ffwd: Linklog

News.com.au: Fatboy Slim, David Byrne working on musical about Imelda Marcos (Conceptually wild and wacky - via Simon Thornton.)

Indy Star: 'Lost' featuring Flann O'Brien's 'The Third Policeman' next week (Wow, I read the book after Alan Moore recommended it, and it's insanely reality-bending - is it hinting at something?)

Edge Online on the 10th anniversary of PlayStation (Maybe wedged candles will help get the laser back in alignment?)

Gamers With Jobs on EB's $10 new game 'rental' (Everyone's trying new business models in retail.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: Telltale Games' Kevin Bruner' (An ex-LucasArts indie has some neat, erudite media choices.)

Namco: 'We Love Katamari Desktop Buddy' (Haven't tried it yet, but dammit, it's Katamari, that's enough.)

Spong: 'Gizmondo executives respond to corruption insinuations' (Doh. Some great answers here, but an uber-minor correction is not 'lots of errors', Spong-guys.)

SimBlog: 'A resource for the Medical Simulation Community' (More intriguing 'serious games'-related blogging action.)

Futurenet: Cheaper(er) U.S. subscriptions to Edge magazine (Not big upping the competition too much, but this is a decent deal.)

Amazon: 'Smartbomb : The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution' book (Interesting - a high-end non-fiction title about the game biz, out in November.)

Gamasutra: 'Wideload Games' Alexander Seropian on Outsourcing for the Living Dead' (I'm a little excited for Stubbs the Zombie - hope it works out.)

Gamasutra: 'Gizmondo Financial Results Show Gigantic Losses' (Wrote yesterday, forgot to blog - the spousal luxury car allowance is particularly classy.)

Paid Content: SanDisk releasing new Rolling Stones album on SD-compatible flash card (Wha? $39.95? Locked content? Wha?)

Press The Buttons on G4's move away from video game programming (I wrote a short news story on this trend a few days back.)

Greg Costikyan co-founds Manifesto Games indie game distribution website (And good for him - someone else needed to try it.)

Yahoo/AP: Roy Disney Jr. buys the Harlem Globetrotters (I guess they had a cartoon, too - just about. Via Cartoon Brew.)

Aggro Me: 'The Big Picture' (Some good points on SOE's weird semi-competition with Sony itself, of late.)

A Digital Sailor's Diary: 'To Catch A Thief' ('We should focus on making the legitimate copy easier to get.' Hopefully people are doing that as we speak.)

IC Wiki: 'Hack Designer Pentagram' ('The exception would be an Alien Pirate. This is an unacceptable configuration.')

Gamasutra: 'Question of the Week Responses: Controller Revolution?' (Some interesting developer feedback on Nintendo's controller innovations.)

World Of Stuart: 'Fade Away and Irridiate' (The ever-contrary Mr. Campbell explains why Burnout has gradually been getting worse. Interesting.)

Video Business: Palm Pictures, Comcast launch free video-on-demand channel (We have this available in San Jose already, and it's great - multiple Palm Pictures documentaries, shorts, and even an extended Director's Label Vol.2 preview. Future of broadcasting alert in effect!)

Press The Buttons: 'Manly men love Super Princess Peach' (Peach's powers 'are based on crying and anger'? Sure to be popular with the ladies, yikes.)

Joi Ito discusses his World Of WarCraft 'research' (Notable because Ito is an alpha geek, but not necessarily a game geek, and is fascinated.)

Insert Credit wiki on Landstalker developer Climax Entertainment (Wow, IC wiki getting insanely detailed already.)

GameSpy's 'Download This' checks some more indie games (Bit of an odd spyware disclaimer in there, though.)

Game-Science: ' Taiko no Tatsujin Portable download service starts' (More downloadable PSP content, and free, too.)

Wisdom Tree: 'Fluffy & God's Amazing Christmas Adventure' (Christian game classic w/'Christmas Music Machine "DJ FLUFFY JAMS"', omg! Frank found animated sequences from it, too, with a very Southern God.)

MTV: 'Nintendo Fans Swarm Mario's Father During New York Visit' (Here's a first-person account from GamesAreFun - oh, and Yahoo has pics of the doggy fashion show.)

Inside Pulse reviews Atlus' Trauma Center: Under the Knife (I so can't operate safely on my bumpy Caltrain. Poor suspension-related deaths will abound!)

