September 30, 2004
'A Mind Forever Voyaging' - from Infocom text adventure to movie script (Ex-pat Brit and ex-games journo Gary Whitta has some interesting projects in the works.)
Evan Dorkin on NY book signing, randomness ("It's always nice to see Mark Evanier, the jolly grim reaper of comics, go dry for a while with his scoops from the front lines of dead old cartoonist-land." HAW!)
Sims 2 goes machinima with Red Vs. Blue creators (Check it out over at The Strangerhood - looks like they got paid by EA, too?)
From Software: Metal Wolf Chaos official page (From-outta-nowhere Xbox mech game by Japanese developers (!) getting lots of forum love right now.)
Famitsu: Mr. Driller DS info (Wow, dual-screen goodness for a great puzzle action game.)
September 29, 2004
William Shatner 'Punks' Iowa town (As a friend pointed out, 'punk'd' is now tragically part of popular vocabulary - damn you, Kutcher and Stewart!)
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam (Stand by for action? Hopefully not.)
Archive.org: 'V/A LOOP01' electronica compilation (Excellent free album from the Chilean weblabel, including semi-famous idm types like Vladislav Delay and Dub Tractor.)
Metropolis: Interview with Japanese 'Harry Potter' translator (Scroll down - 'It usually takes me about a year after the English version comes out to do the Japanese translation. Bookstores and wholesalers always pressure me, but I won't compromise quality.')
Lee's Deli - best cheap lunch in San Francisco (Not so sure about the buffet, but great superdupercheap sandwiches/desserts/bagels/etc to go.)
The Sims 2: 'A Life In Full' (EA's uploadable Sims 2 picture galleries, as tenderly illustrated by Lum the Mad/Scott Jennings of brokentoys.org.)
Half-Life 2 Steam packages announced ('Counter-Strike: Source will become available immediately. Other games will unlock when released' - whenever that is!)
Archive.org: Computer Chronicles - 'Cyber Music' (Includes a personal obsession of mine, Sim Tunes, from the amazing Toshio Iwai.)
September 28, 2004
Lacquer - 'Behind' music video (Missed this - from 2003, but directed by Olivier and Michel Gondry, and a gorgeous cross-country travelogue, to boot.)
Anonymity, privacy, and Everything2 (Excellent piece that applies to pretty much all of online.)
108: Semi-insane Tokyo Game Show wrap-up (Further down the spiral, but rather cogent, always entertaining.)
My Yahoo! beta hyping RSS+weblogs (Including my alma mater, Slashdot - this is a big move toward the mainstream.)
Video-Fenky: Tokyo Game Show wrap-up analysis (An excellent summary on the trends.)
September 27, 2004
Lord Of The Weins: A Dachumentary (Courtesy of dachshund-mad wife, actually looks like an interesting doc!)
Slashdot: Independent Game Festival 2005 entries announced (Blogging my Slashdot submission, uhoh. Some good stuff in here, tho!)
Amazing Race 6 teams revealed (...due to late rescheduling + print deadlines, even though the series isn't going to start for a month or more.)
Richard Branson announces SpaceShipOne-styled Virgin Galactic (The beardy weirdy one strikes again!)
Naka: UGA bong addiction 'A problem' ('I have always said one thing about games; they should be cute and go really fast. But the hashish makes everything swirly and slow – the opposite of this!' UKR+++)
Monotonik: Beak - 'Amoral Mayor Earwig EP' (New and freely downloadable from my Monotonik 'virtual label', featuring 'twinning of multi-tracked acoustic guitars and harder electronics.')
September 26, 2004
Dance Dance Revolution: a FanFiction.Net poem? (More importantly, look at how much more DDR fanfic there is - wow.)
NTSC-UK: Review of 'Fugitive Hunter: War On Terror' game ('Uncanny. Ill-conceived, jingoistic, morally destitute and otherwise appalling.')
Daily Show viewers know more about politics (Not strictly surprising, but now we all feel morally superior, ohdear. Via Waxy)
Plusminuszero super-minimal Japanese electronics line (From toy and videogame creator Takara, no less.)
Sony Japan's self-published PSP game clip-reel (.ASX) (Gives you a good idea of the graphical fidelity.)
September 25, 2004
Alcazar - 'Menage A Trois' (WMV) (Awesomely terrible Swedish pop does French maid video - this is what's _BIG_ in Europe - Popjustice points out the band loves Hyacinth Bucket.)
