ffwd: Linklog

1UP: Crucial Classics - Little Computer People (Oh, David Crane, how i adore thee.)

Speed Demos Archive: 70-star Mario 64 run in 1 hour 1 minute (Check the textual commentary for each star - this is insane.)

Romanesko: SF venue renamed 'SF Weekly Warfield', rival Bay Guardian irked (I'm irked too, because it's a dumb idea.)

Music Thing: 'Synth Cakes part 4: Now we're getting serious' (I want to consume the frequency oscillator.)

Bizjournals: Pax TV to become 'i', an 'independent broadcast platform' (Evidently Dr. Billy Ray Cyrus isn't working out - $95.9 million loss in Q1? Youch.)

eBay: 66 Sachen NES games for sale (Very unofficial NES bootlegs for sale - same seller has NSFW Atari 2600 Mystique carts up, had an even bigger lot.)

Pixel Addiction - video game radio (Will be interviewing IGF 2005 finalists, starting with Dan Paladin of The Behemoth this Friday.)

Import Game Blog: Pokemon GBA Movie Vending Machine (Is this old? Cool, though. Via Kotaku.)

GamePro: 'MMO Journal: Are MMORPGs only for Hardcore Gamers?' (Interesting WoW-related GamePro editorial alert!)

'Milanoville' - Dominic Milano's original comic art collection (Apparently, my co-worker on Digital Video magazine is a crazycool comic art hoarder, wow.)

GameSpot: Dave Chappelle loves World Of WarCraft (Headline strangely self-explanatory.)

Banterist: 'Tom Cruise for the Xbox' (And he can't even afford a new-style Xbox controller!)

The Inbetween of Battlefield 2 ('Mini review: solid gameplay; decent performance/look; horrendous, sluggish, unfriendly user interface; atrocious server browser; laggy and buggy rank tracking.')

eBay: Insane collection of 7"/12" vinyl for sale (Being sold by the guy who produced 'The Morse Code Of Love' for The Capris, apparently.)

CBS: 'Big Brother 6' houseguests announced (Aka Julie Chen vs. a giant porcelain onion - spot the difference! This is big news in our house, tragically.)

NMA: Xfm to offer free downloads of the Ricky Gervais radio show (Speech only, so may be a bit discombobulated, but hey - it's free - via PaidContent, haw.)

Shifted Librarian: What I Took Away from the GLS Conference (What better place to start with 'Games - Learning - Society' than local libraries?)

DVD Savant reviews 'Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and '30s' (Man Ray and friends perpetuate the weirdness)

Broken Toys: 'Lum The Mad' website archives restored (The all-time classic MMO-ish newsbitchsite gets its data un-lost via Lum's new blog, yay.)

MTV UK: 'Pimp My Ride UK', starring Westwood! (Click 'Episode 1' to see a long preview - as Vimster explains, son of a bishop Tim Westwood is infamous, allegedly "acknowledged as the main influence for Ali G" - UNDERSTAND THAT!)

TV Squad: New shows for BBC America (BBCA finally getting a fresh crop of series in, stuff like Footballers' Wives coming earlier, eh.)

Fthr (Antti Jaderholm)'s redesigned art gallery page (Fthr's from demo-scene legends Tpolm - astounding art.)

Adventure II for Atari 5200 - official site ('Permission has been granted by Atari Corp. allowing us to keep the name and to publish it in cartridge form' - neat! Via IC.)

Gameinatrix: 'I Got Fragged By A Girl?!?!' (I harbor the Frag Dolls no ill, actually, although controversy still reigns in comments.)

ThinkGeek: Penny Arcade Expo 2004 3-DVD Set (Worth it just for the MC Frontalot live footage, surely? Shows how low-cost DVD distribution rocks, a la Mega64.)

Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' movie trailer (I like. A lot.)

Fort90 reviews Godzilla: Final Wars movie (Scroll down for review - Ryuhei Kitamura directed, a Keith Emerson soundtrack, crazy suit action? Sounds divine.)

Zac's Game Hand: press kit (Would you buy a gaming glove from this man?)

Planet GameCube: Play-Yan Gets an Upgrade (Firmware upgrades for the DS movie player? Wacky.)

The Cultural Gutter: Videogames (Jim Munroe wrote Everyone In Silico, a futurist novel I dig, and here's his game columns compiled.)

Insert Credit: Atari Lynx movie playing (15 year-old-tech, 4 seconds of movie playback. I'll stick to PSP!)

Clickable Culture on Second Life citizens 'flashing' virtual world webcam (Or using '[rude] soundbites and gestural animations', at least.)

Business Week: 'Dude, Where's My Digital Car?' (Weird that Kart Rider is so big in Korea, unknown here.)

The Leaky Cauldron: Screencaps of Harry Potter 6 being sorted, boxed (From CNBC, no less - can I borrow one? I'll give it back.)

BBC Cult website shutting down, content being... deleted?! ('We're trying to find alternative bbc.co.uk homes for some sites, but much of the content will be removed from the servers.' Why? Server space/bandwidth = cheap!)

Gaming Target: 'The Video Game Librarian: Six Months Later' (Smart video game ordering means happy library consumers - via Joystiq.)

Guardian Blogs: 'A Wild Idea' (Takes IGF winner Wild Earth as a starting point and runs with it.)

PR: 'Tuff Guyz Corporation Launches New Sports Drink' (Random quote o' the day: 'Video gamers will easily relate with the label and recognize its "I" rating for Ice Cold Quencher, similar to the video game rating system.')

Gamasutra: 'Event Wrap-Up: DiGRA05' (Nice job by Ren Reynolds of summing up gaming academia in a developer-friendly way.)

'Noise Is Music' CC-licensed podcast (Some great netlabel picks here, shame that old episodes are offline, though.)

Flyer: 'Le Petit Orb' gig w/Lackluster supporting in Dublin (Ireland is Monotonik oldtimer Lackluster's adopted home nowadays.)

GameCritics: 'Life+Game: The Realization' (A little towards the Barley end of NGJ, messageboard wags are claiming.)

Rossignol: 'That Walking Building' ('It weighes 2 tons, but can be set into motion by one person.')

