Project Anticipation series/Time Attacked

Sorry for being a year late - life just HAD to catch up to me.

...on the other hand, I've started writing in my real journal the past few weeks, and I've been receiving weird dreams as a result. However, the one I received on February 17th...was vivid. I was outside my apartment balcony talking, and then all of a sudden this young man in his 20s who looks like Devon Werkheiser (Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, We Were Soldiers, etc.) bumps into me and the dream ends. Three days later, Project Anticipation - my new story series - was born as a result of weird dreams I've had over the years. Oh, and I'm taking a break from Project Supercar for a while - that endless black hole of life and social networking pretty much killed the time allotted to write the third one.

I've actually had this story planned out in 1992 at the age of six, around the time I got weird dreams just by playing Sonic the Hedgehog (1) and The Terminator (by Virgin) on the SEGA Genesis.

However, building Project Anticipation to me is going to be a lot harder than Project Supercar, as I have to constantly get ideas by doing a lot of things like Google searches, going out to the mall, etc. just to get the idea for the perfect character. Like Supercar, Anticipation is also a book series that follows the life of Darren Warner after he receives an item at an electronics store that has his life changed, starting in Time Attacked, the first book in the series. Life for Darren isn't all it seems, when a mysterious young man in his late teens/early 20s with dark brown/black hair and blue eyes (got the idea for him by Google image and YouTube searches for James Lafferty and image searches for people with dark brown hair and blue eyes) suddenly appears, affecting the lives of random people from all walks of life including an extreme sports activist with dyed red hair (got the idea for her by playing too much SSX on the PS3), a North American SEGA employee with dyed blue hair who thinks he's Sonic the Hedgehog (got the idea for him by playing too many SEGA and Sonic games, obviously), etc. Darren must find out what is happening and who may be behind the sudden turn of events, but it's not easy. He soon learns about Time Cores--basically electronics--that can drastically change the wielder's life. They can keep track of score, time, and anything else in-between - it makes their to-do-list and life look like a video game all of a sudden. Also, to get new ideas for Project Anticipation, I keep a watch on my left wrist all day.

Also, about the blog title change: I thought "Unplugged" was a bad choice - as I thought unplugged meant to turn something off. It's now "Unleashed", as I thought it was better, kind of like spilling one's guts and opening up. Just remember to think positive and never let anything slow you down.

New main character: Stormy (this changes *everything* for Supercar 3...)

Curse you, 1990s memories!

This is what I get for listening to the music from and playing El Viento, Alisia Dragoon and Dragon's Fury--all for the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive. Just when I got to writing, just about a few weeks ago, those three games had to go and mess everything up. This led me to create a mysteriously alluring young woman named Carrie "Stormy" Moran, early-to-mid 20s with brown eyes and brown hair, standing about 5'8". Also, I think I got the idea for her by going to the mall on tax free weekend, where I ran into a cashier...twice. It's a shame I didn't buy anything, as I didn't have enough money that Friday. Ouch. (The original idea for the character of Carrie came around 1999-2000 when playing certain Nintendo 64 racing games with a beach setting on a track and stopping the car just to hear the waves.)

The main characters of both games, Annet (El Viento) and Alisia (Alisia Dragoon) also kinda gave me an idea for her after seeing a YouTube video by user cubex55 showing a player dominating El Viento.

It seems every time I play that game since 2008, I always got a game over at the Restiana boss fight. The game is made by Wolfteam, first released in 1991. Motoi Sakuraba did an excellent job with the soundtrack. It had a SEGA CD-only sequel, Annet Futatabi, or in English, Annet Returns/Annet Again, released in 1993 and only in Japan (over in Japan and Europe, the SEGA CD accessory is called a Mega CD).

The other game--released in 1992 by Game Arts--Alisia Dragoon, is a masterpiece, just like the game mentioned above. Like Viento, Dragoon's soundtrack, done by Fumihito Kasatani, is also excellent. I played this recently and still need more practice. I wish this game had a PS3, Xbox 360 and/or Wii revival...

The third game, Dragon's Fury, is so addicting, as it's a pinball game, and like the other two games mentioned above, the soundtrack rocks. The game was originally released in 1990 for the PC-Engine (in the United States, the name is TurboGrafx-16) by Naxat and RED, and made its way to the SEGA Genesis in 1992 by Technosoft and converted by Tengen. The soundtrack's composers--Toshiaki Sakoda, Masanobu Tsukamoto and Toshiharu Yamanishi--all did a superb job of making it creepy and dramatic, which fits the environment of this game.

Back on the subject of Stormy: Another idea for her likely came from my frequently browsing the websites of clothing retail stores in most shopping malls across the United States until I saw a model matching Stormy's description of brown hair and brown eyes. The idea of Carrie/Stormy drastically changes everything about SC3, including one of the storylines. She's charged with the task of finding Cameron before the tournament starts and sometimes watch over him, as the things he did in Supercar 1 were intolerable and Jennifer and Madison flushed him out.

It's a beautiful day, so I'm going to enjoy it--and hopefully get more character ideas soon...