Gamasutra: 'The Esoteric Beat: Organisms, Quake-isms, Art-isms' (Some particularly fun stuff in Rossignol's pot pourri this week.)

NetAid: 'Videogames have changed: time to consider ‘Serious Games’?' [PDF] (Being taken seriously again, are we?)

Wired News: Gamers Get a Hollywood Makeover ('Has Hollywood finally figured out how to realistically depict gaming culture?' Eh, probably not.)

Leaky Cauldron: Potter fans complain over incorrect gravestone naming, WB fixes it (It's the power of the Interweb, innit?)

Google Video: First episode of UPN's 'Everybody Hates Chris' (Oh, but everyone loves Google, *simper*.)

I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing: ' The Joy of Specs' (The blog of screenwriter Josh Friedman, and compulsory reading - via Blue Cat.)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Tim Follin' (Apparently, he's doing the music to Lemmings PSP - neat!)

Edge Online interviews Roger Avary on the Silent Hill movie ('Quentin Tarantino, on the other hand, is not a gamer. He has an actual disrespect for gaming.')

Google search for LegalTorrents brings up incorrect (spam-related?) synopsis info ('Food recipes and coffee ice cream recipe'? This has never been on the site, as far as we know. Glitch? Someone gaming Google?)

1UP: Jeremy 'Toastyfrog' Parish's 'We Love Katamari graphic review (I think I was in Japan when this went up, so missed it - love it.)

Gamasutra: 'The Road to the IGF: Mind Control Software' (Fun article on Mind Control's five IGF entries, wow.)

Monotonik: Lackluster - Zero Million Barrels Of Oil Per Day [mtk153] (Latest on my net.label is single glitchy idm track from the mercurial Lackluster.)

Calamityjon unearths evidence of Superman's misbehavior (Newspapers never lie.)

Archive.org: Retro Core Tokyo Game Show 2005 Special (Woo, 57 games - the entire SNK booth, too.)

ASCII: Jason Scott interviews the creator of Drug Wars (The genre is still popular today, of course - mm, resource management.)

Music Thing: 'eBay of the day: The Furbitron' (Perhaps also usable for the second series of the revamped Dr. Who?)

Newsarama: Death Jr. trade to feature Mignola cover (Even if the game didn't turn out that hot, darn, the Whitta/Naifeh comic plus the Mignola cover art is exquisite.)

Archive.org: Mississippi River Flood of 1927 (Some relevance to recent events, and archivally vital, too.)

ParadoxSHIFT finds a neat Megaman NT screenshot (In-game text 'o the week - children, hide your squirrels.)

Insert Credit wiki launched (Perfect for hosting obscurity like info on Data West.)

Archive.org: NASA video - 'Opening New Frontiers' (Recounting the first four test flights of Space Shuttle Columbia in 1982. Neat - there's a Part 2.)

ffwd: 'Graves & MacGuffin' unveiled (This is the 'video game murder mystery' graphic novel myself and Adam Reed have been working on - go check it out, and then contact us if you can help with publishing it.)

Shirley & Spinoza - drone, weird, eclectic net.radio shows (They're hosting their old shows on Archive.org - includes live sets from Sagan.)

Nouten/From Software are selling (Japanese-language) games for PSP Adventure Player (Adventure Player being the disappointing PSP 'RPG maker' clone - but what a great business model, no Sony approval needed! Via Jiji.)

BBC America: 'The Mighty Boosh' coming to BBCA on Friday 30th (One of my favorite shows this year, since I picked up the DVD in England - uber-surreal comedy, highly recommended.)

Speed Demos Archive: Quest 64 (Wow, one of the worst N64 games and only RPGs gets a speed run.)

Japanese Expo 2005 photo essays (An absolutely awesome site - particularly good on the German-Japanese connection, aka queuing for fun and profit.)

Weezer's video for 'We Are All In Love' [WMV] (The obviously 'off' lipsyncing may lead you to the correct song video, 'We Are All On Drugs' - apparently, MTV2 has to play the former, but Fuse can play the latter? America is weird.)

TVShowsOnDVD: Shout Factory to release Margaret Cho's 'All-American Girl' on DVD (Cho also blogs it - 'I had almost no memory of any of the episodes.')

