Week of August 24, 2003

Sandstorm Locator Du Jour

By Nick15 [Saturday, August 30 2003]

A Quick Diversion: I gotta go to work now. And I'm hungry. Dilemma dilemma...


The Actual News:

Big Daddy Snorlax at WizPOG posted this up yesterday, but unfortunatly I didn't catch it until now... If you're trying to find a spot to play in that Sandstorm Pre-release tournament, look no further! Nintendo's Organized Play website posted this just yesterday and it has some of the locations for the Sanstorm pre-release tournaments. I'm told that there might be more listed soon (I sure the heck hope so, there's been nothing in the San Francisco Bay Area for ages!)

http://op.pokemon-tcg.com/events/sandstorm_locator_start.html

If you go to one of these though, do your Uncle Nick a favor and collect the entire set! If you can get me a cardlist of the set, I'll be your best friend....



ADV Episode spoiler for you!

By Scyther [Friday, August 29 2003]

A Quick Diversion: School!! Aaaah! Run for your life!!! *gets eaten by his 20 lb. Algrebra book*


The Actual News:

Hello, one and all! I'm Scyther no 123, aka Scyther.

You may have seen me around GenCon (I had a Scyther on the front of my shirt and "Scyther no 123" on my back).

Well, after talking with Nick15, he finally let me in on the fakecard.com action... I'm a new anime news scout (for now. :-p) While surfing, I came accross some very interesting anime news.

In Japan, the newsest episode is episode 317, "Bodyguard of the Watmel Field" Looking ahead at the episode names, I found something that caught my eye in the ADV series. NOTE: If you want to wait and see it in the US or where ever, then click a link now, because this is a heafty spoiler.

Epsidode 320, not a special, a real episode, is called "Enter Misty: Togepi and the King of Illusions!"... Hmm... I wonder who is coming back (insert sarcasm here)... I don't know any further than that (on that episode), but I do know that a new special will feature her and that Electabuzz crazy girl, Casey. (Casey will have a Meganium, too... yay.
So 2 new episodes, 1 plain, another special, both featuring Misty.

Thats all for now, and expect to get my Sandstorm scans sunday or monday!



Oh, yeah

By RyoShin [Friday, August 29 2003]

A Quick Diversion: I'll be off for most of this extended weekend, as I'm riding an air-o-plane home to visit the folks! Also, chemistry still sucks.


The Actual News:

Heh, forgot to make mention that the forums are back up, though you smart, smart visitors probably already knew that. ^^;

On a side note, we at the FakeCard forums are trying to run a REAL democracy through NationStates.net! Pretty much I create a new NationState, but everyone gets to vote on the issues that come up. Right now we're voting on stuff before signing up, so jump in early!



My haul from the hunt.

By BPM_EXE [Wednesday, August 27 2003]

A Quick Diversion: Don't forget! Tonight, August 27th, is when it will be the clearest to see Mars! And you won't be able to see it again for another... well... you most likely won't be alive to see it the next time.


The Actual News:

Well, I did go as planned. Traffic wasn't too bad. Had to drive my mom's car ('03 Toyota Corolla) instead of mine ('92 Geo Prism), which I didn't care much for. Can't say I don't like driving her car much (the seat doesn't go back far enough). And I didn't print out any fake cards or PA! ads. But, I suppose word-of-mouth could help.

Anyhoo, I got a nice bounty from it. Not as nice as OD2's haul, but good, nevertheless. Here's what I got my paws on:

-Five Eon Ticket Card-es
-Four pin sets (two Silver Version, and two Gold Version)
-Three Hoenn Dex posters (like the one from Nintendo Power a while back)
-Four Pokémon figures (Articuno, Charizard, Mewtwo (yay!), and Mew (more yay!).)

So, now I'm gonna share the wealth. Give the posters, Eon Tickets, one Gold Version pin set, and one Silver Version pin set to some of my friends. I'm keeping the figures, though! Mwa ha ha!

