miketheratguy

Oh if we're going to talk nostalgic commercials with ridiculously catchy jingles, then we're going here.

Right, if a magazine had been offered with multiple covers I'd planned on just downloading each cover and editing my copy of the file to include them all at the front.

Okay good, I was worried that that would be my next question.

Fruity marshmallow krispies? Yuck!

I don't think that I've knowingly downloaded an issue that has multiple covers, so I don't know how you guys handle that kind of thing. When there are multiple covers do you go through all the work of scanning each magazine in its entirety to make them available as separate downloads, or do you just scan each cover and include them all in the single scanned magazine so that all of the covers come in one?

Lol "you look like a wild man". I'm going to go there and spring this on them, just for the satisfaction of hearing that response. You're lucky. I'd give just about anything to spend some time in Japan. I love their culture so much. Their language, their art, their music, their architecture, I could go on and on. The only thing is that I couldn't eat any of their food, I'd have to go to the local Mcdonalds for every meal. And I couldn't go clean-shaven, for when I'm devoid of all facial hair I look like some kind of miscreant. I love taiko. I'll listen to any taiko performance that anyone wants to throw at me. Unfortunately your link didn't have sound for some reason, but watching it on Youtube worked fine. Good stuff, those are some talented kids. Gorgeous vista, too. What a great location to put on a performance. Have you ever seen the somewhat obscure 1995 Christopher Lambert film "The Hunted"? It's got an amazing soundtrack by Kodo which is even more obscure than the film is. It's got a fantastic opening title track that I couldn't find anywhere, but I managed to locate a track that was somewhat similar. The good stuff begins a minute in.

Some of us should create a site or something. Gather all our manuals and make them available online without intrusive watermarks. Without intrusion by THE MAN!

I'm always behind the curve. When I had short hair, women fawned over people like Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. When I let my hair grow past my shoulders a decade later, women loved the messy-haired bad boy look. Now that I'm back to short and scruffy, women want emos and the startlingly effeminate Zac Effron / Justin Beiber soft coiff, neither of which I'm ever going to subject myself to. And don't even get me started on the inconsistency of beard appreciation. I think I should just move to Japan. The culture seems less finicky, the female population is 98% beautiful, and I could go for a kumi-daiko concert anyway.

The one at the beginning kind of looks like a boy anyway. My sexual deviance remains in check.

Thanks guys. Is there some kind of place that anyone's aware of where stuff like this could be uploaded and archived? I mean aside from the aforementioned sites that we already know about? Surely there's got to be a place where manuals could be hosted without watermarks and so forth. Maybe Retromags could consider it. Got it. If I see you post a link and say "You're welcome, shitlord", then I'll know that it's time to take the gloves off. Unfortunately for you, I AM a shitlord!!!!

Well, he can take some solace in the fact that they kept the racial makeup the same. Strangely, they made sure to keep that consistent...

Awesome!

Ohhhh no. Live, raw, and unedited. In lieu of pulling the Gametron lever you'll get to hear me get taken to the emergency room. It'll be like "hold your wee for a Wii" but for art.

If you honestly quoted that without having to look it up, I'm impressed (points for the quality of the revision regardless). If you had to cheat, I foresee in your future a podcast episode consisting of nothing but Howard and I peeing on The Curse of Monkey Island.

I don't remember them being that cheap but to be fair I was only 8 so I could easily be mistaken. Idunno though, $25 bucks sounds about as low as Atari games were. I'm remembering NES games as typically costing $40 - $50 dollars apiece.

Insect politics.

Wow, I won't be able to read a word of this but it's definitely an huge piece of gaming history. Looking forward to paging through it.

"You see the casting of women to portray entirely new characters from those in the original film to be a more drastic decision than casting male actors to portray those characters". Yes, but only because the first two films (and the cartoon, yada yada) were established with males as the leads. If this thread was about an all-male reboot of The Descent I'd be making the exact same argument for the other gender. And the only example I gave that I feel would constitute a major change in premise and tone was the Shawshank one. I think that Jason wielding a gun and the Gremlins looking different are cosmetic changes on the same level as switching a cast from male to female. I'm sure it didn't. That was my whole point.

Maybe THAT'S what he's looking at. He's reaching to remove the censor bar, notices The Witcher, and is captured saying "Holy shit!"

