I was contacted through my game design site by an old friend about how a group of people were getting together to play CRASH Squad every Friday for the past couple weeks. For those who don’t know, CRASH Squad is a video game modification project for a game called Kingpin that I lead about 7 or 8 years ago…geez time flies. Well, anyways, I joined them last night for a few hours and it was fun. There were about 15 people or so that showed up which is a lot for a game from 1999. There are video games out just this year that can’t get that kind of gathering online. I have to admit I spent most of the time trying to stop myself from wondering why we designed it the way we did, but regardless…fun.

A few days before, I started to install the game and I became nostalgic thinking about that time in my life playing Kingpin online and all the friends I’d made and fun I’d have playing both casually and competitively. I led a clan back then called Assassins Incorporated. AI we called ourselves. We put AI_ in front of each members name. Mine was AI_Tunnleram. We played online together for a while and eventually reached the number 1 spot on the Online Gaming League ladder beating other clans like =LM= and D4RK. Our favorite level to play was Team_Panic made by good ol’ MexicanRadio. I remember the sense of belonging to the community and also the teamwork when playing. It was something that I’m confident everyone who was a part of it remembers.

I remember the names Bloodville, Pharaoh, Hitman, Sniper, Autumn, Jimmy, Allorah…Fat Eddie, Poisonville and Trinity. PlanetKingpin, RedWormCharlie (what a jerkoff that guy was lol) and Leandra (sigh Bubbleologists). There was WildWolf, Rambo, A-C, Morph, Captain Insane, Chitown and Hogie. Oh, and Rayzr (USuck lol), Swat and Young Swat , Tical (who disappeared out of nowhere) and of course Mr. Damage who’s the one organizing the CRASH Squad Friday night games…and so many others I can’t possibly begin to list. Some I still talk to sometimes, some I wish I could and others I’ve lost all touch with altogether. Oh, and let’s not forget the Bah Monkey

There were car trips and late night chats and practices and friendships for several years. There were hours of playing non-stop where bathroom breaks waited through all night game playing sessions. We’d talk about the latest weapon script or trick or score and revelled in the occasional weird situation or crazy hack or anything at all.

CRASH Squad specifically was a lot of fun for me though. Kingpin was what got me involved in game design and it was the first modification I worked on. We put together a team and we created this mod and it was a big thing for the community. There were clans specifically for it and people seemed really gung-ho about it.

Unfortunately, by that time, most people had left the community and only a few unwaivering enthusiasts cared about the game, but it didn’t matter. For me it was more important to complete the project in a positive way. It was a great accomplishment just to finish something considering the lack of help from Kingpin’s developers, the lack of documentation and the fact that the developers seemed to have put everything they could in the executable which made it hard to make anything meaningful as we didn’t have access to that source code.

Basicaly the point of this post is that I miss the old times at the moment. Not that I don’t love my life right now, but I simply miss that part of my past life. I specifically miss playing Bagman (a gametype Kingpin came with) and I miss some of the people, the friendships and the great fun I had being absorbed in it all. I wonder if getting back into game design will be as much fun for me. I’ve been gone for so long and have a whole new set of priorities now…not to mention a simple lack of time and access to my better computer. With Kingpin it was my first online experience, I was in on the ground floor starting with the beta and I wonder if I could get so excited again about a game and burry myself in it.

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Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Stay safe, enjoy family and rest up for the great year to come. I’m sure 2008 is going to be the best year yet

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I haven’t had much time for anything lately, but I’m happy and full (after dinner) so I can’t really complain. I used to be able to get to web projects and video game design and music and I hope to soon, but for the moment I’ve got other things going on.

Sandy and I’ve been working on getting her house ready to go on the market. We’ve already done so much work, but there’s a bit left to do. I’ve also been promoted at work (I’m the new Director of Information Technology) so I can anticipate that becoming a bit busier too with my added responsibilities.

Life is good though. In fact, great!

I expect to get back into some of my hobbies shortly when things calm down a bit.

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The trip to Niagara Falls, Canada was a lot of fun. The falls were so amazing and the other places we hit were nice too. We went to the top of the Skylon Tower, ate at a place overlooking the falls, stopped at a butterfly exhibit and just walked around town. Check out some of the pictures I snapped below. Click on them to open the Canada gallery to see more.

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I went to a New York Yankees game tonight and we had some great seats. Sandy’s Aunt Sharon was nice enough to give them to us so me, Sandy, Jonathan and Sandy’s sister went. Aside from the fact that we ran late not getting there until the 3rd inning, we spent $65 on food ($8 for a large fries with cheese!! hehe) and that I’m a New York Mets fan, it was a record setting night and a lot of fun!

The Yankees hit 8 home runs tying a franchise record and won 16-3 over the White Sox.

Anyways, I snapped a couple pictures from my cell at the end of the game. I wish I had my camera with me though. We were about 15 or 20 rows back so I could have taken some great pics.

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First off, Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there and secondly I have to apologize for my lack of posting. Life’s been good, but busy so I haven’t dedicated much time to the site. In fact I think I want to change the look again.

Anyways, the reason for posting is that yesterday on Father’s Day, my girlfriend and I surprised her Father with a website for him along with a domain name, etc. We were over his house and brought up the page on his machine and asked him to come take a look at something. He was very surprised which is great The main idea of the site is for his photography, to eventually possibly sell photos, but at the least share them with people.

Anyways, you can take a look at the site for yourself - http://www.paulmasincup.com/

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I’m really proud of my boys. They haven’t made the playoffs in forever, but after making the playoffs by beating the Candiens in the next to last game of the season, they’ve been kicking buttocks.

They beat Atlanta the first two games at home and then came back to wallop them with a 7-0 win and the won the fourth game 4-2 for the sweep!

Good times.

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I was proud to see that the newspaper did an entire story on George, and all on their own. I would have posted this sooner, but I didn’t have a functioning scanner.

The online version of this article can be found here, but isn’t quite as nice.

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On Friday, March 23, 2007, George Astrella, my good friend and Father passed away.

George led an amazing life. He grew up in Manhattan as one of 14 brothers and sisters, was in Normandy as veteran of World War II, delivered ice blocks to resturants in New York City (before there were refrigerators), was made a member of the Bowling Hall of Fame and for 38 years was the proud owner of Parkway Lanes, a popular bowling alley.

But more than his accomplishments and milestones, he was the type of person everyone loved and adored. Everyone was his friend from the woman who served him food at the diner to the bank teller he saw each week to patrons of Parkway Lanes and surely his close friends and family.

George was an amazing man who accomplished amazing things and will be greatly missed.

Services will be held on Tuesday March 27th from 2-4pm EST and 7-9pm EST at Costa Memorial Home, 170 Central Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. 201.288.0234. Funeral will follow on Wednesday March 28th, 10:00am at Corpus Christi in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.

Btw, on the about page where I say “With a nudge from a good friend I fell into the computer”. George was that good friend. If it weren’t for his encouragement, I probably wouldn’t be writing this on this web page and I probably wouldn’t have met many of you. I’m glad that I realized the profound affects he’s had on my life and told him far before he passed. I’m glad he was part of my life.

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I think I stretched something
Bigger than I used to be
Falling backwards unbalanced and timeless
It’s not how it looks
s’just temporary
I’ll be up and about in no time

Cause I’m growing out of these bones
My body needs to adjust
And it’ll take me a few days
To get my new legs

To walk this new man around

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