How's this for a new Blogdex feature? The Social Network Explorer! Does a good job of catching who's linked to who, mutual-linkage and the like. And the recommended list seems cool though I'm not sure how it's generated. You'd think it would be based on who'd linked to the same content, but who knows?
I hope this get's on Blogdex, that would be self-referential-icious. :)
An Ice Cream for the rest of us. I didn't know this existed, (sorry if its old news to you), my favorite Ice Cream makers do a special edition in honour of one of my favorite sitcom episodes! Frank Costanza would most definately not approve.
I like this, a Xmas tree as interactive webserver. Click on the pics and the tree plays festive music to whoever's in the WPI computer lab.
Oxblood Ruffin "Foreign Minister" of cDc has written a piece for the Register entitled, "Microsoft, terrorism, and computer security". In it he argues that Microsoft's "security through obscurity" policy is grossly irresponsible in the light of September 11th and that, in the world we find ourselves living today, Microsoft can no longer afford to put it's marketing goals ahead of real concerns about the security of it's products.
This week has brought us a couple of moveable retro-gaming feasts to whet your appetite.
After the success of the PSp and VCSp, the DIY portable console guy now brings us SNESp. A portable SNES masterpiece complete with comedy photo-story walkthrough.
To top that we have not one but two GBA spectrum emulators! The Foon site doesn't give much away, but the screenshots on the Zxadvance one look amazing. Just grab a few .Z80s off World of Spectrum and give them a whirl.
By staring at this perplexingly puzzle-icious flash game over at input-entertainment.de. Use a variety of differently shaped mirrors and lenses to direct a laserbeam around a maze lighting up bulbs as it goes. Several of the levels took me a good half hour to figure out, but I'm up to level 18 so far. Beat that if you can!
MIT's Technology Review has an interesting feature by Claire Tristram on how our current notions of computer interface are in need of a re-think. [ It really is a lot more interesting than I just made it sound ]. via onlineblog
This article has to be read it's so funny. Read the original piece and then move onto the posts below, witness as war breaks out between those who understand the meaning of the word "satire" and those who don't. I found myself laughing out loud as people start taking the piss out of the h4x0rs and concerned parents who, even then, couldn't see the error of their ways.
Space-Invaders are back and this time they're out for a global graphical take-over.
Looks like those flat panel iMacs might finally be on their way. Kind of casts a shadow over the recent G5 rumours though, unless Apple are planning a realignment of the entire desktop range?
If you're as sick of the "How xxxxxx Are You" quiz meme as I am already, you might like to try this humorous twist on the theme, "Which Online Personality Test Am I". If however you find these things more than mildly amusing you might like to try the "Am I As Interesting As My Weblog" quiz.
Forget Linux on PS2 and DC, Adrian O'Grady is trying to program a webserver for Gameboy Advance.
The Register has a good round up of all the rumours surounding Apple's G5 machines and next month's San Fransisco Macworld Expo.
Amstrad's new range of mobile phones are reported to have in built ZX Spectrum emulation.
Everyone must surely be fed up of those Alice Deejay ringtones by now. Well, lucky people living in Japan now have the Metal Gear Solid 2 ringtones to choose from. You can download the Codec ring, the Discovery sound and another one. Game spoilers not included.
sob $180 sniffle, a Gamecube on the way and all my Christmas shopping still left to do.
Bochs the open source PC emulator has been updated to version 1.3.pre1. This new version can now be compiled for OS X, and emulates 386, 486 and Pentium CPUs.
Tim Hunkin's Rudiments of Wisdom contains a wealth of practical knowledge on every subject under the sun, served in the form of cartoon "how-to" guides. For those who like to get their hands dirty, there's Hunkin's Experiments as well. [via haddock.org]
With the arrival of Gamecube, XBox etc. you may have been thinking of putting your humble DC back on the shelf (unless you're getting Shenmue II of course). Fear not though as Takeshi Yaegashi is hard at work on Linux for Dreamcast. Shame I don't have the broadband adapter for my DC or I could hook it up to my network hub and play with it from within OsX on my Mac.
Amidst all the world dominating Harry Potter hype Hollywood would do well to remember that Nintendo's Gamecube has outsold them by a ratio of aproximately 3:1 on release day. (NB: The IGN article goes off Harry Potter figures of $90 million from its opening weekend which averages out at $30 million per day)
NCSX are taking orders on extreme cute factor Super Monkey Ball beanies. Unfortunately they aren't out till after Christmas.
Members of Congress were reportedly not even given the chance to read the "USA Patriot" act before voting on it. "It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the vote
Asia Carrera has hand crafted her own set of Unreal Tournament skins for you to download, (allegedly). If I were her I'd have given myself a less masculine physique and a smaller arse, but there you go.
Lusting after one of Apple's lovely (but expensive) new iPods, made the mistake of buying into Bill's dream, MediaFour may have the solution with XPod.
Television's future aired on BBC1 in the UK tonight. The follow up to the BBC's groundbreaking CG fest Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Beasts had its first showing. What made this already fantasticly high production value show all the more remarkable was that it was the first BBC documentary to be fully interactive for Digital Satellite owners. Interactive viewers were treated to two different narration tracks to choose from. Constantly updating pop-up facts were accesible through your remote. As were two entirely seperate video tracks one showing a picture in picture "Making Of" the series, while the other showed more documentary evidence to back up the main points the show was making. I've watched the show 3 times now with a totally different experience each time.. Walking With Beasts is backed up by a suitably interactive Web Site at BBC.co.uk.
Microsoft began their campaign for gaming domination today with the launch of XBox in New York. Only time will tell if they will be able to survive in the cut throat world of video games. Going off the launch titles it looks like they are going to have some trouble, Halo and DOA3 looking like the only grade A titles. I suppose they'll pick up a good number of casual/first time gamers with their biggest is best advertising strategy, (I think the fact that they roped in "The Rock" at their launch event says a lot about their target market). Personally my money's down on a Nintendo Gamecube which is released in the US this weekend.
Apple have released a new 14mb update to OsX. The new release is available through the Software Update in System Preferences on OsX machines. Apple say the download adds improvements to USB and FireWire devices, including support for additional digital cameras, and overall improvements to CD and DVD Burning. It also includes updates to AFP, SMB and WebDAV networking, updates to the Finder and Mail applications, as well as improved support for printing.
This is the best thing I've seen in ages. Star Wars: A New Hope animated in ASCII. Just telnet to telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl to view this incredible ASCII animation. Newbie OsX Tip: just cut and paste the bold telnet command into an open Terminal window.
Alias / Wavefront are runing a quiz on their site to see if you can spot the difference between photographic and CG images. Its actually a bit more like can you spot the cheese smothered stock photo, but it's interesting non the less.. Damn, only 7 out of 10, and I work in photography and digital imaging :(
It snowed today, dunno why but I always feel warmer the colder it gets.
The Gameboy Camera Colour Photography project bears striking parallels with the first ever post on this site. The results are kind of impressive in their understated lo-fi-ness. Meanwhile Santa's getting his gnomes to wrap me up one of these.
There's something innately wrong with Topps new range of trading cards. With their Enduring Freedom Picture Cards "Topps has chosen to focus on America's strengths -its elected leaders, the security of its military, its worldwide support
PC heads among you may be interested in this bit of software from TGT Soft. StyleBuilder XP allows you to customize and modify XP's internal styles to your own likeing. Screenshots can be viewed here.. Still isn't Aqua though. For a more thorough re-styleing of XP have a look at Ernie XQ.
