a fan of FPS games, as those seem like the only games out on the market that actually take some skill. Unfortunate for me, I've never been a fan of FPS ever since Wolfenstien. I mean I don't hate 'em, but I would rather play anything else.

Here's a thought, look at the evolution of gaming from 2001 to 2011. What? Now we've got a console that looks like Dreamcast graphics with a waggle controller, and two other consoles with albeit pretty effects, has virtually the same library as the last generation. Guitar games? Check. Madden? Check. Tom Clancy? Check. Mario... etc etc.

Halo 2001 ---> Halo 2011

Now look at the evolution from 1991-2001. For the record that would be the end of the NES era. The Genesis and SNES 16-bit era really started to gain steam just at the end of 1991. How much of an advance in game play and graphics did we make from Doom to Halo or Phantasy Star II to Skies of Arcadia? This 10 year span in video game history is outrageous! Why are we sitting at a stalemate, while the 90's had real innovation and made actual attempts to revolutionize the industry, here we sit with the same games over and over every year? Maybe you think the 90's were just a peak year? That evolution was perhaps at faster pace because technology was advancing faster then? Well, look at the 80's then. How much did gaming evolve from 1981 - 1991. Let’s see, we have the 2600 in its prime compared to the beginning of the 16-bit era. How much different is E.T. compared to Sonic the Hedgehog? How about Adventure compared to Final Fantasy? Pitfall vs. Actraiser?

It's really just a question that needs to be asked as to why the hell we are sitting here with the SAME thing we were 10 years ago! Yes, I get that there are better graphics, well at least for the PS3 and the 360. Some Wii games look identical to Dreamcast games that were released in 1999. Games should look so amazing right now, that when we go back to the games we played in 2001, we should say 'Crap, that looks SO old!’ not 'Oh man, what is this? Shenmue? That looks amazing!'

Innovation!?! We've got innovation in current gen? Lemme see, you've got a revved up powerglove console, a bluray movie player that has some 3D games, and the 360 with at least a decent library, and oh what’s this? Kinect..... Ok, Powerglove was introduced in the 80's, the Wii Mote was initially a SEGA idea that they used in the Sega Bass Fishing games in 1999. 3D games? Holy cats, what is this NES with Radracer, or the SEGA Master System?

Really the industry needs a developer to jump up and say 'Look, we're willing to risk some bad press and try something truly innovative!' Not just feed into the money monster sequels/ movie licensed/ Insert game engine here model. I would say our savior could be Nintendo. At least they try to do innovative things. Look at Super Mario Galaxy. That was new and put an entirely new spin on its 3D brand of Mario games... but then of course even Nintendo is guilty of keeping the almighty dollar high on its priority list as a nearly identical Super Mario Galaxy 2 was released a year later! It was like if Nintendo would have released a sequel to Super Mario 3 back in 1991 and it would have been all the same music and characters with altered level designs. Kind of like all the NES romhacks you see on the net or altered (some brilliantly BTW) Super Mario Games.

This all just flows with my theory that video gaming as a whole seems to be headed toward a glorified chatroom setting. Before you play games on your 360 or PS3, you have to log into your username to keep track of your achievements, just like logging onto AOL 15 years ago to check your emails. Unless you play Wii, then you just play games. If only you didn't have to dig through the piles of shovel ware that currently rests on top of the Wii's video game library.

E3 sucked. 2011-2012 looks like crap, and I don’t give a damn. I don't mean to be so negative about the current state of the video game industry; I just don't see what the consumers are excited for. Now leave me alone while I get back to my TurboGrafx 16 and Order of the Griffon!

-jT

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Is Buster Bros. the ultimate Get laid game?

2011-05-11T16:02:00.000-05:00

Videogaming takes on so many different meanings in this day and age. There are your epic gamers that refuse to shower or go out into direct sunlight, there are for fun gamers that just party out with their pals, there are the sports nuts, and there are also the get laid gamers.

