Tiny Update

Good morning.

How are you? Did you have pancakes today? Good.

I am still working on all the projects I have going on here (I think there are 7 of them, one of them is about 30 hours in) and I am also working 40-48 hours per week, so if you thought posting once every two months was shitty, welcome to the fucking THUNDERDOME of slack. Anyway.

UPDATES

1. Binary Domain Review (v2.0) is now up. 
1. It contains extra visual jokes and lots of audio fixes. 
1. Since I compress about 5 layers of audio in this review, it compresses strangely, and throws lots of errors I can't figure out. For instance, I can only hear all of the audio channels on my mobile phone by plugging in a set of headphones. 
2. People reported issues understanding me and the music being too loud, so I changed those things.
2. One Possible Future is back on track
1. I have finally found some affordable parts. I think the holidays had drastically increased the prices on NES parts, and thankfully used NES consoles can now be had for sane amounts of money, and in greater numbers.
2. Any paintwork can now be done at home, due to the warm weather.
3. Tweaking the board modding and deleting the idea to use red LEDs.
3. Untitled Video Project
1. I have an untitled video game video project that should come out late next month. It involves Famicom games and the frustration of not understanding Japanese. I'm not confident enough to go further on the name or the content yet. It looks too much like a shitty version of AVGN right now, which is not my aim. This might get recycled as something else in the future.
4. Famicom Twin Repair 
1. This is another project that might get abandoned again, due to my lack of confidence in it's quality. I bought a Famicom Twin by Sharp and explain how to remove the diskette drive and replace broken parts. Part of it will be animated. It's sitting at 40% completion right now.
   
5. Protoman Clean-up
• It's literally been years since I made a similar update saying a Protoman/Megaman helmet creation guide was imminent, and I never finished it. I am going to gather up all my resources and put something out in the next couple of months. It's sort of what started this blog up, so I think it would be a good idea.

** DestructoShop

• The original idea for this blog was to be a place where people could look at mods to things and learn how to do simple projects on their own. I had also played with the idea of selling things through here for people who simply aren't interested in DIY but want cool DIY'd things other people made. I've been talking with friends about setting up a small shop where I sell modded gameboys and cosplay bits and stuff like that. And t-shirts. This might not go ahead for a long while.
• I DO have my amazon/ebay stores linked where I do already sell refurbished consoles and games. If for some reason you want one I touched all over, for some reason, you can do that.

Unfortunately that's all I have for now, without going into boring personal bullshit.

Did you put syrup and butter on those cakes, dawg?
Yeah, you know you did BRO.

-K

Binary Domain Review

EDIT 5-2-14
Check for the updated version of this video on my channel [Binary Domain (v2.0)]. It's better.

What? Oh. Wait, what? OH SHIT! IT'S FINISHED?!
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

  

*Note: The audio is mixed wrong in the first minute of the video, it's not all like that.

IT'S DONE

In July of 2012, I got the idea to start making a review video. At first, I wanted to do a video on a game I knew a lot of shit about, like Metal Gear or Resident Evil, but at the time, I couldn't figure out a good angle I'd have on those games by themselves. I mean, they're two of the most popular games ever made, and I'm just some dick making my first 'real' video. It seemed like a set-up to get verbally assaulted at every minor misconception. I was not prepared for that yet.

Then, I thought, "Why don't I do a review of a game that people probably haven't heard of, but should have?"  That game ended up being Binary Domain, a game I happened upon while reading a list of 'The Most Underrated Games of the Year' on some website. A game where you murderlate robots and people make inappropriate jokes and you could hit robots in their respective mechanical dongs with rockets. It was a perfect fit; the choice was natural.

At the time, 1 week into the project, I was adjusting to a new job and had just gone through a break-up. After about 4 weeks of toiling on it, I gave up on it to focus on work and staying sane. The project sat for a long time, until almost a year later.  I had almost 20 hours of footage to edit (which was capped at 1280i due to my choice of capture card), a 10 page script, and a voice over that was about 40 minutes long. Oh, also, the video was originally going to be half on-camera, half voice over. The problem was, I had no experience doing any of those things, so the footage suffered from bad audio, lighting, lack of focus, and general stupidity, while the voice over suffered from all of the exact same things. Well, not the lighting.

