Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The Guilty Gear series is a string of fast-paced fighting games first developed by Japanese company Sammy in 1998. During an age where Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter was still champions of the fighting games, with Killer Instinct on its way out and Soul Caliber and Super Smash Bros. on their way in, it was a hard time to be a thrown into the fray, so to speak. However, if there was one thing that Guilty Gear games could always capitalize on, it was speed. Probably the fastest fighting game to date, the sheer velocity of the game made it a favorite amongst button mashers.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Before the Sci Fi Channel (or “SyFy”, as it’s now known) decided it hated science fiction fans, it was dedicated to bringing original science fiction content to the masses. The network didn’t always do this well (see Mission: Genesis), but in the late ’90s it would do this often. The first original series to catch my eye that wasn’t a total bomb was Farscape.

Farscape tells the story of IASA scientist and astronaut John Crichton, who is flung unwittingly across space via wormhole to try to survive in a much more advanced society that, due to his many other misfortunes, finds excuses to seek his complete and utter destruction. In true Douglas Adams fashion, we quickly find that Earth (“never heard of it”) is a truly backwater planet, leaving our hero stuck in the middle just trying to figure out what’s going on. Unlike other protagonists stuck in this situation, however, Crichton is able to bring his full knowledge of year 2000-era science fiction pop culture to bear in order to make sense of the things happening around him, to him, and without him.

For these and many other reasons that we are about to explore, Farscape wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill low budget hack writer’s fantasy. It was a hack writer’s fantasy with heart, drama, love, death, and re-death. And lots of sci-fi in-jokes. Come with us as we explore the Powet Alphabet’s “F”.

…what, you expecting Famicom?

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

We are the E, E, E, E, Eeeeeeewoks!

What’s not to like about the Ewoks? A lot of things apparently. It would be dishonest not to mention the near universally negative fan reaction to these characters. They were considered by most to be cutesy characters made to appeal to children and fans consider it unrealistic that a bunch of teddy bears with sticks and stones would overthrow the Empire.

But I don’t want to talk about the hate. Those haters are a bunch of losers. The Ewoks were made to appeal to children? Well I was 5 years old when I saw Return of the Jedi in theatres and I thought the Ewoks were the cat’s ass, and I still do! I have one distinct memory of when I first saw Jedi and that’s when Wicket first appeared on screen and I turned to my mother and said “That’s an Ewok”. Somehow I think she had put that together.

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Created in 1994 for the PC, Diablo was meant to be a compliment to Blizzard’s popular Warcraft series, which had come out a few years prior and was deemed a success. Diablo, meant to be much darker and more gothic than Warcraft, also had a much different change in gameplay. Instead of the strategy of starting off on one side or the other and amassing a huge amount of warriors and weaponry to bash your enemies with, Diablo took to the Dungeon Crawler type of gameplay that was popular with games like DOOM, and added an RPG-type of flare to it like Final Fantasy.

The world of Diablo is deeply rooted in the heaven vs. hell archetype of story telling. Diablo, Lord of Terror, is one of the 3 Prime Evils, which are the highest level of demon in existence, and he and his brothers are in a huge war against the forces of light in a bid to destroy them and take everything over. Humans are the middle ground and both sides try to win them over through either benevolence or violence. Some powerful human mages on the side of good and backed by heavenly forces were able to capture the Prime Evils after they’d been defeated and banished to Sanctuary (aka: pseudo-Earth) and seal them in powerful Soulstones in order to bind them forever. (Apparently high-level demons can’t have their souls destroyed easily and can always resurrect if given the chance) With the souls of the Prime Evils locked away, the Soulstones were scattered and hidden away, with Diablo’s being buried in a catacomb beneath a church that later became the central point for the town of Tristrim. However after a few centuries the Soulstone weakened and Diablo was able to exert influence over the people of Tristrim, which led to massive slaughter and the kidnapping of the King’s son. So begins the game of Diablo.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The debut of the Transformers toy line in 1984 featured many different toys that were originally from several different toy lines in Japan (Diaclone, Micro Change). Soundwave, a robot that transformed into a micro-cassette recorder, was among the first figures in the Transformers line. Unlike most of the other Transformers in that first wave, Soundwave had a gimmick that went above and beyond just being able to transform and back. He was able to fit other Transformers that took the form of micro-cassettes in his chest.

