Zombie Rollerz is a zombie-themed medieval fantasy pinball game.

Each level is a pinball layout with flippers on the bottom (no middle dead zone so if you leave the flippers down the ball can't exit) and a rounded field with areas you can get to, some with more flippers.

There are zombie generators which pop up zombies that then move slowly down towards you. Hit a zombie with a ball, or hit a generator with a ball, to do damage and eventually kill the zombie or destroy the generator. You also have special powers which power up as you do damage and then you release for effects like fireball or multi-ball.

When a zombie reaches the bottom you take damage and you can use the flippers to hit the zombies. Take enough damage and you lose the game.

Fairly good graphics and sound. Gameplay is ok, pinball like though arcade pinball not realistic pinball.

This game reminds a bit of The Pinball Wizard (2019), also on Apple Arcade. The Pinball Wizard feels more like a pinball game. Zombie Rollerz seems to have so much frenetic combat and things exploding that you don't have strategic hitting the ball like in pinball (though Zombie Rollerz helpfully, as a ball rolls along a flipper, show you with a curved arrow exactly where the ball will go).

Kind of an entertaining game though a bit too random for me.

Update: Oops, another game that left Apple Arcade.

Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) [/] Apple TV+ Movie. Contemporary drama. Recent college graduate Andrew (Cooper Raiff) is sort of aimlessly going along searching for a meaningful career when he stumbles upon being a party starter at bar-mitzvahs — the guy who is there to make everyone is having fun and arranging things so that everyone can have fun (e.g. introducing people to each other, encouraging participation in dancing and party games, making sure small problems are resolved so that the hosts don’t have to stress). Anyway he falls for a decade-older single mother Domino (Dakota Johnson) who has a teen autistic daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt). Though maybe Andrew is a bit too young for Domino who is also engaged to a lawyer (and the only problem I have is that the lawyer is supposed to be a loving guy is is right for Domino but it just does not come off so the characters actually have to say this fact out loud)… Sort of a 20-something coming-to-adulthood story and not bad.

Secret Invasion (2023) [/] Secret Invasion is a 6-episode Disney+ drama series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current timeline. Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) returns to Earth (apparently he’s been self isolated at the SHIELD space station after coming back from The Blip). A Skrull revolutionary, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), wants the Skrulls to rise up and secretly take over Earth. Fury needs the help of Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and his daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke) although it turns out the relationship between the three is going to be rocky… Marvel’s non-superhero secret agent stuff is not that interesting to me and Secret Invasion got mixed reviews. The lone light is Olivia Coleman’s standout performance playing MI6 field director Sonya Falsworth, an ally of Fury’s but also cognizant that the UK’s interests trump the USA’s in her book.

Raid: Shadow Legends (2020) on macOS [/] The base RSL is a great free-to-play game though a bit annoying trying to make you purchase stuff. Still worked great on my iPad Pro (top of the line back in 2017) though not on my iPad 5th gen from 2017. On my MBP (top of the line, last Intel version) it also works fine though it makes the fan kick and will use 200%+ CPU cores at times (and also you have to have Plarium Play running beforehand otherwise the game locks up in the start screen). Does feel clumsy using a mouse rather than tapping because you have to move around and click stuff a lot and I don’t think there are any keyboard shortcuts. So overall because it’s such a repetitive game I’d prefer to play this on a bigger screen touch device like an iPad (iPhone SE3 screen is still too small for this game). (On a PC there are automators that will play for you so that’s an advantage but I don’t think the terms of service allow that.)

Foundation: The Official Podcast s2 (2023) [+] This continues be a great companion to the Apple TV+ series. One podcast per episode and there are spoilers for the episode. Jason Concepcion is the host and drives the show. Executive Producer David S Goyer is in every episode and there is one guest per episode (actor, writer, production, etc). We do get a bit more on the tech and world of Foundation without spoilers and they're fairly good at bringing up things you may have missed on a first viewing.

