How Would Universal Studios Portray Donkey Kong in a Theme Park? March 20, 2023
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After the incredible success of Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World, plans have been put in motion to bring Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and his respective characters into theme parks across the world. There has already been a discussion about what kind of rides and shows we can expect coming to the Universal Resorts, but one question remains unanswered…how do you depict a giant ape (that is roughly four times the size of a grown human being) in a theme park? Here are our thoughts on the matter.
How do you think a Donkey Kong character could be constructed for theme park appearances, and would you want to do a character meet and greet with DK? Post a comment below with your thoughts.
Tales from IT – The Time an American Business Used Final Fantasy Hold Music March 19, 2023
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Just when we thought we were done with Tales from IT, another story pops up that is worth telling. Welcome back, where our host shares some of the most unusual stories he’s experienced in Information Technology. Most of the IT work done recently has been virtual, and required a bit of being kept on hold. Typically, most major businesses that have the ability to hold or transfer calls within their system will typically have a prerecorded audio greeting play during the wait. Over the past few months Maniac thought he had heard it all, until a very familiar jingle from a certain iconic game franchise started to play over the phone. What happened next? Watch and find out.
Maniac’s Kitchen – Chimes Ginger Chews: Meyer Lemon Flavor Review March 5, 2023
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Welcome back to Maniac’s Kitchen. Today we’ll be doing a review of a candy we’ve recently discovered. It’s been a long time gamer trick to use ginger to treat motion sickness. Because of that, we thought this old fashioned ginger candy would be perfect for a review. Let’s take a look and see if we enjoy it!
Memories of Maniac – How Premium Cable Worked Before Cable Boxes February 6, 2023
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My wife and I have been enjoying watching classic wrestling events over the past few weeks. Back in the day, at least one would be broadcasted as a paid premium live event. But how exactly did premium cable work in the days before digital cable boxes were adopted by the mainstream? We had always assumed people just always knew, then we realized that this was over twenty years ago.
Welcome back to Memories of Maniac, where we discuss our memories from back in the day. Today, we’re going to talk about what went into watching a premium pay-per-view was like back in the day!
Dragon’s Lair iiRcade Gold Close Up January 30, 2023
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We’ve been interested in the game Dragon’s Lair for at least a decade. It featured graphics by the legendary animator Don Bluth and gameplay that was revolutionary for its time. In fact, long time fans of the site might remember Maniac promised a few years ago to produce a video where he attempted to beat the original arcade game on just one credit. Due to unfortunate technical issues, that could not happen. That’s when we picked up this, the iiRcade Gold, and it is loaded up with a bunch of classic arcade titles including Dragon’s Lair. Let’s take a closer look under the hood.
Bitmap Books Delivery Unboxing January 26, 2023
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Everyone who games probably has their own personal collection of gaming related goodies. We’ve always been fans of coffee table art books that celebrate the art or history of games and gaming. They can often include exclusive information behind the scenes of the making of their subjects, and I would argue several books about gaming deserve major awards, including features in major publications. Recently, we found out about an independent publisher called Bitmap Books, where gaming art and history seems to be their specialty.
I first became aware of Bitmap Books when I was researching the history of SNK for my Week of Neo-Geo. The book I wanted to pick up on the subject was being reprinted at the time, but once it became made available for purchase again I was able to get a copy.
As someone who is absolutely fanatical about the condition of whatever they purchase, I loved the condition of the first book I bought from them when it arrived. Now that my second order arrived I did this unboxing to show it to all of you.
Unboxing was recorded in 4K HDR.
Lost Media – Avengers: Damage Control VR January 25, 2023
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You didn’t think we were going to feature just one piece of Lost Media this week did you? Today, we’ll be going back to gaming and talking about a VR game nobody will ever be able to play, Avengers: Damage Control. No, this is not the Avengers game that recently announced it would be ending support. Damage Control was actually based in the MCU and featured actors from the films. Here’s the official trailer for it.
Looks awesome doesn’t it? With VR headsets out there and plenty of systems capable of replicating this software, how did this game become lost media? Well, Damage Control wasn’t a game that you could just purchase, download and play at home. It was developed in conjunction with a company known as The VOID, which operated what I can only describe as a chain of Virtual Reality businesses across the US. To play Damage Control, you had to visit a specially designated VOID facility (but only one that announced they would be offering the game), and buy a ticket to play at a scheduled time. If you didn’t live anywhere near a VOID facility (there were only a few in the world) you would never be able to play Damage Control. In a time where literally any game can be obtained and played from home, this is about as ridiculous as it sounds.
When the world lockdown went into effect, facilities such as the VOID had to cease operations. Since you could only play their games at VOID locations, the VOID has no alternate methods of income. Shortly after operations paused, the company no longer had the ability to produce income to cover expenses and their facilities began to close worldwide, preventing people from playing many of their exclusive games, including Avengers: Damage Control.
