Jay McGavren's Journal

Revenge of the Shmups

I discovered that you can’t judge Aegis Wing fairly if you stop with single-player. In multiplayer you can merge your ships at will, and one player steers while the other acts as gunner (they can fire in any direction). It appears all four players can merge into one blob, though I don’t know what the extras do.

Anyway, this is an excellent way of dealing with the confusion that results when two people are playing a shooter at the same time - just let the best bullet-dodger steer for everyone, and the others can cover his ass. I would argue that this is the only shooter I’ve played where multiplayer works well.

Well, wait, that’s not exactly true. Shidoshi alerted me to WarTech: Senko no Ronde, which recently dropped to $10 at GameStop. It’s a weird hybrid of shooter and fighting game, like Psychic Force but with more bullet dodging. It’s a great concept that I’d like to see done again (but maybe a little better next time). Well worth $10, though.

Nostalgia ambush!

select prop, descr_line from dir_descr where dir_type = 'O' OMA999 Walking dist. to Methodist & Childrens Hosp., Major shopping mall, OMA999 and rests. NE Furniture Mart 1 Mi. Walking trail nrby. NEW999 Train 8 Mi. Bus 7 Mi. Phil. Arpt. 20 Mi. Newark Arpt. 45 Mi. Mall

…sigh…

Q: Who do you want to Jott?

A: Myself. Q: Beep. A: Reminder: Donuts with Dad beginning Thursday at 7:15 AM. Must bring 3 donation items, probably consisting of used books. Transcription: “Reminder donuts with dad beginning Thursday at 7:15 a.m. Mustering three Donasha Adams, probably consisting of abuse books.”

Others:

“Remind: Sort content of metal drawer, in white plastic drawers. Also, help organize former content swimming team at center. [Speech too fast]” “Lenny’s field trip Tuesday, they will return at 12:30 p.m. when they are need to be picked up, bring the supposable snack lunch until drink and Kevin wear his Kindergarten shirt also be sure to cement $6 check along with the permission form.”

All that said, their transcription is getting a lot better; I’m actually pretty impressed.

It's magic!

I wanted to look at my logs directory today, and before I knew it, the window was in front of me. After considering for a moment, I realized I had typed “open logs” (a shortcut I’d set up) into Enso without thinking.

This is the point I have been seeking to get to with computer interfaces, any computer interface, for years now. Humanized had to do a horrible, terrifying Windows hack to make it work, but they made it work.

Now, where are my LEAP keys?

OK, Campfire Headphase is getting old, and Trans Canada Highway was little more than a teaser. Where is the next Boards of Canada release?

I haven’t heard the loop on their discography page before - is that new? (Yes, I really do need a fix that bad.)