Foundation season 2 jumps forward 140 or so years. After the Galactic Empire abandoned the rim worlds the Foundation on Terminus is now established on six or seven other worlds bringing technology as those worlds slide downwards without trade from Empire. This leads to the second crisis when Brother Day (Lee Pace) and the Empire realizes that the Foundation has become a rival power that must be brought to heel with an Imperial Fleet.

Meanwhile we have the trio of Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), her daughter Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) -- a daughter older than Gaal due to cryogenic travel -- and the Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) consciousness trapped in the Prime Radian and later given a body. They travel to a Ignis to establish the Second Foundation and on Ignis the find a colony of Mentalics (mostly telepaths, not sure if we see other powers). Turns out their leader knows about the three and wants to use them, especially Gaal, for her own purposes a bit at odds with being Second Foundation.

On Trantor, capital of Empire, we have a break with tradition as Brother Day decides to get married to Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith) of the Cloud Dominion (a significant region of the Empire) and break the genetic (clone) dynasty. This would leave Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) out of the effective line of succession though to complicate it he kind of falls for Sareth who also likes Dawn because Day is one of the more unstable clones in history. As for Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), he finds out Demerzel's (Laura Birn) secret history and for that he must die.

Back to Foundation on Terminus. The Hari Seldon there makes an appearance for the first time in 140 years. Then has two missions sent. High Claric Poly Verisof (Kulviner Ghir) and his assistant Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) are sent to Trantor to make peace before there is war. These two are an example of how Foundation has been spreading, by proselytizing like a religion, the religion of Hari Seldon.

The other mission sends Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas) to suborn the Spacers, a race created by Empire to navigate the FTL medium (Empire FTL travel requires normal people to be put in stasis or they'll go mad, leaving the Spacers to run the ship in FTL; but Foundation FTL doesn't require Spacers which is quite the tech leap). Hober was born on Terminus and raised on the church but went his own way to become quite the con man. He and Constant quickly develop an attraction even as their missions send them apart.

That was a lot of description and an indication that a lot goes on in this 10-episode season. Season one was also quite dense but had to establish baselines. Season two builds on season one and is very rich. It feels like Foundation is hitting it's stride and season three should be quite impressive.

Reigns: Beyond is the fourth Reigns title. I previously played and reviewed Reigns which I liked. It's a deck based story game. You're the king and each random card draw usually gives you a situation and two choices. Your choice changes various attributes of your kingdom (religion, population, military, wealth) and you're trying to build up your kingdom. As the game progresses new decks are shuffled in and the exact decks can vary so you get a fairly unique experience each run through.

Reigns: Her Majesty is the same basic gameplay but now you play the queen. Reigns: Game of Thrones you get a choice of which leader to play then it's the same trying to build up your kingdom goal.

Now we get to Reigns: Beyond which is quite different though still the same deck based story choices. This time it's set on another planet. You wake up with amnesia and the only survivor of an advanced spaceship with a secretive AI. You immediately fall with three musicians and become the guitarist of an interstellar rock band.

At that point it's kind of open. Each band member has subplots and you have your subplots. You are given the choice of about half a dozen directions to travel to and it tells you the planet names (important for some subplots) and some icons (e.g. planet has a merchant or a bar). You choose a path then draw cards and resolve situations as you travel to each planet and in the end you get another set of paths to take.

Unlike Reigns the card draws don't tell you what's being changed behind the scenes and really you don't even know what the various attributes are that you are changing. On the ship and on planet you also wander around which is done with cards but isn't really random events. There is a guitar playing scene which is a bit like a beat rhythm game but all you do is move left and right following the path and picking up beats and it seemed to be the same song twice but maybe it gets harder.

It's an interesting variant and the topic is at least more original than a medieval or fantasy ruling-a-kingdom story. I'm not that enamored with the deck based game play so like Reigns it's a game to keep around and occasionally play.

Totoro Ramen, San Mateo [+] Family dinner and had DoorDash delivered. I had Miso Ramen (comes with roasted pork as the meat). Pour the soup into the noodles bowl and need to kind of let it soak and break it up for a couple of minutes. Came out delicious but maybe it’s because I like salty food and both the pork and soup were rather salty.

