Jolt Country

I came to the page five minutes ago, and then just hit "refresh"? And... WHAM! New logo!

I was kind of hoping for the "JC" part to look like it was more displaced from the background, but it was kind of you to notice. Ah, well. I'm sure I'll take another crack at it before too long.


By the way, those are some kick-ass Vegas shots you have up on Monto Rusa. We (meaning you or I or both) really should make a computer game based in the self-styled City of Sin someday or something.

Yes! Yes, I think that's an excellent idea. I, myself, once dallied with the idea of doing a text adventure set, if not in Vegas, then in some other casino-oriented town. I've always felt that was a terribly rich canvas on which to paint a story full of drama, humor, and pure human emotion.

That's about as far as I got, though. "I should write a game about Vegas! Now... what should the story be... Story... Hmmm. Story..."

On one hand we lucked out, because "Rounders" (certainly one of the best "gambling" type stories that I know of -- I guess the others would be The Hustler and The Color of Money, so I am hardly the world's authority here) does not take place in Vegas and it had a "happy" ending. I mean, I guess we were supposed to feel a little sad that Loki there didn't end up with the girl, but she was a bitch. Right? Right.

But, hell. The possibilities. Imagine --

o Hanging around Vegas for a week under the official business of "shooting a game"

o Gambling, drinking, driving, shooting and swearing for the same reasons

o Yes, grabbing some pictures of the actor playing the main character in the city itself, but hell, we were gonna do that anyway

o Throw in some puzzles that the kids seem to love these days, get it into beta test and PROFIT.

o Realize that the profit is far less than what was gambled away in the desert, hang self, die in a potter's grave


Sounds good to me!

Wait, you bought montorusa.com AND the .net version you sick fuck?!?!

Of course.

I can't have any squatters fucking my shit up.

In any case, I can be in Vegas any ol' weekend I want, so you just tell me when to show up. We should get the whole band together and tear that fucker apart!!!!

ME! ROBB!!! TRASK POSSIBLY, EXCEPT PROBABLY NOT BECAUSE HE'S WAY TOO POOR!! GERRITT! EXCEPT PROBABLY NOT HIM EITHER!! SOME OF YOU OTHER PEOPLE FROM HERE WHO I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW!!!

WHAT A CREW!!!!

Alright. This will happen. I can't commit to this calendar year, though. I am 32 hours in vacation debt due to my company's previous policies of wanting all the vacation we had all accumulated "off the books." I kept up for a long while (it'd been going on for four or five quarters) but I just tired of skulking about the site at all hours last quarter.

So this has cost me both a Vegas trip and Jagfest with Bruce. (Bruce, if you're reading this, and planning a Jagfest venture next year I am there.)

But by calendar year 2003, i.e., Jan 2003 I should be nicely recovered. So Vegas with the PWC2 / JC Crew (all you talented bastards reading this should expect to attend, as well) in like six months-ish time? Hell, it'd take us that much time to set it up right anyway, correct?

I don't want to get thrown out of a casino, or anything. I never have so far. I'm not the kind of guy who looks for trouble. But if I WERE to get thrown out I would wish it because we were at a poker table and within an hour quoted the entire script to Rounders and annoyed the living hell out of everyone in a five-table radius of us.

"This son of bitch all night, he check check CHECK, he trapped me."

"He beat me straight up. Pay him. Pay that man his mah-ney."

Jan 2003 I should be nicely recovered.

"Don't tease me." - Worm

You really like to... plan things out in advance, don't you!

Me, I feel like going to Vegas this weekend, I'm in the poker room at Monte Carlo 20 hours from now (12:20 AM, Friday). I guess that's not how they do things out there in "Fort Collins".

Worm: "You know what cheers me up when I'm feelling shitty?"
Mike: "What?"
Worm: "Rolled up aces over kings."
Mike: "Is that right?"
Worm: "Check raising stupid tourists, and taking huge pots off 'em."
Mike: "Oh yeah?"
Worm: "Stacks and towers of Checks I can't see over, playing all night High-Limit Hold'Em at the Taj, where the sand turns to gold."
Mike: "Fuck it, let's go"
Worm: "Don't tease me."
Mike: "Let's play some fuckin' cards."

We should have done it THIS weekend. What the hell have I accomplished so far? I went to a doggie park and threw a softball for an hour. I later threw a football around for 25 minutes. I wrote some code and listened to some MP3s.

When instead I could ALREADY BE IN VEGAS.

Dammit.

It's an 11 hour drive for me. So admittedily in theory I don't need to take a whole week off or anything.

It's an 11 hour drive for me. So admittedily in theory I don't need to take a whole week off or anything.

Right! Leave at about 8 PM on Friday night, drive through the night, grab a hotel Saturday morning, rest all day, then you're up and ready to go for a night of ridiculous behavior and excessive drinking!

Then get up on Sunday, grab a quick bite, and you're on your way!

It's so crazy it just might work!

"The judges game, I'd heard about it for years on the street before I was even in law school. A rotating group of judges, prosecutors, and professors. They all had money, and in my playing days, it would have been sweet having any one of them owing me favors. The only problem is, no one can get in the game anymore. One rounder, Crispy Linetta, sat under some pretence, but when they found out he was a pro, he couldn't cross the street without a legal hassle. Even his regular club Vorshay's, got shut down. The place had been open since 1907."

[ So this has cost me both a Vegas trip and Jagfest with Bruce. (Bruce, if you're reading this, and planning a Jagfest venture next year I am there.) ]

Ain't my party, although I hope to go if I don't get sent to NYC next week. However, I think we should time our Vegas Debauchery to coincide with the annual Classic Gaming Expo (which I also can't do this year).

However, someone at Jagfest will sell my games, so now if only my GODDAMN ROM BURNER WOULD ARRIVE, I could burn, um, three copies (all the 2732s I could scare up locally on no notice).

But back to Vegas and the CGE, how great would it be to weepily greet David Crane, with a sodden, "You changed my *life*, man!" and then vomit on his shoes?

Bruce

I'm glad to hear that they're going to have another Midwest Classic (according to the article at http://www.classicgaming.com), hopefully still in Milwaukee. I was going to go to the one last month but an exhausting day at work turned a nap into a 14 hour coma. I mainly wanted to see the Dreamcast homebrew games and maybe get them on CD for free or cheap instead of having to go to the effort of burning them myself, but it's neat for the other gaming stuff, too.
I did go to the Jagfest the previous year, although I had forgotten that the Jaguar system ever existed and was mainly going because of the mention of 'Atari' and classic gaming. One fellow shook his head disdainfully when told 'no' after asking my brother and I if we owned a Jaguar system. We bought some old games, though, so it was worth the visit.

bruce wrote:Ain't my party, although I hope to go if I don't get sent to NYC next week. However, I think we should time our Vegas Debauchery to coincide with the annual Classic Gaming Expo (which I also can't do this year).

The CGE is in Vegas?!?!

Wow. That be some KICK ASS NEWS there.

Accessing database.... ah. Got it.

According to www.cgexpo.com, it is 33 days away. So perhaps at this point, only loose negotiations for everyone going to it in 2003 are in order.

But back to Vegas and the CGE, how great would it be to weepily greet David Crane, with a sodden, "You changed my *life*, man!" and then vomit on his shoes?

Heh, heh, heh. Oh, this so has to happen. This entire trip. Not the puking. Well, sure, the puking too, but along with that.