Archives: Offworld Originals

DREAM COME TRUE: NOBY NOBY BOY VIDEO GRANTS BOY HIS MUSICAL WISH

4.24.2009

The video accompanying Keita Takahashi’s latest official transmission to the PlayStation.Blog about the upcoming addition of offline multiplayer holds a tiny secret that seems to have gone over most collective heads.

True, for a video alleging to show how swallowing the split tail of another player’s Noby will create a new fused BOY — with one player controlling the first half and the other player the second — it comes up basically entirely short, what it does do is make BOY’s previously mentioned dream of new music come true, even if it does have a conspicuous lack of castinets.

Head over to the official post for Takahashi’s diary about the run-up to his GDC session, and see how high we can collectively push Japanese film Yureru’s IMDB Moviemeter quotient investigating why it might have put him in a depressive funk.

Noby Noby Boy Multiplayer Update [PlayStation.Blog]

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SURE SHOT: POPCAP’S PEGGLE INTEGRATED INTO WORLD OF WARCRAFT

4.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

7 Replies

Your good-things-in-the-most-unlikely-of-places dose for the day: after the integration of casual staple Bejeweled into the game last September, PopCap has announced a free downloadable addon to World of Warcraft that lets you play their popular pachinko/pinball/plinko mashup Peggle entirely inside the MMO itself.

The addon is more than a simple UI enhancement, though, PopCap and Blizzard have tied the two games together by adding a new /peggleloot command that lets players “roll” for loot by taking their best Peggle shot.

PopCap’s also fully themed the addon with new unlockable ‘talent trees’ with special abilities that give your shots a chance to ‘crit’ on peg hits, unique ‘Peggle master’ characters, and twelve levels based on Azerothian locations.

See more screenshots and download the free addon here.

Bejeweled, Peggle World of Warcraft addons [PopCap]

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HEY LA: GO SEE STREET FIGHTER TRIBUTE ART EXHIBITION JAB STRONG FIERCE

4.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

DIG HARDER: MORE IMAGES OF Q-GAMES’ NEXT PS3 DOWNLOADABLE PIXELJUNK

4.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Slowly, slowly, the lid peels back: as more members join Q-games’ previously mentioned Facebook campaign to get one million people to buy their next PS3 downloadable PixelJunk game on launch day, the studio has kept its promise of teasing more images. At right, the first full frame photo of the game’s subterranean domain, with the first hints of liquid dynamics.

Also added, the first vehicular shot making its way through the fluid. Head over to (and join) the event page, or the PixelJunk 1-4 fan page for more information.

PixelJunk home [Q-games]

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BLEED FOR ME: UNDOING ATARI 2600 EMULATION PERFECTION

4.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

Via Ian Bogost (author of the recently mentioned book Racing the Beam, chronicling the life and times of the Atari 2600), a new project to make Atari 2600 emulation more authentic by re-introducing the ‘undesirable’ qualities of CRT televisions that have since been stripped away, qualities like color bleed and flicker that programmers purposefully relied on.

Above, one of the five solutions by Georgia Tech Computer Science students which will eventually be worked into 2600 emulator Stella as a configurable option to bring that razor sharpness back into its proper fuzzy un-focus.

See more about the ongoing project at Bogost’s site.

A TELEVISION SIMULATOR – CRT Emulation for the Atari VCS [Ian Bogost, via grandtextauto, via waxy]

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BITEY BAT BIT: ANNA THE RED’S CASTLE CRASHERS BENTO

4.23.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Games-related bento boxes could so easily become the new hot ‘game-cake’ meme, if it wasn’t being spearheaded solely by food artist Anna the Red.

Above, probably the most adorable box she’s done yet, part of her latest series based on The Behemoth’s Xbox Live Arcade offering, Castle Crashers.

See her full bento set on flickr here.

Castle Crashers bento 2 – Animal Orbs!

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BETTEMIDLER.EXE: TUMBLR-GAMING WITH BEN ROSS’S YETI KNIGHT ADVENTURES

4.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

OOH-LA-LA INDEED: MAGGIE WANG’S FRUIT BRUTE, SPACE CHANNEL 5 SACK-DOLLS

4.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Spotted via Tiff’s crafty links, quite possibly the best Sackboy toys this side of LittleBigPlanet‘s official output: you might’ve seen Maggie Wang’s original crocheted creations last month, particularly her Spock, Hellboy and Prince of Persia Sack-people, but more recently she’s uploaded some newly commissioned creations.

My two favorite (as above), an Ulala Sackgirl, inspired by Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s neo-future swinging-60’s rhythm game Space Channel 5, and (far more left field) the Fruit Brute Sackboy, indeed inspired by the long-forgotten General Mills cereal mascot.

Contact Maggie for a custom Sack-person of your very own.

Maggie’s custom Sackboy lineup [Maggie Wang, via spritestitch]

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LISTEN: DUTYCYCLE’S JENS AND THE JAUNTYJACKALOPE SAMPLER EP

4.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Like their last showcase sampler, the folks at DUTYCYCLE have put together a new free EP to get a taste of the bands about to play at Thursday’s electro DJ party in celebration of the release of Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu Linux version 9.04).

The EP features chiptune regulars like STARPAUSE but isn’t exclusively chip music, though my top pick of the EP (next to Harbour’s downtempo and dubby “did you forget”) is Wyatt Gurp’s “The Dark Sword of Chaos”, the theme song for an 8-bit boss battle never made.

The release party itself will take place Thursday April 23, 2009 at 8:00pm at San Francisco’s Caffeine, located at 835 Geary, and will feature “new school electro DJs making music on Linux, Linux robotics demonstrations courtesy of Orb SWARM, free Jackalope CDs, and a fat bearded dork wet Linux t-shirt contest (weather permitting).” (! to the last bit there)

See more info via the event’s Upcoming page, and download the sampler via the DUTYCYCLE blog (direct download the zip here).

Jens and the Jauntyjackalope sampler EP [DUTYCYCLE, Upcoming event page]

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TENTACLE YARN: CUTELY CRAFTED DAY OF THE TENTACLE, SAM & MAX AMIGURUMI

4.22.2009

Tiff Chow

8 Replies

[Guest blogger Tiff Chow has dabbled in games journalism, graphic design and illustration, but now spends most of her time making the blog-world a better place at Six Apart. She can also be found at her personal blog, making regular appearances on Area5’s video podcast CO-OP, or stretching and coiling her worm-like body around various objects.]

Every once and a while it’s well worth it to dip your toes into the Flickr photo pools of geek and videogame crafts. Browsing today to see if Perler bead fan art had taken its post-impressionistic course, I was instead thrilled to find snorkmaiden‘s tiny crocheted Day of the Tentacle amigurumi. Crafted with keen detail, take note that Purple Tentacle is properly poised with two arms and a unibrow in opposition to his much less mutated Green Tentacle comrade.

As long as it’s a good day for LucasArts craft work, don’t miss out on karaimame‘s intricately designed Max amigurumi, which looks just as four-fingered and maniacal as the original hyperkinetic rabbit thingy himself.

Green and Purple Tentacle and Amigurumi Max [flickr, via Sprite Stitch, thanks John!]

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