Not what it seems

A clock counts down while a fellow who looks like a mobster crochets.

Could this be a preview for a yakuza-meets-needle arts video game that the world has been clamoring for? Probably not.

Fine. It isn't.

Pac-Man fever

Google is recognizing the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man by making its logo into a playable version of the classic arcade game. Very, very cool.

I'm sort of aware how many copies some of today's video games sell, but short of the Mario universe, have any of them saturated the culture as thoroughly as Pac-Man?

When I was a kid I wanted the handheld version that came in a mini arcade cabinet. I had the Tomytronic version, which was pretty cool in its own right. I remember that the game could be frustrating because it wasn't the fastest thing in the world--none of these handheld games were--but it was exciting to be able to play Pac-Man anywhere. I would bet that I had a Pac-Man birthday cake, or if I didn't, one of my brothers did.

We also had the Pac-Man board game. The individual Pac-Man pieces didn't gobble the marbles all that easily. The marbles also tended to get accidentally knocked off their spots while playing. It was a fairly accurate, if even slower, reproduction of the original game. (I do not recall being nearly as enthusiastic about the board game version as this guy.)

And who can forget the Pac-Man cartoon? I'd hate to think how many episodes of that I saw. What about the hit song? Or the cereal?

Beyond all this, though, is the fact that the video game is still fun to play. I played the Google version for a little bit, and I have a free version of it on my iPhone. The hungry yellow guy has had some staying power.

Knitting mania

Your wishes have been answered. A knitting version of a Guitar Hero-like game is now available for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

Knitting Mania is a free app--and supposedly available to play online at this website, although you may need to read French to find it--that lets you simulate what you already know what to do. It can be found here on iTunes if you want to download it to your phone. I haven't done so yet, but with it being free, I imagine it's inevitable that I'll try it out.

Going by the largely negative ratings and review on iTunes, I don't know if Knitting Mania is even worth the trouble of downloading, playing once or twice, and deleting. But hey, knitting game app.

Late addition: OK, if you want to give it a shot on the website, you can go to the main page, click on the balls of yarn, click on the button with "commencer à jouer", click on the trophy with "Niveau 1", and click on the button with "commencer". You can also bypass clicking on the balls of yarn by going directly here. FYI, the site refers to the game as Tricot Mania.

300

Wii Sports bowling has been one of the main family activities while I'm here at my parents' home. Unlike most other video games, my dad likes to play and can usually keep up with us kids. I suspect that's the main reason why he's all for playing it.

I'm fairly good at this particular game, but as with real bowling, my performance is subject to being off just a little here or just a little there. I was in a pretty good groove today. I'd won two of two games, with the latter concluding with eight straight strikes in a 268 game. Of course, when a new game started, that streak was essentially meaningless.

Yet there I was throwing strike after strike and feeling like I'd found the right rhythm. If I'd been doing this in real life, the tension definitely would have been increasing as I approached a perfect score of 300. As a virtual bowler I didn't have nearly as many pressures. All I needed to do was move my Mii's position to the same spot where I'd been putting it and maintaining the same throwing motion I'd been making. Easy enough.

About halfway through I just took it frame by frame, but the heat was undeniably on when it was apparent that rolling a 300 game was within reach. On my eleventh ball the ten pin wobbled and was slow to fall. For a second or two I could feel the disappointment start to seep in, but the pin fell, which left me with just one more strike to throw. I probably threw that last one harder than necessary--I felt a twinge--but all the pins went down.

Game playing with the family can be competitive, so I've been very pleased at achieving this feat, which can only be tied, never broken, by my dad or brothers. At least in video game bowling I am and will be the kingpin.

Remainders

Touching upon some things mentioned previously...

