April 30, 2005
Yahoo!/Reuters: Cuban, Soderbergh hooking up for simultaneous theater/DVD/cable movie releases (Have lotsa money, try out wacky stuff.)
Kottke salivates over the Sony Librie (Having been a big REB 1100 ebook fan, this intrigues me a fair bit.)
Insert Credit explores new DS game Touch! Dic! ('Unfortunately titled', indeed.)
Der Spiegel grills Tom Cruise about his Scientology connections (Somebody called 'Steven Spielberg' also sits in - via Defamer.)
Gamasutra: 'The Designer's Notebook: A Few Remarks on Creative Play' (Free reg. req., dayjob, grizzly Adams discusses self-expressive, community, other creative game uses.)
MTV.com's new games section (Appears to be mainly GameSpot licensed, with some original material - Tomb Raider trailer, for one.)
John C. Dvorak: 'End of the Game Industry?' (Get off my lawn!)
April 29, 2005
1UP Blog: Mark MacDonald @ EGM confirms Perfect Dark Zero for 'next-gen Xbox' (Since it'll be on EGM's cover for May, seems likely that it's a launch title and will be shown at E3 alongside the hardware unveiling. )
Ambiguous: EFF hires Danny 'NTK' O'Brien (Congratulations surely in order, EFF alpha geek quotient dangerously high.)
Namakoteam: Taito Memories Vol.1 list with links to game details (Much excellent obscurity here.)
UK Resistance: Exclusive screenshot of EA Cricket (There are a couple of others, nice to see Snoop Dogg getting so much work, haw.)
GamerDad interviews Jeff Green of CGW (Darn kids! )
MMORPG.com: The Progression Of World Of WarCraft (An excellent summing-up of the changes to the game so far.)
GameSpot: 'Elixir drinks the Kool-Aid' (I think GS' headline writers forgot what that phrase actually refers to.)
Gamasutra: ' Improving the Combat 'Impact' of Action Games' (Free reg. req., dayjob, good practical piece by Korean console developer [Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders] Song.)
Lion's Gate: David Duchovny's 'House Of D' director-blog (Valiant anti-vilification marketing, and interesting to boot - Rob Zombie is a little more monolithic, but the effort is appreciated.)
Mastermix.org - classic UK pirate radio mixes (Plus some U.S. and obscure mix highlights - amazing - via Waxy.)
Reuters: 'Singer Hits Wrong Note in Eurovision Scandal' ('Gracia Baur, 22, has defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja'. Best band name ever?)
Variance Press: Freely downloadable comics in PSP form (Look, ma, they're legal, too!)
Gamasutra: ' The Psychology Behind Games' (Free reg. req., dayjob, an intriguing look at how psychology relates to gaming.)
April 28, 2005
QT3: Ex-GDmag editor Alex Handy liveblogs more GameTap games (Gunstar Heroes, Vectorman, Police Quest (!), Toy Commander, Tomb Raider, Asteroids... whoa.)
The Tank NYC: Bent 2005 festival - April 27th-30th (Includes NES, Game Boy hacking sessions, multiple chiptune concerts!)
1UP: Doggy Stylin' (More Nintendogs love, of course.)
Gamasutra: Turner Announces GameTap Games-on-Demand System (This is a _MUCH_ bigger deal than the current vague announcement - GameSpot confirms that "Sega will provide... titles from the Genesis and Saturn consoles', as well as classic MAME fare like Pac-Man, and newer PC games.)
RPGFan: Interview - Ouji Hiroi, President, RED Entertainment (Red is a very interesting/odd company.)
Nintendojo: New downloadable DS demos in Japan ('Those who purchased Nintendogs will also be able to download J-Pop star Utada Hikaru's Nintendog named Shin chan.' )
PR: Atari Flashback 2.0 announced (Much better price - the original Flashback was $45, for some insane reason.)
