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A blog by Nathan Strum in General

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Mostly Atari-related projects, and other ramblings. Home of the Artie the Atari comic strip.

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24 years later

Yep. Another album review. I've been waiting for this one to come out on CD since, well, since CDs first came out. Why some albums take forever to come out on CD is beyond me, but better late than never. In this case though, it's not just one album... but two! MF Horn 3 and MF Horn 4 & 5: Live at Jimmy's by Maynard Ferguson. This finally completes the CD release of all of his Columbia albums. Now, not all of the work he did while he was with Columbia was all that gre

October 14, 2006

1

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

April 3, 2007

8

And then...

Well, it's January. Barely, but it's still January. So it's time to dust off the old "To Do" list, and see what I have left to do in the upcoming year. First, let's check the previous list(s)... From February, 2006: Make "To-Do" List - This one never ends. Finish Colony 7 Sprites - Done! (game in progress) Finish Lady Bug sprites - Done! (and in the store) Make label for Four-Play - Done! (and in the store) Make Juno First sprites - Done! (game in progress) Make list of w

January 31, 2007

7

McIdiots

So... I went to McDonald's for lunch today. Usually, I avoid McDonald's. Childhood memories aside, their food is generally garbage, and they have idiots working there. Now, I'm not saying everyone who works at a McDonald's is an idiot. Sometimes we're forced by economic circumstances to work in places we don't want to. And let's face it - nearly every place has at least one idiot working there. But at McDonald's, they tend to put the idiots in the Drive-Thru. I have proof of this.

March 31, 2007

2

So... many... Daves...

First things first - Happy New Year! Yeah, okay, I'm a little late with that. I've been on vacation for a few weeks, after having wrapped up the projects mentioned in my last entry. The games seem to be reaching the hands of their owners at last (I don't envy the task Albert had in putting all of the orders together), and I hope everyone enjoys them! Being involved with various aspects of some of these games (sprites and other artwork) I generally play them quite a lot before they hit th

January 10, 2007

8

Homebreviews - part 11

Despite the fact that it's almost April, any time of the year is gaming season! Holiday Qb (The 2004 AtariAge Holiday Cart) 4/5 Holiday Qb is an action/puzzle game based on the original 2600 homebrew Qb. The goal is to move sliding pieces around a playfield to match displayed patterns, while collecting bonus items and avoiding enemies. The Holiday aspect of it comes into play with modified graphics reflecting a Holiday theme. Santa Claus, elves, wreaths and other items replace the original Qb

March 26, 2007

12

One hundred, ninety eight...

Well, who knew? With all of the games I've been getting through AtariAge, plus a few used ones I was given by a friend of mine, my collection of Atari 2600 games has reached nearly 200 unique titles (from the 131 I originally had, back-in-the-day). This is my 2600 Game List (36k PDF file - you'll need to zoom in to read it). It's sorted based on when I bought the games - as part of my original collection, or as a recent acquisition, with duplicates listed at the bottom. Actually, I d

February 8, 2007

6

14 x 2600 + 1

I just got my latest haul from AtariAge, which means it will soon be time for... more Homebreviews! A lot of them. I'm also going to write reviews for a few things not shown here, just to have a complete set of reviews for everything I've gotten from AtariAge. First though... it looks like I'm going to have to dust off my 7800.

March 3, 2007

7

And the loser is... XBox 360!

So, it's time to tackle the latest console wars.Get comfortable... this is going to take awhile. Sony vs. MicrosoftThe XBox 360 is going to sell a lot of units, and eventually make money for Microsoft. But they're going to be second place to Sony, even before the PlayStation 3 is launched.The reasons for this have to do in part with the technical specs of the systems, the games available at or after launch, and brand loyalty. And while those are all going to be contributing factors, none of thos

Guest

February 10, 2006

20

Tales from... THE FUTURE!

Working at a film school, dealing with technology every day, means I have to try and keep up on what's happening in video, computers and software as a regular part of my job. I seem to spend more time every year just trying to get a handle on new technology coming down the pike. Also, I'm a Mac user, which is an interesting pursuit because of the whole rumor community that has popped up around Apple and its products. Trying to predict where they're going next seems to be a past-time for some

February 1, 2007

2

Straight Outta Newhall

So, I've been waiting for this CD for awhile... Was it worth the wait? Well - yes! Although I have to admit I was more than a little worried about it, since Weird Al's last album - Poodle Hat - was, I thought, his weakest effort to date. Maybe that's because the album before that - Running With Scissors - was (and still is) his best. But this is a return to good form for Weird Al, and both his parodies and originals are excellent. I don't really keep up on current music anymore,

September 28, 2006

6

Ahhrrr... matey!