Long Way Up (2020) [+] This is the third documentary series, following Long Way Round (London to New York) and Long Way Down (Scotland to South Africa). A dozen years later Ewan McGregor and best friend Charley Boorman gather the same production crew to do a ride from Patagonia (Argentina) to Los Angeles. This time they're using electric bikes and support vehicles (with I think one gasoline vehicle for backup, which could tow-charge the electric SUVs) and they ran into quite a few difficulties because of that. Still the charm is driving through amazing scenery and cities and interacting with friendly people. Altogether the three series are very chill watching though it doesn't inspire me to do the same.

Take Me Back for Christmas (2023) [/] Hallmark movie. Renée (Vanessa Lengies) and Aaron (Corey Sevier) are a happy couple though perhaps not professionally that successful. After a Christmas wish is granted Renée wakes up in an alternate universe where she is CEO of her own company and her mom alive. Unfortunately she and Aaron broke up years ago so now Renée is determined to win him back while somehow navigating her company through a bit of a crisis… it’s an ok Christmas romance movie.

The Survivalists (2020) [/] This is an Apple Arcade crafting game with a story and quests and can be played cooperatively with three other people. You are shipwrecked on an island. Gather materials, craft gear, survive. Then start exploring and meet the island inhabitants and do quests... Nice concept but I found gathering all these materials so I can craft up then craft up again cycle rather annoying.

Crush Depth (2002) [-] Crush Depth is Joe Buff's third novel in his series about USS Challenger, an advanced SSN (nuclear submarine). Ten years in the future in a world where Germany and South Africa form an Axis pact, conquer Europe and Northern and Southern Africa, and are only opposed by the USA. At least in the last book Challenger battles the top South African SSN... I read the first 40 pages which had little submarine action and dealt mostly with I suppose are the two main protagonists. The writing style is not that great. I prefer techno-thrillers and this one has practically no techno -- the technology might be realistic for 10 years in the future of 2002 but it's not really described or elaborated. Overall boring and maybe some of this is I'm coming in at the third book rather than the first.

Triad Princess is a Netflix comedy/romance series made in Taiwan which ran six episodes and does not seem to have been renewed for a second season. Angie (Eugenie Liu) is a 20-something action girl who is also the local mob boss' daughter. She wants a bit of independence so enlists as a bodyguard to actress Ling Yun (Cecilia Choi Sze-wan) who just happens to be in a fake relationship with co-star Jasper Yi-hang Xu (Jasper Liu) and Angie has been infatuated with Jasper since she was a teenager.

Angie shows off that she's a bit of a spaz but quite capable in a fight and she's always a bit unwillingly shadowed by her adopted brother Lin Gui (Chang Zhang-xing) and his men so it's quite funny when she gets in over her head and then a bunch of mob men appear to help her out.

She quickly falls for Jasper and Jasper slowly falls for her though a rival beau is introduced, Angie's sort of childhood friend Eddie Kim (Tsao Yu-ning), son of a mainland mob boss and Angie's fiancé against her wishes. But when Eddie appears he's not as bad as she remembers (though it turns out maybe a bit more evil than she thinks).

Angie also helps out Ling who is being blackmailed by a local criminal who uses his and Ling's son as a bit of a hostage. Angie gets into a couple of fights with the guy and beats him but hasn't managed to rescue Ling's son by the end of the season.

Season one ends with those two plot lines: Angie and Jasper but Eddie is going to try to break them up; and Ling and her son which Angie has pledged to rescue.

The series has good characters. I love the badass that everyone underestimates. The romance happens fairly quickly but still takes two or three episodes so it's not a prolonged will-they-won't-they thing. It's too bad the series ends(?) at such a bad point.

Warp Drive is a futuristic racing game with teleporting hovercraft. You have vehicles and you can customize various parts with money you get from winning races. The racing controls are basic accelerate, drift, and two or three action buttons to trigger effects (boost, though there are also ground boost rollovers; teleport to an alternate section of track which may or may not be easier depending on your driving style; attack forward or lay a mine). One simplification is that you collect action points (up to three) which can then be used for any action (I tend to just use boost).

