Geometry Wars for everyone!

I recently got a Game Boy game which turned out to be a bootleg off of eBay. The seller refunded my money promptly when I requested it, but I still left a neutral review explaining the situation (including the prompt no questions refund), as the seller had quite a number of other GBA games listed. They contacted me asking me to reconsider, so I did and took down the neutral feedback. A different situation, to be sure, but I still wonder if that was right. I took their claim that they bought the games in bulk and were unaware of the bootlegs in good faith. Ah well, there are one or two tutorials that pop up almost every time you search for GBA games on eBay warning of bootlegs.

Maybe I should have left a positive feedback with the same comment.

D'oh, meant "Atlus."

Anyway, here's some more shmuppy gashapon for ya:
http://www.ncsx.com/2007/121007/shooting_game_historica.htm

@Styrofoam:

Yeah, R-Type has option-like things above and below the ship. You only get 2, though, and they only provide defense (shot blocking) unless you have a particular one of the 3 weapons. They can also damage enemies on contact. At least, that's how it is in the first game. R-Type Final has so many ships that there are more exceptions to this rule than not.

I don't even have a PSP and I just preordered this. Probably not a bad idea even without the bonus, as it's being published by Atlas.

You know, I think I understand how the Japanese feel about trains now.

@Antinous:

There are queers that can be beaten. No one makes a fuss about it, though.

I think there are legitimate concerns about the messages embedded in the game, though they are far and away not particular to GTA itself. However, the people who voice these concerns are 95% of the time people who haven't seen the entirety of the game. The critics strike me as the kind of people who would dismiss a film like Reservoir Dogs after seeing 5 minutes of it because the main characters refer to dark skinned persons as niggers.

The middle character appears to be "ten," which by itself means heaven. That's pretty much all the Japanese I know. Based on that alone I would guess the whole thing reads "Golden Rita." There's a high chance that I'm very wrong, though.

Wonder how long until someone mods one to play the "Can-can" à la Super Mario Land.

"Oh, Seymour, you finally came!"

Like that one for instance, Davin?

I came here to post that Dawn Of Sorrow boxart and I'm delighted that I've been beaten to it.

I've actually passed on that game because of that box.

Answer: Show it 2G1C.

The question is: Is this anachronistic?

Sweet, it even has both sets of colors for the controller buttons and different regional boxart, though only the one model of the actual system itself (understandably.)

@Forgeweld: They are affiliate links. Look at the end of the URL.

Does the "holding a burning match upside down" one involve holding the match right-side up while you yourself are upside down?

My favorite is the old bar con, "I bet you a dollar I can drink that glass of whiskey without touching the glass."

At first I thought this was another birth announcement. "Wow, she's quite the precocious one, she is!" I thought to myself.

The room was plenty busy. Woo, finally a second IRC channel to lurk in while I do other stuff.

"and will try to seduce you as soon as you turn her on."

Teehee!

Sinistar is such a hard game.

Interestingly, there is a nice hard-to-execute glitch that grants you a ton of extra lives in the game. If I recall correctly, it involves getting down to your last life, then letting Sinistar eat you and simultaneously dying due to getting shot by one of the other ships. You end up losing two lives simultaneously, which pushes the # of lives counter down to -1, which the game will interpret as 255, and lets you keep playing instead of getting a Game Over.

Hahaha, I get it.

Well so much for the steampunk laptop by that criterion.

I both love and loathe puns. I'm S&M like that.

I have the same misgivings about downloadable games (i.e. the Wii's Virtual Console.) I've still downloaded a few, but I feel sort of dirty when I do. On the other hand, they cost way less than physical used copies of the game in a lot of cases (Super Metroid, Harvest Moon, Sin & Punishment.) I sleep at night by considering it an unlimited term rental, even though they deem it a purchase.

Clever. I bristle at even $15 for a shirt, personally, but I wish them luck and look forward to more designs. Super Neo Mega Turbo rolls off the tongue, too bad it only makes 3/4 sense for the less informed among American gamers.

I had a liquor infused cupcake at a party, didn't know until I took the first bite. I'm not much of a partygoer or drinker, and am only a few years over the legal age, so it still weirds me out when offered a drink at relatives' houses, or when I discover my dessert has an extra kick to it. That said, it was tasty.

Dammit, I have a Wii, but I have the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess.

Looks like it's back to the Dreamcast for me.

Thank you Takuan for bringing up Return To Oz. I only have vague memories of watching it, but somewhere I have the Golden Book stashed away. What I remember was neat.

Sounds better than the N-Gage at any rate.

I've never been terribly interested in gaming on a phone, and don't anticipate getting excited in the near future for a number of reasons--among them never having owned a cell phone--but I've sort of followed news about phone games ever since Gamespot briefly had a mobile section. It was pretty much the only site I'd seen at the time that reviewed cell phone games (they actually bought out a separate site that was doing mobile reviews already and folded them into Gamespot.) As I noted, it didn't last long.

That was a lot of words without having a point. Heh. I guess I'll just say while I don't anticipate ever buying a phone with games in mind, I'd almost certainly play the good ones available when/if I finally submit to the wireless masses. A unifying trend like this is a good thing for now, as cell gaming has been all over the map in the US ever since Snake.

Pescovitz was the only one until now that I hadn't seen either an image of or in real life.

If I'd known you were all gonna be in town I would have invited you over. I have Chu Chu Rocket!

He'll never be the head of a major corporation.

I was going to ask if IWOOD had been playing too much forumwarz lately but now I think I see what he did there. Insert appropriate owl macro here.

Gone :(

Ah well, I can always hook up the Game Boy Player to the PC via the Gamecube AV cables and my Gamebridge to print out my GB Camera photos.

Indemnitypop beat me to it.