BritXBox: 'Finger Pointed At MTV' (A hilarious 'exclusive': 'Even the likes of Elijah Wood is not above suspicion'! )
eBay: Fischbach's Iguana of High Acclaim 'Cursed Item' ('Supposedly forged unknown years ago in the shadow of Mt. Bonnell.' Tres amusant! Via The-Inbetween.)
April 27, 2005
WWMNA: Codependent, high-maintenance toys (On Needies, 'attention-starved [soft toys that] compete with each other for your affection'.)
if:book: 'stacking up HyperCard' (Also links to Voyager CD-ROM exhibition - the Voyager titles were gorgeous and waay ahead of their time.)
Reality Blurred: On Paula Abdul's 'erratic' American Idol behavior (Not quite Whitney-ed out, but getting there.)
Apple: Joss Whedon's 'Serenity' movie trailer (Starting again for the unconverted, and it still looks awesome.)
TVShowsOnDVD: Dave Chappelle's 'lost' sitcom, 'Buddies', coming out on DVD (Billed as "The Show Dave Chappelle Doesn't Want You To See!", there may be a reason for this.)
'The City Of Metronome' official game site (Obscure, but very good-looking Swedish game prototype from an incubator - great art direction.)
Insert Credit: Pre-E3 Announcements (I summarized some interesting details of a preview email sent out by E3 this morning.)
Puppy Times: Nintendogs DS gets -perfect- 40/40 in Famitsu Magazine (Only Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, Vagrant Story, and Soul Calibur have ever done that before.)
April 26, 2005
NYT: 'A Boldface Name Invites Others to Blog With Her' (Arianna Huffington is the new Matt Drudge/Nick Denton. Apparently.)
PatentArcade: a lawyer's blog about IP and games (There seem to be a few of these, since it's a growing area.)
Sourceforge: GoFast multi-computer (Kinda like CTF with multiple computers and real-life running - here's a video of it being played.)
Yahoo/Reuters: $2.7-billion Wynn Las Vegas resort opens this week (Includes, wait for it, '18 restaurants... [and] a Ferrari Maserati dealership.')
Fort90: Pics of 'i am 8-bit' gallery exhibition in L.A. (Wow, pics of all the paintings, not just a few - I want them all.)
Luminfire - Ants In My Trance Vol. II (Very neat 'dance-punk' MP3 mix by mon ami Luminfire - nice Fannypack mash-up.)
Soda tepid recommendation: Kickapoo's Joy Juice (The good: the Lil Abner connection, it's big in Malaysia. The bad: tastes a bit like slightly flat Squirt. The bonus: mentioned in a chapter of a great paper on classic Texan soda.)
Namco: Dead To Rights II promo: 'Win Shadow's iPod' (Look carefully at this (real promo) graphic and marvel.)
Takara: Singing Cubee toys (Interconnecting square animal singing sensations - wow! Shame Takara aren't doing so well.)
April 25, 2005
Katamari Damacy 2 to be called 'We Love Katamari' in U.S. (Updated with the official announcement - here's older screens.)
Eurogamer: Leaked picture of Xbox 360 hardware (Of course, I don't know, but people tell me this is legit.)
Legaltorrents: Kikapu netlabel MP3 Archives Vol.1 (.torrent) (Check the page for more info, a CC-licensed, re-packed, id3-fixed 996mb chunk of idm/electronica goodness.)
Nippop.com: 'Comprehensive information in English on the Japanese music scene' (Some excellent contributors, a great niche informational site - via Pho.)
Percussion Lab: Xhale idm-ish DJ set (Here's the tracklisting, good mix, includes some Grandma @ Monotonik too.)
BBC Collective: Autechre Q&A (Rare interview with probably the most cult electronic musicians on the planet who aren't Boards Of Canada.)
Gelf: 'Is It Cool to be Anonymous?' (I'm really starting to like Gelf's collective, well-argued sass.)
Soda recommendation: Boylan Sugar Cane Cola (Try one, I guarantee you've forgotten what real sugar in cola tastes like.)