Yahoo!/Reuters: 'New Jack the Ripper theories put sleuths in a spin' (The ever-vigilant Casebook.org has an excellent review of the referenced book, which is apparently well-written, but nothing earthshattering.)

Keepgoing.org: 'The Big Fish' - The History Of Suck.com (This is epochally cool. Via Waxy.)

Fortean Times: 'In Search of Sawney Bean' ('A Scottish cannibal in a cave? To a 10-year-old boy, that's about as cool as it gets.')

ARGN: "Art of the H3ist" Finale Set for Thursday (Audi [along with a Blair Witch co-creator, interestingly] has really done some neat ARG-ing here. )

Yahoo!/AP: 'New Potter Book to Carry Less Merchandise' ('It was really pricey merchandise for pretty bad stuff' - except Every Flavor Beans, which still rock.)

XRRF: Glastonbury blog round-up (The quoted Coldplay intro sounds... interesting.)

GameSpy: 'Pixel 29: Joyriding' (On the differences between convex and concave arcade joystick buttons.)

LegalTorrents - 13-episode 'Go_Open' South African TV series added (As funded by Mark Shuttleworth's foundation, a mainstream-aimed, now CC-licensed open-source taster with beardy interviews galore.)

New York Times on KCRW's Nic Harcourt ('He has emerged as the country's most important disc jockey and a genuine bellwether.')

Intellivision Music - new music label from the Intellivision Lives! guys (Keep forgetting to mention this, the excellent 8 Bit Weapon signed to them.)

Vorc: 'Poke-1,170's Airwaves #9', featuring Jochen Hippel (A neat tribute to an important Atari ST musician - even as an Amiga fan, I appreciate.)

TVShowsOnDVD: Comedy Network 'Tom Green Show' DVD compilation due (God help me, I still love Tom's schtick - here's his pre-MTV shows compiled.)

ChannelBeat - an arcade music machine superstore (Stumbled across this looking for info on Rhythm Nation, which I played in Santa Cruz today - also found info on Flash Beats, an insane Sega Mechatro-made light-pulse arcade machine [with a Coldcut-featuring soundtrack!] I played at ATEI a few years back.)

Grand Text Auto: Massive photo-filled wrap of DIGRA academic games conference (Ludological superstars in close proximity - look for a Gama wrap, Monday.)

Wonderland on the new Honda diesel engine advergame (The sun is almost Teletubbies-level happy, and the world is reassuringly isometric, yay.)

WMMnA: Creative Commons-licensed beer (Wait, is that free as in beer, or not? )

XRRF: UK newspaper front pages as Glastonbury gets rain, mud deluge ('Summer of Flood', indeed - haw - here's LJ pics to gawk at, semi-via Wabbitland.)

Indiewire: 'Warp Films Heats Up with Distribution and Production' (A deal for the Paradise Lost docs in the UK, more Cunningham and Meadows goodness for the Warp Records spin-off.)

1UP: 'Afterlife', on console emulation (Nice overview, though I think downloading emulators is technically illegal, if system ROMs are included?)

Adfreak: 'Memo to NBC: Free Triumph!' (I'm still surprised that iFilm re-posts anything it wants, and I don't think they should. More power to NBC.)

LJ: 'Liddo and Sarah's Katamari Fantasy Night' (Extremely surreal - also not averse to the 'very art' Morrigan/Lilith from the same LJ - via interimlover.)

Firing Squad: 'Guild Wars: Boring?' ('It just isn’t my thing' just isn't '-5, Flamebait'-y enough, Jakub.)

Reality Blurred: 'Bravo reveals Battle of the Network Reality Stars cast' (This is a hideous, decadent, evil feast if you're a reality TV fan. Like us.)

QT3: Discussing the TotalGaming.net subscription revamp (Here's the official announcement - a change away from 'all you can eat'.)

Gamasutra: ' Indie Postmortem: Large Animal's RocketBowl' (Seems like accidental IGF explosion today, with this neat postmortem of a 2005 award winner.)

Digital Jesters signs IGF 2003 winner Wild Earth (Good news, in conjunction with the IGF announcement today.)

Wired News: 'Game Devs Plan to Save Japan' (Slightly tenuous article hook, but the interviews are great - all praise teh Kohler.)

The Morning News: 'You Only Act Once: The Lesser Bonds' (Extremely silly, but I like anything Bond-related.)

2006 Independent Games Festival Awards announced (I'm co-chairman, and there's some cool changes this year - new modding category, bigger Grand Prize, many other tweaks.)

Archive.org: Retro Core Volume 8 added (Also Vol.9 and Vol.10 - an ex-pat in Japan playing through and commenting on obscure/cool import games.)

Panopticist: Detourned New York subway map (It's a bit like a real-location London Underground tube map, or something.)

Gamasutra: 'Planetwide Games Plans Extreme Sports MMO' (Not normal Gamasutra material, but it's interesting, and nobody else mentioned it...)

Edge Online: 'The Small Guns' (Interviews with G.rev, Milestone and Triangle Service - shooter fans, pause and breathe.)

Destroy All Humans: the Flash mini-game (Enjoy abducting the human race? Please try the miniaturized version of the actual title.)

Music Thing: The Soddy Awards, 2004 (Mmmm, DIY knob-twisting synth goodness.)

WarCry: Controversy over 'Dark & Light' MMO's game engine (Still boggles my mind that the game was made on Reunion Island - low dev costs!)

Guardian Online: 'Jobs for the girls' (Some good UK-centric interviews on a well-worn, still relevant topic.)

Skotos: 'Creativity & The Creative Commons' ('Castle Marrach: Awakenings #1' MUD-promoting comic book released under CC license.)

GAF: Asterix & Obelix 2 screenshots (Game spoofing games alert!)

Eurogamer: Psychonauts review for Xbox ('The platform game isn't underneath the funny; it is the funny.' Great review.)

GameSpot: Survey shows DS edging out PSP in Japan ('31 percent [of undecideds] said they are planning to get a PSP, while 35 percent said they want to get a DS'.)

GameSpy: 'Bunny Luv: An Interview with Tiffany Fallon' (Worst wannabe-Maxim interview evah, guys.)

Blogcritics: Nancy Grace on video game violence ('Way to save Eidos millions in advertising.')

