Also, I was trying to figure out where I had heard about the economic collapse of the old system of farming stuff to Japan. It’s in Robotech Art 3. Carl Macek (who’s no longer with us) had mentioned that the Dollar had fallen against the Yen, and so the budget wouldn’t stretch as far as it would in previous years, and this contributed to the toy licenser Matchbox, which didn’t have big budget to begin with, backing out.
I extrapolated this to mean that this is what caused a lot of other shows to pull out of Japan and go for more affordable studios in Korea and the Philippines, which is probably still true, considering what happened to shows like Captain N and Real Ghostbusters, because the studios they switched to WERE cheaper.
That was just bugging me for a while. I couldn’t remember what my source was on that.
I am aware of this. However, I am under the impression that whatever incarnation of G4/TechTV that exists in Canada is vastly superior to what we have in the US.
I really hate what has become of the SciFi Network. As far as I’m concerned, it’s already dead. That See-Fee (SyFy) channel doesn’t count. It’s one of those “male-targeted” networks that just shows the same crap as all the other like-minded networks that have lost their edge, such as Spike and G4.
Dodd, you should SEE what has become of G4 in the states. It absorbed TechTV and then ceased to retain the coolness of either network. Half the time when you tune in, G4 is playing COPS. And unfortunately, it’s not the one about fighting crime in a future time.
It’s really frustrating in the states to be a fan of any kind of geek programming, because it inevitably gets replaced by crap like Cheaters or Ghost Hunters, because those are easy cash grab shows.
You even talked about seeing Akira on SciFi, but even the anime has disappeared. With the exception of Dragonball Z and Pokemon, there’s no anime on American TV. ADV and Central Park Media quietly liquidated last year, because there was no business to be done.
Thank you, guys, for pointing out the problem with the last Transformers movie, which is actually the problem I’ve had with BOTH. The Autobots are superfluous. The Decepticons can be matched by the US military. I’ve always hated that.
I think Michael Bay has a hard-on for the Marines. He wanted to make GI Joe, so he inserted thinly disguised GI Joe into the Transformers. That’s my theory. We already know that he’s an explosion fetishist.
I have also not seen Robocop beyond the movies. The first will always be my favorite. I didn’t like the second one, because they made the old man executive a total jerk, but I saw Robocop’s rocket pack in the third movie, which can apparently slow down to allow him to pick people up, the franchise was officially dead to me.
Hey, speaking of things that are better left forgotten, you guys didn’t mention the Robocop cartoon series. *shudder*
I like the original Judge Dredd, but I could have done without Rob Schneider. I kept expecting him to go, “Dreeeedd! Dreddarino! The Dreddmeister! Killing canibals! Makin’ coffee. Dreeedd!” Seriously, WHY was he in that movie?
Best thing about that movie: Diane Lane’s body filling out that awesome uniform. Oooooh yeeeeah.
Speaking of the costumes, my favorite bit of trivia about the original Judge Dredd film is that the Judge Dredd costume was designed by Versace.
Worst thing about that film: “I knew you’d say that.”
And by “aught”, I actually mean “ought”. I was being ironic.
Birdman, did I hear you say that McDonalds is killing us? First of all, Supersize Me is a load of bat feces. They need to take every copy of Supersize Me, and just run them over with a stream roller so that bury them in the Nevada desert with all the ET cartridges, where they belong. And while we’re at it, we can do the same with that Walmart movie.
If you want to know who really thinks that consumers are idiots, it’s usually those on the side of consumer advocacy, who want to pressure fast food restaurants to put nutritional information on their menus, as though consumers don’t know what their getting.
Three responses:
First, it’s a fast food joint. You’re not going there if you’re on a diet. You’re going there because you’re eating food that tastes good, and the trade-off is that you’re eating food with high caloric intake.
So the first critique is that the movie demonizes a company for selling a product that people want. It tries to convince the consumer that he or she is a victim for eating something that he already knows is not good for him, if he were to eat this quantity of food on a regular basis.
Second, these places already do offer low calorie alternatives for health conscience consumers. McDonald’s has shown respect for people who want to buy a salad instead of a Big Mac. But the trade-off here is that we’re going to respect the wishes of people who want the alternative, then you also have the respect the wishes of people who want to continue to eat the high calorie stuff.
Third, it’s been shown in double blind studies that people actually DO know what kind of calorie intake they’re getting from a fast food restaurant. The assumption is that if you go to McDonalds, you’re eating high-calorie garbage, but but if you dine at the Olive Garden, then you’re eating fine, low-calorie cuisine, when in fact, both are about the same.
Studies show that when people think they’re eating food at a high-priced restaurant, they tend to low-ball their estimated calorie intake by about half, but when they know they’re eating from KFC, they can usually guess the calories within an error margin of a hundred calories or so. That’s pretty damn good.
And finally, I’m just tired of the demonization culture that we’re in, where we have to heap all this guilt on any industry we perceive as unhealthy. As gamers, we ought to know better.
How many times has the video game industry been demonized for one thing or another. Janet Reno thought that game companies were obligated to offer non-violent alternatives to the growing violence in video games. We said, “NO! Screw you, bitch! And you too, Jack Thompson! We want our violent games.”