Now before you get all crazy upset with me, understand that this isn't gamer date rape, this is two people so overjoyed with a video game that it leads to intamate relations. Looking at some titles that have come at us over the years we see games that just stand out as cooperative, hilarius, romps through colourful worlds that can actually bring people closer together. Some games that come to mind would be Bomberman, Goemon (SNES), Gunstar Heroes, and maybe even moreso than any other Buster Bros!

Before the Playstation compilation came out, the US saw two releases in the series, both in the 16-bit era. There was Buster Bros on the TurboGrafx CD, and Super Buster Bros on the SNES. Before all you SNERDS get all excited, that Super Buster Bros game is a shell of a great game. Don't get me wrong, its an ok game. You run around popping bubbles, to some colourful play areas. The music is the usual MIDI style Capcom treat. Where the game really falls apart is that it's only ONE PLAYER!! FOR SHAME!! This is just as bad as Final Fight only being a one player romp!! WTH CAPCOM!? Now take a look at Buster Bros on the TurboGrafx, damn this game could get you laid if you were home alone! Sleak controls, great music, excellent graphics, and one of the funnest two player experiences known to man! Its not crazy difficult like Gunstar Heroes or Goemon. Its not competitive like Bomberman. Its a cooperative puzzle spectacular that rivals any videogame that uses two controllers for cooperative play.

Its easy to jump into and can take some time to master. Just five minutes into it and your running around, climbing ladders, shooting bubbles, and dodging crabs all the while giggling and bouncing around like a couple idiots. You'll have him/her in your lap tickling each other at any moment if you play your cards right!

Buster Bros. will work with anyone. Someone not into gaming? Cool, its colourful and super easy to play. Someone's a hardcore gamer? Awesome, start on some of the later levels and get ready to die in each other's arms!! Seriously, this game will get you some. If it doesn't you can just send me your copy ;)

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD!

2011-05-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

I've personally stated thoughts on Facebook, but I can share here as well.

Of course something needed to get done. Justice, I hope, was served. For what he did, he deserved probably more pain... but this at least puts him away for good. I now worry about what will be done in retaliation by this terrorist group. No doubt someone will rise up and take his place. I fear this may only get worse. I also don't understand the celebrating of someones death. Seeing the video and pictures of people singing and dancing with signs that say "He's finally DEAD!" and "OSAMA is in Hell", only reminds me of the Palestinians singing and dancing in their streets when the Twin towers were destroyed... just makes no sense. Gang Warfare. They kill our guy, they party. We kill their guy, we party. When does this end?

One thing I did feel good about, was the Philly's/ Mets game on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. When word started spreading through the stands of the news of Osama's Death, the announcers and the teams just paused for a moment and 50,000 plus people just started chanting USA USA for a sold 10 minutes! It was a really great moment that I choose to stick into my memory banks for the rest of my life.

-_Joshua

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Watcha Readin'?

2011-03-01T16:07:00.000-06:00

If there is one thing in my life I would like to do more, its reading. I read plenty of websites, magazines, and bed-time stories to my kids. But finding quiet time to just sit down and be swept away to imagination land while reading a book hasn't been easy. I read one book in 2009, and another in 2010. Its sad really. One book a year? My wife can polish off a book in a couple days. I'd bet she reads nearly 100 books a year. Many of them multiple times. I bet she has some books that she reads annually. Much like I would with a favorite movie (IE LOTR, Star Wars, Fifth Element).

I'm not really sure what it is. I think I look at a book like a daunting task. like. Wow... 300+ pages? How am I ever going to get through that. With books in the past, I've kind of had to force myself into reading them. "Just get through a chapter a day" I'd tell myself. Then I'd only wind up sitting down once a week to read, if I'm lucky. I read the first 'Twilight' book and 'The Rise and Fall of WCW'. Also a few years ago I read 'Go Ask Alice'. That was a really easy read. I thought for certain after getting through those books I would get right into a groove and spend more time reading. But I didn't.

