A (Not So) Healthy Dose of Chaos, A New World

Have you ever thought about sharing your culture with those who
know little about Earth?"

 

Five years ago, the aliens came.
 

During the transition period, Kenaeth Goldwrite fills out an

application to have 'aliens' stay at his house, thinking nothing
would come of it.
 

Now he's a landlord to six female tenants. Then there's the time
traveler who says he's come to help Kenaeth for something he did
in the past, by teaching him how to manipulate time, and three
other time travelers are after both of them.
 

Will Kenaeth survive? More importantly, will he keep his sanity
while being hopelessly outnumbered in the battle of the sexes?
 

The chaos starts in this first book!

A (Not So) Healthy Dose of Chaos is a sci-fi/fantasy series set in the not-too-distant future, in which aliens have made themselves known to the Earth. The novel contains an abundance of action, comedy, drama and space-time manipulating antics.

The novel will be available in January 2013, first through Lulu.com, then through other channels, with an eBook version available if popularity dictates.

Until then, check the free preview at my website, in the 'Works' section!

殺人ウサギたちと魔法の人参の冒険

あー。　殺人ウサギたち。

何年前にこのゲームを、よく言った店から買った。

このゲームはなかなかイノセントなゲームのように見える。　ウサギを場に出して、キャベツと水と人参を買う。　最後の人参が取られたら、ゲームが終了だ。　ランダムにどれの人参は魔法の人参を決めて、その人参を持つプレイヤーの勝ちだ。

その間には、相手のウサギたちを殺す。　レーザーガン、チェーン・ソー、緑のゼラチン（悪のパイナップル付！）、バトルシップ・・・それとも、小型のブラック・ホールはどう？

よく笑う、楽しい不健全的なゲーム。　思うよりも作戦が必要だ。　殺人ウサギたちの一番大事なコンセプトは２ターン後を考えなければならない。

カードの絵を明るいと面白いで、たくさんのだじゃれと人気の文化が入っています　（特に、ブースター・セットに）。

日本語版が存在していないと思うが、もし出れば、買うほうがいい。　たくさんのブースター・セット画出ているが、基本のセットだけで、十分楽しめる。　デラックス・セットも出ているが、私は持っていない　（私は最初に出た青いと黄色のセットを持っている）。

詳しい事は、殺人ウサギたちの公式サイト（英語）をごらんなさい。　そこには他のウサギ関係のゲームもある。

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot

Ah.  Killer Bunnies.

I recall picking this up at a game store that I frequented a number of years ago (before it closed its doors).

It seems innocent enough a game.  You play bunnies, buy things such as cabbage and water to feed your bunnies when the need arises, and carrots.  When the last carrot is taken, the game ends, and you randomly determine which carrot is the Magic Carrot.  The one holding the Magic Carrot is the winner.

All the while, you're trying to kill off your opponent's bunnies.  And I mean with laser guns, chain saws, green gelatin (with evil pineapple chunks!), a sea-whiz mount . . . or how about a miniature black hole?

It's a delightfully morbid little game that's a lot of laughs and has more strategy to it than it appears.  The concept to most understand in Killer Bunnies is that you have to think two turns ahead, and most cards can only be played if you have a bunny in play.

The art is colorful and comical, and there are puns and popular culture references galore (especially in the expansion sets).

If you haven't picked up the game, I strongly suggest that you do.  While there are a number of expansions, you can have plenty of fun with just the basic set.  There is a deluxe set also available, but I don't have that one (I have the original blue box that comes with the bonus yellow booster deck).

You can find more information on it at the official Killer Bunnies website.  There are also a number of other bunny-related games there.

Under The Blue Sky - The Indigo

Under the Blue Sky, which was featured as the ending song to the animated series Someday's Dreamers ~ Things Precious to a Mage.  It's one of the only times I can remember that I liked the ending theme better than the opening theme.

I wanted to put an unsubtitled version here, but couldn't really find it.

[Flash Game] The Necronomicon

Some of you probably already know about the flash card game based on the Call of Cthulhu mythos, called The Necronomicon.

Not a bad way to kill time once you get all the rules down.  See how far you can get.  My highest is 19-Yithian Librarian.  I'm sure that anyone who would spend enough time on it could get higher than that.

You can find the game here.  It looks like an updated version is here.

Kanji Attack!

I started coming up with a print-on-demand to sell on The Game Crafter, and was writing down a few ideas.

One of them was a game with "runes," where players would play combinations of them with progressively better effects. It started to get a little unwieldly with the number of combinations I was coming up with.

That wasn't so much the pain in the butt. The real problem was coming up with the aforementioned runes. I would have to create them, draw them, scan them, clean them up, scale them . . . then repeat until I got everything I needed.

