Before accelerometers and motion detection as in the Wii, and iPhone, the early 90s promised NES gamers new ways of interaction beyond anything imagined. Unfortunately, these promises were delivered through the Power Glove and the U-Force.

Everybody knows the Power Glove, which was made very popular through the 90 minute advert for Super Mario Bros. 3 known as The Wizard starring Fred Savage. The movie’s villain was some evil super-gamer kid who used the Power Glove. In the movie’s most infamous scene, after decimating some opponent the villain kids gives an evil glare and says, “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”

Well it’s no mystery that the Power Glove was bad. But not in that way. It was pretty damn useless for any game other than Punch Out!!, and even then it barely worked. You’d wave your arm around wildly, and events would be triggered randomly, if at all. The technology at the time just wasn’t up to the job.

When I was 12, I couldn’t care less about the Power Glove, until I entered a Super Mario Bros. 3 contest at the North Bay Heritage Festival, and the glove was first prize. Some background: I obtained a Japanese Famicom copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 with adapater about 8 months before it was released in North America – before any kids in town had played it, I knew the game inside and out. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to win the obviously RIGGED contest at the Heritage Festival, since I only came in third place and got some crummy t-shirt.

This annoyed the hell out of me, and made me want that damn Power Glove. So much so that I eventually saved up newspaper delivery money and whined and complained for the rest, and purchased the stupid thing. Well played, Mattel. Well played.

After about an hour, I was sick of the thing. After losing to Glass Joe in Punch Out!!, I realized the Power Glove sucked and was completely useless. I couldn’t admit that though… because that would be admitting that I made a big mistake buying the damn thing. Also, the subsequent bragging I did to my friends at school of how awesome it would be would have made me the laughing stock of school yard video game players all over North Bay… maybe even Powassan.

Things became worse when a fellow classmate got the U-Force for his birthday. The U-Force was the same idea as the Power Glove, but it consisted of what looked like a Battleship board that sat in front of you, that you would perform motions in front of. Like the Power Glove, it too barely worked.

Unfortunately, his pride was at stake too, so he also kept playing up the greatness of the U-Force. This eventually turned into a pissing contest between the two of us, as we both tried to garner support from our schoolyard chums about which was better. Recess debates went something like:

“Why would I want to swing around at nothing? With the Power Glove, I put it on and I’ve got the POWER to control everything.”

“The U-Force is so advanced you don’t even NEED a glove. It just detects your movement, any movement! It’s the future!”

It was a strange situation: we both knew our device sucked, and we also knew the other’s device sucked just as much. It was hard to keep a straight face when arguing the merits of one over the other. The debates would always end with the promise of an epic battle:

“Fine. We’ll play Double Dragon 2-player using U Force and Power Glove. Whoever wins has the best device.”

“You’re on.”

Of course this battle never happened. If it did, time would’ve run out before anybody even hit anybody else. It’d be just two characters on the screen jumping backwards, kicking randomly, or banging into walls.

Fortunately – for the both of us – the SNES was soon released, and the Power Glove and U-Force quickly faded into irrelevance, ultimately ending up in garage sales and pawn shops across North America.

Like I mentioned before, I live in one of these old Shanghai lane houses. I’ve lived in a few of them in the city, and I’ve generally chosen these apartments over hi-rises because they’re cheap (unless it’s a lane house in the old French Concession area), they’re central, and they’re definitely not sterile. They’ve got a certain charm to them, and it’s kinda neat to live in a building from old Shanghai’s heyday, and look out your window to see new, modern Shanghai with its skyscrapers and neon lights looking down on you.

Well, charm only goes so far and after living in several of them now, I’ve had just about enough of old lane houses. When my lease ends next month I am out of here and moving to a modern high rise apartment building.

Read the rest of this entry →

[View with PicLens]

Obama’s recent trip to Shanghai and Beijing made me decide to go through some pics of when I first came back to China in late 2006 and visited Beijing for the first time. Other than the city itself (which is awesome and deserves its own post), I checked out the Forbidden City (故宫, literally ‘Former Palace’) and of course, the Great Wall (长城, literally “long fortress”.)

The Forbidden City is massive – my friend and I got lost several times trying to work our way through it. When I went, some significant construction/restoration was going on, so it would be nice to go back and see how it was completed.

Another reason I’d like to go back is because the eyesore that was Starbucks located on the site was shut down because of public pressure. Call me fascist, but I was thrilled to hear this. It’d be like having a McDonalds in the courtyard of the Taj Mahal.

The Great Wall is one of the few landmarks I’ve visited that is more impressive in person than in pictures. I’m not good at describing things like this, but looking out into the valley and seeing the wall snake over mountains for miles is incredible.

The only issue I had was that even on a freezing day in early December, it was completely packed with tourists; so much so that half the time, walking on the wall was just being stuck in a tourist traffic jam. I couldn’t imagine visiting during a busy season. That said, still more than worth it. Next time I hope to check out some more remote (but less preserved) sections of the wall, other than Ba Da Ling.

The Chinese have a saying: “You aren’t a great man until you’ve been to the Great Wall.” I’m not sure I believe this though… Ellen has visited it more than once – wouldn’t that make her at least twice the man I am?

How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this concept was being brainstormed:

Boss: Alright gentlemen, Contra is really popular, so let’s come up with a two-player game with two gun-toting Contra-like guys.

Executive 1: PERFECT! And Satan… no, wait… a satanic goat… is the last boss!

I haven’t been to KTV (or karaoke) in Shanghai in a while, and damn… things have really changed.

KTV in Asia is a pretty different experience than what you see in the west. In the west, there is usually one KTV machine, and you generally sing in front of a crowd of friends and strangers in a bar or restaurant.

