In the early 90’s there was the beginning of a big boom in First Person Shooter games (which still sort of goes on today with games like Halo, Half-Life 2, and Call of Duty.) with games such as Wolfenstein and Doom. In 1997, a little company known at the time as Apogee (eventually renamed 3D Realms) threw their hat into the ring by revamping their 2D sidescroller Duke Nukem into its own FPS, thus making it one of the more (if not most) popular FPS’s of all time. I personally remember playing it on the computers at school… after hours, of course. 

Shortly afterwards, 3D Realms announced a sequel to DN3D. I know I was jazzed myself to hear the news… I even remember reading about it in PC Gamer magazine. Since then, the game itself has essentially become the Chinese Democracy of video games. Since its original announcement in 1997, the game has been in limbo and dead more times than Jason from Friday the 13th. In the past couple of years, it was announced that 3D Realms was closing, which lead to a lawsuit from Duke Nukem’s publisher Take-Two (now 2K Games.)

In 2010, at PAX Prime in Seattle, it was announced that DNF was still in development, and that Gearbox Software (the people who developed the game Borderlands, and the Half Life 1 expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift) were taking over development from the now dead 3D Realms.

It remains to be seen if Gearbox actually follows through with the May 3rd release date… for someone like myself who’s been made to wait for game releases, it’s definitely a wait and see attitude. There’s been plenty of footage in the past 10 years or so of different versions of the game… obviously one of the few reasons the game has taken so long is the changing technologies such as Epic’s Unreal Engine, Valve’s Source Engine, and iD’s Doom 3 (and eventually Doom 4) Engine. Hopefully Gearbox can succeed where 3D Realms failed, and get this game done and out so we can wait another 12 years or so for the next Duke Nukem. 

Duke Nukem Forever will (allegedly) be available on May 3rd in the States (May 6th Internationally,) on PC, X-Box 360, and Playstation 3.

If you listen to us semi-regularly, you know that we were once again a part of the amazing Livestream For The Cure event this past month. With friend of the show and the Jerry Lewis of podcasting charity events, Nick Haskins at the helm, we once again go into the elevator and ask a man with a giant check if we could use it… for what?

Well, this week we are taking a video game franchise and turning it into a movie, or vice versa.

That’s not all you get in this episode, as afterwards we hang out with the Livestream crew and talk movies, Furiosa, a bit about the show ending, and just generally merrymake with our ‘For the Cure’ family.  We want to thank everyone involved and everyone that stuck around and donated during our time.

That said, the event is over, but there is never a bad time to donate and help to live in a world without cancer.

With that said, enjoy the show!  Ok, here we go…

Full Episode

THE OVERVIEW

The south hall of the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville was packed to overflowing with celebrity guests and vendors, making it clear the show may have outgrown the space, I’ll talk more about that later.

Among the big name guests were George Takei, Steve Burns, Tara Strong, Paige O’Hara, Jonathan Frakes, and cast members from the 80’s sitcom Saved By The Bell and the 90’s sitcom Home Improvement. The big ticket seller though was very clear, Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack, the voices of Chilli and Bandit (or Mum and Dad) on the international hit show Bluey.

While Friday and Sunday were full of wandering, meeting vendors, cosplayers and guests, they were relatively manageable. Saturday however was insane, mostly because of the Bluey panel occurring at noon. Throngs of parents, children and people of all ages who are touched by Bluey swarmed the hall. And it made sense, as the following day the highly anticipated 28 minute special “The Sign” was due to drop of Disney+.

I was blessedly able to snag a place at the back of the panel to observe. Moderated by Expo founder, Jeremy Long, they Some of the more heartwarming moments definitely involved the long line of little kids who had to be held up to the microphone to ask their questions. David even had a puppet of Bandit’s in show altar-ego, Unicorse. Probably most touching was the adults who all had beautiful stories that had led them to being fans of the show. Huntsville Expo filmed the full panel and it’s available here.

There were clearly some flaws, most of it being the space constrictions. There were multiple events happening at the VBC at the same time, making parking a nightmare, with on site spots not even guaranteed for vendors. And the fact that it was all forced to be packed into one space meant that the two main panel rooms were separated by a folding wall, making it almost impossible at times to hear the panel you were actually attending. 

The lines were so long for autographs at times that they did have to start having lines for waiting in line in the hallway outside. The volunteers and staff of the Expo were doing all they could with what the VBC gave them and it seems as though they are finally going to be given an additional hall for next year’s con. 

