MetaFilter posts tagged with videogame and videogames

Artificial Intelligence?

flatluigi — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:24:47 -0800

Hell is Other People "Fight the ghosts of those that have come before by moving in two dimensions and shooting missiles. The fiercer you fight, the harder it shall be for those that come after. How much past can you cope with before you are overwhelmed?"

Ethnography of Rock Band Bar Night

k8t — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:56:02 -0800

Ethnography of Rock Band Bar Night. The Rock Band video game (and the similar Guitar Hero) are more than video games where players try to earn points and some are exploring the deeper meaning of such games. In this ethnographic study of a Rock Band bar night, Kiri Miller, discovers that Rock Band bar night is, surprisingly, a friendly, accessible musical scene with a tight-knit group of friends at its core—more like an open Irish session than a karaoke night, and with fewer barriers to participation than either of those other typical bar events. Miller researches GH and RB and is currently collecting data from players, if you're interested in participating. She keeps a blog on her research as well. Read her (interesting) thoughts on being a researcher on this topic. She also provides some audio interviews with players. She argues that "[a]nyone who has played Guitar Hero or Rock Band for more than five minutes will tell you that it requires a deeper level of musical engagement than listening to an iPod—intellectually, emotionally, physically, and often socially" and "the games have substantially changed the way they listen to popular music when they’re not playing." She also asks if GH/RB playing "authentic"? It certainly is a performance.

This game is made by a man who hates videogames

filthy light thief — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:34:33 -0800

Takeshi no Chōsenjō: it came before the endurance test that is Desert Bus, and served as an inspiration for Janey Thompson's Marathon. In English it is known as Takeshi's Challenge. Released in December 1986 for the Famicom system, the game mechanisms include use of the Famicom microphone to sing karaoke for an hour. And that's after you drink to the point of blacking out, divorce your wife, quit your job, and learn to hang glide AND learn the Hintoba language, amongst other things. All of this takes place in lands populated with nothing but people that want to beat you to death. Of course, you can skip that all and complete the game in a mere 4 minutes by simply walking off the edge of existence, and magically ending at the final treasure room. Not sure about finding a rom or buying the game online, and you don't have access to the Japanese Wii store? Sit back and watch the game, with an on-screen timer to remind you that this was 27 minutes of your life. Bonus: playable glitch room. The Japanese video game show Game Center CX researched the game and strategy guide production history, and then tried to play the game with limited success. (Bonus: these videos are subtitled, including translations of the game dialogue.)

This balladry makes me spoony

grobstein — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:27:15 -0800

Final Fantasy IV remix project. This week the videogame music rearrangement site, OCRemix.org, released a new project covering Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack to FFIV (originally FFII in the US). FFIV's was the first game soundtrack I fell in love with, back in 2nd grade. Maybe you feel the same. The musicians have generally eschewed crowd-pleasing statements of the original's iconic themes, which is . . . bittersweet. Try

this cafe-vibe take on Rydia's theme,
this rhythmically fractured version of the sweet "Welcome to Our Town,"
"Into the Darkness" transposed and remade as "Step into the Light,"
or this slight, anti-triumphal take on the series's traditional victory fanfare.
And here is the "Theme of Love" made up as what sounds like classical guitar.

All FFIV remixes on OCR. All OCR album projects (I recommend the Street Fighter project, which was used for the soundtrack to the "new" game, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix).

Video Games, One Moment At A Time

flatluigi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:19:41 -0800

Moments _{A small blog by Mister Raroo}

Vintage Game Club plays Chrono Trigger

grobstein — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:53:20 -0800

Good morning, Crono! (Cf.) Starting this Friday, the Vintage Game Club will play through the RPG classic Chrono Trigger, a game beloved and praised but perhaps not well understood. The discussion is beginning here (little substance so far). (Chrono Trigger was published for SNES and Playstation, and is available in a new Nintendo DS port.) The Vintage Game Club is an online discussion group dedicated to playing through and understanding true classics of video games. It is a project of Professor Michael Abbott (great glossy-style profile) and Metafilter's own danb (and some other dudes). Chrono Trigger is the VGC's fifth game. You can find archived discussions for the first four on the forums:

Beyond Good and Evil (warning game has deceptive title)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey
Deus Ex (these discussions are really interesting; see e.g.)
Grim Fandango

Luna City Arcade

grobstein — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:37:05 -0800

Luna City Arcade is Peter Hirschberg's home / barn video arcade, with about 60 vintage machines all set up to eat quarters. WaPo story about Peter's dream. You can come around to Peter's Virginia home for Game Day every couple months. In addition to maintaining his own dinosaur machines, Peter writes some software -- usually clones of classic toys and games. His Battlezone clone Vector Tanks is coming soon to the iPhone for a couple dollars.

