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That's one of the worst things about being a teenager - the crappy (sorry, originally no pun intended) jobs you end up with.  I did my time at McDonald's (about a month and a half).  When you're at least 18, I heartily recommend a gas station job over a custodial one.  Strangely enough, I had a kick-ass job at 16 - putting together network "CAP" servers. 

Currently, quite content, I get free run of the place and even when in my 'cubicle' I'm a step away from outside and have naught to do but net-surf, watch movies, and some work-related research once in awhile.

First off, let me recommend a DVD Burner.Ã,  If you've got a decent burning suite, you'll save a lot of frustration and hassle.Ã,  If you don't, then you'll have some frustrations and hassles but at least end up with something decent-looking.
They've gotten cheap enough (A dual-layer (8Gig) Sony can be had for $100-150, other brands/off-brands even cheaper).Ã, 

If you're bound and determined to made video CDs, it's a learning process.Ã,  First off:
1) Your DVD-player must support them (check manual or website).
2) Even if they're supported, the support might be so shoddy that it'll reject homemade discs.Ã, 
3) DVD player (of course) must support whatever media.Ã,  Make sure it can read CD-R's, RW's or whatever you're using.Ã, 
I tried for weeks (with many CD's) to make a VCD my dvd-player would read.Ã,  Turns out, it was just a crappy player.Ã,  I tried it on others and they worked like a charm.Ã, 

A VCD is Mpeg-I, low-quality and a movie will span 1.5-2 discs.Ã,  An SVCD is Mpeg-II, has narrower support, and takes up significantly more space.Ã,  I haven't heard of KVCD but maybe something to look into.. seems like you might run into support issues though.Ã, 

With my first successful attempt, I used a program called TMPGenc (Easy to remember, right?) to convert the Div-X video to VCD format.Ã,  It has several tweaking options for video and audio that can iron out a few bumps and smooth out the picture.Ã,  I then used Nero Burning Rom (It had a VCD drop-down under CD-burning) to write it.Ã,  If you've got Nero Express, it should load, allow editing, convert and burn a VCD all in one program, but the quality may be lesser.Ã, 

With a VCD, the audio should be tolerable (assuming you're limited to TV speakers and not 5.1 or something), the video a touch blocky with some artifacts, but overall - quite watchable.Ã, 

I seriously recommend going the DVD route instead...Ã,  even when burning a movie to a 4.7Gig DVD-R, there's some audio/video degradation.Ã,  I've burnt many anime DVD's and they still take a bit of tweaking to get right (make sure subtitles aren't cut off, balancing quality more carefully for low-contrast scenes, etc.).

If you're determined, try http://www.afterdawn.com they've got a plethora of freeware utilities and numerous guides and step-by-step (albeit some over-involved) walkthroughs for DVD, VCD, SVCD, etc.

[Edit: For informational purposes, my initial DVD player was an Oritron (Wal-Mart stylin' $60), manual claimed S/VCD support . . . No.Ã,  My replacement Sony did it wonderfully.Ã,  Haven't tested the new Phillips yet for S/VCD. Also, I don't remember precisely but I'm thinking you can do as many video as audio minutes, i.e. 1 hour, 20 minutes on 700MB CD.. almost - but not quite - length of most movies.  Assume 3-4 standard show episodes]

Under US law, you can use portions of a work for purposes of critique or tribute.  This would include likenesses, characters inspired by, and a plot line based upon, the work in question.  However, in order to defend their copyright, Lucasfilm Ltd., could present you with a cease and desist request.  You could attempt to fight it in court, but your chances wouldn't be great.   To be on the safe side, I would:

1) Attribute credit for the basis of your work prominently in your game (e.g. The Star Wars characters, storyline, and concepts are copyright Lucasfilm Ltd.)
2) Make sure people know that you are not attempting to present the concept as your own (with phrasing like #1) and also that you are not presenting your game as the "genuine article." (i.e. Mention in credits, readme.txt, etc., that it's a fan game and is not authorized or attributed to Lucasfilm).
3) If you wanted to extra-cautious, you would make sure all artwork/sound/characters are your own and merely inspired by Star Wars (following this guideline, there's not really anything LFL could do). 

