Seriously. I had a hard enough time with Defender, so when Defender Stargate came out it was just too overwhelming. That’s how I feel with the video games these days. Too many button combinations to remember to be able to freaking enjoy playing. That’s why simple games like Guitar Hero are the best. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is available fro two platforms, Nintendo DS and more importantly in this case, The Nintendo Wii. Why? Because with the gyroscope motion sensitive controller you can use the involuntary muscle spasms and body movement to your advantage when pretending to skateboard. There’s a video showing how it works here. It’s actually kind of cool. That one guy might be related to Weird Al.

The marketing juggernaut for Tony Hawk’s Project 8 video game is already ramped up. Fileshack.com is a site devoted to all imaginable types of downloads concerning video games. In this case they they have a bunch of behind the scenes footage in the development of Tony Hawk’s Project 8. Project 8? How about behind the scenes footage of the guy who green lighted that name getting fired? I don’t think this footage is proprietary to the site though. You’ll have to endure multiple attempts and guilt trips from Fileshack.com to get you to sign up for an account and to get faster downloads. Whatever. Let me download it or not, quit making me jump through hoops. They have a bunch of videos on Project 8 (Genius!) available. The still above are from a motion capture session. Check it out.

Due to feedback on the column, this month I’m starting a “weird” auctions section, that features some of the more unusual items from the skateboards section of eBay. As always, this stuff is totally random; whatever catches my eye. I may miss some stuff that goes off, but hey, that’s life. If you guys see something good I missed, send it in! And as always, thanks for all of the comments, keep them coming. Now, on to eBay Watch for October 2006.

Old Steve is having problems with his email, so I have to paraphrase his intro. He wanted to mention that this kid Louie, the Aumsville expert is the best kind of team rider to sponsor because he never asks for boards and instead rides them until they are barely a nub of wood. He speculated that might be because Louie’s had two concussions complete with airlifts out of Aumsville, and some sort of skull surgery, so perhaps he can’t remember to ask for them. Anyway, the footage was all shot within 5 minutes of Louie arriving at the park, as I was trying to get grover to get in my car so we could leave. Not bad. Steve’s working out the bugs on his new intro footage. We promise it will be local skate company agnostic for the next one. Check out this edition of Grover’s Video Korner. Can there be any doubt that he’s in line for Interweb Infamy? Hold on, I like that. Make that Interweb Infamyâ„¢.

Late March of 2005. This cat’s name is Forest. See, with a name like Forest, you’re a “cat,” not a “dude.” This was taken on March 31st of 2005, and the park was nearly empty. Supernatural lighting is courtesy of the setting winter sun and a flash. See the whole thing after the jump.

This is the must watch skate video of the week. It’s amusing, and not nearly as creepy as these screen captures would lead you to believe. Please, let’s not turn this into a predictable tirade about how this makes fun of girls who skateboard, because it doesn’t. Sometimes things are just funny. I have no idea where this is from, or if the Japanese is legit, because the account has been suspended, but it’s still available on a German site. Update: That was fast. in the time it took to screen capture the vid it was gone as soon as I posted it, before I could save it. If anyone finds it again, let me know. I want to see mannequins rolling downhill on a skateboard. So should you. UPDATE: It lives! Thanks to Orezona for this link. Get it while you can!

MC scanned the Willamette Week’s version of a picture he provided for their article on Pier Park skatepark titled Finding Dreamland. You can find his original in color here and the article on line at the Willamette Week Online. I love pictures with numbers inside dots. Reminds me of old textbooks and museums. The black and white scan also adds a heavy 70’s vibe to it. Dreamland has been getting a lot of Oregon press these days.

A paintball goofball is trying to trade his Ramones skateboard for video games. You may know him as Paintballkilla14, but he also wants you to know he is a Christian. If catches wind of this, he will hopefully represent his religion better than the kids on the Fusion Affect team represent their shop. Anyway, trade your video games for Paintballkilla14’s skateboard here. If he’s into playing paintball he might not be completely fat yet. It’s a pretty high adrenaline activity.

In the same month that grover learned to do these flyout benihanas at Newberg a couple of years ago, not one, but two major skateboarding magazines made fun of them in print. I believe it was Transworld and Thrasher. I used to have them saved but by now the pile has grown so large, it will take forever to find them. Fortunately for Steve, I cut off his head in this picture so nobody will know who he is. Oops! That’s OK. He’ be more embarrassed to be seen wearing a shirt with the logo for that extra heinous surf shop that he used to work for. You can still spot Steve doing these all the time, usually accompanied by a loud outburst designed to draw more attention to himself.

My subscription ran out. A while ago. I haven’t bothered to renew it, and they let it slide for a couple of months. Now they want me back. On the same day I received two offers to renew my subscription. One from Thrasher, and one from a magazine subscription place that already knew I had a subscription. The Thrasher direct price, was of course lower per year by about $7 than the magazine subscription company. I don’t care about that, but I do find it kind of sleazy that Thrasher sells their subscription info to third parties.