In fact, that’s what Desert Bus was about. It was a parody of the most sanitized video game you could possibly get. No violence. No gore. Just a straight and extremely boring 8-hour drive from Las Vegas to Reno, Nevada in real time. Just to show how ridiculous consumer advocacy can be.
The point is, if we can tell people to go to hell for demonizing game companies for selling us the games that we want to play, then why can’t consumers of McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr., KFC, Burger King, and Taco Bell do the same?
We can’t have it both ways.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go order a #6 from Wendy’s. No tomato.
Also, you guys mentioned the animation dropping off in later seasons, but I don’t think you guys really understand why that happened. It’s really not DiC’s fault (for once).
Two very nefarious things happened in the late 80s that would bring an end to the classic age of American-produced/Japanese-animated cartoons.
1. The market which made it possible for American studios to farm animation to Japanese studios, such as Tatsunoko and Toei, suddenly shifted, and it became very difficult and expensive to use these studios past 1986. At that time, there was a gradual shift to Korean studios, which were cheaper.
2. Nelson Shin, producer of the Transformers animated series, opened a Korean studio called AKOM which took much of the load at that time. AKOM is one of the worst overseas studios of all time, and shoddiness of their animation can be seen in such Transfomers episodes as “The Autobot Run”", The Five Faces of Darkness”, “City Of Steel”, “Carnage In C-Minor”, and “The Rebirth”.
And unfortunately, AKOM began to leave their stink on other beloved cartoons. The result was a noticeable drop in the quality of animation in shows such as Transformers, Real Ghostbusters, Captain N The Game Master, and Muppet Babies. The third seasons of both Transformers and Captain N are perhaps the most infamous among these. Other shows like GI Joe and Thundercats simply ceased to exist. (Thank god)
Additionally, the first five episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had been animated by Toei, but every episode afterward was animated by AKOM. And now you know why the opening theme has such good animation over the rest of the show.
Robotech, despite being stitched together from three pre-existing Japanese shows, had a planned second season which was to be written in America and animated in Japan by Tatsunoko Studios. Only three episodes of Robotech 2: The Sentinels were ever produced before the market for Japanese animation bottomed out.
This is actually a very simplified version of what happened. I’m leaving a lot of stuff out. But basically, if you’ve ever noticed that all of the awesome Japanese animated cartoons suddenly disappeared during the latter half of the 80s, now you have a general idea of why.
Godzilla Final Wars is great! The American guy with the mustache looks like Mike Haggar.
Oh, and the American Godzilla is actually known as Zilla in Japan. The reason for this is that the producer of Final Wars, who speaks fluent English, felt that the American film took the “God” out of Godzilla.
Zilla does indeed die epically. Greatest moment in any Godzilla film.
The new A Boy And His Blob is SOOOOO much better than the original. For one, you don’t run out of jellybeans. That was really the deal breaker with the original. The beans were finite, so you could actually get dicked out of winning the game just for using the wrong beans too many times. And it was really easy to do so.
I liked the voice of the kid. It’s adorable. You need kids to appreciate that. Err… or nieces and nephews, like I have.
The new game is so much more aesthetically pleasing than the original or almost any other game on the Wii. I like the bright, earthy colors. It’s not brown like LOTR, but also isn’t OMGXTREEEM COLORZ, either. It’s very nice. That’s the way games should be designed.
You’re right. It is a shame it didn’t do better. I guess there wasn’t enough f!#%ing waggle.
You know what’s wrong with the Toy Story franchise? No Transformers.
My absolute favorite sequence in the movie is at the gas station, because Woody has some of the best facial expressions in that scene and leading up to Pizza Planet. Watch his face while he’s trying to talk Buzz into climbing into the pizza truck. Right when he finishes talking, he makes this HYSTERICAL face that makes me laugh every single time.
Hey, did you guys ever notice that the song “You Got A Friend In Me” almost sounds exactly like “I Love To See You Smile”, another Randy Newman song. And now that I’ve pointed that out, you will ALWAYS notice it. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
You guys are right. Don Rickles is totally the voice people think of whenever they see Mr. Potato Head. But if you want to cry, track down the Potato Head Kids cartoon from the 80s. It will make you want to kill yourself. Repeatedly.
A couple things never quite sat right with me in this movie. For instance, that rocket at the end goes for quite a while. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take that long for those things to explode.
Another problem is Buzz’s compliance with the toy rule. I kind of suspended disbelief that the other toys all follow this rule that they can’t talk around people, but I could never understand why Buzz would follow the rule. It’s possibly the biggest plot hole in the movie. If he thinks he’s a real space man, why doesn’t he just talk to Andy?
You guys were talking about the lame Woody toy that came out for this movie. Aside from that, I loved the toy tie-ins for this movie. Especially since all the pre-existing toys from the movie, like Potato Head and Slinky Dog, were packaged in Toy Story boxes. Those have got to be so collectible now. I’m kicking myself that I never got any of them and saved them.
And NO, to answer your question, Buzz’s helmet could NOT possibly light the wick on that rocket like that. Buzz’s helmet would need to be convex to do that. Not just curved.
Bwahahahahaha!!! You finally reported on science. I love critiquing what you guys say. Actually, the subject of your report is pretty spot-on. So, bear in mind that the critique I have is being REALLY nit-picky.
