A Brand X Christmas

		december 14 Silent Night Deadly Night You've made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas Here at Brand X we can't let an opportunity pass around the Holidays to provide our version of tidings and good cheer. So, with warm regards we unwrap a tacky little package that's sure to leave a bad taste in your mouth- Silent Night Deadly Night! After seeing his parents murdered by a stick- up criminal in a Santa costume, our little hero ends up in a mental institution (already off to a good start!). Upon being released back into society as an adult our hero gets a job at a department store (I'm sure you know where this is going). Inevitably his coworkers force him into playing the store Santa which causes him to snap and go on a kill- crazy rampage! Yes! 1984 830-1030pm, free admission RUNTIME: 85 min
		december 21 Santa Clause Better Than a Visit from Saint Nick Himself! Being of Hispanic origins myself, I know what we as a people can deliver when it comes to film. I'm used to plenty of Mexican Wrestling movies, black and white westerns, not to mention lots of movies with Mariachi bands, but wow… This one is certainly something else. I know that it's about Santa Clause and the Devil, things happen and then there's an end. Thankfully, and as a little present from us to you (and ourselves), the version we're presenting for you is the MST3K episode featuring this "film". Not that it makes the film any better; it just makes it easier to take in. Merry Christmas. jerks. 1959 830-1030pm, free admission RUNTIME: 94 min
	december 28 Super Secret Brand X End of the Year Preshow Show II: Preshow in Amazing 4-D! Movies? Not tonight, buddy! For a much of 2009, the Brand X organization has been trying to nail down just who or what this elusive Cyboman character is and why he's chosen our movie night to break into. Granted, it has, so far, been mildly entertaining, but it has the capacity to become a problem. Upon receiving another message, we decided to act. We sent our unseen associate Many Bothans, who is really good at finding random shit out, to check out a number of leads as to where the rogue signal might be coming from. After already having an unfortunate name, Many transmitted a series of coordinates pointing to a deep undersea chasm, and then suddenly died while trying to send a message to some other client. Rest in peace, Many Bothans. To this mysterious chasm, we then sent our elite squad of Brand X underwater adventurers to hopefully flush out Cyboman. They were met with defeat when, instead of Cyboman, they happened across a bunch of aliens watching planetary snuff films. The aliens, apparently, dispatched them in some horrific manner because the only message we got back was "miss you, wife." We don't even know what that meant since that guy wasn't married. Anyway… blah, blah, Cyboman… Something, something, crappy movie and various things that no one will likely read anyway… Brand X is gonna be bringing, to you, once again, that which is most holy... Our Super Secret Brand X End of the Year Preshow Show!! If you don't know what all that is about… Once a year, on one magical night, Brand X comes to Domy Books and, for 2 solid hours, shows the best part of going to the movies… the stuff that's not the movie. Only this year, it's in Amazing 4-D, so be sure to bring your 4-D glasses. We might even be visited again by Cyboman. Who knows? That exact year you've never conceived of. 830-1030pm, free admission RUNTIME: 120 min

iTunes has a large selection of Cardiacs now.

Hikashu has a new single out, and new album out on the 20^th.

Arkansas by the Residents should be here sooner than later.

Woo!

So I sold around eighty games (DS, PSP, Wii, PS2), and a DS Lite and snagged 10 games for my troubles:

PSP

Hammerin' Hero (new)
Bust-a-Move Deluxe (used)
Half Minute Hero (new)
Prinny: Can i really be the hero? (used)
Metal Gear AC!D 2 (used) w/sealed 3D glasses!

DS

Arkanoid DS (used) missing case
Space Bust-A-Move (new)
Space Invaders Extreme 2 (new)
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier (new) w/soundtrack
The Dark Spire (new) w/soundtrack

Not a bad haul, especially since a lot of the games I sold were got for discounted prices. Even better was that most all the new games i got at GameStop were still shrink wrapped and the new Atlus games had the soundtracks. It would also appear I'm moving towards a more portable-centric collection. Given that I seem to hardly have anytime any more this would be the most logical approach to mantain the hobby.

Level 4 and Level 5

Stage 4 - Crazy Cruise_PhaseXX

Boss - Vanity

The first real challenge appears on this stage. Even though the track is short, it throws as many and as many types of enemies at you as it possibly can, then it adds narrow corridors to highlight the fact that you have even less room to maneuver.

