<RANT>
DAMMIT TO HELL!!!
</RANT>

Ah, there. I feel better.

Imagine Publishing. This is the publishing company that gave us PC Gamer, Next Generation and Maximum PC, all great magazines. They gave us IGN.COM, a series of game websites so successful they spun off into their own separate company. They were really doing good, for a time there.

Then they announce that they will begin publishing The Official Dreamcast Magazine, complete with a GD-ROM with each issue with demos on it. While not the best mag, it was cool and entertaining and I have every issue. Then they announce Total Movie magazine, which will come with a DVD in each issue. Kick ass.

But then they announce that, after 12 or so issues ODCM will no longer carry a GD-ROM. That sucks, but I was almost willing to forgive it since it was Sega’s idea. You know, Sega the one who just put the kibosh on their own console. Granted, this put me in a fix of sorts, since I had just renewed my subscription to a magazine whose main lure has just been removed.

Then, Imagine merges with Future Publishing. Okay, that’s good – I suppose. But then Imagine/Future announces that they’re gonna have to slash some magazines due to losses. ODCM is the first on the cutting block. I suppose it was inevitable, since it was only a matter of time before ODCM wouldn’t have much more to say, it only made sense to cut them.

But then the other shoe dropped. Total Movie got the axe. I don’t know why. Perhaps making a DVD was more expensive than previously thought. Perhaps it made more sense to slash a new magazine (TM had only 3 issues) than an established title with many more subscribers. But still, I’m pissed. My ODCM balance will now go towards my Next Generation subscription, but I wonder where my Total Movie money is going? I’ll know soon enough, I suppose.

Imagine is the same company that gave PC Accelerator the axe. I was kinda glad, believe it or not. That magazine was more about titties than games – not a bad idea, save for the fact that the women were rather skanky and nasty. Eeew. Funny thing is, they announce that all the PCXL subscribers have had their subscriptions turned into PC Gamer subscriptions (after that mag swallowed up PC Games), then Imagine announced that PC Gamer had 375,000 subscribers, making it the most popular games magazine in history. Well, at least that magazine’s not going anywhere.

I used to think magazines went on forever, mainly because I never was interested in any ones that failed. Hell, I would go to my grandmother’s house growing up and see bookshelves upon bookshelves of National Geographic, TV Guide has published over 2000 issues, and PC Magazine has been around for over 20 years. Oh well, part of getting older, I suppose.

In happier news, Raven announced today that they are working on an expansion pack for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. That’s cool. What’s especially cool, though, is that they’re putting in what I alluded to earlier: a free-roaming mode wherein you can just wander about the ship and play with shit, in like 15 levels from the “actual” Voyager. So something good did come from the community today.

So when I get to work they hand me a computer to suffice until my new machine comes in. I knew I was in for it when it says “Gateway 2000” right next to the “Pentium (1) with MMX” logo. Actually, it’s not bad and it’s temporary, so no biggie, but it’s running NT4 and it “Dr. Watsons” every time I try to fire up IE 5.5, so I run Netscape 4.7. Here’s a question for Netscape users: HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU GUYS STILL USE NETSCAPE!!! I mean, I’m willing to chalk some of this up to “I’m just not used to it”, but a LOT of pages just looked messed up in general – and it’s obvious no one (who designs web pages) cares.

Anywho… more later.

(struggling)

Life… settling….

Updates…coming…. more often….

Dragon’s Lair…on….Game Boy Color………THUD!

(picks self up off floor)

Okayokayokayokay. I know It’s cliché to say “sorry I haven’t been updating but I’ve been sooooo busy” (especially since the majority of the potential audience doesn’t care), but I think I’ve finally attained the point where I can get things down to a groove.

Yeppers, Dragon’s Lair on Game Boy Color. I’ve played it – it’s surprisingly not bad. I say that because, by modern gameplay standards, Dragon’s Lair is bad. Accept it. I think I have the right to say that, since I do own the game on DVD. Not a DVD-ROM, either – the DVD Video version – playable on most DVD players (bizarre side note – Amazon lists this DVD as “Rated R, not for sale to persons under 18”, even though the DVD is unrated and the game is “K-A” from the old ESRB system). Though a DVD remote is not the most ideal way to play this game, surprisingly the PS2’s controllers are.

Yeah, I love Dragon’s Lair, even though it is a bad game – much in the same way I love Rocky Horror Picture Show, even though it is a bad movie. We have “cult movies”, why not “cult games”? I’m sure games like Battlecruiser 3000AD and SiN fall into that category.

My hard drive crashed. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I got a 40GB one out of the equation. That’s the good news. It’s nice to have all the important games and mods installed installed simultaneously – though years back a 6GB hard drive alleviated this same problem. Oh well.

Oh sure, I take some time off from this website and Sega goes and quits on me! More later…

Well anywho, my sister’s sister site (man that pun never gets old!) got a slight makeover from my wife. Amy went to the Brazos Valley Bridal Show and after each performance there was a line of people wanting her to sing at their wedding (which is what they figured she was there for). She politely turned down the first person to ask her and then my wife and I clued her in to the fact that this might not be the worst thing she could do on the side, so we re-did her page (still needs some work) to reflect that new status. Consequently, if you’re going to get married somewhere in southeast Texas (think in the Houston-Dallas-San Antonio areas) in the next year and are interested in hiring Amy, head on over to her page and drop her a line.

Now, on to the good stuff. Or rather the bad. The aforementioned Sega has stated that they will cease manufacturing of the Dreamcast, will start developing for other consoles, such as PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance, and will license out the DC technology for set top boxes and the like. Yep, Sega wins the “WTF?” award for 2001.

I say WTF because Sega just got done having their best Christmas ever, and Sony had a bummer of a PS2 launch. There are some 6 million DC consoles in the world, and they have hundreds of games on the plate. More bizarre is the fact that they have stated that they will support the DC until 2002, meaning that the official “death” is a year away. Now, how would you like to be one of the ones who had planned on releasing a DC game in Q4 2001?

One of their ideas is to incorporate DC technology into a PC expansion card. Creative Labs did this as part of their 3DO agreement in 1994 or so. They released the 3DO Blaster, which used a PC-Card and specific CD-ROM drive to make a PC a virtual 3DO system, using a VGA Overlay (pass through, basically). I would say this would be a neat idea, save for the fact that PC CD-ROM dives can’t read DC discs. I’d love to see how they get around that one. Oh, and the 3DO Blaster sold badly.

Another idea is the set-top box. Daily Radar has already shown is the Mark II, a combo DC and TiVO-type unit with a 40GB hard drive. A neat idea, except for the fact that it has its controller ports in the back of the unit and it has no GD-ROM drive. Yep, the only games this guy can play are downloaded ones. Sure, I wanna download Shenmue III over the Internet and pay as I play. Lame.

The Dreamcast isn’t technically dead, but it might as well be. This set-top box idea will never work, and they sound more committed to the PS2 and GBA than the console they got us all to buy. Still, better to not lose Sega as a developer – the Jet Grind Radios and Crazy Taxis of the world will not be lost.

But I think Sega is a wimp. Sure, I’ve never stuck my neck into the hardware market and lost millions, but I think they’re pulling out too early. The DC had potential, and Sega doesn’t even want to hang with the big boys anymore. What I feel most sorry for are the people who had to sell the DC to people in stores, saying “this won’t be another Saturn”. Oh, wait, that was me!

On the bright side, at least my PS2 will find more use at some point.

Finally, while I don’t feel like working up a formal “Columns” section tonight, here’s my first article on Schnapple.com, Book Roundup.