August 31, 2004
Gamasutra: Game Releases - Week of August 30th, 2004 (One of my new Gamasutra micro-features, listing every videogame released in EU/US/JP each week - free reg. req. to read.)
Archive.org: Absorbed in the Spring - 'Sounds from the Post Office' (Wonderful free-to-download Lamb-esque vocal electronica, produced on just a Pentium 133.)
Infocom version of HHGTTG re-released online w/illustrations? (To coincide with the new Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy radio series, woot.)
Xbox Media player supports hacked TiVo playback functionality (New feature: 'Streaming video from a TiVo over network - requires hacked TiVo running ccXStream' - interesting.)
Jack Valenti was riding in JFK's motorcade? (Oddness abounds.)
August 30, 2004
Ninja Tune's Amon Tobin doing soundtrack to next Splinter Cell (UbiSoft making interesting soundtrack choices, what with this and Future Primitive's XIII soundtrack.)
Virtua Fighter RPG not big in Japan (But it was a natural progression! Or not.)
Liberated Games ('Dedicated to cataloging all full commercial games that have been liberated and made free in playable form to the public' - great idea.)
August 29, 2004
Twilight Singers cover Bjork's 'Hyperballad' (MP3) (Via SiArt - Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers album with Fila Brazillia is also (even more?) genius.)
'Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends' @ Cartoon Network (New from Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken, whimsical Seuss-ian fantasy. )
Long Gamespot article on academics and videogames (Mentions Archive.org's Machinima Archive in passing, decent coverage of the more practical side of gaming academia.)
Rez re-released for $19.99 in November? (So rumors say - great news for those who missed its genius.)
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum pics (Playable characters from Metal Slug! Arcade only for now, mind you.)
Groupiedirt.com fails to turn up ping pong groupies (Maybe they don't read the right messageboards.)
August 28, 2004
Aggressive people have asymmetric body parts (How about Van Gogh?)
Epochally long Tim Rogers LJ post (Still a love/hate thing, some begging, but some sprinkled-in genius.)
Disembodied Brain on Chris Carter's 'Harsh Realm' on DVD (Never caught this when it was on - concept good, review not.)
Kirugurumix - dancing Japanese bottletop figures (Ningyoushi explains: 'Snap your fingers or place it near the music and watch it shake and dance on its own.' - via JaN.)
'Samurai Champloo' anime pulled from Japanese terrestrial TV (Odd, because American anime/P2P fans have been loving the 'sixteenth-century Japan meets 'bling-bling'' action.)
Harry Potter books don't impress UK girls? ('If men want to impress ladies on the beach, then Nick Hornby or Emily Bronte are the best bets.' )
August 27, 2004
Spam poetry (El Reg's, but I want to talk about mine.) (I just got an email titled: '[carpeting] 78% off Office XP Professional crucifying' - best spam subjectline evah.)
August 26, 2004
Capcom's CPS Changer game console (Weird obscure hardware alert!)
Wired News on There/Forterra's new 'virtual world' funding (Quotes me being all suspicious about their financial prospects - but good luck to 'em!)
eBay: Japan-Games.com's entire import gaming store for sale as one lot. (Here's the full list - another videogame nerd's wet dream?)
Robotron on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and piracy. (From the ever-incendiary Stuart Campbell, of course.)
August 25, 2004
Otakon 2003 Cosplay Contest, inc. Pac-Man (.WMV) (There are lots more movies on CosPlay Memories, I have no idea what's going on generally, but Pac-Man skit @ 08.00 is _genius_.)
Video-Fenky on the Classic Gaming Expo (Darn, missed out on the Atari 2600 Philly Flasher game.)
'Taiko: Drum Master' game soundtrack details. (Blur! Britney! Beethoven!)
'Kangaroo Jack: G'Day USA' animated movie?!? ('Apocalypse Now', indeed.)
August 24, 2004
L'Oreal explains 'nanosomes' (As Richard Cobbett says: 'Do they just throw letters at a blackboard until science words appear?')
Konamistyle 'Pop 'N Music' plush toys (From the less-known Bemani beat game spin-off - cute!)
Mass Star Wars Galaxies protest causes havoc (Oh, those crazy MMO players!)
August 23, 2004
8-Bit Weapon, interviewed (These guys rocked when they played CGE2K4 at the weekend - the Bleep Stripes?)
Slashdot Games: My last post ever :( (3000+ posts later, that's all, folks.)
Archive.org: 'Throcky Gets Physical' (AVI) (Creative Commons-licensed high school physics-themed musical - here's the official site!)
