Ross Scott

Happy 4th of July! I BARELY got this video done after working pretty much non-stop on it since the last one. I actually intended for this video to be about a third of the length it is, but it sort of snowballed into what you have now. I really started identifying with the protagonist of this video towards trhe end, and I'm convinced for the amount of hours I put into this you could probably drive across the USA, maybe even using Joey's insane route. I can say with certainty there's no way this video would have been done on time without the SSD drive, it was crucial for many phases. Anyway, I'm happy with how this turned out, even if it's left me kind of a wreck. While I still have a lot of plans, I'm really going to have to scale back on Game Dungeon for the foreseeable future. Since I've publicly promised to finish Freeman's Mind for HL1 this year, that's going to have to take priority until I'm more comfortable with where things are at. Also I think I should never do another video with a deadline again unless it's 3 years in advance. I'm afraid there won't be progress on it immediately however as I could really use a break. I've more or less been working every day for... years? Lately the pace has been so time consuming I've had almost no leisure time at all. Besides what you've seen on the videos, I haven't played a game in about 1-2 months, so I'd really like to have a few days to just relax for a little bit before I dive back into everything. This does mean that Freeman's Mind will take a little longer to come out, but it's the new priority. LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Some classic Duke Nukem? He's pretty all-American. I somehow doubt Ross is reviewing Duke Nukem. Also, he's not as all american as you think. For example, his hair is based off the hair of the extremely offensive Russian stereotype Rocky fights in his fourth racially-charged propaganda film. In fact, all of Duke's "character" is based off 80's action stars in general with no regard for their affiliation or how little sense it makes. Even his most overly-quoted line is stolen from They Live. He's not a super patriot, he's a 90's celebration of everything bad about 80's action films. He stole lines from Army of Darkness too. And no, it's not Duke Nukem, but it's very American. I've finished editing it, but there's still a crapload to process. I should have it up in a few hours assuming nothing goes wrong.

It was easy to find him. Yeah I already emailed him a few days ago, he liked the episode. I'll talk about him when I do a follow-up episode later on.

I love how they're getting the original actors back for Max Damage and Die Anna, they still look pretty good. i agree. i do have to ask though- is carmageddon (original one ofc) on your RGD list? Not for a long time if I do cover it. A lot of people know about that one.

Everybody keeps saying this like they think they know what they're talking about. It sucks at every speed, just in different ways. I only sped the clock up to make the video more watchable. I plan on bringing this up in a follow-up video later on, (including some words from Lazy Game Reviews!).

Well I'll give you a hint. I'm not saying it will never happen, but I have ZERO games based on movies planned for Game Dungeon. Besides, I wouldn't mind a break from aliens after Helious.

Well guys I can say right now I'm really holding back from how I actually feel about it emotionally. It's not even anger so much as survival impulse, like "oh my god, I have to do something or I'm screwed." feeling which isn't exactly the same as anger. Plus Machinima is a collective entity that pulls in different directions, it's not like it's one person you can attribute things to, so it made things very frustrating. While I'm glad to be able to warn other people of my experiences with the company, in general I prefer to just not think about them at all most of the time. This may sound stupid, but I think of the experience more like a torturer I had to deal with. I'm not equivocating it to actual torture, but I'm glad I escaped and don't want to go back to it.

Were you right?

I originally meant to have this episode a few days after the last one, but that didn't come close to happening. While this is another arcade-ish game, there's definitely more than meets the eye with this one. While I still hope to cover some more recent games at some point, once you watch this episode, you'll see why this game was high up on my list to cover. Also I found out while in production that apparently Men In Black 3 also make a reference to Andy Warhol being connected to aliens. I had not seen the movie at the time I made my comment, so it's just a coincidence. In all fairness, thinking Andy Warhol has something to do with aliens is hardly a new idea. Next episode coming on July 4th if all goes well! LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Hey everyone, I have another interview I did not long ago that recently went up here: Interview link It was for the podcast "My So Called 8 Bit Life" where he covers various topics related to videogames or whatever else he wants. Some of the questions have been in other interviews I've done, though there was some more about my background that I haven't been asked before. There was also some stuff related to Machinima.com, but it's nothing that's not in my "Escape From Machinima" posts. I also screwed up the audio for this since Skype was secretly adding a 20dB boost to my recording volume without my realizing it until after the interview was over, so my apologies about that. I try to avoid this sort of thing at all costs in the videos, but I apparently met my match with Skype. As for the videos, the next Game Dungeon should be out in a couple days at the most, then I have another one planned not long after that. Freeman's Mind won't be returning until next month however. LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Yeah this is great, actually Simcity 2000 is one I'm hoping I can get some MIDI experts on board with doing a conversion for.

Those rhythms put me in a mood, couldn't help it. Hope someone enjoys (not going to be everyone's cup of tea, sorry). d3v9TFoNQ0E This is badass. While I admit I liked the saw waves of the original, I seriously can't find a problem with your version, it nails the tone they were going for in the original. I eventually plan to do a follow-up episode to the games covered so far, I'll definitely include your mix when I do, you nailed it.