Mark, here's something that may be able to help you improve your typing skills: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing_of_the_Dead

Now with video!

That is a beautiful headline, in a manner of speaking.

Tyler Durden for Senate!

Stretch Armstrong is the new T-1000.

Yeah, flipping in Super Paper Mario was nowhere near as cool as this. It was gimmicky- basically "Are you stuck? Then flip!" and the solution immediately followed. You could only flip to one camera angle in 3-D and one fixed one in 2-D as well. I liked the game well enough, but it was a bit underwhelming compared to my initial excitement at the artwork.

Crush is one of the games I have my eye on for when I finally get a PSP.

Of note is that Zangief there is a recolored sprite from Street Fighter Alpha 2 (or beyond), a decidedly not 8-bit game, just to clear up any potential confusion. Blanka projectiles are a nice touch.

I don't think I saw them there, but I have seen other photos since. I kinda like how they didn't do up their hair/faces to match the characters.

And here's my Cory sighting. Then afterwards I bought Overclocked and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm pee shy even if there's someone in one of the stalls. Hell, even if no one else is in the restroom I have a hard time getting started at a urinal. The splashback is also an annoyance.

More interesting than the dividers is the way these are angled off the wall so that the men standing at them are all facing one direction in a line. Not sure how I feel about that.

The hell?

This is certainly a wonderful thing, because I don't believe I'll ever stop wondering about it.

Just for clarification: Are you playing the original Paper Mario, or Super Paper Mario? Both are good, but I found Super Paper Mario a tad lacking; the mixture of RPG and platformer elements resulted in a game not as challenging as the typical platformer and not as deep as its RPG predecessors. Of note is that the original Paper Mario is also available for download on the Wii. I recommend it, the battle system is very simple but effective, and even though it's another "Save the princess!" Mario game the story and characters are actually fleshed out quite a bit more than usual.

My favorite part of Super Paper Mario was the Pit of 100 Trials.

I know very little of objectivism but Brook's quote rubs me the wrong way. Partly I'm just the type who is loathe to give my personal scruples and outlook a nice tidy name, and partly I'm a gamer who is tired of all the Grand Theft Auto bashing.

For the record, nothing I've seen in the 3-D GTA games has been as disturbing as the "Hot Dog Homicide" mission about 2/3 of the way through the two-dimensional second game in the series, and I've played through most of them (and loved them.)

Haha. He looks a bit like a friend of mine.

We really should switch to cable internet and phone and get off AT&T... and find a new cell provider as well, I suppose.

Should there be any further legal action against individuals responsible, I hope they hold off on prosecuting any of those responsible until January 21, 2009, to avoid any 11th hour reprieves.

Fantastic!

Also, I didn't know Tom Kenny was Binky The Clown, though I should have known.

Looks like Swanson's Hungry Man Breakfast has to settle for the runner-up title, although it does have (had? I don't know if these are still on the market) the notable distinction of being a frozen meal that you cook in the microwave, and is also up front about its nutrition information right on the package.

KATAMARI FROM HELL

That movie set is quite large (and filled with quality), and I've only seen one or two of the films included. Man, it's hard to resist the temptation.

I was left wondering just what the hell an osprey is by that game, s you naturally only see the talons. That was a lot for an 8 year old to infer.

You know, Donkey Kong Jr. Math for the NES is actually fairly entertaining with two people playing.

Hmm, only twice as much as a sealed copy of Chrono Trigger...

You guys really made a smart move hiring Joel Johnson. He really fits in beautifully with the rest of you happy mutants.

Mr. Doctorow, I hope this is one EULA you actually read!

P.S. I'll find my frog.

You'll be needing one of these.

Congraturation!

That is one hell of an underdeveloped baby.

Awesome, now I can pretend to be sheriff!

I saw Bowie playing one for Slip Away on the "A Reality Tour" DVD and wondered what strange device that was making this beautiful sound. I might have to get me one of them. Cheaper than a Tenori-On, or even Electroplankton.

Good job on the video. I need to listen to both Technology Crisis I & II again

Hmm, the difference in processes will be interssting: who will write all the material first, and then record it, who will create each track one at a time, and who will really mix it up, leaving and returning to ideas as they go?

I might have to get in on this. No musical trainining to speak of, and I can't play an instrument, but there are ways...

LOL @ L'Elk, except the character he described is neither the American nor Japanese Balrog.

As funny as [i]Beavis and Butthead[/i] is, I have to agree with OM.

On a related note, now TV Land is showing Just Shoot Me and [i]Extreme Makeover: Home Edition[/i] and movies and original series, and Cartoon Network is showing live-action shows and movies, and VH-1 is.... whatever VH-1 is.

TV confuses me.

Can't be any worse than the mind-numbing tedium of MapleStory...

Sorry, that was kinda backhanded. I'm actually interested enough to check this out.

"But there's a shop on the corner that's selling papier mache
Making bullet-proof faces, Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay"

Also, if you haven't played LucasArts'/Tim Schafer's classic adventure Grim Fandango, I highly suggest you do.

Conjoined twins who share every major organ.

Yeah, this is pretty great.

"Feel the wrath of the Fucking Fucker!"

Ah, Retarded Animal Babies.

That artwork is fantastic. Also, I'm mentally 12.

Ah, so it's not pure coincidence that I immediately thought of "Printcrime" when I saw this post.

If you like Contra, you might enjoy the page on Nicaragua in The Onion's Our Dumb World.

Bracketthree is an awesome song.

Guys, I think that last line is a little tounge-in-cheek. He's obviously very aware of the potential uses for this script and he's poking fun at everyone's (perhaps himself included) natural tendency to want the other side of the debate to just go right the fuck away.

Could you write one for YouTube that lets me ignore 99% of the comments, please? That would be super.

