December 31, 2004
Good pic of 'Sega History Collection' Dreamcast toys (..next to a Sony memory stick, for size comparison. More pictures at Lik-Sang.)
InsertCredit: On ITE's 'Hugo: Cannon Cruise' (Random troll-based European-exclusive PlayStation 2 games explored by yours truly.)
AtariAge: AtariVox speech synthesizer for Atari 2600 (Brand-new, and being used for smart LoopCart music prog by Paul Slocum.)
StateLovesYou game wiki (Getting very interesting, nowadays - good informal game section, good semi-gonzo features like Zangband tales.)
Archive.org: Various Artists - Red Planet Com.01 [Laverna] (An excellent compilation of electronic music from a Northern Italian collective - much interesting material here.)
Gamasutra: Soapbox - Technoholism - A 12-step Recovery Plan (Free reg. req. - a truly rantlike Soapbox from a Lionhead designer which touches on some intriguing points.)
December 30, 2004
The-Inbetween.com's Game Of The Year Awards (Some good alt and conventional choices here.)
Wired News: The Best Games You Haven't Played in 2004 (Some carefully informed picks - much better than Wired News' game reviews, which are skilfully written but seem very out of place.)
Trojan version of PuTTY 0.56 on Download.com for a fortnight? (Interesting - haven't seen any news stories on this, how did it happen?)
Reality Blurred: The Year In Reality TV, 2004 (Andy Dehnart is the man now, dog.)
Impact Wrestling: 'As I See It' 2004 Awards (Check out the 'most tasteless' wrestling stunts of the year: '[WWE's] Gene Snitsky's various adventures with "Lita's dead baby son", including wheeling "the [miscarried] baby" out in a baby carriage... then finally punting "the baby" into the stands.")
December 29, 2004
NCSX: Nintendo Game&Watch diorama toys (Top-class trinkets - I used to adore Octopus when I was a kid.)
Yahoo Photos: Boykins, Shaq do the David-Goliath thing (From the 'not actually Photoshop Friday' department.)
The Onion: Point/Counterpoint: Animal Adoption (And cogently argued, I'm sure you'll agree.)
Slashdot: Faking Net-activated Xmas Lights more impressive than having them? (Heh, now he's on CNN.com, and he comprehensively fooled Slashdotters, so congrats?)
Gamerah: Wired's interview with Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi (Someone's gone to a whole lot of trouble.)
December 28, 2004
Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry (Including the excellent civil defense film Duck & Cover, available at Archive.org.)
Washington Post discusses Kings Of Chaos 'MMORPG' (Wait a minute: 'Simple, harmless, quick fun, like one of those chain letters'? Web-based game revolves around getting people to click links, leading to forum bans in many places, also comes with Zango adware option - Zango/180Solutions are historically very dodgy - see KoC FAQ for more game info.)
Creative Commons releases ccPublisher (License your works, upload them to Archive.org, easily!)
NYT reviews 'The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker' (Holy crapola, didn't know it had 'more than 68,000 pieces of art' on 2 included CD-ROMs - but where are we with the National Geographic precedent?)
SLC Tribute: Sen. Orrin Hatch's songwriterly success (As seen in 'Ocean's Twelve', Christian music star's album.)
December 27, 2004
ToughPigs: Screencaps from 'Muppets Wizard of Oz' teaser ad (Fozzie is Ashanti's Ja Rule, and Kermit her Irv Gotti?)
Slashdot comment: 'Roland Piquepaille and Slashdot - Is There A Connection?' (Referenced in a more recent story, spectacularly vituperative trolling.)
Gamasutra: 'The Ethics Of Game Design' by Dean Takahashi (Free reg. req. - from the Game Developer magazine December issue, looking at how games influence their audience.)
Archive.org: Genetic - Leighf EP (lp009) (A nice New Year's present from Atlanta's Lifeform Project - v.smart cut-up idm electronics.)
GamesRadar: Edge's Sega Rally 2005 interview (Sega Rally on the Saturn is my favorite racing game ever.)
December 26, 2004
PopJustice: 'Smash Hits' article on Band Aid II (Seeing as Band Aid 20 was apparently Xmas No.1 in the UK, a little nostalgia.)
Private-Eye: Pseuds, Issue 1122 (Particularly good is the abstract from the talk: 'Who’s that Slug in My Closet? Outing the Lesbian in Monsters Inc. and Other Cartoons'.)