Emuholic: 'Bunnytraps' for GP32 (To compete with the PSP, the GP32 gets cartoony bunny hangman with tortoises.)
CTV.ca: Canadian singer flubs U.S. national anthem, falls on ice returning with word sheet (The video's in the right sidebar, happily for all - via The Inbetween.)
April 24, 2005
Yahoo/AP on Miss USA's ratings/identity crisis (This year: "The 'Fear Factor Miss USA' show drew 9.2 million viewers, compared to 8.1 million for [the] Miss USA [pageant itself]." Ouch!)
eBay Sweden: Maker of Nintendo Woodcube selling it (Yes, the Woodcube. Stop looking at me funny.)
Soda recommendation: Barritts Pineapple Ginger Beer (Gorgeously tangy, lightly carbonated - the makers even have a blog - cute.)
WWMNA: ColorCodes - next after QR codes? (Of course, QR codes aren't even big outside Japan yet - but are conceptually great.)
Paul Boutin: NPR interview with Brewster Kahle about Archive.org (Brewster (quoting Douglas Adams!) sounds oddly beatific in this one.)
DIGNews: Interview with former 2015 employee Andy Taylor (Very honest discussion about the problems of development - via GAF.)
San Jose Museum Of Art - Blobjects exhibition (Went to see this today - well worth it, esp. with free admission.)
April 23, 2005
Curmudgeon Gamer: 'Xbox2Soon'? (The console game timeline is particularly fine.)
InsertCredit: New version of 'ArmJoe' doujin PC fighter out (To remind you all, this is, wait for it, a 2D fighter based on the musical version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. )
CD Baby: On the independent music scene in Japan (Fascinating account of a very different Japanese indie music scene - via Pho.)
'Wilhelm! The Man And His Scream' (.MOV) (Chronicling, excerpting many of the movies the infamous scream was used in - very neat.)
Gelf Magazine: 'Craving Human Contact' (Discussing the Food Force U.N. game, with some skepticism.)
Pitchfork Media: 'Video Games Go Punk as F*ck' (Enthusiastic coverage of the IGF and indie games, from a uber-trendy music site, even.)
1UP: Crucial Classics: I, Robot ('Best seen as the Vincent van Gogh of gaming.')
Rossignol: Menu for 'The Fat Duck' restaurant ('MANGO AND DOUGLAS FIR PUREE'? 'SMOKED BACON AND EGG ICE CREAM'? 'LEATHER, OAK AND TOBACCO CHOCOLATES'? Nice.)
April 22, 2005
GamerDad: 'Are You Ready for Next-Gen?' ('Anyone remember when Nintendo fought Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation with Donkey Kong Country on SNES?')
NTSC-UK feature on Japanese doujin shooters (Nothing insane crazy, but a useful intro to some of the best.)
Denver Post editor on staff cuts: 'The Sunday paper will still kill a puppy' (It's not about the story, it's about that quote - via Romanesko.)
WoW Forums: 'Good Job Blizzard!!! Honor System rocks!!!' ('Always switch login names when agreeing with yourself', Lum points out helpfully.)
Jason Scott on his 'Last Straw' text collection (Oddly enough, MJ Simpson just wrote one of these.)
BBC: Interview with Steve Meretzky about Infocom's HHGTTG text adventure (Mentions scrapped design work on Restaurant at the End of the Universe text adventure, *drool*.)
Puppy Times - a Nintendogs DS group blog (May be difficult to completely enjoy in the Japanese version if you don't speak the language, but I'm v. envious!)
Reuters/CNN: KFC revamp to draw on 'Southern roots' (It's all about the Kid Rock-ization of America.)
April 21, 2005
1UP: Mizuguchi's blog introduces senior Q Entertainment staff (Interesting to hear what they worked on before.)
UKResistance visit the Gizmondo store in London (...and turn their sarcasmometer to stun, naturally.)
