That's Why They Call Me The...

Well guys, I got good news...for me anyway.  I recently agreed to a programming job at a legitimate game studio!  I got a phone call last Saturday (at the Coke Zero 400 with loud music over the speakers) offering me the job and today I signed the paperwork away.  This "internship" lasts from August to December and comes with a modest hourly wage.  My job duration (and wage) may receive an extension in January assuming I play my cards right and can stick with the company in the future. TLDR: I got a job.

But first, before we move on, I will NOT tell you what studio I am working at.  It could be anywhere in the world.  Any size or number of people.  Making games of any genre or for any platform (including Dreamcast homebrew).  You may or may not have played one of their games recently.  You may have heard of this studio often or not at all.  It could also be Electronic Arts but I'm not telling.  I will also not share my level of "enthusiasm" for working there.

I will give you two hints right now to alleviate any concerns:

1. It is NOT Sega or any studios with ties to them (i.e. Sumo Digital).
2. It's a company that I feel "good" about working at, at least as of right now.  After surveying the field of realistic candidates, it's one of the top studios I had a choice of attending and I feel fortunate to get an offer there.  Other than the inevitable fear of failure & embarrassment, I remain optimistic (hell, it's an internship...I'm supposed to be a "noob" at first so there's less worry about making mistakes).

Also, it's worth saying we're grown men now.  I'll do my best not to make witty remarks about the company or any of its games nor will I spoil any NDA's (assuming there is anything worthy of being mentioned).  It's not school anymore--this is the workplace and your reputation & job is on the line.  This doesn't mean I'll hold back on my cutting remarks--I'll have plenty of good & bad things to say about games but this company is off-limits.  And most certainly no 4chan/Reddit topics like "I'm an anonymous employee of (insert company), ask me anything."

Anyway, sooner or later you may find out where I'm working--either I or someone else will reveal it to you.  But for now, it's confidential.  You're all overwhelmed with curiosity which is good...gives you a reason to keep reading my blog.

Still a strange sensation to have a serious job even if it's not until a month from now.  See, beforehand, you went to school for a few years and graduated.  Went to college a few years, graduated.  Went to grad school for a year, graduated.  Assuming you don't do anything egregious like get expelled or arrested, you know when you're going and leaving and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.  But here, with a job, there's no telling how long I want to stay here.  I can walk out of here at any time, either by my choice or not.  That is scary since you are more prone to screwing up more than ever yet you have more options available than ever.  Oh well, that's the expectation that comes with being a man.  A working man...

Sega Throwing The Fans A Bone (& Forza)

Recently, I've spent a lot of time polishing this moon rover Unity game for school and now we are "done."  So I'm exhausted but still feeling good.  Nice to come home to Daytona USA 2 & Scud Race, that's for sure...

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Anyway, Sega is running a little contest.  Watch the video and take a guess at which video game they're talking about.  I'll give you a hint: it begins with "D" and ends with "aytona USA."




Harmless lovable little fuzzball...  So, send an email to "sweepstakes@sega.com" with the subject "Name That Game!"  Enter the game name (oh boy, this one is tough) as well as your name & address.   10 randomly chosen entrants win a free game, or something.

I love it.  I already knew that we were getting that Daytona USA port ahead of time but for some, they may be pissing themselves over this since this is Sega's "official" announcement.  A video with a white rabbit sitting there.  Hey, now fuzzy little bunnies aren't that bad, I tell you what.

BUT WE DID GET ONE NUGGET OF INFORMATION FROM THIS...the video plays Rolling Start AKA King of Speed and--get this--it's the arcade version of the song!  So are we getting the Arcade version of Daytona instead of the Dreamcast one?  Maybe!!

Hmm, so Mike Hayes was probably right about Sega reinventing those classic IP's.  Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 5, and Sonic CD.  I guess I was wrong after all.  Go get 'em, Sega.

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Oh, by the way, I sent an e-mail to the Sega fansite SEGAbits informing them about Bart's Supermodel emulator.  They actually posted a brief article about it.  Thanks SEGAbits!!  Getting the message out there...

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Aaaaannnddd....check this out.  Here's some footage of Forza 4.  A BMW plowing into other cars.  The damage models are really weak although tons of paint come off of them.  It's just weird so check it out:



Now, when this game comes out, I will have to buy it.  My solemn duty is to recreate the Daytona USA 2 cars and put them up on the Marketplace as soon as possible.  I know some of you don't like Forza but that's what I gotta do.  I sure hope they balanced the PI ratios so that 4WD cars aren't OP...

And how about this trailer too:



Well, Jeremy Clarkson's right.  You try to drive a nice car in real life and you get gunned down for many reasons--gas prices, government intervention (they're trying something like this in Europe), the "eat the rich" mentality.  Whatever happened to just driving for fun?  Drive to live, baby.  Just let those tires spin.

Video games are always a good bastion for aspiring drivers since you don't need lots of cash & spare time to do so.  Plus you can crash without regard for anyone's safety.  So while me any many others bash the racing genre nowadays, at least it's still alive and that's a good thing.

My Hurricane Katrina Experience (Six Years Ago)

Hey, be sure to read the slight updates in the VF/Zombies/EA post!!!  That's all, rofl....Now for

Now for serious issues.  This recent 5.8 earthquake in Virginia (and all the East Coast) wasn't bad...heck, the kids at the Little League World Series were playing through it, having fun which is good.  However this Hurricane Irene moving up the East Coast could cause some serious trouble...much more than that earthquake.  Please try to stay safe whatever you do.

Soooo....I did have my own little hurricane experience.  I was in Pearl River, Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005 (it's nearly the 6-year anniversary, close enough).  And then for the next four months, all hell broke loose.  I was a 17-year-old Senior at the time, but I didn't go back to school for about two months.  Gee whiz.

During that time, I had a laptop, a LiveJournal account (yes that's true but it's deleted now), and the obscene habit of rambling about everyday things.  One problem--NO INTERNET FOR MONTHS.  So I wrote journal entries of my observations and saved them to be posted later.  I've concluded that not all of these were written the exact day I observed them, but they're pretty damn close to when it happened.

The thing is, I forgot to post them...until I found them recently in a Wordpad file buried in my My Documents folder.  Please note that I wrote about more than the trials & tribulations of the hurricane but also about video games & stuff.  You see I talked about Daytona USA, Counter-Strike maps (click here to see what I was talking about), Advance Wars, all that nonsense SIX YEARS AGO.  So I haven't changed much.  I added a few little heads-up in bold italics to help clarify stuff.  This whole thing may be garblish for some of you but what else can I say...these were very hasty posts so I wasn't going for a Pulitzer's Prize here, heh.  Click the jump if you want to read more...