The Weekend Reset: Geeks and Angels and Mega Man, Oh my!

It’s Friday. Looking for something to switch up your weekend, or to give you an excuse to relax a little? That’s what the Weekend Reset is for. Each week contributor Tim Johnstone pulls together five things to get your weekend started. Could be something to read or watch, something to eat or listen to, or even something to do. Enjoy the weekend fellas.

 

EAT: A summer salad that is just begging for your attention.

This is a really terrific addition to a menu that begins with firing up the grill. There are only 8 ingredients to work with. Half of them are in your pantry and the others are in season and there’s a good chance you can pick them up at a farmer’s market. There is nothing complicated about the recipe but the results are commensurate with something much more elaborate. Add some protein (just about anything you’d like would compliment this) and you’ve got a great main dish.

 

APPRECIATE: The most famous session player you’ve never heard of.

We have a music writer named Polyphonic to thank for this completely fascinating video essay of Carole Kaye, a woman who played an incredible role in Rock & Roll history. Not hyperbole. Kaye played guitar and bass, and was responsible for some of the most memorable riffs of all time. Again, not hyperbole. What an amazing story and an even more amazing talent. She was and is all sorts of awesome.

 

PLAY: Mega Man is coming for you!

Our gaming expert Adam McGuire-Britson* is back with another video game recommendation.

The company name Capcom (Resident Evil, Street Fighter) has been ingrained in most gamers DNA because they’ve been making video games for 40 years, longer than many games have been alive. Just recently Capcom released yet another amazing collection of the Megaman series (a game that was a flagship title for the original NES), as part of the Megaman Legacy Collection.  Players can relive the nostalgia (and raw difficulty) of Megaman 1, all the way to the ending of the Megaman X8 throughout the course of these 3 collections. For those not in the know of the 1987-2004 (and beyond) run of Megaman, this is a fantastic and quick way to dive into an amazing series.

Legacy Collection 1 has players diving helmet first into the 8-bit world of Megaman as he battles the 8 robot masters on his way to Wiley’s Castle in order to stop the mad Doctor Wily from, you guessed it, taking over the world. (It’s almost as if that’s a common thing in gaming or something.) The beautiful part about these collections is that instead of being forced to play each game, one by one, you can choose your starting point. Tired of MagnetMan’s obnoxious level design in Megaman 3? Switch to Megaman 6 and enjoy a new series, a new story, a new set of levels and powers at the end of them. This collection even comes with a “rewind” feature that allows you to go back more than a handful of seconds if you make a critical error, which is bound to happen as games as old as these had a pretty significant difficulty curve. It’s a fun yet brutal reminder of just how far gaming has come in these handful of years.

The X Collections follow the Megaman X storyline, which takes place years after the original series. We find Mega in the same jumping and shooting antics- this time with slicker controls, new enemies, amazing level design, all with the SNES graphics reminding you why gaming in the 90s was so damn good, with Megaman X leading the way.

The price point for these games are amazing- $19.99 for each piece; coming with 4-6 games depending on which one you pick up. You’d have spent twice that for just one piece of the collection “back-in-the-day.”

I found myself flashing back to late nights with friends, before phones & internet, slamming Surge soda while trying not to wake my parents, and found even more enjoyment 20+ years later showing my kid “these terrible games Dad used to (and still) loves.” I think that gamers new and old will find something about these collections that will keep you playing for weeks on end, all while recanting the story line of one of the oldest characters in gaming.

 

READ: The most unique take on life, love and family you’ll ever read.

Let me be up-front about this. This book is not for everybody. It just isn’t (especially if you are frightened by circus freaks). But I have never met a person who wasn’t deeply affected by it. It is a story about family unlike any you may have come across. It is about people who aren’t like all the other people they see around them. It’s a story about how we identify ourselves. And it features one of the more remarkable first person narratives you are likely to find. It is beautiful and creepy. It is at times sad and wonderful. It is a book I have given to countless friends. And I imagine it is time for me to re-read it myself.

 

WATCH: The Heavens over Berlin will stay with you.

“The Heavens over Berlin’ is the name of the movie in its original German. In America and Europe is is known as “Wings Of Desire.” Many people (myself included) believe it to be one of the best movies of the 80’s. It serves up big questions about what makes us, us. And it does so in a manner that is hard to forget. It is also the kind of romantic movie that even cynical bastards like myself fall for.

*Adam McGuire-Britson is a rock radio personality by trade with his afternoon drive show on KQXR 100.3 The X, Rocks in Boise as well as an established eSports caster for Boise State University specializing in League of Legends. Pick the topic, chances are he has an opinion on it from the current state of rock music, online and table top gaming, all the way to color coordination in Magic: The Gathering. No subject too nerdy, no opinion too short.

Tim Johnstone is Dappered’s music correspondent as well as our resident gatherer of all things interwebs related. He’s currently undergoing a Tim Improvement Project™ (Version 4.0) and he understands that this is a life-long endeavor.