Tumbling Down The Rabbit Hole

I have been playing a lot of games this week. As you saw from earlier posts, I’ve been spending some time in Liberty City stealing cars, and I’ve been running around with my beam-katana slicing people into freezer bag sized chunks.

I’ve had adrenaline pumping through my veins forcing me to concentrate on being law abiding as I drove to work, and to not solve all disputes with blood gurgling violence. It always concerns me when I am moseying along in traffic, and I keep thinking that if I jumped the median and drove into oncoming traffic I could certainly get to work faster.

And my nerves have been shot as a result of my gaming habits! I ducked for cover when the lid on my Tupperware container popped in the microwave. When I was listening to music with headphones at work and was tapped on the shoulder, I fluidly spun around and grabbed my colleague by the wrist narrowly avoiding the instinct to go totally Seagal on him, Above The Law-style.

And as much fun as that sounds, I also spent some time away from such violent tendencies, and managed to find 3 nerve calming games, some sad news, a cool geeky artisan, and a gem of a Star Wars video.

So kick back and join me as I sip on my lemon grass tea and go totally mellow today; here’s the cool stuff that kept me from landing my sorry ass in the clanker this week, as found on my tumblog:

• Game: Boomshine
• Game: White Dwarf
• Game: Open Door 2
• Lorne singing Lady Marmalade
• Rapunzel’s Tower: Geeky Sewing Extravaganza
• Star Wars Disco Fever

Game: Boomshine

Boomshine is my kind of bare-bones easy-to-play experimental game. There’s only one thing to do, only one objective, and each round only requires you to pick a spot on the screen to make a single mouse-click.

The rules of this game are simple: colored bouncing circles are randomly bouncing around the screen in linear paths. You need to pick a spot in the playing area to click the mouse. Clicking the mouse will create a circle that grows in size and stays large for a short period of time before is shrinks into nothingness. This circle that you create causes the bouncing balls to similarly explode into a larger circle, and the hope is that you will cause a chain reaction that other balls run into.

You have a set number of balls each round that you must eliminate to pass the round. You start out with 5 bouncing balls and you need to eliminate just one of the 5. So, yeah - it starts out really easy. But mid-way through the 12 levels you must eliminate 10 of the 30 bouncing balls, and the last level requires you to get 55 of the 60!

The playing area does not get any bigger, and you’d think it’d be easier to get more of those damned balls as the screen gets more crowded, but man - as the game currently states: “Fact: Only 3.97% of all level 12 games have won” - and I believe it, it’s damned hard to get all 55!

Game: White Dwarf

White Dwarf has three modes of play that all use the same graphical display for each game mode. The modes are:

Original

1. Collect the green circles.
2. Touch the blue circles to bank points.
3. Dodge the red circles.

Those are the 3 rules to remember when playing this mode. You are a white circle, controlled by the mouse. You whip around the playing area gathering green circles. They are slightly attracted to you and when they touch you they stick like glue.

The more green circles you amass before you touch a blue circle increases the number of points you get. So make yourself as large of a green blob as you are comfortable with and then aim for a blue ball to get points for the greens you’ve collected.

Touching a red circle is how the game is ended, and they are slightly attracted to you. So you really need to think about how large you are getting and how lucky you are feeling, because some of these red circles come at you pretty darn fast.

Avoid

1. Avoid everything.

This mode is pretty straight forward - if it moves, you must avoid it.

Collect

1. Touch green and blue circles.
2. Dodge the red circles.

This is the game mode where you really notice the attraction/repulsion properties of the green, blue, and red circles. Both the red and green circles are slightly attracted to you, and the blue are repulsed by your presence. So, getting green circles is quite easy, but you must move more swiftly to catch the blue circles.

To reflect the difficulty of gathering blue circles they are worth 200 points vs. the 50 you get for a green. But going for the blues does cause for some rapid mouse jerks that sometimes lands you right in the path of a nasty red circle.

My favorite mode is the Original mode, it’s really fun to build yourself into a big blob in order to get the big payoff, but all-too-often I end up colliding with a red and losing everything. It’s just a lot of fun to see how big you can get, yet somehow still avoid the red circles that are hurled at you.

Game: Open Door 2

I’ve played games like Open Door 2 before; there are doors set in a maze-like grid. Some doors open only 1 direction, others in both, and there are levers that move some, and floor-triggers that cause doors to swing open/shut.

