Box Art Disparity

It always seems to be “one of those weeks” around here, which means that I once again haven’t had the wherewithal to do much over on this domain. Sorry about that. Plus, I like watching the Olympics.

In the meantime, why not check out this article over on timewarpgamer.com about SNES regional box-art differences? If you like this site, it’ll be right up your alley, I promise.

Hot update

As noted around the net today, Halverson intends to re-launch GameFan.

A lot more buzz seems to be focused on EGM, and it’s not much of a mystery why — EGM is a pretty new concept and it has something of an all-star staff, while the new GameFan is basically more of the same from Halverson, a mag that combines elements of Play and Geek Monthly into something that sounds a bit like — dare I say it? — PiQ. I’m not too optimistic that the market for PiQ is any better now than it was two years ago.

You know, something tells me that Play Magazine doesn’t exist any longer

• Fusion Publishing, producers of Play and Geek Monthly, hasn’t published anything since the January Play (above)
• The last print issue I got of Geek Monthly (subscription renewed in June ‘09 or so) was way back in September; they apparently distributed their October and November issues in digital-only format while I wasn’t paying attention
• Play has recently lost two key staffers — Greg Orlando went to PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and Brady Fiechter, who was sorta the editor-in-chief, has moved on to the new EGM project
• A report on Geek’s Facebook page claims that readers are receiving notices that Fusion has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (i.e. liquidation). I haven’t gotten my notice yet, but I certainly look forward to reading it and seeing exactly how impossible it’ll be to get a refund*

Does this mean that I’m not gonna be producing “Dave Halverson’s Greatest Hits” for 2010?

* Not like we did any such thing at PiQ, of course. But that was all out of my hands, I promise, having been laid off way beforehand! (Not that I was gonna spend my personal money to send out refunds, but…)

Takin’ off again

Sorry to jet on you again, but I’m on vacation for the rest of January, skiing in Tahoe. Above is some footage from last year.

Maybe I’ll update a bit during this time, but to be frank, I probably won’t! (I’m doing my January the Nintendo way — in hibernation, am I right, guys??!!)

In the meantime, why not review some of the PC Engine coverage I’ve generated so far, all 61 articles of it?

See you folks later!

Super busy again

A rough coupla days ahead! Aieee!

Yipes!

Work! Work! Putting together a futon all night!

Updates coming back sometime soon!

Still working…

Still working…

Eeeee

Temporary hiatus because I got lotsa projects on deadline and my parents are visiting for two days starting tomorrow!!!

TGS Shot of the Moment

The man is saying “Ahh! The flying bed! The bed is flying through the sky again!”

Despite this, it took me four or five tries before I realized that the bed in the upper right is actually meant to be in the air. I must’ve thought that Dragon Quest VI was like Animal Crossing and you could just sort of place beds and furniture and old-time radios anywhere you wanted in town. And I’m not even at TGS, deprived of sleep and writing dozens of previews, either! What the hey, me!

TGS

It’s the most exciting (or, at least, most crowded) week in the Japan game industry, but I have been too busy doing research for a new professional project lately — that is, I’ve been playing video games all day ‘n night — to show up in Japan or even know much about what’s being shown later this week. I do know, however, that Brian Ashcraft’s katakana-speakin’ mug has shown up on at least one Japanese blog lately, a sign that he is, in fact, more “with it” than I am.

I’ve attended TGS a handful of times, and the only things I remember about it are the refreshment kiosk and all the horny amateur photographers.