The Great 8-Bit Gatsby
What happens when you combine Super Mario Bros. and the Great American Novel? “The Great Gatsby for NES.” The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen reports.
Call Me Stormy
Finding righteous currents in turbulent times
Archive for the tag “video games”
Post-it Note Arcade
Michael Birken created this stop-motion tribute to his two favorite old-school arcade games based on actual recorded game footage. The recordings were printed out, one frame at a time, and transferred by hand to various walls around his office floor using thousands of Post-It Notes. The process consumed weekends and holidays for the past 11 months.
Disaster Strikes SimCity
The Sims are homeless. Tornadoes have struck. UFOs are hovering overhead. The Mayor is growing alarmed, but what can he do when the servers are down?
7 Deadly Sins of Online Gaming
The 7 Deadly Sins have taken new forms now that multi-player online gaming is all the rage. H/T Cracked
North Korea Amps Up the Crazy
Amidst rising tensions, North Korea put out a new propaganda video depicting US Soldiers and President Obama engulfed in flames. Besides the schlocky visual effects, the piece uses background music from several popular American video games.
Dumb Congressional Hearings
As Congress gets worked up into a stupor over gun control, one thing’s certain: We can expect some unbelievably dumb congressional hearings to follow. Already Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb) have proposed yet another study on violent video games. In anticipation of the scare-mongering and grandstanding to come, Reason.TV presents a greatest hits parade — a half dozen of the dumbest all-time Congressional hearings, focusing on sex, violence and Satan.
The Debacle of 38 Studios
The 2012 bankruptcy of Rhode Island-based video-game developer 38 Studios isn’t just a sad tale of a start-up tech company falling victim to the vagaries of a rough economy. It is a completely predictable story of crony capitalism, featuring star-struck legislators and the hubris of a larger-than-life athlete completely unprepared to compete in business.
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, an iconic figure in New England after anchoring a historic playoff comeback which ended a legendary 86-year title drought, founded 38 Studios near the end of his baseball career in the hopes of becoming a big shot in the intensely competitive multi-player gaming world.
Psst! Get Your Digi Sex Here
A company called Sinful Robot is developing the first modern sex simulation game. It’s likely to be unveiled in 2014 with the release of the Oculus Rift VR headset. With virtual sex becoming a reality, will real sex become a thing of the past? Stay tuned. H/T SourceFed
Your Brain on Video Games
How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Step into the lab with cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier from the University of Rochester to hear surprising news about how video games, even action-packed shooter games, can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask. H/T TEDtalks
The Glove and Boots Debate
Mario and Farfa moderate the debate of the decade — the 2012 Halo debate, pitting the red Master Chief against the blue Master Chief.
