Man – been a busy time as of late with ol’ Ben! Let’s get down to business…

First off, I’ve been embroiled in a huge project here at work to launch 6 (count them one two three four five six) websites for a company called Heatcraft in less than a month. It couldn’t have been possible without the help of Yukon Charnelius and the venerable m@.

Secondly, yes, it’s true: I have been playing World of Warcraft, and yes, it is everything that they say it is. Deep, engulfing, wide, full of content and as addictive as crack. Me? I’m a 15th-level Dwarven Paladin name of Cramfist on server Akama.

Nextly, or perhaps thirdly, ol’ Cholly and I have regularly been playing chess. Currently, the record stands at 5-4-1 with me holding a tenuous lead. Ideas are underway to create a Web 2.0 site for chess. We’ll see if it takes off…

Lastly, on the soaring front… You may remember that last year I built a sailplane over the winter. This year is much the same, but improved! I’m building a bigger version of the one I did last year with help from a new friendship with Denny @ Polecat Aeroplane Works (I did his site for him, too).

I don’t know why I haven’t made mention of this sooner — but Geoff has released his newest Flash game onto the web. It’s entitled “Urban Chopper Rescue” and is somewhat like Choplifter, except you have to put out fires started by meteorites and save people from burning buildings. It’s rad (and I helped)! I made the chopper noises (we recorded them at his desk), helped out in the scoreboard area, and I did a lot of play-testing as you might imagine. Hence, my awesomely great high-score! Geoff really outdid himself this time. Go and give it a play, whydontcha?

The flight-model on the helicopter is kinda hard, but you’ll get used to it. Here’s a hint: fly fast, and put out as many fires and rescue as many people as possible in each round, but try to finish the round with at least half of the time remaining!

Hey, that’s me!

Geoff has been helpind Odd Todd out with various and sundry flash games over the last couple of years, and they’ve finally released Mep Ball, a Kick-ups style game, and I was credited for beta-testing with ol’ Geoffy. Mostly, I played Mep Ball and tried to cheat a lot. It turned out very well — very fun indeed!

I’ve been playing the heck out of SimTower as of late, but I just found the sequel — Yoot Tower — at The Underdogs. You can download it for free, it’s 52 megs.

GameSpy ‘s History of the Nintendo Family Computer (ne’ NES). It turned 20 on the 15th of July! Carpal Tunnel Syndrome hasn’t been the same since! A good article on Nintendo’s humble beginnings making playing cards in the late 1800′s up through today…