Newbury Comics is a small chain of retail outlets in the northeast. While most notable for its music sales and selection, it also sells, comics, toys, clothing, and various other items relating to pop culture. Over the past decade, their core business, music sales, has over gone a dramatic shift. Mike Dreese, co-founder, occasionally sends out updates in the Newbury Comics email newsletter with a general status of the company, current strategy, and general musings of being in the business over the years. I find the updates fascinating in both a business perspective and a personal perspective. As someone, who is familiar with many aspects of business and the need to adapt to your environment, I love to hear what goes on behind the scenes. I also feel a certain attachment to the chain, in that its small and local. I’m a native to the New England area and with that comes a certain pride in local businesses. I want to see them succeed and strive for excellence.

I have posted one of these updates before here.

You can read the update after the jump.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

During the early 80s, the video game market was in danger of dying off before it could take off. Too many manufacturers were releasing too many consoles no one cared for, and developers were making too many games that were mediocre at best. This would lead to a diminished demand for them in the consumer market as well. If that wasn’t enough, the home computer market was slowly beginning to emerge, as PCs were becoming cheaper and more easily accessible to consumers. It would be a fool’s errand for a company to attempt to reenter the market, yet Japanese developer Nintendo would jump in the market head first.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Now Halo is hardly a game that one would consider a lost classic, but given the franchise’s popularity, and since Halo ODST hit stores this past week, now is a good time to take a look at this classic, if for no other reason than to see how far the series has come in the 8 years since Halo sold many an Xbox so long ago. You play as the Master Chief, humanity’s last and best hope against a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. Aided by your fellow crew members and a holographic artificial intelligence known as Cortanta, you blast your way through many covenant soldiers in an attempt to discover the secrets of the artificial planet/space station known as Halo.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

It’s me, the Gargoyle, with yet another Gargoyles comic review!

Watch this video in HD

If you kids miss basking in my awesomeness please follow me on Twitter. I saw on the news that it was a big deal.

YouTube Version

Video Netcast Version
Subscribe to Famicom Dojo on iTunes
Direct Link: Famicom Denshimail – Rare Games (2009/09/28)

This week we talk about the rarest thing we’ve come across — the FMC Disk Checker!

Show notes:
[Read the rest of this entry…]

I have always loved college and high school level athletics. In the place of money hungry celebrities whose egos and off-court/field antics seemingly overshadow their athletic abilities (Vick, Rodman, Owens, and about dozens of others, I’m looking firmly at you), you get young and hungry talent willing to do anything to get noticed and make it towards that next level, be it a college scholarship, or an NFL contract. This be-the-best-that-you-can mentality creates an atmosphere where anything can happen. Also, there is a certain charm in seeing local high school and college stars compete that you can’t get watching multi-million dollar celebrities, and who doesn’t enjoy watching the marching band, especially in black college football games? So it’s no surprise that I’ve always enjoyed 2K Games’ College Hoops better than its NBA counterpart. For years, developer Visual Concepts has managed to create a game that captures the atmosphere of college basketball while delivering solid gameplay on the court. That is why I was sad to learn that 2K Sports would not be renewing it’s NCAA basketball license for subsequent years, thereby putting an end to this series. To that end, 2K8 is an excellent swan song for the series. The improvements that it makes are little compared to 2K7, but they serve to refine the gameplay further.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

December 2009. One-Shot. Dark Horse. Zack Whedon. Joelle Jones.

If you aren’t sure what this is, you need to watch this. (Hosted by Hulu. Sorry Canandians). Buy here!