I just wrapped up working on the manual for Phantom II / Pirate (coming soon to the AtariAge store). Dave Dries (who did the Wolfenstein VCS artwork) created the excellent artwork for Phantom II, while I worked on the art for Pirate, and laid out the manual (which covers both games). Pirate is basically being included as a bonus game, so the focus of the cover and label is Phantom II. The Pirate stuff is inside the manual. Since you probably won't get to see the Pirate art until you

December 3, 2006

11

New arcade classic

Some months ago, I posted an old drawing I'd done in high school of some sprites for a game I wanted to create. (Coming up with the rest of that game's description is still on my "to-do" list.) Actually, truth be told, I drew videogame stuff a lot in high school. Mostly in my notebooks. Probably when I should have been paying attention in class. This is the very concept behind a cool new game from Ambrosia Software: SketchFighter. (The notebook drawings, that is. Not the part about m

December 1, 2006

2

Homebreviews - part 8

Here we go with the last batch of reviews (for now). I'd like to point out, that these are completely unbiased reviews. (Actually, that's impossible, since by their very nature all reviews have some sort of bias. But anyway...) I should mention that I contributed something to each of these games. But I didn't program any of them, nor do I get kickbacks on any sales from the AtariAge store. Although I should really talk to Albert about that. Anyway, in the interest of full-d

November 25, 2006

12

Homebreviews - part 6

Well, between working on my entry for the Medieval Mayhem contest and other projects, I managed to get in some quality time with several of the new homebrews I got from the AtariAge store. I decided to tackle the Ebivision games first, since I've never played any of them before, and have been curious about them for some time. They've achieved a sort-of legendary status, probably due to the lack of readily available ROMs, more than anything. So, do they measure up to the hype? Ebivision Five-Pa

November 14, 2006

15

Homebreviews - part 7

And the reviews continue... this time it's the games of UA Limited. (Okay... so these are reproductions, not homebrews. But "Reproductionviews" just doesn't have the same ring to it.) Cat Trax, Funky Fish, Pleiades Bundle (this will include all three reviews in the store review) 2/5 Lost games from a long-forgotten company, these have been rescued from obscurity and finally released more than 20 years after they were originally written. The newly-created packaging is first-rate, but the games

November 16, 2006

5

Draggin' Along

I finally wrapped up my contest entry for Medieval Mayhem, and sent it off to Albert. I spent quite a lot of time on this one, and it'll likely be my only entry (well... three entries, one illustration). This is the pencil drawing. Actually, it's a composite of four pencil drawings: the dragon, the castles on their hilltops, the mountain range and clouds, and the knight up on the wall: The knight was actually a last-minute addition. My other (abandoned) idea was going to use a k

November 11, 2006

17

Freshly (Home)Brewed

Here's my latest haul from AtariAge: At last... the mysteries of the Ebivision games will be revealed! Reviews coming soon!

November 7, 2006

18

Back to the drawing board...

I've been working on the manual for Four-Play, which includes the mini-game Knight Jumper. For the Knight Jumper page, I wanted to draw a cartoon chess knight. The first version I attempted (drawn in the computer) was, to put it kindly, awful. I tried re-working it and re-working it, until I finally realized it just wasn't going to work. So, I decided to dig out paper and pencil, and go at it "old-school". And after a few attempts, got something I really liked, which will be the one

October 13, 2006

13

One year later

So, I've been blogging for an entire year now. Funny, I've got quite a few less than 365 entries. I've been a little hit and miss in terms of consistency, but I figure that it's an easy standard to live up to, so why change? So look for more of the same in the coming year! Anyway, I've been making some progress on the Four-Play manual. I won't be able to work on it much over the next couple of days, since I'm teaching tomorrow (and still putting together tomorrow's lecture - students are

October 1, 2006

4

Goodbye, Maynard

Maynard Ferguson passed away yesterday at the age of 78. I won't try to recap his life or career. You can read all about that here. Maynard wasn't the reason I started playing trumpet originally, but he was certainly the spark that ignited my interest in playing jazz, and in fact, kicked off my love of jazz in the first place. He toured pretty much his entire life, right up until the end. I hope that I can find something that I love to do that much, and be able to leave something of

August 25, 2006

2

Free cartoons!

This years' showcase of student films from where I work has just been posted on our school's website. This is about 2 hours and 15 minutes (2 hours, 43 minutes Canadian) of the best films from the Character Animation program, as selected by our faculty. The entire Character Animation student show (which is not online) ran a whopping 7 hours 30 minutes this year. While there were some films that I think should've make it into the showcase that didn't, I think this is a pretty good representat

August 1, 2006

1

It's like eating potato chips

When you start getting homebrew games, you just can't stop at one. So that's what sparked the idea behind my new avatar. My 2600 just can't get enough new games - it seems to be sitting there saying, "Feed me! Feed me!" As soon as I finish playing one game, it wants another one right away. (Of course, if you've gone without food for almost 20 years, you'd probably be a little grumpy, too.) Besides all of the homebrews it's recently been fed, it's now able to absolutely gorge itself, than

March 25, 2006

19

One down...

I just finished the manual for Lady Bug! I think (hope) the proof-reading is all done, and I've sent it (and the label) off to Albert for printing. It's nice to have Lady Bug done, and it's incredible how fast the game came together (it was only started in January). I think the game turned out great, and I'm amazed John was able to pack so much of the arcade game into the 2600. I hope people like the manual artwork. John likes it (which is the most important thing) and I'm quite happy with t

August 24, 2006

5

Space Cadets (pt. 1)

I've been spending about the last week and a half going through my stuff. You know the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Everybody has some of it. Cardboard boxes, with stuff in them, jammed into the back of a closet or attic somewhere. Stuff that you haven't looked at in years. Years and years. In some cases... decades. (An aside: the fact that I'm measuring what I consider to be relatively recent events as having passed in "decades" bothers me.) I didn't think I'd really acc

July 11, 2006

6

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