I had to redo a lot of the gameplay to be more coherent, I re-recorded all the audio 2 more times and settled on what I have, and created a bunch of little 8-bit tracks I could play on repeat, two of which survived. I shot, edited, scored, animated...everything...ed...the video myself, and it took almost 6 months of off and on work to get it all done and 'good enough'. I moved the ETA date so many times I just stopped having one. I stopped updating this blog, and used any spare time I was on the computer to work on this silly video in one form or another. It was a fucking nightmare.

This video is a sort of maiden voyage into making more complex videos. I had to learn to do all the things you see while doing all of those things. When I started, I didn't even know how to use Adobe Flash, nor did I really know how to edit video with any complexity. This is a big part of the length of time it took to make. I made it all up as I went along, and it turned out OK.

The Binary Domain review was just a silly idea I had, but it turned into a big thing (a stupid-long video about a game nobody played). I really doubted myself the entire time, and I gave up so many times I lost count. What ended up being a so-so video took hundreds of hours and a butt-load of encouragement from my friends to finish. I am thankful to them for their kind words and the not-so-kind ones that pushed me to complete this. It's not perfect, there are parts where I wander, there are parts where I don't explain an opinion very well, but it's done, and parts of it make me laugh. I've spent enough time on it, it's time for other people to see it.

I'll probably make another one sometime this year. Maybe next year, I don't know. But I do know that I'll be able to do it better, more compressed, more coherent, and with more animated floppy dicks.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for watching. I mean it.
-Kris

(CC Music info below)
"Borderline (Fantastic Vamps : 8-Bit Mix)" by Fantastic Vamps 2007 - Licensed under Creative Commons

Fantastic Vamps / CC BY 2.5

"A citizen's welcome to play with the Jimmy Jamming project_Ds_major" by My Free Mickey 2012 - Licensed under Creative Commons this is the cute song for the silly parts of the video

My Free Mickey / CC BY 3.0

"spacetime(whitecube)" by airtone 2009 - Licensed under Creative Commons

airtone / CC BY 3.0

"Ophelia's Song" by grapes 2009 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

grapes / CC BY 2.5

"Intergalactic Journey" by spinmeister no attribution

Figure Review: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Basilisk figure

This is one of the few reviews I've seen (in English) for one of these figures. I really wanted to buy one or all of them, and it was really hard to track down specific reviews, so I decided I would try to stay focused for five minutes and write a semi-coherent one.

The figure I'm reviewing, specifically, and stay with me here, is the Square-Enix Play Arts: Kai-- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Basilisk/Peace Walker figure. Ok.

Some background:
I first heard about Metal Gear when it was new, but I for some reason never bothered. Was probably too busy playing Resident Evil 2 for the thirtieth time. When MGS2 came out and I saw the Metal Gear Ray do a backflip into the ocean, I knew the series was something I had to look into. I now have a copy of nearly each game from Metal Gear (NES), to the GameBoy color edition, and the MGS4 Limited Edition. I'm only leaving out Acid 1/2, and Portable Ops/Plus for PSP.

I've also completed about 60-65 Bandai Gundam Model kits, and was at one point a very avid collector of all types of tiny plastic robots. I still display my favorite two in my room. An addition to that, I used to collect a variety of action figures in my youth, including the entire original Resident Evil collection. 

I hadn't bought anything like this in many years, but I always promised myself if Konami ever released any model kits or good action figures of these mechs, I would buy them. Well, in 2010, some really great stuff came out. This is one of those thingies.


Firstly.

The figure is packaged in a very artsy window-box. It provides about any info you'd need on the box, if you read Japanese, and still a decent amount if you speak English (let's assume since you are reading this you understand English).

Upon opening the box, you are greeted with a little Peace Walker booklet in bag that contains a super secret downloadable character, but it's only for Japanese region. Inside this booklet unfolds a separate sheet used to transform the Peace Walker from two-legged combat mode to four-legged nuclear launch mode.

When you open the plastic shells, you will notice it comes with a nice translucent stand. This is pretty much necessary if you want your figure in two-legged mode. 

