Today's Consoles are an Amazing Value

I ran across this infographic of the original price and the adjust for inflation price of a few notable video game consoles. I have no idea if these are correct, but it was on the internet. I can't imagine anyone would like on the internet.

The first thing that jumps out at me is how ridiculous expensive the Atari 2600 was, $200 in 1977 was no small amount. I think your best values on here are the Dreamcast (natch), Xbox 360 and the Wii. The 360 had a ridiculously long life span (assuming you never got the RROD) and revolutionized the way you play consoles on-line. The Wii and DC fizzled out relatively quickly but considering how revolutionary both were AND how relatively cheap they were I can't not consider them great values. You can take your pick between the 3DO and the Neo-Geo as to which is the worst value. Both consoles were ridiculously expensive and never had a great games library. For the cost of a single Neo-Geo you could buy a SNES and Genesis and a TurboGrafx 16. Being able to swap memory cards with arcade games isn't worth that kind of money.

A Penny Saved

via TheGentlemansArmchair

The Hypothetical Blockbuster Budget

This video from Vanity Fair (wait, that can't be right.... ok, it's really from Vanity Fair. I didn't know that was a thing that could happen) shows roughly how much money everyone that has worked on a $200 million blockbuster would make. I can't believe the cat made like 10 times what the intimidating bouncer at the nightclub made. That's probably racist.

Basically what I learned from this is that there's good money to be made being like a Key Grip, or a makeup artist. Sure you have to live with the nightmare that is not knowing when your next job will be but it beats digging ditches for a living. Unless you're the lead ditch digger for a movie, I hear those guys make bank.

Nuclear Links

Never Mind A Female James Bond, Someone Should Adapt ‘Velvet’ As A Movie. This times a thousand. Velvet is easily one of the best comics I'm reading right now and it's ripe for a movie adaption. It follows Velvet Templeton a former spy who is dragged back into the spy world after a former partner (and lover) is killed. If you're looking for a female James Bond this is totally it. Unfortunately the last period spy movie A Man From UNCLE bombed pretty bad last summer so I don't know if there are any studios with the balls to make this. A man can dream though, right?

Star Trek:TNG One-Piece Swimsuit. That's not a terrible looking suit. I mean it's no R2-D2 swimsuit but it's definitely Riker approved. I like that if a girl is wearing the blue one you can make a ton of "for science" jokes. I'm guessing at least 3 or 4 of these will show up at Comic-Con this year.

Kodak Had a Secret Nuclear Reactor Loaded With Enriched Uranium Hidden In a Basement. That doesn't sound dangerous at all. Way to go Kodak!

21 Defaced Dollar Bills That Are Artistic Masterpieces. I wish I had the time or money to do a few of these. Seriously, those Dragon Ball Z ones are done on $100 bills! I don't like spending a seventy five cents per page on the paper I use now. I couldn't using hundred dollar canvases.

ECCC Story: Dolla Dolla Bills Y'all

This just in, there were a lot of things available for purchase at Emerald City Comic Con. This my friends is the quick story of how and where I spent my money and what I might do differently if given the opportunity again.

Thursday, the day before ECCC started I decided it might be nice to get my cash situation on lock down so I didn't have to scramble for an ATM Friday morning. I went to the nearest Coinstar machine and turned all my Scrooge McDuck swimming money into greenbacks and I cashed a reimbursement check I had from work that I'd been sitting on for a couple week. Combined with the few dollars I'd been squirreling away for the last few weeks, I had a grand total of $103 to spend at Comic Con.

Thursday night I had a soccer game where I found out one of our players dropped out of next season so we all owed a bit of extra money to cover their part of the registration fee. ECCC hasn't even opened and I'm down to $98.

Friday and Saturday morning I take the light rail to downtown. It's a bit slower but when you take into consideration gas and parking, a round trip ticket on the light rail is actually the cheaper option. $5.75 x 2 = $11.50. My ECCC budget is down to $86.50.

Friday I get lunch at a Jimmy Johns downtown with a friend. There was food inside the convention center but it was either crazy busy or typical cafeteria fare and I didn't want a bunch of greasy pizza sitting in my stomach the rest of the afternoon, or not sitting in my stomach if you know what I mean. My ECCC budget is down to $79.00.

My son was REALLY excited to go to Comic Con. He knew from my pictures of last years that they had Lego. He loves Lego. Saturday he was really upset that he couldn't come with me so I bought him a Lego minifigure, Where's my Pants Guy from the Lego Movie ($5). Sunday when he was there, he was really excited to get another minifigure. Like all good parents I caved and after what felt like an hour of deliberation he got Arctic Batman ($10). Oh yea, since we all went to Comic Con as a family on Sunday we took the car and had to pay for parking. That was $10. My ECCC budget is down to $54.



$54 was the absolute final amount I had to actually spend on all the cool stuff at ECCC. Don't get me wrong, it's still very much a privilege to be able to go to ECCC, much less have fifty some dollars to spend there. There are a lot of people a lot worse than I am. However once you're there, fifty dollars doesn't get you very far at a comic book convention. For example the Dark Horse booth was giving away a free tote with any purchase over 50 dollars. I barely had enough to get a free tote.

What I did get were smaller convention exclusive sketchbooks from a few of my favorite artists; Frank Cho, Aaron Lopresti and Terry Dodson. These seemed pretty reasonable at $15-20 a piece. Also I was able to get them signed and talk to the artists a bit. Terry Dodson even drew a quick sketch for me.




These three sketchbooks and about a dozen signed comics (ones I already owned of course) were the grand total of my ECCC haul. I'm not disappointed, I didn't go into the weekend expecting this huge haul. I wanted to pick up a couple new prints for my office at work but I never saw anything that really stood out and said buy me. Well, that's not completely true. After getting Amanda Conner to sign a comic on Saturday I had planned on going back to her table Sunday to pick up a print but when I got there Sunday her line was crazy long and I bailed.

So there you are. That's the story of how I blew through nearly $100 at ECCC and had very little to show for it come Monday morning. I certainly don't regret the purchases I made. I love the little sketch books I got and being able to just spend a couple minutes with the artists I love so much was really awesome. However, next year when I sit down and make my ECCC budget I'll probably take into better consideration things like transportation and food. I'll probably start saving a bit earlier too. Another $50 for a couple prints and maybe a t-shirt sounds reasonable enough to me.

The Weeks Links

C2E2 Cosplay in Pictures. Thanks GeeksAreSexy.net I was worried this was going to be a Cosplay post in haiku, pictures is definitely the way to go.

Good News, Everyone! It's The 10 Best Inventions From Futurama. I've got to admit, I'm a bit indifferent when it comes to the cancellation of Futurama. The sad truth is that the newer episodes aren't as good as the older stuff, and I'd kinda rather see it go out while their ahead as opposed to limp along forever like The Simpsons or the Family Guy. I don't know, maybe it's time for Matt Groening and David Cohen to do something new. That would be cool, right?

Wall Street Is Gobbling Up Two-Thirds of Your 401(k). Wow this was depressing. Turns out the same principles that make your 401k a great investment also make for a great opportunity for Wall Street to make a boatload off your investments. I'm going to start putting all my money into gold. Diablo 3 Gold.

The 16 Most Insane Stadium Foods Money Can Buy. I'm not a big live sports guy. I like watching sports the way God intended it. Sitting on my couch in my underwear eating a block of cheese the size of a car battery. However, if either Qwest or Safeco was serving awesome food like these stadiums I might be swayed. Seriously, I don't want to spoil it for you but there's a hot dog wrapped in a funnel cake. A FUNNEL CAKE!