Gamasutra: 'MTV2's Video Mods Returns With Fresh Games' (The Death Jr. vs. My Chemical Romance video is kinda cute.)

Press release: 'Capricorn Technologies Completes Shipment of 1 Petabyte System to Internet Archive' (The Petabox is now really a Petabox - hurrah!)

Archive.org: Various - Drum Song Source Codes EP [JTREP02] (Jahtari's 'digital laptop reggae' continues to rock greatly.)

AtariHQ: Michael Rideout interviewed on winning the Swordquest chalice (Insanely old, but buried Atari 2600 treasure? What's not to like? Via /. Games.)

Technology Review on Weblogs Inc. (Weblogs are my favorite way to consume information.)

Comics Report recommends Slave Labor Graphics books to buy in its summer sale (Some excellent picks.)

Mojave Airport Weblog: 'X-37 First Flight!' (The Boeing/NASA/DARPA X-37 ALTV [Approach and Landing Test Vehicle] flight - amazing pictures.)

RPGFan: Sega announcec RF Online MMO for Japan (Intriguing - more Korean to Japanese MMO transplants, more intermingling.)

Gamasutra: 'Interview: Blake Lewin on Launching GameTap' (Despite my GameTap mania, Alex Handy actually pitched _me_ on this interview, honest!)

Wooster Collective: Stuart Wood and Florian Ortkrass's Pixel Roller ('Temporary video images are created as the Pixel Roller "rolls pixels" over different surfaces.')

3D Realms posts Stargunner as freeware (Not super well-known, but heck, it's free.)

1UP: 'High Scores' (I'm still lovin' the resurrected Dave Smith's 1UP features.)

iPodlounge looks at the Nyko Movie Player (Purdy, purdy, purdy.)

Street Warriors CCG official website (Including classy cards like 'Pimps Up Ho's Down' - via OgreCave.)

IC: 'Phantasy Star Online homebrew quest' (PSO was ruined by hackers on DC - now, maybe they're rehabilitating it?)

Eurogamer: 'Arcade Legends - Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Mega-Lo-Mania' review (For those UK game geeks among us, this is somewhat delightful.)

eBay: 'Supreme Modded Neo Geo Play NGH MVS JAMMA N Supergun' (Please commence teh fapping - Neo Geo/Supergun hybrid? Ohmy.)

'Touching Is Good' Nintendo competition winners ('We've shipped out thousands of mannequin hands.' )

GotFrag: 'Karpov's CAL Invite Playoff Predictions' (Virtual sports commentary is similarly complex/impenetrable compared to 'real' sports commentary, nowadays.)

Telecoms Korea: 'Samsung Brings BIOHAZARD to Mobile Phone' (A 60MB mobile Resident Evil? TV out? Wow.)

Eurogamer previews the Japanese 'Nintendogs' (Nice overview of gameplay, ahead of the U.S. release.)

222b on Iowa-based 'gem sweater-loving female rapper' Leslie Hall (I still adore MC Paul Barman, along these lines - try the [NSFW, reprehensible!] 'Cock Mobster'.)

Specimen Products: Pac-Man Guitar (Melody consumption a specialty - via GeekOnStun.)

Eclectech: 'The Very Model Of A Modern Labour Minister' (B3ta-style Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche about UK identity cards with piano-playing Elton John-style kittens. Sorry. Via Yoz.)

DIGRA 2005 academic papers (A plethora of excellence here, for example a paper on amateur Japanese RPG makers.)

The Onion 2056: 'Final Installment Of Frogger Trilogy Poised To Sweep Oscars' ('Acclaimed robotic reviewer SiskelEbertron!' Semi-via Waxy.)

Crucial Classics: Bubble Bobble ('If Bub and Bob have taught us anything, it's that it really is good to play together.')

State: Video game haikus (Of course they're Deus Ex-obsessed. Of course! Via Gillen.)

VWVortex: Photo tour of the VW Phaeton factory in Germany (It's all futuristic, and suchlike - via Sheffie.)

Tactical Iraqi: Iraqi Arabic made easy (Using the Unreal Engine - 'ideal for military and civilian personnel who must rapidly train to accomplish missions' - v.interesting.)

GamesAreFun: Semi-canonical list of current U.S. UMD movies ('Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy'? Dope!)

Dark Horse: Free online 'War Of The Worlds' graphic novel (No one would have believed... via BoingBoing.)

Mercer: '2005 worldwide cost of living survey results released' (It's great fun to check Google News and see the global gamut of stories referencing local cities.)

The Long Tail: Massively parallel culture (The Goatse Wikipedia entry is largely authored by the GNAA, of course.)

QT3: 'Geryk Pre-Analysis: Down in Flames' (Some powerful WWII former-board-game geekery at work here.)

Greg Costikyan: 'Toward the "True Mobile Game"' (Somewhat allied to his semi-recent Gamasutra soapbox, which was also excellent.)

Grimwell reviews the reviews the Station Access subscription plan (Though not including The Matrix Online, which is just being added - via /. Games.)

Google Sightseeing goes on volcano-spotting tour (Lots of entries, so I'll just link the site itself. Volcanoes are ~~cool~~ hot.)

IC: 'Rumor: Sega System 16 Collection coming?' (After the 3D Ages semi-horror, a bunch of System 16 games would make everyone euphoric, no?)

GamesAreFun: 'Pump It Up: In the Groove 2 Announced' (So Roxor get sued by Konami, shack up with DDR's enemy in the arcades, but In The Groove and Pump It Up are rivals in the home - confused yet?)

GameTunnel: May 2005 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up (Lots of indie titles, quality panel reviews, much kudos.)

Monotonik: Aereal - Moved Moment EP [mtk148] (Latest on my net.label, languid, melodic UK idm goodness.)

MTV.com: 'Student Video-Game Demos Dabble In Voodoo Torture, Tasers' (Stephen Totilo is doing some excellent game-related stories for MTV.com.)

Pittsburgh Live: Hurley's winning lottery numbers on 'Lost' re-used by real lottery entrants (Scroll down for info - used 394 times in Pennsylvania alone after the show featuring them aired. Via TV Squad.)

BreakManX: High-res versions of the GameTap E3 assets CD (UPDATE: oop, here's the Blake Lewin audio interview on the same site - thanks Waxy!)