Having finally completed the guitar portion of Guitar Hero: World Tour for the Wii, I must say that the song selection leaves quite a bit to be desired. While I'm up on the music scene, I'm not necessarily plugged in to what's on the radio. Still, I get the sense that there are a fair number of songs that aren't widely known. The hard rock (or active rock or whatever they're calling it these days) picks surely are confined to that genre. I haven't a clue where the Spanish rock offerings came from. Between these less well-known choices and some pop songs whose inclusion feels like a test for future niche games, I'm disappointed in what's available to be played. And please, enough with the epic-length songs too.

Reading at least one book each month wasn't one of my resolutions, but perhaps I should make an effort to do that. January can be checked off as I've finished The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. It's light reading that can be picked up and put down at a moment's notice, which is good for my packed month. I found it to be consistently funny, even if the conceit of an almanac of false facts peters out now and then.

Yesterday I posted about an actress whose convincing on-screen knitting is due to her being a knitter. I should have clicked on the next item in my search before posting because this article goes into more detail about her knitting.

Finally, by request and gauntlet throwdown, I present photographic proof of my cold weather beard. (You'll have to follow that link as I'm not posting it here. I don't want to see it.) It took eleven days of not shaving to produce all that scruff. It's being sheared off tonight because I'm not going on TV looking like that and because I'm tired of it even if it's just now starting to look like a beard.

Virtual knitting

I've read where some musicians are annoyed by the idea of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The argument against the video games is why spend your time learning to play pretend guitar when you could pick up an instrument and develop a worthwhile skill. Fair enough, but I enjoy playing the game and wouldn't mind learning the guitar now.

I suppose I'm more sympathetic to their point having become aware of KNiiTTiiNG. The currently in-development video game uses the Wii remote and nunchuk to simulate knitting. The game could be a good tool for assessing technique, but I confess that my first reaction is that it wouldn't be worth playing when you could learn the real thing. Sound familiar? Then again, maybe this game is what I need to free me from always looking at what I'm knitting.

From what I can tell, if KNiiTTiiNG gets out of beta, it looks like something that would be a WiiWare download, not a disk that Nintendo packages and sells in stores. (The site specifies that they have no affiliation with the company and its game console.)

An off day

I've been looking forward to this weekend and the chance it presents to slow down from the hectic pace of late. A rainy Saturday is good for that. I opened the sliding door on the west side of my apartment and let in the cool air. As I drifted into and out of an afternoon nap I listened to the wind blow through the trees and rain fall gently. The Canadian geese honked their songs while the smaller birds chirped.

For a much greater portion of the evening than I care to admit I played online against two of my brothers in Mario Kart Wii. Ah, the joy of beating siblings hundreds of miles away. I didn't win every time, just enough to rub it in.

There is knitting and writing to be done, but that will be for another day. Today was all about turning off the brain and recharging my batteries.

Wii own the night

I'm nearly finished with my first ballband dishcloth, but I should be done with it already. The culprit impeding my knitting: the Nintendo Wii.

The console has been notoriously difficult to find, so when I recently noticed its availability, I decided to purchase one. I've enjoyed playing the Wii, and with two of my three brothers having them, I thought it might be fun to challenge them online from time to time.

I haven't had a video game system in my home since my senior year of college when a roommate owned a Sega Genesis. My family had a ColecoVision when I was a kid, and one of my brothers bought a Nintendo Entertainment System and then a Sega. We even had a few games (on diskettes!) for an old PC, and I recall some cheap-o version of Pong that we'd play on the small black-and-white secondary TV in the family room. I was never a hardcore gamer, which is probably why I haven't had a system for ages, but I liked playing.

I must say that I'm having a lot of fun with the Wii. I've played Mario Kart against one of my brothers twice this week and scorched him in every race. In the past he beat me regularly, so it's amusing me to no end how he's searching for excuses why I keep coming out on top.

Will the Wii cut into my knitting time? Probably a little, at least at first, but I get different pleasures from each activity, so I don't see it making an appreciable impact on my knitting. The ballband dishcloth has been a small confidence booster in regard to trying new techniques, so the needles won't be getting put aside in favor of the Wii remote.