This is a trip down memory lane! Jet Pac Reloaded is now available for download in XBox Live Arcade. For those not insanely old, Jet Pac was an 8-bit game released sometime around 1982. I played it on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and it’s a very dear game to me for several reasons.

This is the game that distinctly made me want to make games. I was 12 years old, but I used to say "someday I will make a Jet Pac".

Can’t wait to check it out. That will have to wait some time still, I just moved into my new apartment and there’s a lot of space to fill before I can concentrate on the geek stuff. 🙂

Will Wright gave a keynote speech at the SXSW conference. i had never heard of it, but if Will was there, it can’t totally suck. 🙂 3pointD has a fantastic transcription.

I’ll keep at least one quote: "Movie: What’s going to happen next? Games: Can I accomplish this?" He also mentions Groundhog Day and Truman Show, both of which are extremely popular among gamers, because they speak about the world in terms that any gamer will recognize.

Speaking of game-like movies, 300 is as brainless yet visually breathtaking as you could ever imagine. Sort of like The Phantom Menace was, minus the disappointment and the childishness.

Go to the GDC page, head to the 2007 Written Proceedings sections, and start downloading! With no way to filter pieces by upload date (to find new downloads), and meaningless filenames, it’s not the most user-friendly system ever created, but it should still be very worth the trouble.

He really is. And if someone gets offended by this opinion, perhaps I will apologize.

Maybe. I find it hard to get over the fact that for all his blahblah about who is doing what for the industry, he has never shipped a finished game. Fucking clown.

In other news, I’ve been in Vancouver for over a week now. The relocation process is going quite smooth. Even with the rain, I love the city and all it has to offer. I’m also having a blast at work getting to know the place, the code and the people.