My Dark Side deck for Decipher's Star Wars Collectible Card Game!

(last edited 6/25/11)

(Note: The following casual deck is NOT intended for use in serious tournament play. Also, it hasn't been play-tested yet!)

Dark Side

Starting (8):
Hoth: Ice Plains (v)
Prepared Defenses (v)
All Wrapped Up (v)
Combat Response (v)
Rise Of The Dark Lord (End This Destructive Conflict v)
Vader's Bionic Limbs (Physical Choke v)
Vader's Cape (v)
Vader's Mask (Vader's Eye v)

Locations (10):
Hoth
Hoth: Defensive Perimeter
Hoth: North Ridge
Coruscant
Coruscant: Imperial City
Coruscant: Galactic Senate
Dungeon (Jabba's Palace: Dungeon v)
Jabba's Sail Barge: Passenger Deck
Tatooine (Premiere)
Tatooine: Marketplace

Characters (19):
4-Lom
Boba Fett, Relentless Bounty Hunter (Quick Reflexes v)
Bossk (v)
Commander Praji (v)
Coruscant Guard (v) x2
Cyborg Commander, Hunter Of Jedi (Twi'lek Advisor v)
Darth Maul
Darth Sidious
Darth Vader, More Machine Than Man (Darth Vader v)
Dengar (v)
General Nevar (Commander Gherant v)
Guri (v)
IG-88 (v)
Jabba The Hutt (v)
Keder The Black (v)
Prince Xixor (v)
Veers (v)
Zuckuss (v)

Starships/Vehicles (12):
Blizzard 1 (v)
Blizzard 2 (v)
Blizzard Scout 1 (v)
Devastator (v)
Hound's Tooth (v)
IG-2000
Jabba's Sail Barge (v)
Marquand In Blizzard 6 (Prepare For A Surface Attack v)
Mist Hunter (v)
Punishing One (v)
Stinger (v)
Vader's Custom TIE

Weapons/Devices (5):
AT-AT Cannon (v)
Dark Jedi Lightsaber (v)
Darth Vader's Lightsaber
Fett's Blaster Rifle (Double Back v)
Maul's Lightsaber

Interrupts (3):
Double Back
Trample
Walker Garrison (v)

Events (3):
An Enemy Of The Republic (Dead Jawa v)
Bounty (v) x2

My Light Side deck for Decipher's Star Wars Collectible Card Game!

(last updated 6/25/11)

(Note: The following casual deck is NOT intended for use in serious tournament play. Also, it hasn't been play-tested yet!)

Light Side

Starting (7):
Tatooine (Premiere)
Harvest (v)
Tatooine: Lars' Moisture Farm (v)
Lars' Hydroponics Station (Hydroponics Station v)
Lars' Vaporator (Vaporator v)
Maneuvering Flaps & Nick of Time (Maneuvering Flaps v)
Squadron Assignments

Locations (10):
Coruscant
Coruscant: Galactic Senate
Hoth
Hoth: Defensive Perimeter
Hoth: Echo Corridor
Hoth: Main Power Generators (v)
Hoth: Snow Trench
Spaceport Scoundrels Guild (Tatooine: Anchorhead v)
Spaceport Street
Tatooine: Watto's Junkyard

Characters (20):
Bail Organa, Father of Rebellion (Palejo Reshad v)
Beru Lars (v)
Biggs, Rogue Legend (Biggs Darklighter v)
Chewie (v)
Dack Ralter (v)
General Carlist Rieekan (v)
Han Solo, Courageous Smuggler (I've Got A Bad Feeling About This v)
Lando Calrissian (v)
Luke Skywalker, Rebel Hero (Captive Pursuit v)
Luke Skywalker, Strong In The Force (A Jedi's Concentration v)
Master Qui-Gon (v)
Mirax Terrik
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan Learner (v)
Owen Lars (v)
R2-D2 (v)
Senator Leia Organa (Princess Organa v)
Senator Mon Mothma (Mon Mothma v)
Senator Padme Amidala (I've Decided To Go Back v)
Wedge Antilles, Legendary Rogue (Wedge Antilles v)
Zev Senesca