IGN's 'Tylenol Ouch!' E3 Sweepstakes (One of the odder co-branding competitions of recent - via Gewgaw.)
Hardcore Gamer Magazine: New PDF sample available (From the excellent Doublejump Books folks, looks rather spiffy.)
Gamasutra: 'Exploring Game Development in South-East Asia' (Free reg. req., dayjob, looks at relatively neglected countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.)
Boulder Weekly: 'Brave new virtual world' (Rather fine mainstream alt.weekly journalism overviewing MMOs - via Buzzcut.)
Reality Blurred: Ryan Seacrest gets star on Hollywood Walk Of Fame (Good grief.)
Aderack: Comparing relative Dr. Who ages (Eric-Jon has a kinda endearingly OCD approach to writing about anything - his blog has more hardcore Dr. Who analysis.)
GameSpot: The Headcrab Union (A Half-Life 2 fansite, with full blogging capabilities, actually embedded within GameSpot - here's more info on the concept.)
April 20, 2005
Gamasutra: 'RetroRedux - The 24 Hour Game Design Jam' (Dayjob, free reg. req., Matt 'Fort90' Hawkins discusses the Atari game jam recently held in N.Y.)
Double Fine Productions' Shop (With much good-looking Psychonauts merchandise, natch.)
Archive.org: Planet Boelex - No Business Like [od078] (Also a Monotonik artist, a new Ogredung single-track marvel.)
Ram Raider: an anonymous UK game journalist's blog ([UPDATE - it's been taken down already.] Pointing out Future Publishing's new logo, and slagging off, err, everybody - via Gillen.)
Epica Awards: 2004 finalists (Notable for the German PlayStation 2 'Game-A-Sutra' ads, same pun as our site, weirdly.)
Director-File on Chris Cunningham's Aphex Twin-soundtracked 'Rubber Johnny' film (From sister-to-famous-label Warp Films, which is an odd concept.)
Lon's 3D Realms 'Prey' info page (The page 'originally went online on March 30, 1996', and now 'PC Gamer will publish the first preview of Prey in the June 2005 issue.' Long train runnin'?)
April 19, 2005
NYT: Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) on H.P.Lovecraft ('What first seems horridly overdone accumulates a creepy minimalism.')
Movie trailer: 'The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse' (Deeply disturbing, from the wonderfully broken BBC series - via Janeway's Lizard Babies.)
GrandTextAuto: “Collecting and Preserving Infocom Interactive Fiction” university paper (More a plan than a reality, but good to know other people are considering this.)
Music video: Desert Planet - 'Return Of The Ninja Droids' (Bleepy homemade Finnish weirdness - from the excellently named 'Mario Built My Hot Rod' album.)
Wired News: 'Get Your Game Off' ('In games like [GTA], the women are not empowered... in this game, the women are the stars.')
Primotechnology: The Advent Of The Advert (Report on the Advertising In Games Forum in NY last week.)
April 18, 2005
GameGirlAdvance: Pink for PSP (Those sweeties at Koei release a female-friendly PSP case in .JP.)
Washington Post on Game Informer (Dan Hsu sneaks in a quick snark attack, too - via VGOmb.)
GrandTextAuto: 'Notes on Defending the Galaxy: The Complete Handbook of VideoGaming' (Including first-ever cut-scene write-up, indeed.)
Director's Bureau: -ALL- Shynola-directed music video archives (OMG. Try Stephen Malkmus, Junior Senior, Lambchop (sublime!), the insanely rare Grooverider Vs. Cypress Hill videogame-apin' clip, there's all Shynola commercials and even special extras - even a 'Money For Nothing' logo spoof.)
Forum avatar 'o the day: Radiohead's 'Just' video with smileys (Via GAF - I also found the worst About.com answer ever while Googling for it.)
1UP: Generation Next (A pretty solid summing-up of what we do and don't know about next-gen consoles.)
NCSX: Tomy's retro gaming peg toys (Mario, Luigi, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and friends.)
