NES Gaming in your Browser

Through the years we have seen many excellent browser games make their way to java applets on our computers.

Ranging from table top tower defense games to mathematical shooters we as internet denizens have seen it all. But now there is something else. Something wonderful with a slight dash of mystery.

Nintendo8.com has released a web-based NES emulator allowing for players of classic games to hop onto their website and pilot some of the best games of all time.

Nintendo8.com

I recommend TMNT2... or Ms. Pac-Man.

\\Drew

On Death's Door

Hey everyone, I've been reeling from the Flu all week, capping out at a very respectable 103. In turn I've been comatose on the couch. I will likely post again tomorrow or Monday when I can think... and write... possibly with witty anecdotes or allusions to banter I conjure in my head.

Also, I'm thinking of taking the blog in a new direction, but more to come on that later.

A Day of Portals

Here's two pretty slick gaming news sure to excite the ravenous fanboys out there.

First up, Still Alive, the haunting ending track from Portal performed by Jonathan Coulton, will be coming to Rock Band as a downloadable content update. Now you can groove out to the melodic hymn of a robot turned sociopath on your cheap plastic drums.


You can read up on the song debut and the most excellent way it was revealed here.

Secondly, in an interviewon G4 with Portal Lead Designer Kimberly Swift, she states "Well, I believe Doug Lombardi who is our lead marketing director at Valve, has announced Portal 2."

Yep, that's right, a sequel, not just more work done in the realm of portal. We'll see how that one turns out, hopefully a little better than Hypercube and Cube Zero.

\\drew

GDC Meet Red Ring of Death, RRoD Meet GDC

Yes at this point this is old news by all standards, with every news site that covers anything remotely tech related having already plastered images and witty commentary on their front pages.

But hey, I haven't yet and it's about damned time.

With the coming of this year's Game Developers Conference comes the chance for folks in the industry to get together and have panels concerning the state of the industry as a whole, new trends, and share ideas.

It's also a place for studios to display their works in progress for others to see. Unfortunately this sometimes involves running an XBOX360 for an extended period of time, and as mine proved this "extended period of time" can be under 2 hours.

According to statements by Microsoft they have fixed all new hardware to evade the previous iterations' habit of dying at the most inopportune time (see: during a boss fight or after multiple hours of play without a save point). There is no telling if this console that frazzled out is a newer model or one of the older, but wow is it funny.

Thanks Microsoft, this reminds me that a company can still be wildly successful and charge consumers large sums of money for a paper weight with new self-melting features.

\\drew

Princess Peach Upskirt

Yes you read that correctly. Hah.

Princess Peach Upskirt in new Smash Brothers

Sorry, busy busy and no time for a long article today.

\\drew

...

So yeah... not video game related, but I'm a rabid fanboy of Indiana Jones (see: My first son is going to be named Indiana).

\\drew

Will Wright and his Spore

In a recent Wired article Will Wright, designer of the highly anticipated and upcoming game Spore, walks the readers through some of the stages the players can expect to see in his pipe dream turned reality.

From a designer's point of view this game could really revolutionize how we develop, but it runs the risk of falling flat on its face like so many much hyped games. With a release date finally set at September 7th of this year we'll soon be able to find out for ourselves.

Wired Article Here

\\drew

Card Sagas Wars

I'll get more in depth with this article later but I have a meeting to go to. Until then check out this teaser trailer and the kid's website.

Did I mention he's 18?

Card gallery

\\drew

Mahjong meets Saucy

Here at work we always "joke" (see: It is an inevitability and we'll eventually make it, and you'll all be sorry you've shunned us for years) about making a Mahjong dating sim for the Nintendo DS. It just seems to make sense right? I mean, take the frenetic puzzle touchscreen clicking of Mahjong and add in the lurid tales of a Japanese dating sim and you have a cash cow on your hands right? ...Right?

Well ok maybe the idea isn't the greatest, but as a fan of both genre it seems to make sense to me.

Conveniently enough D3's new mobile title The Sexy Szechuan Province takes a stab at this muddled genre I like to call "Puzzle Play", or "Otaku Obscure", or "Fanboy Flabbergast".