UK Guardian: 'Coming to a hard disk near you' (A nice mention of Legaltorrents in here, also referenced in the UK Telegraph last week, yay.)

Yahoo Photos: snes_legend's recently DigitPress-collected insanely rare SNES games (Stuff like Final Fight Guy [Blockbuster exclusive], Chavez II [super-obscure boxing], etc - thousands of dollars of geekery.)

Showcase Entertainment: Synopsis/trailer for 'Game Box 1.0' ('Expert video game tester' trapped in world of low-budget special effects - via 222b.)

Dreams: Production art sketches from Gilliam's forthcoming The Brothers Grimm (...for which the trailer is now up, looking oddly mainstream, weirdly enticing.)

Music Thing: 1983 demo tape for Serge Modular synth (I think Music Thing is one of my favorite blogs nowadays.)

Clickable Culture: 'WarCraft's Big Dirty Secret' (Interprets in-game barrel size to suggest World Of WarCraft's world originally inhabited by ogres and sea giants, current players are persecuting the natives.)

Daily Llama: Pre-Monty Python UK TV rarities coming to DVD (That's At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust Your Set - very rare, rather cool.)

Myspace: Xoc releases incredible 'SMW' Super Mario World covers album (Wow - this is the 'Pet Sounds' of Mario covers, featuring instruments from a bike horn to a coconut thumb piano - Xoc's other interpretations are almost as good, esp. Sonic's Green Hill Zone.)

Rollo's blog: 'The Six Wives Of Rollo 1st' (Hey, if I don't promote our dachshund's weblog, who will? Dave Weiner?)

Kenta Cho's newest PC shooter, 'Gunroar' ('360-degree gunboat shooter', and c'mon, it's by Kenta Cho!)

MSNBC: 'The Situation With Tucker Carlson' on violence in video games (I presumed I would hate this transcript, but it's oddly semi-sensible.)

Autoblog on the 'What Can You Hemi?' contest winners (Here's the official site - it's all very Tool Time.)

Pheedbakk - new net.label review weblog (Hey, actually some of these springing up, now.)

Video-C: Royksopp's 'Only This Moment' video (I heart Royksopp a great deal - via Linkbunnies.)

Zellestyle computer-parts jewelry catalog (Check out the the 'Gold Microprocessor Bling Necklace'.)

Largeprimenumbers: Tim Rogers reviews Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song (Sure, it's overlong, but I enjoyed this.)

Archive.org: Melissa Welch - sleep-wake [Cam076] (Keep forgetting to recommend this, but - it's amazing female-whispered Khonnor-esque stuff from a 16-year-old.)

Blogspot: Animal Crossing Daily (Likely by the UK Resistance guys, and so messed up, it astounds.)

Universal Press Syndicate: Calvin & Hobbes: The Return ('A special four-month engagement' of old strips to publicize the new book - via The Comics Reporter.)

Mojave Airport Weblog on the first attempted flight of NASA's X-37 (Hanging out underneath White Knight like a super-sleek papoose.)

Huffington Post: Harry Shearer on 'what is a journalist?' ('"That seat," huffed Miss NPR--who often filed her radio reports off the wire-service report--"is for real journalists."' Via Romanesko.)

eToychest: Total Annihilation Creator Rides Again (Supreme Commander looks somewhat TA-ish, indeed.)

Skotos: 'Populating Ghostville: Getting and Keeping Players' ('Some of the people who came in from goth clubs didn’t add a lot to the game. They became more embroiled in out of character politics and trying to get laid.')

SensAble Haptic Gallery: University Of Glasgow's Haptic Cow (The student 'palpates the virtual reproductive tract', hilarity ensues.)

CNN Money: 'The sad, slow fall of Atari' (Only it's a shiny-bonced Frenchman in retro-themed dress, but still on the money.)

LJ: Bneely invents 'GoogleGhosting' (Wassat? Remove all entries to yourself from Usenet/Google Groups in the fewest possible keywords - here's my GoogleGhost URL - what's yours?)

Motor Trend: The Art Behind “The Art Of The H3ist” (Eek, ook, ARG.)

Jump Button Magazine - Australian 'games culture' magazine (Not much info online, but am hoping to get a copy - could be interesting.)

MTV.com: 'First-Person Shooters? OK; First-Person Gamer Mag? Hmm...' (Gamer's Quarter, Insert Credit, NGJ gets yet more press.)

1UP: 'Tomb Raider: Tarnished Legend' ('Can Lara Croft win back the hearts of disenchanted gamers?' Maybe.)

Gameslag - new gaming blog (Some interesting links indicate possible goodness.)

Insert Credit: Info on Japanese Counter-Strike Neo arcade machines (The ten-person Japanese arcade version looks rather snazzy.)

Noosfere.com: absolutely gorgeous U.S. pulp magazine covers collection (Including Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, many more - via WWMnA.)

Liudger: Poster and screencrap from new Pixar short 'One Man Band' (Wonder if this will be on the front of Cars? Via Cartoon Brew - oh, and Luxo notes that Ben Burtt joined Pixar recently - neat.)

Gamasutra: 'A Man For All Seasons: gameLab’s Eric Zimmerman Talks Design, Trends, and the Big Apple' (Zimmerman is an interesting guy.)

1UP: 'What's In A Name?' ('Some of the stories behind the names you see on your games.' Another good Dave Smith feature for 1UP.)

MobileGD: 'Snake Creator Receives Special Recognition From Mobile Entertainment Forum' (Snake! Snaaaaaaake!)

Digitaltaco: Ryan O'Donnell, Jane 'Gamegirladvance' Pinckard hop aboard 1UP (For videography, reporting respectively - sorry, random Bay Area game journo gossip.)

EQ2 IGN: Curt Schilling hanging out with his EverQuest II clan (Recent pic from the SOE Fan Faire in Vegas - yep, that Curt Schilling. Via GAF.)

Rossignol on EVE Online's addictive MMO appeal ('The game is organic. It is a mass-relationship, like those of economics or fashion.' )

GamePolitics.com: Where politics and videogames collide (Fear the red X drawn crudely across the Xbox 360.)

