Hello there. The excitement of Christmas and New Year’s Eve is winding down. That time of year where my social and family life boils over and I run around chaotically for about two weeks straight is just ending. Things are becoming normal. Unfortunately, I am not quite ready for this weeks offering in the normal sense. I’m working on something, it’ll be ready in a couple days, I just haven’t had the time to dive into a game. I actually have a lot of games I’m working on playing through for this site. Anyway, today I want to do something special and a bit more personal. I want to take some questions I’ve been asked in the past couple months.
Yep, this is where it all began for me.
What’s your earliest gaming memory?
That’s hard to pinpoint, actually. The first console game I remember playing was Wonderboy in Monster Land for the Sega Master System. It’s probably not the first console game I played, but it’s the first one that stands out. It’s still one of my favorite game series. I think until that point, most games I played were like Pac-Man, Asteroids or Centipede. The graphics and music blew my mind and it seemed so complex compared to the other games I’d played.
I still play After Burner once in a while.
The first arcade game that really stuck with me is After Burner. I was on a trip across the country with my Mom when I was about four or five, and we had a long layover, so I was given a bunch of quarters and we hung out in the arcade for a while. Obviously, since I was on a jet, i had to play the game with the jet. When I got home, it turned out my uncle also had it for Sega Master System.
I guess it’s no surprise that the Master System was one of the first game consoles I owned.
What genres of games don’t you like, and why?
I’ve never really been into sports games, but I don’t hate them. I recognize their need to exist. I also don’t particularly like “God” games, like Sim City, The Sims, things like that. Although, I liked ActRaiser, if that counts? I like my games to have a bit more action in them and I always felt games like that involved more watching than doing. Maybe I’m off base, I just never felt they were that appealing to me.
ActRaiser was the only “sim” game I ever got into. While it’s awesome, I don’t know if it counts.
I also tend to steer clear of First Person Shooters. Not that I’m against them or feel they’re too violent or anything. Not that I don’t appreciate some of them, either. I had a pretty powerful computer between 1995 and 1998 and it seemed like a new FPS came out every week during that era. Doom, Doom 2, Hexen, Heretic, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Strife, Blood, Quake, Quake 2, Hexen 2, Powerslave, Rise of the Triad, Unreal…yeah. The genre got burnt out for me and I actually used to be a big fan. Wolfenstein 3D is still somewhere in my list of favorite games. I used do a lot of Doom mods, probably like anyone who had the game back then. I also was never that good at the genre, probably because I grew up as a console gamer, I never quite got the feel of a keyboard and mouse.
What’s your proudest video game achievement?
Beating Phantasy Star II. That game was seriously hard, and it took some dedication to get through. Sometimes it felt like a chore, but I knew I had to keep going. Every time I almost gave up I kept telling myself “Nah, it’s almost over, you can do it!” I did it before there were versions where the walking speed was increased, too. I wish that game kept track how long you played.
It took a monstrously long time but I did beat Phantasy Star II.
Have you done work for any other websites or anything?
Yes, actually. As far as gaming goes, I worked for a couple websites, one of which is defunct and another of which is still alive and kicking. The defunct one closed down around when the Xbox 360 came out and unfortunately they’re not archived. The other was quite some time ago, 1997 or 1998, but they’ve changed hands a number of times. I was in high school at the time, and I couldn’t tell you what my handle was with them anymore. It was probably based on whatever anime was the flavor of the month for me. It was more of a community that I was part of than anything and I ended up doing some minor work for the site. They mainly dealt with RPGs. I guess you could say they’re fans of them. I took a leave of absence from the community for about four years, when I returned I didn’t know anyone there anymore. I’ve also done some work for local newspapers and stuff writing editorials. It wasn’t very exciting work.
What game have you wanted to play, but haven’t found the time?
The Last Story. I got it six months ago, and haven’t found the time yet. More seriously, though, some of the Tales games. I bought the Japanese PlayStation version of Tales of Phantasia years ago, and nearly finished it. I never got around to actually completing it, now I’ve moved several times, lost my memory cards and my PlayStation capable of playing imports died. There’s a fan translation floating around, I might give that a try sometime. I also never got around to playing Tales of Eternia, even though I bought it on both PlayStation and PSP. I got into Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny 2 for a bit, but never got too far into them.
If I start Tales of Phantasia again, at least I can do it in English, right?
Those are imports. Does that mean you can read Japanese?
Yes. No. Kind of. I started learning Japanese when I was in middle school, but never took a formal class. I’ve learned a fair bit on my own and even spent some time in Japan. Menus and things are no problem for me, but once we get beyond that I rely a lot on inferring based on the words in a sentence I can pick up. Sometimes I’m pretty dead on, sometimes I’m off base.
Why retro games? Why do you care so much?
I really enjoy being able to show people something they haven’t seen before or something they missed when it had come out. I also enjoy making people remember games they probably haven’t thought about in years. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
Popful Mail is another one of my favorites I’d love to write about sometime.
