Tabletop: Analog Game Design - A commons licenced book containing a series of essays about digital and non-digital games from some esteemed boardgame veterans:
"Much has been written about the videogame revolution, [...] In a scant thirty some-odd years,
we’ve grown from nothing to one of the world’s largest entertainment
forms, grossing tens of billions annually [...] Works that discuss the evolution of the game industry from an historical perspective generally talk about the connection between the pre-digital
arcade and the earliest digital games; I’ve even heard some claim
that “without the arcade, videogames would not exist.” This is, of course, bosh..." [more inside]
posted by Cogentesque
on Aug 24, 2011 -
36 comments
YouTube has a fair number of recordings of well-played classic arcade games.
Dig Dug,
Mr Do!,
Mr Do's Castle,
Do! Run Run,
Lady Bug Part 2,
Bagman,
Super Bagman,
Q*bert,
Venture,
Zoo Keeper,
Moon Cresta,
Scramble,
Make Trax,
Phoenix,
Rastan.
click through for more [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Dec 23, 2010 -
35 comments
Arcade Fire devise 'synchronised artwork' for The Suburbs. Montreal band develop album art in the digital age, providing bonus material to accompany the download of their latest LP. "The idea is simple... Tightly sync a series of images with specific moments in a song using the m4a format. Like some podcasters do, but with micro chapters for each lines of the lyrics. In addition to that, we were able to add good old hyperlinks also synchronised to the song. This gives the possibility for the band to add, at any moments, all kinds of references related to each song. They plan to change and update those links occasionally."
says: Vincent Morisset, director of Arcade Fire's Miroir Noir live DVD
posted by Fizz
on Aug 4, 2010 -
51 comments
"I guess it's the stereotype of playing it - [the players] are usually fat, sweaty, hairy dorky men who are socially inept who happen to live in their mom's basement."
Dungeons & Dragons, the 1974 published fantasy role-playing game that
once delivered your
child to Satan, is still associated with
self-
deprecating nerds, played in
secret (along with embarrassed
"comings out") and
scorned by jocks/Salon writers and their cheerleader girlfriends everywhere.
But what better way to break, or affirm, the stereotypes, than by
listening to a 4th Edition D&D game being played, featuring not just by some scrubs off the street, oh no, but the creators of
Penny Arcade, Tycho and Gabe? Still not tempted? How about if we throw loved/hated Star Trek actor,
prodigious blogger and all round nice guy
Wil Wheaton into the mix?
All files available as Podcasts and/or embedded in page.
Warning: audio links feature some strong language. [more inside]
posted by Rei Toei
on Jan 22, 2010 -
240 comments
TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally
thousands of old-school video games:
517 Atari titles,
148 for DOS,
636 Game Boy games (and
410 for Game Boy Color),
2,019 (!) NES titles,
238 GameGear games,
802 Sega Genesis titles, and
284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include
Space Invaders,
Frogger,
Galaga,
Pitfall!,
Super Mario Bros.,
The Legend of Zelda,
Metroid,
SimCity,
Zero Wing,
Duke Nukem,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Aladdin,
Earthworm Jim,
Pokemon, and
Metal Gear Solid. Use
the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.
posted by Rhaomi
on Nov 30, 2009 -
54 comments
The newly launched Atari.com includes the
Atari Arcade, wherein you may play Adventure, Asteroids, Battlezone, Crystal Castles, Lunar Lander and Yars' Revenge in your browser.
posted by jbickers
on Nov 23, 2009 -
37 comments
Particlasm is home to the browser games of Luke Paakh. He first caught my attention with fine space shoot'em-up
Ether War but I also enjoyed his other games, shooter
Ether Cannon, tree defending games
Phoenix and
Shen Long, puzzle game
blue and petri dish action game
Amoeba. His new game is my favorite. It's called
William and Sly and it's a beautiful platformer is about an adorable fox who likes mushrooms and his quest to recharge some runestones with fairyflies.
posted by Kattullus
on Oct 9, 2009 -
9 comments
Rocks 'n' Diamonds for some Friday puzzle-game fun. Described as "in the tradition of" Boulderdash and Sokoban, it's actually a superset of both, and you can waste tons of time playing all the old familiar levels or
tons of others. (It's a quick download, for linux/os x/the other thing.)
posted by Wolfdog
on Mar 28, 2008 -
12 comments
ROM CHECK FAIL is a goofy little PC game, in the classic 1980's arcade/home console genre of ... err ...