Stage 5- Geometric City (Area 1)

Boss - Ladybug

Back to more of a laid back fight. The Invaders will still pack the screen, but the tempo will still allow for a successful strong offensive assault.

While I'm Here...

...how about a nice pic of the Famicom Robot or R.O.B. here in the states.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene - Zuntata

So after some time, i finally unlocked everything on Infinity Gene, and instead of simply playing levels off of my music, I put all that Arkanoid and SI Extreme music to use. That got me to thinking of making levels strictly with Zuntata's music. So i dug around on iTunes and found some tracks that flowed well together and complimented Infinity Gene. Here' s the list

Qi-Qi

Catharsis (Area4)

Midnight Jungling (BGM#4)

Crazy Cruise_PhaseXX

Geometric City (Area1)

Description of Feelings (Stage10)

Revenge of Arkanoid

Chaotic Girly_PhaseXX (Not Use)

Virgin Flight (BGM#3)

Metaphar (B0ss2) [Full Take]

Dark Crystal

Exotic Baryon_PhaseXX

Gradation (Original Version)

Intolerance (Last Boss)

Revenge of Arkanoid (Complete Mix)

I call it Infinity Gene - Zuntata. If IG could play playlists, i think this would work well flow-wise. So far i've played 4 levels, each generating mostly different levels, with four different bosses.

Stage 1 - Qi-Qi

Boss 1 - The Sun

a laid back start, given the bouncy nature of the music.

Stage 2 - Cartharsis

Boss - Teleporter

Even though the music is slow paced, the enemies flood the screen. The speed allows for a strong defense fortunately.

Stage 3 - Midnight Jungling (BGM#4)

Boss - Ladybug

The stark background betrays the stream of enemies that will appear. Challenging, but not at all impossible.

Stage 4 - Crazy Cruise_PhaseXX

Boss - ?

The first real challenge appears on this stage. Even though the track is short, it throws as many and as many types of enemies at you as it possibly can, then it adds narrow corridors to highlight the fact that you have even less room to maneuver.

I have yet to finish this level, but as soon as i do, i'll catalog the boss.

I know this endeavor is silly and probably wasting more time than one should, but i love this game, and love that one can expand the levels with music they enjoy. Adding more of Zuntata's music to an already awesome game makes me love the game even more. As more levels are played more pics and descriptions will be added, and maybe more levels as soon as Space Invaders Extreme 2's soundtrack gets in...

Homebrewing it

I ordered copies of Space Invaders for the Atari 7800 and Juno First (an old Konami arcade game) for the 2600. They should be in sometime next week so can enjoy some nice arcade-at-home fun. Once again these were ordered from Atariage.com.

Yeah, i really like Space Invaders

So i went ahead and found a copy of Space Invaders Extreme 2 Audio Element on Amazon Japan. It wasn't cheap, but the little i've heard of the soundtrack was reason enough to buy it. I also found out that other Zuntata soundtracks - Arkanoid DS Audio Planet and Space Invaders Extreme Audio Element among others are available on iTunes. So yeah, i picked those up. Now i can use those soundtracks on Space Invaders Infinity Gene. Nice.

Pac-Man Collections

I recently got a copy of Opcode's Pac-Man Collection for the Colecovision, so now I have both of the homebrew collections, including the box for the 7800 release. If you love Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, tons of versions, and tons of options you should get these. Try Opcode's side and Atariage.com. It's good for you soul.

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Wallpaper

I got an 'A' rating on part of the demo so i got this swell wallpaper. Are there others? Do you know?

Game & Watches

A pick of some of my Game & Watch bits. Fortunately i don't want them all, or else i'd be much poorer.

Ti/99 with Milton Bradley MBX add on

It took time and money, but I eventually picked this up about a year ago. One of these days I need to record some gameplay from the games I have. There's some interesting stuff on it, just not much.

I think i'm becoming one of those weird people...

I have no brain power for work today.

I’ve spent too much time at home playing Nintendo, mostly the unreleased sequel to Mario Bros.  It was a disk only game, graphics that were more like the arcade, and had strange advertisements at various points in the game.  I also managed to get the wifi back up and downloaded Balloon Fight and Kid Icarus for the Virtual Console.  Kid Icarus still kicks my butt, but I’m able to get to the second level without too much difficulty.  One day I might even see past the third level.

In more real things, it looks like Zombiethon is in the prep phase and should happen around late Feb, early March, and hopefully be 4days/3nights now, woo!