Original Mario Kart on Wii
New on the Wii Virtual Console: Super Mario Kart. Many consider this the finest Kart made.
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kottke.org posts about video games
Spacewar!
Spacewar was one of the first video games and in 1972, Rolling Stone sent a 33-yo Stewart Brand to document the early days of computing as entertainment. The photographs were taken by a 23-yo Annie Leibovitz.
“We had this brand new PDP-l,” Steve Russell recalls. “It was the first minicomputer, ridiculously inexpensive for its time. And it was just sitting there. It had a console typewriter that worked right, which was rare, and a paper tape reader and a cathode ray tube display, [There had been CRT displays before, but primarily in the Air Defense System.] Somebody had built some little pattern-generating programs which made interesting patterns like a kaleidoscope. Not a very good demonstration. Here was this display that could do all sorts of good things! So we started talking about it, figuring what would be interesting displays. We decided that probably you could make a two-Dimensional maneuvering sort of thing, and decided that naturally the obvious thing to do was spaceships.”
You can play the original version of Spacewar in your Java-enabled browser.
Hedgehog Launch 2
I don’t have time for a proper play, but the sequel to Hedgehog Launch is out. It’s more of the same, only different. (thx, ben)
PS. In case you missed it on Friday, all the fun Flash games I post have their own page now: addictive Flash games. There it is, your whole day. Waiting to be ruined.
Shields of Gemland
Shields of Gemland is a fun Snood-like game. (via buzzfeed)
BTW, I’ve collected a bunch of the fun Flash games I post occasionally into a tag of their own: addictive Flash games. Hundreds of hours of fun, all on one page.
Javascript Nintendo emulator
This Javascript Nintendo emulator works amazingly well in Google Chrome. You can play Dr. Mario, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, etc.
I highly recommend you use Google Chrome to play JSNES. Thanks to its high performance canvas element, and a clever optimisation by Connor Dunn, it runs at full speed on modern computers. Mac builds are also available. Otherwise, it just about runs on Firefox 3.5 or Safari 4, but it’s hardly playable.
We’ve come a long way from the days of the 5K Awards.
A Life Well Wasted podcast
A Life Well Wasted is a well-produced podcast about “video games and the people who love them”, sort of a gaming version of Radiolab or This American Life. Each episode is accompanied by a limited edition poster designed by the awesome Olly Moss.
Update: The Bygone Bureau has an interview with A Life Well Wasted’s creator, Robert Ashley.
Remastered Beatles albums
Today’s the day: those meticulously remastered Beatles albums are available today. The Beatles version of Rock Band is out as well.
A game where upgrading is the game
The goal of the UPGRADE COMPLETE! game is to upgrade the game fully. (Yes, this game was inspired by Achievement Unlocked.)
This game has crummy graphics… UNTIL YOU UPGRADE THE GRAPHICS ENGINE! And no sound? UNTIL YOU BUY IT IN THE SHOP! And no mute button!? You guessed it, this game requires you to buy that as well!
Which seems a bit lame but then when you get into it a bit, it’s a little less lame but the game is totally easy and it just takes some time to get through it and get everything. I guess what I’m trying to say is: I finished it.
CycloManiacs
CycloManiacs is Excitebike all grown up…it can drink alcohol and tie cherry stems in knots with its tongue. Warning: this is literally hours of fun. Hours.
Must Pop Words
Boggle + Tetris/Snood = Must Pop Words. This is difficult for poor typists like me. (via vsl)
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Might have to dust off the Wii for this one: New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Features include four-player collaborative play (!!) and something called “demo play”.
The game will also be the first game on the Wii to feature “demo play”, where players will be able to pause the game, let the game complete the level for them, and resume play at any time by unpausing.
In my house, this was called the “give the controller to my 11-year-old cousin and let him show you how it’s done” feature. I both hated and loved that feature. (via object of my obsession)
Circle the cat
The Circle the Cat game is addictive until you figure out the optimal strategy (which took me way too long) and then it’s pretty easy. (via @dunstan)
Multitasking, now in game form
In Multitask, you start off playing one game and then another and so on until you’re playing several games at the same time. I am horrible at this. (via waxy)
Jeremy Roenick retires as best video game hockey player ever
After 20 years in the NHL, Jeremy Roenick has decided to retire from the league. Topping the list of Roenick’s off-ice achievements are two items related to the God-like status of the then-Chicago Blackhawks center in NHL 94.