It's a colorful game with an action soundtrack. Controls are pretty smooth on my iPad Pro + Xbox controller. It is one of those racing games where you need to conserve action points until you need them to either boost if you end up stopped or to boost in that final stretch to the finish line.

Kind of reminds be a bit of the old F-Zero game even though they're really not that similar. But more in term of gameplay. Keep speed up and try to not crash. Bide your time to the end and then use boosts to catch up to the leaders and pass them for the win.

I can't find the game on the App Store any longer though my install still seems to work. It is available on Steam for Windows and Mac though $25 seems kind of pricey.

Taqueria Los Gallos Express, Concord [+] Concord location is open until 0100 and Pleasant Hill open 24 hours. Had Bistec Milanesa plate so breaded thin-cut of steak with refried beans, Mexican rice, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, 5 small corn (or flour) tortillas. Hard to do it wrong and this one tasted was quite all right (and a lot of food) for $19. Chips and salsa too if you order $7 or more. Staff is friendly and brings your food out to your table.

Book - Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words (2023) [/] Edited by Leslie Berlin, this book takes a bunch of Steve Jobs' emails, letter, speeches, and interviews and presents them in three parts as a coherent through-line of Jobs' philosophies. Other than editing for clarity and privacy these are Jobs' own words, including private notes and emails to himself, and show that his technology+arts theme was pervasive. There are also many photos throughout the years. Interesting book available online as a perpetual scroll-down work or you can get it in a more traditional book form (which is the one I read and it reads fine).

Hallmark Movie - Love in the Great Smoky Mountains: A National Park Romance (2023) [/] Archeologists Haley (Arielle Kebbel) and Rob (Zach Roerig) reunite at a Smoky Mountains dig. They had a romance at university but broke it off and now a few years later they still have feelings for each other... This is one of those safe, drama-free Hallmark Channel romances and is kind of enjoyable to watch when you're not in the mood for surprises or plot twists.

Podcast - Pushing Cardboard (2021) [/] I reviewed this a year ago and said it was a ho hum podcast then I unsubscribed. But turns out there are few even average wargaming podcasts so I recently resubscribed and caught up on the episodes. The host is an avid collector and gamer so he has lots to talk about in regard to new and old games being published. He also has some amount of interviews with both other wargamers and industry people. Still not an amazing podcast but pickings are slim so back on my listening rotation.

Silo season one is a 10-episode hour-long (more or less) drama on Apple TV+. The setting is a giant underground post-apocalyptic survivalist silo at least 140 years after a big revolt (so the Silo is older than that). Ten thousand people eke a living, though pretty much living recognizable normal lives (e.g. there is police and an IT department and small retail "stores").

The first episode turns out to be a bit of a preview, set a year or so prior. The sheriff (head of the police department, though the real power is the Justice Department's enforcers) and his wife (David Oyelowo and Rashida Jones) have this storyline where they're trying to have a baby (birth control is mandated by the government in order to keep the population at 10k) but not succeeding. The wife is an IT Department specialist and is asked by a "rebel" to examine an old hard drive (all tech is rigorously controlled and most research/inventions are strictly prohibited) which turns out to be pre-Revolution.

We culminate with the wife and later the sheriff asking to "go out". Every citizen can ask to leave the Silo but once stated it's an irrevocable decision. The citizen is ceremoniously fitted with a hazardous environment suit and given some cleaning supplies. They are asked to clean the outside video camera that shows the dead world outside. Apparently everybody, even if they insist they won't clean, end up cleaning the video camera. Then they try to walk around and die and that's what happens to the wife and sheriff.

Episode two the Silo needs a new sheriff and for some reason the old sheriff nominated Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), a blunt-speaking lead mechanical engineer working at the bottom of the Silo where they have the power generator and air pumps and such. Juliette has a vested interest in the job as she wants to solve the murder of her secret lover, which the sheriff was investigating before he decided to "go out".

