Giving Forgotten RPGs Another Chance

What RPG in your collection that you haven't played in years (or ever!) do you have the urge to pull off the shelf and try again? Do you want to see if it still plays the same way you remember? Have you just not found the right group of players to try it yet?

 

I can name three titles right away:

• James Bond 007 (Victory Games)
• Indiana Jones (TSR)
• Star Frontiers (TSR)

What would be on your list?

New Bond and Star Trek 2009 Trailer

Mrs. Kaiju and I saw the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace on Saturday night. It was excellent, as expected. We didn't have a chance to watch Casino Royale again before seeing QoS like we wanted. The new film picks up immediately after it, so even though it works on its own, QoS is very much like the second half of CR.

Half of the reason I wanted to see QoS this weekend is because we're big Bond fans (and Mrs. Kaiju is quite a Daniel Craig fan). The other half is that the new Star Trek trailer is being shown with most prints of QoS, and I wanted to see it the right way -- on the silver screen -- before watching it repeatedly on the web.

Wow. That completely rocked. The snippets of scenes that we see look fantastic, and it's just a well-made preview in the way that it's structured. Trek is coming back in a big way. I am even more excited about the movie than I had been before. A high-def video of the trailer hits the official site tomorrow and Entertainment Tonight should be running it on Monday's show. Check it out... I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

Update: The so-called "TV spot" trailer was on ET tonight. The scenes were mixed around, and none of the Corvette chase was shown. Overall, I think it was a pretty effective 50 second spot. I'm disappointed that it's the sort of piece that we hardly ever see on ET anymore. It's become less of an entertainment news and preview program and more celebrity gossip.

"It’s a new ship, but she’s got the right name."

Big Trek news this week -- the first trailer for the new movie with real movie footage premieres in front of Quantum of Solace this weekend.

Also, the first photo of the new Enterprise was released on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog, and it immediately set off heated discussion in the on-line fan community. This follows the usual pattern of 1) some people say they like it, 2) more people say they hate it, 3) the first group accuses the haters of not following the Trek philosophy of diversity and change, and 4) the haters say the new movie producers have ruined their childhood and "invalidated" 42 years of TV series and movies... as if all those books and DVDs will somehow spontaneously combust. *sigh*

As for me, I just don't think there's enough there in one still frame to form any kind of opinion. Part of it looks like fish-eye-lens distortion. There are a few seconds of the Enterprise in motion visible in the trailer, which will help. I'm also thinking that since alternate timelines are an important part of the storyline, I'm not sure if this is the One True Enterprise, or one of several we'll see.

Julie Ege, R.I.P.

Julie Ege, who starred in Hammer's Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, passed away on April 29th.

Ege was born in Høyland, Sandnes; where she was a Miss Norway and Miss Universe contestant (and later a Penthouse Pet). In 1967, she moved to England as an au pair to improve her English.

She made her film debut in a low budget Norwegian film The Sky and the Ocean, appeared in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (as Helen, the Scandinavian girl) and later starred in Hammer Film Productions' The Creatures the World Forgot and the Hammer/Shaw Brothers co-production The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. She also appeared in the 'Gluttony' segment of the movie The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins, Jack Cardiff's The Freakmaker and Freddie Francis' Craze with Jack Palance.

Julie Ege was married and divorced twice, lived in Oslo where she worked as a nurse until her death from breast cancer and is survived by two daughters.

Wikipedia entry

Filmography and photo page (update) (some NSFW)

Times Online obit

Hammer and Beyond Blog obit (photo NSFW)