When I woke today I had the geekiest urge I’ve had in a long long time. 

In my younger days I’ve been a keen trek fan, and as adulthood and a lack of new series has set in over the last few years that part of me has become much more of a footnote of my overall personality. 
I’m not sure if it’s because of the new upcoming Start Trek film, or because of the later to come games, including the MMORPG Star Trek Online, but I’ve felt that part of my geeche (it’s like a psyche but for geeks) flicker with the spark of fresh life.

My nephew has also apparently taken an instant liking to Star Trek, and has stolen my old Star Trek TNG VHS tapes.  He’s 4… I think, so he’s starting way earlier than me on that but it’s just as well – I saw started watching Star Trek at about 14 and by the time he’s 14 I’m sure we’ll be onto ‘WhiteBeam’ discs or something, which will be like… full surround 3D atmosphere video shizzle or something, and the thought of watching media designed for a flat screen 520 pixels across will seem as odd to him as playing with a flickbook for more than 10 seconds would seem to me.  Ok.. maybe we wont be quite that far from flat media but still…

It’s not really on YouTube.  There’s clips but you can’t just play the thing as it needs to be played for the game.  I checked a wider web search and found some torrent sites that claimed in search results to have it but in fact didn’t, and not having any torrent software on my PC I wasn’t sure if I’d be bothered enough to fiddle with all that to get an AVI of the video anyway (which is basically what I’m after), so as a last attempt, I searched for official sites to do with the game (funny how the official sites are the last ditch places I’d go to) to see if other people had shared my desire and complained, resulting in readily available solutions.  Turns out people share my desire but there’s no solutions already available, but I did come across the information that a sequel had always been planned too.  Swap out the VHS with a different one and use the same board and pieces to have a totally different game.  That was always the point of Interactive Video Board games, and I started thinking if they did it on DVD they would have also been able to have interactive selection in the footage like DVD menus (which can be inserted between chapters of video easily enough).  I wondered what the next one would be like, if they’d have an extension to the board that you put on the side, if there were a few new pieces, and what the story might be.  Then I realised, ‘why wonder what it might be?’  I could make one.  Get a small cast together, write a short script and play with the games mechanics a bit.  Any video camera, PC, and video editing software is more than sufficient to produce something of the same quality with which the board game video was made (well… except they had the actual sets to use but… we can do something for that problem with easy to use CGI commonly available to plebes like me in this wonderful age)… I wondered which of my friends would be in on such a project and how we could put it up on a website for anyone with the original board game to use with a download and a few printouts to extend the board with.

Then I looked at the list of things I should have been doing this whole time instead of playing with possible story lines and decided I probably wouldn't have time to see a project of this scale through properly. :-(  And it’d be utterly embarrassingly bad even if we did it I’m sure… still… maybe one day when I have more time and less concern about how cheesy it’d be :)  Until then, I’ll just share the thought with you, and sign off.

Be good,
__
Phil
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So I’ve moved!  Huzzah!

I now live in Eccles and finally have broadband in.  Still got to sort out some sort of TV signal but I’ve pretty much set my stuff out now.  I took a few snaps for your viewing pleasure:

 
Front Room from the doorway.  This is in ‘max seating’ formation right now – I keep moving it around to make it suit the purpose.

 
Living room from back wall.  My nephew didn’t come with the flat but he came round when I was taking the photo’s and he seemed physically incapable of moving from that spot the entire time.

The hallway.  5 points for every item on that stand you can recognise and name :)

Kitchen.  Yes, yes I know I need to do the washing up – I’m doing it right after this.  The flat’s stayed pretty neat so far but I haven’t washed up from lunch yet and people will keep coming round for tea.

I’m also just putting some clothes away – the bedroom isn’t as untidy as it looks either, honest.  That monitor had to be turned off cos the phone cam wasn’t handling the brightness of the window and monitor too well, but you get the idea.  It swivels round for DVD’s in bed.

This is from a few mates being over on Friday for a quiet night in watching a DVD.  I wanted to show you all because it’s quite an impressive collection for alcohol consumption in my flat.  Sure it doesn’t look that much if it was the work of 4 or 5 guys who weren’t driving home, or 10-12 guys who were, but in fact, I think one friend represents 6 of these, another 2 or 3, while a third mate accounts for the rest all by himself (not the archers – that whole bottle was finished off by one of the girls – seriously… glug glug. *shakes head*).

Anyway, that’s the tour over.  What?  Well of course there’s a bathroom!  Just didn’t photograph it.  If your curiosity gets the better of you and you need to fill in that gap – you’ll just have to come on over.
Be good!
__
Phil
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