Oh. Yeah. One more thing! While I was there, I met Meowth346 (owner of PA! affiliate, Pokémon Forever). He was a pretty cool guy. We just talked about stuff. Nothing much. Though, he did show me his plans for the next version of his Pokédex. That way, once it is up, I can say, "Hey, I saw that when it was just a sketch!" Umm... yeah.
And if you ever doubted his advanced knowledge of the games, doubt no more. I saw his Japanese copies of Pokémon Yellow and Crystal. He tells me he always gets the Japanese versions as soon as they're available so he can get the data himself ASAP. Sounds like a good idea if I ever did hear one.


So, that was my fun-filled day. How was yours?


Gone Eon Ticking.

By BPM_EXE [Tuesday, August 26 2003]

A Quick Diversion: I got Soul Calibur II (GCN) and Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire (GBA) today. Yay! Both equal much fun.


The Actual News:

If anyone cares, I'll be going to the Eon Ticket tour at the Mesa, AZ Toys 'R' Us. If you want to meet me (just to shoot the breeze or whatever), I'll most likely be the guy with the following characteristics:
- Glasses
- Cargo shorts
- Navy blue Big Dogs t-shirt (has "Spider-Dog" design on the back)

Perhaps I'll use this as a way to advertise PA!... maybe I'll try and print some of my fake cards... even though it won't be great. I lack any sort of good printing resources. Ah, well.


BPM, signing off.



Winnah Combusken Promo

By Nick15 [Tuesday, August 26 2003]

A Quick Diversion: I'm boring.


The Actual News:

I have two versions of today's news. The long version, and the short version. ....

The Long Version:
Nintendo has a new Pokémon league.
It will be releasing promos for the league.
One of the promos, as Son of Leod on the 'Gym pointed out, is a "Winner" Combusken.
Enjoy.

The Short Version:
Hi.



Collect Your Official Collectors Tin

By Nick15 [Monday, August 25 2003]

A Quick Diversion: It's hot today.


The Actual News:

Soslowpoke share this bit of info on the PokéGym...

I was browsing EB Games this morning (to check their estranged ship date for Sandstorm) I came across this...

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/238178.asp

Its quite neat...5 boosters (I'm hoping its 3 Sandstorm and 2 R/S and not the other way round) plus 2 holofoil Promos- I like

Looks like this will be due out with Sandstorm... hoping that there'll be more things like this for every set

Mmmm! 5 packs, a neat tin, a poster and 2 Promo cards for... $20? Not a bad. ... I suspect now that Nintendo's in charge they'll be working hard to pump out this sort of paraphanilia to help promote the game. Hmm.... well, whatever works.


System is down

By RyoShin [Monday, August 25 2003]

A Quick Diversion: Chemistry sucks. :'(


The Actual News:

Blarg. Forums have been down since yesterday early, and now apparently the server the forums were on is down, too. I've been trying to talk to the host, and hopefully everything will be cleared up soon. Sorry about all that.



ADV4 EX1 News.

By Nick15 [Monday, August 25 2003]

A Quick Diversion: September is the official month of ARTWORK for yours truly. First of Kaiserin Myuu gives me a challenge to draw 6 pictures using 6 art styles in two weeks. That'll be neat. Then I'm also gonna work on another 15 minute short film with my friends for our (public access) TV SHOW. On top of that, I have a little comic I'm gonna be working on called "Moose River", to which I intend on having 100 copies made to be released at various San Franciscian record stores and/or sold. ... Then maybe I'll also get around to working on Razzo. And not to mention school starts this week, another glorious semister of general education film courses. Bleh. ... So yeah.


The Actual News:

I have to apologize to you folks, I made a bit of a boo-boo. Not horrifically large... heck, it's hardly much for my enemies to use against me in a court of law. But apparently I've been calling the next Pokémon TCG set the wrong name. What we've figured to be known as "ADV4" is really called... (get this) EX. Yeah, EX. Not quite surprizing, considering that we've all pretty much seen it when the assimilation of various elements Wizards added to the game, particularly the Promo Star, 1st Edition Symbols, and card numbers. EX is just one more tiny bit of evidence that the Japanese want to be JUST LIKE US when they grow up. Aww... how cute!

