PixlBit

Dragon Magazine #106, February 1986. In the U.S. you would have been very envious of the release of The Legend of Zelda in Japan. You might even have been so frustrated that you headed to the theater to escape into the latest action movie, The Delta Force, staring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin. I only watched the first few minutes on youtube, but this is how every action movie should begin: one big explosion and then the heroes enter. Perfect! I often consider how all these 80’s action movies informed 8-bit action video games like Contra, Ikari Warriors, and a hoard of arcade rail shooters.

                          

This cover is by Keith Parkinson. He did a lot of projects related to video games like: poster art for Tron and Kull in the 80’s; art for the 2000 PS2 game Summoner; and the box cover art for EverQuest and its expansions. His last VG related work was on the cover art of MMORPG Vangard: Saga of Heroes. He died in 2005.

                           

Axis & Allies came out in ’81 and I’ve always wanted to play it. This ad is of the Gamemaster Series rerelease that arrived in 1984, called Axis & Allies: Classic later on. Hasbro owns this game now and has published a version in 2013. I almost bought it back then and may still.

In the Forum section there’s a post by Charles Ryan criticizing Gary Gygax for suggesting players of D&D role-play characters more like themselves and not complicate things by trying to act out someone different. Charles argues there’s fun in playing a character different from yourself and that it does not detract from the main action of the game. I’m not sure what I do in creating a character for D&D, or for a video game. It’s usually some aspect of myself, and not wholly someone different; I never feel like I’m acting a character. I’m not so sure it matters in D&D as long as you know what you’re doing and stick to it.

Charles Olsen’s article, How the AD&D universe works, and why was interesting. It was all about the origins of magic and the way it works in the D&D world. He talks of the ancient idea of akasa, the fifth element (the main four being: air, earth, fire, and water), which sounds like The Force in Star Wars: an energy that is everywhere and in everything. He says the akasa isn’t actually magic; magic is the means, or craft, that can influence and manipulate the akasa. He then describes the ways clerics, magic-users and psionic characters do this each in their own way. It goes into quite a lot of depth on the matter. I don’t think any video game has had to explain the origins and uses of magic. It just is, and you use it. D&D, however, requires a little more depth as you have to figure out things like casting times, and character stat modifiers.

And that's a wrap. I got three more Miis today, making a total of four so far. Yeah!