Anime: Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple! (Brand-new anime series, starring Christie's protagonists alongside the comely assistant Maybelle and... her pet duck, Oliver?! Charming insanity.)
Archive.org: Proswell - 'Llipuru: Songs For' (Great free crunchy electronica album from Proswell.)
Slashdot: an important question for the President (Meme recycling always good - but why isn't speaker bracelets a meme? We wuz robbed!)
TGS: Ferricide has died and gone to heaven? (Famicom carts as big as dinnerplates.)
Ape Escape monkeys in Metal Gear Solid 3? (Well, it is the jungle, after all - IGN has in-game movies that show more.)
New Spongebob Squarepants episodes announced (Rejoice, Spongebob fans, rejoice.)
September 24, 2004
Etoychest: Tokyo Game Show pics. (Super-deformed Halo characters! Booth babes! People shaking hands!)
Anicro Desapro - turns pics into Animal Crossing-compatible images (In honor of the game's European release, shows you how to input mosaics using any picture on your PC!)
Slashdot: Trollback for August 2004 (Keeping an eye on the underside.)
GameSpot's Tokyo Game Show coverage kicking off (Scroll down for _lots_ of initial impressions from TGS titles.)
Well-written AP review for 'Shaun Of The Dead' (Americans, rise from your beds and see this movie this weekend.)
Solidsharkey: Let's play 'Inside Out Girl' in City Of Heroes! (Also see 'Loam' and 'Vagrant Justice' - character creation is a powerful aphrodisiac.)
Ninjabee's 'Outpost Kaloki' indie PC game (The screenshots of this 'humorous space station tycoon game' look intriguing.)
Gamasutra: Storytelling in City Of Heroes (Latest entry in our MMO Resource Guide over at Gamasutra, free req. req, Second Life paper and MMO demographics analysis also proving popular.)
CBS Sports reality show/adventure race contestant killed. ('Struck by a 300-pound boulder', sounds like an accident while hiking, not a game gone wrong - anyhow, sad.)
September 23, 2004
'Lost' plane cut up at Mojave Airport (Incidentally, can Daniel Dae Kim be any more ubiquitous and still live?)
Students replace stripper pole with ping pong table (The embedded text ads currently advertise all ping pong tables, no stripper poles!)
Modesty Blaise prequel produced by Tarantino on DVD? (Or at least, 'Quentin Tarantino Presents', whatever the hell that means anymore. In any case, interesting.)
Hitchhiker's Guide To Galaxy Infocom adventure, relaunched (Mentioned this before, but now it's up - GrandTextAuto links to some interesting technical details.)
Primal Rage: Final Battle fan story (Even less-then-amazing arcade machines, which'll be in Midway Arcade Treasures 2, btw, get adorable fan-art - via Lost Levels.)
September 22, 2004
Hidden elements in Space Quest IV (Includes an inaccessible room with all the items Sierra was ever sued over in other Space Quests!)
Eric Idle explains more on Spamalot (Finally, a Broadway show I yearn to see.)
E2: Future Wolf II: Never Cry Wolf: Origin of The Series (Get the Aqua Teen series 2 DVD, fill in the geeky personnel trainspotting blanks here.)
The Killers - Mr. Brightside video (.RM) (A bit late, but this is _the_ best pop song of the year so far.)
Archive.org: Sabucat vintage movie trailers collection (Not quite public yet, but sneak around anyhow! Great stuff.)
On roleplaying a hermaphrodite in MMO games? ('To me the hermaphrodite woman is the most honest character for me to play because I am a gay male, and I wanted a way to roleplay my RL sexuality into the game.')
September 21, 2004
In Depth: The Eddie Campbell Interview (Alan Moore's 'From Hell' artist - and lots more, obviously - speaks..)
Pongmechanik - mechanical 'Pong' tabletop game (Older skool than oldskool - via Waxy.)
Bullet Philharmonic Orchestra - Japanese freeware PC shmup ('You are able to shmup to audio files. BPO shoots out bullet patterns as the song plays, YOU DODGE. Award for graze dodge.' GREAT idea!)
Our Man In Japan: patching console games (Interesting piece - it's on multiple pages, don't forget to hit 'Next'.)
