Godzilla & Criterion - The Monster vs. The Premier Boutique Label

The Criterion Collection is a well-known boutique distributor of aesthetically-interesting films on physical media. The company releases films that have had some significant artistic or cultural merit and has released well-over 1,000 films on disc. Its releases span the world's cinema, it has distributed films from every civilized continent on the planet. Japanese films are no exception and of course the biggest cultural icon that Japanese live-action cinema is Godzilla. Even if you may debate the artistic merits of the Godzilla films, they indisputably have had a significant cultural impact over the last 71 years. Criterion has released films in the Godzilla series on four separate occasions. In this blog article we will take the deepest dive into its releases, both the positives and negatives.

Tandy 1000 EX & HX vs. Color Computer 3 vs. Commodore 128 vs. Apple IIc - Which is the Better All-in-One?

In the calendar year of 1986 Tandy introduced two all-in-one computers, the Tandy 1000 EX and the Tandy Color Computer 3. Both were competitively priced at $799.00 and $219.95, respectively. At first the budget-conscious consumer may have chosen the CoCo 3 over the EX. By the next year the price of the EX had dropped by $100 while the Tandy 1000 HX took its prior price. At the same time the CoCo 3 dropped in price by $20, where it would stay until it was discontinued in 1990. The HX would displace the EX and eventually fall to $699 before it was also discontinued in 1990. In this article we will compare the features of these all-in-ones feature by feature and try to determine which would have really been the better purchase.

The 1977 Trinity - Which Computer is the Best Buy?

The 1977 Trinity, Courtesy of Wikipedia, Image by Timothy Colegrove

Consider that you have been transported back in time to the heady and hot summer of 1977. You are wanting one of these new "personal computers" that you see advertised in Popular Mechanics and Byte Magazine. Maybe you've seen an ad from Radio Shack. Perhaps you saw a flyer from that pocket calculator company called Commodore. Or you are a hobbyist frustrated with time sharing on the local college's PDP-10 and want a microcomputer of your very own. After you've seen Star Wars for the third time, you want to be part of the computer age. You have three choices, which will you chose? Let's break down the Apple II, Tandy Radio Shack TSR-80 and the Commodore PET 2001 and see how they might factor into a buyer's decision.

Is the Original Tandy Color Computer Worth your Gaming Time?

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Tandy Corporation's first home computer was the TRS-80, released in 1977. The TRS-80 was fairly affordably priced for its time but limited to monochrome text and extremely blocky semigraphics. 1979 saw the release of the TRS-80 Model II, a business machine with an 8" floppy disk drive incompatible with the previous computer or the budget of a middle-class family. With color computer systems like the Atari 400 and TI-99/4 being released in the late 1970s, Tandy realized that if it wanted to have any chance of capturing the growing home market for personal computers, it would need to offer a low-cost model with colorful graphics and a family-friendly appeal. Fortunately it had an ace up its sleeve in the form of the thousands of Radio Shack company and franchise stores dispersed across the United States and Canada that could sell a lower cost computer. That computer turned out to be the TRS-80 Color Computer, released in 1980. Having recently acquired one, let me go over some of its features and quirks.

Comparison of Comic Book Reproduction Editions - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 vs. Cerebus #1

As regular readers of this blog should no doubt be aware of by now, I have had a resurgent interest in comic books. There is nothing quite like holding and reading stapled pieces of folded paper together that tell a story with pictures and word balloons. Recently I have discussed both the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cerebus the Aardvark. Now let's compare a pair of recent authorized reproduction editions of the first issue of each series.

Cerebus the Aardvark Early Issues and Reprints

Since I have gone through the early years of TMNT I thought I would touch upon some highlights of one of the comics which inspired TMNT, Cerebus the Aardvark. Cerebus was created by one David Victor Sim with issue #1 premiering in December, 1977. The book ended with issue #300 in March, 2004. The comic was self-published and Dave Sim set up his own company, Aardvark-Vanaheim, to publish the comic. This blog entry will devote itself to distinguishing features made through the end of the main series. Another blog entry may look into similar features after that period.