Starships/Vehicles (9):
Alderaan Consular Ship (Masanya v)
Booster in Pulsar Skate (Pulsar Skate v)
Gold Squadron 1
Red 2
Red 3 (v)
Red 5 (v)
Rogue 1
Rogue 2
Rogue 3

Weapons/Devices (6):
Dual Laser Cannon (v)
Luke's Bionic Hand (Bionic Hand v)
Luke's Blaster Pistol (v)
Luke's Lightsaber
Planet Defender Ion Cannon (v)
Qui-Gon Jinn's Lightsaber

Interrupts (4):
Beru Stew (v)
Desperate Tactics
Houjix
Sorry About The Mess & Blaster Proficiency

Effects (5):
A New Secret Base
Credits Will Do Fine
Echo Base Operations
Haven
Sai'torr Kal Fas (v)

Dinky Reviews!

Thor (2011).

When I describe myself as an old-school Avengers fan, that isn't to say I've been one for some great length of time (unless six years seems like a lot to you), but instead to suggest that I'm primarily a fan of the old-school (i.e. pre- Brian Michael Bendis) Avengers.

Perhaps a bit of an explanation is in order. To make a relatively long-ish story short(er): My undergraduate thesis was a 36-page mock series bible for a hypothetical Marvel comic book series. I'd recently picked-up about half of the first Secret Wars from a nearby flea market - and I found myself fast becoming fascinated by Kang the Conqueror. I mean, what was this guy like when he wasn't relegated to the shadows of Victor von Doom?

I bought the Kang: Time and Time Again trade-paperback to find out - and I discovered that the eponymous Conqueror is primarily known as an Avengers villain. This led to my purchasing the Council of Cross-Time Kangs storyline from issues 291 to 297 of said team's series - and while I'd eventually go on to use him in my aforementioned academic proposal, I was no longer satisfied with just reading about Kang alone.

No, I was now actively tracking down anything Avengers-related - my wont for ascribing the modifier "old-school" to myself (due to Disassembled having rendered far too many of my beloved characters either functionally irrelevant, or literally deceased) notwithstanding! So what's my opinion of this movie, given that I'm sufficiently familiar with the source material?

In a word: It's awesome.

Seriously - this does a lot to redress my misgivings after the generally lackluster Iron Man 2! Sure, it isn't absolute perfection - Brain Blessed's absence alone is criminal (I would've even accepted John Rhys-Davies as Volstagg, instead of whoever it was that we actually got!) - but it's still by far the best cinematic outing we've seen from a Marvel character since Robert Downey, Jr.'s initial foray into the genre!

What more could you possibly ask for? How about an unexpected big-screen debut from a character who's going to figure more prominently into future films - and the now-obligatory bonus scene after the end credits as well!

Please, Just Hear Me Out...

Game of Thrones (2011).

I've met many fans of author George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series over the years. I can count amongst them close friends, personal acquaintances, and even individuals whom I've never met, but have instead merely respected from afar - admiring them for the quality of all the work they have done. However, the rate at which I read straight prose is prohibitively slow - so I awaited this particular adaptation with much anticipation.

As I entered this fictional universe for the first time, my expectations were nothing short of outright loving the experience - and in the very first scene, a great deal of that potential had already seemingly paid off! Was what we just witnessed some form of necromancy... and if not, would there - or, dare I even suggest it, could there - be an alternative explanation forthcoming?

So the show was successful initially - quickly capturing my imagination, because the opportunities therein seemed to be truly endless. Could it possibly be that television audiences were about to receive the actual fantasy that had, for so long, completely eluded former 'fantasy-fiction' programming?