The Basilisk comes in four-legged mode already, so all you gotta do is pull it out of the package.

Secondly.

The figure is ridiculously highly omegadetailed. Seriously. I am a model kit guy, I don't bother with figures usually because I like to build and paint them myself. This thing doesn't need special treatment. It comes out of the box with battle damage, painted panel lines, and a fine overall paint job.

"Initializing nuclear launch sequence."

Thirdly.

This figure has an amazing amount of options. There is a vast amount of posing options, the missile covers actually open (but not the nuclear pod, for some reason), the EM pulse generator works like it does in the game, and just about any part is removable and replaceable with other parts from the other mechs in the Play Arts Kai line. You could, say, take the railgun from the Chrysalis and place it on the peace walker, or give the nuclear missile launcher to Zeke, or give the Chrysalis more missiles from the Peace Walker. You can even swap legs and heads if you want. Also, all AI pods pop off like in the game (but they don't fly away, unfortunately). Also, the flamethrowers (or as we MG nerds call them, the penis guns, just about all MGs have them, get used to it) rotate 180* and are highly detailed.

Firing Drill Missiles

"Firing missiles."

Firing missiles behind itself. Can't hide from this shit, dammit.

The EM pulse generator actually exposes itself. Sexily.

Sup.

AI pods. Reptile and Mammal pods are slightly different (mammal is in the front).

The nuclear missile launcher and the guided missile/drill missile launchers both come off.

The top body section is removable from the frame very easily.

The legs also detach at the leg and at the extended hip joint, so they are removable in two ways.

This leg is pretty much the same as the Zeke. You will notice in this pic there are holes for armor plates.

Finally.
Final thoughts? Well, its made out of PVC, so its really strong and solid. The joints are a little weird because they're so small, so I wouldn't play with this like a toy, but at this price, why the hell would you do that? Also, the port covers on the missile launcher are sticky, be careful when you open them the first few times. I think it looks awesome on my desk, and I wouldn't mind spending more cash on a few more of them to decorate my room. Also, the idea that I can create my own custom version of each of the mechs is pretty great marketing, and I totally got sucked into the idea of it.

There are only two things I would change about this figure.
1.   The nuke launcher port cover doesn't open. Not a huge deal, but since everything else works like it should, why forget this detail? Seems weird.
2.   The price/availability. I got a deal on mine on amazon.com for about $68.00 shipped. Some places list them as high as $70-100USD BEFORE shipping. If you're reading this and these are sold out everywhere, look on Square-Enix's online shop, they are the only ones who keep all of the models in stock, but shipping is a lot more than you would find elsewhere.


Summary/TLDR.
Bottom line is this: Don't buy this if you aren't obsessed with Metal Gear/some kind of collector. It's too damn expensive otherwise. Or maybe you just got money to burn, in that case, do it.  If you want something for your kid, absolutely do not, DO NOT BUY THIS FOR YOUR KIDS.  For the love of god, listen to me. The parts are tiny, the figure is hard to transform (because of the sticky joints) and if it gets broken, you're probably not fixing it, and its too expensive to replace

These are meant for adults with an unfortunately adult price point. You get a lot of articulation and detail for the money, but most people still wouldn't pay this much for a 6" tall robot. Collectors will probably buy anyway. I did, and I will again, but I'm an idiot, collector, robot enthusiast. There are cheaper ones such as the Chrysalis and the Pupa that are more in the 40-50 dollar range, and they are plenty cool, but if you want a true Metal Gear, you gotta pay more for the Peace Walker or the Zeke.

I am very happy with my purchase. I really love Peace Walker the game, and Peace Walker the mech.
I am accustomed to spending money on things I don't need, so the price bothered me but not so bad I couldn't buy it, obviously. I it really looks great on my desk, and I'm happy Konami finally figured out that there was a huge freaking demand for these things.

Anyway, that's my review. I tried to answer questions I had about it that nobody else answered. Feel free to ask questions, I always respond to them given I can understand them.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll leave you with thoughts about nuclear deterrence accompanied by some closing pics.

This is the pose I chose. I'm a rapper g's.

Ignore the creepy shirtless person in the mirror. If I wasn't so lazy I'd photoshop that guy out. 

The details are amazing here.

