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8/9/2004 I have returned! Bwahahahaha!!!
Yeah, I'm finally back home and ready to get back to work on Pebble Version. My vacation was great but before I talk about that a couple of announcements. First off, there is a new bonus comic up. I know it's like a week late but it would have been a pain to update while I was gone. Anyway, between Buzz Comix going down for a few days and the lack of a new bonus comic, Pebble Version is way down in the rankings at the moment. So please vote, see the new bonus comic, and get Pebble Version back up where it belongs. Secondly, wednesday is Pebble Version's anniversary. It'll be exactly one year since the comic was launched. Now I'd like to do something special but this just happens to be my finals week so I probably won't have time. When the semester is over, however (in a little more than a week), I'm gonna work on improving the graphics, finishing color scheme and banners for the forums, and the like so you do have something to look forward to.

Ok, my vacation. My family goes back to PA every year to visit relatives. We did all the usual stuff: giant corn maze, playing video games at my cousin's, relaxing, getting Handel's ice cream, lots of shopping, and going to Hershey Park where I won a giant stuffed panthar that's nearly as big as I am. Here's a helpful tip, if you're going to try and win a giant stuffed animal to it right before you leave, carrying it around for the next couple of hours isn't fun. I also was able to attend Otakon. Now this was my first anime convention. I've been wanting to go for years but things just haven't worked out. Anyway, it was amazing. There were around 12,000 people there. I knew it was going to be big but the sheer magnitude blew me away. My cousin Curtis and I spent friday and sunday (we weren't able to go saturday) at the con. Lines were bad on the first day (especially to get in) but after that things were great. There were numerous panels and lectures on everything from Gundam to travel in Japan, we went to some but spent most of our time wondering around and looking in on whatever was closest. There were also around eight screening rooms where you could just sit and watch a couple episodes of different anime. I got to check out a bunch of stuff I hadn't seen before and found a show that could easily compete with FLCL for 'weirdest thing I've ever seen' it's called Bobobo Bo. It's not out in america yet but it's about a guy called Bobo who fights the evil hair stealing Wig Group with his True Fist of the Nose Hair technique. It's weird and extremely random but pretty funny too. When in between places we watched the various cosplayers. There were way to many Yuna's, Rikku's, Vash's, Wolfwood's, and Inuyasha's but it was really cool seeing all the amazing costumes people had put together, kinda made me want to try it... There was also the game room where there were tons of game systems set up with about every multiplayer game you could think of (and some you couldn't). I passed on the DDR (after seeing way too many people that were far better than me) but I did get in a good match of Super Smash Brothers Melee. Then there was the artists alley where you could meet various artists and buy their art. There was some nice stuff but I had limited cash so I had to pass. I did, however, get to briefly meet Mookie of Dominic Deegan and get his autograph, which was pretty cool. And finally there was the dealers' room. It was enormous. Not only could you find just about any graphic novel or anime DVD you could want, there was also tons of cool stuff from Japan that you never see in the US. I could have spent a couple hundred dollars on figurines alone... To summerize, Otakon was really aweomse and I'd love to go again if I get the chance. PS: Sorry I don't have pictures but my camera mysteriously broke shortly after the convention started.

Josiah

7/23/2004 Vacation time!
I know this isn't the funniest strip but I was in a bit of a rush and didn't have time to think up any really funny profiles. Anyway, starting sunday I'll be on vacation in PA and starting monday I'll be featuring the winners of the guest comic contest. The update schedule will remain the same so there'll be three guest comics each week. Regular strips will resume after two weeks.

Now, as I said before, I'll be at Otakon for two out of the three days (friday and sunday). If any of you guys are gonna be there I'd love to meet you. Um, I'd put a picture up but I don't have any good ones handy... Let's see, I'm about 5' 11", got black hair, and I'll wear a tie-die shirt at least on friday. So if you see me come say hi. If it's not me, well hope it's someone friendly. Hope to see you there!

Josiah

7/21/2004 Getting ready for vacation
Hey, the hiking trip was fun but now I got to get ready for my real vacation and I have a heck of a lot to do before the end of the week. Anyway, I'm in a bit of a hurry. Don't have time to say much. Aren't profiles wierd though, I mean what's the point? Well, got to run. Later!

Josiah

7/19/2004 Good idea, bad timing
Look at all the neat special effects in this strip. There's the dark overlay in the last three panels and the lense flars and the much better looking water gun... I never could have done all that a few months ago. Of course, the lense flare doesn't look perfect but hay, I am getting better.

Ok, a few quick announcements then I got to run. First, all entries for the guest comic contest must be in before midnight tuesday (tomorrow). Also, to the person who sent me the Brendan's Bright Future comic, I accidently lost the file, please resend it ASAP if you want it in the contest. Second, if you missed it friday there's a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote and take a look. And third, some of you may have noticed that this update is a little early. Well, my parents suddenly decided that we needed a family hiking trip. Normally a good idea but I've got a bunch of school work and with my main vacation coming up in less then a week the timing could have been much better. I'll be home in a couple days but wednesday's update may be a little early or late.

Oh yeah, I probably should have announced this earlier but I'm goin to be attending Otakon this year! I've been wanting to go to an anime convention for years but the places and times never really synched with my schedule so this will be my first. Otakon is over a friday, saturday, and sunday and I'll be there friday and sunday. I don't know if any of you guys are going to be going but if you are I'd love to meet you! I'll announce some more details (to help you pick me out or something) in the near future.

Josiah

7/16/2004 Mega Man!
There's a new bonus comic up so go and vote! Every wonder why all the Nurse Joys look alike? Not to mention the Officer Jennys and and the Pokémart owners. Actually, when I originally started this strip I had a more, shall we say, adult version of the of the reason behind the look alike nurses. But since I'm trying to keep this comic PG I decided on the current dialogue instead. If you're curious about the original version, the key word began with the letter 'i' and that's all I'm gonna say for now. Maybe I'll ressurect it as a Blooper Reel strip later.

Don't forget the guest comic contest. Remember, all entries are due by the 20th so you only have a few days left. I've got some good ones already but I could always use more! If you don't know the rules check the Old News page, they're mentions a few times. Now for the mini review.

I've been a Mega Man fan for quite some time but I never got the money together to buy all the old cartridges. The Mega Man Anniversary Collection saves you the trouble by putting all eight main games from the classic MM series along with too rare arcade games and some extras.
Story: A lab accident turns Dr. Wily evil. He reprograms six of the new robot masters he made with the good Dr. Light. Fortunately one escaped, the lab assitant Rock Man. With no other options, Dr. Light changes the Rock into a fighting robot and sends the newly renamed Mega Man to stop Dr. Wily. He does and Dr. Wily escapes, builds new robot masters, and tries again, and again, and again, etc... Some of the games have a twist or two but they still boil down to the same basic plot. Not like the story matters too much in this type of game.
Graphics: They were great at the time but by today's standards none of the games look very impressive. Still what does that matter when they're so much fun to play.
Sound: The music is very catchy although most of it is from the NES era so it doesn't sound so hot. If you have the PS2 version thought and turn on the optional navi mode some stages will feature new remixed music. The sound effects are mostly good. Mega Man 8 is the only game with voice overs but they're pretty painful to listen too.
Gameplay: This is where Mega Man shines. Some of the games are definately better then others and there are some parts that'll make you want to smash your controller into the floor, but overall all ten games are just a lot of fun to play. Basically Mega Man runs, jumps, and shoots his way through levels filled with traps and robots. At the end of most stages you'll got up against a robot master. Defeat it and you'll get its weapon to use. Each robot master is weak against a certain weapon so you'll need to figure out what order to go through the stages. This is classic platforming at its finest. All the games sport perfect emulations (with a few minor changes that rarely effect the game play) although a few of the old cheats have been removed. The improvements between games are rarely anything major but that's ok by me. The arcade games on the other hand are simply a series of boss fights for one or two players. Nothing fancy but still fun.
Overall: If you like Mega Man even a little bit buy this collection. It's on $30 and you get eight awesome platformers and two fun arcade games. This is every Mega Man fans dream come true, especially if you can't find all the cartridges. There's even some tweaks you can turn on to make things a bit easier for novice players. The only real question is if you should buy the PS2 or Gamecube version. The PS2 has a better controller, remixed music while in navi mode, and an episode of the pretty blah Mega Man cartoon to unlock while the Gamecube version lacks all that but gets some developer interviews instead. Anyway, this is what classic collections should be. Every gamer with a liking for Mega Man, platformers, or classic games should got a copy.

Josiah

7/14/2004 New link
Ack, had some trouble with the strip I was working on and now it's late and I have no time to write this news blurb. Um, gee... I got that new link up, it's for Megatokyo a strange but funny on-line manga. It starts out pretty slow but gets better before too long. Guess that's all I have time to say right now. Except that I still need more guest comics (you can see the rules in friday's news post). Oh, and if my host Indigo is reading this, did you get my e-mails? I got a couple questions I wanted to ask you but I may have your e-mail address wrong so if you read this e-mail or IM me.

See you all friday!

Josiah

7/12/2004 Coming this week...
I've been wanting to do a comic where Brendan's haior catches on fire for quite some time and here it is. See the nifty transparency effects on the fire and smoke? Huh, huh? Well, I'm still getting better with Photoshop and around August or Septmeber I may try doing the entire strip in it instead of Paint. If it works out you'll get much nicer looking comics.

Seems I always say stuff is coming but not done don't I? Anyway, there will be a new link and at least one mini-review later this week. Keep in mind that you only have a little more than a week left in the quest comic contest. I still need some more good stuff to use over my vacation so hurry up and get those entries in. And, if you missed them, the rules can be found below in friday's news post.

Oh yeah, don't know if I mentioned this before or not but the Mega Man Anniversary Collection is awesome and worth way more than the $30 it costs. I've been playing it for the last couple weeks and having a blast. Look for a mini-review in a week or two once I've finished it.

Josiah

7/9/2004 Don't forget the contest!
Before people start asking me what's going on, Brendan and May ran into this trainer right after the last strip and Brendan defeated her two zigzagoon. I just figured you guys didn't want to see yet another trainer battle. Don't worry, I'm not gonna skip all of them. And if you didn't see it wednesday there's a new bonus comic up.

Don't forget about the guest comic contest. I need lots of comics to use while I'm on vacation so keep sending them in! Here's the rules. Here are the rules. 1: All entries must be received no later then July 20th. 2: Comics can be sprites, hand drawn, CG, animation, or whatever. 3: Comics must be either jpg, gif, or png formats but with the possible exception of animated comics try to keep the file size to 200k or less. 4: Comics must have something to do with either Pokémon or Pebble Version but that doesn't have to be the main focus and putting in characters from other games or comics is perfectly fine. 5: Put your name, initials, web site, or something like that in the comic and be sure to include that type of info in your e-mail to me so I know who to credit. 6: And finally try to keep any violence, language, and sex stuff to a minimum. PG rated stuff is prefered but I may accept some PG-13 stuff too, maybe. And would the people who sent me the Wierd Al comic and the Brendan's Bright Future comic please resend them? I lost them in the server switch.

Enjoy your weekend!

Josiah

7/7/2004 Spiderman, Spiderman
Why are all the items in pokéballs anyway? Anyway, we've got some new RPs starting on the forums so hurry up and join if you want in. Oh yeah, I finally got a new bonus comic up. I actually finished it a week ago but kept forgetting to post it, sorry about that. So please hurry up and vote. And don't foget the guest comic contest. Full details can be found in friday's post on the bottom of this page.

Now for a bit about Spiderman 2. Basically, two years after the first movie Spidy is doing great but Peter work, school, and social lives are down the tubes. Just about this time a scientist named Octo Octavious is working on a new energy generator but using requires attaching several robotic arms to his back. They're so complex they can actually take over his mind if they don't work right. Fortunately he has a little chip to prevent that, it's also the only part that isn't covered in steel so when the generator shorts out and breaks the chip Octo goes beserk and turns into the evil Dr. Octopus (bet you saw that coming). Peter has to fight off this new threat while trying to create a balance between his normal life and heroic life and figure out what's going wrong with his powers. The special effects and action are good and the story is pretty good for a super hero movie. Overall, Spiderman 2 is a lot like the first one. Good action, decent plot, kinda corny at times but overall a fun ride.

Don't forget the new bonus comic and guest comic contest!

Josiah

7/5/2004 Fireworks!
I hope everyone had a good holiday. I just got back from our local fireworks show. Of course, I would have gotten back much sooner if I hadn't gotten stuck in traffic. I did learn a valuable lesson though, there is absolutely nothing good on the radio at this time of night. That simple fact really sucks when you're stuck in traffic. Aside from the big show, some friends and I went all out saturday night and spent a small fortune on fireworks of our own. That was a fun night.

To recap from friday's news post, the new forums are finally up and have replaced the old ones. There is still a little work to be done but mostly we just need you guys to join up and have fun! Although, if anyone has experience creating skins for Invision forums and/or working with extremely complex cascading style sheets and feels like giving me a hand with the new color scheme I want to make for the forums please let me know.

Another recap, you wanted a guest comic contest, you've got one! I'll be going on vacation around the end of the month and need some comics to fill in the gap. All entries must be in by July 20th. And if you're one of the people who sent me one before last friday I'd appreciate it if you could resend it since I lost a couple when we switched servers. Full rules can be found in friday's news post (below) and you can send your entries here.

Josiah

7/2/2004 Two Important Announcements!
Yes, the new forums are finally up! The link in the nav bar has been changed but if you're too lazy the new forums are located here. The new forums are much more powerful than the old ones but unfortunately, everyone will have to sign up again and we'll be losing all the old posts and threads. Oh well, starting fresh isn't so bad. FYI: the forums aren't 100% done. All the important stuff is finished but I'm still working on the color scheme and some custom images. They should be done in a couple weeks. Although, if there's anyone out there who has experience creating skins for Invision forums I'd be glad for some help.

Also, I know the last couple of strips were kinda lame but I was pretty out of it when I made them. But I'm better now and I've got some great strips all ready for next week.

Ok, now for a very important announcement. I've been planning this for a while and lots of people having been wanting one so I'm pleased to announce the very first Pebble Version Guest Comic Contest. That's right, this is your chance to show off your comic making skills. I know some of you have already sent me fan comics before but I lost a couple of them when we switched to the new server so I'd appreciate if you'd send them in again for the contest. The contest is open to anyone although I do hope some of my friends who have their own web comics (you know who you are) will do stuff.

Here are the rules. 1: All entries must be received no later then July 20th. That'll give me time to sort through them all before I go on vacation. 2: Comics can be sprites, hand drawn, CG, animation, or whatever. 3: Comics must be either jpg, gif, or png formats but with the possible exception of animated comics try to keep the file size to 200k or less. 4: Comics must have something to do with either Pokémon or Pebble Version but that doesn't have to be the main focus and putting in characters from other games or comics is perfectly fine. 5: Put your name, initials, web site, or something like that in the comic and be sure to include that type of info in your e-mail to me so I know who to credit. 6: And finally try to keep any violence, language, and sex stuff to a minimum. PG rated stuff is prefered but I may accept some PG-13 stuff too, maybe.

Ok, that's the deal. I can't wait to see your stuff. Remember, if you sent in something before I might have lost it in the server switch so please check to ensure that it fits the rules and resend it. How many comics I choose as winners depends on how many good entries I get but I'd like at least six so I can get three strips a week for the two weeks I'm on vacation. Although if I get a lot of good stuff I may end up posting quite a lot more so get to work!

Josiah

6/30/2004 I'll just shut up now
Ever have one of those weeks where you just can't seem to get anything done? That's how I was last week so I apologize if this week's strips a little on the lame side. The new server switch should be finished right around now but just to make sure everything is finished I'm delaying the new forums one last time. They will now be up on... Um, I'm not gonna say. With the way things have been going if I announce the day the entire internet will blow up or something just to make me delay them again. You should be able to guess when they'll launch. I've got some mini-reviews coming in the near future and a big annoucnement on friday so I'll see you all then!!!

Josiah

6/28/2004 Heheh...
I was talking to my host and the transistion to the new server should be finished some time today. Problem is, I can't luanch the forums till it's complete which means not today. So look for them wednesday. Hmm... Maybe I should stop announcing exact days for stuff. Also, be sure to read the news friday for a very important announcement about something many of you have been wanting. Also, the contributer page is now up. You can find a link to it on the links page.

Josiah

6/25/2004 Slight delay
So, I just after I decided to announce that the new forums would be launcing today, my host tells me that the launch needs to be postponed until next week while we switch over to a new and much more reliable server so there souldn't be any more down time like that incident a couple weeks ago. So the new launch date for the forums is monday, the same day I'll be putting up the new contributers page.

Speaking of which, if you haven't read wednesday's news post, please scroll down and take a look. I've gotten some great sprites so far but there are still lots more I need to really make the battles look good. I'll try to get a mini-review done next week too, I have a few days off from school so I should have time.

Enjoy the weekend!

Josiah

6/23/2004 Sprite call
In retrospect, this comic should probably be switched with the last one. Oh well. See the disapearing pokéball? More of my new Photoshop skills. Hmm... Maybe I overdid the transparency a little.

Ok, in case you missed the last news post here's the deal. I want to make the battle scenes in Pebble Version look better. To do that I need more sprites of the various pokémon. See I only have two of each and it's hard to do good fights with only two poses. I need sprites of any pokémon but the ones currently used in the comic are the most important. The main types of poses I need are running, jumping, attacking, and getting hit. And, to make things easier, I found a web site yesterday that'll help get you started. Although I captured all my sprites myself, the ones on this site are the same as ones I have so sprites based on them would be the best. I've already gotten a couple nice contributions and on monday I'll be adding a new page to the site to list all the people who have contributed stuff to Pebble Version.

It's official, the new forums will be launched on friday. All the most important stuff is done but I'd still like to tweak them a bit. Also, a note to my host if he's reading this, if you have the ftp info for the forums' subdomain could you e-mail it to me? It would help me with the color scheme.

Josiah

6/21/2004 Back to normal
Well, my gradparents are heading home and I'm finally caught up on school, work, and the like. Now I can finally get back to work on the new forums which, barring an unforseen disaster, will be opened on either wednesday or friday. And, before anyone e-mails me, even though the official number is 350 or so pokémon I do know the actual number is closer to 380. At least until the next game comes out. I can picture (in ten or twenty years) watching my kids hard at work trying to catch all 5000 pokémon.

Now, I've had some people complain about the lack of animation in some of the battle scenes. See, the problem is in the game there are only two poses for each pokémon which makes it kinda hard to do a really good looking battle and I just don't have the time right now to draw really good looking additional poses. So, if there are any sprite artists out there who have some time to kill and want to contribute to Pebble Version this is a great chance. I need alternate poses for pokémon. Anything would be good but the main things I need are: attacking, getting hit, running, and jumping. Poses can be for any pokémon even ones that haven't been in the comic (although regulars liks torchic and mudkip would be the most help). They need to fit with the poses I already use (which are the ones that show next to the pokémon's name when you check your party in the main game menu) in terms of size, color, and the like. Submissions can be bmp, jpg, gif, or png. If I like what you send me I'll use the poses for the appropriate pokémon, give you full credit for them, and post a link to your web site, if you have one. E-mail all submissions to me.

Have a great week!

Josiah

6/18/2004 The third Harry Potter movie
If you're getting tired of pokédex entries you should be glad to know that this is going to be the last one for quite a while. And, at the end of next week, I'll finally begin to tie Brendan and May's story into the Mew Hunt bit. Oh yeah, I pulled the 000 Secret Rare from a booster pack of the new Yu-Gi-Oh Ancient Santuary set. For those of you who don't collect Yu-Gi-Oh, the 000 card is the rarest one in each set and I've never pulled one from a booster pack before. It's so cool! Anyway...

I've gone to each Harry Potter movie fully expecting it to be horrible. So far I've been correct about each one. I hate it when I'm right... Despite getting a new director, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban once again suceeds in ruining yet another book in my favorite series. For starters, POA is the shortest of the three movies, which isn't good considering it's also the longest of the first three books. Naturally, because of this a whole lot was cut including many scenes that are very important to the main story so those who haven't read the book my find themselves rather confused at times. Even the match where Harry wins the school Quiddith cup is cut. Instead we get a handful of new and completely pointless scenes that add little if anything to the movie. In addition, the entire thing seems to take place over a couple weeks instead of roughly ten months. Then there's the special effects. For such a big movie you'd think they'd spend more on the effects. While Azkaban looks better than the other movies, some parts still look pretty bad. The casting for a couple of the new characters is really bad as well, Tom and Lupin in particular really don't fit the part. Like all the Harry Potter books, the climax near the end is the best part by far. It's also been the part the movies screw up the worst. POA continues the trend by cutting out about 85% of the dialogue so a whole lot of important points are glossed over or not mentioned at all. And finally there's the handful of scenes that just make you want to bang your head against a wall such as the parts with the talking shrunken heads, the entire climax, and when Harry sees a certain person on his magic map (which majorly screws up part of the story). POA might be enjoyable if rather hard to follow for people who haven't read the books but for any serious Harry Potter fans (like myself) it's a total mess which starts off with a horrible incorrect first scene and finishs with a very blah ending. All three Harry Potter movies are bad but POA may very well be the worst of the three.

