I think a large part of the reason I’m so fond of movies from the 80s is due to the shameless acceptance that — for the most part — they don’t take themselves seriously. Classic examples of such include the Evil Dead trilogy, the Gremlins movies, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and other such offerings; you go into it knowing that the movies intend to take themselves with a pinch of salt, and unlike more modern offerings, there was a certain charm and appeal to this light-hearted nature. While this mentality is largely dead in the modern era of movies, there are still a few gems that manage to recreate the old magic, first and foremost of which is the 2007 action movie Shoot ‘Em Up, starring Clive Owen as the enigmatic, carrot-munching gunman with a penchant for hating just about everything.

If this movie teaches anything, it's to not fuck with a guy who eats raw carrots.

The story is frankly ridiculous, which fits in perfectly with the overall experience — that being a balls-to-the-wall, hilariously implausible spree of violence, all starting with our ornery hero known only as Mr. Smith becoming reluctantly embroiled in a plot that, through convoluted yet eventually cogent means, involves a fairly stereotypical, bearded bad guy and his apparently limitless legions of goons attempting to hunt down and kill a defenseless newborn baby. It’s not long until underhanded government assassins get wind of the goings-on and join in the hunt for their own sinister ends, and that’s when this spree of rampant, idiotic-yet-superb action begins, and it doesn’t let up until the very second the end credits roll.

Imagine then, if you will, a movie about an ex-special-forces gunman with a deus ex machina-like ability to turn any situation to his advantage which puts even the A-Team to shame, on the run from goons and government alike, all the while trying to defend a baby whose very existence is enough to warrant such reckless hate. The first ten minutes alone involve a henchman being killed with a carrot, acrobatic gunfighting that would make The Matrix green with envy, the newborn baby’s umbilical cord being severed with a gunshot, and a rooftop shootout involving a neon sign for “FAULK TRUCK & TOOL” being strategically destroyed until the remaining letters spell out a taunting insult.

The remainder of the movie keeps the relentless pace with only a few breaks to elaborate upon the unfolding story and offer some minimal, though often amusing character development, such as inconveniently-timed phone calls between the primary villain, Karl Hertz (Paul Giamatti), and his estranged wife as their marriage collapses practically in sync with the predictable and inevitable downfall of his dastardly plans. It almost feels like watching an hour and a half long trailer, with increasingly unlikely confrontations — the fight against the government man in the bathroom is my personal favourite, with strategic use of a wall-mounted hand dryer — and sometimes groan-inducing, but largely genuinely amusing quips. While the plot seems to falter a little at times, sometimes feeling almost inexplicably nonsensical, things are quickly explained away and the pace moves ever onwards, always leaving the viewer wondering just how much more epic and surreal the next battle will be.

If you’re looking for something flashy, amusing, violent, yet not intended to be taken even slightly seriously — a great contender for drunken movie nights, perhaps — then you can’t go far wrong with Shoot ‘Em Up, one of my personal favourite action movies of all time.

So I’ve been thinking about retrogaming, a topic that I’m sure is close to the hearts of many gamers of my generation.

In short — and in this context — retrogaming is simply the act of playing older games, and while it’s an unclear definition when a game makes the transition from “new” to “old” — and then to the elusive and revered “retro” — there’s no doubt that some of the most well-known and well-loved retrogaming involves arcade, console, and computer games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras; the age of simple, chunky, colourful graphics and the charmingly tinny, memorable chiptunes. It’s an era of game development where the gaming community as a whole was really starting to find its footing and entrench itself, finding its place in society, and many of the games of the age served almost as prototypes to shape and define future creations. In short, the 8-bit (and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit) era defined gaming as a whole, and I’m sure few can reasonably argue otherwise.

The topic that frequently vexes me, however, and I’ve yet to find a reasonable answer to: Is the charm and allure of the “retro” simply because gamers such as myself have grown up through this iconic era and fondly remember with rose-tinted glasses, or is there truly a simplistic, innocent appeal to the games of this era — the forefathers, as it were, of the modern gaming “scene”? I’ve heard conflicting opinions, both from those who adore the era and practically worship the low-resolution offerings while others, such as a friend who I could only describe as a “modern gaming purist”, will snidely eschew any such notion, claiming instead that the only appeal is rooted in personal bias and hazy childhood memories.

So I’m going to open this topic to the floor, as sparse as it may be right now. Is there truly an intangible magic that will be remembered for generations to come, or are we simply blinded by fond memories of a time long-gone, when we were too naive to know any better?

You wish you had a pair of these.

They arrived in the mail yesterday, and they are the best things ever.

I’m sorry, I wanted to say something more meaningful — more eloquent — both nothing comes to mind. They are the best things ever.

BX-01 Mk.I on the left (shoddy photo), and a cleaner shot of the revised and improved Mk.II on the right.

And that’s pretty much my plans for 2010 right there. This is the first of hopefully many modular test and prototyping boards. This one provides simple I/O — yes, simple, despite the tangled myriad of wires sprouting out of its frame. BX-02 will likely be a control board with TTL ICs to provide a cleaner interface for large projects.

If I ever become some kind of mad scientist — complete with evil lair and henchmen — I fully intend to include this board at some central location in my world-crushing doomsday device, purely as a homage to my humble beginnings.

That, and I think it’d be kinda funny.

After all the stress and adversity of life as of late, the bleak nights and the stark mornings, nothing raises the spirits quite as much as making french toast at 1am.

Here’s to the good times.

:)