impossibly hard variant of super mario world This is to humble every single speedrunner, trickjumper, DeFRaGger, or first-person-shooter virtuoso/elitist who ever dared to badmouth about 2D jump’n’run sidescrollers and the supposed lack of skill involved in playing them. The “kaizo” (“hack” or “mod”) of Super Mario World shown in the video was created by T. Takemoto. For the movie he made his friend R. Kiba play his creation. Obviously Kiba possesses god-like skill, but still Takemoto’s level’s are more than a challenge for him. The dramaturgy of the movie is only digestable for the real oldskool aficionados, I confess—but … Continue reading
Tag Archives: appropriation
Because his ↵steampunk keyboard mod “looked terribly anachronistic” in front of his flat panel display, Jake von Slatt, proprietor of ↑The Steampunk Workshop voided the warranty of his ↑monitor and modified it, too, because “art must be served.” … Continue reading
↑Computer Choppers of West Linn, Oregon, builds custom computers, laptops, and electronics on request. Additionally they manufacture “limited-run specialty items,” of which the above pictured, 24karat goldplated MacBook Pro with diamonds is an example. Besides the fictional Auric Goldfinger, another ↵potential customer for items like those meanwhile is deceased … … Continue reading
There really is no use in having manuscripts merrily rotting away in drawers and on HDDs. So here are some pieces of mine, on cyberanthropology, appropriation, and game modding: KNORR, ALEXANDER. 2008. ↓maxmod—eine Ethnographie der cyberculture: Exposé des Habilitationsprojektes [128KB | .pdf]. [unpublished manuscript] KNORR, ALEXANDER. 2007. ↓Game modding [136KB | .pdf]. [unpublished manuscript] KNORR, ALEXANDER. 2007. ↓Die kulturelle Aneignung des Spielraums: Vom virtuosen Spielen zum Modifizieren und zurück. [ 220KB | .pdf]. [second version of the manuscript] Scheduled for publication in Shooter: Ein Computerspiel-Genre in multidisziplinärer Perspektive [working title], edited by Matthias Bopp, Peter C. Krell and Serjoscha Wiemer. … Continue reading
After his brilliant “From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-industrial transitions from leisure to work” (↵2003) ↑Hector Postigo has published an already promised piece plus has yet another one on the topic in the pipeline: POSTIGO, HECTOR. 2007. Of mods and modders: Chasing down the value of fan-based digital game modifications. Games and Culture 2(4): 300-313. This article is concerned with the role that fan-programmers (generally known as “modders”) play in the success of the PC digital game industry. The fan culture for digital games is deeply embedded in shared practices and experiences among fan communities, and their active consumption contributes … Continue reading
The ↑Open Source Annual ↑2007 has been succesfully presented at the CeBit 2007. LUTTERBECK, BERND, MATTHIAS BÄRWOLFF, AND ROBERT A. GEHRING (eds.). 2007. ↑Open Source Jahrbuch 2007: Zwischen freier Software und Gesellschaftsmodell. Berlin: Lehmanns Media. From now on it is available at bookstores and ↑can be downloaded for free in several formats. On pages 59 through 72 you’ll find my contribution “↑Die Deutungsoffenheit der Quelle“ [The source’s interpretative flexibility], which—as ↑all the other contributions—can be downloaded separately: KNORR, ALEXANDER. 2007. “↑Die Deutungsoffenheit der Quelle,” in Open Source Jahrbuch 2007: Zwischen freier Software und Gesellschaftsmodell edited by Bernd Lutterbeck, Matthias … Continue reading
The ↑steampunk keyboard mod out of the ↑steampunk workshop definitely is the perfect follow-up to the ↵high end keyboard. from just.be via e-mail—tnx! … Continue reading
Today I received notice that the “↑Open Source Annual 2007″ will go to the printer on 25 February 2007, and will be presented to the public on 15 March 2007 at the CeBIT. The volume will contain a 15-page article by Yours Truly, which I christened “Die Deutungsoffenheit der Quelle” [The source’s interpretative flexibility], and today’s e-mail notice is one of a chain of long e-mail to-and-fros. What I want to stress is the fact that since long I haven’t felt so comfortable with a board of editors like in the case of the people in charge of the … Continue reading
“When I first saw a picture of the ↑Boomslang in an advertisement, I immediately fell for its aesthetics,” I wrote in 2004, when I first attempted a case study in cultural appropriation of peripheral computer hardware, called ↵the taming of the boomslang. Not everybody around me shared my appreciation of the aesthetics of this legendary gamer mouse—when a close friend of mine first saw my Boomslang, she said: “This resembles more a rat than a mouse.” Anyway, Razer went on producing peripheral hardware, I stuck with their product line and later got my ↵new snake, which I am using … Continue reading
yet another abstract Just recently I again was invited to submit an abstract for a chapter in an upcoming learned volume. Here is what I cooked up, the chapter simply will be called “Game modding”—it is straight out of my laboratory and pretty well summarizes what I am up to with this whole project. At least it hits its core: On a global scale media relying on computer technology and the Internet infrastructure play a decisive role in contemporary culture and society. This chapter deals with computergames, what is done with them, and what happens around them, in particular with … Continue reading