Here's the next game dungeon! This is the oldest game covered on the show so far, going back to 1984. I still intend to cover some more modern games, they're just not on the top of my list. Due to its age, you may not want to watch this episode in full screen unless you sit a good distance from the screen, the resolution is low enough that it's a bit overwhelming up close. I'm glad I didn't announce when this episode was going to go up, since I honestly thought I was going to have it done last weekend with another one coming up now. That totally did not happen. Unfortunately the next episode is going to be delayed further as I'm going to be gone from the 12th to the 15th on spy business. This means I won't have replies to anything until Monday at the earliest. I hope to type up replies to many, MANY emails during that time however and send them once I get back. Finally, if you didn't get your fill of pigeons and classy music playing watching this video, be sure to check out my old short, . LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Damn, I guess I remembered it completely wrong then. I'll mention that when I do a large follow-up episode later (I plan to do one after I cover 10 episodes).

I still think it ranges from anarchy to developing nations at best. All the power in the Fallout world feels fragile and has many exceptions beyond its influence. This isn't really the sign of a developed society. I say anarchy because in real anarchy, you DO have pockets of organization with different idealogies, because anarchy in itself is a temporary state. Like in Fallout 1. The ghouls are a giant cult, there are large groups of wandering bandits, you have small farming villages, you have small closed-knit communities like Junktown, you have a small theocracy with the brotherhood of steel, you have merchants doing whatever in the hub. Everybody is doing their own thing, that's anarchy. In later games, some larger groups emerging, but they're warring and their hold isn't secure at all, nobody has obvious overall control, that may not be anarchy, but it's not really society either. It's more like warring tribes with more technology. As for the water thing, in addition to no almost no area in any of the games looking like it has remotely enough food and water to last for more than a few weeks, in Fallout 3 they say the water is radioactive and plant life basically can't grow, yet somehow this has lasted hundreds of years without everyone dead. To me that's just lazy writing. Anyway, I don't really want to go further into a Fallout debate, but I'll say that Fallout feels squarely post apocalyptic, rather than dystopian. Strife to me feels dystopian. Post apocalyptic to me is Fallout, The Road, Road Warrior, Book of Eli, Walking Dead. Civilization has collapsed and hasn't really rebuilt yet. Dystopian is 1984, Brave New World, Soylent Green, Equilibrium, Hunger Games. Established society exists, but has clear oppression and / or very hollow or twisted values along with it.

First, at that point of the game you are not supposed to know what exactly it is; Second, even when using the original's limited vertical look (as seen here: ), you can clearly see it in detail. That guy is using an engine port, the colors for his map screen aren't the original's. EDIT: On his episode 1, he says he's using Zdoom. I mean it's possible my memory's completely off, but I remember TRYING to see what was there in the original, and I couldn't beyond just the very bottom pixels. Keep in mind, the port isn't necessarily 100% accurate to original Strife, just really damn close.

No, I consider Fallout a little different. Fallout is a state of anarchy, not a stabilized feudal societal. Also, I am overthinking this, but I always thought of Fallout as a totally implausible scenario even with mutants and robots, etc. (except maybe the first) because everything is so dry it's just not sustainable for anything more than a short period of time. Food production just doesn't work for that in the long term. I mean hell, everyone living in the southwest is only doing that because diverting water flow from the colorado river. You need SOME pockets of real agrarian development in order for people to live out in the desert. I played the original up through that point, you can BARELY make out the pixels of SOMETHING that is there looking up, it wasn't obvious to me what it was at all.

As a warning, I did spoil some of the locations and best lines in the game, but you have some big suprises in the story that I didn't mention. I guess I repressed the memories, I was working around the clock to get that one done in time. I'll just drop RGD for a while and do nothing but FM later on if it gets too close.

Well I totally screwed up my estimates as to how long this episode was going to take. I ended up needing about 250% the time I thought I would. In my defense though, this is actually the longest video I've made to date, clocking in a little over 30 minutes, so you may want to watch it in chunks. I tried to edit it down to just the stuff I wanted to say, but there was a lot of it. Besides Strife, I also cover some of Doom, MIDI music, FPS design and control in general, so there's a lot in here. In any event, if you like the other Game Dungeon episodes, you should like this one too. I think the pacing on it is pretty good, despite the length. Seeing as how my time estimates were as bad as usual, I'm giving no estimate on the next episode other than I'll get to it as soon as I can. I plan on making a few more Game Dungeon episodes, then I'll be returning to Freeman's Mind. If you're coming only for Freeman's Mind, maybe check back in a month? Also I'm going to do everything I can to get completely caught up on email sometime this month, I'm still woefully behind on that. More stuff coming! EDIT: I'm wrong, CarnEvil was longer than this, but not a lot. LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

I think the ONLY episode I was in a rush to get subtitled was FM27. There's really no rush at all from me, don't worry about it.