Sundance Channel

Video game deaths & Woody Allen

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:26:24 +0000

As a bookend to my previous entry highlighting an archive of classic video game title screens, Boing Boing put together this YouTube video montage of digital deaths from popular video games of the 8- and 16-bit era (or in the case of Pong, 1-bit - Oh snap!). The editing and the accompanying soundtrack to this video lends it a certain tone that suggests a rumination on the meaning of death, which is the not -so-perfect segue to briefly proselytize about the terrific, two-part American Masters documentary on PBS on Woody Allen, a must-watch for fans, writers and cinephiles alike.

Archive of classic video game title screens

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:30:32 +0000

Interactive designer Cameron Askin created this impressive online archive of the title screens of video games from the pixelated 8- and 16-bit era, preserved as .gif images. Looking at the animation back then, which used to blow my mind as a kid, it's wild to see how far computing power and video games have come over the past couple of decades....

Marina Abramovic: the video game experience

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:47:57 +0000

In the overlapping center of a Venn diagram between the art and video game world is this 8-bit side-scrolling online game adaptation developed by Pippin Barr of Marina Abramović's live installation, "The Artist Is Present," which was presented earlier this year at MoMA. In one of the more buzzed about art exhibits this year, Abramović sat silent and still in the atrium of the MoMA, where visitors lined up for the opportunity to sit across from her, thus "becoming participants in the artwork."

Classic Penguin covers mash-up with video games

Matthew Rodriguez — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:51:12 +0000

I really enjoy Olly Moss’s “Video Game Classics” series where he “redesigned covers for some of [his] favourite video games, based on the classic Penguin Marber Grid.” This “marber grid” was a distinctive style guide created by Polish designer Romek Marber for Penguin book covers. [Via]

Museum of Soviet arcade machines

Matthew Rodriguez — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:14:10 +0000

If you’re heading to Moscow anytime soon be sure to swing by this museum to see their collection of arcade video game machines from the Soviet era. On their website you can actually play a Flash version of the game above. When I first visited Moscow years ago while still in elementary school, I recall [...]

Yakuza video game reviewed by three real-life yakuza gang bosses

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:19:39 +0000

This is one of my favorite things I’ve read lately. Using his contacts that he cultivated as a “fearless-to-a-fault Jewish-American reporter who spent 12 years as a crime beat reporter in Japan”, Jake Adelstein on behalf of Boing Boing convinced three high-ranking Japanese gangster bosses (“Two of the three are missing their pinkies — in [...]

Geekiest marriage proposal ever

Em and Lo — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:00:28 +0000

Warning: only hardcore nerds — or those with a soft spot for hardcore nerds — will find this YouTube footage touching. It goes on for a while, you can’t quite see what’s going on, and there’s no climactic applause and shouts of congratulations at the end. But with a little background info, it becomes more [...]

Faces behind the avatars

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:53:14 +0000

Photographer Robbie Cooper’s project “Alter Ego” is a fascinating series in which he spent three years traveling around the world to snap portraits of people who participate in virtual world games or MMORPG such as City of Heroes, EVE, Second Life, and World of Warcraft. He then juxtaposes their photos with an image of their [...]

PAC MAN: THE MOVIE

Matthew Rodriguez — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:48:29 +0000

PACMAN: THE MOVIE TRAILER from Therefore Productions on Vimeo. It seems like every other day there’s a rumor of some comic book character or hit video game franchise being made into a movie. And when the suits aren’t moving fast enough, some impatient fans go one step further and actually create trailers on their own, [...]

8-bit NYC

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:04:04 +0000

The generations that grew up with the old school Nintendo gaming experience will particularly enjoy this interactive zoomable map of New York City created by Brett Camper that mimics the look and feel of the 8-bit video games from that era. Camper explains: 8-bit NYC is an attempt to make the city feel foreign yet [...]

Pac Man Skeleton

Matthew Rodriguez — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:23:13 +0000

As a long time video gamer I love this skeletal big-headed structure of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-By Ghosts or Pac-Man. This was built by artist Le Gentil Garçon and paleontologist François Escuilié. Study in plaster of a complete skeleton of Pac-man, created by extrapolation from a comparative observation of a human skull and different predatory animal skulls. If [...]

Long distance tug of war

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:10:25 +0000

Ars Electronica Futurelab created Rope in Space, an interactive installation which puts a neat modern digital twist on the traditional game of tug of war. It permits players in two entirely different locations to play against one another. Rope in Space may be perceived by one as only a high tech super expensive version of [...]

Mythology of video game creation

Matthew Rodriguez — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:38:06 +0000

Amusement Magazine’s “Made of Myth” re-imagines classic videos, created not as bits of data, but rather carved, molded and shaped by skilled artisanal hands, such as Alexei Pajitnov: Tetris When Alexei Pajitnov first ordered a load of bricks from Karpov Abramtsevo’s workshop, workers there were wondering who could be interested in all those right-angled blocks. [...]

Stop-motion lego arcade games

Matthew Rodriguez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:17:04 +0000

This short by Michael Hickox would be right in the middle of a Venn diagram overlapping LEGO, classic arcade games, and stop motion video, which are three popular trends lately in the blogosphere.

Stop-motion 8-bit video game water slide

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:12:35 +0000

A fun and well executed stop-motion animation that recalls seemingly every theme from the 8 bit video game era, the pixelation and MIDI electronic music, and blends it with real life locations. It was created by Tea and Cheese for a UK water-slide themed competition. [Via]

Wii graffiti

Andrew Hearst — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:32:50 +0000

A German guy named Martin Lihs turned a Wii controller into a can of virtual spray paint. Here’s video of a recent WiiSpray demo: WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo. [via Daring Fireball.]