Beany and Cecil: Little Ace From Outer Space
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 9, 2006 in Animation
The Videogame Magazine Museum
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 8, 2006 in Videogames
This site is great for old school videogame fans, it features tons of scans of articles, ads and magazine covers from Joystik to Blip:
Phaze’s Classic Videogame Magazine Museum
http://cvmm.vg-network.com
Monkey Heaven
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 7, 2006 in Japanese TV
This is a fun website devoted to the cult classic live action Japanese TV series Monkey (sometimes known as Monkey Magic), made by NTV in the late 1970s:
Monkey Heaven is based on one of the great quest stories, a 16th century Chinese epic called Hsi Yu Chi (= Journey to the West). The title Monkey is probably from Arthur Waley’s English translation. The tales, set in 630 AD, describe the demons and monsters who try to stop the Tang Priest Hs’an Tsang (Tripitaka) from reaching a Buddhist monastery in India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures.
The whole series recounts the exploits of the resourceful, brave, and humorous Monkey, the real hero of the fantasy, as he escorts Tripitaka, the pig monster Pigsy, and the water monster Sandy, on their perilous mission.
Nintendo’s First Commercial
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2006 in Videogames
It’s 1985 and Nintendo intruduces their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in New York. Retailers are so skeptical about video games that Nintendo has to agree to buy back all unpurchased inventory. Armed with a large number of Nintendo-developed original titles and arcade games, the NES becomes a hit:
Afro Samurai: Samuel Jackson goes Anime
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 5, 2006 in Animation
Star Trek Auction
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2006 in Star Trek
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, Christies is auctioning off over 1,000 items of memorabilia from CBS Television Studios. The auction will happen in New York 5-7 October but the items can be viewed in London from today until 8 August. Highlights include models of the Starship Enterprise, costumes worn by Captain Kirk, Spock and Uhura and a replica of Kirk’s chair (estimate $8,000 to $12,000). There is also stuff from later series – you can bid for Deanna Troi’s mini-dress(estimate $1,500 to $2,500), Captain Picard’s Starfleet uniform or even your own Borg alcove:
Star Wars 1979 Anti-smoking PSA
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2006 in Star Wars
This is way too cute:
Secret Writer for New James Bond Book
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2006 in Pulp Fiction
Good news for fans of 007:
Secret writer for new Bond book
A new James Bond novel is being written – 40 years after the superspy’s last outing. The estate of the late 007 author Ian Fleming has commissioned a “well-known and highly respected” writer for the task. The writer’s identity is being kept a closely-guarded secret until publication.
The 15th Bond adventure will be published in May 2008 to mark the cententary of Fleming’s birth. Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd said: “We are delighted to have secured this particular author who we have had in mind for some time now. “He is the perfect writer for this project and we are greatly looking forward to his take on James Bond, in what we are convinced will be a stunning novel.”
There hasn’t ben a new Bond novel since 1966 when Octopussy and the Living Daylights and were published after Ian Fleming passed away.
I guess the main question is if the new book will be set in the swinging sixties? James Bond and the Cold War go together like Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian era, it would be sad to get away from that.
Enterprise Heads to Sci Fi Channel
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 3, 2006 in Star Trek
Some good news for Star Trek fans:
Enterprise Heads to Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel has picked up the four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise to premiere on the cable network early this fall. Enterprise, starring Scott Bakula as “Captain Jonathan Archer,” originally aired on UPN from 2001 to 2005, and its 98 produced episodes have been in syndication ever since.
The new venue for Enterprise is part of a package deal between Sci Fi Channel and CBS Paramount Domestic Television that includes multiple made-for-television movies and other series, including Threshold co-starring Brent Spiner (“Data”) and produced by Enterprise co-creator Brannon Braga. Threshold was CBS’ entry in the competitive sci-fi/thriller field last fall, but was pulled from the network after eight episodes. Twelve episodes were shot — all of which have aired overseas — so the Sci Fi deal will give U.S. audiences a chance to see the whole series on TV. (Of course, serious fans can pick up the DVD starting August 22.)
