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If you’re here, either you were tricked, or you really want to know more about me. Assuming it’s the latter, then let the good times roll!
Personal life
My mother gave birth to me on July 1st, 1978 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. I’m the youngest of four (one brother, two sisters). We had cats, dogs, a mini basketball court, trees to climb, and plenty of nice neighbors.
Growing up surrounded by older people (my brother is 13 years older than me) probably made me mature intellectually faster than my schoolmates. That, or they were idiots. I was well-behaved and got good grades, yet somehow I managed to keep bullies at bay. Reverse psychology works at any age!
Fast-forward to February 2001. This is the year I met the love of my life, Pura Sotomayor, who I married four years later. While not a hardcore gamer, Pura owned and loved her Game Boy and SNES. We’ve beaten Gears of War 2 co-op and 5-starred a crapload of songs in Guitar Hero together, but her true passion lies in puzzle games. She’s a savant when it comes to Tetris and Dr. Mario. I dare anyone to beat her….even you, Layton!
We trespassed private property to take this picture. True story!
Video games
My fascination with video games started when my dad brought home a Sears Tele-Games Pong Sports IV console in the early ‘80s. It played variations of Pong, and although I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time, I couldn’t get enough!
Shortly after, my sister and I begged for an Atari 2600, and we got it. We played the hell out of it, including E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Some years later I was given the choice between an NES and a Sega Master System. Having played and enjoyed many Sega arcade games like Wonder Boy and Out Run, I went with the SMS. It rocked our world! A few years later I finally got an NES. It was mostly due to peer pressure, as all my friends owned one. The amount of third-party games on Nintendo’s console made a huge difference on that particular console war. Where else could I play Mega Man 2, Galaxy 5000, and Super Dodge Ball?
The Sears Tele-Games Pong Sports IV. 16 different games of…Pong.
Just in case you’re wondering, my family did own a PC, but I rarely played anything on it. Here are some of the few games I had on our computer: Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, One Must Fall, Star Wars: X-Wing, The Immortal, and Crime Wave.
Other hobbies
Besides gaming, my other two pastimes are watching movies and editing images on Photoshop. My DVD collection includes such films as the entire Star Wars saga, all three Lord of the Rings (extended versions), the Alien Quadrilogy, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Jurassic Park trilogy, The Matrix trilogy (plus Animatrix), Avatar, 12 Monkeys, The Lion King, Armageddon, Signs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, among others.
Graphics editing came into my life sometime in 1998 while working on my now defunct websites, Shin Lord’s Domain, and Star Wars Jedi Camp. Since then I’ve gotten considerably better and more efficient.
A one-man band, literally….
Bitmob
I joined the wonderful Bitmob community on December 2010, and mostly lurked for months. I wanted to do more, so I sent some Photoshop samples to Dan Hsu. He and Demian Linn later invited me over to Bitmob as an intern. I officially joined the staff on June 28, 2011. I have my own weekly feature called Weekend Recap, and I also mess with people’s minds with puzzlers. Occasionally I get to work with other Bitmob writers and editors, illustrating their articles. Here’s a Wii U story I worked on with Shoe and one about Gordon Freeman with Omri Petitte.
On October 21, 2011 I became a permanent part of the Bitmob staff, going from intern to writer/designer. I'm currently in talks with Dreamworks for my biopic.
Useless trivia
- Worked at EB Games for three years, and one at GameStop.
- Fluent in English, Spanish, and Huttese. Gooddé da lodia!
- Huge fan of video-game music. My favorite composers are Nobuo Uematsu (Lost Odyssey), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross), and Yuzo Koshiro (ActRaiser).
- Favorite TV shows: The Big Bang Theory, Lost, Conan, South Park, and Battlestar Galactica.
- Favorite anime: Naruto, Ninja Scroll, and Death Note.
- Favorite video game: Street Fighter 2: Turbo.
- Pixels or polygons? Pixels!
- Appeared in the May 1991 issue of Nintendo Power (page 6) holding up a giant Mega Man drawing.
Son of a beach.
Check out some of the articles I'm most proud of:
The unspeakable horrors of Splatterhouse’s West Mansion
What's your favorite scary game? If your answer is not Splatterhouse, you need to read this.
What Mega Man Universe could have been
Mega Man Universe was going to feature various incarnations of the Blue Bomber along with guest heroes, but what if Mega Man got to star in other Capcom games instead?
Beat-em-up breakdown: Common themes in popular brawlers
This was the first story I wrote and illustrated after joining the Bitmob staff. Can you tell I love retro video-game sprites?
Getting in shape with Fruit Ninja Kinect
My first game write-up. I took photos of myself for the silhouettes, except for the split kick. Only Jean Claude Van Damme can perform those.
Puzzler: Movie-poster mashups (the sequel)
My three passions (games, movies, and Photoshop) together at last! By the time I was done, my underwear was soaked….