25 years ago today, a motion picture based on a phenomenal TV Show – or should I say morphinomenal – was released in theaters, to the joy of young fans the world over, including yours truly (I was nine at the time).
So for those who were able to see this movie when it came out, what memories do you have about the movie, or just anything Power Rangers-related?
Hey Arcaders!
with Sony announcing the PS5, we thought we would go over all of our PlayStation memories! What was your favorite PlayStation system? or your favorite game on any of Sony’s platforms? Let us know in the comments!
Hey Arcaders!
I want to thank each and every one of you for making Pac-Man month better than I could ever imagine. It’s been a blast! Don’t worry- I’ll be keeping up on the Pac-Man articles even though it’s over!
But to end everything on a high note (pun intended) I want to have the last article of Pac-Man month be a great one!
So here’s an episode of a show I grew up with- I think most of the older Arcaders (like me) will remember.
in 1982, a show aired called Square Pegs. It’s a fun romp, showing the different cliques in a high school. one episode in particular had our little yellow friend- and it’s called Pac-Man Fever! Check it out!
Don’t fret- the month may be over- but The Pac-Fun isn’t!
Keep Playin Like It’s 1981!
We have all heard the phrases, “Once upon a time…” as well as “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…” but in February 2005, a new opening phrase was created.
“Water, earth, fire, air…”
If one hadn’t seen the intro one would think that it was yet another generic adventure series, nothing too serious. But if one took a closer look, they would find that this is no regular animated show on Nickelodeon. In fact, much like certain animated series from the 90s – like Batman The Animated Series and Disney’s Gargoyles – this would be yet another great show that challenged the conventions of animation on TV, and would become a true classic.
Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, Avatar takes place in a world that is made up of four different nations: The Air Nomads, The Earth Kingdom, The Water Tribe, and The Fire Nation. For many generations the four nations “lived together in harmony”, but then the Fire Nation became power-hungry and began attacking the other nations in an attempt to seize more power. Fortunately there was one force that could stop them: The Avatar, a being who has the ability to utilize all of the four known elements – water, earth, fire, and air – to keep balance in the world. Unfortunately this individual had disappeared at a critical moment in the conflict and as such the Fire Nation was able to continue extending their grasp over the world. Despite this a Water Tribe native named Katara still held out hope that the Avatar would return, given that the being had the ability to reincarnate itself within different people over the centuries, with Roku being the most recent. In keeping with the life cycle this would mean that the next one to have the Avatar’s power would be an Air Nomad, though no one had seen said nomads in a long time.
The story begins with Katara and her brother Sokka out to catch fish to bring back to their tribe, and Katara is practicing her ability to waterbend, something that her brother dismisses.
After no success in their hunt, which in turn leads to an all out argument between the two siblings, Katara and Sokka discover an iceberg that surfaces in front of them, only the iceberg isn’t empty.
Once Katara breaks the ice enough a figure emerges, revealing itself to be a young airbender a few years younger than the two siblings with arrow tattoos on his head and arms named Aang. Once Katara introduces herself and her brother Aang introduces his flying bison Appa and the group then make their way back to the Northern Water Tribe.
Unfortunately this didn’t go unnoticed to some extents, for a short distance away a Fire nation ship containing an exiled Prince Zuko and his Uncle Iroh was within range of seeing the energy emitted by the new Avatar, which Zuko happened to see. While not much is known about why Zuko is so obsessed with finding the Avatar, it is something that becomes much more clearer as time goes by.
So Aang gets acquainted with the rest of Katara and Sokka’s tribe – small as it is – and brings a sense of fun to the children there, which is something they haven’t had in a while.
As Aang and Katara are going penguin sliding the duo stumble upon an old Fire Nation ship and Aang accidentally triggers one of the traps which in turn causes a flare to shoot out from the ship, thus catching the attention of Zuko.
Although Aang and Katara manage to get out of the ship the tribe reveals that a Fire Navy ship has been spotted and is on its way here. Admitting his culpability and also at the insistence of Katara’s grandmother Aang leaves the village, but no sooner does he leave that the Fire Nation finds the village and attacks, with Zuko demanding the Avatar show himself. Fortunately Aang wasn’t too far away and eventually with the help of Katara and Sokka managed to fight Zuko and the rest of the Fire Navy off, but not without having the Airbender’s true identity as the Avatar revealed.
Despite not wanting anything to do with being the Avatar at first, Aang steps up and accepts his destiny and begins his journey with Katara, Sokka and Appa to master the other elements and bring balance to the world, as other Avatars before him had done.
While this is only the first two episodes of the series, it is one heck of an introduction. Right away you meet most of the main characters who will play a massive part in the story that takes place over the course of three seasons, and not one moment is wasted. And the writing on the show is treated the same way as some other animated shows from the 90s were-on multiple levels and even then, said writing was taken to a whole other degree not seen in a Nickelodeon show, which in turn led to winning an Emmy, Kid’s Choice and Peabody Awards as well as catching the attention of audiences beyond the kids. Adults found themselves enthralled by the adventures of these characters as well, and thanks to the writing, all the characters grew and matured in very realistic ways that everyone could connect with. And much like the best serialized storytelling, it all built to an incredible climactic finale that only a few sagas can match.
