As listeners of the podcast already know, I’ve got problems with the Best Buy located most conveniently to where I live. They often won’t have games on release day (even those that say “AVAILABLE TUESDAY” in their weekly ad, I’ll have to track down an employee to get them to get me a game from the back, they had a busted up Beatles Rock Band demo setup, they only had 2 accessories for the PSP Go on launch day, they didn’t have Rhythm Heaven on the DSi launch day. I mean, there’s been quite a lot of disappointment with this Best Buy. So much that I’ve started just ordering games that have Release Day delivery on Amazon instead.

Yesterday I thought what the hell, I’ll give them a shot for Lips Number One Hits and Borderlands. They had a deal running in their Sunday ad where Lips comes with a code for a free Colbie Caillat song pack. My fiancee likes Colbie Caillat, I’m a sucker for saccharine pop songs, so I’ll get it at Best Buy, get the song pack there instead of ordering on Amazon (who had it cheaper than BB, but still).

I took no chances by ordering online for in-store pickup. And of course when I went to the typically crappy Best Buy that has left me disappointed so many times before, they had the game but…couldn’t find the song pack. So I wrote them a letter. And here it is, after the jump.

I’ve been a loyal Best Buy customer for many years and have bought many thousands of dollars in merchandise at your stores. I’ve been a member of the Reward Zone program since it began (and Premier Silver currently). I’m a gadget geek and buy a lot of consumer electronics. I have moved across the country several times and the first thing I do in my new location is check where the nearest Best Buy is. It is not uncommon for me to stop into the closest store more than once a week to browse. But I wanted to voice my displeasure and concern at the experience I’ve had at one particular Best Buy location over the past 18 months, punctuated by a situation yesterday which marks the end of my patronizing your stores.

I purchased a copy of Lips Number One Hits for the Xbox 360 yesterday for in-store pickup at store #890 (Buckhead, Atlanta, GA, order # [edited]). In your weekly ad this week the game was advertised as coming with a free Colbie Caillat song pack (SKU 9562957). My fiancee is a fan of Colbie Caillat’s music and this bonus is part of the reason I decided to purchase the game at Best Buy instead of elsewhere. When I went to the customer service desk to pick up the order, they had no knowledge of this extra or a clue as to where they might find it. When I showed them the weekly ad, the woman at the desk made a half-hearted attempt to look and see if the card was available at the register, then came back and suggested I go back to the video game department and look or ask back there, and if they had the card she could ring it up for me.

That was the start of the problem. I know from at least a dozen previous experiences at this location that getting assistance in the video game department is all too often a futile effort, especially on weekdays. I walked to the back corner of the store where the department is located and walked around for 10 minutes hoping to flag someone – anyone – down that could help me find this. There were no store employees anywhere near Video Games. There were no copies of Lips Number One Hits or the exclusive gift card on the shelf in the department. I eventually had to walk over to the camera area where I got associate [edited] to help me.

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts he was unable to find anyone that knew about this extra or find any of the cards that the in-store inventory system said the location had in stock (indicated they had 4). He did offer to find another store that may have the cards but there’s the other problem – another store means running all over Atlanta to find what by your ad and your inventory system should’ve been in the store already. He suggested coming back later in the week and talking to [edited] (I’m assuming the store manager) and they would help me but this being just the latest disappointment with this location I don’t know that I’m interested in returning at all.

The experience with the Lips Number One Hits bonus underlines the other problem I have had with this location’s video game department for the past 18 months. The situation that’s happened nearly a dozen times will be that a game’s advertised in the weekly ad as “AVAILABLE TUESDAY.” I’ll show up Tuesday evening after work (after 6 pm) and the game is nowhere to be found. It’s not on the shelf in the video game department, it’s not in the front of the store where new release games are sometimes found, and then I have to go searching for an associate to help me get it out of the back or tell me (as has happened on numerous occasions) that they were unable to find the game I was looking for even when a check on bestbuy.com indicates that the game is available at that location.