InsertCredit: Warcraft III gets 'Azeroth Grand Prix' (Another of my occasional IC posts, about a neat Warcraft III kart racing add-on (!))
EDB0 - new Kenta Cho Java shmup weirdness (The ever-genius Cho has really scrambled my brain this time.)
LegalTorrents: NaSoAlMo Archives Vol.1 (New on LegalTorrents, 7 Creative Commons-licensed altrock/indie/acoustic albums made for Douglas Wolk's National Solo Album Month project.)
December 25, 2004
Jurie Horneman on an Austrian 2D shmup tournament (..and the next instalment features a v.rare European appearance for Mushihimesama.)
Jason Scott posts the complete demo CD of 'The Last Starfighter' musical (...with the permission of the creators, too. Baio, torrent? :P)
PlanetMagrathea: Info on the 'lost' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy game (Was in development from 1998-2002, I remember seeing it at trade shows.)
Official Tekken 5 Xmas cards/wallpaper (Actually, the Falcoon art of Athena from King Of Fighters is a nicer Xmas/New Year wallpaper, imho - thx Majoria's News.)
EGM/1UP: 'Child's Play II' (More of the youth of today laughing at old video games - will make you feel ancient.)
December 24, 2004
No Rock&Roll Fun: Pete Doherty's shambolic Babyshambles gig in Blackpool (The troubled Libertines singer is, well, still troubled.)
JeanSnow: Frog Style Vol.10 Japanese keychains (There can never be enough cutesy Japanese trinkets, honest.)
Blingtones launches first 'wireless record label' (Exclusive 30-second ringtones from Q-Tip, Rockwilder, Salaam Remi, from the 'hip' French at the Lagardere Group.)
Geek.com discusses Napster's proposed $15 'all you can eat' music subscription for portable players (Many problems, and it's likely that the music goes away when you stop subscribing - but is it still worth it? Maybe so.)
ffwd: My Top 10 net.label releases for 2004 (From the main ffwd weblog, picking my Top 10 freely downloadable CC-licensed net.label releases for 2004.)
December 23, 2004
SouthFlorida.com: the 'Scared Of Santa' photo gallery (Personally, I'm terrified.)
Eurogamer: Archer Maclean's Mercury for PSP previewed (More good, informal journalism from the EG guys.)
Salon.com: The Year in Games, 2004 (Good to see prominent mentions for Gish, Katamari Damacy.)
Video Game Ombusdman: EGM gets Call Of Duty 'cover' (Valid point, or just random whining? Flip a coin.)
Realityblurred: The top 6 'reality whores' of 2004 (Go go Lewis, Trump, Seacrest.)
December 22, 2004
Rooftop 'Basilica Bar' Opens at St. Peter's (Headline much more interesting than article alert.)
Archive.org: Prelinger Archives - 'A Visit From Santa' ('One of the cheapest Santa films ever produced... Features a trip to a department store and endless footage of a large toy train setup. Grueling.' Yay!)
Neomarxisme: Why 'A Bathing Ape' clothing has lost it? (Also a great NYT story linked - Bape stuff always seemed rather cool to me - via Jeansnow.net.)
New trailer for 'Sin City' movie [.MOV] (Best Bruce Willis movie since Hudson Hawk?)
'The Donald' Hires A Very Special Mini 'Apprentice' Direct From The Cabbage Patch! (Yikes, yikes, yikes - via the ever marvelous PR Bop.)
December 21, 2004
GrumpyGamer: 'The Twelve Days Of Crunch Time' (A lovely Xmas message to game developers, from Ron Gilbert + friends.)
AFI picks 'Moments Of Significance' for 2004 (A surprisingly smart list, including 'Daily Show', 'Tarnation' lo-fi doc.)
'The Guy Game' sued by 17-year old boss character (Well, not _boss character_, but the game's equivalent, ohdear.)
BBC making 'Jamie Kane' teen-focused Alternate Reality Game (Announced last month, but not sure many people spotted that it's a BBC-commissioned ARG, slated for debut in early 2005.)
Archive.org: Various Artists - 'Some Candy Before Christmas' (Great Xmas electronica compilation from the Swedish Candymind posse, including Goto80 and others.)
December 20, 2004
Why haven't Kylie and Robbie taken off in America? (I blame the kids. Darn kids.)