Josiah

6/16/2004 So much to do
I have a whole lot to do today but if I get it all finished things should be back to normal. Of course, things seem to have a habit of springing up just when I'm not expecting them but I can't think of anything else that could up so I things should be good. I'll be giving Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the movie, not the book) the full mini-review treatment on friday.

Because of the recent weekend of down time Pebble Version has been slipping in the Top 100. I've got a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote and help get this comic back up. As always, check the extras page if you want to catch up on the old bonus comics.

Oh yeah, some people were asking where that seedot a couple strips ago came from. Brendan and May each caught on in a random battle. I just figured that you guys wouldn't want to see all the random battles so I'm kinda skimming over the less important ones. That's ok, right? Oh, and the server crash slowed down my work on the new forums so the won't be ready until at least friday, possibly some time next week but no later then that.

Josiah

6/14/2004 Sorry...
For those of you who haven't played Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire berry trees mysteriously disapear after you pick all the berries. I tried to use some of my new Photoshop skills on this strip. I'm pretty happy with how the fourth panel turned out. The third panel, however, didn't turn out right. But I still have plenty to learn in class so I should be able to do a good explosion soon.

For those of you who tried to visit Pebble Version over the weekend I'm really sorry about the massive amount of down time. Indigo Networks is in the process of switching the site over to a new and much more stable server but until they're finished there really isn't anything I can do except hope that there isn't any more down time.

Josiah

6/11/2004 Troy
If you're wondering about today's comic I'm not quite sure why I did this joke or even if many people will find it funny. It probably has something to do with a short bit in one of my books (currently unpublished) where one of the main characters is attacked by a crazed squirrel. Anyway, back to more normal jokes next week.

I finally got around to seeing Troy. Seems there's a lot of cool looking movies coming up soon. There's Harry Potter 3 which I'll probably hate but plan to see next week. And then there's Spider Man 2 coming out at the end of the month. Ok, so my thoughts on Troy... Overall it was a decent movie is you don't mind nearly constant battles but there's been a lot of changes from the original story. I'm not sure how many people have read Homer's Illiad but it's a pretty interesting myth filled with heros, epic battles, and the like. The movie starts by removing the Greek gods from the story. They're still mentioned but just as invisible figures that the people worship. The active role they had in Homer's story is completely gone which changes the story considerably. Also, the script writers seemed desperate to inject a lot more romance into the story. They make Helen out to be an unloved neglected wife who willingly flees with the overly charming Paris and even add a romance sub-plot between between Achillese and a priestess that he never even met in the original. They've also tried to give the story a clear villian (something the original story lacked) by changing King Agamemnon into a power crazy maniac instead of the somewhat prideful ruler from the original story. The battles aren't bad and neither is the movie as a whole and there's a few brief bits that are there only for fans of the original stories to notice. Unfortunately, the highlite of the film for many people seems to be seeing Brad Pitt mostly naked, something I could easily live without. All in all Tory if you like battles, or Brad Pitt, Troy is rather entertaining although fans of The Illiad are bound to be disapointed with many of the changes.

Josiah

6/8/2004 Keeping busy
My grandparents are here now so things are good but a little busier. I really wish I had the summer off from school but I do need the credits... Sigh... Um, one of Japan's more popular anime, Dective Conan, is now running on Cartoon's Network's weeknight Adult Swim under the name Case Closed. If you like mysteries, or even if you don't, you should check it out.

In site news I'm working on new forums to replace the current ones. The new forums will be hosted on my server instead of by Proboards, I'll have more control over them in general, and they'll be advertisement free. Yay! Look for them in the near future.

Josiah

6/7/2004 Due dates
The previous week was a lot busier than I'd expected and there was a lot of stuff I wanted to work on that just didn't get done. I really hope this week goes better. I'm tired and I really want to get some writing done. Seems last week every time I sat down to write something would come up such as: 'Josiah our computer isn't working' or 'Josiah we need to do this right now'... I'm working on a new story and I finally got over a major case of writers' block but I've hardly gotten anything done since then cause stuff keeps coming up.

Let's see... My grand parents are coming to stay for a couple weeks so that should be fun. Oh, and I want to thank the people that have done Pebble Version reviews in response to my last news post. We could use some more good reviews on Buzz Comix if anyone has a few minutes to spare... Oh yeah, last announcement. This month's donation gift is the fifth Legend of Zelda page. And I still have one special deal going. If you donate at least $5 you get all five pages. I've had some people tell me that those Zelda pages are some of my funniest work and it'd be a shame if more of you don't read them.

Ever have a group project in school where you need multiple people to complete a project but everyone else kinda ignores the whole thing leaving you unable to finish because of it? It really sucks. We have this essay project going where you have to review other people's essays than modify your own based on others comments. Problem is hardly anyone submitted their essays on time. The teacher was nice and extended the date. Still only about half the people have submitted their essays although only one of them is in my group. And no one in my group has bothered to review my essay even though I need their reviews so I can finish the final draft which is due soon... Ugh, I sure hope the teacher understands that I did all I could. And to the people in my english comp class who haven't submitted their essays and/or done their reviews yet, you all suck.

Well, gotta go. Lot more to get done so I can catch up. Later!

Josiah

6/4/2004 Reviews
If you didn't hear this wednesday, there's a new bonus comic up and since it's the beginning of the month Pebble Version really needs your votes. In a slightly related note, I've noticed that a couple sites reviewed Pebble Version. Unfortunately, they seemed to start out with a bias against sprite comics (so why review one then?) and their reviews were so-so at best. Pebble Version needs more good reviews. I'd like to encourage all my fans to write some up be it on Buzz Comix or on your own site. That'd be really great.

Learned a lot of cool tricks in my Photoshop class yesterday. Can't wait to give them a try in the comic. Maybe I'll play around a bit before August. Either way, there's still a couple more things I need to learn first and some things that need doing before that so don't expect anything for at least a couple more weeks.

Enjoy the weekend!

Josiah

6/2/2004 FAQ and Stuff
First off, it's a new month and there's a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote on Buzz Comix. Pebble Version's ranking has been slipping a little lately so we really need your votes. And there's a new donation gift as well.

Now for those of you who didn't know what JUCO is (probably everyone who doesn't live in Grand Junction) it's the Junior College baseball world series. I'm not a huge sports fan but a lot of my friends go and it's kinda fun. Thanks to my year around college classes I can't go much this year though.

Now here's the answers to a couple questions people have been asking a lot lately. First off, I know this comic could look a little better (textured backgrounds, color text boxes, and the like) not to mention the battle effects. Anyway, I'm taking a Photoshop class this semester and come Pebble Version's one year aniversary in August I plan to try and give the comic a bit of a graphical update. Second, at that same time I'll reconsider doing either larger comics or more updates a week although that'll depend on how my schedule looks then. Lastly, I'm not doing fan comics right now although I will be holding a guest comic contest in the pretty near future so if you want to show off your skills that'll be the time.

Josiah

5/31/2004 JUCO
It's JUCO week. Congrats to everyone who actually knows what JUCO is. Anyway, because of JUCO I got hom really late and I'm tired so I'll see you wednesday.

Josiah

5/28/2004 Another mini-review and more
I really like today's strip. Bonus points to anyone who knows what inspired this one. There's a new link on the links page. The Order of the Stick is a comic spoof of a D&D dungeon crawl campain. Still, it's funny enough that even non D&D pages should find it amusing. Oh yeah, remember, you only have through monday if you want to get this month's donation special. Just $10 for all four Zelda pages and an autographed copy of my book so get those donations in! Current procedes go towards the site redesign fund. Now to review another game none of you have ever heard of.

Time Stalkers is another obscur Dreamcast RPG. If you're a fan of random dungeon RPGs this if your dream come true. If not, well, you still might like it.
Story: Sword, a brash self absorbed swordsman is chasing a villian when he chances across a magical book. He opens it than blacks out. When he wakes up he finds that the tower he's in has been transported to a strange world that seems to be made up entirely of pieces from other worlds and times. A mysterious old man says that he's the hero who must save this strange world. Soon after other heros join him in the quest. There's a decent plot twist after a while but Time Stalkers is about the gameplay, not the plot. If you've played some of the older Sega Stalkers games there's quite a lot of cameos.
Graphics: It's a somewhat blocky 3D, nothing too impressive. The worlds are all brightly colorful and very different from which is good. The dungeons, however, are somewhat drab and extremely repititious.
Sound: The music is nice, upbeat, and catchy. The sound effects are there but kinda repetitive.
Gameplay: Running around the small world is your standard RPG fare. Shop, talk, etc. You can only take one of your party members at a time into any given dungeon. Each person can use different equipment, has different stats, and learns different moves but for the most part they play pretty similiar. The dungeon floor layouts are randomly generated but before long they all start to look alike. Battle if your standard turn based system, nothing special there. Each time you enter a dungeon, you can only take a handful of items, usually your equipment, and you start back at level 1. Still, this isn't so bad, the enemies are close to your level and when you complete a dungeon you may gain a new title. Titles give the character stat boosts and new skills and magic spells and they don't reset after each dungeon. Each hero has an extremely large number of titles to gain. Also, you can capture any of the game's non-boss monsters and use up to two of them in battle at a time to help your hero. There are tons of monsters to catch and they can all gain titles and new skills and spells as well. The game has a complete list of both items and monsters that fills as you find and catch them. The game itself if pretty short. Dungeons take thirty minutes to an hour to complete and there's only eight or so. It won't take you long to reach the ending. But you can keep playing afterwards to get some new stuff and keep working on your characters and collection. You can revisit the old dungeons all you want to find new items and mosnters and even complete alternat objectives like killing a new boss or finding a certain item.
Overall: If you find a cheap copy it's worth it just to get through to the ending but most of you will probably grow tired of the endless dungeon crawls soon after. If you don't mind the repitiveness of the game however, there's literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. Between the titles, the monsters, the rare items, the alternate dungeon quests, and the myriads of interactions between various characters that you can stumble across if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you can play just about forever and still be missing something. If this sounds good to you than give Time Stalkers a try.

Josiah

5/26/2004 Late at night
Stayed up late making comics today so I don't have much time to talk. It's Shavuot, a holiday that marks our congregation's anual keds and teens vs. adults softball game. So far the adults have always won (cause they cheat) but we should be able to change that this year, I hope.

Remember, there's only a few days left if you want to take advantage of this month's donation special. Only $10 for all four Zelda pages and an autographed copy of my book.

Anyway, I need some sleep before the game tomorrow so see you friday.

Josiah

5/24/2004 Time to fight!
Yes, it's time for the first random trainer battle! Who will win? Will it be rookie trainer Brendan or some kid with a hat and a level 5 zigzagoon? This is gonna be the match of the century folks! Or not. We all know Brendan will cream the guy, right? I mean, it'd be pretty hard to lose this fight.

I saw Shrek 2 over the weekend. If you liked the first one you've gotten see 2. It's sorta like Shrek meets Meet the Parents. See, Shrek and Fiona, now ogres, return from their honeymoon and are invited to visit Fiona's parents, the king and queen of Far Far Away which is a sorta fairy tale Hollywood. Naturally Fiona's parents are expecting a prince, not a monster. Sparks fly even more when a scheming fairy god mother tries to break the pair up so she can set Fiona up with her own son Prince Charming. Add in you favorite charaters from the first movie like Donkey, Gingerbread Man, and The Three Blind Mice along with hillarious new ones like the sword swinging cat Puss in Boots, and you have another humerous take on classic fairy tales.

Josiah

5/21/2004 Fun day and a mini-review!

A new fun park recently opened nearby. You know, arcade, mini-golf, go-karts, that kinda thing. My family and I went today. The arcade was kinda disapointing (what, no DDR?) but we had fun playing mini-golf. There was five of us, my mom, my dad, my brother Noah, Carl (a guy we know), and me. It wasn't a bad course although I was really outta practice. My mom won, which was surprising since she usually gets fouth when we play. She beat my dad by one stroke leave Noah and I to tie for third. My mom had a bet with my dad on the game as well and she won so we got to go to Olive Garden for lunch. Well, after we changed a flat tire anyway. It was fun. I gotta get my mini-golf skills back to par though.

Now, about today's strip. Before you start e-mailing me I know that Pokémon-X did a similiar joke a while back. Believe what you want but I actually had this strip planned before then. This is, to my knowledge, the first time we had a similiar joke but when it comes down to it that footprint sketching guy was in the game and this is really the obvious joke.

And now, finally, the mini-revew.

Elemental Gimmick Gear, or E.G.G. for short, is a pretty unknown Dreamcast title. Yeah it's old but I played it pretty recently. It's a pretty decent action RPG.
Story: 200 years ago while exploring some old ruins people found a sleeping man inside a strange egg shaped robot suit. The used it as a model to make Elemental Gimmick Gear, essiantially big ugly robot suits that can pull their arms and legs in and spin around. The man was moved to a laboratory but remained in a coma. 200 years later tentacals start coming out of the ruins and destorying stuff while monsters start to fill the area. Suddenly the man, Leon, wakes up. Problem is he has amnesia. But the cute scientist on duty decides to give him his old E.G.G. and let him head out to explore the ruins and figure things out. Overall the story is ok but it's unlikely you'll be playing just to find out what's going to happen. The overall plot is a bit basic and threadbare.
Graphics: Most of the game is top down 2D. The graphics look almost hand drawn and are nice and colorful. The boss fights on the other hand, are in full 3D. They're nothing special but they look pretty decent.
Sound: The music is appropriate but completely forgetable. It's so forgetable in fact that I can't think of anything else to say about it. The sound effects are mostly metalic clanks and whirs but they fit.
Gameplay: E.G.G. is Zelda style. You play Leon. Occasionally he walks around on his own but 95% of the time you'll be inside your E.G.G. It starts out with just a basic punch and the ability to ball up and spin around, smashing through enemies with ease although using the spinning mode drains your life bar. Later you'll get plenty of cool upgrades like elemental attacks, extentable arms, and the like. Enemies walk around on the map and may attack you just like Zelda. Also like Zelda there's plenty of puzzles to solve. The puzzles range from easy to insanely annoying particularily a couple of tricky race against the clock type of things. The main game takes about 12 hours but there's also some mini-games and not even the people who wrote the guides on gamefaqs know where all the hidden power-ups are.
Overall: If you have a Dreamcast and like Zelda style games E.G.G. is a rather fun excursion despite a few super annoying parts and if you want to find all the power-ups for your E.G.G. you could be playing for quite some time. Plus you can probably find a used copy for under $10 so if you see it grab it.

Ok, enjoy your weekend!

Josiah

5/19/2004 Mini-review...On friday
Yeah, there'll be one on friday. Would have done it tonight but I spent too long making comics. Hmm... Not much to say today. Did some work for my dad, that's about it. If you didn't see monday's post there's a new bonus comic so be sure to vote. And don't forget this month's bonus special, $10 for four Zelda pages and a signed copy of my book, don't miss it! Well, I'll talk more on friday.

Josiah

5/17/2004 Back to normal?
Yawn... Some friends and I went to sober grad, a sort of all night party at the local mall saturday night. There was free food and games and that sorta thing. Plus I got to see my brother and a friend dress up as girls and lip-sync to a Brittany Spears song (it was very disturbing). And since sunday was the Israeli vendor fair I didn't really get much sleep. Had fun though. And, now that it's finished, things may finall get back to normal.

Ok, there's a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote. Remember you can vote up to once a day and Pebble Version has been a little low in the top 100 this month. And also remember that there is a donation special this month. $5 or more gets you all four Legend of Zelda pages and $10 or more not only gets you the pages but also gets you a signed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone. Now that I've switched hosts, I don't need quite as much money as before to keep the site going but I still need some and I've been thinking of saving any extra donation money up to invest in a professional site redesign. Nothing's for sure of course but I've been considering it.

Well, what I really need now is sleep so I'll see you on wednesday!

Josiah

5/14/2004 Another busy weekend
Yes, that's a boy and in case you don't recognize what he's singing it from the musical West Side Story. Of course, if you think about it it's a perfectly innocent song but with the way certain word definitions change... Anyway, as the title says, this is totally random humor. It's not in the game or anything. Actually a friend of mine who went to see West Side Story with me was singing this and that gave me the idea.

This sunday my congregation has a big Isreali Vendor Fair and I have to help out so it looks like one more week before I actually get a relaxing weekend. Sigh... Anyway, sorry I still haven't gotten to the mini-reviews. Next week is looking good though. In the meantime, check out this nifty site. It's funny pokémon parody flash movie.

I've been checking out E3 coverage on the net. So many excellent sequels coming up over the next year not to mention original stuff. And now that I have broadband I can actually watch all the trailers, yea! Have a good weekend!

Josiah

5/12/2004 Keeping Busy
Well, I'm now back in school just as everyone else is nearly out. I wanted summer off :-( Too early to make much of a call on how my classes are gonna go. Naturally enough, just when things are starting to get busy for me again with my classes there's suddenly a whole bunch of other stuff I have to do. It looks like from now through sunday or so is gonna be kinda bad but after that things will hopefully calm down a bit.

In site news this is the last pokédex entry for a while. Also, expect some mini-reviews once I have a bit more free time.

Josiah

5/10/2004 More pokédex entries!
Yep, it's back to Brendan and May and back to the pokédex. We've got one more new entry coming up on wednesday and then it's back to buisness as usual.

Yawn... Sunday was one weird day. It was mother's day and my dad's birthday. Then there was a wedding I had to go to (the second in three weeks) and then I had to go back to that rock show I helped on friday. See then we were setting everything up. I got to spend my evening putting everything away. And my new school semester starts today (stupid year around college program). Then there's the part about the rapidly rising temperatures around here and the fact that we haven't turned on our air conditioner yet... Sigh... Just one of those days.

Oh yeah, if you missed friday's news post, Pebble Version is now being hosted by Indigo Networks (see their button next to the voting banner?). They're a great company that does hosting and lots of other web related stuff. I highly recommend them.

Josiah

5/6/2004 New Hosting
By now you should all be seeing Pebble Version on its new host. While you shouldn't notice any real differences there a big advantage for me. Big thanks to Indigo Networks for offering to host Pebble Version. Turns out they're big fans of the comic and are giving me the hosting as a substantial discount. This of course makes it that much easier for me to keep the comic on-line. Thanks Indigo Networks! If any you ever need hosting, web site design, or other web related services I highly recommend them. See their button up by the vote banner? Does it look ok up there? I'm still messing around with different places on the page to see where I like it best.

A couple things to remember. First is that I have a special donation deal going on for this month only. Read the donation info below to find out more. Remember, even with new hosting I still need some money to keep Pebble Version going. Also, this is the last strip of the mew hunt side story. Starting monday the comic will switch back to Brendan and May so don't miss it.

I was going to do a mini-review today (yes, really) but that was before I found out that I have to get up early so I can spend all day hauling boxes of rocks for the local rock show. I'm supposed to get paid a little but the only real reason I'm doing this is because I know the guy in charge of the show so I'm kinda stuck. Oh well, there could be worse ways to spend a day.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Josiah

5/5/2004 I can see clearly now
Well we can see what the explosion did to mewtwo but where's mew? Remember, Brendan and May will be back on monday. Also remember that since this is a new month Pebble Version needs lots of votes to get back to a good posistion on Buzz Comix. And, if you didn't see it monday, there's a nifty new voter bonus comic up too! Also, if you missed it monday, I got a special donation deal this month. For this month only, $10 gets you not only all four Zelda pages but a signed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone, as well. This is a really good deal. You get great stuff and you help support Pebble Version. Find out more below in the donation info section.

I'll hopefully have a mini-review ready friday so I'll see you then!!

Josiah

5/3/2004 It's May!
Well, not the May from Bredan and May. She'll be back in a week. A couple announcements today. Since it's the start of a new month that natrually means that it's time to kick off a new month on Buzz Comix. Although we didn't break our record posistion in April we did get a record number of votes and I'd love to see that number get even higher. As usually, to help motivate you to vote there's a new bonus comic up for voters and it's much better than the last one. And, if you didn't know, all the old bonus comics can be found and read on the extras page.

