Kickstarter Monday: Gadget Edition

On the first Monday of the month, we take a little break from movie talk and turn our attention to Kickstarter. This month: gadgets I've backed.

Most people creating gadgets for the first time and with someone else's money get it all wrong. Physical objects are hard enough, and then some folks want to bring electronics into it... But now and then, I find one that catches my eye.  (And good thing too, because the long arc of this column is going to bend towards lists of books!) 

MaCO - Magnetic Cable Organizer - These were a bundle of little rubber straps with magnets on either end for tying up cables. They also came with 'base stations' that are little bits of metal. I think they've probably been mass-produced for less by now (Okay, that's another Kickstarter Sniglet needed: when your product gets ripped off, produced faster and cheaper, and beats you to market.), and I surely overpaid for them at the time, but! I use mine constantly. I got at least half a dozen of them, and I know it because that's how many I interact with most days and they make life easier.  A good buy!

The Linkmount - This is a silhouette-ruining hunk of metal and plastic that you glue to the back of your phone, and in exchange your phone gains a kickstand / keyring, a tripod mount, and a secure mounting point for a series of "base stations" that are strong magnets you glue to places you want to stick your phone. The Linkmount made me feel like a kid who has ordered from an ad in the back of a comic book, checking the mail everyday and wondering if the x-ray specs are ever going to arrive. It did arrive, something like a year behind schedule, but stuck faithfully to my iPhone 6 ever since. It adds tons of weight and the design of it probably makes Jony Ives' eye twitch, but it worked great and I wish I could still use the magnetic mount in my car. Another good buy!

Chaosmos - A board game that plays the way I always hoped Cosmic Encounter would. The way the YA book Interstellar Pig does. When last mentioned, I playtested it with the creators in Los Angeles. Since then, I did receive the boxed game. The standard edition, not the extra fancy versions for high-level backers, but the parts are all of high quality. It's a really well made and good looking game, and fun the times I've gotten to play it.  Unfortunately, none of the folks in my old game group speak to me anymore, so it doesn't get much use. Anyone looking for a new game group?

Media Monday: TV Month Rolls On!

The Crown s1 - I really learned a lot about the Queen! If, of course, these events are true. I hope they are.

Rebels s3 - The plot has been swinging a little far into stuff I don't care about, but the good episodes really draw me in. I think I binged enough of this season at once that I started to understand Chopper.

Designated Survivor s1 - This one season felt like three shows, and it's probably not a coincidence that it went through a few show runners in as much time. I guess it's coming back for s2, but since everything got wrapped up with a nice bow at the end of s1, I'm not. I would have preferred a drama about rebuilding the cabinet than a low energy conspiracy plot. 

Magicians s3 - This show went off the rails a long time ago. I like watching the visual effects for the magic - I think I could do most of them.

Review s3 - Review s1 might be my favorite TV comedy ever. s3 is just a little send-off. Heavy on clips, but not without the charm of previous seasons.

Orphan Black s5 - I was dreading this a little bit, even though I wanted to see how it all turned out. About half way through it started to win me back and I was excited to see the conclusion.

Fargo s3 - This is my favorite TV show. It might (maybe?) be my least favorite season, but even if it is, it’s still an excellent show. (And thinking back on it, I might only be liking it less because of how successful the show is at making this season's villain villainous.)

Escape Room Reviews: Escape Room in a Box

Company: Escape Room in a Box
Room: The Werewolf Experiment
Date Played: 8/19/17
Player Count: 2
Success:  Success!

Premise: You’ve purchased an escape room kit on kickstarter–wait, I mean, there’s some reason you might turn into a werewolf unless you solve a series of puzzles!

Immersion: This game does not effectively make you think you are in a mad scientist’s laboratory. To be fair, we didn’t follow the included party planning hints, which may have done the trick.  HOWEVER, this game does an okay job of making you feel like you’re playing a room escape game, which is a pretty good victory!

Highlights: While this game does have some basic paper-and-pencil kind of puzzles, it doesn’t feel like a workbook. There’s some genuine solving to do, some actual surprises, and some clever reveals, all while being self-contained in a surprisingly small box!  Comes with an object I wish I could take with me into every escape room. 

Lowlights: One element of the game broke in shipping. We didn’t actually realize exactly how it was broken until the game was over and we read the instructions on how to repack the game for a future player. 