Ural 13 Diktators - 'Name Of The Game' 8-bit music video (Perhaps old, but pixel-perfect goodness - via A Blog For You.)

Gamasutra: 'The Video Game Translator Wishlist' (Dayjob - some interesting comments from the game translator's point of view.)

1UP Crucial Classics: Elite ('Massively innovative for its time', indeed.)

Gamer's Quarter Issue #2 PDF released (A little more alt.games.journalism to sneer, spit at, maybe enjoy.)

Archive.org: Psilodump - You Sick Little Monkey [XD-NETS-002] (Very playful, extremely rocking CC-licensed chiptune-electronica.)

Onion A.V. Club interviews Ren/Stimpy/Fry voice actor Billy West ('Cameron Diaz is the highest paid voice actress in history: $20 million for Shrek. Why? Because she has a 9-foot mouth?')

iComics reviews English-language Shojo Beat magazine (Interesting that girl-focused manga seems to be breaking through so strongly in America - via JeanSnow.)

Yahoo/Adweek: P:19 'faith-based marketing group' launched ('In the past year, the average number of worshippers per megachurch has grown 4 percent to 3,646.' Megachuuuuurch!)

Reality Blurred: Morgan Spurlock's '30 Days' series debuts tonight in U.S. (Sounds pretty interesting.)

O'Reilly's Make Magazine explains PSP homebrew on 1.5 properly (Thank you, Phillip/Make! Via Waxy)

Draco interviews Monotonik artist Planet Boelex (Yay! Also points to Phonq's netlabel review weblog, which I'd forgotten.)

Onion A.V. Club on the best video game-related songs (Wot no Proto Culture?)

Chris Kohler grills Shigeru Miyamoto @ Wired News (Hurrah for non-softball questions.)

Press The Buttons: Mario, Zelda TV series coming to DVD (Avast, hopeless nostalgics! Via SlashGames.)

GameCube Advanced's claimed tidbit about N-Space ('The (control scheme) has been handed to us by NCL - this is how they want it to feel. It is not a traditional FPS control set-up, it is a FPA (first-person action).' Interesting if true.)

Nintendojo reviews Tetris 3D for the Virtual Boy (New review, a game I'd forgotten about - here's some more pictures. Mmm, migraine!)

FiringSquad on E3's RPGs (Particularly interesting/buried - the BioWare engine-licensing The Witcher.)

Eurogamer's first impressions of Mario Kart DS ('Its new tricks are largely subtle or technical.' We can all deal.)

Digital Chosunilbo: 'Infant Daughter Dies as Parents Play Online Game' (Specifically World Of WarCraft - imminent backlash alert?)

DIY Games: Independent Adventuring - May 2005 (Eye Of The Kraken, AGS Pong... this column is still absolutely invaluable.)

MTV.com: 'For Some Gamers, Merely Finishing A Game Isn't Enough' (Nice to see the Speed Demos Archive guys getting kudos.)

Romanesko: US Weekly bans photos taken through 'reckless means' (Just don't crash into your subject, and you'll be alright, k?)

Gamasutra: 'GDCTV: Lessons from Viewtiful Joe: Making a Creatively and Financially Successful New Game' (Streaming video [free reg. req.] of Viewtiful and Okami creator from GDC this year - tres interessant.)

Yahoo!: Exclusive 'Mirrormask' teaser trailer (Via Neil Gaiman, who should probably know.)

Joi Ito: Some Japanese Internet stats ('72.5% of people have heard of blogs, up from 39% last year.')

UK Telegraph: 'Why shaking the family tree can be bad for your health' ('Genealogists want psychotherapy to be made available for people who stumble across unpleasant discoveries while researching their family history.' Via Improb Res.)

Eurogamer: Kieron Gillen reviews 'Alien Hominid' (I agree with his reservations more than I realized, though I still love the game.)

Yahoo!/AP: Michael Palin's 'Himalaya' starts June 20th in U.S. (All of Palin's travels are eminently watchable in a jolly English fashion.)

1UP: 'Tough Customer' ('We play dumb with store clerks to see who helps us shop smart.' Kinda fun-ish.)

OS X dashboard widget for Internet Archive classic movies (Taking advantage of the great PD movie collection the Archive has digitized - just added, The Wasp Women.)

Dark Horizons: Uwe Boll signed to direct movie based on 'Postal' game ([UPDATE: likely not true.] Yes, that Postal, yes, that Uwe Boll. Run, hide, now.)

Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip tackles 'immersive gaming' (Still loving the strip, this one particularly pertinent - via The Inbetween.)

Lost Garden: 'Nintendogs: The case of the non-game that barked like a game' (A good piece, already much-cited.)

'Beggar Prince' - newly translated Taiwanese Genesis RPG ('Beggar Prince will be the first American cartridge release of a Genesis game in many years' - with the original developer's approval, if not Sega.)

PuppyGames: Ultratron indie shooter (Ooo, full-on Robotron psychedelia clone-age - via TIGSource.)

Yahoo! Music Engine co-creator Ian Rogers on 'the Mojo Filter' test. (50% was good enough to get me to sign up for the year - we'll see how I dig it over time.)

LJ GBmusic: 'We're The Operators' all-star 8-bit Kraftwerk remix album announced (Wow, some serious bleep power there.)

Private Eye: Pseuds, Issue 1134 (Including an absolutely corking Keats/Xbox 360 comparison.)

Scenespot: Halcyon demo-scene DVD (The classic PC demo-group does a special MindCandy-style DVD of all their productions, for free.)

Newspaperindex: The world's 100 biggest newspapers by circulation (Wow, look at the Asahi Shimbun go - via Metafilter.)

Modsoulbrother: Classic Vim! .MODs added (Side project, have _finally_ added a Vim! page for the great UK chipmusician - grab 0ldsk00l .MOD plug-in for WinAmp to listen properly.)

TIGSource on the One-Key Game Competition (Their recommended game, SkyPuppy, does indeed look v.cool.)

Brain-Damage: 'Dark Side Of The Moon' coming out for PSP (With this and the Pink Floyd reunion, pigs are flying.)

GameSpot: Sega launches new Japanese community site (24 hour rentals? Strange. Monthly is going to be better.)