Granted, some dire wolves do eventually emerge further on into the first episode. In and of itself, this isn't so far-fetched - not when one considers that, as an extinct species of their more familiar modern-day descendants, these wolves could conceivably have co-existed with humans in this (albeit fictionalized) era. As for the rest - well, the uninitiated might easily mistake most of it as being part of some unidentified film belonging to the historical epic sub-genre.

Most, that is... but not all.

I've been struggling to find the right words to use - fumbling for the correct things for me to say - even now, as I'm writing this. There is one reoccurring thought, however - a singular idea that I keep mulling about, yet still remain unsure regarding the best method of expressing - so perhaps I should simply just say it: Your opinions really do mean something to me.... in fact, they matter a lot!

Whew - that was more difficult admission than I might have ever guessed! Still, at least I can rest a little easier in the knowledge that you can hopefully better appreciate it when I say the following: I didn't approach Game of Thrones with any negative preconceptions - nor were any overly-judgmental attitudes present on my part.

Instead I must confess that my expectations for the show were actually quite optimistic - in fact, I honestly believed that I'd have given it all due credit by now! So I'm left to ponder whether or not it's even worth it to jeopardize whatsoever positive regard other people have for me - to risk alienating myself from those individuals whom I actually care about - by expressing an opinion that's in any way contradictory to the one which is most commonly believed.

All of which is my way of saying (though it pains me to do so) that I cannot - in good faith, and with a clear conscience - give this program my unreserved recommendation.

And that's because you might as well call it "Rape of Thrones."

It's almost as if, back in the day, George R. R. Martin said to himself: "This Tolkein stuff is pretty good... but you know what it needs? More rape."

Look - I love Alan Moore's "Watchmen" (as a stand-alone entity; I won't be discussing any adaptations or apocrypha herein). It too took a more innocent storytelling tradition - comic books - and infused it with adult content and themes (as well as literary techniques heretofore unseen in said format). But you know what the difference was there?

One word, my friends: "Attempted."

And I understand that rape already had existed in fantasy fiction beforehand, by way of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian... but then I'd ask that you watch John Milius' film of the same name, and tell me what the difference is.

That's right - they didn't show it.

I honestly did give Game of Thrones two chances to win me over. When the first episode featured a graphic depiction of rape, I thought to myself, "Maybe this was just an anomaly." But no - not fifteen minutes into the second episode, our collective sensibilities are similarly assaulted once again.

I've since heard about further happenings in future episodes... but I don't care that the perpetrator eventually gets his comeuppance (and speaking as we were about Conan: Thanks for ruining Jason Mamoa's entire acting career forever for me, HBO!); nor that his victim somehow inexplicably forgives him.

But watching rape - even of a simulated and fictional variety - is not my idea of entertainment. And it shouldn't be anyone's.

Randomly-Offered Musings!

Although I was actually born in the mid-Seventies, I consider myself to be a child of the Eighties (and since my earliest recollections stretch back no further than 1979 at most, it would be disingenuous for me to claim otherwise!). And what a great time it was to be a kid! We (by which I mean boys... and all of the coolest girls, of course!) had the best action figures; the best cartoons, which were based on those action figures; and even the real Indiana Jones and Star Wars in movie theaters!

Now it's not as though I'm somehow completely unaware of the fact that subsequent generations have also enjoyed many of the same things that I did when I was younger (chronologically speaking, at least - I'm still just a kid at heart) - '80s nostalgia is seemingly still big business today, if modern filmmakers (and toy-makers - and um, clothing-makers? - and...) are any indication! But there is one facet of Eighties life which is fast becoming just as foreign a concept as 8-track tapes were in my own time: that most endangered species amongst dying breeds known simply as... the arcade.

Right about now you're probably thinking about that one mall you still occasionally go to whenever you find yourself getting bored with those other three malls - it contains a small arcade, after all! But there's a big difference inherent in its floorspace usage and the all-important price-per-play ratio therein.