I hate Macromedia and their crappy flash plug-in, but sometimes you come across Flash content that you can't help but love. These two examples in my opinion are just what Flash work should be, small and to the point. Way of the Exploding Stick and IK Puppet v1.0.
How do you fancy your chances, against impending nuclear destruction? Better paint those windows white, and huddle under the table folks :)
This guy is making a full on replica Tron costume for Halloween 2001.
OsX.1, XFree86, Mac OS 7.6 and Windows XP, all running on an iBook at once.
The font of all knowledge, funny too!
From: "Here in Brasil we ask 4 french bread. I would like 2 know if in French they ask 4 french bread or just bread.?". To: "I was just wondering what "bozons" are. I heard they were some type of (subatomic?) particle or something, just wondering how they are different from, say, quarks or something..."
Gran Turismo 3 spawns a child... GT Concept 2001 Tokyo edition. To be released 1/1/2002.
At $400 you may be getting what you pay for, but the fact of the matter is no matter how sexy Apple's new mp3 player come hard-drive is it just costs too much..
Acts Of Gord provides proof, if needed, that Darwinian evolution was just a product of our over fertile imaginations all along.
I never did rate Oliver Stone's intellectual capabillities very high.
Chronic Logic have released a new 3D version of their fantastic looking, sub 1mb, bridge building game Pontifex. Fraid its windows only though.
My first ever "Stadium" gig, Wow, Dave Gahan is a rock god! Shame they didn't delve deeper into their early stuff though..
I know it's not the type of thing we normally have on here, but this pair of identical twins with an arty prediliction for hardcore surgery have to be seen to be believed. Ryan and Dave could easily be a photoshop hoax, but I have a nasty feeling they're all too real. If ever there was a warning against body-modification this is it. (nb: there is one gore photo but the rest are end-results )
CBS news has an image gallery full of fly-past bird's eye views of post-apocalypse New York. There's a lot of them and they take a while to load so here's a sample to let you know what you're waiting for.
In the motionless comic strip style perfected by Red Meat, mnftiu.cc (my new fighting technique is unstoppable) has a set of USian war strips to make you chuckle.
Pro-Taliban protestors saw fit to include the despotic mastermind Evil Bert on their Osama bin Laden placards. Is Bert the real power behind the throne.
Rob Mitchell co-founder of Warp records has died after a battle with cancer..
Out of the ashes of At The Drive In comes Sparta, the more follicley challenged members of ATDI have just set out on their first tour. See what you think of the tracks Air, The Host and Cut Your Ribbon (right click to download)..
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." F. Bueller (1986)..
Sorry about the lack of posts around here for the last week. We've both been upgrading our Macs to OSX.1 and have been occupied with "finger trouble".. Matt's modem has been knocked out altogether and my system has decided to block me from this, my own site, if I connect through my usual ISP..
Anyway normal service will be resumed soon, so please bear with us :)
Every ones favourite bad ass penguin, in his own Audion skin here or here.
Sorry if this is in bad taste, but you can get Osama Bin Laden skins for Q3A, Unreal Tournament and The Sims down this link to cyberextruder.com. Not too sure the Quake one looks anything like him mind.
Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchin are co-authors of "The Atlas of Cyberspace". The book aims to render in two dimensions a world which arguably doesn't even exist in 3. Wired have some sample images from the book, and Martin Dodge has a collection of cyberspace maps on his own site, Cybergeography.org.
If your OSX.1 upgrade is on the way then O'Reilly.net have an article on upgrading..
When meme's attack. The collaborative web artwork idea seems to be taking over, and yet I still haven't seen any particularly successful results. Waferbaby puts a different slant on it by going for comics where each contributor only gets to see the previous panel. Of course every one trying to be a little whacky and surreal means the end results are streams of total non-sequiturs.
Explore the wonders of orbital trajectories while launching space penguins from a giant slingshot into the safety of their cockpits.
Alternatively, relax with a friendly game of cricket from the flashmeisters at bossmonster. But wait! is that movement I see under the grass?
Looks like Apple will launch the long awaited OsX .1 update tomorrow during Phil Schiller's keynote address to the Seybold Conference in San Fransisco. It is expected that X.1 will be in stores by the weekend.
Darunta Camp Complex North East Afghanistan, free self-build SCUD launcher with issue1.
We've all read horror-stories of tech-support misery before, but what is to be done when the enemy lies within!?!
"It is the water-drainage gun which is undertaken to the back". Keep trying the translation, it'll work eventually, honest..
Bruce Sterling on the end of our Belle Epoque. And the Afghan Invasion began 5 days ago, apparently.
The Mirror Project: photos people have taken of themselves reflected in mirrors. Strangely compelling. Also has the added bonus that a lot of the entries have links to the blog of the individual pictured.
The craze for photoshop collaboration continues, perhaps less successfully, with An Exquisite Corpse. Remember the paper and pencil game where one person draws a character's feet then folds the paper leaving just a few millimetres showing for the next person to carry on drawing from? Well, that's the idea here.
Nick Denton who runs the excellent blogorama.com has written a piece for the Guardian on how blogs are bringing a more mature and relevant voice to the web..
I'm not sure what to make of this one, Cloudchaser are reporting that there may be a new version of Gameboy Advance in the works. The new unit is said to feature a higher contrast, backlit, screen. Part of me hopes this is true and part of me doesn't..
UPDATE: PlanetGamecube has more details, it looks like it could be true..
Moby shares his thoughts from NYC, and explains why he's so terrified by the threat of Jihad.. And while we're on the subject, lets hope we've not nailed the tail on the wrong donkey..
Bored at work? Boss hanging around? Tinywindowsgames.com have the answer..
The net slowed to a snails pace today, why, well it could be this little fella. Code Red & SirCam step aside there's a new worm on the block, w32.nimda..
GuardianUnlimited features a piece on the WTC disaster today by Martin Amis.. And Robert De Niro feeds the rescuers on Manhattan..
US Big Brother contestants have not been told the full extent of the WTC disaster despite one of the participants cousins being missing presumed dead. The 3 remaining house guests are speculating that a few hundred may have died. CBS should hang their heads in shame..
Playstation 2's killer app, MGS2, has been delayed by Konami due to it featuring terrorist activity in New York and scenes featuring the World Trade Center. Konami say they are removing footage which feature the New York skyline and the twin towers of the WTC. Rumour has it though that the final battle of the game may have taken place inside the WTC, and featured a plane or helicopter crashing into the building. No firm details of how long the game will be delayed by are available yet..
Sonic Youth are bringing the UK based All Tomorrows Parties festivals to the US next month. The line up, hand picked by Sonic Youth, includes Boredoms, Cat Power, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Stereolab, Television, etc. You can view the full line up here. All Tomorrows Parties returns to the UK in April 2002 when it will be hosted by Shellac..
theRegister reports that Motorola are preparing G5 processors to ship to market. Hopefully this should mean G5 Macs around Easter time next year. Might be time to upgrade the old B/W G3..
Feeling safe here in Europe? You might want to read this..
It is expected that Squaresoft will announce their Gamecube development plans within the next few days. Details are hard to come by at the moment, but rumour has it that Nintendo may have paid Square several billion Yen to make Final Fantasy XI a Gamecube exclusive. First Capcom and now Square, is this the Japanese software industry begining to rally against the impending threat of Xbox..
