2010 News Archive

Wiki wiki wiki (shut up)

Posted on September 19, 2010

I've been migrating the RAnT section to use MediaWiki software. Once this finishes, it will become a redirect to the new location. (But why "shut up"?)

So they do fall down

Posted on August 22, 2010

Off and on for the past several decades, Hasbro's Playskool division has made Weebles, a brand of roly-poly toy that rights itself when tipped over. But Playskool never makes these for more than a couple years at a time. It appears that Playskool makes Weebles toys, then stops making them, then rinse and repeat. And every time Playskool relaunches the Weebles brand, it switches from egg-shaped figures to figures with molded faces and hands or back.

I first discovered Weebles in 1996, after the brand had gone into rest after a molded phase. Then came another egg phase before they disappeared again from toy store shelves. Then from 2004 to 2006, Playskool made the "Weebleville" and "Storybook World" lines of molded Weebles figures and playsets, which I collected. Playskool stopped making Weebles for several years after this. But in 2010, Weebles are back, and they're eggs again. Yuck. I don't feel like collecting egg-shaped Weebles because their abstract appearance makes it harder to role-play with my little cousin. I guess it's time for me to give up my attachment to the Weebles brand if it won't stick to one style or the other. Might the most recent switch have something to do with a YouTube video called "Bumpus can has birthday", which compared scenes from an animated Weebleville DVD to scenes from (safe-for-work) DHD/DAK amputee documentaries?

My 1996 encounter with Weebles led me to create a race called Polis, which look like humans from the waist up but are plump like Weebles and walk like DAK amputees on their hands and bottom. See some pictures I've been making in Blender. I guess Playskool's switch back to eggs will help me completely divorce Polis from the Weebles that spawned them.

Gretzky shoots; Jesus saves

Posted on July 21, 2010

A battery is expensive; a password is not. That's why so many NES games used password save. Now you can use the same technique in your own homebrew games with this library.

An end to programmer art?

Posted on July 18, 2010

I have a new artist on my team. She drew five characters for Concentration Room and wrote their dialogue. I'm pleased to announce Concentration Room 0.02, which incorporates her work.

In Soviet Russia, roulette plays YOU

Posted on July 4, 2010

Instead of doing something American this Independence Day, I decided to do something Russian. Because The Tetris Company is still having U.S. Customs seize handheld brick games on phony copyright claims, I didn't feel like doing something Tetris-related. So instead, I made a Zapper game for the NES: Russian Roulette.

And via nesdev.com/bbs: Someone made a faithful port of the entirety of Super Mario Bros. to Sega Genesis (YouTube video). It's not often you get to see the Genesis doing what Nintendoes instead of what Nintendon't. I guess you really can't spell GeNESis without NES.

Concentration Room

Posted on March 27, 2010

I Can Remember sucked. Concentration Room for NES sucks less.