As such, this is a series that has endured, and transcended in many ways, and still holds up to this very day, and now that it has arrived on Netflix fans can once again enjoy the adventure from the beginning and for new fans to discover for the very first time.
So if whether you have Netflix, or if you have the Blu-Ray collection, watch this series. There is a reason why it is hailed as one of the best animated series out there, and once you start watching Avatar, you will find yourself pulled in, and just like Aang’s friends when he goes into the Avatar state, you will find it a series to behold.
Hey Arcaders!
From Pac-Man to Mario, to Sonic characters are a big part of video games but for every popular character, some characters seem to go by the wayside. This week Joshua aka @ubernerd527 and Danny the Ultra-Sonic Player @ultrasonic9 talk about some of their favorite underrated characters.
What is your favorite underrated video game character? comment below and we might share it in the next episode.
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you can also catch us on the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Anchor, and many other pod-catching devices.
The Orignal Underrated Video Game Character article by Joshua
Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981!
Hey Arcaders!
In the early days after Pac-Man was released to the world, there were a lot of arcade and home console companies that wanted in on the Pac-profit! This series will focus on these lesser known games. weather it’s an original game, or a Pac-bootleg, we will be touching base with these games that Pac-forgot!
The next one is one is a golden age Maze game it it’s finest- Pepper II!
Pepper II was designed and manufactured in 1982 by Exidy- a company known for games like Death Race, Fax, Crossbow, and a game that’s in one of my favorite movies- Star Fire!
Ok- let’s get this question out of the way- This isn’t a sequel. There wasn’t a Pepper I. Originally, The game was called Zipper. but a higher up at Exidy didn’t like the name. The story goes- he looked at a packet of pepper on a table in the lunchroom and said… “How about Pepper?” The name stuck. The “II” comes from the two personalities your character has.
The character “Pepper” is an angel. There are two types of enemies that must be avoided: Roaming Eyes and the Whippersnapper who unzips all uncompleted, zipped segments by moving over them. Pepper’s one defense is to enclose an area containing a pitchfork, which turns him into a demon “Pepper II” for approximately four seconds. At that time he can go after all Roaming Eyes for points while the Whippersnapper freezes. There are four pitchforks in the corners of every maze. A deluxe energizer is located in the center of each maze. This energizer alternates between being a pitchfork and a halo symbol. If Pepper encloses the middle area when the energizer is a halo, the Whippersnapper disappears from the maze.
Points are made for enclosing a segment, consuming a pair of roaming eyes when energized by the pitchfork (similar to Pac-Man), obtaining prizes, completing a maze, and completing 4 mazes. A bonus turn is awarded at 40,000, 50,000, 70,000 or 90,000 points, depending on the dip switch settings. When a full screen (of the four) has been completely filled, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” is briefly heard.
Let’s talk about those mazes. there’s four of them. And they’re all connected.
Each maze has exits leading to three other mazes. All four mazes must be filled to advance to the next level. To fill in a maze, the player maneuvers “Pepper” around different segments of the maze. As Pepper travels, he leaves a “zipper”. Once he encloses or “zips” a segment, it fills in and points are awarded. If Pepper backtracks on an uncompleted segment, it unzips.
Fun Fact- the intro music is Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette” or as most people that frequented Universal Studios Florida know it- the intro song to “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
Hey- why don’t we watch this wonderfully crazy game in action, shall we?
This is a fun game but it ramps up quickly!
Extra fun fact- There was a version made for the completely awesome Colecovision system- Check it out!
However you can play this game- give it a shot- you’ll love it!
Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981!
Review by Joshua Jordan
The Secret Warriors are a group of up and coming super powered teens led by Daisy Johnson aka Quake. The team also includes Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, Ghost Spider (aka Spider Gwen), Patriot, Inferno, America Chavez, and Ironheart. Together they learn how to overcome their differences to fight with each other against evil villains and save the day.
I am a 90’s kid, so if you’d ask me what my favorite animated superhero shows were my immediate answer would be Batman Beyond, Batman the animated series, Superman the animated series, Teen Titans, and Static Shock. That’s because I feel that even still to this day DC has a better library of animated properties. That’s not to say Marvel didn’t have any at all in fact they had two other favorites of mine Spider-Man the animated series and X-Men the animated series. Beyond that however, there hasn’t been much else at least in my opinion. That’s a shame too because with all the amazing things Marvel has done for live action movies you would think that they could also make a great animated show too. With Marvel Rising I think they have pretty close but still haven’t reached that mark.
