King of Kong 2.

Come with me if you want to live.

link love 08-22-08

Alongside the very kick ass Bionic Commando Rearmed OST, Sumthing has also released the original NES soundtrack. It’s three bucks, go get it.

Retro Space, the newest entry into the pre-built MAME cabinet scene. These things are supposed to sell for around 5000-6000 Euros (I think that’s like $40,000 or something these days). Kinda nice, but not that nice.

Speaking of paying lots of money for your games, here is Rotheblog’s writeup on the 15 most valuable classic arcade games.

And finally, Multiple:Option has released the newest version of Game Trivia Catechism DS (the iPhone version we’re working on is an expanded branch of this). It’s one of two apps he’s entering into the NeoFlash Summer Coding Compo, so wish him luck!

link love 08-15-08

Arcade Mania, the new book on the Japanese arcade scene by Brian Ashcraft and Jean Snow, is now available for pre-order, at a very reasonable fourteen bucks. There’s also a Flickr group.

Jason Scott shares some neat Karateka trivia. I have no idea if the trick worked on the Atari 8-bit version, but then again I never tried putting the disk in upside-down.

Multiwinia trailer!

Also from Dtoid, Games time forgot: Space Ace. Poe’s Pizza, the place we’d trek to and burn our allowance on, had Space Ace in it’s lineup for quite some time. Still, for a kid on a limited budget, laserdisc titles were several places down the preferability list, as playtime could be painfully brief until you mastered the game.

Hey wow, SEGA discovered a roomfull of games, from back when SEGA games were good. /TEAR 9-9-99 NEVER FORGET

link love 08-07-08

The Game Libratory. Library plus laboratory, the project aims to collect gaming hardware from the entire history of our industry, assembling it all in one place where it can be accessed for cultural studies and scientific use (and hopefully a LAN party or two). [via andre]

Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice’s excellent A History of Gaming Platforms series continues on Gamasutra, this time with a personal favorite of mine, the Atari 8-Bit Computer. A book is in the works.

The Last Guy, available soon on PSN, is a clever rescue the civilians during the zombie apocalypse game that uses real-world satellite maps for the gameplay stages. As a promo, they’ve released a web version that builds the play level from a submitted web address.

Looking to fill out your Sega collection? CAG nebrazca78 is auctioning off a ton of Genesis, 32X, and Master System gear. I’m gonna keep an eye on a couple of those 32X titles.

link love 07-28-08

Tarantino’s Mind, a short film in which our protagonist reveals his insight into the movies of Quentin Tarantino.

The guys at Siliconera scanned the Mirror’s Edge comic that’s a Comic-Con giveaway from EA. Interesting aside, both the comic and game narrative are being penned by Rhianna Pratchett, Terry Pratchett’s daughter.

noise grid, removing the noise from gaming journalism. Sometimes, I really like noise. But sometimes, it’s nice to just read the news.

A conversation with Michael B. Johnson of Pixar, and, referenced in that conversation, an excellent interview Brad Bird did with McKinsey earlier this year. Our industry could learn a lot from these two guys.

Cool! The 2009 Nissan GT-R has a series of gauges designed by Kazunori Yamauchi, CEO of Polyphony and creator of Gran Turismo.

link love 07-16-08

Not-just-stuff-from-E3 edition.

Act I of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is up, and unless you are reading this right now, Act II or III might even be up too. But then, there might only be a day or two left until it’s pulled back down, so go watch it now!

Adam Isgreen has written a list of Game Design No-Nos. Please don’t do those things in that list, game designers of the world.

An interview with a few of the folks from Good Old Games, a classic game download service that’s starting up this fall. Here’s another interview at Gamecyte if you’re still craving words.

From that really smart guy at Lost Garden, a nice article that’s a little bit about Soul Bubbles but mostly about the opinion of experts and why game reviews are broken.

Lastly, Duke Nukem Trilogy. Wow. Just wow.

link love 07-08-08

Thoughtful edition.

This one made the rounds last week, but just in case you missed it, here’s Leigh Alexander’s Industry Apologetics: It’s Not Just A Game.

Former Pandemic designer Matt Harding’s Dancing 2008.

What’s wrong with the game industry (this hour). Brian Green rants a bit about the ridiculous level of secrecy pervasive in the game industry. I agree with him.

And to end it on a lighter note, Cory does thirty days of zombie movies.

link love 07-04-08

Today’s the day we celebrate our independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Take that, redcoats. For the locals, it’s also First Friday!

Too many games? Michael Zenke thinks so, Sean Hollister disagrees.

Neat, a NES in a NES cartridge. [via MAKE]

Can you believe that Anarchy Online has been around for seven years? To celebrate the longevity, Konami and FunCom have released a retrospective vid.

link love 06-27-08

Nostalgia edition, this one is.

Here is a Barbie that I will buy, and I will feel no shame. When do we get to see the wheelchair-bound Rear Window Ken?

Ask Slashdot: Best Electronics Kits for Adults?

Branded in the 80s, the website for those of us who were kids during the decade, now comes in magazine form.

The latest opus from Greencine: Drive-In Movies: A Primer.

From the dtoid community blogs, Zac Bentz tells us a NES story.

Okay, I’ll end this with a couple nowadays bits:
Check out Gridgnome’s amazing Spore creatures! [via Soren]
Read the Indie platformer extravaganza on Mefi! [via GameSetWatch]

Requiem for a Day Off

Absolutely brilliant. [via Zen of Design]