Anything and Everything that is cool, hot, fresh and classic.
This stop motion video of Mega Man 9, called Rockin In Paper, features a few details that didn’t make it into the final version of the game, such as the ability to control the game with a mustard bottle, and the Oreo Man boss battle, but it’s still a great piece of video game inspired cinema:
[Via: Snow's Blog]
RETROnoob’s Retro Reality series of photos is a wildly imaginative idea.
By taking classic video game characters and Photoshopping them into actual pictures, they take on a realism that is somewhat creepy yet definitely cool.
[deviantART - RETROnoob - Retro Reality]
[Via: Neatorama]
Apparently classic video games never die; they just get reincarnated in a variety of strange and unusual ways.
First, there was Pac-Txt, a text based Pac-Man game.
Now, there’s Paper Pong, a Choose Your Own Adventure style game that makes you choose a new page to move your paddle up and down.
If you thought Pong was boring before…
[Via: Kotaku]
Are you the type of person that likes surprises?
Then you’re probably the type of person that would like the SomethingStore, a website that sends you “something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it”.
What could this something be?
Yours may be a cool gadget, rare book, table game, handmade necklace, reverse clock, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, popular video game, big-box retailer gift card, the latest version of a software, a set of kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans, garden tool, kitchen appliance, unique home decor item, electronic equipment, magazine subscription, office supply item, or…
Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.
So SomethingStore can send you anything?
Well, besides “items or services that are illegal to trade in United States”, yes!
Sound good?
Then discover your something is today.
[Via: FreshArrival]
Surprisingly, the Valve Store is filled with video game merchandise that you might actually consider buying.
For example: Their Portal inspired shirts (pictured above) are impressively artistic.
As their classic tongue-in-cheek humor is present through out, check out the goods if you want to game in style.
For some video games, semi-secret items are a way of rewarding players that are advanced enough to find them. For others, their secret items are so hidden that only by chance can you stumble upon them, and even then, you’re often left with an item that has little value beyond ‘Hey, look what I found!”
Why then do designers spend the time to code in these secret mysteries?
According to Gamasutra, it’s a way of lending the game a certain quality, called “verisimilitude, where it “seems like there is a world outside the borders of the screen, happening regardless of what the player does. It implies the existence of a fully-fleshed world” and “it allows a game to better enable the player to forget that it is, really, just a game”.
To prove their point, they have put together a fantastic list of 20 Mysterious Games, including the reason for the secret inclusion, the design of the game itself, and the design lesson that the game can teach future designers.
It’s definitely a trip down memory lane for anyone that has been gaming for some time, and it does give you a new appreciation for the dark arts of video game design, so definitely check it out.
[Gamasutra - Game Design Essentials: 20 Mysterious Games]
[Via: Kotaku]
For those that game with nothing but the best, this Porsche setup is as close to a 911 as you’re going to get.
With a “fully licensed” wheel, six speed gearbox, and pedals, this set features wireless connectivity, force feedback, 100 hours of battery life, table clamps, and a custom Porsche USB stick to save your best lap times on.
Plus, it’s a “to-spec” reproduction, so it’s about the closest you’re going to get to driving the real thing if you still spend all of your time driving around inside of a video game.
[Fanatec]
[Via: Jalopnik]
ThinkGeek thought they would be clever this April Fools Day and design an “8-bit” tie that draws from the pixilated history of video games for its design. Well, the joke is on them, as numerous geeks and video game heads emailed them and demanded that they go into production. In response to the outcry, ThinkGeek is going to produce this clip on tie (it’s clip on to “preserve the simple, right angle, 8-bit), and sell it to the masses. Weather this was their intention all along, we’ll never know, but if you want to show your geeky side at the office, I can’t think of a better way.
Gran Turismo, a PlayStation series, sells itself as The Real Driving Simulator; a game that has always been synonymous with realism and true to life physics. It does seem pretty real (sometimes frustratingly so) when I play it, so I have often wondered just how true to life the game really is. Thankfully, Top Gear had the same wonderings, and decided to do a little test to see if they could match the time they can do in the game with the time they can do on the same track and in the same car as in the game, but in the real world. Watch and see:
[Via: High T3ch Magazine]
