Cleaning Up The Site

If there's one thing to take away from my blogging hiatus.  I regret not trimming the fat on my site any sooner.  The central focus of the blog should be personal opinions of video games, cars, auto racing, and, to a certain extent, my personal life.  Topics like sports and TV have their respective places but not here.  Nobody clicks on a link titled "Musings of a Sega Racing Fan" to read about football, primetime television, pop culture, Internet memes, and so forth.  Also, less news aggregation and more opinions.  Cool, want to learn more about Sega, read SEGAbits or TSSZ News.  I can't "out-news" them if I tried (nor do I care to) so I should definitely focus on more essays and treatises.  I've definitely improved on that since four years ago but still, several posts with little-to-no context remain.

I've zapped a lot of said pointless posts recently.  This includes the three-year old Drew Brees/GameFAQs post that drew the ire of a couple of salty NFL Board posters.  The context of my post was, being the young "BS detector" I was, large swaths of the media was dogging on the Saints for stat-padding and because my animosity for GameFAQs was running high back then.  Oh, and a few NFL-related anecdotes of my own.  Boom, easy blog material for myself in a time where I posted at least one entry a day.  Fast forward three years I quickly stopped caring about what dreck was being said about the topic.  It was a "useless" post that I had no intention of revisiting again.  But alas, a shit storm came out of it.  The storm has been quelled (for now) and I don't want to revisit that either and give GameFAQs and the cretins that post there any more attention.  However, this was the impetus I needed to actually refurbish the site again.  Pick better topics to talk about, update the layout and the personal info, and other stuff that comes to mind in the future.  Oh, and finish the Super Sprint game I talked about.

Also one more thing.  On the blog posts in the future and the past, it's suffice to say that over four years, my interests, opinions, and worldviews have changed.  When I was young and brash, I was an Internet hipster that blasted everything and had quixotic views about the future.  Then you get older and the real world materializes itself before you.  Getting a job in the game industry is hard.  There are some battles you shouldn't fight.  You can't always get what you want.  And sometimes, the things you want weren't all that great to begin with.  As a result, a lot of old posts now look "stupid" in my eyes but hey, that's part of growing up.  The word "musings" is in the damn title which basically means nothing here is set in stone.  I can still work hard to achieve my original goals but now I'm a little wiser about it.  Now that I'm feeling rejuvenated, time to get back to work whenever my procrastination period ends.  Later...

Announcement About The Future Of This Blog

Hey guys, how are you doing.  It's an okay day for me, kinda tired but this has been on my mind for the last month or so and it must be said.

In the near future, about a month, I'm going to sunset this blog.  Two-and-a-half years and 700+ posts later, it's time to call it quits.  It's become too arduous and trivial to do so here for a multitude of reasons which I will state...:

* I'm a working man now.  I have a legitimate job that's not an internship or other joke of a career.  I'm working 9 hours a day, possibly more in the near future, and after my week, I'm practically burned out after doing that and whatever other things I need to do to take care of my young adult self.  And on top of that, rambling about video games and saying controversial things as someone in the game industry can come back to haunt me, big time.  A few things I've said on this blog could get me fired from my current job.  A while back I caused a mutiny by criticizing a game behind my grad school classmates' back (Plushy Knight) and it caused problems.  I don't want anything like that to happen again.

* There's simply little to nothing going on with Sega anymore.  Well, there is, if you're into cheesy Sonic sequels, more Yakuza, Football Manager, Total War, and the occasional Sega nostalgia piece they toss the fans for a quick buck.  We've worn thin on Daytona 1, 2, Scud Race, OutRun 2, Crazy Taxi, even Sega All-Stars Racing, etc.  Those games aren't going anywhere anymore.  We got the emulators, we got XBL/PSN ports, we got the Hornet in Sega All-Stars Racing, we got a cool new fangame coming up (The 90's Arcade Racer), but other than that, aside from talk about some oldies like Power Drift, Rad Mobile, and Emergency Call Ambulance...we're kinda toast here.

* And as for other things, I can't criticize Need for Speed and Burnout forever.  There's nothing left to say about those franchises that hasn't been said.  It's crap racing all about wrecking expensive cars and terrible cutscenes--it's a done deal and as long as people still piss themselves over it, nothing's going to change about it.  As for things like real-life racing like NASCAR and such, no one really cares, do they?  The sport is awash with phony controversy and regulations, plus when I post about these things, people usually don't read it at all.  So what's the point?

* All great adventures I've embarked on, whether it's Counter-Strike Maps, Super Sprint, posting on various message boards, etc. always have a lifespan.  At first, it's all I ever dream about--wake up, do activity X, think about it in your free time, go to sleep.  But eventually, I just lose interest in it altogether.  And no amount of motivational talk can really get me to work on these things again.  This blog is just a victim of it.  It's getting more painful to write these posts that I reluctantly put them off for too long.  And when I do, the blog just gets more and more disorganized.  Look at sites like UK Resistance and Shenmue Stare--they called it quits eventually so it's not so shocking I do so as well.  Well, better to just call it quits now than force myself to tend to this blog for the two or three serious readers this gets each each day.

* Most of all, I'm starting to realize that this whole infatuation with wanting to work for Sega, meet Yu Suzuki and the AM2 team, and make Daytona USA 3 is a total wash.  It's like a childhood dream you have--you want to assume an extraordinary career like a professional athlete, a musician, or an astronaut.  But when you get older, you realize those things are stupid for numerous reasons--it's incredibly difficult and unlikely you'll ever get that job and once you do, you realize it's not what it's not what you imaged.  After being exposed to the REAL game industry over the last year or so, I now realize how much it actually sucks and how vulnerable I really am.  You have to be some "god among men" like Miyamoto, Suzuki, Kojima, etc. to be heard and even still, who's to say that Daytona USA 3 isn't somehow horribly botched?  It's time to stop pretending I'm on a "mission from God," that's all.

