Video Game-Related Fox Trot Comic Strip

[Rogmeister]

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20050202/lft050202.gif :D

[Xantan the Foul]

That's awesome :-D

[Sniderman]

You missed Monday's and Tuesday's. There's a theme this week. :D
http://tinypic.com/1ioo02
http://tinypic.com/1ioo0k

[Lady Jaye]

So far, this week: Space Invaders, Super Mario and Tron. Wonder what the next games covered will be? :D

[kainemaxwell]

That's so cool!

[Rogmeister]

I'm hoping for Dig Dug and you gotta have Pac-Man. Wacka Wacka Wacka... :D

[youruglyclone]

the strip does a lot of game related stuff, but still since my paper doesn't carry foxtrot anymore and I'm too lazy to look for the internet archive I'm missing out

[Rogmeister]

If you use Yahoo, you can have a "My Yahoo" page where you can choose different content including up to 3 daily comic strips. I get Fox Trot, For Better or For Worse and Garfield. I need to check and see if they've added any lately that I might like better than Garfield...

[Lady Jaye]

http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/

That's the Univesal Syndicate's website where you can read the comics of the day, including Fox Trot, but also For Better and For Worse, Cathy, Garfield, BC, Wizard of Id, Doonesbury and many others.

[Arcade Antics]

Within the last week or so prior, there was a strip where Jason and Peter went to the pizza parlor where Peter's friend works.

Jason disappeared for a bit... it turned out he was checking out the "antiques" in the back...

Last panel - he's playing Space Invaders and commenting that they don't bleed when shot. LOL

[bigdaddychester]

If you use Yahoo, you can have a "My Yahoo" page where you can choose different content including up to 3 daily comic strips. I get Fox Trot, For Better or For Worse and Garfield. I need to check and see if they've added any lately that I might like better than Garfield...

One of the choices I think you may find amusing is Get Fuzzy (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/umedia/cx_getfuzzy_umedia/latest)

[Rogmeister]

Thanks...coincidentally, after I posted about the My Yahoo page, I did go and find that and will now get that instead of Garfield...my cats may be lazy but they're not fat...okay, one of them is...but not THAT fat... :D

[Rogmeister]

And here's today's...
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20050203/lft050203.gif

[Sanriostar]

I double-dog dare the writer to try Robotron... :D

[Lady Jaye]

What's interesting is that it's not just videogames, but classic videogames... so far, the most recent game in that serial is Super Mario Bros...

[Sniderman]

What's interesting is that it's not just videogames, but classic videogames... so far, the most recent game in that serial is Super Mario Bros...You know why? 'Cause the classic games are more visually "iconic." If you wanted to boil a game's imagry down to its base, classics are the way to go.

Space Invaders: Row upon row of neatly arranged blobs. Four bases.
Super Mario Bros: Rounded platforms. Mushroom.
Tron Lightcycle: Continuous lines with 90-degree turns. None crossing each other.
Asteroids: Blobs of various sizes heading in various directions.

You could go on with other classic games:
Pacman: Maze with dots. Circle with a wedge out out. Ghosts.
Dig Dug: Underground tunnels. Blob with goggles. Air pump.

But you can't do that kind of instantly-recognizable imagry/iconagraphy with the modern stuff. Try to boil down GTA III; Halo; or any other insanly popular modern game with just a few "icons" that the average "Joe Comic Strip Reader" would be able to recognize. Can't be done. How many would make a connection between "Hawaiian shirt / talking like Ray Liotta" and "GTA: VC?" Only those of us on this board.

That's why, whenever they show folks playing videogames on TV or in the movies, you STILL hear the Atari 2600 Pac-Man/Donkey Kong blips, bloops, and trills. Those sounds are recognizable as "videogame sounds" - not the realistic soundtracks we ACTUALLY hear in today's games.

It's all about the icons. And, yes, I've thought about this issue before. LOL Sorry for the dissertation.

[Jorpho]

I love FoxTrot. It's so unabashedly geeky.

[Rogmeister]

I do, too. It's one of the few comic strips I buy collected books of...that and For Better Or For Worse and I'm also now getting those Peanuts books that are collecting the strip from the very beginning.

[SoulBlazer]

I was going to say -- Fox Trot has been doming video game related comics for YEARS. :D I like the strip a lot anyway, but it just adds to the cool factor when they do things like this. :)

I recall they also did a 'all your base are belong to us' strip, and they have done ones with Doom, Doom 3, a 'virtual dating' game, and Halo. 8-)

[Iron Draggon]

I like Foxtrot, but I really miss Calvin & Hobbes! Now that was a comic strip!

[Rogmeister]

So I wonder what Bill Watterston is doing these days? Meanwhile, here's today's Fox Trot...

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20050204/lft050204.gif

[Lady Jaye]

Ooh, I love that one!!! LOL

[GarrettCRW]

So I wonder what Bill Watterston is doing these days?

He's basically living in seclusion. It doesn't hurt that the locals in the town he lives in take pretty poorly to strangers (must be the decade or so of people trying to bother Watterson).

[Sotenga]

BWAHAHAHAHA ROFL

This is so fuggin' awesome. I'm quite a fan of Foxtrot, and this incredible tribute to VGs is just... well, I already said incredible, right?

[Iron Draggon]

HAHA! Well now we see how right sniderman was, the best that they could do with a more modern game was a titty joke! How dreadfully appropriate!

[Rogmeister]

So I'm assuming tomorrow will be the grand finale of Video Game Week at Fox Trot...anyone taking bets on what game would be covered in that one, assuming there's another game-related strip tomorrow? I'd like to see Dig Dug but another possibilities could include Pac-Man, Centipede, and Missile Command...

[slip81]

Fox Trot is great. I'm so glad my paper gets it now.

[kainemaxwell]

OMG, that's hilarious!!
LOL

[VinnyT]

So I wonder what Bill Watterston is doing these days?

He's basically living in seclusion. It doesn't hurt that the locals in the town he lives in take pretty poorly to strangers (must be the decade or so of people trying to bother Watterson).

That's too bad, considering where he lives just looks GORGEOUS in wintertime. I've been through there atleast once. It's too bad some people can't just leave him alone.

[Famidrive-16]

I guess Pong for tommorow.

[Rogmeister]

How about Crazy Climber? He could try climbing a tree while his friend above in the tree house is throwing things down at him...

[Sotenga]

If I had to guess... Donkey Kong. I can't explain how, but I could picture Jason getting squished by a rolling snow barrel. LOL

[Rogmeister]

Maybe we need to start doing our own video game-related comic strips? :D

[Sotenga]

Maybe we need to start doing our own video game-related comic strips? :D

!!!

...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... well, I'd suck as an artist, but I may have a few creative ideas... yessssss... I like this! :)

[izret101]

HAHAHAA those were awesome i missed out on most ofthem previous to this article.

I don't get to read the comics daily.

[Rogmeister]

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20050205/lft050205.gif

So one of my picks made it...if you're doing game tributes, you gotta have Pac-Man...

[kainemaxwell]

LOL, that's great!!