Then something happened-

I rediscovered The world of Xanth. Piers Anthony's Book series that stretched my imagination with historical rifts connecting SciFi and Fantasy when I was younger. I could only remember reading 'Spell for Chameleon' when I was about 12 years old. I didn't remember much about it. Somehow luckily we've ran across several of Anthony's books either from Thrift shops, Garage sales, or Library bag fairs. I put 'Spell for Chameleon' on my book shelf saying "I'll read this next". That was in the summer of 2010.

New Years came along, of course this would be my chance. A Resolution! I've had many in the past; Quit soda, start running, eating healthier foods, go back to school, change my life. I've actually been on quite a roll with New Years resolutions come to think of it! This could be my answer. Its like something in my brain turns me into someone that can accomplish anything! Next year, I run for governor.. lol

So in January I didn't get to read any books. LOL- crap. Not the start I was hoping for. In my defense I was working towards a return to independent wrestling, and spent most of the month being too worried/ excited for that that I pretty much didn't do anything else. I also screwed up my left ankle while a school field trip cross country skiing. It was a pretty miserable month for staying on target with alot of things. I have been running. well, more like Jogging. In January I only ran 18 miles the entire month. That was after nearly hitting 60 miles in Octover, over 40 in November and nearly 40 in December. I was pretty disappointed.

Then came February. I found a book we had acquired recently called 'Arcade Explorers'. It was pretty much a short book (112 pages) that seemed like it was geared towards early teens. I started reading it mostly as a joke to see how cheesy it was. After about two chapters into it I could tell that it was nothing more than a computer game supplement (Really it was) rip off of Reboot/ Star Wars/ Tron complete with Cyber Cycles, Lightning Swords and a community of people living inside your very own Apple ][c/ Tandy CoCo. So I put the book down.

Then I finally put 'Spell for Chameleon' into my work case and brought it with me to work. During my lunch breaks I promised myself I would at least read a chapter. This is where I got hooked. After I read the first couple chapters I found I was hooked. My one hour lunch breaks at work went by like lightning. I would polish off 40 or more pages in the hour, in what seemed like a blink of an eye! I would also spend around 30 minutes or more in bed at night trying to read more. It took me 10 days to read it in its entirety which for me is a record. The book is around 330 pages.

The Story follows Bink as he becomes exiled from Florid.... I mean Xanth...lol when the King believes he has no magical ability and forces him to leave the land. (For some reason in Xanth, if you do not have magical powers you are to leave the land when you come of age/MANhood) On his way he runs into many mythical/ magical creatures and befriends many allies and even enemies. Dragons, Nymphs, Wizards, and Warriors, and Harpy's their all here. I really got sucked into the story. I can see how some people would look down on some of the characters and perspectives as being sexist or a little old world. Bink generally judges every female characters appearance in many non flattering ways, to this I say "Hey, he's a dude" Piers wanted him to think like that for a reason, some people do I suppose. You come to find other characters towards the end that really do border on some pretty sexist frames of thinking, but I know there are dozens more books in the series, so I will put in some more time before I weigh in my opinions on them.

After 'Spell for Chameleon' I read a pretty damn interesting short story called 'The Sandkings', that felt more like an episode of the Twilight Zone than anything else. A Twilight ZONE in the distant future, on a distant planet! Good Stuff. The moral of the story here is do onto others as you would like done to you, and the main character is an asshole!

Right now I've begun reading a book that I've always wanted to read: 'The Pool of Radiance'. I've played the old DOS games (To death) and spent many hours on the NES version. Great games!! I found this book a long time ago, and again' its 400 pages!!' How am I ever going to get through that?? But what the hell? I've been on a roll, its my new years resolution right? For one reason or another I've slowed down a bit with the reading. I haven't stopped! But definitely slowed a bit. I've been reading this one for about two weeks now. I just hit the 100 pages plateau. It took me a bit to get into it. The first chapter was 30 pages and didn't really interest me too much, luckily for the the 2nd chapter was EXCELLENT! I really grew attached to the character surrounding each chapter, and got even more excited to read on when I found the first few chapters were basically separate backstories leading up to the main characters meeting. Shal, Tarl, and Ren have a GIANT quest ahead of them, and all of the Forgotten Realms D&D rules/ stories apply. I actually get chills when the characters speak of towns and cities that I remember actually playing in D&D table top campaigns and Computer/Video Games!!