You said that we’ll have AIDS beaten before Cancer. Cancer isn’t really analogous to AIDS. AIDS is a strain of retrovirus. Cancer is a category of diseases. It’s not just one thing.
So, in effect, there will NEVER be “a cure” for cancer. Each type of cancer has to be approached differently. Thinking of cancer as one thing is sort of like thinking of all infectious diseases as one thing.
That’s why we’ll often see developments in the treatment of certain types of cancer, but then they don’t seem to pan out to much in the overall treatment of all cancer. It’s a common misconception, but it just doesn’t work that way.
So what you said is correct, technically, but only because cancer is so much more complex than AIDS.
Also, don’t be surprised if there are setbacks. There usually are.
Is it a Canadian thing to refer to pronounce NES as “the Ness”? What alien language speak is this? I’m pretty sure that all Nintendo commercials called it the N-E-S, without making it into an acronym. Seriously, the first time I heard someone use that term, I was like, “What did you just call my Nintendo?”.
Mike, I swear to god, there is no retro system that can play the Mario games correctly. I don’t know why. They always have glitchy graphics and sound. They just always suck at it. You’d think that they’d try to make sure that the retro consoles would be compatible with Mario, but it usually isn’t.
Also, the controllers on these consoles are almost always crap. Definitely get original controllers. And NEVER buy one that don’t let you use original controllers.
Personal opinion: You would almost always be better off finding a used NES and replacing the pin connectors with a replacement kit.
Also, snip the lock-out pin on the 10NES chip. That will save you A LOT of headaches.
ARGH!!! Did that guy in the video actually say “the 10 Ness chip”?! Where does this weird alien speak come from?
Oh, here’s a random bit of trivia that has almost nothing to do with this review. There are certain first-generation NES games that have a 60-to-72 pin converter built into the cartridges. Basically, Nintendo was taking Famicom ROM boards and putting them into American cartridges with a pin converter to allow play on the NES. They were usually the ROB games, so there’s no foul in buying these up and ripping these things out of the cartridges. Just look for the cartridges that have no center screw on the back.
If you’re resourceful, you can convert these cartridges into a custom cartridge for whatever Japanese Famicom game you want, barring any of the games that have special sound chips (i.e., Castlevania III). And if you’re REALLY creative, you can make your own custom cartridge art to replace the original art for Stack Up or whatever crappy game you had to cannibalize to achieve your custom cart.
I’m just now getting around to listening to these shows.
Here’s the thing about Codger Eggbert. He KNOWS better. He has the hindsight of an entire century where every advancement in technology and media has been met with disdain and hysteria. Motion pictures, rock & roll, and now video games.
Furthermore, he still wants to build this arbitrary barrier between today’s video games and this fictional future potential to become art. They’re art NOW. And you don’t even need to look at today’s gaming to prove this.
Case in point: Super Mario Bros. How long does a game have to remain popular and iconic to be a classic form of art, Roger Ebert? That game is a work of craftsmanship. Every last bit of that game was designed with care, from the jumping mechanics to the level design itself. Every bit of it is designed to intuitive and easy to play.
Heck, I’d go as far as to say that Donkey Kong is our KING Kong. Because it is. It’s a landmark game that is still the subject of gaming championships and achievements. And he should have learned that simply by watching King Of Kong, a movie which he reviewed favorably!!!!
Roger is trying to over-analyze the responses to make a rhetorical point against any game being a work of art, and real examples are perfectly easy to find, if only he’d take twenty minutes on friggin’ Google to find them.
In one way, you guys are right. We don’t need Roger Ebert’s stamp of approval to call video games art. At the same time, a person in his position and with his line of work deserves to be MOCKED for his blatantly condescending and elitist attitude toward another medium, despite the fact that history is full of examples that should have clued him in that this is not acceptable.
Being old is not an excuse.
Second rant…
I’m sick and tired of people who say that Wonder Woman’s classic costume is “sexist”. The following rant is not directed at you guys, so I hope you’ll JOIN me in my rage instead of presuming that I’m yelling at you. I’m not.
People need to stop using the word “sexist” to describe things aren’t actually sexist. Wonder Woman’s costume is anything but sexist. It never has been. Yes, it is designed to be appealing to a male audience, but that’s NOT sexism.
People who say this have no idea what sexism is. They have this warped idea of the way men think, as if this is all about degrading women. It has NOTHING to do with that, and I’m sick and tired of the guilt hysteria surrounding the alleged objectification of women.
You guys even brought up the subject of harlequin novels on your Twilight show. These are smutty novels that women ages 30 years and up like to read. They present men as impossibly fantastic, and a good portion of them from the 80s and 90s have Fabio on the cover. Is this not objectification in every way that Wonder Woman is, right down the glistening body and flowing hair? You’re damn right it is! It may not be as visually intense as what males like, but it’s every bit as superficial. But nobody complains about these, and that’s a double standard.
You know why I’m not the least bit offended by harlequin novels? Because I don’t believe in casting shame on people for having fantasies.
Besides, the most successful movie in theaters right now actually gives little girls a very bad representation of what a healthy relationship actually is, and yet everyone is clapping and applauding because someone has destroyed the classic Wonder Woman. People need to be slapped.
