Pac Man Carpet

This hand woven Pac Man carpet can be added to your fanboy collection for just $2031. The carpet was designed by the Swedish design company Our Children’s Gorilla. I was also impressed with their vintage robot which had a nice sene of whimsy to it.

Found via GeekAlert.

Face Training on the Nintendo DS

At first this “face training” game sounds silly, but I quite impressed by it. You see about ten years ago as the era of multimedia CD-ROMs was coming to an end I was lamenting that interactive media had so much potential to be more than just shooter games like Doom. So it’s nice for me to see Nintendo reinventing the entire notion of what a game platform should be. I hope this out of the box (or X-box?) thinking comes here:

Faces get muscular exercise with new Nintendo DS game

“A new game for the Nintendo DS handheld machine helps players exercise their facial muscles to have nicer smiles and livelier expressions. “Face Training” comes with a digital camera that fits into the dual-screen machine to show live video of the player’s own face on the right screen while an animation of a woman’s face illustrates exercises on the left screen.

The 16 types of exercises called “facening,” designed by beauty expert Fumiko Inudo, take about two to 10 minutes each to complete. Nintendo Co., the Kyoto-based maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games, recommends playing no longer than 15 minutes at a time. In addition to the animation that serves as a model for players, an electronic voice like an aerobics instructor guides you to twist your mouth, drop your jaw, wink, glare at the ceiling and do other moves to tighten flabby cheeks and develop that bright-eyed look.

Company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa says the game is also entertaining because players end up making funny faces in the name of a better-toned countenance. Overseas sales plans are still undecided, he said.”

Speed Racer Videogame in the Works

This game will be based on the movie (not to be confused with the previous game shown above):

WB gears up ‘ Speed Racer’ game
Studio to self-publish day-and-date release

“Continuing to expand its inhouse videogame work, Warner Bros. will self-publish the game based on next summer’s tentpole “Speed Racer.” Versions of the game playable on Nintendo’s Wii and DS will launch day-and-date with the pic’s theatrical release in May. A version for Sony’s PlayStation 2 comes out in the fall along with the DVD. Given the short development schedule, Warner Bros. apparently decided not to invest in “Speed Racer” games for the high-powered PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.”

Pachimon Game Museum

The Pachimon Game Museum is an online Japanese website that shows off gaming rip-offs from China from the PolyStation II (shown above) to the Jank Box 36X.

Distraction Game (Pyo Pyo Fruits)

Distraction Game (also known as Pyo Pyo Fruits) is a fun Flash game from Japan. What nice about it is that as you play characters outside the frame of the game (shown above) nudge the creen to distract you. My hat is off to whomever cam eup with the design…

Found via Metafilter.

I Spy Fun House Preview

Not to toot my own horn, but my design firm just finished up work on a sneak preview site for I Spy Fun House, an upcoming game for the Nintendo DS platform. The game looks pretty neat as it’s packed with levels of cool brain teaser puzzles.

Stop Motion Vintage Video Games Tribute

The above tribute to vintage video games was created by PES:

The wonderful world of PES

“The concept of Game Over was to take something electronic and remake it by hand, and essentially do it in this style that I’ve been developing where familiar objects that look like other things are swapped in. This is a style that obviously I’ve been working on for a few years now, and I used it in KaBoom!, but this is basically a re-creation of something that’s computerized or electronic, done by hand. And also, a lot of the lore surrounding old video games is virtually unknown to the general public. For instance very few people know that the original Pac-Man character was modeled after a pizza. And this is confirmed by the creator of Pac-Man in a couple interviews that are online. And I thought that that was a beautiful idea – but let’s put that together in the most direct form. Let’s actually animate a pizza as a Pac-Man with a missing slice. That’s just an example of some interesting background thing that I thought was cool to bring to life.”

Space Invaders Tie

In most cases I advise against sporting a fanboy oriented tie in a work setting, however the Space Invader tie shown above is an exception to that rule as the pattern is very subtle and thus in good taste:

Space Invaders Tie

“For men who used to be the boys at the local arcade, this Space Invaders tie is the perfect balance of 80s adolescence and grown up charm. Inspired by the popular arcade video game, this tie looks just like the game screen full of rows and rows of attacking aliens.”

Found via GeekAlterts.

MB Vectrex: Scramble

I love the vintage look of the above hardware, it’s a wonderful example of Tron inspited 80s futurism. MB Vectrex was a home videogame system and Scramble was created in 1982 by Konami which featured a plane going through a mysterious terrain loaded with UFOs and tanks.

