As of late there has been a lack of options for gamers to turn to. While titles like “Halo 2” and “Final Fantasy X-2” are due out next year, at the current time there are no major releases for overall gamers to hype themselves up about; it leaves most of us gaming junkies settling for the overplayed games we own. For longtime gamer Randy Solem, there is an alternative to playing video games, and that is making movies with them.

Solem is the creator of the website VideoGameDC.com, which he uses to place his flash animated movies on. These are not just the average flash movies. Solem uses characters he rips from famous video games (termed sprites) via Emulators and creates hilarious, sometimes violent, flash animations. If you have visited the “Game Parodies” area of NewGrounds.com, you may have seen his work. Mostly he works with everyone’s favorite plumber, Mario.

“Now I’ve had just about everything, Atari 2600, Game and Watches, Mini Arcades, etc. But my most memorable system had to be the Nintendo Entertainment System,” Solem explains on his site. “It wasn’t until early 2000 that I got introduced to the Flash animation program. My cousin sent me an email telling me to check out this site called Newgrounds.com. It was there that I first viewed some video game parodies. They were done by a guy named Clark Lybeck and he had a site called Nintendo Classics.”

Randy went from submitting a simple movie to NewGrounds.com to being one of the top flash movie animators of video game parodies. His works include “Mario Gets Lucky,” “Mack Daddy Mario,” and the epic “Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom: Part 1.” His animations are very detailed as he takes great pride in his work. His upcoming piece is one of the most anticipated flash movies on NewGrounds.com; the second part to the Mushroom Kingdom saga.

Randy’s works are also good for everyone looking for a laugh; he goes beyond the boundaries of a normal imagination and creates hilarious parodies of video games. Many of them are crude to the point where he gets e-mail from angry parents, but his creations are original and definitely worth taking a look at.

If you have taken a look at the site, you may be wondering how soon Mr. Solem will be willing to give you Flash Animation lessons. Don’t hold your breath on that one. In his “Q’A” section of the site, he gives hints on how to do certain things and which software to pick up. If you intend on getting started on learning flash, just realize that Randy has been working on projects like these for three year and had drawing experience previous to creating his site.

“There are four things you need to learn to make VG flash movies,” Randy said. “Macromedia Flash, an image editing program (Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paintshop Pro are examples), a video game emulator with roms (an emulator is software that lets you play old console and arcade games on your computer and a rom is the actual game file), and a sound editor. In most cases you can find video game sound effects on the web. But sometimes you may need custom sounds, or sounds you can’t find and sound editors are handy in removing certain things. If you become familiar with these four programs, making video game movies should be no problem.”

On his site, Randy also gives tips on how to go about inserting your favorite characters into flash movies and where to find the files you need to get started. It is a good way for anyone who is majoring in computer science or interested in computers to build skills and have fun. It also can help to get your name and work out on the Internet so you can have examples to show future employers.

Randy’s VideoGameDC.com will soon release part two of “Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom” that provides viewers a chance to see his previous successful pieces, as well as the failed ones. You can also view his work, along with other parody artists’, at NewGrounds.com.

Information from www.VideoGameDC.com was used in this column.

Reid Davenport is a Collegian columnist.