Hi-Sci-Fi

There’s a huge culture of remixing old video game music. There are entire communities like OCremix that have come full circle and have even had artists do arrangements for new releases of videos games like Street Fighter 2 HD, which featured music made by fans from OCremix.
Although there’s a lot of love for nintendo, sega, and many of the newer consoles the good old Commadore 64 has not gone unnoticed. Here is the original C64 theme music for Comic Bakery, a popular subject of remixes and arrangements. The theme music was composed by none other than Martin Galway who is considered a pioneer of chip music and an elite video game music composer. Just give it a listen.
Wait … Comic Bakery. A Comic Bakery. Like funny, ha-ha, and making baked goods. What sort of bumbling baker needs music this epic to chase away pesky raccoons that are sabotaging his bread machine? This is the sort of music you have if you’re high on Ayahuasca and you’re making cakes made out of sky. This is the sort of music you have if your baking the last loaf of bread on earth, or making a pizza pretzel for Zeus, or if baking bread was actually a metaphor for creating a galaxy with magic or nukes. Maybe he’s making food for a massive UN conference in which world peace will be achieved if and only if the various world leaders are well fed. I stay awake at night wondering how the trials of an earthy baker relates to this music. I think about his world and the people he knows and how baking is the one thing he can do to keep afloat on a sea of troubles. Much like the Divine Comedy was the tale of a mortal traveling hell and heaven for love, I get the feeling the Comic Bakery is potentially about something equally grandiose.

New York invasion by 8-bits creatures !
PIXELS is Patrick Jean’ latest short film, shot on location in New York.

Written, directed by : Patrick Jean
Director of Photograhy : Matias Boucard

/sic

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During our last broadcast, Tarek mentioned “Muscle March” for Wii and as promised, we want to share the weird, the amazing, and the funny.

Apparently, the guy in the football suit steals the protein powder from muscle men. As a body builder, you run after him through various “holes in the wall” but as you cross the wall barrier, you must assume the correct muscle pose to gain points. Simple? Not if you don’t know your poses. Also, hillariously, the assumption is that these are muscle MEN (and a polar bear?) poses, rather than just body-building poses, kind of farting in the general direction of all those lovely body-building ladies. Either way, Muscle March is undeniably weird, colourful, and oh so very Japanese.

Here is Muscle March!

This image was uploaded with the post Eidos Big News: Deux Ex and Thief 4 Are In Production!.

by Irma Arkus

Today’s big news is all about Thief 4. The game has been confirmed to be in development by Eidos. Additionally, Deux Ex, the third installment in the franchise is in production. Deus Ex 3 is actually going to feature a prequel, rather than a sequel to Deux Ex 2, which is a bit of a relief - the second installment was after all, a major disapppointment for the fans of the games.

This image was uploaded with the post MAD MAX, The Game.

by Irma Arkus

Gaming Target reports on the Mad Max video game, based on the iconic film franchise.

Yeah, now that the 80s are back in full bloom (or is it the 30ties depression era?), the whole DIY wardrobe/crazy murderers and makeshift societies in a post-apocalyptic setting, all together sounds like good times.

While Mad Max director George Miller and God of War II director Cory Barlog were “working” on the game, making most of us squirm in our waiting seats, upon revisiting the issue of the Mad Max game, it turns out that no progress has been made.

O.K. so not necessarily NO PROGRESS. But they did admit that the game will take a few years to finish. So, we just have to cool our heels, and enjoy Mel Gibson as the Jesus man, rather than the plucky, leather-clad hero we all remember fondly.

This image was uploaded with the post Doom at Work? Finally!.

by Irma Arkus

Playing WOW at work is a no-no. Not gonna happen. Unless you quit your job, for the sake of spending more quality time as a Death Knight, a Blood Elf, or whatever floats your boat.

One thing is for sure - playing solitaire is so passe! What else is there to do, you ask? Why, play Doom of course!

I present to you the flash version of beloved Doom. Its’ sophisticated graphics are just complex enough for your browser. Productivity may plummet, but the fun quotient is high enough.

See Doom here.

This image was uploaded with the post Valkyria Chronicles Jumps to Anime.

by Irma Arkus

Rumours are that Sega’s PS3 RPG Valkyria Chronicles are to become an anime serioes by Aniplex’s A-1 Pictures. The beloved game already has an intricate storyline, and tends to lend itself easily to serialisation.

This image was uploaded with the post Love Your MMO? Why Not Create Your Own?.

by Irma Arkus

Massive multiplayer Vendetta Online has opened its gates for user contribution to game play. Rather than becoming Developers or Guides, these select Player Contribution Corps (PCC) users can access the Lua code for game’s interface, and at an no compensation provided, can create additional missions, plots and suggest overall improvements for their gaming enjoyment.

Codes of involvement for PCCs require: Trust, Maturity, Involvement and English.

Exploitation or move towards Open Source MMORPG? You be the judge. Check out these PCC rules for yourself.

This image was uploaded with the post Star Trek MMORPG Announced .

by Irma Arkus

With revival of Star Trek come news of gaming spinoffs, including the long awaited MMORPG by Cryptic Studios.

The game production company behind City of Heroes and City of Villains, will work on generating the first MMORPG based on Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek universe. Moreover, the first glances reveal Captain Pickard’s ship, Enterprise NCC 1701-E, which begs the following question: how are we going to be dealing with timelines between different generations of StarTrek franchise, or are we going to see some but not all?

Best Buy really must think people are retards, and you know what I have trouble arguing with them. Especially if they are able to get away with THIS

Game couch.com has an interesting interview posted with Dr Cheryl K. Olson, who was part of a Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts sponsored study into the influence of violent video games on children. However, what was revolutionary about the findings is that children are not lead down the path to nihilistic lifestyles by games like Grand Theft Auto, and are instead using games to manage their feelings. Dr. Olson, discusses in the interview some of the really truly bad science that has been undertaken by psychologists and scientists regarding this issue that has done little but serve political ends. Really a great read and a breath of fresh air in a debate that has used science to voice the same tired blaming that comics, rock and roll, and television have be accused of and scapegoated over.

Spore is coming out this year according to an article on Joystiq. After seven delays, and much hype, the game from Maxis is on its way to Windows PC, Mac, DS, and Cell phones this September. PS3, 360, and Wii are still to be confirmed. Why so excited about this game? It is essentially Sim everything in that you start as a spore and attempt to combine different acids so that you can evolve into ever more complex life forms. The game was originally developed by a guy named Will Wright and is nothing short of innovative genius that is deatailed Here.

Championship Gaming is really taking off in the West recently as we head toward the Championships in Los Angeles in which teams will compete for the Million Dollar First Place Prize. The UK recently held their tournament and Each ten-player team consisting of five Counter-Strike: Source squad entrants, playing in five-on-five matches competed for the right to compete at the grand final in LA. Teams also competed in other games including FIFA 07, DOA 4 and PGR3. Right now on The Canadian National Geographic Channel they are also broadcasting the Starcraft tournament from the World Gaming Championships as well adding to this recent fervor for Gaming tournaments on a broader international level then the simple, epic, and legendary play downs we have all been a part of in our own LAN Parties and through online servers. IGN has the results for the UK tournament posted HERE and stay tued as we move towards the big million dollar finals.

For those going "HOLY CRAP THE NEW PS3 IS TOO EXPENSIVE!!!" like me here is an interesting link regarding prices of various other consoles at launch. However, apart from the price there appears to be another problem with the PS3 in that many programmers have not yet received their kits which are vital to even starting to create games for any machine.

Console Prices @ Curmudgeon Gamer