Shou-sama selling gigantic gaming collection. (See this feature, scroll down for pics of this _insanely_ comprehensive + rare Japan-centric videogame collection.)
August 22, 2004
Halo 2 'ilovebees.com' conspiracy steps up a notch (GPS co-ordinates now - what's next?)
August 21, 2004
Nerd Of Prey - 'Demented' (Don't suck out my soul! From a typically geeky webcomic about nrrdstuff.)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas movie trailer ('Eagerly awaited' would be an understatement.)
August 20, 2004
Philip Sherburne on DJ-ing in Juarez, Mexico (The Internet is great for communicating experiences.)
21 percent of people who hate their lives use Livejournal (I would have pegged it a bit higher, personally.)
Red Vs. Blue on real life vs. the Internet (.MOV) (They pretty much nailed it - via Waxy.)
AICN on 'Father Of The Pride' (This could be surprisingly good, weirdly.)
Artists and children's books in 1920s Japan (Rather gorgeous, via Jinjur.)
What the Pythons are up to right now (Particularly cool, Eric Idle on the making of Spamalot: The Musical.)
Muppets' Wizard Of Oz to start filming soon (Due on TV in May 2005, yay - via ToughPigs.)
August 19, 2004
Weekly World News: Disease forces rapper to talk clean (Yep, it's 'Reverse Tourette's Syndrome' - sorry, not bored of these just yet.)
ASCII Elvis gets re-ASCII-ed with Toogle (Running ASCII images through ASCII-ization again with Toogle - can you see the sailboat?)
Virt - 'Thriller' NES cover version (MP3) (Covered using the VRC6 NES sound chip limitations, and as always, good God, Virt's a genius.)
Everything2: Bratz (A handy cheat-sheet - 'With Bratz you don't need Barbie's physically impossible figure or pedigree Aryan looks, just a passion for fashion!')
Archive.org: Computer Chronicles on the Commodore 64 ('Demos include Skate or Die... the Koala Pad... and Berkeley Software's GEOS.' And beards!)
'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' threatens dogwalker with stake (Evil slayer, down girl! Via Whedonesque.)
August 18, 2004
Daily Show's Stephen Colbert talks Dungeons and Dragons (Where's the Cheetos?)
Screenshots of Nintendo DS title 'Nintendogs' (Wow, serious cuteness overload - could be big.)
Spinal Tap explains the importance of the umlaut (Very motley.)
Kinetic Art 2004 competition results (Won by the, uhh, 'Cremasteric Reflex Corset' - I prefer the domino sculpture in 2nd.)
Half-Life 2 delay inspires apocalyptic, endearingly amateurish fan-art. ('N00b!1!... Then the world will set to ruin!' )
Nippon Ichi bringing Atelier Iris PS2 to States (The tiny US operation has its Japanese dev arm creating Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics - now licensing great-looking PS2 RPGs, yay.)
Anthony Stewart Head Q&A transcript (The Buffyverse actor and Little Britain guest star in conversation - mild spoilers?)
Slashdot - 10 millionth comment (Not as obscene as it could have been.)
Starbucks Gossip weblog (As created by Jim Romanesko of Poynter MediaNews 'fame'.)
August 17, 2004
Has Japanese TV censorship affected anime? ('a significant developing trend toward censoring anime for television broadcast'?)
Everything2: Mushy peas (Mm, 'puddle of green goo'.)
Duel Saviour - Japanese doujin-esque Windows game demo (Very Guardian Heroes-like side-scrolling 2D fighter, with lovely graphics.)
Mighty Mighty Mouse for Sega CD - nothing like Chu Chu Rocket! (You can't see any resemblance, right?)
Kikizo's gigantic game videos mirror. (Thanks to Blueyonder, it's easy to wget this big archive of 2003-2004 game videos from Kikizo Games.)
August 16, 2004
Weekly World News: NASA Builds World's Biggest Paper Airplane (The 'Flying Squirrel' is going to outer space!)
Holy Grail found in Harrods' Holy Grail department (Or so it was written in the first version of 'Monty Python And The..')
LegalTorrents: Alpha Cat Boogie MP3 Archives (From my legal BitTorrent site, 7 crazy psychedelic electronic indie albums, including Bubzigohn's 'rock-opera response to American culture'.)
How I mistook an Iridium pellet for heartburn medicine (In relevance to insane Russian heavy-metal smelters in New Jersey and Oliver Sacks - via BoingBoing.)
NYC skateboarder gets red-hot manhole cover 'tattoo' ('You can see the 'O' and the 'N' from 'Con Edison.' The doctor said a lot of this will scar for life.')
