DISPLACED LIVELY USERS FINDING NEW HOME IN NEWLIVELY?
Via Metaplace’s Raph Koster we learn that a China based company has founded NewLively, a VMRL replacement for Google’s recently shuttered virtual world that’s quite, err, brazen in its interface, down to X-Ray Kid‘s character art on its familiarly-sparse login screen. The company claims, however, that its platform was rebuilt from the ground up:
After the closure of Lively, there is no greater happiness than to duplicate Lively for the sake of the Lively users. We understand that this activity would generate a certain degree of legal risk. However, whenever I remember the disheartenment and disappointment of that many Lively users, this risk is worth taking and the users will support us…
We are not using any codes whatsoever from Google Lively. The entire platform was created new from scratch. Only the concept and the interface remained as Google Lively and the amount of work involved in doing this was quite insignificant in comparison to the creation of the entire system. Moreover, in our understanding of the kinds of platforms, copyright privileges should go to the content providers. As long as these content providers are willing to transfer the platform to Newlively, there will be no issues.
Previously:
Google shuttering virtual world Lively – Offworld
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METAL GEAR SOLID CAST’S CURIOUSLY TENSE IMPROV SESSION
I can’t quite figure out just what’s so bizarre about this 15 minute off-the-cuff riff session with nearly all of Metal Gear Solid‘s voice actors (Debi Mae “Meryl” West was sadly not in attendance), but I’m pretty sure that it all boils down to Paul “Col. Campbell” Eiding quietly lording over the entire proceeding at center back.
Metal Gear Solid Cast Improv [YouTube, via Joystiq]
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RETRO REPOSITORIES FOR THE LOST ART OF THE MANUAL
From one lost art to the next, Metafilter has spotted two fantastic repositories for scanned/PDF’d manuals for games both old and new. Most notable is Vimm’s Lair, which stocks over 350 each for the NES and PlayStation, as well as hundreds more for earlier systems, and Meekeo does the same for the more modern (and commenters call out ReplacementDocs for the PC set).
Edge magazine recently ran a nicely done requiem for/celebration of the dying breed of carefully attentive manuals, and the sadly antiquated practice of including ephemeral ‘feelies’ (cloth/foldout maps and the like). I’ve got especially fond memories of the lavish anime-esque (a term I wouldn’t know existed for another 15 years) artwork that graced the NES’s Zelda manuals for filling in the gaps between the 8-bit iconography and the ‘reality’ it represented.
Online Game Manuals (for free!) | MetaFilter
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WEAPON OF CHOICE
In the most dangerously superfluous update of the day, the juvies at Destructoid have spotted this Instructables how-to that will turn your now outmoded Xbox 360 HD-DVD player into a real live ray-gun, capable of (at very least) burning electrical tape, popping balloons, and lighting matches from across the room, all of which seems like appropriate responses for having sided with the wrong team in the video format war.
New 007 Laser Weapon – Revealed! [Instructables, via Destructoid]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
REMEMBER MADBALLS? THEY’RE BACK! IN GAME FORM.
Winning the Offworld award for Franchise I’d Thought Least Likely To Ever Make A Comeback, Playbrains has announced that cult indie arena-ball-brawler BaboViolent 2 will be given a facelift in 2009 with a new PC and Xbox Live Arcade version, now sporting original characters from short lived 80s fad Madballs (in their first appearance since Ocean’s “we’ll make a game of anything, really” C64 and Spectrum title from 1987).
Truth be told, my interest is actually slightly piqued by the video above, and, as GamerBytes points out, the original BaboViolent worked up enough of a community to spawn its own comprehensive fan-site: this may just be the retro revival we didn’t know we needed.
Madballs in BABO:INVASION [Playbrains, via GamerBytes]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
ROLANDO GETS PAPERED
Fresh off the digital press: Rolando illustrator Mikko Walamies has created a handful of new iPhone wallpapers for Hand Circus, the most charming of which (at right) I believe might just be striking enough to finally unseat Kitsune Noir’s Mcbess paper I’ve been rocking since April.
Rolando Wallpapers [Hand Circus, via Twitter]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando – Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked – Offworld
See more posts about: Hand Circus, Mikko Walamies, Offworld Originals, Rolando
AUTONOMOUS KATAMARI-ROOMBA CLEAN SWEEPS IN 71 MINUTES
As part of his ‘PSX’ interface project that “disrupts conventional game interaction rituals,” Julian Bleecker has created a custom PS2 dongle and script and dedicated himself to answering an important question:
I decided to do an absolutely crucial bit of game science. Something that I am entirely sure is mulled over constantly, but never properly investigated. The question is but stated thusly: how long would it take the Little Prince to roll up an entire room based on a random path algorithm?
His result, via the video above, clocks in at just over 71 minutes, after a semi-excruciating period of consistently missing the final 10 objects (which Bleecker mercifully manually grabs in the end). The full explanation and code are available at the link.
Autonomous Game Controllers [Near Future Laboratory, thanks Tom!]
Previously:
Manifesto for "blogjects" — objects that blog – Boing Boing
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KYLE DOWNES’ SHORT VISUAL HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES
It might lean a bit too heavily on the oft-repeated but dubiously-argued narrative of the industry’s bust and boom (and other console wars tropes), but Kyle Downes’ 3D/motion graphics student project A Short Visual History of Videogames is as pretty as it gets, and came packed in a gorgeously designed case to boot.
His level of dedication is less of a surprise, however, when you realize that he’s the same ‘Ultra Awesome’ Downes that put together the previously covered giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box.
A Short Visual History of Videogames [Ultra Awesome, via GamOvr]
Previously:
Giant working NES controller/coffee table – Boing Boing
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PATAPON: THE TATTOO
While I normally can’t say I cotton to explicit game-character tattoos (the three pixelated invaders gracing my left wrist felt ‘iconic’ enough to not qualify), there’s something inescapably charming about Masatomo Ueda’s 16-man wrap-around Patapon tattoo that ends with Ueda himself as the final boss.
Patapon Tattoo [Milano by beer, via Wonderland]
Previously:
Rolito unleashes new Patapon toy – Offworld
New Rolito toy: Patapon X our one true heart – Offworld
Praise from Patapon and a passionate plea – Offworld
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STILL ALIVE, THEREMIN STYLE
Glasgow’s Greig ‘conquerearth’ hits all the right notes at making a new viral classic: untraditional instrument used for game music – check, Portal tie-in – check, using hack-up tech to outwit a game (here, Rock Band‘s vocal track pitch recognition) – check and mate.
See also: Greig’s covers of Epona’s Song from Ocarina of Time, and the Halo 3 title music.
[via Kotaku]
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