Computer Geeks: an Endangered Species?

Everyone Forgot this Game, But it Deserves to be Remembered

February 01, 2023 / lucasc

Remember Me, I owe you an apology. Terrifying as it is, we've now reached the point where I can cover the 10th anniversary of games I reviewed at launch on this very site. Sometimes, as with the case of Tomb Raider: Underworld, a decade of personal growth can give fresh perspective on narrative decisions that challenged my comprehension at the time. But when reconsidering 2013's Remember Me, perhaps it's not so much me that's changed as it is the world in which I experienced it. Time & Place To be ...

Everyone Forgot this Game, But it Deserves to be Remembered

gaming culture retrospective

Opinions

To Moderate, or Not to Moderate: that is NOT the Question

September 29, 2022 / lucasc

"Do not try and win the debate. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: that there is no debate." Growing up in the 1990s was both a blessing and a curse. The world had never been so creative, so carefree, and so technologically advanced. Hey, don't laugh! We might not have had smartphones, but we had PDAs, and there was more in common than you might think. The internet was new and full of infinite possibilities, and humanity wasted no time beginning to realize its potential. It was an ...

To Moderate, or Not to Moderate: that is NOT the Question

culture opinions

Features

Replaying Tomb Raider: Underworld Completely Changed My Opinion of the Series

October 04, 2021 / lucasc

October 25, 2021 is the 25th anniversary of Tomb Raider. While that's a few too many years for me to have been at a suitable age at the time, I was very much aware of the series since its 1996 debut and even dabbled in some early demos. Still, it wasn't until 2009 that I discovered the series for myself, beginning with Tomb Raider: Legend from three years prior. Legend immediately drew me in in a way only a few games ever have: each moment resonated pitch-perfect and went places I'd never seen before in a ...

Replaying Tomb Raider: Underworld Completely Changed My Opinion of the Series

culture gaming retrospective

Reviews

Mobile Suit Gundam is why you shouldn't be afraid to try old things

March 11, 2021 / lucasc

"We'd done it. With a fraction of the resources, we'd done it." These words by Animation Director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko perfectly summarize both the development and story of Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite numerous production challenges limiting its scope of animation, Gundam managed to be a fresh take on the mecha genre for the late 1970's and still stands the test of time to this day. In fact, given that no 40 year-old anime has aged well by 2020 standards, it's perhaps easier to overlook the shortcomings of ...

Mobile Suit Gundam is why you shouldn't be afraid to try old things

culture anime

How to Purchase Japanese iTunes Music/Apps in the USA

February 20, 2014 / lucasc

Piracy. If you’ve been around the internet very long, you’ve certainly heard this word plenty of times. There’s even a good chance you’ve heard a variety of perspectives on the issue, ranging from diametrically opposing it to considering it free advertising. And in truth, piracy is stupid: you’ll likely be locked out from certain features, get lower quality content than the real thing, and constantly have to battle countermeasures. But worst of all, the content creators are stripped of the ...

How to Purchase Japanese iTunes Music/Apps in the USA

2014 archive culture thinkboxly tutorials web

Computer Geeks: an Endangered Species?

August 31, 2012 / lucasc

There was once a time when if you really wanted to work with computers, you had to build your own hardware. You had to work programming languages in to existing hardware yourself. In either case, you knew your hardware and software alike quite well and were completely comfortable and capable messing around with both. Even as the decades wore on and software became more complex as hardware became simpler, anyone worth their geek salt was expected to have a decent working knowledge of current releases in ...