Use the space bar to fire your blaster. Or sword. (Or jump.) Use the arrow keys to control your ... guy as if you were playing ... that ... classic game. Eliminate all the enemy, well, things in the expected way, and go on to the next maze/planet/cave/highway. Look, just play it, OK? It's fun!
posted by CrunchyFrog
on Mar 25, 2008 -
16 comments
M.U.G.E.N [
wikipedia] is a 2D fighting game engine, originally developed by Elecbyte and released in 1999. The engine is highly customizable;
characters,
backgrounds, and sound files -- whether from existing games or original works -- can be easily integrated. Some examples of the engine in action [youtube]:
Homer Simpson vs. Peter Griffin,
Ryu vs Popeye,
Green Power Ranger vs Osama Bin Laden,
Fat Albert vs Juggernaut,
Marvin the Martian vs. Duck Dodgers. Also, game crossovers:
Homer in NES Land,
Thunder Force III vs. Duck Hunt. [mi]
WARNING: some of the videos are very loud.
posted by milquetoast
on Jun 17, 2007 -
10 comments
SHOOT THINGS - a retro-arcade-style shooter for Mac OS X.
The author's page describes how it was written in 3 weeks for a contest - it's entertained me for considerably longer than that.
posted by ikkyu2
on Apr 22, 2007 -
31 comments
Billed as
TV's frst video arcade game show,
Starcade had its contestants battling
each other on video game trivia, as well as actual gameplay. Originally aired in the early 1980's, the show featured games like
Zaxxon,
Congo Bongo,
Star Trek and
Journey, to name
a few.
Ten full episodes are available online, for those of you who want a bit of video game nostalgia. And,
if nothing else, looking at
the contestants is pretty entertaining, in and of itself.
posted by avoision
on Jan 17, 2007 -
28 comments
Arcade '84, from Cinemarcade. (Warning: 32MB MPEG. Low bandwidth short version
here). Two liter bottle of Shasta and all Rush mix-tape not included.
For more 3d rendered arcade cabinet goodness, see
the TimeOut Tunnel movie project. Put together your own arcade and populate it with models and textures from the
3d Arcade at MAMEworld.
posted by cosmicbandito
on Jan 10, 2007 -
12 comments
Halo Zero. The Fall of Reach, old-school style. Some plucky French coders have borrowed a page from
Codename: Gordon, the side-scrolling
homage to Half-Life. As a result, Master Chief and his cohorts are now fighting the Covenant in 16-bit, 2D graphics. PC download only - though Mac owners at least have
Boot Camp to avoid waiting for an OS X port.
via Aeropause
posted by Smart Dalek
on Jul 7, 2006 -
9 comments
Vintage arcade artwork. In free, vector goodness. For collectors restoring a piece of arcade history and enthusiasts who want to create some great art to hang in the den. Who doesn't want a giant
Q-Bert on their wall?
posted by punkfloyd
on Apr 4, 2006 -
25 comments
Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03,
1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including
Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris.
The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith
on Feb 16, 2006 -
44 comments
More Flash Friday.
Dynasty Street is an awesomely intricate, gory, stick-figure beat-'em-up. Make sure to practice your moves in the dojo before you play. For mayhem that's a little more low-key, immerse yourself in the world of
Skull Kid and his chainsaw. If you're not in the mood for blood & guts, just go with good old
Battleship.
FlashPlayer.com features many, many Flash games with which to while away the hours.
posted by Gator
on Jan 6, 2006 -
6 comments