Michael 'Zonk' Zenke reviews Game Developer's September issue (My Slashdot Games successor checks out our mobile issue - glad he digs.)

Press The Buttons: Madden bug shrinks player to 7 inches tall (Bonjour, hilarity!)

Poynter: San Jose Mercury News to eliminate 56 jobs (Youch, my local, too - conventional print media still unwell.)

JeanSnow: Nigo, Rip Slyme, m-flo album on Def Jam in U.S. (The rather smart Rip Slyme were all over Japanese MTV when I was there - plus production from Cornelius, Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, Neptunes? Youch - watch for this.)

Gamasutra: 'Evolution and Risk: CCP on the Freedoms of EVE Online' (Rossignol talks to EVE Online folks about their Machiavellian MMO shenanigans.)

Shacknews: 'Osu! Takae! Ouendan! Preview' (That game I was talking about! It's fun!)

1UP: 'Gaming's Rhapsody: Fourth Movement' (Mr. Maragos gets into LSDJ, SynthCart, other goodness.)

Polly Tracker C64 music competition entries are in (14 of them, and some of them are really smart, too.)

Hollywood Reporter: 'Offshoring: The good & bad news' (I love SeaCode - programmers on a boat: 'Cook believes he will be able to skirt US H-1B visa regulations... by categorizing the hires as "seamen."')

1UP: 'A Giant In The Making' (Skipped to the Fumito Ueda interview page - good stuff.)

Insert Credit: 'News: 'Playing Catch-Up', 'Media Consumption'' (Apologies for pimping Gama stuff on IC, but Frank's columns are _really_ good. So there.)

Nostalgia Zine: 'A Quick Business History of Comic Books Part Two: 1960-2005' (A good overview of where sales are headed - via Comics Reporter.)

Mojave Airport Weblog: 'Victorville Herd Count' (More great aircraft storage pics from Alan Radecki.)

Gamasutra: 'The Glu That Binds: Greg Ballard On Mobile Game Publishing' (With bonus info on why Biohazard is only called that in Japan, oddly.)

GameTunnel releases August indie round-up (A plethora of goodness on here, as per usual.)

Slashdot goes to HTML 4.01 and CSS (More importantly, there's this comment - 'There should also be a live Slashdot cam... kind of like Jennicam used to be.')

IBM OptimalGrid: Overview page (Now includes 'the first release of the code for running Quake II on a grid as a massively multiplayer game.' Oo.)

Archive.org: 'The Shadow Percussion Project' (DJ Shadow tunes played by after-school percussion group - marvellous.)

Japanese DS game recommendation: 'Oh! My! Ouendan!' [.SWF movie] (I picked this up in .JP, it's insane J-Pop rhythm action fun, grab it.)

Jason & Nihongonauts reviews Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children ('The hero is chased by albino Evel Knievel clones.')

Gamasutra: Media Consumption: Sony's David Jaffe ('At this point in my life, I can really relate to country music more than any other genre.')

Randy Smith chronicles his judging of the Edge Award (Yes, that's this Randy Smith - via Gillen.)

Sony Pictures UK: Trailer for new film version of 'The Producers' (Looks delightful - via EW PopWatch.)

Archive.org: 'Undersea Kingdom: Chapter 1 - Beneath the Ocean Floor' (Great old PD serial, here's the rest of the episodes.)

Merc News blog: 'LimeLife Targets Cell Phone Games For Women' (I wonder if 'X for women' will work in the game market this time round.)

GameSpy reviews Tecmo Classic Arcade for Xbox (Or Tecmo 'not-so-classic' Arcade, most likely.)

Image: PC Gamer UK article on EVE Online's 'Murder Incorporated' (Just the first page, cos scan-linking is rude, but this is why EVE rocks.)

GamerDad: Balancing Act #43: Treason (Totally cute story that has nothing to do with games.)

Game Informer: City of (Arch)Villains Halloween Costume Contest announced (Last year's winners were pretty neat.)

ProWrestling.com: WWE wrestlers banned from playing video games (What, even WWE-themed video games?)

Ziff Davis buys news aggregation site GameTab (I heard an acquisition was pending here - congrats, Reed!)

Guardian Gamesblog picks its top titles from Tokyo Game Show (I concur pretty much all the way - Edge Online's list is marginally weirder/more debatable.)

GameSpy takes a look at the history/state of game ratings (We have a multi-country comparison of this, including interviews with ratings boards, coming up in Game Developer in December.)

