vlog - crash bandifloat

so uh, i may or may not have been on a Crash Bandicoot fix lately. which is weird, since i've been into it for quite some years now, and yet it's early 2015 where the obsession reaches a friggin' peak. funny how that works.

might be doing these vlog sorta things just to space out between the more wordier stuff while i work on them. mostly they'll be about stuff i find pretty fun or interesting. i'll probably end up having a similar thinger with favorite musics of mine as well. also maybe artwork showcases, though i'm not 100% sure on that yet.

anyhow, here's a pretty sweet Crash-themed float done for Arkiweek at the UST College of Architecture in 2011! it's a wonderful fan tribute to the classic platformer franchise, and there's a lot of pretty rad costumes, too. also, dancing. the dancing is especially important.

even if i've got my doubts on there being another Crash Bandicoot game anytime soon, it's still nice to know that the series is still adored by the fans and that the community themselves are pretty dang dedicated to it.

curiousities - The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk

bit of a short one compared to last time, but a interesting gem nonetheless.

The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk was developed by John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis and released in 1999 by Gee Whiz! Entertainment. according to the help file, the game is a "screen opera"; basically a interactive virtual environment that also doubles as a screensaver if you so wish.

so yeah, it's not a "game" in the general sense of the world; there's no major goals or long-term objectives. the scale's also rather small, with it set in the titular Jaruu Tenk's house, but there are quite a few things about Chronicles that are pretty interesting for its time.

set in the world of Kombara on the island of Bloofen Jut, Jaruu works as an Observer, keeping track of volcanic activity in the region and keeping an eye out for any threats. as a visitor to the island, you can explore around Jaruu's house, talk to him and his friends, read up on the lore of Kombara, and even play games around the house with Jaruu.

curiousities - BKPC and BKPC 2

er, less of a curiousity, more of a forgotten relic of a time long gone.

i remember back in 2002, back when i first got internet, i used to participate pretty dang heavily in the Banjo-Kazooie community for quite some years. while places like Banjo-Fella's Breegull Aviary and Da-Breegster's Breegull Feather Data Base are now lost to the winds of time, i do have a little memento from that period here today.

there were a countless amount of Banjo-Kazooie fangames back in the early 00's. while most of these were fairly ambitious projects that never made it past the demo phase, there did exist a few finished fangames featuring the friendly furry and his feathered friend.

er, poetic nonsense and alliteration aside, we're going to be talking about one of the more well-known Banjo fangames from that time. because i'm a nostalgic dork. and yes, there will be download links.

BKPC was developed by Yumblie and Bhlaab some time around 2000 or so, during the peak of the Banjo community. while i'm not 100% sure if it was the very first Banjo fangame, it was definitely one of the most popular ones at the time, if not the most popular.

MAKAIPUNK - Disgaea Character Collection fanart gallery

2015. a new year, a fresh start. hopefully i'll work on posting crap more frequently here.

been dawdling as far as the next part of the Disgaea manga readthrough is concerned, but MAKAIPUNK isn't solely about the manga stuff. generally it's more about the lesser-known NIS/Disgaea stuff, and that being said, here's a bit of a treat for everyone to start the year off.

in 2003, some time after the release of the first Disgaea game on PS2, Dengeki Playstation printed the Disgaea Character Collection: an artbook with a bevy of official, concept, and promotional art from the first game, as well as some tidbits of lore, developer/voiceactor interviews, info on plot, endings, and some other gameplay things, among various other visual nifty stuff.

the artbook did see an english localization in 2006 under the name The World of Disgaea, published by the now-defunct Broccoli Books. i am planning on snapshotting some bits from the book eventually, but we're focusing on a different aspect of the book at the moment.

the original japanese Character Collection featured two pages of artwork drawn by fans of the series. curiously, these pages are absent in the english version, but i guess nobody in the US would know any of the artists who drew any of the pictures, being on the other side of the planet and all.

scans of the original japanese artbook do exist on the net, but for legal reasons, i won't be putting up any links to the full scanned book. though, considering these pages are absent from the english release, might as well put them up for posterity. that and the fanart here is pretty good for the 2003 era. if blogspot's iffy on showing the fullsized images, alternate imgur links exist here and here.

also of mention is that the japanese artbook for Makai Kingdom (Phantom Kingdom in Japan) has a fanart section like this. no scans of the artbook currently exist, but i'll probably snap some shots of the fanart if i can get them in decent quality.

happy new years, everyone. let's make this a great one. <3