THIRDPROJECTJUNO’S SHINEYS MAKE A REAL ROCK BAND STAR
The only thing disappointing about ThirdProjectJuno’s iconic games-smithing is the fact that they’re not for sale (claiming copyright issues, which surely hasn’t stopped a nation of etsy sellers). Above is my favorite of the bunch, a necklace linking all of Rock Band‘s instruments, but I’d also be hard pressed to only choose one between the Tetris ring, Metroid pendant, and NES D-pad.
Thirdproject Shineys [via GamOvr]
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SURE PLAYS A MEAN MARBLE: MARBLE MADNESS FINISHED IN 2:30
In other morning video madness: the only thing more amazing than this Marble Madness expert play video is the champ’s seemingly flailing double-palm whack technique (the original niconico video’s tags include ‘bloody muscle pain’ for good reason).
People are already comparing it to TGM HOLiC’s unbelievable Tetris: The Grand Master 3 video which — if you haven’t seen it already — will leave you speechless, particularly when he continues to play with the fallen blocks turned invisible.
See more posts about: Arcade, Offworld Originals
LISTEN: LEENI’S 8-BIT KABUKI ‘UNDERWORLD’
A fantastic way to start the week: chiptune musician Leeni describes her latest album ‘Labyrinth‘ as “Danny Elfman, Elliott Smith and Bjork [collaborating] on the soundtrack to Castlevania or Zelda” and has marked its debut with this 8-bit mole-man kabuki video for ‘Underworld’ by Niina Koivusalo and Ville Konttinen.
There’s much more to be had — chippy Thom Yorke covers, even — via her 8bitcollective page and home site.
[Leeni.us, via the increasingly excellent Attract Mode]
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
WEEKEND WATCHING: LOOK AROUND YOU MAKES ITS U.S. DEBUT
Unlike last time’s Weekend Watching, this one’s something you’ll have to actually tune your TV to: this weekend (at the very enviable time slot of Sunday at 1am — set your Tivos, probably) will see the Adult Swim debut of BBC2 comedy Look Around You, an Offworld favorite from Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz.
A pitch perfect parody of yesteryear’s ‘technology of tomorrow, today’ programs (if you can follow the chronology there), I offer the most relevantly Offworld-ian bit above as a taste, and, once you’re finished with that, an emulated version of 80’s classic Diarrhea Dan, the F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired toilet-based game featured in the clip.
[Look Around You – US trailer, BBC Minisite]
Previously:
Weekend watching: Rex Crowle's Grip Wrench – Offworld
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LITTLEBIGWATCH: WILL SCOBIE’S LITTLEBIGPLANETOID STICKER PACK
Following its debut release from Brighton-based illustrator Matt Buchanan, Little Big Planetoid has released their second excellently curated designer-series sticker packs, this time south England illustrator Will Scobie with a nice mix of loopy lines and cubic creations, collected via custom in-game levels.
Once again, until LittleBigPlanet allows direct HDD uploads the pictures are of semi-dubious quality, but Planetoid promises the levels will be reworked when the game allows.
LBP Designer Sticker Pack #2: Will Scobie [Little BIG Planetoid]
Previously:
LittleBigStickerPacks – Offworld
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VINTAGE AD, VINTAGE NOTION, VINTAGE VIOLENCE
Unreality’s list of 20 vintage videogame ads is a decently selected list of classic franchises and fun comic art (see Atari’s Mario Bros. ad), but most striking is this ad for Wizard’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a 180 turn from most modern marketing (bar, perhaps, Postal or Manhunt), brazenly using its violence as both a selling point and a healthy anger-management pursuit.
Even better, the above video of its actual gameplay.
20 Awesome Vintage Video Game Ads [Unreality, thanks Tom!]
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HARMONIX HEAD RIGOPULOS ON PS3 AMPLITUDE, IPHONE PLANS
Ars Technica’s latest interview with Harmonix head Alex Rigopulos has scored an effortless Unison Bonus with my heart, and it’s got little to do with the state of the music industry’s involvement with Rock Band going forward.