News is slowly begining to seep out of Japan on the Gamecube launch,
-Steve Langhorn of Cloudchaser gives his initial impressions.. -IGNs Japanese reporters bring us initial impressions and movies of their Cube in action.. -GameWatch Japan have some good technical shots of the machine..
-IGN blow $1500 on Gamecube, and chart its journey across Tokyo to the Shinjuku FedEx office?!?
Keep checking back for more updates..
On the eve of Gamecube's home release Capcom have announced that their Biohazard / Resident Evil series will be exclusive to Nintendo's console from now on. Having said that I'm not sure how exclusive an exclusive can be when the majority of the titles already exist on other consoles? This move should certainly garner some support from the die hard Biohazard heads in Japan, and add to Nintendo's argument that Gamecube is not just for kids..
On a similar subject pocket.IGN have just given Advance Wars for Gameboy Advance an impressive 9.9 out of 10 and an Editors Choice Award, looks like one to add to your collection..
If you want to help in someway with the tragedy in America then you can through the following links..
World Trade Center Survivors List.. Donate via Amazon.. Donate via Yahoo.. American Red Cross...
I really don't know what to say about todays events, I guess I'll have to leave it to others for the moment..
Following on from my previous post regarding Goonies 2 being in production, here's a shot of the cast as they look now. See if you can spot Chunk, he aint shufflin' truffle no more..
Milov.nl has gone on holiday. Using a combination of PHP and Javascript-DOM-scripting, he has created a page which grows in different directions in his absence, depending on the number of referrers that link to it. So milov this link's for you..
Not content with making sweet music, the Aphex Twin seems to have turned his hand to the visual arts.. visible only through spectrum analysis, a cheeky little D. James original is apparently hiding inside the sound of Track 2 from the Windowlicker single (girl version). Is this just face-in-the-moon type wishful thinking? Or does this strangely symmetrical image produced by analysis of a track from DrukQs point to further audio/visual experimentation?
Update: Ok, not convinced yet? I have no idea if this is genuine or faked.. but here's some clearer evidence for your appraisal.
Well, with the birth of X-Box looking less healthy by the minute we should have known the boys in Redmond would have a backup plan. Ladies and gentlemen prepare for plan B, the all-in home entertainment device known as HomeStation.
The tales people tell, Microsoft are going to have to be a bit more subtle than this if they're aiming to get the Xbox hype rolling..
Xbox get's a Japanese release date, 2002.02.22 - coincidentally, the date JSRF gets released Stateside. It remains to be seen how well the Japanese public will lap-up the new hardware. No doubt the current trend of pre-order package lunacy will not get off the ground this side of the pacific. Kabuki Warriors looks like it's primarily being crafted for the eastern audience, but the graphics look like they have some way to go to compete with the likes of FFX, ICO and MGS2.
WIRE01, the all-night rave event featuring Takkyu Ishino, Westbam etc, happens this Saturday at Yokohama Arena. Yours truly won't be going because of a Japanese test on Sunday (good forward planning there), but Sega and Sony will be there in full force. The event is going to be the first chance the public gets to play the much anticipated REZ. A big poster on the side of Shibuya station proclaims that the game will get released in November, and unlike the west, it will be Japan's first Sega PS2 game.
7 days to Gamecube. Only three launch titles, Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race and Super Monkey Ball, but at least you don't have to spend $500 on a pre-order. In fact, even pre-orders are proving difficult to guarantee for launch now. Stocks of Luigi's Mansion were all booked up over a week ago. First impressions to come next Friday.
Seth Godin argues that ever quickening technological advancement is decreasing the scale of our vision. Are we losing the abillity to dream..
Cheap-CDs.com look as if they're trying to apply the Google work ethic to the online CD store. Does anyone have any experience of shopping with them before I dive in?
Balmer steps into the world of Industrial/Metal/Cheese/Pop with his latest "best of" anthology..
The label the Beastie Boys founded in 1993 was closed down yesterday..
Boo.com the movie staring Cameron Diaz and Edward Norton, surely not..
I'm not quite sure if this is genius or just plain daft, my hunch is it's the latter..
You can pre-order an Xbox at CompUSA as long as you buy 2 first party titles, 1 third party title and 2 accessories, nearly $500 in total. How Bill & Steve expect to go up against the video games industry with the same restrictive practices they used in the desktop PC market is beyond me. I think they forgot they don't have a monopoly in this game. Does making people buy 5 first party products to the 1 third party game not totally alienate your developers too..
The worlds largest magnifying glass has been stolen, for the inhabitants of Ant City life will never be the same again..
Seems there's a heart-warming new trend in the anti-social world of bedroom programming, and it's all in the name of altruism.
The ninja strike force of cDc show you how with their Def Con 9 conference on hacktivism and human rights. Jon Bjornstad shows you how in his oreillynet interview on coding a Perl/Tk app for his mute paraplegic friend Sue Simpson.
DJ Shadow.com has re-launched today, in preparation for the release of Shadow's new, as yet untitled, album in Feb 2002. The site has had a facelift and lick of paint and includes a good discography and a nifty Flash audio player. Warning: the site is Flash heavy and slow, and might be best left to broadband users..
Jonny Ram (the lucky get) has been to Spaceworld today. He's sent us these 2 postcards of suitably dressed attendee's to rub it in, MonkeyBall, Zelda/Link..
Metroid Prime impresses. Visually this game is looking awesome, a welcome suprise after the rumours of troubles in the developer's camp. (I still have some reservations about it looking a bit on rails, mind)..
StarFox Adventures, the IGN boys give us hands on impressions of Rare's Zelda 'em up..
Brownie Brown have announced they are developing for Gamecube..
Following on from the recent Wired article on setting up neighbourhood wireless net access, Robert Cringley brings us Roll your own DSL.
Seems like all the games journo's went to Spaceworld and forgot to come out again, there's not been much update from yesterday so far. The Tendobox and Nintendojo sites both appear to have gone down under the strain of the legions of fanboys accessing them, either that or the server technicians have flown over to Japan and left the sites in the hands of the cleaner..
Generation N have posted a full transcript of the Shigeru Miyamoto roundtable discussion from yesterday.
IGN have posted new movies of WaveRace and Pikmin, the Waverace movie being particularly impressive for the quality of its scenery and the speed at which the game apparently plays.
SuperMonkeyBall officially the best thing ever?
GenerationN now have a good round up of all the movies posted so far..
Well Spaceworld starts tomorrow and as ever Nintendo have opened the floodgates a day early with their pre-show press conference. Shigeru Miyamoto took to the stage and stunned the crowd with a first look at Mario and Zelda on Gamecube. Zelda especially was a shock to the system, featuring amazingly fluid cartoon style cell shading rather than the full 3D renders shown previously at the Tokyo Gameshow.
Nintendo also announced that Gamecube's US launch would be delayed by 2 weeks till Nov 18. Critically this pushes the release back till 10 days after the launch of Microsoft's X-Box console. To compensate Nintendo announced that Gamecube would now launch in 2 colours (Indigo & Black) in the US with an Orange version to follow in Japan..
Nintendo also revealed fresh footage of the following titles; 1080 GC, Metroid Prime, Soul Calibur II, Rune and Bomberman. Expect a host of other announcements and details on these and other titles over the next few days. Keep checking back here and we'll point you in the direction of the best coverage..
