spyd3r

Arena

1989 - PG-13 - 1h 55m

A human becomes an unlikely rising star in the biggest fighting tournament in the galaxy that's dominated by alien species.

Director: Peter Manoogian

Writers: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo

Stars: Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Armin Shimerman, Marc Alaimo

Storyline:

Steve Armstrong is a human short-order cook in a fast food restaurant on a "starstation" where the most popular arena fighting tournament in the whole galaxy is held. Members of various alien species fight one on one, often dirty, to become the ruling champions of the galaxy. The restaurant's sole waiter and Steve's boss is Shorty, a short four-armed scheming humanoid alien. When Steve saves Shorty from a particularly unpleasant and violent alien guest, they're both fired by the restaurant's automated A.I. for brawling. Shorty shows gratitude and they become friends. However, without jobs, they'll both be kicked off the space station. Thankfully, Quinn, a human female no-nonsense fighting promoter, who's in quick need of new fighters, hears about Steve's fight with the alien guest and offers him sponsorship. Human fighters have traditionally been defeated easily by naturally tougher alien fighters in previous tournaments and Steve would be a real underdog. Shorty manages to convince Steve to take the offer and after some initial difficulties, Steve proves to be a really tough fighter with an actual tiny chance of success. In the eyes of humans all across the galaxy, who feel inferior to the various alien races, Steve becomes their idol and champion of humanity. Steve doesn't really want all this attention, but he understands the hope people put in him. Rogor is the tournament's crooked organizer, who's complete control over the competition and the players is shaken by Steve's surprising success. He offers one of his deals to Steve as well, but he refuses. Rogor then comes up with a plan to get rid of Steve for good, if he gets to the finals. Rogor's rat-faced yesman Weezil is eager to help. Meanwhile, beautiful Jade attracts Steve's attention.

Notes: Source is a pit-perfect Laserdisc capture, upscaled to 4K for best possible quality playback on YouTube.

Direct download link

As ST: DS9 airs its pilot episode, PM airs this 50 minute documentary as a way to spark excitement about the new show. It includes interviews from the cast and contains sneak peaks into the show's first season.

In the documentary, Farrell (Jadzia Dax) takes the viewer on a tour around the Deep Space 9 sets. The feature also has interviews with the cast, producers, writers and other production staff members and takes a look at the making of "Emissary".

To my knowledge this was only aired on TV once in 1993, then was released on VHS shortly after in the US and UK, and has never been re-issued on any newer DVD releases.

It just so happens that it was also released in Japan on Laserdisc, and I happened to find it while looking through my collection of discs. To watch this in the best possible quality, I have digitzed, restored, and upscaled this rare find to for viewing on modern devices.

Enjoy! (and download it before it disappears)

Note: For the highest quality viewing experience, download the 1.5GB .mkv file and play it in your software player of choice.

Note: The audio is in English but there are Japanese subtitles in the picture.

I know which one I'm going to, but I'd take both of these over any other coney joint in the state.

Star Trek on Laserdisc

*Available in TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and theatrical release flavors.

It's guaranteed very few Star Trek fans have ever seen these, they are as hard to find as it gets. What we have here is Star Trek on a fully analog video format that isn't plagued by digital artifacts found on streaming platforms and early DVD releases (such as the DS9/VOY releases), nor does it have any of the quality issues found with VHS tape.

The elephant in the room here is cost, so don't go searching Ebay/ZenMarket just yet. As with most analog hifi things, you have to spend a lot to get high quality results. Laserdisc is no exception, and it's even worse because of the rarity of the discs and the equipment all having antique status.

That being said, in my quest to transport myself back to the 1990's, I have amassed enough equipment and specialty gear to capture Laserdiscs in stupidly high quality, and have uploaded the results for normal people to see. Now the preferred way to watch these is in their native resolution with a high end LD player hooked directly to a retro Trinitron CRT or Plasma TV, but these direct disc captures will be the best possible viewing method on modern display devices.

Voyager LD Sample YT -- VOY LD Sample Direct Download

DS9 LD Sample YT -- DS9 LD Sample Direct Download

Hardware used for capture:

• Pioneer CLD-D704
• Domesday Duplicator
• Windows PC (i9-10900k/RTX-3080/32GB RAM)

Software used for processing:

• ld-decode
• Hybrid + Vapoursynth
• Premiere Pro
• Audition
• Topaz

Overdrawn At The Memory Bank - (1984)

The mind of a computer programmer forced to take a virtual vacation is removed by a totalitarian government and accidentally trapped in the virtual reality simulation. He must find a way out before he expires.

In the regimented world of the future, five major corporations wield total control over men's minds and actions. But a few men still remain strong enough to resist and romantic enough to dream.

Aram Fingal (Raul Julia) is just such a man. Refusing to submit to the mindless monotony of his world, Fingal punches up endless reruns of "Casablanca" on his video display terminal. Until, in a strange mechanical mix-up his identity and Rick Blaine's become FUSED within Novacorp's computer bank.

Fingal is suddenly plunged into a parallel reality within the central computer. Only now, "Casablanca" is not just flickering fiction on his screen, but a frightening reality. Now, the Fat Man throws "real" poison darts. Now the police shoot real bullets and Pierre really die. Now, Rick Blaine is a FLESH AND BLOOD hero headed straight for identicube destruction!

Starring: Raul Julia

Color--Running Time: 85 minutes

This made-for-public-television classic and MST3k favorite is presented unriffed, uncut, and digitally restored, with approximately 12 minutes of footage that was cut from the MST3k version.

Overdrawn At The Memory Bank never made it to DVD, and never got any kind of an high quality HD release... Until now, this movie was only available on out of print VHS tapes, and an ultra-rare Laserdisc release, which was used for this restoration project.

Due to Youtube's low streaming quality, we suggest using this direct high quality download link

Youtube link

Screenshots:

A collection of MST episodes, shorts, and host segments to enjoy during the holiday season.

Where to watch: http://MST3KTurkeyDay.com | Help us make more episodes! Let's Make MST3K Season 14!

Serving Extra Helpings of Cinematic Turkey – Starting at 9 a.m. ET – Thanksgiving Day

This Thanksgiving, fans of cheesy movies can rejoice with the return of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon! Continuing a three and a half decades’-long movie-riffing tradition, this year features extra helpings of cinematic turkey, spilling some of its gravy into Black Friday and beyond for the first-ever Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon!

Premiering on Thanksgiving Day like the series itself did in 1988, The Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon will showcase a whopping 24 classic MST3K episodes over the course of two days. The event begins at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 23rd and concludes Saturday, November 25th at 9 a.m. ET in tandem with the conclusion of the MST3K Season 14 crowdfunding campaign. Will MST3K raise $4.8 million to produce a new season of episodes? You decide, by visiting https://showmaker.mst3k.com/makeseason14.... It’s going to be bonkers in more ways than one!

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1tHdleb

http://MST3KTurkeyDay.com
https://showmaker.mst3k.com/makeseason14
https://www.gizmoplex.com/

WATCH more MST3K on Shout! Factory TV here: http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/film/mst3k
BUY MST3K DVDs here: https://shoutfactory.com/collections/mystery-science-theater-3000

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