Just look at Wonder Woman. She’s a DEITY. She’s got the body of a God, because she IS one. She wears a shimmering costume. She’s above 6″, has wider shoulders than most men, and is built like a tank. She’s a fantasy character, for crissake! She’s one of the most physically imposing sexualized characters in fiction. She can fend for herself, and yet she’s not aggressive toward men. What does that tell you? THIS is what people think is sexist?
Can we stop casting disparaging presumptions on people and trying to make them feel guilty for liking sexy comic book characters as if there’s something actually wrong with that?
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Do I always have the be the killjoy? About that Paul McCartney conspiracy theory…
The problem with conspiracy theories is that they always have to be unrealistically large to pull off. Assuming that Paul really died and was replaced with a look-alike, it’s very difficult to keep something secret like that. He didn’t have any family or close friends that might have said something?What about the doctors and the people who trained him to play like Paul? None of them said anything either? Was everyone paid off?
Even then, it’s difficult to fathom that you could keep a lid on it. Governments do not have this kind of control over information like this. You can only control information if very few people know about something, and even then, it’s very difficult. For example, Nintendo tried to keep information from leaking prior to E3, and even with fewer than ten people knowing what their entire E3 presentation was going to be, information still leaked out. Information is way too viral.
So, I’m going to be the curmudgeon who poo-poos the conspiracy theories. Trust me, it doesn’t get any better for any of the popular conspiracy theories. Conspiracy allegations about the moon landing, 9/11, and the Kennedy assassination all pretty much suck, and demonstrably so.
The real reason that the Emperor’s credit is wrong at the end of the movie is because George Lucas didn’t change the credit roll from the 1997 version. So, instead of crediting Ian McDiarmid, it credits Clive Revill, the voice of the monkey Emperor, instead. Likewise, Temuera Morrison is uncredited for redubbing Boba Fett (which I agree should never have happened!).
Double D had some weird explanation, and I’m pretty sure that’s not true. I’ve never heard that before.
One more thing. Clive Revill was also the voice of Insecticon Kickback on the original Transformers TV series and movie.
“Delicious! Eh, Shrapnel?”
C’mon guys. Where’s your geek cred? I expected you to call that out the moment you saw that on screen.
Mike… Dave… The only reason that Empire is the best movie of the original trilogy is because Lucas didn’t direct it. He’s a TERRIBLE director, and I think that even shows in A New Hope.
The first Star Wars film from 1977 is so slow and weighed down by nattering chatter, just like the prequels. And he doesn’t know how to flesh out characters. It took Irvin Kirshner to do that in Empire.
I barely count Empire as a Lucas movie, because it’s so much more Kirshner’s movie. He took Lucas’ concept and gave it so much character.
In fact, I don’t think you could even say that George Lucas ever lost his mind, because I don’t think he was ever all there to begin with!
You pose and interesting riddle, TFG1. The truth is… BOTH?
Really! There’s a silver edition and a gold edition, but what these actually mean have more to do with when the were released. The silver edition is from the widescreen box set that came out in 2004. The gold edition is the widescreen edition that came out later with a bonus disc.
Incidentally, there’s also a gold edition box set WHICH YOU SHOULD AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, because it’s full screen. Likewise, if you see any blue edition, that’s also the later edition in full screen.
So, the color doesn’t matter so much. Just make sure you’re buying widescreen. On the other hand, if you want all of your Star Wars DVDs to match, then you should definitely go gold.
TWIG APPEARANCES-TOONCAST EP 65 THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (Proper working version)
August 27th, 2010 at 11:51 amI’ll try to remember that in the future.
Also, I was trying to figure out where I had heard about the economic collapse of the old system of farming stuff to Japan. It’s in Robotech Art 3. Carl Macek (who’s no longer with us) had mentioned that the Dollar had fallen against the Yen, and so the budget wouldn’t stretch as far as it would in previous years, and this contributed to the toy licenser Matchbox, which didn’t have big budget to begin with, backing out.
I extrapolated this to mean that this is what caused a lot of other shows to pull out of Japan and go for more affordable studios in Korea and the Philippines, which is probably still true, considering what happened to shows like Captain N and Real Ghostbusters, because the studios they switched to WERE cheaper.
That was just bugging me for a while. I couldn’t remember what my source was on that.
TWIG Nerd News Network Week of August 16th 2010
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 pmI am aware of this. However, I am under the impression that whatever incarnation of G4/TechTV that exists in Canada is vastly superior to what we have in the US.
TWIG Nerd News Network Week of August 16th 2010
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:28 amI really hate what has become of the SciFi Network. As far as I’m concerned, it’s already dead. That See-Fee (SyFy) channel doesn’t count. It’s one of those “male-targeted” networks that just shows the same crap as all the other like-minded networks that have lost their edge, such as Spike and G4.
Dodd, you should SEE what has become of G4 in the states. It absorbed TechTV and then ceased to retain the coolness of either network. Half the time when you tune in, G4 is playing COPS. And unfortunately, it’s not the one about fighting crime in a future time.
It’s really frustrating in the states to be a fan of any kind of geek programming, because it inevitably gets replaced by crap like Cheaters or Ghost Hunters, because those are easy cash grab shows.