In Asia, this is almost unheard of. Generally, you rent private rooms by the hour. These rooms are usually pretty swanky looking with leather couches, mood lighting, big LCD TVs, and a touch screen KTV machine with a selection of basically any song or artist you can think of. Throw in a few microphones and a button to ring for room service, and you’re set.

Even cooler is that some places don’t mind if you bring your own booze too – this time I just ran down to the Family Mart and grabbed a few cans of Tsingdao.

In Japan, a lot of people just hang out in KTV rooms to sleep off a night of drinking (like we did last year) before catching the subway home in the morning, as it’s cheaper than a taxi.

I’ve never liked karaoke in the west, but the times I’ve gone in China and Japan, it’s impossible not to have a good time with a few drinks and some friends.

Well, we recently went to Haoledi (one of the two big KTV chains in Shanghai, the other being Party World/Cash Box) to have a few beers and sing some 80s songs.

But damn… how things have changed! Leave it to the 2010 World Expo and Haibao to ruin the party. Because of copyright laws that Shanghai has now decided to enforce, KTV clubs are now charged royalties for all of the music/videos they wish to play.

(To be fair, I think they were always charged royalties, but now these charges are actually being enforced.)

Unfortunately, rather than pay huge royalty fees, most KTV proprietors decided to just slash their selection of available music – especially western music. The results is that you’re lucky to find anything that you’ve even heard of, let alone can sing.

I guess it’s a win-win situation for the most part. The majority of KTV customers only care about the Chinese music selection, and the owners only care about not having to pay hefty fees. This would explain why there has been little uproar.

But my ability to live vicariously through John Parr or the Scorpions has now been replaced with humming along to Jay Chou songs, and singing the odd Chinese character on the screen I can read.

Downstairs in the food court area of one of the malls on Nanjing West Road 南京西路, we discovered something so great that life will never be the same again: “Enjoy Easy,” a 100 yen shop, full of cool, cheap, Japanese stuff.

100 yen shops in Japan are like dollar stores in Canada or the US, but full of quirky, clever, and very Japanese merchandise.

Naturally, almost everything in these stores goes for 100 yen (about $1.) “Enjoy Easy” sells everything for 10 RMB, which is a bit more, but it’s a small price to pay for some really cool crap from Japan!

The shelves are stocked with great stuff:

- Assortment of bento boxes and rice and soup bowls
- Tons of Japanese kitchenware
- Keychains of gorillas and godzilla that make the most annoying noises imaginable
- Japanese snacks
- Mugs, tea cups, tons of Japanese toys and trinkets
- A tooth brush that I just couldn’t live without:

And if I ever needed any proof of the power and reach of this blog, well look what they decided to stock, clearly after reading last week’s post:

After hearing a lot about this Canadian restaurant called Julie’s Bistro, we decided it was our patriotic duty to go and check it out at least once. The restaurant is located on the Hongmei Pedestrian street in Hongqiao district, amongst a bunch of other foreigner bars and restaurants. Hongmei Pedestrian street seems to be to North America what Xintiandi is to Europe.

Other than poutine (which Julie’s is infamous for, being the only restaurant in Shanghai, or maybe even China, to have it on the menu), I’m not sure exactly what qualifies as “Canadian” food, but it appears to be pancakes, waffles, crepes, big English breakfasts, and typical bar fare food like wings and burgers.

While a bit overpriced, the food at Julie’s is great, and the portions are huge. Ellen got the “Emperor’s Breakfast” (2 eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, potatoes, fruit, 72 RMB) and I got the blueberry pancakes (3 blueberry pancakes served served with whipped cream, additional blueberries, and dragon fruit for 65 RMB). For 22 RMB you can get a bottomless cup of drip coffee, which is like weak diner coffee. Unfortunately, their other coffees are so pricey, it just can’t be justified (35 RMB, >$5, for a double espresso…?).

Overall, a decent restaurant for unpretentious, standard western food that is filling and decent quality.

It’s no secret that Obama is pretty popular in China. So popular in fact, that several t-shirt vendors and shops in Beijing have been selling what has to be one of the most bizarre souvenirs to catch on in a while: “Oba Mao” t-shirts, bags, etc. which display President Obama’s likeness dressed in a Red Guard uniform, staring in a Chairman Mao-like pose.

I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean exactly, but apparently they’ve been selling like crazy.

Not while Obama visits China later this month though. Beijing Municipal Government officials have warned shops to stop selling the merchandise while Obama visits (although they can resume after he’s left.)

Shanghai gets its fair share of rain, and it often comes unexpectedly and in short bursts. When it starts to rain, vendors come out of nowhere selling umbrellas on the side of the street for 10 RMB or so. Unfortunately, the quality of these umbrellas is garbage, and they are as ugly as sin. That is, unless you like random Chinglish sentences, or pictures of Snoopy.

This is not the case in Tokyo. In Tokyo, there seems to be a pretty standard white/transparent Japanese umbrella sold by some vendors and in most shops. You can get one like in the pic anywhere for 500 yen (around $5), and not only are they great quality, they have a comfortable handle, sturdy opening mechanism, and they’re pretty stylish too.

Why are these umbrellas not sold in Shanghai, or anywhere in China (or even the West)? It doesn’t make sense, because I’m sure they would sell like crazy. It’s safe to say they’re made in China, so importing shouldn’t be an issue. They’re cheap in Japan, so price shouldn’t be an issue. Everybody here thinks Japanese things are ‘cool’, so it’s not an aesthetic thing.

The only explanation is that some umbrella mafia has ties to the factories that make crummy umbrellas. They are in cahoots with all the street vendors and shops and are preventing these cool, cheap ones to be sold. I’m not trying to be funny – if you have a better explanation, I’d love to hear it.