Here’s a work in progress video of Will ‘Pixel Beard‘ Faulds’ Beard Snatchers, 1954. The Flash game with its 1-bit who-needs-colour aesthetic hearkens back to the original Mac OS System 1.

If this an aesthetic you enjoy, also be sure to check out Ace Team’s (of ZenoClash renown) previously covered The Malstrums Mansion.

Pixel Beard [Will Faulds]

Garth and Ginny‘s “Pixel Films” are about as high resolution as you’re likely to get from a 50×50 pixel square. The latest animation, coming by way of the Brighton Fringe Festival, follows up their first Pixel Film (below) which screened at the famed Pictoplasma festival last year.

Garth and Ginny [G&G blog]

Following up on our previous Korg DS-10 related posts, here’s a pair of DS covers of legendary Japanese synth-band YMO.

NATT021’s dual-DS powered cover of “Rydeen”, embedded above (original version), and PECG300’s Korg DS-10 cover of “Technopolis” below (orginal version.)

Knowing of YMO’s mid-70s electronic and computer game influences and their subsequent influences on videogame music composers like Hitoshi Sakimoto, there’s something genuinely fitting about seeing their classic tunes played on a Nintendo DS.

YMO “RYDEEN” on Nintendo DS (KORG DS-10) [YouTube]

One of the biggest games of this summer takes on one of the biggest films: a Sims 3 powered homage to Star Trek. It’s an epic trailer with green alien sex, dying red shirts, fight scenes, and dramatic Simlish voiceovers.

If even half of the tools used to create this video will be available to end-users when The Sims 3 is released next month, then you can bet on LittleBigPlanet levels of user-created content. This could be huge.

Return of the Trek Guys, The Sims 3 Parody [YouTube]

YARIS’ CROSS-CANADIAN PIXEL ADVENTURE

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5.15.2009

Mike Nowak

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Here’s a faux-retro game styled cinema spot for Toyota’s Yaris by Toronto based Electric Company. This isn’t the first time Toyota has gone after the gamer demographic, having released the first free advergame to grace Xbox Live, Yaris, back in 2007.

It must be a lucrative demographic, since it calls to mind last year’s Spy Hunter inspired commercial from now-defunct Pontiac, for which there is a less seen Making Of video. The “Making Of” is notable for showing that an actual playable Spy Hunter simulator was built just for the ad.

Toyota Yaris [Electric Company]

The above promo for Romania’s just-ended Otaku Festival shows further proof that Japanese geek culture crosses all borders, featuring a hodge-podge of classic videogame references from Frogger to Galaga to Super Mario World.

Otaku Festival 2009 [Otaku Entertainment]

Rome’s Il Creatore produces music using a Commodore 64, SIDStation, talk-box, and a vocoder. Owing to an early 80s italdisco and synthpop influence (the artist’s page cites Kraftwerk, Telex, and Rob Hubbard), it’s all very catchy stuff.

More lo-fi (faked) pixel videos can be found on his YouTube channel.

Il Creatore [iperuranoaddizioni, YouTube]