So thus far, the tale lives on. I'm on my technically 3rd book of the year. on pace for a possible one book a month schedule. Which would be another record ;) I have a Book Queue on my side table next to my bed of about 5 more books that I'm looking forward to reading once I'm through 'Pool of Radiance'. Up next is 'Another fine Myth' by Robert Aspirin and then continuing the Xanth Series with 'Source of Magic'!

I might even jump back into 'Arcade Explorer's if I keep forgetting to bring Pool of Radiance with me to work! I've got find out if I can finally beat the Raster Gang, save Vidi and free all of Venturia!

-Joshua

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Concept: Playing video games Till you Die.

2011-02-17T11:38:00.000-06:00

Can you imagine in 40 years seeing video arcades becoming part of the norm at nursing homes? I was always asked when I was younger "What, are you going to just play video games all your life?" I thought: I certainly hope so! Why wouldn't I? It wasn't a fad, it wasn't a phase. This was something that connected with me at a very young age. I couldn't imagine going on without the video game industry, its past, games of today, and the future not being a part of my life. Was I just supposed to grow out of it? Just one day say, yeah... I'm an adult now, I don't have time for these video games anymore. I guess in some form more people are playing video games then they even realize. Now with the Wii being a near living room necessity and every man, women, and child on facebook. Everyone is playing video games.

One thing I actually worry about is if the video games I mostly play will last all my life physically. I read somewhere that a CD that was burned to create games for systems like the Sega CD, TurboGrafx CD and early Playstation games will only physically last 50 years. Wait. 50 years? So, lets see here, my copy of Fighting Street for TGCD that was pressed in 1989, will be dead in 2029? I'll only be 60 years old then! Every physical CD of Fighting Street will be dead in 2029?? WTF? when i retire(Hopefully be able to @ 70) I sure as shit want to play my actual original disk of Fighting Street! How the hell could companies allow this to happen? This is actually terrifying! What about Sonic CD? Tomb Raider? Ys Book I & II!! I'm looking through my video game collection, that I hope to one day play through again when life starts to calm down a bit (Kids graduate high-school, move out, travel the world, retirement..etc.) And now I have to worry about getting to them in time??!?!

So its not so much that people want to play games till they die, but now we have to worry about us playing video games till the games themselves die? This is too much to wrap my little brain around. And what of the consoles of today? The ones that last a couple years or less then get the infamous red ring of death, or their crappy bluray lenese stop reading games? Are we to expect them to last even 20 years?

Well, this is disheartening.

One way I've found to cope with a large queue of games that you have yet to get through before they die, or you die, or the world ends is just that. Playing games till you die. pop in a game, play it till you die. Only once, then move on to the next game. Its not a high-score, its not conquering the entire game (Only the real lucky get that accomplishment) but it is giving it an honest try and playing with one guy with everything on the line. Its pretty damn fun finding out how far you can get!

Give it a try, and let me know how far you get!

I know some newer games, or games that you never actually die, are more difficult to do this with, so if you decide to give it a try, pick a game that is pretty easy to get into first. You should be comfortable with it, and have some idea of what you are doing. If your like me, you should find this an exciting way to play some games that you once thought you wouldn't try again, or at least not for some time. Maybe even pop some of them on an video upload site and start competing with others! I'd love to see some videos from some of you!!

Thanks for reading~

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Finally a GamEscape Online update!!

2011-02-08T14:47:00.001-06:00

It's been a long time, too long! A long long time ago, in a galaxy much like this current one you see before you today. GamEscape was more than just the coolest place on earth to read blogs, catch up with close friends from college, and chat about video games. It was once a full bodied business in Central Wisconsin. The name GamEscape was the only source for video games, collectable card games, board games, Role Playing games, and 20 year old sticks of gum packaged with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle trading cards!!