Yep, my Brawl order was canceled as well. What's funny/annoying is there was what I can only assume is an automatic e-mail informing me that "my request" to cancel the order had been received.

I wasn't really around for the heyday of pinball but damn do I enjoy it. I learned of the PBHoF in the last year or so, and I intend one day to make a trek out there. One of the things that killed pinball (among others) was unwillingness/inability by the machine operators to put effort into properly maintaining the machines, which leads to busted machines and people not playing, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that pinball is on its way out.

Incidentally, I learned that and many other things from an independent documentary about Midway's last ditch effort at keeping pinball alive, Pinball 2000. The best part is that there's a TON of bonus materials on the DVD. The guy (Greg Maletic) really did a fantastic job on this project.

I wish that Portal demo had been up before I bought the damn Orange Box and found out it wouldn't run on my machine. Damn you, Valve.

Also, Smash Bros. is back up to $50.

Signs point to the Wal-Mart thing being a massive computer (or human) fuckup (see: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for DS for $70.) Mass cancellations are likely.

Didn't stop me from placing an order for Brawl. Worth a shot!

Excuse me kind sir do you have an internet I can purchase? Preferably one with the googles and maybe an instant message?

There used to be a place like this on the other side of town that listed things on eBay for people. It's been replaced by a cell phone store.

I play a lot more video games than I eat McDonalds hamburgers. I can't really blame my own fat ass on the fast food industry, personally.

Now, Poppycock on the other hand, that shit should be illegal. It's worse than crack, and you can buy it in giant cardboard tubes!

That image is incredible.

Is it just me or has your video game-themed posting density increased in the last few days?

These are great, so many crafts lend themselves really well to pixel art.

On a slightly related note, if Kuribo's Shoe doesn't (er, didn't- I heard it's gone gold) make it into Super Smash Bros.: Brawl, I might have to hurt someone.

Well it looks like Harmonix left some room for a sequel after all!

I promise I'll learn to use the preview button eventually. Here's the botched link from above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockout_chip .

I've never really followed homebrew for any console except the Dreamcast, which was stupidly easy and inexpensive to hack. If you have Internet access and a CD burner, people have written all kinds of stuff for the thing that you can take advantage of.

This is going to be like the updated firmware wars on the PSP. Which under-appreciated game will provide the key to breaking a later firmware update, and how much will its cost on eBay rise when this fact is discovered? Only time will tell.

What I'm interested in is being able to run my downloaded Virtual Console games off of the SD card. I still don't see why that can't be done since Nintendo lock the downloaded file to only be able to run on the console to which the game was downloaded.

There's some interesting history about game consoles, third parties (software and hardware), lockout chips, and so on, including legal issues and court cases surrounding them. Having been delighted and awestruck by the release of the Game Genie as a kid, years later I found it quite interesting that that device was actually part of a Supreme Court case. See also: 10 NES lock-out chip, the 3DO console, the 1983 video game crash of 1983. I tried to find something about Atari suing Activision when they emerged as the first third-party game developer, but nothing substantive came up.

Also, if that Game Genie comment seemed familiar, hi Cory, I'm that guy from Mira Costa College and Comic Con.

Er, minor correction: "'Yeah, they added plates of food to the women being chased...'" As it was, what I said made a lot less sense. A New Challenger regrets the error.

I can't believe I didn't pick up on the "Redhead" one. Never actually been to the tiki room. I scored 4/6 on this quiz, and Meatloaf reassures me that this is acceptable.

FYI, there's a "Redhead" action figure available at the Pirates gift shop when you exit the ride. Or at least there used to be, I haven't been there in a couple years.

@Gobo:

Hah, that's interesting, my sister and I have wondered about Disney's logic on the toning down of the Pirates ride: "Yeah, they added food to the plates of the women being chased, but there's still a wench auction??" On a related note, there was a gag in Pinky & The Brain about the addition of the food that made me and my sister fall out of our chairs when the episode first aired.

Also, I think the graphics are fine. That hippo is seen from slightly behind opening it's mouth, by the way.

My god the blue one terrifies me.

Anyone remember the surreal Hello Kitty commercial Target aired a few years ago? The visuals weren't that trippy, but the song was kind of odd. The vocals consisted of a voice saying "Hello [noun]" over and over, with various things inserted after "hello." The kicker was the line "Hello Lunchmeat" which caught me off guard and remains an in-joke between me and my sister. It took me a while to make sense of that; the ad was for back-to-school supplies, and lunchmeat is a part of the typical school experience for many. So I suppose it's not a completely random line, but it was still odd.

Also, there are other Sanrio characters that would be more amenable to introducing a line of male clothing, although none are as iconic (Keroppi comes close.) I can't see myself wearing the shirts, personally. Maybe some of the other stuff.

"And what was the name of Billy's planet?

IT WAS EARTH!

DON'T
DATE
ROBOTS!"

The sad thing is that Electroplankton costs almost as much nowadays.

Well, I'm exaggerating terribly, but it seems there's a lot of out-of-print DS software that's fetching $50 or more on eBay/Amazon. This makes me a sad gamer.

Also, Joel was covering the Tenori-On a couple months back, and it looks like something I'd enjoy quite a bit, having dabbled with creating little tunes on the Game Boy Camera.

The swirly pile of poo is quite a common gag in Japan. That's not to say it isn't common other places, like here in the US, but it seems like I've seen it with a bit more frequency in japanese humor.

Quick, some action figure modder turn that one into Mr. tastee!

Give me the marquee/menu from behind the counter inside the restaurant and I can probably figure it out. Without that context, though, that ad is impenetrable. And with the context, it's more trouble than it's worth, probably.

Did they hire Abbot and Costello to come up with that deal?

The light on that radio was hilarious.

Lo and behold, Halloween Jack beat me to it, with the first comment in the thread no less.