I was doing a project at work where I would put some kanji on my desk so that visitors could have something interesting to look at what they were waiting for someone in my department, when I eventually got an idea: "Hey! Instead of runes, why don't I just use kanji? They're already made, look like runes, already have meanings, and all I have to do is type them into the graphics software I'm using."

That's how Kanji Attack! was born.

Kanji Attack! is part combat card game, and part educational tool. Progressing through turns, each player plays matching kanji cards for a number of different effects, and the more copies you play, the better the effect is. The first to reduce all their opponents' Hit Points from 20 to 0 wins.

The cards are separated into five types: Attack, Support, Reaction, Boost and Special.

• Attack cards are used to do damage to your opponent;

• Support cards usually have non-damaging effects, such as drawing cards, but can also hinder your opponent, such as by looking at their hand and stealing a card;

• Reaction cards are used when another combination is played, such as by stopping a combination or attack;

• Boost cards can be used to enhance combinations;

• and Special cards have unique effects that other cards don't have.

The full base set contains 108 cards (104 kanji cards, and 4 other cards used during the game), 80 tokens ("winks") to keep track of Hit Points, and accomodates between two and six players.   Future sets will include additional cards and rules.

It's planned for release in the second week to middle of September, and will retail for $19.99. 

Ack . . .

Has it really be eight months since my last entry?

Ack.

Well, I have a couple of projects coming out in the next few months. I'll introduce one of them in the next post.

House of the Dead

I remember starting to play House of the Dead when I was in Hawaii in the late 90's to early 2000. I'm not fond of the horror genre of games (such as Resident Evil), but for some reason I found myself drawn to this game.

And, dang it, I was good at House of the Dead I. I could go through that game, save all the hostages, and not take a single scratch through it.  Even fighting the Magician, though harrowing, was not entirely too much trouble, except on my off day. In short, I could clear the game on a single credit.

While some people used the "finger over the barrel" technique to reload, I had the "machine gun hand" where I could quickly point off screen and reload.  Even onlookers would say "Dang...!"

Then came House of the Dead II. I'm not sure if I was able to clear it on a single credit (I think I may have done it once). I bought the computer game The Typing of the Dead which was just a typing tutor based on the House of the Dead II engine, and easily cleared that. Hey, I've been typing on a keyboard for going on twenty-four years, so I type fast.

I ran into House of the Dead III while I was in Japan at a local arcade on the top floor of a shopping center. I was finally able to clear that one on a single credit -- usually it would take me two credits. That was the game with the shotgun, and pumping it took a little longer for me than pointing a pistol off-screen to reload.

House of the Dead IV also came out when I was in Japan, and I hadn't practiced the game enough to try and clear it on one credit. There was just too much going on in order to take all the zombies out effectively. Both players used a submachine gun, so maybe the damage rate was a little lower; I recalled killing zombies with a single head shot in the first two games, and perhaps the third.

Whenever I get another game system, I should pick it up to see how well my skills have suffered since then. I havent touched any of the House of the Dead games in about six or seven years.

Getting older sucks...

[Edited to correct typos.]

Arrival of Tears - Ayane

The opening theme to the animated series 11 Eyes. I didn't care for the series that much, but I love the opening song.



And for those that want Ayane's music video of the song from the limited edition single release . . .

[NES] Astyanax

Ah, Astyanax.

A bit of a unknown game when it came out. While a mediocre action-adventure game, the claim to fame of the console version (in my opinion) is the use of the cinema scenes that first appeared in games such as Ninja Gaiden. Anime-styled, this is before anime became en vogue as it is now. This was back in 1990 when about the only commerically available anime was Bubblegum Crisis, MADOX and Zillion, not counting the re-runs of other series on the air. But I digress.

I remember seeing it in a magazine, and phoning the local Blockbuster video to rent it. They had it, and when I had my folks take me there to rent it, it wasn't on the shelf. Apparently one of the associates had put it behind the shelf for me to come get it, even though I don't recall stating that I would be there to come rent it.

As stated before, the game isn't that great, but the story was cool in a cheesy way to a 8th/9th grader at the time.

You can play through the game in the right way, but I found using the Invincibility Code (Up (4x), Down, Left, Right, Up, Start (on title screen)) and play through the game to see the cinema scenes. You can also just view the scenes with the Demo Select (Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, A, B, Start on the title screen), and even use the Level Select (Up, Down, Left, Right, B (4x), Start (on title screen)).

Aargh . . .

I wanted to update my blog on a regular basis, and it seems to have fallen to the wayside. Ack.

Anyway, I'll put a couple of posts up here (does anyone actually even read this thing?).