Posts Tagged gaming

From the Archives: Anatomy of a Time Walk (M:tG)

My “Day I Left Pennsylvania” led me to some archived website posts (before blogs were invented) I had written many years ago. I’m re-posting them now. Bear in mind that most of the content in this series is over 5 years old. I have left the content more or less intact. I have removed some links and added some others — but that’s it. Enjoy!

Note: This post involves some rather esoteric knowledge about the card game Magic: the Gathering. Caveat lector.


Time Walk (Beta)One of the most expensive cards, and part of the elite “Power Nine” restricted list, Time Walk is one of the more sought-after cards in the Vintage tournament environment. (At least by those who don’t already have it) [Ed. note: it currently fetches between 450 and 700 dollars, depending on condition]

But what does Time Walk really do? Taking an extra turn, at first, seems like a really big deal, but how often would this “extra turn” turn out to be simply a card draw, making it no better than a card that says: “Cycling (1U): when you cycle this card, untap all your permanents you control.” If there were ways to simulate some of the elements of a turn without investing 500.00 in this card, wouldn’t that be a good thing? To get to the root of this we have to analyze what a turn really consists of. Read the rest of this entry »

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From the Archives: Card Counting & Blackjack

My “Day I Left Pennsylvania” led me to some archived website posts (before blogs were invented) I had written many years ago. I’m re-posting them now. Bear in mind that most of the content in this series is over 5 years old. I have left the content more or less intact. I have removed some links and added some others — but that’s it. Enjoy!


A Primer to Card-Counting in BlackJack

You may remember seeing Rain-”Definitely Wapner, Definitely”-Man do some vicious 4-deck-shoe card counting in the movieĀ Rain Man. This guide isn’t going to teach you how to memorize and play completely flawlessly, however I would like to at least educate you on some general strategies into how to best approach your betting amounts and whether to hit or stand on a total of X. These can at least tilt the odds a little bit less in the house’s favor. (You’ll never have odds in YOUR favor totally, because of the way the game is arranged. But we can at least decrease the house’s edge.) Read the rest of this entry »

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This Video is Full of Win

Some of you may remember the game “Super Mario World” for the Super Nintendo, way back in the 1990′s. (If you don’t, and you own a Wii, you can download it for ~700 Wii points on the Wii Shopping channel! I recommend, it’s a fun game. :) )

Anyways — there are some people that have created custom levels for it, using their computers. One of the inevitable consequences was the creation of some levels that required absolutely no player interaction at all; The player is moved through the level using the game’s physics engine. While that may sound boring, it is quite entertaining to watch. Sort of like those old Rube Goldberg machines.

This video that I found today (on Boingboing, I think…) takes that automation to the next level. Not only does it do a PHENOMENAL amount of zero-player-interaction automation, but the creators have synchronized it with some fast-paced foreign electronic music. You have to see it to believe it.

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