Pour out a box of jelly donuts on the curb for your homie JFK.

Haha, good fun, and a nice little twist.

Use It Or Lose It pretty much sums it up. I really should think about grad school, as nice as this 1.5 year vacation has been.

Someone needs to write a review of these as if they were Light Yagami from the manga/anime "Death Note," if it hasn't been done already.

@ #8 Comedian:

I get it!

And Bazilisk basically said what I thought about after seeing the second comment.

@Omir:

I think the cartoon is called Porky In Wackyland, and I never knew Dali did the backgrounds, though it certainly makes sense.

Which reminds me, the prices for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs are coming down! Yay! All of the old cartoons that used to play on TNT and Cartoon Network are locked away on Boomerang, which I don't have.

Look for Too Much Coffee Bukkake Man, the latest by Shannon Wheeler, at your local comic book shoppe Winter 2008!

Fruit Fucker!

What intrigued me most were those loud motor sounds in between bouts of thrusting. What the hell was that?

Home taping is killing the recording industry.

Hmm, who will Paul Reubens play? The Mad Hatter? That would probably fit.

"Smartaxe" was my first, and probably the worst I've stuck with for any length of time on any place I care about. Especially with the "100" suffix which I added for no reason really other than numbers in screennames = awesome.

Now I'm A New Challenger pretty much everywhere. In college I played a crapload of Capcom fighting games with friends, so I found it appropriate, especially since I was almost always the new challenger and not the champion.

Betterlivingthroughscience mentioned the batteries I use. I can't find the IC-3s in stores any more, though. Use them in my Wiimote and camera, they work just dandily. The short recharge is sweet.

Now the gigantic universal remote makes some sense, especially for the armchair quarterback in your life. The calculator is also cute. This just defies logic.

Yeah, I have a brand new Walgreens just down the road.

Damn, I think my message board Secret Santee is getting one of these with a gift inside. I've thought about doing this before, ever since I saw one on Salute Your Shorts all those years ago, but I've always been too lazy and didn't have a reason. Now I just need to find a crap book! Has Jack Thompson written anything?

Perfect! I've been looking for a gadget that would help me shoop da woop without much effort! Thanks, Joel!

I saw this a few days ago-- the epic Venn diagram that isn't entirely about thug life is epic (I particularly enjoyed the intersection of "Hey" and "listen.")

How does it compare to the Gamecube port?

Really, this is awesome, and slightly poetic, as "Tennis For Two," which is now commonly recognized as the first video game, was proto-PONG on an oscilloscope.

They've now removed the star graphics.

Hah, that's pretty neat, actually. I wonder what colors are most popular, and whether that ties into one of the points intended by the creator.

When the news broke on Friday I was of the mind that everyone getting up in arms about this in the video game community peanut gallery were displaying the usual degree of self control and reasoning skills that gamers are famous for (read: overreacting because it's more fun to assume the worst and be a part of a big movement.) I took the "wait and see" approach, and since then several blogs have had follow-ups citing anonymous sources close to the story that point toward something being rotten in Denmark-- I'm a believer now; this sucks.

As per this recent development regarding the quotes on the Kane & Lynch site, Niero on Destructoid noted that it is sliggtly possible (though horribly, horribly, inexcusably misleading) that the stars are intended simply as a design element and not a review score. Someone on Kotaku also noted that the quotes used from previews have been on the site for some time.

It's still incredibly misleading and plays nicely into the whole shitstorm, though. Kane & Lynch, Awesome Show Great Job!

@B-Trom:

Yeah, I agree about the OK Go video, although the treadmill one was the inescapable breakthrough.

And as for Jib-Jab, what about the Al Gore/George W. Bush "Election Day" rap battle from 2000?

On a related note, "A Million Ways" and "Election Day" were both featured on MadTV. OK Go performed live-- they did the dance while lip-synching the song. That was awesome.

Aww man, at a quick glance I thought that said "Mother Brain."

Still awesome, but you can understand my initial disappointment/relief.

Thanks to Brain Damage my damaged brain finally got the joke.

The likeness is uncanny, it perfectly captures the apples in his face.

Add the breakfast machine from Pee-wee's Big Adventure and you'd have a house I'd call home.

How did Infogrames fuck this up? They had the Dragon Ball Z license, they brought Ikaruga to the US.... oh right, those Matrix games. That explains it.

I wonder if Activision or EA will buy the name. Maybe Ubi Soft.

Looks like it's back to huffing for me :(

@Brett:

Yeah, haven't they learned anything from LEGO?

While you're waiting for this snafu to be resolved (or not), why not enjoy a relaxing text-adventure game?

Looks like a minor brainfart on The "Persian Drunkard"...

Haha, what a great idea! Now I want to do a duet costume as Tweeter and the Monkey Man maybe make it a group and get a few more people to be The Undercover Cop, Jan, and Bill.

Fun Fact*: Scrooge built the money bin as a result of one tragic day in his youth, his 10th birthday, when Chuck E. Cheese employees would no longer let him into the ball pit.

*may not be fact.

The laser hologram stickers of the future are going to be AWESOME.

My friend ZeaLouS1 is on this, yay!

The multiple downloadable covers are an awesome idea.

I just looked at the Wikipedia page. I'm intrigued by the fact that he finished both Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts but failed on Act Raiser, Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. 3. That just doesn't compute.

Oh man, G4 or some less crappy network needs to import this before I run out and buy the DVD.

I wonder exactly how that DS game is going to turn out. Will it be yet another Namco Museum but with a different name?

I propose the flaming tuba be dubbed a margrittephone.

I'm sure I've just done a wonderful job of pointing out the joke and thus killed it as well.