You even talked about seeing Akira on SciFi, but even the anime has disappeared. With the exception of Dragonball Z and Pokemon, there’s no anime on American TV. ADV and Central Park Media quietly liquidated last year, because there was no business to be done.
It really, really sucks.
TWIG Nerd News Network-Week of August 9th 2010
August 15th, 2010 at 9:31 pmThank you, guys, for pointing out the problem with the last Transformers movie, which is actually the problem I’ve had with BOTH. The Autobots are superfluous. The Decepticons can be matched by the US military. I’ve always hated that.
I think Michael Bay has a hard-on for the Marines. He wanted to make GI Joe, so he inserted thinly disguised GI Joe into the Transformers. That’s my theory. We already know that he’s an explosion fetishist.
I have also not seen Robocop beyond the movies. The first will always be my favorite. I didn’t like the second one, because they made the old man executive a total jerk, but I saw Robocop’s rocket pack in the third movie, which can apparently slow down to allow him to pick people up, the franchise was officially dead to me.
Hey, speaking of things that are better left forgotten, you guys didn’t mention the Robocop cartoon series. *shudder*
I like the original Judge Dredd, but I could have done without Rob Schneider. I kept expecting him to go, “Dreeeedd! Dreddarino! The Dreddmeister! Killing canibals! Makin’ coffee. Dreeedd!” Seriously, WHY was he in that movie?
Best thing about that movie: Diane Lane’s body filling out that awesome uniform. Oooooh yeeeeah.
Speaking of the costumes, my favorite bit of trivia about the original Judge Dredd film is that the Judge Dredd costume was designed by Versace.
Worst thing about that film: “I knew you’d say that.”
TWIG Nerd News Network Week of August 2 2010
August 9th, 2010 at 5:18 pmIf Penn & Teller hadn’t JUST done an episode about this, I wouldn’t have had this all so fresh in my memory.
TWIG Nerd News Network Week of August 2 2010
August 9th, 2010 at 10:46 amAnd by “aught”, I actually mean “ought”. I was being ironic.
Birdman, did I hear you say that McDonalds is killing us? First of all, Supersize Me is a load of bat feces. They need to take every copy of Supersize Me, and just run them over with a stream roller so that bury them in the Nevada desert with all the ET cartridges, where they belong. And while we’re at it, we can do the same with that Walmart movie.
If you want to know who really thinks that consumers are idiots, it’s usually those on the side of consumer advocacy, who want to pressure fast food restaurants to put nutritional information on their menus, as though consumers don’t know what their getting.
Three responses:
First, it’s a fast food joint. You’re not going there if you’re on a diet. You’re going there because you’re eating food that tastes good, and the trade-off is that you’re eating food with high caloric intake.
So the first critique is that the movie demonizes a company for selling a product that people want. It tries to convince the consumer that he or she is a victim for eating something that he already knows is not good for him, if he were to eat this quantity of food on a regular basis.
Second, these places already do offer low calorie alternatives for health conscience consumers. McDonald’s has shown respect for people who want to buy a salad instead of a Big Mac. But the trade-off here is that we’re going to respect the wishes of people who want the alternative, then you also have the respect the wishes of people who want to continue to eat the high calorie stuff.
Third, it’s been shown in double blind studies that people actually DO know what kind of calorie intake they’re getting from a fast food restaurant. The assumption is that if you go to McDonalds, you’re eating high-calorie garbage, but but if you dine at the Olive Garden, then you’re eating fine, low-calorie cuisine, when in fact, both are about the same.
Studies show that when people think they’re eating food at a high-priced restaurant, they tend to low-ball their estimated calorie intake by about half, but when they know they’re eating from KFC, they can usually guess the calories within an error margin of a hundred calories or so. That’s pretty damn good.
And finally, I’m just tired of the demonization culture that we’re in, where we have to heap all this guilt on any industry we perceive as unhealthy. As gamers, we ought to know better.
How many times has the video game industry been demonized for one thing or another. Janet Reno thought that game companies were obligated to offer non-violent alternatives to the growing violence in video games. We said, “NO! Screw you, bitch! And you too, Jack Thompson! We want our violent games.”
In fact, that’s what Desert Bus was about. It was a parody of the most sanitized video game you could possibly get. No violence. No gore. Just a straight and extremely boring 8-hour drive from Las Vegas to Reno, Nevada in real time. Just to show how ridiculous consumer advocacy can be.
The point is, if we can tell people to go to hell for demonizing game companies for selling us the games that we want to play, then why can’t consumers of McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr., KFC, Burger King, and Taco Bell do the same?
We can’t have it both ways.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go order a #6 from Wendy’s. No tomato.
TWIG Nerd News Network Week of August 2 2010
August 9th, 2010 at 6:49 amFrom the description:
“How Coca Cola thinks your stupid…”.
That aught to be, “How Coca Cola thinks YOU’RE stupid…”.
TWIG APPEARANCES-TOONCAST EP 65 THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (Proper working version)
August 8th, 2010 at 12:03 amAlso, you guys mentioned the animation dropping off in later seasons, but I don’t think you guys really understand why that happened. It’s really not DiC’s fault (for once).
Two very nefarious things happened in the late 80s that would bring an end to the classic age of American-produced/Japanese-animated cartoons.
