The Code Games News Report 08.18.07
Posted by Shawn Struck on 08.18.2007
Chimps, Quilts, Neuroscience, and SMB Hacks.
Oh, good morning, fellow 411Maniacs and Strockoholics! I didn't see you there. I've been hard at work combing the interwebs for gaming news. No, not the latest on Halo 3, or Guitar Hero for the X-Box-- though those are fun and important news items. The rest of 411 Mania has that covered. I try to bring you news of a different kind -- news of the strange, the weird, the nerdy, the silly and the miscellaneous.
Life is your restaurant, I'm your matre'd, and this is... The Code.
Video Game Teaches Principles of Neuroscience Brain Age, Eat Your Heart Out
Via BoingBoing-- Neuromatrix is a new educational vidgame out next week that's designed to teach people neuroscience. It's marketed to ages 10-15. The developer, Morphonix, writes that they "are developing a series of video games which make abstract concepts of brain science fun and comprehensible to children and teens. Many software games spur kids to use their brains, but this is the first series of video games which also teaches children the science of their brains."
From the game description:
You play a secret agent infiltrating a top-secret neuroscience research facility. Your mission: to track down and root out the Nanobots that have invaded the brains of the scientists there. If you fail, the Nanobots and the secret entity that spawned them will take over the Earth, reprogramming the human brain into docile submission.
This Week's "Now That's Cool":
q-(uilted blanket)bert
Natalie says: "Lenore at Evil Mad Scientist Labs shows off her fantastic Quiltbert, a Q*bert inspired quilt and shows you the steps to make one yourself." Link
Super Columbine - The Documentary: The Interview
Danny LeDonne, creator of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is working on a documentary on the ups and downs associated with creating the game, as previously discussed in this column.
The UK Guardian Gamesblog has an interview with him on Super Columbine Massacre RPG and his upcoming documentary on his own game. As noted: "Ledonne has some controversial views, not just on his own game, but on its consequences and ramifications." And speaking of controversy...
The Medium Is The Message-
Politics In Games
GameSetWatch shares scans the E3 Media Summit hand-out given to attendees by publisher Gamecock's upcoming video game, Hail To the Chimp. Here's one scan:
GameSetWatch's Brandon Sheffield also spoke with the game's creator in a piece on Gamasutra:
Gamasutra: Is Hail to the Chimp a political statement in any way?
Alex Seropian: Sure. I mean, you're going to read into it what you want. It's all there.
Gamasutra: The monkey guy looks a lot like the caricatures that are drawn of Bush.
Alex Seropian: Any similarities are completely coincidental!
And more on the handout from GameSetWatch:
Aha, some more political animal craziness from the hand-out, headlined 'Camel Accuses Airport Security Of Profiling, Calls Hump Search Humiliating': "The new security guidelines in place at airports across the animal kingdom have not been applauded by everyone. Following what he calls 'a gross invasion of my privacy', Steve Assamalam has sued Nile International airport Airport for $7.8 million."
(Hard Drive's Free) Space Invaders
If you were saying to yourself "Now, where can I browse over 1,700 arcade manuals in PDF format?", your prayers were just answered.
This is over three gigabytes of manuals, schematics, and general information about arcade machines, scanned in by an anonymous army of dedicated people, and going back up to 30 years.
All YouTube, All The Time:
8-Bit Finery, Metroid Sub-Prime and The Goofiest SMb Hack Ever
First off, we have a video of the chiptune stylings of 8-Bit Weapon, with the track "Bombs Away"
Did you know the makers of Metroid Prime had a Gamecube game in the works BEFORE the awesome Metroid Prime, and this game looked Just as awesome?
It was called Raven Blade, shown for the first time at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2001 in full-motion video form, and had been underway by Retro Studios since shortly after the firm's inception. The title, which pitted players as a knight in a post-apocalyptic world filled with demonic enemies and fire-breathing dragons, was one of the first games the studio began work on. The game is long gone, but beta footage lives on.
And finally...a speed run of the weirdest Super Mario Bros, hack-- and the kicker? It was OFFICIAL. It was distributed via Famicom Disk System in Japan-- basically a NIntendo system with a disk drive attachment. All Night Nippon was a show kinda like SNL or Made in the morning, and the graphics were changed to caracitures of the show staff and cast. It's a trip.
Pimping Is Easy When You Use The Code!
The Select and Start News Report has the rundown on some pretty big news in the gaming world this week-- including the play-by-play on the epic lawyer throwdown between Epic and Silicon Knights.