Any time I see a tapir, I'm reminded of a little in-joke with my siblings regarding a certain part in The Amazon Trail 3rd Edition PC game (cousin to the more engaging Oregon Trail game), which we got for free on a cereal box. We've gravitated to a particular line from a myth about the tapir that a native storyteller imparts upon the player: "The tapir was faaaaaat!" Fat, and in paradise, apparently.

(That double entendre made me groan. Awesome show, great job!)

The Sub-Genius ad makes me want to watch Weird Al's "Dare To Be Stupid" video again. He did DEVO better than even DEVO themselves with that song/video.

This is just the competitive edge they need against the Klingons.

I want to modify that so it looks like Manuel Calavera from Grim Fandango. It's halfway there!

I used the Flash version on the site. Turning pages was cute.

That Pikachu pic may just be my new avatar on some message board.

2003 was bad. I think tomorrow (Tuesday) will be very gray as all this ash finally falls here in Oceanside.

I'm technically in the advisory evacuation area, with the nearest fire being by my alma mater CSUSM. Don't think it will get this far, but you never know, I packed some photos in my suitcase today. We live across the street from a chaparral-covered park.

I could see someone being totally evil and setting a long key, then not writing it down. And setting the timer for whatever maximum there is.

Maybe then the keyholder dies in some way (my first thought was suicide.)

I think I've just found a subject fro NaNoWriMo if I decide to go through with it. Thanks!

I wish my computer could handle the game :( It runs the Half-Life 2 demo at a playable but fugly level.

Oooh, maybe I'll make something with blinkenlights that are intended for gerfingerpoken.

I think I've found a new paradigm.

Now I'm scared that one day I'm going to suddenly run out of shirts and I'll be in this horrible catch-22. Thanks for the nightmares, BB.

Very nice, Xeni, very nice indeed. Well played.

Also, whoever created that website is a little bit sketchy asking for donations and saying they were "inspired" by Joel Veitch.

Also, BBcode for the fail. The helpful blurb even reminded me it's html tags. I was distracted by the sexy PVR.

Kind of crappy that they're not doing at least a separate guitar peripheral for the holiday launch. I guess a lot of people will pick up Guitar Hero III and use that one.

I have a Wii, so this is all moot for me at the moment. I'm still looking forward to it though.

Radioguy, thanks for clearing that up, because I thought to myself "What the hell kind of contest is this?" earlier.

I'm not a make-y kind of guy (not that I wouldn't like to be) but in the interest of schmuckification prevention and an incredibly slim chance of teh win I [i]may[/i] enter something. I honestly have little better to do.

@Kirkjerk:

I hear those all the time! It's kind of funny (and a bit lazy) given how far videogames have come from those days. I believe I heard the "Pac-Man dying" sound used in some background music in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door the other day, which brought a smile to my face.

Keeping along the videogame track, the Wilhelm scream is in StarCraft when you select the science center. I heard it most recently in EA's The Godfather when you throw a guy off a building in one of the missions.

Do any of them have free vials of cat urine inside? Or are those $2.99 with 3 UPCs from select sizes?

Hahaha, I just RTFA and LOL. Tinkles. Close enough!

I think twirly-faced pedophile is going into my insult repertoire.

*jots it down*

@Phasor:

I'd imagine the latter. Either way, game companies typically tolerate remixes of game music for non-profit purposes the same way they treat visual fanart, often embracing it.

I liked the WarioWare section. It's hard to think anything from that game could be made more bizarre, but there you go.

Sound collages are odd things. He mentions that this started as the soundtrack for a live show about Israel's invasion of Lebanon last year, and that gives this a whole other flavor that screws with my head. Hearing Smash Bros. and Balloon Fight sounds used in this context is kind of funny.

It's fascinating, and I like it, but I'm still not sure what to think about it. If you're a gamer, though, you'll have fun hearing the familiar tunes chopped up and trying to identify them.

This is a great series. The side effect of the porn industry being unregulated due to obscenity being technically illegal is an interesting point.

Even though the Orange Box is a great value, I've never played Half-Life and my PC is crap for TF2. I'm thinking about just getting Portal stand-alone off Steam because all this nonsense about the cake is driving me mad.

Also, I hear it's a good game.

Fantastic. It's like a complicated robot kaleidoscope with interchangeable barrels. That's really neat.

And the music ain't bad either.

Dear God, keep this away from parties with adult beverages.

I saw the world's largest teratoma tumor on the Guinness World Records TV show several years ago. Teeth and hair in a tumor frightened and confused me. The tumor was larger than the person.

And it was benign.

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............./__.(.....“~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_....”~,_........“~,_....................,:`........_/
..........{.._$;_......”=,_.......“-,_.......,.-~-,},.~”;/....}
...........((.....*~_.......”=-._......“;,,./`..../”............../
...,,,___.\`~,......“~.,....................`.....}............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-”
............/.`~,......`-...............................\....../\
.............\`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....\,__
,,_..........}.>-._\...................................|..............`=~-,
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...................`=~-,,.\,...............................\
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...................................,

That is all.

And this one is actually edible, unlike that Martha Stewart travesty.

My mom made a Mario cake for my 4th birthday. It's been downhill ever since.

Speaking of special guest appearances in underwater pipe videos, Crab vs. Pipe is a nice little physics lesson that took the Internet by storm a couple years ago. It was fun trying to find a working link to the video in the pre-YouTube days.

TAINT cK: New from Calvin Klein.

I want the Butt Biting Bug and Crazy "Frog" to battle, preferably to the death. Where the hell is Thunderdome when we need it?

I'm just irritated that titles like this push all the actually engaging and unique DS games off the store shelf. Trying to find the two Castlevania games anywhere besides game specialty stores or online is near impossible. Actually, that's how I knew the DS was indeed taking off and no longer in danger of failure: when the Hannah Montana and That's So Raven games came out for the DS instead of the Game Boy Advance.