So since that had been my experience enough times I started ordering games via bestbuy.com for in-store pickup instead. Sure enough they always have my game waiting for me at customer service, though when I look around the store it hasn’t been put on the shelves. I looked just now on bestbuy.com and Lips Number One Hits is listed as In Stock at the Buckhead location, but it wasn’t on the shelf anywhere in-store yesterday when I went to pick up my online-ordered copy!

It is with great disappointment that this may be the end of my customer relationship with Best Buy altogether. When I can get lower prices, free release-day shipping from Amazon.com and always get the bonus content promised to me there is NO reason for me to go to your store where the service is unhelpful, the staff slow to unpack/stock the week’s new video game releases, and clueless to the whereabouts of the free bonus that was supposed to come with the game. I spent 45 minutes in the store last night for what should’ve taken less than 5. And I walked out of there wishing I’d just ordered it from Amazon instead of bothering with Best Buy. I’m one of the few consumers that still enjoys going into a store to buy. But you have made it unbearably frustrating to continue doing so with you.

It is a shame that you may be losing a loyal customer and thousands of dollars of business a year over what equates to a $5 song pack whose intention was no doubt to get me into the store and buy from you. But it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back in this case as my frustration with this location has built over the last 18 months of shopping experiences.

Thank you,

Chris Johnston

Will I get a reply from them? Who knows. But, like I say in the letter…I think this abusive relationship may finally be over.

How awesome is this?

Sewart's alternate career?

I had seen this sign up on my commute every day for months in San Francisco but only got a picture of it the day I drove out of the city. Well worth it, I think.

On the way back from Penny Arcade Expo it just happened to work out that my fiancee Adrienne and I had a 5-hour layover in Salt Lake City, UT. Which made for the perfect amount of time to stop in and do some podcasting with The Fanboys — a fantastic podcast if you’ve never listened to it. That episode is up right now on their site, but I highly recommend you subscribe to them in iTunes and go back and listen to their previous episodes.

Many thanks to Mike, Josh and Announcer Guy for their hospitality and allowing me to guest on their show. And to Sooch of course for the gift in his absence.

More tweets! The insanity! This time, from PAX Day 2. I tweeted on Day 1 as well. You can check somma those out here. Or follow me on twitter at @superpac.

Shower, coffee, then PAX. #PAX Looking forward to playing more Beatles Rock Band today.

In line for Uncharted 2 t-shirt. Im gonna have a whole closetful of shirts after this show!

Definitely going to try and go to the Rock Band network panel today. Should be fun.

@mudron where r u at the show? I need to buy a print from you and say hi!

Met up with hacker alias Kholdstare. Recorded something for podcast.

Just did a quick 30-minute podcast with klepek, pfister, and ellis. Will be up Monday probably as part of episode 150.

Splosion Man antics at the Twisted Pixel booth. http://twitpic.com/gmr4r

Onions at lunch was a bad idea. I need mints.

Checking out the pitch a game panel before getting in line for Rock Band Network panel.

In line for Rock Band Network panel. What can I say, I’m just that much of a Rock Band nerd.

Just met @mudron! Awesome prints are awesome! http://twitpic.com/gn6qk

I think someone in this line just farted. And it wasn’t me. #grosspaxsmells

Also just met @demonicmurry!

And whoever it was just farted again. What the hell man this is some vile rotten eggs shit.

Attending the Rock Band Network panel. http://twitpic.com/gnf6c

Finishing up a drink then heading over to the 1up party at gameworks. People are still there right?

Enjoyed the heck out of 1up party w/everyone. Incl. @shanewatch @exxy @demonicmurry @mrplaid @davidellis and many more.

–

And to round this out, here’s the last few PAX-related tweets from Day 3:

Sunday. Last thing I wanna do is play Left 4 Dead 2. Oh and get the t-shirt. That’ll be my 7th of the show! This place is all about shirts!

The guy playing L4D2 on the big screen in front of the line waiting to play sucks. At least I know I am better than that guy. #PAX

Totally got to play left 4 dead 2 in their press area. Played for a good 15-20 there. Quite fun, love the new environments.

Welp, time for me to say goodbye to PAX. it has been a great time.