Superthin PS2 officially announced (That's pretty slimline - other big new announcement would be Nintendo DS release date/price.)
September 20, 2004
Gamasutra: MMO Resource Guide 2004 (Week-long article series from day job - first article is about art directing 'virtual world' There - free req. req, also see non-reg printable version.)
Google Images: 'Nintendo DS' (Every single image on the first page of results is a fake! What does this say about Google image search? Interesting..)
Ninja Ensemble live @ Leppäkosken Rytmi, Leppäkosken, Finland (OGG) (Great freely spreadable live set from shadowy figures partly behind the gorgeous Aleksi Virta album on Monotonik.)
Google Labs aptitude test sheet (They're taking the mickey, ain't they?)
Harry Potter Lexicon's 'open letter to Jo' (Testing the theory that J.K. Rowling knows everything about everyone, one detail at a time.)
Baoum - 'Exhibit A' PC demo (Just released at the Pilgrimage demo-party in Salt Lake City, visuals by Phoenix and werkkzeug, neet sound by bneely.)
September 19, 2004
Spaced showing on Trio starting tomorrow (Monday 20th)! (One of the best sitcoms _ever_ finally gets a decent U.S. showing, ahead of Shaun Of The Dead's American release. You. must. watch.)
Kuma War try John Kerry sim to get publicity (The whole Hussein/Bin Laden sim thing didn't work out for them, getting more desperate...)
Urbex: Locked In Hellingly (Dodging security guards and exploring burnt-out UK sanitariums, with pictures.)
Archive.org: 'More Dangerous Than Dynamite' (Don't clean your clothes with gasoline, people! New from Rick Prelinger's priceless ephemeral film collection.)
Tantrum Entertainment: 'Spudvision' by Steve Purcell (Holy crapola, the 'Sam & Max' creator has a new graphic novel coming out - also see gorgeous signed 'Sam & Max' posters on same site.)
Adam Cadre on Moore's 'League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (Sure, a bit late to the table, but Gaming Hacks contributor Cadre is super sharp.)
September 18, 2004
Pee-wee's Playhouse coming out on DVD? (About 1200 minutes worth, great for us who were stuck in the UK and missed it the first time.)
Fasco's Flash-based online adventure games (Japanese-created, flat-shaded minimalist Myst-style Flash adventures for free - intriguing.)
Are pizza restaurants the new arcades? (From the super-niche PizzaMarketPlace.com, specifically for people who run pizza restaurants!)
Everything2: 'Top 10 Reasons to Re-Elect George W. Bush' (Entertaining flamebait, plus infinity.)
1UP: Dream Games - Capcom Crash! (Toastyfrog's zombie-chomping-on-ServBot illustration is pure comedy gold.)
September 17, 2004
Gamasutra: SpeedTreeRT postmortem (Interesting look at some _very_ specific gaming middleware from day job - free reg. req, non-reg printable version also available.)
Why NBCOlympics.com didn't suck (From one of the creators - 'the Internet deserves a bit more respect than being a shovelware medium for a broadcast product'?)
'Getting a job in the game industry' simulator (Use those points wisely!)
Grover uses mnemonics to be a perfect waiter. (Always classic, always Sesame Street, always Toughpigs.)
Horrible lyrics to Hikaru Utada's new English-language album ('You're easy peasy / and I'm japanesey'? Nice!)
September 16, 2004
Forum avatar: 'Potat-owned' (More silly forum graphical-based 0wnage.)
Everything2: 'They Hunger For Nodes' (Write an E2 node about something scary, without consulting The Mad Arab Abdul Albonezred or the Nodronomicon? Check out last year's quest for more sheer terror.)
Archive.org: 'Keep Off The Grass' (The 'definitive anti-marijuana film' from the amazing AVGeeks film archive.)
Studio440's sound studio on a yacht (Wow, super high-end music studio stuff - also see Jermaine Dupri's studio and lots more.)
Fort90 on 2D Slug-esque 'Alien Hominid' (Looks like a retro console treat, from American developers, no less.)
September 15, 2004
Star Wars Fanart (?): 'The Fatal Kiss' (No idea, but Anakin must love Darth Maul in that _adorable_ outfit, no?)
Godfather Horse's Head Pillow (Marvellous concept, via the now reconstituted Waxy.)
