Planeta Pluton

This is a Japanese astronomy themed game! It’s more fun to play if you don’t quite understand what’s going on:

Planeta Pluton

Space Invader Skateboards

For the 8bit skateboaring fanboy:

Invader x Mekanism Skateboards

“Paris-based skateboard company Mekanism invited Space Invader—the French graffiti artist known for his mosaics—once again to have his way with their decks. Expanding on the limited edition turquoise and red mosaic print that Invader came up with on their first collaboration (back in ’05), there’s only one per edition and they’re made with actual tiles.”

Comic Book DS

So you have a Nintendo DS and you want to read comic books? Here’s the answer:

Comic Book DS

RayRay Parade

Try to get every RayRay to StandStand:

RayRay Parade

Tobby In Danger

This silly Flash game seems to be from Japan, and you play an Indiana Jones doggie looking for relics:

Tobby In Danger

Pokémon Retrospect

It’s amazing to think that Pokémon has been around for ten years:

Pokemon 10-Year Retrospective
Happy anniversary to those Pocket Monsters. And here’s to ten more.

“It’s happening again. You shouldn’t be surprised. You know how successful they’ve been – how deeply ingrained they’ve become. You knew it was only a matter of time before they, the Pokemon, mounted yet another invasion. Now it’s happening again, and you’d do well to prepare yourself.

The fourth generation in the Pokemon series debuts in Japan this week, with the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl on the Nintendo DS. The new adventures follow the long-established Pokemon RPG formula, adding new monsters to catch and new ways to interact with other players – like Nintendo Wi-Fi support. The games are expected to sell millions in Japan, as well as here in the States – but American gamers will have to wait. Diamond and Pearl won’t be coming to other markets until next year.”

Ten Years Ago: Nintendo64 Promo Film

On September 29th, 1996 (ten years ago) the Nintendo 64 was released in North America, this video follows a bunch of gamer fanboys playing with the new system:

Read more…

Attack of the Sprouts

This is a very very silly game – even the opening theme song is great, it’s a parody of an 80s “Tears for Fears” song (I also love the Terry Gilliam art direction too):

Sprouts Flash Arcade Game

Line Rider

Check out this fun Flash game, you get to draw a line and then a cartoon character rides a sled down the line that you’ve drawn:

Line Rider

I was a Virtual Stripper

This is the sad (or silly) tale of a reporter going “undercover” to do an expose on the virtual sex trade business, so I guess that would make this “virtual journalism”:

I was a virtual stripper

“Should I wear the black heels with the red stockings or the white heels with the pink lingerie? This is the type of question that plagued me in my “Second Life” as a working girl. A few weeks ago, I created a female avatar to research the booming sex industry inside this virtual world. I called her Darlene Sin. Why leave anything to the imagination, right?”

…so if the reporter (Derrick) was playing a girl online does that also make him a virtual cross dresser?

Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings

This is the trailer for the new Final Fantasy XII spinoff on the Nintendo DS, it looks pretty neat:

Space Invaders Wrapping Paper

It’s the ultimate wrapping paper for retro-game fanboys:

Whimsypress.com

Virtual Ant Farm

This new game fom the makers of Tamagotchi looks like fun:

Salary man Sims

“Perhaps not entirely grasping the concept of escapism, Bandai, creator of the hugely successful Tamagotchi, is set to release Ant’s Life Studio in November – a virtual ant farm that requires its ‘owner’ to build nests, feed the queen and avoid getting eaten by hungry spiders.”

Japanese website link:
asovision.com/ant/index.html

Captain N: Retro Nintendo Cartoon

In 1989 Nintendo had an animated TV show that ran for a few years:

Captain N: The Game Master

Captain N: The Game Master is an American animated television series that aired from 1989 to 1993. In the U.S., the show aired as part of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on NBC. The show incorporated elements from many of the most popular Nintendo games of the time. The show was cancelled along with several other cartoons once NBC started changing its format to make more time for news programs. Criticism from government and watchdog groups that NBC’s Saturday morning lineup consisted mostly of thinly veiled commercials aimed at children also may have played a role.