On the way to the airport in Seattle, then a stop in Salt Lake City before headin’ back to ATL.

When Dana and I lost our beloved cat, Mia, a few weeks ago, we were understandably heartbroken. Of course, since we love cats, we also knew that it was a matter of time before our hearts had healed enough to allow us to bring another cat into our lives.

Apparently that time was today (well, yesterday, if you want to get technical).

The two of us were taking a walk around town when we found ourselves passing by a small, independently-owned pet shop. The store frequently gets cats from one of the local shelters to show off for adoption, and sure enough they had a few there today. We popped in to look, and we were immediately taken by the pair of kittens in the front window display. They were both extremely friendly and playful, and after holding them for a bit, Dana and I exchanged a “we’re going to do this, aren’t we?” glance.

After a brief discussion about how ready we were to adopt another cat, and we were walking out of the place with two new kittens.

You see, we had wanted to get another cat for a long time, but Mia was not a social animal. She had her people and that was enough for her. Anytime we exposed her to another cat, she made with the low, angry growls and the hissing (I only ever heard her do this around other cats). You’ll often hear that it’s good to get kittens in pairs, so we figured that this was the perfect opportunity.

The two kittens (one male, one female) aren’t technically siblings, but they’ve been living together their entire lives (three months), so they’re practically related. It was pretty clear seeing them together at the store that they wouldn’t appreciate being separated.

So names! The gray cat is the girl, and Dana wanted to name her Moxie after Penn Jillette’s daughter, Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette. How could I argue with that? I suggested that we name the boy Philo after Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the television. It also works as a reference to my name and the crazy engineer (and host of “Secrets of the Universe”) from UHF.

Because out new kitties love gender stereotypes, Moxie is a bit shy and demure and Philo is an energetic rascal. I couldn’t tell you how many times Philo charged at Moxie and pounced on her for a bit of wrestling. As you can see from the pictures, though, they really are good friends and will happily snuggle together when they’ve worn themselves out (when out they’ve worn themselves?).

Strangely enough, they seem to have taken to their new home rather well. Mia was quite skittish when we first got her and went to great lengths to hide from Dana and I for a week or so. These guys were just happy to do a little exploring, and they’ve been all up for cuddling up next to us for some petting. Perhaps it’s the age difference. Mia was about two years old when we got her.

Moxie and Philo certainly can’t replace Mia, but they’re pretty awesome kitties in their own right. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with them.

This is Mia.

Mia was, until earlier today, our cat. My wife, Dana, and I were forced to put the little girl to sleep after she became tremendously ill last night.

Back in February, Mia clearly wasn’t feeling well—she was lethargic and refused to eat. A trip to the vet revealed that she had hepatitis, which attacks the liver. She was given some medication, and after a while, she was back to her old self.

Dana and I recently noticed that Mia was showing those same symptoms again. She was less active than she usually is, and her food dish would be left untouched. Yesterday, I took Mia to the vet while Dana was at work. Mia was given the same diagnosis as before, and I took her home with a fresh batch of medicine. Shortly after returning home, however, Mia took a turn for the worse. She began having difficulty breathing and she could not move on her own. She had a similar reaction to her first dose of medicine back in February, though, so we weren’t too concerned.

As the evening went on, however, she was clearly having more and more trouble breathing. Dana and I became so concerned that we rushed her to a 24 hour emergency vet at around midnight. The vet stabilized her with and IV and an oxygen tank and kept her overnight so that he could give her an X-ray and an ultrasound. At around 8:00 this morning, the emergency vet told us that she was stable enough to be moved to her regular vet. We transported Mia and left her with the vet for a couple hours.

The vet called us with terrible news. With a new X-ray of Mia in hand, the vet was able to compare it with her old X-ray taken back in February. A giant tumor was growing out of Mia’s liver. Although it wasn’t noticeable from outside of her body, the tumor was massive. The vet explained that Mia most likely had lymphoma, a type of cancer that sadly, isn’t all that treatable in cats.

This is what Dana and I had feared, and we had discussed our options while waiting for the vet’s call. We rushed to the vet where we made the decision that Mia would have to be put to sleep. The poor thing was in terrible shape when we arrived. Her breathing had become so strained that her teeth were bared (which is something she never did) as she struggled for breath.

