I'm pretty sure the problem is coming from my end. I postulate that the drunken frat boys from yesterday night who ripped the speakers from the ceiling in the hallway may have inadvertently messed up the connection. Or the university connection just sucks. A combination of les deux.
I had a dream about Jeff Green last night. No joke. First I came into what I assume my child like mind precives the 1up offices to be like and I saw him and we started talking and he said the was reviewing The Force Unleashed on the DS in his office and told me if I wanted to play it I could go up there. He gave me the biggest map in the world and I went up and there where angry people were banging on the door screaming that they should of gave the game a better score. Also I think we were in space, because I remeber thinking "Just like in fFire Fly" as soon as I woke up.
I am so bad at Chu Chu Rocket it is hilarious, and I cannot imagine alcohol would help. By the time my mind can compute that my arrows are doing nothing at all, I see everyone else has redirected every cat around my arrows at my freaking base.
Dave, each of those podcasts (GFW and 1upYours) was like three hours long though.
***
We're going back to the first ten years, though, with the whole "casual gaming" thing. Most of these downloadable games are no more complex in concept or gameplay than the first few years of arcade games--I mean, there are people who still can't handle the momentum movement in "Asteroids".
***
Maybe all those games from the 1980s were all set in the same canon, and it was a story about the invasion and subjugation of the human race. First is "Missile Command" (strategic-level combat where most of Earth's defense force and major population centers are destroyed), then is "Space Invaders" (desparate holding action against the alien troop-ships), then is "Centipede" (nasty guerilla war against the alien oppressors.) After that are Robotron 2084 and Berzerk (the aliens have pretty much won, but brave human commandoes are trying to rescue the survivors and conduct sabotage.) Dig Dug is the final story; it depicts the machines digging out the last remaining humans who have fled into deep underground shelters (it's done in a very simple style because it's actually the cave paintings; humans have devolved to near-feral savages who are allowed to live because they pose no possible thread.)