A Look Back: Hydro Thunder
This re-review will be pretty brief. In large part due to the fact that Hydro Thunder is about as straight forward as games can get.
If I recall correctly, Hydro Thunder was a birthday or Christmas present in what would have had to have been the year 2000. I was familiar with the game from its arcade presence (which was basically every arcade in America) but it was not a game that I was particularly interested in adding to my N64 collection. After an obsession with Crusin’ World in the arcade, and then feeling underwhelmed when I finally got my own cartridge, getting Hydro Thunder never even crossed my mind. Luckily someone took care of that for me!
Things move pretty fast in the technology world. The N64 came out in 1996 and this game was released a little less than 4 years later. While the hardware packed in an N64 will never change, arcade cabinets were getting more powerful all the time. I want to say that the arcade version was running on a souped up version of the brand new Sega Dreamcast hardware. Even though I’m not a huge fan of this game, I do have to admit that the arcade version of this game has some pretty good eyecandy, even by today’s standards, and 10 years ago it was pretty fun to look at. Dialing all that down so that the N64 could handle it means there’s going to be quite a few sacrifices.
Hydro Thunder: Arcade
Hydro Thunder: N64
Biggest sacrifice was the framerate department. At times this game felt really choppy. Although this was par for the course with a lot of N64 games. Honestly cramming this game onto the N64 complete with high quality voice over audio was pretty damn impressive.
I think my biggest beef with this game is just that by this point I really wasn’t as interested in arcade racers as much anymore. This (for me) was just another Midway “Crusi’n” game on water. The levels were pretty cool, the boats were cool. But I’d played it all before. Don’t get me wrong! I still played quite a bit of this game. I couldn’t just set it in the box and never mess with it. I made it a point to beat all the levels, and unlock all the boats. Certainly didn’t set any records though.
I pulled it out today just for this review. And consistent with most of these games that pushed the graphical envelope on the N64, this one again hasn’t aged well. The world is very detailed, but the low resolution just leaves it all feeling jagged and blurry. Honestly, the framerate wasn’t as bad as I remember. And the courses are pretty well laid out. I found myself missing a lot of the boosts, but memorizing the few tracks there are would take care of that. If I wished to dedicate that much time to the game.
All in all, this was a good game for what I used it for back in the day. Then I had so much time to play. I mean a lot of time. And this was a great game to play and work on a little bit when I was sick of playing everything else. Today with less time and more to play, it’s hard to find a spot for this game.
Toast-erriffic!
Last night around 10:15pm I noticed it felt pretty warm in the house, so I checked to see if we just had turned the AC off for the night or what. Unfortunately the fan was still blowing, but it wasn’t cold. A quick check outside proved the AC unit wasn’t running in the back yard.
Figured we’d make it through the nights so decided to call the landlord in the morning. So today he said he’d try to get somebody over here but it was a pretty busy day for AC guys. I figured that was true and we aren’t any more important than anyone else on the list, so we left the dog with plenty of water and headed off to work. Forecasted high of only 106 today.
Got home at 5:30pm or so and the landlord and the AC guy were there waiting for me. Apparently the landlord didn’t bring the right keys or something to get into the house. They didn’t have to wait long though, and I was able to let them in. First thing the AC guy did… was check the breaker. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT! It never even occurred to me for some reason. But he flips that on, lo and behold the AC fires right up. He hooks some gauges up just to make sure it’s operating correctly and it appears to be. Guess it’s just been running so much lately with the 100+ temperatures that it started drawing enough current to keep up and the breaker tripped.
So quite humbled I thanked both men and they headed to their vehicles. Soon after I heard a knock again at the door. It was the AC guy. He needed a jumpstart because his van battery was dead. I CAN DO THAT! So somewhat redeeming my pride I jumpstarted him and he was on his way.
In the end, its all good. AC is working and recovering. I’d previously tweeted that we’d save a bunch of money by not running the AC while it was broke. Of course Andrea was probably right when she said we’re going to spend all the money we saved getting the house back down to 85! No kidding! It’s toast-erriffic in here!
07.20.11I’ll never be this good.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/HUbHj9tBpGU]
07.18.111357 is the limit
It was fine yesterday, today this:
Studies have shown you should change your password every 1357 days.
Clare Enfield
That's right, captured straight from my original Helen Hunt Gallery!
Every once in a while something happens you least expect. Since WAY back in the 90’s. (Ouch… it hurts to say “way” back in the 90’s) I’ve been wondering if I’d ever see this movie again. Only You was a romantic comedy that I remember playing on HBO back when I was a kid. I seriously have no idea why I glommed on to this film. It’s really a cute show but at brief times the sexual themes (while far from explicit) were probably more than an 13 year old needed to be exposed to. (Hey I turned out just fine, thank you.) I never found the show on DVD, never hardly a frame of it to be seen on the internet. Lo and behold it popped up on Netflix!
In retrospect this was a significant movie in that it began a long… I still refuse to call it an obsession… admiration of Helen Hunt’s popular work. As I watched the film again for the first time in 15 years, it was amazing how much I remembered. Made me wonder how many times I’d seen this show. Infact I remember taking those monthly HBO schedules we’d get in the mail and finding each and every instance of Only You so I could be sure to catch every possible show. (still… NOT obsessed. I stand by it.) But just little moments, mostly audio that felt VERY familiar.
Actually watching the movie again I think I finally realized what it was that drew me to Helen Hunt in a big way. You aren’t going to believe me… but it’s… her voice. I just can’t quite explain it but there’s something about her voice that just feels honest and comfortable. I dunno. Hard to explain.
Okay, enough weirdness. So strange to travel down these old paths that just don’t quite fit any more who I am today. Kind of like visiting your old elementary school and realizing the old hallways actually just aren’t as wide or tall as you remember them. You feel like you belong there in your heart, but it doesn’t take long to stop and know that you don’t belong there anymore.
If you feel so enclined, enjoy Only You now available on Hulu & Netflix! It’s not an award winner, but it’s a cute, albeit predictable movie. And hopefully you can appreciate the role of Clare Enfield as much as I did back in the day.
http://www.hulu.com/embed/-y9-GBsv_ld91kujVTs4Dw