We never got to play the original game before the facilities ceased operations. So here’s our take on the game, and our plea for it to be released on the Meta Quest platform.
There have been musings the VOID does plan to return but no word has been given as of the time of writing if they plan to resurrect their existing titles or where they will open their new facilities. If there is an update we will write about it.
Lost Media – Geeks in Love January 24, 2023
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Welcome back to Lost Media where I talk about the Lost Media I’ve come across that nobody else remembers. In the glory days of Flash, a website called Ubergeek.tv produced some unique animations about Linux and Penguins. It shut down years ago, although some of that site’s content has been reuploaded to YouTube.
Sadly, the site’s final film, a ten-minute animation called “Geeks in Love” has not been preserved. It told the story of two young people who fell in love during computings earliest days, and the trials and tribulations of their life together. It was a beautiful short film which seemed like it was based on a true story told years later. I was lucky enough to watch the entire short when it first released, as shortly after its launch the creator put a premium fee to watch the film’s last five minutes. Since the site closed, it has been completely unavailable to rewatch.
Here’s what I remember about it, and my plea to anyone who may have a copy to archive it.
Mind of Maniac – Is This The End of Marvel’s Interconnected Gamerverse? January 23, 2023
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The movie world has never seen anything like the enduring Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With dozens of phenomenal films and television shows released since 2008, the MCU has become a gold standard for how to produce an interconnected feature. Following the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, Marvel hinted that their games MAY have been continuing that trend with the upcoming release of Marvel’s Avengers.
Marvel’s Avengers went on to be a well-documented disappointment, and since it’s release it appears that the games have since splintered into their own non-connected continuities. But was that always the plan?
As someone who has played these games I can say I found plenty of winks and nods throughout the games of events that took place in other ones. The evidence showed that Marvel was indeed planning to have these games exist in a shared continuity. However, following the disappointment of Avengers, that seems to have changed. So what made us think they were interconnected and why do we think that continuity has broken? Please enjoy the video below to find out!
Marvel’s Avengers is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Marvel’s Iron Man VR is out now for PSVR, Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is out now for PS4, PS5 and PC.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
How to Transfer Data From Your Old iPad or iPhone to a New One Without Using iCloud January 3, 2023
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The Holidays are ending and I’m sure many of you are sitting on brand new iPhone or iPad models. For those of you who already possess iPhones or iPads, this can be a concerning time, as your personal data is very important and (barring legacy software incompatibility with new hardware) you can carry your data, settings and applications over from one Apple device to another. The best part is, you don’t need to have iCloud involved in this at all.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apple Watch owners will need to use iCloud during this process. Before performing this backup make sure to enable a sync of your Health application to iCloud, as due to privacy reasons, Watch data is not included in a standard iPhone backup.
To start, you’ll need the following:
- A Mac or PC with iTunes installed that has enough free space to accommodate your device’s data.
- Your new iPad or iPhone and your old iPad or iPhone. Both must be functional.
- Charging cables that fit your new device, your old device, and can plug into your PC/Mac.
To start, open Finder on your Mac or iTunes on your PC, plug your old device into your computer, instruct the computer and device to trust each other, and perform a complete backup of your device onto your computer. You do not need to encrypt your backup, and if you do encrypt your backup there is no way to reset the backup encryption password if you forget it.
When the backup is finished, hit the eject button on iTunes or Finder next to your device’s name and unplug it. I recommend putting your old device into airplane mode and powering it off after this so it won’t accumulate new information after the backup.
Power on your new device and plug it into the same computer. iTunes on PC or Finder on Mac will notify you of the new device once trust is established between the two. Instead of setting up as a new device, tell the computer to load a backup with your old device’s name onto your new device.
Mac users may notice that Finder may ignore your prompt to load a backup onto your new device the first time your new iPad or iPhone is plugged into your Mac, even if your backup is good. If this does happen, the only way to fix it is to perform a RESTORE on your new device by pushing the RESTORE button in Finder. This will update your device to the latest system software version, and after it reboots you will have the chance to try again.
Once the restore completes, make sure to check your device to conclude any setup processes not usually backed up, such as Wi-Fi setup, iTunes password verification, as well as Face ID or TouchID setup.
Once you’ve made it to your new device’s Home Screen, your applications should start redownloading on their own automatically. Once they conclude, you can begin signing back into all of your applications. You may also need to reconnect third-party Bluetooth devices, but AirPods users will be happy to know that their pods will transfer in this process.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apple Watch owners MUST transfer the use of their Watch to their new iPhone. After a new iPhone has all its data restored and the user is signed into their iTunes account, open the Watch app on your new iPhone and tell the app you wish to transfer an existing Watch to your phone. This process typically takes around five minutes. DO NOT WIPE OR TRADE IN YOUR OLD PHONE UNTIL THIS PROCESS FINISHES!
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