Instead, (and finally!) Ben Kuchera presses Rigopulos on the idea of working with Sony to get the studio’s earlier work, particularly the Sony-owned Amplitude, done right via the PlayStation Network:
Rigopulos: I would love to. That game is still close to my heart. I love it. I’d love to do a sequel to Amplitude, actually. It’s an issue of prioritization… For us, that lingering question of “what are we going to do about Amplitude” is still very much out there. I would love to come back and do it right for the PlayStation 3, for example.
And, even better, gets him to elaborate on the studio’s obvious next best move: the iPhone, a place I’d love to see HMX show the Tap Tap ilk just how it’s done, either with a reworked port of its outrageously under-appreciated iPod game Phase [buy it now if you haven’t already], or something more original:
Rigopulos: Believe me, we’re looking at the iPhone. If we take a stop on that platform, we want to do it right, so we’re thinking about the specific attributes of the iPhone so we can make it the right step where we can make the product that’s the right product for that platform. We could just do a port of Phase, but I’m wondering if there isn’t something that’s more ambitious that we could do as well. I don’t think we have any specific plans there yet, but needless to say, we’re looking at it.
King of Rock: Ars talks to Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos [Ars Technica]
Previously:
Going deep on music with Harmonix – Offworld
Rock Band bucking the sequel trend in 2009 – Offworld
See more posts about: Harmonix, Offworld Originals
LOST SOULS FREED FROM GAME DEVELOPER ARCHIVES
From retro to retro: Gamasutra has launched a terribly promising new series reprinting archive material from the depths of its Game Developer Magazine reserves, starting with this 1994 premier issue behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doom.
The article’s a treasure trove of quaint technical anecdotes from Carmack trundling through snow to get his hands on a much treasured NeXT cube, to Id’s babysteps into online multiplayer, to its very opening salvo: “In an era of where it often takes 20MB to put in all the advertised features, they did it in less than four.”
The Game Developer Archives: ‘Monsters From the Id: The Making of Doom’ [Gamasutra]
Previously:
Offworld goes to hell – Offworld
Welcome to your Doom in a browser – Offworld
Buy the car that Doom bought – Offworld
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DENKI DOES RECRUITMENT RIGHT
We’ve only got half an idea of what’s actually cooking at Scotland’s Denki — the studio’s site will only cop to their forthcoming Xbox Live game Quarrel and an undetailed Wii game, then “turning [their] attention to the iPhone” (!).
In the meantime, though, they’ve launched a series of playful campaigns starting with the Denki Top 100, a “year-end round-up of the greatest, gaming experiences we’ve ever done,” and now, possibly the best recruitment ad in recent memory, Are You Denki Or Not?
I’m pleased to say I completely aced the test (though I’ve known we were eye-to-eye since Go! Go! Beckham) and half think it could function just as easily as an Are You Offworld Or Not — let us know how you fare.
Previously:
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel – Offworld
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MARIO PHYSICS: MEASURING MUSHROOM KINGDOM GRAVITY
This is what we like to see: something to rival Dan Bruno’s Mother 3 musical malarkey and Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D.’s fantastic 2007 Halo Science 101 (key finding: “For a Halo with a radius of 5,000 kilometers to simulate one Earth gravity, it would have to spin with a tangential speed of slightly over seven kilometers per second. That implies that the Halo would rotate once every hour and fifteen minutes, or 19 ¼ times a day.”) for sheer theoretical madness.
Brooklyn physics teacher Glenn Elert and students have meticulously measured Mario’s rate of descent in each game of the franchise from Super Mario Bros. to Super Paper Mario (the study having been done, presumably, before Super Mario Galaxy — or perhaps its distinct gravitational lunacy instantly set their computational units smoking).
Their conclusion:
Generally speaking, the gravity in each Mario game, as game hardware has increased, is getting closer to the true value of gravity on earth of 9.8 m/s2. However, gravity, even on the newest consoles, is still extreme. According to Wikipedia, a typical person can withstand 5 g before losing consciousness, and all but the very latest of Mario games have gravity greater than this. Also, with gravity that great, it is a wonder Mario can perform such feats as leaping almost 5 times his own body height!
Acceleration Due to Gravity: Super Mario Brothers
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