That's...really all there is to say about it.  I still hope great things for Sega, Sumo Digital, racing games, etc. but really, it's time to give it a rest.  I'll get in touch with you guys later but all I have to say is this...  To be this good takes Ages and it's been ages and now I'm good.  Thanks for every subscriber, reader, and good comment that's make this all worthwhile over the years... ;)

Happy Easter Driving Updates

Alright, so...we're back.  Happy Easter and have a great day.

Let's cut to the chase--there's a couple of reasons why I've been posting less.  The main thing I've been at work for a month already.  It's a 9-hour workday (includes the 1-hour lunch) in a office with a bunch of nerds floating about.  I'm adding new features to the game but just last week, I've had to play the role of that guy who needs to find the needle in a haystack--basically, solve an easy chicken-shit problem that takes days worth of trial and error to crack and every passing hour puts your job security even more in jeopardy.  I'm kinda bummed out about work now but I'm hanging in there.  Only a matter of time before I get the experience to work at Sumo Digital, I pray to God...

And even worse is that there's really nothing going on Sega-wise...  We got The 90's Arcade Racer plugging along without me.  I'm still bitter about that.  Then there's Sega All-Stars Racing which is getting a patch to fix all the bugs and the difficulty issues but that doesn't change the fact the game has devolved into talking about two things--glitches (they're still at 'em) and tier lists.  The mystery DLC character hasn't been revealed yet and still, if that's the only extra character we'll ever get, that's a bit of a letdown IMO.  Then there's the Supermodel emulator which has basically stalled (Bart's getting a Doctorate, give him a break).  And, well...it's up to me to pull things outta my ass now.

There was also a rainstorm in Orlando which was a 30-minute hurricane that descended upon my house...really strange cause there was a very tiny red blip over where I was.  Huh, okay so it's worth posting about.

But anyway, it's really the little things now that get me by these days.  Like driving to the airport to pick up a friend while accelerating around the terminal blasting AC/DC and Metallica.  God forbid I drive 10 MPH over the speed limit but it was good fun to pretend to be a NASCAR driver.  Then there was this--on a simple trip up the road to a Checkers drive-thru, I drove through a verdant wavy part of International Drive by the convention center, near the Dave & Buster's I visited twice already.  And what I experienced was rather wonderful...

I wish I saw more happy things like this in my racing games.  More trees, more colors, more fancy architecture, more blinking signs (like those in Scud Race and Daytona 2 that flash "3 LAPS TO GO"...why don't they have those anymore???).  And how funny is it that I'm near the place that inspired the Sega-AM2 crew to make Daytona 2 as colorful as it is.  Check out the Saturn Magazine Interview with Makoto Osaki and how he mentions going to Daytona International Speedway and then Disney World & Universal Studios (on this page).  I'm so close to where this magic happened and yet I feel like all these game designers are trying to beat me down.  It's like...people don't even try to make their racing games feel good anymore--it's basically "let's make it as gritty realistic as we can and drown out all the fun."  Boo, hiss, go away bad game designers...

On the other hand, Eutechnyx may not be as bad as we thought...

But one more thing, I was on my way to work one day when I found this fun-tastic van next to me.  Tell that Aggressive Appliances of Orlando didn't take AGES to get that good, did it...???

Want to talk about the NASCAR stuff going on (like Joey Logano who "killed" Denny Hamlin) and other garbage later.  Like THIS:

We Apologize For The Downtime

In the meantime, please listen to our choice of waiting music!

Top 10 Posts Of Twenty-Twelve

EDIT: Added one more thing to this post lol

Well kids, I hate New Year's but because everyone's doing the "reflection" thing nowadays, I'm going to do it too.

2012 was a mixed year.  Great for several reasons--got to go to two Daytona races, got to finish Super Sprint and Battle Fortress Tortoise, got to make plenty of friends, got to play Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed.  But it also sucked for several reasons too--I got fired, I'm still unemployed, Christmas time wasn't all that great for me, could've done better at Super Sprint, school was obscenely difficult at times, etc.  All I know is that, despite all the naysayers, we lived to 2013.

I did this the last two years so I'll do it again--these are my Top 10 posts of 2012 (in no particular order):

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1. DAYTONA USA AT THE DAYTONA 500 - For the euphoric memories of holding a Daytona USA sign at the Daytona race as cars whizz by...it's the best photo I've ever been in.

2. !1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1 DAYTONA !1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1 - Also for euphoric memories of discovering the Hornet Classic in Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed for the very first time.

3. Our Third Festivus Airing Of Grievances! - The best Airing of Grievances yet, it just nails a lot of things I've complained about all year.

4. Report: History & Corporate Culture Of SEGA - Need to read an essay about the history of Sega?  Read mine, it's just seven pages.

5. Going It Alone Without Sega - Can we get a job at Sega?  If not then can we make racing games without them?

6. Nobody Loves Sega - Everyone in the gaming media dumps on Sega.  Therefore I will dump on the gaming media for dumping on Sega.

7. Danica In The #7 Sonic Car Whole Race Recap - Need to know the events of Danica's Sega Sonic car race at Texas?  Read this and see how thrilled/depressed I get as stuff goes down.  Loaded with tons of funny jokes.

8. Need For Speed Movie??? Run That Moniker Into The Dirt - Why I don't like Need for Speed all that much anymore.

9. NASCAR Is Very Serious Business (Kurt Busch Sucks) - Why NASCAR and auto racing in general is one of the most frustrating sports/games ever made.

10. Can't Be Mad At Nagoshi-San Anymore (Call To Arms) - We love you Toshihiro Nagoshi, I will never be mad at you again (maybe).  Also includes cool music and the official declaration for "Sega Racing Day/Week/Month."

Honorable Mentions because I'm too lazy to eliminate other ones:

11. Forza On The Horizon...(Open-World Racing!!) - More ranting about modern racing games, this one's about Forza and this new "open-world" trend going on with street racers.

12. Daytona USA Championship Edition: That Other Daytona Game... - Comprehensive discussion of Daytona USA Championship Edition, the red-headed stepchild of the Daytona series.

