Category: January

Apple Needs To Do Better For Mac Gaming

Published January 30, 2023

I’m not particularly fond of macOS but I do think it’s undeniable that it’s very popular, it’s the second most popular desktop OS, and, as a fan of PC gaming, I’m always enthusiastic about PC games being available for multiple OSs. I’ve already spoken about how the push that we’re seeing from Valve and other companies to make Linux more capable for gaming has me excited and I was hoping that recent events would lead to a similar level of excitement for Mac gaming. However, Apple are clearly making mistakes and I thought I’d take a look at several of the problems Apple will face if it continues on its current Mac gaming path.

Mac gaming hasn’t always been in this state. Apple originally had a game included in their, then, new Macintosh computer in 1984 called “Puzzle“, an electronic version of the 15 puzzle. As time went on, more and more games were slowly released for Mac systems with a few particularly notable examples being Dark Castle, Myst, SimCity and the Marathon trilogy. However, the problem Apple has always had is that they have an unfortunate distaste for video games. Apple were apparently afraid of their product being labelled a “home computer” since they disliked the association with gaming. Even as late as the mid-00s, Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of the Valve Corporation, stated with regards to Apple “we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go “wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming”. And then we’ll say, “OK, here are three things you could do to make that better”, and then they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow though on anything.“

The OS market share according to the December 2022 Steam Hardware & Software Survey.

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The Interesting History Of Disney Anime And Manga

Published January 26, 2023

I’ve always been a fan of Disney and I strongly believe that many of their animated works are some of the finest ever created. However, I think it’s fair to say that part of the reason that many people are drawn to anime and manga is how different it can be in terms of storytelling and visuals from most Western animation that feel unable to separate themselves from Disney’s impact. However, I think it’s interesting how, throughout the history of their mediums, anime and manga have teamed up with Disney to produce works that combine the styles of the former with the IP of the latter.

As far as I’m aware, the first time that this occurred was Osamu Tezuka’s Bambi in 1951. Osamu Tezuka, often considered to be the founder of the modern anime industry, was a big fan of Disney and he particularly adored Bambi. He even ended up watching it over 80 times during its original Japanese theatrical release! He managed to eventually license the right to Bambi and to produce a manga adaptation. Interestingly, he also produced a manga adaptation of Disney’s Pinocchio the next year but, since copyright was hard to enforce at the time, it was an unlicensed work.

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The History Of The Unusual Anime Company Studio 4°C

Published January 23, 2023

Generally, if I’m aware of a studio, I have an idea of what an anime from that studio is going to look like. While the works of studios might have a little visual variance, I’d have a pretty good idea what the anime is going look like if you mention Madhouse, Production I.G., Sunrise etc. However, upon watching several of their films recently, I realised that I have absolutely no idea what a Studio 4°C anime is going to look like. Given this, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the history of the unusual anime company Studio 4°C.

Studio 4°C was founded in 1986 by producer Eiko Tanaka and animator Koji Morimoto with their first original project being a short film called “Jack to Mame no Ki”, an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk that was released as part of the Anime Video Art Collection in 1989. While continuing to do a few small projects, a particularly notable moment for Studio 4°C was when they worked together with Madhouse to animate the 1995 anime film “Memories”. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it consists of three short films, “Magnetic Rose”, “Stink Bomb” and “Cannon Fodder”. Madhouse animated Stink Bomb while Studio 4°C animated Magnetic Rose and Cannon Fodder and it’s immediately evident how visually distinct Studio 4°C could be with sharp, crisp animation enhancing the two completely different art styles in their shorts.

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The Wonderful Genius Of Horror Effects, Tom Savini

Published January 19, 2023

As a massive fan of horror films, I’m always showing some of my favourites to people. Interestingly, as I watched more and more horror with others, one of them began to take note of a name that appeared in the opening credits, Tom Savini. He’d often be credited as a “Special Makeup Effects Artist” and, whenever she saw his name, she’d turn to me and say “This is going to be a gory one isn’t it?” I immediately became fascinated with Tom Savini and his wonderful horror effects so I thought it’d be great to take a look at the history and career of this genius.

As Tom Savini himself tells it, he first began his interest in developing a career in film when, at the age of 12, he saw a film called “Man of a Thousand Faces” which is a dramatisation of the life of Lon Chaney, an actor and makeup artist from the silent film era. He was so inspired by the film that he soon began to create his own makeup effects which he’d practise on both himself and his friends. He later ended up serving in Vietnam where he coped by imagining that the violence he was seeing were special effects. He later encountered legendary filmmaker George A. Romero and ended up doing stuntwork and other effects for the 1978 film “Martin”.

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Taking A Look At My Steam Replay 2022

Published January 16, 2023

I was recently on Twitter when I saw that Valve had released a new feature on Steam called “Steam Replay 2022”. This acts as a summary of how you used Steam and contains some very interesting information. So much so that I thought it worth taking a look specifically at my personal 2022 Steam Replay. I also decided to make my Steam Replay 2022 public for those who wish to take a closer look at certain aspects with the link being available here.

