Dec 14 09

The first thing I ever made in Flash

filed under Design

I’m not sure why I’d forgotten to post this on here, but apparently, I did. This is a short I did for my multimedia class during the Fall 2009 semester. The assignment was simply “create a short that tells a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end”. Well, being the over-achiever that I am, I set to work, and ‘The Contract‘ is the result. It’s a very simple piece, although it doesn’t necessarily look it. I’m a strong believer in showing the audience only what they need to see, but having them hear everything. With that in mind, sound design was priority one for this project, and all of the feedback I’ve gotten indicates that it paid off. My instructor told me at the end of the semester that he’d used this animation as an example for other classes, and every single person that saw it was blown away by it, especially after they looked at the original fla file. I’m proud of it, because at the very least, this represents only the beginning of the empowerment that Flash provides me as an artist.

Nov 23 09

The second thing I’ve made in Flash

filed under Design
BoxArt

Click the box art above to jump to the game

I’ve become quite smitten with Flash this semester, which isn’t terribly surprising considering it represents the culmination of many of my skills. I first tried my hand at making something years ago, but quickly realized that I didn’t have the chops for it. The program fascinated me though, and the sheer number of possibilities with it was endless.

Fast forward to this year. Coming off of being totally burned out on the idea of programming after my previous two semesters, I was eager to get started on my web design degree. I’d signed up for a class labeled “Concept in Multimedia” and saw in the curriculum that Flash was a large part of the subjects covered. I figured that I’d try my hand at it again. This time at least, I would have a leg up with a better understanding of programming in general (Python, Javascript and a brief stint in a Java class), and I’d heard that Actionscript was pretty close in syntax to Javascript. I figured what the hell…

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Aug 27 09

Another 10.6 Cool New Feature

filed under Technology

Screen shot 2009-08-27 at 7.22.24 AM

Option+Click on the volume icon gives you instant access to changing your input and output devices. Pretty spiffy, and saves you a trip to the System Preferences. Maybe I should do a full write-up review of Snow Leopard… when the NDA lifts (tomorrow, finally).

Aug 25 09

.6 > Cool new feature

filed under Technology

Screen shot 2009-08-25 at 10.42.47 PM

Option+Click on Airport. Only a few more days, gang. It’s worth it.

Aug 10 09

The Battle

filed under Musings

thebattle_zoom

And now we know. A new shirt design from Nerduo. The initial run has sold out, so if you didn’t get it, then you missed your chance.

Jun 17 09

Wednesday Awesome: Captain Power Gag Reel

filed under Musings

If you grew up in the 80s, there’s a pretty good chance you remember Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. The Landmark Entertainment / Mattel produced show was essentially designed to move piles of action figures off of the store shelves. And move them they did. Every single week, kids were invited to use their XT-7 jet to fire at the army of the vicious Lord Dread while watching the show. And the mind blowing part (when I was younger anyway) was that the show fired back! Sigh. Technology innocence, how I miss you. Even though the few Captain Power toys I had are now in the giant landfill in the sky, I still have a VHS tape of one of the Training Videos that was available. Maybe I’ll have to do an entire post on the totally radicalness (yes, I just made that word up) of the entire Captain Power concept. I never had the jets when I was younger (my friends had them, but they were too expensive for me), but I did have more than a few of the action figures. Even though I was starting to outgrow toys at that point, the cool colored bits of chrome on each figure were pretty cool. Couple that with the fact that the whole thing centered around the video game idea of shooting at the TV, and I was sold. Chrome and violence, that’s my weakness…

Anyway, for your Wednesday Awesome, enjoy this gag reel from the set of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

Jun 10 09

Retro Recommendation – 50 Genesis games for $35

filed under Video Games
Commander Tim on Examiner.com
Don't let that little blue hedgehog nickle-and-dime your wallet. Play smart!

Don't let that little blue hedgehog nickle-and-dime your wallet. Play smart!

Sega has a very interesting history. 20 years ago, they ushered in the era of 16-bit gaming. 15 years ago, they were one of the biggest video game companies in the world, constantly trading the top spot with Nintendo. 10 years ago, they launched the Dreamcast, which would be their last video game console. 5 years ago… well, let’s just say they weren’t doing so hot.

Commander Tim on Examiner.com

May 26 09

Living as a ‘green gamer’ — reuse and buy local

filed under Video Games
Commander Tim on Examiner.com
Don't trash those games!

Don't trash those games! Reuse them instead.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article showing the difference in power usage between older game systems and modern ones. It seemed to really resonate with a lot of people, and generated a tremendous amount of positive feedback. After spending some more time thinking about the concept of being a ‘green gamer’, I realized that reducing energy usage isn’t the only thing you can do to introduce a little ‘green living’ into your gaming. There’s another, even more basic, way that just about every classic gamer actively does already, and might not even know it; recycling.

Click here to read the rest of this article on Examiner.com

May 21 09

Collector Spotlight – James Griffith

filed under Video Games
Commander Tim on Examiner.com
Only a sample of James' Jaguar Collection

Only a sample of James' Jaguar Collection

James Griffith is the perfect example of a true classic gaming collector. I first met James a few years ago, and quickly struck up a friendship with him based on our mutual obssession with old video games. I quickly realized two things; he is extremely knowledgable about his retro gaming, and also hoplessly addicted to everything related to the Atari Jaguar. Speaking with James last week, we setup a time for me to visit him at his home in St. Louis Park to take photos of his constantly expanding collection of Atari Jaguar systems, games and memoriablia for my ongoing photographic record of classic video games. After the photoshoot was finished, I asked James if he would be willing to sit down and talk about how he got started with being an Atari Jaguar collector, and a bit of the history of the system itself.

Click here to read the rest of this article on Examiner.com

May 20 09

Retro Recommendation – Gate of Thunder

filed under Video Games
Commander Tim on Examiner.com
Behold; a true side-scrolling shooter masterpiece.

Behold; a true side-scrolling shooter masterpiece.

During a recent interview segment on the Digital Cowboys podcast, I was asked what three games I would take with me if I were stranded on a desert island. Feeling the pressure of the question, I quickly rattled off Capcom vs. SNK, GigaWing and Super Mario Bros. I was fairly content with my answers; a fighting game that has wonderful replay value and bled style, an overhead shooter that took the concept of ‘bullet hell’ to a whole other level, and the grandfather of side-scrolling platform action. I felt I had successfully represented the full gamut of great games. Later that evening, as I was sending an email to Alex at Digital Cowboys, a terrible cold sweat crept across my brow. What a fool I was! In my haste to provide a thought provoking answer to their question, I’d completely overlooked a shooter that has deep personal meaning to me; a video game that defined large portions of my teenage years, and to this day, still engages me in a way that no other game can. That game is Gate of Thunder.

Click here to read the rest of this article on Examiner.com