BBC New Media to cut most of Cult TV site (Most annoying, seeing as BBC Cult is rather excellent.)
Todd McFarlane Productions files for bankruptcy (Aw, but he's so lovable and cuddly - some say this is to avoid the Tony Twist $15 million payout.)
J.K. Rowling Completes 6th Potter Novel ('Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc., said a release date would be announced Tuesday morning.' Yay.)
Amazon.com spamming readers, exhorting them to buy 'Gaming Hacks' (My seditious world domination plan continues - or not.)
December 19, 2004
Monotonik: ST - 'I'll Meet You There EP' (The latest release on my CC-licensed netlabel - lovely Swedish indielectronica with Bliss-ful vocals.)
OgreCave recommends 12 <$20 board/card games for Xmas... (...and 12 >$20 games, too, very useful.)
Lemon Amiga fan site opens (For the Commodore Amiga, from the makers of the spectacularly excellent Lemon64 Commodore 64 site.)
Archive.org: 'Grand Theft Auto' speedrun in 2 hours, 6 minutes (Pretty impressive, if a little obsessive, yay.)
Czech book covers of the 1920s and '30s (Lovely looking cover art - via a Metafilter post.)
December 18, 2004
Evan Dorkin says G4TechTV's 'Filter' is going 'pop culture' (He's interviewed for it, "was a video game sort of show but is now becoming more of a pop culture thing next season" - all a bit VH-1 'Best Week Ever'?)
BBC: 'Mathematicians crochet chaos' ('25,511 crochet stitches to represent the Lorenz equations' - yay academics!)
IGN Cube: The Story Of Retro Studios (Kinda odd - a 'co-production', since IGN don't want to write in-depth features, the interviews are with minor Retro figures, but it's still informative and readable.)
Konami JP: Many pics of Metal Gear Solid 3's Japanese launch (Impress also has pics of the crocodile-head ladies, and with 347,000 copies sold on the first day, seems to be working.)
NetstockFest - netlabel streaming audio fest to be held in 2005. (Lots of excellent artists have already signed up. )
December 17, 2004
Takara's annual financial report for 2004 [PDF] (Oldish, but fascinating - Takara themselves are part-owned by Konami, and I knew Takara part-owned Atlus, but forgot they own gorgeous designer electronics firm Plusminuszero.)
Overanalyzed: 'MMOs: It's the Economy, Stupid' ('The first [MMO] to get [real-life money trading] right... will be the first to break into the mass market.')
Realityblurred: Amazing Race 6's Jon: 'I do not abuse Victoria' (He is being portrayed as an absolutely odious millionaire, though.)
Archive.org: Vega & The Autist - Christmas Mix [EPS11] (Great free compilation of Creative Commons-licensed tech-house from Epsilonlab.)
Retroblast: 'Gaming Hacks' reviewed (A very pleasant review of my book, also singling out the excellent Marc Laidlaw foreword.)
Wee Jimmie Krankie injured in beanstalk fall (For non-UK readers, he's really a she, and married to the other Krankie, not his wayward son, and... oh, never mind, watch them do Bowie, get well soon!)
Petco: Bowlingual now only $20 (Here's more info, Takara didn't do too well with it in North America? Unfortunately, Rollo almost never barks, so we won't be getting one.)
December 16, 2004
Smoking Gun: Exact list of banned Louisiana prison video games (Wait, why didn't they ban Maximo for the underpants display?)
Groundzero Organization: 'OPM Rotterdam Techno' (.MP3) (Frantic gabba composed on the Japanese X68000 computer - more English info at Vorc.)
Letters From Beyond - time-released email/snail-mail letters after you die. (From the makers of the Virtual Pet Cemetary, even.)
Archive.org: Vladislav Delay - Demo(n) Cuts EP [THN066] (The smart net.label Thinner grabs an abstract online-only EP from the awesome Vladislav Delay, aka Luomo.)
Gamasutra: Soapbox - Game Rentals - A Slow, Secret Death For Developers? (Free reg. req., interesting Brian Hook column, another great Erin Mehlos illustration.)
Dewtone - semi-daily netlabel mini-reviews and recommendations (Good to see someone doing this in English language, similarly to De-Bug's netaudio reviews in German.)
December 15, 2004
Katamari Damacy 2 - first screenshots (Also, some great lounging and priceless 'papercraft' cat on the official site.)
