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It Was 20 Years Ago Today...


Steve Long

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Believe it or not, it was 20 years ago today that Darren Watts, Jason Walters, the Secret Masters, and myself bought the HERO System (and its related IPs)!

 

It's been a wonderful, amazing journey ever since -- one with its ups and downs, like any journey -- but still an awesome one. My deepest thanks to all the HERO fans out there who have made it possible!

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I have to thank all of the above-mentioned people for giving us Herophiles a Golden Age of Hero Games. DOJ Inc. came in when the game appeared all but dead, and produced more and more diverse Hero material than ever before, most of it of high quality. It's a tragedy that many of the company's plans for further publications were unable to be realized, and that new production slowed so dramatically over the second decade compared to the first. But I for one will always be deeply grateful for the many great hours of gaming, and heck, just reading, that DOJ provided me. You all should be very proud of what you accomplished. :thumbup:  :hail:  :rockon:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
14 hours ago, Tjack said:

Against their arch-enemies....The Blue Meanies!

          BEATLES.....TO......BATTLE!!!!!!!!

 

I once wrote a short adventure that featured the Blue Meanies as the opponents. But the Beatles weren't available at the time, so the heroes got help from the Monkees instead.

 

Edit: Also a brief cameo appearance by the Geezer Formerly Known as Astroboy.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/31/2021 at 12:17 AM, tkdguy said:

 

I once wrote a short adventure that featured the Blue Meanies as the opponents. But the Beatles weren't available at the time, so the heroes got help from the Monkees instead.

 

Edit: Also a brief cameo appearance by the Geezer Formerly Known as Astroboy.

You know Astroboy is a robot, right? Robots never physically get older. They just break down without maintenance.

 

Imagine Astroboy malfunctions. He has a machine gun in his but, and lasers in his arms.

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1 hour ago, steriaca said:

You know Astroboy is a robot, right? Robots never physically get older. They just break down without maintenance.

 

Imagine Astroboy malfunctions. He has a machine gun in his but, and lasers in his arms.


    Like a very short version of the ED robot in Robocop.

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21 minutes ago, steriaca said:

No quite. He is still humanoid with plastic skin over his metal muscles and skeleton and his kokoro power plant heart.


    Oh no, I know The Mighty Atom quite well.  As a matter of fact in my very first Champions game one of the players was a Japanamation (That’s how long ago this was) enthusiast and played Atom as his character. Over the years of play I learned a lot about the little ‘bot.

   I just meant that an out of control version reminded me of the scene in the first Robocop movie when the ED gets demonstrated to the board.

  “PUT THE GUN DOWN”

    “I put it down, it’s on the floor.”

   “PUT THE GUN DOWN OR I WILL FIRE!”

    “I put it down, I put it down...Somebody stop it!”

     “YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, CITIZEN!”

       “BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP”

      “O.K., that’s a glitch.”

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On 1/13/2022 at 9:19 AM, steriaca said:

No quite. He is still humanoid with plastic skin over his metal muscles and skeleton and his kokoro power plant heart.

Astroboy was one of the first manga to achieve global popularity. Along with the superhero adventure, Tezuka's series dealt with issues of prejudice against "robots" (such as the episode about a robot stage magician who was having a harder time getting bookings). This was daring, because Japan was, and in some ways still is, an astonishingly racist society.

 

Osamu Tezuka was writing Transhumanist fiction before Transhumanism was even a word in the English language.  And he did it in an exciting, relatable way, so Astro Boy still has appeal almost seventy years later.

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One thing to remember about Japan and the Japanese people. That Japan is a series of islands constantly threatened by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Each Japanese citizen has to be reassured that there fellow citizens will step up in times of crisis. This, being an individual is considered to be against this.

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