I'll stop the world and melt with you

[austin_dern]

That construction outside Funan the IT Mall? It's been revealed: it's a glass-enclosed escalator to the second and third floors. You're lead into a sporting-goods store or one of many Miscellaneous Stuff stores. MacShop and Apple Centre have Space Colony -- it looks like Sims on a space station -- and Tron 2.0, which lost me by not being Troff.

In the center was an I, Robot promotional show. It featured robot soccer, a cute little walking robot, and a ``Pneu-Robotic Band,'' a set of pneumatically-played instruments and jerky mannequins. The LEDs in their (sunglassed) eyes were cool, but the instruments played without touch, so the robots just wiggled near the guitar or xylophone. And I don't quite get a robot playing a Casio keyboard. I think the cables were off, as they seemed a touch off the beat.

They played Endless Drifting 1980s Melody -- you know, the one on whenever you switch to a 1980s FM station, whose singer may equally be Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, or Adam Ant, and which sounds like its Muzak version. It's not bad, mind, but it doesn't stick. With no robot singer and lyrics about the love they lost I can't say exactly which song it was. I would propose a new Law of Robotics though: ``A robot shall not drum solo for eight bars, or through inaction, allow the drummer to go eight bars with no change in tempo.''

Meanwhile on Spindizzy, Skyler's bunny-theme surprise birthday party went well. We planned to have the party yesterday, but Skyler went to a movie instead of the muck. Surprise! His birthday's Monday.

Trivia: 156 student newspapers endorsed Pogo for president in 1956. Source: Pluperfect Pogo, Selby Kelly, Bill Crouch Jr.

Currently Reading: The Compleat Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt.

Comments

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

"and Tron 2.0, which lost me by not being Troff."

You just made my day. Thank you.

(*sigh* These days I often use HTML for the things I used to do with nroff ... )

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, no trouble. Besides, Troff jokes go back to the original movie ...

The game package looks fine, it's just not the sorts of construction or grand strategy games I like to play, which is a shame, since I love the graphic design of the original movie.

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

The real pity is that the game is chock-full of nifty plot and design that would make a brilliant movie. Instead, it can't be viewed outside of progressing through a very well-designed but sometimes-buggy first-person-shooter. I loved every minute of the game... except for a couple jump-in-the-right-spot-or-die puzzles and other frustrating insta-death spots. Thing is, it pains me to know that folks who just don't care to play that genre of game will miss out on an incredible story (which deftly and mercifully discards almost all the religious tones of the original while keeping the feel of it)

You know, it almost makes me want to do a pseudo-novelization of it, both to get back into writing and to share it with friends who'd otherwise never see a genuine sequel to TRON. Plus, that gives me another excuse to play through the game again....

Oh, and set aside $10 plus shipping when you get the chance. Buy my album, On the Game Grid. And forgive me this shameless plug. *grin*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

See, I've never understood how a game with plot works. Mind, the only recent example I have is Alpha Centauri, where the game is interrupted now and then with pages describing the odd hints that make you think those Centauran Mindworms aren't just psychic terrors, and then you progress into finding there's an intelligence there, and it's curious but not necessarily friendly or hostile, and then eventually you merge your consciousness with that of the planet. But they're just interruptions to the usual turn-based world-conquest stuff (though the transcendence bit is suspenseful). They're not much different from the panels in Civilization III explaining that you've entered a new stage in technology. How does plot work with a game?

I really do mean to buy your CD, too; I'm just not very good with these things.

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Well, TRON 2.0 starts with a cinematic cut-scene that shows the set-up to what's going on. Then, immediately as gameplay starts, the player (as the main character, Jet) is brought through a very speedy orientation and tutorial to encourage familiarty with not only the gameplay mechanics, but the basis of the world. (It's done in a very clever way.) As the game progresses, bits of the plot are introduced either via communications with other programs that reveal what the next immediate task is to be carried out, or other cinematics that occur between major areas of the game. Many of these take place 'in the real world', so the story is told from several different angles at the same time, and it feels much like a movie in some spots.

There are some parts that stick out in my mind. The introductory digitization sequence is, of course, up there, but the introduction of Jet to what initially appears to be the antagonist, Thorne... the strong-arming of Alan Bradley by representatives of the company that's taken over Encom, as seen by a security camera... there's even a dream sequence at one point. Like I said, the pity is that this perfectly viable movie is trapped by the fact that the viewer must play through a game to get to it, and even though the game is quite good, it's not everyone's cup of tea nor will most people want to get through its more difficult parts to see what happens.

I'm definitely going to write this up, now. I wonder how long it'll take for Disney's lawyers to chase me with the big stick....

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Huh ... well, I would like to see it, if and when you get around to writing up the story. I'm still a little unsure how games with plots work, but suppose I just have to play some sometime.

It's a shame I never found a way into wearing the lovely ``coati program'' desc I'd written up a while back. I really should just start wearing it, but I hate jumping into things without a roleplayed justification, and I'd hate giving up the various odd things Austin already is to take on a new one.

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Well, jump into my character's world sometime. I'll say that anyone who enters my allocation-cluster there on SpinDizzy is free to accept or deny the digital nature of it, and as such can appear as they do outside, or can appear as they would inside. It'll be temporary.

I know I'm not there often, but I have been busy....

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks ... if I can find the place, I will. (I can use wizardly powers to beam right into it, but that's not so much fun.)

And believe me, I understand about busy. I just hope you remember us when you're popular and famous and all that. Heck, I just hope I get the chance to bounce ideas off of you for a couple Events already forming ...