Month: June 2007

I think everyone above the age of 22 who’s held a controller in their hands has at some point thought to themselves “man, aren’t I too old for this?” The answer, unfortunately, is not something that I know for sure. The question itself, however, has become much more relevant to me since I graduated in May, so I wanted to spend a little time discussing it.

I find it extremely unfortunate that telling someone that you enjoy “gaming” puts you at risk of your maturity coming under question. People love games, no matter what the type – video games, board games, role playing games, card games, mind games, and sports. So why does someone fall under scrutiny if they list games, particularly video games, as one of their favorite past times?

The crew is back for the first new episode of the season and the first episode to be fully under the banner of The Rumble Pack. Everyone has a lot to talk about since there was a month long hiatus. The most important topic being the future of Manhunt 2. Is the fate of the games industry in the hands of the casual gamers? Cheap movie theatres are awesome! And the gang learns a little too much about what it takes to survive a long WoW session…way too much.

Not much to report in the land of Monroe, Connecticut (or “Funroe,” as the natives call it). I’ve been rather inconsistent when it comes to blogging, but watch this space for weekly updates regarding everything from film, television, gaming, chihuahuas, books, and maybe even personal ventures.

The lost episode of ROFLcopterDown, episode 13. Never aired due to the time it was recorded and the circumstances surrounding graduation and our ability to access the old blog account. Come hear us discuss the news of yore, back when we went to a bunch of arcades and played the Halo 3 beta for the first time. Stay tuned past the outro for a special treat, Justin and the Millenium Force. Recorded circa mezazoic era (late May). Enjoy this while we create new content!

I’ve never been consistent with any form of blogging since I started podcasting with RoflcopterDown. Now that we’ve moved up to a big boy site I feel like I should really update my blog frequently. Since I normally just gripe about things that irritate me in my blog I’m going to make a concerted effort to stray from just that.

In order to facilitate this, it makes sense that my first post in my own blog be about making the site. I suppose I should thank our host DreamHost and my friend and fraternity brother Ben Golub for hooking our site up with its new digs. The creation of this site and the message boards has been really simple, I clicked around for a while until the WordPress and phpBB installs were done and then I just had to setup accounts and PodPress to make the site work. All that was left was a lot of style sheet tweaking and photoshopping a new set of logos for the new name.

On a related note: the new name arose at roughly 3:00am EST during a conversation between me and fellow presenter Justin. Maybe Tom will post some of the awesome potential names we were throwing around (mostly inside jokes), or maybe we’ll discuss this on the first or second episode of the new season.

At any rate, I need to get some much deserved sleep, I’ve been puling some late hours to get the new website ready for the awesomeness that will be our new season. I can guarantee the same level of hilarity, fun and debate that went into RoflcopterDown will go into The Rumble Pack. hopefully we can reach a larger audience with the new name, website and image.

Hopefully.

Just to keep you in the know: The new site is live, the blogs for the presenters are almost finished, the board is now active. Over the course of the next week we will be finishing the modifications to the website and message boards and, most importantly, we will be posting our first podcast of the new season and the new name. Get ready to enjoy!

This is the blog of Tom, Master of Unlocking.

Edit: Still the Master of Unlocking after six months of not posting. My apologies. Look forward to this space becoming a bustling spaceport of rambling bullshit and/or a dumpster full of empty away messages. Thank you.

Pac-Man CE is the best version of Pac-Man out there right now.

Okay, admittedly, to most young gamers that doesn’t mean much. It should.

I fondly recall playing Ms. Pac-Man in my Kakar Dental Group orthodontists’ waiting room while my sister was being tortured. Whether or not I fondly recall the game specifically is uncertain. At any rate, you can feel the charm of the original arcade Pac-Man titles in the new XBLA download. This is probably due to the fact that the original creator of the series, Toru Iwatani, was involved in making this new version.

High score addiction has made a triumphant return as of late. Games like Geometry Wars RE and virtual console titles have brought back the spirit of the late eighties early nineties gaming culture. The new Pac-Man surely stokes this fire. Getting the all important high score is making a comeback. I’m even competing with Justin on Pac-Man CE, I’m gonna beat his high score and then he’ll beat mine and we’ll both get better.