Now in its present state, GEO is a blog site. with links to forums and sites related to the world of video games. Some old, some new.

What is gone? The Bravenet site. Actually, it still exists, but its become a myspacelike bitch of a place to moderate and make changes to. Its so linear we really can't do much with it anymore. The links to all the crazy video game pages are gone too.

What is new? The forums, not even a week ago we opened up a brand new forum section. A little cleaner than our last effort, along with a fresh start we've got a smaller area to work with. Less forum options, just the perfect size for a small community to plan gatherings, talk about problems, glitches, strategies or whatever they want! Links to our Youtube Channel, our Twitter account also!! Follow or sub to us on those sites too!! Its MANDATORY!! lol, jaykay.

What you need to do? Join our forums, or troll, or lurk about. Just be sure to know that you are welcome to do whatever you want here, and I hope in my heart of hearts that we can somehow give you something new to talk about.

-TS

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Games you've finally gotten around to beating....

2010-11-17T10:30:00.001-06:00

I had played a few games years back and then put them down. Leaving the memories in my head only having experienced sometimes half the game or most of the game. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Maybe a game you got frustrated with in 1998, then one day you just decided to go toe to toe with it and burn through it. I've done this a few times, and sometimes had great experiences discovering new places and people in lost RPG's like Dark Savior or Shining Wisdom, but also had some not so great experiences....

The most recent experience regarding this would be Scud: The Disposable Assassin. I've played this game mostly for the awesome opening cut scene, the great soundtrack (LOL), and it also got me hooked on the Comic along with other Rob Schrab projects. I finally got through the freakin' maze of a level that the second stage is..* I can't believe I fell in love with a game/ character so much but barely played the game far enough past the second level.*

After the second level, we're treated to some pretty straight forward levels very reminiscent of the Earthworm Jim franchise(Which was nice) and some good graphics, a crazy boss rush and a nuclear bomb juggling boss(that was pretty cool, and frustrating as well).

It wasn't bad... but I guess all in all, it really left me wanting more, it felt like a very short game. After going through the second stage, which is still frustrating(I guess to the point of quitting it and not picking it up again for about 10 years) The rest of the game came at me with flashes of greatness and flashes of pretty vanilla old school platforming/ run and gun gameplay.

After finally conquering it, I do feel accomplished(finally), but also kind of disappointed.... making me kind of regretting beating it, and would have rather left the memories of the game I never got very far in on the shelf.

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

~TS

Thinking of getting the turboStar a gift?

2010-10-28T11:40:00.000-05:00

This is about as greedy a blog post that I will ever write. If anyone ever decides to go out of their way and pick up or make something and give it to me, I am almost guaranteed to be floored. I appreciate just the thought of someone thinking of me. I can't begin to tell ya how uplifting and just 'magical' it is when a friend comes out and just gives something to me as a gift. It's just the coolest experience. With that said, if you ever plan on getting the ole turboStar a gift(any occasion, birthday, or xmas) please try and follow these simple guidelines.

I only hate a few things: Country Music, VHS tapes, and Moldy Cheese. If you can refrain from giving me anything having to do with these three things we're cool.

I'm a huge nerd, and I'm sorry for being such a dorky pain in the ass- but here's what I like....

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If you're stumped on what to get me, video games is generally the best place to start. I have a firm belief that everyone on xmas morning should be opening AT LEAST one video game. For birthday's or other special occasions video games work too! ;) I have nearly every console. so any game you can find for literally any system will do. If I would happen to get a game for s console I don't own, I'd have something to look for! ;)
Currently I have a great love and interest in the following game consoles: PSP, TurboGrafx, NES, SNES, and Sega Saturn.
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Creative: Something that could take more time, but is really REALLY loved by yours truly- are things that are created. I don't just mean knitting socks, while that is also appreciated, but anything! Drawing me a picture, writing a story, just making random useful and amazing things!! I love this stuff!!

