Hulu Recommendation Friday: Gotcha!

In 1982, Steve Jackson Games released Killer: The Assassination Game, a game many consider to be the first "live action role playing" game (LARP). The game was the first serious attempt by a professional game company to provide a full scale set of rules for "Assassination Games" in order to facilitate more entertaining play. Games like "Assassination" or "Cops and Robbers" can become heated affairs without the establishment of firm and agreed upon norms for play and a consistent means for arbitration of disagreements. This is exactly the niche that Killer was able to fill. The game is still available as a pdf from Steve Jackson Games and even if you never intend to play a game, it is an entertaining read.

1982 also saw the release of the motion picture TAG: THE ASSASSINATION GAME. In this film, starring Linda Hamilton and Robert Carradine, an "Assassination" game goes bad. When reigning champion (Bruce Abbot) is killed under humiliating circumstances, he breaks and decides he needs to raise the stakes and play The Most Dangerous Game. The film is difficult to find on video, but it perfectly captured the 80s concerns regarding gaming and obsession. A large part of the 80s culture wars were the constant discussion about whether role playing games, or violent games like "Assassin," could corrupt the minds of the young and turn them into psychopathic killers. TAG: THE ASSASSINATION GAME is a film that plays on those fears.

In response to these kinds of concerns, more recent editions of the Steve Jackson Games version of Killer have included the following disclaimer.



While TAG: THE ASSASSINATION GAME is near impossible to find -- VHS copies average $90 on eBay -- for the time being, you can watch the film on Google Video.

GOTCHA! (1985) raised the stakes of "Assassination" games in a very different way than TAG. Where TAG represented the fears associated with the 80s Culture Wars, GOTCHA! is a comedy that plays off Cold War narrative tropes. The protagonist in GOTCHA! is as obsessed with "GOTCHA!" as the villain in TAG was with "TAG," but the skills he learned while playing the LARP end up serving him well when he gets caught up in the world of espionage. Anthony Edwards is wonderfully naive in the film, and Linda Fiorentino is enthralling as the seductress/spy. GOTCHA! lacks the sophistication of Stanley Donen's classic CHARADE, another film where an innocent gets caught up in the world of intrigue, but it is wonderful popcorn entertainment.

Solomon Kane (2009) Has Yet to Secure US Distributor -- Come on Pulp Fans!

Earlier this year, I wrote about the upcoming SOLOMON KANE film. According to the film's production company (as of 11/24/2009) no company has purchased the rights to distribute the film in the United States.

It is time for us pulp fans to get the message out and build some buzz for this film. It may, or may not, live up to Howard fan expectations, but we must get the full big screen experience.

If you want a couple of talking points to respond to questions about the character, here were my thoughts:

If you were to take a random sample of Americans and ask them to name a hero created by Robert E Howard, arguably the creator of the Sword and Sorcery genre, their most likely answer would be Conan the Barbarian. For the past forty years, since Lin Carter and L. Sprague De Camp resurrected the hero for mass consumption, Howard's man of gigantic mirth and gigantic melancholies has appeared in a wide variety of media for public consumption. People have encountered Conan, or some approximation, in film, video games, comic books, television shows, and numerous pastiches written by more recent authors. Never mind the fact that the Conan of popular culture bears only passing resemblance to Howard's barbarian, the character has become a deeply ingrained part of the American Mythos.

From time to time some devoted soul, will attempt to resurrect another of Howard's heroes in the hopes that they too will become a part of the American psyche.

A little over a decade ago we saw the release of Kull the Conquerer starring Kevin Sorbo. Kull was a proto-Conan and the first published Conan stories is a re-writing of a Kull tale. The film meandered between the swashbuckling stylings of a Harryhausen Sinbad film and the camp of the Batman television series, and in doing so failed to capture the character or any real audience.

There have also been attempts to bring Howard's dour and deadly Puritan, Solomon Kane. In the 70s, Marvel Comics released a number of Solomon Kane comics, recently Dark Horse has done the same. In fact, Dark Horse is publishing the reprint trades of the Marvel books. In the 90s, Baen Books released a collection of Howard's Solomon Kane stories with and introduction by Ramsey Campbell. Campbell also used the Bael edition as an opportunity to "collaborate" with Howard in a manner similar to de Camp and the Conan tales. Del Rey released a beautiful edition of the Solomon Kane tales, with wonderful artwork by Gary Gianni, in 2004 -- an edition still in print -- that collects all of the original tales with a few exclusive story fragments. The Del Rey edition is Kane as Howard wrote him. Solomon Kane has even been the subject of the excellent The Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane role playing game by Pinnacle Entertainment.