After a brief discussion with the vet, Dana and I opted to be with Mia when she died. We went into a room and Mia was placed on a blanket on the table. Dana and I each took turns holding her one last time, and we wept openly. We told Mia that she was a wonderful cat and that we loved her.

With that, the vet placed the syringe in her leg and prepared to give her the final injection. Dana stood near Mia’s head and scratched it as our cat passed. Mia loved to get head rubs from Dana. I, meanwhile, stood behind Mia and gave her a tummy scritch, the term we used for when Mia would flop on the floor in front of me as an invitation to scratch her belly. The vet slowly injected the fluid, and within seconds, Mia was gone.

She’s gone, but she died with her people around her, giving her as much love as she got in life.

As I type this through tear-blurred eyes, I know that it might seem somewhat grim to recount our beloved cat’s final day. To be honest, though, we’re both in a world of shock still, and this is helping me deal with the situation.

It’s hitting Dana and I so hard because we loved—no, we love—our cat. I’m going to argue that you can continue to love something that is not around anymore. We got Mia from an animal shelter in Illinois back in January, 2001, and she has been an important part of our family ever since. When I moved to California with my Ziff Davis job, Mia stayed in Chicago with Dana as Dana completed law school. Dana fully credits Mia’s companionship with giving her the strength to finish her classes. When I would fly back to Illinois to visit Dana, it would always strike me as amusing that Dana seemed to treat Mia more like a roommate than a pet, something that I’ve told her in the past.

It’s true that Mia went well past the pet level for us into full-on buddy category. She was terrifically friendly, and she had several personality quirks that further endeared her to us.

I’ve posted videos on YouTube of Mia’s odd drinking habits. I don’t know why, but I was always amused by her love of a tasty beverage. Whether she was drinking water out of her bowl with her paw, standing up to grab an ice cube that we would drop into her water or simply licking condensation off of one of my drinks, Mia wouldn’t let anything get between her and refreshment.

In recent months, Mia has taken to sitting on my lap, which is something that she wouldn’t do in the past. Occasionally when I would be sitting at my computer desk, I would feel a light tapping on my thigh. When I looked down, Mia would be standing on her hind legs and tapping me. As I noticed her, she would look up at me with a look of, “Why aren’t you petting me?” If I just scratched her head for a bit and returned to my computer, she would start tapping me again. Eventually, I would pick her up and drop her on my lap. Nine times out of ten, she would delicately cuddle up on my leg and chill out for a while. When Dana would be in bed, Mia would use the tapping technique to get Dana’s attention, usually with the intent of wanting some petting.

Mia also got into the habit lately of climbing up onto my stomach as I lay on the couch watching TV or playing a game. She would perch on my stomach and proceed to do that cat kneading thing for up to 10-15 minutes at a time. It kills me to know that I’ll never feel that again.

Yes, Mia was a wonderful, beautiful cat, and we are heartbroken that she is gone. Although the place that we adopted her from didn’t know her exact age, we estimate that she was probably about ten years old (or perhaps slightly older). It’s a relatively early age for a cat to die, but even so, she had a fantastic life. She was loved and comforted right up until the end.

So for you regular listeners of the podcast, if you don’t hear a familiar, faint bell jingle in the background anymore, you’ll know why. Dana and I already miss that jingle.

We miss our Mia.

I love the Sega CD. And I love the 16-bit era in general. I’m not sure if that sentiment is purely based on nostalgia, or if it truly was one of the greatest gaming eras ever, but I’m gonna go with the latter for now.

Playing Ys Book I & II as our latest Game Club game has rekindled my passion for 16-bit CD games. And since I’ve spent way too much money and time collecting a bunch of Sega CD games, I’ve decided it’s time to actually, legitimately play them. And since CJ says I have to contribute to the show blog once in a while, I’ve decided to share my resulting thoughts with all of you.

Unfortunately, the first selection makes a greater case for nostalgia than it does for the 16-bit era being the great one.

