Onatopp of Things...

Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp

Watching the 1995 GoldenEye movie and couldn't believe how young Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) looks...

She was only about 21 at the time of the movie's release.(Izabella Scorpuco as Natalya was 25).

Xenia looked more mature during the casino scene, but it was during the Bunker scene when she looked incredibly young.

Back then, my first thought was "Damn, now that is a woman!".
Now, my first thought is "Damn she's hot - and barely out of high school!".








From the GoldenEye 007 video game, can't recall ever posting this text from Miss Moneypenny.
It still makes me laugh:

A text message from the early days of instant messenging...

One of those women has hostile intentions...

Always glad when she gets there first...

These VHS tapes will barely fetch a dollar...

I technically own three copies of the GoldenEye movie - The VHS tape, GoldenEye DVD and another disc from "The Pierce Brosnan Collection".

How have these movies stood the test of time? Which ones have endured as the most watchable?
Some have aged like a fine wine, and others haven't fared so well.

GoldenEye

GoldenEye (1995)
Some of the "newer" Brosnan movies seemed more exciting at the time, but I'd still have to pick GoldenEye as my favorite Brosnan 007 movie.

This is also the first Bond movie to really feature the new "Internet" technology (complete with 14.4K modems!). Now the internet is everywhere, completely encompassing us as if we're in "The Matrix"...

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Not a great movie, but it still has many great parts that makes it genuinely entertaining.

Give it a chance. Like Darth Vader, this flick can still be turned from the dark side of your movie collection. "There's still good in it!"

The World is Not Enough

The World is Not Enough (1999)
Overall, the movie seems a bit long and tends to drag in spots... But I am still fond of this one, because it's different.

The talents of Denise Richards are a bit wasted, as I feel there could have been more of her...

Die Another Day

Die Another Day (2002)
Possibly the most agonizing Brosnan Bond flick to sit through (thankfully Casino Royale is up next!).

Even the villains in Die Another Day manage to be a little more than mildly interesting.

Brosnan looks old on the cover. At first glance, I thought Halle Berry was helping him hold his gun upright.

Speaking of Halle Berry, she pulls off the beach "homage" scene quite nicely, a testament to her ability as an Oscar-winning actress.
But sadly, the rest of the movie is just dreadful for the most part. But as a completist, I simply could "not" not have it in my collection.











I see they've cleverly incorporated the orange bikini onto future releases of the Die Another Day box art...

18M0ZYM8ND185

 

DKC3: Harder Baby

Back in 1996, we assumed getting 103% on Donkey Kong Country 3 meant you'd found everything... Before the Internet, there was no real way of knowing about secret codes unless they were published in a magazine... Turns out that "Cheat" codes can entered to make the game more difficult... Doing so rewards the player with up to 105% upon completion.

While codes can be used on existing files, the game will only give you extra credit if difficulty-enhancing codes are entered before starting a new file... So you gotta do everything all over again if you want to earn the fabled 105%.

Enter Code Screen:
On the Select Game screen, choose a new file, and access the code prompt by pressing:
L, R, R, L, R, R, L, R, L, R.

You'll hear a sound effect, and "ENTER CODE" will appear.
After entering the code, choose a name your file as usual.
(When a code has been correctly, Dixie Kong cries)

HARDR
Removes some of the DK barrels. Find everything with this handicap and earn up to 104%.

TUFST
Removes most DK barrels AND replaces checkpoint save barrels with a banana bunch, rewarding you with 105% if you can manage to complete the game with this difficulty setting.

(It's advisable to use the HARDR and TUFST codes separately, as both codes used together will still have save barrels barrels without DK barrels.... So one could assume your final score may only be 104%)

Other codes:

COLOR (alternate character clothing color. Purple for Dixie Kong, green for Kiddy Kong)
MERRY (Christmas ornaments and music in bonus games)
MUSIC (Dixie Kong's Music Test: Listen to tracks from the game)
LIVES (50 lives - *game will flag this and if you finish the game will called out as a Cheatin' Chump*)

Sean Connery
aka James Bond
(1930 - 2020)

Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3

Do the Frog Suit!

I always keep a sharp eye when browsing through secondhand junk... For five bucks, I snagged the entire animated series of SMB3.

Thwomp definitely takes pride in his work.

My favorite part of the show was seeing the 8-bit baddies brought to life as cartoon characters on my Saturday morning TV screen.

 The joys of torturing younger siblings...

With a castle full of spoiled teenagers, the Koopa Klan is about as dysfunctional as The Osbournes.

Princess Toadstool aboard the Doom Ship
with King Koopa and his minions.

The Princess is captured, yet again...Who didn't see that one coming?

"The dungeon???"

In fan favorite episode "Kootie Pie Rocks", Bowser finally has enough of his daughter's over-dramatic temper tantrums and threatens to lock her ass in the dungeon... Now that's just good parenting.

Game Over for Nintendo Power

A few final thoughts on the end of Nintendo Power  magazine, a publication that lasted for nearly a quarter century. It's sad that many people seem to have a "Good Riddance to Nintendo Power" attitude.