For the second announcement, I got a donation special going on this month. First, any donation of $5 or more gets you all four Legend of Zelda Pages. Even better, for this month only, anyone who donates $10 or more gets a free signed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone. This is way cheaper than getting it anywhere else and it's autographed, and you get the Zelda pages. Not to mention that you help support Pebble Version. If you're interested, just check the donation info below and pick whatever donation method you like the best.

Moving on to non-Pebble Version related stuff, I passed my karate test! Yes!!! It wasn't the easiest test I've taken but it wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be either. Got some mini-reviews I want to do but not tonight. Gotta finish reading the last Otherland book. See you wednesday!!!

Josiah

4/30/2004 Big day
Aside from the several projects I currently have going, this is the day I test for my second kyu black belt in karate. Wish me luck, it's not gonna be an easy test.

So, do you like the special effects in this strip? If you didn't follow from last strip, the level eater beam is a secret weapon the black suited guys gave to mewtwo. It hasn't been tested yet but if it works correctly it's supposed to reduce the target's level to five, majorly weakening powerful ones like mew. Also, a correction. Back in monday's newspost I said that mew KO'd sableye with a psychic attack. It was kinda late when I wrote that so I forgot that sableye is part dark and therefor immune to psychic attacks. Actually it's a sky attack. Oh yeah, there's a new link under the link exchange section of the links page so go check it out.

Josiah

4/28/2004 Getting there
I got some questions about when Brendan and May are going to return. Don't worry, the not yet dynamic dou of pokémon trainers will be returning on May 10th. And, not too long after that, you'll find out why this mew hunt story is important. Strangely enough, the 10th is also the day I have to go back to school. Sigh... Year round school sucks, even if you do graduate sooner.

Ever read Tad Williams's Otherland series? It's a pretty cool sci-fi series with a great storyline. Speaking of which, I should go read more of it. Later!

Josiah

4/26/2004 And fight!
Hmm... I was messing around with wind effects in this strip. In retrospect though I think I overdid it, even though this was the lowest setting. What do you guys think? Anyway, mew and mewtwo are both using some sort of psychic attack in the first panel, second panel sableye is using shadow ball, third mew is using psychic on sableye, and in the forth mew is using mega horn on mewtwo. How does it know mega horn you may ask since there is no TM for it? Well, that'll be explained eventually but it's gonna be a while. No joke in this strip but all the upcoming strips have them so don't worry. And, in case you were wondering, this little side story is winding down so Brendan and May should return in a week or two.

Got a few big projects I'm working on now (which is the reason I still haven't started weekly bonus comics). I'll tell you more once I actually get some of them finished. But some of them are really cool so you have something to look forward too. See you wednesday!

Josiah

4/23/2004 Gotta hurry
Ugh... It's late, I'm tired, and that's that. So let's make this quick. Mew vs. Mewtwo, the epic battle will begin on monday. See you then.

Josiah

4/21/2004 Did you guess right?
It's mewtwo!!! Yea! Did any of you guess mewtwo? Probably. Anyway, it's here and ready to battle. Now, the more perceptive pokémon fans out there might point out that mewtwo usually doesn't have a gray head and red eyes. Very true, it's wearing a helmet. Why? We'll you'll find that out in friday's strip.

Now for the Pokémon Coliseum mini-review.
PC is sorta the third Pokémon Stadium game but PC promised more. Not only did you get lots of 3D battling, you also get a full single player RPG mode! But does it stack up to the Gameboy games?
Graphics: The Gamcube can do better but all your favorite pokémon have never looked better. They have good animation and most of them look really nice. The GC excells with fancy special effects and some of the attacks look quite spectacular. Unfortunately, you only see one pokémon attacking air then see the other getting hit by the attack. You don't see them actually hit eachother. Kinda disapointing but nothing major. Outside of battle though things are kinda bland. That may be because of the desert environment but none of the places in the game really jump out in the 'wow that looks cool' way. The animations for the human characters could use some work as well. Some just look too stiff and unnatural.
Music: There's some nice remixes of familiar music from the GB games. Most of the music is new and sounds pretty good and even catchy at times. Although occasionally it's a little misplaced. Like the theme for the disco tech bad guy Mirror B, which is salsa, not disco. The sound effects are a mixed bag. The sounds for the attacks and the like sound fine but the pokémon themselves are a major disapointment. All they do is occasionally let out a low volume cry which was obviously dumped straight from Ruby/Sapphire. Basically they're really quite and when they do make noise they sounds the same on on the GB. Adding some voice samples from the anime would have made a tremendous difference and helped the battles come to life a lot more.
Story: The hero (who seems to get fashion advice from the Yu-Gi-Oh gang) is a former member of Team Snagem, a group of pokémon theives who, for some unexplained reason, destoryed their hideout and stole the snag machine which lets him capture other trainer's pokémon. Shortly after he saves a girl who informs him of people using 'shadow pokémon'. Only she can see the difference between these and regular pokémon. These shadow pokémon have had the door to their hearts artificially closed so they can attack humans (like they couldn't before?). The boy and girl then set off to snag and purify all the shadow pokémon and find out who's behind this sinister scheme. This is the darkest story of any pokémon game (not that that's saying much) but it's also pretty corny if you think about it...
Gameplay: This is pokémon. Everyone knows how it plays. Unlike most games, your main character is no rookie. You start with an Umbreon and Espeon with levels in the high 20s and lots of money and items. Unlike the GB games, there are no random battles, just trainer fights, and there are no routes between areas, you drive from place to place on your motor bike thing. Also, all battles are 2 on 2, an interesting touch. Occasionally a trainer will have a shadow pokémon which you catch the same way you'd catch a wild one in the GB games. Most of these are pokémon from Gold/Silver that aren't available in Ruby/Sapphire, which is nice because after beating the game you can trade them back and forth with Ruby/Sapphire. Once you've caught a pokémon you need to purify it which can be done by having it in your party, usuing it in battle, and massaging it with cologne (yes, I'm serious). Finally you take it to this weird rock and open the door to it's heart. The real question though, is why would anyone want a shadow pokémon? In the game they always go on about how strong they are but after using them for a bit you'll notice that they have several major cons and only a couple questionable pros when compared to regular pokémon. Outside of the story mode, you can use you team from story mode or your GB to fight though various groups of trainers and win items, TMs, and the like.
Overall: If you don't have any of the GB games don't even bother, get them instead. They all have much deeper gameplay and lots more to do. If you have Ruby/Sapphire though and the thought of either the 3D battling or catching all those otherwise unobtainable Gold/Silver pokémon peaks your interest then it's time to get PC and 'Purify 'em all!'.

Josiah

4/19/2004 Is that it?
Heheh, the real 'it' will be revealed on wednesday. By the way, it's not what you think. Well, actually I don't know what the heck you're thinking so for all I know it might be what you think... Nevermind. In case you missed it on friday there's a new (and pretty lame) bonus comic up if you vote. Sorry about the lameness but I was really tired when I made it. Also in site news, if you didn't read last wednesday's newspost (bottom of the page) please do. It's very important.

Our congregation had a Yom HaShoa (Holacaust Remembrance Day) service yesterday at the local college. We had a little trouble with the timing on the Powerpoint presentation but overall it went well. And it is very important to remember what happened back then and make sure it never happens again.

There will be a mini-review wednesday or friday and I got a couple big things in the works for the not too distant (I hope) future. That about covers it for now. Later!

Josiah

4/16/2004 Have a good weekend
Not much to say. Got one more day of school and then I've got a month off. Yes, I'm going all year around and yes that sucks. Oh well, vacation will be nice even if it is short and at a weird time. Let's see... Got a Pokémon Colleseum mini-review coming sometime next week. There's a new bonus comic up, although I would like to apoligize in advance for how lame it is, I just couldn't come up with anything good tonight. And lastly if you didn't read wednesday's news post please do. It's really important.

Josiah

4/14/2004 Donations... Important
What is it? You'll find out soon enough. Yawn... I'm almost over that cold, I think. I felt pretty good today and decided to push things a little and see just how well I was. Turned out I felt better than I actually was. Why now? Also, I got finals this week (yes I'm on a weird schedule). And I need to practice for my karate test and get ready for some other stuff. All in all this was a really bad time to catch a cold.

Now onto something I've been meaning to talk about for some time. Donations have been pretty much non-existant for quite a while now. Not good. And no, I don't need the money to buy a new TV or anything. Simply put, Pebble Version costs a pretty decent amount of money to keep going. You may wonder why I didn't get a free site on geocities or something like that. Simply put, I don't want my readers having to wade through a mess of advertisements and out of bandwidth messages just to read my comic. Unfortunately, such goals cost money. And while I love doing Pebble Version, I can't afford to pay for it out of my own pocket. I already put in hours each week working on the site and comics even with all the other things I need to get done. I often check the stats for this site and I know how many thousands of people read this comic each month. If even as few as ten of those thousands would donate $2 every month it would make a tremendous difference. That really isn't much is it? Plus you get bonus gifts and if more people started donating I'd give out new donation gifts every month instead of every other month like I currently am. Well, what do you say? I have to say, I won't try to force you to donate, Pebble Version will always be a free comic but surely there's at least a few of you out there who think $2 a month is an small enough price to help keep Pebble Version on-line, right? Anyway, if you decide to donate, you can find the paypal button below in the Donation Info section along with the mailing address if you prefer to send cash, checks, or a money order (e-mail me if you do and let me know). I'd really really appreciate the help.

See you soon.

Josiah

4/12/2004 Cool huh?
Sorry if this strip takes a little while to download. It's got the biggest file size of any Pebble Version strip so far. Doesn't it look cool? FYI: mew is using psychic in the first panel, in the second flygon is using hyper beam and dragonit just hit mew with a thunder punch, finally in the third panel mew uses blizzard, freezing both flygon and dragonite.

In other site news, I still have no clue why a large amount of the banners on the link page occasionally fail to display when loaded in a browser. They are all fine in the editor but they literally disapear (both from the page and the source code) at times when I view the page in IE. If anyone has an idea I could use some help.

And that's all for today. Had some stuff to talk about but I've had a cold all weekend and I need my sleep. Later!

Josiah

4/9/2004 Drakengard Mini-Review
As you can see, flygon has taken the place of Golem and the battle truely begins. If you're wondering, dragonite is using hyper beam in the first panel. In the second, flygon is using dragon breath and mew is using ice beam. Now for the mini-review.

Before we being you must keep in mind that Drakengard is not a Squaresoft game. It was made by Cavia and published by Enix but because of the merger, it's Square-Enix now so some people got confused when Drakengard wasn't like previous Square games.
Graphics: The gaphics aren't bad. The animation for Caim (the main character) and his allies in battle is quite good as are the character models. And the FMVs (the only thing done by Square) are excellent. The animations for some of the enemies and the out of battle animations are rather jerky and unnatural though. And while the arial environments look nice, the ground levels seem rather bland at times. Of course, since you're in a war torn landscape it kinda fits.
Sound: The music is good although it often grows pretty dissonosant at times. Of course, juding by what's happening the game, it's supposed to sound that way. Interestingly enough, most is remixes of old classical tunes. Sound effects are good, particularily the weapon sounds. Voices are a mixed bag. Most of them sound very good although some seem a bit over dramatic. And some are insanely annoying (I'd love to swat the stupid fairy with my sword) but in those cases that is actually the intended effect.
Story: Um, yeah... Drakengard is probably the weirdest and darkest game I've ever played. The story is decent but nowhere near as epic as you average Square game. In a nutshell the world is supported by several seals, one of which is held by the goddess, Furiai. The evil empire wants to destory the seals even though prophecy says it will bring about the end of the world. The Union seeks to protect those seals, particularily the goddess. Caim is Furiai's sister. While defending her castle he's mortally wounded and makes a pact with a mortally wounded dragon to survive even though he hates dragons (a dragon killed his parents). The pact causes Caim to lose his voice but he and the dragon go on to fight against the empire and protect the goddess. Along the way you meat other characters, most of which have also made pacts. Even when you've gotten all five endings, the story leaves a handful of important questions unanswered. Whether this is intentional to make you wonder or just sloppy I can't tell. The story is very dark, big on cruel irony and twists of fate and violent. None of the endings can really be considered happy. The first one, however is pretty good. The others though... Basically as Caim's world falls into chaos in the later endings so does the plot and things just keep getting stranger. By the time you see the fourth ending you'll be wanting to know what they were smoking when they wrote it (so you can destory the evil substance.).
Gameplay: The game has three play modes. While fighting in the air Caim rides the dragon. You're not on rails so you can go where you want as you fight off a large assortment of flying monsters. The dragon can fly, fly faster, make quick dodge moves, shoot fireballs, shoot smaller homing fireballs, and occasionally fire off a powerful magic attack. The arial battles can sometimes can really fast and frantic but are easily the most fun parts of the game. As you fight your dragon gets stronger and at certain parts of the game the dragon evolves into stronger forms. After clearing the air, you often go to straifing mode. Here you fly right above the battle field and torch the legions of soldiers below. If you run into something the draogn can't handle like magic relfecting enemies and archers, Caim can hop on the ground to fight them normally. Caim too gets experience and levels up. After this you may move on to full ground battles. On the ground Caim runs around with whatever weapon you have equiped and cuts down seemingly endless hordes of enemy soldiers. There's a lot of different types of enemies but with missions having anywhere from 200-2500 enemies, you'll fight plenty of all of them. You don't have to clear every enemy on the map but you will if you want to find new weapons. Battles go something like this: see a group of soldiers, approach group, push square until your weapon starts to glow, push triangle when your weapons glows for a powerful finishing move, grab and health or other spheres that might have appeared, and finally repeat several million times. This can get pretty boring at times but all the weapons handle a little differently and have different magic attacks and there are lots of enemy types. Plus there's just something cool about taking out twenty armed knights at once without a getting so much as a scratch. Still expect to get bored with the combat at times.
Overall: If you like hack and slash games, fun arial combat, and really dark and depressing story lines than Drakengard is for you. If you didn't answer yes to all three, I'd give it a rental first. Drakengard is an interesting game and there's fun to be had even amidst the extremely repititious combat but between the bloodsoaked gameplay and dark linear story this is definately not a game for everyone.

In other news, I've hardly gotten any non-spam e-mail lately. If you have some time, drop me a line and tell me what you think of the comic. I'd love to hear from you. Also, if we've got any web deisgn experts out there, I've noticed that often times a large amount of the link banners on the links page simply don't appear on the page. There's no broken images they're just not there (they even disapear from the source code). Oddly enough, both the banners and the code are perfect in my web editor. If anyone has some ideas that'd be great.

Josiah

4/7/2004 Friday?
It sure would be funny if this happened in the games. Um, we had our congregation seder last night. It was fun although I think a few people turned the four cups of wine into the eight cups of wine. I always liked passover. It's one of my favorite holidays. Now, about the mini-review, I was going to do it today but I got caught up working on a really fancy comic for next week. Just wait till you see the special FX on this thing. But while it looks cool, it took quite a while to make so the mini-review will be on friday instead.

Josiah

4/5/2004 Passover is coming
Well, I hope you all like this little Mew Hunt sidestory. Probably hard to tell when I've only done two strips of it so far. Sorry I didn't get around to doing an April Fools joke this time around but I got some ideas for next year so we'll see... Also, you remember when May was trying to catch the Wurmple? That's how I was feeling in Pokémon Coliseum yesterday. I mean how many pokéballs can a sleeping pokémon with only a couple HP left break out of? Quite a lot apparently.

Anyway, Passover starts this week which means lots of extra prep work for me so I spent the majority of my evening getting school work done since I won't have time later this week. The result of that? The Drakengard mini-review has been postpned till Wednesday. Hopefully there will be no further delays.

See you then!

Josiah

4/2/2004 100!!!!!!!
Yeah!!! 100 strips!!! Wow, it's been a great ride and I hope to be here for another hundred. I'd like to thank all my fans whether you've been reading since the beginning or just found Pebble Version today, thanks for your support. Special thanks to everyone who's been voting on Buzz Comix and even more thanks to those who donated.

In other site news, that big suprise I mentioned is still coming. I was hoping it would be ready in time for strip #100 but it still needs some more time. I don't have a set date but look for it in the relatively near future. Also, there's a new bonus comic up so be sure to keep voting.

As for today's strip, as I mentioned before, the comic will be taking a brief break from Brendan and May to show what's currently happening a couple routes over. This never happens in the games but it's the first part of the original plot I'll be working in and this little sub-plot will end up being pretty important.

Well, thanks again, and here's hoping for another hundred!

Josiah

3/31/2004 99...
Almost there. One more to go... I was gonna do a Drakengard mini review today but in the end I didn't have time to write it so look for it next week. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll hit the top 10 on Buzz Comix this month but since tomorrow is the first day of April all the votes reset. So if you all vote a whole lot on thursday and friday there's a chance we can make it at least for a little while. Either way, this is the best Pebble Version has ever done in the top 10 and I'd like to thank everyone who voted. I hope you're all here on friday for the big 100.

Josiah

3/29/2004 Two more strips...
That's right, strip number 100 is coming this friday! In case you didn't hear this before, starting at 100, the comics will leave Brendan and May for a short time to set up a very important later event. This will also be the debut of a legendary pokémon and the biggest departure I've taken from the plot of the main games. Also, remember to vote. I don't know if we can hit the top 10 but I would like to see how high Pebble Version can get for the big 100.

See the new snazzier looking pokédex design? Wil at Mushroom Kingdom Hearts did it for me. I'll not only be using it in the new comics, I also went and redid numbers #96 and 97 with it. Neat! Thanks Wil!

Josiah

3/26/2004 Argh, my eyes!!!
Did anyone notice that the pokémon numbers listed in the pokédex in the comic are different than the ones from the game? That's cause I'm using the internation pokédex mode which lists all 350 something pokémon with their correct numbers, not the new R/S ones.

Yawn... Oh man, if I get through this newspost without falling asleep I'll be lucky. I'd be even luckier if I don't dream about Drakengard. See, I was about to call Sony but then I decided to use the CD/DVD player cleaner I'd bought a while back on my PS2 first. It worked so I figured I'd get the remaining four Drakengard endings before starting into Pokémon Coliseum. I only have one more to go now but I'm kinda wishing I'd stopped after the first ending... The first one is good although it leaves a couple unanswered questions. The other endings endevour to answer them but as the world in the game falls into chaos so does the plot. The second and third endings were weird and I've heard the fifth (which I haven't gotten yet) is the joke ending. Ans since the fourth requires you to do all the optional missions and stuff I figured it would probably be the best one. WRONG! To put it bluntly it was one of the most bizzare and disturbing things I've ever seen. I just hope that army of giant naked flying evil flesh-eating zombie babies doesn't leave me scarred for life... You might think it sounds funny but not the way it's done in the game. I don't know what they were smoking when they wrote that part of the game but, ugh...

In site news I added a new link to Alien Dice. Check it out on the Links page. It's a cool web manga that obviously get at least a little inspiration from Pokémon. I also added a new About Me page with a bit of info about, well, me. Anyway, it's there if anyone is interested. And no, neither of these things is the surprise I mentiong earlier this week. As for Buzz Comix, I think we've got a record number of votes this month but the Top 10 is a long ways off and there's only a week left before the 100th comic. Remember you can vote once per day.

Josiah

3/24/2004 Surprise coming
Like my pokédex view? I got Pokémon Coliseum today. More on that soon. Once again, I'm gonna remind you that strip 100 is coming soon. Can we get enough votes to hit the Top 10 in time? Never know, you can vote once a day with either the Buzz Comix button or banner. Got a possible big surprise coming up in the not too near future. Although that's all I'm gonna say.

Josiah

3/22/2004 Why is it always my stuff that breaks?
Well, only four more strips before the big 100. If you're interested, Pebble Version is moving up the ranks at Buzz Comix but we've got a really long way to go if we want to hit thr top 10 in time for strip 100. But there is still time and if everyone votes once a day (it only takes seconds) we'd make it for sure.

Hmm... Aside from a recurring problem with my MP3 player which the tech support people in India can't seem to understand, much less fix, it seems my PS2 has gone on the fritz again despite being repaired not that long ago. Woke up on day and suddenly half my PS2 games won't load only PS1 stuff works fine (opposite of last time). Guess it's time to call Sony again. Hope they fix it for free like before. If they don't I'll have to attempt it myself or buy a new system (which is currently way out of my budget). Looks like that mini-review of Drakengard will have to wait a while.

See you wednesday!