April 17, 2005
ARGN: Audi's 'Art Of The Heist' ARG has players steal SD card from Audi showroom (Awesome stuff - ARGN has more info - wonder who's running this?)
WMMNA: Star-Kick, the table football robot (This is oddly unfuturistic, in a comforting way.)
Monotonik: Transient - 'Be EP' (Latest on my netlabel, some dreamy melodic electronics by the super-talented Noisy Vagabond label owner.)
Hollywood Reporter: Lorne Lanning admits Oddworld Inhabitants has exited game industry (He's been somewhat vague about this 'move' in the past.)
Powerpuff Girls Z - Japanese anime based on the Powerpuff Girls (Craig McCracken-approved, recently announced, the untranslated page has some good Mojojojo screen-caps)
Music video: Beck's 'E-Pro' (QT) (Of course it's spectacular - it's by Shynola.)
Namako Team on the depths of Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII (Actually makes me want to play the game, which had a low-key U.S. PS2 release, as did its sequel.)
April 16, 2005
Shockwave: Oasis strategy-puzzle webgame released (This former IGF grand prizewinner is finally out (playable demo available), and is casual strategy game heaven.)
BBC: David Tennant confirmed as 10th Doctor Who (Here's the full BBC story with pictures - looks appropriately foppish, no?)
InsertCredit: New GameKing Chinese handheld (Brandon's obsessed with it, even tho he knows it kinda sucks. )
ARGN: San Francisco IGDA event discussing Ilovebees (We have an exclusive interview with all the 4orty 2two Entertainment folks in the May 2005 issue of Game Developer, too.)
O'Reilly Network: The State of Computer-Human Interaction (Fun report, though a little screenshot/photo-bereft, perhaps?)
Gamasutra: Question of the Week Responses: Genre-Defining Games (Dayjob, free reg. req., more than one vote for Nethack, delightfully enough.)
April 15, 2005
Newsarama: Babylon 5 returning to comic books (Some noise about whether it's really 'JMS-approved' [he's off selling crazily cool B5 stuff on Ebay to clear it out!], but still v.cool.)
The Tombs: Roguelike game written in Flash (Roguing from your browser was never so easy! Via TIGSource.)
Improbable Research: Readable little numbers (A book with plenty of interesting plot points, n'est-ce pas?)
ClassicGaming: Hardcore Gaming 101: Cho Aniki (A pretty detailed overview of the whole v.disturbing musclebound shooter series.)
Scott Potential: Interview with Monotonik artist Bliss (Following from an older post with lotsa music links - good to see Henrik getting recognition.)
Nintendo JP: Nintendogs DS merchandise (Including, yes, adorable The Dog-style plush Nintendogs toys.)
GamePro's 200th issue website feature (Some fun stuff here, including a [slightly disappointingly blurry] cover gallery, from Moonwalker through American Gladiators to, yay, Virtua Racing.)
Newsarama: John Taddeo buys Acclaim Comics assets (...which include comics that were also games such as Armorines, Shadowman. Turok was licensed from Classic Media, so isn't included.)
April 14, 2005
Gamasutra: Masters Of Doom Set For Film Treatment (A vital question - who's going to play John Romero?)
Archive.org AVGeeks: Carnivorous Plants educational film ('While revealing the complexity of nature, their films would end with Moon saying that this complexity was part of God's plan rather than evolution.' Sneaky!)
Stylus Magazine: Luminfire & Beat Bach's Roller Skate Bass: A Night at the Skate Castle mix (Great rollerskate rink electro mix by old Monotonik-er Luminfire and friend.)
Dejobaan Games: Inago Rage indie PC first-person shooter (No idea what's going on here, but the screenshots look great - via Joystiq.)
Hollywood Reporter: 'Video game rating board don't get no respect' (Includes some great commentary from the Playboy: The Mansion and The Punisher teams about avoiding an AO rating.)