It plays on the Wii! Yay, compatibility! I wish Gametrailers/Gamevideos did, you think they'd be on the ball with that.

Shit, I was hoping this would be the solution to my fucking things with a hat problem, but it looks like I've got to keep reaching for that rainbow.

On a side note, I just picked up the Make: Halloween issue (primarily for my sister the artist, who loves the holiday something fierce,) and I must say that torso cake is amazing.

That disclaimer made me lol. Also, this is cool.

Dammit, Boingboing, you made me buy this. Although, this is something I would have gotten at Comic Con, if it had existed at the time.

Hahaha, Reading Kicks God's Balls In The Ass!

Of course I'm reminded of Mike Diana.

Also, fantastic line work.

I should add that I realize my seeing some dissenting comments doesn't mean that comment deletion hasn't happened, but the aspersions so quickly cast on what I believe to be a glitch cause me to doubt your other statement that dissenting comments are being deliberately killed.

Also I don't think these homies play that.

Is that MIT exam image intentional, a mistake, or is my Wii glitching out?

@Firstamendment:

At risk of reaching under the bridge and feeding a troll, I'd like to point out that I've been disemvoweled in one of my posts, and I'm pretty sure it's an odd glitch, as what I said was pretty innocuous (being that I'm a benign and unintersting figure.) I've also seen many dissenting voices, including from recurring posters, in threads that have 30 or more posts and most certainly have attracted moderator attention.

Just a quick mention that a female Spartan appeared in Dead Or Alive 4, the 360 fighting game that came out shortly after launch.

No 360 for me, but when Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes.... oh yes.

Don't think I'll be buying full albums, but they've got David Bowie's catalog up, and there are a few singles I wouldn't mind having.

I'm glad my field is math. If I decided to become a teacher I'd be relatively clear of this, as long as I stayed clear of the integral of the exponential function... and the number 69.

Actually, I've decided teaching is not for me after all.

Regarding the student's age:

I turned 14 the August that I started high school. In my district the oldest students in any given grade (who weren't held back, natch) were those born in December, the youngest born in November. This is the beginning of the school year, maybe she has a birthday in the next couple months. Or perhaps she skipped a grade.

I'll agree the teacher fucked up, and I'll also agree resignation is a bit much. He's probably scared shitless of litigation or getting fired anyway. Whatever happened to "Sorry I fucked up, nobody died, it won't happen again," anyway?

Put a Dr. Doom helmet on a kitten, set it loose to knead The Thing, record video, melt Internet.

Did someone just recommend watching Caddyshack 2?

You really can find everything on the Internet.

Tin foil hats for everyone!

Wait.... baked potato.... no, that won't do at all.

This reminds me of that new Wendy's commercial and that cave diving scene from Planet Earth that was used in all the promos.

On a side note, someone on Destructoid had a nice rant about the mobile phone video game industry, which is huge in Japan (as evidenced by last week's TGS) but barely existent here. He asked what would it take to bridge that gap, and I think resolving this standoff would go a long way toward that end.

My sister really wants a laptop for writing, and this is a wonderful way to get one. Thanks for the link, I'm bookmarking this right now.

I want to go see the next I Am 8-Bit show since I live in SoCal. I missed the first two, but from the pics I've seen online there is some brilliant stuff. They've even made a few of the pieces available as wallpapers.

Of course, everyone loves Mario and Pac-Man, but I really applaud on the inside for the artists who render scenes from less celebrated games they enjoyed, those that aren't perhaps forgotten, were even really fun, but just aren't spoken of in the same breath as the real big names. Games like Treasure Master or Kickle Cubicle on the NES. I guess I just enjoy being surprised and seeing someone make a real conscious effort to celebrate something they enjoy regardless of relative popularity.

That isn't a slam against anyone who does a Mario painting, because the artists' interpretations are all so varied and worthwhile and entertaining, and Mario is awesome. I just get a special kick when someone renders a relatively unknown subject.

I have a few Nintendo branded clothing items, but generally speaking I prefer to spend my gaming money on actual games. Also, adult t-shirts with crap on them have been generally acceptable in public for a number of years, shoes not so much.

I have a sweet Mario Kart clock radio, though.

They may just have a sale in me anyway. I've seen this before but had no idea it wasn't leaving Japan.

And, unlike the Wii Zapper, this provides extra functonality.

I have the Dreamcast version of Typing of the Dead and third it, if you can find it. The PC version is harder to find, and I kick myself for passing up the opportunity to get it for a buck at Software Etc. years ago.

Hahaha, reminds me of the Busted Tees shirt that says "Your Retarded" (spelling intentional on their part.)

I wonder if the accompanying text in an Asian language that I can't determine has any mistakes.

Also, as you can tell, I didn't RTFA before posting that, breaking one of my own cardinal rules. But I'm glad she gave the correct answer.

I'm shopping online from now on.

And of course her retort should have been "You don't have to worry about me even thinking of returning here."

K-mart sucks. I'm an excellent driver.

Best use of unicorns. Ever. Usually those .gifs are annoying, but you found a fantastic use (and don't overdo it like everyone who normally uses an animated .gif . Not that I was expecting anything less from you, but just seeing a myspace page use .gifs in an agreeable manner.... I blew a brainfuse.)

I'm actually interested in having some real information on my Myspace page.... I might go take screenshots of the individual sections and repost them as images in the sections. I'm already annoyed by the GET DR. MARIO RINGTONES ad every time I log on, and that's just text.

Trains are the wave of the future.

I was kind of horrified when I heard that MTV had bought Harmonix, and that EA would be distributing Rock Band. Then I realized anything that associates MTV with music again is probably a good thing. Then I saw how big this game was becoming, and my frothing demand for it increases.