Gamasutra: 'IGF Reveals 2006 Entry List, Calls For Judges' (Full list of IGF entries - also, AdultSwim.com is this year's top sponsor, yay.)

Kittenrock's 8-bit mash-up 'pop compilation' [MP3 album] (I'm partial to the mutant 'Love Song' cover, personally - via Vorc.)

1UP reviews id's Doom RPG for mobile phones (I don't think I understood it was just like Doom, but turn-based - weird.)

Richard Cobbett reviews Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (This was seriously sold out in Tokyo, most places we went - incoherence no problem.)

Waxy.org: Microsoft video of Bill Gates doing 'Napoleon Dynamite' with Jon Heder [.WMV] (The Comdex spoof based on The Matrix was good as well - Waxy, make an archive of all of these and don't get sued, forthwith! Via Linkbunnies.)

Rodney Alan Greenblat's gallery page has art from his forthcoming NY show (Including some totally awesome sculptures from the Parappa creator.)

The Hollywood Reporter's special report on the Jim Henson Company at 50 (Including info on coming attractions, post-Muppets sale - via Muppet Newsflash.)

Gamasutra: 'Game Pricing Strategies: A Hypothesis' (Any article that compares Madden NFL and the Bible is good by me.)

TVGasm shows all of Julie Chen's 'But first..' snippets from Big Brother (Chenbot circuits... overheating...)

Gelf Magazine interviews Neal Pollack (He likes Alan Partridge too, good man.)

ASSEMblergames Forum: Auction of Sonic Extreme beta for Sega Saturn (Holy Grail-style rareness, a single dev disc went for $3,000.)

Billboard: Harry Shearer and friends found Courgette Records (And more importantly, 'a pilot for TV Land, called 'I Did Not Know That,' which will satirize shows like A&E's "Biography" series' - nice! Via BradSucks.)

Tokyo shopping recommendation: 'Tokyu Hands - Creative Life Store' (As recommended by William Gibson, the Shinjuku branch is 7 floors of everything from artificial limbs through bathroom fittings to magic tricks - and the also Gibson-cited Shinjuku Watch Kan is insane, too.)

Promo video for Q? Entertainment's 'Every Extend Extra' for PSP (Doujin title plus Mizuguchi touch equals gooooooal - via Jiji.)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: The Fat Man' (Back from Japan to Nudie Suit-ed insanity!)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Tokyo Game Show 2005 Coverage Round-Up' (Thank the Lord! Probably the most succinct TGS round-up you'll see anywhere, I claim - now I'm off home.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - The Best Of The Rest' (They should put in a kids area at E3. Haw.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Konami's Solid Performance' (That Metal Gear Ac!d 2 3D glasses peripheral is seriously wacky.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Bandai, Namco Team For Double Trouble' (I really hope KataDama PSP is nice and playable.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Square Enix Wins Hearts, Tames Cerberus' (I'm getting really rather excited about Kingdom Hearts 2.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Capcom Faces Devil, Dead, Monster-s' (Yet more round-up hilarity from TGS - can I do the whole show in 10 posts or less?)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Sega Tries Shadow-ing With Phantasy' (The best bit was Seaman 2's mysterious thicket - what a tease!)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Sony Scores With PSP, PS2, PS3' (Some of the new PSP games are really neat.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Booth Round-Up - Microsoft, Xbox 360 On Charm Offensive' (As photo shows, plenty of interest from the Japanese in the Xbox 360.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Electronic Arts Talks MoH PS3, Next-Gen Costs' (Hey Alice, we were in the same presentation and still didn't meet up - doh!)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Iwata On Expanding The Entire Games Market' (And doing remarkably well in Japan, at least.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Bach Claims 'Best Platform' For Xbox 360' (Microsoft didn't have any cards left to play - but its hand is still strong.)

Gamasutra: 'TGS: Iwata's Keynote Reveals Nintendo Revolution Controller' (Includes photoblog pic of unveiling - was great to be there.)

Tokyo photoblog Day 2: Epic's CliffyB shows off 'Gears Of War' (With his eyes closed - sorry, Cliffy.)

Tokyo photoblog Day 2: Xbox Japan's Yoshihiro Maruyama talking Xbox 360 launch (Apparently, it's pretty darn soon.)