It's this or Bjork for album of the year.. (see: Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Stooges, The Jam, The Doors)..
And it never looked this good either. If you think your mouse can handle it, play this 21st Century update. I don't remember the bat having a hole in the middle before either. Maybe that missing third dimension was hiding what you see (or rather, don't see) now.
After our recent recommendation of Audiogalaxy's p2p filesharing software it's interesting to see this article on Oreillynet detailing their fantastically idiotic security policy (or lack of). According to the article, logging in to Audiogalaxy points your browser at a url containing your username and password, clearly labelled and encryption free.
The extent of the problem has even been beautifully illustrated by Google's indexing of a couple of these plaintext badboys.
And while we're on the subject of Microsoft bashing, looks like Steve's up to his old tricks again..
Microsoft's XBox marketing strategy, you've got to laugh.
Looks like hardcore hackers have found a new tool that could easily be as damaging to your site as Code Red, and it's name is Microsoft FrontPage. Sound dubious? Well it is, yet the FBI seem to think it's plausible enough to prosecute this poor sap.
IGN are reporting that the sequel to one the greatest fighting games of all time will be heading to Gamecube. Namco are set to make an announcement about Soul Calibur II at next weekend's Spaceworld show..
IGN also suggest that SEGA's secret Gamecube title is in fact Sonic Adventure II, we'll have to wait another week to find out the truth..
The forgotten hero of SEGA legend or Japan's answer to Alvin Stardust, you decide..
When I first saw this promo poster for a buttock-fixated coin-op named BoongGa BoongGa I presumed it was a hoax, but then who can ignore the irrefutable evidence of a man dressed as poo-poo.
Now all we need to know is wether or not a certain japanese correspondant has had the good fortune to see one of these babies in the wild.
Anthony Townsend has bolted wireless networking to his broadband connection, and is sharing it with the residents of his New York neighbourhood. The Village Voice covers his crusade to set up wireless Internet access zones: small areas, often called free networks, where people can tap into high-speed connections, without cables or phone lines, at no cost...
You can be the first to preview a track from the forthcoming Aphex Twin album "druqks" courtesy of Warp records. The track titled "54 Cymru Beats" is a streaming Realplayer file and has not been released anywhere else. The album will be released on October 22nd..
What is it about bands I like splitting up this year?
Well, first off there was Judy & Mary, the J-pop wonders, who have not only ceased to exist, they're official website has been yanked off the web too.
Swiftly after that J-rockers Oblivion Dust and Cocco announced they were packing it in (did I scare all the musicians off or something?).
But now, with their eternally delayed (possibly canned) second album, it seems Way Out West are no more. The second (fantastic) album had been available through Napster (RIP) for what seemed like Aeons. You might be able to get the majority of it from AudioGalaxy. The question remains, what happens to an unpublished album when the band splits up??? Am I destined to listen to it on my home-made bootleg CD forever?
Well that was my favourite part from the original anyway... the speech did it even more justice too. Yes.... Tekken is heading to the Gameboy Advance, just in case you've had you're head in an PS2 hard drive bay for the past week.
Anyway, looks like fun. It's in pseudo 3D... it doesn't look like the GBA can quite handle proper 3D yet. There's some mode 7 action going on for the infinite scenery (infinite in the horizontal plane, that is) and there's some nicely rendered sprites in the foreground. And what's more, according to the information that's been available so far, all the characters are from the original!!! Hooray!
Here's hoping Spaceworld has a playable version!
Wild speculation abounds as N64 Magazine propose that Camelot are going to have a Mario RPG ready for Gamecube's launch next month. Guess we'll have to wait till Spaceworld in a couple of weeks to find out the truth.
Finally a version of AudioGalaxy satellite has come out for Mac OS, click the link to download Mac Satellite ver 1.0 (As you can imagine the download server is pretty busy today, and seems to be having a few problems, so keep trying this link if it bombs out)..
Tendobox argue that Pong embodies the fundementals of game mechanics..
Japan's GameWatch has some new screens of Dead or Alive 3 for XBox which display some of the consoles raw poly' pushing power. The screens feature a fight on a tropical beach between 2 female fighters, the sky is filled with maybe 50+ seagulls! If they're 3D models and not some form of sprite or texture then I must say I'm pretty impressed..
While you're there have a look at the limited edition Hello Kitty GameboyAdvance, anyone's better halves got a birthday coming up?
theRegister have a nice piece on the hype surrounding Code Red worm and its aftermath. A lot of people in the data security industries have been making a lot of noise about this virus, theReg have pulled together the best (most embarassing) sound bites, and question those involved's motivations..
Darren Aronofsky's adaptation of Hubert Selby Jnr's Requiem for a Dream has just had its Region2 DVD release. Aronofsky's study of addiction tells the story of 4 people and their relentless pursuit of happiness at all costs. The film starts as a summer love story between Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly (the 2 best looking actors in Hollywood?), by the time winter comes and the film draws to its inevitable conclusion however your hands will be over your eyes, unable to watch, as they plunge head first down the spiral of addiction and self abuse. Aronofsky has created a film of extrordinary beauty and tragic morality, directing with a flair and talent that few in Hollywood can match.. Requiem for a Dream is one of those films that will change the way you see things for ever, it comes highly recommended..
Aronofsky's next project, an as yet untitled Sci-Fi movie is set to star Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. He is also working with Frank Miller on Batman:Year One for Warner Brothers..
The fun continues over at the Cult of the Dead Cow's house, with more on Peekabooty, in the form of Oxblood Ruffin's open letter to the President of the People's Republic of China, and TechTV's streaming video coverage of cDc at Defcon. This clip in particular gives a bit more of an insight into how Peekabooty will work, not as a standalone browser as some accounts previously suggested, but as a filter of sorts between browser and net connection.
Then, as a touch of light relief, we have a window into the wonderful world of A-list PR negotiations with the email tennis match known as J-Lo's Magical Butt!
See how many of those covers you remember as though it were yesterday with the lovingly curated Crash, Sinclair User, Your Spectrum and Your Sinclair archives.
Magic Box have new screenshots and information about Parappa the Rappa 2. As well as battling against the conspiracy of the Noodle Army, it looks like we'll finally be able to meet Sunny Funny's father, (a character originally intended to be in the first game) who is, of course, a flowerpot.
Hitmaker have just launched "HIPS", the Hitmaker Interactive Product Store. Newly opened, there's not much available to order at the moment, but it looks promising for the future. Japanese language only though I'm afraid..
What sort of a crap title is that? Don't hold out for this being much better than the last one folks..
Tendobox is reporting that Nintendo's Gamecube will not be hitting European shelves till March 2002. Why, when Europe is such a huge marketplace, are we constantly placed at the back of the queue for gaming releases.
Penny-Arcade gives us a unique insight into the spin-doctoring process required to smooth acceptance of the XXL-Box.
Gamespy.com's feature on the "Top 50 Games of All Time", errm, strikes me as just a little PC centric and biased.. Only one console game in the Top 10 surrounded by 9 RTS or FPS titles?!?! 2 Ultima games in there!?!? is Starcraft really better than Zelda?!?! Says a lot about the American develpoment community.. And how do they have Richard Garriot heaping praise on his own games?
