Penny Arcade

One Day Only

After that initial day at the SakuraCon, we tried to imagine an event that could possibly feel more hostile to us. Of course, that con turned out alright, so who knows. We have provided the flyer in the strip in case you want to publicize an event which is not real.

I have a strange gaming condition that I simply must reveal to someone.

If I have a single excellent game - let’s say, Planescape: Torment, which I am quite prepared to call the finest fantasy RPG ever created - if I have a single excellent game, I can reasonably be expected to focus on it until completion. I can even juggle one or two with a good chance of success. But at around three games I truly want to invest myself in - right now, let’s call them Phantasy Star Online, Raven Shield, Planetside, and “I can’t say because of the NDA” - something weird occurs. Instead of opening Excel or something and trying to graph how many hours each game one may consume before a switch is necessitated, I’m seized by the need to save these games for some future point - perhaps to be played amidst the wreckage of civilization after a nuclear holocaust. I mean, shit, I don’t know. I just know, like I know I’m talking to you now, that I need to stow these things away. That doesn’t mean that I don’t play games - far from it. I just have to find new ones, small ones, to take the edge off like methadone. I found a number of great games this weekend through various sources, and should you ever require respite from X where X equals some stupid bullshit, allow me to help.

I was actually over at HomeLAN reading an interview I believe when the whole thing started. They have a link on the right to a game called Marble Blast, which I figured for a Marble Madness clone but is instead a Monkey Ball clone. Well, mostly. It has a series of interesting powerups that switch up the gameplay a bit, in all it was a great way to keep my mind off famine and global conflict. HomeLAN also had a link to Orbz, which looked cool but I was busy playing the other games I’m about to mention. Orbz is from 21-6, whose puzzle game Cyclone ain’t bad, neither.

Moonpod has cooked up a little game called Starscape that manages to combine space shooting with RPG. Two great tastes, “You got your shooter in my RPG, no you got your, etc.” It may consume you, I’m just giving you fair warning.

Pom Pom is, I suspect, run by foreign nationals. Their games are also available for seditious alternative operating systems. All is forgiven once you play their excellent shooters, derived, and then purified from classics like Robotron and Defender. The games look and play great - I mean, well.

Small Rockets is also staffed by foreigners, strange foreigners whose pungent spices flavor a host of truly unique dishes. They sometimes turn their hands to the production of Videogames, and God bless them for it. Their mouth-watering Star Monkey was there for me when last I needed stimulation, and my return visit proved fruitful. Red Ace Squadron features hot biplane on biplane action and even includes multiplayer. The main thing I came away with was Ultra Assault, which takes the space shoot-them-up Star Monkey and does it one better. Indeed, Ultra Assault is essentially a modern Alcon, which is a very good thing.

I also played A Tale In The Desert, but that could be a post all by itself. Every one of these games can be played for free in their demo form, and all are extremely cheap to upgrade for full use.

Alright, this is the last Magnetic Fields quote, I promise. The simple fact is that once you own the album “69 Love Songs,” you just don’t need anything else.

(CW)TB out.

astronomy will have to be revised

Ikaruga

We’ve already played the hell out of the game, but regular humans who do not import games can now play Ikaruga on their domestic GameCubes. if old school shooting (like some of the games mentioned above) are the sort of thing that turn your crank, Ikaruga is a must play.

(CW)TB

Over Easy

I thought I would post a sneak peek at page 7 of Over Easy. Don’t forget Club PA members this month will get pages 7 and 8 of OE. These pages will wrap up the first chapter.

-Gabe out

Strawberry Shortcake Comic Removed

If you have any questions about why, feel free to raise them with Rinda E. Vas, Corporate Counsel for the American Greetings Corporation.

We’re currently trying to figure out exactly how the concepts of Parody and Satire work to protect the sorts of things we do, to better arm ourselves against this kind of crap. Virtually everyone believes that what we did is protected, indeed, I believe that myself - but I’m not going to bet the farm on it until I have a bit more than Internet hearsay to back myself up with.

(CW)TB

PA readers transform and roll out!

An industrious reader already has a petition up and ready for you to sign. If you would like to voice your support you can find the petition here.

I know it has some spelling mistakes but hey, I didn’t write it. The kid who did is trying to get it fixed. I guess you can’t just change the text of a petition after a couple thousand people have signed it.

I think this is a pretty interesting situation. Like Tycho said we are currently examining our options. It seems like it’s important for web comics in general that we investigate this situation further. I mean what if a company that makes sad girls with robot shit in their hair suddenly told Piro to take down all his art. Or a company that makes fart jokes went after Scott. It’s up to us to make sure that never happens.

-Gabe out
I tease because I love

A Wealth Of Information

We are, of course, talking to our lawyer about all this stuff. Readers have referred us to many sources in an effort to clarify our position legally, sites like Chilling Effects act as clearing houses for data useful in situations such as this. Also, interesting cases have been brought to our attention - for example, Aqua’s song “Barbie Girl” was contested by Mattel, and Aqua still came out on top (as it were). In darker news, Matt from MacHall send this interesting bit - check page 3, “Dr. Seuss Enterprises Vs. Penguin Books.” To my mind, that precedent doesn’t mean anything good for us.

This might be of interest to you: another case involving the tireless Rinda Vas, who apparently spends day and night tirelessly defending 80’s pap. Thank God there are people like her to defend megacorporations and their holdings from the predations of popular culture.

(CW)TB