Tokyo photoblog Day 2: Start of Xbox 360 press conference in Shibuya (Shibooyaka, in fact.)

Gamasutra: 'Pre-TGS: Microsoft Sets Launch, Japanese Pricing For Xbox 360' (This is what I was up to today - pictures to follow.)

Tokyo photoblog Day 1: light-smeared view from my 24th-floor hotel room into Shinjuku, Tokyo (Lots of pretty lights.)

Tokyo photoblog Day 1: Getting on the express to Tokyo at Narita Airport (Toot toot! Toot toot!)

Archive.org: Retro Core Dreamcast Shooting Special (28 Dreamcast shooters recorded in hi-res - neeto.)

TIGSource finds 'Guardian Of Paradise' doujin title (Needs some translating, by the look of it.)

The Magic Box: Screens/info on Taito's Exit for PSP (Neat-looking retro 2D gaming ahoy.)

Thor Alexander's MMP game developers' map (I can see your virtual house from here!)

Wired News: 'The Video-Game Novel Also Rises' (I'm enjoying Clive Thompson's new Wired News column.)

NCSX has the ultra-limited Final Fantasy VII Advent Children LE in stock (You sure get a lot of stuff, but - $377.30? Ouch.)

Image: Limited-edition Seaman controller for PlayStation 2 (Never noticed this weeeird controller for the PS2 SKU of one of the weirdest games ever, soon to be sequelized.)

Archive.org: Ishq - Live at Morrison Planetarium 10-28-03 (From the newly set-up Dub Beautiful collection at the Archive - super-lush ambience.)

1UP: PAXpose - video interviews from Penny-Arcade Expo (I like the loose, informal style of these, though I have to admit I still don't watch much video online.)

PerfectBlend.net: Neighbors - Magic Moments (Ah, the soap of my childhood - see Scott and Charlene's wedding - Kylie 'pop star' Minogue, Alan 'The O.C.' Dale and all - via Linkbunnies.)

GameFaqs: Target gets We Love Katamari stock early (Or at least, my local Target in San Jose has it, and now so do I, muha.)

Japan Times: 'For a life less ordinary, try marrying an otaku' ('Otaku will never have affairs with other women' - via Gibberish.)

NCSX on Tokyo Bus Guide 2 for PlayStation 2 ('Passengers rank your performance based on comfort level and smoothness of ride - hard braking will count against your rating.')

Monotonik: Tatsu - August EP [mtk152] (New on my netlabel, super-smooth, retro Japanese techno.)

Japanese Gaming: Interactive map of arcades/game stores in Tokyo's Akihabara district (Should come in handy next week.)

DreamcastHistory: Jet Set Radio pachislot (Fun, and surprisingly cheap - the vendor also has a Bob Sapp 'Beast Sapp' pachislot, bizarrely - Sapp is big in Japan.)

eBay: Big selection of Japanese game promo posters (Particularly neat - Ratchet with eyebrows, as previously commented on.)

ColecoNation web magazine - Issue 3 (Good to see the Coleco still getting support, 23 years on.)

JAPJAC's photos from the 2005 JAMMA arcade show in Tokyo (A good impression of the size and scope - mm, remote-controlled Marios.)

Gelf Magazine: 'What Would Sistani Do?' (Can't believe I missed the 6th International Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship.)

Whedonesque - 'Mosquito' spoof of Serenity/Firefly available for download (Very droll.)

Douglas Wolk sums up this year's Burning Man Festival (Lots of fun to read about, however, I must have Ethernet.)

Palm Pictures: Director's Label music video Series 2 box (Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek, Stephane Sednaoui - this is out on Tuesday, finally.)

ffwd: 'Continental drifting, again...' (Quick update to my main weblog - off to Tokyo Game Show next week, linklog updates will be light and/or pictures.)

Sceen magazine - new German 'magazine for digital extravaganza' (Lots of great demo-scene/geek stuff in here - apparently an interview with me, too? Wha?)

GameTap: Full launch game listing for 'all you can eat' game subscription service (I beta-tested this, and it's absolutely awesome - the long tail in full effect.)

Gamasutra: 'Interview: Roll D3 For Enchantment: D3 Publisher of America's New Quest' (D3 is planning a different tack from its budget-friendly Japanese division.)

Cosplaylab: 'Feel The Magic' cosplay (Conceptually sweet - via Kotaku.)

