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Affilliation
“The Secret History of Star Wars” (ebook)
I’ll let the author, Michael Kaminski, introduce his free downloadable book in his own words:
The Secret History of Star Wars is a new full-length e-book exploring the writing and creation of the Star Wars saga. Culled from over 400 sources and filled with quotes from people such as George Lucas, Gary Kurtz and Mark Hamill, The Secret History of Star Wars traces all the way back to 1973 to examine how the first 14-page treatment that began the series came to be and was slowly built, draft by draft, year by year and movie by movie. Covering a period of over four decades, you will discover how George Lucas got his ideas for the original film, how Darth Vader was made into Luke Skywalker’s father in 1978 and forever altered the arc of the story, what happened to the infamous third trilogy in the series and how the prequel stories came to be. The book also reveals the style and method of Lucas himself and how his personal life affected and shaped the story, for better and worse. This is a book which challenges many legends surrounding the series and places the films in a new light. For the more casual fan this will be a mesmerizing read and for those who think they know everything about the series, prepare to be surprised!
After going through the first few pages myself, it’s proving to be quite an interesting read. As with most things like this, take it with as much salt as you feel is needed.
You can download “The Secret History of Star Wars” for free from it’s official website.
Tags: has downloads, Star WarsNomad Log 2008.05/22, Geek Stuff and Lists
Geek Stuff
- A New Hope: The Future of Star Wars
- R2-D2 Ice Bucket with Han Solo Ice Molds Makes Any Drink Nerdier
- ‘Street Fighter’ Opens February 27th - After the Van Damme movie, I’m very leery of the words “Street Fighter live-action movie”. Let’s hope this will be different.
- Death Note Manga Spawns Movie, Crime Wave
- Vintage Japanese Robots Storm Sci-Fi Museum
- Grandmaster Flashed: Kasparov Attacked by Flying Penis-Copter
Numbered Lists
- The 9 Most Obnoxious Memes to Ever Escape the Web
- The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Bullsh*t Statistics
- 7 Pleasurable Ways to Improve Your Reading Ability
- 99 Extraordinary, Creative and Unusual Uses for Ordinary and Everyday Objects
- Tech’s 10 worst entry-level jobs
- Five Gadgets That Will Make You a Superhero - Something must be wrong with my browser because I only counted four.
Other Lists
- The ‘Winners’ of the Wired News Saddest-Cubicle Contest
- Mock the Apocalypse From a Stylish New Houseboat
- Annoying software: a rogues’ gallery
Vote for Your Favorite US Postal Service Star Wars Stamp!
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will be releasing a set of Star Wars stamps in celebration of Star Wars’ 30th anniversary. The stamps are scheduled to be released on May 25, 2007. Aside from having a chance to win trips to Star Wars Celebration IV (assuming you play the game on the website), you get a chance to vote for your favorite Star Wars stamp.
The USPS will have 15 stamps, but only one of the stamps will become it’s own stamp sheet. Apparently, this is only the 2nd time the USPS has asked people to vote for a stamp. Voting is free, there is no membership required (they will send you an email to reduce chances duplicate voters), so why not go be part of history and and cast your vote! Voting ends sometime in May.
PS:
The stamps can be found here.
The current tally can be found here.
I voted for the “Princess Leia & R2-D2″ stamp pictured below.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (OMFG!!!)
I don’t know why I haven’t run into this before!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game slated for November 2007 (this year) developed by LucasArts. Apparently, it’s going to be released in multiple platforms (though the PC doesn’t seem to be on the list so far). It appears to be an action game set in the time line between Episode III and Episode IV.
To me, being on semi-familiar ground is great, particularly since I don’t know anything before Episode I and I stopped after the Thrawn Trilogy. The setting is already pretty exciting since you get to see some of what Darth Vader has been up to since he became… well… Darth Vader. So, who do YOU play? His secret apprentice, of course!
Story wise, this is all well and good. But it’s a game, so it does have to actually play well. I don’t have much details on game play yet, but LucasArts seems to be doing a helluva good job at the visuals!
They teamed up with ILM and Natural Motion to create the “Digital Molecular Matter” graphics engine (DMM), and the job they did with the physics is amazing. They also made a “Euphoria” engine which models a person’s behavioral and instinctive reflexes and reactions (like grabbing on to something for deal life when falling).
When I saw these demos, all I managed to say was OMFG!!!!! Those engines are astounding!!!
Then I tried my best to keep my composure. After all, they’re just demos, who knows if the final product will deliver the same quality? Well, given that Metal Gear Solid 4 has the potential to be at par graphically, I think it’s believable that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed can hit its graphical objectives.
So far, it seems to have everything going for it already, so I am praying that the game play will do its graphics justice.
Tags: Star Wars, vidclip
