Saturday, 11 July 2009
Life Drawing #7
I sat next to a very stinky man this week, which is why one of them is only ten minutes - I had to get up and "find a more interesting angle". The woman in the chair took twenty, and I'm quite pleased with it. Then I struggled with the five minute poses for the rest of the evening. One day I'll have to post up the worst of my sketches.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Beat that Ikaruga
I'm bad at scrolling shoot em ups. I admire them, but if the future of warfare does rely on twitch gaming and the ability to memorize attack formations, then you'd better hope I'm not mankind's last line of defence. Ikaruga by Treasure, of course, is one of the most esteemed examples of the genre. A beautiful, balletic cascade of bullets and puzzles. That it should be (a) the sequel to Radiant Silvergun and (b) the Dreamcast's last big release only seems to heighten it's reputation. It's a grand example of the form, and it bothers me that I'm not really that good at it.
Recently I downloaded a ZX81 emulator for my computer, to play 3D Monster Maze which amazingly stands up today as a neat piece of survival horror. I also played ZX Galaxians, thinking that even a level-two-of-Ikaruga-at-best guy like me could handle it. As it turns out the white heat of Z80 anger burns very bright indeed. This game throws one entirely unfair wave of bullets at you after another. Weaving is a hopeless cause since there's no way your oversize craft can fit between the bullets. Shooting one of the enemy craft is an entirely accidental event as, for the most part, you're trying to blast a path through the descending wall of bullets and stay alive.
However, my incompetence at the more refined, balanced shoot 'em up such as Ikaruga means I can't tell if ZX Galaxians is hardcore to the max, or hopelessly one-sided. One suspects that the programmer found a way at getting dozens of things moving on the screen at once, and didn't want to waste that. I almost respect it for its determined user-unfriendliness. But then, all shoot-em-ups are unfriendly, aren't they? That's kind of the point.
Recently I downloaded a ZX81 emulator for my computer, to play 3D Monster Maze which amazingly stands up today as a neat piece of survival horror. I also played ZX Galaxians, thinking that even a level-two-of-Ikaruga-at-best guy like me could handle it. As it turns out the white heat of Z80 anger burns very bright indeed. This game throws one entirely unfair wave of bullets at you after another. Weaving is a hopeless cause since there's no way your oversize craft can fit between the bullets. Shooting one of the enemy craft is an entirely accidental event as, for the most part, you're trying to blast a path through the descending wall of bullets and stay alive.
However, my incompetence at the more refined, balanced shoot 'em up such as Ikaruga means I can't tell if ZX Galaxians is hardcore to the max, or hopelessly one-sided. One suspects that the programmer found a way at getting dozens of things moving on the screen at once, and didn't want to waste that. I almost respect it for its determined user-unfriendliness. But then, all shoot-em-ups are unfriendly, aren't they? That's kind of the point.
Life Drawing #6
Very hot in the hall this week, and certainly at first it had an effect on my drawing. For some reason I decided to skip shading entirely and just go with outlines. Then I saw that it was all out of proportion, but in a strangely pleasing way.
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