13. Battle Fortress Tortoise - My FIEA capstone game.  I worked on it for months so it deserves a mention.

14. Super Sprint Intricate Design Details (Under The Hood) - Funny that this is the first post of 2012.  But it goes over plenty of things I worked on with that Super Sprint remake.  A good read for racing game design.

15. The Future Of (Lousy) Interactive Entertainment - What sucks about modern video games (with colorful illustrations).

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I only included 15 posts but there's plenty more good posts I made over this year.  Didn't post as much as I did in 2011 but that's cause I had graduate school to take care of.  Anyway, I don't plan on making any more posts this year (other than to edit in any additional posts to this list I forget) so stay cool in 2012 and here's to 2013 not sucking as much.  :)

THIS IS A TEST POST

I'm making a post from my iPhone for the first time! DO NOT REPLY.

Random Thought Of The Day: One of these days, I'm going to CPL and winning the big CS 1.6 tournament using a $10 Dynex wired mouse bought from Best Buy. Seems that the cheaper the mouse, the more productive I am with it. Weight ballasts and 12 buttons, bitch please...

But no really this thing sucks, I hate the iPhone keyboard...never posting from here again.

p.s. Go buy Grand Prix Story in the App Store..........

On Hiatus & More Model2 Games At Last

I'll try to make this quick as possible.  Anyway, I'm not posting much because right now I'm busy, tired, and lazy at the same time (awesome, huh?).  The racing timeline and Super Sprint are both on hiatus (of course, like I needed to tell you that) but I am working on some other things I have yet to share that might surprise you.  Might change a few things on the blog as well.

Anyway, in case you're just an idiot who hasn't read any of the Sega sites recently, Sega has surprised us with a five-pack of Model2 arcade classics--Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Striker, Sonic: the Fighters, Fighting Vipers, Virtual On.  Boy, the amount of "Virtua" and "Fighters" in that list is outstanding.  Love me some Sega-AM2 Magical Palm Tree Games.

But I am glad, I really am.  None of the games are on my "OMG MY LIFE IS COMPLETE" list and it seems strange we'd get three fighting games, but what the hell--they are all unique in their own ways.  Plus they will have online multiplayer which is GREAT.  The games are only limited to Japan but Sega would be stupid not to release them in the West.

I think it's great that Sega is really starting to ramp up on the classic ports.  Sega's glory days are relived in a new era for all the little kids to bear witness to.  But a part of me can't help but feel a bit irritated Sega isn't doing anything "new" with these games.  Oh, there' the widescreen support and the online multiplayer (some of them anyway) but when you look at it, we already had these games playable on the emulators.  The fans beat Sega to the home releases.  I would love to see Sega take these games to the next level and "one-up" us fans.  (EDIT: Sonic the Fighters port got Honey the Cat and Eggman as characters--I'm not knowledgeable on the game but that's what I'm looking for).  They have...sort of, but they made some mistakes.  Like this Jet Set Radio port--the game's great but the graphics aren't as stellar as the original Dreamcast version.  And then there's Crazy Taxi without the Offspring and the KFC.  And there's Sega Bass Fishing without the Dreamcast Fishing Controller--a regular joystick doesn't do the game justice at all.  Most of these things are peanuts but they add up.

But it's funny...El Semi, the Nebula Model2 emulator creator, went AWOL for some time and I think he had a role in assisting Sega with some of these recent ports, Daytona USA included.  I think anyway, it's just "cool" to assume that.  Now Bart, Supermodel3 emulator creator, put Supermodel on hiatus for a while and I'M NOT SUGGESTING ANYTHING BUT...what the hell I really am--but we could get some Model3 ports in the future.  Thanks, Bart!  I think seeing these Model2 games really improves the odds of seeing re-releases of Daytona 2, Sega Rally 2, and Scud Race.  What a glorious day that would be though knowing Sega, I wouldn't bet on it just yet.

Just so you know, it was in 2008 that Kotaku hosted an interview with Sega of America's Simon Jeffery.  And he was on record saying Sega "lost the source code" to some of our favorite games.  Which really sucks because if you know anything about game design, it's nigh impossible to expand on games without the source code.  And at the time, we panicked about the prospect of Sega losing the source code to Daytona USA.  I think the superb XBL/PSN ports put that to rest.

But I really wonder if they still have the source code to Daytona 2/Scud Race on source control or some USB drive somewhere.  I mean, those games weren't as successful as Daytona 1 so it's possible that bad things could happen to it..  Either someone deletes it on purpose (assumes the game will never be touched again) or on accident (with the source code to hundreds of Sega games on your computer, a few of them might get wiped out).  Or the computer could break or just die on you like that.  Not trying to downplay the massive devastation that Japan underwent a year & a half ago but God forbid some natural disaster were to occur at Sega HQ or somewhere and take out the source code like that.  It's a possibility.

Really though, I still assume the source code to these games exist SOMEWHERE.  And if I could open that s*** up and check it out, I would.  With the fervor of an AP History teacher getting early copies a day before the exam.  And if the code DOESN'T exist...well, I've said it before and I'll say it again--WE'LL REBUILD DAYTONA 2 AND SCUD RACE OURSELVES!!!  IT CAN BE DONE!!!

And then there's NASCAR--everyone's golden boy Dale Jr. suffered a concussion at Talladega, the second of the season, and by doctor's orders is forced to sit out two races, erasing any chances that he had at being the Chase victor.  The first concussion seemed to have an impact on his performance.  You never truly recover from these things anyway and too many and you have to retire.  Surely all the talk about wrecks and we tend to forget that these drivers can actually get hurt (hell, we have Dan Wheldon die on us a year ago) and it takes away these guys' abilities to do what they love to do and that is friggin race cars.

All I have to say is even if you are out of the picture and have no chance at getting a trophy, an accolade, or even a pat on the back, then go out there and perform for pride.  I don't mean the deadly sin but say, "You know what, I'm alive, I have opposable thumbs, I'm gonna do this to make myself and the Lord above happy," so go get 'em guys.  Win anyway, even if there's no reward if you do.

