For about three years, the A.V. Club ran
Sawbuck Gamer, a regular column reviewing the week's most notable free and cheap games across all platforms, from web games to handhelds to console downloadables. It's a treasure trove of content, especially since more literary sister site The Gameological Society
took the helm, and it's publicized great desktop projects like the luscious platformer
Frogatto (
previously), feature-rich
Super Mario Bros. X (
previously), the evocative faux-web
Digital: A Love Story (
previously), interactive fiction gem
Rover's Day Off, and the hyperkinetic
RunMan: Race Around the World (
previously). But if you're in the mood for something more immediate, why not start with a list of all the original column's free A-rated online titles?
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 24, 2012 -
20 comments
Steam to sell productivity software [
main link]. Gabe's dislike of the Windows 8 app store [
BBC] may be explained. It's particularly interesting given that Steam is about to launch on Linux [
Valve] [
previously on Mefi]; it's one app store across all three platforms.
[more inside]
posted by jaduncan
on Aug 8, 2012 -
29 comments
Many people are familiar with
computer case modifications, thanks to the
photogenic nature of mods. On the software side, most operating systems feature some potential for customization, though this is often limited to tweaking the colors and sounds. For some, this isn't enough. Enter "
skinning," the casual term for interface customization. To a degree, the
history of the media player Winamp (YT, 7:03;
transcript with pictures) mirrors the history of skinning. From a version 0.2, a visually dull app in June 1997, to easy user customization in version 2 in September 1998, and the complexly customizable Winamp3 in August 2002.
Wired captured something of the excitement at its peak in an article from 2000, before computing began shifting to more closed devices. Now approaching a
post-WIMP (windows, icons, menus and a pointer) era, where skinning is done with
alternative launchers. But for those still using traditional computers of one sort or another, it's not too late to modify your interface.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 17, 2012 -
70 comments
16-bit color schemes, in a classic retro VGA interface! New soundtracks and voiceovers! No typing required!
Infamous Adventures resurrects and lovingly remakes Sierra Games from the 1980's:
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge and
Kings Quest III. SQ2 was released yesterday after more than five years in production, and comes complete with a
cheesy trailer. Available for download for PC and Mac, but be forewarned, the game is a total memory hog, and uses up a whole meg of RAM.
posted by zarq
on Dec 31, 2011 -
12 comments
Trauma is an escape-the-
room -dream game with a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic that tells the story of a young woman recovering from an accident. It is a cross-platform download or can be played in its entirety for free
in Flash.
[more inside]
posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy
on Aug 31, 2011 -
9 comments
The
Super Friendship Club is an effort by
Stephen
“Increpare” Lavelle
(
previously),
Terry
Cavvvvvvanagh (
previously,
with
Stephen Lavelle),
Jonas Kyratzes (
previously, with
Terry Cavanagh),
Jasper Byrne (
previously),
Ian Snyder (
previously), and
several others, to provide another place
for game developers to
make
games. It aims to be a
focussed alternative to
TIGSource
Forums,
Indiegamer, and others by
avoiding more general discussion boards and topics.
Every other month, thematic
pageants
are held where entrants are encouraged to make a game and share
their progress. The first pageant,
“
Justice,”
was held in July and yielded
these (including
[previously]).
posted by stance
on Aug 14, 2011 -
11 comments
Although
Apple's OS X operating system is making inroads with power users, providing Apple style and usability over a FreeBSD-derived UNIX-certified architecture, many find the built-in terminal emulator sadly lacking both UNIX feel and Apple polish. Fortunately, MeFi's own
jewzilla has picked up the ball on the most popular third-party Terminal replacement, iTerm, and rolled out something altogether new and wonderful:
iTerm2. [via
mefi projects]
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism
on Jul 20, 2011 -
86 comments
Twenty years ago today, the gaming world saw the launch of a truly landmark title:
Sonic the Hedgehog. Developed as a vehicle for a new Sega mascot, the fluid, vibrant, cheery-tuned wonderland swiftly became the company's flagship product, inspiring over the ensuing decades
an increasingly convoluted universe of TV shows,
comic books, and dozens of games on a variety of systems (all documented in
this frighteningly comprehensive TVTropes portal). And while in recent years the series has turned out
more and more mediocre 3D and RPG efforts, the original games remain crown jewels of the 16-bit era. So why not kick off this anniversary by replaying the titles that started it all for free in your browser:
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991),
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992),
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994),
Sonic & Knuckles (1994). Or click inside for music, remakes, and other fun stuff!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 23, 2011 -
71 comments
Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has
officially announced his company's next project:
a hybrid online board game/trading card system called
Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (
interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls,"
illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the
Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as
"snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of
Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
posted by Rhaomi
on Mar 2, 2011 -
128 comments
Halfway through the third book of the
Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is
a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation.
But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called
Starship Titanic.
Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels.
The game was laden with extra content, including
an in-depth strategy guide,
a (mediocre) tie-in novel by Terry Jones,
a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles.
Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with
the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned
16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including
John Cleese,
Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in
several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then watch this narrated video playthrough (
intro (ads) -
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9? 10 11 12 13) ...or click inside for a information on how to run the game for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux (along with a bunch of other goodies!).
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 22, 2010 -
109 comments
"The Japanese Tradition" was a series of nine short, parody "How To" videos that gently mocked the formality of Japanese culture, from comedy duo
Rahmens (
ラーメンズ) and Japan Culture Lab. They're
available on DVD, but nearly all of them can be seen on YouTube, including
Sushi and
Ocha (tea).
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 25, 2010 -
54 comments
MAC Cosmetics and Rodarte partnered to create a makeup collection. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind Rodarte,
"were struck by the ethereal landscape and the impoverished factory workers floating to work at dawn in a sleepy, dreamlike state." People started
questioning the
sensitivity and
intelligence behind the naming, particularly a glittery pink nailpolish named Juarez.
[more inside]
posted by nadawi
on Aug 3, 2010 -
31 comments
Mendeley is a cross-platform research management tool which features article databasing, PDF annotation, online backup, private, shared and public collections, metadata lookup on Google Scholar, direct exporting of multiple citation styles to Word, OpenOffice and BibTex, the ability to add documents directly from a web browser, and social networking with other members in your field of study. Like
Zotero (
previously), but out of the browser and with note-taking abilities. For Windows, Mac and Linux.
posted by l33tpolicywonk
on Jun 11, 2010 -
27 comments
HELLO WORLD (SLYT) "Lego felt tip 110" printer connected to an Apple Mac. This is not a kit you can buy and does not use mindstorms. I designed/built/coded it all from scratch including analog motor electronics, sensors and printer driver, the USB interface uses a "wiring" board.
posted by grumblebee
on Jun 2, 2010 -
42 comments
"Every hard drive in the world will eventually fail. Assume that yours are all on the cusp of failure at all times." An Ode to DiskWarrior, SuperDuper, and Dropbox: John Gruber talks about his Mac's hard drive failing and how he was able to recover all of his data using
DiskWarrior, a file recovery utility,
SuperDuper!, a backup utility that creates a fully bootable backup, and the file syncing system
DropBox. While his advice is Mac specific, you can get a similar system going on Windows with
Acronis for backups and one of many free file recovery programs such as
TestDisk (which also has a Mac version).
[more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla
on Mar 15, 2010 -
90 comments