Random:
Otherwise I love just about anything- I wear size 13 shoes, size 34/36 waist pants. M-L sized shirts. M-L sized underwear. I love ties, and comfy sweaters for the winter months. I'm a jogger so I like jogging cloths. MP3/iPod accessories.

Sports:
I love football; jerseys, footballs, just about anything. Also Pro Wrestling! I like DVD's and T-shirts. however if you are getting a wrestling T-shirt I prefer TNA or Chikara Pro ;) I'm not too huge into NBA, soccer, or MLB... but anything Brewers (old school), or Bucks are appreciated. I also like Biking stuff.

I love sci-fi: DVD's of just about any movie, or TV series. I like StarWars, Star Trek, FireFly, SeaQuest, and TONS of anime like Voltron, Robotech, and Akira!

Really you can't go wrong with movies for me. I tend to squeeze out enjoyment out of some of the most uninteresting and dull films. Some say I have bad taste in movies, but I just like what I like and I can't apologize for that.

I like movies like- Judge Dredd, Watchmen, Xmen, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (ALL), Star Trek, Braveheart, Postman, Robin Hood(Men in Tights and Prince of Thieves), Heavy Metal and Airplane.

Again. I'd be stoked to see anything from anyone. You can't go wrong with getting me something for xmas. You really can't. Just knowing that a person took even a second to think of me for a gift, even a classic re-gift, is like the coolest feeling on earth! I'm the easiest guy on earth to buy for.

Most times when someone says "hey what do you want for xmas" I just say 'I dunno, whatever' cause I honestly mean it. I'll be stoked to see anything, or nothing at all. Either way I'm loving it. At this time in my life I'm so wrapped up in making my families' xmas/ birthday's as memorable as possible that I almost forget that I'd also be getting something special too! So anything I get I am 100% thankful for.

I just hope the list of 'things I like' helps anyone who is nice enough to actually be thinking of getting me something. ;)

Thanks for reading-
Joshua

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

The Last Bonk?

2010-09-03T14:32:00.000-05:00

One would think that living a life of a hardcore headbanging caveman would be filled with fortune, fame, and millions of adoring fans. Well... that may all be true. But at what cost? Bonk "Pithecanthropus Computerurus" the Caveman, aka PC Genjin, has been smashing skulls with some of the baddest baddies and most evil dinosaurs for over 20 years. During this time, Bonk has endeared many injuries to his body, the most dangerous have been to his Central Cerebral region. His head.

1989- The first outing on the TurboGrafx 16 Bonk had a relatively injury free campaign. Outside of a few bumps and bruises, our hero was able to escape his grand Bonking Quest fairly healthy.

1990- Bonk's Revenge should have been titled Bonk's Migraine. The Caveman Mascot of the TurboGrafx had some major issues with headaches, blurred vision, and loss of memory during and even after the second TurboGrafx outing. Noticing the amount of damage being done to his head and even possible brain damage isn't difficult to see in his second vengeance filled game. He now is forced to swim up waterfalls, which is all the more difficult after being asked to destroy, by headbutting no less, badguys, people with fishing polls, bosses, buidlings, and lets not forget the random flip of the (II) button and landing directly on the top of his head. Also this reader would like to note that the slower speed of Bonk's spin MUST be directly linked to his Migraine issues as having loss of balance problems can also lead to a slower ability to spin attack.

1991-1994- Bonk having fired his agent found a new adviser that helped him learn to play the role of a more serious role model for future video game mascots. He changed more than his game plan and headbutting techniques. The Bonk brand went national as he was featured as not only the TurboGrafx mascot but now also was a featured star in Nintendo Entertainment branded games. Bonk's Adventure was released on the NES and the GameBoy consoles. As an added bonus all of the enemies and break away terrain that Bonk was seen hopping and bopping onto was made of rubber and balloons. News broke out during a press conference in 1993 regarding Bonk's return to and most likely final TurboGrafx game was to be released. The news was that Bonk would NOT be starring in the new TurboGrafx game. When questioned as to why, he simply stated: "Unga Bunga, oooga Mooga!" Which of course in caveman translates to "I am not as young as I used to be, I have to take care of myself physically!" Bonk did however continue onward and created a new GameBoy title and two new 16-bit games on the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom.

