Some guy recently took the time to map out in a chart the history of Dungeons & Dragons from the 70s to the 90s, spelling out the evolution from Chainmail to D&D, then Advanced D&D and Basic D&D, and eventually AD&D Second Edition. If the chart looks like gibberish to you, it probably means you were dating or something during your early teen years, unlike me, who spent 90% of my time memorizing the contents of the books/maps pictured below, in preparation for the next big dungeon meet.
To give you a sense of what a “dungeon meet” was like for my friends and I back in the day, I’ve taken the liberty of (greatly) fictionalizing one of the more memorable moments for you …
Dungeon Master: Your party enters a large dark chamber that is completely empty except for a huge chest sitting all by itself along the back wall.
The humor of this will probably be lost on anybody who: A) doesn’t know who Wil Wheaton is; B) doesn’t know who Greg Grunberg is; C) doesn’t know what Twitter is; or D) probably even some people who know all those things. But I thought it was funny. Visit HijiNKS Ensue for more details.
As a Jersey boy who grew up in the 70s and 80s, every Halloween season, I half-expect to see this commercial on my television, and I’m a bit disappointed when I don’t …
“Star Wars” and “Copacabana” have been around for 30 years, MS Paint for about 20 years, and this song spoof for about 10 years. But it took online video sharing to bring it all together …
This month marks the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast that brought my home state of New Jersey to its knees on Halloween night, 1938. The original “The War of the Worlds” novel by H.G. Wells, the radio broadcast, and the 1953 George Pal film have all been obsessions of mine since I was a kid. The 2005 Spielberg movie … not so much … but that’s a topic for another time.
Yesterday, thanks to the power of the internets, I stumbled across a small treat that I didn’t even know existed — a short conversation between Orson Welles and H.G. Wells on a radio program (KTSA, San Antonio) from October 28, 1940. A native of England and a prolific social commentator, H.G. Wells was 74 at the time, having written “The War of the Worlds” in 1898. Welles was 25.
[audio:Wells_Welles_1940.mp3]
To put the topics mentioned in this conversation into perspective, it takes place two years after Welles’ controversial radio broadcast, six months before Welles’ watershed film “Citizen Kane” would premiere to widespread acclaim, and about a year before Japan would bomb Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into WW2 (Britain had already been at war for a year). And that’s probably as much as you need to know to appreciate this cool bit of sci-fi history.
Dudes, I think I found a new favorite site … Springfield Punx. What you see below is a collage of many of my favorites (click for a larger version), but you’ll find separate full-sized versions of each Simpson-ized character on the site itself, along with some commentary about how Dean chooses who to draw. And yes, that is Blue Tobias Fünke front and center. And two kinds of Joker. And Halo’s Master Chief. And Stephen Colbert! Seriously, it’s like this guy is in my head!
Hulu.com is really pushing hard to be THE destination site for free, quality, syndicated internet television. And I have to say, they’re not doing a bad job so far. At this point, they’ve easily passed the point where they have more cool sci-fi stuff that I want to watch than I actually have time to. They need to improve their category cross-tagging, though — a few things that really should be under Sci Fi/Fantasy are lost in Drama or Action/Adventure instead. So keep that in mind.
Anyway, here are a few of the geek-worthy pleasures you’ll find there this week …
Okay, so here’s the thing. As a geek, I’m starting to get a little tired of being excited all the time. “Dude, did you see the awesome trailer for the Watchmen movie?” “OMG, did you get the link I sent with the teaser for the new Terminator movie?” “Did you hear the rumor that there might be as many as THREE Battlestar Galactica movies?” Well, did you? DID YOU??? The truth is, I think I’m just about all trailered and teasered and rumored out right now. How much sustained anticipation can a person actually experience before their brain simply shuts down, or — as in my case — before the state of being excited actually loses all meaning?
I’m reminded of the Terror Alert System. As you may or may not know, the U.S. alert level hasn’t gone any lower than yellow since the day it was first instituted by the Department of Homeland Security back in 2002. That’s six years of either “Elevated” or “High” risk of terrorist attack. What message does that send, and as a society, how do we process that? By being stressed, of course. All the time. By being worried and afraid. Which, many would argue (and I would agree), is exactly what this administration wants us to do. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
This month marks the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous 
Okay, so here’s the thing. As a geek, I’m starting to get a little tired of being excited all the time. “Dude, did you see the awesome trailer for the Watchmen movie?” “OMG, did you get the link I sent with the teaser for the new Terminator movie?” “Did you hear the rumor that there might be as many as THREE Battlestar Galactica movies?” Well, did you? DID YOU??? The truth is, I think I’m just about all trailered and teasered and rumored out right now. How much sustained anticipation can a person actually experience before their brain simply shuts down, or — as in my case — before the state of being excited actually loses all meaning?