I mean, when you really think about it... isn't that place pretty much overrun with over-sized cabinets easily two or three times the size of one standard arcade game? To say nothing about the similarly-huge gimmicky controllers (I haven't forgotten about old-school machines like Super Hang-On and After Burner - but back then those were the exceptions to the norm)...

And how much would you be willing to pay to play that racing game - a dollar... possibly more? Better get your quarters in order before you begin, in any case - you'll have to chip in again whenever you don't cross the finish line in first place (W. A. Stokins from Fuldigan, HA called - he wants his money back)!

No, I'm talking about real arcades here - the ones where your parents would give you a five-spot and set you loose every year on your birthday... and you'd never even play the same game twice, if you could possibly help it (and although I've also heard the horror stories about shadier establishments which would deal *ahem* mind-altering substances out of the back room, I was fortunate enough never to encounter any of them myself)!

Particularly-astute readers have probably already guessed that this series isn't exclusively based on any actual arcades from that bygone era. No, the focus is instead on the types of games that were typically contained therein - and what really needs to be said is that emulation doesn't have to be a dirty word!

First thing's first though - your keyboard just isn't going to cut it when it comes to taking on these classic ROMs! And to that end, might I recommend Tomee's SNES USB Controller? Sure, it might not accurately emulate the actual arcade experience without either a true joystick or those shiny red buttons (the jolly candy-like buttons!) - but I got mine so I could play console games that I already own on my home computer (but that's a discussion best left for some other time)!

So to start with, here are my Rules of Responsible ROM Usage - Arcade Edition (more like recommendations, really - but would you buy a list called "Suggestions of Responsible ROM Usage"?)!

(Note: I might have unintentionally left out something important - so I'll remove this notice once I've figured out whether or not I actually remembered everything I really wanted to include...)

If - after successfully cross-referencing Wikipedia's "List of arcade games" article with arcade-museum dot com's Killer List of Video Games (better known by the acronym KLOV) - you've determined that the following criteria have (or have not, as the case may be) been met, it is morally permissible (if not always, in the strictest technical sense, legally well-advised) to download arcade game ROMs for personal use in emulation:

1. You already own a legitimate copy of the ROM in question.

Although this applies just as much to arcade games as it does with console titles, it's not going to come up quite as often. I mean after all, why would you ever play something on your PC when you could just as easily do the same on your big-screen TV - and with an Xbox 360 controller to boot? Still, the option's there if you need it - and I actually have a practical, real-world example of the same:

I own a copy of Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for the Playstation 2. However, the spindle inside the case was just too big - which created small fractures radiating outwards from the middle of the disc. This, in turn, effectively rendered the game unplayable - but when it was working, it gave me the ability to play the twenty included titles in emulation on my PS2. Shouldn't those rights also extend to my laptop as well?

2. At no point has the game ever received an official release, in any format whatsoever, for your current country of residence.

Basically what it all boils down to is this: Is there now, or has there ever in the past existed a means by which an average individual might reasonably have rendered payments due to all responsible parties for the rights to play this particular game?

Here's one qualification which is actually easier to investigate with arcade games than it is for those titles only intended for home use. Could it have ever conceivably appeared at your local arcade - and if not, was it ever ported over to any of the home consoles? Well, that last part's gonna be a little bit trickier.

First thing's first: You're gonna want to check out Wikipedia's "List of Playstation Store games;" the "List of Xbox Live Arcade games;" and the "List of Virtual Console games," in addition to the two sites mentioned previously.

This rule also applies to Neo-Geo titles as well. I know that it's tempting, what with those games being so expensive otherwise - but the fact remains that none of SNK's home systems have regional lock-outs. What this means is that any Neo-Geo console can play any game ever designed for the system - regardless of where the title was first manufactured and/or distributed.

3. The game was released for arcades in your area - but it was never made available for home use (or else it was only ever offered as such in other countries).