Josiah

3/19/2004 Animated Banner!
I replaced the Pebble Version link banner on the Links and Extras pages with a new animated version! Yea!!! BTW: Strip #100 is coming up soon and as I mentioned in the last news post if everyone voted for Pebble Version once per day it'd reach the Top 10 in time for strip #100. Just something to think about... Got a good idea for #100 too but I'm not saying more now. Um, that's it. I spent too much time on the banner to write more tonight. Have a good weekend everyone!

Josiah

3/17/2004 Almost 100
We're getting close to strip 100. Gee, I suppose I should probably do something special. Crap, now I have to actually think of something... Um, yeah. We'll see if I can come up with something good.

I was looking on Buzz Comix. Hmm... If everyone voted once per day Pebble Version could be in the Top 10 before we reach the 100th strip. Not like that'd ever happen but voting only takes several seconds (use the button on the left or the banner up above), you get to see a nifty bonus comic, and it would be really awesome if we could hit the Top 10... Just something to think about.

Josiah

3/15/2004 Almost...
Isn't catching pokémon fun? Um, I don't really have much to say but there's a new addition to the Links pages (Plot Device, a Sonic comic that's just starting up) and there's a new bonus comic up so I encourage you to vote and see it. Of course I also encourage you to vote when there isn't a new bonus comic up but...

Josiah

3/12/2003 Quick thoughts on Drakengard
I'm sure all you Pokémon players have had this happen once or twice. In other site news, I'd like to thank Wil from Mushroom Kingdom Hearts for making some awesome new Pebble Version linking buttons. Go check them out on the Links or Extras pages. Also, if you haven already be sure to check out MKH (which is also on the links page). I haven't got to read through all the archives yet (Wil's current web host frequently runs into bandwith problems rendering the site temporarilly unavailable) but what I've seen is pretty good.

As for Drakengard, I'll post a mini-review once I finish it but for now here's some thoughts. It has got to be the most violent game I've ever played, although I usually avoid overally violent games so overall it's really not too bad (a bit of blood when guys die). The story is interesting but pretty dark. There's melicious psycho faries, a zombie like evil army, and child soldiers who must be killed. Not stuff for kids. Basically, the main character Caim makes a pact with a dragon joining their lives so Caim gets the power he needs to fight The Empire, an evil army out to kill the goddess (Caim's sister) who supports a seal that is said to keep the world from falling into chaos. There are three types of gameplay. Arial, in which you fly the dragon around and fight off airships, other dragons, flying rock things, and the like. The action is fast but these stages can get pretty difficult. Fortunately, your dragon does get experience and level up so it's easy enough to power up if you get stuck. Things can get pretty nasty if you get surrounded by large groups of enemies. After the skies are cleared there's often straif missions. In these you fly around with the dragon while raining fire down on the hapless soldiers below. You can also hop off to take care of archers, mages, and other things that can knock your dragon from the air. Then there are ground missions without the dragon. Fighting is basically a hack and slash. Square, square, pursh triangle at the right time for a finishing move, repeat. There's lots of different enemy types but you'll see tons of each and none are very smart. You'll slash your way through wave after wave of enemies with a variety of different weapons which all handel a little differently and level up as they get kill. Each also has its own magic attack that also levels up. Actually, the lack of enemy AI is probably good. Considering the sheer numbers of soldiers that come at you in each mission if they were any smarter the difficulty would go from decent to nightmarish. An average ground mission has between 200 and 500 enemies while I've seen up to 850 in some of the bigger ones. Even with the different weapons and magic things get repititious pretty quick. Anyway, if you don't mind the endless hack and slash violence and dark plot Drakengard is an interesting hybred game you may want to check out.

Josiah

3/10/2004 Vandal Hearts
Ah, every Pokémon player has no doubt had this happen many many times. There are a couple new things on the links page so be sure to go take a look. Now onto the mini-review.

Vandal Hearts is an old PS1 strategy RPG made by Konami. I picked up a used copy a little while back. Here's what I think.
Graphics: No nice way to put this, the graphics suck. And I'm not talking about modern standards either. While the battle fields look decent enough, the character models are just plain ugly, no way around it. And it doesn't help that 80% of the characters and enemies practically errupt in a fountain of blood when killed (how to skeletons have blood anyway). Still, don't judge the game by the graphics.
Music and Sound: The music is pretty good although not really memorable. The game could use a few more tacks however, short as the game is, you'll no doubt tire of the couple of battle themes before the end. The sound effects are decent too, there's even one for those erupting blood fountains I mentioned.
Gameplay: If you've played any Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre games the system is similar. But instead of taking turns based on speed, all your characters take their turns in any order you choose than all the enemies take their turns then it repeats. Each turn a character can move than act and all physical attacks are countered. There is a limited job system. Characters can advance to a stronger job when they reach levels 10 and 20. Occasionally you may get to choose between two jobs but not often. The game has a rock, paper, scissors feel. Each job type is strong against another job type and weak against another. For example, Airman are strong against Soldiers but weak against Archers. Battles are huge. You eventually end up with a massive 12 man party and all of them fight in every battle! Plus you usually end up fighting at least twice your number of enemies. The AI isn't very good. Enemies will often get killed with counters and in the bigger battles about half the enemies will stand around doing nothing until you've slaughtered the first half. Still, the sheer numbes and limited healing items keeps things challenging. Outside of battle, you can manage your items, shop, talk to people in bars, and that's about it. There are no random battles in this game and you can not revisit old battle fields, making the game's only sub-quest (which involves collecting certain hidden items) a miss one and you're screwed deal. Completing the quest though, allows your main character to change to the ultimate job. Aside from the big stat boosts, it lets him use every spell and special attack in the game and let's him use unlimited amounts of every item!!! This is kinda cheap but very cool too.
Story: You control a young member of the peace keeping force in Istaria, a newly formed democratic country. Unfortunately, there's a plot afoot to take the government over and your party gets caught in the middle of it. While nothing amazing, the story is pretty good and has a few interesting twists. It'll keep you playing for the 12-16 hours it takes to beat this extremely linear game.
Overall: While it has nothing on Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, Vandal Hearts is still an enjoyable strategy RPG and is worth the $10-20 a used copy will probably cost you. Just don't get turned off by the ugly graphics.

Josiah

3/8/2004 Happy Purim!!!
Yea, it's Purim, time for cookies, costumes, and fun. If you don't know what Purim is go Google it.

For those of you tired of the poorly thrown pokéball gag, this is the last one in the forseeable future. Brendan has improved a bit and May usually doesn't miss. Not much else to report in site news. The forums are going well, and I have a sort of mini-donation special going this month if you didn't know (see below for more info).

I just got my Pokémon Coliseum bonus disk (yes, Jirachi is mine!) and my copy of Drakengard. I'll tell you more about it later. I also plan on doing a mini-review later this week for a little heard of PS stratagy RPG called Vandal Hearts. As for revenge, I've got some good ideas, maybe I'll even tell you about a couple after the fact. MegamanX724 suggested I don't do anything and while that has some merit, not this time. They made too much of a mess of my stuff to let it go or even attempt a psyche out.

See you wednesday!

Josiah

3/5/2004 Revenge will be mine
I'm back home but it seems some of my 'friends' decided it would be fun to mess up my room and hide a bunch of my stuff. If they happen to be reading this, which knowing them they probably aren't, I'd just like to let them know that I will have my revenge. And I'm much better at revenge than Mike. Anyway, I have some ideas but with four seperate people to get revenge on I could always use more. Send in your ideas here. Keep in mind though, I don't want anything that could get me in trouble with either the law or their parents.

Got a ton to do before the weekend so I'd better run. Have a good weekend.

Josiah

3/3/2004 Driving time
Well, I'm going to be spending most of the day driving back home to Grand Junction. Not much else to say. I have another improvement or two to make to the site but I'm not gonna have time this week. Look for them soon though and after that I should (finally) be able to start doing weekly bonus comics.

Speaking of bonus comics, there is a new one up in case you didn't see monday's news post so get voting! Also, I got a new donation gift this month and a sort of mini special offer going. It's a pretty nice deal if you haven't gotten all the pages of The Legend of Zelda A Dink in the Past. It's a comic I'm doing based on TLOZ A Link to the Past. Each page is really large and really funny so check either monday's post or the donation info below to find out more. Remember, Pebble Version doesn't only require my time to stay on-line. I also have to pay for the hosting, domain name, etc and all donations are greatly appreciated.

Josiah

3/1/2004 Vote, vote, vote!
Well, it's a new month. I hope everyone enjoyed their extra day. Now that march has started though, a new bonus comic is up and everything on buzzcomix is reseting. I've put up a new voter bonus comic so be sure to vote and see it. As always, the old bonus comics can be found on the Extras page. Unfortunately, Pebble Version slipped a little on the charts this month ending at #36 overall (I blame the mid month reset of vote totals). But we did get #3 in Pixel Comics, #26 in Humor, and #1 in Gaming!  Remember, voting is quick, easy, a great way to support this site (although not as good as donating), and you even get a free bonus comic. There's nothing to lose. You can even vote up to once per day if you want to be really nice.

Speaking of donating there's a new donation gift this month so read the donation section below to find out more. Remember, just $1, or 5, or 200, will get you a nifty gift and help me pay off this comic's hosting fees. Got a special deal running this month too. This month's gift is the next page or two (time depending) or The Legend of Zelda A Dink in the Past, my hillarious full page Zelda comic. And since the majority of you readers missed out on the first three pages any donation of $5 or more gets them all. What are you waiting for?

Don't forget the forums either. We're having a lot of fun over there and the more the merrier. Just sign up and start posting. Hope to see you there!

Josiah

2/27/2004 What day was it again?
Man, being on vacation really skews your sense of time. I could have sword I updated the site yesterday... Anyway, today's comic is based on another old but good joke as Brendan tries to correct his biggest problem as a trainer, throwing the pokéball. Wow, they've finally left town. At this rate they may even reach the first gym in another month or two.

Sigh, wouldn't it be nice if things worked like they did in Final Fantasy? My luck sucks. At least when it comes to the more random things like luck of the draw in card games and dice (don't get me started on dice). On a RPG stat scale of 0 to 255 my luck is seems to be about a 20. And when it is good it never lasts long enough for me to finish whatever game or tournament I'm in. It's time like this I wish I could just go out, kill some monsters, and drink a few luck potions for a much needed stat boost. Sigh...

Well, I got a math test tomorrow and to make matters worse I forgot to bring a calculater on this trip. It's going to be interesting and I'll need some rest. See you next week!

Josiah

2/25/2004 One more time
Yeah, I couldn't resist adding one more strip with that kid before Brendan and May leave town. If you don't recognize the kid or get the joke you need to read the archives. Um, I'm in a bit of a rush right now so I'll talk more later.

Josiah

2/23/2004 Vacation Time
Despite today's comic, the running shoes were one of the best improvements that Ruby/Sapphire made to the Pokémon series.

Well, here I am in AZ. And I'll be here until sometime early next week. I'll do my best to keep the updates to their usual times but no promises. I went to a Shlock Rock concert this afternoon. They're one of my favorite groups. And there's another concert sunday. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do the rest of the time here. School of course, and I want to try and find an anime store.

One last note. You never realize how great broadband internet is until you have to go without it. Argh! Dial up is so slow! I miss my cable modem and wireless network... Well, that's all for now. Later!

Josiah

2/20/2004 Links!
If you missed the other news posts this week there is a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote. And donate, and post in the forums, etc... Also, I finished something I've been meaning to do for quite some time and re-did the Links page. I added buttons and banners for the sites that have them, reorganized stuff, and added some new links as well. And there's another one I may be adding in the near future as well (you may have heard of it on the forums).

I'm gonna be in AZ over the next week. As usual, I'll have my laptop and updates should continue as normal. Although the updates may be a few hours early or late. And for those of you on the forums, if I don't post as much this coming week you'll know why.

Josiah

2/18/2004 Crystal Chronicles
Yeah, this is an old joke but it's a good one and I couldn't resist throwing it in. And if you didn't see it monday, there's a new bonus comic up so vote and see it if you haven't already, or even if you have. The more votes the better!

Ok, just some thoughts on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (a full mini review will come later). This is not a regular FF game. The story is pretty barebones. The world is covered with a deadly mist called miasma. The power of the crystals protects the villages but they need to be repowered each year using Myrrah which can be gotten from trees which go in really hard to reach locations. Your group is in charge of finding the Myrrah each year for you village. I've only played multiplayer so far but single player sounds pretty similiar exept you have a AI moogle to assist you. For multiplayer every needs a GBA. This is expensive but the setup has its advantages. Players use the GBA screen to access their menus and shop without freezing the action for everyone else. Also, each player randomly gets one of four screens in each dungeon, a map, a treasure locator, a monster locator, and monster stats. To protect you from the miasma you carry a crystal chalice. If you leave its protective barrier you'll gradually take damage. Unfortunately, whoever's carrying the chalice can't do much else so it usually gets dropped when monsters appear. Your party goes to different dungeons to find Myrrah inside you'll search for chests and fend off monsters action RPG style. The combat is more hack and slash than anything else. Just walk up and start swinging your weapon. Or you can use a focus attack, magic spell, or item. You can even combo spells and attacks to create new and/or stronger moves if your timing is good. Teamwork is a must, you'll always be yelling to go that way to get a chest or to bring the chalice that way or heal some one, or something. Tip: don't give peole you don't trust control of the chalice. Tip: you may want to make a deal about who gets the chests and items dropped by monsters so it doesn't turn into a first one there swipes it thing (yes I'm talking about you Jacob, stop hogging the gil). Leveling up is strange, mainly cause you don't do it! Instead, you find stat boosting items in dungeons and at the end everyone gets to pick one item to permanently keep. First dibs go the the person who racked up the most bonus points by fufilling the condition on their GBA screen. Throw in maze like dungeons, challenging monsters, occasional puzzles, and a bunch of unlockable mini-games and you've have a very expensive but insanely fun multiplayer experience. If you've got the friends and the GBAs this is a game you don't want to miss.

Josiah

2/16/2004 Buzz Comix and Bonus Comic
Snowboarding was interesting to say the least. It was slightly fun and very painful. Although I think it would be much more fun if I practice enough to get past the falling every two minutes stage. I'm still really sore.

In game news, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a blast to play, at least the multiplayer is. Going dungeon crawling with three friends it insanely fun and addicting. I haven't had a chance to try single player yet so no comments there. I'll talk more about the gameplay later this week but for now, if you have some friends with GBAs who are willing to give it a go, FFCC is a must get.

Now, there is a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote and see it. This is particularily important now because Buzz Comix just did some major upgrades which unfortunately required resetting this month's vote totals so Pebble Version's posistion took a serious dive. Please vote! And while you're at it, you can check out some of those new features I mentioned. Now you can get a Buzz Comix account even if you don't have a comic. Why? With an account you can leave reviews for comics (please leave some reviews for Pebble Version) and even set up a personal favorites list so you can easily acces and vote for all you favorite comics. And, as an added bonus, comics gain one popularity point for each favorite list they're on (hint, hint).

I'm kinda in a hurry now so I'll talk more on wednesday. Later!

Josiah

2/13/2004 5 AM???
Today's strip lacks a joke but it was necessary to advance the battle. As always, strips like this are rare and your regular humorous comics will resume on monday. And don't forget the new forums, the more the merrier after all!

Well, I was going to do a mini-review but that was before I found out that I need to get up at 5 AM to take a math test. Long story short, my brother, a couple friends, and I are going to the local ski area tomorrow to attempt snowboarding. I say attempt because my brother is the only one who has done it before and he's only a beginner. Problem is, I'm taking classes over the internet now, that usually lets me choose my own schedule within reason but my math teacher is a pain and for some reason he sets a very small window of time in which you can take each test. So I have to get it done tomorrow before sundown since I can't do school on shabbat (sabbath) and we don't know when we'll get back from snowboarding. That means I have to take the test really really early Which in turn means that I need my sleep.

Oh yeah, if you read the updated version of the last news post you'll notice my thoughts on the temporary demise of Squidi.net, home of A Modest Destiny and The Starship Destiny, two of my favorite comics. Read the post if you want more details. First the good news, both comics are back on-line and the updates continue, yea!!! The bad news is that that comics are about the only thing that is back. Aside from the forums, FAQ, and the comics themselves pretty much everything else is gone which means no cool extra features. Hopefully they'll return soon though. Please?

Josiah

2/11/2004 Buisness as usual UPDATE!!!
For any Pokémon newbies out there a magikarp is a fish pokémon. And while it does elvolve into the powerful Gyarados at level 20, an unevolved magikarp is widely considered to be the weakest and most useless pokémon in the games.

I just got Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Haven't got a chance to play it yet but I went through the manual and it looks cool. I'm having some friends come over this weekend for a four man multiplayer session (Note to Jacob: Get a GB-GC cable!!!) so I'll fill you in after that.

And, just in case someone missed the last couple news posts, the Pebble Version forums are up and running!  The link is on the nav-bar on the left so head over and start posting!

UPDATE!!! Squidi.net the home of both A Modest Destiny and the new Starship Destiny comics is on indefinite hold. Sean Howard, te creator, makes completely original pixel art (aka sprites) and all he asks is that people don't steal and/or modify them. Is that so wrong? I write books and I wouldn't want people stealing and modifying them. Sure, shutting down the entire comic might seem a bit extreme but if he feels that strongly that's fine because it's his original art that's being stolen. For any of you who like Sean comics, check the site, send him an encouraging message, and send an entirely different message to the jerk who drove Sean to shut down the site.

Josiah

2/8/2004 Nag, nag, nag
Hey everyone! Today's strip isn't one of my favorites but I just couldn't seem to come up with a bettter punchline. Happens to everyone I guess. Don't worry though, got some much better strips coming up later this week.

In case you missed friday's post, the forums are now up and running! The link can be found on the nav bar on the left. I'd like to thank everyone that's already posted and for those of you who have yet to sign up and/or start posting and replying, hurry up and do it! I'm having a lot of fun withe forums so far and the more people the better!

Also, I realized it's been a while since I nagged you all to vote and donate so I'm going to do that now. Voting is the quickest and easiest way to help support Pebble Version. It's free, takes only a few seconds, and you even get to see a cool bonus comic. There's nothing to lose! You can vote with either the button on the left or the banner near the top of the page and can do it up to once a day. As for donating, any donations of $1 or more get a special gift. Sometimes it's Zelda comics, sometimes it's wallpaper, and right now it's a hillarious short story I wrote. And, if you donate $15 or more you even get a free autographed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone. Of course, you don't have to donate a thing to enjoy Pebble Version but I do appreciate all donations. Keeping this comic going takes money (hosting fees, etc) and a lot of my own free time and sending me a few bucks every now and then is a great way to say that you like what I'm doing.

Well, I could say more but instead I think I'll keep reading A Game of Thrones. Must... Finish... Chapter... Later all!

Josiah

2/6/2004 Presenting the Forums!!!
I am pleased to announce the completion of the Pebble Version Forums!!! Well, maybe not completion. I would like to make a few more changes such as adding custom graphics and aviators. But that stuff can wait a while. Let's say this is version 1.0. Anyway, I've added a link to the forums on the nav bar on the left. All they need now is for you to go sign up and start posting so get to it!!! And as I said this is version 1 so if you have any suggestions for them please let me know.

In other news I'm planning to start adding new bonus comics once per week instead of every other week like now. But it'll be at least a couple weeks before this starts since I want to get a few other Pebble Version things done first. Speaking of which, I fixed up the old bonus comics on the Extras page. They're more like the regular archives now so they're much easier to navigate.

Anyway, please go post in the forums and have a good weekend!

Josiah

2/4/2004 75 Comics
Wow, 75 already. Pebble Version sure has grown a lot in a short time and I hope it continues to do so. I love getting new readers. And look at today's comic, so many cool motion blurs! Also, Xain and Cali's pokémon are revealed. You probably expected treecko would show up but who would have guessed electrike?

There's a new bonus comic in case you missed the announcement on monday so be sure to vote and take a look. Still working on the forums and a couple improvements to the site too. Hmm... Seems the only e-mail I've gotten lately is copies of that new virus (good thing I keep Norten updated). Sure would like to find something else in my inbox for a change. Drop me a line if you feel like it.

Josiah

2/2/2004 Bonus Comic!
Yep, the new bonus comic is up so be sure to vote and see it. Speaking of voting, we did really good this month. Pebble Version finished #29 overall on Buzzcomix. And since Bob and George added me to their fanlinks page we've been getting lots of new people (thanks Bod and George!) so I bet we can get even higher this month! As always, the old bonus comics can be viewed on the Extras page.

Played football and watched the Super Bowl sunday. Actually I'm not a big sports fan but a lot of my friends watch and I like the commercials. Our football game was interesting. The field started out kinda muddy and ended up almost swampy. You couldn't stop or turn of anything. And you got coated with mud.

