.......... Has sadly been delayed. With so many things going on, I just wasn't able to submit it on Pico day.

P-bot felt so bad about the situation that he came by and personally apologized for the delay.

Tom wasn't sad anymore.

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Last weekend Luis, and I went over to the New York Comic con. We had a good time, met a few users and even partied up with Old Time NG submitter Eric Black. One thing Newgrounds never had was a booth at a con all to its own. Eric has been doing the cons for years and states theres a hardcore NG following thats being neglected here on the east coast.

So my question is, if we decided to get a booth at the Big apple Con would any of you go? It would be a good way to meet some newgrounds users without having a mod meet, get some NG merch out there that isn't available in the store yet, play some flash games and just basically chill, without the pressures of running a huge booth.

If it was popular enough , then we would consider returning to the larger Cons that show up,

so basically I would like a show of hands, NG Booth at Apple con and possibly next years comic con?
yay or nay?

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Sup Fools,

I have a pretty sweet surprise for ya. We decided to give the winners of the Pico Day Contest this year , somethin' extra. Something a little more personal, and if you are a true NG fan a little bit more rewarding as well. On top of all the prizes they already receive, the first , second and third place will also be getting a Pico Day trophy!! These Silver plated Picos come on a mounted stand with Pico Day 2008 and the Winners Name Printed on it! I'm actually pretty jealous of you guys, because I will always be ineligible for one of these .

This brings us to our next big feature. The Video Blogs! The feature is still in beta so if you catch any bugs please let the Rob know. He's the mastermind behind coding the embed function. Now when you write a blog you have the option to include a picture or a video. The feature is very new, so we have a few video sites available for upload. Those are, YouTube, Revver, Vimeo, and GameTrailers.

So as a Test Drive I decided to up load a video rotating around the trophy so you can catch it in all its glorious angles.
This is gonna be the BEST PICO DAY EVER!!! ok time for some tea

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Im extending the deadline to the little competition I'm throwing in the art forums till the end of the month.

Basically using my bus or train template show me your taggin/bombin' skillz. Just make sure you do the art on a separate layer in flash.
I plan to have the pieces in both the movie and game Im working on. Alot of submissions will get in. Only the first 5 will get a Tshirt of their choice from the NG store , as well as a bunch of stickers. you now have till the end of the month to jump on this.

Sup Fools,

I have a pretty sweet surprise for ya. We decided to give the winners of the Pico Day Contest this year , somethin' extra. Something a little more personal, and if you are a true NG fan a little bit more rewarding as well. On top of all the prizes they already receive, the first , second and third place will also be getting a Pico Day trophy!! These Silver plated Picos come on a mounted stand with Pico Day 2008 and the Winners Name Printed on it! I'm actually pretty jealous of you guys, because I will always be ineligible for one of these .

This brings us to our next big feature. The Video Blogs! The feature is still in beta so if you catch any bugs please let the staff know. Now when you write a blog you have the option to include a picture or a video. The feature is very new, so we only have a few video formats available for upload. Those are, .MOV, MP4, and MPEG.

So as a Test Drive I decided to up load a video rotating around the trophy so you can catch it in all its glorious angles.
This is gonna be the BEST PICO DAY EVER!!!

This one goes out to all the MetroSexual, tight jeans wearing, camel toe sportin "dudes" that think all girls want is a guy that looks like cloud from FinalFantasy.

You're so Gay, and you don't even like boys

edit* due to the overwhelming demand of this video by girls looking for real men, the page was overloaded. the link has been redirected to the feature page, click the "Katy Perry Ur so gay"

Well Pico Day is almost upon us again, and I can't say how much I love this day. I literately get up early that day, head to the office, turn on my comp, grab a bowl of cereal, and enjoy the morning like I used to as a kid in front of the tube watching my Saturday morning cartoons.

I'm also glad Tom mentioned that he is only too happy to see fresh toons and games about not just Pico but of the whole Pico universe. A decision I'm sure was greatly influenced by some of the many awesome submissions that revolved on not just Pico. Flashback00 and Darnells Burn 'em up come to mind.

So on that note, Ive decided to make a flash about another unsung hero of the Pico Universe.
It's the first real Toon I've done in a while, and a nice break from sprite work.
The plan is to give my storytellin' chops a run for their money, and make a toon thats at least twice as epic as Pico's Unloaded was. Which should be an easy task considering how Busted that toon looks now, haha.

