dinoignacio's GameSpot Blog Posts

on NPR four years ago

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 22:42:26 -0800

In a moment of vanity and boredom, I searched for my name on GOOGLE.
I found this on the NPR archives.

I totally forgot about all this interview. Wow, it's been 4 years since this happened.

I rememeber being really freaked out by the whole thing, you can totally hear it in the soundbite. I was craping my pants.

As scary as it was back then, I have to admit, it's funny now. Listen to interview.

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"on NPR four years ago" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 25 Nov 2005 22:42:26 -0800

Today's the day

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 22:06:22 -0800

I quit smoking today... Well not really, I started the niccotine patch today.

I feel really weird about the whole experience. I feel niccotine rushing through my system but I have no cravings. I feel funny not having a reason to step outside.

I hope this works. I hope I don't get addicted to these patches.

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"Today's the day" was posted by dinoignacio on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 22:06:22 -0800

My two new officemates

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:23:14 -0800

This is a picture of Zombie Rorie and Printerbot. I am not allowed to talk about where Zombie Rorie came from. All I can say is that he's been in two movies. Sometimes people call him Zombie Rick James. Rich calls him Zombie Omz.

Printerbot is the new printer that shares my desk. She replaces an old Lexmark that would eat documents and make people very angry. People all over the floor would walk up to my desk and scream at the Lexmark for eating their documents. Eventually the Lexmark was taken away and was replaced with the Dell Printerbot. She is much sexier and nicer than the Lexmark. We love her.

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"My two new officemates" was posted by dinoignacio on Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:23:14 -0800

Is the blog back yet?

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:52:31 -0700

After weeks of slaving away at them. We finally launched the new GameSpot site. Though it did not go as smoothly as planed. We are finally back on track.

I was responsible for coming up with the look and feel of the new daily show assets. I designed and and animated all the intros for the new shows (except for Thursday).

This was a really fun project. It was a great opportunity to push GameSpot to new directions in design. Since each day had different day specific features, I decided to give each day it's own theme.

Check them out on the front page of the site every day. If you want to see the intros in higher resolution, please check them out here.

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"Is the blog back yet?" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:52:31 -0700

and were back

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:48:52 -0700

After a long 10 hour flight, we finally got back to the US. We brought our equiptment back yesterday morning and went home to get rest.

Today is my first official day back in the office.

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"and were back" was posted by dinoignacio on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:48:52 -0700

Day 004

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 09:56:55 -0700

Today was the last day of TGS. I took more footage of trailers and gameplay for Tim and Dave to publish. I was able to get some random Japan only trailers and the (almost) complete Bandai trailer catalog. I set up the HD camera in front of a large screen and was able to get an hour and 20 minutes of awesome trailers until the Bandai people threatened to take my tape. I walked off with all my gear before they could do anything.

One of them was for this really cool game called Kero Kero 7.

There were more Cosplay kids out today. I took more pictures. I'll post them later tonight.

I saw a bunch of ninjas on the way to the event and a robot on the way back to the hotel. Read more about that here.

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"Day 004" was posted by dinoignacio on Sun, 18 Sep 2005 09:56:55 -0700

Day 003

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 08:48:03 -0700

I was on the TGS floor earlier today grabbing more gameplay footage. I finally got the MGS4 trailer! It's awesome. I think we are still figuring out if we can put it up on the site. I am hoping we can.

Today was the day all the Cosplay kids were out. There was litereally hundreds of them kids in costume. I was able to take a few pictures.

Update: I put up the rest of the pics here.

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"Day 003" was posted by dinoignacio on Sat, 17 Sep 2005 08:48:03 -0700

Day 002

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:13:14 -0700

It's our second day i Japan and the first day of TGS. Jim and I were tasked to go around the show floor and record as much HD footage of gameplay off the screens. We were able to get a lot of footage. The coveted MGS4 trailer though was impossible to get. Sony was very strict about anyone recording anything from their booth.

While shooting the gameplay off the screens, I took some time to take pictures of some booth babes. I did not see robots or ninjas but there were some very cute women.