Hah, turns out this post wasn't quick at all.  Until then, check out some slippin and slidin from the Hornet.

Someone Stole My Blog Posts

I was doing a Google Image Search for Sega Race TV.  What I ended up finding was a website that copied my Sega Race TV review post for verbatim:

My Original Sega Race TV Post

Other Guy's Sega Race TV Post

It's another Blogspot called "daytona 500 news."  Now he's actually copied a bunch of posts from my blog and presumably from others (up until Feb. 2012 which was the last post).  A lot of the posts there have to do with NASCAR (understandably so) with mine about video games sprinkled into the mix.

In case the page/blog is removed, here's a comparison:

YO DAWG, we herd you like blog posts...

^ The black boxes are other posts that I have made.  Like Forza, Hurricane Katrina, California Speed, Gabe Newell memes, game design school, things that have nothing to do with NASCAR.

I'm not entirely sure if this is an actual physical human being copying my posts or if it's some robot, I don't know.  If bots are able to copy blog posts now then that sucks.  HA, imagine if some stupid bot copied this post, I dare him...

It's not that I'm mad about this--I consider it flattering that others would use my blog posts for something but at least give me credit here.  If you're going to aggregate all this material you like, at least give me a sign first like "check this Eric guy out, he's pretty cool."  I mean you can talk about how it's "wrong" to use images from other people (when I do, I try to give credit where I can) but copying everything like that is stupid.  Although I doubt a plain white blog with no comments is going to be a threat to me, anyway.

Sega Racers Timeline (COMING SOON)

To commemorate the first ever "Talk About Sega Racers Day" (Sept 29th), I WAS going to do a timeline graph covering the history of Sega Racers and compare 'em with other racing games.  Just some informative stuff.  Too bad Saturdays are incredibly lazy for me (I oversleep to counteract the lack of sleep I get during the week) so I'm behind the curve.

Nevertheless, I declare that this holiday is not just a day but a week.  "Talk About Sega Racers Weekend" goes into Sunday, September 30th.  Or if I need too, I'll make a "Talk About Sega Racers Week" or "Sega Racing Month."  Black history, breast cancer awareness, now Sega racers.  I'm reaching for straws.  But keep talkin about Sega racers.

Until then, there have been reports that the Wii U port of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed is a laggy, rushed port.  And for the love of God people, just believe Steve AKA DarthS0L since the man has been running around to every Internet forum (next stop: NeoGAF) trying to save face and shut us fans up.  As a game designer too, it's understandable that some builds of the game are laggy as s***.  I'm still a tad bit worried that visuals may have eclipsed game performance but this is Sumo we're talking about--not some mercenary studio no one's heard of.  So Steve & Sumo Digital will live up to their reputation.  Until then, Sega fans:

In the meantime, watch this:

Also, the PC version is the only one able to run at 60 FPS.  So if you're so concerned about FPS, buy the PC Master Race version.  I will probably buy Xbox 360 and PC versions and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed spokeswoman Danica Patrick finished 16th in today's Nationwide race at Dover.  Which means at this rate, she'll win in the Sega All-Stars: Transformed car at the Nov. 3 race at Texas.  And from what I heard, she didn't run over anything during the race so that's good progress.

MORE SEGA RACING CONTENT SOON - EDIT: Worked quite a few hours on it, not done yet, hopefully will be done tomorrow.

New HTML (Plus Current Events)

Cause the old site was too bland.  Needed more colors.  And DAMN am I tired.  It's not perfect but I don't care and I can work on it now, good morning...  I'll delete this eventually.

EDIT: So I'm going to save this post.  Some of you have been wondering what's going on.  I'm working on a portfolio website to showcase my programming work over the years.  I'm not going to show it yet but it does involve HTML (which is why I worked on this website as well since I was in that "HTML-y" mood.).  All I know is I ain't mentioning this blog on that site since anything said on this blog can be used against me (obviously...just look at all my bitter rants).  I don't have much more to say until I'm done.  I'll talk more about jobs & stuff later.

Happy New Year 2012

Hello kids, in most of the world, it's already 2012 but here in the US it isn't!  Anyway, this has been a good year...we got the Daytona USA port and Bart's Supermodel emulator.  I made it through one semester of gaming school which is a great accomplishment.  We've had our horrible setbacks like the Japanese quake but we made it through for now.  Let's hope that next year is better.  I know I have brutal gaming school starting again in January 9th which really sucks on top of a bevy of other video game and real-world news so let's pray for the best.  Oh, you know it's gonna be a BLAST leading up to Dec. 21.

I really don't care much about New Year's since I think it's another excuse for people to party.  It's a digit turning in the calendar.  But without New Year's our Christmas break wouldn't be nearly as long so be thankful for that.  And Auld Lang Syne is an annoying song...the phrase means "old friends" so what the hell does that mean?  An opportunity to crack a stupid joke like, "I haven't seen you since last year,"?  And fireworks are kind of cool but if you go outside for just a minute you come back smelling like smoke and that's not fun.  And New Year's Resolutions are stupid--make a resolution EVERY DAY, not just on Jan. 1st.

I've had this blog for a year and a half.  Last year, for good old time's sake, I posted my personal Top 10 posts of 2010.  Now I'm going to do the same for 2011.  Problem is I have 12 months of posts to glaze over as opposed to 6 months from last year so it's gonna be tough.  So here's my Top 10 in no particular order:

1. The Forza 3 Experience -This was the second post I made in 2011 and it's prett-ay good.  Playing online and getting my ass kicked...so much fun.

2. BOYCOTT GAMEINFORMER MAGAZINE, SCREW BURNOUT - Wow!  This has to be my angriest moment in the history of this blog.  No way you insult OutRun 2 on my watch.  If you want to see why I hate Burnout and mainstream gaming media, read this....