This was a really well received gimmick and more Transformer micro-cassette figures would be released over the years that could fit in Soundwave and his Autobot counter-part Blaster. The truly unique aspect of these cassette Transformers was not so much in the fact that they could fit in the chest of another Transformer, but rather the variety and range of things, into which, these cassettes were able to transform all from the very same small form factor.

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Apathy. Greed. Corruption. Power. Hope.
Batman Beyond.
Courage. Honor. Justice.

These are the words that flash by during the opening credits of Batman Beyond. The series takes place in a not too distant future where corporate greed and power have taken over. Bruce Wayne has hung up the cowl, giving up his life as Batman, for reasons only partially explained in the two-part series opener. Further reasons would be hinted at in many episodes, but we wouldn’t really get an idea until the straight-to-DVD movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was released.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Arrested Development was a sitcom on FOX. Wait, don’t go away, its really funny!

The Bluth family was very wealthy. Until father George (Jeffrey Tambor) is arrested for fraud and is sent to prison. The family’s assets are frozen and they’re more or less forced to live like regular people. For a time anyway, the show kinda spirals out of control in strange directions a lot and its hard to explain unless you’d seen all that came before it.

Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is the central character of the show. He’s the most responsible and rational member of the family, and thus as the viewer the one you’re most likely to relate to. He’s a single father with a son played by Michael Cera, George Michael Bluth. Michael also has a brother, a professional magician named George Oscar Bluth (nick named Gob, presumabley because theres so many Georges around) and is portrayed by Will Arnett. Then theres Lindsay the sister and her husband Tobias (Portia Di Rossi and David Cross), brother Buster (Tony Hale), and… well the cast is huge, but they all get their time. If you’d prefer a less verbose introduction, watch this clip.

Yes that is the voice of Ron Howard, icon of the sitcom, narrating the series. Howard’s influence no doubt kept the show on the air for 3 seasons, and also inspired some its most notable guest stars, such as Liza Minelli, Henry Winkler, and Charlize Theron.

The Bluth family dealt with their father’s imprisonment and keeping the company in business all while living in the model home for a barren real estate project. While GOB would frequently be seen in a Segway scooter, Micheal’s primary form of transportation was the “Stair Car” which was used for deboarding the company plane.

Various family members take control of the company, and run-ins with the law are frequent. Its a kind of hard show to describe if you don’t start at the beginning. In a way, its like some anime series where if you jump in around episode 300, you have no idea whats going on. Except Arrested Development gets that complex around episode 4 or 5.

Its a rare comedy series that strayed far from the episodic nature of most series. Very few (if any) single episodes functioned as a standalone work, since the layered and constantly developing characters built on jokes from show to show. A joke about “Club sauce” in season 1 is repeated in season 3. More often, a joke would be called forward, making subsequent viewings of an episode funnier now that the truth about a character or event is revealed, such as Charlize Theron’s character Rita and her true identity.

Fox pulled the plug midway through the third season and the final 4 episodes were run on a single night. Rumors persisted that a premium cable network such as Showtime or HBO would pick up the show, and even now theres a lot of talk about a movie. But even if none of this ever comes to pass, Arrested Development stand as one of the most ground breaking comedy series since Monty Python. Consistently funny, very rewatchable, and one of the greatest casts ever assembled. All episodes are available on DVD.

Go ahead and buy ’em. Its far from the lamest thing ever put on tape.

or watch the entire series for free (in the US anyway) on Hulu.