The rest of the season is Juliette, essentially an outsider, trying to investigate the murder (which nobody wants her to investigate) while somehow doing her job. She starts uncovering secrets and a conspiracy about who really rules the Silo and we get a cliffhanger sort of season ending.

It's a fairly interesting series since there are many questions that as they are investigated lead to more questions. The environment and culture of the Silo is also interesting as even with only 10k people there is a stratification of society. Also there's the big question of whether or not it's actually safe to go outside.

Hopefully season two will still be interesting. You need to make it different for variety but not too different to turn it into a different sort of story.

I'm not sure you can find these on the Tyson web site but mom must have bought them from Tyson Panko Breaded Chicken Breast Tenderloins from Costco. Bake (these are uncooked) at 450 degrees for 20 minutes then turn over for another 7 minutes. Comes out crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside (I guess they're soaked in chicken broth before being breaded).

These are the most delicious home-cooked/warmed breaded chicken products I've ever had.

Apple Arcade - Beyond Blue (2020) [/] Beyond Blue is a casual/timeless scuba diving game where you can swim to sea creatures and examine them. Each level you complete a sequence of tasks -- find creature, examine, find buoy, use sensors, find data collector, get data, find non-mobile life, collect specimen -- and there is no time limit or dangers. The underwater simulation is fairly good and it's kind of nice just swimming around and watching the sea life. There is a hint of a plot but I only played two or three levels.

Podcast - First Contact Gamer (2022) [-] There are few table-top wargaming podcasts. First Contact Gamer had its first real episode Jan 2023 and nothing since so maybe it's dead already. The episode showed some promise kind of going for bigger/more serious wargames which is more in my interest. But I can't recommend a podcast with only one episode.

Anime - Revisions (2018) #1.1 to #1.9 [-] When they were kids Daisuke (voice Kōki Uchiyama) was kidnapped and saved by Milo (Mikako Komatsu) and told he has a destiny to fulfill. Seven years later he's that weird survivalist militia teen whose only friends are the four other kids who were with him seven years ago. And then the city of Shibuya is dragged from 2017 to 2338 where giant Revisions -- humans with a deadly disease that use machinery to keep them alive -- are out to enslave the 2017ers. Milo reappears as a representative of the Anti-Revisionists faction (a small minority of this post-apocalyptic world) but she doesn't remember having saved Daisuke. She does have mecha, String Puppets, that only the five teens can use. It's up the five teens to overcome their fears and inexperience and save Shibuya, even though a good number of the citizens think allying with the Revisions wouldn't be so bad... It's 12 half-hour episodes with really good animation and voice acting. But the teens, especially Daisuke, are really annoying. After nine episodes I decided that I wasn't interested enough to watch the remaining three.

Dreyer's Slow Churned Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream [+] I had the butter pecan ice cream and it was bad so I wasn't going into this with any expectations. But it's really good and I think because I love the cookie bits which are more like ice cream sandwich cookie than regular cookies. So it is kind of like taking an ice cream sandwich and mashing it up but with much better ice cream (I find ice cream sandwiches ice cream is not that rich and flavorful).

Movie - Rubikon (2022) [/] Science fiction movie. Aboard a space station three astronauts (played by Julia Franz Richter, George Blagden, Mark Ivanir) witness an apocalypse that wipes out most of the Earth. The astronauts have an algae that might help the survivors but it requires three people (for the CO2) to maintain the space station's habitat so either they all go down in a slim chance of saving the survivors or they all stay. Most of the movie is trying to solve that problem an the arguments as it's one astronaut who wants to stay, one who wants to go, and one who is not sure... I found the story interesting and the ending is foreseeable (though not necessarily predictable) from things set up in the beginning.

Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune is a 6-episode Netflix anime series based on a manga.

The setting is several decades in the future when Earth is contacted by space aliens and it turns out the galaxy is very inhabited with many factions and Earth is a primitive world with no resources except humans. There are lots of low-level brush wars out there and the various factions require disposable soldiers who come from the primitive worlds. The Trade Federation uses Earth as a recruiting depot for its low-budget army. Humans are called Yakitori due to a translation miscommunication.