SpeedTree: Trees Of Pangaea demo (Very cool forest/foliage rendering middleware solution gets awesome new real-time demo.)
Astounding 'party platter gene' revealed? (The story is standard, but: 'Experts are investigating couch potato genes, stop-eating genes, can't-resist genes, and even the possibility of a party platter gene'? Classic!)
Archive.org: Kikapu's 'Wein, Weib und Gesang' compilation (Wow, gorgeous, free 5-hour ambient compilation from a v.good netlabel.)
Cannonball Run Europe status reports (Getting busted by the Spanish police? That never happened to Burt Reynolds.)
September 14, 2004
System16: Konami Bubble System 1985-era arcade hardware (Weeird.. 'You can tell bubble soft games by the startscreen "wait while system heating up", because the BM needs to be heated up to between 30-40 degrees to work properly.')
BBC: 'Page 3 Girls: the naked truth' (SFW, a neat potted history of the newsprint and nudes-print phenom.)
To Evil!: Evil Of August 2004 (Danny 'NTK' O'Brien lost in jungle, deliriously funny.)
Slightlydark: 'Game Music Festival Live '93' album (Unfortunately not official, but wow, '93-era performances from Zuntata (Taito), Gamadelic (Data East), Alph-Lyla (Capcom), and S.S.T. Band (Sega).)
Bruno Bonnell interviewed - 'Regrets, I had a few'? (' I may have been too hasty in the past in acquiring minor studios like Accolade and Gremlin.' Hmmm.)
Gaming-Age: Fanboy wars, Part MCMVXI (The cult of micro-personality vs. the alienated otaku - time for death and destruction!)
Mortal Kombat: The Movie vs. Street Fighter II: The Movie - which sucked less? ('Let Kombat Commence', indeed.)
September 13, 2004
Kermit, Miss Piggy interviewing stars on Emmy red carpet (Perfect to TiVo, so you can forward through Maria Menounos.)
Hacking Perl in Nightclubs (An _extremely_ nuts and bolts attitude to making noise with computers.)
Weekly World News: Nose hair - the latest French fashion craze? (Xenophobic, the WWN? Mais non!)
Oprah gives a $28,000 car to each of her 276 audience members (Damn.)
Gamasutra: Hiroyuki Suzuki art gallery (Free reg. req. at my dayjob, some beautiful Final Fantasy production sculptures.)
September 12, 2004
Archive.org: Street Fighter 2 promo tape for Sega Genesis version (Liberated from BitTorrent onto Archive.org for permanent archiving - has some great Japanese/U.S. Street Fighter commercials in it!)
David Best's 'Temple Of Stars' @ Burning Man (What a beautiful picture - from the Agape BM gallery, via Lacunae's readable Burning Man account.)
Fatboy Slim on the new album, life in general. (The first single ('Slash Dot Dash') had to be re-edited at the last minute due to sample clearance issues, weirdly.)
The Streets: 'Blinded By The Lights' (.MOV) (More from The Streets, the wonderful Colonel Blimp video agency and Adam Smith - UK, real, bleak, right.)
The Chaos Engine: On working in the Japanese games industry (Old, but interesting, and I missed it the first time round.)
Sebastiao Salgado's 'Genesis' photo project (According to the interview, 'seeking out places that are still as pristine as they were in primeval times, places that provide hope.')
September 11, 2004
QT3: Now with regular 3am TomChick updates? (The forum is the famous bit, but the front page is getting some interesting gameblog-styled updates now.)
URLinfo tool for webpages. (Want to know all about a URL? This'll do it.)
Everything2: 'Who's Who on Pitcairn Island' (Dammit, this is why I love E2.)
Amazing OCD-styled list of random videogame stats (Apparently, the Dry Dry Desert Tornado in Mario Kart: DD! travels at 14-15 mph, and Ganondorf's smash in Super Smash Brothers is 209.3ft exactly - via GAF.)
Archive.org: Sundays In Spring indie online label (Not your normal electronica netlabel stuff - some great acoustic, shoegaze-styled indie for free download.)
September 10, 2004
NCSX: the Mario Gimmick Keychain ('Pull down on Mario, release him, and watch as he rockets upwards to pop a gold coin out from the block.' Damn cool!)
