Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 227

Stacking, Dungeon Raid, King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame, Julian & Demiurge's Pinball Odyssey, Your Emails and more!

This week Shawn, Cory and Julian talk about the latest acquisition for the rabbitcave: a pinball machine!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!

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Stacking
The Pinball Table
Magicka
Dungeon Raid

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Go Blonde - Lucky Ghost - http://luckyghost.com/ - 20:58

Made in America - Lucky Ghost - http://luckyghost.com/ - 38:56

Comments

Thanks for the community love and another great podcast.

Spoiler:

I HAVE DISTURBED THE GARDEN!

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

Tanglebones wrote:

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

The film's director Adrian Lyne used a famous body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. In an interview Lyne said he was inspired by the art of Francis Bacon when developing the effect. This effect is one of the signature animation techniques developed by The Brothers Quay and used extensively in their short films, including Street of Crocodiles (1986), based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.

Jacob's Ladder was 1990, so there's at least one short film that did it earlier.

Also, great pics of the table.

Those are some epically vintage sounds coming from the 4 Square machine.

Edit: And I approve of the break music once again.

With each addition to rabbit's man cave, I get more and more jealous. I was a big pinball fan back in the arcade days, not just for the great experience, but also because you could play more than one game with a single quarter via reaching the replay score and/or getting a number match at the end of the game.

Shoal07 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

The film's director Adrian Lyne used a famous body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. In an interview Lyne said he was inspired by the art of Francis Bacon when developing the effect. This effect is one of the signature animation techniques developed by The Brothers Quay and used extensively in their short films, including Street of Crocodiles (1986), based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.

Jacob's Ladder was 1990, so there's at least one short film that did it earlier.

Also, great pics of the table.

Thanks for the correction; the only Brothers Quay stuff I know are videos they did for Tool; I've got a few of their shorts on my Netflix queue, though.

If Cory is Julian's nerd wife, does that make Hedgewizard their nerd mistress?

Just joined your site. Love the podcast.

Sorry, missed the name of the guy who was new but wanted to play with the community, specifically in Bad Company 2:

The home of Bad Company 2 PC discussion and regular Thursday night game is right here. BC2 doesn't work well to meet up with people via Steam anyway. Your best bet is to get Ventrilo set up and join the channel in the first post in that thread, and look for people down in some of the channels on the bottom of the list on that server. That's where the BC2 people are normally to be found. Then pester them to find out what server they happen to be playing on.

Relevant to the beginning of the podcast: Tim Schafer's next game is a Sesame Street game for Kinect. I'm curious what Rabbit thinks of that news.

New listener to the show, just wanted to say I´ve enjoyed it a lot, can´t wait for the new episode! This, alongside the CagCast and the Joystiq Podcast are probably the most enjoyable video-game shows right now.

Tanglebones wrote:
Shoal07 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

The film's director Adrian Lyne used a famous body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. In an interview Lyne said he was inspired by the art of Francis Bacon when developing the effect. This effect is one of the signature animation techniques developed by The Brothers Quay and used extensively in their short films, including Street of Crocodiles (1986), based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.

Jacob's Ladder was 1990, so there's at least one short film that did it earlier.

Also, great pics of the table.

Thanks for the correction; the only Brothers Quay stuff I know are videos they did for Tool; I've got a few of their shorts on my Netflix queue, though.

Actually the Tool music videos are made by Adam Jones (Tool's guitarist) and Fred Stuhr, not the Brothers Quay.

Gravey wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
Shoal07 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

The film's director Adrian Lyne used a famous body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. In an interview Lyne said he was inspired by the art of Francis Bacon when developing the effect. This effect is one of the signature animation techniques developed by The Brothers Quay and used extensively in their short films, including Street of Crocodiles (1986), based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.

Jacob's Ladder was 1990, so there's at least one short film that did it earlier.

Also, great pics of the table.

Thanks for the correction; the only Brothers Quay stuff I know are videos they did for Tool; I've got a few of their shorts on my Netflix queue, though.

Actually the Tool music videos are made by Adam Jones (Tool's guitarist) and Fred Stuhr, not the Brothers Quay. :)

GAH! Ok, fine. I'll just be in my corner, being wrong about everything /sulk

themarriedgamer wrote:

Just joined your site. Love the podcast.

achubananoiabr wrote:

New listener to the show, just wanted to say I´ve enjoyed it a lot, can´t wait for the new episode! This, alongside the CagCast and the Joystiq Podcast are probably the most enjoyable video-game shows right now.

Welcome to you both.

And who said guilt trips don't work?

garion333 wrote:

And who said guilt trips don't work? ;)

Yeah, Certis is like a Portuguese mother. Quite impressive.

To anyone wondering how best to jump in on the forum, just find a thread for a game you're enjoying and start chatting.

Except maybe the Mass Effect 2 thread, that one is so front loaded with baggage it's permanently tainted.

You guys talking about DA2 are weakening my resolve to hold out for an 'Ultimate Edition' down the line. I got so fatigued by the stupid marketing that I lost interest. It's coming back now.

Pinball, oh man, pinball. *sigh* You're getting a soppy email about that from me for sure.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

You guys talking about DA2 are weakening my resolve to hold out for an 'Ultimate Edition' down the line. I got so fatigued by the stupid marketing that I lost interest. It's coming back now.