Wil Wheaton finds, loves Comfort Stand net.label. (Go Comfort Stand! Still one of my favorite unconventional netlabels.)
New Yorker: Dave Eggers on Monty Python, Spamalot musical (A rather well-crafted piece - also see Eggers discussing Python - "It’s completely timeless". And it is.)
Tim Rogers covers PSP launch for Lik-Sang (Wow, unholy style car-wreck alert, in a nice way - I also missed Jason&Nihongonauts' PSP post.)
Two-thirds of school-age children have an imaginary companion ("Imaginary companions have had a bad rap from psychologists for a long time" - discrimination! Via PR Bop.)
Intelligent Artifice: On Games & Academia ("The majority of video game academic output that I've seen is just not about making better games, and therefore I find it completely useless, if not worse.")
December 14, 2004
Blockbuster Video drops late fees... (...in favor of selling you the product you rented after a 'grace period' if you don't return it?! Scamtastic.)
GotNext: Sega's Reiko Kodama interviewed (Good material from the seldom-interviewed female Sega veteran.)
NBA Street V3 - now with added Mario, Luigi! (Look carefully at the box for an infernal EA/Nintendo hook-up - via GAF.)
Curmudgeon Gamer: Gaming Gaffes 2004 (Matt 'CurmudgeonGamer' Matthews is grumpy, and like an elephant, he never forgets.)
Acid.org Radio: 'The ARTS - Episode 9' (..includes an extended interview with me towards the end of the show, discussing netlabels, DMCA randomness - hi-fi, lo-fi.)
Toastyfrog: 'PSP? BFD!' (He's not sold yet, and both hardware design and game design are to blame.)
December 13, 2004
Gamasutra: Indie Postmortem: Chronic Logic's 'Gish' (Free reg. req, dayjob alert, 'another entry into the crowded 'ball of tar tries to rescue girlfriend' genre.')
Cory Doctorow contributing to Hitchhiker's Guide To Galaxy essay book? (Vogon poetry analysis++! Damn, I just found out about this, submitting a pitch to be included myself, even tho it's probably too late.)
Archive.org: Jonas Crenshaw's Colossal Failure [MAG021] (Great Creative Commons-licensed country album from Joseph Chellino (ex-Oval-Teen, Pets or Meat, Paper Airplane Pilots).)
ComingSoon: Babylon 5's 'The Memory Of Shadows' for theaters, starts filming in April? (To be taken with a pinch of salt, but great news if true.)
Tokyopia: Nintendo DS Meteos impressions (Also recently on Tokyopia, why shopping for games in Osaka rocks, a lot more so that usual Akihabara tedium.)
BBC: Vanilla Ice's wallaroo not a cross-breed (I will never trust the BBC again.)
Nintendo: GameBoy Advance Wars 1&2 wallpaper (Mmm, cute Advance Wars GBA wallpaper, for the just-released Japanese compilation - I like the sprite rips.)
December 12, 2004
Archive.org: Various - 'Enter The Monkey' (Mad Monkey Records) (Originally released in 1999, now deleted and made available for free, great electronica comp with Kid606, Lesser, Marumari, etc.)
Wired Test special issue as free PDF (250+ Wired product reviews, free? Good! Via Paul Boutin)
Christian 'Ferricide' Nutt on Square Enix's 'Dragon Quest VIII' (It's already sold 3+ million in Japan, and according to Christian, it's a lot better than DQVII.)
Alexandre Gueniot's Programming CV (.SWF) (Words fail me. Please, more animated resumes featuring scatting French programmers, now.)
Archive.org: New emulator-assisted NES speed runs (Some great stuff in here, from Tetris through Super Mario Bros.)
Latest NTK newsletter mentions 'Gaming Hacks' (Yay for my fave geek newsletter. There's also a reasonably polite 'Gaming Hacks' review on Blogcritics.org.)
December 11, 2004
Lik-Sang opens up the PSP, peeks inside (A lot of electronics in a very small space.)
More pics of Rollo, our mini black&tan dachshund puppy (As recently seen biting my ankles while I was on the phone to my parents. :P)
Slashdot comment: 'The Formula Gaming Review' (Overly critical, but thoughtprovoking and historically mindful.)
DamnedVulpine on the Dallas Observer Guildhall game school article (Pay to learn how to make games, or just... make games?)