Although they would go on to be the catalyst in Sega’s eventual exit from the console market, Sony provided pretty decent third-party support for the Sega CD throughout its lifetime with a mixture of movie-licensed platformers and full-motion-video titles.

The movie-licensed stuff usually ended up being nothing more than copies of their Genesis counterparts featuring redbook audio drawn right from the film’s score. To be fair, that didn’t always happen (Cliffhanger and Bram Stoker’s Dracula are good examples of that), but in the case of the abysmal 3 Ninjas Kick Back, I’m pretty sure it’s exactly what’s going on.

Why am I not completely sure? Well, two reasons – the game is so bad I can’t be bothered to see if the Genesis/SNES versions were identical to this one; and I honestly can’t get past the first group of levels. There’s a particular scene where a boulder is chasing me down a long slope (for no particular reason) that has vexed me for long enough that I just don’t care whether I see the rest of the game at this point.

EDIT: Actually, there was some content added to the game in the form of 3D hanglider missions, pictured here. That’s pretty much the same approach taken with Cliffhanger – they added 3D snowboarding missions to that one.

Well, I should point out that, on top of the “real” music, 3 Ninjas does feature a bit of video footage. Before certain levels, the old man I can only assume is your Sensei will pop up and explain what he wants you to do in that area. He’ll also appear during the continue screen in order to explain that you have to hit start to continue. This grainy, FMV crap is why I loved this system.

Otherwise, 3 Ninjas is a pretty standard action platformer with a horrible difficulty curve. It’s more or less identical to the style of play found in Sony Imagesoft’s other licensed platformers — especially Hook (another one that made the jump to the Sega CD — in fact it was sold in a two-pack with this very game).

Thank god I didn’t actually spend any money on this game back when the system was shiny and new. Years later, playing as a collector, I can simply shake my head at how bad it is and move on. Had I spent upwards of $100 on this junk back then, I can only imagine the depression that would have followed.

After all, our self-worth is measured by the relative success or failure of the games systems we own, right?

It seems this series has gotten off to a rather depressing start. Oh well. Up next: The Adventures of Batman & Robin!

People have been asking, so here you go. Wedding pictures!

As you may recall, I did not appear in episode #126 as March 20th was reserved for my wedding day. My wife, Dana, and I headed up to Napa, California where we exchanged vows in a very small ceremony that included myself, her, the officiant, and a photographer. No family; no friends. Nice and simple.

Our ceremony was held out in the cheap showiness of nature

After our little ceremony, we spent the rest of the day visiting a few different wineries in our wedding gear. We got a few stares and a few toasts raised to us. The rest of the weekend was spent chilling out and…well, going to more wineries. It’s Napa Valley, after all. There’s not much else to do up there.

For our final activity before heading home that Sunday, we decided to stop by a winery that I had wanted to visit since one of our previous trips up to Napa months ago. It’s a very classy-looking place that unlike many wineries up there requires its visitors to make an appointment. The place is called Quintessa, and I am sad to confess that I had less than classy reasons for wanting to stop there.

Quintessa, you see, is not only a winery. It is also the home to the cruel Quintessons, the evil aliens from the old 1986 Transformers movie. They were the guys with the five heads and tentacles who floated around on a beam of energy. They would hold mock trials for all their prisoners and proclaim the captives innocent before executing them. Remember when they captured Hot Rod and Kup and those two were talking about how to escape as they were on trial? And then the Quintesson judge told them to be quiet or they’d be held in contempt of court and Hot Rod was all like, “I have nothing but contempt for this court.” Man, that old Transformers movie was friggin’ awesome. I mean, for seriously. But now I’m getting off topic.

Here's me at the gates of Quintessa. Not pictured: the Sharkticon pit.

Anyhoo, seeing as how I’m a bit of a Transformers nerd, I found it hilarious that this fancy winery shared its name with a relatively obscure piece of Transformers lore. So we had to go there.

Keep in mind that I explained all this to Dana before the wedding and she still wanted to go through with it. I believe it was Michael Bluth who once said, “You gotta lock that down.”