Don't forget to vote and donate. The forums will be done soon. See you later!

Josiah

1/30/2004 Coming soon... Forums!!!
No, the forums aren't done yet but I finally chose a provider and started working on them so it won't be long now. Also, I got my laptop hooked up to my home network and everything is finally running correctly. To add to the good news, I get the perfect 100% completion ending in Final Fantasy X-2! And I got some new imported Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs! Gee, things just keep getting better and better!

Anyway, the forums are coming soon so keep checking the news. Also, if you missed the update I made to wednesday's newspost please read it now, it's pretty important.

Josiah

1/28/2004 Fingers crossed... (IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!)
Yes! I think I fixed our buggy computer. As long as it keeps working ok I might actually get a chance to work on the forums I've been talking about. That is, if I can pull myself away from my new Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs. Ah decisions, decisions, work on the forums or watch anime... Hmm...

IMPORTANT UPDATE. The latest net virus is spreading rapidly. And, after getting about 75 copies in my inbox in one day I have a request to make. If you have any pebbleversion.com e-mail addresses in your address book please delete them. I'm getting tired of deleting virus letters. Also, the virus is spoofing some fake @pebbleversion.com e-mails. So don't be fooled. The virus has something like 'Hi' or 'Error' in the subject line and the body is either gibberish or tells you to download the attached zip or doc file which has the virus. If I send you a real e-mail it will not have an attachment unless I'm sending you a donation gift in which case the subject woul be something like 'Pebble Version Donation Gift' and the body would be a letter thank you for the donation. If you get any other messages from a pebbleversion.com address that wants you to download a file delete it. Thank you for your time.

Josiah

1/26/2004 Stupid computers...
As promised, there's a mini-review today. But first I get to complain. Aside from the problems I'm having getting my laptop hooked up our new home network, my desktop has suddenly grown very unstable for no apparent reason. By the way, I'm hoping to get to work on the forums this week, although it does depend on how much time I have to spend fixing the computer.

Now onto Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. If you've played Super Mario RPG on the SNES or Paper Mario on the N64 then you know what to expect. The fusion of platforming and RPGs is a complete blast.
Graphics: The bright colorful areas and unique characters and monsters are all very well done and true to the Mario world. The animations are really smooth and Mario and Luigi have tons of cool poses and the like. Some of the nicest 2-D I've seen on the GBA.
Sound: Many of the musical tunes are remixs of classic Mario themes and give you that good upbeat atmosphere no matter where you are. The sound effects are also quite good and fit very well.
Gameplay: Beware, you need at least a bit of hand eye coordination to suceed here. On the map you control one character with the A button and the other with B. You can swap with brother is in the lead at almost any time and the other follows behind. Outside of battles you'll walk and jump your way across the landscape while having Mario and Luigi team up to perform a variet of nifty combo moves that let you reach new areas.  You can even try to get an early battle advantage by jumping on or hitting an enenmy before engagin them in battle. On in battle, A controls Mario and B Luigi. Hitting the correct button at the right time during a physical attack does considerably more damage and will soon become second nature. Also, it is possible to dodge every attack in the game and counter many if your fingers and timing are correct. Mario and Luigi can also dish out major hurt with their Bothers Moves where they combine forces for a special attack. Naturally, you can make it much better with correctly timed button presses. The battles range from easy to pretty hard and are always lots of fun since you have to keep on your toes to attack and defend. Plus you even get a stat for how good the bros' mustaches look. How cool is that?
Story: The game offers 20+ hours. Basically an evil witch steals Princess Peach's so she can use the powers of the mighty beanstar. So Mario heads to the nearby Bean Bean kingdom to save Peach's voice. Luigi accidently gets dragged along and the two go on one wacky adventure after another as they explore the Bean Bean kingdom and meet its many colorful inhabitants. Bowser even comes to help, see he wants Peach healed so he can kidnap her. Go figure. Don't expect a deep plot but the story is decent and really really funny. For instance, Luigi is often seen as the rather neglected brother who stays at home while Mario saves the day. Due to this, hardly anyone recognizes him. In a funny scene, Bowser actually mistakes Luigi for one of his new recruits.
Overall: This is a fun RPG with some unique gameplay, lots of hidden stuff to find, and a hillarious story. My only complaint is that it's a bit too short. You'll wish it was much longer cause this is a really terriffic game that no RPG or Mario fan should pass up!

Josiah

1/23/2004 Oh the agony! Oh the ecstasy!
First the ecstasy, after years and years of being out of the servicec area, we finally got broadband internet connection! Yes! Finally I can get download speeds above 5KB per second!!! Of course, there's also the agony. Now that we have broadband, I needed to set up a home network so our two desktops and one laptop could share the connection. And while I don't have a lot of networking experience, I'm really good with computers and know quite a lot. But then there's my luck. Argh, why can't anything just work right the first time? First there was a problem with the router which needed a call to tech support to resolve then I had to get the firewall up and running and figure out how to stop it from blocking all my web enabled programs. Then there was a problem with the house's ethernet wiring. But I figured that out without too much trouble only to find that the firewall was blocking the second desktop from accessing the network. Stupid firewall, more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, I finally got the network running and got my ISP set up to use the new broadband connection. Finally, all I needed to do was set up my laptop to connect to the network wirelessly and partake in our new ultra fast net connection. But even though my laptop can see the network and connect to the network it can't seem to access or even see any of the other systems or the net connection. Grr... Looks like I'll be calling tech support again... User friendly plug and play my...

And now some agony for the rest of you. I was too busy working on the network to do a mini-review so it'll have to wait until sunday. Sorry.

Josiah

1/21//2004 Yadda, yadda, yadda
In case you missed monday's news post, there's a new voter bonus comic up so be sure to vote and check it out. Been watching Big O lately, it's a decent amine with an interesting premise and is somewhat remeniscent of, strangely enough, Batman. I may put up a mini-review eventually. Or I might wait till I get the DVDs instead of reviewing the Cartoon Network version. Got and idea for a new Yu-Gi-Oh deck too and if it works the way I have planned it'll be really awesome, well more on that after I get a chance to atually play test it.

In site news I plan to have a new mini-review up on friday. My goal is to get the forums up by the end of the month. Although wether or not I make that goal depends on how school goes over the next week and a half. Either way though, they're coming pretty soon. And I've got a few more things planned that'll come not too long after the forums but I'm not going to tell you about them now. Oh yeah, I'm planning on making some new banners. I want something to replace the generic Buzz Comix ones and I'd like to either make a new site banner or maybe redo the current one. Animation would be good, but I'm not sure if my current software can make animated gif images. Hmm... Better check.

See you guys on friday.

Josiah

1/19/2004 New Bonus Comic!!!
Yep, the next bonus comic is ready for viewing by everyone is votes for Pebble Version. I had hoped to have it ready for friday but in the end I didn't have enough time so I finished it up while watching Saturday Night Live instead. So go check it out. Also, don't forget this month's donation gift is a great short story I wrote that is sure to give you plenty of laughs. Remember, it only takes one doller. And the more money I get the more money and effort I'll be able to put into this site.

In other news, some of my friends got me Uru Ages Beyond Myst for a late birthday present. I'm a big Myst fan and the only reason I didn't already have Uru was lack of time and money. Well, time is still an issue so I haven't gotten too far yet but it's definately interesting. The change from the first person slide show like style of the previous three games to the full 3-D third person perspective is kinda strange. Between that and the jumping puzzles it just doesn't feel like Myst yet but I am enjoying it.

I'll try to get another mini-review done this week (not telling you what it is though), so check back often. See you later!

Josiah

1/16/2004 Cali has arrived
And here's Cali. Um, not much to say tonight. Went to a play (West Side Story) with some friends and got back kinda late. And I have a lot to do so I need some sleep. Although I would like to thank the people who e-mailed me with forum suggestions. I'll be looking over all the recommended sites soon and choosing which one I want to use.

Night all.

Josiah

1/14/2004 Love Hina
Hello. School is back in session for me but I'll talk more on that later once I've got a better idea of how things are going to go.  For now, here's the promised Love Hina mini-review.

If some of my friend like Jami, who know how much I hate american romantic comedies knew how much I like Japanese romantic comedies they'd be pretty shocked. See, Japanese romantic comedy anime and manga has something the the american RCs don't.  Namely comedy. The boring american movies that I've seen tend to have a couple good lines at best and the rest is lame. But Japanese stuff focuses on the comedy. All of the ones I've seen have tons of down right wacky elements to keep you laughing. Love Hina is no exception. This long manga series is done by Ken Akamatsu. The hapless star is Keitaro, a young man determined to get into Tokyo University to keep a promise he made long ago with a girl who's name he no longer remembers. But after failing the entrance exams two years running his parents kick him out so he goes to live at Hinata House, his grandmother's boarding house. But, it turns out grandma is off to see the world and Hinata House is now an all girls dorm. But it turns out grandma wanted Keitaro to become the land lord. Living with a bunch of cute girls might seem like a dream come true but Keitaro's natural clumsiness and bad luck starts him off on their bad side and it is one eccentric bunch of girls. There's Naru, who's also studying for Tokyo U, the sexy slacker Kitsune, the bizzare foreign girl Su, the kendo master Motoko, and the sweet young Shinobu. New characters join the cast as the series goes on and Keitaro and Naru have an uneasy almost romance as they try to pass their exams. Things are always lively and the wacky hillarity never stops. All in all Love Hina is lots of fun to read and even has some decent romance between all the hijinks. Note: it's rated Teen for adult situations, language, and well, let's just say hot springs (any serious anime/manga fan will know what I mean).

Josiah

1/12/2004 Xain is here!

And so enters Xain. Cool isn't he? Well, at least he thinks so. Hope you like the sprite. It's a modified Brendan recolor if you didn't already notice that. As always, any feedback is welcome. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to get a Pebble Version forum (aka message board) up by the end of the month. Right now I think I'll just set up one using Buzz Comix but if anyone knows of a good, reliable, and either free or really cheap forum, drop me a line. I was never really got into forums so this will be kinda new for me when I actually get them up and running.

Unfortunately, school starts tomorrow for me. Since I'm going to be taking courses online from UAT this semester instead of at Mesa State, I have absolutely no clue what my new schedule is going to be like. I may have lots of time to work on Pebble Version or very little. But I do want to get the forums up this month.

Also, I did get a check that was mailed right before the end of December. Thanks to that the December donation goal has been met! Yea! And that means as promised I will update four times a week. However, the new schedule won't start for a week or two cause I need to work out my new schedule. As to what day of the week this new update will be, or if it will be a regular Pebble Version strip or something else (perhaps more Blooper Reel strips?), that's still up in the air.

As for the Love Hina mini-review, I'll have it done in time for wednesday. Promise.

Oh yeah, deja vu sucks. Remember how I got stuck in the Junction airport all day cause of fog on the way to PA? Well guess what happened on the way back. We flew to Junction then turned around and flew right back to Denver because the fog was too thick to land. What the !@#$ is up with that? I've lived here for five and a half years and we hardly ever get fog and when we do it's always gone be like noon. Now there was the fog on the 31st and Junction has also been totally fogged in since friday. And on that flight where we turned around, everyone on the plane voted to land at Montrose which is only an hour drive from Junction and fog free. But United Airlines has some insanely stupid rule that if they can't get you from point A to your destination at point B, they won't let you go anywhere at all. And since the Junction airport didn't close down (despite the fact that there was no visability), United wouldn't bus us back so we had to get a refund for our tickets (which was nowhere near what they were worth), pay for a rental car, and drive till 2 AM through thick fog to get home. As soon as I start planning my own vacations I plan on never flying United again.

Well, get to be ready for school tomorrow. Fun, fun fun. See you wednesday.

Josiah

1/9/2004 Homeward Bound
Well, I'm heading home today. This has been a nice but short trip and I just hope the return journey goes better than our really messed up trip from CO to PA did. Once again, new donation gift this month (see below) and Xain and Cali will make thir first appearances in the comic this coming week. Also, I'll try to get a mini-review of Love Hina up on monday. Oh, and keep voting, Pebble Version is doing spectacular on Buzz Comix and I'd love it if we could keep this momentum up for the rest of the month.

Josiah

1/7/2004 Nothing New
Like the title says, nothing particularily noteworthy has taken place since monday. My vacation is going fine. I'll be heading home on friday and school begins on monday. I've been playing Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga for the GBA lately and it's a really fun game. Look for a mini-review in the not too distant future. Um, Xain and Calli will be making their Pebble Version debut next week so don't miss it. They're the first completely original characters I've created for this comic so I hope you like them (well, at least as much as you can like a pair of stuck-up ultra annoying rivals). And we're doing awesome on Buzz Comix so far this month so don't forget to vote!

Josiah

1/5/2004 Vacation
Well, now that I'm actually in PA things are going pretty good (unlike the trip here). The signing on sunday was pretty good although I didn't sell as many books as I did in Junction. But, now that it's finished I get to spend the rest of the week relaxing, I hope. Not to mention reading all the manga I bought. Ever read Love Hina? Hmm... Maybe I'll do a mini-review of it in the near future.

Anyway, in case you missed the announcement friday, there's a new bonus comic up. If you don't know how to see the bonus comic simply click on either the Buzz Comix button or banner then click the confirm vote button on the next screen. A thank you page will load and the comic is on that page (might take a minute to load). Old bonus comics can be seen on the Extras page. Also, remember that the December special is over and we have a completely new donation gift for this month. Find out more below. As for my promise to update Pebble Version four times weekly if we reached the donation goal? Well, as of yet we still fell short but I get an e-mail from someone who sent a check in before the end of the year and that might be enough to meet the goal so I'll let you know when I get it.

See you later everyone!

Josiah

1/2/2004 New Bonus Comic for a New Year!
As stated there's a new bonus comic up so be sure to vote and take a look. Please vote a lot so Pebble Version can start off strong this year. Speaking of which, the final standings for December are... Overall #38, Pixel #3, Humor #18, and Gaming #2. Not bad at all. Let's try to keep it up. Also in site news, the December Special is now officially over. Since I'll be kinda busy this month there will be no new Zelda pages, however, donators will get Lousianna Bones and the Temple of Gloom, a nifty humorous Indiana Jones spoof I wrote a little while back. This is really funny so be sure to doante and get your copy. And donation of $1 or greater gets the story and $15 or more gets you a signed copy of Guardian of The Stone. And don't forget that my book signing is this sunday at the York PA Borders at 2 PM. I have a limited supply of books so be there on time to be sure you get one.

Now, as for my New Years... Fog sucks, United Airlines sucks, whoever was in charge of rerouting flights at Grand Junction and Denver sucks, and Denver International Airport sucks. My friend Jacob's dad however is pretty awesome. I already mentioned my trip to PA. We were supposed to leave nice and early on the 31st except GJ was so foggy that the plane couldn't land. Now instead of rerouting it to the nearest airport (an hour or so away) they sent it all the way back to Denver (five hours by car) so that by the time it refuled and returned it had missed the only break in the fog. And then it went back to Denver again. And instead of bussing use to Montrose to fly out from there, the airport bussed us all the way to Denver. But by the time they decided to do so, it was too late to get any flights in the direction we needed to go. Jacob's dad was the bus driver and I think he set a new speed record from GJ to Denver which was pretty cool. But since DIA seems to practically shut down at 7 PM we had to pay for a hotel and fly to PA on the first. Of course, things weren't bad once we finally got here but the whole experience didn't make for a very good New Year's eve or birthday. Oh well, at least I got here safe and sound and I should get a chance to see my friend Jesse tomorrow.

Yawn... Anyway, this has been a weird two days and I need to get some sleep. Later everyone!

Josiah

12/31/2003 Last day of the year!!!
Well, it's almost new year's eve. That means several things. 1: It's your last chance to get the December Special, that's my book, three Zelda pages, and the Pebble Version wallpaper for only $10 so if you want it you'd better hurry! 2: My birthday is tomorrow! Yea!!! 3: Buzz Comix is about to reset again so hurry and get another vote so Pebble Version finishs as high as possible. Also, I really need you to vote starting on thursday so we start the new month out strong. 4: Finally, my book signing is only a few days away. I'll be at the York PA Borders book store from 2-4 PM this sunday so please come if you can!

Also, just a reminder that I'll be leaving for PA tomorrow to visit my relatives. Updates should continue as normal but no 100% guarentees there. Later! Have a great new year!

Josiah

12/29/2003 FFX-2
If you don't recognize the fat guy in today's strip go read the archives and all will be made clear. Couple announcements before the mini-review. First, I'll be leaving on wednesday to visit my grandparents in PA for a week or so. I'll be there over my birthday (New Years) and it should be a lot of fun. I'll have my laptop so the updates should continue normally but no guarentees. Also, while there I'll be doing a book signing at the Borders bookstore in York PA on Sunday January fourth from 2-4PM and if any on you live nearby come on over. Lastly, don't forget you only have through wednesday to take advantage of the December special. Not only do you get my book, three Zelda pages, and a Pebble Version wallpaper for only $10, if we meet this month's donation goal you'll get four Pebble Version strips a week instead of three!!! See the donation info below for more details.

Ok. Final Fantasy X-2. I have to admit, when I first got a look at Yuna and Rikku's new outfits I was pretty ticked. Rikku looks a bit too much like a hooker and Yuna looks a bit too much like Lara Croft and the Charlie's Angels style parts of the opening FMV didn't help. In the end it seems to be a love it or hate it game and I actually like it.
First the graphics. The character models have been slightly improved since FFX but nothing major. As for the rest, most of the environments were pulled directly from X and look pretty much the same although there are some new areas and those look quite good.
The music isn't the usual haunting FF tunes but instead provides a lot of upbeat pop tracks that keep up with the generally light hearted game. And there are two vocal pieces. In particular, 1000 Words, which you'll hear at the end of Chapter 4, is really awesome.
Gameplay. The battle systems take the ATB system from FF IV-IX and makes it about five times faster. There's not a lot of time for thought there, just react quickly or get pummeled but it keeps things moving and keeps the battles fast, nice considering the high random encounter rate. Still, it's not nearly as cool as FFX's CTB. Leveling up has returned to the normal gain EXP to go up a level version so nothing new there. You learn abilities with the garment system which is basically the job system. Different jobs have different stats and can learn new abilities by gaining AP in battle. There are you standard jobs (white mage, black mage, thief, etc) and your original ones (dark knight, mascot, etc) but a lot of the actual abilities are reused from FFX. The job system is pretty standard, the only twist being that you equip your dresspheres (jobs) on boards called garment gids and can use them to switch between jobs on the fly during battle. This allows for some interesting strategy but it's easier to just set up a well balanced part so you don't have to bother switching mid fight. The game also added the ability to jump and climb but Yuna does it automatically, all you have to do is hold down a button. It's ok but nothing particlarily great.
Story. Ok. DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN FFX!!! X-2 takes place two years after the defeat of Sin in X. Spira has three new factions, New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction and tentions are high. Meanwhile, hunter spheres (think videos) has become a fad as people search for Spira's lost history. Rikku became a sphere hunter and found a sphere showing a grainy video of what looks like Tidus. Naturally she show Yuna who is desperate to find out if it's really here lost love. So she join's the Gullwings along with Rikku, a mysterious warrior named Paine, Brother, and a few others. The game follows a somewhat opened ended mission based structure as the gang travels about looking for spheres and helping out. While you can just go to the hotspots in each chapter you'll miss lots of items and a lot of the story if you do so. The main focus of the story revolves around the groups vying for control of Spira and the near choas that ensues. Tidus does play a role but, well, I'd better not say more. The story is good and interesting but not nearly as deep or gripping as your tippical FF tale. And there are three endings, sort of. Actually there's the regular ending. The good ending (an awesome FMV that plays after the credits if you press X during a certain part of the noraml ending). And the perfect ending (adds another bit to the good ending if you have 100% story completion). So don't expect Chrono Trigger style endings here. Although there is a new game+ mode which lets you replay with most of your stuff while you try to get your story completion up to 100% (although it is possible in one playthrough).
Overall, you'll like if or you'll hate it. And there's no reason to play it if you haven't beaten FFX. Overall, FFX-2 is kinda different, kinda girly, and definately not your normal FF game but if you give it a chance it provides a fun game with a good story that finally puts to rest any questions you may have had about FFX's ending. Definately worth a try if you've played FFX.

Josiah

12/26/2003 Cast Page Updated!
Hey everyone! Remember those two new characters I said are going to show up soon? Well I just finished making their sprites so I couldn't resist adding them to the Cast page a little early. Gee, I forgot how long custom sprites take to make. Good thing I didn't have to do them totally from scratch! Hope you like them!