Toastyfrog: 'Dream A Little Drill' (A great mini-history of the awesome Mr. Driller puzzle game franchise.)
December 10, 2004
Archive.org: Internet Archive Paper Plane Contest 2004 [MPG] (All places of work should do this - aw, I'm sad I missed it.)
1UP: Namco plans ramen noodle theme park ('Namco's park will feature seven different ramen establishments featuring the styles of different regions and urban neighborhoods, from the roast-pork ramen of Tokyo's Shinjuku district to the salty ramen of Osaka.')
IGF 2005 finalists announced (Some great indie games here - Gish, N, Wik and the Fable Of Souls, Star Chamber...)
Evan Dorkin's comic for 'The Urbz' (Like 'Generation Eccch!', with the Hot Topic crowd?)
Trailer for Tim Burton's 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory' adaptation (Johnny Depp looks wonderfully ghoulish - via Waxy.)
LizardTech to open-source a Java .DJVU client (Great news for the DJVU-based Canadian libraries collection @ Archive.org, which now has some well-converted PDF versions, too.)
December 09, 2004
DIYGames/GameTunnel: ALL Independent Games Festival entries reviewed! (Wow, an amazing job by the DIYG/GameTunnel folks - finalists are announced tomorrow!)
John Romero posts pre-Alpha, detailed history of Daikatana ('I've gone on record to say that I'm proud of the PC version of Daikatana and I stand behind that.' Fair enough.)
MacCentral: GameSpy's pricing making Mac multiplayer compatibility too expensive? (Post-IGN acquisition, 'GameSpy's licensing fees have increased by a factor of five to ten in recent months, an amount that Mac game publishers say is unreasonable to expect them to pay.' )
Pixar's 'Cars' slips to 2006, THQ shares dive (If you're a game publisher who's sold 6 million copies of the 'Finding Nemo' game, then Pixar's release schedule matters!)
Gamasutra: 'Hey Bro - It's All Relative' by Tyler Sigman (Free reg. req., dayjob, Backbone Entertainment designer is rather funny, also educative.)
December 08, 2004
Video-Fenky: IDG's GameStar Magazine shuts down, only just after launch (Surprising, considering the mag was just settling in as a kinda Maxim/Sync/gaming crossbreed.)
'Varmint Hunter' video game gets NRA license (Jackie Rheborg, Managing Editor of the Varmint Hunter Magazine, states, "This game is as tangible as you can get without physically shooting prairie dogs." Not a spoof.)
BBC: Life as a teenage goth in Norwich, England (Even the home of Alan Partridge has some Slipknot fans.)
Official blog for 'Mind Hacks' (Another in the O'Reilly series, and a neat concept - wonder if it's selling better than Gaming Hacks?)
Gamasutra: 'China Bans Soccer Game Over Regional Naming' (Free reg. req, a dayjob news post. List Hong Kong as an independent country at your peril!)
December 07, 2004
Sonic Team's Yuji Naka, racing Lotus sports cars in Australia (Everybody's super Sonic racing! Nice decals.)
D-Day game is 'official game' of pivotal WWII event? ('D-Day has been designated by the "Normandie Mémoire" committee as the official game for the 60th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings.' Just... weird.)
DVD recommendation: 'Stones Throw 101' DVD/CD compilation (Amazing abstract/indie hiphop, Madvillain's 'All Caps' video particularly rocks.)
Reality Blurred: Queer Eye script was post-production narrative guide? (Maybe not as sinister as it initially looked? Also linked, some piquant Joel Stein bitching.)
1UP: 'Knights Of The Prequel Trilogy' (What would have happened if BioWare/Obsidian created the prequel movies, not George? Neat, pithy idea.)
December 06, 2004
Archive.org: rather gorgeous 'English Embroidered Bookbindings' PD book in DJVU (Go grab the DJVU plug-in and check it out - also check the Canadian book-scanning wiki for updates on scanning speed - >7000 pages per day!)
Lacunae: Douglas Wolk's National Solo Album Month gets freely downloadable results (Here's more info on NaSoAlMo - wow, going to try to get all these albums CC licensed and LegalTorrent-ed, or similar.)
Metafilter: Joel Stein talks about how scripted reality shows really are (The Queer Eye script is pretty eye-opening, actually.)