Aight before I get any hassles this is about a transformer figure, yea thats right. Imma talk about Toys,

so if that ain't your bag, go complain to somebody else about it.

Now that thats out of the way... I wanna talk about the Megatron Figure I got today ^_^
Before Megatron became what he is today,a walking pile of metal scrap.He actually transformed into something recognizable . That would be the Walter P38 handgun. Now, I know that isnt much of an improvement with what we have now, but thats the Megatron I grew up with.
There has been transformer lines coming from many companies outside of Hasbro and Takara, even more so than ever now that the movie has been a big hit.
Before the movie though, there was a transformer line by the company "Tomy". Their Goal is to produce very detailed versions of the G1 transformers, that not only could transform, but are Show Accurate, especially in robot mode.
Some of you probably have the 25th anniversary Optimus Prime, which is the MasterPiece Prime, that was brought over. Since Optimus, there has been MP Starscream and MP Megatron. Starscream was a walmart exclusive which I couldn't find anywhere, but I was lucky enough to get one for Christmas! (Yay!)
MP Megatron is another matter. Since hes based off the orginal Megatron that was a gun, the probability of him getting brought over is next to none. Whats worse is Importers were charging triple the amount to add the orange cap on the barrel (US specs) in order to import him.
Well, my luck finally came in when I was able to snipe one off ebay, unmoded, for a fraction of the importers price!
He's an awesome figure. Hes totally huge, (He needed to be Primes Size or bigger) and has tons of little details. Things that stand out are his articulation, like his individuals fingers, and ability to turn the neck and legs, as well as a cool little light within the arm cannon.

Making it show accurate does have its draw backs. For starters, he doesn't have the mass as a gun, like he does in robot form. Even though they doubled the size of the gun, he still was stretched apart to the limits. For example his legs were beefed up by having a section of the handle pulled out at the calf, as well as having the trigger ring folded inside of the leg. The exact thing was done to his shoulders as well. On Top of this the arm and leg joints are hidden in the handle and hammer section of the gun, so in robot mode these parts are pulled out, leaving these sections even more hollow.

Gripes aside its still an ambitious attempt at making something as impossible as Cartoon megatron transform perfectly into his gun mode and back.

and yes thats the original megatron in gun mode in the inset picture.

Man time flies. I can't believe last month marked Red Baron's year on the Portal.
Despite a few flaws, Baron still gets Frosty and I alot of E-mails. Some good , some not so good, but the fact that people Still play this game to this day is a testament of the love and effort we put into that game. Originally Baron was simply an Idea I came up with to use characters from sprite I've made long ago. That evolved into a small contest on my site for everyone to chip in sprites they might have made before or wanted to make.
The Contestants were displayed in the form of an American Idol Parody. Once everything was in place. PsychoGoldish was orginally going to code the game, but got busy(lazy) XD, and I was off searching for another Coder. I had just finished NightStrike with GlaielGamer and asked him if he had any suggestions as to who could best do the job. he pointed me towards Frosted who had created a game called the White Knight, Ironically. the game was alot of fun, I told Glaiel that it was very Good, but can he Do Z depth??. He basically told me to ask him myself, and the rest was history!!
I had a great time working with Frostedmuffins, he's a good guy, open to alot of ideas, hard worker, and a heart of gold. Cant wait to get started on our next game.

So In honor of Red Baron being on the Map for over a year, I've decided post some Strategies on the game as well as maybe a secret or two.

First Up the last Boss. This alien Boss created by Zombie-Pimp can be pretty Tough. Alot of people have complained that he's a bit cheap. So Ill go ahead and tell you how I beat him. If someone knows a better way, hey post it.