Marvel Rising was trying to make a series that was appealing to everyone but mainly focused on girls. This was a similar attempt done by Disney with the Star Wars Forces of Destiny short series. One of Marvel Rising’s strengths is the fact that more than half their cast is female with only two men. I feel that this is a strength for the show because a lot of superhero animated shows are usually male dominated. Another strength was using relative unknown superheroes or heroes that haven’t gotten the spotlight. The animated series that I grew up with were, for the most part, my first introductions to characters like Batman and Spider-Man. Because of this I found a love for them that continues today. So why not introduce kids and adults to characters they’ve probably never heard of like Squirrel Girl or Ms. Marvel. For example, I was happy to see Ghost Spider (aka Spider Gwen) in the group because I like the character and ever since her appearance in Into The Spiderverse I would like any opportunity to get the know the character more. Daisy Johnson aka Quake’s inclusion was something that I also liked because it was a node to any adults watching the show. For those of you not aware Daisy is a character from the comic series Inhumans. But she is commonly know from the live action Agents of SHIELD series played by Chloe Bennet. It was kind of nice touch for the show runners to get her to reprise her role in Marvel Rising, even if the character is different from her live action counterpart. Another strength for this series is the animation. The animation sort of reminded me of older cartoons I used to watch like GI Joe or ThunderCats. While the animation isn’t perfect it does it job very well. I mainly liked the action scenes which flow very well and definitely have some anime influences.
I applaud Marvel Rising for attempting to try something new and for trying something different. Yet there are some problems I would like to discuss. Starting with my biggest problem, the potential for great story telling was kind of wasted. The series has a good set up, interesting back stories for a lot of the characters, and room to expand on those characters. They come very close but they miss that mark. For example we get introduced to Ghost Spider and her back story is very similar to what we see in Into The Spiderverse and in the comics but instead of Peter Parker getting killed it’s some random guy named Kevin. This was a golden opportunity to explore an alternate universe, one that we aren’t completely familiar with but instead they don’t go there. Even though you can see that Gwen and this Kevin guy were close friends it doesn’t pay off as much as other stories have. Marvel has a plethora of interesting villains that haven’t been used yet. In Marvel Rising they don’t use any villains to their full potential. A good example is exile, the main antagonist, you’re not really sure of his intentions from the beginning and worst of all his powers aren’t really explained to well. This just makes him a very confusing villan and worst of all a terrible main antagonist. Like the heroes I applaud them for trying something new. The villains aren’t proper used to their full potential or stand out and that’s a big problem for your overall story. This is just a personal preference problem but how Disney+ puts Marvel Rising on its service is weird. The first few episodes were released originally as seven minute long shorts. Then each of the episodes that followed released as movies. These movies range in length from 45 minutes to an hour. Instead of putting them altogether Disney+ has put all of them separate and doesn’t tell you which one came first so it’s kind of a guessing game, this is frustrating. They should have just put them all together which would have made for an easier viewing experience.
Marvel Rising was a good attempt at trying something new and reaching a broader audience. While I didn’t hate watching it I couldn’t help but think they could have done more with it. As of the writing of this review I couldn’t find any plans to continue the series. So that potential, at least for now, will never be fully realized. Which is a shame because while I do have some problems with the show I don’t see it as a complete failure. If you have young kids who like superheroes this show is a pretty good show to sit down with them and watch. If you don’t have kids and you like superheroes and have a free afternoon I say give it a watch. Just have Google ready so you know what order to watch the episodes.
Have you watched Marvel Rising what are your thoughts? Comment below!
Hey Arcaders!
Remakes and Compilations have been part of video games for a very long time and Joshua aka @ubernerd527 and Danny the Ultra-Sonic Player @ultrasonic9 talk about some of their favorites.
What are your favorite video game Remakes and Compilations? comment below and we might share it in the next episode.
Please like us, share us, and give us five stars on Itunes!
you can also catch us on the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Anchor, and many other pod-catching devices.
Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981!
Hey Arcaders!
In the early days after Pac-Man was released to the world, there were a lot of arcade and home console companies that wanted in on the Pac-profit! This series will focus on these lesser known games. weather it’s an original game, or a Pac-bootleg, we will be touching base with these games that Pac-forgot!
The next game is one I remember playing at my local roller rink’s arcade- Piranha!
Piranha was programmed by a small company- GL. This was one of the biggest Pac-Man bootlegs- it actually had an dedicated cabinet release in the U.S. by U.S. Billiards.
The cabinet looked like a standard Sega cabinet of the time (Frogger, Carnival, Pulsar) with some beautiful artwork, the cabinet’s quite a looker. Check it out!
Now that we have seen the cabinet- what about the game?
Here’s a write-up from Strategy Wiki-
The first thing You’ll notice- there’s not really a maze. I always felt it was like you were in a large salt water tank. The whole nautical theme has been done very well- from the seaweed, rocks, to the kelp bed- you feel like you’re underwater! The screen has four exits- two on top and two on the sides! The ghosts have been turned into squid- with soulless, hollowed out eyes!
Your power pellets have been turned into shells! The bonus fruit are now crabs, anchors,and other fish. Interestingly, the dots are placed in a pattern. But, the piranha’s control is still 4-way… meaning you’ll be circling around a few times to get a single dot. So the game’s challenge is tough- even for the most seasoned of players.
So- why don’t we watch a game?
If you have a emulator, you can play this game- I suggest giving it a go. It will keep you coining up for more!
Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981!