The rest of the images are here.

Tomorrow will be crazy, all the cosplay kids will be out. Maybe the robots and ninjas will be too.

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"Day 002" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:13:14 -0700

Day 001

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:06:53 -0700

I went to the Microsoft press conference today. Ryan, Dave, Ricardo, Justin and I took the train. This is me at the train station. It was crazy busy. People were coming from every direction.

I can't really talk much about the press conference. But I'm encoding it as I type this so it should be up on the server by tomorrow.

On the way back from the conference, I spotted a ninja.

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"Day 001" was posted by dinoignacio on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:06:53 -0700

In Japan

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:57:11 -0700

After a long 10.5 hour flight. We arrived in Narita yesterday at around 3pm Japan time September 14. We then took a long 90 minute bus ride to Shinjuku where our hotel is at.

After dropping off all the equiptment and setting up the computers in the hotel room. Dave, Jim, Tim and I headed down to Shinjuku to eat beef bowl and drink pocari sweat.

We all then went to an electronics store where I picked up a UMD of Advent Children for my nephew. The dvd was sold out so I'll have to come back for it later.

Today is the start of the real work. Ryan is headed here to give me the first batch of stuff to edit. Jim will go on assignmnent in a bit. But first, breakfast!

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"In Japan" was posted by dinoignacio on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:57:11 -0700

Breaking News

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 01:59:27 -0700

Nothing new really, We've all known this for a while now.

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"Breaking News" was posted by dinoignacio on Mon, 12 Sep 2005 01:59:27 -0700

I'm ready for them!

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:42:18 -0700

To prepare for Japan, I bought a Sony miniDV camera today. I plan to use it to take video and pictures while out in the field. You'll never know where robot and ninja sightings might happen so it's best to be prepared with a small camera. We will have a bunch of fancier, bigger cameras for GS live but having a small personal one will make it easier for me to infiltrate the Dojos and Robot Academies.

Today is my day to pack. I need to get all packed and ready so that I dont have to worry about anything come Monday night. I am leaving with the second wave of the GameSpot crew on Tuesday.

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"I'm ready for them!" was posted by dinoignacio on Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:42:18 -0700

Japan is where it all started!

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 07:06:02 -0700

Though there are some ninjas and robots that come from other parts of the world, everybody knows that robots and ninjas are originally from Japan. So it's safe to assume that the war must have started there. I am going to Japan on Tuesday to find out more about the whole war. I am really going there to help cover TGS for GameSpot but I'll use my free time hanging out at dojos (ninja colleges) and robot academys. I will try my best to keep you all posted from there.

Wish me luck, I will be at ground zero of the war. This may get bloody.

for more information please join the Robots Vs. Ninjas Union

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"Japan is where it all started!" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 09 Sep 2005 07:06:02 -0700

Back to Burger King

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 06:55:42 -0700

A couple of months back, I was in Burger King at least twice a week to collect the Star Wars toy. I completed the 31 toy set and they are now proudly displayed in my office work station. After a few weeks of this ritual, my body was starting to feel the strain of eating all that greasy food. I think I would have died if not for the nice lady in the BK on 9th and Howard. She sold me the coveted Darth Vader toy that was so hard to find.

I had a bit of time to recoup and my weight is back to normal. But it seems like it's time to go back to BK though. I just read on the Star Wars website that they are releasing new toys. Oh no, here we go again!

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"Back to Burger King" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 09 Sep 2005 06:55:42 -0700

A versus union?

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:44:32 -0700

So it's an oxymoron of sorts... Robots Versus Ninjas Union. I just thought we can all band together and collectively unravel the mystery of the conflit between the two factions.

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"A versus union?" was posted by dinoignacio on Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:44:32 -0700

The Ninjas in Treasure Island Part 2

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 09:01:12 -0700

You're probably starting to wonder where the Ninjas fit into this story.

Well here's where...

