JJSignal is still! Open!! For work!!!
@jjsignal
Pixel pusher, retro game enthusiast, and lead artist/animator/director for 2064: Read Only Memories and Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER. Header by @soaps.bsky.social Portfolio ☞ OPEN FOR WORK.
Bone Chillers did indeed have a goth Linda Cardellini. She's Sarah (middle left). My favorite character was Brian (middle right).
Working on something. Something small, and still trying to make it more solid, but still something.
A friend recently gave me an old 2004 24" Apple Cinema Display. I just so happen to have a 2005 PPC Mac Mini, so I was excited for the close generation match! Decided to test the display out with some appropriate media. Gold Digger: The Time Raft. Originally from 2001, but this DVD is from 2003!
Here's the full set. The other side was one of the illustrations I did in my off time. We'd reuse them for promotional materials, and I'd eventually incorporate them into the manual and art book layouts. I had a fixation on Zener cards. I feel like I had early memories of them.
If you'll notice, the cards are all based on Zener Cards. The symbols are all over the place in ROM: NEURODIVER, including in the backgrounds of the portraits and configuration menus. They were even printed on the promotional cards that @chorusworldwide.bsky.social would hand out at events.
Wrapping up a disappointing and slightly worrying day with at least one good thing. I finally got Brandish Renewal working thanks to some help from a fellow PC-9801 enthusiast. Super comfy game. The look, sound and feel of the PC-9801 version is so good. I wanna try the other versions at some point.
This eye catch was technically the first one. The first mockup I did had Lexi and Golden, as I had Golden's laugh in my head for an eye catch since the beginning. Adam Harrington does a great sinister laugh. I wasn't expecting it to bleed into the next scene in-game, but it worked really well.
I'm a big fan of eye catches/commercial bumpers, and find them useful outside of TV. This was in the "Would be nice" pile for ROM: NEURODIVER. In my off time I made the animations, and the logic was technically already there, so we slipped them in at the very last minute. I think about them a lot.
Did I mention how much I love the Bikkuriman style sticker set?
The extras in the collector's edition are no joke. The Neurodiver plush was made to hug wrists. Also the art book is crammed to the brim with sketches and concepts. I didn't have the time to do commentary like 2064, but it makes up for it in extra art! It's a really nice collection.
I'm a sucker for a specific type of mysterious, moody, and unsettling setting and subject. Magnetic Rose has it, Fragile Dreams has it, Another Code has it. Ugetsu Kitan had it in spades. Finally bit when @macaw45.bsky.social brought up the Backrooms film, as silly as that is. That guy never misses.
I finally sat down to play through the PC-9801 game, Zeta. Top PC98 game, without a doubt, just below Ugetsu Kitan. A wild looking style, dripping thick with mysterious and moody atmosphere. The eerie Sci-Fi mystery carries a lot of elements that feel perhaps even more relevant today than back then.
I'm almost done with my extremely slow exploration of The Prisoner (KETH/PBS viewing order), and have seen two episodes of Columbo guest starring Patrick McGoohan as the murderer, and two directed by him, and I think I can solidly come to the conclusion that this is perhaps a very, very silly man.
Tekkonkinkreet was playing in the theater. Still good!
Got back into watching The Prisoner again and reached the episode "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling." It might be my favorite episode of the series, so far. In it there was a character, Dr. Saltzman. I gasped when I saw him. He's like a real life Naoki Urasawa character. Wily as drawn by Urasawa.
A friend gifted me Bubsy 4D as I've been sincerely hyped for it. It's good! I think the only big gripe I have is its dialog is extremely flat so I stopped reading it. Not to say it's without some humor though. I find the Bubsy 3D model more fitting. Makes him feel like a washed up man stuck in time.
My nerves are feeling a bit more raw lately than usual, but yesterday I lucked out and found Chaos casually on my way back home. Couldn't pass him up. Very cool desk buddy. Hopefully I can find Tikal too.
It takes some getting used to to unclasp the string to hold it closed, but you do get used to it. It's my favorite Sou Sou thing. Now I just need to make some new business cards.