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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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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 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

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

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

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

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

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

And then...

I've just been buried at work lately. And by lately, I mean since early August. Non-stop. Tons of (unpaid) overtime. I worked 90 hours one week. 20 hours in one day. And those weren't even in the same week. But things are starting to calm down. A little bit. I had to supervise two major construction projects, including the building of an all-new computer lab for running Maya. We were put six weeks behind schedule due to construction issues (and asbestos removal), but fortun

September 26, 2006

0

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

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

Another update on stuff

Did you miss me? Funny thing about going on vacation and still having internet access - nobody knows when you're "gone". Anyway, I'm back. Here's my current to-do list: Artwork, label and manual for Lady Bug - In progress Manual for Four-Play - Soon Juno First title screen Label and manual for the AtariVox Bitmap for Bob - Soon-ish Finish RPS manual - Waiting for game to be finished Finish MGD manual - Waiting for game to be finished Start editing "Stella at 20"

August 12, 2006

0

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

iPod, uPod, we allPod

Well, a saw a sure sign today that iPods have indeed, become a cultural phenomenon. Yes, I'd heard there were iPod vending machines... but I didn't expect to see one... in my local grocery store. That's right, the Vons on Lyons avenue, in little old Newhall, California, has one of these: This isn't it, but it's the same basic machine. Except the one at Vons has nothing but iPods and iPod accessories. Here's the really weird thing about all of this... I actually bought someth

July 15, 2006

0

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

CarZzzz...

Despite the blog title, Cars isn't really a boring film. Unless you're a little kid. Say, under 5. Maybe 7. Not having kids, it's a little hard for me to judge at what point stuff becomes boring for them (and it's been a lonnng time since I was 7). But based on kids in the audience (one of whom repeatedly kept asking "is it over yet"?), I don't think bringing really little kids to this film is a good idea. I went to see Cars last week, and I have to admit, it's a much better film than I

June 30, 2006

7

More music

Some months back, I wrote an entry about some upcoming albums that were coming up that I was planning to buy. I already reviewed one of the albums in the comments (Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights - Re-Whipped), but hadn't gotten to the other ones yet. One of them, "Weird Al's" new album, isn't finished yet. It's mostly finished, but apparently he has to go back into the studio for some reason (he mentioned something about silly record company politics on his site). Whenever

June 15, 2006

0

To Do, To Do, Doo Be Doo Be Doo

Why yes, I am running out of "To Do" titles for my blog entries. Thanks for asking. Well, I'm gradually chipping away at my "To-Do" list. Although there are two more projects added to it now: Label and manual for Lady Bug - In progress. John has approved a couple of design ideas for me to take to the next step. Manual for Four-Play - The label is already done, so the cover for the manual is basically done, too. Incidentally, I'm still working on new illustrations for RPS. Not su

June 11, 2006

1

Once aTron a time...

Well, that was totally cool. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Hoozitwhatzit (the "Oscars" guys), held a screening Wednesday evening of a 70mm print of Tron at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, preceded by a panel discussion with director Steven Lisberger, VFX supervisor Richard Taylor, and animator Bill Kroyer. They went over the laborious process of making the film (including some info I'd never heard before), a few anecdotes about the production, and talked a little ab

June 9, 2006

12

Midwest Classic stuff

Man... what a couple of weeks. Things have calmed down though, and the last couple of days I've been cranking out stuff to try and get it done for the Midwest Gaming Classic. I can't go to the show, because, well, it's about umpteen-hundred miles "that way" (pointing in a vaguely Easterly direction). It'd be fun, but it just won't happen. But I'll be "represented" there anyway. I just finished up three labels for the show (Four-Play demo, Conquest of Mars and another one which Albert

May 30, 2006

16

Back to work

Sorry Bob, couldn't resist. Well, the second wave of the tsunami known as "work" came in, as I had to create and duplicate DVDs of our end-of-year shows the past couple of weeks. Last year, we sent them out for duplication (although I authored the masters), but we discovered that it was actually cheaper to buy a DVD duplicator, and make our own, than send them out. Plus, ours look way better. I was never really happy with the printing on the discs last year. So, I haven't done much

May 23, 2006

1

The Work Thing

Ahhh... the tsunami of work has finally subsided. Fortunately, I managed to hang onto some debris and survive. I don't discuss work much in my blog since, well, it's work. I don't really feel the need to discuss work much outside of work. But, I tend to do that anyway, since work pretty-much dominates my life (bad habit to get into - not recommended). So I work at CalArts as the technician for the Character Animation program. Video production equipment, a couple of Mac labs, file server

May 13, 2006

3

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