| Set On Stun |

We're gonna party like it's 1992

In 1989 we didn’t have a gillion Web sites about videogames. We couldn’t dial up Gamespot on our smart phone for a quick review before we bought a game. We actually had to rely on this thing with paper and pictures. It was called a ma, maga, magazine! Imagine, people reading something about games that isn’t a walkthrough.

When Electronic Gaming Monthly launched 20 years ago it didn’t have the competition that would ultimately cause it’s doom. It was the gaming magazine. Back then, when computer games still consumed a large chunk of the marketplace the mag covered all the hot stuff out for computers as well as the cool arcade titles (as in those machines you put coins in). Just to give you an idea of what that means, Mega Man was the first cover story. With some great covers and a staff of geek writers who loved games, you could get your $5 worth of content in every issue.  The pattern of every issue quickly became standardized so that in each issue you had regular features like reviews, news and letters along with a cover story and some funny stuff in the back.

Chock full o games

As we headed into the 90s computer game coverage slowly began to give way to just console game coverage and EGM became the goto source for credible gaming news. The magazine in fact was so trusted that sometimes when they pulled their April Fool’s pranks people believed them like the most famous one involving Street Fighter II and Sheng Long (we covered it in our game myths post). Some of the magazine’s “pesonalities” also garnered acclaim throughout the magazine’s existence like Seanbaby, Quartermann and Sushi-X.

R.IP.? Not Exactly

Eventually the periodical news that we so cherished in the magazine gave way to the age of instant information from the likes of websites like Gamespot, Gamespy, 1-UP and so many others that now provide gaming news and info on a daily basis. The magazine essentially became less and less relevant but somehow managed to eek by until finally publishing it’s final issue in January of 2009. It was announced later that year that EGM would rise again on the internet and apparently we’ll get a chance to see what this is all about in April. While it won’t be the same as getting your EGM in the mail and flipping immediately to the review section or the the letters to see if your rant got posted, hopefully in embracing the current technology we’ll get to see something new amidst the sea of homogeneity we currently have in our gaming Websites. Carry on EGM

From Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs comes new fragrances that will connect you to the non-euclidian planes, envelop you in madness and just might make you smell a little bit more unique.

With scents inspired from H.P. Lovecraft, they take olfactory awareness to a new and extra-dimensional level.

Consider the following scent:

AZATHOTH
The Daemon Sultan, Seething Nuclear Chaos

…that last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity — the boundless daemon-sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other Gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

Azathoth is the blind, idiot god who sits on a black throne at the center of Chaos. His scent is high-pitched and screeching, both impenetrably dark and searingly bright with the clarity of madness: tangerine, saffron, vetiver, black amber and cedarwood.

While I’d go for the cedarwood, I’m not sure how it will play with tangerine.

And of course:

R’LYEH
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.The sunken city of the Great God Cthulhu. A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves.

I think I’m going to actually try some of these fragrances out

Until next week, Ia Ia.

I think Chris Hanson once caught Cthulhu in his series, “To Catch a Predator: Elder Gods on Myspace”.

From The Great Geek Manual.

If you dont understand this.. then you dont understand the Mythos

Short and sweet Friday Fhtagn.  This pic pretty much sums it all up.

Until next week, Ia Ia.

Remember an older Friday Fhtagn, where I nearly fell over myself saying how amazingly awesome James Riot’s Arthurian/ Lovecraftian comic “The Path” was?

In case you haven’t read that article, I’ve just linked to it above and here are the links for you to go… go now and read them.

Well, I’ve been catching up on some of my webcomics lately, and reading some of the news from the Long Beach Comic Con where I fell upon this: The Mediocre Militia.  It’s a place where some more excellent webcomics are linked to, and there’s a blog too.  That’s where I found this:

So, what’s in store for The Path? I whole freaking LOT.

“Strange Tales of The Path” collected edition, compiling “The Path” stories done by other creators! Featuring a story by MM’s own Barry Linck!

Mobile-only downloadable stories are coming for your smart-phone/iPhone/Blackberry/whatever. I’m working on the 1st one as I type.

The Path: The Video Game is in development, coming 2010! Seriously. With the ability to be ported to web, iPhone/iPod, and XBox 360!

Contactually-obligated updates! The Path won’t ever have a hiatus ever again! God help us all…

In development is a video game for The Path.  This webcomic has become my favorite story based webcomic.  I cannot say enough good things about this webcomic.

Can I hope and dream that it will really come to fruition in 2010?  I don’t want to get all fanboy about this, but a video game about The Path could be immensely cool (for iPhone/ Xbox 360/ Web!).  If the author, artist and creator of The Path puts his talents for story, character and stylized action to a game, I think I can honestly say that’s a game that I’d be only too happy to purchase.

Suddenly 2010 seems too far away.

I’ll keep an eye on this game as it develops and if anyone who’s working on this project wants to talk to me about it, I’d be thrilled to.

</geekout>