DIY Games: Global Defense Network review (One of last year's IGF finalists - an odd but intriguing cove, to be sure.)

G4 ad spoof: World Of WarCraft birth control efficacy (Very silly stuff - via QT3.)

Etoychest: New 'Sigma Star Saga' GBA trailer (A shmup/RPG hybrid from Wayforward, the official site is live, too, loved this at E3.)

The Comics Reporter on Jim Ottaviani's small publisher GT Labs (The new Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards looks like excellent alt.comicry.)

eBay: 'LARGE MARS METEORITE' ('I had a vision which I believe was from God that identified the rock not only as a meteorite but as being from the planet Mars.' Good provenance, then.)

Wonderland on '7 Sins' game (Here's another review and an interview, seems pretty misguided - oh, and the game sponsors Shagster.net, for added classiness.)

Gorillaz limited-edition Kidrobot figures - release party pics (Dammit, already partly sold out (only 2000 of each) and commanding an eBay premium.)

Folkstreams.net: The Best Of American Folklore Films (Streaming only, but great material from 'American folk, traditional, regional and vernacular culture.')

LegalTorrents: 'Welcome To The Scene, Episodes 1 to 9' (510mb .torrent) (See the Legaltorrents index and the Welcome To The Scene website for info on this pirate release group-riffing P2P-distributed TV series.)

Zun: Playable PC demo of 'Phantasmagoria Of Flower View' (Here's English-language info from the original announcement - check Shrinemaiden.com and a report on a Touhou fanfest to see just how crazy popular this amateur-made PC shooter series now is in .JP.)

IC: Forrester for MegaZeux (I love these super-obscure micro-gaming scenes.)

GamePal: Rental service for MMO characters (EULA alarm sounding! Hooonk! Hooonk!)

BBC: ' Dalek 'kidnappers' demand Doctor' ('Former Dr Who actor Colin Baker has been in touch with staff at the attraction, and may be asked to send a message to the kidnappers.' Via Clickable Culture.)

42 Games - a collection of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy mini-games (.SWF) (V.fun Wario Ware Inc. rip-off, in conjunction with the Science Museum HHGTTG exhibition - via Linkbunnies, also this linklog's 2000th post!)

Archive.org: Goto80 - Bravo [CANDY007] (Wow, insanely catchy C64 chiptune goodness, with a Hally NES remix to cap things off.)

Muppet Central: Full details on 'The Muppet Show' Season 1 DVD (All this, and the cover is furry, too.)

Music Thing: 'The amazing (and expensive) Array M'bira' ('Up to 150 individually made and tuned carbon steel tines.')

Pitchfork Media reviews Deluxe Edition of DJ Shadow's 'Endtroducing' (Mm, with the extra CD, somewhat of a must-buy.)

Gamasutra: 'Indie Postmortem: Mind Control Software's Oasis' (Dayjob, no reg. req., an indie postmortem for a very cool casual title.)

NEC's info-page for the ceramic gyro used in Wario Ware Twisted (The official Wario Ware Twisted site has some fun Flash mini-games - via GAF.)

GTA San Andreas: 'San Andreas Uncensored' (NSFW, but was this _really_ removed from the original? )

IC: Next Ape Escape to feature Metal Gear Solid mini-game (Returning the favor, underlining the oddness.)

Yahoo!/Reuters: China online game clean-up to run to September (Apparently, they dig Sexy Beach (which is _VERY_ non-work-safe if you look properly) in China.)

NCSX: Radio-controlled Mario (Also see the Mario and Goomba mice - I heart you, NCSX.)

Gamasutra: 'Question of the Week Responses: Video Game Patents' (Dayjob - nice to see the average game developer stick his oar in.)

Wil Wheaton discusses the SAG video game voice actor settlement ('Developers: We're on the same side, guys.')

Scott McCloud: 'Why Tycho Owes You an Apology' (Making yourself look as handsome as you like is allowed, if you draw the comic strip, Scott - via CR Briefings.)

CBS News: 'New Advertising Frontier: Games' (Terrible article, from dumb mockups through claims that Anarchy Online ads 'enhanced [users'] playing experience' [not completely obvious], through very random IGN-bashing - via Clickable Culture.)

IGF: 2006 Independent Games Festival to be announced next week (Just wanted to point this out, as I'm co-chairman - look for some exciting changes.)

World Of Stuart on Lion's Sport Mixture becoming Maynard's Sport Mixture (With new blackcurrant cricket bat flavor! All very Snackspot. )

Mojaveairport.com's 'bootleg' RSS feed (2 and a half Euros from Bootleg RSS Feedpalooza, and hey presto - everyone should add this feed now, I claim.)

Game Science on 'Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan' DS rhythm game (Nintendo-published, J-Pop royalty - probably never coming to the States, dammit. And where's Band Brothers for the West, anyhow?)

Terra Nova rounds up AIIDE citations (Is AI important to most games? Weirdly debatable.)

GAF: 'Nintendo's "Hot Summer" Japanese contest - Five new DSes' (Mmm, wireframe Wario.)

PR: Infinium shows Phantom on G4 (Loch Ness monster surfaces! See also Kevin Bachus interview on TwistedMonkey.)

GIN: Video Games Live tour scheduled ('A classic arcade game medley featuring games from Pong to Donkey Kong.' Wait... Pong? Catchy! )

Dr. Sarah J. Greenwald talks to David X Cohen about math and Futurama (The creator of the Futurama math page and Simpsons math page chats to the Futurama co-creator, after lecturing to the Futurama math club - via GotFuturama.)

Wonderland spots 'Jaguar's Urban Golf' advergame (Gritty to a tee.)

InsideMacGames talks to Mac game developers about Intel switch (It's the end of the world as they know it?)

Capcom debates Grand Theft Auto ban in Japanese prefecture (Here's the Gamasutra piece with more info - nowhere is safe from the GTA horror.)

ComixPress: Hell's Corners paper-magazine (From Gama contributor Erin Mehlos, you can now get a paper version of her online comic, neeto.)

Impress Watch: New 'We Love Katamari' trailer (Also mentions that Dokaka will guest-star on the soundtrack.)

Mojave Airport Weblog on 'The Phantom Line' (Still love the [newly relocated] Mojave Airport Blog - will hopefully be acquiring it an RSS feed via Carlo's RSS Feedpalooza very soon.)

