Editor Marty Halpern looks back at the career of George Alec Effinger (part 1, part 2, part 3), a prolific author best known for his work set in the Budayeen, a walled city in a future Islamic state, teeming with gangsters, hustlers and transsexual prostitutes, many of them habitual users of plug in personality modules. The noirish tone and exotic technology of the Marîd Audran books (When Gravity Fails, A Fire In The Sun, The Exile Kiss) made Effinger one of the leading lights in the cyberpunk movie, and spawned a videogame - a rare attempt at a graphical adventure from Infocom - and an RPG setting. Sadly Effinger faded from prominence after that, and he suffered from a number of health and financial setbacks before passing away in 2002. His work has had somewhat of a resurgence in popularity of late, with the Marîd Audran books coming back into print in 2007, a long with a collection containing The Wolves of Memory, Effinger's personal favourite amongst his novels.
posted by Artw on Jun 9, 2009 - 32 comments

There's something in the sea... and it has a big drill for an arm.
posted by Artw on Apr 20, 2009 - 74 comments

Unintentionally funny voice acting in old school computer games.
posted by Foci for Analysis on Apr 19, 2008 - 39 comments

Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator [more inside]
posted by nthdegx on Jan 22, 2008 - 31 comments

Halo 3: Easter eggs, including the excellent Red Vs Blue in-game dialog easter egg; the RvB Halo 3 beta initiation; 3D images and how-to (dig out your glasses); achievements, ranks, armor, skulls, and campaign scoring explained; Bungie's favorites (videos, pics, maps, game variants to download to your 360)... and that grenade stick.
posted by nthdegx on Nov 28, 2007 - 22 comments

"Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream is an OverClocked ReMix Album featuring free fan arrangements from the soundtrack to Square's legendary Final Fantasy VII for the Sony Playstation."
posted by nthdegx on Sep 15, 2007 - 18 comments

Bible Fight [Flash game]
posted by thirteenkiller on May 7, 2007 - 24 comments

The Duke Nukem Forever List provides a bullet-point run down of notable events that have occurred since Duke Nukem Forever was first announced back in 1997. And for those who may have missed last month's Gamespot interview, George Broussard is still saying it'll be done when it's done, insisting that 3D Realms "won't be rushed" into releasing DNF before it's ready.
posted by Effigy2000 on Jul 22, 2006 - 30 comments

sega cd emulator with the penn and teller and stuff
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Mar 1, 2006 - 22 comments

Concerned (Half-Life 2 comic)
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Feb 27, 2006 - 38 comments

This is what happens when you put some of the best writers in UK comedy around a table to discuss videogames. Needless to say even the above average videogame writing gets a deserved hard time. Via the Spaced Out forums.
posted by nthdegx on Nov 16, 2005 - 49 comments

New Games Journalism (a Wikipedia definition for the uninitiated), appeared on MetaFilter last December with a link to the now legendary 'Bow, Nigger' article. In the first quarter of 2005 the buzz surrounding the phenomenon grew. Articles like This is Why Your Game Magazine Sucks got the attention of the Guardian, who examined the role of NGJ in a February article. In March, they linked to ten unmissable examples. At about the same time, the movement got its very own publication, The Gamer's Quarter; and in June PC Gamer wrote an open letter to the gaming community requesting articles about, well, anything really.
posted by nthdegx on Oct 16, 2005 - 17 comments

What do you get when you mix a fiendishly difficult and addictive puzzle game with the feel of a hack & slash RPG set in a cartoonish, slightly tongue-in-cheek fantasy world? That would be Deadly Rooms of Death (DROD for short). The game is freakin' huge, with 25 levels filled with unique rooms, and it also happens to be free.
posted by speicus on Sep 22, 2005 - 7 comments

A Dog for All Seasons. A wonderful Flash game. From Orisinal. Via Edge.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 20, 2005 - 18 comments

EDSAC - home of the first videogame, OXO.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Jun 19, 2005 - 5 comments

On the trail of The Collector comes The Game Room. What a rubbish television.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Apr 16, 2005 - 14 comments

I am 8 bit is a celebration of the pixelated graphics of 80s videogames, at LA's Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight. A hundred artists have produced paintings, sculptures and designs inspired by the two-dimensional imagery of the pre-PlayStation era. The exhibition runs from April 19 until May 20. More information, including highlights from the gallery, appear at Game Informer. It remains to be seen if the other ninety-nine artists can match the quality of Sean Clarity's exceptional reworking of the cover to NES classic Excitebike.
posted by nthdegx on Apr 3, 2005 - 18 comments

The Maoist International Movement reviews videogames
posted by Tlogmer on Feb 19, 2005 - 43 comments

In-your-face shoot-em-up action by bedroom-coders/games designers. From Japan: Warning Forever; Perfect Cherry Blossom; Cho Ren Sha 68K; Bullet Philharmonic Orchestra; Score Soldier; rRootage; Every Extend; TKKN / Crazy Game; and Galshell: Blood Red Skies [NSFW]. Be attitude for gains! From the West: Deadeye; Strayfire; Warblade; Mutant Storm; Bugatron; Space Birdz; Spheres of Chaos; Battle of Yavin; Demonstar; 'Troid; Platypus; Gridrunner; Intensity XS; and Tsunami 2010. From the pages of Edge magazine.
posted by nthdegx on Oct 1, 2004 - 9 comments

The Arcade Flyer Archive. A to Z.
posted by nthdegx on Jul 15, 2004 - 3 comments

Videogames are falling into the uncanny valley. (Previous mefi discussion: 1 2 -- aw, hell).
posted by Tlogmer on Jun 12, 2004 - 26 comments

Climb the Plantation. [flash]
posted by hama7 on Jan 23, 2004 - 6 comments

A massive archive of Commodore 64 game covers. An extensive archive of C64 magazine Zapp64 covers, features, reviews and editorials. SLAY radio (C64 remixes - very cheesy).
posted by nthdegx on Jan 12, 2004 - 6 comments

Now you too can run your own nuclear plant in this online simulation. Try to avoid a Three Mile Island situation. Friday fun? Via Blue's News
posted by WolfDaddy on Aug 15, 2003 - 10 comments

His name is Mr Freetime, he has 2,967 copies of Moero!! Pro Baseball for the Famicom. He knows how to use them.
posted by nthdegx on Aug 6, 2003 - 11 comments

When will (or will) computer games begin to constitute art? And particularly, highbrow art? I've heard Myst described as the first "literary" computer game; I've played a few games with language well in the foreground, but is there anything out there that truly transcends the basic dorkiness of the medium? I don't imagine the mainstream industry would be cranking out challenging intellectual fare, but surely it exists somewhere?
posted by scissorfish on Sep 2, 2001 - 48 comments

Nintendo delays U.S. launch of GameCube Nintendo has pushed back the U.S. arrival of its new GameCube video game console by nearly two weeks, with executives saying they intend to avoid the shortages and frustrated consumers that marked the debut of Sony's PlayStation 2 last fall.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Aug 23, 2001 - 21 comments