3. Super Sprint Remake Preview - While you can download the game in this post, that preview post lays out everything for you. :3

4. DAYTONA USA YYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH - STOKED for a new Daytona USA port!!!  Plus more fun pics that should Sega should take to heart.

5. LEAVE SEGA ALONE!!! - Haters gonna hate on Sega, but what is Sega doing about it?  This is Part 1 of a 2-part series.

6. Group Think In Video Games? - Why do people keep playing the same video games?  Now you know why.

7. OutRun 2: Bring A Road Map!! - Awesome diagram of real-world OutRun 2 locations!

8. Awesome Scud Race Magazine Article!!! - You want to read something uplifting on Scud Race?  Now you got it.  Very interesting read with a special thanks to the Blue Skies Daily blog affiliate of ours.

9. Gaming School: How I Learned To Stop Worrying (About Grades) And Love To Ridicule Everyone - This entry is totally personal but it basically exposes the stupidity in grades at school.  And I throw people under the bus, cool!!

10. Supermodel Emulator...First Time I've Played Daytona 2 In A Long, LLLooooonnnngggg Time... - I was awe-struck to play the Supermodel emulator for the first time...and that was just the first release (no sound) running at 10% speed on my slow-ass laptop...

11 (Dammit can't believe I forgot this one!). Sega: More Sinister Than Meets The Eye? - The truth about Sega is out there.


Honorable Mentions:

* Daytona USA Guide: Make A Paper Hornet!!! -  I bought the Daytona USA guide books a while back and now here's some of the scans.  Fantastic Daytona media for you!

* What I Learned About Game Design In Three Days (And How It Pertains To Sega Racers) - At FIEA, I learned some good stuff in game design/publishing so now's your chance to digest it.  It's gold, Jerry, GOLD!!!

* TWO CATASTROPHIC RACE FAILS IN ONE DAY - Still f***in' hilarious even in 2012.

* Daytona USA Reviews--Kill Me Now - While I can't load up my Top 10 with bitter "everyone sucks" posts, this one takes the cake as you Daytona USA port haters get your dues.

* More Thoughts About Dan Wheldon Crash - Dan's fatal crash at Las Vegas still hurts and here's some more retrospect on this whole thing.

EDIT: * Original Lego Racers PICS 2: DAYTONA USA EDITION - Yo dawg, I heard you like legos...?

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There's many more good posts of mine I wish I could showcase but I can't.  Hey, I still have more things to talk about in the near future.  Until then, see you in 2012.

500th Post Special: EPIC Daytona USA Multiplayer Battle

Well, let's see here...this is supposed to be the 500th post (on my Blogspot dashboard here) but seeing as there's a few posts that went AWOL (I deleted them), I don't know if this is really the 500th.  Nonetheless, let's party!!!



You know what.  I'm done talking about this FIEA game pitch nonsense.  The way I see it, The Powers That Be wouldn't have green-lit a racing game anyway, even if it made it to the Top 10.  So f*** it, I don't care anymore.  Let everyone else haul the load of planning & presenting these games.  I'll just sit back, eat popcorn, and watch as everyone else trips over their own shoelaces.

I'm going home now.  You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

This doesn't mean that I have a 0% chance of making another racing game.  During the 2nd thru 4th semesters, we may get the chance to make more minigames of our choice.  So if we get another racing game going just for kicks, then it'll be awesome.  Prove the doubters wrong--just check out my l33t game.  Thumbs up their asses...

So anyway, good news: We now know that Team Marubaku, a pro Sega-racer team out of Japan, is on YouTube now.  Now their speed runs have been on YouTube for some time as uploaded by other users.  But they've asked anyone who posted their videos to remove them and make way for their account.  So I was happy to oblige and got rid of my Scud Race videos (the ones they made).  They DID upload Sega racer vids way before any of us did (before the days of YT when you had to download huge .avi/.wmv vids) so give them props.



I will end on one thing.  Most racing games really come down to one thing--repetition.  Kind of like a golf swing or a free-throw.  It's a matter of learning what works best and practicing it until you can do it consistently.  A racing game involves learning how the car handles and how to handle each turn.  Once you learn it, you can do it nearly consistently...assuming you have no interference, that is.

"An amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong." - an unknown author from a year between 1 AD to 2011 AD.

See the Marubaku video above.  Guy just runs the same routes over and over and over again.  I think this is one reason why people are turned off by racing games.  Disregarding the learning curve and difficulty to be able to do this consistently, there's not much variety there.  For the record, most every video game relies on repetition to say racing games are so repetitive compared to other genres is a bit absurd.

But....this makes me think.  I was playing Daytona USA online again recently.  And I was playing against evenly matched competition.  And I remember going two-wide with some people on the turns.  And that's when my rote memory flew out the window.  This guy is blocking my optimal driving line.  What do I do?  Red alert--figure out another way to take this turn.  Usually this involved fighting for position as we just bumped each other around.

Sometimes, due to opponent interference, I would wreck or my speed would drop below normal.  Turning at a different speed than normal affects how you perform.  Yeah, you'd think driving slower makes turning easier but it doesn't always.  Like I'm used to taking the Sonic turn on Beginner at 180 mph.  If I somehow drop to 150, it gets complicated because I don't know exactly how I should shift and when to slam on the gas.

Then later, he was drafting me on a straightaway.  Do I try to cut him off?  Now let's flip flop positions.  Can I keep drafting him?  When should I make my move and try to overtake him?  Really, I must decide these things on the fly and prepare for the worst.

And at least there's the intimidation factor.  If this were a time trial, I would drive 100% full-speed always--take all the risks and restart if I make a mistake.  But with multiplayer, time doesn't matter--just finish before everyone else.  So there's a guy about a second behind me.  Should I continue to drive to the max but risk crashing?  Or should I play it safe and hope he can't catch up?  Any slight mistake on my part would lead to me falling back.  It's a nail-biter.  Can I hold him off?  Or what if I'm behind in 2nd place--do I take extreme risks to move up to 1st when I could possibly wreck and fall way back to 5th or 6th or so?

