“But it’s art, Ma.” Teenagers, rejoice, for MoMA has legitimized what you’ve been telling your parents for years. The museum has announced its first video game acquisitions, a collection that includes 14 titles ranging from classics like Pac-Man and Tetris to more contemporary game-design paragons including Katamari Damacy and Portal. According to Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, this is only the beginning of “an initial wish list of about 40 to be acquire in the near future.” Kottke points out that Nintendo titles are conspicuously absent, likely because negotiations with the company are still in progress. Check out the rest of the games MoMA bought, all of which will be on view (and, we assume, available for playing) at the museum in March 2013, after the jump. … Read More
Pac-Man
What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office
Today at Flavorpill, we visited Occupy Wall Street one year later. We spotted a Civil War-era Louis C.K. lookalike. We watched a Rocky Horror spoof featuring Ronald Reagan as Frank-N-Furter. We saw an alternate version of the Indiana Jones sword fight in Raiders of the Lost Ark.… Read More
The Most Disgusting Cartoon-Themed Snacks from Your Childhood
The marriage of high fructose corn syrup, dayglo food coloring, and absurdly indirect connections to popular children’s cartoons and video games was perhaps the greatest marketing triumph of the ’80s and ’90s. After-school snacks have never quite been the same. Reading X-Entertainment’s hilarious memoir of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanatic, related through some strange Turtle-inspired foods, got us thinking about some other childhood snacks that, in retrospect, look totally disgusting. The marketing overlords of that decade surely must have conspired to trick kids into thinking slime was cool — and, moreover, delicious. From Ecto Cooler to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Ooze” gelatin, kids back then apparently just loved eating slime. We’ve put together some of the most coveted quasi-foods of the lunch table, branded with our favorite cartoon, movie, and video game characters. Can you remember other similarly themed snacks that simultaneously hit you with a wave of nostalgia and trigger your gag reflex? … Read More
Video of the Day: Real Life Pac-Man
Pop culture mavens Respect the Pact have created a video featuring a real life Pac-Man — or, a fanboy donning a Pac-Man tee who realizes he’s a walking video game and can subsist on pac-dots. Lucky! The ghostly Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde make appearances and give him a good chase through suburbia. Enjoy. … Read More
Design Porn: 8-Bit Inspired Home Decor
Everything’s coming up 8-bit these days. From office workers who plaster their windows with Post-it Notes to the amazing Pac-Man tables we recently spied from Austin artist Ryan Fitzpatrick (click through to check them out), it seems like everyone can’t get enough of pixel-inspired creations. 8-bit home decor takes the boxy, colorful squares from our favorite videogames and puts them inside our homes as reminders of Mario, Blinky, and Pitfall Harry. Hit the jump to see ten ways that you can bring gaming’s past into your present, at home. … Read More
What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office
Today at Flavorpill, we wondered what the Oxford English Dictionary has against poor, defenseless cassette tapes. We hoped that Rise of the Planet of the Guidos never becomes a real thing (you never know these day). We watched a real-life version of Pac-Man take over the streets of Germany.… Read More
When Life Imitates Video Games: The Best Real-World Reenactments
In every geeky gamer’s life, there comes a time where he realizes he really, really needs to stop playing video games and get outside. Sometimes the fresh air and sunlight isn’t enough to set ‘em straight, though — in fact, we’ve found an almost alarming number of real-life video game recreations, from life-sized Tetris with human pieces to supermarket rounds of Pac Man. Below, check out our favorite off-screen video game love letters, which are precisely 35% awesome, 15% disturbing, and 50% “How on earth does anybody have that much free time?” … Read More
Wanted: A Clockwork Pac-Man
Wondering what steampunk has done for us lately, besides fill our streets with folks in absurd, overpriced aviator goggles? Behold the Pactuator, a gear-filled, hand-cranked Pac-Man. Its creator, Johnathan M. Guberman, tells Boing Boing that the device is “going to be part of a larger project: a playable, mechanical Pac-Man cabinet, called ‘Pac Machina.’” Amazing. But we can’t wait for the game. We want the Pactuator right now. Please, Guberman, start mass producing these babies. And how about some Ms. Pac-Man while you’re at it? Watch the clockwork Pac-Man and lust after one of your own below. … Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. “It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am (GMT) this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care. This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly — a unique voice, an… Read More
How to Transform Your iPad into an ’80s Arcade Game
Don’t worry, we’re not going to tempt you to dissect, hack, or otherwise mod your expensive mobile computer. All you have to do to turn your iPad or Android tablet into an ’80s-style arcade game is get your hands on this stick-on mini-joystick by (who else?) ThinkGeek. Wired explains how the… Read More
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