Time Waster
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Now you’re playing with power – ‘8-Bit Christmas’
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Nostalgia is big business when it comes to entertainment. And perhaps nowhere is that nostalgia as keenly felt as it is within the movie industry. Now more than ever, studios are seeking to cash in on our feelings about what has come before, monetizing our memories and generally profiting on the past.
That’s not to say that it’s always a bad thing. Some perfectly enjoyable works have sprung from that desire, even if those works themselves sprung from the pursuit of profit. It’s not ideal, perhaps, but there’s still joy to be found.
Take “8-Bit Christmas,” a new film currently streaming on HBO Max. Directed by Michael Dowse from a screenplay by Kevin Jakubowski (who adapted his own novel of the same name), it’s the story of a young man in Chicago in the late 1980s and his all-consuming Christmastime quest to get his hands on the one thing that will make his life truly complete:
A Nintendo Entertainment System.
It’s a film that will undeniably ring familiar – you’ve seen just about all of this before, in some way, shape or form – but when you’re talking about this kind of holiday fare, the familiarity is the point. There’s something warm and comforting about these readily recognizable beats – sure, you won’t be surprised, but you’ll probably be charmed.
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William Shatner recounts voyage to space: ‘What I saw was blackness and death’
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It’s been a remarkable 90th year for legendary actor, producer, recording artist and space voyager William Shatner.
During an interview that aired on BIG 104 FM, Shatner shared his personal account of his October 13 voyage to the edge of space on Blue Origin’s second sub-orbital human spaceflight. He said the 11-minute journey changed him and he was eager to explain how.
The “Star Trek” legend and star of “Boston Legal,” “T.J. Hooker” and “Rescue 911” is also the executive producer and host of the History Channel’s “The UnXplained,” a show that examines some of history’s most bewildering unanswered mysteries. New episodes of the show’s third season air Fridays at 9:00 p.m.
This week’s (November 12) episode is titled “Satanic Encounters,” according to Shatner.
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Weekly Time Waster - ‘Doglife: Bitlife Dogs’
Not long ago, I wrote about a game called “Bitlife: Life Simulator.” Basically, you created a character from the beginning of their life and lived it through a text-based adventure all the way to the end. Well, the developers are back, and they’ve created a new version: “Doglife.”
In “Doglife,” the premise is the same. You create a dog and live through their life, making choices along the way with consequences to each one. You can start with choosing to be a street dog, housepet, pet store pup or shelter dog; then, you begin your adventure. You also get to choose what your dog looks like, picking from among various breeds ranging from Labrador retrievers to dachshunds to corgis.
It’s fun to play through each type of life, as the choices and adventures are significantly different. You might start off as a house dog and be a loving companion or you might be the alpha dog in a house with three other dogs. Street dog is one of the most adventurous lives, as you have to try and live off the streets, finding food where you can, avoiding other stray animals … and maybe even eventually finding a human that wants to take you home.
The game also has little features that let you know you’re playing as a dog, such as a “scent database” where you can check the smell of other animals when you sniff them. There are also activities you can choose to do as your dog, like acting up, biting people, trying to get attention, escaping, practicing tricks and more.
“Doglife” is a lot less realistic than “Bitlife,” and understandably so – none of us are real dogs, so how would we even know if the choices we’re making would garner the results that happen in-game? Still, it’s a very interesting and unique game for sure. If you’ve ever wondered what your life might be as a dog, “Doglife” has got you covered, and best of all, it’s free.
“Doglife: Bitlife Dogs” is free to download on the Android and IOS stores.
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Tech sadly? ‘100 Things We've Lost to the Internet’
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The ubiquity of the internet. It is part of our everyday lives, like it or not. Over the past quarter-century, the online explosion has radically altered the world and the way we move through it.
For many of you, that has always been the world. If you were born anytime after 1990 or so, you likely have no memories of a world without the internet. Sure, you might recall the frustrating early days of dial-up modems and slow-loading websites, a time when your entire afternoon might be spent downloading a single song. But the internet is and has always been omnipresent.
However, those of us who are older have clear and distinct memories of a different time and place. A time and place where the internet felt more like science fiction than simple reality. We’ve said good-bye to a lot of things from those bygone days – some of them minor, some incredibly significant – but the one factor they all have in common is that they don’t appear to be coming back.
Thus we get “100 Things We've Lost to the Internet” (Crown, $27). Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, offers up a collection of snapshots from the before times, quick-hit glimpses at a vast array of items and experiences that are simply … gone. They exist only in old photographs (remember those?) or increasingly dusty memories. These habits and learned behaviors, these compulsions and desires – vanished, never to be experienced by those who came after.
These short essays explore the vast array of alterations wrought by the internet, all of them presented with a combination of wistfulness and self-effacing humor. Because here’s the thing – while we might miss a lot of this stuff, we also have to concede that in a lot of ways, we’re better off … even if we perhaps don’t want to admit it. And some of it? Well … some of it we sure would like to have back.
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Weekly Time Waster - ‘Angry Birds 2’
Back in 2009, “Angry Birds” took the world of mobile gaming by storm, as this little game appeared out of nowhere that provided hours upon hours of entertainment. Slinging birds at green little pigs on towers somehow was the most addicting thing in the world. Then “Angry Birds 2” was created, and with it many ties to the movies and other nonsense that have graced our screens since.
“Angry Birds 2” takes the premise of the first title and builds upon it. With each bird in the game having the likeness and characteristics of the birds from the movies, it’s easy to fall in love with your favorite from the movie in the game. There is a lot to do in “Angry Birds 2,” the normal gameplay loop of various birds with different abilities still stands, but there is a new type of progression, as well as many new features.
You start off only having Red, the leader of the Angry Birds, who when launched can emit a battle cry that helps to knock down towers from a short distance away before he hits them. As you complete each level and move across the board, you collect keys which allow you to unlock the other birds in the crew. What differs from the first game is you don’t unlock them in a set order, but rather get to pick who you unlock each time and then use their newly acquired abilities to keep pushing through the levels.
With lots of daily challenges and hats to collect for your birds (which boosts your score multipliers), there is a lot to do in “Angry Birds 2.” They have loads of seasonal events – and seasonal hats – as well! You can also play in an arena mode when you hit a certain level, to compete against other players to see who can get the highest score on a level. If you enjoyed the time you wasted on the first “Angry Birds” game, I can promise you there is even more fun to be had in the sequel.
“Angry Birds 2” is free to download on the Android and IOS stores.
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