Joe Juba's flowchart of the classic Japanese RPG formula (via Simon Parkin) is a delight, from the first attack on the village to our final showdown with the androgynous baddie.
After the jump, please enjoy "It Is With Great Regret," my very brief contribution to this genre of JRPG tribute. It's a flash-fic about the tragedy of rebellion.
Trainyard, and where it came from
Bill Barol (email, Twitter) is a former senior writer at Newsweek and his journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Time, Slate, and elsewhere. He was a contributor to True/Slant and currently photoblogs at Pix365.
Trainyard (App Store link) is a neat little casual game about making the trains run on time. And also about them, you know, not crashing. It may be a small subset of the casual-gaming crowd that likes this sort of thing, but count me among its members. A few nights ago I was reminiscing with a friend about "Railroad Tycoon," a game that inexplicably obsessed me for some months in the early 1990s. "Which one was that?" he asked me. "God, it was great," I told him. "You loaded up these old trains with lumber and livestock and stuff, and you had to get 'em from one station to the other on time, and... " And right there I realized how pathetic the gameplay sounded. In retrospect it was, and I'm sure the game would look laughably primitive to me now. But there was something hypnotic about laying the track, building the stations, loading the cars and letting them go. It was like you were winding the stem of an ever-more-complicated machine you yourself had designed and built, and standing back and watching it go.
Trainyard, and its free cousin Trainyard Express, tickles that same nerdy lobe in the brain. As is appropriate for an iPhone game, however, the graphics are minimal -- developer Matt Rix scales each train and line down to a clean, colorful schematic, and ratchets up the difficulty so subtly that by the time you realize you're hooked it's way too late to do anything about it. Rix is a clever guy and a good writer, and his lengthy blog post detailing the origins of the game is an interesting read loaded with good insights and spiky little lessons ("One of the key things I've learned is that the first project you make with any new technology will be awful"). All this fun is is bargain-priced at a buck for a short time, and well worth the miniscule investment. Go support an indie game developer. You'll have a good time doing it.
Awesome archive of art from Sony PlayStation ads
Xeni Jardin at 2:26 PM Wed 
Dozens of great ads for the Sony PlayStation, apparently from 2007-2010. Flickr Gallery here. Boing!
(Submitterator, thanks anleichter)
Fluxlasers created a game level based on Cremaster 1 by Matthew Barney using Little Big Planet on a PlayStation 3. (Dangerous Minds)
— Xeni • Comments: 2
NimbleStrong: the iPhone bartending-manga game
Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger. He is the author, most recently, of Program or Be Programmed.
My daughter's first video game obsession? Nimblestrong, an iPhone game that teaches you how to bartend as you select, drag, and time your pours of various drink recipes into appropriate glasses - complete with garnish. All the while, you are encountering strange and exotic patrons as you train to become a hero master bartender.
It's actually one of the better examples of a video game being used to teach a specific skill that I've come across, with a good balance between twitch, recall, and narrative. There's just something deeply compelling - and rewarding - about successfully completing a complex drink and getting high scores from that anime vixen who thought you would screw it up.
The best part is the sound effects, and the particularly retro vidgame score. That, and the fact that my five-year-old now knows how to make 57 drinks.
Judge rules against edgy 'troll' Langdell
Tim "Edge Games" Langdell has lost a round in court with EA over the use of his "Edge" trademarks. In refusing his request for a preliminary injunction, judge William Alsup described Edge Games as 'trolling' and suggested that it could face criminal charges.
"Given the suspect nature of Dr. Langdell's representations to both the USPTO and the Court concerning plaintiff's current and future sales and business activities, it is an open question whether plaintiff's business activities legitimately extend beyond trolling various gaming-related industries for licensing opportunities," wrote the judge.
EA sort of removes 'Taliban' from game, after complaints
At Gamasutra, Ian Bogost takes us through a recent flap over Electronic Arts' forthcoming Medal of Honor game, set in modern Afghanistan. Though similar titles tend to avoid geopolitical specifics, here gamers were promised the option of siding with Taliban militants against U.S. soldiers. Critics said this was offensive and EA ultimately announced it would "remove" the Taliban. Was free speech--and an intriguing topical insight akin to Embedded with the Taliban--left by the wayside?
Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger. He is the author, most recently, of Program or Be Programmed.
Collapsus Introduction from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.
I just met Tommy Pollatta at the Open Video Conference in NY. He's the producer of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, and now the producer and filmmaker behind a "transmedia" project called Collapsus. (See this BB post on Transmedia.)
Not only is Tommy about the sweetest guy you'd ever want to meet, but he's also developing some great tools and content dedicated to informing and engaging people about major issues through entertainment. His new form, what he's calling 'transmedia,' is basically documentary mixed with narrative branching off into video games and social networking. If Mafia Wars had been invented for good instead of, well, I'm-not-sure-what, it may have been able to leverage some of what Lammotta is hoping to put into the service of peak oil and energy policy.
I'm not sure the above trailer does the experience justice, so please do check out the actual project, too, at coollapsus.com.
Where Everybody Knows Your Game
Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger. He is the author, most recently, of Program or Be Programmed.
BabyCastles, the videoarcade in Ridgewood, Queens, is quickly turning into a hub for intersection of the art, technology, and culture of independent gaming. It's a place where you can sample the latest in indie videogames, like the Hungarian physics Sumotori Dreams above, or experience fully curated exhibitions - all in an atmosphere more like a hacker's coffee bar than a museum or a commercial arcade. Everybody is on the inside.
Founded by two graduates of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, Syed Saluhuddin and Kunal Gupta, BabyCastle is basically just a wall of the music venue Silent Barn right now, featuring six video arcade cabinets with rotating content. But the extended BabyCastles collective is growing - and has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a pop-up video game, art, and music venue on 42nd Street in Manhattan, along with partnering organization Showpaper.org. Their purpose, in addition to having fun, is to change common perception of the art and culture of video games.
Yes, there is life after Gamestop.
Self-actualization LARPing in San Jose this weekend
Regular Boing Boing readers may know that I am fascinated by self-actualization cults, and phenomena such as EST, Landmark, Scientology, heck, Tarvuism—and the like. BB regulars may also recall a Boing Boing Video episode of an art-LARP performance at Machine Project by Brody Condon, in which people dressed up as medieval knights and died in slow motion.
So, interesting news today: "Brody is doing a live action role playing game based on self-actualizing seminars," says Mark Allen of Machine Project. "They just did a round in LA and are going to do another one soon in Santa Jose."
The project is called LEVEL FIVE. Video from of the Los Angeles event, which took place at the Hammer Museum, is above. The website has many more videos, and interesting background on the project.
Snip:
Britain's Sun and Daily Mail each ran stories about a child neglected by parents 'addicted' to online gaming. The online game is apparently Small Worlds. However, the newspapers confused it with Small World, a completely unrelated offline board game and iPad app. The point where the two games meet in the tabloid imagination remains vague and unresearched, at least by them: the original reporter "cheerfully admits" that he doesn't even know which is which. The publisher of Small World -- the board game -- is understandably upset. [via RPS] — Rob • Comments: 13
Games not art after all, say angry gamers
Gamers are often characterized as wanting the medium to be taken seriously as art. But what happens when critics look at games less as consumer products and more like movies or books? In the case of G4's review of Metroid: Other M, anger and confusion reigned.
Though reviewers often address the artistic attributes of mainstream games, the focus usually remains on less subjective measures of quality. Critic Abbie Heppe, however, slammed the game despite the title's high technical standards, identifying problems that had nothing to do with gameplay. Among other things, Heppe was appalled at how it infantilized the series' heroine, Samus Aran, depicted in earlier outings as a tough female marine veteran. Gaming's answer to Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, Aran first did battle in her desexualized military armor in 1986. Come 2010, however, and much has changed.
"You're asked to forget that Samus has spent the last 10-15 years on solitary missions ridding the galaxy of Space Pirates, saving the universe and surviving on her own as a bounty hunter," Heppe wrote. "Instead, Other M expects you to accept her as a submissive, child-like and self-doubting little girl that cannot possibly wield the amount of power she possesses unless directed to by a man."
And on goes Heppe's write-up. Though she also covered gameplay issues in her review, responses from G4's readers were often negative. Of the hundreds of comments published, many attacked the author directly. Amid the predictable misogyny and hostility, a pattern emerges: it's just a game. Some even claimed that it was unprofessional to talk about such matters in a game review.
