Gordon Shumway (ALF) the lovable alien from Melmac

“ALF” or (Alien Life Form) our lovable brown fuzzy alien from Melmac had a tv show that aired from 1986 to 1990. In my research about this show, ALF’s actual name was Gordon Shumway! I would have known this if I had re-watched the first few episodes before writing this up. At any rate, he crashlands his ship into the garage of the Tanner family.

Such a nice middle-class family they decide to take ALF in and hide him from authorities or in this case the Alien Task Force (a branch of the military) as well as trying to keep their cat away from him (he wants to eat that cat so bad!).

The show was a typical 80’s sitcom relating to middle-class life with undertones of the fear of the use of nuclear weapons (as that’s what destroyed ALF’s homeworld). Among other things, this show had some good subtle social commentary. The show lasted only 4 seasons however it spawned an animated TV Series called “ALF Tales (2 seasons)” as well as a movie called “Project ALF” (1996)

The saga of ALF spilled over into pop culture in the form of many posters, buttons, clothing, and catchphrases “Hey, No Problem!” as well as plushies by the company Coleco and of course like any pop culture item back then trading cards. I’m sure the list is much much long however those are the things I remember from being a kid growing up with ALF as a part of my life.

Here is a full showing of episode 1 from ALF on YouTube.

ALF S01E01

I’ve done some research on YouTube and found a playlist of the episodes of ALF Tales:

ALF: The Animated Series

Much to my surprise, I read this in my research on Wikipedia: “In August 2018, Warner Bros. Television announced the development of an ALF reboot, which was later canceled in November of that year. In February 2022, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired distribution rights to the ALF titles, and would “develop new ALF-related content”, with the company Maximum Effort subsequently joining in July 2023 to develop new material as well.”

Could this actually mean more ALF for future generations? I sure hope so however WB likes to trash titles they acquire and bury the evidence. But that’s a story for another day.

Below are some pics of the trading cards and the stuffed plushie by Coleco. Be sure to look out for my review and unboxing of the ALF action figure by NECA that I just picked up the week of 8/14/23. That will appear in Loot Crate on the site as soon as I get around to it.

Alf

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Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALF_(TV_series)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365971/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117397/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Project%2520ALF
https://www.youtube.com

Grammar and Spelling checked by Grammerly

August 21, 2023 by .:Pop Culture:. 0

Cuphead the hardest platformer I’ve ever played

Cuphead what can I say about the game that hasn’t been said yet? A game looking like the late ’30s / 40’s era cartoon and sounds just as good as one comes to the PC. I’ve loved this game since I first saw the highly original style of it however the difficulty is a bit much for this older gamer. I just don’t have the reflexes anymore to really progress. I believe I’m only 10% finished with the game and the video below will show you why.

Cuphead makes a deal with the devil and I believe for you to beat this game you’ll probably have to do the same. I have picked up a wonderful coffee table art book. The Art of Cuphead. Beautifully illustrated showing everything from the development of the characters to the development of the story and all the way to great finished artwork comps and stills.

The book can be found on Amazon here.

cover

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Just to prove how bad I am here’s a video I made of me playing this monster of a game. (Knowing I’d be watched didn’t help the situation!) The intro screen is showing with the DLC installed. Usually, it’s just Cuphead and his brother.

My horrible ability to play this game.

So in conclusion the game itself is AMAZING, along with good vintage sound. I can’t recommend the game enough. You can purchase it on Steam Here. Purchase includes both Windows and Mac versions which to me was very important. The video above was made on my PowerBook M2 and it recorded and played very well despite me not really playing but getting it handed to me!

(Edited and corrected with Grammerly, Free Version. I’m not a professional writer)

August 21, 2023 by .:Game Reviews:. 0

G.O.R.F. (Galactic Orbiting Robot Force)

Let’s take a trip down my memory lane to about 1983/84. I was at an arcade with my favorite aunt when I heard in an electronic voice “Tatatatatata”. The game was taunting me! Oh, how it mocked me with its electronic voice which at the time was unheard of when it was released anyway in 1981.

