atari.com/arcade

enjoy.

Atari Files For Bankruptcy

Surprisingly this story is from 2013 and not 1985

via CNN Money:

The U.S. arm of Atari, the iconic video game company that created "Pong," filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

But Atari will live on. The move is aimed at breaking the American branch away from its unprofitable French parent company.

In particular, Atari U.S. is looking to "secure independent capital for future growth, primarily in the areas of digital and mobile games," the company said in a written statement.

Over the next three to four months, Atari U.S. will seek buyers for some of its assets, including the Atari logo and the company's games catalog. Atari as a whole owns or manages more than 200 games and franchises.

The gaming landscape has changed dramatically since Atari was founded in 1972. Atari scored hits with groundbreaking gaming consoles and classic titles like "Pong," "Centipede" and "Asteroid," but later lost its dominance to rivals like Nintendo. The brand has bounced around through several different owners.

France's Infogrames Entertainment acquired a stake in Atari in 2000, then bought out the company in 2008 and changed its name to Atari S.A.

Since then, the rise of casual gaming on PCs and mobile devices has cut into the video game industry as a whole. Atari S.A. has been unprofitable for years, and warned just last month that it will book a "significant loss" for its fiscal year 2013.

The biggest headache for Atari S.A. is the suspension of its credit line with BlueBay Asset Management. Atari owes 21 million euro ($27 million) to BlueBay, with the balance due on March 31. The company says it is "starved for funds" and hasn't found another principal creditor to take BlueBay's place.

The New York-based U.S. arm wants to be free of its French baggage. Atari U.S. said it will "conduct its normal business operations" during the bankruptcy proceedings, and it's been approved for $5 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Tenor Capital, a firm that specializes in distressed lending.

Hobbitt Sequel Trailers!!!

On the Dying of the Newspaper

I saw this video a day after I realized that while my young sons can name even the most obscure animals on the African Savannah, they had no idea what a newspaper was.

Slow Hand BBQ

Over the last 5 years or so the PHBC has met at several different places. Our latest meeting spot may, however, be the best one. Slow Hand BBQ is located at 1941 Oak Park Blvd in Pleasant Hill and has some of the tastiest BBQ I have ever eaten. Every month I look forward to chomping down on some delicious brisket or pulled pork. Their coleslaw is also probably the healthiest/tastiest I've ever had.

And if that wasn't enough, the owner, Daniel  Frengs, also has some great ideas about future books we should check out. The most entriging of which is  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
 
But enough about what I think about it, The Contra Costa Times published a review of the restaurant yesterday that I think does it justice (although I think the Mac and Cheese is way better than they describe).

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_22275038/review-slow-hand-bbq-pleasant-hill-is-smokin

Another Review by Grub Street San Francisco:
http://sanfrancisco.grubstreet.com/2013/01/slow-hand-bbq-pleasant-hill-dan-frengs.html

Like them on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slow-Hand-BBQ/120036794696480

Follow them on Twitter:
@slowhandbbq

PS- Their business cards also make great bookmarks!

Merry Christmas!

It's a little late, but thought it was still worth posting.

Here are 15 Christmas/Holiday related covers from Marvel Comics. #10 is my personal favorite.
Courtesy of  Entertainment Weekly (ew.com)

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20657579,00.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entertainmentweekly%2Fbooks+%28Entertainment+Weekly%2FEW.com%27s%3A+Books%29

January Book of the Month: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

After two previous appearances on Book of the Month ballots (losing out to Ender's Game and Bitter Seeds) Ready Player One has finally been chosen as the Book of the Month!



Description via goodreads.com:

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Book of the Year Award 2012

Last night at a black-tie gala held at Slow Hand BBQ in Pleasant Hill (1941 Oak Park Blvd Pleasant Hill, CA 94523) the Pleasant Hill Book Club met to vote on the winners of the presitgious Best and Worst Book of the Year Awards!

and the winners are...


The winner of the the PHBC Best Book of 2012 goes to...

Unbroken! (A true-life accounting of Louis Zamperini's WWII experience)
(2nd Place- Before I go to Sleep)
(3rd Place- Devil in the White City)


The recipient of the PHBC Worst Book of 2012 goes to...

A Night of Horrors! (A straight to e-book quasi-fictional account of the Lincoln assassination)
(2nd Worst- Communion)
(3rd Worst- The Jefferson Key)

Congratulations to Garrett D. for choosing the Best Book of the Year! Congrats also go out to Bryan S. for choosing our Worst Book of the Year! Both are first time reward recipients. 

2013 Reading Challenge

Happy New Year, Readers!

With the start of the new year comes the New Year's reading resolutions. Last year I set out to read 30 books and 10,000 pages. I finished with 44 and just over 12,000 pages. Not too shabby. Here is some additoinal data on the books I read (made very easy to calculate thanks to goodreads.com)

31 of 44 were tangible books
I always thought my ratio of real to 'e' was 1:1, I guess I still favor the low tech a bit more.

2 of 44 were e-book only publications
both were not very good, straight e-book still not a good sign of quality. hope that changes at some point

9 of 44 were non-fiction
Again, always thought my ratio was 1:1, guess not

7 of 44 were graphic novels
Locke & Key series (5 of my 7) is a must read for any sci-fi fans, even if you're not a graphic novel reader


Longest book read: Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (512 pages)
meh.



Shortest book read: Survival Tactics by Al Sevcik (22 pages)
also meh. (it was one of the straight to e-books)


Most Read Authors:
Joe Hill (5) Locke & Key Vol. 1- 5
Kurt Vonnegut (4) Mother Night, Look at the Birdie, Timequake, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Four tied at 2: Orson Scott Card, Michael Crichton, Dean Koontz, Michael Lewis

Least Read Authors:
Millions tied at 0.

Favorite Non-Book Club Book:
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers


Least Favorite Non-Book Club Book:
The Lost Millennium by Florin Diacu

Anyway, back to the 2013 Reading Challenge. This year I am challenging myself to read 100 books! Here's the catch though, 12 of those 100 will be book club selections, about 4-5 will be other novels on my to-read list, the final 85 or so will be graphic novels. My real goal is to read the entire top 100 of the greatest graphic novels ever written.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/210.Best_Graphic_Novels#138398

I have a good chuck already read, but many on this list are only the first volume of a series and I'm sure I wind up reading many of the complete series.

To set your own goal click on the link below and share the details in the comments section of this post!

http://www.goodreads.com/challenges/940-2013-reading-challenge

Happy Reading!!