Tales of Terror

          The spooky season is fully upon us.  It is a time of mysteries and horrors the likes of which would be mere fancies at other times of the year. During this season it has become cliched for retro game enthusiasts to use Halloween as a time to discuss scary, or at least scary adjacent, games.  This has become very well tread territory and, at the end of the day, my thoughts on Resident Evil, Splatterhouse, or Superman 64 would not really add anything to the discourse.  Instead, I thought we could take a different approach.  Rather than talk about a game that is intentionally scary, we will take a look at something in gaming that I, at one point at least, found scary.  So join me after the break as we find out what it was that I found terrifying and probably have a good laugh at past me's expense.

Control Issues: The Faster Blaster

          Video games are an interactive medium, this is part of their very nature. An interesting aspect of the hobby is that, short of bundling a controller with the game, the creators of the games don’t get much of a say in how we interact with their creations. Further, a robust market of third party manufacturers makes it so that even the companies responsible for producing the gaming consoles themselves don’t get the final say in the form and function of the input devices we use to play games on their hardware. All of this is to say that anyone who collects games likely has a plethora of control options beyond those that shipped with their systems at their disposal, from cheaper knock offs of the first party controllers to options specialized for certain games to true oddities that purport to improve on some short coming of the more standard options. In each article in the Control Issues series, we will take a deep look at a particular controller and then try to evaluate it in terms of both form and function.

Believe me, this thing feels worse than it looks (and it looks pretty bad).

          In this Control Issues, we are taking a look at product of Transcriber Company Incorporated: The Faster Blaster. This is one of the oddest controllers that I have in my personal collection. As a controller for the Atari VCS and other systems that use that controller standard, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is simply a cheap third party keyboard controller replacement with an overlay. The truth, however, is much worse. First, the build quality of the Faster Blaster is atrocious. Rather that the hard plastic shells favored by pretty much all other manufacturers, Transcriber decided to use a cheap, flimsy feeling plastic that seems only slightly stronger than the kind of plastic that things are regularly packaged in. The Faster Blaster literally bends and flexes in normal use. Making matters worse, the front is not an overlay; it is a membrane keypad that maps out the functions of a normal Atari joystick. All of the function with none of the tactile feedback.

Retro Game Treasure Mystery Subscription Box #1

          I've been tempted to give subscription boxes a try for a while. The idea of receiving mystery items in the mail each month seems fun, but after watching my friends brief experiences with Loot Crate and its derivatives, I have always decided not to give in to that temptation. The boxes all seemed to be packed with far too many useless trinkets that would just end up as clutter and, believe me, I have enough of that already. Further, many of the items that I’ve seen come out of the more mainstream subscription boxes are tied to properties that I have little to no interest in. All of this prologue is to set up that I have found a box that has convinced me to finally pull the trigger. The box in question, the astute readers of this post's title will already know, is Retro Game Treasure. As its name would suggest, every month they send you 4-5 video games for a number of retro systems with a purported value of $35 or more. When you sign up you get to fill out a profile so that they know what systems you have or are interested in receiving games for. You also get to go through the more arduous process of listing out the games that you already own so that you can avoid duplicates. I’m going to give them at least three months before I decide whether to keep them around or not. The first box from Retro Game Treasures showed up at my door a  little while ago so let’s see how they do at making a first impression.

Christmas Movie Marathon Day 30

           I'm trying something different to get in the holiday spirit this year. Every day, from now through Christmas, I will be watching a different Christmas movie or television special. I have compiled the list of features ahead of time and am drawing one, at random, from my Christmas stocking everyday to determine what gets watched. Thank you for joining me in this endeavor. We have reached the end of this project. Time to reveal the last feature.

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

           Full disclosure, this pick was not random. Since around 2007 or so it has become tradition for my brother and I to watch this every Christmas Eve. Why do we subject ourselves to this? That is a really good question. The Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS exactly once and has never received an official retail release. However, because it is Star Wars related, early VHS recordings of it have persisted, dubbed and passed from fan to fan through the years. This pick is also the second one where I am not viewing an unadulterated copy. Like Nestor earlier this month, the version that we always watch is the Rifftrax version. Believe me, if you are planning on watching along do yourself a favor and get one with intentional jokes added.

Christmas Movie Marathon Day 29

           I'm trying something different to get in the holiday spirit this year. Every day, from now through Christmas, I will be watching a different Christmas movie or television special. I have compiled the list of features ahead of time and am drawing one, at random, from my Christmas stocking everyday to determine what gets watched. Thank you for joining me in this endeavor. We have finally arrived at the penultimate Christmas feature. What will it be?

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

           This may be the most stereotypical Christmas classic on this list. It airs as an event on NBC every year, with a near 4 hour run time with commercials. Beyond this, numerous shows have riffed on it, borrowing the idea of showing characters and events as they would be without one of the primary character’s involvements. My own personal confession is that I have never really cared all that much for this film. It could be the length, two hours and ten minutes seems exorbitant for this type of feature. Though I do like other Capra films and I think it is impossible to hate Jimmy Stewart so I really don’t know why this has never completely clicked for me. It has been a number of years since I last gave it a try so maybe this year will be different. At the very least, it has to be better than Nestor.

Christmas Movie Marathon Day 28

           I'm trying something different to get in the holiday spirit this year. Every day, from now through Christmas, I will be watching a different Christmas movie or television special. I have compiled the list of features ahead of time and am drawing one, at random, from my Christmas stocking everyday to determine what gets watched. Thank you for joining me in this endeavor. We are down to the final three. What feature awaits us today?

Frosty the Snowman (1969)

           Frosty the Snowman is the final Rankin-Bass special that is a part of this project. It is unique from the others that we have looked at in that it is not stop motion animated but is instead traditional two-dimensional hand drawn animation. This special is another holiday season staple and airs frequently on whatever name ABC Family is going by now (Freeform, I think). I am certain that I have seen this special numerous times in the past, but I don’t think I have seen it within the last decade or so. I certainly don’t have too many vivid memories of it other than Frosty saying “Happy Birthday” every time he is brought to life by the hat. I’ll be interested to see if it all comes flooding back to me as I give it a watch. Also, I’ll be curious as to whether or not I find the hand drawn animation preferable to the stop motion or the other way around.

Christmas Movie Marathon Day 27

           I'm trying something different to get in the holiday spirit this year. Every day, from now through Christmas, I will be watching a different Christmas movie or television special. I have compiled the list of features ahead of time and am drawing one, at random, from my Christmas stocking everyday to determine what gets watched. Thank you for joining me in this endeavor. Here we go with day twenty-seven! What will it be?

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

          Released in 1989 this film quickly became a holiday classic. I know that my family used to watch it nearly every Christmas. At some point we burned out on it and took a number of years off. We started watching it again a few years ago and, I have to say, I think I like it more now as an adult than I did as a child or teen. Let's see if that trend continues.