1. The market which made it possible for American studios to farm animation to Japanese studios, such as Tatsunoko and Toei, suddenly shifted, and it became very difficult and expensive to use these studios past 1986. At that time, there was a gradual shift to Korean studios, which were cheaper.
2. Nelson Shin, producer of the Transformers animated series, opened a Korean studio called AKOM which took much of the load at that time. AKOM is one of the worst overseas studios of all time, and shoddiness of their animation can be seen in such Transfomers episodes as “The Autobot Run”", The Five Faces of Darkness”, “City Of Steel”, “Carnage In C-Minor”, and “The Rebirth”.
And unfortunately, AKOM began to leave their stink on other beloved cartoons. The result was a noticeable drop in the quality of animation in shows such as Transformers, Real Ghostbusters, Captain N The Game Master, and Muppet Babies. The third seasons of both Transformers and Captain N are perhaps the most infamous among these. Other shows like GI Joe and Thundercats simply ceased to exist. (Thank god)
Additionally, the first five episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had been animated by Toei, but every episode afterward was animated by AKOM. And now you know why the opening theme has such good animation over the rest of the show.
Robotech, despite being stitched together from three pre-existing Japanese shows, had a planned second season which was to be written in America and animated in Japan by Tatsunoko Studios. Only three episodes of Robotech 2: The Sentinels were ever produced before the market for Japanese animation bottomed out.
This is actually a very simplified version of what happened. I’m leaving a lot of stuff out. But basically, if you’ve ever noticed that all of the awesome Japanese animated cartoons suddenly disappeared during the latter half of the 80s, now you have a general idea of why.
TWIG APPEARANCES-TOONCAST EP 65 THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (Proper working version)
August 7th, 2010 at 10:53 pmYou guys were talking about the voices changed. You forgot to mention that they actually did an episode that was about Janine’s voice changing.
She had the most striking change, because she went from being New York accent to a midwest accent.
TWIG Nerd News Network- Week of July 19 2010
July 28th, 2010 at 9:07 amErr… As I was saying, this sums up the Westboro situation…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojNVL8539no
TWIG Nerd News Network- Week of July 19 2010
July 28th, 2010 at 9:06 amI think this best sums up what happened to the Westboro Baptist Church.
TWIG Nerd News Network- Week of July 19 2010
July 27th, 2010 at 11:46 amGodzilla Final Wars is great! The American guy with the mustache looks like Mike Haggar.
Oh, and the American Godzilla is actually known as Zilla in Japan. The reason for this is that the producer of Final Wars, who speaks fluent English, felt that the American film took the “God” out of Godzilla.
Zilla does indeed die epically. Greatest moment in any Godzilla film.
This Week in Geek Special Interview-Robert Picardo!
July 23rd, 2010 at 4:49 amAccording to Starfleet medical research, borg implants can cause severe skin irritations. Perhaps you’d like an analgesic cream?
TWIG Nerd News Network- Week of July 12 2010
July 19th, 2010 at 7:54 amThe new A Boy And His Blob is SOOOOO much better than the original. For one, you don’t run out of jellybeans. That was really the deal breaker with the original. The beans were finite, so you could actually get dicked out of winning the game just for using the wrong beans too many times. And it was really easy to do so.
I liked the voice of the kid. It’s adorable. You need kids to appreciate that. Err… or nieces and nephews, like I have.
The new game is so much more aesthetically pleasing than the original or almost any other game on the Wii. I like the bright, earthy colors. It’s not brown like LOTR, but also isn’t OMGXTREEEM COLORZ, either. It’s very nice. That’s the way games should be designed.
You’re right. It is a shame it didn’t do better. I guess there wasn’t enough f!#%ing waggle.
TWIG DVD Commentary-Toy Story
July 16th, 2010 at 9:20 amYou know what’s wrong with the Toy Story franchise? No Transformers.
My absolute favorite sequence in the movie is at the gas station, because Woody has some of the best facial expressions in that scene and leading up to Pizza Planet. Watch his face while he’s trying to talk Buzz into climbing into the pizza truck. Right when he finishes talking, he makes this HYSTERICAL face that makes me laugh every single time.
Hey, did you guys ever notice that the song “You Got A Friend In Me” almost sounds exactly like “I Love To See You Smile”, another Randy Newman song. And now that I’ve pointed that out, you will ALWAYS notice it. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
You guys are right. Don Rickles is totally the voice people think of whenever they see Mr. Potato Head. But if you want to cry, track down the Potato Head Kids cartoon from the 80s. It will make you want to kill yourself. Repeatedly.
A couple things never quite sat right with me in this movie. For instance, that rocket at the end goes for quite a while. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take that long for those things to explode.
Another problem is Buzz’s compliance with the toy rule. I kind of suspended disbelief that the other toys all follow this rule that they can’t talk around people, but I could never understand why Buzz would follow the rule. It’s possibly the biggest plot hole in the movie. If he thinks he’s a real space man, why doesn’t he just talk to Andy?
You guys were talking about the lame Woody toy that came out for this movie. Aside from that, I loved the toy tie-ins for this movie. Especially since all the pre-existing toys from the movie, like Potato Head and Slinky Dog, were packaged in Toy Story boxes. Those have got to be so collectible now. I’m kicking myself that I never got any of them and saved them.