Before I start taking a look at the specifics in my Steam Replay 2022, there is something that I have to point out that’ll be necessary in order to analyse the results. I subscribe to a service called Humble Choice which offers around 8 games every month and I’ve discovered and played a great many wonderful games through subscribing to them. However, I also make use of a program that I use in order to get the initial Steam cards from all of the games I get by running the games simultaneously in the background and, combined with the many games I get from Humble Choice, this means that certain figures such as playtime, the number of games I’ve played etc. aren’t as accurate as they would otherwise be. However, many other figures remain accurate and I’ll do my best to mention whenever I believe that a result may have been affected.

A quick summary of my Steam Replay 2022.

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The Interesting Mangaka Naoki Urasawa

Published January 12, 2023

When someone is learning about manga for the first time, I’m sure that the sheer number of important series and mangaka can prove to be a little intimidating. However, as much as I love to talk about many of the classic mangaka such as Shotaro Ishinomori or Mitsuteru Yokoyama, it’s true that there are a great deal of very talented mangaka working in the modern industry. One of the more notable is an individual called Naoki Urasawa, a particularly interesting mangaka whose body of work has seen both strong critical and commercial success.

As a child, Naoki Urasawa idolised the work of Osamu Tezuka, later naming him as one of his two heroes alongside Bob Dylan. Despite this, he didn’t initially end up pursuing a career as being a mangaka and it was only chance that he ended up becoming a mangaka. While visiting Shogakukan in search of a job in business, he decided to bring along some of the manga he’d drawn and, after initially struggling to get the attention of editors, he ended up running into one who submitted it to a contest for the 1982 New Manga Artist award. He proved to be quite surprised when he won and decided to begin working as a mangaka.

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The Remarkable Japanese Stop-Motion Animator Tadahito Mochinaga

Published January 9, 2023

I think it’s fair to say that when we think of anime, we generally envision 2D animation. It’s true that we are seeing more and more anime that are created in CGI but the hand-drawn look remains iconic. However, it’s all too easy to forget that Japan has produced many other styles of animation with stop-motion being particularly notable. Within this area, a particularly remarkable Japanese stop-motion animator would be Tadahito Mochinaga who’s had a surprising impact that many may not even be aware of. Given this, I thought it worth looking at his contributions and why you should know about him.

Born in Tokyo on the 3rd of March, 1919, he started out his career in animation by working on cel animation under the supervision of Mitsuyo Seo, himself a very important animator in the history of Japan. After serving as an animator on Arichan the Ant, for which he notably built Japan’s first multiplane set-up, and Momotaro’s Sea Eagles, he decided to move himself and his wife to Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied territory of Manchuria, and ended up working for several years in the Chinese film industry where he developed and honed his skills in stop-motion before moving back to Japan in the early 50s.

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Why I Believe That “Gratuitousness” Isn’t Necessarily A Bad Thing

Published January 5, 2023

When I was watching the films of Lars von Trier recently, I made the bold decision to watch Nymphomaniac with someone else. All I and they knew about the film, besides its runtime of close to five and a half hours, was that it had real sex scenes that were created by digitally compositing the actor/actress’s upper half with the lower half of porn actors/actresses. After we’d finished the film, we had plenty to discuss but one thing they said that really struck me was “I don’t think the real sex was necessary. It was gratuitous.” I understood what they were saying but I also had the thought “Why not?” and so I decided that I’d express my thoughts today on why I believe that gratuitousness isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Let’s start off by defining what gratuitousness is and, in particular, what it means to the greater population. The term itself, gratuitousness, is defined as “the state or quality of being unnecessary or with no cause” which can be quite general. For instance, I could describe a story arc in a film as gratuitous if I think it didn’t contribute to the work. However, with regards to the general population, I’ve often heard the term gratuitous applied to film, TV and video games with graphic violence or sex. When I ask why they consider those things to be gratuitous, I’m often met with the response “Because I don’t need to see it”. While I understand that seeing these things might not strictly be important when it comes to story, I do think they can be very important when it comes to themes and impact.

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Some Of My Favourite Casual Video Games

Published January 2, 2023

I’ve spoken at length about the topic of difficult video games as I’m a big proponent that difficulty can often add to the experience rather than take away. However, this doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate games that are simpler and easier, casual if you will. Therefore, I thought it would be a nice change of pace today to take a look at some of my favourite casual video games and why they’re worth playing.

We should probably start by defining what a casual video game is for anyone unfamiliar with the term. While the term can be somewhat vague, the typical criteria for a game to be considered “Casual” is that the rules and goals are clear to the player, that the skill required to play the game can be achieved relatively quickly, that the game doesn’t require a big commitment in time each session and that the gameplay incorporates various aspects from everyday life. However, even this attempt to define what a casual game is often falls short as I can think of many games that I would consider to be casual that do not manage to fulfill all of these criteria. Nonetheless, it is somewhat helpful in explaining the concept at the very least even if there are many exceptions.

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