Oops.

Somebody was supposed to post today...

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge Screenshot Gallery

Having previously shared with you my screenshots for Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 10, it's only fitting that I should contribute screenshots to GameFAQs from yet another Mega Man game I'm really not so fond of: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Funny how that works.

This time, I found myself with a surplus of screenshots for a GameCola review I'd written; rather than let the unused images go to waste, I figured I'd take a peek at what GameFAQs had on file. Which, as it turns out, was almost entirely the title screen and stage selection screens.

I didn't go crazy this time around; I uploaded just the pictures I thought might be useful for the review, plus two more from the end of the game that are necessary for any well-rounded screenshot collection. While my contributions here aren't as comprehensive or illustrative as my previous efforts, I think they're helpful additions to the site.

As with any submissions to GameFAQs, these screenshots are intermingled with others by other contributors. You can identify mine as belonging to Flashman85, but feel free to use them as your own--mi screenshot es su screenshot, as they (read: nobody) say. I always appreciate the credit, but as long as you're not making money off of them or making it seem like they were yours to begin with, I don't mind being anonymous.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge Screenshot Gallery

Replicating the Fun

I'm currently doing the unthinkable: taking a break from recording more Mega Man videos to do a playthrough of Space Quest 0: Replicated for GCDotNet. There's been a lot of Space Quest buzz lately with all the new fangames and the adventure game project by the Two Guys from Andromeda, so I've been both in a mood for some intergalactic janitorial heroics, and thinking more and more about how it's about time I play another adventure game on YouTube.

The original plan was to do a blind playthrough of a random adventure game I'd never played, preferably a very short one. Boring story short, I had serious issues capturing live commentary and the game audio simultaneously for the particular one I'd chosen, and even more serious issues with recording the video footage itself. I turned to SQ0 instead, a fangame I'd only played through once, several years ago. I decided on a style similar to my Deja Vu recording, adding post-commentary, but going for one continuous take for the entire video rather than trying to perfect individual segments. A nice balance of speed and quality, that.

There's plenty of footage I'm going to speed up or edit out--watching someone try a series of unsuccessful puzzle solutions can get dull incredibly quickly--but it was neat to let the camera roll and just...play. No constant stopping and restarting to get that boss fight just right. No careful planning to ensure total continuity of video footage between cuts. It was liberating.

It made me remember why I enjoyed recording any videos in the first place--these games are fun to play. Making them look perfect and adding clever commentary only adds to that. I seem to have forgotten recently that, like writing for this blog, I'm really doing this for myself. The fact that other people like it only makes it better.

My playthrough of SQ0 is far from perfect. I botch the words I'm trying to type on occasion. I waste my time on clearly pointless actions. I die. A lot. And those imperfections make it more entertaining than any perfect run I could ever hope to record.

Taking a break from recording Mega Man 7 might have been the best thing I could have done to speed up my recording of Mega Man 7. With a refresher of how enjoyable recording can be, even if I'm still running myself through the wringer to get my showoffery just right, I'm far more inclined to keep on top of this project...and to make sure that the tricks I'm pulling off aren't just nice to look at, but fun to execute.

I think there's hope for me yet.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 24

Okay, here's the deal. I've started writing this week's Waiting for on Tuesday evening, so as not to break our 1:00 posting rule. I actually managed to not break the rule with my post about coffee yesterday, so if this puppy sees the light of the Internet by 1:00 today, that's two in a row.

As they say in baseball, if we manage to do that tomorrow, too, that's called a winning streak.

And, despite my recent ... shirking ... of the actual purpose of Waiting for Wednesday of late, today I plan to actually write about a book that comes out this week. Even more shocking, it's published by Marvel, a company that I have been pretty tough on this year--frankly, with good reason, I think.

Once again, The House of Ideas is in the midst of a sprawling cross-over event as the summer months draw near, and while I might not be too into that story, lots of other people are, as Marvel is back on top of the sales charts.

While I've not been a fan of Avengers vs. X-Men, and that pretty much limits my Marvel-reading choices to a handful of non-crossing over titles, there is one Marvel book that is must-read fare.

And it's Daredevil, by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera.

It’s a book I’ve talked about before, and it’s one I continually return to. Waid and Rivera manage to make these new stories feel classic but modern at the same time. You really don’t need any prior knowledge of the character to get what’s going on, but some familiarity with DD can only help to further your enjoyment of the book.

Volume two ships today, so I would suggest grabbing volume one first—though, again, these stories can stand on their own.

Since Frank Miller took the character and ran with him, Daredevil has been a dark, brooding, down on his luck hero. But Waid and Rivera bring him fully into the light—and old Matt Murdock doesn’t seem to mind the change of scenery. 

Do yourself a favor--grab this book if you get the chance. It'll remind you why you love superheroes.