Read more…

Nintendo Family Tree T-Shirt

I discovered the above t-shirt design at nerdyshirts.com, I wouldn’t mind having a poster of this too…

Original Generations Commercial

Shown above is a commercial from Japan for Original Generations on the PS2. The actress looks so cute in that mecha cosplay outfit!

Feilong: The China Game

Not to toot my own horn, but Very Memorable Design has just launched a game for the Asia Society:

Feilong: The China Game

By the way the questions are pretty darn hard (some on a college level) so it may take you a few times to win. But if you manage to finish you get to win a wallpaper of Feilong himself! And if you love the online game you can also buy the original board game which goes much deeper (and has cute little plastic dragons to boot).

Shown below is some of the initial designs for the dragon character in the game which were illustrated by Gwen Singley (who’s one of the most talented illustrators that I’ve ever known):

Sphere: A Japanese Escape Game

Sphere is a very engaging Flash game from Japan, I’ve already wasted a bit of time playing it (but enjoyed every minute of it). A hints page can be found here.

Found via LinkFilter.net

Disney Artist Blogs his Creative Work

Todd Harris works as a concept artist at Disney, where he develops new intellectual properties for games. His blog is filled with quite a bit of entertaining artwork:

hog-heaven.blogspot.com

Disney Ride Simulators

Oh sure anyone can go to Space Mountain and take a ride, but what if you could run the ride? Well thanks to the Disney Ride Simulators you can have your dream come true. This fun website allows you take control one of four Disneyland rides: the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor. It’s like playing the Sims for Disneyland fanboys!

The BBC Explores the World of Warcraft

In the above clip he BBC explores the underworld of World of Warcraft currency. They have a great interview with outsourced players in China who earn virtual points and sell them to Brits for real cash.

Grand Theft Mario

And here’s another Grand Theft Auto inspired spoof

Swiped from dvorak.org.

Lego Batman: The Videogame

This is something cool for fans of the Dark Lego Knight to look ahead to in 2008:

‘Lego’ flies with Batman

“The hottest word in the videogame world is, apparently, “Lego.” Following the huge success of “Lego Star Wars” and its sequel, Warner Bros. has signed a licensing deal with Lego to produce a “Lego Batman” game. In a significant, and likely costly, pact, Warner also nabbed TT Games, developer of the two “Lego Star Wars” games, to make “Lego Batman.” Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will fully finance and publish the game itself, as well as handle all distribution in North America.

“Lego Star Wars” titles, both of which sold several million units in the U.S. alone, were family-friendly games featuring characters and settings from the “Star Wars” universe made out of the famous toy bricks. “Lego Batman” will follow a similar template, and Warner will release it in 2008 on multiple consoles.”

Lego My Wii

Some people just have too much time on their hands, but then I see something like this that blows me out of the water! Some fanboy made a Wii out of Lego bricks, but the cool part is what’s inside the box:

Found via Joystiq.

Bunnies Can’t Play Soccer

Here’s a very silly ad for Super Rayman which features disco dancing bunnies:

Nintendo DS Lite Commercial

I like the fact that this Japanese commercial for Nintendo DS Lite isn’t aimed at little kids, but shows grown up people using it as a communications device:

Portable Second Life

Bandai has just announced a new gizmo called Human Player which allows you to create a virtual Tamagotchi of yourself. First, you take a fifty question personality test (called an “Ego-Gram”) which assigns you one of 22 personalities. Now you’re set to have fun with other Human Player owners:

Mmmmm, I wonder what she’s thinking? And here’s a nifty video which gives a nice demo of the product:

Found via Trends In Tokyo.

Metal Gear Solid: The Motion Picture

It looks like Metal Gear Solid will make the leap from video game to the big screen:

Sony gears videogame for film

“Sony is bringing hit vidgame franchise “Metal Gear Solid” to the bigscreen.
Michael De Luca will produce the adaptation, with vidgame creator Hideo Kojima as exec producer. A bigscreen adaptation of the futuristic vidgame has been rumored since last May’s E3 confab, but negotiations with Konami Digital Entertainment have been ongoing. Sony chair Yair Landau confirmed it was in the works following his keynote speech Thursday at the DICE vidgame confab in Las Vegas.”

Atari Frogger and Star Wars Video Games

It’s state-of-the-art graphics and game play from Parker Brothers Video Games in 1982:

Bring the battle home – ribbit!