Namco U.S.: Official 'We Love Katamari' site (Possibly the most raucous website ever, but hey, it's Katadama.)

Flickr: Pictures from the FFVII: Advent Children premiere (Rumor has it the movie is, unfortunately, gorgeous-looking nonsense.)

GameSpot: 'Seaman gets a sea-quel' (Good news indeed - I still heart Yoot Saito.)

GameTrailers: Xbox 360 Japanese movie promo [.WMV] (Horrifically lifestylin', but slickly done.)

Archive.org: 'Cinemocracy' collection (Still some audio issues to be resolved, but neat 1940s U.S. propaganda films.)

Gamasutra: 'Acclaim Properties Re-Appear For Sale' (Very tempted to buy Iggy's Reckin Balls, just because.)

Regret The Error interviews Seth Mnookin about fact checking, journalistic errors (Terribly specialized, but rather interesting.)

Module Records: 'Zizzle's iZ' music toy from Furby creator ('Pushing the belly button makes him try another mix' - via Music Thing.)

Goldie Lookin' Chain - 'Yer Missus Is Nuts' music video [.MOV] ('Oh son, your missus is trouble - every time you have a drink, she has a double'.)

'Strafing Run!' PC shmup review site (Some neat round-ups here, for one - via TIGSource.)

Heisei Democracy: 'Toward a Classification of Eroge Subgenres' (Japanese 'erotic games' rather expertly grouped, defined.)

Clickable Culture chats to Will Harvey about IMVU ('Hey Will, nice skirt.')

GameSpy: Capcom's 'Catan' for N-Gage previewed (More slept-on N-Gage exclusivity - Susumu Matsushita character designs and all!)

Slate: 'The Gaming Greybeards' (Subtitled: 'Can two thirtysomethings survive on Xbox Live?')

AVault: Midway signs exclusive with 'The League' (An EA-baiting spoof release for Blitz: The League: unfortunately, some are somewhat confused.)

1UP Blog: 'Metagame on' (Scott Sharkey splices 'X-Treme Turretball' into City Of Heroes, the wag.)

Xbox-Scene: Mimesis v1.1 (Completely third-party 'content distribution app' for modded Xboxes? Jeez, getting sophisticated here.)

CorpNews: 'Anatomy of a Raid - A World of Warcraft Misadventure in Three Parts' ('I'm sure there are several valuable life lessons in this somewhere that I'm missing.')

Time Out: Simon Pegg interviews George A Romero (It's a lovefest, but it's a gratifying one, innit?)

MobileIndustry editorial from Tower Studios' Jon Hare (Needs some more copy editing, but intriguing words from the Sensible Software supremo.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Postmortem: WipEout Pure' (Plenty of honesty, good practical hints from the PSP launch title.)

Archive.org: Planet Boelex - Never change [od079] (Some gorgeously chilled CC-licensed Finnish techno.)

Pouet.net: 'Uh-Oh! Even More Hits For Kids LP' Amiga music-disc (Difficult to check if you don't have an Amiga, but great to see Up-Rough still rockin' it.)

Edge interviews 'Mutant Storm' developer Pom Pom (Ex-Cranberry Source, eh? I remember the polar sprouts!)

Game Informer Online rounds up new Tecmo, Midway retro compilations (Both are mildly interesting, I guess.)

IC's Chaz reveals 'Box Hound' multimedia project ('Box Hound is a fan project focused on the cardboard box, arguably the most popular "character" in the Metal Gear series')

Jeff Green's 1UP blog: 'More game review shenanigans' (The CGW editor always seems pained - it pains me.)

'C64Music!' blog (Really nice Commodore 64 audio-related weblog, as spotted being linked on Paul Slocum's site.)

Apple: iPod nano (Mm, iPod nano.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Getting a Deal: Focusing on What Really Matters to Publishers' (Home truths always in short supply.)

DVD Savant reviews The Hammer Horror Series (Wow, what a great conglomeration of delightful schlock.)

Clickable Culture: Initial 'Second Life' sign-up now completely free (Doesn't look fully announced yet, but great news.)

Mark Evanier highlights the 3 new Monty Python-related DVD box sets (I've been thinking about grabbing Ripping Yarns.)

NME: Gorillaz going on '3D holographic' world tour (Damon will have ditched Danger Mouse by the time _that_ happens.)