Rakuten: 'We Love Katamari' Japanese box-art (Those guys! The game is all about the King/Prince taking fan requests, hence... this. Via Jonnyram.)

Loonyblog identifies vital 'Postal 2' game patch info ('This patch fixes the bug introduced in the Apocalypse expansion where players were unable to urinate in-game.' Whiz away!)

E&P: S.F. Chronicle Could Lose 10% of Guild Jobs Under New Contract ('Of the 900 guild members employed by the paper, 460 are editorial staffers.' 460?! Via Romanesko.)

Archive.org: zucchini - after the twilight [bump003] (Some really, really beautiful CC-licensed Japanese ambient techno.)

Bradsucks: Justin 'WinAmp' Frankel launches Ninjam ('Allows two or more people to jam through the net with real audio.' V.neat.)

IC: Various handheld gaming tidbits (Hey, this amateur DS board game looks good enough to go pro.)

GameSpy: Christian Bale, Sir Michael Caine discuss Batman Begins game voice acting ('It was like doing ADR, only it was lines I hadn't said before.')

Gamerdad: Unplugged #25: Word Games (Ooo, Boggle alternatives!)

NYT: 'Redefining the Power of the Gamer' (Good piece on the AIIDE game AI conference.)

1UP Blog: 'Stricken from the Record' (Atlus voice producer Tomm Hulett talks about the game voice actor strike - via Nich.)

PR: Slashdot launches Slashdot DayPass ('An exclusive reader opt-in program which gives registered users access to breaking Slashdot stories up to thirty minutes before anyone else. Marketers have full exclusivity for their rich media interstitial ads.')

LJ: Astridv's fan-created 'Smile Time' comic from Angel (Wow, I'd so buy a graphic novel of this.)

NCSX: Taiko No Tatsujin hat (There's no escaping the novelty headwear - via Toastyfrog.)

Music Thing: Peter Jackson's $100,000 robot band (I wish I was rich.)

TIGSource: Zuma's Family Tree ('Conclusion: Zuma's a real slut.')

Obscure Store: 'Spelling Bee contestant does a Napoleon Dynamite impression' (Thereby mystifying the entire audience - via Waxy.)

Gamasutra: Gizmondo Acquires Model Agency, Defends Lawsuits (Dayjob, I would love to write a book on Gizmondo, if I had the time.)

IGN: Tetris announced for Xbox 360 (Thank the Lord. Seriously, it's via Arika, whose arcade versions have been pretty cool.)

SSRN: Betsy Book's 'Virtual World Business Brands' paper ('Virtual world business brands originally developed for their creators' own entertainment have unexpectedly turned into profitable enterprises.')

Pitchfork: John Cage's Xbox (Why video game soundtracks are the new rock and roll.)

Gatech: Living Game Worlds conference streaming video (Will Wright, Bing Gordon keynotes available for viewing.)

Defamer: 'Halo - The Studio Stunt' (Master Chief and friends shopping Alex Garland-authored script in 'style'.)

GameFaction: Nevrax announces Saga Of Ryzom expansion (...with player-created worlds, no less - explains why Jessica Mulligan cares.)

Archive.org: Neo Geo Shooting Special (80 minutes of Kiken-authored video reviewing all the Neo Geo shmups - good stuff.)

1UP/EGM: 'Head To Head' (Jack Thompson, Henry Jenkins, fight!)

E-flick.net: All Nippon Airways (ANA) stewardess uniform action figures (Very cute, only in Japan - here's the official site - via Rid.)

MMCafe: O~3 Entertainment interview (Chaos Field GC (yay!), a Nintendogs clone for GBA/DS, Resonance for unspecified systems - interesting info.)

Gamerz-Edge: Screenshots from the GameTap E3 presskit (More specific screenshots show how much effort is going into this - I'm hoping to get on the Beta.)

Video Game Ombudsman reviews E3-distributed game mags (..and gives Game Developer an A, aww - a little shaky on who Takahashi and Eddy really are, though.)

Yahoo!/AP: MTV Movie Awards winners (Best video game based on movie: "Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" - hurrah for Vin's shiny noggin!)

Wonderland: Second Life adding embedded Mozilla browsing/interfacing (I wonder at SL's long-term 'mainstream' potential, but love what they're doing.)

Studio Trophis: 'The White Chamber' free indie adventure game (May have linked this up before, but it's CC-licensed and BitTorrent-ed, which is very cool.)

Kikizo Games posts its gigantic E3 video blow-out (Man alive, that's a good amount of stuff - all downloadable for free, too.)

QT3: TomChick on the newly-released 'Prey' demo movie ('Is the whole 'Indian in the future' motif really robust enough for more than one IP?')

Yahoo!/AP: Penn Jillette Names Daughter Moxie CrimeFighter (Well, at least it wasn't Sephiroth.)

Gamasutra: Rockstar CEO Defends Grand Theft Auto Series (Interesting to see the Rockstar guys speaking out - also, Computer Games magazine rocks, of recent - great, mature writing.)

LegalTorrents: Kikapu net.label MP3 Archives Vol.2 (.torrent) (1GB of ID3-fixed, CC-licensed MP3 goodness from one of my favorite electronica netlabels.)

Make Magazine Vol.2: Home Entertainment (Specifically because an excerpt from Gaming Hacks appeared in it, and I only just found out, heh.)

IC: Gunstar Heroes speed run (The Speed Demos Archive continues to upload some great (non-emulated!) runs.)

Coin-op.tv - interviews with classic arcade designers, players (Even Usenet pinball oldskooler and 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' contestant Bowen Kerins.)

Twin Galaxies: 'Eighty-Year-Old Doris Self Seeks "Oldest Champion" Title' (Wonder if she'll do it this weekend!)

Edge-Online: 'The T List' (Guess the T-shirt high score denizens, and win, uhh, the T-shirt.)

Games.net: 'Interesting' anti-DS editorial (Piling on the hate - 'Nintendogs?! Are you kidding me?' Also see this similarly polarizing Games.net editorial, starting 'Irony, thy name is the interactive entertainment industry.')