And Finally:   Although I didn’t write up a little review for it, the only other tabletop escape room that I’ve played was the Escape the Room: Stargazer’s Manor box. (Summary: it’s fine. Worth buying on sale. More like an activity book than this game). This game differs from that one by including an impressive array of actual, physical objects to interact with, including real locks to be opened. This game is more expensive, but still much cheaper than most actual escape rooms, and does a great job of scratching that puzzle solving itch. 

Bonus highlight - when I wrote to the creators to inform them about the broken part of our game (mostly as a field report, not a complaint), they sent us a replacement part for use in repacking the game, hand delivered by one of their friends who lives somewhere nearby! That’s service!

I'm not going to place this on my list of ranked escape rooms, because that seems weird and unfair.  But if I did, it would probably beat at least half a dozen 'real' rooms. 

How to book this room yourself: UPDATE: The mass-market edition of the game is now available. You can buy it from Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2DaXwbb

Media Monday: TV Time!

I'm not watching movies fast enough for you lately, and we're getting into a rough month for the theaters. Let's spend the next couple of weeks on quick recaps of some of this year’s TV!

Sneaky Pete s1 - Mostly a fun con man story. Like many shows today, this one tries to bring you that Breaking Bad-esque feeling of the worst thing happening to its characters at the worst time. Unlike most of them, this one actually has Bryan Cranston.

Broadchurch s3 - Mostly worth watching in order to catch up with the town and characters you came to know in the previous, better seasons.

Legion s1 - Fancy visuals, hints of X-Men flavor. A snack to hold over the audience member awaiting a new season of Fargo.

The Good Fight s1 - As The Good Wife drew to a close, the area where it fell the flattest was in lawyering. This show brings back a bunch of the same characters and most importantly, has tons of lawyering! Also, some kind of slightly boring plot revolving around the new POV character.

The Tick s1 - Another Tick, another supporting cast developed to dodge around licensing issues. I thought playing with whether and how crazy Arthur is was a fun device.

Iron Fist s1 - This show might be badly written. Or maybe all of the horrible things that have happened to Danny have emotionally and socially stunted him, leaving him with a– no, it's kind of bad, and Danny gets beat up surprisingly often for being Kun Lun's greatest warrior.

Escape Room Reviews: Grandma's Master Plan

Company: 60 Out
Room: Grandma’s Master Plan
Date Played: 8/6/17
Player Count: 4
Success:  Success!

Premise: From the company website, "The story begins when your granny suddenly disappears without notice. No one has a clue where she is, but one day you come across a letter in which your grandmother reveals a secret about her inheritance. All you have to do is to go into her house and find it -- simple, right? We'll see about that."

Immersion: This is an escape unlike any I’ve ever done before. In a lot of games, any failure of the set design to simulate a real-world location makes the game an approximation of the real thing, but I believe Grandma’s to be the first *impressionist* Escape Room that I’ve played. Each of the multiple rooms is stripped down to the vital and memorable bits, yes, but I don’t believe that they are, in the story, literally connected to each other. Each space is probably a different location, and would take place some time after the previous space. They are more like levels of a video game than a literal hour (or in this case, 75 minutes) in your characters’ afternoon.

Highlights: As in every 60Out game, Grandma’s brings sharp set and prop design, an abundance of magical objects (our pet term for objects that are probably outfitted with some kind of sensors to ‘know’ when they’ve been used correctly, as opposed to traditional padlocks), and cleverly designed spaces to explore. Some of the interactions are very neat. One puzzle that I’ve seen used before (in another 60Out game, no less!) worked better here than anywhere else I’ve seen it done. 

Lowlights: Player damage in one area lead us to accidentally skip a puzzle, because a ‘locked’ item no longer closed properly. One prop was especially finicky. The gold shown in the advertisement turns out to be fake. These are very small complaints. 

And Finally:   This is an extra large room, and you are given an extra large amount of time (at an extra large price) to solve it all. Our team didn’t find anything in the room to be especially difficult or mind bending, but there is indeed a lot of it. Which is great! All four of us had plenty to do. 60Out has an offer where one player in your group plays for free on or near their birthday (which our foursome has taken advantage of a bunch this year), and this game was a real birthday treat. Out of 31 games played, this gets a solid #6, and it’s found its way into my heart as my current favorite at any 60Out location. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.60out.com/los-angeles/rooms/grandmas-masterplan