Hollywood Reporter: 'Game piracy outlook bleak for near-term' (Though Trymedia and Macrovision will always try to paint a bleak picture.)

RPGFan previews Natsume's PS2 'kissing game' Chulip (Finally coming out in the U.S. later this year, cult stardom beckons.)

GamerDad: Fun write-up of the Penny-Arcade Expo (The most good-humored con around - I must try to make it next year.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: The First Generation of The Next Generation: A Project Gotham Racing 3 Postmortem' (Lots of practical hints on fooling journalists with PGR3, hee.)

PR: America's dentists recommend SpillSeal Washable Computer Keyboards ("Since most adults report that they had seen a dentist within the past year, this advancement could impact millions of Americans.")

Phrasinator.de - robotic German election statements (Vaguely based on SpamRadio, also uses music from my label Monotonik.)

Dean Takahashi gets Nolan Bushnell to spill on his restaurant/gaming concept (Missed this: 'A couple can order a mystery wine and taste it. They can then vote on the characteristics of the wine and talk about their answers.')

Hanbitsoft's gallery for 'Granado Espada' Korean PC MMO (From the Ragnarok Online lead designer, launches later this year, looks gorgeous.)

Wizards Of The Coast: Free library kit for 'Dungeons & Dragons' ('Educators love D&D because it thrives on creativity, imagination, and cooperation (with a bit of math and reading thrown in).' Via Wheaton.)

Urban Dictionary: Images for 'fgsfds' (Individual pics have the explanation appended - memetastic.)

Narcissu - translated freeware Japanese 'visual novel' (Neat, evocative website, too.)

Piyokun wades into the Touhou PC doujin game craze in Japan (The place to go for English-language info on this is still ShrineMaiden.)

UK Guardian asks experts to pick the 10 worst paintings in Britain (Blur even merits a mention - via IfThenElse.)

Google Sightseeing: Post-Katrina New Orleans data added ('Google hope that the imagery will be used in the development of relief websites'.)

1UP: 'Gaming Journalism: Unplugged' (An excellent U.S. history of video game fanzines.)

Sega: 'Feel The Magic 2' demo level for Nintendo DS [.SWF] (Yes, this is 'Where Do Babies Come From?' in action - via Fort90.)

Clive Thompson's new Wired News column fetes Nintendogs (You can't play voice-controlled games on airplanes, though, which is actually kinda annoying.)

Clickable Culture on Second Life 'elites' meeting with company (Let them eat resident-modeled, CC-licensed cake.)

Aggro Me: MMOs suspend billing for affected players (Just a tiny thing, I know, but it all adds up.)

Insert Credit points to more First Of The North Star 2D fighter info (Given the anime license, hopefully a U.S. console release for this eventually?)

Gamasutra: 'IGF 2006 Main Competition Deadline Looms On Tuesday' (Enter now, or else... you can't - there are some sharp titles submitted already.)

Insert Credit: Forum post on the best overlooked GB/GBC games (Some absolutely great recommendations in here - talk about a neglected format!)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Feature: Seeing What Sticks: Developing a Katamari Sequel' (Kieron Gillen's full write-up of the excellent Takahashi keynote.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Feature: SingStar - That's Entertainment' (A great session on the PS2 karaoke game - enjoyed this.)

Archive.org: Katamari Damacy speed run (Great for checking out level tactics, too.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: 'Panel: State of the Studio'' (The last panel from GDCE, and a neat one, phew.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Feature: Developing for PlayStation 3' (More info on the mythical grail, err, Cell.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: 'Feature: Game Design Mash-Up'' (Takahashi's cat controller concept = demented insanity, hurrah.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Satchell Talks Xbox User Content, HD Options' (As of Microsoft's original launch of XNA at Game Developers Conference 2004: "We didn't know what the hell it was." Cute.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: 'Feature: Overview of the PSP in 2005'' (David Jenkins grabs some good state-of-PSP coverage.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: "Feature: Keynote Q&A on the Future of Games"' (Phil Harrison is a smart guy.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: 'Feature: Integrating Xbox 360-Specific Features Into Games'' (Wow, a gigantic amount of good info in this session.)

Gamasutra: 'GDCE: Takahashi Enchants GDCE Crowd With Keynote' (Katamari Damacy creator still crazy, lovable.)