AM2 are back with another classic for Dreamcast. OutTrigger takes the FPS genre into the arcade with compact arenas, frenetic skirmishing, and innovative game mechanics. The Japanese aren't known for their FPShooters but SEGA's finest have proved they have a lot to offer when it comes to pushing the genre in a slightly different direction. OutTrigger limits the player to 3 basic weapons with the odd super weapon placed around respawn points on the arena floor. Far from limiting your options however this pairing down of hardware forces the player to concentrate on the micro rather than macro, and tactics and playing style become all important. With OutTrigger SEGA have once again proved that sometimes less most definately equals more.. Warning: Due to the fast nature of the game, OutTrigger plays a damn sight better with the mouse than with a joypad, and as such I'd recommend giving it a go first if you dont have a DC mouse..
Hayao MIyazaki has just broken Japanese box office records again with his new release "Spirited Away". His last masterpiece Princess Mononoke held the record for highest grossing Japanese film of all time before James Cameron's Titanic came along. Hopefully a western release won't be too long in coming..
See Steve run, see Steve dance, see Steve squeal like a mildly psychotic little girl. You will not believe your eyes as Microsoft president and CEO Steve Ballmer lets his employees know how much he "LOVES HIS COMPANY!!!" (3.1M and worth every byte).
I only wish I could share his enthusiasm.
Oh my god. With all of the original's levels and a multi-player option to boot, could this be the GBA's killer app? All we need now is a Wolfenstein Advance that looks as good as the upcoming Gray Matter version.
IGN's new screenshots of the Battle for Hoth from Gamecube Rogue Leader are just unbelievable. I'll be very impressed if this is realtime in-game footage, but judging by the radar in the top left and the tone of the article I'd say it quite possibly is, wow..
So you had the Ree-Yees, Yak Face and Snaggletooth. You had the Rancor Handler, Sy Snootles and Max Reebo and you even had a Chewbacca Bandolier to stick them all in. But I'll bet you didn't have a Gargan prostitute or a Mongo Beefhead Tribesman.
Read about them and other never-released toys in the treasure-trove that is toysrgus.com. Then spare a moment to remember the other forgotten heroes of Star Wars.
Kieran Hebden is a founder member of Fridge, part of Badly Drawn Boy's backing band and remixer of the likes of Aphex Twin, Slag Boom Van Loon (-ziq vs SpeedyJ) and Pole. His new album under the Four Tet moniker is titled Pause and is well worth checking out if you're into the more Jazz/Post-Rock leanings of Electronica..
IGN has posted screens from Famitsu Magazine's scoop of Nintendo's GBA line up for Spaceworld. The screens include a first glimpse of Mario Advance 2, Spaceworld takes place between the 24-26 of August in Tokyo..
So it's happened, Tim Burton has failed dismally to re-create Planet of the Apes. With rumours of re-shoots being still done in the couple of weeks before release and preview screenings being pushed back it was inevitable really. Planet of the Apes and its sequels were children of the 60's & 70's, political films which dealt with race and social opression. At the time they were powerfull stuff hidden behind the facade of a Sci-Fi action movie. In Hollywoods current moraly bankrupt climate though the politics have been ditched and the surface sheen is everything. Its a real shame that Hollywood's film making community no longer have enough courage in their political convictions to produce great movies which still have something to say about the real world we live in..
Some of you in the windows world may have had the pleasure of getting aquainted with a particularly virulent strain of worm by the name of SirCam over the past week. For those of you who are unaware of this massively malicious mobile code, here's a quick breakdown of it's finer aspects:
That's right, any file on your hard-drive to any address on your computer.. And they're only getting better, successful virii such as this invariably leave a lot to be desired. Poorly written message bodies are a regular failing, but then what else can you expect from non-english speaking script-kiddies. So when someone really wants to do the job properly, I think we'd best take cover.
But hey, let's not get down about it.. this virus does good things too!
In today's games a lot of our imagining is done for us, so there's still something very intriguing about the long-retired genre of text-adventuring. The king of the interactive fiction hill was undoubtedly Infocom, with Zork as their crowning glory. Adventure Collective has interviews with original staffers Dave Lebling and Steve Meretzky. You can play many of the classics online through the wonder of java, or if you prefer the MUD feel, try telnet (if it's not too busy that is).
Richard Donner has confirmed he is working on a Goonies sequel. Expect to see the return of Mouth, Chunk, Data and One Eyed Willy in this follow up to one of the greatest kids movies of all time..
Further to my post from yesterday, an additional movie trend is that of turgid comic-book adaptations. Thank the lord then that Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff seem to have managed the impossible and created a comic-book film for love not money.
Ghost World is based on the comic-strip of the same name taken from the pages of Clowes' Eightball comic book. Clowes' work owes a debt to the great confessor R. Crumb, whose work Zwigoff in turn payed homage to in his documentary, Crumb. The pairing of these two is therefore natural, so it's no surprise that Ghost World the film has been the result of collaboration rather than slavish reproduction. Both are fantastic artists in their own rights and it's heartwarming that they've managed to see their visions through to a final release where so many others have failed.
Oh, and be sure to pick up your little Enid action doll too.
In the run-up to the release of Peekabooty, the Cult of the Dead Cow have released two statements in order to clarify their position and announce the inaugration of their Hacktivismo offshoot. Scary to think that the future use of the internet is being defined by ill-informed governments behind closed doors, and for the most part without the publics knowledge. And reassuring to know that groups like cDc aren't going to stand for it.
Yet another mediocre excuse for a game-based film is on it's way in the form of Resident Evil: Ground Zero, directed by Paul "Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon" Anderson. But think of what could have been! R.E. was once to be scripted by king of undead-horror himself George A. Romero and you can even read the script that they callously threw away.
So will there ever be a good game-movie? Of course not! Games that appeal to hollywood are invariably based on movies in the first place so by the time the idea has come full circle any last interesting elements are bound to have been sapped out of it. Resident Evil is Day of the Dead, Tomb Raider is Indiana Jones and Super Mario Bros. .. well there's no real excuse for that one.
Following a link from NTK I came across this fantastic Palm Pilot Mod.. And here's something for the laydeees..
Test your smarts with PlanetDreamcast's Sega Trivia Test. If that's no match for your mad-skillz try the follow-ups on Saturn, Master System, Treasure and Sonic.
Amazon UK have Doom for Gameboy Advance listed as a November release!!! Lets just hope it looks better than the other FPS offerings GBA has coming its way..
Here's another date to stick on your DVD shopping list. November 6th sees the Warner Home Video release of Dr Zhivago, DVDFile have the full spec of this 2 disc edition of David Lean's epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak's tale of love, war and revolution..
Nintendocenter seem to think Super Mario Advance 2 will be revealed at Spaceworld next month along with a host of other must have titles, such as Sabrewulfe, Magical Vacation and Goemon.
EAGB report that Crawfish Interactive are going to be bringing the Bitmap Brothers back catalogue to a GBA near you sometime in the not so distant future. First off the production line will be Speedball2, so you can start drooling now.
The official Twisted Metal Black site (flash) is a feast for the eyes. I especially recommend the unsettling eyes-pinned-shut wallpapers, a perfect greeting for you as you start the working day.
I mean, what's this supposed to be?! It looks like they haven't finished the front off. And where's my flat-panel iMac?
It seems they've painted themselves into a bit of a corner with their fancy stylings these days, in that whenever they release a new machine I just check to see if it looks any good and barely glance at the specs. Surely there's only so many shapes and configurations that can be practical. Besides, it seems a touch odd to be releasing hardware that mainly appeals to one audience on looks while releasing software that mainly appeals to an entirely different market on internals.