MarketingSherpa: why Salon.com's subscription model is working (Not quite the lame duck people once thought, although duck hunting season is still on.)
'iCommons At The Digital Age' Creative Commons book [PDF] (Particularly notable for a good essay on netlabels and CC stuff by Bjoern of Textone.)
December 05, 2004
eBay: 'Third World War' Japanese Mega-CD game (..with Bill Clinton and Saddam Hussein shaking hands on the cover? Wacky.)
Stanford's KZSU radio playlist, comment on Monotonik releases (For both that Bliss release, and a recent Beak release - good to see college radio playing free netlabel stuff.)
Palet Mail service for PC Doujin games (Somewhat cheaper than Himeya for the Shanghai Alice goodness, allegedly reliable too.)
Tim '108' Rogers on Korean idols, donuts, pathos (Sorry, I still find his demented ramblings extremely readable. Book deal, anyone?)
Roger the kangaroo's offspring returns to Tekken 5! (..as a time-unlockable character in the arcade version - via Majoria News.)
Full auction catalog for Acclaim's HQ bankruptcy auction ('Lot 1397: 11 (Eleven) Sega GD-Writers' - oo! I may have an accomplice at the auction, if we buy anything, I'll blog about it.)
December 04, 2004
Gizmodo: Toyota i-foot and i-unit (Good lord, that's some powerful Japanese robot voodoo.)
Amazon.co.uk: Ricky Gervais' favorite DVDs, albums (Spinal Tap, The Smiths - sorta obvious, but comforting.)
TPOLM: 'Giant lasers belong on sharks, not in space!' petition (Please sign the 'people for the ethical treatment of space' petition - looks like fthr art, too.)
Notes on Neil Gaiman handling. ('It is good to feed your Neil regularly. Note that if he has breakfast around 10 he won't really be hungry for lunch until 2 or so.' Everyone should have a page like this!)
Nintendo DS 'Band Brothers' Japanese demo video (.WMV) (Get 7 friends, use the DS wireless to sync up, rock and roll - here's more info on the game.)
December 03, 2004
Gamasutra: Book Excerpt: "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" - What Games Aren't (Free reg. req, Sony Online chief creative officer talks about what makes games, uhh, fun.)
JFKReloaded's .ini file, allegedly [NSFW words] (Wait, people are having serious discussions about this game, when it's allegedly got code comments like this?)
Gnusto - Firefox-specific Java Z-Machine Emulator for playing text adventure games (Holy crapola, Firefox can do _everything_!)
IGN goes for 'bust' with Mr.Driller [NSFW?] (Safe enough for IGN, but an amusing accidental collage on IGN DS, found by a GAF forumite.)
'From Pong to PlayStation' university course homepage (At Michigan State, insanely slick college course on games, the course slides are great, too.)
December 02, 2004
Archive.org: 'Ermo Jr.' stop-motion movie ('The fourth in a series of stop motion animation short films involving Ermo, a puppet who likes to poop in a variety of hats.' Actually rather great.)
'Marion Man Takes Video Golf Crown' ('I think my best score was a 26 under par on the Pebble Beach course... Three guys that I met through video golf were actually in my wedding.' Aww.)
Gamasutra: Fluttering Off the Beaten Path (Free reg. req., some really mysterious, odd game development ideas using ex-Disney 2D animators for some soul.)
NCSX: Pics of the Nintendo DS Japanese launch line-up (Mmm, pretty Japanese packaging.)
Archive.org: new Canadian Libraries scanned antique book section (Some wonderful vintage manuscripts in DJVU, scanned using the book-scanning robot - go Brewster!)
December 01, 2004
Acclaim's bankruptcy auction website ("APPROXIMATELY 43,000 VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGES and/or DISKS TO BE SOLD IN LARGE WHOLESALE QUANTITIES", too.)
'Steer Madness' PC/Mac animal rights game (It's GTA! With animal rights-friendly cows! Uhm... right.)
Play-Asia: Nintendo DS confirmed to be regionless (Good to know, for those importing! Japanese and U.S. machines also work fine for Pictochat.)
Archive.org: Various Artists - Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka: Porn Music For The Masses Volume 1 [csr049] (Some _great_ freely downloadable pr0n groove from the ever-genius net.label Comfort Stand.)
Gaming-Age: 'enter the taiko' feature on Taiko No Tatsujin (Still need to buy this to go alongside Donkey Konga.)