TMNT Early Issues and Reprintings in Depth Part III of III

Having posted the first and second part of my in depth review of the early issues and reprints of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we come to the final chapter, covering the years 1988 & 1989. These are years of great success and the beginnings of the first "turtle mania" phenomenon which will last the next five years. But at what price came fame and fortune? Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Mirage Studios would, as we will see, struggle with the demands that popular culture will place on an independent "alternative" comic:

TMNT Early Issues and Reprintings in Depth Part II of III

In Part II of my series on the early TMNT issues and reprints, we enter into Mirage Studios' years of expansion. While Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were responsible for all of Mirage's 1984 and much of its 1985 output, in 1986 not only do they publish new, non-TMNT books but also take on new, young and talented artists to contribute to TMNT.  These years will lay the groundwork for the huge success of the TMNT as a licensed property, and it is documented in the pages of the TMNT comic book. Let's see how:

TMNT Early Issues & Reprintings in Depth Part I of III

The Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic's reputation and sales grew over time. The early issues were not always accessible, even for the dedicated comic-shop goer. Reprints and collections often only print the main story, not the other parts which constitute the book, namely creator columns and advertisements. Backup stories may or may not be found in other collections. Wrap-around covers may lose their rear illustrations. In this blog article I am going to issue-by-issue, printing-by-printing, in chronological order to discuss some interesting features of each comic's single issue reprints. While I cannot reproduce the books, I can quote and summarize. 

Revision after Revision - Evolution of Classic Dungeons and Dragons

The Classic or non-Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game had a remarkably long life. Arguably first introduced with the Basic Set in July, 1977, products were made for the Classic game line until 1996. Unlike other editions of the game, the Classic game did not remain almost immutable and unchanged throughout its lifetime. In this blog article we will consider how the game evolved over time.

The Failed Kickstarter - Legal Ramifications

Crowdfunding is a very useful tool to help a creative, whether that creative is a single artist, a pair of complementary inventors or a small group of designers, obtain access to the money needed to produce something and bring it to people willing to buy it. Some campaigns become very successful, some just barely meet their funding goals and some fail to get funded. Today we are looking what can happen in the legal sense when a project meets its funding goal but fails to deliver on promised backer rewards.

Holmes D&D-era Dice Replica Review

Holmes Dice, courtesy of eBay

Dice have a very long history, humans have been using them to play games, as parts of a game or to generate randomness since prerecorded history. While the 6-sided cube or hexahedron (d6) has always been the most popular die shape used, it is not the only shape used to generate random numbers. It and other four platonic solids, the 4-sided Tetrahederon (d4), the 8-sided Octahedron (d10), the 12-sided Dodecahedron (d12) and the 20-sided Icoashedron, have long histories in this application. It is their earliest employment in role playing games, namely those dice originally sold for Dungeons and Dragons and included with its original (Holmes) Basic Set, which interests me and the ability to replicate that experience at a reasonable cost. Today I will explore the history of the so-called "Holmes Dice" and two such products which aim to do so.

Early TMNT Comic Book Printing and Reprinting Features

The early issues of Mirage Studio's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book have been very collectible for a long time. Like many successful comic books, TMNT has had most of its early issues reprinted and made available regularly if not continuously since its debut in 1984. In this article I would like to discuss some issues regarding the reprinting of the various black and white comic books published by Mirage Studios during the 20th Century,

Wireless Controller Duel - 8bitdo N30 2.4g vs. Retro-bit Origin8

Wireless NES controllers are nothing new but good ones are more recent. Wireless controllers contemporary with the NES were generally infrared based, which meant that they had to be within a direct line of sight to a receiver and within only a rather limited range and angle from the receiver. They also had high latency as the infrared pulses took milliseconds to transmit a full controller packet. More modern solutions use a 2.4g or Bluetooth receiver. Today we are going to compare a newcomer to the NES controller scene, the Retro-bit Origin8, to the reigning 2.4g NES controller champion, the 8bitdo N30 2.4g.

Universal Studios' Dracula and Frankenstein's Entry into the Public Domain

2027 should be a big year for fans of Universal Classic Horror Films, as both Dracula and Frankenstein, both being released in 1931, should enter the public domain on January 1 of that year. But maybe Dracula's entry into to public domain may not be as soon as you might think.