Though, I suppose that's the whole idea.
While I'm on the subject of Apple, OS X v10.1 (how clumsy is that?) is due in September, and by the looks of the preview page they've finally fixed a lot of stuff they should have had down in the first place. For instance; a movable dock, a genie replacement, some finder tweaks and all the DVD you can eat.
Secrets Of Sonic The Hedgehog provides an interesting way to while away 5 minutes. Detailing "Deleted Scenes" and dropped ideas from the Sonic series of games, it provides an interesting if somewhat nerdy view into how the series developed..
Tendobox's Galloping Gaijin column comments on the Gameboy Advance's "Killer App" a week before its Japanese release. Get the full lowdown on what Famitsu thought of this handheld update to one of the all time gaming classics..
Christophe Thibault has released version 0.1 of MAME for DC. For those of you in the dark the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator allows you to play the arcade games of your youth on the computer system of your choice. This Dreamcast version only supports a few games at the moment, but keep checking back for updates..
Christophe's page links to James Surine's Mamed site, James is also working on a DC version of MAME. Check out MAME and Doom running on a Kodak Digital Camera while you're there too..
Tendobox has a story about Sega and Nintendo working together to provide an online gaming network for Gamecube, details of which they expect to be revealed at Spaceworld..
The demise of Company Flow left a sizeable hole in hip-hop, but that hole is now well on it's way to being filled with the birth of El-Producto's DefJux label. Figurehead signing Cannibal Ox have just released their debut album, Cold Vein. Rappers Vordul and Vast Aire carry on the vocal stylings carved out by the Co.Flow MCs, while El-P's production brings the Funcrusher flavour.
Also watch out for releases from label-mates, Mr.Lif and RJD2, and the DefJux sampler featuring the last tracks recorded by the one-album-wonder that was Company Flow. (Just be thankful it was a double..)
Tron was an under performer at the box office on its release. Like many cult classics though with hindsight it can be appreciated in a different light. Pre-dating Gibson's Neuromancer by 2 years, Tron tells the tale of hackers battling inside a computer system to free it from the control of a meglomaniacal corporation with an AI behind them.. Sound familiar? Writer and Director Steven Lisberger, along with artisitc help from the likes of Moebius and Syd Mead, produced a Sci-Fi classic. VFXpro have a good article entitled Tron Revisited which takes an indepth look behind the scenes of its making. Steven Lisberger is currently reported to be working on Tron 2.0 for Disney, lets hope it lives up to the standards set by its forebear..
If this sort of thing takes your fancy then Gamewallpaper.com has a huge selection of gaming related desktops for download. A lot of them are pretty cheesy but some of the Japanese ones are quite nice..
The LA Times has a weird/interesting interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Instead of grilling him on game design or Nintendo they delve into what gadgets he owns..
I like his sly "my kids don't ask me to buy Sony" dig..
Bjork is back with her finest work yet. Her new Album "Vespertine" is due for release on August 28th. The Japanese version is already out though and can be picked up on import. Vespertine sees a shift of direction for Bjork, gone are her previous pop trimmings and in their place comes a darker, harder electronic edge that was hinted at on "Homogenic" . Matmos have done a fine job, adding minimal techno rhythms under Bjorks tragically beautiful melodies. The influence of Dancer in the Dark can be felt too throughout this album as Bjork delves into a far more mature, painfull, but paradoxically warm and intimate sound. Your average pop fan will see this a step backwards, but this album pushes Bjork over a creative barrier. She has always tried to maintain a pop outlook while her own musical tastes lie more to the avante garde. Vespertine sees her cast off these pop allusions as she ploughs straight towards her own musical influences and contemporaries. I can't recommend this album highly enough. Bjork has come of age and it is a privilege to be here to see it..
IGN is reporting that one of the most anticipated Gamecube titles may be in big trouble. Lets hope Nintendo take firm control of the project before the Gamecube loses one of the potential jewels in its crown..
Square are to release 2 DVD versions of Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. The first will be a full blown SE version of the movie. The second however is a PS2 edition with game elements built into the movie. Lets hope its a bit more advanced than your standard Dragons Lair fare..
There's a new Squarepusher cd on the shelves (Go Plastic). And according to the (annoyingly difficult to link to) warprecords site: "the new Aphex Twin 30 track double album 'drukqs' was mastered last week in London." Life is sweet...
Tendobox have a cool trick you can perform with your Gameboy Advance. Lets see what damage Nintendo says this one will do to your poor machine :)
VideoSenki have the translation of a dengekionline interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi about his new game Rez. This game looks truely incredible, mixing shooter and music maker into a new hybrid gameform.
Following on from our Handheld Heroes article, Madrigal Retrogames have downloadable emulators of lots of early handheld systems, PC only though I'm afraid, (just hit the continue link on the first screen)..
Dave Braben and Ian Bell created one of the true milestones of videogames history when they wrote Elite. Elite was, and still is, one of the most emersive and atmospheric gaming experiences you could ever have. From the early days on the BBC through numerous incarnations on other platforms Elite's innovations have captured the hearts of gamers and although some have tried no one has yet recaptured that incredible sense of open ended freeform game design. The open source Galileo Project is an attempt to do just that, only this time the developers are trying to create a fully breathing online multi-player universe..
You can play the original game here through your web browser..
And you can buy the T-Shirt here..
Camelot's Golden Sun for Gameboy Advance is looking stunning, due for an english language release in October of this year, it looks ready to set the standard for handheld RPG's. Gaming Age have just got hold of some amazing new screens, you can check them out here..
Gaming bible EDGE reaches its hundredth issue this month. To celebrate Shigeru Miyamoto has designed the cover art for them. The anniversary issue hits the stores on July 13th..
Missingmatter has a Q&A with battle-scarred veteran of games design Tom Sloper. It's not a name I've come across before, but a quick look round his site should give you some idea of the extent of his resume. And as a pure designer with no background in programming he has an interesting, non-technical take on the industry.
Got a Dreamcast Boot CD? Want a free Broccoli game? Get yourself over to Freeweb Japan and download Dejiko no Minesweeper...
Swirlvision have some nice screens of the hidden level in Sonic Adventure 2 for DC. Collect all 180 emblems and you can visit a fully realised 3D version of the Green Hills zone from the original Genesis/Megadrive version of Sonic..
Tendo Box have a funny excerpt from an interview with Nintendo's Peter Main, where he reveals that the big N are laughing their little cotton socks off at Microsoft's development strategies..
IGN have an interview with Hong Kong movie legend and one time John Woo collaborator Tsui Hark.
1999's American Movie blew Mark Borchardt to superstardom, but fame is a fickle mistress and he soon disappeared from the public gaze. This hero of the trailer park hasn't been resting on his laurels though, and has been busy fighting his own guerrilla war, turning his back on Hollywood and a quick buck in favour of artistic integrity. Along with sidekick Mike Schank he puts out a regular cable TV show, appears at film festivals, and has recently acted in Jet Li movie "The One". Keep up the good fight Mark..
It looks like the portable Atari 2600 will soon have some competition with this emulator for the gameboy advance
Do you ever get so bored that your Googling degenerates into complete nonsense just to see what'll come out the other end? Well be careful you're not being watched! Disturbing Search Requests documents the twisted query strings of pervy madmen, dug up from the depths of some poor innocent's log files.