Michael Abbott of The Brainy Gamer sees this as a backlash against the idea of games as art: "All too often, the greatest resistance to thinking critically about games comes not from academics, luddites, or old-school critics like Roger Ebert. The most vocal resistance comes from gamers."
True! But as far as we accept the angry constituency as representative at all, we should also admit that some gamers only cared about 'art' because acceptance as such amounted to a form of validation. To see a backlash here assumes a level of engagement that was never actually in evidence. Critical assessments of games -- at least mainstream ones -- remain a hard sell to most of the people buying them.
"I don't fucking want innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."—Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, if an anonymous former employee's quote in this SF Weekly feature article is to be believed. The piece makes Pincus and the entire Zynga organization to be not very happy-funtime. "Zynga's motto is 'Do Evil,'" this same ex-employee says. "I would venture to say it is one of the most evil places I've run into, from a culture perspective and in its business approach. I've tried my best to make sure that friends don't let friends work at Zynga." — Xeni • Comments: 28
Keita Takahashi, the gaming visionary responsible for Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, is reported to have departed Namco Bandai this week.
(via BB Submitterator, thanks Toma) — Xeni • 1 Comment
Fan replica of Fallout Plasma Rifle
In celebration of the imminent release of the game Fallout: New Vegas, Ryan Palser made a replica of the A3-21 Plasma Rifle from Fallout 3. As Ryan says, "It is one of the only weapons still manufactured after the great war." He's posted a fascinating series of build photos over at Flickr. A3-21 Plasma Rifle
Voting machine hacked to run Pac-man
David Pescovitz at 11:20 AM Mon
Over at the Submitterator, lbigbadbob points us to this video of a Sequoia AVC Edge touch-screen DRE voting machine hacked to, er, play Pac-man. This was done without breaking any of the tamper-evident seals. Nice work, J. Alex Halderman, University of Michigan, and Ariel J. Feldman, Princeton University! From the project page:
How did you reprogram the machine?PAC-MAN on the Sequoia AVC-Edge DRE voting machineThe original election software used the psOS+ embedded operating system. We reformatted the memory card to boot DOS instead. (Update: Yes, it can also run Linux.) Challenges included remembering how to write a config.sys file and getting software to run without logical block addressing or a math coprocessor. The entire process took three afternoons.
Why PAC-MAN?
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the iconic arcade game, we reprogrammed the AVC Edge to run Pac-Man. It uses MAME to emulate the original hardware. (We own the electronics from a real Pac-Man machine.) We could have reprogrammed it to steal votes, but that's been done before, and Pac-Man is more fun!
Max Capacity [AM] has up a fantastic set on Flickr of pixel-art skyscrapers and cityscapes. [via Mituk]
[photo courtesy lehighvalleylive.com, click for large size]
Visitors to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Big Time carnival last week in Roseto, PA (a small borough, population 1600), were invited to play "Alien Attack," a midway game shown above in which you shoot an effigy of U.S. president Barack Obama. Six shots for $5! Note the presidential seal belt-buckle (all presidents wear this), the target on the forehead, and the "Health Bill" scroll he's clutching. Oh, and the Troll Doll with a KISS t-shirt? Nice touch.
The local paper got an awful lot of mileage out of the story. Carny operator Irvin L. Good Jr., president of Hellertown, PA-based Goodtime Amusements, was adamant that the game was not a representation of the president—at least he was 'til the secret service guys showed up:
"Yes, a woman talked to me about it," Good said today. "She said she was offended by it. I said if you are, you might want to be. But you're interpreting it as being Obama. We're not interpreting it as Obama. The name of the game is 'Alien Leader.' If you're offended, that's fine, we duly note that." When it was suggested the health bill and presidential seal might lead players to believe the game did depict Obama, Good said, "You may be right there."
The entire original article is pure awesome.
Incidentally, lehighvalleylive.com might just be my favorite new news source. The "Obama game outrage" coverage blew up last week, but today the paper reports even more local crazytime: "Bethlehem Township, Pa., police today released a surveillance photo of a woman dressed in a clown suit who on Friday allegedly robbed a township bank."