Yes, I'm guessing that the new Ghostbusters movie was greenlit simply because it was viewed as potentially profitable, no doubt boosted by the inevitable merchandising deals. That doesn't make the movie unique. I do however believe that they honestly didn't expect any controversy whatsoever. Kristen Wiig herself publicly spoke of being unprepared and even "bummed" about it. That was the first thing that made me feel sorry for these women. The second thing, believe it or not, was in fact the collection of shots of the girls visiting sick kids in the hospital. They're in full costume. They look happy to be there. They're doing a wonderful thing that they didn't have to do. I don't remember it being sensationalized nor even publicized. I stumbled onto the pictures completely by accident. These women are just actresses trying to do their jobs and spending some of their time away from those jobs using their roles to bring joy to needy kids' lives. They're probably totally decent people. They don't deserve to be shit on just because they were hired to fill roles that were previously occupied by men. My beef, if you can call it that, was never with them. The one thing you said that I'd still disagree with is "As a reboot featuring completely new characters, it just doesn't seem necessary to even ask for any kind of justification for the change". I would argue that, while it's not necessary or in any way mandatory, it seems like the respectful thing to do for the audience. If you're going to take a well-established 30 year-old property and reinvent it using new elements (whether they be the cast, the setting, the plot, etc.) that are drastically different from what fans have reasonably come to expect, I think that it's fair to provide some kind of explanation for the change. If they rebooted Friday the 13th (again) and had Jason Voorhees brandishing a gun, I think it would be reasonable of the fans to want an explanation. If they rebooted The Shawshank Redemption and made it a musical that took place in the present day, I think it would be reasonable of the fans to want an explanation. If they rebooted Gremlins and made the titular creatures multi-tentacled flipper beasts, I think it would be reasonable of the fans to want an explanation. Here's where I agree with you: Generally speaking, an actress should be able to have a role in a film without that role requiring some kind of special explanation or justification. This is especially true if gender has no particular bearing on the story. What we disagree on is the implication that female casting is somehow above inquiry "because female". When a female is given a role (in this case I'm referring to the role of lead, not character) that was formerly filled by a male, I think it becomes a perfectly acceptable scenario to question. I would think that the majority of people would question it in the narrative sense, because suddenly throwing a bunch of female Ghostbusters on the screen without any explanation as to what happened to the male characters would demonstrate complete disregard for the audience (and, to be fair, there's no reason to doubt that such a narrative explanation will in fact be given in the film). If it makes sense to question changes like that in the fictional world, it should make just as much sense to question such a thing in the "real" world. People expect some degree of continuity. They become accustomed to something when it remains consistent throughout years of exposure. When something is suddenly different, it's only logical to ask why. If the answer seems inadequate (in this case I'm not personally aware of any explanation at all), well, naturally, many of the established fans are going to roll their eyes. A poor explanation (or lack thereof) wouldn't exactly encourage people about Jason's AK-47, it wouldn't make them any more thrilled to see the modern musical version of The Shawshank Redemption, and it wouldn't inspire confidence in the dramatic redesign of the Gremlins. All this is to say that not all people resist the big change to Ghostbusters because they have something against women (though, I fully agree, it sure seems like the majority do). Some of them resist the big change to Ghostbusters because, well.... it's a big change to Ghostbusters. The movie is what it is, it's going to earn whatever box office and critical praise it's going to earn, and mankind will slowly forget and move onto more important matters. I think that the only proper way for you and I to put a button on all of this is to go to the theater on opening day and engage in a bloody fistfight right in front of the screen, ensuring that EVERYONE goes home equally upset. Except us, of course.

I agree. Why Duke though? I would think that if anyone would be going for a topless Lara Croft, he would. Hmm....Maybe he isn't the censor, but is actually coming up from behind Lara to remove the bar. Maybe his leering expression is actually being directed at whomever placed it there. That actually puts this cover in a whole different perspective.

Oh don't mind me, I just like throwing out commentary about the covers. Don't take any of it to heart. If they ever did an issue with something like Silent Hill 2 or one of the Elder Scrolls games on the cover you'd see me get all nostalgic and sappy like a wide-eyed little child. Besides, I don't think that it's necessarily a bad cover. It's got topless Lara Croft on it! That automatically balances out Nukem's antics.

Ah, the Rolling Stone parody. I remember this one, and the discomfort that I felt with Duke Nuken's creepy leering.

And sometimes, unfortunately, living next to both cities means we have to deal with all that they have to offer. I may not always enjoy spending time there but I'm proud to call Kenosha home. It's the city of Orson Welles, Mark Ruffalo, and Bert I. Gordon, who holds the record for the most films mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. John Candy mentioned us in Home Alone!

Yeah, unfortunately it's not really the finest hour for any of these ladies.