As the Pirates swarmed closer to my vehicle, a portal opened right by the front right bumper of my car. A Ninja materialized out of the portal. For a second there, I thought, "Wow! teleporting Ninjas are cooler than invisible Ninjas or Ninjas with lasers!"

Then I noticed the Ninja was wearing an ipod around his waist (where a laser would usually be holstered). This is when I realized that he must have been listening to David Bowie's "Space Oditty". That's the oly way he ended up in the same spot as me. Bowie's music does crazy s**t to Ninjas too.

The Ninja stepped out of the portal fighting. He started slashing away at the Pirates. This created enough of a distraction and I was able to speed away to the road leading back to San Francisco. I felt bad for the Ninja because there were at least a 100 cranky Pirates in Treasure Island. I hope he survived.

I decided to drive straight to the office and skip out on going to the bank.

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"The Ninjas in Treasure Island Part 2" was posted by dinoignacio on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 09:01:12 -0700

The Ninjas in Treasure Island Part 1

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:01:28 -0700

I decided to drive to work today because I had a couple errands to run that required me to have the car today. The first being to go to the bank before work and the other was so I could head straight from work to piNoisepop tonight to set up for the show.

I'm not really sure if it was the fact that they were playing Space Oddity by Bowie on the radio or just the fact that I'm stupid at 8 am in the morning; I somehow ended up on a one way street that had a time-space dimensional rift that led straight to the Bay Bridge. It must have been Space Oddity. Weird things happen when I hear that song. I'll talk more about that some other time.

Cruising down the bridge I realized the only way I could go back to the city without paying toll was to take the Treasure Island exit and loop back.

As everybody knows Treasure Island is not a safe place to be in at 8:30 in the morning. This is around the time when the Pirates are all out preparing for a day of pillaging and mayhem, Pirates are especially cranky before breakfast.

I decided to risk the quick u-turn through Treasure Island because I did not have cash for the toll back. (I never got to the bank, remember)

As I drove through the exit, I was thinking to myself Oh no, the Pirates will feed me to their pet sharks, Oh no, I m gonna die! I went as fast as I could through the winding road within the speed limit. (If there s anything worse than Pirates at 8:30 in the morning, it s Pirate Traffic Cops!) I drove cautiously down at 30 mph.

Upon entering the Island, I saw 8 massive galleons prepping to set sail. Pirates were everywhere doing their piratey work. I tried to be stealthy, but that s not very easy when you drive an SUV. One of the Pirates notices me and shouts Arrrrrrh! This alerted all the other cranky Pirates, and they all broke out into a collective Arrrrhh!!!! as they all started to march towards my Rav.

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"The Ninjas in Treasure Island Part 1" was posted by dinoignacio on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:01:28 -0700

Back in the office

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:15:20 -0700

After being gone for over a month, I am finally back in the office. It's good to be back. I am very excited to get back to the projects I left dangling while I was gone.

While I was away, I had a chance to follow that robot that takes the 9 San Bruno. He (I am assuming he's a he) walks all the way from Market to Bryant when he gets off the bus. He stops for coffee at some cafe on some days. Ultimately he goes to Kinko's. I think he works in the back.

I'm not quite sure what he does though. Maybe he's a photocopy machine repair guy.

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"Back in the office" was posted by dinoignacio on Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:15:20 -0700

The Robots hijacked my account

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 05:49:56 -0700

I donno what it is but I seem to have lost half the people in my friends list. It's either I somehow pissed them off collectively or the robots hijacked my account. Did anybody else lose their friends?

I'm sure the ninjas had nothing to do with this though. They don't care for the internet.

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"The Robots hijacked my account" was posted by dinoignacio on Wed, 20 Jul 2005 05:49:56 -0700

C3-PO + R2-D2 = Guy in Carnivale

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:59:39 -0700

I was watching Carnivale last night and finally figured out who the midget in the show looks like.
It's as if they spliced Anthony Daniels' and Kenny Baker's DNA to get this guy.

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"C3-PO + R2-D2 = Guy in Carnivale" was posted by dinoignacio on Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:59:39 -0700