Sure, anything in print tends to be considered obsolete nowadays. But it kinda bugs me that people are so quick to not only care that Nintendo Power is gone, but to actually be happy about it's demise.

Obviously countless subscribers were lost due to the internet, with the abundance of free guides and walkthrus. It's hard to compete with that. Especially since NP was asking $20 for a year. That's $1.66 per issue. Can't even buy a pad of paper for that... Plus you got to choose a free Players' Guide, which is good to have on hand if you're playing with friends who are new to a game.

Another phrase that's been used to describe the magazine is "thinly veiled advertising". What can be expected from a magazine published by Nintendo? New game reviews tended to be biased, but I really didn't care. I just took it for what it was... A free player's guide, and a thick stack of video game screenshots, previews and newly released games every month. Not to mention the cool artwork and posters.

I haven't subscribed to the magazine in well over a decade, and the last issues I received tended to cater mostly towards the 10-13 year old audience... Still, I somehow think the world needs quirky monthly magazines like this one.

SMB3: Wrong Warp (7-1) to Princess

A fascinating Super Mario Bros 3 glitch has been found that skips ahead to the game's ending with Princess Toadstool. The setup may seem complex at first, but completing SMB3 in mere minutes is rather incredible (and controversial).

After nabbing the first two warp whistles and traveling to World 7, a glitch in World 7-1 can have Mario rescuing the Princess in just over three minutes of playtime! (Imagine if all girls got off that quickly...)

This trick completely bypasses the entire Dark World, even Bowser...

A screen-wrapping jump the wrong way into this pipe in World 7-1 is a known glitch that sends Mario  outside the level boundaries, normally crashing the game... But three important memory values can be manipulated with Koopa shells, tricking the game into rolling the end credits.

It's easiest to perform the trick with the help of Raccoon Mario's tail. The location value for a Koopa constantly changes as they move back and forth on screen. Stomp or kill one, and the co-ordinate is set to that value until they respawn or another enemy takes their place.

It doesn't work every time because it's difficult to line everything up. Most of the Koopa shells need to be placed perfectly, to the pixel. (This trick also cannot be completed in the Super Mario All-Stars version)

I found the following videos helpful...
The first video is 10 minutes long - And even if your mind is blown by all the technical details, it's really interesting to see what's happening behind the scenes in the game's code... Which helps to understand why these variables are so important to make the glitch work. The second video is a simple explanation. Third video is a simple playthrough performing the glitch.

Super Mario Bros. 3 - Wrong Warp (10:06) by Retro Game Mechanics Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZuzos7Auk

Super Mario Bros. 3 - How to do the 7-1 wrong warp glitch! (Easy setup) (7:17) by Taven Webb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9FoUjvU4KI
(video is taken from handheld device, but setup is easy, as advertised)

Completing The SMB3 Wrong Warp Successfully (3:57) by Antique Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y73griqeHNk

A collection of notes and screenshots from a few successful attempts:

First step involves knocking the level's first Koopa down to the bottom of the screen instead of outright killing him... (He'll be used at the end of the trick to set the last value.) Kill all three piranha plants, which clears out the memory slots for the Koopas to be placed.

Next Koopa is taken up the pipe with you, and outright killed (eliminating him from the equation) by kicking him into a wall near the next Koopa and Paratroopa. Those two remaining baddies (plus our surviving Koopa back near the start of the level) will help set the three values needed to load the Princess chamber.

The first shell is easy to place. Immobilize the pacing Koopa Troopa between the question blocks and carry him to the far right side of the right question block and kill him by running him into the block and kicking him up against it. His last on-screen position is now set.

Move left on top of the pipe and hit the Paratroopa with your Racoon tail, quickly hopping down to catch his shell. Carrying it back down with you.

Bounce this Koopa shell and stomp it so the shell lands precisely beside this pipe. This is the most difficult variable to set, because a single pixel to the left or right and the value will be wrong. Fortunately, you can re-position the shell if needed before you move on to the last step. (Note how the white pixels of the shell are lined up relative to the outline of the pipe.) Just hop back down the pipe before he rouses to set that value.


Back to the start of the level to find the first Koopa. This value is relatively simple to set. Because the final pipe glitch is easier to perform with small Mario, Super Mario holds this Koopa shell right beneath this pipe.

Jump up into the overhead pipe as the carried Koopa begins to shake himself awake... . Once at the top of the pipe, as soon as the Koopa touches and shrinks Mario, immediately slam down so Mario goes back down the pipe, which should freeze-frame the final Koopa in the perfect position (shown above right).

Performing the pipe glitch at the start of the level (after everything else has been set), the screen temporarily goes black, and the same messed up textures appear...

But if everything lines up, and the correct values are in place, Mario returns on screen standing on this block. A simple jump with 'A' can trigger the game into loading the Princess room and end-game sequence, plus an arsenal of P-Wings for your efforts.