The cabinet I remember looked similar to a Tron cabinet using the same controller method except for the neon glowing handle anyway. It had everything a person wanted in a shooter! EVERYTHING! We had Space Invaders, Galaxian, a high-speed warp zone shooter level, and the MOTHER SHIP! KA BOOOOMMMMMM! It would EXPLODE if you managed to land that one critical shot.

TOKEN TOKEN TOKEN I was hooked the sounds were outstanding as I blasted away at enemy ships thinking I was piloting my newfound ship against aliens from another world. My aunt saw my love of the game and it would be that year I would find a copy for my Colecovision for my birthday.

With Colecovision’s ability to bring home the arcade. THIS ONE WAS better in my opinion graphically but lacked the taunting voice chip ability. It is still one of my most played games on the system bringing back memories of sitting in my parent’s room playing on the ‘ol t.v. until my wrists hurt. Pushing my rank higher and higher as I’d complete round after round of gameplay.

The game was also ported to the 2600, 5200, and several computers at the time. But none touched the CV in my opinion. I wish I had more hands-on experience with the arcade game in my adult life but finding one is very difficult let alone finding a classic arcade. So my wrists will hurt until I die playing my CV version in the future.

I found a great video showing the CV version of gameplay on Youtube. If you like it be sure to subscribe to the author to give credit where credit is due!

Video of the Colecovision game.

The following was written by ChatGPT and was used because I’m not really great at expressing certain things. THIS IS THE ONLY PART that used that tool. The game consisted of the following aspects.

  1. Space Warp: Players faced individual enemy ships one-on-one.
  2. Astro Battles: Similar to Space Invaders, players had to destroy formations of enemy ships.
  3. Laser Attack: This level involved dodging and destroying enemy laser fire.
  4. Flag Ship: Players had to defeat a large enemy mothership that launched various types of attacks.
  5. Galaxians: A variant of Galaxian-style gameplay where formations of enemy ships would dive down to attack the player’s ship.

That’s all for ChatGPT. I highly recommend this game based on my childhood fun with it and the difficulty that it provides. As well as the ability to play different types of games within the overall game.

(The document was edited for grammar by Grammerly)

August 20, 2023 by .:Game Reviews:. 0

Opinion: Carrier Air Wing / U.S. Navy

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite side-scrolling shooters. In the United States, it was called Carrier Air Wing and in Japan, it was known as U.S. Navy. Virtually the same game just different names.

Released in 1990, the American version was ported to the SNES and was as faithful of an arcade-to-home port as one could get on the system at the time. The game really portrays the United States as a global hero with no one else could do the job. Almost like a Michael Bay film portraying the U.S. Armed Forces in the greatest light possible. Which he should! Being a former Army Medic I understand the importance of what Bay tries to do to rally national morale and wonder at our service men and women. It’s really just recruiting, kind of what U.S. Navy /Carrier Air Wing did on the video game front.

I’ve made a couple of animated files of the openings for each of the games. Notice anything different besides the name? I didn’t. I know it wasn’t really a review but more of an opinion piece. Hope you enjoy the mini animated gifs I made.

Carrier Air Wing (American)
U.S. Navy

I also found a video on youtube of a playthrough of the arcade game if you like it give the author a thumbs up!:

Grammer and Punctuation help from Grammerly.

March 18, 2023 by .:Game Reviews:. 0

Loot Crate: Witch King of Angmar!

Got this beauty in from Sideshow Collectibles! The detail and fear it inspires are real! It’s a little over a foot tall and the sword is actually metal! Why they didn’t do the same with the mace is odd but perhaps they wanted the chain to sit as it does. Over all I’m super happy with this as the Nazgûl are my favorite species / race? In Lord of the Rings.

Witch King!
March 9, 2023 by .:Loot Crate:. 0
1980's Gamer!
A child of the 80's and 90's here to remember the good old days. A careless whisperer...with a REBEL YELL!!!

My Video Game Collection