Besides, Activision is the number one third party now, so it's cooler to hate on them ;)

I totally need to get off my ass and get Prime 3. Everything I have for the Wii so far is a port (Resident Evil 4 (excellent), The Godfather (damn fine), Metal Slug Anthology (fantastic games, meh presentation), and Virtual Console games.) My backlog is so huge, though, that I find it hard to justify buying another $50 game right now (instead I end up buying 5 discounted GBA/DS games.)

Plus there's a bit of a glut later in the year with Mario, Smash Bros., and Phantom Hourglass. Not to mention other things I've had my eye on, and third party stuff.

Oh, old people playing Wii. Yes, I guess they do that. Wii Sports Bowling is still fun. Are they playing anything else? I guess since Nintendo profits on every piece of hardware (that's a masterstroke) and gets all this free press they aren't really concerned about attach rates as far as those over 65-70 are concerned.

Hate all you want, but this would be the perfect solution to "where do I put my spoon when I'm microwaving something that needs to be stirred first/scooped out of a can?" I just had this problem several minutes ago.

Apologies for being unable to help myself, and for misquoting.

'Tis a far, far better thing he did than he had ever done before.

Technically, you only need at most 14 calendars, and possibly less (I haven't taken the time to work out if a leap year can happen on each of the seven possible normal year calendars.) At least if you're not writing appointments down on them or anything.

In the meantime, I use the Orb remote media program/site to stream to my Wii. Although my music collection is pretty paltry compared to most who would use such a thing, I'm usually better off just putting a CD on since my stereo is right there. But it also has webcam control, so I can spy on the PC from my bedroom.

Competent women drivers?!? What has science done?!

All misogyny aside, woohoo! "Games are good" studies are nice antidotes to the tired and tenuous DOOM=Columbine logic one is used to hearing from local news channels.

@Joel:

I almost put at the end of my comment, but felt that HTMLOL is a bit overplayed at this point. I liked the idea until 3 seconds into thinking about it the cynic in me put 2 and 2 together, and I couldn't resist the idea of instant disappointment/irony/comedy via a strong, sudden current.

Coaxial and Jamie Flournoy said a lot of stuff I thunked, but they done talked purdier.

I'll just add that on the question of excessive force, six guys piling on to one guy does look like a bit much, but each officer is acting independently. There's not really time for drawing straws to see who gets dibs, and they don't appear to beat the shit out of him once he's on the ground. The force may still have been excessive by some definition, but as noted that was hardly a football tackle (you can ask the quarterback for the Bills (tasteless topical humor, I'm a real witty king.))

Like JF said, the biggest tragedy is the original cause for arrest is lost by his subsequent action, and thus likely won't be called into question by whoever you or I would want to call it into question.

The octopus will float... out to sea. I guess it was going to happen anyway, might as well make it fun.

@Peter S. Conrad:

I don't have an answer, but this may be relevant to your interests:

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F12.html

Lisa: It's awful being a kid. No one listens to you.
Abe: It's rotten being old. No one listens to you.
Homer: {I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me -- no
matter how dumb my suggestions are.}
{[pulls out a "nuts and gum" mixture, starts chomping]}

(Tried to get video, failed.)

Frm th vd, h ds ttmpt t gt wy nc th ffcrs hv thr rms n hm. Bkng fr "ssltng plc ffcr" s bt rdcls, bt rsstng rrst cld s.

Stll, whn smn grbs y, yr rflx s t gt th hll wy. t's BS tht thy prbbly hd n rl rsn t rrst hm bfr, bt nw cn bk hm fr rsstng rrst. Whtvr rgnl cs fr rrst th ffcrs hd s nw rrlvnt n th ys f th crt, 'd mgn. (ky, tht's ngh rmchr lwyrng frm mth mjr, thnk.)

l Shrptn nd Jss Jcksn r gng t b n ths lk wht n rc.

I'm so immature. The first thing I thought of was two people getting lost together and shacking up next to each other on the same branch.

@Halloween Jack: Do you live on top of Manhattan Chase? Is the deplorable quality of the elevators just a rumor?

I'd rather spend all that money on more music, frankly. I'd actually like to do some test to hear the difference for myself, but I don't feel like bothering the Circuit City employees since I'm not a serious buyer.

I wonder if there's any scientific analysis of the sound waves generated by solid state vs. tube amps.

MSJ pulled whatever it is that you linked to, apparently they weren't fond of the buzz.

I'm going to buy one of these and rig it up to play Dixie or La Cucaracha, perhaps both simultaneously.

Hey... it kind of looks like.... Mr. Garrison.

A Wrinkle In Time is one of those books I had heard of as a young'un but never got around to reading. I think I may have to track a copy down.

@CountD

2007 has robbed the world of a lot of people that I'm sad are gone. Vonnegut, Tom Poston, Mr. Wizard, and my grandfather, and then my cat went missing while I wasn't home. I'm quite ready for 2008.

If someone could bottle that cloud, goldenpalace would be all over that auction.

Do want. It's only like 3 dollars more than a used copy of Electroplankton.

I've been messing around with the Game Boy Camera's DJ mode sequencer recently, and it's surprisingly robust for a little throwaway mode on a peripheral. With a little talent and no skill I was able to make some stuff that sounds like music. The real trick is keeping a 16 note loop from becoming too repetitive.

The best part about the Game Boy Camera is you can find it for less than $10 nowadays, stick it in your old Game Boy (or Game Boy Advance, since you have a DS now,) and voila, portable music sequencer.

I kept forgetting to watch the videos when you were posting about this earlier.

Price cuts happen, but summer isn't even over yet, and a $200 cut is huge. I don't think anyone expected a huge drop that soon. Even the PS3 went more than half a year before that thing they called a price cut was implemented. Sure, the early iPhone adopters knew they were going to get boned, but the quantity and quality of the boning was on a scale only heretofore known by PC gamers buying graphics cards.

