Ant City
The worlds largest magnifying glass has been stolen, for the inhabitants of Ant City life will never be the same again..
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.
Visit the archive if you wish to skip merrily through time in a devil may care fashion.