IGN: Paul Chadwick talks to the Wachowskis about The Matrix Online (Avoiding obvious crack about them wanting to play 'the goth-chick', in-game.)
Games From Within: GDC 2005: Generation Wrap-Up in San Francisco (A little tardy, but a great wrap to go with a fun pre-con primer.)
PRNewswire: Worldwinner gets 'Speedbump, 'Detour' as mascots (Hilarious press release 'o the week: 'Speedbump and Detour demonstrate that despite an individual's personality type, competition is an intrinsic behavior in everyone.'! Fun fact: Steve Meretzky is principal game designer at WorldWinner.)
1UP: More footage of DS Electroplankton in action (Apparently, it may be a bit dilettantish and toy-like, but still sounds good to me.)
April 13, 2005
TVShowsOnDVD: Daily Show Indecision 2004 DVD art (Stephen Colbert has the silliest expression, yay - here's the full info on this 'unmissable election souvenir'.)
BBC Creative Archive: FAQ page ('The BBC's pilot site will be using a technology called GEOIP filtering to ensure that content sourced directly from the BBC will only be available to UK citizens.' Bah humbug.)
2005 Webby Award nominees announced (Odd, cavernous, interesting.)
Lost in Sound music blog digs S.T. EP @ Monotonik (Also likes the latest Vim! EP (scroll down) - it's nice that people care about our free music thing.)
Gelf Magazine profiles Patton Oswalt (King Of Queens doesn't suck. Really.)
StarNewsOnline: Infoworld also retracts Michelle Delio stories (Wired News still investigating - still unclear if paranoia is just reigning - via Boutin.)
Floridian: 'Peeling The Onion' (Neat mainstream look behind the scenes at, uh, The Onion - via Romanesko.)
Times Online: Tony Blair would want Anthony Head to portray him as UK prime minister (He's Giles in Buffy, and the (fake) PM in the wonderful Little Britain - via Whedonesque.)
WWMNA: Organum voice-powered experimental video game (We Make Money Not Art is the new hotness, I claim.)
Gamasutra: Question Of The Week on next-gen game pricing (Free reg. req., dayjob, forgot to link this, most game developers don't want games to cost more - but maybe some have to?)
April 12, 2005
Jeansnow: Pic of the Electroplankton launch event in Tokyo (Includes old Toshio Iwai exhibits - wah, I wanna go.)
Gamasutra: 'Frugal Fragging with .kkrieger' (Free reg. req., dayjob, interview with the creators of the 96k (tiny!) first-person shooter demo.)
Rakuten: Namco x Capcom strategy-RPG PlayStation 2 box cover (Also see 1UP preview - here's the official site, complete with a TV commercial - crossover fanboy drool time, hopefully coming to the U.S.? Via Majoria News.)
Marketwatch: 'Juicing up wireless with 3D games' (Discussing the rise of 3D in mobile gaming.)
GameTunnel launches 4 new indie gaming columns (You can check 'em out on the main GameTunnel page - scroll down.)
1UP: Toonin' In - video game cartoons through the years (1UP is still my fave consumer game site for features.)
April 11, 2005
Maryflanagan.com: RAPUNSEL multi-user game environment for girls (As funded by the National Science Foundation - neat.)
Game-Science: Dwango buys 59% of Chunsoft (Mobile firm Dwango has U.S. and Japanese offices, apparently do Ultima Online Mobile in Japan, wow.)
Royal Edoma Engine - new isometric Japanese PC doujin shooter goodness (Looks awesome, from Gundemonium creator Murasame.)
Grimwell: Motley Crue album ads in Anarchy Online (Set 30,000 years in the future, and Vince Neil still looks great.)
Zonicweb: Worst 10 album covers of all time (Eh, it's obvious, but there's some amazing stuff here - watch out for NSFW John/Yoko tho.)
1UP: Crucial Classics: Sim City (Neat side-game spotting, including Sim Refinery, made for Chevron, a v.early 'serious game'.)
