ONE SHOT: ANDY HELMS’ METAL GEAR, THROUGH THE YEARS
Metal Gear Solid chapters one through four, as illustrated by Andy ‘dude-a-day’ Helms [via GSW].
Previously:
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RAGDOLL METAPHYSICS: THIEF 4, EIDOS, AND AN UNCERTAIN AMERICAN LEGACY
This week’s announcement that Eidos Montreal was planning to revive the Thief franchise with Thief 4 might have been overshadowed by the reaction to the ridiculous nomenclature of the logo, but there’s something far more significant at stake: the legacy of two of the most important American game design studios, Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Inc.
These two studios, both now dismantled by their commercial failure, created games which staked out vital territory for gamers. The experiences these games provided were crucial to the evolution of contemporary gaming. The design work of Looking Glass and Ion Storm often expanded what games were deemed capable of, and made the medium as a whole seem bolder, braver and more interesting.
In terms of pure invention, Thief was probably the most important of these games. Its influence on modern gaming remains enormous, effectively introducing the idea of stealth and non-violent first-person action. It also remains a singular experience: none of its imitators have come close. For many people, there is only Thief. (more…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Ragdoll Metaphysics
LISTEN: NULLSLEEP’S DATA SPILLS CHIPTUNE AFTERPARTY
Following the previously mentioned Data Spills show, Jeremiah ‘nullsleep’ Johnson played this afterparty, with graphics by outpt and Paris, the same glitch-duo behind Je Deviens DJ En 3 Jours’s recently mentioned Pulsewave show. [via nullsleep]
Previously:
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THE MUNNY SHOT: SAAIO’S ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS MIDNA MUNNY
The latest best custom vinyl, following Kitt Walker’s Grim Fandango Munny Calavera and Reactor88’s Dr. Mario viruses: saaio’s Midna Munny, from, of course, the Wii’s Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, part of a larger Twilight Princess set. [via Toycutter]
Previously:
- Manny Munny: Kitt Walker's custom Grim Fandango vinyl – Offworld
- Dunny a day: Reactor88's Dr. Mario vinyl viruses – Offworld
- The Munny shot: Albert Art's Earthbound star, Ness – Offworld
- The Munny shot: Earthworm Jim edition – Offworld
- Iain Reekie's posthumous Grim Fandango custom toys – Offworld
- Shark week passed: Camille Young's custom Earthbound toys still …
- Offworld: Toys Archives
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Toys
PIXEL PUNS: STEVEN LEFCOURT’S SPACE IN-VADER T-SHIRT
I haven’t mentioned Duoform Network’s UK fashion label Super Combo since Offworld’s earliest days, but the group’s just released a fresh design: guest artist (and frequent shirt.woot/threadless designer) Steven Lefcourt‘s Darth-punny Space In-vader.
I’ve used the least lascivious shot of the shirt above, click through to aeiko to see it all sexed up.
Space In-vader shirt [Super Combo, via aeiko]
Previously:
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VIDEO: HACK LETS YOU CONTROL SUPER MARIO WITH SINGING, GUITAR AND DRUMS
In Offworld’s effort to become the official repository for every oddball Super Mario Bros hack in existence: inconceivably named artists Marc Sciglimpaglia and Phoenix Toews created this Mario remix that lets you control on-screen action with “claps, singing, guitar and drums.”
The hack was made with Sciglimpaglia’s “nin.reflux” software that can manipulate NES roms as a Max/MSP plugin, and apparently (though I couldn’t dig up any video footage!) was also used at Sciglimpaglia’s 2008 exhibit for:
“Marble Meditation”, an installation where participants can control the game Marble Madness collectively with sound, and “Nightmare Mario”, a fully playable version of Super Mario Brothers with a reworked audiovisual structure, portraying the game world filtered through a vivid post-apocalyptic nightmare.
Marc Sciglimpaglia at the Frank Perrigrino Memorial Gallery [UCSC, via Waxy]
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ONE SHOT: NO-CARRIER’S SOFTWARE-CIRCUIT-BENDING GLITCHNES
Want to create 8-bit glitch-art like Paris, outpt, nullsleep, enso, and the rest of the professionals do? Get No-Carrier’s glitchNES (and see his presentation about it here).
Previously:
- Listen: enso, No Carrier, headlessbarbie's NES flier is Pulsewave …
- PlayPower turning NES/Famicom clones into learning tools for the …
- Listen: preview Alex Mauer's Vegavox II NES cart album – Offworld
- Listen: Nullsleep's Data Spills chiptune afterparty – Offworld
- What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2600) – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, One Shot
(KICKSTART TO) LISTEN: 8-BIT MILES DAVIS TRIBUTE, KIND OF BLOOP
Over at upstart web initiative Kickstarter — a patronage system that lets users propose projects to find interested backers, who can then set their own level of payment based on what they’d like to receive in return — Andy ‘Waxy‘ Baio has set up a new project to fund Kind of Bloop, an all-star chiptune cover album of Miles Davis’s jazz classic Kind of Blue.
Baio explains:
What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.
To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” — I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.
The lineup, in alphabetical order:
Ast0r (Chris J. Hampton)
Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland)
Sergeeo (Sergio de Prado)
Shnabubula (Samuel Ascher-Weiss)
Virt (Jake Kaufman)
Just launched earlier today, the project is already well on its way to being fully funded at the $2000 level, with donations of $5 getting you an early download when the project is complete, and donations of $30 or more getting a limited edition CD version of the album.
I’ve done my part to back the project, and suggest you hurry to get your donation in while you still can via its project page.
Kind of Bloop [kickstarter, via waxy]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
QUEASY GAME: CAPYBARA’S RAINBOW ENGORGED CRITTER CRUNCH COMING TO PLAYSTATION 3
If you’ve been following the indie mobile scene for long, Toronto area dev Capybara Games‘ excellent puzzler Critter Crunch probably hasn’t escaped your attention: the original Java game took home the top prize at the 2008 IGF Mobile awards, which was followed soon afterward by an excellent iPhone port of the same.
Excellent pixels aside, the tiny screens have never quite done Critter‘s characters and soft vaguely-Miyazaki-esque woods justice, but, as witnessed above or as the embedded screenshots below the fold will tell, the upcoming full HD hand-animated PlayStation 3 downloadable version absolutely will.
As you might be able to suss out from the trailer, Critter‘s grid and pull/push gameplay is vaguely reminiscent of classic Neo-Geo puzzler Magical Drop, but with a key difference: rather than simply lining up like colors, the object here is to build food-chain, well, chains, with smaller critters eaten by the next size up, and to collect the crystals that fall when exploding critters clear out their similar neighbors.
Capybara say the game is due for release on the PSN this summer, with both co-op and versus local/network multiplayer modes, as well as Story, Puzzle, Challenge and Survival single-player modes. Hit the jump for more gently eye-searingly gorgeous full-res screenshots as above.
Critter Crunch PSN [Capybara] (more…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
GOTTA NAME THEM ALL: OTAKU FESTIVAL’S GAME REFERENCING PROMO VIDEO
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]
Previously:
See more posts about: festival, Offworld Originals
