Tarzan, Cthulhu, and Other Boardgames I'm Excited About

One of the terrors of being a person who enjoys games is the "new game season" where new products are announced and the desire to acquire takes over. This year is no different from years past and looks like it will be offering a large array of games to tempt my pocketbook. I already mentioned the upcoming Heroscape Marvel edition, which will be released around January with a cost of around $29.99, but there are some other games I am anticipating.

Tarzan Triumphant, by Troll Lord Games features one of my favorite characters from literature in what looks like will be either a good or a horrible game. No matter what, it doesn't look like a great game, but the milieu of the game will be sufficient to take my $39.99.

I am very much looking forward to the Dunwich Horror expansion to the Arkham Horror boardgame by Fantasy Flight Games. The Arkham Horror game innovatively combines RPG-lite boardgame (ala Talisman, Heroquest, Dungeon) with detective game (Clue, 221-B Baker St.) mechanics with a hint of horror. The game can be played solo, but is best when played with a group of fellow Lovecraft afficianadoes.

The soon to be released Marvel Heroes Game, not to be confused with the above Heroscape game, also by Fantasy Flight Games combines two of my favorite things, games and comic books.

A boardgame based on the television series Lost looks like it should be interesting. The designers claim that the game will mix elements of Talisman (an rpg-lite boardgame), Magic the Gathering (a strategy cardgame), Settlers of Catan (an excellent customizable "Euro-game"), and Chess. We'll see, but the game sounds promising. I only have two fears. First, it is based on a license and many licensed games suck. Though if you find a copy of TSR's All My Children let me know. Second, will the game's adaptation of the Lost environment sufficiently simulate the show and how will changes in the show affect future supplements?

Now I will just have to concentrate on actually experiencing the games and not just purchasing them.

Marvel Heroscape

For those who love comic books and Heroscape there is reason for rejoicing.

'Nuff Said.

Tulipomania Brings Eagle Games to Its Knees

Anyone who has read Charles Mackay's excellent Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is familiar with the Seventeenth century phenomenon of Tulipomania. The rich of Holland became enamoured of the tulip and were willing to pay extravagant prices for them, thus the value of tulip bulbs increased to extremely high amounts. So high, in fact, that those who bought the bulbs soon stopped planting the tulips, only buying the bulbs for resale later, and the market died because there were no buyers. A similar thing happened to comic books in the early 1990s.

Since 2000, the classic game of poker has grown from a fringe casino/home game to a televised event on ESPN. In response, many gaming companies began to offer poker support products. Eagle Games was one such company. They made computer games, poker supplies, and sold poker books. Their poker sales surpased their boardgame sales and became the flagship of the company, so much so that when the market on poker declined they have recently run into trouble.

From the President...

"Hello All,

The auction that has just been noticed by Amcore Bank is a part of a foreclosure process. Due to a sudden and severe downturn last year in the demand for poker products, Eagle Games, Inc. became insolvent and finally ceased operations on May 31, 2006.

The Eagle Games brand and the existing inventory is what is being sold at auction.

I am personally continuing to work on game design and development for Age of Empires and Pirates! (The guys at SDR are spearheading the actual game design for Pirates!) and expect that they will both be ready for publication this Fall/ Holiday season.

More details will be forthcoming after the auction on August 4th.

I appreciate the support that you have all shown Eagle Games in the past and hope that Eagle Games products are available for years to come. "

Eagle Games Inc. makes some wonderful games. Their re-release of Conquest of the Empire was excellent as were their adaptations of Railroad Tycoon and Age of Mythology from videogame to boardgame. I was eagerly awaiting their adaptations of Age of Empires III and Sid Meier's Pirates. Hopefully those products will still be able to be released. The gaming market is a tough racket, I hope they are able to recover.

Pandora Rocks My World

Those who frequent this site, both of you, might have noticed a little box on the right hand side of the page listing "stations." Those are links to internet radio stations that I created using the Pandora website.

I know, I know, the tech savvy among you are saying, "What took you so long Christian? Pandora's been around forever!" And follow this up with 50 sites that have better internet radio functionality. But I find the Pandora site amazing.

Since I first set up a station, I have not listened to one mp3 on my PC. I haven't had too. Pandora combines the ability to listen to music I already like, with a robust AI that finds songs that I might like. According to the website, that is the purpose "to find you more music you like." Boy does it ever.

Add to the quality of the music library, sorry no classical yet, the Pandora Backstage function provides a great amount of detail to whatever song/band you are listening to. In fact, the Backstage information is sufficient to waste hours of my time. Reading the bios/discographic information is a joy and makes me feel like I might actually be able to hold a conversation with Nick Hornby someday.

BTW, check out why they recommend songs to you when you give this program a whirl.

One example from a song recommended for me:

We're playing this track because it features punk influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, a vocal-centric aesthetic and minor key tonality.

I wish I spoke about music like that on a regular basis.

Mad Cowgirl Stuns New York Times, Interests Wisconsin Law Professor

Ann Althouse has posted a link to a review of a film that Luke Y. Thompson (you'll notice a link to his blog on the right) worked on. It even sounds like a recommendation.

Tecmo Super Bowl for the Masses

The video I posted with the simulation of the Sox/Mets World Series got me thinking about one of the all-time great video games, Tecmo Super Bowl. I still play this masterpiece of videogame football magic. Sure, I buy the new Madden every year and play the heck out of it, but there is something magic about Tecmo. A part of that magic, is the ability to pull off crazy plays like this.



Cinerati member Rob and I used to play a lot of Tecmo Bowl.

NBC to Make Shows Available on Netflix Before Broadcast

In a bold move, NBC Television will be making the pilot episodes for two of their upcoming new series available for rental on the Netflix DVD rental service. According to the Netflix website a DVD with the pilots for both "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Kidnapped" will be available for rental on August 8th, about 6 weeks before the new television season starts.

Here are the descriptions of the shows:

"Kidnapped"
Ellie (Dana Delany) and Conrad Cain (Timothy Hutton) experience every parent's nightmare when their 15-year-old son is kidnapped and they must enlist a rescue expert (Jeremy Sisto) to save him. As the hours race by, secrets and motives begin leaking from every direction. In the same style as "24," the TV drama series is told from various perspectives

"Studio 60"
Network president Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) is emphatic about the reformation of a dysfunctional late-night sketch show and recruits reputable writers Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Trip (Bradley Whitford) to redeem Studio 60. Aaron Sorkin gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what really happens when the camera stops rolling in this TV drama series.

I have been looking forward to Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60" show with it's dramatic look at a fictional "Saturday Night Live," and I have already added the DVD to my queue. I might as well see if I like "Kidnapped" while I am at it.

I think that this marketing effort by NBC is shear genius. It allows me, the consumer, to feel like an "insider" by offering me a screener similar to what a professional movie critic might be given. All of this, just because I am a Netflix subscriber. I don't know if Netflix is paying NBC for the privilege of offering the episodes (as they would were it a series DVD), or if NBC is merely using Netflix in a marketing effort, for that matter I don't care. What I do like is that NBC is offering me, the consumer, an opportunity to watch their show at my leisure. This is even more cool that when I was able to watch the pilot of "Brotherhood" on Shotime On Demand weeks before the pilot aired.

UPDATE:

The Hollywood Reporter also has a blurb about the release.