August 15, 2004
Future of MMOs: ASCII cats getting jammed in bookshelves (From an Insert Credit invasion of BAR?? ONLINE, whatever that is.)
Semi-tragic German goth music (MP3) (Sorry, Monotonik submitter, but 'i need your silly lies, i need your little legs, that's nice and that is pink'?)
Nekobo - Japanese PC doujin game (Windows .ZIP) (More info on Japanese-language details page - fire at platforms to tilt 'em so you can collect mini-characters.)
Slashdot: John Carmack's newborn has initials CRC (It this a deliberate Carmack riff, or just geeks over-analyzing? The truth will out!)
Archive.org: 'Seaman' game ad for Dreamcast (In which the ever-curmudgeonly Seaman threatens to... steal your wife?)
August 14, 2004
E2: Lucy The Margate Elephant (Would love to visit some day.)
Private Eye: Neophiliacs, Issue 1112 ('Opera could well be the new cocaine?' )
Producer talks Gaiman+McKean's 'MirrorMask' (From the Jim Henson Company, no less.)
Fijuu - Real-time Linux live CD for abstract visuals ('A realtime performance environment that provides the user/player with 3D objects for use as instruments for making improvised music.')
Archive.org: The Shatners - 'Sad Encounter..' (Originally released in 1990, featuring Bill Roper of Blizzard/Flagship videogame 'fame', heh.)
WWE wrestler John Cena freestyling about the NES?! (MP3) (Courtesy of Kobun Heat @ E3 - here's the duo- WWE wrestler Cena really knows his classic Nintendo.)
August 13, 2004
Best Vietnamese Pho restaurant name evah. (Sense of humor plus plus.)
Allan 'Cosmic Banditos' Weisbecker helps get computers into Costa Rican schools (An amazing writer, and a caring, charitable guy, too - subscribe to his newsletter, it's great.)
Reality show for Andrew Dice Clay? (Apparently, it 'could star him, his wife and ... his girlfriend.' Marvellous.)
'Demoscene: The Art Of Real Time' book (Neat artbook - demo or die!)
Archive.org: 'Alien Vs. Predator' Jaguar speed-runs (To help celebrate the movie release, the Speed Runs guys have run super-fast through the classic Atari Jaguar videogame version.)
Archive.org: Project X2 replay gets comments by creators. (Andreas Tadic and Rico Holmes turn up to praise a one-credit completion of their great side-scrolling shooter.)
GPMadMP3 GP32 MP3 player gets to v1.0 (Easier to transfer MP3s, neato graphical design.)
August 12, 2004
Demoscene TV (Watch new and classic demo-scene productions through Nullsoft's WinAmp TV!)
A little bit of Europe in Hokkaido (Unexpectedly beautiful rural seaside Japan in photos and video.)
E2: Michael Bolton uses cheat sheet for National Anthem (I adore the other Michael Bolton's guest appearances in Angel as a Bill Gates-style billionaire nerd. )
Most incompetent convenience store robber ever (Animated GIF) (Would you like my gun, cashier?)
Weekly World News: Aliens claim Jacko is their son (Presumably straight from the blast crater in Tunguska.)
LegalTorrents: 'Panorama Ephemera' DivX version (Rick Prelinger's great Creative Commons-licensed ephemeral film compilation, available on my legal BitTorrent site.)
Formula to calculate probabilities of anti-programming language rants. (Very useful.)
Toastyfrog's girlfriend's Japanese cellphone pic gallery (Includes 'the freakish TV host from Lost in Translation's _cookbook_', other coolness.)
August 11, 2004
'Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Bananaphone' ('It grows in bunches, I've got my hunches' - so popular, it gets a badger-heavy remix - also see other genius loops, some NSFW. )
Vote Giant Squid In 2004! ('Place your trust, your votes, and your future children in the hands of GIANT SQUID.')
Funny Old World: no law against cannibalism in Uganda. ('For now, their diet is restricted to maize and beans.')
Bank Of England Museum: 'Banknotes come alive'. (Meet Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, the Duke Of Wellington, and Sir Isaac Newton, fresh from starring on UK currency!)
Counterfeit breast implant raids a success (Apparently deemed 'Politics' by the wondrous Weekly World News.)
Plazes - uses LANs as locations for info/social networking? (Still in invite-only Beta - you can see all Plazes so far, though.)
Fort90 on 'Lil G'N'R' at Coney Island (Amazingly, Li'L Slash is only 6. Also mentioned - Tiny Motley Crue.)
Bruce Sterling doing Lineage II fan-art?! (One of the cyberpunk grandaddies goes all Korean MMORPG kawaii.)