Fake Bonk: When NEC/TTi/Hudson got wind of Bonk's refusal to participate in the final Bonk game for the TurboGrafx, they quickly switched gears and introduced Zonk. Air Zonk debuted in what many call a pinnacle title in the consoles life legacy. Being faster, hipper, younger, and wearing sunglasses, Zonk quickly caught the brunt of the TurboGrafx spotlight. When the TurboGrafx introduced the 3rd game in the Bonk series: Bonk 3:Bonks Big Adventure, the actual main character was played by a shaved Air Zonk and his slightly more tanned stunt double Jacob Hasslefist. Zonk and Hasslefist played through the entire BIG Adventure game with the new rubber and breakaway baddies and terrains that Bonk had since been using in his Nintendo released outings. Due to a low amount of advertising and promoting this third and final "Bonk" game came out far under the radar of a smash hit.

2008-2010- Bonk's Return was released on cell phones and mobile devices. While Bonk was used for promotional purposes he was not actually involved in the creation of the game at all. Stunt doubles and look alikes were used to play through this mobile release. Many within the development team stated the same concerns with the fans reaction to the new titles. "The screens on these devices are such crap, that the moron playing probably won't notice that its actually Bubsy the Bobcat in a caveman suit headbanging shit! haha!"

Current times: Scheduled for release this year a new Bonk game is ready for release. Bonk: Brink of Extinction. The team behind this game have done only a small amount of promotion for its release. In doing so they have used mainly cartoon drawings and CG images of Bonk to show off the screen images. Bonk has stated in the past that there will never be another Bonk game with him involved in actually headbanging the baddies away. Recently Bonk has had been in some trouble with authorities in Beijing, China regarding going on random attacks on local patrons! There are also reports of Bonk sleeping in alley ways and grimacing in pain grabbing his head. One can only think that this has to do with years of attacking villains and blocks with his head.

Why didn't he just use his fist like Mario did in the old days? Look at Mario, that bastard is living like a fat Italian king!!

-Joshua ;)
You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Guess you'd have to know these two guys to really laugh at this.

2010-06-25T09:53:00.001-05:00

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Sometimes I hate Role Playing Games!!

2010-06-24T10:35:00.001-05:00

Limey Bastard

2010-06-23T13:34:00.001-05:00

2010-06-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

I'm signing up for a 5k Run in Green Bay, WI set for July 31st!! This run will be my first ever actual 5k run/walk. To practice for this I'm going to be running the 'Fallen heroes' route in Merrill. Look at the Map, isn't this cool? The route is about 3.2 miles, actually a bit longer than the actual one in GB, so hopefully this will get me back into running shape. I hadnt been running as much as usual thanks to getting pretty damn sick a month ago, on top of some back soreness.... Stupid back!! But seriously take a look at this website- maybe map out a good jog/walk for yourself. A few minutes of quiet a day and getting some excersize can be some pretty amazing medicine for ones self!!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/wi/merrill/674273558"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Fallen Heroes Run&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/wi/merrill"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Runs in Merrill, Wisconsin&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Till next time- keep it real!! Stay Healthy!! And remember I love you all!!

-Me

9 found dead as result of Bonk attack in China!

2010-06-10T15:07:00.000-05:00

At approximately 3:13 AM in Beijing, China reports grew rampant of a crazed video game character, most known for work in the early 90's video games 'Bonk's Adventure' and 'Bonk's Revenge' for the Turbografx 16 console, attacking civilians on the streets of the great city.While actual truth and news worthy information may not be found anywhere within this blog update. We at The Daily Gamepad were saddened to hear news of human casualties and other near lethal injuries come from Southern China early this morning.