And NO, to answer your question, Buzz’s helmet could NOT possibly light the wick on that rocket like that. Buzz’s helmet would need to be convex to do that. Not just curved.
TWIG Nerd News Network-Week of July 5
July 14th, 2010 at 4:01 amBwahahahahaha!!! You finally reported on science. I love critiquing what you guys say. Actually, the subject of your report is pretty spot-on. So, bear in mind that the critique I have is being REALLY nit-picky.
You said that we’ll have AIDS beaten before Cancer. Cancer isn’t really analogous to AIDS. AIDS is a strain of retrovirus. Cancer is a category of diseases. It’s not just one thing.
So, in effect, there will NEVER be “a cure” for cancer. Each type of cancer has to be approached differently. Thinking of cancer as one thing is sort of like thinking of all infectious diseases as one thing.
That’s why we’ll often see developments in the treatment of certain types of cancer, but then they don’t seem to pan out to much in the overall treatment of all cancer. It’s a common misconception, but it just doesn’t work that way.
So what you said is correct, technically, but only because cancer is so much more complex than AIDS.
Also, don’t be surprised if there are setbacks. There usually are.
RAD Episode #36-Retro Duo
July 14th, 2010 at 2:14 amIs it a Canadian thing to refer to pronounce NES as “the Ness”? What alien language speak is this? I’m pretty sure that all Nintendo commercials called it the N-E-S, without making it into an acronym. Seriously, the first time I heard someone use that term, I was like, “What did you just call my Nintendo?”.
Mike, I swear to god, there is no retro system that can play the Mario games correctly. I don’t know why. They always have glitchy graphics and sound. They just always suck at it. You’d think that they’d try to make sure that the retro consoles would be compatible with Mario, but it usually isn’t.
Also, the controllers on these consoles are almost always crap. Definitely get original controllers. And NEVER buy one that don’t let you use original controllers.
Personal opinion: You would almost always be better off finding a used NES and replacing the pin connectors with a replacement kit.
Also, snip the lock-out pin on the 10NES chip. That will save you A LOT of headaches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLMCj2VosLc
ARGH!!! Did that guy in the video actually say “the 10 Ness chip”?! Where does this weird alien speak come from?
Oh, here’s a random bit of trivia that has almost nothing to do with this review. There are certain first-generation NES games that have a 60-to-72 pin converter built into the cartridges. Basically, Nintendo was taking Famicom ROM boards and putting them into American cartridges with a pin converter to allow play on the NES. They were usually the ROB games, so there’s no foul in buying these up and ripping these things out of the cartridges. Just look for the cartridges that have no center screw on the back.
If you’re resourceful, you can convert these cartridges into a custom cartridge for whatever Japanese Famicom game you want, barring any of the games that have special sound chips (i.e., Castlevania III). And if you’re REALLY creative, you can make your own custom cartridge art to replace the original art for Stack Up or whatever crappy game you had to cannibalize to achieve your custom cart.
http://famicomworld.com/workshop/articles/nes-cart-converters/
TWIG-Nerd News Network-Week of June 28 2010
July 14th, 2010 at 1:06 amWarning: HUGE rant!
I’m just now getting around to listening to these shows.
Here’s the thing about Codger Eggbert. He KNOWS better. He has the hindsight of an entire century where every advancement in technology and media has been met with disdain and hysteria. Motion pictures, rock & roll, and now video games.
Furthermore, he still wants to build this arbitrary barrier between today’s video games and this fictional future potential to become art. They’re art NOW. And you don’t even need to look at today’s gaming to prove this.
Case in point: Super Mario Bros. How long does a game have to remain popular and iconic to be a classic form of art, Roger Ebert? That game is a work of craftsmanship. Every last bit of that game was designed with care, from the jumping mechanics to the level design itself. Every bit of it is designed to intuitive and easy to play.
Heck, I’d go as far as to say that Donkey Kong is our KING Kong. Because it is. It’s a landmark game that is still the subject of gaming championships and achievements. And he should have learned that simply by watching King Of Kong, a movie which he reviewed favorably!!!!
Roger is trying to over-analyze the responses to make a rhetorical point against any game being a work of art, and real examples are perfectly easy to find, if only he’d take twenty minutes on friggin’ Google to find them.
In one way, you guys are right. We don’t need Roger Ebert’s stamp of approval to call video games art. At the same time, a person in his position and with his line of work deserves to be MOCKED for his blatantly condescending and elitist attitude toward another medium, despite the fact that history is full of examples that should have clued him in that this is not acceptable.
Being old is not an excuse.
Second rant…
I’m sick and tired of people who say that Wonder Woman’s classic costume is “sexist”. The following rant is not directed at you guys, so I hope you’ll JOIN me in my rage instead of presuming that I’m yelling at you. I’m not.
People need to stop using the word “sexist” to describe things aren’t actually sexist. Wonder Woman’s costume is anything but sexist. It never has been. Yes, it is designed to be appealing to a male audience, but that’s NOT sexism.
People who say this have no idea what sexism is. They have this warped idea of the way men think, as if this is all about degrading women. It has NOTHING to do with that, and I’m sick and tired of the guilt hysteria surrounding the alleged objectification of women.