I did pass a few people on the very last turn on the Expert course.  I nailed that turn PERFECTLY while everyone else floundered.  An exhilarating comeback.  If I were in the presence of company, I would've yelled and gave everyone a high-five.

Then all of a sudden, a "repetitive" racing game took on a whole new layer of complexity.  Another reason why Daytona USA is so legendary.  Bravo, Sega, bravo.

My Blog Is Being Victimized! And Nagoshi Is An Addict

Happy October everybody and--oh crap, just realized that my milk expired at the end of the month...I didn't have much left anyway.

I take a look at my blog stats and something weird's going on.

The number of page hits per hour spikes at set intervals.  They seem to happen 32-36 hours apart.  This leads me to believe that bots are scanning over my website, trying to sucker me into a system of intimidation and manipulation, the likes of which I've never seen.  It's just too coincidental that I would get 150+ hits every 32th hour on such a strict regimen.  And the reference links really don't give me much info either--it's just coming from nowhere...

GTFO spammers, I'm part of the Blogging Watch Zone.

Oh, by the way, I was reading more Cracked articles (damn, this site is addicting) and I stumbled upon something interesting.  Apparently, tanning can become an addiction:

Tanning meets all the criteria for a drug that creates psychological addiction. The mechanism isn't much different from spicy foods -- in the process of frying themselves, a frequent tanner experiences a release of those same beta-endorphins, the morphine-like opioids that your brain creates to numb pain and deal with stress, presumably because it thinks that your body is currently in the process of being slowly grilled to a crisp. And just like with regular morphine, you can get addicted to the pleasurable sensation.

Actually, you know what? Let's ditch the morphine comparison completely, because it turns out tanning beta-endorphins can be up to 80 times more powerful than the big M. Hell, tanning can even create the physical sort of dependency regular drug users know and love, complete with withdrawal symptoms that can easily be every bit as severe as those of heroin.

Now I'm not saying that tanning is a scientifically-proven addiction (I'm not a doctor), but, uh, it all makes sense now...

I'm also drunk, haw haw...

Blog's One-Year Anniversary

AW HELL YES, LET'S GET JUMPY IN HERE.  Now that baby's smokin a cigarette...that boy ain't right.

Hey, check it out.  I got a space walk for the party.  Now we can really jump!

Actually, I am really tired right now (which explains the lame jump joke I just made) so I'll make this quick.  I made my first blog post a year ago.  What happened was GameFAQs put the brakes on my "blog" on the Daytona USA 2: Power Edition board which in fact is a blessing since this blog is a much better means of communicating my thoughts.  GameFAQs still sucks though.

I didn't expect to post on this blog so much.  Just trying to get my thoughts out there to the public.  To show that there's still someone that's enthusiastic about games like Daytona USA and OutRun.

I try to make my previous posts as coherent and relevant as possible in the future by not talking about stupid news stories.  Like for instance, I said "oh lookie here, it's the Dead Rising 2 map" or "Rock Band finally got Bed Intruder as DLC."  I do add insight to most things I post anyway.  Hey, I'm tryin, I guess.  I do have good old posts like this and this.  You live and learn I guess (HANGIN' ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW...).

"Great minds talk about Ideas. Mediocre minds talk about Events. Weak minds talk about People." - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Anyway, I'm just some guy with some free time.  Like I said, everyone has a story to tell and this is just mine.  You may not agree with me on most things but I still appreciate readers anyway.

Anyway, thank God, thank Jesus, thank my friends and family, thank Sega, thank Blogspot, so good night...

Sega Rally UK Appreciation Hour, F-Zero, Depressing Racing Games

Here's some assorted racing game stories just for you:

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Sega Rally Online Arcade has been out for a couple of days and there's only two reviews I know of: GameSpot (7.0) and Eurogamer (8.0).  There's really no need to criticize these reviews because there's not much to say about such a small game.  Gamespot quotes "The sun is always shining in the world of Sega Rally," which is a good thing since bright, saturated environments is a given in (most) Sega games.  Eurogamer quotes, "After this and the oh-so-excellent OutRun, let's have Daytona Online Arcade, yeah?" so at least it's nice to know there's Daytona fans in higher places.  Overall, main demerits are lack of content and no online ranking systems.

It is weird how Eurogamer is more flattering towards Sega...because most of the Sega racing diehards (I know of anyway) come out of the UK.  Well, their review is good.  I like how the writer has a more personal relationship with Sega Rally outside of the Xbox 360 so that's great to hear.

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Another racing game story that you may have missed--some people at Total Video Games have tracked down ex-Amusement Vision employees at a Mario & Sonic at the London Olympics.  They got one comment out of producer Osamu Ohashi who said, "It might happen, if someone comes up with a brilliant idea that would make both Nintendo and SEGA happy..."

Now saying "might" or "I want to" just doesn't cut the mustard anymore--it really doesn't.  Yu Suzuki might work on Shenmue 3.  Yuji Naka wants to work on Dreamcast 2.  Mark Fisher (of Sega Racing Studio) said "maybe" to a new Daytona game.  Well, better to say that than an outright "no" as to not hurt your fanbase or stick your foot in your mouth should the opposite happen.  So expect ambiguous BS from your devs from now on!!!

But I do think there will be another F-Zero for this new Nintendo "Cafe" console.  And sadly, Sega & Nagoshi-San will put more effort into one of Nintendo's IP's rather than any of Sega's racing IP's.  I hope I'm wrong, but with Nagoshi running around touting that new Binary Domain game, I really question that man's sanity...

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Hey, guess what game's making a comeback?  Carmageddon.  Yeah.  A site will release an announcement on June 1.  The site is hosted by Square-Enix Europe--I mean, really?  SQUARE ENIX???  Wouldn't you like to see THEM make a new Carmageddon game?  Holy crap, that would be the end of racing games, hence the game's title.  So there you go, a new Carmageddon, I'm stoked and you should be, jk rofl.