Usually what gives me the inspiration to write an article about a particular game is a conversation
I have with someone. I mention a game and they’ve never heard of it or played it. In some cases they don’t even know it existed, like Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. It’s a shame because even though some of these games are old, a lot of them are still fantastic, even by today’s standards. Going back, it’s amazing to see what some developers were able to do with the lack of power they were dealing with. I also feel that some games nowadays are missing something that older games have.
What do you do outside of playing video games?
Well, I’m a parent, for one. I have a four year old, who’s becoming a little bit of a gamer herself. It’s cool, but challenging, too. It means I have less time to devote to games which is probably a good thing. In the past, I worked for an independent video game retailer for a number of years. While I didn’t own the store, I ended up sort of being semi-in charge. I considered opening my own store, but it never happened. It’s still something in the back of my mind. My vision is kind of a combination console game/tabletop game store, with space for people to use for gaming, be it LAN parties or tabletop games. Yeah, I’m also a D&D geek.
My passion, however, is writing. I have a major work that’s currently in editing, with a second book halfway done, and a third book in the same series about a quarter done. I’m hoping to have it published by the end of 2013. I don’t want to go into too much detail of what it’s about, but it’s sort of a dystopian sci-fi novel. Some of the inspiration came from BubbleGum Crisis and Snatcher. I started it as a NaNoWriMo and it blossomed into something very grand. A few people have read the draft of the first book and told me “Yeah, you’ve GOT to get this published.”
If you haven’t played Snatcher, you need to.
However, I want to share something with you that’s not related at all to that work. This is where my name “RadGalaxy” comes from. It’s quite the opposite of my novel, actually. Where that’s dark and serious, this is light hearted, goofy and fun. It’s not completed by any means, it’s more of a prologue to a story. I apologize that it might be a bit raw. It’s not quite the same quality as something I’d be sending off to national publishers. It’s something I had fun with, and I hope you have fun reading it. So, without further ado, I present to you: Rad Galaxy!
Rad Galaxy
By Emily NowickiIt’s a picture-esque day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the sky is that perfect blue, without a single cloud. A perfect Chicago day. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. Here we have Manutech, home of manual technologies, and we focus on the secretary, Larcy. Larcy Williams is an ordinary nineteen year old girl, with an ordinary job, living an ordinary life, doing ordinary things. She’s busy typing away at her computer, not really paying attention to the world around her. This is a usual occurrence for her. She usually won’t pay attention to much of anything, unless it’s in her way. She didn’t notice the news this morning. The president was caught wearing women’s lingerie in a club with a teenage hooker dressed as teddy bear. It was on the front page of all the newspapers, and all over the television. Larcy just didn’t notice.
The lights flicker off for a quick moment, and her computer shuts down.
“Oh man…I didn’t even save my work!” She exclaims frustratedly. ”Now I’m going to have to spend the rest of the day…oh the hell with it, I’m just going to play Solitaire anyway.”
She powers up the computer and waits for it to load up. She waits, and waits, and waits, but it doesn’t do anything.“Oh come on, you stupid thing!” She yells, as she hits the computer monitor on the side. It crumples. ”What the hell?” She starts banging on the keyboard, and it just smooshes, too. ”It’s…cardboard? But…it wasn’t cardboard a moment ago. What the hell is going on?”
Larcy spins around in her chair and marches towards the door, only to be stopped by an invisible wall. ”Oww!” Seriously, what’s going on. Almost in a panic, she starts throwing herself against the invisible walls, trying to get out of the situation she’s found herself in.
“Oh no, I’ve become trapped in my own cubicle. They’ve found out I’ve been stealing highlighters! Now I’ll have to stay here until I work off my debt! Oh no, I’ve probably bankrupted them, or worse! Maybe I’ve forced them to outsource! Oh no, it’s all my fault!”
As she starts to scream, the lights in the building flicker, and the walls of the cubicle melt, revealing a very high tech room. All that can be heard are voices from the darkness.
“She knows!”
“We must abort the project!”
“Quick, flush the sample!”
Larcy presses her face up against the wall and peers out into the distance. ”Sample? What on Earth are you talking about?”
“Earth? What is Earth?”
Larcy looks inquisitively towards the direction of the voice. ”Earth, you know…the planet? God, you’re dumb.”
A hideous figure approaches the invisible wall from the opposite side. A G’jurkan. G’jurkan’s are an odd race. They’re reminiscent of toads, except they walk upright. They smell like rotten figs, and have a penchant for administering rectal exams. In the 21st century, this would be called “anal probing.” Although, humans thought aliens did it for knowledge. It’s actually a sport to the G’jurkans. Nobody’s quite sure why they do this. This is why they’re one of the least popular races of the galaxy, next to the Marisponain Vasectominers. Don’t get me started on them.