She told police she had been abducted, and was forced to rob the bank by an unknown man who threatened to kill her and her children. Hey, at least he didn't make her take bong hits.
From the New York Times, a stat sure to shock the misogynist trolls that swarm gaming sites: "Women [...] outpace men in photo sharing and shopping, and in what may come as a surprise, gaming, favoring casual puzzle, card and board games. Female gamers over 55 spend the most time online gaming of any demographic by far and are nearly as common as the most represented group, males 15 to 24." Granted, we may be talking Farmville, not Call of Duty, but still... — Xeni • Comments: 35
Real world R/C car "video game"
David Pescovitz at 9:23 AM Mon
Over at our Submitterator, BB pal Gareth Branwyn points us to Racer, Malte Jehmlich's real world R/C car "video game." It consists of a fantastic cardboard racetrack and arcade game cockpit. The driver sitting in the cockpit looks at a POV display of a camera mounted on the vehicle. Racer 0.2 (via MAKE: Online)
Via Submitterator, pasq242 points to Retrocovered, Brendan Becker's chiptuney NES cover album of classic songs by The Cars, Men Without Hats, U2 and others. Download. — Rob • 1 Comment
Matt Marchini's designed the game I always wanted to be playing while I was playing The Oregon Trail. Alas, it's just a concept gallery. [Thanks, Judson!]
Gratuitous Space Battles on Mac, Osmos on iPhone
The wondefully-named Gratuitous Space Battles, a visceral and compelling PC game wherein ridiculously epic naval engagements are meticulously planned--but not directly controlled--is now available for Mac. I've often thought that it would make an awesome mobile game, but creator Cliff Harris says that fitting it into the iPad's RAM is a challenge for the devs. While they're working on that, check out Osmos, another recent indie hit that that runs on Windows, OSX and Linux, and just made its way into your pocket too. I played through this recently; it's a meditation on life, the ptolemaic model of the universe, and screaming bug-eyed frustration.
Ed Fries, former VP of game publishing at Microsoft, has created an Atari 2600 version of Halo. He describes in detail the challenges of developing for the ancient and extremely limited platform. But the results are superb.
Halo Goes Old-School [IGN via submitterator. Thanks, RevRight!]
Here's the story of how this game came about [Atari Age via Waxy]
How Tettix tried to design a T-shirt and ended up with a remix album
Electronic musician Tettix just released A New Challenger, a remix album featuring tracks from his earlier T.K.O.E.P.. Alex Mauer, Derris-Kharlan, Disasterpeace, Hélas Techne and Minusbaby worked with him to create it.
How did it come together?
Well, it's a funny story.
Music video created with Nintendo DSi
The video to "Brain Games," the third track from Arman Bohn's Atari 2600-inspired "Bits
Get Lamp, a documentary about text adventures, is finally available to order after years in development. [Getlamp.com] Computerworld's Ken Gagne interviewed creator Jason Scott. — Rob • Comments: 21
Just days after the U.S. Copyright Office explicitly authorized DRM-cracking by consumers, a British court has effectively abolished the import and sale of blank Nintendo DS cartridges. The mere possibility of piracy is sufficient to ban them, even if the media has legitimate uses such as storing freely-available third-party software. "The mere fact that the device can be used for a non-infringing purpose is not a defence," read the ruling by Justice Floyd. [BBC] — Rob • Comments: 41
Tiny Cartridge tells the story of an unsettling bootleg edition of the game Pokémon:
After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokémon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokémon -- "GHOST". It had one attack -- "Curse". ...When the move "Curse" was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. The cry of the defending Pokémon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokémon would be gone.
You could also select Curse [on a rival Trainer]. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer's sprite would be gone. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot that the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone...
That's not all, either. The author didn't just leave it at that, but considered the implications for the game's narrative. [Tiny Cartridge via @brandonnn]
Rob Beschizza at 3:57 PM Mon
Frenchiart.com's Press Start! flickr set is all about video games and, apart from a particularly odd Super Mario or two, appears to be mostly harmless. Pictured left is Game Over, by Christine Daigle, on offer for just $150. Sorely tempted!
Gallery [Flickr]
Thanks, Maskinn! Via Submitterator.
Parry! Dodge! Spin! Thrust! Nidhogg!