Any-anyhoo, it turns out that this half-joke visit turned into one of the highlight stops of the weekend. When we called to reserve our wine tasting, we were a bit shocked at the price–$65 per person. Compare this to the $5-$10 that most wineries charge for a tasting. But we figured what the hell. This was the final stop of our wedding weekend. We can splurge on something a bit extravagant.

The real Quintessa.

And boy, was it nice. We had a private tour of the winery. Our guide walked us around the vineyard, giving us a history lesson about the place as we sampled their ware. We were then led underground where the wine is made and aged. Then it was off to our private tasting room where they had made up personalized menus for us describing the wines we were tasting and some frou-frou hors d’oeuvres. This was some pricey wine, too. The half bottle that we ended up buying was more expensive than any full bottles that we bought from other wineries. Still, good stuff.

So there you go. Wedding pictures and a little story. And no, you won’t find any honeymoon pictures here, you sickos.

In 1984 a little film called The Last Starfighter hit cinemas. It’s the story of Alex Rogan, an average teen whose hopes and dreams of escaping his trailer park existence are consistently dashed. It seems his one triumph is that he’s really damn good at Starfighter, a fictional 3D space shooter that’s somehow the only arcade machine in the tri-county area (and this is set in the mid-‘80s? Yeah right!).

After having an especially excellent game one fateful night, the machine alerts Centauri (played by The Music Man’s Robert Preston), an alien shyster who placed the games on Earth to find the best Gunstar pilot in hopes that he or she would assist the galaxy in defeating the game’s main foe Xur and his Kodan Armada for realz.

In case you’ve never seen it or haven’t seen it in awhile, here’s a refresher:

It’s without a doubt one of my favorite movies ever. I own two copies of it; one DVD and again on HD-DVD. Once Universal gets their heads out of their asses and releases it on Blu-ray I’ll have that too. I love the film. It shaped my childhood. Yes, really.

Twenty-five years—holy crap has it been that long?—later, a show called Aaron Stone has come along to take the concept and shape it into something more palatable to today’s discerning teens. Instead of a space shooter (popular in the ‘80s but which holds no favor with those not raised on Galaga), the Aaron Stone game is an action-GTA-WoW-Crackdown-space-marine-type knock-off. The trailer park setting has been moved to suburbia and the teenager is a little less hopeless. Like Alex Rogan he’s a regular kid…OK maybe loser kid…whose hours spent honing his gaming skills get him recruited to be the hero for real. Not by a deceptive yet well-meaning alien con man but a “billionaire recluse” and his assistant (played by the same actor who was “Not Moby” on How I Met Your Mother, incidently). The threat isn’t quite as far away anymore either. While Xur and the Kodan Armada were light years from Earth, the enemy in Aaron Stone is an evil corporation right here at home, intent on enslaving the human race.

Here’s the teaser for the show, where the similarities will become apparent to any fan of Starfighter:

Eerily similar, right? I guess we’ll get to see how good/bad it actually is when Aaron Stone debuts next month on Disney XD, a new channel replacing Toon Disney on February 13. But I will say one thing. That getup that the kid wears as the real-life “Aaron Stone” character is ri-goddamn-diculous. Couldn’t look any more like a K-Mart Halloween costume. Captain Power had better duds. Seriously.

Surprisingly enough while doing a little web surfing around The Last Starfighter it looks like director Nick Castle is going to do some kind of continuation of the film called Starfighter. At least according to IMDB. Pretty cool.

You may’ve noticed that when you type www.playeronepodcast.com into your browser, you no longer go to the Libsyn index page (which, yes, still exists if you really want to go there). Props on being observant, you! We thought we’d expand a little and start doing blog entries between broadcasts and such here, because sometimes 90+ minutes of discussing video games on the podcast just isn’t enough.

Of course, it won’t just be about video games, either. But you’ll just have to see.

Comments on the new blog here are welcome, and if you have any suggestions, we’re all ears. It took me long enough to cobble this together based on my rudimentary knowledge of HTML and zero-knowledge of CSS. Enjoy!

And without further ado, since I like posting it, a clip of Orson Welles drunk at a commercial shoot.