The Code Games News Report 04.27.07

Posted by Shawn Struck on 04.27.2007

From being one step closer to your very own Cortana, to video game player robots and NES rapping nostalgia, the future is NOW. Read more inside!

Now Where The Hell Is My Flying Car? (via Technology Review)

Or at least...soon. Some researchers at MIT have come up with a way they reckon will allow us to display holographic images on a scale we can use and a price we can afford. While previous holographic devices have been large, clumsy and super-expensive, this research is geared towards making affordable consumer products out of the tech, with two of the specific purposes outlined including PC displays and console gaming.

The device wouldn't be employed as a standalone product; rather, it's able to be used with existing PCs and consoles, so would replace your TV and/or monitor.
From the article:

While his expertise is in holographic images for medicine, Garner believes that people will start to demand more than just high-definition displays from their televisions and computer monitors, and will eventually want three-dimensional videos as well. "It's only a matter of time," he says. But what makes it challenging, Garner adds, is that consumers demand bigger and brighter images, and researchers are a long way from delivering 60-inch, high-definition holograms. Because of consumer tastes, "you may have to pick and choose" the commercial applications for this technology, Garner says.

The current unit should be complete in a few months, but the researchers are already working on the Mark IV, which (they hope) would be able to render an image as large as your average PC monitor. The Mark III is only capable of creating images about the size of a baseball.
The future is NOW.

This Week's "Now That's Cool":
Wiigobot: The Lego Robot That Can Play A Perfect Game of WiiSports (via BattleBricks.com)

Okay, so we may not have flying cars yet... but we do have robots to do stuff for us. Take the Wiigobot: A Lego NXT robot built to do one one thing, and one thing only-- bowl a perfect game in Wii Sports Bowling.

The author has pictures, video, and even step by step instructions on how to build one of your very own.

Me? I think it really tied the room together.

Dude, you should totally check this out.

Blast From The Past:
When CD-ROM Was Upcoming And Content Was King (via MetaFilter)

Back in the mid-nineties, before broadband took hold, the CD ROM was drawing considerable interest from publishers, musicians and other artists.

Notable (for contrasting reasons):

• Laurie Anderson's Puppet Motel


• The Residents' Freak Show


• Peter Gabriel's Xplora


• The Voyager Company


• Launch


• Media Band


• Headcandy.

Also, bonus metafilter game nerdishnes: Good game for word nerds!

This Week's All YouTube, All The Time:
Weirdest Tag Team Battle EVAR, Giant Lizards In The Musroom Kingdom NOT Named Koopa, and A Last-Gen Take On An Old-School Game

I've been struggling with something, anything to describe this fighting game mashup. But words are failing me. So here you go. Homer Simpson and Luigi versus Mario and Sonic. Seriously check it out :

Also, I think the next SNK fighting game should have Terry Bogard scream "Outta the way, Jerkass!" .

Godzilla's fought the greats: Mothra, Mecha Godzilla, Charles Barkley... but how about taking on the Mario Brothers:

Yeah, King Koopa, eat yer heart out.

And finally, we have an interesting mashup: Super Mario 64, redone with 8-bit Super Mario Bros. textures. Take a gander this-a-away:
.

That sound you heard was our very own Nintendo para-elemental, Theo Fraser's face being ROCKED OFF.

'Cause I'm All About Nerd Life Word Life: Free Full Album Of NES-Based Rap

A guy named Bryce Case Jr., calling himself "YTCracker," doing "nerdcore" rap over music loops taken from games that were released for the NES. If you aren't already familiar with YTCracker and this album, you now either think that sounds like the best idea ever, or are rolling your eyes.

If you come into this album with serious expectations, you'll end up hating it, no question. If you listen to it with an open mind, and want some music that will put a smile on your face as it's getting stuck in your head, this is for you. I mean, come on... how can you not love a guy who drops references to things like the movie The Wizard, the Power Pad, and Abobo from Double Dragon while rapping over the Bubble Man music from Megaman 2? You just can't hate something like that, no matter how cold your heart may be.

Plus, the guy's performed with the likes of Xzibit, Cypress Hill, Digital Underground, George Clinton, and Too Short, so hey, he's got street cred. Best of all, YTCracker offers the album for free on his site, so it won't even cost you a dime.

Link to his free album

Pimping Is Easy When You Use The Code!

Awesome writers that need no introduction:

• Andrew Mellick's The SIXAXIS


• Vincent Chiucchi's Select and Start News Report.


• Cory Moore's The Fun Factor.


• Damian Sarcuni's Angry Gaming.


• James McGee's The Game Plan.


• Joshua Richey's The Digital Pulse.


• Sean McCabe's The Retrospective


• And ascending to the elemental plance of Column Writing is Owain J Brimfield, goes nostalgia tripppin' for with The Wonder Years!

There is also 411Mania on MySpace. Now While I don't have a MySpace page, the non-profit I work for does: The North Texas Food Bank.

I have also managed to work 411Mania's tendrils into other areas of the video game media landscape-- I've gotten another article published at 1up.com: It's called "Corporate Combos: When Game Companies Gang Up". It's about the alarming number of mergers of gaming companies in Japan, and what that could mean for video games in the U.S.

That's it for this week. So don't forget-- be awesome to one another, and read my stuff!