Tuesday, November 15, 2011
American Icons Gallery Show Recognizes Classic Gaming Consoles For the Works of Art They Are
We live in an age of gaming gorgeousness. Gamers’ lives nowadays are filled with fancy normal mapping and illumination engines, powered by slickly encased hardware that outputs onto super-sharp screens. In short, there’s a lot of thought given to aesthetics in the present day. But, it hasn’t always been this way and an upcoming art show will showcase the uglier—yet vitally important—gaming hardware of yesteryear.
American Icons gathers select works by Massachusetts artist Jason Brockert, who’s done a series of hazy still-life renderings of the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System and old-school cartridges. Another series of paintings also portray classic Star Wars action figures, with most painted in a quietly contemplative style.
This showing’s being put together by nerd culture collective I Am 8-Bit in their downtown L.A. gallery and will open to the public this Friday. Some of the paintings—which are affordable as far as fine art goes—will also be available as prints for those who can’t make the show.
http://kotaku.com/58 … t-they-are/gallery/1
http://iam8bit.com/t … lery/american-icons/
Friday, November 11, 2011
Houston Arcade Expo - November 11th/12th
The Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their annual Houston Arcade Expo on November 11th and 12 at the Houston Northwest Crowne Plaza. Admission is $30 for a weekend pass or $20 for a single day, and discounts are available if you buy your tickets in advance. Admission gains you free-play access to over 200 classic and current coin-op pinball machines, video arcade games, penny arcades, and console video games. There will be tournaments, events, music and workshops to keep the young and young at heart entertained.
Speakers include Dan Ferguson (Lone Star Pinball Museum) on the History of Pinball, Ken Graham (former Williams Programmer), and an Atari Homebrew Programming session by AtariAge user Darrell Spice Jr. (creator of Medieval Mayhem). You can also participate in the free swap meet, repair clinics, win door prizes, enter the raffle to win a Donkey Kong Multicade, and take advantage of the concessions and full bar.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
‘Encyclopedia of Game Machines’ Covers Four Decades of Videogame History
Revised and Extended 2nd Edition of Acclaimed Retro Gaming Book ‘Game Machines’ Launches on December 5, Featuring 248 Full-Color Pages and 700 Photos.
Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) November 10, 2011
Enati Media and GAMEplan today announced the publication date of Game Machines 1972-2012 - The encyclopedia of consoles, handhelds and home computers. The 2nd English-language edition of the renowned gaming history reference book will be available in North America on 12/05/2011 and can be pre-ordered at www.gameplanbooks.com.
Printed in color throughout and featuring over 700 photographs, Game Machines 1972-2012 is the reference book for every gamer and anyone interested in the history of computer entertainment.
The first 2005 edition of Game Machines became an instant classic and has been sold out for years. For the new release, author Winnie Forster teamed up with publisher Enati Media to revise and edit the translation based on the German Spielkonsolen und Heimcomputer books. Game Machines 1972-2012 grew to 248 pages to accommodate more recent systems, now covering four decades of electronic game systems, from the Magnavox Odyssey and Atari 2600 to the Apple iPhone and Sony Vita.
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Simpsons Arcade Game Might Be Coming to XBLA
The Simpsons Arcade Game may finally be in line for its first console port. As reported by XBLA Fans, the Australian government’s Classification Board has updated its database with a listing for The Simpsons Arcade Game on multiple platforms.
Originally released in 1991, The Simpsons Arcade Game was a four-player beat-’em-up from Konami. The game allowed players to plow through side-scrolling levels as Bart, Lisa, Homer, and Marge, pummeling generic suit-wearing bad guys, Matt Groening Life is Hell extras, and recognizable residents of Springfield alike. The arcade game was ported to the PC and Commodore 64 the same year, but never made it to the consoles of the time.
In 2009, Electronic Arts released a mobile phone game called The Simpsons Arcade, but the new classification suggests that the project is unrelated. Handed down yesterday, the listing details Konami as the publisher and retro specialist Backbone Entertainment as the developer. The Emeryville, California-based studio has previously released downloadable versions of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. It also developed Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, a compilation of 40 games from Sega’s 16-bit system, for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The Simpsons is another in a line of downloadable console ports for Konami’s licensed coin-op games of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Last year, Konami and Backbone teamed up to release X-Men: The Arcade Game on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The publisher also worked with Ubisoft for 2007’s Xbox 360 release of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game and in 2009 saw the French publisher remake the game’s arcade sequel, Turtles in Time.
Full article: http://www.gamespot. … le-platforms-6344641
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Voxatron Alpha Now Available
Voxatron’s out! For the next 2 weeks you can grab the Alpha version exclusively from humblebundle.com. All future updates are available free of charge, and you can pay whatever you like for it. Also in Humble Bundle tradition you can choose how to split your payment between two kick-ass organisations: Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Be the first to tackle Voxatron — a voxel-based, old-school-gone-new platform shooter. Pick up your trusty pea gun and shoot your way through more than twenty challenging areas. The included Voxde level editor grants you the ability to create mind-blowing new environments to share with the world. And, as a customer of the Humble Voxatron Debut, you’ll receive access to all of Lexaloffle’s future updates to Voxatron.
Dive into a twisted basement dungeon in The Binding of Isaac. Get ready for a delicious brew of randomly generated, Legend of Zelda-esque dungeons; Robotron-esque run-and-gun; and action-RPG progression. The recently launched Halloween update adds a ton of content — a new chapter, new bosses, new enemies, new items, a new character, a new ending, and more!
Learn new tricks with tetrominoes in Blocks That Matter. In this award-winning, charismatic, platform-puzzler mashup, you play as the Tetrobot, a plucky robotic drill that assimilates blocks of varying materials and properties, like sand, wood, stone, obsidian, iron, and diamond. After absorbing blocks, you’ll need to recreate them in various tetromino-shaped patterns to solve puzzles and traverse levels.