PAgent’s Progress

Here’s something else you can add to the list of things Nintendo is doing right with the Wii: You can purchase copies of classic games online, download them to your Wii, and play them with a standard controller.

I had never owned an NES, or N64 console, and so I assumed this ability would mean nothing to me. I have no nostalgia for old Nintendo games. But when I browsed over to the Wii Shopping Channel, I noted that they would be making Sega Genesis games available.

That’s an entirely different kettle of fish. You see, I did own a Sega Genesis, with its awesome 16-bit goodness. I played many games on the old Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Shining Force II, the list goes on. But there was one game in particular that had a special place in my heart, and when I saw that it was available for download today, I pounced on it.

Toejam and Earl, baby. The funkiest, funniest, most enjoyable game I ever played on my old system. With a two-player mode that was genuinely cooperative, and enemies like Cupids, Gophers, Boogeymen, and Ice Cream Trucks, this was a terrific game. It had terrific replay value as well, since the levels were generated randomly for each game.

I loaded it, switched on my Wavebird GameCube controller, and was swept back to 1991, playing with my fellow grad students in Urbana Illinois. What a great game.

And what did it cost for me to relive my glory days as a 16-bit gamer? 800 Wii points, or $8 American. A bargain, believe me.

If you have a Wii, and can access the shopping channel, I urge you to buy a copy of Toejam & Earl. It’s a classic in every sense of the word.

Stay funky, yo.

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to the central Oregon coast to spend time with family. I’ll write a little more on it later. For now, I want to share a movie I made from some footage I shot on the beach.

If you want to see the full-size/full-quality version (23.7 Mb) click here: Seafoam (large).

This is a wickedly clever method of securing bicycles. I’d love to see some of these in Portland.

via Spluch

The Safety Instructions

Mature content

A follow-up to Rare Exports, previously posted here

The production values of these shorts is amazing.

And my feet are killing me.

My children lobbied to open Christmas presents on Christmas morning this year. Traditionally we have opened presents Christmas Eve, then just dealt with stockings in the morning. My daughter, however, announced that she felt that opening stockings was somehow anticlimactic after opening presents, and she wanted to open everything in the morning.

Since we usually depart for my Dad’s place in the late morning for Christmas dinner, and since we usually fix what we are going to bring in the morning before we leave, that created quite a time squeeze on Christmas morning.

Coming to the rescue, my sisters gave me first dibs on what to bring to dinner this year, and I picked dessert. That meant I could make everything the night before, relax and open presents on Monday morning, and be ready to go at a decent time.

It’s a great theory. The practical result was that I just spent the last five hours or so in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove.

Dessert no. 1: An old-fashioned pecan pie.

Dessert no. 2: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, fixed in a cast-iron skillet, complete with little maraschino cherries in the pineapple rings.

Dessert no. 3: Banana pudding, made from scratch, complete with a lightly browned meringue on top.

They all turned out well. But MAN, my feet hurt. I’d love to go to bed early, but of course I have certain (cough-stockings-cough) obligations before I can put on a cap, stick a kerchief on the wife, and drift off to visions of sugerplums.

Ho. Ho. Ho.