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Television

Of Course ‘Community’ Fans Made a Playable ‘Journey to the Center of the Hawkthorne’ Game

By Judy Berman on

What do you get when you cross Community fans with redditors? A playable version of Journey to the Center of the Hawkthorne, the 8-bit video game Pierce’s dad created as a test before he could collect his inheritance. The side-scroller looks almost exactly like the one on the show, and offers the option of playing… Read More

Books

There's Going To Be A Henry David Thoreau Video Game

By Emily Temple on

We might have just discovered the most boring idea for a video game ever — but it’s a video game that we still kind of want to play. The University of Southern California recently received a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts “to support production costs for a video game based on the… Read More

Pop Culture

Classic Video Games Reimagined as Children’s Books

By Emily Temple on

If you’re trying to lure your video game-obsessed children back to reading — or, um, vice versa — you may have some use for these clever classic video games reimagined as children’s books, illustrated by Caldwell Tanner, who also happens to be the man behind these hilarious imagined sci-fi children’s books. After all, video games and early reader children’s books have more in common than you might think, and some of these actually look like pretty good reads. Click through to see the video game kids’ book mashups, and then make sure to head over to Tanner’s website to check out more of his cartoons and illustration work. … Read More

Music

The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt to Star in a Live Video Game

By Emily Temple on

We’ve been having warm and fuzzy feelings about Stephin Merritt ever since the Magnetic Fields’ ’90s revival track “Andrew in Drag” hit the internet, but turns out the oddball frontman just as keen on the future as he is on the past. In collaboration with D.I.Y. video arcade collective Babycastles, the Museum of… Read More

Photography

Fascinating Photos of Gamers vs. Their Avatars

By Nicole Rallis on

Bridging the gap between virtual realms and reality, photographer Robbie Cooper depicts gamers side by side with their avatars in his eye-opening photo series, Alter Ego. Inspired by a 2003 shoot with a CEO who divulged to Cooper that he used Everquest as a medium to communicate with his children post-divorce, the project found the photographer capturing gamers in China, France, Korea, and Germany. The resulting photos, which were collected in a book, provide nuanced visual commentary on both their individual subjects and the virtual lives of people around the world. While some avatars look remarkably similar to their creators — a few even accurately depict the gamers’ wardrobes — others are drenched in fantasy, departing dramatically from their creator’s gender, race, or physique. See some of our favorite shots from Alter Ego after the jump, and visit Cooper’s website for more. … Read More

Pop Culture

Our Favorite Helper Robots from TV Shows and Video Games

By Jill Harness on

Whether your dream was to have a robot help you with your chores, do your homework, or just hang out with you, we’ve all fantasized about having our own robot at some point or another. Unfortunately, despite all the advances they’ve made in technology over the last few decades, robot companions still seem to be a distant dream for most people (sorry Apple, but Siri doesn’t count). Since we can’t have our own robot friends, for now, we’ll just have to deal with watching our favorite robots on television, and interacting with them in video games. To that end, here are some of our favorite helper robots from TV shows and games. … Read More

Television

Video of the Day: ‘Twin Peaks’ as an 8-Bit Video Game

By Judy Berman on

How do you transform one of the most complex TV shows of all time into a video game? Apparently Nintendo didn’t know, because their attempt to piggyback on Twin Peaks never saw the light of day. But now, two decades after the show aired, a multitalented fellow named Jak Locke has made a video imagining what such a game might look like. His 8-bit creation takes place in the Black Lodge, and starts off with an extraordinarily uneventful minute (which is about right, isn’t it, Twin Peaks fans?) before launching into a supremely fast and confusing battle. And, yes, there is creepy audio, too. A word of warning: If you haven’t gotten all the way through the show, you may not want to watch this video, which is set during the series finale. It definitely contains spoilers — although it’s also so difficult to follow that it may well ruin absolutely nothing for you. … Read More

Art

A Video Game Version of Marina Abramović's 'The Artist Is Present'

By Judy Berman on

If you missed last year’s massively hyped MoMA exhibition, Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present, don’t fret — Copenhagen-based artist/game designer/professor Pippin Barr had created the perfect video game approximation of the experience. In this 8-bit adventure, gamers play the part of an art fan excited to face off with Abramović in the… Read More

Pop Culture

Super Mario Goes Analog in a Cardboard Box Game

By James Furbush on

The world needs another Super Mario Bros. post like it needs another war, but there is something irresistible about the Italian plumber. A couple of people much smarter than us took the first level of everyone’s favorite video game and turned it into an analog side-scrolling game. Users control Mario with a little knob on the side to make him jump up and down over brick squares and koopas. As time advances the game gets faster and faster, the obstacles become harder and harder to navigate. Perhaps the best part about this experiment, other than everything about it, is you aren’t stuck with just Mario. If one is inclined they can swap out the characters and enemies and backgrounds and turn the cardboard box into any game they like. … Read More

Web

A Super Mario-Style Map of New York City

By Judy Berman on

Your typical New York City day can sometimes feel like a ’90s video game — navigating the crowded subway cars and sidewalks, frantically collecting coins, vanquishing foes in your single-minded quest for glory. Perhaps that’s why Jesse Eisemann‘s Super Mario-style map of the city feels so right. Eisemann has drawn in everything from… Read More