And don't think for a moment that your offline conversations are safe either! InPassing.org records the overheard ramblings of strangers. (I'm slightly sceptical about the number of interesting overheard things per day though, since it's supposedly just one woman's eavesdropping that fuels the site)
SquareSoft's Hironobu Sakaguchi reveals to Gamespot that Final Fantasy XI the next edition of their long running RPG series will be multiplatform due to its online nature. Gamespot seem to think that the game will be making an appearance on Gamecube, but this seems very unlikely due to the bad blood between Nintendo and Square. If it does though, could this mean a re-emergence of one of the greatest partnerships in gaming history..
Brownie Brown have released a load of new screenshots of this highly anticipated game for Gameboy Advance. IGN also have some new info on the game's mechanics.
Hitmaker have an archive of T-Shirts over at their site. You're suppossed to be able to buy them too but I cant find a link ?!!? If anyone's got a good enough grasp of Japanese can you post a url please :)
Hehe, some muppet tried to dye his GBA black with a bucket of hot water and four bottles of fabric dye. Very wise. Unsurprisingly, he also tried the contrast tweak.
Just thought I'd bring to your collective attentions a couple of web oddities I've stumbled across recently, the first being filepile.org a public file sharing site brought to you by Andre Torrez among others. Secondly, there's qwer.org a (semi-)public scrapbook site (there's a bit more explanation here) brought to you by Kevin Fox of fury.com. Fury is a new addition to my list of "sites I regularly visit", if you're checking it out be sure to stop off at Kevin's other projects AOLiza and RandomPixel while you're at it.
Both FilePile and Qwer are fairly useless after a cursory exploration, but it's nice to see that new uses for old tricks are still being thought up by clever folk with too much time on their hands. Even if not every one of them's a hotornot.
Is playing your Gameboy Advance into the small hours driving you blind? IGN have the lowdown on the current crop of light add-ons for Nintendo's wunderkind..
There's a nice interview with Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax in the archives at CDmag.com. He talks about how RPG's have evolved from the days of paper and dice, to the current state of the art Never Winter Nights..
And btw if you understand this post's title your secret's safe with me ;)
Reedy has pointed me in the direction of the awesome Handhelden, a site dedicated to handheld gaming nostalgia. Handhelden is brought to us by the creators of the fantastic Electronic Plastic book, and features an absolute treasure trove of retro gaming action..
The site also features a nice links page if you fancy takeing your trip down memory lane further..
Google have added yet another string to their bow with the addition of a beta version image search. Notable more for the total randomness of it's results than it's usefulness. It's quite easy to dig up sites from the depths of the internet with this that you would never normally stumble across with a straight text search.
Also worth a mention is the addition of Hacker, Elmer Fudd and Pig Latin to the pantheon of alternate language searches on Google.
And if you want to show Google how much you love them you'll be interested to learn that they may be going ahead with an IPO at some point in the not so distant future. Go on, throw all your hard earned cash at them! Just remember to do the research first.
EAGB have a review/article on the Flash Advance Linker for Gameboy Advance. This downloader and blank ROM cartridge allow you to backup GBA ROM images on to a blank cart for playing on your console. Oh and it can be used as a Dev tool too..
fakejazz.com have a good interview with the kings of Mormon slowcore...
While the world concentrates on the upcoming Next Gen console war. The real battle may be developing behind the scenes. SEGA and EA have a score to settle and there'll be tears before bedtime..
The New York Observer breaks the pre-release gagging order and gives a semi-review of Spielberg/Kubriks A.I. Sounds good too..
Nude As The News have an interview with Matmos, co-collaborators on Bjorks new album..
Okay, I've seen some whacky case mods lately but this guy has just plain lost it. (Warning: not for public viewing).
IGN shake a huge stick at a whole load of XBox titles today. If you've been toying with the idea of buying into Microsoft's American Dream, then this is probably a good place to start making a decision. What do you guys think, I must admit I'm still not convinced...
Just to re-iterate our words of warning from yesterday's GBA contrast post: Nintendo have now issued an official warning. Apparently it's not a contrast control, it's a flicker control and messing with it could permanently damage your Gameboy in the long run.
Chungking Express is finally getting a DVD release, if you're in the UK you can get it here.. Also check out Wong Kar-Wai's latest masterpiece In The Mood For Love if you get the chance..
Woah Brownie Brown have included a simultaneous quest mode in Magical Vacation for GBA..
I've been off work ill today, and have been spending my time watching footage from E3 on the GameNetwork on TV. One title stands out as looking fantastic and checking out a review on IGN they seem to aggree, Twisted Metal Black for PS2..
Yep its true, the Gameboy Advance has a secret contrast control hidden under the sticker on its rear. EAGB have the full instructions on how to adjust it. !!! WARNING: Pixelised does not condone making this adjustment and doing so may well invalidate your warranty so dont come crying back to us when you break your shiny new GBA...!!!
Update: It's been confirmed, fiddling with this will permanently damage your GBA. We repeat, do not try this at home.
SEGA are diversifying out of the videogames market. Plans include a new arcade business based on fitness clubs, could this be an advanced version of Jonnyram's "Games can be healthy" post? They are also planning on developing their characters further. This is an area which Nintendo excells at, and harks back to Disney's classic business model. They also seem to be planning on moving into the animated film and theme park markets. In fact it sounds to me like they're trying to steal the Disney business model lock, stock and barrel..
The Star Wars episode one DVD. Who cares about the film, the six hours worth of bonus material stuff should make this worth the asking price alone.
Audio commentary from five different points of view, seven deleted scenes completed just for the DVD release, five behind-the-scenes featurettes, one hour-long documentary, galleries and storyboards and a partridge in a pear tree.
Check out the full rundown over at the official Star Wars site.
Check out this review of Radiohead's Kid A.. "The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap."
So if Samba de Amigo wasn't making you workout enough, here's the latest fad that's sure to have you shedding pounds. Happy Diet is Twilight Express' Diet Simulator. You input your height/weight and a character appears to match your dimensions. Then he makes a nice diet for you to follow and you can go jogging with him via the use of the "Stepping Controller". Some more details can be seen on the back of the CD sleeve.
Bootlegactionfigures.com is full of not quite right ripoffs of action figures and merchandising for films and TV shows. Check out that Batman meets Lone Ranger toy, and doesn't that Foobie look better than a real Furby?
Splendid magazine is running an interesting interview with Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai..
UK retailer GAME is reportedly taking pre-orders on Nintendo's Gamecube. They have it slated for a February launch at the amazing price of only
Infogrames are debating changing their trading name to Atari. Its one of the all time great gaming brandnames, but surely people will not be fooled by this sheep in wolf's clothing ploy..
Sorry to lower the tone a little, but someone mentioned Knightmare in the Alien Front thread. So by popular demand here it is dungeoneers! But beware, for danger may lurk everywhere...
Update1: Hehee! Apparently the slightly unsettling decaying head that represented energy in the first few series had been sanitised into a cake with pieces being removed by series 8. Talk about losing your edge :)
Update2: This fan site even hosts an interactive online version of the show every once in a while. Season three is due to start in september.
Remember those Matchbox cars you used to have when you were a kid? We'll Hitmaker are reviving the range with Crazy Taxi paper ones..