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Also, please be sure to check out my friend Dave's blog post right here on dark-colored racing games.  He makes a good point that a lot of these racing sims like GRID and DiRT are just trying to depress you with dingy hues.  EDIT: DiRT 3 averages 9.0 on review sites, therefore engraving this idea into devs that crap "realistic" hues are good.  NEWS FLASH: If you're trying to go for "realism," then don't cause real life is "depressing" enough as it is having to get out of bed and get to work in a world full of turmoil and death.  Remember our Kotaku friend Mr. EnigmaNemesis who recently called us "color fanboys?"  Isn't the world a great place to live?  EDIT: DiRT has some color, I know.  Not as much as Sega though.

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One last thing is that I added a "Fan Stuff" label so go looking for fan stuff now!!!

Video Games (MMORPG's) Rigged To Blow (Games Are Art?)

EDITED plenty of times on 5/13-14

Okay, we're back online.  Blogspot was undergoing "maintenance" not for one hour but for two days so I was completely in the dark here.  And my blog's poll went from 18 to 31 votes in a matter of hours...what the hell's going on here.  I do appreciate more votes, that's for sure.

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But anyway, I see that the never-ending grind versus dumb mainstream games will never end.  I wanted to address Scud Race but let's take care of this first.

This is on Kotaku.  Now I wouldn't read this site anymore except for the fact that the other game blogs are not as comprehensive or run by complete idiots, such as G4TV which causes massive trauma, stomachaches, and erectile dysfunction.  The topic of today: Why play an MMO when you know it's going to end?  You pay for subscriptions, hence you are just "renting" the game.  And when the servers go down, that it--the game's gone for good.  Can't play it anymore so all progress made before is lost.

The typical Kotaku response: "why even bother living if your gonna die anyway???  its about the experience and social aspect more than anything!1!  you're little single player games last 10-20 hours anyway so whats the difference???"

Here's what I have to say.  My idea of a long-term activity should be something that leaves me with something positive and/or tangible at the "end."  According to the responses, after playing some MMO until you become burnt out or the server closes down, you get the memories, a few friends, and carpal tunnel.  To me, that doesn't seem worthwhile since MMORPG's long-term worthiness is stemmed in grinding levels by clicking on bad guys and talking with friends.  These things I feel that I can do elsewhere, particularly with games that don't become a paperweight in 5-10 years...games that I can play "forever."  Games that I can plug back in and say, "Hey, look at what I accomplished or learned to do," while going through the motions like before.  On the other hand, MMO's are just wiped out for good so you can't go anywhere near them.

And as for socialization--can't you just do that on Ventrilo, message boards, chat rooms, or, dare I say, face-to-face in real life?   Better yet, can't you spend some (or all) your time playing sports, making artwork, reading books, and spending time with family which can do wonders for your health and well-being?  Why is it that even in the face of these revelations, people still think MMORPG's are money & time well-spent?  Hey, I really don't mind if people cared so much about these MMO's but the fact they're so flippant to the idea that one of their "extra lives" will be flushed away in a couple of years is rather startling.

Or here's a theory--maybe people are hopping aboard these MMORPG's because they're like college parties with booze and strippers...get in while it lasts because it's not here for long (see the "social" aspect of these games).  Though I'd opt for something with a bit more substance and integrity so no thanks.

EDIT: It just dawned on me a day later...isn't it a bit perturbing that we're comparing a MMORPG to a person's life?  Just off the top of my head, you DON'T HAVE to play a MMORPG while you DO have to live your life.  Come on, people.

I don't know.  I've already talked about WoW before.  I actually think the idea behind a MMO is interesting--creating a character to interact with other players' characters, but not how WoW or any of these big shots do it...with the fat kids, the medieval/fantasy setting, the servers going down, etc.  Maybe I just don't get it but if you do then hey, who's stopping ya....  And this is my

It's too bad that many games (well, Xbox 360 and PS3 in general) nowadays are rigged to these servers.  Like Call of Duty.  Okay, I am somewhat guilty of this.  I'm Prestige 1 on CoD4 and CoD:WaW, Prestige 4 in MW2, and Prestige 10 in Black Ops.  I'm probably going to regret this later, but I'm playing these games cause I want to shoot people, not cause I want to run through the hamster wheel.  I guess it's just nice that more people are opening up to the reality that they may not be able to play certain games in the future (see OutRun Online Arcade).

Thankfully, if there's one good thing I see coming out of gaming technology these days, maybe it's that they can sustain these servers longer.  Send petitions and whine--maybe you can keep these games up or at least salvage something for the future (XBL achievement points???  I hope).

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But anyway, one of the fabled arguments in video game culture is whether or not games are art.  Well, it depends.  It's mostly on the developer's intent on whether to create a "unique" game or something cookie-cutter just to make mass profits. Check out this quote:

"The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do."

-Andy Warhol

And that's what's nice about games.  You just pop in the game and it's not going to change on you.  You go away to a (hopefully) magical world where you don't have to worry about germs, diseases, pain & suffering, global wars, paying bills, etc.  Like Sega Racers.  Daytona USA, OutRun, Crazy Taxi, just cool places to be.  And that's why I made Counter-Strike maps so I can create my own "worlds" to visit.

It's just terrible that up until this point, you no longer "own" a game forever; they just go away eventually which is completely contrary to the last 30+ years of game history where you could own the tangible game forever as long as you took care of it.  Now you know why I'm a bit saddened by these revelations.

Pssh, I'm done here, I've gone way overboard.  I hate video games.

Why I Go To Extremes (Graduate Schools)

Well maybe I do to to extremes.

Anyway so I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm going to get rid of the "Just Say No To Burnout/Split-Second/FnF" pics cause overall, I'm trying to build up something (Sega racers), not tear something down (bad racing games).  I get mad, I don't like some of these things, but I think that may be going over the line (remember, take a bit of sarcasm, not pure unadulterated hate with these things).  Don't need to look too sanctimonious here.