Thanks for reading. You can go to the bathroom now.

Here's a link to the amazon product page.

Quick, Early Post

I got home super late today (6:00AM :)) but I wanted to make a quick post about this USB drive I got in the mail today. It is a Ravage G1 style Transformer that turns into a 8GB thumb drive. It came in a small plastic wrapper with no instructions or packaging, but I tested it and played with it and it seems to be a pretty good buy. It costs about 19 dollars on Amazon. Its an American version of a rarer Japanese version that was on the market a few years ago that was made for the Japanese market only. The different is that version has silver legs instead of white, and is only 2GB. Also, costs about 3 times as much. All in all it's a good buy I think. If you like nerdy useless gadgetry housing useful gadgetry (I happen to love it).

That's all for today, I'm going to bed.

This Week in Old Shit: The Terminator and etc.

(I decided to write a little thing about Terminators and within I have thrown a few pics of old Terminator branded toys I found in my dad's basement. Enjoy.)

One of the first movies I can ever remember watching is 1984's The Terminator. This means, of course, that Linda Hamilton's are the first boobs I ever laid eyes on. I was pretty lucky. Ah, childhood memories, right guys? Anyway.

Pictured: Early Masturbatory Aids

I decided to watch The Terminator again last night, and a few things popped into my mind. Number one, well, the title is kind of hilarious when you think about it. It definitely sounds like an 80's title. Had it been made today, it could have been far worse.  It might have been called "Future Robots 3D", "Time Borg" or my personal contribution, "HOLYFUCKTHERESKILLERROBOTS?!" Similarly, this argument can be made about the movie Predator, or as I call it, "RASTAFUCKINGSPACEHUNTER?!"

 -
Number two; If this movie were to come out this year, you wouldn't watch it. Your friend would come up to you and say, "Hey bro (I don't know how your fucking friends talk) there's this movie about a time traveling robot called The Terminator and it stars this foreign guy that has these huge man tits," you'd probably elbow-fuck your friend in the face and shout 'THAT IS THE WORST IDEA FOR A MOVIE EVER AND I WILL KILL YOUR PARENTS IF YOU SEE IT." There are loads of bullshit time traveling and robot movies nowadays, all of which suck enough to create vacuum in time for which all rational thought in Hollywood has apparently been captured.  I digress.  Since it was made in 1984, the movie somehow escapes all that. It was pretty revolutionary at the time, and also, it's just a great fucking movie. But no robot buttsex movie from Hollywood yet. Yet.

A tragedy, really.

My third point is this; It was their Inception. Before you vomit, think about. Seriously think about it. Reese goes into the past because  
1. He's in love with the mother of the future from hearing stories of her and her picture (before Facebook stalking existed). 
2. Reese ends up being the father of John Connor, leader of the human resistance, the only man he looks up to in the future as a father figure.
3. Reese specifically mentions to Sarah that she looks sad in the photo, and at the end of movie we find out she's really sad because Reese was dead. Fuck me.
Do you see how much of a mindfuck this movie is? When it came out lots of people hated it for seemingly trying to be too complicated. They hated it because the ending wasn't so happy, in fact it could have been down right infuriating. She basically says 'Soon the world will end,' and drives down the road in a Jeep Renegade. How the fuck do you end a movie with the knowledge the world is going to end anyway? But they did. And, somehow, all these things that sound stupid on their own come together and make a great fucking movie.  They took a movie about future robots and an Austrian body builder and made one of the best sci fi movies in history. And this is from the guy who made Titanic, which may be the most overrated piece of shit ever made. Fuck you, it was. Jack dies at the end and I hate you.

Next time you think about movies like Inception and you complain its too weird or its too hyped or whatever, just think about it from this perspective; Conan was a future robot who murdered most of the cast of Aliens in a movie that featured music by a band called Tahnee Cain and The Tryanglz. Think about this next time because Hicks blows himself up and Bishop gets shot to death by the kindergarten cop. Do you have a phase plasma rifle with a forty watt range? No? Go suck a cyborg's dick. Rediculous movies aren't always bad movies. Even ones with robots.  Unless its a Transformers movie.

At least there aren't any racist Terminators. But that's another story.