The end of The Matrix
Usually MMO games that reach the end of their usefulness are ungracefully shut down. The Matrix Online has cleverly built the closing of the game into the narrative of the world.
Ashes to ashes, decompiling sky to deletion. The Matrix Online is reminding us all that it’s slowing coming undone as the system becomes more and more unstable with each passing day. Ashes raining from the sky, eyes being seen in the clouds, zombies, agents, angels, and demons all appearing out of the system’s corruption to wreak havoc across the Mega City.
(thx, david)
Guitar Hero 5 playlist
Amazon has a mp3 listing of all the songs that will be included in the upcoming Guitar Hero 5. Lots of great stuff in there.
The economics of Flash games
As an avid player of Flash games (when I’ve got time), I found Dan Cook’s post on the economics of the Flash game platform really interesting and applicable to anyone who is offering content online and wants to get paid for it.
Flash games are currently the ghetto of the game development industry. Compared to the number of players it serves, the Flash game ecosystem makes little money, launches few careers, and sustains few developer owned businesses. Despite the vast potential of the ecosystem, Flash games contribute surprisingly little to the advancement of game design as an art or a craft.
This is just the first installment…two or three more are yet to come. (via @anildash)
BridgeCraft
Usually free Flash games take about 30-45 minutes to get through but BridgeCraft has a whopping 140 levels (70 each on easy and normal settings)! You could build actual bridges in the time it would take to finish this game.
Music Catch 2
Catch musical notes as they fly by to the rhythm of a classical soundtrack. I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would…it’s likely my love of games where you tidy up. (thx, dylan)
Micro Olympics
Aaaaaaand if you liked Hedgehog Launch and Learn to Fly, you’ll also probably enjoy Micro Olympics and Micro Olympics on Mars.
Learn to Fly
If small addictive Flash games were advertised through Hollywoodesque trailers: if you loved Hedgehog Launch, you’ll go penguins for Learn to Fly.
Live Donkey Kong record attempt
Steve Weibe is trying to break Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong record live. As in right now! The pair’s exploits were chronicled in the documentary King of Kong. (via waxy)
Update: The score to beat is 1,050,200 points. (Oops, Wiebe just died as I was typing this. He’s got two guys left.) Wiebe owns the second highest score with 1,049,100 points.
Update: He just died again. He’s at ~370,000 with one guy left. Not looking good.
Update: Last guy. 457,000. Not looking good.
Update: He finally got it going but ended up short of the record with 923,400. Word is he’s got two more chances to break it today.
Update: No dice…didn’t break the score with any of his games.
Crush the Castle
A pox on thee and thine house, Andy Baio, for introducing me to Crush the Castle, which prevented me from crushing on some PHP I should have been doing tonight. BTW, if you get stuck on the last few levels, check out this video. Not that I did for the last level. Not at all. Nope. (via waxy)
Must the evil lair emanate evil?
Jim Rossignol writes about the architecture of evil lairs in video games for BLDGBLOG.
Conveniently, evil already has a visual language. Put another way: I have seen the face of evil, and it is a caricature of gothic construction. There’s barely a necromancer in existence whose dark citadel doesn’t in some way reflect real-world Romanian landmarks, such as Hunyad or Bran Castle. The visual theme of these games is so heavily dependent on previously pillaged artistic ideas from Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien that evil ambiance is delivered by shorthand. (Of course, World of Warcraft’s Lich King gets a Stone UFO to fly around in — but it’s still the same old prefab pseudo-Medieval schtick inside). Where the enemy is extra-terrestrial, HR Giger’s influence is probably going to be felt instead.
Flight Control
I’ve caught the Flight Control bug that’s going around. According to the developer, the addictive iPhone game is doing huge business, selling over 700,000 copies (at $0.99 to $2.99 a copy) since its release in early March.
Punch-Out for Wii
Punch-Out is coming to the Wii (@ Amazon)…the teaser commercial features Isiah Whitlock, Jr., who played Clay Davis on The Wire, as Little Mac’s trainer. It’s worth watching to hear Whitlock’s comparison of comebacks and yo-yos. (thx, rob)
8-Bit Fatalities
The 8-Bit Fatalities project presents the abstract killing in pixelated video games (Pac-Man eating the ghosts, Dig Dug blowing up his enemies) as realistic illustrations.
The Kirby one is the best…and most graphic. (via clusterflock)
Effing Hail
Keep hail afloat with your mouse’s wind to grow it large enough that it can crush houses, skyscrapers, and buildings. Effing Hail! Addiction level: my eyes are bleeding.
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