Don't be scared off by the precautionary recommendations, just use some basic ethics and you'll be fine: Give credit where credit is due, don't claim things that aren't true.  Worst case, you'd have to stop work on your game or curtail its distribution.  For a scenario like this, there's no worry about official prosecution or jail time.  If you're thinking about selling it, unless you had a very skilled attorney, you wouldn't have much hope of distribution. 

To the rest of you, sorry to ruin your fun, but you should at least have a *little* mercy on the new guy, neh?

My personal gripes against the movie were primarily nitpicking.  I did enjoy the hell out of it and got a much better movie experience from it than a couple other POS's I've seen recently.  Comparing technicalities (SFX, acting skill, written dialogue, events, plot holes) between trilogies isn't what shows E.I-III to be lacking.  It's that the first two weren't any damned fun.  I wanted to love 'em, heard no hype about E.I before seeing it and was bored.  It was neither a thought-provoking movie that kept my brain interested, nor an adrenaline rush to keep me excited about a film.  I thought E. III showed a bit of a return to the overall feeling of the later ones: Gritty, characters thrown off balance, epic events that shape the galaxy (No.. not pod races), etc.

As for Ep. III, what hurt my soul was how close they came to doing something and then GWL just decided to hump its leg instead. 

Spoiler

When Padme confronts Evil Annie, her reaction to the betrayal is excellent.. his is flat, with a couple lines sounding like sentences were cut in half.  My primary gripe, though, is how they touched upon depth then stomped it.  They had a perfectly understandable reason for him to go to the dark side, to save Padme, they didn't have to harp on the topic - "Choose evil, it's really cool" "No." "Aw, c'mon, evil's not that bad." "Oh, alright." 

They even gave people a good reason to choose dark over light: Yoda says that death is part of life and that a jedi has to let go of attachments to loved ones and not be sad if/when they pass away. Grief leads to the dark side.  Sounded like a crap philosophy to me.  They didn't delve into that at all, just a simple conversion of Anakin to Evil 0.9b, and he turns Insta-Asshole.  "Kill some little kids to show how evil you can be." "No.. wait.. umm. sure."  A more subtle change (i.e. ushers kids out but they get mown down anyway) would've been nice is all.

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Yep, I also well remember watching the Wonderful World of Disney movies.. Sunday evenings, I believe.  Mr. Boogedy.. I think they showed Harry and the Hendersons a few times, Short Circuit...  sometimes those older ones.. what was the series? Return to Witch Mountain or something? I don't know why I can look back on those shows with fondness yet despise so much current kids' programming.  Maybe it's this whole Something Must Happen Every 3 Seconds to appease short attention spans thing.

The colors and under-textures are wonderfully done. Ã, It would fit in well in a forest of similar trees and landscaping if the game's more on the humorous site. Ã, However, it does give the impression of a flat, jagged tree-shaped bit stuck on top of a wooden pole. Ã, 

With pine/fir/other needle-bearing trees, its shape is dependent upon species, environment, proximity to objects/other trees, but seems to generally be of a few basic varieties: Sparse foliage with branches clearly visible, so full that hardly any trunk is visible, somewhere in between, or very pyramidal in shape. Ã, You don't often see one that full with that much trunk exposed. Ã, The detail is good.. I like the wood texture - not sharp lines but still indicative of patterns, and the needles show well without having each one visible. Ã, Quick fix would be to remove the top couple inches of trunk and break up the outline of the green somewhat (more random and less standard Christmas Tree shape, particularly under/around the pointed bits). Ã, The shading should also be looked at more as cylindrical or conical and less a left-to-right thing. Ã, Definitely nice enough work that my comments don't mean jack if this fits your game's style.

Nope, not mature at all.  A gentle ribbing was more in order than a fairly harsh criticism.  However, I still think the topic's akin to notifying people that Cracker Jacks have a prize in the box - sometimes it's even really neat!  I'm glad you're excited, Flukeblake, just don't take my assholishness too seriously. 

One you didn't mention that might fit your mold is Watership Down ... of course it is a touch twisted.  (Better yet, imo)

It's unfortunate that it always says Spoiler Below.  Anyway, it's in response to custard's responses to my previous.  Regardless of hiding, I don't want to give out any plot details.  Maybe that's rhetoric on your part, if the dialogue is at the expected level.