Archive.org: Willful Infringement: Mickey and Me (A thoroughly enjoyable, if disconcerting look at Videopipeline's run-in with Disney regarding movie trailer re-editing. )
More pics of ICO sequel 'Wanda and the Colossus' (As with the distinctly cult ICO, the artwork is gorgeously stylish.)
Syndicated LiveJournal version of main ffwd weblog (Thanks, whoever set that up.)
Archive.org: AV Geeks section launched! (A sister collection to the Prelinger Archive, this time curated by Skip Elsheimer, with more astounding ephemeral films.)
Square Enix, Radiata Stories, and wacky character names. (The lead characters' name are, indeed, Jack Russell and Ridley Timberlake - classically Japlish!)
Marubaku - high-score/speed videos on arcade racing games (Some great stuff here, including Outrun 2, Sega Rally, Daytona USA.)
September 09, 2004
Archive.org: 16-bit 'Turtles In Time' TV commercial (Another hidden gem - cowabungie? cowabingo? No, it's cowabunga, dude!)
Video-Fenky: creepy '50s Japanese kids' magazine covers (From the apparently gorgeous Mandarake paper-catalog.)
Austin, TX: 'Tron' cinema showing with the Original Tron Suit Guy(TM) (As originally popularized by Slashdot, and micro-celebrity personified.)
Uberplay board games get TV commercials! (I'm tickled by the Desert Oasis ad - via OgreCave.)
'Classy' PR freebies for 'Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude' (As the post says: 'Houston, we have crapfall.')
Gridrunner++ - Arse On Fire Edition (Windows version) (The ever-psychedelic Jeff Minter gives away a version of his shooter remake for gratis!)
September 08, 2004
Grumpy Gamer - The Cartoon (The ongoing saga of a boy and a game - minimal script by Ron 'Monkey Island' Gilbert, art/non-animation by Clayton 'Voodoo Vince' Kauzlaric.)
PRWeb: Auctions4Christ.com unveiled (Another odd PRWeb 'scoop': 'Auctions4Christ is the only Christ-centered auction site', hurrah - also, best Photoshop evah.)
Everything2: 'Uke syndrome' (Henchmen in James Bond movies must suffer from this.)
Buy Evan Dorkin's Sega Saturn games! (According to his update, he couldn't part with Panzer Dragoon, aww. Comments have great Milk+Cheese cosplayers referenced, too.)
Allan Weisbecker on 'Why Physicists Are the Coolest People on the Planet' (From the rather amazing Captain Zero/Cosmic Banditos writer.)
September 07, 2004
Khonnor's - 'Handwriting' CD - out next month! (Finally, a real-world release for Khonnor, aka Grandma, former Monotonik prodigy - Andy Weatherall says the album is 'beautiful, concise perfect electronic pop music', yay!)
Goldielookinchain - 'Half Man Half Machine' video (WMV) (Great stuff if you like cardboard androids ordering cigs- there's also a .RM version available via Youknowsit.co.uk, the marvelously ramshackle official GLC website.)
Konami's retro collectible mini-CDs announced in Japan (Check out the adorably-named Konamistyle Retoro page for cover pics - the mini-CDs include Castlevania, Gradius, Contra songs.)
Archive.org: 'Skipper Learns A Lesson' (Racial intolerance explained through cute pet dogs! From a new AVGeeks ephemeral film collection that's just starting upload.)
Atari Flashback classic game console announced (Also a very comprehensive PS2/Xbox compilation, but the GAF guys point out that the official press release mis-spells Yars' Revenge, doh.)
September 06, 2004
Pitman - UK Northern miner's music video (.RM) (After GLC, more sarcastic UK 'pithop' - there are lots more on Pitman's official site, ya get meh?)
Sega's Xbox-based Chihiro arcade system cracked to run on Xbox? (Piracy-wise, cracking the Chihiro is kinda lame, but it's definitely technically impressive.)
Insert Credit: Matthew Kumar on the Edinburgh International Games Festival (Posted a bit late, but the most readable account I've seen.)
Download Netflix movies onto your TiVo? (Not quite an announced deal, but salivation may commence.)
Script kiddie puts out badly spelled press release to announce retirement? (PRweb is a wacky site - other press releases include Amish furniture advances and attempt to get Clinton-related media attention from an opportunistic heart attack survivor.)
