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Up close with Ezra
A profile of Eugene independent
musician, Ezra Holbrook/PAGE 8A
Big Headache
Big Head Todd and the Monsters' album
Live Monsters' is DO. A/PAGE 6A
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Volume 100, Issue 59
NCAA Gamebreaker ’99, the Sony Playstation’s latest
football addition, features life-like player motion as well
as flashy graphics and sound effects
By Matt Garton
Oregon Daily Emerald
Picture this: You are the Ducks'
quarterback. There are 10 seconds to
go in the fourth quarter, and the ball
is on your opponents’ two-yard line.
The game has a score of 17 for Ore
gon and 20 for Notre Dame — it’s the
1999 Rose Bowl. What do you do?
Kick the field goal to tie it up? Or go
for the touchdown and win? The ball
is in your hands ...
... and so is the controller. Wel
come to NCAA Gamebreaker ’99,
quite possibly the best real-time, full
action, gut-wrenching football game
for the Sony Playstation.
Featuring analog and vibration
compatibility, all 112 NCAA Divi
sion 1A teams and a host of other
features, Gamebreaker offers a lot for
the football enthusiast to the casual
game player. The game even features
each team’s fight song as well as a
current and complete roster for each
team.
One of my favorite matchups is the
Civil War game, Oregon vs. Oregon
State. There’s nothing like kicking
some Beaver butt to make the days
go more quickly. My only complaint
is that the real Oregon State just
doesn’t pass the ball as much as the
computer seems to think it does.
They also actually catch the ball:
Imagine that!
The game is also a little rough
around the edges at first. Unless
computerized football games are old
hat to you, the controls might fumble
you up at first. But once you've over
come the controller’s learning curve,
the game is a riot.
Did I mention that legendary foot
ball announcer Keith Jackson calls
the play-by-play? From the very be
ginning, gamers get Jackson’s com
plete monologue of each game’s ri
valry, penalties, passes, runs, tackles
and touchdowns. But Gamebreaker
does not have the same boring and
repetitive phrases heard again and
again in other computerized football
games. For example, I played the
same game four times consecutively,
and each game’s introduction where
Turn to GAMEBREAKER, Page 7A
NCAA Game
breaker’99
WHAT: Videogame
FOR: Sony Playstation
RATING:
Courtesy photo
Clockwise from lower left: Shannon Saunders, Hanz Araki, Cam Salay, Tom Landa
and (center) Paul Lawton make up the Celtic group The Paperboys.
Paperboys deliver music to EMU
The Cultural Forum sponsors the Celtic
quartet The Paperboys’ visit today in the
EMU Ballroom
By Darren E. Freeman
lor the Emerald
The Paperboys call their blend of Celtic, bluegrass,
folk and pop music “stomp," and stomping is just what
their audience will be doing at the EMU Ballroom
tonight.
“Their music is the kind you can’t listen to without
tapping your feet,” said Krista McKennitt, the band’s
publicist. “Because their music is so great, you’re not
just tapping your feet, you are stomping your feet.”
The band coined the term “stomp” after a 1995 per
formance at the Whistler Country and Roots Festival.
Dancers were jigging and stomping so fervently that
parts of the ceiling of the room below them were falling
down.
The five-piece band out of Vancouver, Canada, plays
traditional Celtic music with a modern spin. You might
even catch lead singer/guitarist and principal song
writer Tom Landa ripping robust chords from his elec
tric guitar in the middle of a reel.
Landa attributed the Paperboys’ stylistic fusion of
music to the band’s hometown.
“Most people in Vancouver have moved there from
somewhere else,” Landa said in an interview with Dirty
Linen. “So we’ve gathered an eclectic mix of musicians.”
Besides Landa, the band includes Paul Lawton
(drums, bodhran, percussion), Cam Salay (five-string
banjo, bass), Shannon Saunders (accordion, fiddle, vio
la, bass, piano), and Hanz Araki (flute, shakuhachi, pen
ny whistles).
The five musicians are extensively touring the Unit
ed States and Canada in their 1980 Dodge van, “Rufus,”
who is named after the famous fiddler Rufus Duncan.
“These guys are really road warriors—they’re always
in the van,” said Richard Flohil, who works with
McKennitt. “They manage to do well over 250 shows
Turn to PAPERBOYS. Paae 6A