You must figure out in which order you need to go through the doors in order to get through the maze, and as you progress through the levels more and more door types are introduced, and new levers and switches are thrown into the mix to really tease the brain.

Out of these 3 games I played this week, I’d have to say that my favorite one was White Dwarf in Original mode - it’s just a lot of simple fun. But Open Doors 2 is definitely the game I spent the most time on between the 3. I would get so frustrated trying to make my way to the destination that I’d stubbornly work at it until I figured it out.

A few times I had convinced myself that the level was bugged and that there was no way to solve it… and it seemed that every time I was about to quit I’d get a Eureka! and figure it out. Then I’d be sucked into trying the next level and the frustration-satisfaction loop would start all over again.

Lorne singing Lady Marmalade

On a truly sad note this week, Andy Hallett died March 29th. If you don’t know who he is, you’d definitely know the character he played had you watch the Angel television series.

Andy played the green demon from the dimension of Pylea. He escaped the violent ways of his people to our dimension, and settled in LA where he opened a singing lounge for all demons to come and enjoy a night out on the town.

Andy’s character was Lorne, and he discovered that he loved to sing. His character became a fan favorite for his fatherly advice, his cunning humour and wry wit, his beautiful singing voice, and his character always had a skip in his step.

If you’ve ever watched the DVD extras that came with Angel, you’ll remember that one of Andy’s favorite moments during his years with the series was when they filmed with a live audience at a cabaret in Las Vegas… and this video is of him singing with his Lornettes like nobody else ever could.

You could always tell that Andy was having just as much fun playing Lorne as Lorne was having giving advice and belting out the tunes; Andy made this character come to life, and made you smile when he sang.

We’ll miss you Andy, you were quite the entertainer.

Rapunzel’s Tower: Geeky Sewing Extravaganza

If I were not such a cheap bastard, I would definitely be buying that freakin’ Galaga blanket! Gah! Why do I have to be so damned poor! I love it!

Ok, sorry about that, but listen, this is a pretty damned cool little specialty shop that Rapunzel (aka punzie) has here. I love these little niche-customer focused products that people sell on Etsy. Some of these people are so talented and Etsy is such a perfect medium for these artisans to focus advertising their wares to their niche audiences.

Check out Rapunzel’s work, and let me know if anyone picks up something from her shop. I’d love to know if her blankets are as cozy and warm as I expect… dang, I really do like that Galaga blanket!

Star Wars Disco Fever

OK, so - go watch this video, then come back.

…

Still laughing? Yeah. Me too, and now I can’t get the freakin tune out of my damned head!

OK, let’s watch it again, and this time sing along!

We’re Darth Vader’s raiders, and we can’t believe
The things that you do - you’re outta sight!

You’ve never made a trooper play hide and seek
The way that you do - you’re outta sight!

But Fee Fei Foe Fum, look out people
‘cuz here we come

We know just what to do with you
So get ready, get ready
To do  when we’re through with you
So get ready, get ready, here we come

Get ready ‘cuz here we come
Get ready ‘cuz here we come

Babeebaaadeebaddi
Bzzrt bzrt brrt bzzzrt brrrt
Get ready, get ready!

Get ready ‘cuz here we come!
Get ready ‘cuz here we come!
Get ready ‘cuz here we come!

Gotcha!

All laughs aside, wow - Leia’s hot.

And does Han have a beard? Wow, never knew that! Perhaps that’s why people say he’s scruffy looking? And yeah, apparently that is Kris Kristofferson - too funny!

Check out the locks on Luke, and… is that… chest hair?

Okay, enough.

Look folks, Luke was never manly enough to have chest hair! Who the hell cast this guy for Luke’s role? How can someone get Leia so right and then totally screw up Luke and Han Solo? Is this the same person that decided to put Chewie on a freakin’ diet for this number?

And waiiiiit a second, are those female Storm Troopers? What the hell? I think someone forgot to watch the movie before they wrote this musical number. I’m all for women in the military, but I don’t remember any Troopers wearing that uniform! I think I’d remember that!

This video makes me laugh though, and I’d love to know if this was an entire musical or just this scene was done for a variety show, because I really do think it’d be a real hoot to watch a whole movie like this. I see that it was apparently part of something called “Forbidden Transmission”, but I cannot find much about the show. Too bad, I really wish I knew more about this video clip because I love it!