As the old saying goes, "I would if I could - but I can't, so I won't." To better illustrate my point, I offer by way of example my all-time favorite video game (that's including both arcades and home consoles): Taito's Night Striker.

If some place nearby still had that machine... well then, I probably wouldn't even be writing this right now! Instead, you'd always be able to find me right there - spending all my time, and most of my money on it. I love Night Striker so much, in fact, that I even imported it for the Japanese Playstation... despite my having no way of actually playing it!

Clearly the issue here isn't my unwillingness to pay... it's my complete inability to do so. Emulation represents my only viable option for playing this game at present - it isn't even available on any of the Taito Legends compilations!

So don't let considerations such as these keep you from ever experiencing what are some truly incredible titles - for instance, all the best shoot 'em ups ("shmups" to those in-the-know) were only ever released for Asian markets...

4. The available home versions are all vastly inferior to the arcade original.

This one's clearly debatable, because so much of it is based on personal judgment. Caution, however, is always advisable in any situation such as this...

Before the release of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 in 2004, I'd always considered NARC to be the unofficial poster-child for this particular phenomenon. Perhaps the title should now be passed onto 1981's Vanguard? But just in comparison to its Atari 2600 counterpart, of course.


Thanks for reading - and please, keep on reaching for those high scores until the next big installment of Randomly-Offered Musings!

Dinky Reviews!

Source Code (2011).

When it comes right down to it, there's just one thing you wanna know about Source Code.

I can't blame you - I'd been wondering the same thing myself.

Got part of my answer when I finally noticed it was from director Duncan Jones - the man behind 2009's Moon. This inexplicably isn't mentioned in any of the film's advertising. Had I known this sooner, I myself - and doubtlessly others like me - probably would've seen it on its opening weekend.

Moon's theatrical run was extremely limited. Because of this, the film remains relatively unknown amongst general audiences - at least in comparison to the wide releases which most other movies receive. So focusing on Jones as the director might only have appealed to what otherwise would have been a very narrow - albeit also a vocal, and supportive - market.

And yet, none of this is the worst offense committed by the film's ad campaign. For that, we must travel back to the aforementioned question - which, in the simplest terms, is this: Is Source Code really just 2006's Déjà Vu all over again?

I'm glad to report that the answer is a resounding no. While the director's sophomore effort fails to achieve the same dizzying heights of his first film, Source Code does manage to rise above most of the unfortunate comparisons that one could make (for instance, the Nicolas Cage movie Next).

Are there any other films which might arguably tackle similar issues in a more satisfactory manner? Sure, I might make a case for Los Cronocrímenes/Timecrimes being better - but that's apples and oranges, really... and both films are ultimately enjoyable on their own merits.

In summation, while Source Code is unlikely to ever change your world, at least you should still leave the theater feeling entertained... and, more importantly, not at all like you've wasted your time and money (and in the end, isn't that what really matters?)!

Will I EVER get noticed?

I was just going through one of the other blogs that I follow ('Follow?' What's that, Kit?) when I ran across the following line:

"It (Magic: The Gathering)'s been around forever. I actually built a deck in 1995..."

Hey - what a coincidence! It was during that same year - my first terrible semester as a college undergraduate - when I...

"...when I was in fourth grade."

...and suddenly, all of the big words that I usually rely upon so heavily failed me completely.

Still, I'd already been pondering such things lately - and as these thoughts now seem to be particularly important: What does my voice bring to the already-overcrowded community of online commentators that could possibly be at all unique, anyway?

And how can I ever hope to achieve any sort of relevancy in comparison to the sheer magnitude of all the other work that's already out there - competing with the dedicated websites which exclusively feature the talents of those aforementioned creative young people?

At any rate, I hope to explore these issues more thoroughly in the weeks to come. Seeing as though I have very little time at present for anything other than my job and my continued education, for the moment I guess I'll just have to label my further ramblings on the matter as merely being works-in-progress.