Now you know why you can't kill Vamp.

cthuljew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:33:10 -0800

Driving Off the Map by James Clinton Howell is a formal analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played this game — even if you didn't like it (especially if you didn't like it) — you need to read this to learn what you actually played. If you've never played Metal Gear Solid, it's still an excellent example of serious video game scholarship.

Mother 3 Fan Translation

painquale — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:35:17 -0800

Mother 3 fan translation completed. Earthbound (known as Mother 2 in Japan) is one of the most highly regarded RPGs for the Super Nintendo. The game suffered disappointing sales in America, but has since gained the status of a cult classic. A sequel, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance, but it has never been officially translated into English. After a long development, a fan translation patch has just been released. Trailer. You might recognize some of the settings and characters from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Cattlesnake!

If we all choose world "My" we can play together! Happy birthday!

Navelgazer — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:41:57 -0800

Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game! Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy! *Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."

Dove of Brutality!

thirteenkiller — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:00:47 -0800

Bible Fight [Flash game]

Crisis on infinite mushrooms

boo_radley — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 19:15:47 -0800

Infinite Mario Brothers Did you love Mario Brother 3? Would you like to love playing it forever? With randomized maps and worlds? Oh, yes, you would.

Is there a physicist in the house?

loquacious — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 04:21:15 -0800

Fun Motion - a blog dedicated to physics-simulating games, currently with 49 reviews (and counting) of well known favorites like Stair Dismount and Truck Dismount, Towers of Goo, Toribash and many, many more. (A follow up to my previous YouTube post.) Kiss your precious, fleeting motes of productivity goodbye, cube-farmers!

How do you make a Swiss roll? (Push him down a hill.)

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:03:36 -0800

"Over the last few weeks I have been introducing you to eight schools of criticism – Biographical, New Critical, Marxist, Structural, Jungian, Psychoanalytical, Feminist, and Post-Colonial – giving a little history behind each, and showing how they can be used to critique the video game Katamari Damacy for the PlayStation 2." [Part One | Part Two | Part Three]

A different Burger Time

me3dia — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:25:20 -0800

Not your older brother's Burger Time. Burger King is developing three XBox videogames starring its eponymous mascot. And not just any games: they'll be modeled after such titles as Halo, Mortal Kombat and Need for Speed. But, you know, with fast food. Confirmation of the plans came in the form of a lawsuit threatened against Kotaku, the blog that broke the story.

Concerned (Half-Life 2 comic)

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:09:17 -0800

Concerned (Half-Life 2 comic)

Good enough to cease 'n' disist

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:37:57 -0800

Mario Adventure - SMB3 hacked into an entirely new high-quality game

Emulator skills

jimmy — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 12:32:26 -0800

A time attack of Megaman X and Megaman X2, played simultaneously on one controller by one person. (Torrent download link provided on page)

DJ Format featuring Abdominal & D-sisive

Pretty_Generic — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 17:56:42 -0800

Witness the Whiteness as borderline-albino Canadian nerdcore MCs kick it Konami-school [Windows Media/Quicktime; more]

xoc - SMW

Pretty_Generic — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 06:46:03 -0800

SMW - The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo.

EDSAC/USER FIRST (DIAL 0/1)

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 14:46:47 -0800

EDSAC - home of the first videogame, OXO.

Illusion of Gaia and my cousin David

Tlogmer — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:24:18 -0800

Illusion of Gaia and my cousin David

come one, shoot all?

donkeyschlong — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:55:56 -0800

"In the game, the player plays the role of a character called The Postal Dude. He lives in a town where there are all kinds of people, white, black, skinny, fat, straight and gay. You can play the game in a passive role without killing anyone," Desi said.

"We are not political," he added.