Super Adventure Con

Stories will come tomorrow. I got home about a half hour a go. Observations were made, snake mistakes happened. Beautiful things were seen, and other things will never be un-seen.

Overall I give it a ***/*****

Inner monologue minutes before leaving to attend an anime convention

Oh man oh man money. Check. Phone wallet keys good to go. Shirt. What shirt. Something that says I shouldn’t really be here while really this is exactly where I need to be. Something something something something. Not Battles T-shirt. Jerry Holkins saw you last in the Battles T-shirt. Something… something. Unknown Pleasures. Yes. Perfect. Okay, now, food. Yes, something breakfasty that will last me until lunch/dinner. Perhaps breakfast will do the job. Okay. Camera. Got the camera. I will not be left out of the revolution if the next Man-Faye comes along. Alright, ready steady go (see what I did there!) let’s do this.

Some recap

It’s spring break here at some sort of University in the Seattle area. A quick recap of the past few days:

Tuesday featured lots of thrifting. Namely a bunch of shirts that don’t fit. But it was a Milk and Cheese shirt… so… yes. Twice I walked through the Lifelong thrift store and gazed upon this television that was sitting there in the front. I was surprised it was still there considering I had seen it over a week ago. It’s pretty decent, a 19″ Sony Trinitron CRT from the early 2000’s I would venture to guess. It’s looking pretty good there on the store floor.

So I’m heading down to Value Village and checking for more shirts and pants and kitschy things (Woodland Park Zoo T-shirt? Yep. Conan O’Brian audience member shirt? Yep). It’s a pretty cool Value Village, the one here on 12th. It’s got cobblestone floors. It’s like Halloween all the time in here. And the changing rooms smell like dead hobo. Downstairs at this ValVil they have the electronics and whatnot – I call it “The Island of Lost Toys”. To my surprise there aren’t any decent televisions or receivers or anything down there, though that is usually the case.

This anecdote ends with my buying a 19″ Sony Trinitron CRT for $50 and then hauling it on a rented dolly back to my room with my friend Will. It is sitting on the desk that my roommate used to use, but that is another anecdote for another time. It’s a pretty nice television if I do say so!

Wednesday was kind of boring. Mostly lounging around the room and cleaning up after hanging with some friends the night prior. Not much going on there. I did however, despite the stacks of brand new never touched you need to get through this stuff went back to playing more Amplitude. But some of the songs were not meant for human completion. Perhaps if I was a musical robot from the year 20XX I could do it. But alas I am flesh, spongy and pink and lacking in the dexterity to truly program the Robomusicorevolution.

Today will hopefully involve comic books, grocery shopping, the market, and preparing for an anime convention tomorrow. Wish me luck.

“Thoughts on Amplitude” or – “Please Hire me Harmonix”

Now that Guitar Hero has imploded on itself in what can only be described as a festivity of pubescent dick-waving, I’d like to take a look back at Harmonix’s earlier works. There was Frequency, their first attempt (that I’m aware of?) at making a rhythm game that didn’t involve a large, plastic controller and/or wild undulations of the arms and feet. It was also sort of unique in that it wasn’t really attempting to emulate the musical process the game depicted. DDR was a facsimile of dancing, Guitar Freaks and Drum Freaks were attempts at their respective instruments. Even Beatmania had that turntable attached so it was kind of like DJ-ing. What Para Para Paradise was about I will not attempt to classify.

But Frequency I guess you could argue was sort of about sequencing, but you’re not using enough keys to really emulate a full melodic range. And it’s a bit too hectic and precise to really capture the laptop techno sort of thing. It did however, feature a large series of musical tubes and a 90’s futurist aesthetic. It was also one of the first rhythm games which required ridiculously precise button presses. That or it was just a very poorly implemented interface system. Point is, you NEVER get your presses exactly right in Frequency.

The pastiche of the game is that you’re using 3 PS2 Shoulder buttons to complete musical phrases, which clears that instrument line for a period of a few more bars, allowing you to go on to the next instrument in the song and chain together a point combo. Essentially you’re “completing” the song. It’s an interesting mechanic because there is always more than one instrument track open at the same time at the start of a song, so there’s no one correct way to complete any track. Instead you sort of wander your way through and find the way which best fits your style. Take the harder instruments for more points if you’re skilled (because the number of button presses in a line corresponds to the point value, and each completed phrase means another multiplier in your combo) or go for the easier instruments with less notes for a higher completion rate. And of course different parts of the song will have harder phrases to complete. Avoid the second drum track during the bridge in favor of the synth lines, etc. It’s pretty well implemented really, and ditched the virtuoso pandering of Guitar Hero before Guitar Hero even came out.

Amplitude increased the window for a proper input, which was nice. You could get so off-rhythm in fact that it would audibly distort the song. You could get roughly an eighth of a beat off and still clear a line perfectly! Amplitude also ditched the awesome series of tubes mechanic for straight lines, so you can’t go from one line on the far right to one on the left very quickly. Why they implemented this I have yet to figure out, perhaps to make the chaining system more difficult.