September 05, 2004
Restaurant recommendation: Blowfish Sushi, San Jose (Whether in SF, SJ, or LA, try their Godzilla Roll - sweet shrimp, mango, avocado, caramelized cashews, roasted coconut, and aonori - wow.)
ffwd: more details on 'Gaming Hacks' (Just in case you read the linklog, and not the main ffwd weblog!)
GoldieLookinChain - 'Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do' (.MOV) ('From Bristol Zoo, to B&Q' - Welsh hiphop superstars, uhh, tell it how it is.)
Japanese ad ripping off Daft Punk's 'Around The World' video (.RM) (Another interesting Michael Gondry-related item, courtesy Director-File.)
The Willows - 'I Wonder' Michael Gondry-directed music video (Particularly surreal fripperie from the ever-genius Gondry - immediately get his Palm Pictures music video DVD if you haven't.)
September 04, 2004
New album from Handsome Boy Modeling School out in November! (Dan the Automator and Prince Paul hit up Franz Ferdinand, Jack Johnson, Pharrell, Jazzy Jay, Linkin Park, John Oates... Cat Power?! Will be majestic, I guarantee it.)
To boldly go Starship Enterprise scootering? (Now that's geeky. Via Fort90.)
Japanese AM arcade show gallery (Arcade machines still big in Japan - but what are bong action figures doing there? More galleries over at SNK-Capcom.com.)
Weekly World News: 'I Was Bigfoot's Love Slave' (Only the cover image, sorry, so here's how to tell if your prostitute is an alien to make up for it.)
Monotonik: Izmar - 'Stuff EP' @ Archive (Latest release from my net.label, a Fila Brazillia-esque EP from a Dutch ex-techno producer.)
Private Eye: Random lookalikes (Good ones include Prince Charles/Dobby, Prime Minister/Troll, and, from this week's, Njaf/Millenium Falcon.)
September 03, 2004
LifeGem - diamonds created from 'the carbon of your loved one.' (Probably works best if they're deceased, but they don't have to be, I guess.)
'Posting and You' - a guide to Valve's Steam forums (.SWF) ('Wo ho hooo, slow down there, Little Billy!')
Loonyboi on 'the greatest Archie story ever told' ('Here we have the greatest panel in Archie history, where [Archie] asks Betty to get undressed.')
Video-Fenky on Acclaim's demise ("The Acclaim... man showing me Interview [With A Made Man] called it the first of a trilogy of games. Yeah, so was Floigan Bros.")
Infinium Labs actually out of money? (Rumors of 'trouble meeting payroll' for Phantom creators, SEC filings may agree.)
Text adventure mistaken for Doom 3, DMCA takedown request ensues. (There needs to be a layer between the automated bot, and the actual email sending, perhaps? Via Waxy.)
'Superpubs' slash price of beer in the UK. (The pub is now an even cheaper epicenter of English social life.)
September 02, 2004
'Kangaroo.TV' - multimedia receiver for trackside at Nascar truck races (This could be used for all manner of sporting events - v.cool.)
2D arcade fighter 'The Rumble Fish' announced for PS2 in Japan (Great name - originally ran on Sammy's Atomiswave coin-op system, like some Guilty Gear-s, but the arcade iteration got mediocre reviews.)
'32 games must be played to completion. But why?' (A neat nerd challenge for an ISP tech support and his co-workers - here's the first night's results.)
'Weird Al' attacked by moths ('My band asked me if I could find a concert where we would be attacked by insects.')
Rod Stewart's soccer ball, meet Paul Oakenfold's father in law. (Ouch, ouch, ouch.)
September 01, 2004
'Dog The Bounty Hunter' - reality TV further down the spiral? (Yes, he 'hunts down bail-jumping criminals while trying to maintain his marriage and a relationship with his twelve children', yes, it's very watchable.)
Nelson Mandela Signature Edition BMWs Launched (Yes, they're called 'Democracy Cars,' yes, it's for charity, thank God.)
New screenshots of Arika's U.S.-bound Technic Beat PS2 music game (Check out some in-game movies to get a better idea - has a amazing Namco-sourced soundtrack too - we love you, Mastiff, for U.S. releasing it. )
Pics of Penny Arcade's PAX 2004 convention (The convention looked super-cool - wish I could have gone.)
PS2 Gundam game from Soul Calibur II developers? (Not a big Gundam fan, but this could rock.)
Tracking product mentions in hiphop (I'm _so_ over Cristal.)