Here's the latest trailer for Nidhogg, a trippy but slickly-animated swordfighting game. Think Jordan Mechner on acid. Previously. [Messhof via Indie Games]
The Dream Machine is a point-and-click adventure game made with natural materials: "We decided to steer as far away from all things polygonal as possible, and are actually building all the environments, props and characters out of clay and cardboard." — Rob • Comments: 11
Double Rainbow tribute video: montage of notable rainbows in video games
Australia-based Boing Boing reader Alexander Ringis shares this full-on, all-the-way musical tribute to rainbows in video games by Rockethands with singer Brad Power. The remix includes an original music composition, and fair use remixin' of audio and video from the original games and from Yosemitebear's original "double rainbow video."
With lots of thanks to Rainbow (children's TV show with that Zippy character), Rainbow Islands (I spent an entire summer playing this in a shopping mall with the beach a short walk away), Katamari Damarcy (who knew dung beatles have so much fun), Robot Unicorn Attack (taking cheese to a whole new level), Bytejacker (the best video podcast for free indie games), Rainbow Brite (never heard of it, but I'm not a girl and I don't have a sister), Mario Kart (and the Rainbow Road tribute song crew), The Wizard of Oz (check out the mad lip-syncing), Bit.Trip Runner (we love you, gaijin games), Captain Rainbow (the Japanese really have an obsession; that's four rainbow games), The Muppet Movie (sweet Jim Henson, we dedicate this song to you), and that nice American lady who thinks rainbows in her sprinkler mean her oxygen supply contains metallic oxide salts.And is it uncool to add that I still have not tired of the original video? It is true.
Double Rainbow (All The Way) - Original Song
(rockethands, on YouTube)
Ninety seconds of classic gaming in the Breakout/Arkanoid vein, with a "Bullet Heaven" vibe. You'll finish it very easily, but it's a beaut when things get hectic. [Wonderfl.net via RPS]
Crashfaster and Doctor Popular created an entire album's worth of 8bit-inspired music to go with Knife Tank, their entry in our latest game development competition!
Not to brag, but the nerd-rap-knifetank-anthem I did with Beefy is sure to make your head nod... and 8bit bEtty's remix of it is even keener! You can hear the full album here
KnifeTank (The Albumhole) is fun, and there's nothing to lose if you're at all into chip music: low-bitrate mp3s stream free of charge, and quality versions cost whatever you feel like giving.
Knifetank (The Albumhole) [Bandcamp]
Joseph Mansfield created an HTML 5 implementation of John Conway's Game of Life, the classic cellular automaton first devised in 1970. Conway's Game of Life in HTML 5 (via Technoccult)
Boing Boing Game Dev Challenge: The Winners!
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the first ever Boing Boing "Games Inspired by Music" Competition, sponsored by Safari Books Online. The polls closed at midnight with Zachary Johnson's Infiltration and Zachary Lewis's Space Junk nearly neck and neck. Space Junk took the grand prize with 249 votes, followed by Infiltration with 233 votes. Coming in third was Sean Monahan's Beat Boost! All three of these are instant old-school classics!
Mr. Lewis receives the grand prize of a year of access to Safari Books Online, a $515 value, and a fat prize pack from GAMA-GO, including a limited-edition art print, GAMA-GO book, Gama-Goon Statue, Sing-A-Long Tongs, and other goodies. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Monahan score three month subscriptions to Safari Books Online, valued at $128 each, and a grip of GAMA-GO goods like a Yeti Qee Keychain, Pocket Journal, and Hip-Hopsicles!
All of the other finalists will receive GAMA-GO prize packages too! (Thanks, GAMA-GO!)
Thank you to everyone who took the time to create an entry! We're blown away by the effort and raw mutant creativity that went into these! And much appreciation to the chiptunes composers who inspired us with the bleeps and bloops. And thanks to all who played and voted!
Finally, much appreciation to our partner Safari Books Online. We've wanted to hold a competition like this for a long time and we're grateful to them for helping us make it happen. For the foreseeable future, they're offering Boing Boing readers a special 15 day trial of Safari Books Online plus 15% discount for 12 months (new subscribers only) on a subscription. Check it out!
And if this is all new to you, please visit the Boing Boing Arcade, featuring all the finalists in our contest. Shall we play a game?
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