Human Space Invaders

Some people have way too much time on their hands:

Star Wars Force Power Preview

Here is a preview of the new next generation Star Wars game:

Rumor: PlayStation Phone

Looking at the success of Nintendo’s DS this might be pretty cool, of course I’m still holding out for an iPod phone from Apple:

Sony May Introduce PlayStation Phone

“Although no official announcement has been made yet, it’s clear that Sony has plans to leverage its massive PlayStation brand equity among gamers looking at the phone market. The real question is whether the company intends to add phone functionality to the PSP, introduce an entirely separate PlayStation phone device from Sony Ericsson, or do something else entirely. According to an interview in Japan’s Nikkei BP with Sony Computer Entertainment corporate executive Izumi Kawanishi, Sony hinted that going forward the PSP may become more and more of a network device.”

The First Legend of Zelda Commercial

This is the very first Legend of Zelda commercial in the United States for the NES (created in Japan in 1986). The commercial is pretty funny stuff, it features a vintage hip hop beat:

Sam and Max are back!

One of my favorite games of the CD-ROM era was Sam and Max put out by LucasArts. In an era of Doom shooters, Sam and Max was based on storytelling and characters. I also loved the fact that it used humor and has some very good writing and artwork as well. I was very happy to read that there is work being done on a new Sam and Max game, my only regret is that looking at the screen shots it seems like they are doing it in 3D, it would be nice to see if they went with a flat cartoon style:

Sam and Max Are Real! A Visit to Telltale Games

“You might have surmised from reading previous entries on this very blog that I am a fan of Sam and Max Hit The Road. It’s fair to say that the classic LucasArts adventure game was “one of the defining events of my mid-adolescence,” as I put it to one of Telltale Games’ marketing gurus as he drove me from the bus station to their office in San Rafael. Oh! Did I mention that I took the bus up to San Rafael to visit the offices of Telltale Games? And saw a real live demonstration of their upcoming Sam and Max title?”

Japanese Commercial Set In Super Mario World

This is a neat hybrid live-action/stop-motion animation featuring a Japanese girl dressed up in a Mario outfit, riding a claymation Yoshi through the Super Mario World landscape which is populated with bottles and cans of Kirin Lemon instead of the typical coins and pipes:

History of Video Games

This is a documentry on this history of video games – it features a great interview with Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari:

Reservoir Dogs video game trailer

I don’t know, is it me or does this game look quite lame? The trailer doesn’t quite capture what made the film so good, I mean do I care where Mr. Pink put the diamonds? Also by following the film so closely it looks like they suffer from bad game design by being too linear, but you be the judge:

Atari 2600 Commercial

According to Wikipedia: “The Atari 2600, released in 1977, is the first successful video game console to use plug-in cartridges instead of having one or more games built in. Originally known as the Atari VCS—for Video Computer System—the machine’s name was changed to “Atari 2600” (from the unit’s Atari part number, CX2600) in 1982, after the release of the more advanced Atari 5200. It was wildly successful, and during the 1980s, “Atari” was a synonym for this model in mainstream media.”

Here’s a cool commercial from the golden age of video games:

Create Your Own Xbox 360 Game

It’s very cool that Microsoft is doing this – creating video games has always been very closed, hats off to Gates and Co, on this one:

Microsoft Invites the World to Create Its Own Xbox 360 Console Games for the First Time

“In the 30 years of video game development, the art of making console games has been reserved for those with big projects, big budgets and the backing of big game labels. Now Microsoft Corp. is bringing this art to the masses with a revolutionary new set of tools, called XNA Game Studio Express, based on the XNA platform. XNA Game Studio Express will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.

By providing an integrated, seamless development environment based on Visual Studio Express and .NET that simplifies the integration and use of game content, XNA Game Studio Express makes game development easier to accomplish for smaller projects, strongly increasing the chance for great game ideas to make it out of the concept stage and into the hands of gamers everywhere.

The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform. XNA Game Studio Express will give anyone with a Windows XP-based PC access to a unified development tool that liberates the creation of great Xbox 360 and Windows XP-compatible games, providing a new alternative to the existing multithousand-dollar development kits that many console games require. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season.”