Now this information comes straight from resident Japanese-speaker vincent0906, who has done pretty well on keeping us up to date on various goings-on with the Japanese version of the TCG. Here's what he had to say about it...

his set is not call ADV4 .....(shocked)

Ectually... It's call EX1
The name of this set is "Two arriviste( I think this words...|||)"
About Team Aqua and Magma...

It will be release at 24 of October...
Also...
Two theme deck will release too at that day.
But there are three options to buy them...
1. Two Aqua
2. Two Magma
3. one magma and one aqua
It means that the player must buy at least two half deck =___=
Terrible.....|||

OK, well, EX1. But still. And we have a date as well (whoo).

The title "Two Arriviste" isn't any sort of Engrish on Vince's part (give the guy some credit, I'm sure his English is better than your Japanese). QUite the opposite, it does make a bit of sense here. Webster's Dictionary defines "arriviste" as "a person who has recently acquired unaccustomed status of wealth; upstart". Now since Teams Magma and Aqua are the new kids on the block (thus arrivistes), and there are two of them, the title "Two Arriviste" seems quite approriate. However since the word "arriviste" isn't actually a word many people know of (I'm in bloody college and I didn't know that word existed), so the chances of it being retranslated State-side as plain ol' EX:Duel/EX:Dual or something totally different are pretty high.

Another interesting bit of info is the mention of THREE mini-decks as opposed to the previously assumed number of TWO. One for Team Magma, one for Team Aqua, and a mix of both. Maybe they're trying to encourage the fact that you can use either/or/both Team's Pokémon in one deck. Hmmmm?

Well, at least we got a date. Expect some more news to surface in the days to come. OH! Speaking of the date, it just so happens that this set will be released 4 days after my birthday (October 20th). So if anyone's particually willing to give good ol' Uncle Nick a present... [wink wink]


Miscellaneous Pokémon News

By BPM_EXE [Sunday, August 24 2003]

A Quick Diversion: I'm back in school. Started last Monday. What a bummer.
But it IS my last year. And I have only four classes (out of seven periods, one being lunch). That's cool.
But one of them is Calculus BC. Which is one of the two hardest classes on campus. It made my brain explode.

... and this is your brain on Calculus BC.


The Actual News:

Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire


If you haven't noticed yet, there is now a commercial being aired for the new Pokémon Pinball. And it's out, I think. I haven't checked yet. And I won't bother. I just spend my only $50 reserving Soul Calibur II for GameCube. So, I have no money to get Pinball. Which is sad. I need another Game Boy game to keep me busy when GameCube is no accessable.




Nintendo's TCG League Season One Kits


Thanks to Noah121 from PokéGym, we now know the contents of the league kits. Don't click that link if you don't want to be spoiled, eh!




Rarity EXchange


According to this topic at the Gym, the rarities in EX: Ruby & Sapphire have been mixed slightly. Now, instead of a Pokémon-ex card replacing a normal rare card, it'll replace a holographic rare card instead. Which does make sense, but makes it harder for you to get the Pokémon-exs. Ah, well.




Border Change

from Nintendo Power


As you can see from this scan, the design of the cards have changed slightly. Already. The border now has a row of gray lines. Makes it look more like something from the Card-e Block. I personally won't complain. But it'll probably be slightly annoying to all blankers out there.




Still EXperimenting.

I still need the 9-digit codes from EX: Ruby & Sapphire cards. If you forgot how it goes, it's like this. When you open a pack, keep all of the cards in the same order. Then send me info of each card. And it should look like this:
1. Card #1's name - Card #1's card number - Card #1's code
2. Card #2's name - Card #2's card number - Card #2's code

And so on until the ninth card. The first card is the first card you look at face up (which would be a common, unless there was a packaging error).


And that's all I got for now. And I still want one of those Pokémotions.