Amusement Vision, Sonic Team, AM2, and now Hitmaker are all working on Gamecube titles. When you look at the amount of games these companys are responsible for and then remember that until recently they were all part of Sega. Its just seems incomprehensible that the Dreamcast had such a short lifespan, cheers Sony..
PS: Try having a look at the Japanese language pages on the above sites they seem to be much more uptodate then the English ones..
Sonic the Hedgehog celebrates his tenth birthday this year. On the 23rd June, Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast will be released worldwide to commemorate the fact. Alan Turing was also born on this day in 1912. Thanks for computer science, Alan!
This? But hang on a minute, removable tablet-style screen? Sounds suspicously like this 1994 prototype for a modular mac that Apple unceremoniously dumped when the media poo-pooed their handwriting recognition software. Methinks it would be met with much the same reaction now. And what is it with all this dubious next-mac speculation anyway?
Reminiscing over your Sinclair days, but need a little visual stimulus to jog that screen-addled memory of yours? Andrew Laggan's zx musem has all the eye-candy you can eat.
Thought the Zerowing intro was (set us up) the bomb? You should see the outro (featuring the california raisins by the looks of things). Zany video game quotes over at Overclocked has all your mistranslation needs covered. Resident Evil is easily in the runnings for the worst, but Barry's "What is it?!" is oddly missing.
Tendo Box have an interview with Hiroki Kikuta one of the great composers of video game music.
In the grand tradition of Gcoms safeplaces comes another great exploratory playground, vectorpark. Hint: if you can't find the fun, you're not looking hard enough.
Golan Levin makes portraits from yearbook photos by varying the density of nodal networks. Golan Levin makes portraits of his workmates by procedurally coalescing scribbles. Golan Levin performs symphonies with the audiences mobile phones as his only instruments.
Scratch is a feature length documentary by Doug Pray which explores the history and culture of the Hip Hop DJ. With a cast that reads like a who's who of Hip Hop this film features the likes of, DJ Shadow, Bambaata, Grand mixer DXT, Mix Master Mike, QBert, Rob Swift, Premier, DJ Krush and more..
The film is to see a major theatrical release this summer with a DVD version to follow..
The Zulu Nation's website is an eye opener. Recomended viewings in their film section include Species 1 & 2 !?!?!
SEGA, courtesy of their Hitmaker division, are giving you the chance to build your very own limited edition Dreamcast! If that tickled your fancy, try more of the same (but slightly older) and then redecorate your desktop.
Warning, some of these pages are Japanese... learn a bit of Japanese or try randomly clicking on links near words like "Windows" or "Macintosh". Sorry about that, but the contents are well worth the effort, I promise.
Can't wait for Metal Gear Solid 2 to arrive on PS2 ? Look what's coming to Dreamcast..
TendoBox has a translation of a Famitsu interview with Yuji Naka and Toshiro Nagoshi of Sega. They love Gamecube, although things aren't looking too good on the PSO front, 4 player split screen and no apparent online support mean it may need to be renamed Phantasy Star Offline :(
Its reassuring to know that the artists you love are inspired by the artists you love.. Check out what inspire the likes of Ken Ishii, Photek, Buffalo Daughter, Roni Size, Dandy Warhols and Tricky.. Nick Hornby would be proud..
Google has quietly reinstated the archives it aquired from the Deja news service behind it's beta front end. I've never really payed that much attention to usenet before but, with archived postings dating back to 1995, there's a mind-boggling array of textual information in there on just about any subject imaginable.
Mos Def has a rockband called Jack Johnson. Featuring ex members of Bad Brains, Parliment/Funkadelic and Living Colour they are currently in the studio putting down their debut album for Rawkus. nudeasthenews has an exclusive interview with the man who seems intent on confounding peoples expectations of himself..
Konkurrent have released another in there excellent series of Fishtank recordings. The new budget priced CD features Low and the Dirty Three. Together they do 6 tracks including the Neil Young cover Down By The River. The Fishtank is a project run by Konkurrent, where they ask bands who are touring in Holland to give them 2 days to record a 30 minute album of whatever they like; regular songs, funny versions or improvised pieces..
Nintendo unveiled Gamecube at E3 a couple of weeks ago, and showed the rest of the industry where the future of gaming should lie. Pre E3 media consensus was that Microsoft was going to prove the strongest oposition for Sony's beligerd Playstation2 and Nintendo was being set up to be the also ran. Post E3 though the mood has changed Microsoft are on the back foot and media attention is now swinging to Nintendo. Its a shame that the industry works this way these days, the hardcore has always known what Nintendo is capable of, yet the Greystation genertaion percieve them only as the company which brought us the misjudged N64. In this nextGen world of marketing hype, the people with power seem to be the media, and they appear to have little grasp of the ebbs and flows of gaming history. When the likes of Forbes magazine is looked on to provide guidance on the state of play, we know we are in trouble.. Gamecube is set to launch in September in Japan and November in the US. It will cost around $200 to $300 depending on your location.. Titles will include Metroid, Luigis Mansion, Mario, Zelda, Starfox Adventures, Pikmin, and WaveRace.
If the current trend for reality TV is all about getting a smug sense of self worth from watching the dregs of humanity whore themselves for the sake of their 15 minutes worth, then MTV's Jackass has to be the ultimate antidote.
Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze and Jeff Tremaine have a lot to answer for. Along with co-colaborators Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Steve-O, Brandon Dicamillo, Ehren McGhehey, Jason "Wee Man" Acuna and Ryan Dunn, they have created a show which has the US moral majority on the warpath.
Don't you just love dumb american kids though...
Oh, and check out this shrine to Bam's long suffering Dad Phil..
Veteran 1337 h4X0r5 the Cult Of the Dead Cow were recently in the news with their plans to release a Freenet/Gnutella style P2P browser called Peekabooty to get around filtering and censorship of online content (The UAE blocked access to the cult's site for all citizens on hearing the news). With my interest piqued I had a little trawl round the cDc site, and while the text files on Debbie Gibson fighting ninjas and Poppy Z. Brite's necrophiliac fantasies about William Burroughs certainly caught my eye, it was this explanation of the cults name that made me smile the most.
In honour of the changing of the seasons, here is a little something I just stumbled across: The flowers are blooming pretty, The garden has homey feel about it, Shall we refresh with open air?
Dave Sim wrote beautifull comic books. Dave Sim was kind of a hero to me, I met him once. Dave Sim thinks women and homosexuals are going to bring the world to its knees (sic).. He thinks women are 6 foot leechs, voids, which are holding back human advancement..
IGN are running an interview with the development team behind the awesome looking Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 on the Gameboy Advance, check it out here. Warning : you may need to register to view this interview :(
Last week Apple revealed their new TiBook stylee iBook design to the world. Opinion seems divided on it's looks but there's no denying that this is one hell of laptop for
Or in beta at least. Now that this is the case I'd like to ask you for your opinions on what works, what doesn't, what could be better etc. I know that a lot of this stuff isn't easy to use at the moment but this is it's first functioning incarnation so you can't expect miracles just yet. Please keep your comments as encouraging as possible, and bear in mind that we still have a lot of bits and pieces left to implement so suggestions should be of the minor tweaks variety rather than major revisions.
Guaranteed to mess with your head. Yes, the rational-minded individual understands that the world was not black and white at the turn of the last century. And yet this newly unearthed proof of concept seems oddly, disturbingly not quite right...
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Visit the archive if you wish to skip merrily through time in a devil may care fashion.
