Echochrome is a videogame adaptation of the drawings of MC Escher. When it's released for the PlayStation Portable later this year, you'll be taking care of a tireless little marionette as he trudges through a series of paradoxical staircases and impossible corridors. At the end of the last level, the camera will no doubt zoom in on the marionette's hands and you'll realise that he is actually playing you.

Although Echochrome looks like it might be one of the most infuriating games ever devised, it does make you wonder why more video games don't plunder the world of visual arts.

That looks completely awesome. I'm not likely to get a PSP just for it, but still, rad. Kinda wish it was on DS. Doesn't the stylus interface seem like a more natural fit?

-k

Echochrome

Jenny started her research by crafting a pong controller made from a bra. Touching the left breast made the pong paddle go left and the right breast made the paddle go right. I then found out about a phenomenon called gamer widowhood where men essentially abandoned their wives to play video games night and day. I wanted to create a type of video game play that would center around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game

very cool

Intimate Game Controllers

A few weeks ago I got to visit Neoteric and check out the Nintendo Wii that he has been obsessing over... It was immediately obvious to me why Cartman had so much trouble waiting for the Wii to be released that he decided to cryonically freeze himself.

The Wii is simply fun, even in spite of the crude graphics. The act of actually performing the action the game simulates has a huge impact on your emotional reaction to the activity. I bowled almost exactly as poorly as I do in a real bowling alley, and I haven't had more fun playing tennis on a computer since the wheel controllers on the Atari 2600. I immediately decided that I had to have one for Christmas. I told my family. Unfortunately, several million kids across the country had the exact same revelation at the exact same time, and apparently Nintendo only made about 400,000 of them for post release North American sales during the holiday season, so enter the crazy feeding frenzy. I won't be getting a Wii this year.
...

[ Well written... I basically agree. I want one of these bad, but i don't expect I'll have much luck until well into 07, after the rush of parents who promised little timmy they'd get him one back in november without knowing what they were getting themselves into. Thankfully, I followed every scrap of information about the system so I both intuited how awesome it'd be and knew they'd never have nearly enough on the shelves, so I haven't really been expecting one. Keeping expectations low has kept me sane.

Nonetheless, the day I walk into a store and see one I can actually just pick up and buy, I absolutely will be doing precisely that. -k]

On Virtual Reality and Next Gen Video Game Systems

I love these guys, they always make such great interfaces...

Remember last scene in the movie "WarGames" where the WOPR learns about the futility of war whilst the warroom massive screens play out crazy nuclear nightmares...

DEFCON is a game that looks just like that but badass!

This game is a product of Introversion Software the makers of UPLINK... which is great because I'm already adicted to their products.

--timball

[ Looks fucking rad. Too bad they're currently showing "Confidence : LOW" for a Mac release in November. If they can get me some mac action, I'm on it. -k]

DEFCON - Introversion software

] NOW, CHECK THE EXPLANATION. YOU'LL FIND THIS VERY
] INTERESTING.
] Research has shown that young children cannot identify
] the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory
] associated with such a scenario

[ I sure couldn't find the damn dolphins without effort. -k]

What Do You See?

] Rather than seeing entertainment-focused media forms as
] adversarial to educational content, educators should
] instead embrace them. This commentary examines how
] content originally designed for entertainment purposes
] can be modified to provide natural and context rich
] language learning environments, without sacrificing its
] entertainment value. First, I examine a modification to
] the number one selling video game The Simsthat
] intelligently combines game data from the English edition
] with data from editions of other languages to form a
] bilingual gaming environment. This exposes learners to
] abundant L2 vocabulary, yet still provides enough L1
] support not to detract from the game. This principle is
] then extended to other applications such as music videos,
] typing tutors, and voice-navigated games. Finally, areas
] of otherwise wasted time are identified, such as waiting
] for Web pages to load or walking to class, with
] suggestions of how technology can facilitate language
] learning during these times.

[ Some very interesting things in here about ways to use media that are already popular and common, as teaching aids... well worth a read... -k]

YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST...

From a Session at E3:

Jim: There’s a huge appeal of games for women.
But women are not going to go into stores to
buy a game, however if you put it in the home
and make it easy for them to get.. ok there’s
a porn analogy here, but you make it available
to them and they can sample it, it’s a great
way of introducing them. You have to break the
mould, change the development techniques and
marketing techniques.

Russell: My wife loves games, and she’s my
test case for a long time because she’d only
play what I brought home, or ask for something.
She wouldn’t go out and buy something.
This speaks volumes for the digital download model.

Gerhard: I disagree. The second biggest buying
group is females, in the UK. Mothers, of course,
they don’t play them but they will buy them. I
don’t think there’s any problem about going into
a shop.

...

So you put an xbox playable disk on the cover of
a women’s magazine, say.

...

Jay: Not on the magazine. On the phone. Put it on
a device that’s a natural part of their lifestyle.

Jim: Rather than on the magazine, you need word of
mouth, for all audiences. I’d say you put in a
segment on say, Oprah. If you have brand association
with people they trust every day, then it works.
The closer you can get it to them while making it
their choice, and also using the social community
aspect, like a friend or like Oprah, then I think
you can introduce women to games if it has the right
elements for them.

Russell: Well for SOE we’re trying to broaden the
demographics that we attract. Marketing is not my
expertise but we’re very much trying to open up the
gameplay styles and genres. If we can just create
a rich enough environment …

Speaking as a female who's known by name on sight in my local Gamestop, I think these folks are overemphasizing women's reluctance to go into such a store and underestimating the content of their games and marketing.

Those of us who started with MUDs and other text-based games, such as British Legends, Gemstone III or DragonRealms, know to
look past the scantily clad, overendowed females screaming "This is for horny teenaged boys!" from the game ads and boxes. Those women who missed out on those games and didn't wander into them through a significant other or friend have NO idea there's anything to appeal to them in a computer game.

As a frequent beta tester for SOE, I can't begin to count the number of women who have begged, in vain, the developers for a normally proportioned female avatar and clothing that reasonably covered it in SOE's games. Thus, I find it rather amusing to see a SOE rep say their company is "very much trying to open up the gameplay styles and genres."

It's absurd for game companies to have men guessing at what women want, while at the same time totally ignoring what women SAY they want. (Hello? Decent clothing! Normal body proportions for our characters! Hello?) Those few male developers, such as David Gaider of BioWare, developer of SWG: Knights of the Old Republic's Carth romance, who have taken the radical step of asking women and then listening to what we say(what a concept!) have reaped the rewards.

Painful

"Fuck'em suck'em robots"

[ ! ]

Roboho Main Directory

Ahh yes, let's take a trip back to our childhood, shall we? Do you remember that magical moment when you first realized that your favorite video game hero looked kind of like he was humping a trash can? This site is filled with all of those accidental porn shots. Check it out!

[ This is awesome in the most childish way. Totally rad. The best are Kirby and Michael Jackson's Mookwalker... so wrong. -k]

Accidental Video Game Porn

] Welcome to Zork.
]
] You are in an open field west of a big white house with a
] boarded front door.
]
] There is a small mailbox here.

This is the most leet 404 error ever. Yes, you can in fact play this. Could be better designed, but in general, two thumbs up.

PHP Zork