August 10, 2004
Archive.org: Bleep - Datenbergbau [MP3 EP] (Any gorgeous-serene female-fronted electronica with publicity shots like this is good with me.)
Archive.org: 'Why Doesn't Cathy Eat Breakfast?' (I think she has an evil twin growing in her stomach who comes out at night and eats people.)
Ebay: Alan Moore's Maxwell The Magic Cat (Rare, early 'conventional' newspaper strip-style cartoons from comics genius Moore.)
Tim Rogers on 'Punktuality' (Love him or hate him, the Insert Credit superstar talks punk rock, dreams, and Tokyo.)
'Tugger, the Jeep 4x4 Who Wanted To Fly' (Wow, evil advertising-to-kids in full effect.)
Life Size Mouse Trap (Plus in-action photos of the supersize boardgame - via Waxy.)
German-language Laurel and Hardy film discovered (They spoke phonetically, unlike Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus.)
August 09, 2004
John ffitch - 'Drums and Different Canons' [MP3] (Archive.org-hosted album 'Mapping chaotic oscillators to different pitch systems and sounds' - some great procedural music.)
Mushihimesama 2D shmup flyer (Gorgeous art, courtesy of Click-Stick - there's also a screenshot compilation from the in-test Cave vertically scrolling 2D arcade shmup.)
Blasterhead Live @ Stockholm (Quicktime) (Unique webcam view of the audience for this Swedish open-air gig, using a Game Boy and Little Sound DJ.)
Slashdot: the highest location in Denmark is on top of a bridge (You learn something new every day.)
Qua - 'Devil Eyes' music video (MOV) (Heartbreaking retro-styled 8-bit music video from Qua.)
Jason 'Textfiles.com' Scott on geek documentaries. (A good list of ones you might not have heard of.)
August 08, 2004
Totally cute DDR-related Livejournal avatar (Paranoia indeed.)
G4TechTV's SNK 'Icons' show trailer (Though G4TechTV gets a bad rap sometimes, stuff like this looks significantly decent.)
Dan Gillmor's 'We The Media' read by speech synthesizer. (Not completely unlistenable!)
John Carmack crashes his rocket (Complete with fascinating/tragic video.)
Scissor Sisters doing Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out' (MP3) (Neat cover from the should-be-massive-in-the-US creators of 'that' Pink Floyd cover version.)
Diseased, demented, depressed: serious illnesses in heads of state. (An older link, but fascinating stuff.)
Venture Bros - new Adult Swim cartoon (From ex-Tick writers, includes Patrick Warburton voicing, looks neat.)
Lewis Carroll's scrapbook (From Alice In Wonderland's creator, as scanned by the Library Of Congress.)
August 07, 2004
T-Shirt Hell jump on deceased star bandwagon (Didn't take them long, huh?)
Japanese 'Alice In Wonderland' cosplay (Japanese cosplaying Western characters always intrigues me.)
YMCK Japanese chiptune band - live in Sweden (pic) (Purveyors of _great_ chiptune+vocals material like Pastel Colored Candy, playing out live in Stockholm with the recently mentioned Blasterhead - here's more pics.)
eBay: 41 Dreamcast memory cards (For 30 bucks, you too could have so many Dreamcast saves that you don't know what to do with them!)
'Bitboxing' on the Game Boy (Mon ami Nullsleep gets some love - for more GB bleep, see Blasterhead and his Monotonik release.)
August 06, 2004
Bizarre Japanese picture-commentary trends tracked (Lame or good? Handily purloined visual guides.)
J. Michael Straczynski comic-con convention transcript. (A little garbled, but excellent - and they're finally showing the rest of Jeremiah on Showtime next month.)
Archive.org: SNES Mechwarrior game ad. (As spotted by Gaming-Age, includes a hilariously 'dope' rap.)
Rare's guide to videogame character development (It's Uncle Clive, it's old, but it's still great.)
Toughpigs: 'My Week With Fraggle Rock' (Finally out on DVD, albeit in small doses.)
UK Resistance: Acclaim's new 'urban' racing game intro. ('It’s by the guy who did Tomb Raider and Driver, the game’s big man!' Not so much, but that's some chorus from female UK rapper Shystie.)
August 05, 2004
Grant's Mandarin Hefeweizen (Trader Joe's has it, Beer Advocate readers seem to like it, I concur - refreshingly different.)
JonnyRam's Final Fantasy XI play diary (The guy behind Game Science, a Westerner living in Japan, keeps a neat diary of his progress on Square's uber-addictive MMO.)