Also, here's a British Real Doll documentary called Guys And Dolls that I haven't finished watching but is certainly creepy, interesting, and real.

Epic.

Hmm, I only registered once and I can log in to both sides of the blog...

Sorry for the double post, mods.

To gripe some more, that response from tech support is incredibly irritating. It's hard to imagine someone saying that about a book (or a CD, though slightly less so given current RIAA attitudes.) It's so counterintuitive to ideas of property that have been held ever since feudal kingdoms were replaced with other forms of government. I'd rant more but I think Cory and the others already cover that point pretty thoroughly on the other side of this blog.

That guy is totally going to find a torrent for the game to make sure he'll be able to play it along with the rest of his legitimately purchased (and SecuROM-free) collection for years to come.

On the one hand, piracy is a big problem for PC games. On the other hand, companies are being reactionary and driving more people to download cracked versions that let them use the game the way they're used to, without the headaches.

Unfortunately, the only long term solution that developers and publishers have found that works currently is the MMO model. "Woe is PC gaming" is right, if you're talking about the variety previously known. I saw a quote (possibly from Mark Rein of Epic, can't remember) about a developer focusing more effort on the home console market because piracy is such a huge problem on computers.

I think the computer gaming segment of the industry might go through it's own version of the '84 crash as more MMOs come out and fail to reach critical mass and paying customers get tired of having to register their games online and being forced to install rootkits. Will there be a company to play the part of Nintendo and resurrect the industry? Or will there even be room in the market, as consoles grow further and fill the gap?

By the way, I'm posting this from my Wii.

That guy is totally going to find a torrent for the game to make sure he'll be able to play it along with the rest of his legitimately purchased (and SecuROM-free) collection for years to come.

On the one hand, piracy is a big problem for PC games. On the other hand, companies are being reactionary and driving more people to download cracked versions that let them use the game the way they're used to, without the headaches.

Unfortunately, the only long term solution that developers and publishers have found that works currently is the MMO model. "Woe is PC gaming" is right, if you're talking about the variety previously known. I saw a quote (possibly from Mark Rein of Epic, can't remember) about a developer focusing more effort on the home console market because piracy is such a huge problem on computers.

I think the computer gaming segment of the industry might go through it's own version of the '84 crash as more MMOs come out and fail to reach critical mass and paying customers get tired of having to register their games online and being forced to install rootkits. Will there be a company to play the part of Nintendo and resurrect the industry? Or will there even be room in the market, as consoles grow further and fill the gap?

By the way, I'm posting this from my Wii.

The rebel in me really wants a pair of these. Every time I see a "no photography" sign when I visit some place other than the Pentagon I always wish my eyeglasses had a camera in them. "Oh yeah? I'll show you!" I say to myself.

Time to pull out the LEGOs and play some SimCity.

"Her on heart?" What did she climb atop it or something, I imagine that would be very weird. OMG TYPO BOING BOING IS TEH FAIL

See, Anonymous, that's how you troll. Got to make sure your free entertainment stays in line.

Right, more pertinently:

I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of a real heart before now, save for extremely bloody-and-obscured views of open heart surgery video on TLC.

I kept my wisdom teeth when I had 'em out last year, and they're fun to look at. This must really be trippy, especially since it's part of an exhibit. It's one thing to have your tonsils in formaldehyde at home, but your heart available for public viewing is something else.

Looks like Zack Parsons can come out of retirement!

The clip doesn't end at the baseball bat acquisition, actually.... after that, there's quite a few bucketfulls left (which made me laugh aloud) and then the girl clips through the blackboard while the poor player is left to shoot off on the wall.

By the way, there's nothing weirder than going to a (anime/game/comic) convention and watching couples browse through the hentai games at some import booth.

Err, make that #10. The intentionally humorous backwards misogyny. Either I need to pay more attention or there was a comment timewarp.

And thanks to #11 for RTFA, which I failed to do until Anonymous delivered yet again. This does appear to be a bad error, but isn't the Diebold "black box" by a good measure. Speaking of touchscreen voting, I did notice last year that the machines printed a ballot that scrolled through a clear window and was stored in the machine, presumably for adjudication purposes. That doesn't change any of the concerns about the security of the machines, but I thought I'd mention it. And then I did.

In related news:

Who's that dapper swindler out of Tammany Hall?

@ #4

Amusing as that is, I'm betting that's because "God" is a rather common password/secret answer, doubly so given the smartasses us gamers tend to be, so it isn't the most secure. Also it's only 3 letters.

Hmmm, maybe they just want to discourage people from running Linux on their Xboxen (and telling others to do so.)

If you want the Xbox Live community to identify you as gay, just speak positively about the Gamecube (works best if you mention owning a purp- er, indigo one.)

Oooh,oooh! See if they allow "Ron Mexico."

I don't have an Xbox (either of them) but now I want to play the "What's Banned" game (killer app, I may just have to grab one now.) See if Wii or Playstation are banned. More ideas:

Tux
Dreamcast
It prints money
Regginator
Red Ring Of Death
Super Mario *

And so forth.

#9

Anonymous delivers. I lol'd.

The problem with e-voting is you can't throw a machine in jail for tampering with elections. Well, you could, but it wouldn't change anything (yet-- positronics is still a bit off.) As the ORG link points out the machines are "black boxes" with no public accountability. And it seems rather silly to purchase these machines and use them for convenience's sake when stories like this one provide a lot of evidence that live human beings for whom trust and the threat of imprisonment actually mean something will be needed to look at all of the ballots anyway.

On a related but 180 degree flipped around note, the PC Engine (Turbografx 16) version of Street Fighter II CE is quite an achievement. Sounds better than the Genesis/Mega Drive version, actually.

(found via Racketboy)