I dug Return quite a bit.  OF course, part of that is from childhood memories of waiting in a line stretching around the block with my dad.  It was the first SW movie I saw and it made me want to see the rest of 'em. 

I liked Ep III, there's just a bit to complain about.  I was hoping for more questions to be addressed but it seemed a good return to the spirit of IV-VI. 

Spoiler

As PP said, "It's always been B-movie quality." Correct. I phrased my bit poorly. It was enjoyable partially because of its return to B-movie sequences and dialog vs. the pretentious drama of the previous two. Some of the dialog, however, seemed more Nickelodeon-inspired, but without the depth."

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I have no idea where all these people see the thing.  I just got lucky that I work for Pixar and they've got a good relationship with Lucasfilm.

Well, saw Episode III this morning.  Overall, pretty good.  I liked it a healthy amount better than the previous two.  A good movie to see in theaters as well for some of the niftier scenes and the sound was top-notch (at least where I saw it).
Very vague spoilers:

Spoiler

If you're looking for answers to complex questions or a very deep plotline, just ready yourself to enjoy a fun movie.  As much as you know about the plot from the hype is about all the movie contains.  It had some good lead-ups to moral quandries and touching on deeper subjects but didn't really dig very far.  It also took small steps towards subtlety then took a running leap to the end result.  The dialogue? Ugh.. not great. In some scenes, it's 'B' movie quality.

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Wasn't the awesome-fest I was hoping for but a more worthy Star Wars movie than the previous (IMO). All in all, I dug it.

I would've mentioned Troma films but they haven't got much in the way of subtlety.  They're meant to be bad, so don't really fit this topic.

But, there's a whole other realm for movies that are meant to be bad/funny but end up just being horrid.  Sgt. Kabukiman: NYPD comes to mind.

It all depends upon the studio as well.  Lucasfilm, being based in my area, of course releases movies in the US first.  Often it's US/parts of Western Europe, then Eastern Europe and Japan, followed by east Asia.  I don't recall, but I think SW:EpIII hits Japan a good several weeks after everyone else. 

At least the film's complete, all that's required now is patience.  The employee screening for it was May 7th, so I'm not sure why it takes so damned long for release to other countries.  Maybe they're insisting theaters get their equipment up to par first? (THX, Digital projectors, DTS, etc.)

Hell, I've been waiting for a contact for voice-acting for the umm.. er.. what was it? Somebody evil-ish...  Great news to hear you're still around and the alien animations and drawings were quite memorable, glad to hear it's still gonna be used.

The pic overall looks great.  I wouldn't even nitpick it if it weren't placed in the Critic's Lounge.  I see three main problems.
1: Everything's pretty much in the same contrast range.  It makes it a tad difficult to see facial features. Speaking of which, that shine on his left cheek should either be in other places as well or go away entirely.  If you upped the saturation for all shades (just slightly, don't want to ruin the style) it might make it more eye-friendly.

2: You've been a bit shy with shading.  Based upon light sources, half of his left sleeve and half of his left leg should be in shadow.  If you're using layers, try using a shading layer and removing where you want highlights, it might make it less prone to under-shading.

3: For much of it, you've taken light sources into account and even what folds would appear.  However, some folds (pants especially) seem shaded without considering how clothing hangs. If you've got a digi-cam, a reference pic might help.

Did I say three? Oops.  That stripe on his left sleeve..  seems like it should terminate at the shoulder or around the back rather than just below the tricep.  Great work, regardless.  Very photo-vector-esque. 

I'm a big fan of campy, cheesy, delusions of grandeur-type movies.  Some I enjoyed that I haven't seen on this list (or that you can't count on 9 out of 10 people having seen):

Lake Placid (crap movie, Oliver Platt kicks ass).

Day of the Triffids (older movie, classical cheese).

Spiders 2000 (Awesomely bad... crap, crap, crappy craptasticness. Must see.  It begins with an experiment wherein they "Inject" a spider with "Radiation" whilst "In space.")  And yet it takes itself seriously.  Good, good stuff.

I finally watched HHGTTG.  I dug it.  I thought the mood of the movie fit well with the book.  There were some minor additions/changes but I'm not entirely convinced DA wouldn't have made some of them himself had he still been around.  The beginning song was brilliant and put me in a very Monty Python mood. 