Kane is among my favorite Sword and Sorcery heroes. His combination of a forthright pursuit of justice and his unforgiving personality makes for an interesting take on the "religiously motivated" hero. Howard describes him as, "a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan...A hunger in his soul drove him on an on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things...Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect -- he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane." Like so many of Howard's heroes, Kane was -- like Howard himself -- One Who Waled Alone.

Kane's star is certainly rising in the popular psyche, but how great a place the Puritan will hold will greatly depend on the upcoming film starring James Purefoy as the title character. If the preview is any indication, the character of the film will not be Howard's character "made flesh," but Purefoy's Kane might just be Howard's character in spirit.

Rocket Packs and Spaceships: Capcom's Dark Void Looks Like Pulpy Goodness

In January 2010, Capcom will be releasing a game that combines several pulpy elements dear to my heart.

First, the game opens with a pilot named Will who gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle during a storm only to find himself in an alien landscape.

Second, Will eventually acquires a rocket pack which he can use to combat the evil alien "Watchers."

Third, Capcom brought in some of the design crew from the excellent pulpy aerial combat game CRIMSON SKIES to work on this project. CRIMSON SKIES had a fluid and intuitive control interface, and the aerobatics of the game were truly exciting.

The game combines third person shooter/platformer action, with the aerial combat mechanics of CRIMSON SKIES and has an interesting visual style, all of which are highlighted in Capcom's latest preview video.

Looking at the game, it doesn't look like it will be a groundbreaking and genre redefining game like UNCHARTED 2 or MODERN WARFARE 2, but it does look like it will be a fun experience for those who love guys in rocket packs battling aliens. I know that I'll be picking this up next month.

It should also provide yet another weapon in my arsenal as I try to convince my game group to start up a Slipstream (pulpy SF setting for Savage Worlds) campaign.

Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory: Substance or Tin Foil Hats?

The number of Gen X-ers who have fond memories of the classic myth and conspiracy television show In Search Of are legion. Each episode, Leonard Nemoy would narrate an "investigation" into some popular myth, ancient legend, or conspiracy. Viewers would learn a lot about the myth as myth, but leave most episodes with little knowledge of the "truth" regarding any of the topics being studied.

The show presented the topic, but didn't engage with it critically -- only observationally. Episodes about UFOs would feature interviews with those who claimed to have seen UFOs, or who claimed to be abducted, but wouldn't usually present the skeptical view.

Years later, Gen X-ers were among the first to enjoy the mythbusting exploits of James Randi, the "Mythbusters," and Penn and Teller. These individual provided wonderful tonic for many of our modern superstitions and did society a service by promoting skeptical thinking. More than that, they also provided great entertainment.

Myths and conspiracies are topics which captivate the imagination, and like most people I love learning about new ones. While the mythbusters listed above spend a great deal of time testing and exposing myths, they don't spend a lot of time introducing us to new ones. That is work for other people.

Enter Jesse Ventura.




The Former Governor, Navy SEAL, and Professional Wrestler has a new show entitled CONSPIRACY THEORY debuting on truTV Wednesday, December 2nd at 10 p.m. (ET/PT). The show builds on Ventura's reputation as a rebel and combines his passion for conspiracy theories with his blunt and forceful personality.

Each episode, Ventura and his circle of intrepid investigators (images of Doc Savage and his crew are currently running through my mind) go out into the field to examine these claims and present their results to the viewing audience. truTV describes the show as follows, "They're on a mission to examine possible conspiracies surrounding secret societies, global warming, alleged 9/11 cover-ups, a research center in Alaska that could be a secret government weapon, and apocalyptic prophecies, to name a few."

The first episode, which airs tonight, investigates claims made about a remote joint Air Force and Naval research center in Alaska called HAARP (The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program). Throughout the episode various claims are made about HAARP. It is a secret weapon, it can control the weather and create earthquakes, it is a mind control device. Ventura and his team present each of these suppositions and interview individuals about the mystery of HAARP.

I think that this was an interesting, and odd, choice for a first episode. I had never heard of HAARP before the episode. This made me interested to learn more about it, but it also meant that it was curiosity with the new and not excitement that brought me to the episode.

