Archive for the ‘Games’ Category
Meeting Daigo Umehara
This weekend I’ll be at Season’s Beatings 4, a large fighting game tournament that is generating a ton of buzz. Not only is there a ~250 person Street Fighter 4 tournament with some of the best players in the U.S. competing, but Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara will be playing an exhibition match, first to 10 wins. They are indisputably two of the best fighting game players in the world so the hype is through the roof.
This is my first ever tournament of any kind. While I’ve been trying to train sporadically, school prevented any serious practice. My goal is to beat just one person!
My second goal was to meet Daigo Umehara and get his signature. I wasn’t sure when he was arriving or whether he would be participating in anything other than the exhibition match, so it was awesome that he showed up on Friday and entered the SF4 3 on 3 tournament. I approached him during a lull in the action and…
U mad?
I’m starting a new page dedicated to all the lovely rage-quitters on Street Fighter 4 who disconnect during the match while I’m delivering a beatdown. I actually look forward to these sore losers now because I can add them to my collection!
This screenshot is so perfect.
10 years of 9.9.99
On this 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast U.S. launch on 9.9.99, I recommend reading this retrospective of the system by 1up writer Jeremy Parish. I don’t have much to add to that, except to say thanks for all the good times. Dreamcast is by far my favorite console that in the mere 18 months of its lifespan showcased such an unbelievable production of creativity by the industry’s finest.
One of these days I should rank a list of favorite Dreamcast games. It’s bittersweet to reflect on what Sega has become, but I’m merely stopping by today to pay my respects for the golden age. Echoing Parish: the Dreamcast was “a love letter to Sega’s fans, and to everyone who loves videogames.”
I begin my second rotation of Med 3 tomorrow: pediatrics. My first rotation from July-August was relatively light, so this is when the real work begins. I’m on call tomorrow night, which means my workday will be from 7 AM to 11 PM!! Next post will be a reflection of my first rotation (family medicine/ophthalmology). My schedule looks packed so I’ll hopefully have it online within a week…
UPDATE: I nearly forgot that I received an awesome Sonic the Hedgehog statue a few weeks ago. Never got around to photographing it, and if I had planned more carefully, today would have been the perfect day to show the statue. Stay tuned for that post as well.
Triumvir M-65 Shadaloo jacket
I was introduced to SoCal-based Triumvir when they collaborated with Capcom to produce licensed Street Fighter shirts. Although most of their clothing isn’t really my style, I stuck around with the brand when I read their blog and became a fan. The designers put a lot of research and thought behind their concepts, and furthermore, eagerly share this information with their very devoted fanbase. (Example: Constantine’s Bomber Jacket for the upcoming collection)
But back to Street Fighter. Triumvir produced the Shadaloo Collection in late 2008 which I completely missed. The highlight was a Shadaloo M-65 jacket limited to 100 pieces. I didn’t find out about Triumvir until their second Street Fighter collection, called World Warriors. Looking at their back catalog, I loved the M-65 jacket but of course it had already been long sold out.
Luckily for me, about a month ago, David from Triumvir just so happened to be selling a brand new Shadaloo M-65 from his personal collection. I jumped at the opportunity.
Taeyeon arcade stick completed!
The mailman delivered a nice surprise yesterday: my custom artwork and plexiglass from ArtHong! I keep plugging his site because he makes quality products and his customer service is phenomenal. If you’re interested in customizing your arcade stick, I give him my highest recommendation.
Anatomy of an arcade stick
The response was unanimous: every person I asked preferred TaeYeon design #2 so I placed my artwork and plexiglass order with ArtHong. It’ll probably be two weeks before the goodies are delivered, but I decided to get the hard part out of the way and prep the arcade stick for the artwork swap.
I successfully followed this detailed tutorial to open up the machine and get everything ready. Since I was taking photos along the way to document the process, here’s my own version of the tutorial. Switching artwork is much more involved than you might think and requires essentially disassembling the machine. However, don’t be intimidated as it’s not nearly as difficult as it might appear. This was by design — MadCatz consulted pros to build a very modder-friendly machine with the SF4 TE arcade stick.
This is the first time I’ve modded a stick and the procedure was relatively painless. If you are interested in customizing your stick but are hesitant about the work involved, I encourage you to give it a shot!
SF4 arcade stick custom art
Today I started working on a new project: customizing my Street Fighter 4 TE arcade stick! At this point, I am only focusing on creating some custom artwork. In the future, I may possibly go beyond that and upgrade the joystick and buttons. But baby steps first…
Here are 2 SNSD designs that I made featuring Taeyeon, the leader of the group. I would really appreciate some feedback as to which one you like better, as I’m having a hard time deciding which one to finalize and print.