Since there's a critical air about this place, I'll go ahead and throw in my criticisms:
>Thought the latter half of the movie fell a bit flat.  They seemed to want to take the "plot" to a finish and wrap it all up nicely. 
>I didn't care for Ford much.  He seemed a lot more smart/sarcastic in the book.  Any action he took seemed to be random or silly in the books but ended up showing a lot of know-how.  In the movie, he was a bit more of a bumbler. He also didn't factor in as a real driving force or unique personality - more of a kick-off in the beginning than pencilling him in for the rest of it. 
>Zaphod came off in the movie as an utter imbecile who acts like one.  In the book, I felt he was more of a fairly stupid person that at least conveyed the idea that he knew what he was doing. In the books, he always struck me as a bit of a two-headed Leisure Suit Larry kind of chap.  I didn't care for the compromise they made with his physical attributes but prefer it to them leaving that out all together.
>  I think the voice of Marvin was a great choice, just didn't like the body style much. Somehow, in my head, he resembled something more like a boxier version of the Lost in Space robot.

Other than it flustering about and falling down a bit during the latter half, I enjoyed it.  I'd expected to loathe it but, on the whole, it felt worthwhile. Certainly not a waste of cash (unlike many movies I've seen recently).  Slartibartfast (sp?) kicked much ass. Also, they even kept a lot of the narrative/Guide parts, even when they interrupted an action sequence.  A lot more true to the book than I expected.  I'd give it about an 8/10. 

?
-The scanned stuff don't fit too well. Yakspit, Where can I find the posterization filter? (Photoshop, I suppose?)

There are a few that might help with their fitting-in.  Posterize reduces amount of colors (in PS Elements, it's under Image>Adjustments>...). 
Facet reduces sharp lines to basic color values (Filter>Pixelize>facet).
Crystallize takes color averages and makes polygonal shapes with the average (good for a rough-hewn look Filter>Pixelize>crystallize).

You should be able to find these (or their equivalents) in most paint programs.  In either case, consider just playing with filters until you get something that "Fits." For hand-drawn BG's it's usually best to avoid the effects filters but when adjusting photos, they can be helpful.

If you used a posterization filter on the scanned objects, it might help them fit in a little better.  I'd suggest tweaking them until they match the style of the drawn background. 

The floor lines' perspective is distracting, also their darkness. If you removed them altogether, it'd be better.  If not, at least lightening and possibly putting them in perspective would help. 

The stair's railing doesn't seem to have any upright poles.  Even without practical function, I'd think they'd be there for aesthetic purposes.  Normally, they'd connect with the stairs or a sideboard. The railing at the top is too short. Based upon a stair height of six-inches, they're appear to be about 1-foot tall - just right for people to trip and fall to a bloody death. 

I like the idea, and the stuff you've done works pretty well. If I had to choose one must-do item, the vases stick out more than anything because of their photolook but also because they've got a vastly different perspective than their pillars.

It's hard to suggest it because everything in place right now is so damned good.  However, there isn't enough space to see that it's isolated.  If the building were moved -X, with the fenceline ending either at the street or leading up to the building's edge, it'd look a bit more removed.  I look at the building and see a place for utility maintenance or a storage area.  It might look alright behind the fenceline (but for play purposes, that'd be difficult). 

Another thought is to rotate (I know, redrawing.. ugh) the building so the door faces  the bottom-left and have its entrance at the fenceline (which would be extended towards the -x). 

Without moving/redrawing anything, I think it'd help also to have more wear-and-tear in the pic. If the area's isolated or seldom visited, I'd imagine the asphalt would be cracked, cracks and grass growing in the sidewalk, a sewage grate that's collected leaves and trash, the fence's gate askew - hanging awkwardly.  The solitary tree makes it look more like a residential property as well, rather than something on the edge of town. 

The parking lot idea would work but one has to imagine that a good many cars park there (or did at some point).  Maybe parking slots with parking meters that're rusted or collapsed? That'd also give you some objects to break the scene up, along with a potentially fantastic foreground object as the entropic face of a parking meter. 

Excellent work, sir. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.