“Allow me to explain what’s going on. See, we’re trying to educate everyone on what the 21st century was like. We poached you from your natural habitat. However, we didn’t expect you to realise that you were in captivity. That’s where things went wrong.”Larcy raises an eyebrow at the toad-monster. ”Umm, you didn’t think I’d notice? I was at work, and then my computer was a cardboard box with a piece of paper taped to the front of it.”
“See, and we’ve learned a lot. We were always under the impression that 21st century computers were extremely primitive. I’d say we’ve come away with a lot from this venture. Maybe our next…er…Earth monkey will be a little more. Oh, how should I put this….” The G’jurkan paces back and forth trying to find the right words.“You need a moron!” Larcy excitedly replies.
“No, no, we’ve learned a lot about obscure Earth religion. Regardless, we’ve gotten all we’re going to get from this. As the crowd says, it’s time to flush the sample.”
“W…wait…what, I don’t want to get flushed…hey, let me out of here!”
As the G’jurkan walks away, the floor drops out of the cubicle, and Larcy is ejected out into space.
This is where our story truly begins. Larcy floating out in space, along with her cardboard computer and keyboard. As the paper screen flies past her head, one would say that her life has literally flashed in front of her eyes. At least, the boring life she once had. All of that is behind her. Or, depending on how you feel time flows, in front of her. Regardless, here she is. Zapped four thousand years into the future, floating helplessly through space. Until she hits the window to another spaceship that is.
The man inside the spaceship stares up at the windshield.
“Oh hell, what did I hit now.” He hits a few buttons, and windshield cleaner sprays all over poor Larcy. He hits a few more buttons, and windshield wipers start moving back and forth to clear the debris, but it doesn’t knock Larcy off.
“Fan-fucking-tastic.” The man grabs a helmet, and walks to the airlock hatch. He presses a button and the doors shut in front of him, and then another set of doors open behind him. He walks along the outer hull of the ship, and grabs Larcy and drags her along and takes her into the airlock. He pulls off his helmet and stares at her for a few moments.
“Hey.” He waits for a response. ”Hey.” He kicks her a few times to get her to move, but she just lays there, completely still.“Well, I guess I’ll be having steak tonight.” At that moment, Larcy jumps back to life, stands up, and points directly at the man.
“S…s…s…spaceman!”
“D…d…d..don’t point, it’s not polite.” The man replies back to her, very unamused.
Larcy looks at the man dumbfounded and then points at him again.“So, what’s your name! And take off your helmet!”
The man takes off the helmet revealing he’s completely bald, except for a single hair that’s as long as he is tall. It curls and wraps around his head.
“I think you suffered some brain damage. You’ll get back to normal soon. I hope.”
Larcy points and jumps up and down.
“Your name! Name name name name!”
The man sighs, rolls his eyes, and reluctantly replies.
“It’s Phnorg”“Snorg?”
“Phnorg…”
“Nord?”
“Phnorg……”
“Gord?”
“……Phnorg!”
“Borg?”
“PHNORG!!!”
“Skippy?”
“…………whatever.”
Larcy smiles maniacally. ”I’ll just call you Skippy from now on!”
Phnorg maintains his gentle scowl. ”Fine, whatever blows your skirt up.”
Larcy’s expression turns to stark disappointment. ”Oh, I guess…you don’t want to know my name, do you. I guess it’s not important.”
“A brain dead space particle? I don’t really think I need to know what you’re called. After all, if I decide to keep you, I don’t usually name my pets anyway.”
Larcy then rotates her emotional setting to complete horror. ”What? Pet? What are you talking about. I’m nobody’s pet! I’m a person, a human person!”
Phnorg turns to her, and looks at her cursedly. ”No, listen. I pulled you off my windshield. I brought you in here. If not for me, you’d be floating in space, forever. Now, there’s an ancient proverb that dictates how the world works.”
“And that is?”
“Finders keepers, losers weepers. And I’m the finder, so automatically you’re the weeper….loser.”
That’s what I have written out so far. More exists in the form of notes, sketches, and other short ramblings. The way the story’s meant to continue is they end up crashing on a random planet and lose track of the ship. Larcy finds “another ship”, while Phnorg points out it’s the same ship. She invokes the divine rule of “finders keepers” and names herself captain and literally flies off into destinations unknown. She casts off her own identity and assumes the name of Rad Galaxy, intergalactic adventurer. It’s heavily influenced by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I admit. The direction I wanted to go with it was to be sort of a parody of it and pretty much every other sci-fi story like it. At one time, I thought of doing it as a web comic, but I can’t draw and I haven’t found an artist willing to commit to the project.
The Xak series is something that’s on my plate for the future.
I hope you enjoyed our little break from our regularly scheduled writings. In a few days I’ll have a new article, I just need to finish it up. I also have the next few games I want to talk about planned out, as well. I’m pretty excited about doing some of the upcoming games and I hope you’re excited about reading them.
I’m curious what people think of Rad Galaxy. Did you like it? Would you like to see more of this kind of thing? Reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know.