April 10, 2005
Legaltorrents, my legal BitTorrent site, is back up (Somewhat battered and bruised (running on a static page) after a big HD crash, but getting there.)
Phonq - a new net.label review weblog (Good reviews from Argus, formerly of early netlabel Theralite.)
GameGirlDiaries.com - Jane Pinckard's official GamePro blog (GamePro are trying a bigger push into blogging, but it doesn't seem to have quite resonated yet.)
SimonWaldman.net: 'I saw 200 online ad campaigns…and here’s what I think' (Plenty of Flash, plenty of fake games, plenty of good feedback.)
InsertCredit: Zun announces 'Phantasmagoria of Flower View' doujin PC game (Next in the extremely cultish Touhou series for PC.)
Jason&Nihongonauts: Massive Electroplankton DS review (Sounds absolutely awesome - also see Tokyo event at Laforet Museum and John Ricciardi's packaging shots.)
April 09, 2005
Reality Blurred: The Apprentice adding Trump voice-overs to appease advertisers? (Maybe, maybe not, but a make-good for Domino's Pizza is a possibility.)
DerekYu.com: Awesome Cave Story (Doukutsu Monotagari) fan-art (Is Cave Story the doujin Katamari Damacy?)
GameSpy: 'Download This!' freeware/indie column focuses on IGF (Good to see more mainstream sites joining the indie wave.)
Institute For The Future: What's your video gaming history? (Games get on the radar of thinktanks - via BB.)
FilePlanet's Korean MMO downloads page (Some very alternative MMOs here, including the cultish Shot Online - via Broken Toys.)
ARGN: 'Our Colony' viral campaign not by Ilovebees creators (Even though various sources have been bringing up Ilovebees prominently, looks like 4orty 2wo are only working on MSNFound right now.)
OutOfTheVoid: Hoffman's profile/DJ mixes (The first ever Monotonik artist (from '96), still going strong with great nu-skool breaks mixes, and a tune out on Drunken Unstable Records.)
April 08, 2005
Hawaii Photoblog Day 6: Looking past Waipi'o Valley (..and looking past the (v.relaxing!) holiday, too - normal blogging will resume soon, thanks for reading!)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 6: Hi'ilawe Falls and friend, Waipi'o Valley (Apparently 1,600 foot high, with a 1,000 feet freefall, wow.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 6: Waipi'o Valley floor (It's pretty idyllic down there.)
Holiday reading: Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Finer Points Of Sausage Dogs' (Despite unfortunate dachshund events, McCall Smith's follow-up to the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series is, well, delightfully whimsical.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 6: Waipi'o Valley, from the overlook (Ancient Hawaiian home, overwhelmed by '60s tsunami, still going.)
April 07, 2005
Hawaii Photoblog Day 5: Akaka Falls, on the East Coast of Hawai'i (Waterfalls are pretty.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 5: Turtle hanging in the national park's cove (They munch on sea grass a lot.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 5: Pu'uhonua o Honaunau national park (Sunny palms, misty volcano slopes.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 5: Flowering Kona coffee... (...for those caffeine addicts everywhere. Mm, caffeine.)
Slate: 'The Archivist' by Paul Boutin ('Brewster Kahle made a copy of the Internet. Now, he wants your files.' Nice piece on Archive.org.)
April 06, 2005
Holiday gaming: Untold Legends for PlayStation Portable (A reasonable NetHack-ish dungeon slash, even with inventory clunkiness and inessential story.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 4: Further down the Hawaii sunset (And the colors fade.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 4: Sunset along Alii Drive (Rather beautiful, wot?)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 4: Sea strikes shore @ Chain Of Craters Road (The fresh lava flow was too far away to reach, but this still rocks.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 4: People exploring the floor of Kilauea Iki crater (In 1959, there were 1,900ft high lava fountains here - wow.)
April 05, 2005
Hawaii Photoblog Day 3: Warning signs in the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park (Just smells like catalytic converters to us.)
