MicShazam

I've got a whole bunch of unfinished games on my HD. Here's some of the most substantial ones that I've been working on in the MegaZeux engine.

Cold Winters



You go hunting for resources during fall, then live off your resources inside during the winter. I had difficulties making the concept work in a way that wasn't really boring and repetitive, so I consider it shelved.

Unnamed RPG project




It's got a working equipment system and a working combat and magic system, but I found the combat too simple to really carry a full game. Unless I come up with a great idea for how to handle the combat within the existing framework of the game, it's canned.
One thing I did like about the game was how each playable character had a unique approach to the spell system and various huge advantages and disadvantages that you would have to find a way to play around.

Attacker vs Defender

I wanted to see if it was possible to make a 2 player simultaneous play game in the engine, so this is the result of that. One player defends a row of blocks and can place new destructible blocks to fend off projectiles. The other player tries to shoot through the defenses. Then players switches roles. The player who survived for the longest during his/her defensive turn wins.
It works, but it's not great. Plus I lost a whole bunch of coding and levels for it during a computer change. It's not solid enough that I'd want to put more work into it.

The Master of Riddles


This one is actually 100% complete! It's a pretty simple game... There are 28 riddles in the game and you simply attempt to guess them. That's it. Coding it was easy. The hard part was coming up with 28 riddles, since I didn't want to just find some existing ones on the internet.

MicShazam

Been suffering from a creative block for a while, but I like this little bit of a new track that I wrote today. I feel like this one will probably turn into a full track eventually if I get the ball rolling.

Working title: "Scarlett", version 1.
https://soundcloud.com/micshazam/sca...rk-in-progress

I've got a lot more bits and pieces from the last month or so, but nothing I really like.

MicShazam

Traded a lot of old comics in for a bunch of DVD's:

Three Colours: Blue
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Finally found the first in the trilogy, so now I can start watching them.
Kikujiro
Directed by Takeshi Kitano
It's probably going to be a really, really weird movie to watch. I've seen a few of his films and they're something else allright... Especially "Takeshis' ". Watch that one if you want your jaw to drop to the floor in befuddlement.
Rhapsody in August
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Probably can't go wrong. Can it?
The Egyptian
Directed by Michael Curtiz
I fear this one will be crap, but I am interested in the story it's based on.
Cul-De-Sac
Directed by Roman Polanski
Haven't seen a bad Polanski movie yet, although they've been totally different from each other. No idea what to expect.
Betty Blue
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix
I know nothing about this except that it's supposed to be good.

Some more movies that I got a while ago and haven't mentioned or watched yet:

Kvinden Der Drømte Om En Mand
Directed by Per Fly
Trying to give more Danish movies a chance and this one seemed interesting, as it's about dreams.

J'aimerais pas crever un dimanche
Directed by Didier Le Pêcheur
Weird French cult movie about... necrophilia, sort of? No so sure about this one... but it's supposed to be something special. I'm a bit worried about what I've gotten myself into with this one.

Strings
Directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund
A Danish puppet movie that's really aimed more at kids, but it's supposedly extremely well made in terms of visual artistry. It helps that the director is the guy who directed "Hvordan vi slipper af med de andre*" - one of the most wicked and odd Danish comedy films ever made. I highly recommend that one, btw.
*: Rougly translates to "Ho to get rid of the other people".

Lovelace
Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
No idea what to expect. Again, a lot of people say it's good, but I think I could swing either way on this one.

La femme du Vème
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas... just sounded kind of interesting from the blurb on the back of the case. Just taking a chance here.

And, finally, a few films that I watched recently and crossed off the list. Just a short take on each:

Baader-Meinhof
Christopher Roth
About the main guy behind this German 70's terrorist group. Turns out it's kinda crap and that there's another, presumably much better, movie about the same topic from half a decade later. I'll watch that one at some point. This version just had no direction to it at all and comes off as the work of amateurs.

Jupiter Ascending
Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
Hilariously, mind-bogglingly bad! Quit while you're still loved for having made The Matrix, ladies.

The Neon Demon
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Not as terrible as the other movies of Refn's that I've seen, but it's still pretty crap. It's got one of the most shallow, predictable, dumb scripts I've seen in a good, long while. When the credits rolled, all I could think was "Yeah, and...? That's all you've got?!". Just totally inane in every way.

Frantic
Directed by Roman Polanski
Just a straight up thriller with a mild touch of comedy. Keeps the action to a minimum but manages to be more exciting that most films I've seen in the genre. Harrison ford is great in this role and the film is just very well made all round. Good stuff. Polanski has yet to disappoint me (I started chewing through his filmography a little while ago).

En kongelig affære
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel
Danish historical drama about the young, mad king King Christian VII and the royally appointed doctor who manipulated him to pass all sorts of reform bills that bettered conditions for Danish peasants. One of the more interesting slices of Danish history and the movie is very well made. Not quite of must-see status, but if you're interested in the topic...

Battle In Seattle
Directed by Stuart Townsend
A drama about the 1999 Seattle WTO demonstrations and riots. Takes itself too many drama movie genre trope liberties to be taken seriously (a love interest, a villain, melodrama), but still manages to be truthful, well meaning and smart enough to not suck completely. It's allright, basically, but nothing more.

The Batlord

You traded away comics? **** off.

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MicShazam

Only some boring stuff I shouldn't have owned in the first place. I've still got a mountain or two left that aren't going anywhere and I still buy new comic books, even if somewhat rarely.