EDIT: I'm sorry I went to extremes again.  It becomes necessary in the course of human events to "warn" users of my disdain for these games so a smaller, snazzier pic remains.  But one that is much more kind I might add.

Fine, you want to go play Burnout?  Hey, I'm just saying you might be missing out on SEGA RACERS and that's a shame.

And about the Iggy Koopa pic...well, we can't get rid of that because we know Iggy is bringing the sexy back so he's not going anywhere.  Lol, I'm just kidding.

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So anyway...I am done applying to FIEA.  Read about this gaming college here.  So May 6th was the final day to apply.  If you pursued the Production track, you had to submit an essay of your own game concept within a week's time limit.  If you pursued the Programming track, you had to submit some of your best source code and that's that.

Up until two days before the deadline, I was still dead set on the Production track.  I was plugging away at this essay with which you had some freedom to come up with a game.  I'll tell you what I was planning on...I was writing about a new Monster Rancher game.  Yeah, I want a new Monster Rancher game, now that would be cool.  Maybe I'll write about my ideas soon.

But I got stuck with two days left and then I thought to myself, "What am I doing???"  I don't think I want to do the Production track after all.  So rather than write a monotone essay that they wouldn't like, I found a treasure trove of source code, comment scanned a few things, threw it in a pile, then e-mailed off as my Programming portfolio.  The recipient said, "Awesome!" and then that's that.  Considering the odds of getting into the school as a programmer was MUCH higher, I think that may have been a "gutsy" call.  Then I would be shipped off to Florida where I'll spend a year (and $30,000) staring at a computer screen twelve hours a day.

I had this idea beforehand that producers were the leaders and programmers (aka code monkeys) did all the dirty work.  Like the old "chiefs and indians" metaphor.  And then rather than play the role of subservient loser my entire career, I could call the shots then go to Sega and make new Daytona games and then save all video games as we know it.  But that is sad to pass Programming because there's a few things:

1) My skill set is accomodating to the programming experience.
2) I like programming.
3) It's a tangible job that can keep me employed.  This is contrast to producers who run around saying, "Make this, make that," and then they PAY the man for giving them marching orders
4) I wouldn't say I'm TOO creative.  My goal is mostly to revamp existing series and make them more solid and fun to play, not to come up with arbitrary games like Psychonauts and Katamari Demacy.

As a programmer, I thought I'd have no mouth and that I must scream because my entire fate was decided by a cabal of producers who want to push buggy movie adaptations upon the market that'll be forgotten in a month because that's MONEY.  Well, I do have a mouth and I'll scream at these people (politely, of course).  Like, "Hey, maybe we can do this differently and it would be better," or "I've got some ingenious ideas that would be awesome," and then there I go.

EDIT: Just read in Yuji Naka's Wikipedia entry that he started his career for Sega as a programmer.  He programmed the original Sonic the Hedgehog and then after that, it was off to the races.

It's like The Sims in that you have to get a job at the bottom of the career ladder then work your way up.  So go to school, go to work, keep applying to Sega, get a job there, go to Japan, persuade AM2 to do it, then the rest is history.

So just go to FIEA, take programming and production classes, see what you can learn, then we'll go from there.  I'd be lying if I said I was at ease over this, but you gotta do something eventually.

Xbox Live Gamercards Are Back!!!

MyGamerCard.net was the premier site for generating XBLA accounts.  Well it went down about a week ago.  However, there's other sites out there.

Try ZaamIT.com to create your own Gamercards.  Just type in your name and push the buttons.  Works like a charm.

Now I can still show off my Gamerscore, mwahaha.

Happy 23rd Birthday Meaningful Post

Crappy clipart.

Well, today is my birthday.  I'm 23 years old.  My God, I can't believe I've made it that far.  Like I said, I was born on Leap Day (Feb 29) so I've moved my party to March 1.

I'm looking back and again I really don't know how I made it this far.  I've always been filled with anxiety.  Strange things too.  Like I'm scared to be famous/on TV, I'm scared of alcoholic beverages (??), I'm scared of the Super Mario Bros 2 boss music, I'm scared that me or my brothers/friends will be kidnapped.  Yes, it was really stupid.  Obviously my fears have shifted towards more serious things like the state of video games, the news, the future, etc.  Just pray about it and go to work as usual.  "Everything will be okay in the end.  If it's not okay, it's not the end."

To tell you the truth, over the last eight or so years, I've really felt terrible in a number of ways.  Depressed, emotionally sensitive, often alone, but not "emo" where I look all creepy and hate the world.  But one thing that gave me optimism was Sega racers, mostly Daytona USA 2.  Really, it made a world of difference.  I already talked about my adventures here.  I don't know where I'd be without these games.  When Sega racers showed up, they struck me with a level of professionalism that I have to match.  So it took me a long time to mature but I feel that I have now.

Of course, despite the professionalism, I still want to be a kid.  Just hang out, play with my toys, do crazy stuff, that would be nice.  No, I don't want to revert to my old self but there were certain aspects about it that I've liked.

Now that Daytona USA 2 is gone, it's sort of like riding a bike with training wheels then you take them off.  Good luck trying to ride that bike without training wheels--you can do it!  Then you're on your own now.  Do it without Daytona, I know you can do it.

About my birthday party, well I didn't really have any plans other than to go to a fancy restaurant (Copeland's) with my family then have a small party (with a NASCAR cake) hopefully with a few of my friends.  For presents...well, I guess I'll just take cash.  That way I can save up for Microsoft Points or give it to charity or something.

LOL those tire tracks really got me.  Just replace that car with the Hornet and we'll be rockin.

For my birthday, I want everyone to be happy.  If even for just a moment.  This is a song from Rock Band 3, but so what.  The first minute of the song really gets me in a good mood and hopefully it won't annoy you as well.



If you want to give me a "present," just follow this blog, leave a comment, vote in the poll on the right, or just give my site a few hits.  Please don't feel obligated to do so.

Here's to hoping for another good 23 years and many more after that.  Hopefully filled with Sega goodness.