Holiday gaming: Super Monkey Ball Jr. for Game Boy Advance (The digital control is a tad tricky, but this is a surprisingly fun 3D engine (!) GBA conversion by Software Creations/Realism Ltd, check it if you missed it.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 3: Closer to Halema'uma'u Crater (This is about 8 miles West of the surface lava flow nowadays.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 3: Sulfur crystals adjacent to the crater (Or sulphur, for those cheeky Brits among us.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 3: Bigger steam vents on Kilauea (All very stable and safe, so fun to check out.)
April 04, 2005
Hawaii Photoblog Day 2: Spiky flowers on Kilauea's flanks (And slightly moth-eaten leaves, but hey.)
Holiday reading: Poppy Z Brite's 'Drawing Blood' (I very much enjoy her LJ so figured I'd try an early horror novel, which mixes hacking, horror, and homosexuality beguilingly.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 2: Steam vents on Kilauea's crater rim (Superheated rainwater from the lava pits deep below.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 2: Halema'uma'u Crater (...which is actually inside Kilauea's main crater - it was a lava pit in the 19th Century.)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 2: 'We're on a road to nowhere' (...or rather, to Kilauea.)
April 03, 2005
Hawaii Photoblog Day 1: The Kona Coast, uhh, coastline (There's also lots of lava rocks. Volcano pics tomorrow! Maybe!)
Hawaii Photoblog Day 1: Outside our Big Island condo rental (It's kinda hot here. Who knew?)
Rollo's Blog: 'Rollo Got Five On It' (Sorry, more cheesy pics of our adorable mini dachshund. Wotcha gonna do? )
New York Times spotlights 'New Games Journalism' (Again showing that a catchy name gets you no end of play.)
Gamasutra: Kieron Gillen talks to Guild Wars creators about 'casual MMO' (Free reg. req., dayjob, good WoW-snarkin' stuff - are they onto something?)
Believer Magazine interviews China Mieville (I need to read more of his books, I think.)
April 02, 2005
Crucial Classics: Hunt The Wumpus (A surprising, but gratifying pick - early games are often forgotten entirely.)
KongIsKing.net: Peter Jackson and friends reveal 'Son Of Kong' movie [.MOV] (Nazis, gorillas with mounted machine-guns, I can't wait! Posted, uhh, yesterday - via Waxy.)
NCSX shows off Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.3 for PS2 (Very, very niche, but intriguing - Sol Divide has had a crippled-ish PS1 U.S. release already, too.)
Gibberish: Fictionsuit 'collaborative fiction' site announced (To support 'the non-fiction-style of writing on fictional topics' - interesting.)
Spoonman: 'The Neo-Geo AES Pet Urn' (Aw. Whoa. Posted on April 1st, but a lot of other truthful stuff has been, so...?)
TeeVee.org: Celebrity weblogs (Several of these are hilarious, especially Les Moonves and Rob&Amber, for the reality crowd - via Waxy.)
April 01, 2005
SteamSteamLOL interviews my colleague Jill Duffy (...about game journalism, professionalism, and suchlike. OMG!)
Richard Cobbett's 'updated complicity prices' for game reviewing (Includes 'reviewing from the back of the box instead of opening it.')
Worthplaying: Gollops sign with Namco for Rebelstar Tactical Command GBA (Creators of X-Com, have been doing the same game for >20 years, also rock.)
ICV2: CCG/tabletop game sales weak in 2004 (For North America, "around $800 million at retail in 2004, down a bit from the $850 million number in 2003.")
Paul Boutin: 2005 Bulwer-Lytton winners (#9 is possibly my favorite.)
UK Guardian: Improbable Research - 'Reefer madness' ("Marijuana produced a small but statistically significant increase in sarcastic communications.")
Linspire: Michael Robertson mentions Legaltorrents in P2P rant (The Legaltorrents server just had a catastrophic HD failure, tho :( Will be down for a bit while we reconstruct - we have copies of all the torrents.)