To break it down into Skinner psychological and video gamey terms, Amplitude is all about chaining. The game starts off with simple note patterns that are on the beat and easy to identify. After a while they increase in complexity and tempo, with more and more ornate flourishes and fills to keep even the more basic beats difficult. By the harder difficulty settings you’re doing lines and lines of arpeggios at a rapid pace.

It’s at the higher difficulty levels that the game starts to break down a little. The problem is that the PS2’s shoulder buttons were really not meant for rapid taps on a single note. That is to say, triplets in this game on the same note are a sordid affair. Alternate between two or three notes over and over as fast as you want, but trying to nail the same buttons in a row is just something your index and middle fingers weren’t really meant to do (I’d love to see youtube videos to the contrary!) The game tries to solve this by allowing you to use three of the face buttons in conjunction with the shoulder buttons. So in theory, you have two buttons that correspond to the same note. But coordinating your right thumb with all the other actions is tricky at best. And because there’s varying paths of difficulty within a song, you can usually avoid the really difficult triplet-lined paths and take the hit in points. For a game that otherwise usually eases the player in very nicely to more and more difficult patterns, the triplet is just a huge stumbling block.

That being said, I love the game. The soundtrack was dated when it first came out (POD and Crystal Method? Seriously?) but the system of layering instruments is just too fun. Nailing strings of combos is a lot more rewarding when there’s some instrumental variety going on. Hearing all the tracks come together is a bit like the fadeaway and return in an electronic song. Predictable and immensely satisfying.

So here’s what I’m suggesting: Make a sequel for the PS3 (or Xbox 360, I say PS3 first only because Sony’s attempts at an online “community” jive better with the idea I’m thinking of). The logical conclusion is Wavelength. Keep the main gameplay system intact. Get some new powerups, an updated songlist, all that good stuff. Harmonix has made a big enough name for themselves that they can pretty much get anything they wanted at this point. Update the controller, for one thing. The PS3’s shoulder buttons won’t be able to do it. Maybe make a halfway decent three or four-button Beatmania-ish controller. Something. Just let me use an arcade stick, anything but the shoulder buttons. Pop’n Music made it work!

Then here’s what you do: Beef up the Amplitude remix capability. Make it more robust, more interesting. Allow the player to use a variety of soundfonts and all that good stuff. Make it MTV Music Generator with some soul. Keep the interface simple, like in Amplitude, but add in new features and whatnot. Distortion and pedals and looping and all kinds of cool stuff. Then allow people to share their custom remixes online and play them. Do all the typical Guitar Hero/Rock Band stuff with DLC and leaderboards and online matchmaking and profiles and whatnot, but really allow people to share those mixes and form groups – “Wavelengths” if you will. Sort of like musical clans. Then allow for greater customization in the player’s avatar and whatnot. Importation of pictures to use as logos and decals and everything. Allow each person’s Avatar, HUD/Dashboard, and Amplitude ship thingy to look entirely how they want.

Point is, if you marketed it the right way it would be Guitar Hero for electronic/IDM dorks and laptop DJ-wannabes everywhere.

E-mail employment opportunities and royalty checks to tbfchris@gmail.com

Excerpts from Ayn Rand’s “Mech Beater Otoko: Daigangar!”

Saul Masonman had finally met his rival on the field of battle. The evening sky glowed a fiery red. Rays from the setting sun reflected off of the jagged rocks which stretched unapologetically toward the heavens. The crest of Saul’s clan, a fist punching a lame puppy, is illuminated in this vast wasteland, its reflection is cast on every surface of the valley. Controlling his four-story fighting gear with firm delicacy, he picks up a plot of earth in those metal hands that he himself crafted. He balls his hand into a fist, compacting the earth, molding it, changing it, willing it. He opens up a communications channel to his opponent, a man in a a black and red machine of ancient design. The man’s name is Alexi Humanistovich.

“I built this from the ground up, Alexi. This land, this robot, everything. Every nut and bolt and plate I welded together, glued with my sweat, powered by my fury. I’ve slaved for night on end. Look at you, you found that thing. You don’t own it. And you’re controlling your allies with it not by respect, but by fear. You’re borrowing against providence. I’ve earned it. So I ask you again Alexi, Quo Warranto?”

And with that Saul unleashes a sparkling energy ray, deep blue with white sparks that fly towards the sky, peppering the now-night with its famous stars. Saul has created the night. Alexi’s heart stops beating, and with a sigh of realization, inwardly bows and accepts his fate.

The explosion can be heard for miles. Farmers miles away recognize the sound of a victory earned by force and boldness, and quake in respect for the one who is legitimately glorious.

Things that will eventually happen to this blog:

The text will get smaller and/or leading and kerning will be adjusted

Text may stretch further than standard column length

Color scheme may be changed

Blog will contain posts

So it’s come to this

After all this I’m finally getting a blog. It was a good run while it lasted, pretending that what I was doing before wasn’t blogging. But that time has passed. Hopefully all who come to this page by happenstance while looking for lolcats or instructions to build napalm out of home chemicals will be amused for at least a short amount of time.  In my defense, there are much worse things on the internet than what will be displayed here.