Most of the investigation in this episode is less than engaging, that is until Ventura interviews Dr. Nick Begich. Dr. Begich is good television. He is the kind of guest that Penn and Teller's producers work hard to get on their show. The Begich section of the episode is so engaging, particularly after some of the earlier interviews, that I am having to hold myself back from writing more in order to avoid giving out spoilers.

CONSPIRACY THEORY's first episode introduced me to a conspiracy with which I was completely unfamiliar, and it did eventually manage to entertain, but it didn't do what I had most hoped for in a show of this type. Maybe it's because I live in a post-Randi world, but I expect shows like this to question the conspiracy. Ventura and crew didn't, they presented the conspiracy. Which is fun, but I want more.

In coming weeks, the show will feature episodes on the following topics:

• 9/11
• Global Warming
• Big Brother
• Secret Societies
• Manchurian Candidates
• Apocalypse 2012

Buck Rogers Web Series Debuting in 2010

The Dille Trust and Cawley Entertainment will be streaming a new Buck Rogers web series in 2010 and have posted a teaser trailer. When they wrote it was a teaser trailer, they meant it was a teaser trailer. One cannot discern much about what the series will be based in the short trailer available, but a couple of things are pretty clear.

First, there WILL be rocket ships. This is a good thing. One of the major flaws of the Syfy Flash Gordon series was its awkward attempt to write around rocket ships as transportation.

Second, Gil Gerard will be involved in some way. Given that the Gil Gerard series had a good cameo by Buster Crabbe, it's nice to see the Dille trust continuing the tradition of "handing off the baton."

Third, this is Buck Rogers. That in and of itself is enough to spark my interest.

Here is a description of what they intend to bring to the monitor next year:

Executive Producer James Cawley will be bringing Buck back to his beginnings telling the story from the perspective of a 22 year old Buck Rogers who leaves World War One and is propelled into the 25th Century. “We will be using the technology we have today, to present The Original version of The First Sci-Fi Hero ever! Previous filmed incarnations never really captured the original Buck from the comic strips, which is what we aim to do” Franchise owner, writer and game designer, Flint Dille will be an Executive Producer and Consultant, and will be instrumental in keeping true to the Buck Rogers mythos. Charles Root & Gary Evans who have been instrumental in the success of “New Voyages” will also be serving as Co-Executive Producers for Retro Film studios.

If it is true that they will be aiming to bring the "Original" version of the character to the monitor, some audience members may be turned off by the Yellow Peril nature of the narrative. The early comic strip stories were heavy with Yellow Peril imagery.

While I love rocketships and the classic time period for Buck, the best Buck adaptations -- the Gerard series, the Crabbe serial, the XXIV roleplaying game -- all contained some elements that updated the narrative for "contemporary" audiences. For example, the Gerard series played off of Cold War nuclear holocaust fears and the XXIV game (written by the talented Mike Pondsmith creator of the Cyberpunk rpg for R. Talsorian) incorporated cyberpunk and steampunk narrative elements. I hope this new version does something similar.

Speaking of Mike Pondsmith...one of these days I am going to have to do a post on just how influential this man has been in geek culture and how ahead of his time his concepts have been. Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Mecha, and Dragonball Z...he was there early and deep.

Tor Books Offering Cthulhu Christmas Cards and Baby Onesies

As a part of Tor Books Cthulhu themed December, the book publisher announced today that they will be selling Cthulhu themed Christmas cards and Baby Onesies in their online store. Looking at the quality of the artwork, and the fact that my twin daughters already have D&D themed onesies from Jinx (a gift from my dear friend Eric), this item will definitely be finding its way onto my list of Geek recommendations for Christmas this year.




Looking at the front of the onesie, we see a happy Santa with a happy H.P. Lovecraft sitting on his lap. If you look closely at the chair, you can make out some disturbing iconography. Instead of cheerful woodland animals sculpted into the frame, we see something more squamous and rugose.



Where we really see the sinister nature of these shirts is on the back side. Here we see that Santa isn't who we originally thought, instead of hailing from the North Pole he hails from Sleeping R'lyeh. Poor little H.P. is getting what he always dreamed about for Christmas, but we don't always want what we see in our dreams.

You can buy the shirt here.

Real Reason for "Mayan Apocalypse"

John Kovalic shows us how 2012 is just the Mayan version of the y2k technology error. When in doubt, blame IT guys.

One thing though. Did you notice how close, "CTL ALT KINICH AHAU" is to Cthulhu?

Which reminds me how close CTL-ALT-DEL is to Cthulhu.