The story revolves around a human infantry squad who are part of the garrison on a Trade Federation trade world. Trade Federation being cheap and exploitative the population is a bit restless, has lots of high tech weapons bought from the Trade Federation, and the TF embassy/military base is mostly fodder troops with a few TF Marines to command and back them up.

In episode one the natives launch their rebellion and the Yakitori are caught in the middle of it and they turn out to be surprisingly effective compared to the fodder. They are then tapped to infiltrate the rebel city and destroy their artillery then they have to somehow get back to base in time to be evacuated.

The whole series is this one battle plus flash backs to their training where it turns out they are an experiment. Trade Federation trains fodder troops using direct mind transfer. The experiment is training their squad using the old-fashioned method with a drill sergeant and lots and lots of physical training. In the end that results in a cohesive and flexible squad though they do bicker a lot.

Good graphics. Good infantry combat action. A short enough story that it doesn't get boring. Plots are resolved so a direct sequel is possible but not necessary.

Dynamite reprinted Swords of the Swashbucklers a few years ago and it was included in a Humble Bundle I bought. I wasn't expecting much but it's quite good. The reprint comprises a graphic novel (back when Marvel Comics had a specific Marvel Graphic Novel series) and then a 12-issue limited series.

Marvel Graphic Novel #14: Swords of the Swashbucklers. South Carolinian teen Domino Blackthorne Drake wandering the beach near her home discovers an alien device and accidentally activates it. This both infuses her body with alien energies that gives her elemental powers -- she will be able to turn her body into earth (invulnerability), air (flight and air blast), liquid (soak things and tidal wave form), or human flame (flight and fire blasts) -- and simultaneously summons a Colonizer scout ship.

Outside of our solar system the Colonizers have conquered this area of the galaxy. They go to a planet, kill all the natives, then colonize the planet for their exponentially growing population. Meanwhile they're opposed by pirate captain Raader and her Swashbucklers. On board the Starshadow -- in this universe space ships are actually sailing ships with cannons that use solar sails to maneuver -- she strikes back at the Colonizers though mostly in a pirate-y way, e.g. freeing captives but keeping all the loot.

Anyway, Colonizer scout arrives to threaten Domino and her family. Raader and Starshadow also arrive in time to rescue Domino who shows off her powers. Domino and her pet cat (who later becomes the sentient Cap'n Kidd) wind up on board Starshadow and enlist in order to help rescue Domino's parents who were captured the Colonizer scout. Turns out Raader's mother is Domino's great-great-great-...-grandmother, a pirate queen kidnapped by another Colonizer ship so Raader (half Colonizer, half human) is related to Domino (and family is very important to both Raader and Domino and guide some of their more suicidal missions in the future).

Oops, I've already gone into the limited series. In the 12-issue run Raader and Domino rescue Domino's parents then Raader has to be rescued then fighting the Colonizers, betrayal from Raader's XO, betrayal from a fellow rival pirate Black Bess, starting a rebellion against the Colonizers, then a final battle with the Colonizer fleet. The series ends with Domino and Cap'n Kidd back on Earth with her parents and some new relatives and it's a fairly good finish to the story.

Swashbucklers: The Saga Continues (2017) This is a five-issue story from Dynamite continuing right after the end of Swords of the Swashbucklers. Some dead characters need to be brought back to life an that's a bit deus ex machina and the Earth needs to be saved again which turns out to be more deus ex machina (and is commented as such by Cap'n Kidd). We do get everybody coming back though, the art is better, and the narration more contemporary (1980's comics are very wordy with lots of narration boxes and character exposition). Unfortunately I guess it didn't sell well because issue 5 ends with a cliffhanger shot and there hasn't been a sequel.

Overall, Swords of the Swashbucklers is an entertaining story and The Saga Continues is an ok sequel which unfortunately undercuts the ending of Swords.