Variety's Asian movie weblog, Kaiju Shakedown (I keep hearing good things about Tartan Films' U.S. Asian movie DVD output.)

Game Informer interviews Keiji Inafune about 'Dead Rising' for Xbox 360 (Rumor has it that this is going to rock, schlock zombie-movie style.)

Firingsquad on Xbox 360 and PS3 at E3 ('When the PlayStation 3 launches, the press will obligingly disparage the PS3's starting lineup and say how you should own both systems. Some will even print quotes from careless developers who say how difficult Cell is to work with.')

Meetro: Proximity-based IM client (From old demo-scene friends - looks like it has Trillian-like functionality too - neat.)

Fantagraphics blog: Chris Ware-designed cover for 'Krazy & Ignatz 1935-1936' strip compilation (Man, that's great-looking.)

LJ: Eric-Jon Waugh discusses his concepts for a Lord Of The Rings game ('Within the context of the game, the player of course has no idea what's happening.')

Reality Blurred: Fear Factor Live opens to public ('Six audience members get to drink a horrifying smoothie, while another has scorpions placed on their head.')

Coudal's 'Film-strip poker' competition using a Prelinger movie (More precisely, this movie - PD is a great thing! Via Waxy.)

Times Online: 'Armed police take Potter to safety' (The Sun journalist: "I looked down the barrel of a gun - and thought I was about to die for the sake of Harry Potter.")

Gamasutra: 'One Button Games' feature (No reg. req., for once, dayjob! Fun article by Berbank Green on rudimentary single-button game mechanics, with neat playable Flash to back it up.)

Video Game Ombudsman 'reviews' the journalists' booths at E3 (I think the stand with the most pretzels should win.)

IDG invests in VinaGame Vietnamese MMO firm (Here's their website - an interesting move. Via PaidContent.)

NYT: New Yorker to offer all 80 years on 8 DVD-ROMs (God, I love information - this is a must-buy. Via Kottke.)

Yahoo/Reuters: 'Studios speed up DVD release dates amid slowdown' (Is that the sweet sound of convergence? Probably not.)

Law.com: Mike Wilson suing over 'Masters Of Doom' fraud allegations. (Apparently, Gama has an archival interview with him - Wilson is 'trying to raise money for a new video game publishing company, Gamecock Media Group'. Wow.)

Education Guardian: 'Playtime in the classroom' (On Animal Crossing and long-term debt management!)

GamesAreFun: Capcom's 'Killer 7' gets 36/40 in Famitsu (A new cult classic in the making in the West? Unless it could be.. a hit?)

Moogle.net reviews U.S.-translated manga worth reading (Actually makes me want to care about the market segment.)

NCSX: Famicom cushion now available (Sweet 'Duck Hunt'-filled dreams for all.)

Blue's News: John Carmack comments on game software patents ('Its basically mugging someone' - indeed, Carmack has been mugged himself.)

Idiot Toys: BBC weather map now Scotland-friendly (It's all a matter of perspective.)

Rummage: 'In Space, No-One Can Hear You... Over The Din' ('Sounds from space' are, like, cosmic.)

Gamasutra: Job ad for HR manager at Junction Point Studios (Warren Spector's new company is 'currently developing games in the action combat, large creature, FRPG genre.')

Guardian: Ten interesting ideas in video game construction (Some good editorials on Gamesblog, recently.)

LJ: Jamie Hewlett's promotional comic for Pulp's 'Common People' (Wow, absolutely awesome, even if the new [Hewlett-related] Gorillaz album does miss Dan The Automator badly - via Negatendo.)

BBS Documentary now shipping (Don't miss this - a vital audiovisual document.)

Neomarxisme on Japanese 'deai-kei' websites (Perhaps we could do the same thing here, only with Will Wright.)

Oddjack: new Gawker Media blog about gambling (Denton again at right place, right time - I dig.)

Gamasutra: 'Game Developer Magazine Digital Edition Launches' (There's even a free sample version of the April 2005 issue for the curious.)

PC World's 100 Best Products of 2005 (Yay, the Internet Archive made it at #87 on this somewhat arbitrary chart.)

Richard Cobbett on 'VoIP Emergency' (A little fun at the expense of Niklas Zennström.)

Hollywood Reporter quizzes ex-Naughty Dog honcho Jason Rubin (His new company, Morgan Rose, has a website.)

PSPDrive: easy content download site for PSP (I would be all over this, if I could find my bloody USB cable.)

GBgames: Software Patents? No Thanks! (A good, heartfelt response to this Gamasutra piece, which has already caused much debate.)

Myspace page for Hunz with new song 'Tiny Pixels' (The former Five Musicians .MOD group member and Christian rock frontman (!) is making new music, yay.)

Gamasutra: 'D3Publisher Announces Appointments, Plans' (Interesting to see the big Japanese budget publisher heading over here - parent company Fields does Onimusha 3 slot machines and has a hilarious recruitment diagram, too.)

GameTunnel: Wik & Fable Of Souls to be Xbox 360 Live Arcade launch title (Great news for indie games - wonder what the price point will be?)

Edge speaks to Yoshiki Okamoto about Genji (Also posted - a neat profile of Hellgate: London, one of my favorite E3 games.)

SpikeTV to broadcast E3 Game Critics Award results (More high-profile gaming events.)

Trump University merchandise site (Darn, a Trump University baseball cap just oozes chutzpah.)

Videocrab: 2005 E3travaganza (Good taste plus nerdy E3 photoblogging eez good.)

Smalltownpapers.com: Scans of small town newspapers (A rather fun slice of local life - for free, too.)

NYT: 'At This Restaurant, the Video Games Come With the Meal' ('The servers will be... powerful central computers that will record food orders and display video games that customers can play while they eat.' Oh, Nolan!)

GamesAreFun: Orbital Media confirms multiple DS/GBA titles (I respect Orbital's tenacity - the DS titles could break through.)

Telegraph: Latest 'Dr. Who' sold to South Korea ('Pagishikinda! Pagishikinda! This is the blood-curdling cry of the world's first Korean-speaking Dalek.')

Eurogamer previews 'Buzz!: The Music Quiz' (Custom buzzer controllers! Sony Europe pioneering 'casual' PS2 gaming yet again - see Singstar, EyeToy, etc.)