Should I hum some Marilyn Manson?

Nice to see new faces!

Coming next week: You never call anymore. How do I know you're not dead in a ditch?!

These 'Julian does something old-fashioned-and-game-related' segments always make me a little sad. I'm fifteen, and my first EVER real-life pinball experience was last year, on a dusty old machine at a local arcade. Someone needs to catalogue all this stuff for posterity, and soon.

Gravey wrote:

Should I hum some Marilyn Manson?

Heh, it's not even that. It was the lack of PC hands on previews until mid-January more than anything else. All the focus on exxxtreme action in the previews and then a talking head saying, 'No, the PC version isn't like this' was off-putting.

Anyway, I'm done grinding that axe. I will probably crack and pre-order by the end of the month, fact is DA:O is one of my favourite games of all time, waiting a year is unpalatable.

RE: Games for 4-year-olds.

My daughter is 4, and I play Minecraft with her. It started out with her just using the mouse (tip: buy a small mouse, and one less than 4 buttons), and me controlling the keyboard. Soon she wanted to use the keyboard, and now has pretty much mastered WASD. I used to have to handle ladders and jumps for her, but now she can do those, too. Kids pick up things faster than you think, so if you can ease the start of the curve a little bit (like having a second mouse plugged into the same computer so you can easily "assist" without interrupting them), they will catch up pretty fast.

I ended up buying a second account, and now we play on two computers beside each other on a multiplayer server I have running just for us. It's like having a infinite Lego collection.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

These 'Julian does something old-fashioned-and-game-related' segments always make me a little sad. I'm fifteen, and my first EVER real-life pinball experience was last year, on a dusty old machine at a local arcade. Someone needs to catalogue all this stuff for posterity, and soon.

Right there with you man. Depending on what part of the country you live in, people ARE doing that. Rochester NY has the museum of play. Northern California has the Pacific Pinball Museum. Las Vegas has the Pinball Hall of Fame. Washington has the National Pinball Museum. And around the country, small amusement parks are a bastion of pinheads. Even big amusement parks like Disney or Six Flags tend to have 5-10 good pinball machines in good repair.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

These 'Julian does something old-fashioned-and-game-related' segments always make me a little sad. I'm fifteen, and my first EVER real-life pinball experience was last year, on a dusty old machine at a local arcade. Someone needs to catalogue all this stuff for posterity, and soon.

I think that makes you the youngest Goodjer. Get off my lawn!

Rat Boy wrote:
El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

These 'Julian does something old-fashioned-and-game-related' segments always make me a little sad. I'm fifteen, and my first EVER real-life pinball experience was last year, on a dusty old machine at a local arcade. Someone needs to catalogue all this stuff for posterity, and soon.

I think that makes you the youngest Goodjer. Get off my lawn! :old:

IMAGE(http://imgur.com/FwkhA.jpg)

Tanglebones wrote:

I think the shaky headed monsters originated in Jacob's Ladder, one of my favorite horror movies.

...and the only movie I've ever seen that gave me a nightmare.* I've never been inclined to try Dead Space, but if I did, I'd probably quit at the same point Demiurge did.

* although, oddly enough, the nightmare was set in Vietnam rather than focusing on the creepy-weird stuff from the movie

On the segment about good Wii games for a 4 year old, my son just adores Kirby's Epic Yarn. Pretty hard to go wrong with that one.

rabbit wrote:

Right there with you man. Depending on what part of the country you live in, people ARE doing that. Rochester NY has the museum of play. Northern California has the Pacific Pinball Museum. Las Vegas has the Pinball Hall of Fame. Washington has the National Pinball Museum. And around the country, small amusement parks are a bastion of pinheads. Even big amusement parks like Disney or Six Flags tend to have 5-10 good pinball machines in good repair.

Unfortunately the cave-men of New Zealand have yet to build such a museum Darned cavemen.

Cory half-naked on a pinball machine. Boy, the hotness never ends with this show.

Floating flopping dead baby head sounds like the best thing ever.

Oh no, Dragon Age 2 is almost here! I am so not ready for that time sink. I still need to finish playing Baldur's Gate II for the seventh time!

New to the Xbox 360? I started with smaller games, like Limbo and Castlevania on the Arcade. Rock Band is actually relatively cheap to get into if all you want to do is sing or play guitar.

If the last time the guy used Steam was when The Orange Box came out, he will be pleasantly surprised to see how much better it is now.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Relevant to the beginning of the podcast: Tim Schafer's next game is a Sesame Street game for Kinect. I'm curious what Rabbit thinks of that news.

I thought this news sounded so interesting right up until I read the word "Kinect." Tim Schafer + Sesame Street is a great fit, but the man is not known for pushing the boundaries of gameplay or control schemes, and when you add this new and unproven input hardware into the mix... I dunno.

Rat Boy wrote:

If Cory is Julian's nerd wife, does that make Hedgewizard their nerd mistress?

Just catching up on the podcasts and saw this. It should be known that I am merely Julian's West Coast Tart (JWCT) for when Cory just doesn't satisfy.

I really like the pinball segment because it made me want to go out and try one of these old school mechanical pinball machines.