If you love video games, you need to see Indie Game: the Movie. It’s an incredible story of what it really takes to make the games we love to play. I can’t even put it into words how inspiring and incredible it was to see this film. The movie is currently touring theaters across America right now. If it’s coming to a city near you, I highly encourage you to check this one out. You will not be disappointed.
DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION v BOW BEFORE THE CLOUD
Just for fun
“Following an early morning status check of their vintage electronic equipment, two computer engineers “throw down” in an awkward dance-off that innacurately echoes the development of information technolgy and the internet from 1951 up to the present day. The film features a catchy jingle by pop impresario Jim Guthrie.
*: The point at which a given species cedes planetary control to robots or machines.
Production notes: This film was produced by Superbrothers in 2006 before the establishment of Superbrothers Inc., but it was not until after incorporation that the film was eventually released. Critical reception of the film was positive, although most felt that the aim of the film was less lofty than its acclaimed predecessor THE CHILDREN OF THE CLONE, and that its creators had gone soft, already drifting from their revolutionary roots.
Interestingly, the film caught the attention of a number of internet web logs, leading to criticism by the notoriously tech savvy internet web log users, who responded harshly to home viewings of the film with comments like these: “Lame. Stupid. Fail. The depiction of Computer Systems of each period are so innacurate as to be totally misleading.” or worse, “Lame on SOOOO many levels. Not even deinterlaced properly, which is amazing considering it’s trying to look 8-bit. I was wondering how this crap got voted up, then saw, of course, Mr.BabyMan’s fan army voted it up”.
- Vimeo
“ReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Communications, BLT Productions and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan McCarthy after an initial attempt by Ian Gibson.
It was the first half-hour, completely computer-animated TV series. Reruns of the first three seasons can be seen in Canada on Teletoon Retro, and the first two seasons are available on Netflix’s streaming service in the US.”
“Retro video game store - we buy, sell and trade all video games & consoles
People Play Games is all about video games, past and present. We carry all things Atari, Odyssey, Intellivison, Colecovision, Vectrex, Nintendo, Sega, 3DO, Turbografx, Neo Geo, Playstation & Xbox. We also carry handheld games & tabletop games.”
- People Play Games Facebook Page
Retro Game: Heretic (1994)
This was one of the games that I spent hours and hours on after Doom. I remember traveling to CompUSA (Chicago) to buy this with my best friend and his family which was a big deal because we didn’t have big box computer stores like that within an hours drive where we lived. The days before Best Buy.
“Using a modified Doom engine, Heretic was one of the first first-person games to feature inventory manipulation and the ability to look up and down. It also introduced multiple gib objects spawned when a character suffered a death by extreme force or heat. Previously, the character would simply crumple into a heap. The game used randomized ambient sounds and noises, such as evil laughter, chains rattling, distantly ringing bells and water dripping in addition to the background music to further enhance the atmosphere.”
- Wikipedia
Regretfully, I am sad to say that I have never played any of the Monkey Island games. However, I will be rewriting that history very shortly.
Edit:
I’m cheating a bit by going with the iPad version. I’m late to the game on this one, but here we go.
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Star Wars: X-Wing - Conduit of Greater Memories
X-Wing has a special place in my heart and mind that probably no other video game has. As with most of my memories of old school gaming and computer related tv series it is not so much the games or shows themselves that I hold dear but the people or places connected to them. The sounds and images of these pieces of entertainment are purely conduits to memories that hold even greater value. This is absolutely the case with X-Wing. X-Wing is a great game in its own right but it runs deeper than that for me.
Following my graduation from high school in 2000 I lost my best friend from middle school and high school to a tragic car crash. We grew up together through the 90’s. He was monumental in teaching me when I got my first computer. We were together when the Internet came into being. He loved technology as much as I did and I am in awe today of the things that he is not able to enjoy along with me. I write this using an iPad. I can’t even imagine his joy today if he were to see what tablet computers are now capable of. I think this tragedy has changed my view forever of the progress of technology. While most young people today look at technological progress at face value, this experience has constantly made me compare what we have today with what my friend and I grew up with in the 90’s. Tablet computers and video games are all just “things” when it comes down to it, but to me, some things like X-Wing remind me of the times we had together and the enjoyment we had together. So, yes, X-Wing is a great game, but it was also our great game.
