atom8bit – Page 2 – Reflections of Pure Genius

Liquid Television is Available For Free Now

If it’s not absurdly apparent, I’m a huge fan of animation – yes, cartoons mainly, but puppets, stop motion animation, and more… it all comes as a package deal to me.
At a pivotal point in my life when animation was becoming meaningful for me, Liquid Television kept me occupied on many a night… and now you can see it all for free (again.)
The random nature of the show and bizarreness of some of the pieces really captured my teenage brain well. Coincidentally, when revisiting my old artwork earlier this year, the show quickly popped into my head (especially as I was working on Jason In A StrangeLand). It’s a shame it’s not been seen in so many years, so this is exciting for anyone not only wanting to see some experimental animation, but those of us wanting to revisit out of nostalgia.

If you want to see the episodes, check archive.org.

A Treasure Trove Of Old Goodies

A post shared by atom (@atom8bit) on Sep 16, 2017 at 2:41pm PDT

Everybody likes pictures.

Sorry for the lack of update lately, I’ve been rather sick lately with severe chest congestion. While this is certainly no cry for pity, it is the sort of sickness that saps your energy just enough to not really want to do much, and destroys your ability to breathe enough to prevent any work being done on recording something like a podcast you really want to get started already. Maybe I should just turn this into a food blog about cough drops and various soups, or something. (I won’t be doing that.)

So I spent the better part of today going through the majority of art I have that’s somehow survived the years, moves across the country, fits of emotional disturbance, etc. And I’ve found a lot of interesting things — ideas I should have done years ago, amazing illustrations that deserve attention or new life, projects that were started, conceptualized, or just never saw the light of day, and some general ass hattery that was simply fun to revisit. I’ll be posting things around the place (Instagram, Facebook, and probably some other stuff) and reworking these old ideas into their own thing or an existing platform I’m working on or planning to shortly. Also, apparently over the past 20 years, the one thing I’ve drawn more than anything is cartoon bees. I don’t have any explanation on what that’s about.

It’s actually kind of cool, in a way, to revisit all this. While I’m not one to spend time revisiting old memories– that’s kind of stupid –I am glad to have a wealth of ideas to draw off of again, and a framework to institute new things building off those ideas. It’s a great foundation to a creative process, for now, at least.

Exciting New Web Series Idea

So my opinions are relevant and interesting, as everyone very well knows. I’m also an excellent conversationalist, and have a pleasant smell. And I’d like to use the internet to share all these things except, you know, that last part, because technology isn’t quite there yet.

So my current plans are something along the lines of the following:
1. Getting back to streaming and having people join in on the fun
2. A podcast and/or Youtube series where we sit around and talk about things that I normally write about here but in conversation format so it’s less quiet.
3. Some combination of this stuff, or something

I’m no stranger to the podcast scene (did one back with NintenDiego) and wouldn’t mind getting one going again. Don’t have a partner in crime, yet, but am thinking of a guest host every week until I settle on something. Even if it is a different guest every week. Pros of this method: Variety. Cons? Inconsistency, egotism.

Also there’s that pesky topic thing, right? I’d like to stick to one thing, and therein lies my problem. Having a Nintendo/Cartoons/Comics/Linux/Misanthropy podcast/video series seems a little too varied.

So basically this post is all about how I basically don’t know what the fuck it is I am doing yet so stay tuned? Whatever.

A New Comic

Been working on some ideas again.
It’s been frankly nice having some inspiration to speak of.

First of all, I’ve had some ideas for a new comic. The style is going to be a slight departure from from my previous two webcomics, and actually will hold a style similar to Meridian Knights does. It’s not hugely far off, but distinct nonetheless.

This idea is very, very much in its infancy, but at least solid enough I can tell you some vague things about it. Besides, I wanted to let everyone know I am indeed up to something. Whatever that may be. I’m still working on the overall structure, story arch, themes, and such. Technology Vs. Fantasy is a running theme, as is friendship. Moral grey areas will be a major component of the story. I’m drawing some inspiration from Star Wars and from Dragon Quest. At least so far.

Oh, and the name of the main character I guess: Sartris. Still, I don’t have any good character sketches yet, and besides, I usually am not comfortable really showing those. I should not have done so with Moxie last year, as her design (and style) changed significantly enough.

My biggest problem with it all is finishing projects. Speaking of Ratboy Is Dead, I do plan on returning to that fairly soon. I’d like to, at very least, begin writing on it again, and get some more pages up. The story of those three little turds needs told, too, damn it.

Dragon Quest 3 Stream

Update: This has been cancelled until further notice.

I want to stream Dragon Quest 3. It’s one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and I play through it a few times a year.

I’ve taken several class combinations and want to try something a little different. First three people to tweet at me the classes I should take will determine what I choose for the stream. Even if it’s three merchants.

I’ll be running on a version that allows for thief, so feel free to suggest that if you really, really want. You can also choose nobody, in which I will take one less party member. I will be keeping the hero in the party.

UPDATE: As an added bonus, I’ll let the second 3 people who choose on Twitter choose what the other three party members change into. Feel free to pick sage, or the same class if you don’t want me to change them.

I’ll update with a post when the party has been chosen.
So far:
1. Hero
2. Mage –>
3. ???? –>
4. ???? –>

What I’m Hoping For From The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe MetaGame

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a great opportunity for Nintendo to rebalance the metagame for Mario Kart 8. While the metagame could have been a lot, lot worse, there were a few things Nintendo could have gotten a little better; things that created an air where the game eventually got a little bit stale because of its predictability in spite of an RNG handing us items.

Item Balance

This actually doesn’t need a huge improvement. Honestly, I’m only looking at one item in particular – the lightning bolt. There’s no reason anybody other than last place should ever get this guy. Fourth place getting a lightning bolt – no matter how reasonably far in front first place is – is just too imbalanced in my opinion.

Fire hopping // Balance between karts and bikes

I lumped these two together for a reason: fixing the first one will inherently fix the other, for the most part. I’m a bike user, through and through, but let’s face it: they’re inferior in this vision.

Eliminating fire hopping is probably the better go – I inherently don’t have a problem with fire hopping, per se, but due to the nature of inward drift, it would cause a potential swing too far in the favor of bikes. Eliminating it would swing the balance to a more favorably balanced part of the spectrum. On top of this, a few more inward drift bikes would be nice – a smaller, handling based one alone would be a good start.

And while I’m at it…

I’m actually hoping Nintendo does take a bit of time to rebalance these things. We’ve already seen a metagame tweak — two items have been introduced instead of just one. This is a huge metagame change for Mario Kart 8. It makes me hope these other tweaks aren’t just a pipe dream. We’re already getting a revamped battle mode. New characters. So yeah, while I’m at it, gimme some new regular courses and some new bikes, too! Don’t miss taking complete advantage of this opportunity, Nintendo, and tweak just a little more.

Nintendo Switch Presentation

Just going to leave this here.

My health is still bad and I don’t have the energy tonight to do a full recap of the presentation. Everyone else is talking about it anyways so let me sleep, people.
I’ll have something opinionated about this soon.