ONE SHOT: DANGEROUS NINTENDO GIRLS IN TROUBLE
Peach, Samus, and Zelda, in Agent Melon‘s “Nintendo Punk.”
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EVEN FURTHER OFF THE EDGE OF MADNESS: THE TIM LANGDELL/MOBIGAME COPYFIGHT CONTINUES, EXPANDS
Thought the quiet return of Mobigame’s iPhone platformer Edge to the App Store was a sign that the trademark debate had been settled, or even proof of Tim Langdell’s reform? Guess again:
Gamasutra spin-off iPhone site fingergaming has learned that Mobigame has officially been served a complaint from Langdell’s lawyers, alleging that not only is the game a trademark violation, but that mechanically it’s a copy of obscure 1986 Spectrum game Bobby Bearing (it’s worth noting — as Mobigame does — that Bearing itself, along with Spectrum’s Spindizzy, were both heavily inspired by Marble Madness).
(It’s also worth noting here that the argument Langdell’s taken is suspiciously similar to the capper of a very, very, very lengthy comment the pseudonymous and surely entirely impartial ‘bobf’ created an Offworld account [from a Ventura, California Kinko’s] to write after I first posted about the trademark debacle.)
As Mobigame also noted in their latest tweet of new legal threats, in the interim period since the Edge case was presumed settled, Langdell’s also taken the opportunity to file a new UK trademark on the name ‘Edge of Twilight’ in June. The significance? It’s also the name of Fuzzyeyes’ steampunk platformer the studio first announced in 2007 and showed off in 2008, which just recently (as in, in June) made its latest video appearance.
And, to top it all off, fingergaming also says they’ve been in contact with another indie iPhone developer who’s been served a cease-and-desist by International Game Developers Association board member Langdell, who wish to remain nameless as they’re currently seeking legal counsel alongside Electronic Arts.
Fingergaming says that EA, it turns out (and as predicted) have been contacted by Langdell regarding the ‘Mirrors a new game by Edge” game Langdell claims his company is currently developing (for seven platforms, simultaneously) — no word there, though, on whether his similarly late-comer UK filings for ‘Soul Spore’ and ‘Mirrors Spore’ have also been dragged into the fray.
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LISTEN: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE’S MY GIRLS, IN 8-BITS
And while we’re on the subject, let’s just make this our own mini-#musicmonday, and get straight to this: Pieter ‘Dr. Zilog‘ Montoulieu doing a chiptune cover (mp3) of Animal Collective’s hipster runaway favorite My Girls. Zilog takes a few liberties here and there, but essentially captures the spirit, especially paired with his low-res filtered version of Brody Baker/Shelly Zander‘s original video.
This isn’t the first time Zilog’s gone down the 8-bit indie path: above, his version of MGMT’s Kids (mp3). [via GSW]
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INVASION NYC: PHOTOS FROM SPACE INVADER’S JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY EXHIBIT
They’re probably not the most artful shots, but they’re the first on-site looks I’ve seen so far: Michael Surtees of the always excellent DesignNotes blog returns with these shots from inside the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, where the previously mentioned Space Invader show is still open through July 25th.
In addition to the invaders at top (which are more glittery than they appear here), Surtees has this shot of Invader’s ‘Rubikcubism’ VU/Nirvana/Daft Punk/Sex Pistols album covers remade in Rubik’s Cubes.
And this shot (apparently taken somewhere along Bowery), proving that, even after the 25th, the game will continue as city residents spot surreptitiously installed invaders around town.
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CUBICLE RAVE: BRAADWORSTEN BRINGS DEMOSCENE TO MICROSOFT OFFICE
Spotted over the weekend via regular Pulsewave visual artist Paris Treantafeles: demoscene group Braadworsten Brigade’s Breakpoint 2009 submission, Exelence, a demo made entirely in Microsoft Excel 2003. See its scene.org entry here to download the file for yourself and interrupt your next office meeting in style. [via parisgraphics]
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ONE SHOT: FLORIAN HUFSKY’S PUIT PIXEL PIRATES
Whether these pixel pirates form part of Hufsky’s micro/massive Puit Wars, their own game, or are indeed nothing more than a quick-sketch seems a bit beside the point: their tiny Ed Emberley-esque expressiveness is enough for me, and the screen’s proof that all I need to see is a numeral and “pts.” to compulsively want to play.
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VIDEO: THE ORGASMIC, ULTRA-VIOLENT HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES
Oh, and let’s just get this one out of the way, too. You know, normally I might give a video that climaxes with a tri-tone Game Boy Mario humping an orgasmic Lara Croft’s leg (bleeding then into invaders and even Pong paddles getting in on the action) a kneejerk pass, but directors, uh.. MUSCLEBEAVER, somehow make it work.
The ‘BEAVERS say the animation — which wraps up the evolution of games into five minutes of insanity effect ultraviolence from Mario to Monkey Island to DOOM to a bucolic Azeroth nightscape — was worked up as the prologue to a German documentary on World of Warcraft addicts, but no word on whether the full docu ever made it to air. [via ZenAlbatross]
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POLE POACHED: KING OF GAMES’ POLE’S BIG ADVENTURE T-SHIRT
It’s been some six months since I last mentioned Sega’s meta-comedy WiiWare game Pole’s Big Adventure, and by now, it would seem the chances of it making its way stateside are close to nil, but the game’s continued to be a surprise favorite in Japan despite apparently resting itself on one-off gags, riding the charts for at least several months after its initial release.
Other signs of its on-going appreciation: local top games/design/fashion label King of Games has just revealed its first Pole design (following two more by Super Channel), a varsity ring-T featuring the moose-outfitted Poacher, and comes packed in its own special canvas bag — reminiscent, KoG says, of the ones school gym uniforms would come in. [via TinyCartridge]
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ON THE BRILLIANT IRRELEVANCE OF CACTUS’S DEATH PARTY BACKSTORY
My favorite part of Cactus’s video for Death Party, the followup to his 2008 game Shotgun Ninja (available as part of the Cactus Arcade package [zip]) isn’t the continuation of its pre-retro graphics with more decidedly modern mechanics, it’s the deep storyline he gives it on his blog, like a throwback to Atari/C64 back-of-the-box hyperbole:
A small guerrilla squad, called Death Party, undergoes rigorous training to be sent on a mission to take out the mysterious dictator ruling their home land. But how will they uphold their morale as they discover the citizens have all been turned into mindless addicts from drugs introduced into the local water supplies? They soon find themselves in a battle against an over powerful enemy, fighting for no one but themselves. Meanwhile the plot of their adversary seems to expand beyond their wildest imagination.
As usual, it’s always a bit premature to get hopes up for Cactus games that may or may not see the light of day, but, he says, there’s still hope for a few additional levels and a release soon.
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THE POST IT CROWD: PETRI PURHO’S POST-IT-RENDERED INVADER SHOOTER
And so, the cycle is officially complete: from games, to their Post-It note stop-motion animated equivalents [2], now to games rendered in Post-It-Vision, as Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho releases his first entry into the revivified Experimental Gameplay Project’s debut competition.
Post I.T. Shooter — as he’s called it, in a not-so-subtle nod to Graham Linehan’s IT Crowd (the game’s main character is named Moss) — is an extension of the fractal invaders we saw Purho toying with last month, and sees you pitted against invader after oversized invader, all displayed in a jerky, faux-hand-animated Post-It note style.
It’s more difficult than you’d imagine, if only because those oversized pixels don’t leave much room for careful maneuvering — especially as the chipped-at invaders fire more and more frantically — but for a week-long experiment, you couldn’t ask for much more genuinely audacious artistic design.
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