In other news there's only a few days left for the December Special. So if you want my book, all three Zelda pages, and the Pebble Version wallpaper for only $10 you better hurry and donate. Paypal is the preferred method but you can also send my cash, checks, and money orders. But if you do please send me an e-mail so I know you sent it.

And on a final note, my birthday is coming up! That's right I'll be turning 19 on January 1st, New Years Day! Yea! Party!!!

Guess that's it for today. BTW: be sure to come back sunday when I'll finally give FFX-2 the full mini-review treatment!

Josiah

12/24/2003 Happy Holidays!
Twas the night before christmas and... Um... There was a new Pebble Version strip! Yes, thank you, I realize how lame my poetry is. As promised the serious strips are done for quite a while. Brendan and Mya will be back at the lab soon and before long I'll be introducing two original characters! Yes, that's right, two original and very important characters not found in the games. Why, you may ask? Well, while I intend to stick closely to the flow of the games, at least for a while, I have an original story that will come into play later and Brendan an May are going to need some new rivals once they team up so... Speaking of which, I just remembered that I havbe to actually make sprites of those new characters. Ack! I'd better get to work on those! Gee, I sure hope they turn out ok...

Well, merry christmas, channukah day five, or whatever holiday you have coming up! Happy holidays!!!

Josiah

12/22/2003 Not much time left!
Another no-joke strip but this is the last one for a while. As you can see Brendan used the potion correctly this time and torchic delt a pretty strong blow to mudkip. I've got a list of stuff I want to work on for this site which I'm hopinh to get done in the next month or so so keep your eyes open but don't hold your breath either. Also, there's less than ten days left in December so you'd better hurry if you want the awesome special offer. Only $10 for a copy of my book, three zelda pages, and some wallpaper! But time, and my current supply of books is running out so act now! As for my goal of making enough in donations this month to pay off my webhosting fees, we're almost there but not quite. Remember, if the goal is met I will begin to make four Pebble Version strips a week instead of three!

I saw Return of the King. As usual I had a few complaints but it was still really good. Possibly the best of the three, although I'll have to see it again to make sure. And my congregation's annual channukah party and program went very well incase anyone cares. Well, I got a lot to do so I better go. Later!

Josiah

12/19/2003 YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You know, if I was in Bredan's situation I'd probably throw the potion too. Seems like an obvious way to use it right?

Well, I'm back from Vegas. Had a good time hanging out with my grandparents but it's nice to be back home. And, now that I'm home, I can finally go see Return of the King! But that's not why I'm cheering. I just finished writing Defender of the Lost. Defender is the sequel to Guaridan of The Stone and the second book in The Verities Silex trilogy. Of course, this is only the first draft, I still have lots of editing to do and then there's the extremely large problem of finding a publisher. Seems you can't get a publisher without an agent and you can't get an agent without a publisher. Stupid catch 22's. If any of you happen to personally know any publishers or literary agents could you please drop me a line? I could use all the help I can get.

That's all for now. Happy channukah everyone!

Josiah

12/17/2003 Another late update
If you want to know why this update got posted later int he day than usual read the previous news post. Anyway, the update schedule will be back to normal on friday. As you've probably already noticed, this is another one of those no joke strips. As I said before, I don't plan on doing many of these but they're occasionally necessary just to advance the story or the current battle. Look for a nice funny strip on friday. And if you didn't see the previous news post there is a new bonus comic up so hurry and vote!

I made it to chapter 5 in FFX-2 just before leaving on this trip. And I went to Luca. My reaction went something like this... "What, the Aurochs aren't playing blitzball this season and want me to take their place, yea!" (I spent as least 20-30 hours playing blitz in FFX) "Hmm, they added an extra defensive player. That's cool. Ugh, recruiting is a bit of a pain this way but I can live with it. Whoa! What's with all the extra stats and these training options? Kinda confusing... Ack, wait! They removed all status effects and special moves!!! What the... Grr... Oh well, may as well try a game... ARGH!!! What @#! idiot decided to make it so you can only watch the players and not control them?!? Blitzball, what have they done to you?!?" <breaks out sobbing> Okay, that's exaggerating a bit but that's the basic gist of it. Why did they have to change blitzball? WHY?!?

Lastely, don't forget the december specials. Only $10 gets you a signed copy of my book, all three Zelda pages, and the Pebble Version wallpaper. Nice huh? Even better, if I get enough donations before the end of the month to pay for the hosting fees for this site Pebble Version will change to four updates a week instead of the current three. Speaking of which, we're nearing that goal but it hasn't been reached yet so you'd better keep donating.

See you friday!

Josiah

12/15/2003 Late update...but new bonus comic!
Yeah, I know today's update was posted later than usual but I'm in a hotal room right now and phone calls cost a lot of money so I can't go on-line whenever I want. Wednesday's update may be kinda erratic too but I'll be back home by friday so things should be back to normal then. And there is a new voter bonus comic up!!! Speaking of which, Pebble Version is slipping a bit in the rankings (NOOOO!!!) so you'd better all start voting!

Ever seen Witch Hunter Robin? It's a really cool anime. You can find some of it in the US but I didn't feel like waiting for them to finish dubbing it so I imported a subbed copy. The animation is very slick, the music is catchy,and the story is quite good. But don't expect an action show per say. Witch Hunter Robin does have its battles but it's more of a detective show with a supernatural twist. Robin is the newest member of STN-J, the Japanese branch of Solomon, an organization that hunts down all witches that commit crimes. Witches are both male and female people that have a special power of some sort (it varies by person) due to the prescence of a certain gene. STN-J however is the only branch of Solomon to capture the witches alive and the only one to emply the strange substance named Orbo, which protects the hunters from their enemies' witch powers. There's lots more to it than that of course. If you just want a bloody thriller don't bother with Robin but if you want a slick dectective tale with a intriguing story line go check it out.

By the way, if you haven't heard yet, we finally captured Sadam Hussien! Yea!!! Of course, they still have to do DNA tests to make sure but it's pretty cool. See you wednesday everyone, I hope.

Josiah

12/12/2003 Hooray!
Yes! I am finally done for the semester! Everyone cheer! Ok. That's enough. Isn't May's motion blur cool? You'd better like it. Those things take quite a while to make.

Site news... I added my Norse Mythology research paper to the extras page as promised. Although the formatting got a bit messed up when I changed it to html. Shouldn't be too bad though. Also, you remember the DECEMBER SPECIALS right? Any donation of $10 plus for this month only gets you a signed copy of my book, all three Zelda pages and the Pebble Version wallpaper. And there's the second special where I said that if I get enough donations this month to pay off my hosting fees Pebble Version will be updated four times per week instead of three. Yep, for whole comics a week! And I only need $30 more to reach that goal so you'd better start donating!

I'll be in Las Vegas most of the upcoming week to visit my grand parents. I'll have my laptop so updats should continue as usual but no 100% guarentees there. Either way I'll be back home in time for friday's comic.

Lastly, I've been watching Witch Hunter Robin lately. It's a really good anime series. The first couple dubbed volumes are already out but I didn't feel like waiting for the whole thing to come out in english so I imported a subbed set of the entire series. I'll be doing a mini-review as soon as I finish watching it.

Josiah

12/9/2003 Just one more test to go...
Only one more final to go before I'm done for the semester, wish me luck. I got a call from Borders today, turns out that brief spot my mom got me on the local news helped and they want more copies of my book, yea! I've been getting lots of positive feedback about it so I'm happy.

In site news I put the Pebble Version link banner and button on the links page since no one seemed to be able to find them on the extras page. Hmm... I should probably make a newer cooler looking banner and button (anyone know a good program for animated giffs?) but it's not really high on my priority list. Got some other changes I want to make first. And I'll have that Norse paper up friday, promise. Speaking of which, I got a B on it. Actually it should have been an A but I didn't get the formatting right after all so he knocked a bunch of points off. Stupid formatting...

See you friday.

Josiah

12/8/2003 50 Comics!!!
Yea!!! 50 strips! Isn't that awesome? It's been nearly four months since I put Pebble Version on-line and now after four months and 50 strips I've suceeded in getting through maybe ten minutes of gameplay. Hehe. This is going to be one long comic. This is the point where I should probably make some long dramatic speech or something but I have my two most important tests tomorrow so it ain't gonna happen. But thank you all for reading the comic and remember to vote.

In other news, my book signing went well. I had fun and sold more copies than I thought I would. Big thanks to Borders for making it happen. On another note, despite the December Specials I'm still nto getting donations. Gee, I'm already giving away signed books, three Zelda pages, and a Pebble Version wallpaper for only $10 (or one Zelda page and the wallpaper for anywhere between $1-9). And I'm offering to do four Pebble Version comics a week if I get enough donations to pay off this site's web hosting fees. I can't make it any better than that. Hmm... If you still don't want to donate why not e-mail me and tell me what would make you donate to Pebble Version. I've already tried giant bonus comics, wall paper, and autographed books, what am I missing?

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading Pebble Version and here's to another 50 strips!

Josiah

12/5/2003 Finals...
And Brendan wins the battle by a lucky accident. Anyway, I don't have much to say. Between school and studying and trying to promote my book signing at the Grand Junction borders from 2-4 PM on sunday, I've been reall busy.

Um, remember to vote and don't forget about those cool december specials (see the previous news posts). Oh, and since I did get a request for my mythology paper I'll be posting it next week. See you soon.

Josiah

12/3/2003 Paku!!!
Did you know that in Japanese the sound effect in pannel four would be 'PAKU!!!' not 'CHOMP!!!' (well, paku would be written in Japanese of course). What does this have to do with the comic? Absolutely nothing. I just felt like mentioning it.

Got a busy day. I have a full day of school, lots of test prep stuff to do, and I have to go hang posters for my book signing at the Grand Junction Borders from 2-4 PM on this coming sunday. Be sure to stop by if you live in the area.

And don't forget there's a new bonus comic up as of monday (Old ones are on the extras page.) and with Buzz Comix reset for december I really need your votes. Also there's the two spectacular december specials! Only $10 gets you all three Zelda pages, the Pebble Version wall paper, and a signed copy of my book Guardian of The Stone (or just buy a copy at my book signing and give me your e-mail and I'll send you the rest)!!! Also, if I get at least $55 in donations this month (the amount needed to pay off the hosting fees for this site) Pebble Version will change from the current three times a week update schedule to four times a week!!! But these are only good until the end of the month so hurry up and donate (yes, I will be bugging you about this all month).

By the way, I may toss my Norse mythology paper on the Extras page if anyone's interested. So let me know if you want to see it. Later!

Josiah

12/1/2003 New Bonus Comic and Super December Special Deals!!!
It's the season for giving and I'm joining in! First off, as it's a new month, the posistions on Buzz Comix have reset so I NEED YOUR VOTES!!! To help encourage you to vote I've added a new Pebble Version Blooper Reel bonus comic. You want to see it right? I know you do so hurry up and vote! Confirm your vote and you see the comic, easy as that. And in case you were interested Pebble Version was the #6 sprite comic and #29 overall! Pretty great posistions. Think we can do even better this month?

Now, since it's nearing Chanukah, Christmas, etc, it's time for THE DECEMBER SPECIALS! Two great deals that are for this month only. First up we have...

DECEMBER SPECIAL #1: You know the normal donation drill, any amount gets you Zelda page 3 and the Pebble Version wallpaper while $15 plus gets you a signed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone. Well not any more! Any donation still gets the Zelda page and wallpaper but for this month only any donation of $10 or more gets you all THREE ZELDA PAGES, the PEBBLE VERSION WALLPAPER, and A SIGNED COPY OF GUARDIAN OF THE STONE!!!!! Talk about a great deal! And to sweaten it a bit more there's...

DECEMBER SPECIAL #2: Ok, I still need $55 to pay off my web hosting fees and keep Pebble Version on-line. So here's the deal. You already saw the first awesome special offer. Now if I get at least $55 in donations before the end of the year I will update Pebble Version FOUR TIMES A WEEK! That's right! Four whole Pebble Version strips each week!!! Is that awesome or is that awesome?

Well, that's the deal. Both special offers last till the end of December only and I have a rather limited supply of signed books so you'd better start donating!

One last thing. If any of you happen to live somewhere near Grand Junction CO I'll be doing a book signing at Borders on sunday December 7 from 2-4 PM. Hey, if you show up and buy a book just tell me that you're a fan of the site and give me your e-mail and I'll send you the Zelda pages and wallpaper. Aren't I nice? Hope to see you there (if I have any fans that live nearby at least)!

Josiah

11/28/2003 AARGH!!!
Yeah, I know this is the third time I've used this joke. I promise I won't use it again. At least not for quite a long time.

Now, I said I'd talk about FFX-2... Well vacation or no vacation I still haven't got to play it as much as I'd like so I'm only around a third of the wat through the game. If you haven't played FFX yet don't play FFX-2 or read the rest of this newspost. God buy FFX right away, best game ever. Anyway, X-2 takes place two years after X. The gang has all gone off to do their own thing. With the collapse of Yevon two new factions, New Yevon and The Youth League are vying for control and both want Yuna on their side. Meanwhile it seems that everyone now wants to find spheres showing Spira's past so they've formed groups of sphere hunters. Rikku and Brother have their own called the Gullwings. One day Rikku visits Yuna and brings a strange sphere that shows what appears to be a character who disapeared at the end of FFX trapped in a cage. Anxious to find out more, Yuna puts on her Lara Croft costume and joins Rikku and Paine (another Gullwings member) to search for spheres. It's still too early for me to call in regards to the story. Aside from the search for 'him' there's a big focus on the Youth Leage and New Yevon rivalry. What's happened so far is interesting but I'll have to wait and see. Most of the graphics were ripped right out of FFX. There have been some minor improvements and some new areas have been added but don't expect a big change. There is virtually no recycled music though and the new tunes are very upbeat catchy. Now for gameplay. You only have a three person party all game but as you procede you'll gain dress spheres (think jobs). Like in FFT you earn points by fighting while you're a certain job and can use the points to learn new skills for that job. THere's quite a lot of outfits and for an interesting touch you can switch any time during battle, say if you run into a monster that's strong against physical attacks and need a Black Mage to take it down. There is no equipment other than accessories and you level up normally (no sphere grid). The battles system itself uses the ATB, not FFX's CTB but kicks it into overdrive. The battles are fast, really fast, nearly in real time. This keep things moving despite the high encounter rate and lets you chain attacks together for combos. Another thing about FFX-2, it's mission based. After an hour or two of play you can go to just about any area in the game. The key points are marked on your airship's map but if you just hit the hotspots you'll miss out on quite a lot. The game is divided into five chapters as well. There's also lots of sub-quests and mini games. Like the Lightning Tower calibration game. Just for reference, Tower #7 is !&*@#!! insane!!! I've spent like an hour and a half on that stupid thing and I still can't get higher than 29! AARGH!!!
To sum it up, the girls may look kinda like hos in their default outfits and the opening scene reminds me of those awful Charlie's Angels movies but so far I'm enjoying it. As long as you aren't expecting another excellent epic like FFX there's a lot to like. Just keep in mind that this isn't you normal Final Fantasy.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. See you next week!

Josiah

11/26/2003 Stupid Typos...
If it was me I don't think I'd want to trust me pokémon to a mysterious 'Somebody'. Seems too suspicious. Hmm... That give me an idea... Hehe, more on that later. Much later.

Let's see, no matter how hard I try typos still slip past me on occasion. I fixed some both on the site and in some of the comic strips. I also added a prevew image of this month's Zelda page below. I'll talk a bit about FFX-2 on friday. So guess that's it.

Oh yeah. I'm working hard this week to finish up that big research paper on Norse gods. Tracing their influence through art it proving much harder than I thought it would be but at least I get to sneak in some FF concept art of Odin. I have one problem though. My teach wants the works cited and works consulted pages in MLA format and I don't have any idea what that is. Could some one help me out here? If you know what MLA format is and either can describe it or know of a website that describes it please send me an e-mail.

One last thing. It seems my Pebble Version mail box refuses to open a couple of letters I've gotten for some unknown reason so if you sent an e-mail asking me a question but didn't get a reply that's why. I'm trying to fix it though so hopefully soon...

Josiah

11/24/2003 The Start of a Good Week
In retrospect, I'm not sure everyone will get today's comic but I thought it was funny. And if you were wondering, Brendan will be finishing up in town this week and continuing on Route 103. Just wait till you see what happens to him next week (heh, heh).

If you were wondering why this is a good week, A: It's Thanksgiving week, and B: I only have one day of school!!! I also have the hardest third of my research paper left to write this week but nothing's perfect. Ugh... I got a bit of a headache so I'm talk about FFX-2 later. Have a good week.

Josiah

11/21/2003 Final Fantasy XII
As you can see, Brendan has left the Pokémart and gone to the Pokémon Center. And, as you can see, he still asks too many questions.

Like any die hard Final Fantasy fan, I picked up my reserved copy of FFX-2 on wednesday, despite misgivings about how it would turn out. I'll tell you all about it some time next week after I'd had time to play it a bit more. Square-Enix has also released new info about FFXII. Since FFXI is an MMORPG and not a true FF game, I've been eagerly awaiting FFXII. The details, however, were kinda strange. For the first time a regular FF game (not counting side games like FFX-2) will not be taking place in a new world. Stranger yet, it's set in the world of FF Tactics Advance (although at a different time) so expect to see not only humans, chocobos, and moogles but Viera, Nou Mu, and Banga as well. Judges will be there too although I really hope they now have better things to do than tell me if I can or can't use swords in the current battle. They haven't talked about the battle system yet but I woulnd't be too surprised if they use the FFT system. This is going to be interesting, that's for sure. It's sounds more like Final Fantasy Tactics III than FFXII. Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

See you later. And don't forget, if you haven't seen monday's bonus voters' comic now would be a great time to do so.

Josiah

11/19/2003 Score one for me!
I know the fouth wall gets nudged in today's strip but don't worry. I don't plan on doing that often. I want to keep the wall pretty strong. Also, remember that as of monday there is a new bonus comic so vote if you want to see it.

I got my math test back today and got an A! There were only six peole in the entire class that passed that test!!! Anyway, cause of that the really nice professor is redoing the chapter so they can make it up. But since I've gotten A's on all the math tests and the final is optional (it replaces your lowest test score), I get to skip the rest of the classes this semester! How cool is that?

That's it for now. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break. Anyway, see you on friday.

Josiah

11/16/2003 Yet Another New Bonus Comic!!!
I think today's comic holds true for NPCs in most games (at least ones that don't play any real part in the story). Anyway, as stated there is a new bonus comic up. In case any of you don't know how to see it, simply use either the button or the banner to vote for me on Buzz Comix. Once you confirm your vote you get to see the comic. Cool huh? So come on let's push Pebble Version a bit higher in the ranks. #29 ain't bad but it never hurts to move up. For newer readers, old bonus comics can be found on the Extras page.

In other news, my PS2 is back and working perfectly (Yea!!!). And I just remembered that I have a math test tomorrow (crap!). Remeber to vote and see the new comic and I could really use some donations to pay off the sever fees (please). Later all!

Josiah

11/14/2003 Thanks for the feedback!
Now that's more like it! I got a decent amount of e-mails talking about the site and comic. Instead of replying to everyone, I figured I'd just take all the suggestions and talk about them in this newspost. Here goes.

1. I was told that the next comic link on strip #26 wasn't working. Don't know how I missed that but it's fixed now.
2. One person suggested replacing my current single color backgrounds with fancier stuff. Hmm... I'd like to do that but then I'd actually have to draw the new backgrounds and I'm not that good with Photoshop yet. Although it is something I'd like to work on in the future.
3. There's at least one person who really wants daily updates. Oh, by the way, I do not update sporadically. It says right at the top of the page, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I stick to that schedule. While I wouldn't mind doing more than three strips a week I just don't have time right now. These things take a decent amount of time to make and I have a pretty hectic schedule. However, I'm transfering to a new college next semester and if I end up with more free time I'll consider updating the comic more times per week.
4. Another person suggested animating the comics. While an occasional animated strip would be cool, there's no way I'm doing the whole comic that way. And besides, I don't have a good animation program right now. I might do some animation in the future though.
5. I was also asked to do some more comics in addition to Pebble Version. Well, I have some ideas but time won't allow it at the moment and if I get more time I think I'd rather put it into improving this comic. Although, if you want a different comic by me you could always donate and get the Zelda pages...
6. One person is a big stickler for using the é in Pokémon instead of simply Pokemon like I've been doing. He even sent me the keyboard shortcuts. Actually, I've been wanting to do use the é for quite a while but I never knew how. So thanks a lot. Although, I've already made several strips in advance so the é won't show up for another week or so.
7. Got a couple suggestions about the nav bar on the left side of the page. One said that the links need to stick out more. So I just changed them to bold text, does that help? I also got called to task for only having the nav bar on the home page. About that, if I had it on every page whenever I changed it (like when I switched from TWC to Buzz Comix) I would have to manually change it on each page of the site. I know there's probably some way around this using php but while I know decent bit of html I know nothing about php. If there's anyone out there who could tell me how to add the nav bar to every page on the site using php I'd be very greatful.
8. The last comment was about how my facial expressions for the sprites can sometimes be hard to notice. Well, I'm not sure what I can do about that. There's the way I do them and there's the way Pokémon-X does them (which I don't really like). If anyone can think of a better way I'm open to ideas.