EFF showing off Torrentocracy with LegalTorrents RSS. (The BitTorrent plug-in for MythTV was shown at Linuxworld this week - squint and you can see it's using my LegalTorrents RSS feed.)
Virt - 'Zelda: Blood Of Ganon' remix (MP3) (Ever-genius wailing-guitar remix from Jake 'Virt' Kaufman , this time for a Rock-out.net competition.)
Archive.org: Robocop Vs. Terminator game trailer (I'd forgotten about this SNES-era match-up - only in videogames, huh?)
Slashdot: Best argument comeback of the day (Eric Clapton, meet accordian player.)
August 04, 2004
Eric So's Hellboy action figure (Damn, there's some cool limited-edition toys being released of late.)
Miniature subway cars tagged by Seen (These were available at Comic-Con - clever idea, how about a whole range of 'em?)
Mr.Pringle gets band, action figures. (The culinary Gorillaz gone bizarrely posable, courtesy Brothersfree from Hong Kong?)
Radio-controlled Loch Ness Monster (The in-action video makes it look great for faking the real thing - also see RC Pterandon.)
Sex toy makes appearance in Max Payne 2? (Or a green sock, depending on who you believe.)
The Reggie-lution will be televised (Reggie Fils-Aime on 'kicking ass and taking names' for Nintendo.)
Z'ha'dum license plate fun (No pic, but my wife says: 'I saw a personalized license plate this morning that said: 2ZHADUM and then the frame said Z'HA'DUM on top and Babylon 5 on the bottom.' Hah!)
August 03, 2004
Christopher Franke doing music for Amazing Race 5 (The ex-Tangerine Dream-er and infamous Babylon 5 musician also dabbles in reality TV soundtracks.)
1UP's Doom 3 review with extra 'piracy' sass. (Reload enough times, and a Google text ad appears at the bottom of the page linking to the Suprnova .torrent of the game.)
Googling for credit card numbers (via Waxy Links - try substituting the first 4 numbers of your VISA into the URL!)
Archive.org: Game Videos hub page (One of my recent projects finally has a hub page, for much videogame-related movie goodness.)
Tremendously geeky D&D joke by Lore Sjoberg. (Also, I own a box of the Rad Dudes trading cards. How many Hail Maries for that?)
Anderson Cooper sneaks The Clash onto CNN (Good ol' Gunmetal Gray shrugs off the Gloria Vanderbilt connection, rocks the casbah.)
Zombie & Mummy (Semi-genius, not-so-updated webstrip from Dragan of Bodenstandig 2000 and friends.)
Michael Chabon on 'comics for kids' ('What if there were comic books for children?' - does Johnny DC fit the bill, or is it aiming too low?)
August 02, 2004
'Team America: World Police' trailer (Parker and Stone - bringing back Supermarionation for the '00s!)
Christian Slater's 'cunning disguise' gets him kicked out of UK gentleman's club (Peter Stringfellow confirms: 'Yes, Christian was asked to leave the club because he wouldn't take off his [rubber Richard] Nixon mask.' )
Urbex: The Cane Hill Project (When I went to school in South London, kids would taunt each other about 'being sent to Cane Hill'.)
On KEXP's online success (From February: 'KEXP's online audience represents about 40% of its overall listenership' - including me, while I work, most days - just a great radio station.)
Hipsters and Squares On Sesame Street (Don't harsh my vibe, man! From the exquisite ToughPigs.)
Ransai - custom 'Pop 'N Music' controllers. (Heavy-duty controllers for the PS2 version of the cutesy Bemani spin-off.)
August 01, 2004
OvationTV: 'MTV Music Video Awards: They Still Look and Sound Like Junk' (Holy crap. Jay-Z's '99 Problems' has an amazing Mark Romanek directed video, and this critique seems a little excessive.)
Lewis Walpole Library Caricature Collection @ Yale (Via MeFi, a wonderful collection of satirical prints of the 18th + 19th century, such as this Cruikshank gem.)
'Thriller' music video in Second Life MMO (.MOV) (Showing off the new custom animations feature.)
Print ad for 'The Village' goatse-like? (Only if you squint.)
Transforming the NME into a global brand (Sales versus good writing versus integrity, as per usual.)
A Mutual Misunderstanding (Weblog of Simon Thornton, Fatboy Slim's engineer - new FBS single has 'Slash Dot' chanting in it.)
The Case That Shall Not Be Named (Lovecraft-ian case modding plus plus!)
Slashdot Games: Source of hints/tips for the C64 Barbie game (In case you were still stuck getting Ken to take Barbie to the prom after 15 years.)