Ok, so the game is not technically a dating sim, as dating sims are built around a simple text-based branching path storyline featuring numerous endings and ways to get to know all of the characters. This game here is just about playing Mahjong to see naughty pictures of anime girls.

Last time I checked that was a fairly simple task that did not require solving a series of block-based puzzle games to do *cough* 4chan *cough*. Certainly this game's value would increase if there was plot between these sections of depraved content.

But I digress.

Long story short this game is one step closer to my dream of perfect blending of two seemingly disconnected genres of gaming and I can only hope that I'll be able to pioneer it once everyone stops looking at us like we're crazy for wanting to make it.

Full Article here

\\drew

Space Invaders Snow Man?

Well, not exactly a snow man, more of an ice sculpture, but that's close enough for me!

In a recent Kotaku article a reader sent in this image from the Sapporo Snow Festival held last week in Hokkaido Japan.

Apparently this one was a bit small compared to some of the other contestants, but seriously, if you had to pick between an 8-bit hark to times past or an ice statue of an angsty teenage ninja there really is no contest right?

\\drew

Super Mario World meets Quantum Physics

Who says video games can't be used in the classroom?

Thanks to an article over on Mechanically Separated Meat some clever people have used a Super Mario World hack called Kaizo Mario World to explain Quantum Physics to some degree.

The above video is actually 134 playthroughs of the hacked SNES classic layered on top of each other using Super Nintendo Emulation software.

The article is worth a read as it gives some insights into "science things" while keeping it wrapped neatly in one of the best 2D side-scrollers of all time.

Mechanically Separated Meat

\\drew

CoD4 Flash Bang Kill

Yep, it had to be possible. Flash bangs deals a small amount of damage, couple that with a direct tag to someone's head and you have a video made of win.

\\drew

Devil May Cry 4 Japanese Trailer

You know, we really should have advertising like this in the US.... IT WOULD WORK.

And people can get on their high horse about sexuality on television and video games can preach about how this is destroying our youth, but last time I checked Budweiser commercials still have girls in bikinis telling kids that drinking beer will get them laid.

\\drew

New Quasimodox Figure

Much in line with his apparent love for Valve characters, Quasimodox has released a new sculpted figure of TF2's very own Pyro.

The figure is truly a great addition to any bathtub backdrop as it comes fully equipped with a holder in the flame thrower barrel for a tea candle. Nothing puts your special someone in the mood like an androgynous pyro-technician wearing a rubber suit who's currently playing with fire.

Quasimodox is also known for his Alyx Vance figure, though I'm really feeling this Pyro much more.

You can see the entire collection of images as well as the step by step creation process over at Gametrailer.com.

\\drew

New Mana Energy Potion, Guaranteed to make you pee B12

As companies attempt to market off the mass appeal of World of Warcraft we find ourselves facing down this drink called Mana an "Energy Potion".

This fancy bottle totes around the rather impressive label of twice as potent as a can of Red Bull.

Based on the Supplemental Health Facts on the side of the container the drink further boasts 1600% of your daily needed B6 and 6667% of your body's B12 intake.

Personally I try not to go overboard with my vitamin intake on a daily basis as it can cause some problems, well that and you simply pee out all the extra and I'm a fan of my pee being waste product, not something I spent $3.50 to imbibe.

Mana website here

\\drew

Tommy Lee Jones?

In recent adds for Boss coffee, Tommy Lee Jones has been playing the part of "Alien Jones", a person wandering through Japan learning about how things work here on earth.

In this super-sized commercial AJ finds himself in Akihabara at a Maid Cafe. It's rather fantastic simply because it's Tommy Lee Jones.

\\drew

M.C. Escher meets Portal, Photoshop, and 4Chan

With 4chan ever steamrolling on despite its obvious criminal intent *cough* every so often a great piece of work comes from the internet image board.

I recently stumbled upon this true gem, a mix between M.C. Escher's warped art and sense of reality and Portal's clever use of warping reality for puzzles.

While it's common knowledge that I loved Portal as it was the most refreshing design experience found in a game for quite some time, I'd be even more eager now to delve into this image as a game. While the story of Portal is finished the complexity of the puzzle possibilities are in a fledgling state.

How intense would it be to move through this level trying to figure out how all the rooms combine to get the door open?

Maybe I'm just a puzzle junkie.

\\drew