I did get one person who wanted a message board but since it was only one person and I'm really busy right now it's going on the backburner for the moment. I'll probably add one within the next two or three months though (sooner if more people write me about it). Thanks again for all the feedback guys!

Josiah

11/12/2003 Free Samples
This strip reminds my of those people giving out free perfume samples. They don't seem to care if it give you a major headache. Just spray spary 'Doesn't that smell good?' Anyway, I drew the potion myself. And, if you were wondering, it's sorta modeled after the potion card from the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

Gee, didn't anyone read the last newspost? I want your feedback on the comic! I've only gotten two letters so far. If more of you don't write I'll just have to assume that you all think the comic and site are absolutely perfect (which I know they aren't, yet). Also, I would like to know if anyone wants a Pebble Version forum or message board. A simple yes or no will suffice but I'm not gonna add one if there's no demand.

Lastly, I would like you all to remember that donate button below. I love doing Pebble Version but it takes a lot of time and I still need another $55 just to pay off my hosting fees. Even $1 helps and its gets you a cool donation gift. Come on, what have you got to lose?

Josiah

11/10/2003 Three whole months...
Wow. Come tuesday Pebble Version will be three months old. It's grown quite a lot in that short span of time and I'm pretty happy with how it's going. Naturally, in true sprite comic style, it took me three months to do about five minutes of gameplay. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going so far but it's what you guys think that counts. So, I'd like you guys to send my your opinions. If you think there's anything that needs improving let me know. If you think there's some aspect of the comic that needs work tell me. If you think the site itself could be better tell me. If you think this site is missing something that I should add tell me. Also, it seems that the majority of webcomics have a forum or message board of some sort. I never got into those but if you guys think that Pebble Version could use a forum I'd be happy to add one. So get busy and send me you opionions!!!

A couple other news bits. Seems a girl in my karate class saw some of my stuff on-line and actually figured out who I was. That's weird (although I do have a pretty unique name) but kinda cool too.

Lastly, there's a new link up. I'm doing a link exchange with Ceramic Haven. It has two comics. A Sonic one called Not Another Sprite Comic, a Zelda one called Legend of Link (which has some nice hand drawn stuff), and a gallery of ceramic stuff.

That's all for now. Got two big tests coming up so wish me luck!

Josiah

11/7/2003 Revolutions!
First off, yeah I know this strip doesn't have a punch line. Why? Well, although this is at heart a comedy, I may occasionally do a strip without a joke for the sake of the plot or a battle (such as today). But don't worry, it won't happen very often. Speaking of today's strip, what do you think of the white text I used for the pokemons' speech in the first two panels? Much easier to read than the old black text isn't it?

My schedule sucks... I have several rather time consuming things I really need to work on. No problem, I thought. I can work on those donation gifts sunday, and study for that really big test on sunday, and work on my research paper sunday, and... Well you get the idea. Suddenly I have way to many things to do this sunday. Looks like I may have to play catch up a bit this week.

And finally, Mateix Revolutions. Ok. I'll try not to give anything away in case you haven't seen it yet. Reloaded left us with a army of machines burrowing towards Zion, some startling plot twists, and Neo in a coma. For those of you wondering exactly what happened to Neo at the end of Reloaded, that question is answered pretty quickly. After that there are very few plot twists as the movie concentrates on wrapping up the human vs. machine war. Not the mention a battle between Neo and a certain virus like agent... In the end, it does a good job of finishing up the trilogy. There were a few developments that even I didn't expect, the loose ends were tied up, and the DBZ esque final battle near the end was an incredible sight to behold. The ending was somewhat open ended but the story of Neo, Trinity, and crew is definitely over, even if they do decide to make another Matrix movie. One part of the ending was kinda corny but if you've liked The Matrix so far Revolutions won't disapoint.

Josiah

11/5/2003 Matrix!!!
Yes! The new Matrix comes out today!!! I was going to go midnight tuesday but our threater decided not to do a midnight show. Stupid Carmike. Anyway, I'll be sure to give you all the lowdown on friday.

Pebble Version is doing pretty good on Buzz Comix (remember that I added a new bonus comic on monday). But I think it should be getting more outs than it is. If any of you have some time to spare check out my banner and description on Buzz Comix. If you can think of a better banner or description that'll really make people want to check out this comic send me an e-mail. If I like you're idea enough I may use it.

Josiah

11/3/2003 A Mini-Review and a New Bonus Comic
Well, it's now November. I am very pleased to report that, despite spending only three weeks of October on Buzz Comix, Pebble Version finished at #34 overall and #5 in sprite comics! Yea!!! Big thanks to everyone who voted! As a reward, and away of getting even more votes for this new month, I've made a new bonus comic. You should know the drill by now. Simply vote for Pebble Version using either the above banner or the button on the left. Confirm your vote and the bonus comic will appear. And if you were wondering, the next bonus comic will not have Brendan getting ignored and clobbered (hard to believe isn't it?).

In related news, I've decided on this month's donation gifts. The first two Zelda pages are gone (although you can special request them instead of this month's gift when you donate). Anyway, for November any donation of $1 or more to Pebble Version will get you the thrid Zelda page and some neat Pebble Version wallpaper. Isn't that cool?

And finally, my Viewtiful Joe mini-review! The game starts with an average super hero movie buff, named Joe, going to an old flick with his girlfriend Silvia. Oddly enough however, the movie's hero, Captain Blue, is defeated almost immediatly. Even stranger, the shadowy villian suddenly reaches right out of the screen, grabs Silvia, and pulls her into the movie! Joe gets pulled in as well and runs into Captain Blue. Although the aged super hero can no longer fight, he gives Joe a V-Watch, letting him transform in Viewtiful Joe to defeat the villians and rescue Silvia. The music is good and always fits the seen but there's nothing incredibly catchy. The graphics are a sight to behold. Using a mix of cell-shading, neat character design, and a 2.5D perspective, the game looks quite a lot like an old comic book and the excellent special effects make Joe's powers and attacks truely viewtiful. But, the main thing here is the gameplay. Joe is part beat 'em up, part platformer, and has an occasional puzzle thrown in for good measure. You start out with only a jump, punch, and kick and a low and high dodge as you're taught how to make enemies dizzy by dodging their attacks and then counter.. But soon you'll gain your three super powers. Slow sends everything into slow motion. While slow your attacks deal double damamge, you can rack up major damage to dizzy enemies, and you'll automatically dodge most attacks. It also slows down bullets, allowing you to knock them back at the shooter, slow propellers, and performs numerous other tasks. The second power is mach speed. This speeds up thr actions, letting Joe score tons of hits in a very short amount of time. It also speeds up propellers, let's you destory objects in the background, and catch on fire. The final power is zoom. While zooming up on yourself might not sound so incredible, it increases the damage of your attacks and let's you pull off some fancy and powerful special attacks. Your goal may be to defeat the enemies but you want to look good doing it and the key to that is liberal use of your powers. Defeating enemies with powers earns you V-Points which can be used to by new moves, increase your life guage, and other similiar things. Of course, your powers aren't unlimited, enter the VFX guage. This bar increases automatically when you're not using your powers and decreases when you use them. If it gets drained you turn back into ordinary Joe making you much weaker and a sitting duck for most attacks so you have to balance power usage with your guage power. The game is divided into seven episodes, each with a boss at the end. While it's kinda short (7-12 hours), there's tons of replay value. Beating the various difficulty modes (except for the easy kids mode) unlocks higher difficulty levels and other playable characters. While their moves are pretty similiar, they all play differently enough to be fun and the story is modified for each character as well. To make the higher modes easier, you can carry over a character from adults mode into the high difficulty levels and keep all the upgrades you bought. Also, if you are good enough to score the highest rank (a rainbow V) on each section you can unlock a version of that character with infiinite VFX power. Sweet! The difficulty on kids mode is moderate and is a good intro to the game. Adults is considerably harder and a very good challenge, at least your first time through. V is even harder and Ultra-V is just short of insane. And finally there's the story. Kinda interesting, kinda corny, the plot is fun but the real hook is the gameplay, this is no epic RPG. The bottom line is, although challenging, Viewtiful Joe is a blast to play and has enough replay value to keep you coming back for quite a while.

Josiah

10/31/2003 No Mini Review, Sorry
Well, I did beat Viewtiful Joe on Adult mode but there will be no mini-review today. Why? My mom took me to see the local theater production of One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. It was an interesting play but it went pretty late and since it's laundry day my bed doesn't even have sheets on it right now plus I have to get up really early tomorrow morning. In other words, I'm hardly going to get any sleep tonight as is and I'm not going to miss more of it to write that mini-review but I'll definately have it up on monday.

I noticed an interesting news post on Highschool RPG, another web comic. Seems that the author was afraid that Pebble Version would take away his #5 posistion in the top ten sprite comics on Buzz Comix. Hehe. Well, we came close and even passed them up a couple times but it looks as if Highschool RPG will be keeping the #5 posistion, at least for this month. I haven't got around to reading Highshcool RPG yet so I currently have no opinion on the comic itself. Just thought that was interesting.

Speaking of votes, today is the last day of the month which means that, come saturday, all the posistions on Buzz Comix will be reset! I know we can not only take back our current posistion but go even higher in November but I need you're help so come the start of November I'll need your votes more than ever! It only takes a few seconds and you can vote up to once a day so please help me out.  Remember, the more votes I get the happier I get and the more inclined I get to add extra stuff to the site.

See you monday.

Josiah

10/29/2003 Yawn...
I know torchic doesn't look so great in the third panel but I'm still pretty new to Photoshop so I'll get better over time, I hope. Adult mode on Viewtiful Joe is proving much harder than I thought it would be (and there's still two harder difficulty levels!) but I only have one episode (aka level) left so that mini review should be up on friday. I'm also nearing the end of Mega Man and Bass and I'll put up a mini-review of that too once I finish it. Got a couple announcements to make but they'll wait till friday. For now I'll leave you with yet another reminder about this month's donation gift. Remember, you only have through friday to donate $1 or more if you want the first two pages of The Legend of Zelda A Dink in the Past. And if you can't use paypal I also take checks, money orders, and cash. My snail mail address is listed below. Although if you do send a donation that way please e-mail me as well just to let me know.

Ok, I need some sleep. Got a full day of school tomorrow... Later everyone!

Josiah

10/27/2003 Hope you set your clocks back...
Hope no one forgot daylight savings time. Anyway, not much to say today. If you missed the last news post remember that there is a new Pebble Version Blooper Reel bonus comic up and all you have to do to see it is take a couple seconds to vote for me on Buzz Comix (use the button or the banner). And, since I'm so nice, there will be another new bonus comic next week. Lastly, another reminder that time is running out if you want the current donation gift. With just $1 (or more) you'll get two full page Zelda comics! But when the month is over they're gone! As for November's donation gift, well, I'll tell you about that in a week.

In non site related news, I beat Viewtiful Joe on the easy (relitively speaking) Kids difficulty setting. Expect a mini-review soon but not until I complete the normal Adults mode.

Josiah

10/24/2003 New Bonus Comic!
As promised the new bonus comic is up! Of course, you have to vote for me if you want to see it. The old bonus comic has been moved to the Extras page in case anyone missed it.

The new link I promised is up as well. It's Grim, the story of a goofy grim reaper as told by former Bob and George fan comic author BLjG.

I'd like to thank the people that sent me advice about my PS2. Which now refused to play and PS1 games or audio CDs. I tried cleaning the disks and drive and, not wanting to open the system myself unless absolutely necessary, called Sony. After trying a few things over the phone they agreed to fix it for free! Yea, am I lucky or what? Of course, that means sending my PS2 away for repairs so no Wild Arms or DDR for a while... On the bright side, it coinsided nicely with that Gamecube sale I mentioned earlier in the week. I've been playing Viewtiful Joe and whoa, it is one incredible game (mini-review coming next week).

Remember, only a week left to get the first two Zelda pages! This time once the month is over they're gone! Later!

Josiah

10/22/2003 Good Things Come On Fridays
Well, I got a lot of around the house type work done today and played some Mega Man and Bass on my GBA. I would have played Wild Arms but my PS2 has recently become very finicky about playing any disk that isn't in perfect condition. Sometimes they work perfectly others I can spend half an hour trying to get the damn game to load without success. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I was pretty busy today so no bonus comic. However, barring some weird unforseen event it will be done in time for friday's update. Also coming up on friday will be a new link and maybe even a mini-review. See you then!

Josiah

10/20/2003 Poor Timing
Hey all you Gamecube owners, Toys R Us is having a buy two get one free sale on all GC games. Nice! Too bad I don't have any money (hint, donate, hint, hint)... Strange, seems there never are any sales when I have money... I know! It's all a big conspiracy! Or not, but there never do seem to be any really good sales when I have cash...

In site related news Top Web Comics is finally up and running again but I like Buzz Comix better and since I don't want to ask you guys to vote for me on two sites I'll be sticking with Buzz Comix. Besides, we seem to be doing a pretty good job of holding that #38 slot (keep voting!) and I don't want to lose that. I wouldn't mind moving up of course but #38 is much better than I though we'd do, especially since Pebble Version has been on Buzz Comix for less than two weeks. As for that new bonus comic I mentioned? I have it planned out and am going to try and get it done this week. Hopefully I'll have it up wednesday or friday but I'll just have to see how things work out.

One last think, I'd like to thank Phantom6 for sending me several great sites on Norse mythology. That saved me a lot of time searching Google to find the stuff for my research paper. Which is still nowhere near done but at least I've started on it. I'd also like to thank BigLumberjackGuy, who's name should be familiar to you Bob and George fans, for sending me a really great e-mail. Turns out he's doing a keenspace comic now which I'll tell you more about once I have some time to read the archives. Later!

Josiah

10/17/2003 Stupid Repeating Dialogue
Don't you hate it when a game asks you to do something and then keeps asking over and over again using the exact same words until you choose the option it wants? Well I do. Neccessary or not it's really annoying.

Woo hoo! Pebble Version is up to #6 in sprites and #38 overall on Buzz Comix, isn't that awesome! As a way of saying thanks I'd like to give you all a brand new bonus comic some time next week. However, no guarentees on that as I have a twelve plus page research paper that I really should have started working on two weeks ago so we'll see how things turn out. Speaking of which, if any of you happen to know of a good website about Noris gods (Odin, Thor, and the like) please send me the address ASAP.

Have a good weekend everyone and don't forget to vote! We may be high up now but we're not gonna stay there without your help!

Josiah

10/15/2003 Thank you everyone!
Well, I fixed that glaringly obvious typo in the last newspost. I really need to either stop updating so late at night or start running a spell checker on these things. Anyway, remember that if you vote for Pebble Version using one of the Buzz Comix links you not only help me out but you also get to see the first Pebble Version Bloor Reel bonus strip! Neat huh?

Speaking of which, I'd like to thank everyone who voted, even those of you who only did it for that bonus strip (that is what it's there for after all). Pebble Version has been on Buzz Comix for less then a week but's its already skyrocketed in the rankings placing in at #8 in sprite comics and #46 overall last time I checked. But please don't stop voting now. We need to keep those posistions after all and I'm sure we can go even higher!

In other news I had a nice two days off from school but unfortunately it only gave me enough time to catch up on my homework... If you ask me teachers shouldn't be allowed to give out assignments over breaks. Also, I've started playing the original PS1 Wild Arms, a neat western/fantasy/sci-fi RPG. It's old but fun and I'll be giving it a mini review after I've played for a bit longer. Later people!

Josiah

10/12/2003 Surprise! Vote and get a Bonus Comic!!!
Drum role please... I am proud to annouce, the Pebble Version voter incentive. And what, you may ask, is that? Simply put, it's a bonus strip that you can only see by voting for Pebble Version. That's all you need to do, vote using the Buzz Comix banner or button. Fast, easy, and you get a bonus comic. And what is this bonus comic? Announcing the Pebble Version Bloor Reel! Ever seen the fake blooder reels on CG movies like Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc? This is like that. I take an old strip and do a fake filming gaff. It's pretty cool really. For now I'll do a new one whenever I feel like it, probably once or twice a month, to help generate some more votes. If they go over well I might make it more often. Hope you like the Blooper Reel!

Guess that's about it for now, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll see you all on wednesday.

Josiah

10/10/2003 Buzz Comix
Notice anything different? There are three changes. Find them and win absolutely nothing! First, and probably least obvious, I changed the color of the sky in the comic. I got a comment about the old sky being too bright and, now that I've tried it, I like this new lighter blue better. Now for the more important changes. I got tired of waiting for Top Web Comics to go back online so I replaced the TWC vote button with one for Buzz Comix. It's like TWC only better. For one thing, it actually works! Plus it has a bunch of cool features that TWC does not. I also swapped the amazon banner on the main page for a Buzz Comix one. It works just like TWC. You click on the button or banner, confirm your vote, and you're done. It takes only a couple seconds and it helps out Pebble Version, the only better ways to help are donating or buying my book. But voting is free for you cheapskates out there and since I just signed up Pebble Version is way down near the bottom of the list. It deserves to at least be in the top 100, right people? So if you could please spare a moment to vote... You can vote up to once per day you don't have to do it that much but the more the better. Naturally, the more you vote the happier I get and the more cool stuff I add to this site. Speaking of cool stuff, Buzz Comix has a neat feature that inspired me to, well, I don't want to spoil the surprise. It should be ready by monday so I'll give you the details then. Let's just say that it's going to be good.

Happy Sukkot everyone!

Josiah

10/7/2003 Isn't Torchic Cute?
Yea, torchic finally gets to do something! Now, before you pokemon experts out there start e-mailing me yes I know that torchic starts out on level 5 and that it doesn't learn its first fire attack (Ember) until level 10. So, if you want to know how it's using a fire move in strip #24, a wizard did it.

Yom Kippur went well and now that it's over I shouldn't be missing any more updates in the foreseeable future. I actually did consider doing a double update to make up for the day I missed but I'm lazy so you only get one strip. That's it for now. I've got a big test tomorrow morning so I have to study. See you friday.

Josiah

10/3/2003 A Series of Unfortunate Events
Ok, I did promise a mini review today. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket is probably the most dreary and miserable series you'll ever read. When Violet, Klaus, and Sunny's parents are killed in a fire it seems that misfortunate follows them everywhere they go, mostly in the form of their evil uncle Count Olaf who is constantly scheming to get his hands on their fortune, which they can't touch until they come of age. This series takes Murphey's Law seriously and if something can go wrong it usually does as the siblings are shuttled from one guardian to the next. Still, these are extremely funny books. From the author's habit of explaining difficult words in ways you'll never see in a dictionary to the complete absurdity of many situations, you'll be laughing almost the entire time. Surprisingly enough, about six or seven books into the series a rather deep plot actually starts developing as the heros uncover some startling facts about their parents and Count Olaf leaving them to try and solve several mysteries including the contents of the Snicket files and the secrets of V.F.D. All in all, this is a very funny and unique series that no one should pass up!

Also, a heads up. This coming Monday is Yom Kippur. I'll still try to update the site but no guarentees. If I don't get the update finished in time than things will return to normal on wednesday.

Josiah

10/1/2003 Victory!
Isn't the motion blur in the background cool? Looks just like on TV if I do say so myself but it sure was a pain to make.

For those of you waiting for the mini-review I promised it'll be up on friday. Why? Because I'm lazy and want to play more Final Fantasy Tactics Advance before I go to bed. Speaking of FFTA, I beat it! Yeah! <does victory dance> Coolly enough, after you beat the game you can save then continue playing. Doing this unlocks some new missions and quests (I've still got seventy something to do), a new multiplayer mode, and some new and very cool characters will even join you. I won't give it away but you'll get at least one person with a unique job.

I'd also like to mention that, since I only got one donation, the first two Zelda pages will be this month's gift as well so I'm giving you all one more month to get them. These are really good comics, seriously, and they're only a doller (of course you could give more). I'm only trying to pay my bills here and would be very grateful for anything you want to send my way.

