It's hard to fathom the tidal wave of sweet nostalgia that washes over Juan and I (or most of us 80s kids) when we replay Nintendo games from the NES era.  It's almost embarassing how much joy I get from playing a few levels of Kid Icarus, Contra, Kid Niki, Super Mario Bros 2, Crystalis or a hundred other NES gems.

After spending two years being wired (pretty much intraveinously) to gamer news, I've been too busy with life to keep abreast of all the goings-on...  And reading this today in Kotaku made my day (if not week). 

Probably my second or third favorite NES game has been re-imagined!  Bionic Commando stands so high in the ranks of NES classics- I can't wait to download this $10/$15 remastering on  Xbox Live and lose my left arm...  Supposedly it's the exact same game (probably building hype for the complete 3D reimagining due later) with better graphics!

I wonder if they kept the ridiculous ending?!

Check out the article HERE. 

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A great article just came out that shows (again) how good video games are for you. Guild leaders have expressed in our interviews that being a leader in game translated into being a much better manager in real life. Of course we have also read the benefits of hand eye coordination in other places. In this study it shows that gamers make better surgeons.

"According to the study, laparoscopic surgeons who play video games are apparently 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than surgeons who do not game. Hmmm, I guess the most interesting part of that for me was that there was that much room for improvement in advanced surgical procedures. "

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10019908-1.html?hhTest=1

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6:30pm Saturday night.  Juan and I are standing in front of the 250-person theater playing Second Skin in half an hour.  There's an anime movie showing, and a handful of people in the theater.  We can't find the theater manager, and we have no idea what to do.  We're nervous no one is going to attend the movie... no one seems to be showing up.  Taylor, Anthony and Andy are running around the Convention Center holding up signs for Second Skin.  Juan and I brace ourselves for an epic fail...

 Two hours later we're deafened by thunderous applause.  The theater is packed, with tons of people standing up in the back, a few laying down in front- and our movie has just been received better than we could've ever hoped for.  God I love it when fellow Gamers 'get' Second Skin.   The Q&A went smashingly, and the conversations we had afterwards were inspiring, to say the least.  We were euphoric.

Gen Con couldn't have gone better. 

Juan, Taylor and I headed out bright and early on Thursday morn, crossing a sizeable chunk of the US and reaching Fort Wayne twelve hours later.  We were greeted by two walking and talking twins who we barely recognized- Nick?  Xander?  The Belford twins are ambulatory and articulate!  (Well, they've got a few catch phrases down pat.)  Soon we were joined by the entire Fort Wayne crew- tales were told, much was imbibed, we reveled in the sheer geekery of it all.  We stayed up way too late and woke up way too early.

The next morning, Juan, Anthony and I piled into one car and made our way to Gen Con in Indianapolis, caravaning with the rest of the guys.  Music blaring, life was indeed a highway we wanted to ride all day long... 

A few hours later we were making our way into the Indianapolis Convention Center.  Origins was huge, but nothing prepared us for the magnamity of Gen Con-- the main exhibition hall must have been a mile long and half a mile wide- it was a neverending labyrinth of D&D, Magic the Gathering, MMOs, Miniatures, Anime and mountains of geek shirts.  There was also an incredible array of artists selling jaw-dropping fantasy art.  I'm a huge art museum frequenter, but God would I die for a museum dedicated to fantasy art...

We met R2-D2 in the hall (swear to God- he was moving and beeping- it was surreal), witnessed thousands of cos-players (costumed-folk), went to a Steampunk Ball (as awesome as it sounds) and played a ton of Munchkin.  And what could possibly be better than playing Munchkin?

Of course, the highlight was hanging out with the Fort Wayne guys again and getting our geek on.  Until next time, guys- til next time...

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I've been on Twitter for a while, but never really got into it.  This weekend, Andy convinced me that all the cool kids were hanging out there.  I guess it's time to pick up my lunch tray and head back into the cafeteria...

Look me up and add me, please --->    pareboy  

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Ah, I've waited a long time for this...

Tomorrow morning I get up, pick up Juan and Taylor, and we head out west to Indianapolis- first to Fort Wayne to meet up with Los Inimitables Fort Wayneros, and then on to GEN CON.

Origins was pretty damn fantastic, and the guys tell me GenCon is even more insane...  I better pack a lot of polyhedral dice.

I can announce our next project very soon!  The option has been signed, I've started writing the screenplay (and going to Juan for story advice) and Juan's started dreaming up the visuals.  I should be able to shout about it this weekend or early next week.

The author of the book we're adapting has become a close friend insanely fast.  He just sent me the soundtrack/mixtape he had on repeat as he wrote the novel, and I just threw it in the old CD player...

See you in the 13th largest US city- I'll be the guy in chain mail.  (Not really.)

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...apparently we're one of the top 5 cultural events this weekend!

An epic thanks to Mike Oles and Chris Baily for making it happen.

Indy Fringe Fest HERE. 

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Hey everyone - I am going to be doing an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio. The program is called "Word of Mouth" on Monday around 1pm. I'll post up a link to the podcast later on.

 Please don't forget to pick up your tickets to the premiere here. 

 http://www.broadwayoffers.com/ 

 The password is acesecret, and it gets you into our screening for a nice big discount.

 If you're in New York City or nearby please come to our September 5th premiere @ 9:20pm in Midtown. I hear there are still a few tickets left. 

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I'm hanging out in North Carolina with my fiance and my folks, Peter's up in Maine with the Brauer Clan, and Juan, who needs vacation most of all, is still hard at work on a thousand different projects.  Our distributor is also taking his week of vacation.

Our movie has been sent out to some theaters by our soon-to-be distributor.  Are our fingers ever uncrossed?  They're getting sore...

In other news, looks like we'll be on NPR again very soon!  More info as I get in contact with Tim from The Story... sounds like we'll be on with a Second Life couple.  Should be good fun.

Gen Con next week!  Then we head up and hang out with The Syndicate for their annual conference.  We had a blast filming it last year, now we can settle down and just hang out...  

Which is to say- the blog will get more interesting again- promise.  Dog days of summer, baby- it's the dog days...

Oh, and I signed my option agreement- as soon as the book's author receives it, we're both shouting about it.  (Does that mean I'm officially a screenwriter now?  Woot!)

Now let us all pour out a bit of our 40s for Juan, who works way too hard... 

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Just wanted to quickly remind everyone that we've got two screenings of Second Skin happening in Indiana very soon. The first is Fringe Festival 2008 on August 9th as well as at Gen Con between August 14th-17th. You can find more information about both on the screenings page of the site.

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