A little while ago, my Tosche Station Radio co-host Nanci and myself did a guest spot with the Star Wars Book Report. If memory serves, we talked about fan fiction, fun at conventions, and our thoughts on the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.Hop on over there to listen to us go off-the-rails on someone else’s podcast!
Tag Archives: Star Wars
A Brief History of Terrible Star Wars Games
With the outrage over Dancing Han Solo*, one would think there has never been a bad Star Wars game to grace the market. Lucasfilm has sold out for a quick buck, you say. Oh you silly fans. If that’s the measure for selling out (whatever that means), Lucasfilm sold out years ago. Star Wars has a long and storied history of shoddy video game tie-ins pushed out the door to make some scratch.
*I don’t care what any of you say, Dancing!Han is the best thing to happen to the fandom in the last decade.
Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire: Death by Colons was a horrible mashup of bad full-motion video, clunky game mechanics, on-the-rails dullness, and difficulty curves designed by a sadist. If the horrid acting didn’t make you cringe to the point of turning it off, the bizarre spikes in difficulty at random moments would make you rage quit. Rebel Assault II hearkens back to a day when every game developer on the planet thought that unskilled actors and a green screen were the key to creating a big hit. Rather than, you know, actual gameplay value.
Win A Copy of the Essential Guide to Warfare
To celebrate the official launch of Tosche Station, we’re giving away two copies of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare. How can you claim one for yourself? Simple!
Opportunity the First: Follow the Tosche Station Twitter account and retweet this message
Opportunity the Second: Give us a Like on Facebook.
We will randomly select one winner from each pool to receive a copy, so enter in both places to increase your odds of winning a book that I really enjoyed.
The contest will run through Thursday with a winner announced Friday. Good luck!
Karen Miller ‘Star Wars Insider’ Short Story Features Antilles Spawn
Hit it, @DelReyStarWars
Read Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles short story that will appear in SW Insider 135 last night. Fun read, really dug it. #SWEU@Darth_Duff
— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) April 12, 2012
That high-pitched sound your dog just picked up on was probably me. Between this short story and Mercy Kill, it’s going to be a good year for the Antilles sisters in EU literature.
Fate of the Jedi Retrospective – Part II
Part II of our Fate of the Jedi review looks into new characters, the authors, loose ends, and gives a score for the series as a whole. Be sure to read the first part here.
To the jump!
Facebook Chat With Jason Fry, Paul Urquhart, and Erich Schoeneweiss
Yesterday the writers behind the Essential Guide to Warfare stopped by Star Wars Books official Facebook page to answer questions from fans. Among the hard hitting questions: was there a classic Disney influence on the book?
Johann Mitzscherlich: It may seem obviously, but is the name “Skere Kaan” (where you first introduced his forename) to the tiger Shere Khan from The Jungle Book.
Jason Fry: Yep, Skere Kaan is a Jungle Book nod. That was Paul. Made me smile.
I’m always game for clever little nods to things outside of the Star Wars universe. Reading over a Han Solo profile, I spotted an Animal House reference. Austin over at EUCantina noticed a Kent Brockman reference in the book.
For a lengthy recap of the chat, head on over to Club Jade.
Children of the Jedi Part III
I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with what Luke and company have been doing so far in this book but there’s a whole other half to this. Leia and Han, and the story seems to be largely from the perspective of Leia, are off trying to find where the titular young’uns were, and maybe still are.
More after the jump. Continue reading
Jason Fry Releases Second Batch of ‘Essential Guide to Warfare’ End Notes
Yesterday, Jason Fry posted a series of end notes from EG to Warfare. Today he drops more!
Blasters: The mechanics of blasters have been explained rather differently in a couple of Star Wars sources, and Paul Urquhart did a lot of heavy lifting helping me sort through the differences. My question about how a stun setting would work led to some breathtakingly geeky emails between myself, Leland Chee, Pablo Hidalgo, Dave Filoni, Tony Rowe and Robert Clarke. Yes, my job kicks ass.
For even more bits of awesomeness, check out the rest of the notes he’s posted on his Tumblr.
The Han Solo Adventures – Fanwork in Video Game Format
Back in the ’90s, Lucasarts was one of the kings of the video game playground. Among their best titles were their adventure games: Tales of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, The Dig, Loom. Nearly twenty years after they were published, these games are still regarded as masterpieces. What they all had in common was the engine powering them, Lucasarts’ SCUMM.
Fast forward to 2012. The SCUMM engine is now in the hands of fans who can create homages to the great games of the past. One such in-progress fan creation? The Han Solo Adventures.
I certainly hope Stacy Davidson can finish this game. Just watching that video brings me back to some of the first games I played growing up. For now, I’ll have to go dust off my old copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Jason Fry to Talk ‘Essential Guide to Warfare’ on Facebook Today
Don’t forget, at 3PM EDT/12PM PST, author Star Wars Books will be holding a Facebook chat with Jason Fry to talk about the Essential Guide to Warfare. Want to know what went into the various character profiles and warship writeups? You can ask him yourself.
Just remember, this isn’t the chat to ask what’s coming after Fate of the Jedi or when Karen Traviss will come back to the Expanded Universe (she won’t). Your EG to Warfare questions are fair game, though!