Josiah

9/29/2003 A full weekend
Well, this hasn't been the most relaxing weekend but I enjoyed myself for the most part. First off saturday was Rosh Hashanna, an important Jewish holiday. Come sunday I had to write a paper for my mythology class and do some work for my dad. After that I saw the movie Underworld. Which is essentially one huge battle between vampires and warewolves. The plot was pretty good for an american movie but it was also one of the most violent and bloody movies I've ever seen. Finally came the much anticipated season opener of Alias. One of the few non anime shows I watch. It has one great story line and I've been dying to find out what happened after last season's cliff hanger finale. Just one word. Wow!

Ok, I promised some mini-reviews this week. Today is the first book of Garth Nix's new Keys to the Kingdom series, Mister Monday. Arthur Penhaligon thought he had it bad moving to a new town and a new school but he soons finds out that petty things like that are the least of his worries. Suddenly a strange man called Mister Monday appears and is tricked into giving him a mysterious key, inadvertantly saving his life. Turns out Mister Monday wants the key back and will do anything to get it. First the city is hit by a mysterious plague and then Arthur is attacked by a powerful figure named Noon and his minions. Barely escaping all this he finds himself traveling to a strange world to find out the truth behind all these events. But, of course, that is only the beginning. This book has one of the more unique fantasy settings I've seen and the story had me completly hooked from the intriging prologue. Definately one to read, after you read my book of course <grin>.

Look for a mini review of A Series of Unfortunate Events later this week. Till then sayonara everyone!

Josiah

9/26/2003 Another good book...
Well, I was going to write a mini-review of A Series of Unfortunate Events but at the moment I'm too busy reading Garth Nix's latest novel, Mister Monday. This has the most interesting setup of any fantasy I've read for a while and hooked me from the start. Look for mini reviews of it and A Series of Unfortunate Events next week.

Remember, time is running out for those Zelda comics! All it takes is a doller (or two, or five, or fifty...) to get these huge full page comics. If you don't have paypal I also take checks, money orders, and cash. Just e-mail me to let me know that you sent something. I don't do Pebble Version to make money but I'd at least like to make enough to pay the web hosting fees so I'm not losing money, ok?

Now to finish the book...

Josiah

9/24/2003 The Slippery Slope is here!
Don't have much to say. I got The Slippery Slope, the 10th book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. A hillariously morbid series with a good plot to boot. Hmm... Maybe that'll be my next mini-review... But not today. Too busy.

Got a lot of school tomorrow and then I'm going to my brother's baseball game where he'll be playing against one of my friends. Ah, who to cheer for...

Josiah

9/22/2003 Need a Spellchecker...
Well, for starters, I fixed the typos in strip #16. Note to self: pay more attention when proof reading comics.

Saturday night and sunday some friends and I went on an overnighter and did some hiking and similar stuff up in the mountains. It was fun but it brings up another Note to self: no matter how much fun it may sound at the time, sleeping out doors in the mountains in September without a sleeping back is really stupid (not to mention cold).

Lastly, for those of you that collect Yu-Gi-Oh cards, remember that the new set of collecter tins comes out later this week. Yea! I can finally get a Jinzo! Later everyone!

Josiah

9/19/2003 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, The Mini-Review
Well, I said it was coming and here it is. A complete mini-review of FFTA. Let's start with the graphics. While they're no where near the level of a PS2 game, the game looks very well on the GBA and the characters and battle fields look extremely close to those in the PS1 classic. Now music. The music is good and somewhat reminiscent of FFT but the GBA's sound hardware can't really do it justice and the soundtrack is too small so you'll spend most of the game hearing the same couple tunes over and over. Story comes next. Basically Marche, the new kid in town, meets up with the shy Mewt and somewhat bossy Ritz and the three become friends. Mewt just got an old fantasy book so the trio decides to take a look. Everything seems normal at first but when Marche wakes up the next morning he finds that his normal modern day town of St. Ivalice has transformed into the world of the Final Fantasy video game. There Marche teams up with a moogle named Montblank and Clan Nutsy while he tries to solve the mystery of how to get home. There's more to it than that but that's pretty much the set up. The plot is pretty decent but it's nowhere near as complex as FFT's hard to follow epic. FFTA is also a lot more light hearted, but still pretty serious at times.
Now for the most important part, the gameplay. Those of you who played FFT will be able to jump into FFTA with ease. For those of you who haven't played FFT, it's like Final Fantasy meets a real-time stratagy game. It requires a decent amoutn of stratagy and is a lot of fun. Unlike FFT, FFTA is mission based. You take on jobs at the pubs, sorta like FFT's proposistions. Some you go do yourself and others you send individual guys off alone and wait for them to get back. Some advance the story while others are just for experience and items. FFTA also uses a job system like FFT. Except there are now different races and each race has access to different jobs. There's the all around good humans, the graceful cat girl Viera, the powerful Nuo Mu magicians, the super strong lizard like Bangaa, and the classic FF Moogles. This is a really cool addition and each race has pros and cons (I like the Viera). Be forewarned however that most of the jobs from the original FFT do not appear in FFTA and most of the ones that do have been heavily modified.
Now I'll mention the major additions to the game that FFT didn't have. Mission structure (I always liked mission based structures and it's cool how you can increase your clan's turf to get discounts at the stores and pubs), world building (the map starts out mostly empty but as you continue through the game you'll get forests, towns, etc to place on it and you even get items if you put them in the right spots), multiple races (very cool addition, adds diversity), new jobs, the judgement system (the major new addition, each battle will have some random laws such as no swords or no magic, while this can be annoying, it keeps battles fresh and once you get the ability to manipulate these laws you can use them to your advantage, breaking the laws lands the offending character a penalty and a possile trip to jail), and Judge Points (these points are gained by performing certain actions in battle and can be used to perform special combo moves and certain race specific summons).
Now for what FFT had that FFTA does not. Charge time (that's right, spells in FFTA activate instantly instead of charging, while this seems nice at first it reduces the stratagy involved and is the reason some jobs, like Summoner, were considerably weakened), zodiac signs (big deal there, who actually paid attention to those anyway?), gender (this was kinda disapointing and I wish they would have left it in), rotatable battle fields (this is probably due to hardware limitations but the lack of rotation can occasionally make it hard to see what you want to), effect area (while certain moves still effect more than one square, few of them actually display what squares will be hit, leaving it to trial and error, and unexcusable omission), special jobs unique to one character (I have fought a couple guys with these but so far none have shone any interest in joining me), character death (unless you're battling in certain areas, your characters will not die after getting KO'd, they just lay there until revived or until the end of the battle, this is nice but majorly reduces the difficulty and amount of stratagy required).
Overall, I'd say FFT for the PS1 is the better game and a must have for and RPG fan but FFTA comes pretty close and is still a must for FFT fans, RPG players, and most GBA owners.

Whew. Maybe I shouldn't call these things mini-reviews, huh? That's it for now!

Josiah

9/17/2003 Busy, Busy, Busy
Hi everyone. Hope you're enjoying the comic. I don't really have much to talk about today. A combinations of college, this site,writing, DDR, Tactics Advance, and all the cool anime on Cartoon Network is taking up pretty much all my time. Why did Cartoon Network have to play Blue Gender, Inuyasha, SD Gundam, new Dragon Ball episodes, and the one part of Dragon Ball Z that I haven't seen all at the same time?

Um, anyway, expect a full mini review of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance soon now that I've been able to spend a decent amount of time with it. And don't forget about those Zelda comics! Only two weeks left to get them!

I'll try to write more next update. Right now I just want to rest... Oh, one last thing. If you missed monday's news blurb regarding Pokemon-X be sure to scroll down and take a look. See you all on friday.

Josiah

9/15/2003 Your Attention Please
Ok every one listen up! I have an important announcement to make. I would like to state that I have nothing against Pokemon-X or its creator, Recon Dye. I know I said a couple times that I would like to get a higher posistion than Pokemon-X on the Top 150 but seriously, I'd like to have the top posistion on the Top 150 (not like that's gonna be happening any time soon). I mentioned Pokemon-X specifically because, since both our comics are about Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, I like to think of us as friendly rivals. I am not jealous of Pokemon-X's posistion and I have never 'dissed' it or stolen any of its jokes or sprites. Although I would like to state that Pebble Version is NOT a Pokemon-X rip-off. I had the first five Pebble Version strips drawn up before I ever saw Pokemon-X. And, if I hadn't been strapped for time and lacking a good web editor our comics probably would have debuted around the same time. Pokemon-X is a fine comic and I hope all goes well with it. And lastly I would like to thank Recon Dye for taking the time to e-mail me about what he'd heard before starting a full blown war. As a token of good will, I am adding a link to Pokemon-X on the links page. I would appreciate it if Recon would do the same for me but if he doesn't want to that's fine as well. Thank you for your time.

Now onto less serious matters. Well, sorta.... I swear that my algebra teacher has it in for me. He gave me a zero on my last piece of homework because he didn't like my hand writing... First he was taking away points because I didn't do my work the way he liked so, after much trail and error (any many low scoring home work papers) I finally figured out how he wants me to write down my work. So I do this paper and not only did I have the work correct, I also got every single answer right. And I didn't get a single point!!! Aargh!!! I'm gonna have to confront him about this so wish me luck.

Lastly, remeber those Zelda pages (see free preview image below). You don't know what you're missing. These are really funny pages and you'll finally get to see the creation of Hyrule and the Tri-force instead of just reading about it in the instruction manual. And the first two pages are all yours for whatever amount of cash you feel like sending me. Hope you like them!

9/12/2003 Zelda Preview
I am pleased to announce the completion of this month's donation gift. That's right, the first two pages of The Legend of Zelda A Dink in the Past are complete! And all you need to do to get them is use the paypal button to send me a couple bucks. You don't want to miss this funny new comic. Check out the free preview image below to get a small glimpse of the pages. And when I say page I mean page. Both are several times larger than the average Pebble Version strip. It's almost like getting eight comics at once! BTW: if you're wondering exactly where the preview image is in the game, I decided to start not with the beginning of the game but with the part of the instruction manual that tells of the creation of Hyrule and the Tri-Force. This is a great story and deserves to be part of the strip so, wether or not you're a Zelda fan you won't want to miss this!

I also added a link button and a link banner to the Extras page so be sure to take a look there. Well, that's all for now. I have a big test tomorrow and don't have time to write more. Although I do want to mention that Top Web Comics, despite some server problems should be back up soon and ready to take your votes.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Josiah

9/10/2003 Tactics Time!
In the beginning there was the RPG. And it was good. But the realm of FF style strategy RPGs was dark and empty. Then Squaresoft said "Let there be Final Fantasy Tactics" and there was Final Fantasy Tactics. And the people rejoiced. But then as time past no sequel rose to follow it and the darkness returned. Then, at long last Square Enix said "Let there be Final Fantasy Tactics Advance" and it was so. And the people rejoiced. Then they began to notice flaws that shouldn't be. And the people were slightly annoyed but still they rejoiced because FFTA had come.
He, he. Anyway, FFTA is a lot of fun. The story is nowhere near as deep as that of FFT and it would have been better on the PS2. I have a few other complaints like the lack of an auto equip, the inability to rotate battle fields, and the non-display of target areas. Lastly I don't like the new way of learning abilities (equipping stuff for a time like FFIX). Still, in the end. FFTA is lots of fun and a must for fans of FF, FFT, etc.

In other news, Top Web Comics was down all of Tuesday. It might be back up by now but if the voting button doesn't look right or work right you'll know why. That's it for now. See you later.

Josiah

9/8/2003 Thank you!!!
Pebble Version is now in the top 150 on TWC!!! I'm so happy! Last I checked it was up to 117. I'd like to thank everyone who voted. But remember, don't stop now! Pokemon-X is up at 42 so we've still got a ways to go :-)

Anyway, the donation gift will be finished some time this week and I'll be posting a preview once it's done so you all can see just how cool it is. Also, I've added a link to Kid Radd, a fun original sprite comic with some nifty animations and lots of good jokes.

I would talk more but it's late and my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is supposed to come tomorrow so I don't want to sleep late (not to mention that test at school). So I'll see you later!

Josiah

9/5/2003 One of Those Days...
Ugh, these last couple days have not been going well. There was some stuff I wanted to talk about and a new link I wanted to add but I was working on this month's donation gift (it's gonna be so cool!!!) and forgot that I had to update the site until the last minute so that stuff will have to wait. A couple quick things. For those new readers who don't know this, the comic is updated every monday, wednesday, and friday. Lastly, it's a new month and that means that I need your TWC votes more than ever. The button is on the left in the nav bar. Come on, Pebble Version deserves to at least be higher than that other pokemon comic Pokemon-X, right?

Josiah

9/3/2003 Back to School, Again...
Well, the holiday is over so back to work. Sigh... Oh well, at least I have the latest issue of Shonen Jump to keep my entertained. Speaking of which, if you don't already suscribe to the american version of Japan's most popular magazine then hurry up and get it already! You can't go wrong with so much excellent unedited manga.

By the way, if you're wondering how long I'm just going to do comics consisting of grass and speach boxes yes, I am lazy. However, don't worry, Brendan will be out of the grass on monday and ready to advance the story, at least a little bit. And don't forget those Zelda comics, they're going to be good so be sure to donate and get your copy as soon as they're finished.

Josiah

9/1/2003 Labor Day
Yay! It's Labor Day! Now you may ask what that means to me and, to tell you the truth, not much other than the fact that I get two days off from school. This has been a pretty good weekend and there are few better ways to spend a sunday than playing Super Smash Brothers Melee and DDR with a friend. Sadly though, two friends of mine are moving to CA. Mason, Erika, I'll miss you guys (although I now have a good reason to go the beach).

I've also decided that I don't need to remind all of you to vote and donate in every news post. Do I still want you to do both? Duh! But I figure that you're smart enough to remember on your own (with an occasional reminder). Well, enjoy the holidays!

Josiah

8/28/2003 Too many tests...
I can't believe it. Four tests this week! Four! And that's not even counting reading assignments and other home work. This is only the second week for crying out loud! On a brighter note, there's new Inuyasha episodes on Adult Swim and a bunch of cool looking new anime is starting on Cartoon Network this monday. Even better, I get two days off for Memorial Day!!! That's all for now. I'm too tired to say more... See you monday.

Josiah

8/27/2003 The 8-Bit Theatre Guest Comic

If today's strip seems to be taking a while to load that's because it's five times the size of my usual comics. If you didn't already notice, this is a guest comic I did for 8-Bit Theatre. Which will hopefully appearing on 8-Bit Theatre sometime in the new future (fingers crossed). Anyway, this took most of my sunday to make so I want at least some people to see it (plus it took so long I didn't have a lot of time left to work on new regular strips). If you don't get the jokes then go read 8-Bit until you do. It's my favorite online comic and a must read for RPG fans. Regular updates will resume on friday. On a similar note, you won't find this guest comic in the main archives but on the new extras page (check the very stretched out nav bar on the left). Well, I've got a lot of work to do so I'll see you all on Fri.

Josiah

8/25/2003 A Mini-Review!!!
Hey, welcome back. As usual I need to remind you that you can vote for Pebble Version once per day so get to it you lazy couch potato!!! Also, don't forget to donate to insure that you get your Zelda pages and possible a free copy of my book!

Now for the mini-review. I'll be doing these whenever I feel like it and you never know if they might be about games, movies, TV shows, or books. Today's is on The Kindaichi Case Files The Opera House Murders, a graphic novel put out by Tokyopop. Now, I don't like Tokyopop as much as Viz because their stuff is more expensive but price aside, this is a great manga. At first glance the star Hajime Kindaichi, looks like your ordinary slacker but as the grandson of a famous detective he has lightning fast hands and deductive skills reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. And he's going to need all his wits when he accompanies the school theater troop to training camp. All is well and good until a string of ghastly murders begin appearing one by one. Basically take your classic who-done it mystery and mix it with manga and you have The Kindaichi Case Files. The story is compelling and suspenseful and you'll never guess the real culprit! This is a must for mystery and manga fans alike. Although keep in mind that it's rated T for blood and partial nudity.

In other news, I spent most of the day working on a guest comic submission for 8-Bit Theatre. Although I'm not sure if it will get on the site (please, please, please, please!!!) I think it turned out pretty good and I'll probably post it here wednesday regardless because it took so bloody long to make.

Josiah

8/21/2003 Another New Link
School sucks. Let's just leave it there for now. BTW: I think I may have just found one of the most mind numbing activities possible. More specifically, never try reading a sociology text book while listening to a math class. And if you want to know why I reading during a lecture, well, that's my buisness.

As for the new link, why not pay a visit to A Modest Destiny, a cool original sprite comic and one of the funniest things I've read in quite a while. So go ahead and give it a read.

Yadda, yadda, donate for Zelda strips, yadda, yadda, yadda, vote at TWC, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Josiah

8/20/2003 Back to School...
Gee, two days and I'm already missing summer. Oh well. I've added a new comic to the links page. VG Cats is a CG comic that mixes cats and video game jokes. What more could you want? Well, more updates maybe. But if you're a gamer you'll doubtless get some laughs.

And again, remember to donate if you want your Zelda comics and possibly free book. And vote! You can vote every day! Voting is fun, fun! Yeah!!!

Josiah

8/18/2003 A Dink in the Past
Welcome back to Pebble Version. For those of you returning to school this week (like I am), let me express my heart-felt condolences. My schedule is really lousy this semester and if my previous classes are any indication of how the new ones will go... Well, you'll probably hear me complaining about them soon enough.

Now, onto more interesting news. I am pleased to announce that the donators' gift for the rest of August and September. That gives you six weeks to get some cash together if you want the first two pages of The Legend of Zelda A Dink in the Past, an original sprite comic based on, you guessed it, The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past. I'm a big Zelda fan and it's going to be a lot of fun doing something with Link and the gang. The pages aren't finished yet but all donators will receive a copy as soon as they're done. Also, anyone who donates $15 or more will receive a signed copy of my book, Guardian of The Stone, for free!!! Better act quickly though as this offer is while supplies last only. Check the books page (on the nav bar) for more info on Guardian.

Josiah

8/15/2003 One Whole Week and Still Going!
Yeah! It's been one whole week already! Whoo hoo! Yes, I'm over reacting. Now be quiet. Anyway, third strip is up. Also remember to use that button on the left to vote for Pebble Version at TWC. You can vote up to once per day (the more the better) and I need all the votes I can get. So, if you have an extra five or ten seconds please give me a hand.

Unfortunately, next monday is the 18th and that means I have to go back to college (fun, fun, fun). I'm taking seventeen credits this semester so things are going to get pretty busy but barring some huge disaster it shouldn't interrupt the comic. See you next week then. Good luck with school!

Josiah

8/13/2003 Vote for Me at TWC!
Hey! The second comic is up and the third is on schedule for Friday. Hope you're enjoying the comic so far. Be sure to tell all your friends, family, casual acquaintances, and random people on the street to check out Pebble Version. Also, I added a button on the left that lets you vote for my site on Top Web Comics. Each person who visits this site can vote one time each day so do me a favor a take a couple seconds to show everyone how much you like Pebble Version. After all, the more visitors I get the more motivated I'll be to add extra stuff to the site. See you all Friday!

Josiah

8/11/2003 Welcome to Pebble Version!!!
Hi. I'm Josiah and this is Pebble Version, a new sprite comic based on Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Versions. Let's start with a brief into. I'm a college student currently considering a career in game design. I've been writing sci-fi and fantasy for the last six years or so and have published one novel called Guardian of The Stone. Check the Books link on the left to find out more. Anyway, a friend of mine turned me onto sprite comics about two years back. One of my first impressions was that it was a really cool way to tell a story. Since then I've been wanting to give it a try. All I needed was an idea... I considered several games but could never make up my mind, until I picked up a copy of Pokemon Ruby to take on vacation. And here you have the result.

Now, about the strip itself. Pebble will follow the basic story of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Versions but, of course, I'll be making plenty of changes to keep it interesting. For those of you who haven't played Pokemon R/S you may miss a couple of jokes but don't worry, you should have no trouble understanding the vast majority of the strips. For now I'll update the site every Mon, Wed, and Fri and if things go well I may add more days in the future.

Guess that's it for now. Hope you enjoy Pebble Version!

Josiah





Pokemon and all related images and trademarks are copyrighted by Nintendo, one of my favorite games companies who would certainly never waste their time by trying to sue me. Especially since I'm protected under the Fair Use Rule of the United States Copyright Act of 1976. Aside from that the actual site content is copyrighted by me, Josiah Lebowitz 2003.