And while overwhelming at times, the whole con was an incredible experience that I’ll gladly attend again. Here’s to HSV Expo 2024! You were a hell of a show. Next year will be even better!

THE COSPLAYS

I myself decided to go in costume Saturday and Sunday as Professor Lupin from Harry Potter and Gale of Waterdeep’s Hand from Baldur’s Gate 3, respectively.

And I was not alone, with cosplayers from a wide variety of fandoms showed off their stuff. Below are photographic highlights!

Want more ATHF fandom? 👀

Originally posted on GeekNation.com, on June 28, 2013

This week marks the 41st anniversary of Atari. I don’t know about you, but I certainly feel old. Growing up as a child of the 80s, Atari was a big flipping deal. I can remember my earliest experiences with Atari, playing on my sister’s classic 2600 with the wood finish, later (after having that one keel over) upgrading to the 2600 Jr, and continuing to play. At the time, it was HIGH QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT with what we thought were near life-like features (although today’s kids would beg to differ.) If you’re lucky enough like I am, there may be a place where you live that allows you to experience Atari today, as it was meant to be. Otherwise, you may find some games on the newer consoles and iThingies.

That being said (because people love reading lists), allow me to share some “classic” Atari games that molded my earliest gaming experiences…

5: Keystone Kapers (Activision, 1983)

These days, you may have heard of a little company called Activision. A company synonymous with developing games like Call of Duty, Rock Band, and the upcoming Destiny. In the 1980s, they made games for Atari, and they were uber-popular for their time. One of their bigger games was Keystone Kapers, in which you (a policeman) have to catch a robber (the computer.) Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! You have to run, duck, and dodge various objects like toy airplanes, shopping carts, and whatever this is (I want to say an elecromagnet?). Also, the game is timed, so it can get rather hard as you progress. Despite that, a 4 or 5-year-old with a vivid imagination and the ability to be easily entertained won’t mind jumping and running around into objects while time runs out. Or, at least I didn’t.

4: The Empire Strikes Back (Parker Bros., 1982)

Before any Battlefront, Rogue Squadron, or Old Republic games, there was Empire. Parker Bros. (those folks who make those board games,) published games for Atari. One of which was a side-scroller, based on the 1981 sequel to Star Wars: Episode IV. Your mission (and you will accept it,) is to fly a snowspeeder around and shoot down AT-ATs. The play time does tend to get boring after the 10th level of constantly shooting them down, but then again, IT’S STAR WARS! Again, I’m easily amused.

3: Pitfall (Activision, 1982)

The most classic (if that’s the right word) Activision game for Atari. You play as Pitfall Harry (a take-off on Indiana Jones,) and brave your way across moats, logs crocodiles, scorpions, snakes, and many other obstacles in search of treasures. The thing I remember the most about this game is…it’s soooo tricky to get past crocodiles, as you have to jump on their heads while they’re in the water. Timing is everything, and if you miss, you go all the way back to the start. Swinging on vines, on the other hand, opposite of tricky. Useless trivia: The TV commercial for this game not only introduced the world to Pitfall, but a young kid who would eventually go on to be one half of the duo known as Tenacious D.

2: Demon Attack (Imagic, 1982)

You may not have heard of Imagic, but like Activision, they produced games for Atari. Unfortunately, after only 24 games, they met their fate caused by the 1983 “video game crash” where most of the older consoles (Atari, Intellivision, etc.) went under, until the advent of Nintendo and Sega. I remember Demon Attack very fondly. It’s essentially a bit like Space Invaders, only with really cool fade-in type graphics. On top of that, as you progressed in the game, the ships got harder to destroy (sometimes even splitting into two smaller ships.)

1: E.T. (Atari, 1982)

You might be thinking “Wait, what?” If you’re familiar with the E.T. game, you know it has gone down in history as quite possibly the worst game in video gaming history. Keep in mind, this is a list of Atari games I remember the most fondest, and E.T. certainly tops that. I can go on forever about the rumors behind development of this game (and the parody on the G4 cartoon, Code Monkeys,) or the rumor that E.T. (along with Atari Pac-Man and a few other Atari stinkbombs,) were steamrolled and buried in the New Mexico desert. Suffice to say, E.T. is the most ridiculous game I’ve ever had the “privilege” of playing. And if my strategically placed quotation marks don’t give you the implication of sarcasm in my writing, then just look up the countless “Let’s Plays” on YouTube for E.T. and see how many of them begin and end with someone cursing the fact that they keep ending up in that effing pit. x_x

P.S.: Just like not reading a book, you’re better off watching the movie for this one.

What are some of your favorite Atari games or memories? Sound off below.