Monthly Archives: May 2006

nonchalance

Posted on by October 4, 2012
Reply

  It can strike you everywhere, in just every situation. For instance you just walk along a busy, or not so busy street without paying particular attention to anything around you. Of course you observe what’s going on in the street, but you do not project your mind’s focus on anything particular. But suddenly you stop cold, both in the outside world and in the inner universe of your trailing thougts. And there it is, this nondefined feeling of something being wrong. Just about half an hour ago this very feeling struck me like lightning when I strolled along the … Continue reading →

Share

chinese shock

Posted on by October 1, 2012
Reply

  China definitely is the world’s factory. No matter what kind of product I turn around—be it the cheapest plastic toy, little-finger sized, or be it a high-end expedition sleeping back, or be it any random electronic device, no matter from which price-segment—always I am going to find the embossed imprint “Made in China”. China manufactures everything. Everything. Remember ↵VirTra Systems’ glorious idea? Well, the fatal feedback has returned … today ↑Anthronaut notified me by e-mail of a party-gadget called “Shocking Roulette”. A quick search revealed that in China of course a similar item is produced. The picture above shows … Continue reading →

Share

snaking and strafe-jumping

Posted on by October 2, 2012
Reply

  Screencap from ↵Team iT‘s movie “DeFrag”. The gaps between the floor elements to be seen in the background could not be crossed without the technique of strafe-jumping. Run done by cyrus. The currently featured game innovation at ↑GIDb is the ↑first use of snaking in the game ↑F-Zero GX (2003):  Snaking is a technique that takes advantage of the “mini-boost” technique that is popular in many racing games. Basically, the players have to powerslide into a turn, and upon release, gets a slight boost of speed. Now, by applying this technique repeatedly, especially on straightaways, a player can constantly … Continue reading →

Share

demo

Posted on by October 2, 2012
Reply

It’s time to clarify the ambiguous term “demo” as used within gaming culture. For that purpose I’ll quote from some ’emic sources’.  1. Let’s start with the obvious, Wikipedia’s entry ↑Game demo:  A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released computer or video game. […] Game demos come in two variations: playable and non-playable (also called a “rolling demo”). Playable demos generally have the exact same gameplay as the upcoming full game, although game advancement is usually limited to a certain point, and occasionally some advanced features might be disabled. A non-playable … Continue reading →

Share

collaborative game research

Posted on by October 3, 2012
Reply

A new project promising new insights into the history and development of computergames, as it focusses on the perspective of innovations:  The goal of the GIDb [↑Game Innovation Database] is to classify and record every innovation in the entire history of computer and videogames. Because we could never complete this daunting task alone, we have made the GIDb an open wiki, allowing anyone to easily add innovation entries for the benefit of everyone who cares about the history, study, and practice of game innovation. And then McKenzie Wark, author of “A Hacker Manifesto” has put the draft of his next … Continue reading →

Share

superhero renaissance

Posted on by July 6, 2012
Reply

  “There were no superheroes during the renaissance period. Why? Apparently there were no supervillains so they were not needed. That would explain the lack of superheroes in fine art. It’s time to fix that.”—see the results at Worth1000’s ↑Superhero ModRen 2 photoshop contest. They really ↵seem to come back these days …      From top down: “Heart of Clark” by dan5677 “Portrait of a Young Flash” by NomeDaBo “Batman and the Centaur” by ParasiteDemon  via entry at boingboing … Continue reading →

Share