You guys even brought up the subject of harlequin novels on your Twilight show. These are smutty novels that women ages 30 years and up like to read. They present men as impossibly fantastic, and a good portion of them from the 80s and 90s have Fabio on the cover. Is this not objectification in every way that Wonder Woman is, right down the glistening body and flowing hair? You’re damn right it is! It may not be as visually intense as what males like, but it’s every bit as superficial. But nobody complains about these, and that’s a double standard.
You know why I’m not the least bit offended by harlequin novels? Because I don’t believe in casting shame on people for having fantasies.
Besides, the most successful movie in theaters right now actually gives little girls a very bad representation of what a healthy relationship actually is, and yet everyone is clapping and applauding because someone has destroyed the classic Wonder Woman. People need to be slapped.
Just look at Wonder Woman. She’s a DEITY. She’s got the body of a God, because she IS one. She wears a shimmering costume. She’s above 6″, has wider shoulders than most men, and is built like a tank. She’s a fantasy character, for crissake! She’s one of the most physically imposing sexualized characters in fiction. She can fend for herself, and yet she’s not aggressive toward men. What does that tell you? THIS is what people think is sexist?
Can we stop casting disparaging presumptions on people and trying to make them feel guilty for liking sexy comic book characters as if there’s something actually wrong with that?
TWIG Digitial Playground's special Interview Stoya
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:56 pm“we let nothing stand in our way!”
Nothin’s gonna stand in our way! Nothing nice!
TWIG-Nerd News Network-Week of June 14
June 25th, 2010 at 9:38 pmDamn it! I forgot to erase the stupid spellchecker string. Sorry about that.
TWIG-Nerd News Network-Week of June 14
June 25th, 2010 at 9:37 pmSpell Check Your Text or Website Right Now!
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Do I always have the be the killjoy? About that Paul McCartney conspiracy theory…
The problem with conspiracy theories is that they always have to be unrealistically large to pull off. Assuming that Paul really died and was replaced with a look-alike, it’s very difficult to keep something secret like that. He didn’t have any family or close friends that might have said something?What about the doctors and the people who trained him to play like Paul? None of them said anything either? Was everyone paid off?
Even then, it’s difficult to fathom that you could keep a lid on it. Governments do not have this kind of control over information like this. You can only control information if very few people know about something, and even then, it’s very difficult. For example, Nintendo tried to keep information from leaking prior to E3, and even with fewer than ten people knowing what their entire E3 presentation was going to be, information still leaked out. Information is way too viral.
So, I’m going to be the curmudgeon who poo-poos the conspiracy theories. Trust me, it doesn’t get any better for any of the popular conspiracy theories. Conspiracy allegations about the moon landing, 9/11, and the Kennedy assassination all pretty much suck, and demonstrably so.
TWIG-Nerd News Network-Special Report with Mike Blanchard
May 31st, 2010 at 12:12 pmI think a movie commentary of Super Mario Bros is in order, to honor the late, great Dennis Hopper. …if you haven’t already.
Because that’s the movie I always comes to mind when I think of Dennis Hopper.
TWIG Fan DVD Commentary- The Empire Strikes back!
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 amOH!
The real reason that the Emperor’s credit is wrong at the end of the movie is because George Lucas didn’t change the credit roll from the 1997 version. So, instead of crediting Ian McDiarmid, it credits Clive Revill, the voice of the monkey Emperor, instead. Likewise, Temuera Morrison is uncredited for redubbing Boba Fett (which I agree should never have happened!).
Double D had some weird explanation, and I’m pretty sure that’s not true. I’ve never heard that before.
One more thing. Clive Revill was also the voice of Insecticon Kickback on the original Transformers TV series and movie.
“Delicious! Eh, Shrapnel?”
C’mon guys. Where’s your geek cred? I expected you to call that out the moment you saw that on screen.
TWIG Fan DVD Commentary- The Empire Strikes back!
May 21st, 2010 at 6:48 pmMike… Dave… The only reason that Empire is the best movie of the original trilogy is because Lucas didn’t direct it. He’s a TERRIBLE director, and I think that even shows in A New Hope.
The first Star Wars film from 1977 is so slow and weighed down by nattering chatter, just like the prequels. And he doesn’t know how to flesh out characters. It took Irvin Kirshner to do that in Empire.
I barely count Empire as a Lucas movie, because it’s so much more Kirshner’s movie. He took Lucas’ concept and gave it so much character.
In fact, I don’t think you could even say that George Lucas ever lost his mind, because I don’t think he was ever all there to begin with!
TWIG Fan DVD Commentary- The Empire Strikes back!
May 21st, 2010 at 6:47 pmYou pose and interesting riddle, TFG1. The truth is… BOTH?
Really! There’s a silver edition and a gold edition, but what these actually mean have more to do with when the were released. The silver edition is from the widescreen box set that came out in 2004. The gold edition is the widescreen edition that came out later with a bonus disc.
Incidentally, there’s also a gold edition box set WHICH YOU SHOULD AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, because it’s full screen. Likewise, if you see any blue edition, that’s also the later edition in full screen.
So, the color doesn’t matter so much. Just make sure you’re buying widescreen. On the other hand, if you want all of your Star Wars DVDs to match, then you should definitely go gold.