1) in his Giant robot form, he takes very little damage unless you dizzy him. To Dizzy him you Lock his fist with your scythe . You can do it with other weapons but the scythe has reach and is quicker. Basically get as close to him as possible then hold your shield up. when he strikes immediately attack. Do it fast or he will push you to far away. When you lock arms you will have to tap really fast to break the lock, there is a gauge on top, if you fail to do this he will do triple damage so DO IT! Once you break the lock he will be Dizzy. Start attacking. rinse repeat until his body explodes revealing his next form.
2) the little Alien is annoying and fast, and his combo can sometimes be hard to break. what you need is something fast. Switch to claws. The claws first strike aim down for a reason! Strike down and then try and time your loop combo to make it last as long as it could. A good trick is to make him hit the wall. This causes a little bit more damage, but most importantly it makes him bounce right back into your claws so you don't have to tap forward to continue your combo! Do this and he will change into his last form, the robot spider.
3) the Spider is fast, and his strikes are really fast and his bombs are annoying. move away, and switch to axe. The spiders attacks overhead, and the axes' under swing goes right in and cancels it.
Do this until you have to defend from the bombs. The spiders trick is to make you block from the bombs while he breaks down your shield from attacks. so remember to start movin if your shield is low. The axe doesn't have a looper combo, so remember to stop yourself before you start to change weapons. Thats right the trick with the spider is NOT to combo!
And Thats it!

Oh a couple of extra tidbits people might not know. Theres a "beat the car" bonus stage at the end of every level. To get it you need to have a certain amount of coins before entering the boss fight.
The First Stage is 60, second is 100, third is 150 , fourth 200. It isn't as easy as it looks as the coins from previous stages don't count. you basically need to learn how to do a certain trick. You need to position your enemies at one end of the screen,start attacking, then right when the screen starts to move, do your shield dash attack and juggle them back. This keeps them spitting out coins long after they have died.

Another way to get coins for weapons and restarts, is by getting the BBB! bonus. Yes its a play on StrawberryClock's famous flash., but it also stands for something. "Beat Boss Blockless" which means you cant defend at all during the Boss fight! That means you have to beat them the hard way, no Dizzies!

Anyway. thanks to Newgrounds for letting us get some of our games and Ideas out there to the people Quicker and better than any system could.

PS. Jak Baron King Rules you All in Survivor Mode.
Read his Blog he reveals all his tips and secrets!!

I always wanted to wait until something really important or meaningful warranted a blog. well, Nothing warrants that than the termination of Gamespot's more recognized and respected of Editors. Jeff Gerstmann. I'm sure you all have seen the countless articles that have flooded the net at this point.
Basically the game ,kane and Lynch by Eidos was supposed to be a success, a runaway hit title the company banked on. In an effort to make sure it was a success Eidos, invested 100s of thousands of dollars into Gamespots advertising. When Jeff's review was released, the funds were apparently revoked.
If theres any question about Eidos's integrity
know this, they know the importance of a score to their wallet

The termination of Jeff isn't just another typical corporate move slams the little game review company scenario. This is a slap in the face of what made the gaming phenomenon so profound in the first place. Its visceral, and exciting, and alive. Big media has since tapped much of that excitement out of music and films. So now it has its sights set on the budding Gaming Medium.

Jeff represented a lot of what gaming was and what it is no longer. A no holds barred ,fragfast, medium, unapologetic, and unchained by worldwide pressures of a bloated system that need mass revenue consumption to sustain. Now that games are main stream. Theres no room for fresh new, and exciting. The powers that be need to make it a cost effective profit machine, even if that means all the raw unbridled passion that originally went with it is subdued, in an effort in keeping the machine moving.

Slowly but surely, the change from gaming phenomenon to media mainstream has been taken effect. Video Games Shows are slowly being taken over with the typical E Access Hollywood flair, complete with female models and fake smiles.

Game companies are hiring spoke-persons now to sell their products. (Jade Raymond anyone?) Gone are the days that the nerdy disheveled programmer gets a chance to enthusiastically promote their dreams and goals.

We all respected Jeff because he told it like it is. A lot of people gave him flak for it, but many more respect him for it. While he may have been known as the 8.8 guy (for giving the Wii Zelda that Score) many more seem to also forget he had to fight to give that same property a perfect 10 when it first hit the Nintendo 64. He has proven himself over and over again with his expertise.

Beyond his reviews, Jeff is an incredible personality. He brought much needed fun and humor to his Video reviews and his hosting on, On the spot. Balancing out the video duds like Richardo and Brad Shoemaker, who seem to fumble and eat their words whenever on camera, Jeff was always there to keep things moving, keep things fun and fresh.

I sincerely hope the best for Jeff Gerstmann, but I have no doubt he will succeed in whatever he applies himself to. He is an incredible talent, there's no question.

It's the rest of us now that I'm worried about.

In closing, there is nothing more I can say here. Besides, words are meaningless without action. As actions speaks volumes of ones character and integrity such as Jeff. So I will end this blog with a simple, click.