Word got out that Bonk had been seen in a local bar drinking heavily, what he was doing in the great city of Beijing to begin with is still to be determined, but passerby's say that most of the night Bonk had been in an aggravated state mostly complaining of personal problems going on in his life, the loudest shrieks came when he was allegedly blaming Hudson Soft for his recent drop in relevance in the video game world. Lin Wen, a local patron of the bar, said "Before the attack, Bonk got into a war of words with a couple guys that were looking for trouble. They shouted out to Bonk before running that he was a big headed loser that hasn't been in a single video game in over 15 years and he should be dead now." Lin looked down. "Now they are dead. They are dead and deserve to be dead. Bonk is a good video game character, he is simply misunderstood and has a big head."

Actual statistics of the attack are sketchy at this juncture, but from what we have gathered thus far, Bonk attacked 16 people, some with his head and many by biting them. He killed 9 and injured 7 more. 3 of those injured are in critical condition and the others were able to escape with minor injuries.

We at The Daily Gamepad will bring you updates on this news story as it becomes available.

-TS

PS: Please Hudson, give us a new Bonk game damnit!!

Preparing for Gencon 2010

2010-06-10T10:56:00.000-05:00

Every year since 1968 gamers all across the globe have gathered together to share the one love that they all have with one another. Gaming! Between 25 and 30 thousand people attend gencon each year, ranking it ahead of E3 in attendance! Gencon’rs attending can expect a plethora of options whether its anime, film, role playing, LARPing, CCG’s, Electronic PC and Video gaming, comics, artists, board games, and probably other things I’m forgetting. One thing is for sure, like the catch phrase says, this is truly ‘The greatest 4 days in gaming’!!

This years show kicks off August 5th and runs till the 8th(Thurs-Sun), from downtown Indianapolis, IN. The Exhibit hall, Auction hall, and most events run from 10am-8pm daily. While along side that many, MANY events run around the clock 24 hours a day.

This years event will be the first time since 2007 that our group will be in attendance. Barring any last minutes problems, this should be the best most relaxing escape into gamer land that I’ve ever experienced.

Our plans as of now are to stay in an attached hotel, directly across the street from the convention. Play as many awesome games, enjoy many fan films, see some anime, party our asses off at the Gencon Dance. Pick up some goodies at the Exhibit hall. Pick up MORE crazy goodies at the Auction Hall (The deals in this place are off the charts!)!

Some events we plan on attending: Hamlet Vs. Macbeth- The Shakespearean showdown, Midsummer’s Nightmares scream on Elm Street, Hickman’s Killer Breakfast, Marc Gunn and The Great Luke Ski Live! and more!!

We’re going to work hard on taking many pictures and video of this years convention. So expect to see some of those here sometime around mid August.

Are you attending this years Gencon?

for more information check out www.gencon.com

Maybe see you there?
-TS

Beginning of a new Era?

2010-05-10T11:35:00.000-05:00

Well this is fancy Schmancy. Seems as though the original GamEscape site has gone the way of the Do-Do bird. I have all of the code, images, and updates on file but the site won't let it publish anymore. Serves me right for trying to do an update! LOL- stupid Bravenet. Well... with thetotalgamer.com going down, and now GamEscape Online is looking for a new home. It seems as though I am E-Homeless!

While we are on a quest to find a new home for GamEscape and a place to park all our crap, why don't you guys just check out this page from time to time (hopefully weekly) and see new blogs, news, happenings in our neck of the woods.

I'm going to work out a few kinks here and there to produce a simple little site that will be about gaming/ blogging/ and have a forums so you, the reader, can contribute to the conversation.

I'm hoping this all fleshes out in the next couple weeks, so we can all get on with things.

I know that when thetotalgamer went down, along with it went every blog entry that was submitted (LAME) but I do have access to most of what I contributed in word format, so I will work on getting some of those posted here for those that may have missed some of my more memorable ones.

Anyway- Stay tuned in here! bookmark us, favorite us, friend us... etc etc. LOL

Keep it real!
-TS