The Batlord

Then buy this and write about it. It's Alan Moore so I shouldn't even need to convince you.

https://www.amazon.com/Miracleman-Bo...rds=miracleman

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MicShazam

I remember you talking about that one. I'm definitely interested, but it's not gonna be in the immediate future for sure.

I should talk about comics in this thread though. They're not an insignificant part of my life, but I still haven't recommended any in this journal.

The Batlord

You get to see graphic images of child birth. Tempted?

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MicShazam

Not so sure that's high on my checklist of what I'm going for in a comic, but I like weird stuff now and then. Which reminds me, if you want to read something a bit out there and occasionally disturbing, try Michael DeForge's "Ant Colony".

MicShazam

Up until a couple years ago, I was a pretty dedicated gamer - having my fingers on the pulse of what went on in gaming and still playing new games.

These days, I'm oblivious to what games are coming out and what people are playing. I've sold a lot of my games and my PS3 as well. I also play games with much less frequency than what I used to. It's got to do with a few things. First and foremost, I guess I just lost interest to some extent.
Other than that, I've had kind of a "crisis" of some sort, where I've been worrying a lot about what I do with my time. I did some thinking about the briefness of life and fun stuff like that and concluded that sinking double digit numbers of hours into RPG's and open world games was a waste of precious time.

I actually went as far as to sell almost every single RPG and open world game that I owned. Only a precious few that I felt closer ties with got to stay. The goal was to have a smaller collection of games, that consisted of titles that I felt like offered more interesting and intense gameplay, moment to moment. Any sort of grinding and padding is very unwelcome when my goal is to avoid sinking time into a hungry black hole.

Try bringing out a calculator. Multiply the free hours you have in a day on average, having subtracted time needed for work and sleep. Look at the life expectancy for a person of your gender and where in the world you live. Subtract your age. Do some multiplication and you will find the free number of hours you can roughly expect to have left in life to do the things that enrich your life. Of course, much of that time will be used on practical matters, being old and generally not being able to sit and do something fun/interesting. The number you get can feel like a true gut punch, so be warned. This is what I did, and I'm glad that I did it.

All of a sudden, throwing 10's of hours away on some repetitive RPG loop seemed so frivolous and self-sabotaging that it made me gag. So I thought about what games really give me as a person, versus what I get out of music, movies and books. It's a controversial opinion, I guess, but I really think video games are a terrible thing to throw your life away on.

I still play games, but I like to do so much less frequently than I used to and I prefer to play games that I feel like really give me something, even if I only play for 30 minutes. I really like arcade games and turn based strategy games, for example, since the best of them have a certain intensity to them; making for a compact gaming experience where something engaging and challenging will mostly happen within the space of a minute. Some of these games are even to taxing that you won't feel like playing them for hours. This is a good thing.

The purpose of this journal entry is actually more positive. I want to write a list of all of my favorite games! Despite all of the doubts I have about my old gaming hobby, I still love a great number of titles that have enough to offer that I couldn't make myself get rid of them.

THE LIST
I'm not going to write any reasons why any of these games are my favorites. Maybe that's a thing for some later post (some of these games would definitely need an explanation). I'm just making a long list of favorite games, sorted by the system I have them for.

Playstation 1:
Worms
Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor: Underground
The Need for Speed
Kagero Deception 2
Panzer Front
Mechwarrior 2
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider II
Tomb Raider III
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Danger Girl
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
Pandemonium
Real Bout Fatal Fury
Bushido Blade
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Descent
Descent 2
G.Darius
Gungage
Azure Dreams
Pop N' Pop
Starsweep
Bishi Bashi Special
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tenchu 2
Deathtrap Dungeon
Trap Runner
Front Mission 3
Legend of Kartia
Starfighter 3000

Playstation 2:
Armored Core 2
Armored Core 2: Another Age
Armored Core 3
Silent Line: Armored Core
Armored Core: Nine Breaker
Dynasty Warriors 2
Dynasty Warriors 3
Dynasty Warriors 4
Dynasty Warriors 5
Samurai Warriors
Warriors Orochi: Xtreme Legends
Samurai Warriors 2
Warriors Orochi
Warriors Orochi 2
Shadowhearts: Covenant
Soulcalibur II
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
Capcom vs SNK 2
The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
The King of Fighters 2000
The King of Fighters 2001
The King of Fighters 2002
The King of Fighters 2003
The King of Fighters Neowave
SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Taito Legends
Taito Legends 2
Sega Classics Collection
1945 I
1945 II
Gunbird
Gunbird II
Samurai Aces
Sol Divide
Tengai
Dragon Blaze
Raiden III
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows
Shinobido: Way of the Ninja
Disgaea
Disgaea 2
Makai Kingdom
Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat
Dark Summit

Xbox 360:
Dragon's Dogma
Armored Core 4
Armored Core For Answer
Armored Core V
Armored Core: Verdict Day
Soulcalibur V
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
The King of Fighters XIII
Virtua Fighter 5
Tenchu Z
Velvet Assassin
Deathsmiles
DoDonPachi Resurrection
Akai Katana

MS-DOS:
Legend of Kyrandia 2: The Hand of Fate
Rise of the Triad
Duke Nukem 3D
Shadow Warrior
Realms of Arkania: Shadows Over Riva
Dungeon Master II
Doom 2
Final Doom
UFO: Enemy Unknown
System Shock
Stunts