Imperial Star Destroyer in Lego
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 3, 2006 in Hobbies and Collections
Check out this amazing Flickr set of a Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyed made out of Lego:
Video Games That Never Got Made
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 2, 2006 in Videogames
Photoshop contest of video games that have never made it out the beta stage:
Video Games That Never Got Made
Sarah Jane: Doctor Who Spinoff in the Works
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 2, 2006 in Dr. Who
Rumored for many months, there is now confirmation that a new Doctor Who spinoff series starring Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith, from the Tom Baker era) will be put into production:
Sarah Jane Investigates
The BBC’s in-house newsletter Ariel today released information suggesting the identity of the second Doctor Who spinoff series that has bee rumored for the past several months, one that will bring back Elisabeth Sladen, who appeared last season in the episode “School Reunion”. Says the item, “CBBC is developing a spin-off series from Doctor Who based on the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane, played by Elizabeth Sladen, and to be written by Russell T Davies. Sladen, who originally played the Doctor’s assistant in 1973, returned for the last series where she was seen vying with young Rose Tyler for the Doctor’s affections.”
Possible Habitable Planet in Nearby Star System
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 1, 2006 in Science
What’s cool about this is that so far we’ve only discovered about 200 planets outside our solar system, so my guess is the number of discoveries will only continue to grow over the next century – and maybe just one of those planets will be like Earth:
In recent years, with improving technology, researchers have found a handful of systems that could harbor life-bearing planets, in theory at least. A nearby star called 55 Cancri is one of the leading candidates.
The 55 Cancri system involves three gas giant planets and another world that could be icy or rocky and is about the size of Neptune. The setup is 41 light-years from Earth and about 4.7 billion years old, comparable to our Sun.
Astronomers have said since 2002, when a planet was found at about the same orbital distance from 55 Cancri as Jupiter is from the Sun, that the star had the potential to harbor an Earth-sized world.
Transformers Teaser
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 1, 2006 in Cinema
The new Transformers flick is coming out in 2007, from the looks of this clip at least we know it will look slick:
Atari Pole Position Commercial
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 1, 2006 in Videogames
This commercial is like an odd mashup of NASCAR, Footloose, and Pong:
The New Batman movie will be the Dark Knight!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 31, 2006 in Comic Books
I hope Hollywood doesn’t screw this one up – I’d love to see Clint Eastwood play Batman if this is true:
THE DARK KNIGHT: Title and Ledger As Joker Confirmed
http://www.filmrot.com/articles/news/007194.php
After months of specualtion we got our first hint of who would play Joker in the Batman sequel at Comic-Con. At first many of us, including yours truly, hemed and hawed at the rumor. I wanted it to be mere speculation, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. Well, love it or hate it, it’s official. SciFi Wire has just learned that the title to the next Chris Nolan Batman film is The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger will in fact play the Joker. We can put these rumors to bed now and kiss them good-night. Will this be a wise career move on Ledger’s part, or will this turn into so many gay movie puns? Let the rejoicing/bitchfest begin!
Outer-Space Sex Complicated
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 31, 2006 in Science
This looks like bad news for the space tourism industry:
Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy — but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well. Spacesickness, for instance. And the difficulty of choreographing intimacy. And the potential for sweat and other bodily fluids to, um, get in the way.
“The fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality,” NASA physician Jim Logan said here Sunday at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2006 conference. Nevertheless, Logan and others say the study of sex and other biological basics in outer space will be crucial to humanity’s long-term push into the final frontier.
…by the way there’s been a book and website published on topic:
Battlestar Season 3 Trailer
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 30, 2006 in Battlestar Galactica
I still like 70s disco version better than this current series:
Matt Damon as James T. Kirk?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 30, 2006 in Star Trek
A new Star Trek movie is coming out in ’08 with matt damon as James T. Kirk:
Star Trek XI (2008)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/
Dragon’s Lair Returns!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 30, 2006 in Videogames
It looks like the 80’s classic Don Bluth laser disc game Dragon’s Lair is back:
It’s been 23 years since Dirk the Daring first vowed to rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of a nasty dragon, Singe. As the world’s first laserdisc arcade game, “Dragon’s Lair” looked more like a Saturday morning cartoon than a video game, created by former Disney animator Don Bluth (“An American Tail,” “The Land Before Time”) with lead game designer and programmer, Rick Dyer.
Millions of gamers dumped quarter after quarter to control the brave but dopey knight, and many home-based versions have surfaced over the years for computers, video game systems and even DVD players. But this week, publisher Digital Leisure begins selling a new PC version, the first with high-definition video. To create “Dragon’s Lair HD,” the company says a sophisticated film transfer technology was employed to preserve the original Cel animation. Plus, for the first time, the game’s audio was remastered in 5.1 surround sound. The result is a gorgeous but short-lived and pricey adventure that will likely appeal only to those with a sentimental soft spot for the 1983 arcade game.
For more info check out:
Digital Leisure
http://www.digitalleisure.com/
The Simpsons Maker
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 30, 2006 in Animation
Check out this Flash movie which allows you to make your own character from the Simpsons:
