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What's All This Then?
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Wonderful documentary covering the 1973 Giro d'Italia: The Stars and The Water Carriers
A LEGO Lunar Lander.
Instantly signed up. Playdate, from Panic.
Hatetris is even worse than you'd think.
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen streams "bullet chess." Yowza, via TMN
"For our 50th Anniversary, we've taken our HWC Original 16 retools of these rare castings and constructed one awe-inspiring showroom-style display set."
It's just like working at Kuma's: play Burger Time and a bunch of other '80s video games.
Heads up BB, buying this for the office, Harry Potter Ultimate Trivial Pursuit.
As a Dad I wholeheartedly endorse this.
Multiplayer Minesweeper.
Nerd alert. This is what laid low The King of Kong.
"Tokyo Snake Center in the trendy district of Harajuku has 35 snakes or 'attendants' to choose from – all non-venomous – and customers can pick one to enjoy as a table companion. Waiters are on hand to outline the café rules and snake handling etiquette."
Yay. Matthew Baldwin's 2017 Good Gift Games List is up. I've played The Fox in the Forest, and it's simple and just great. Clicking on all the others.
Which World Cup Team Should You Root For? Thanks FiveThirtyEight, let's go Iceland!
Pro Scrabble players brag about their greatest plays.
Ref Goals.
Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner.
Think of the Children is a parenting simulator that challenges players to perform a series of simple tasks while simultaneously keeping their children alive.
Hundreds of new emoji, including more emotive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters, clothing options, food types, animals, mythical creatures and more, are coming to iOS.
Stranger Things: The Game.
Vintage Japanese slot machines.
So you know, how Microsoft researchers used AI to master Ms. Pac-Man.
"From its founding in 1932 until 1998, Lego had never posted a loss. By 2003 it was in big trouble." Johnny Davis on How Lego Clicked. Great story.
WHO ate the last piece cheesecake?
Everything.
Ouija Boards.
Pop culture icons reimagined as vintage wooden pull toys.
Adorable and creepy, right up our alley: Little Nightmares for PS4/XB/PC.
Carlos Kaiser: football's soccer's greatest conman.
Qi And Za.
We need to get some Field Notes to this guy right away: Dumb Birds of North America.
MCJ and I were reluctant to cheat on our old favorite Dungeons and Dragons podcast but it's been on hiatus for way too long, so we're finally deep into The Adventure Zone and man, it's great. ("Duh," say its longtime fans, in Taako's voice.)
Let's be honest here, everyone is going to want to be the T-Rex.
Throughout March, vote for your favorite basketball, hockey, baseball and football logo designs from history and today.
In mathematics, 3.14 is an important number. In Lego it's 3.18.
Crossword-Solving: A Search for Connections and Answers, by Deb Amlen. "Human brains are hard-wired to fill in blanks when they see them." As a daily solver, mine sure is.
Magnets and Marbles.
Sweet tv spot for Super Mario Run. Can't wait. Via Daring Fireball.
The 2016 Good Gift Games, an annual tradition from Matthew Baldwin. Best recs on board games anywhere.
"Have you ever done a puzzle that has no beginning or end? Where you don't know up from down? Get lost in the Infinite Galaxy Puzzle."
RIP Salvador "Buddy" Ganir. Legendary.
1600, a new app from the White House. Yes, that White House.
Smart preview of tomorrow's World Chess Championship overtime matches by Oliver Roeder. I paid my seven bucks yesterday, and I'm looking forward to watching live.
"A lot of joke submissions can't be published because they don't make any sense, the child got a genuine joke completely wrong, or they're a bit too rude for kids... so I publish them here instead. I have not edited or made up any of these jokes." Bad Kids Jokes.
2017 Tour of California host cities announced.
Handwritten box score from Game 1 of 1908 World Series, Chicago vs. Detroit.
The secrets of Magic Eye, revealed. (also: the one in Mallrats is not a sailboat!)
The definitive map of America's creepy clown epidemic.
Related. This season, our team, The Scandal, finished second in the Chicago Media League. Again. Wait until next year.
Also related and fantastic, Royko at The Goat talking softball.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old," George Bernard Shaw maintained, "we grow old because we stop playing." Sticks and Stones Will Break Your Bones, and So Will 16-Inch Softball, great piece by Steve Bogira.
A memorial to the only known giant octopus-ferry attack in the tri-state area.
Have an idea for a LEGO set?
"I say this, not because I'm a knee-jerk debunker who cannot accept the idea that a big unknown animal might exist in a big body of water, but because I am familiar with the evidence, such as it is, and find it wanting." Oh what the hell, let's talk about the Loch Ness Monster again.
Speaking of whimsical, this limited edition deck of cards reinterprets the known symbols with different designs.
Harry Potter's childhood home is for sale.
8-bit Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Phone, text, music, and translation with the push of a button.
"Featuring 10s of Goombas, An Infinite Universe, Muscle Toad, 'Original' Music, Amazing Physics and a Radical Space Ship; No Mario's Sky is the hackneyed remake-gone-mashup you've been craving."
An 8-bit Stranger Things video game.
@reallifelines brings everyday objects to life.
Blank Windows. Via Kottke.
Tangentially related to the last, a visual memory game for architecture nerds.
Whenever you want to focus on your work, plant a tree. In the next 30 mins, it will grow when you are working. The tree will be killed if you leave this app. Forest.
"Send in photos of your cups of tea to be rated by the community on colour, consistency, mug/cup, setting and biscuit choice." @Rate_My_Tea
Sean Vanaman and Olly Moss talk to CNN about the making of Firewatch. Nice.
Beautiful TdF feature from Strava, Le Tour Finale. Via Veerle, of course.
Jason and Alto.
"You know, I thought I knew until last night. Last night Neelie took me over to look at some Rembrandt and in one of the paintings I was so shocked. There was an iPhone in one of the paintings."
So you know, Why Yoshi is sometimes called Yossy. Via Shaun Inman.
Lego Speed build, Benny's Spaceship.
Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from this relationship?
Magnets and Marbles! So fun.
"What really makes this work is if you keep the salsa off the ends and crawl into a fetal position while chanting 'This is pizza. This is pizza.'" Depressing pizza alternatives.
Men Trapped in Malls.
Pong Mondrian, and look who's playing it.
The Oral History of the 1996 Chicago Bulls, great piece, full of fun stuff. Oh, what a time to be a sports fan in the city.
If you know anything at all about Scottish soccer, this is pretty hilarious.
Unicycle Football. Like it says. Thanks Marshall.
Cheltenham: great type set,, not such a great set piece.
We've posted about it before, but now we've played it! Campo Santo's Firewatch was the perfect way to spend the weekend, with no snow in sight.
The Internet Archive's collection of curated Windows 3.x software, meant to show the range of software products available for the 3.x Operating System in the early 1990s.
@tasteofstreep
"Because of the way the game is designed, this inevitably results in one person acquiring a majority of the assets on the board, and beginning the slow, painful, friendship-destroying process of grinding the other players out of the game, turn by turn. This is why Monopoly starts as a fun exciting romp, only to turn into a bitter cesspool of despair."
Probably need this Death Star grill for the office.
Thomas Ryder's art work for Midnight Girl, a game that "puts you in the shoes of a cat burglar during the swinging Sixties" in France. Via Womb.
You can keep your Killer Queen, VEC9 is the greatest.
The 2015 Good Gift Games by Matthew Baldwin. I always look forward to Matt's annual run-down. One of his selections this year is Vlaada Chvatil's Codenames. This game has dominated my family get togethers for the last few months, it's a rare one that gets better the better you get at it.
I was lucky to have been able to watch this insidious game play-tested. So, of course, I'm backing it. Secret Hitler.
Frightgeist, checking up on national costume trends.
Trailer and some details about the much anticipated PS game, No Man's Sky.
You'd be upset too, if someone made you into a Nazi doll.
Slovakian soccer team TJ Tatran Čierny Balog takes training very seriously.
For MS, Agent Sculder and Agent Mully minifigs.
Peeple is the "Yelp for people" app your mother warned you about.
Thanks for ordering Field Notes! Your package should arrive in about a week although sometimes it can take a little longer if it gets stuck at the post office, or not at all if a monkey eats it.
"Godtfred's younger brother Gerhardt, who had run Lego's wood toy division, was especially upset. He moved to nearby Kolding and began his own toy company, taking Lego's woodworking tools and the name Bilofix with him."
Fun iBookGuy episode on old school graphics worked, specifically on the Commodore and Nintendo. Via Things Mag.
"Something was very wrong. Here was this guy from nowhere, and he kept going around the board and hitting the bonus boxes every time. It was bedlam, I can tell you. And we couldn't stop this guy."
A Jony Ive soundboard.
I am just terrible at this.
A life-size David Bowie pillow.
"The manner in which you hold the bottle can portray the perfume as glamorous or fun." So you know, how to be an excellent model. Thanks Ant.
"Although he doesn't hold a grudge against the puny humans who disturb his silence with their 'skiing,' Mr. Yeti does like the way all those winter clothes keep their juicy insides warm. Mr. Yeti calls them Burritos on Sticks."
RIP Merl Reagle, check his Sunday Crosswords.
left/right: walk around
up: ruminate
down: smoke
Play Ennuigi, by Josh Millard.
"When riding shotgun, quietly slip the car into neutral at a red light." Plus tons more of the Oldest Tricks in the Blog. Via Quipsologies.
The best game console boot animations, ranked.
Playing Clue last night, I wondered to myself how Cluedo, the (original) name for the game outside the U.S., was pronounced, which led me to this wonderful thread on boardgamegeek.com. Man, I love a good anorak forum flame war.
"When Charles S. Roberts began selling his wargame Tactics from his apartment in Avalon, Maryland in 1954 he, out of financial necessity, replaced the traditional wood, plastic or metal game piece with something he could afford to manufacture - a printed sheet of die-cut cardboard squares." A great post from Jim at Codex 99 on information design in table-top war games, The Counter.
"It once resulted in two arrests, another time cost a Hall of Famer a managing job, and it even happened in a World Series. With TV monitors in the clubhouses and professional coaches at the bases, the play was still pulled off twice in 2013." A terrific history of baseball's classic Hidden Ball Trick.
"Upload an image that you want to turn into a LEGO mural. We'll convert it to LEGO colors and LEGO brick units and tell you how many of each size and color you need."
"It is one thing to say that a computer cannot appreciate the beauty of chess moves. It is quite another to use that inability to defeat it." The Departed Queen, by Dana Mackenzie. Via Mike Brown.
Wego is a weather client for the Terminal.
Rethinking my Apple Watch pre-order.
Everything pinball, by Dylan Schenker. Via Kottke.
Batting around. I'm a 10-er.
It was just a dumb thing. Then we put a chip in it. Now it's a smart thing.
Great piece by Oliver Roeder on the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, A Million Little Boxes.
"The NHL's 'loser point' is the stupidest rule in sports." I'm with Nate.
Go through psychedelic portals, solve mind-bending puzzles, explore grand minimal forms or race against the stars. Last Voyage is an adventure game through space and mind.
Pong + Pac-Man + Space Invaders = Pacapong.
Also Shot on iPhone 6.
Aaron needs a hand.
Sext Machine. You're scored based on how well you've tricked the bot into thinking you sent it something x-rated. Via Waxy.
Marx Madness: Is this the year Guy Debord finally takes Situationism past Theodor Adorno's dissonant modernism to make it to the Gang of Four?
Google Feud looks like a good way to kill some time.
"Bought this for some underage teens in the parking lot and they seemed to like it." Obvious Plant added some wine recommendations to the liquor store by his house.
Sex at noon taxes. The Palindrome Game of the Enigma Codebreakers, by Mark Saltveit. "Few are aware that in their spare time, these same codebreakers held a competition that created several of the finest English-language palindromes..."
"That was when I called both coaches together and told them we are not going to make a travesty or mockery of the game. We are not going to start trying to shoot and score for the other team."
Exploding Kittens raised more money than the Veronica Mars movie and could be the new Cards Against Humanity.
Erection in Progress.
"...gone are the days when the Harvard Lampoon and the Yale Record parodies published fake versions of national magazines..." —Steven Heller.
The real history of Monopoly.
Well what do you know? During the summer of 1978, Bill Murray played minor league baseball, sort of.
Something nerdy for the pool this summer.
Foosball on steroids.
Briefly explain the nature of your dispute with the company. CAH gets mail.
Portraits of journeymen from another era, still kicking a ball in a distant football wilderness. Thanks Stephen.
Great piece for ESPN by Mike Fish on sports' most successful and controversial bettor, Billy Waters.
"The Keyfleas live on a two-dimensional flatland. They travel as a flock, over key mountains and through aluminum valleys. They avoid touching letterforms, since they suspect that the symbols are of some evil origin. On occasion, a hostile tentacle invades the flatland and disturbs its inhabitants."
The Iron Giant Deluxe Figure, from Mondo.
Related to the last, and to the game, Royko at The Goat, a film by Scott Jacobs and Lilly Ollinger.
RIP Eddie Z who "played and directed teams to more wins and tournament victories in the history of the sport, including several World Championships."
Choose your own adventure on Twitter.
Space Shuttle Launch Complex, in Lego. Via Greg Storey.
The Internet Archive's massive collection of MS-DOS games.
So you know, the official Nintendo Character Manual from 1993. Via Mefi.
So you know, there are a few twerking icons at The Noun Project.
The Legend of Zelda 101.
Big fun from Dissolve. Likehunter, social media as a first-person video game.
Letters of Boom, super fun and addictive word game by the unstoppable Anthony Vitagliano of DK and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman.
Yay! Matthew's 2014 edition of The Good Gift Games is up at TMN today.
The tl;dr version of the Bible. Amen.
A tumblr that will never run out of good source material: Awkward Photos from Football (Soccer) Photo Shoots.
In case you missed it, November 1st was Ewok Appreciation Day.
Sushi is the universe.
The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar...
"hey yoo guys, i foun the sweet ray bans in the bafroom also, shelly is crying in thdere." Drunk J. Crew. So great.
"And in a stroke of simple genius, he added just the right 'thonk' sound from the sync generator to sweeten the experience. " The Invention of Pong, by Walter Isaacson. Via The Loop.
Related to the last: surprising to find only one scan of this online, the Gap ad with Rand and Robyn Miller, creators of Myst.
If you want to experience the thrills and chills of someone walking around alone and occasionally stopping to silently solve puzzles, you're in luck! A TV series is being developed based on the game Myst.
After I finish I usually check how he did, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. Fun.
Photoshop is used for lots of silly things these days, so it's nice to see important, critical work in the field of Art History being done.
Hippo Po'Thames is cruising around London.
John Carpenter's The Thing, block edition.
"I met Jacob in the middle of a field on a dusty summer day. I was in line at a small farmer's market when he bumped into me, and we locked eyes. 'Pardon,' he said in an accent I couldn't place, his straw hat quivering in the wind, 'I am just getting some water for my dog.' He motioned to a beautiful glazed clay jug in his hand. How could I be so lucky, I thought, to find a man with beautiful eyes, wheat-colored hair and perfectly distressed overalls, who preferred ceramic over plastic? The hipster boyfriend of my dreams."
People keep getting into strangers' cars because they think it's an Uber.
Women and Crosswords in the Age of Autofill, by Anna Shechtman. Via TMN.
Slot-Machine Science, by Brad Plumer.
30 years of video game controllers, a photo series by Javier Laspiur.
Zelda Monopoly.
To: NFL
Have Weird Al Yankovic headline the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Te, da, gi and po.
Star Trek stabilized.
Thought about getting these for the studio but 10 Foot High Jumping Stilts+BB=ER visit for sure.
Michael Kombat! is the combination of two slightly different things: Michael Keaton and Mortal Kombat.
Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks is now a game.
It is a little known fact, but 9 out of 10 UX specialists agree that GifLinks provide a richer, more enhanced user experience.
I'm making potato salad.
Simulating the damage if the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man actually ravaged Midtown.
"If you're in a D&D campaign where you need to do any kind of farming, you have bigger problems than any magical item can fix. But this yoke allows characters to — when they put it on themselves — turn into an ox. Not a magical ox; a regular ox. Then you can till your field yourself!" The 20 most WTF magical items in D&D.
More WC fun: "Danijel Pranjic is miffed because you didn't reply to his last 5 texts."
In the alternate-but-real universe of the Unofficial Football World Championships, England's playing for the title today!
Everything is Terrible asks, "Why not? Here's 10 1/2 minutes of Double Dare prizes."
Title Scream. Type and graphic inspiration from 8/16 bit games. Great browse, via Glass.
Picture it, an epic MS, BB & SD road trip to Diagon Alley. No?
Pixeltrek.
The ghost in the machine, from Kottke. Just wonderful.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals are tonight on ESPN.
From a study at a Chinese university, lots of scientific thought about how to best play Rock Paper Scissors.
So you know, you don't hate Monopoly, you just suck at it, by Jonathan Chait.
Speaking of podcasts, Brian Posehn's Dungeons and Dragons podcast, Nerd Poker, just ended its 2-year-long campaign and is starting fresh, now's as good a time to jump in as ever.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. Let's hold hands and talk about it." FAQ: Sarcasm.
I'm pretty sure Hurricane Ashley swept past my house last night.
There is nothing. Solve.
Downworthy is a browser plug-in that calms down over-zealous headlines. For example, "Will Blow Your Mind" turns into "Might Perhaps Mildly Entertain You For a Moment."
Silly but totally awesome, free unlimited rebooting experience from vintage operating systems.
Pro tip for a Monday.
Launch trailer for Hitman GO, a wonderfully odd looking iOS game.
Authentic Chicago pothole products at The Pothole Store.
First Mini Metro and now Super Planet Crash? There's no way any work is getting done today.
The Design Deck, a playing-card guide to graphic design.
Congrats to Djurgarden for a huge win which gets them back into the top Swedish hockey league. Looks like the fans were sort of happy about it.
A look at some of the wind, water and lighting effects in the Chicago-based game Watch Dogs. In case you missed it: "Welcome to Chicago." May 27th can't come soon enough.
Illuminati Illuminatus training from Illumi-Corp.
Release trailer for the iPad game Monument Valley, also check the "making of" video.
The Coudal-iest game ever: Mini Metro.
Whaling?
Speaking of game art, check the teaser for Campo Santo's Firewatch. Beautiful. Tangentially related, our Fire Spotter film for Field Notes.
If every state had an official meat, what would it be?
"I've photoshopped what some celebrities would look like based on their worst fan art."
An in-depth article about the current dominance of Finnish goaltending in ice hockey. From The Atlantic, of all places.
The REAL Adele Dazeem performs at the Oscars.
Mini Metro.
Local note for this evening, Snowbrawl is happening in Wicker Park.
Plywood playing cards.
The only Olympic hockey preview worth reading. Sam Fels on the tournament and Group A and Groups B and C.
House of Cards Against Humanity.
Hey Are You Cool, a site dedicated to encounters in the video game DayZ. Via Waxy.
"Saying it provides a pleasant and rewarding diversion from the quietness of living alone, local grandmother Rosemary Burke confirmed Wednesday that she has been enjoying a thriving correspondence with Mailer-Daemon."
Build Lego buildings in Chrome.
CMYK playing cards.
A Tumblr dedicated to mirrors from Craigslist postings. Via Things Mag.
The Console Living Room, tons and tons of classic console game emulated for modern browsers. Sadly, no Intellivision Hockey. Yet.
"If the living rooms of the world are split between fans of Ridley Scott's taut horror Alien and enthusiasts of the action antics of James Cameron's Aliens, then the team at Creative Assembly are definitive Scott men." The superb trailer for the game Alien: Isolation and a bit about the decidedly lo-fi making of.
So you know, a field guide to classic arcade design, by Aaron Souppouris.
Lego Mars Curiosity Rover.
"Once the countdown reached zero, at 5pm GMT on January 9, it showed 14 GPS coordinates around the world: locations in Warsaw, Paris, Seattle, Seoul, Arizona, California, New Orleans, Miami, Hawaii and Sydney. Sat in Sweden, Eriksson waited as, around the globe, amateur solvers left their apartments to investigate. And, one by one reported what they'd found: a poster, attached to a lamp post, bearing the cicada image and a QR code." The Internet Mystery That Has the World Baffled, by Chris Bell.
Chicago's own Adam McIver launched his first "micro" board game Coin Age yesterday via Kickstarter. I see some pretty serious lunch-time games against BB in my future...
I look forward to this every year, Matthew Baldwin's The 2013 Good Gift Games Guide at The Morning News.
"1960 turned out to be an important year for the game. Dujardin released a nouveau edition featuring cards professionally updated by the French graphic designer Joseph Le Callennec. His iconic design would become the benchmark that later designs were measured against." Jim Hughes' illustrated post on the classic card game, Mille Bornes.
Los Angeles neighborhood stereotypes.
Two computers playing rock-paper-scissors.
John Carmack's keynote from QuakeCon 2013 is titled Principles of Lighting and Rendering but man, he covers a ton of great stuff. Highly recommended. Via Craig Hockenberry.
Fundraising for Ever, Jane: The Virtual World of Jane Austen, which will open up "a 3D village in which you can walk about, bowing and curtsying to people appropriately."
Lego Record Store by Eldeeem. Fab, via The Brothers Brick.
Fat NFL Logos, by David Rappoccio. Via Brand New.
Cool Hunting goes behind the scenes with Hot Wheels. Via Quipsologies.
Pimp My Camper Lego contest.
MirrorMoon EP is a space adventure that begins on a red planet and its unique moon. Gabriele Brombin also created some gorgeous illustrations to promote the project. Via WATC.
"Maybe Myst didn't change how we approached computer games, but rather how we approached computer lives." Wow, 20 years on, Emily Yoshida looks back at Myst for Grantland.
NYT corrections for today. Check the first obituary. Damn straight they are.
People who like this sort of thing will find it exactly the sort of thing they like. 20,000 words on playing a board game. At Dawn We Ate Sugar Smacks: Wargaming Newbies Tackle the Monster of Monsters, by Soren Narnia. Bravo.
So you know, how to hit like Stan Musial, courtesy of your Phillips 66 dealer.
Introducing a brand new way to share everything, PRSM - The Sharing Network.
"Realizing that the bombs would kill all of the people in the targeted city, I did not want to put the player in the position of being a genocidal maniac." Making Missile Command, by Alex Rubens.
Bookmarked. Playtest, "reviews for people who love board games" by a current and a former Guest Editor, Max Temkin and Matthew Baldwin.
Patronus & Fitch.
Lost.
Everyone knows you can't text message breakup, but if you still want to do it, there's an app.
Mini Etsy.
"In the late 1870s, baseball was at risk of dying out before it even got started, strangled by a teetotaling, law-abiding, church-going new league. Then a German saloonkeeper in St. Louis got involved." A great piece by Tobias Seamon for TMN, How Der Boss President Changed Baseball.
20 Slave Leia's, one ignored non-slave Leia, 20 male slave Leia's. Just three of the 17 more people you see at every nerd convention.
Incident Report for Case #2013-212633, Madison Police Department, City of Madison, Wisconsin. Via TMBG.
The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator.
"This left me with only one option: I had to build my own robot that I could send forth to battle telemarketing robots when they called." —Max Temkin.
Ping pong with music and graphics triggered by the ball. Sweet. Beat Match is David Rinman's graduation project.
Somewhere out there is a very real pit of gold coins, free for rooting around in, swimming laps, and general Scrooge McDuck-ery.
"We've all played it sometime, when we were kids; but never recently, and why? Because it's crap." The Campaign For Real Monopoly.
"After the assassination of Jabba the Hutt (by the coward Leia Organa), the Gamorrean guard found himself guarding no one for the first time since training academy on Gamorr. Lonely and without purpose, he manages to stow away on a transport ship bound for Theed, the capital city of Naboo." Jabba's Palace: Where Are They Now?
Human Slingshot .
A relink and ridiculously addictive, GeoGuessr.
Related to 16" softball, Royko At The Goat, a film by Scott Jacobs and Lilly Ollinger. Fab.
Softball season starts next week, in honor of that, here's the magnificent Eddie Feigner in a newsreel from 1959, The King and His Court. I was lucky enough to see them way back when, at Thillens Stadium.
93,307 LEGO pieces make up the world's longest plastic toy train track. Via Gizmodo.
"Since their livelihoods depend on how well they perform, many use magic to try to control or eliminate the chance and uncertainty built into baseball." Baseball Magic, by George Gmelch.
Related to the last, My City of Dreams, by Calvin Chan.
Fascinating interview with lead designer Stone Librande about the creation of the latest Sim City game, which looks incredible and is the focus of a major obsession in my house as we wait impatiently for the Mac version to be released.
Related to the last, Patricia Marx wrote about Scav in the NYer last year, The Hunter Games.
The most fun you'll have reading this week, the list for the University of Chicago's epic annual scavenger hunt that is going on this week. Inexplicably, the file is labelled as the list for "2014" but I suspect that's not the last thing about Scav I won't understand.
GeoGuessr, a fun, simple game based on photos. Via Tom Coates.
1000 Things to Draw by Amy Ng.
"She's in another castle... you've probably never heard of it." Hipster Super Mario characters.
Annual (and usually wrong) Derby Picks: First my Pop, "Itsmyluckyday, if he goes at anywhere near this morning's 15-1, it's the steal of the year." My pick is Verrazano, I had a bet on him while in Vegas
when he crushed the field in the Tampa Bay Derby. Make mine an exacta box with Revolutionary.
Pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about the greatest trophy in sports, visualized.
Ah baseball. Yesterday was the anniversary of Cub's manager Lee Elia's immortal press conference. It's a must listen, but not safe for work, or kids for that matter.
Want.
The "Watch Dogs" game demo video is set in a Chicago and looks wicked. More at the official site.
A game mechanism without the game. "An addictive but essentially aimless experience. The piece is a triptych of playable acrylic paintings, controlled by the viewer using a NES controller. Via Waxy.
Related to the last, one to beam up.
4-6-5-6-5-3-4
Oh, NFL kickers! 2012 was the year we all fell in love with the Vikings' Chris Kluwe, will 2013 belong to the Lions' new signing Havard Rugland?
Prior to 1849, there was no such thing as a "normal chess set." At least not like we think of it today. Over the centuries that chess had been played, innumerable varieties of sets of pieces were created, with regional differences in designation and appearance.
Deep sea fauna with googly eyes.
A 1958 Union Pacific Coloring Book, parts one and two. Hmm, this gives me an idea.
Confounded in the kitchen? With a little help, your strange and surplus food could be dinner! Submit a photo of what's stumping you, or leave comments to help someone else out. Round 1 ends April 14.
Spend half an hour with Orson Welles learning about your gambling options at Caesars Palace. Via Mefi.
Lego sculptures in real life, sort of.
When the subject of the email is "Hey Jim, our location based augmented reality role playing zombie apocalypse game was just featured on Wired!" You really need to take a peek. Nice work Doejo.
"After the miracle of the fish served between the loaves and the soda water into cola, lo, the Hamburglar said unto the Burger King, here is the messiah, the people worship him as king, the Big Mac, above even you. Asked if he knew him Grimace shook his head no. Asked again, and still Grimace denied it. Then a chicken McNugget crowed three times. And Ronald was made to carry his burial arches through the streets the whip lashes ran red and white with pain. His passion so brutal that Dairy Queen had to turn away." Confusing monuments to future humans.
Noted without comment, Sunny Side is an app that tells passengers which side of the car to sit on to avoid the sun.
"In January of 1978, just a few months after the world experienced the first chapter in the Star Wars franchise on the big screen, a factory in Cincinnati, Ohio was hard at work producing the first line of Star Wars action figures." Via TMN.
Dada Poetry Project for Today: Compose a message made up only of Emoji. Ask Siri to read it. Repeat as necessary using different messages and voices. Have fun.
MS asked me to post some Stuf. Done! My favorite is Circus Stuf.
"Between math, curling and Lego, I have the nerd-trifecta covered." Thanks Marshall.
Ocean's Twelve - Nine Months = Three Days of the Condor. Via Matt Zoller Seitz.
Nic Cage as Everyone.
So you know, who has the best goalie mask in hockey this season, by Katie Baker. I'm going with Ben Scrivens.
Gruber said he'd "buy this kit in a heartbeat." Amen.
M.Willis is halfway finished redesigning MLB jerseys with an international soccer style. Way too many things to talk about, I'm gonna need a few drinks to get through this, thanks Alfredo!
So you know, Noah Veltman analyzes the NYT Crossword Puzzle for the most common answers and 'crosswordiest' words.
"Compatible with all human neurosensory systems and powered by finger oil, child mucus and a love for learning, the Factory Blocks do not require batteries, software updates or hand wringing over obsolescence."
He steps in the bucket a little but turns his wrists over nicely. Pope John Paul II takes batting practice. Maybe. Thanks Ben.
If you have an eight-year-old girl and visit a lot of garage sales, this is super-handy: Symbols Grouped by Theme
Not in My House, how Vegas casinos wage a war on cheating. By Jesse Hicks.
Video of Cool Hunting's visit to Pins and Needles, "a public arcade filled with privately owned pinball machines made available for everyone to enjoy."
Paper Models of SUVs and trucks. Vroom.
An oldie but goodie, Procatinator.
Scouting NY explores The Compleat Strategist, one of the largest board game retailers in the world.
"Adjust the Auxiliary Technoprobes!" Spaceteam, a cooperative iPhone game where you yell nonsense, sci-fi sounding commands at one another as you try to pilot a large spaceship.
Try this puzzle game app for free today, from Ed Emberly.
Bold Poker replaces your deck of cards. Great tag line, "Deal with it." Via Daring Fireball.
What a Wonder is a Terrible Monitor. Jason Scott on making Asteroids and other games look "right" with CRT emulation code. Via Waxy.
Retro Game Addict's Animated History of Nintendo Devices and Games. Via Laughing Squid.
Matthew Baldwin's review of The 2012 Good Gift Games, "showcasing those board and card games from the last year or so that are easy to learn and teach, fun and engrossing to play, and that can be completed in 90 minutes or less." Great.
Check out these anamorphic illusions by Brasspup. Yowza! Stay tuned for lots more cool illusions in the video.
The hidden Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter scene from Halo 4.
The great F1 racing circuits, to scale, for slot cars. Via Things Magazine.
A psychedelic platformer into the galaxy.
"In place of Monopoly's 'Go!' was a box marked 'Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages.' The Landlord Game's chief entertainment was the same as in Monopoly." Monopoly Is Theft by Christopher Ketcham.
Codex 99 on an all-time favorite card game, Mille Bornes. The original design is fantastic. Coup Fourré!
Comedian Joe Pera has submitted himself to the Andy Kaufman awards twice, and was not selected. This year, his entry video takes a different approach. Via TheBryanChamp.
What is Thing X? I don't know for sure, though it seems to be a new project by several former staff writers for The Onion. This promotional video offers some clues.
The 13 most shameless Super Mario Bros rip-offs released for the iPhone.
The Hall of Unwanted Domain Names. Via Things.
Video mash-up geniuses "Everything is Terrible" remind us that 70's television was filled with absurd variety acts, ridiculous news stories, uncomfortable celebrities, and casual racism.
"Mario has had enough of your bullshit."
Fibonachos! by Tiffany Ford.
Goodnight Keith Moon.
The baddest Nerf Gun mods ever, let's not share this link with my 11 year old boy please. Via Things.
Vote Bob Ross.
For MS and BB, a recipe for Fever Fudge.
Oops.
45 Creative examples of My Little Pony customization.
We definitely need one of these in the studio.
Hey MS, maybe the spiders and scorpions just want to play.
"Look to the right and close one eye. Make your Man-eater eat as many heads of pedestrians as you can. Play time: time between two stops."
MetroDeck is a limited-edition set of playing cards hand-printed on New York subway fare cards.
For BB, a bacon song.
"I am a troubled heiress who wants only to play baccarat and forget her troubles." Texts From Nancy Drew, by Mallory Ortberg.
The question is either "Who would make a video game version of MANOS: The Hands of Fate?" or "What on earth took the internet this long to make one?"
Trivia game You Don't Know Jack is used in a sneaky, adorable marriage proposal.
Fun little retro app from the Guardian Interactive Team: Could You Be a Medallist?
So you know, your Andy Warhol range hood is making you look silly.
The history of PC gaming, done with the sights and sounds of the video games themselves.
So you know, where strange ad agency names came from.
@O2 Ur a sh*t company
@hirramirza <3
Unicycle Hockey, via Puck Daddy.
Browser Pong. Yep. And it's awesome.
Even baseball-haters like me will enjoy this overview/history of Kansas City and the Royals on the eve of the MLB All-Star game.
Hubs sends along this, in reference to yesterday's Monopoly post.
Totally nerdy and totally fascinating. Shaun Inman reviews the camera logic of Super Mario World.
Da Mare on "What's My Line?"
Brickworld 2012 video tour.
In the left hand corner we have a cat with a poptart body who has a serious appetite for shells. In the right we have a shell with shoes who lives on a bed made of bread. Who will win today's PwnVFaiL?
Any combination of M. C. Escher, Star Wars and Lego is pretty much irresistible. Via Mefi.
Super Modern Mario Bros.
Just plain silly. Pointer Pointer. Via Waxy.
How to have a classy night in at home.
Chicago finally gets the sandbox video game treatment. A couple of teasers for WatchDogs. More info here. Can't wait.
Robert Griffin's planned RNOB and a list of historical nickNOBs, by Paul Lukas. People who like this sort of thing will find this exactly the sort of thing they like.
"I don't know. I think if I were you, I'd probably challenge the word 'jomama.'" Scrabble For Cheaters. Via Mefi.
UEFA's handsome Euro2012 Tournament Calendar. Naprijed Hrvatska!
Eephus League Magazine. Nine innings of awesome, created by Bethany Heck.
The top 10 tech troll catchphrases.
Fat men, baseball, and early twentieth century postcards.
Anatomy of an excellent Sunday NYT crossword puzzle by its constructor, Kevin Der.
"Make yourself suffer, you swine." Jedermann bike races in Germany.
Each card in 52 Aces was created by a different illustrator or designer.
Beautiful film on 2012 Kentucky Derby entrant Dullahan, from SB Nation. (He's my pick for the race, boxed with Union Rags and Take Charge Indy.)
Take That Don Draper! Madvertising is by Dick De Bartolo and illustrated by Bob Clarke points out the lunacy of modern (as in 1972) advertising, although not much has changed since then. Fun.
Jonathan bets like my mom.
Organ Trail was an edutainment game developed in 1971. Schools across America used this game as a teaching tool to prepare children for the impending zombie apocalypse and dysentery.
An old thing but still fun, BB's Great (chalk) Album Covers Contest that he did with 37signals. The answers are here, but no peeking until after you try and solve it.
Le Biciclette's old-timey superheroes. Via The Invader.
"We need to make a..." The Digital Executioner.
Super Groups from Minigroups. Reassemble all fifty pop culture groups. Fun.
Lift Off, Shaun Inman's development diary for his fab iOS game, "The Last Rocket." Cha-ching. Via Daring Fireball.
Related to the last, Risk!
"Even though far from elegant, this algorithm produces signifincantly better results than random firing. It is, however, a long way from efficient as it has no concept of what constitutes a ship, and blindly needs to walk around all surrounding edges of every hit pixel." Nick Berry's totally nerdy, totally fascinating look at the mathematical mechanics of the game Battleship. Via (no surprise) It's Okay To be Smart.
Next year, I'll dye my eggs with the help of Isaac Newton.
Who knew Han Solo and Lando were such great dancers? The LaRoux parody, "Blasterproof," is a particular favorite.
Wooden cars.
"We have been trying to come up with something funny to put on our light box above our conference room doors for many months. And we finally did."
Epic Sax Game.
Brick Fetish is Jim Hughes' "obsessive, irrational devotion to a brick-shaped child's building block" and an excellent resource on Lego history via an annotated timeline. Also, Jim runs one of our very favorite sites, Codex 99, where he has just posted on amusement park maps and Legoland.
Mad Men: The Game.
"In this educational board game, players migrate across the Serengeti as wildebeests, gazelles, impalas or zebras. Varied terrains are represented by patterned borders. Players must plot their course wisely to collect food, water and survival instinct tokens, and maintain herd size. The illustrations are inspired by African patterns and antique maps." Via design work life.
Totally silly. An complete waste of time. Without redeeming value. Nonsense that no intelligent person should bother with. Planet of the Apes Party Fun Time. Via Gavin Rothery.
The Triforce Tribute is an epic multi-medium show celebrating all things Zelda.
Cinematic trailer for Mass Effect 3: Take Earth Back. The game ships in March.
"The space between the white lines --that's my office." -Early Wynn. Every Hall of Famer, annotated sketches of members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, by Summer Anne Burton.
Minecraft + Lego. That's going to be very big news to someone in my house.
"Oh yeah, nothing professes true love more than a bound unconscious giant on the beach." Via TMN.
The English Games Box is a set of materials; boards, cards, dice, etc., from which a variety of games can be created for fun and education. The boards are especially lovely. From the graduate thesis of Anne-Catherine Mould. Developed at the University of Wismar in 2011.
Where's the pixel? Via The Fox Is Black.
The Two Things. Liz explains.
"Thus, after your first game, you will be playing on a board unlike any other in existence, with cities positioned according to your whims, locations named by your opponents, and cards customized per the preferences of your game group." Matthew Baldwin reviews the innovative (and crazy) new version the classic game, Risk: Legacy. Cha-Ching.
"1. Stare at the red dot on the girl's nose for 30 seconds. 2. Turn your eyes to a plain surface (your ceiling or blank wall). 3. Blink repeatedly and quickly.
4. WTF! one+infinity"
Autorata EM-Kilpailut. Slot-car racing in Helsinki! Via Laughing Squid.
Just because it is fabulous. Jesus Goes To The U.N.
Code Racer, a game developed by Treehouse to teach you how to build a web page. So smart. Check behind the scenes.
The title says it all (unless you're American): 500 Reasons to Love Football.
Important New Emoticons by Mira Ptacin and Seth Fried.
"I realize I should perhaps think of a different name for this awesome game. Because I don't mean to imply that everyone who checks their phone during meals is a di*k."
Did that Crossbow Snowball Launcher just insult my manhood?
Hockey fans are awesome.
So you know. Seven riffles.
Massive hockey brawls way more adorable with 9 year olds.
So how can I get her to go out with me a second time? Let's see, what would I do in a business situation? Yeah, that's it, a cover letter!
Mario in the real world.
The List. A collection of enjoyable, exceptional and essential games for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Via Chris Glass.
So you know. Quirky Science Tricks For Parties.
Jim enjoys drinking beer. Spend some time at billripken.com.
An eagerly awaited yearly tradition at TMN, Matthew Baldwin's Good Gift Games, reviews of recommended board and card games.
The golden ratio, the rule of thirds, and "The Catch." Splendid.
Grinnell College guard Griffin Lentsch had it going pretty good in a game against Principia last month.
BB, I see your links to all those multimedia classics and raise you this Return to Zork theme played on a church organ and this collection of clips from Night Trap.
If you have a dollar and 8 hours to kill, Penn & Teller's unreleased classic, Desert Bus, has been ported to iOS.
Hey SD, want to play some Harry Potter chess? No? How about Lord of the Rings Monopoly? Hey, where are you going.......
I didn't know there were pinball tutorial videos! There goes my afternoon.
For BB, pork molded into the shape of a tiny pig.
DESIGNerd is a trivia game for, well, design nerds. Everyone in the studio is getting one. Via Creative Review.
Needed one of these this morning. The Interactive Periodic Table of Swearing Table. This most excellent device is from Modern Toss, who teamed up with design studio Clay to build it.
Expired patent of the day: 10/24/11.
"There's no guesswork involved in slutty nurse or slutty Captain Picard. We've seen these all before. Wouldn't it be more fun, and funny for yourself, to be the most obscure characters you can, thus making it as difficult as possible for people to guess?" Yes, that's why I'm being the Silent Singer.
This is Spinal Tape.
The rules of Halloween.
You and your money.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses.
The mother of all Hot Wheels tracks. Thanks Marshall.
"...if anyone were going to design a physical/digital toy that felt 'just right,' it was going to be Lego. Its new set, Life of George, combines an iPhone app with classic plastic bricks into an 'augmented reality' experience that actually feels playful." —John Pavlus.
You will waste at least 20 minutes of your day playing Kern Type.
On November 25, a bandanna-wearing dude will attempt to determine "if playing Tetris non-stop for 24 hours will kill a man."
Baseball First and Last. Nice.
"Nearly all types of games are represented in the Omegathon, though roleplaying games are excluded. But that's to be expected. After all, how many people want to sit around and watch other people play Dungeons & Dragons? At the Penny Arcade Expo, the answer is: 3,040." Matthew Baldwin's PAX Primer for TMN.
A series of great "model kit" ads for Tamiya, by O&M Vietnam. The catch is that you can build your own Marilyn, Roswell, JFK, Elvis or Moon Conspiracy. Awesome.
Nice. An 8 foot long, 43,000 piece LEGO Star Destroyer.
How Will Shortz edits a New York Times crossword puzzle, by Alex Hoyt.
Analog side scroller game, in a box. Via Waxy.
"Waiting For Godot" the video game. Splendid. Via Cory Arcangel.
Star Trek Character or Over-the-Counter Erectile Dysfunction Pill? Via TMN.
"It's got all the upsides of Tetris and all the downsides of physics." Not Tetris.
Logos in Lego Town by Frankie Roberto. Aces. Via The DDC.
Women Fighters In Reasonable Armor. Via Mefi.
Breaking news from Rutland. Via @help_its_louis.
Either learn to become a better typist or die in a plane crash with Safety Instructions. Via Waxy.
Someone please send a crate of these to the studio immediately: Air Swimmers, radio controlled flying sharks and fish.
In preparation for taking my boy to see Rise tonight, I'm watching this series of Mego Planet of the Apes action figure commercials and enjoying the archives at the Yesterville Toy Room.
Related to the last. Patrick Molnar is a designer from Mainz, Germany who has collected and catalogued gaming systems from Europe, the US and Japan for the last ten years. The result is this beautiful Consollection, game systems carefully photographed and annotated. Since around 1972 we've plugged a lot of stuff into our televisions and seeing them all at once show how much things have changed and maybe more importantly how much they haven't.
A clone factory in Japan. Via Waxy.
Clutter Magazine's Designer Toy Awards 2011 Winners. Wow, great stuff. Here's Core77 on Designer of the Year Ashley Wood. And well deserved kudos to our pal Kirby for winning Best Store for his most awesome Rotofugi.
What if you could run a slot car with your brain? B-Reel Performs Mind Tricks. Via Creative Review.
Helveticards.
Street Cleaning Simulator reminds me a lot of Hot Wheels for the Commodore 64, wherein there were "no specific objectives in the game." Regardless, lots of bewildering hours were spent with it.
Exciting. Can't wait to play this one. "In Street Cleaning Simulator you are the proud owner/operator of a small firm specialising in keeping the town's roads free from all the leaves and dirt that accumulate over time." Via Things.
"...we have documented almost 150 'Mr' shops, ranging from Mr Chips and Pizza Man to Mr Window." Asbury & Asbury's Mr. Blog's Valedictory Awards Show.
A Stanley Kubrick Video Game by Mr Whaite. "Guide Jack-man through the Overlook Maze drinking bourbon as you go... but make sure to avoid those spooky Grady Ghosts!"
A 1/6 scale Steve Jobs Limited Edition 12-inch Collectible Figurine which will include a 1/6 scale Steve Jobs head sculpt and 12-inch figure body plus 1/6 Scale items such as the iMac, Magic Mouse, keyboard, iPhone 4, iPad 2, Desk, Chair, Steve's outfit (New balance 992 sneakers, black T-shirt and jeans).
JC, think you might want to check this out
Boca Juniors star Marin Palermo retires from soccer to "begin a new life as Buenos Aires' vigilante crime fighter in a smiley face cape." Thanks, Alf!
Perfect for Fridays at work, figure out these Famous Objects from Classic Movies.
In the great American spirit of creating competitions out of the silliest things possible, I proudly present: Freestyle Canoeing
Mao, Lenin, Marx and Henry David Thoreau. Mountain Climbing Action Figures. Totally silly but totally great. Via Boing Boing.
First this, then this, then this. Who said Twitter makes us stupid? Take that Bill Keller.
"Daddy, read me that one about Colonel Kurtz again please." These Golden Books Are Not For Children by Josh Cooley. Fabulous, via Dan Cederholm.
An interesting, meandering history of the game of "stone throwing," "pebble grasping," "five stones," or any of its other many names.
Speaking of innovative events in Chicago this weekend, how cool does Journey to the End of the Night sound? Wow. Zombie-ish. Via Gapers Block.
Regarding yesterday's post of the awesomeness that is the 2011 Hunt List from this weekend's U of C Scav, here's an overview of the tradition.
The University of Chicago Scavenger 2011 Hunt List. Via Gapers.
"This document has none of the normal NSA disclaimer words in it. They just come out and say 'we received messages from outer space' and this is the way to decode those messages."
"#Canucks" posts on Twitter Sunday night: "That is a giant waterfall of sorrow."
Spencer and I thought we were pretty cool building the Lego Maersk Train and Farnsworth House, until we saw this.
"There's nothing like a couple thousand years of repetition and an iconic painting to get a story lodged inside the heads of the creators of pop culture." Suddenly Last Supper, a huge mess of parody images. Via This Isn't Happiness.
Erik Nakamura's video game inspired Giant Robot Famicom Scion xb. Via OhGizmo. So cool.
Unsuck It gets some love from The Book Bench at The New Yorker. That ought to incentivize the stakeholders to activate the brand.
The World's Biggest PAC-MAN game.
Apropos of nothing. Keep it Country, Keep it Green! From WFMU.
Puck Daddy ranks the first round NHL Playoff Series by a complicated formula that includes Beard-o-sity.
A wonderful selection of never-before-seen photos from the Civil War.
Randomly stumbled onto SubSim and lost more than a few minutes in the process. Provides a nice history of submarine games. Some very fond memories of 688 Attack Sub.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is now available for the iPad. Which is a good excuse for relinking this promo video and this "walk in the woods" gameplay test.
If you watch Old Yeller backwards, its a family classic about a zombie dog who becomes friends with a young boy.
Words fail to describe the greatness of Pica Pic, a playable, retro, handheld-games collection, created by Hopotam Studio. (Check their site too.) Via Cabel and Engadget.
Arranged like a symphony orchestra, 200 vacuum cleaners, blenders and washing machines make up the Blödes Orchester.
Vetica "In letterspace, no one can hear you scream." Via Swiss Legacy.
Somebody has some very strong feelings about Rock Paper Scissors
Zombie Not Suspected.
The Last Breakfast. Fab. Via Drawn.
Last week our pal John Tolva got to play Jeopardy with Watson.
Audience Calibration Procedure for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery. A promo video for an iPad game that looks fantastic and will, apparently be soon, for real. Via Shaun Inman.
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When Parents Text. Grows on you quick. Check the Admins' Favorites.
"My name is Jenn and I have been cosplaying since 2001, mainly as Lara Croft. I like to take my photoshoots to extremes."
"It's very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman." Ken Jennings on Watson.
"In the simple yet addictive game, protagonist Nick Carraway must fight his way through flappers and hobos while powering up on martinis." The Great Gatsby game.
Speaking of baseball, It's a Long Season, a well-chosen image blog and 90 Feet of Perfection, a journal of annotated baseball pictures.
Related to an earlier post, Trevor Sinclair's bicycle kick for QPR in 1997. Thanks Stephen.
Rooney's bicycle kick game winner against Man City Friday. Best. Goal. Ever.
An interactive 360-degree video panorama of the world's largest dodgeball game at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and how Ryan Jackson made it. Via John Nack. Yowza.
The evolution of Cam the Ram. Via Brand New.
Sandy's The Puzzler has a new home.
Sill pining for summer? Check The Eephus League, a community driven archive of baseball minutia. Via Chitwood & Hobbs. Two and half weeks until pitchers and catchers report.
Relink for Spence. After chuckling at Stéfan Le Dû's big collection of photos of Stormtroopers in various situations you might ask, "How is this different than what a ten-year-old boy would do with his action figures?" To which, as a parent of such a boy, I'd answer, "It's not different at all, isn't that great?"
Ant writes, "Carl Carmoni. The best French miniture-golf player... ever." Biiiirdie!
NPR's Carl Kasell recorded the speech from Any Given Sunday and Deadspin added some classic Bears Packers photos. Amen to that. Via Peter Sagal.
Trenta, because sometimes (really?) you need a jug of coffee bigger than your stomach.
Vintage Skateboard Ads. and lots more here.
Goalie fight!
Western Hockey League team, The Kamloops Blazers have been celebrating wins this season with a tribute to EA Sports "NHL 94."
Turn the board games you've got into new games you'll love with the Board Game Remix kit.
Donkey Kong Wall by Igor Chak. Via Nerdcore.
Bike, ramp, lake.
The card game Mille Bornes. "In general, these periodic redesigns; presumably an attempt to 'freshen' the game, are worse than their predecessors." Aren't they always?
An annual tradition that always sparks a purchase, Matthew Baldwin's 2010 Good Gift Games at TMN.
Break Glass In Case of Zombies.
Solve a problem by connecting two Wikipedia articles through their links. 3 Degrees of Wikipedia.
Koopa, It's What's For Supper. Jude Buffum's butcher diagrams for video game game. Via Kottke.
Pyromaniac on Wheels. Thanks Alex.
Super There Will Be Blood, coming soon for the SNES.
Pretty much always true, It Would Have Been Cooler As a Van. Via @cameronmoll.
Halloween lawn decoration FTW. Looks even better at night with the ghosts blinking.
Gangsta Lorem Ipsum generator.
Related to the last, The Gap Logo is on Twitter.
"Register for a chance to win an opportunity to purchase two tickets to the 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic." Wow, what a great contest! Thanks NHL! I guess I'll have to register with United to win the opportunity to pay for my flight, too.
Step 1: Fertilize. Step 2: Lay Grouspawn. Step 3: Get rich off child.
Literary action figures to the rescue!
Solitaire just got more awesome.
The results of combining a camera and some toys is, um, unexpected. TheOneCam.
"Now, begin your grand adventure with Mark, Lisa, Johnny, Denny and the rest! It will change you forever!" Relive your favorite parts of the film in glorious 8-bit with The Room: The Game. A full walkthrough, here.
24 Hours of LeMons, a $500-car endurance race, coming to a track near you.
Don't clap when switching on the light, just blow in the ear.
I'm a big fan of the Isengard Uruk-Hai because they play old time hockey. Steve Thomas created logos for The Middle Earth Hockey Association (MEHA). Via Laughing Squid.
The man behind the double rainbow all the way is revealed in Microsoft's latest ad. What does it mean!?
Blobs, the real reason why HTML5 exists.
The coin in the Ref video was inspired by my foggy memory of the secret screen in Adventure. I will now play it online to see if I remembered right.
In the Palm of Your Hand, an article and slideshow on "dexterity puzzles," by Jessica Helfland.
Video games of today in 8 and 16 bits. Via Glass.
So you know. How that whole Farmville thing works, by Matthew Zuras.
Serve the sushi, but don't let the table pop!
Our favorite junior rollergirl is featured in Gapers Block's story about the Chicago Riots roller derby team.
Since he was correct, here are five other rivalries Paul the octopus can settle.
"Surfap used a motion tracking system to project a speedrun of Super Mario Bros along a sidewalk."
ONN Future Channel. Because to stay ahead in today's world you need to know what's going to happen in tomorrow's.
Kingbrick!
Well, that's it. Legos building Legos.
From Deck advertiser, Business Catalyst... Web Invaders.
So you know. A graphic outlining how to beat Mario Brothers 3 in eleven minutes, and a dude doing it.
The World Cup in pie charts.
I was beating the supercomputer until the last question. Grrr. IBM's Watson Trivia Challenge.
Cinematic trailer for The Force Unleashed 2 Betrayal. Nice.
England v West Germany, a brick-by-brick recreation of the classic 1966 World Cup Final. Lots more like this at Lego Fussball.
Nintendo is getting back to their turn of the last century roots by releasing decks of playing cards.
Chris Burns on a multitude of electronic systems that all do the same thing, 1000 Screens, 1000 Dreams. It's all so beautiful. Thanks to Hanan, who wrote, knowing we would love this.
"I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?" A fascinating story and puzzle, via Mefi.
We took a lot of heat when we played devil's advocate for the London 2012 Olympics logo, but that all goes out the window with Wenlock and Mandeville. WTF?
"I suspect the ability to notice that things might be just a little off square, off centre, or not quite straight, varies greatly." Developed for woodworkers but fun for everyone. How good are your eyeballing skills? Via Bobby Solomon.
There, I Fixed It. "Epic kludges and jury rigs."
Panic loads programming data for a text animation onto an Apple //e from an iPad and makes lovely geekiness. As Andy Baio says, it "feels like WALL-E connecting to EVE."
"Zack just got an achievement in Super Mario Brothers! Zack just got the Goomba Squisher achievement and wants everyone to know!" If Super Mario Bros was made in 2010.
As Andy Baio says, this is "the most fun you can possibly have with your bank."
Make any webpage, ours for example, look like it was made by a 13 year-old in 1996.
Sleep Is Death. Whoa.
"Seurat's Bathers. Tranquility? No, awesomeness!" The 3D Truth in Old Masters. Ha. Via Grafikmag.
It appears to be a vintage Scrabble clone of some sort but it's infinitely cooler looking, especially the "devil" tiles, Diamino, found by the always observant Agence Eureka. Update thanks to AbsurdIntellect, here's how the game is played.
Records are made to be broken. And now, after 27 years, the high score for Asteroids has fallen. Get your quarters ready. Via Kottke.
Sure, everyone now has their iPad. I'm waiting to get my hands on the iCade. Via The Donut Project.
Porn Star or My Little Pony? I was only 4-for-12 and I have a six-year-old daughter.
On the subject of food, unicorn corn holders.
My next USB key is definitely going to be this one.
It's an instant MoOM classic and we can't wait for more from The Museum of Celebrity Tweets, Illustrated. Via Bobby Solomon.
"I re-edited my old Lego Blade Runner clip to look and sound more like The Final Cut."
Magic Hen's Papierowe Piasto Paper City, a sweet, simple idea. Nicely designed corrugated cut-outs to be assembled. Via Things Magazine.
Ever find yourself reading a website and thinking How did I get this deep into a subject I don't care about at all?
How millennial are you?
OMG, are you watching this game?
Mimeo and the Kleptopus King, a work in progress from Shaun Inman. Holy smokes.
The Superplexus is a complex network of chicanes, multi-planar hairpin turns, spirals, and staircases – even a vortex. Hand made from 3- and 6-ply Finnish birch that form the track, over 400 hours are involved in its construction.
How to make an X-wing fighter from a Paris Metro card.
The Videogame History Timeline dating all the way back to 1791.
The Nicolas Cage Adventure Set comes with 9 vinyl stickers and a double-sided play backdrop, allowing you to recreate you favorite "I have to warn everybody! Math is coming!" moments. Via bblinks.
Related to today's Eye, the lockup for Mattel's Intellivision system looks as good today as it did when it was introduced.
A sweet Super Bowl bet come out of art museum directors trash talking. Via Kottke.
The first Fresh Signals post from my 9 year-old son Spencer, Google Gravity.
"What better way to break, or affirm, the stereotypes, than by listening to a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game being played..."
Generate an image of your name using the Topps Empire Strikes Back stickers.
JC, does your Macbook run Windows? Napoleon: Total War.
Todd Bertuzzi might think he's special but the Blackhawks won anyway.
First-Person Tetris.
For JC: Trailer for the upcoming multiplayer game Lego Universe.
Lego Domino Row Building Machine.
Super Mario Brothers + Tetris = Tuper Tario Tros. Via Transbuddha.
Related to the last: Ms. Pac-Man, the best-selling arcade game of all time, began life as a bootleg hack called "Crazy Otto."
Wait til you see how this works. Browser Pong!
Tangentially related to the last and on tap for tonight. A household staple, Oh Hell, a great group card game. There are many variations but, it goes without saying that only our house rules are the true and correct and exceedingly awesome ones. It aint right if you're not scoring by the square.
Local note, if you're a Hawks fan you really should be reading Second City Hockey daily.
Noted without comment. Chariots of Mortal Kombat Fire.
"You can be sure Satan takes it seriously." The toupee and the diatribe against Pokemon, yeah that's right Pokemon, are funny, but the crowd shots are magnificent. Thanks JF.
An excellent and informative yearly ritual, Ladies and Gentlemen, The 2009 Good Gift Games by Matthew Baldwin. Tabago and The Adventurers look like winners.
Model 17 Shunter Mech, Minifig scale. Nice. Via Netdiver.
Nice collection of '80s video game box art.
Instant adventure gaming. Yes.
Now if only I had a tiny little Elton John made of paper, I'd be all set.
An app for half of the CP studio.
Related to the last: "Haunted Glory: The Rise and Fall of Trilobyte," a really great read about the people who made The 7th Guest.
Russell Davies on pretending and "barely games." Via Waxy.
Almost as cool as WtWTA, Dig Dug. Via Spacesick.
"Turn your sound up. Draw lines on the black screen to bounce the balls. Enjoy the music." Addictive fun by Josh Nimoy. Via Folkert.
Toysrevil.
Noted without comment, a shrine to a squirrel.
Autonomous Roombas do Pac-Man right.
"Please dismantling the Radio. your have only screwdriver. The tool you can use is the screwdriver. Japanese skill is NO need to slove this puzzle. Good luck." Via a Mefi thread where you can also find clues if you're the sort of person who needs other people to do your work for you.
A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families, by Giles Turnbull. "Pass me a seethru flat fouree willya?"
The DARPA Balloon Challenge is a big contest that starts next month. This Mefi thread brings up some interesting possibilities for winning and for foul play too.
Noted without comment. People of Walmart.
20 Movie villain pumpkin carvings.
The New Old Republic: Coruscant, video on building the city for a video game. Via Things.
"Upon this stump, however incredible it may seem, on the 4th of July, thirty-two persons were engaged in dancing four sets of cotillions at one time, without suffering any inconvenience whatever; and besides these, there were musicians and lookers-on."
Wha? My selection for winner of the strangest thing yet made for the iPhone: the Daniel Johnson video game Hi How Are You. More info here.
Animals With Lightsabers.
Stereogram Tetris. Definitely works, but certainly messes with your eyes for a bit after you stop playing. Via J-Walk.
The Hierarchy of Digital... wait, I just got a tweet.
The Dagobah frog habitat.
A mythical creature mixology chart.
Lego Star Wars.
With Andy's Anagram Solver, my name becomes "Island Worshipper," and the wife's becomes "'Be congruent,' lulls Josh."
"The iconic figures of the videogame world weren't just invented the way they'd have us believe." How things like Mario's mushrooms are manufactured (scroll right). Made of Myth. Link of the month! Via The Minister.
San Francisco's famous Lombard Street converted into a life-size version of Candy Land in honor of the board game's 60th anniversary.
Cotton Monsters!
My new workout routine. Via PCL.
My wife and I both bought these string dolls in separate states on the same weekend, which says to me that their moment in the zeitgeist is upon us. The crowd of little kids around me said the same thing.
The evolution of the squirt gun.
"You plays as various rodents, racing through a series of 3D tubes. I have no clue what the point is. It's hypnotic." Footage from the unreleased Sega video game Virtua Hamster.
The Lying Down Game. Uh, ok.
A Mario family tree.
For all enquires please complete the form below.
Things Marketing People Love.
Perfect for me, since I am an identical twin, the Twins Memory game.
Apropos of nothing. The decline of English court cards over time and a reasonable but disappointingly mundane explanation for The Suicide King.
Stormtroopers 365. Yep.
A fun audio toy. Via Making Light.
For KG, the Simpsons character quiz.
An easy, short, fun Flash game with cute robots and a jazzy soundtrack: Little Wheel. Via Yoz.
For MS: all 140+ fan-made Edward Cullens in The Sims.
10 Creative Rubik's cubes.
"I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes." Meet Alice and Kev. Via Wonderland.
For your toolkit: the Comedy Double-Act Name Generator.
Following JC's last: more on Morskoi Boi and some great info on and photos of the U.S. equivalents: Sega's Periscope from 1968 and Midway's outright copies, Sea Raider from 1969 and Sea Devil from 1970, all of which seem to have been the basis for the Russian game.
Morskoi Boi, a Soviet era submarine battle arcade game ported to Flash. Maybe the best thing ever. More about it from The Utne Reader here. Yowza.
For your next special occasion ("Service is for one passenger only"): Ferrari Guy for Hire. Via Tankboy.
"Abandon. Father tries to abandon Walter and Janine. He tries to leave them behind." -- My First Dictionary. Via Apelad.
Related to my last: as a child I had a bag of marbles and absolutely no idea how to play the game.
In 1984, a young Russian academic started messing about with puzzle games on his computer. Twenty five years later we are still playing Tetris - the videogame that conquered the world.
"I did it once. Swear to god, I did it once."
8-Bit Fatalities. Great, via Kottke.
Happy Star Wars day. May the 4th be with you.
"The main reason why the Sony brand wasn't really used in the early marketing of PlayStation was not necessarily out of choice, but it was because Sony's old guard was scared that it was going to destroy this wonderful, venerable, 50-year old brand." The making of PlayStation.
April 23rd, Shakespeare vs Donut.
When you walk onto the Enterprise to report for duty, you are handed a number of things: your room assignment, your phaser, your communicator, and your titanium spork.
Gameboy timeline by Jesus Diaz. Via iA.
"Gloria will bide her time. She will wait for the right moment to make them pay." Today's word is bide.
A solar powered squirrel for that empty spot in your yard next to the pink flamingo. Via Nerd Approved.
Clive Thompson on how the world ends.
Darn, MS took mine. Can we share? If I had to pick another TV show it'd be this, nice ending. But if I could pick any song it'd have to be something fun and upbeat by my Lady.
"After a few moments of melee the monster was dead, only to be replaced by another. 'OK,' Kevin said, paging though his dog-eared Fiend Folio, 'now you are fighting a hobgoblin.'" A great piece by Matthew Baldwin for TMN, Deified and Demagogued.
Spacesick whipped up the title screen for his own NES game. Awesome audio track.
WiiSpray. Looks like a blast.
Ride the random button at Craig Damrauer's New Math. Sweet. Via Jennifer Daniel.
You can't really mark any of these to market. Overvalued points in Scrabble, Monopoly and sports, by Carl Bialik for the WSJ.
There goes the morning, Tetris HD. Via hobronto.
Something to pass the time on your next flight, airplane bingo.
Forgotten electronic games.
Uh, yeah. Good luck solving this.
Star Trek collections.
The Graveyard. Brilliant and beautiful. Via Motionographer.
"...starts players off in Springfield, mired in debt, with impeachment 30 days away. They must amass cash by buying and selling items such as Senate seats before they're booted from office." An new app for the iPhone, Pay2Play. Awesome.
Before The Sims there was Jones in the Fastlane, the video game about real life, which has been faithfully recreated here for playing online. Consider yourself warned about how addictive it is.
We know from experience that when Josh Williams and the crew from Alamofire (nee Firewheel) make a crazy new thing, you should be sure to check it out. Case in point, their new location-based iPhone game Gowalla.
Remember a while back when the the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code and asked people to help them decipher it? It seems they now have a partial answer and judging by the 680 comments there a lot of geeks still hard at work.
Pretty sure this will end up at JC's house, Star Wars; The Force Trainer.
History chess.
Proof you know your stuff, take the Deep Font Challenge. Via Dirty Mouse.
For SD who just got his, the Snuggie Pub Crawl. Via GB.
The giant midwest mecca of nerditude.
House Industries would make Alexander Girard proud with their new line of products based on his classic illustrations. An honorable, posthumous collaboration.
One Mile Scroll. Like it says.
Wow, I'm not as nerdy as I thought. The Geek Social Aptitude Test.
"During the cold and dark Berlin winter days, I spend a lot of time with my boys in their room."
We posted this new retro Rubik's Cube last year, but now there's an entire new puzzle to be released this week by the original inventor, Professor Erno Rubik: the Rubik 360.
Who knew that Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog had so much in common? Via Jezebel.
Caution! Zombies ahead!!
Posted without comment: Diamond Dave Edition Asteroids.
A timelapse video of a nine-month-old playing with a roomful of toys is unbelievably mesmerizing. Via GOOD.
A complete walkthrough of Tag: The Power of Paint, the free student developed game that recently took home a big win at the Independent Games Festival. Via Beer or Kid.
Play the Eyeballing Game.
Every day, Tracy Chapstick takes a stock image and turns it into a single panel cartoon. Brilliant.
Harry Pearce's Typographic Conundrums.
Bloxorz. Don't start. Really.
Belkin's Amazon-rating scandal got us wondering why Amazon's odd-job board is named "Mechanical Turk." Turns out it's a reference to a bogus 18th-century chess-playing machine.
20 awesome vintage video game print ads.
Wow, four years to make, 3000 bucks and 60,000 pieces. An amazing Star Wars Lego diorama.
Is it a plane? Is it a postcard? No it's a postcard aeroplane!" I want one.
"Taco Bell is the closest thing we have to a church." So Paul and Caragh Brooks got married there.
Way too much fun with craigslist. (Thanks, Nuge.)
I don't know how I lived before learning about the mesmerizing world of competitive cup-stacking.
Lego Steampunk.
Smart print campaign for Scrabble from JWT Chile.
Put bacon on a website. Like this.
"Daredevil Todd Lamb sets a new world record by looking at 25 images of fish sandwiches in just one minute. The images were held and dropped by Opus Moreschi in a manner similar to Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues video." Via Waxy.
The Periodic Table of Awesoments.
My favorite part is when Mr. Bavaria draws the wrong card and then she yanks his tail off and his butt explodes. Man, I love that part.
Mactini.
If you ever visit Portland and it snows stay off the roads as this video shows real life bumper car action. The sound effects are a nice touch. Via WK
Cracking the Treasure Master code, the forgotten Nintendo game that offered cash and prizes for passing levels.
20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated in LEGO. Like it says.
Warning, addictive. This is Sand. Via swissmiss.
Get the edge in your neighborhood snowball fight with this 50' snowball launcher.
Auditorium, a game of redirecting streams of light. "There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle."
Liven up your nativity scene Catalonian-style. Semi NSFW, or let's just call it "tasteless."
So you know, the oldest lolcat found to date is from 1905.
A preview of the wonderfully bizarre Gabo for the iPhone.
Runners up and other "best of" lists to expand on Matthew Baldwin's 2008 Good Gift Games survey.
Big vintage fun with scissors and paste from Agence Eureka.
Robbie Cooper's Immersion, a look at people's faces as they play video games.
"Ah, nothing evokes the festive holiday season like tearing through a horde of zombies with your yuletide chainsaw." From the 2008 edition of the always excellent Good Gift Games by Matthew Baldwin.
Stop-motion animation by Pes, for Scrabble.
This is why we love BibliOdyssey so. Five centuries of board games. I'm ready for a round of Jagd auf Kohlenklau (Hunt the Coal Thief).
What board game are you?.
Via Glass: Make your own custom Muppet at FAO Schwartz. Too cool.
So cool, I want one of these Fly Stick Van De Graff levitation wand.
Pick any date from 1888 to present day and get that date's New York Times front page as a jigsaw puzzle.
Tech demo videos for The Unfinished Swan, a game set in an entirely white world where "players can splatter paint to help them find their way." Via Denver Egotist.
Trailer for de Blob, "the best painting-themed video game since the obscure '80s arcade title Make Trax." More info here. Via Hue.
The Brick Testament.
Local note for NYC today. A race in Central Park, bring your own Big Wheel.
Proving you can make a blog for anything, Upside Down Dogs.
Noted without comment, Palin as President.
The UK's Harriet Russell challenged her local postmen and women with a series of brain-teasers as addresses. Cool.
A Smart car monster truck. Via Geekologie.
This apparently could only be played at night but what a blast it would be to wait at a stop light. Ampel-Pong. Via The Design Blog.
Play Palin Bingo tonight at your VP debate party.
Matt Hinrichs' View-Master collection. Fab.
For Spencer (and JC), dual glow sabers for the Wii.
Learning from Liberty City. Via City of Sound.
Wow, someone built a huge Lego aircraft carrier.
The original Dungeons & Dragons manual from 1974. Via Rory's.
"Can you guess where my accent is from?"
Fun with Sticky Notes.
"The Challenge of Ages!" Dog or Wizard? Via Byrdhouse.
Robots. Nuff said.
For fellow Battlestar geeks, Tigh/Roslin 08.
Afternoon project for BB and MS, create a Harry Potter avatar.
Forget the princess dolls, keep it real with the kiddies and get them their very own Haz Mat Unit Small Theme Set. Ready, set, create your own disaster!
Breaking news from the back-end of the Olympics, DFL, celebrating last-place finishes.
Retro space arcade cabinet.
30 years of the Lego minifig.
Sweet, someone used LEGOs to make a level from Donkey Kong complete with rolling barrels and a jumping Mario.
My Tiny Jesus.
Ok smarty pants, see how brilliant you are. You have five minutes to guess the 100 most common words in the English language. Via MeFi.
Looks like the Blogging Merit Badge is a particularly popular item in this set of Boy Scout badges for adults.
Sweet! I can build my own Chicago for my studio here in Boulder. Now where's the 400 North May model?
So you know, an illustrated guide to every stupid cable you need.
Um, probably only suitable for Herman Munster's kids.
For the kid in everyone, Fossiliced.
Fab, Super Bastard box art characters.
Fun with food, the Canteloupe Death Star.
What happens when creatives hold a Pinewood Derby contest? Check out the Typemobile and iPhone Car.
Looking through this collection of vintage board games from the Summer Exhibitions at The MoOM got me thinking about an old favorite, Mille Bournes, the French road race card game. Here's the current version and the lovely vintage card design.
"A little over a year ago, the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code. It has been sitting in our files all that time and we haven't had much of a chance to look into breaking the code, nor are we particularly expert at this! If you have a cryptological bent, perhaps you'd take a crack at this code." Thanks Jennifer.
Play with sand.
"You can use your own ride if you don't want to rent a car. Although this is the Rental Car Rally, we fully understand that some of you may be true ballers and have a nice whip you want to use to humiliate your competitors." Via Mefi.
Sweet, an awesome Lego Star Wars Imperial base.
Gizmodo looks inside the Lego secret vault that contains almost every set ever manufactured.
Listened to this weekend: a story on NPR's Weekend America about MIT's Mystery Hunt and Field Tester Francis Heaney's decade-long involvement with it. And to prove that we really get around, it should be noted that Weekend America is regularly hosted by another Field Tester, John Moe.
Happy Canada Day: The Quiz.
It's always worth a look when Matthew reviews a new board game, today it's "Fury of Dracula."
Barbie does Hitchcock.
"Puzzle Farter needs a love interest, someone who can match him toot for toot. We think Rachel McAdams would be perfect." John August on if film studios developed videogames.
Make your own Star Wars crawl.
Awesome, soon to be on the market the Wii Star Wars The Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels game.
Hey co-workers, my birtHDay is in August.
Doolittle for Rock Band. Leaving now to buy PS3.
Two buddies + one mountain bike + one mondo mud pit = Muddy Buddy.
Stick it to the man, play games on his dime. Happy Friday everyone, 200 Flash games for your amusement .
Sporepedia.
Seriously?
Consoles I Have Known by Todd Levin and Jennifer Daniel.
The demise of the video arcade. Thanks Gome!
Summer = water slides.
An amazing Mario Kart wedding cake.
"You are not trying to submit the funniest caption; you are trying to win The New Yorker's caption contest." Via TMN.
Obscenely wealthy comic book and cartoon characters.
Red Alert: Star Trek cake upsets nerds.
So you know, this map shows the extent of the gnome habitat in Europe.
Related to JC's earlier post, the legendary album Comedy Minus One starring the comedy team of Albert Brooks and You!
Co-Star, the Record Acting Game, "act out scenes opposite your favorite star." In this case you'll perform with Fernando Lamas in The King & The Chorus Girl.
John Bowers learns a lesson from Spirograph.
The world's tallest LEGO tower measures in just under 100 feet high.
Decipher, Pentagram's holiday cryptograms are now online, only five months after the fact. Here's what they looked like in the mail.
An annual tradition, my Pop's Derby prognostication, "If Big Brown can bolt from the 20 post across that mad field--and I think he can--he won't be caught." For the first time ever we both agree. As evidence I present Big Brown's entire career. Debut at Saratoga, Gulfstream and The Florida Derby. Three for three by a combined 29 lengths, yowza.
UT Loop!
AirJelly.
Here at CP, we've designed professional baseball uniforms and trafficked glow-in-the-dark ghosts but never at the same time.
Breaking the record for Mentos and Coke explosions.
TypeRacer, "a typing game that lets you match your speed against others."
The History of SkiFree. Oh, the many dull hours gladly expired by playing that game.
Tomorrow Nintendo will be offering free cab rides in New York City to promote the best game ever.
Fun From Yesterday, Atari game packaging tweaked just-so. Via Transbuddha.
The top 20 pop culture plants. CP fave Matango makes the list at #17.
A life-sized contraption from the game Mousetrap will debut at Maker Faire next month. Via Robot Action Boy.
Everything could use a little LOL. Especially The Renaissance.
900 lein air to frontside varial, 50/50 grind to fakie ollie over the transition to bluntside to come on, Pope, give someone else a turn!
Where On Earth Is Waldo?
No more Thin Mints?
"If you make mistakes in Javascript, people will cheat even if it's a font game." Say It Aint Slow learns a few lessons.
Refacing government tender including Emo Lincoln and KFC Washington.
Ordering right now. Get your very own totally cute, free paper robot, Mandelbot.
Major League Eating: The Game. So wrong.
For no particular reason: "Horseballs help with socialization", via C-Monster.
"Welcome to our website. Here you can donate your money to absolute nothing."
Laptop Kamasutra. Via FF.
The Jumping Brain by Emilio Garcia. Check out the prototyping photo sets too.
Download, print, fold, paste. Found among other things.
Making the best game ever.
PrintBall by de Ponk.
Old, but new to me. MacSaber uses your Mac laptop's motion sensor to play varying levels of Light Saber sound effects. Thanks Christine.
Crazy maze door chain. Via Geekologie.
Nerd Night returns, can't wait.
Worth1000's vintage ads for modern products. Awesome. Thanks JF.
Shadow puppet diagrams.
Name Luke Sullivan's follow-up to Hey Whipple, Squeeze This and the third-place winner gets a signed package of Charmin.
"Home businesses know they must seem successful to become successful. So they play Thriving Office while on the phone."
Visited while in NYC for the weekend, AC Gears on West 13th.
And Great Lyrics Quiz Rock Roll The by Matthew Baldwin at TMN.
Giant saxophone so large player stands on ladder and tons of other important things to be learned at Modern Mechanix, yesterday's tomorrow today. Thanks Marsh.
The Discovery from 2001 as a custom Lego kit, 3861 pieces. Wait until Spencer gets a load of this. More from Wired. Via Jonas' Dad.
Lego Nighthawks! Via Edward.
If this doesn't qualify for our "Games and Nonsense" archives, I'm not sure what does.
"In the hands of the wrong person [PowerPoint] and any presentation software becomes a dangerous weapon, a means of torture and incredible torments..." PowerPoint Karaoke, via DO.
Too cute, Star Wars Mighty Muggs Darth Vader.
So you know, the Table of Condiments.
The Art Army by Mike Leavitt is made up of action figures like this sweet Andy Warhol.
Nice video of the Newton Virus in action.
Noted without comment. FantaSuite Hotel, Burnsville, MN.
Super-geeky fun with hexidecimal values from Mr. Huff.
Crayon Physics Deluxe. Via Clusterflock.
Flight Lab Online Game for Red Bull by Less Rain.
Evaluate your fitness for the Swedish Armed Forces. Via 30gms. Awesome.
Almunia didn't even play, so this is not an excuse for Arsenal's 0-4 F.A. Cup loss to Man Utd.
For BB, bacon curls.
Probably the only reality show that MS would apply for is taking applications. Mr. Bourdain awaits.
Attention MS, our puzzlemaster: The Blue-Eyed Islanders Puzzle. Via Mefi.
Barack Obama is your new bicycle.
Nerdy greatness. Oscilloscope hacks for graphics. Via Waxy.
A board game for people who like to read, It Was A Dark & Stormy Night.
"I did a bunch of experiments and found that putting them in a dryer for three minutes works pretty well... After that, they're pretty much how they appear in nature." The joys of speedcabling.
Speaking of holograms: a clip from the 1991 arcade game Hologram Time Traveler and its opening.
Supermarket domino. Voila!
Sega's Michael Jackson video game. Thanks, Jamie!
"The production of Lego bricks is so accurate that only 18 out of 1 million Lego elements produced is considered defective." The Making of a Lego Brick.
Improv Everywhere is at it again, this time freezing in place for five minutes at Grand Central Station. More photos and commentary here.
Cool. A briefcase full of go-kart racing. Via GlyphJockey.
Noted without comment. A failed Croatian attempt to gather the most Smurfs in one place.
An interactive archive of Apple's homepage since 1997.
So I guess I got kicked off another My Little Pony Forum. Via Glass.
Line Golfer. Say goodbye to your afternoon. Via That's How.
Snopes on a Super Bowl premonition in "I am Legend". Weird, but I hope it's wrong.
For my friend Jonathan: "Practical joker has her friend's name changed to Ima Stapler."
16 Post-It note pranks, sculptures and murals.
Sweet, turn your television into a giant Etch A Sketch.
It's Kit Kat season in Japan. Who knew?
The MegaPenny Project. Via mental_floss.
So you know, the world's most controversial board games.
Our beloved Chicago Fire unveiled their new jerseys. I'm used to sponsor logos on European jerseys, but European sponsors seem so much more exotic.
Hey kids! "Watch actual atomic disintegration - right before your eyes!"
Bet the designers of Mr. Potato Head never envisioned him as an "octopus-friendly toy".
Posted without comment: Real Life Video Game With a Hamster.
Tetris in 3D.
Coming to a gas station near you, the F'Real shake-maker.
Mindstorms Autofabrik, robots that build Legos. Via Tolva.
Wow, now that's a wedding cake.
Limbo-Skating.
LEGO Indiana Jones.
Good thing it's Friday, just try to play only once.
My new favorite site io9 asks "What's The Fastest SciFi Super-Car?"
The evolution of our favorite video game character Mario.
An options market for the Nintendo Wii. Capitalism at its holiday best.
The Bad Gift Emporium. Via Design Crush.
The band Kiss, if it was made up of "Famous French Dudes."
Something to do with the Wii beside blasting droids on Bespin, not that I mind doing that. Wiiwiiwiiwii, the remote as musical instrument. Via Data Is Nature.
Rollerblading just got even sillier.
The 2007 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt List (pdf) from the spring. The 21st edition of a yearly competition of epic and obscure proportions.
All you need is a bill with a portrait. Money Faces.
MS' logic puzzlers are perfect for starting holiday family arguments. Einstein's Fish,
School of Government, Da Vinci's Other Code, Which Porn
Star Ate the Most Hot Dogs? and most recently, Let's Do Lunch. This year, find out if Uncle Lou is really as smart as he claims to be.
Pop-Up Books 'Photoshop Phriday' Contest. Tons of fun, via Boing Boing.
R2D2 Translator.
Noted without comment. A coffin company with a promotional calendar featuring scantily clad women.
Clever box art unveiling for Grand Theft Auto IV.
Ace Layer Tennis play-by-play man, Matthew Baldwin knows a good game when he sees one.
Completely Canadian. Crashed Ice in Quebec. Thanks Marshall.
One more thing to get that friend obsessed with Hello Kitty... bike tires. Via BB.
Just moved to the top of my holiday wish list: Toyota's 360-degree driving simulator.
Launchball, a highly addictive and beautiful game developed for the Science Museum by our friends at Preloaded. Don't say you weren't warned.
Put this next to the toilet-shaped house. Via TH.
SimCity Societies: A Greener Version of the Urban Jungle.
For MS, the Movie Timeline Quiz.
Peter Fowler's Monsterism is "a psychedelic parallel universe which is on planet Earth but undiscovered because of a complex weather system." More from Fowler in this Computer Arts interview and lots of fun stuff in the shop too.
Here in Boulder in the name of "creative nudity", they're gearing up for the Naked Pumpkin Run. NSFW.
The annual Bernal Heights Illegal Soapbox Derby was yesterday. Looks like some serious fun.
56 American roller coasters as seen from the front seat. Via Mefi.
One of the employees of one of our clients had a pretty good Friday night.
Marcus Trimble on two new games "in which rethinking spatial organisation will become the principle gameplay element." Check the videos. Sweet.
Trailer for a cool-looking new game called Fez. Via Jeansnow.
Crazy outlaw soap box racing videos.
And the unofficial winner of the Al Gore Nobel Peace Prize Email Alert-Off is...
Monocle interview with Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of Lego.
"I am not liable for any damages incurred through the use of these instructions. Even though it is very hard to hurt people with this, it may freak them out and get you into a legal mess. Use at your own risk!"
Here are a few "facts" about the Flat Earth.
Twinkle twinkle like a star, does love blaze less from afar?
Jon Burgerman's "little chaps and chapettes," created for The Sydney Morning Herald.
A homemade Rube Goldberg "Does Nothing-O-Matic" machine. Fab. Thanks Marshall.
Josh Budich created little pixely illustrations of every one of the toys in his voluminous Star Wars Collection. Nuts? Oh no, that's genius. Via Laughing Squid.
Matthew Baldwin's top ten card games that can be learned in two minutes.
Cast your vote for the ugliest pillow.
Chicago's Olympic bid committee unveiled VSA Partners' new logo today. If you're seeing our opinion as Olympic-logo experts: The star is a distinctive and underutilized symbol of Chicago, and the stylized, compact background is an improvement over the previous version. We like it a lot, and we're proud to live and work in "Applicant City."
Uh oh. Here's one to keep from the kids: Forbidden Lego. Bit gun oriented, but looks like fun to build.
Blackhawks goal! Download your favorite NHL team's goal siren ringtone from EA Sports.
Modern products in vintage ad layouts, from Worth1000.
"Breathtakingly obscene but also disconcertingly erudite... and exceptionally funny." Derek & Clive. Via Mefi.
Adding bling to classic art, Pimp my Ren, at Worth 1000.
Well, there you have it.
Sweet Tetris-y mini-game at the promo site for SimCity for the DS. Click the stadium.
People having fun holding magazines in front of their faces. Thanks Romain.
"The only reason people pay so much attention is because Outbreak is replayed on cable all the time and looks scary as s**t, however unlikely it may be." The 6 Most Over-Hyped Threats to America (And What Should Scare You Instead).
Not quite as elaborate as Saul's Circuit-Bent Furby, but reprogramming the Boogie Bass to say "pork" is pretty impressive.
So you know. How to make a tiny, realistic Atari 2600 out of paper. Via Rob Weychert, whose item in the Swap is justthisclose to being sold out.
Expensive tubular clothing and other generated ideas.
"Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A," the history of cheating in video games.
The Bacon Tomb one year later.
Minigolf, perfect for your next picnic or ice cream social.
For MS, the Crazy Cat Lady action figure.
Trailer for LittleBigPlanet videogame.
Chess strategies explained in plain English. Via Plep.
Addictive little flash game, Shuffle.
A few optical illusions that'll make you look weird at your desk.
For Spencer.
Plasma Pong is a variation of Pong that utilizes real-time fluid dynamics to drive the game environment. Via Mefi.
Super Bastard Box Art Characters. Created by Undoboy in Portland. Cha-ching.
How to solve a maze with Photoshop. Via Torrez.
The Swing Lamp lets you keep swinging into the wee hours of the morning.
Echoes of the London 2012 Olympic logo reaction in Studs Terkel's interviews with Chicagoans at the 1968 unveiling of the Picasso at Daley Center. (scroll down, sadly they're .rm files) "Is this the front of the statue!?" "It's supposed to be a woman's face!" "It's a terrible looking thing, as far as I'm concerned!" You'd be hard-pressed to find a Chicagoan today who doesn't love the statue.
Having cited Peter Saville in our praise of the 2012 logo, we're relieved that he had some nice things to say about it. Via The Serif.
As promised, our pro-London 2012-logo screed.
Just as I hit "post," London 2012 site posted a video that puts the logo in nearly exactly the context we'd imagined.
JC and BB, after a couple hours of thought, have decided to officially swear total allegiance to the 2012 Olympic Logo. Our ranks may be small now, but our forthcoming statement will explain how this logo will be universally loved by 2012.
PingMag on a paper craft exhibition in Harajuku, Japan.
Super Mario Clouds is based on Nintendo's NES game. Cory Arcangel modified it so that all that remains of the game are the white clouds on a blue sky. Via Media Art Net.
Remote Controlled Omnidirectional Toy Submarines. Via Raw Feed.
More Etch-A-Sketchiness.
Mad origami skills.
A senior toy designer at Lego's Concept Lab in Denmark provides a look into the making of Bionicle. Via Swensblog.
"Home computers!" Or possibly not. From Debbie Millman.
Finkbuilt on Christopher Goodwin's Trashballs project.
Lego Font Creator by Jürg Lehni, Urs Lehni & Rafael Koch.
Moneygami. Via Mefi.
While we're handicapping. Oscar stops Junior in the 8th. Twenty other ideas from Ring.
An annual ritual, my Pop's Derby pick. If you paid attention last year you won $14.20 for each $2 you bet. "Let's just go ahead and anoint Barbaro again, except this time his name is Scat Daddy. But it's the same horse, same trainer, same jock (Prado), same regime -- win the Florida Derby then nap for five weeks -- same end result, win the Derby by more than three. Surprising Tiago and favorite Curlin closest."
United's Departure Management Card. Really.
Cut Through the Roaring Thunder with Your Swing! John Gall on vintage Japanese baseball cards.
Noted without comment, Mysterious Flying Humanoids.
The history of an awesome game, Subbuteo Table Football. Found among other things.
Found on best of craigslist... "You: unsuspecting lonley sad looking boy on subway. Me: Girl with blue Urn. I spilled my grandmother on you, im sure you remember, If you see this we should do lunch... this time without grandma."
Great April Fools Day prank: Mummified fairy remains found.
Little Courtney's kept a low profile since her American Girl Place visit, but she couldn't pass up My Little Pony's World's Biggest Tea Party.
For John, cat sounds.
So silly it's perfect. Via Veer.
Get the Glass game from Goodby. Via Adgoodness.
Promo video for "Home" for PlayStation 3.
Finkbuilt starts Project Sandhopper by lettering the model tire sidewalls.
All Cupcakes, All The Time.
Lego is Nathan Sawaya's job. Via Cpluv.
Attention Pong addicts, here's five alternate ways to play.
Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. The site is in German but the sequence of photos describing the "making-of" this huge and tiny exhibit speaks for itself. Found among other things.
Intergalactic Self-Defense Mechanisms. Via gmt+9(-15).
"It was first released as part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows in 1990, but in 1992, it replaced Reversi as a pack-in game for Windows 3.1." The History of Minesweeper. Via Waxy.
Interesting demo video on "digital molecular matter" as it relates to the production of the new Star Wars video game The Force Unleashed.
"We found 731 photos tagged with bathroom and sign." I. II. III.
A bit much, but this would be SO fun. Making your own snow at home.
An idea we had but never followed through on (#2477 in a series). The Oscars Game from Practicalmadness. Sweet.
"Who are they kidding? Everyone wants to play Art Director." Via Adlands.
PicToBrick is software to generate mosaics from digital pictures. Building a portrait of Lord Vader from Lego seems like the logical next step.
Trevor Van Meter's Fly Guy.
This ClickDragType. There are no instructions. You figure it out. Via Jay Is Games.
Lite-Brite fun.
"What a queer bird the frog are." Irritating and mesmerizing all at the same time. Via Shoepal.
These photographs by Rosemarie Fiore were shot from video game screens while she played. "By recording each second of an entire game on one frame of film, I captured complex patterns not normally seen by the eye." Via Waxy.
"Move the circles. Have some fun." Via Notcot.
Marcos Vilariño recreates historic photos in Lego.
Folding Yoda. Via Paperholic.
David Beckham is coming to the L.A. Galaxy. Good news because it will raise the profile of U.S. Soccer and give me more reason to hate the Galaxy.
Noted without comment. Crying while eating.
Buggy Saints Row, a new musical by Cabel Sasser. The next generation of American Musical Theater has arrived.
Fwis Readymech Series 002. "You'll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time." Thanks Coop.
"Full of conflict, contradiction, frustration, anger and the desire to save themselves and their world, a resistance movement emerged. The first of these resistance cells was the Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo." Click though to the vinyls. Epic.
What happens when you give a bunch of Macintosh developers three days to write a holiday themed application for charity? You get A Holiday Cocoa Duel. Vote for your fave. Via Daring Fireball.
What Happens To Your Body If You Drink A Coke Right Now? Guess I'll stick to tea and water.
Obsessional on Jim Walker and American Junior Classics, flying balsa wood military aircraft models starting with The Pursuit. Check the 'Sabre Dance" video too.
Create invading robots with your family as a holiday diversion. Thanks Z.
Play the tiny drum machine but don't start if you have work to get done. Via Paperholic.
Matthew posts the runners up and various other Good Gift Games that didn't make his "Best Of" list.
Playground time in the bitter cold is a lot more interesting with play structures like these found in Russia. Very cool. Via BB.
Matthew Baldwin's annual list of favorite board games for TMN.
SketchFighter 4000. Wicked. Via Daring Fireball.
"I have always wanted to make a Lego creche, but the camels' knees were giving me trouble." Check the nice hand drawn assembly instructions.
Who can forget all the fun had with "Yo! Noid!" or "Irritating Stick"? The 50 Worst Video Game Names Of All Time. Via Zulkey.
"My policy. Paper toy is: Replicable, but Shin makes only 1 model per design. Distributable, but Shin's toys are only for the designer and Shin. Mass-Producable, but all Shin's toys are made by his hands." --Shin Tanaka. Admirable and beautiful. Make you own too..
I miss poking out little rectangles on a computer card, but voting online for the NHL All-Stars was nearly as fun.
Vinyl Collectibles has posted the ten finalists in their toy competition. Choose your fave and vote which should be manufactured. I'm partial to Combo.
Gizmodo posts some secret Wii warehouse photos.
How well do you know these logos? Annoyingly difficult.
First it was The Sims, now Will Wright plans to shake up the gaming industry once again with Spore.
A History of Lego.
Make sure your kids become obsessed with transport maps, too. The vintage Connect Game, by Ken Garland for Galt Toys. Via Swissmiss.
The entire Nintendo World Book just for you. Complete with screen shots of new Wii titles.
Percentage of chart that resembles Pac-man.
From Cy: The Hexadecimal Colours Game. I'm sort of proud to say I'm not very good at it.
The Bears are great and all, but neither Chicago paper mentioned that American motorcyclist Nicky Hayden won the 2006 MotoGP championship yesterday, beating favorite Valentino Rossi, who's dominated the sport for the last few years.
Fun for lunch today. Pesticide Safety Bingo. Via Kristin.
BBC documentary about Tetris and its creator Alexey Pajitnov. Awesome. Via Kottke.
Dave Selden has built a large-scale version of Brio's Labyrinth game as a Mini Golf Hole for the Annual Holocene Mini Golf Art Invitational, tonight and tomorrow, in Portland. So cool.
KG posts a puzzle at The Outfit.
Become the most powerful warrior of the computer world. The Discs of Tron, 1983.
"Dexterity with the button wins game shows. Intelligence helps too, but on its own, you only win the Rice-a-Roni." Game show buzzers and buttons. Via City of Sound.
You might want to bookmark this for later as there's a lot to it. Well worth some study though is Blast Theory's Day of the Figurines, a pervasive game, meaning one "that takes place in and is interwoven with our everyday life." So very cool.
Bloc's very nice promo site for EA Sports FIFA 07, This is the Season. Via cpluv.
With our Lost action figures ms, se and I can reenact scenes during lunch.
If you're handy with scissors and/or an exacto you'll find tons of sweet projects linked up in Jaime Zollars' Paper Forest, including these grumpy little 'Poppers' from Rob Ives.
It's a bit like our Photoshop Tennis concept, but in-person with drinking in the audience and maybe on stage too. The Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament. The deadline for entrance is approaching.
The Executive Coloring Book, 1961. Stay within the lines. Via Adland.
Customize your Mario Kart for the DS, a great idea from the pit crew at Firewheel Design.
Print ads for video games, 1982. Via Kottke.
"Honda Jazz post-crash image of a full-frontal crash test. Clearly, there are signs of cabin intrusion and complete collapse of the crumple zone. Fortunately this was a prototype model."
Web economy BS generator. And in case that's not enough. From Bill.
Low-tech, highly addicting lasers and mirrors. From Angela again.
Fluid dynamics as demonstrated by thousands of video game race cars.
I have a few nominees in mind. The Search For America's Most Dysfunctional Family. A web promo for Little Miss Sunshine.
Damn. And I had work to do this morning too. CuberXtreme from Digisonline. So cool.
Not sure how anybody ever figured this out but click on the bottom window in the lighthouse 31 times. Wonder if that was in the Sears design brief? Via Newstoday.
Secret Fun Blog's Party Gags, a boxed collection from 1959.
Collector's Guide to Hot Wheels Errors.
Can You See Me Now? "Players are dropped at random locations into a virtual map of the Banff Centre. Tracked by satellites, Blast Theory's runners appear online next to your player. The runners use handheld computers showing the positions of online players to guide them in the chase." Via Mefi.
New styles in helmets for Junior's interplanetary junkets. From Finkbuilt.
So you know. The 11 Most Groundbreaking Game Controllers of All Time.
"And the Lord said, Lo and behold my new corduroys or shalt smite ye." Cultspace, roll your own.
The 1984 Playset goes on sale tonight at 9pm EST. Via Gizmodo.
Atari 2600 Catalogs. Via JSM.
In the spirit of MS's Einstein's Fish, here are some very difficult analytical puzzles, especially "The Warden."
Stan saw this archival spot for Atari's Pole Position (they don't make em like that anymore) and it set him off. So much so that he scanned the entire Atari Game Catalog from 1981 as a service to the nation.
Simmer Down Sprinter is a game controlled by a player's bio-feedback. Essentially it's a game of competitive relaxation. Here's the 'making of' information. Thanks to Jason Koxvold.
So you know. How to make a Paris Metro ticket into an X-Wing Fighter.
I'm not sure what's going on with this cool tabletop interface but luckily the site of the team that created it is easy to navigate.
Veer's third Summer Activity Book is in the mail and available as a PDF and includes games like "Space Race: Which Kern is Kerned Correctly?" and "I Designed This Font." Big fun.
Relive the final ten seconds of Zinedine Zidane's career.
"Keep your grail safe with this bovine trebuchet." Monty Python Cow Catapult Deluxe Toy Set.
Today we're fielding Bedaldo, Seila, Susisco, Dawsoninho, Delahoydio, and Coudinhosa Pau. What's your Brazil Name? (Via Culpinho)
This summer, revisit some good old Deadly Playgrounds of Yesteryear. After a weekend conversation lamenting the disappearance of old metal merry-go-rounds, I'd love to spend some time here.
Educational Software Classics. Lots of info that'll result in fond memories, including loads of great stuff on the making of Oregon Trail.
Finkbuilt on Circular Saw Blunders in 3-D. "So, before you hit the woodshop, do youself a favor and strap on the old 3-D gogs and review these images before something really grisly happens."
Pac-Mondrian.
Conquer the Video Craze, helping make "your quarters go farther.
Making the bathroom fun again with these interactive urinals - you're in control now.
Gallery of homemade Super Soaker modifications. Via Cynical-C.
"If this year's Big Brother house doesn't drive its inhabitants up the wall, the designers will have failed. Even the urinals aren't safe from prying eyes." Tour the architecture of popular surveillance.
The Evolution of the Nintendo Controller, at Pingmag.
"It's like a chicken with Parkinson's disease trying to dance to hip-hop" - it's the bird flu dance.
Crockett and Tubbs, Bartles & Jaymes, Hall and Oates. All the great '80s duos are back. So if the names "Powell" and "Peralta" are forever inseparable in your mind, you'll be as thrilled as I was to find out they've reunited, too. Thanks AsianMack.
The best worst ads from 90's video game magazines.
Mmm, baby, you smell like Play-Doh.
Coop fulfills a life-long dream and gets invited to design two Hot Wheels' roadsters and, of course, they look great. Via Boing.
Re: "The dude in a furry suit." Say hello. Via DDC.
Atypyk's Have Fun With Money. Via 30gms.
"During a chessboxing fight, the control of aggression plays a big role. That's why WCBO's motto is: 'Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board.'" Via AdHurl.
The web is good for answers but sometime even better for questions, Like "What if you could control the intensity of a nearby fire while jumping on a trampoline?" Via Make.
The Helmet Project: Just about every pro and college football helmet since the 60s, lovingly and consistently illustrated.
Fruit Game by Massimo Barbierato.
Luke covered himself in microphones and walked into a room full of speakers. Totally dumb and totally irritating. And I dare you not to click on it. Via Mefi.
A deceptively simple way to kill a few hours: Falling Sand Game.
Steve Lodefink is getting started on a new project, The Desktop Retro Pong Console.
"Expect conversations in Mad Ape Den to be time-consuming affairs, with long pauses as participants grope for three-letter equivalents for everyday sesquipedalianisms. Via Kottke.
In looking up links for that last post, ran across The Dragon's Lair Project. Incredible amount of information. Even has a lot of info on the first (only?) holographic game, 1991's Time Traveler. Amazing.
Dick Wilson: The Ace of Lace. Make it stop!
Cool Aces? The Ace of Spades in military history.
"The clients you'll be working for, the same ones who hire me on a regular basis, couldn't care less about 'art.' They want simple, sensible layouts." Uh-oh, they're onto us. Via Observed.
Statistics never lie. Unless, of course, you need them to.
"What am I supposed to do?" "Dive deep into the space, eat and evolve."
Make a board game kit. Via Retrothing.
Football Heroes.
The Silly Walks Generator. Via AdFreak.
The Neverending Kubricks - no, not that Kubrick. These are the Japanese collectible doll series launched in 2000 that attract international designers.
Play God in Veer's new isometric world. Big fun.
Maybe now BB won't have to explain this for the hundredth time.
"Getting converted has never been so easy." Plug-n-Pray.
"My hovercraft is full of eels." From the Hungarian phrasebook, and other ones too. Via GaB.
Donkey Kong is "lame." Tetris is "boring." Child's Play Part II.
Shin Tanaka's paper model collection. Via NT.
Let them sing it for you. Excellent. Thanks Ken.
Top 5 Ways to Die in a Video Game.
Chris Phin writes, "Because sometimes, you have to cover an absent colleague's desk with bread."
Fastr- a Flickr game!
Anagram your way out of a Countdown Conundrum. Good luck!
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has a lot on his mind this week, so he's a little behind on his blog.
Give this five minutes and then try to not give it fifteen more.
"When very simple calculations are performed quickly, the brain lights up like a drunk at a drunk convention." Portable video games that make you smarter. Via DF.
Fractal imaging of Tic-Tac-Toe. "Winning strategies, as a matter of fact, could be thought of as spatial movements through the fractal toward those winning games."
Stuffed felt monster tutorial. Via Make Ready.
Soccer governing body FIFA has ranked the U.S. 7th (tied with Mexico) leading up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. We'll play Ghana (50th), Italy (12th) and the Czech Republic (2nd) in the first round. I don't know about "7th" but we have a good team and I like our odds. The drag is, if we actually make it out of the first round, chances are we'll be smeared in the next game by Brazil (1st).
"A player may pay $100 immediately upon reaching jail to be placed in Just Visiting, and thus avoid a turn in jail. Good lawyers are expensive." House rules for Monopoly.
"I know that my teammates read this blog religiously (#39 has it read to him), and I don't want to implicate myself further" The Chicago Blackhawks' Todd Simpson on practical jokes.
'70s skateboarder Ollie Gelfand, inventor of the trick known as "The Ollie" has filed suit against several companies using the name "Ollie" for commercial purposes.
The best gaming mouse pad you'll ever make.
Ross writes, "Here's a fun diversion, it's an online flipbook animator from Italy."
Play Lord of the Flies courtesy of Nobelprize.org. You'll need to know the Goldman novel pretty well. Other games and simulations here. Via Mefi.
In Pictures, Toy Story. The BBC follows "one toy - a racing car - from conception through production to distribution and market."
Awesome Skills on Taiko Drum Master.
My favorite internet holiday tradition: X-Entertainment, following the R-rated drama of the Playmobil Advent Calendar. The Mare Winningham jokes get funnier every year.
Unrealart, "created using data from the game 'Unreal Tournament' ...the bots play custom maps I create. Each map has been pathed so that the bots have a rough idea of where to go in order to create the image I want." Via Select Parks.
Glitch Browser.
Shoot Me If You Can, organized team-game using cell-phone cameras as weapons. Via Ashley.
"Giant Checks" generally ship within 1-2 days.
"We have been flipping coins every five seconds since midnight on January 1, 2005."
This could be the web's smallest Asteroids game. Good luck playing it without going blind.
A nice feature over at Things: Scans of Abbat Toys' Animal Families.
Lauren writes, "Saw your link regarding ambigrams this morning. Please check out John Langdon's site, it's much more aesthetically pleasing." Agreed.
Can you name all 74 bands in the image? Good luck. Via Adrants.
A2Z.
Marge lets Norah see Sharon's telegram.
Caws weir knot taut bettor.
I, rearrangement servant.
"Ambigrams are words or phrases that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, most commonly right-side-up and upside-down." Make your own here.
Designer Oreo's... One or two can't hurt right? Via Design Sponge.
Barnacle Press has collected a bunch of 'Papercraft Toys' from the LA Times Kids's section in the '20s. Real keen. Via EPoE.
Icon Story. Via Airbag.
More cut and paste paper toy vehicles. Nice ones too. Click the trafic sign to the left under the 'B' in Boooon! City for the pdfs. Via Sparkplug.
Readymech paper robots. "You're gonna need a roll of double-sided tape, an x-acto blade, some nice thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time, depending."
"This online database (compiled by 80-plus contributors with seemingly endless time on their hands) is a mind-numbingly comprehensive catalog of the famously faux telephone numbers used in film and television." Found among other things.
Bubble Wrap. Bookmark it.
Flickr soduku game. Via Lifehacker.
Here's the second BB. Fab, The Movie Scale 1:87.
64 Mario icons for your every mood. Via Airbag.
There's still time to become an NHL star before tonight: NHL Academy.
Photoset of the day: a collection of electronic games, circa 1978. Via Byrdhouse.
Hockey's Back. Let's Go. My brother and I have a complicated, season-long, epic wager going on Khabibulin vs. Lehtonen (More on that later).
The World of Major Matt Mason, an obsessional on late '60s Mattel toy line. Cool. Via The Cartoonist.
Stumbled upon. No comment necessary.
Make your own little, adorable Papel Continuo printer logo icon thingy, take pix of it and you could win a PC tee.
"Basically, it's just Word Association with doodles instead of boring ol' words."
The Lame Toy Character Generator from TPDesign.
What are the chances you could use the pattern provided to fold up this rhinoceros like N. Terry did? Not very good I expect.
Brian McCarty takes pictures of art toys. Via DiK.
Rubik's Cube Solver Enter your cube's configuration in the space provided below, and hit Solve.
With some scissors and glue you could recreate Johny Henry versus The Bart in 1981's Inaugural Million or maybe just make one and create Big Red's Belmont victory.
Oh what a glorious day. LEGO Digital Designer is available for Mac.
Grappa, Delayed Trace.
An indoor remote-control plane, The Butterfly.
For dw: Yoga Kitty.
Crap, I'm on the damn short bus. Can you pass third grade?
Squirrel Fishing. Must be 4:15 on a Friday.
Quick. Name the logos, at SvN.
Photo of your fridge project. Uh-huh.
People who like this sort of thing will find this exactly the sort of thing they like. 99 Rooms.
Åsk writes, "A Copenhagen ad agency wants a new name ...Because every creative out there has a drawer full of fun ad agency names for their future hot shop shops they figured they'd make a competition out of it." Win great stuff in this Adland contest.
Adrian's isometric constructor toy. Oh Lord, and I have so much work to do today. Via Sparkplug.
Instructions: Arrange the vertices such that no edges overlap.
Online Etch A Sketch. Yep. Via BSR.
Nice start going to this collection of crates and barrels grabbed from video games.
A Tribute (of sorts) to Ray Harryhausen. Via Sparkplug.
"Saturday night Michi and I finally assembled my Lego Star Destroyer. It took us close to 10 hours (we started around midnight). We let my webcam take a picture every five seconds and made a stop motion video out of the pictures."
The Haka is a traditional Maori war dance performed before every All Black rugby match. On the eve of the first tour test match with the British & Irish Lions, opposition supporters have launched a site where you can create your own Laka - a very British war dance.
Armin writes, "More than we all wanted to know about games and more time than I would want my wife to spend learning about games." Cribbage anyone?
What Kind of American English Do You Speak?
An unlikely beneficiary of New Zealander Michael Campbell's stunning win at the US Open is the WB television network, whose hit Tuesday night drama was actually named by Campbell's great-great-great grandfather 165 years ago. Everybody's talking about it.
For Mister Reidy, The Story of Man. "All headlines must be authentic and published. The headline must begin with the word 'man.' Standing on its own, the headline must seem humorous."
1/50 Scale Paper Models as PDFs from the Japanese Space Agency. Nice. Via BB.
Exquisitely designed $73,000 Table Football, complete with underplay lighting and micro-cast interchangeable 3-D heads. Via NotCot.
"Mod" of the year. Neil Fraser's Computerized Etch A Sketch. Via The Cartoonist.
Just because the hyperwarp is engaged.
20 Questions. Surprisingly good at guessing what you have in mind. Thanks Robert.
In the English Premiership Football League, teams at the bottom of the league are relegated to a lower division at the end of the season. For the first time in the history of the Premiership, no team had been relegated at the start of play yesterday, the last day of the season. BBC Video Coverage of a great day of sports action.
How to make your very own digital projector. Via hack a day.
"Here's a great way to learn about lots of different spacecraft." Free downloadable paper models.
A terrific interview with Steve Meretzky about designing "The Hitchhiker's Adventure Game" with Douglas Adams back in 1984. Via Waxy.
Following up on a post last month about Montage-a-google, Grant Robinson has created an addictive game based on the project. Guess-the-google.
I vividly remember a varsity baseball practice twenty years ago today when three Mets fans on my team could hardly contain their excitement about New York's new phenom. [reg req]
Scott Blake's Bar Code Art Zoom Flipbooks. Via the Presurfer.
Vladmaster Handmade Viewmaster Reels. Dig the series from Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. Genius. Genius I say. Via The Cartoonist.
Any DIY project that starts with tearing apart a cheapo clock-radio is worth a peek. The Apple G5 LED Hack. Via Jetless.
Patrick Calello shares the unbelievable, true story of Automoblox at Core 77. "...a product that started out as a school project and ultimately turned into a full-time obsession." Fascinating story, well-told and illustrated, about the birth of a super-cool toy. Cha-ching.
"But then he decided to exchange the trading stamps for something the whole family could enjoy." Via 2/7
Timewarp Space and Cowboy Toys. I. 11. III..
Robot Mania, collection of classic metal robot toys in a crafty flash display. An added bonus is Space Invaders, version retro de un clasico.
Welcome Rotofugi to the CP Support Mechanism team. Now go buy a toy. You deserve it. We have one ad slot open in March, sell us something and we'll sell you an ad.
My ACME Novelty Toy Gallery. Via Waxy.
Yes, this Escher in Lego has been linked in a lot of places but the 'construction details' are worth another look. Thanks Ken.
The Fourth Annual No Pants! Subway Ride took place on Saturday, January 15th." From Improv Everywhere.
These photos show models made from 9" diameter paper plates, during 1997-1999. Amazing.
From Rob and Co. at Preloaded, "Indulge in a little old-school gaming fun Defender style with "Heart Attack". Help Cupid prevent the love hearts falling to the darkside."
Sound of Design / 360, a study of spirographic patterns. Thanks Carlos.
Nevada Shoes Tree. Via our man in Toronto.
"HiÎronymus Bosch shows us how we mortal souls, arisen from earthly paradise, are on our way to the atrocious ordeals of hell via our unchaste lives on earth." And now you can collect the action figures!.
The world's smallest game of Pong. Via Things.
Pixlesurgeon interview with Amon Tobin on creating scores for video games.
The final piece of the kids' gift puzzle has just been completed at Kirby & Whitney's Rotofugi on Chicago Avenue. Perfect.
All 85 model kits Tom Daniel created for Monongram from 1967 to 1975. Including The Garbage Truck, "it's mod, it's mad, it's the most." Via The Cartoonist.
"Hot dog! Extra-good ways with weiners." Better Homes & Gardens 1956 Barbecue Book, nicely scanned and annotated at Eyeno. Dig the cheese flags. Via PCL LinkDump.
Build your own Enigma Machine, sort of. Via Plastic Bugs.
OrganicPoetry "is a game for social transformation by bringing people together in a collaborative manner." While it's "based on complex ideas in game theory, conflict resolution, social networking, and control theory, the game is extremely simple" as rules are made up as the game is played.
Orisinal redesigns. Two things to hope to be, beautiful and smart.
Hand Shadows To Be Thrown Upon The Wall, by Henry Bursill. "Indeed, the Shadows have often been displayed on the walls of my studio, much to the amusement of fellow-students, who would, I am sure, at any time bear witness to their originality." Via Uren.Dagen.Nachten.
I have fond memories of playing with rubber band airplanes. None were ever as elaborate as the Wright Model though.
Revive your old cassette recorder. Give it a new mission and enter the Recorder Race.
Did you know that there is a serious lack of government funding on the study of the History of Rubber Band Shooting? Neither did I. Welcome to Tim Morgan's Ultimate Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands.
The 1974 Estes Model Rocketry Catalog scanned. Oooh, and the 64 Centuri catalog too. Excellent. Via Eye of the Goof.
Playground Magazine is devoted to "bringing fresh information from the Hong Kong toy scene directly to the U.S." Part of the editorial team, Strangeco is hosting the back issues and there's lots to appreciate there. Via Netdiver.
Indulge in the utterly fruitless activity of cup stacking. Play online or find a stacking event or club near you. Via caterina.net.
Steinitz' Unified Theory and the hunt for the second urn.
Yes, mom, I'm at home. NO, I haven't left the country!
I love website registration, don't you? It doesn't get much better than this.
Oddbabies! Cute plushies born sewn in Chicago. Thanks Jeffrey.
Take time to play in the Treasure Box.
I know what OS I am, but which file extension are you?
Yeah, when I was a kid, I played with dolls. BOY dolls, back before they called them "action figures." My faves: Big Jim and Steve Scout. I totally rocked the Avalanche on Blizzard Ridge.
"This is a set of 24 playing cards which I made long time ago, about the age of 13 years of age. I and my friends really liked the gobots toys, and I decided to make playing cards of these robot transforming figures."
Play the game. You're white. To begin the game, move one of your pieces... The curves show potential moves - often several turns in the future - considered by the computer. Orange curves are moves by black; green curves are ones by white.
Quick and Dirty B767-300 Home Cockpit, version 2002.10.20.01.30
"One of the greatest love stories ever told in toys." An interview at Crown Dozen with Sun-Min Kim, creator of Uglydolls. Via Netdiver.
This ought to suck the last drops of productivity out of a North American afternoon, Shootin' Stars from Rob and Co. at Preloaded.
Traditional throwing games from the Virtual Library of Sport and the history of horseshoe pitching.
Even, if you don't have a horseshoe pit in your 18-acre backyard (like the Whitehouse), you can still improve your horseshoe pitching skills and put on a clinic.
Presidential puppets from milk cartons.
"Good ideas start with a sketch." Draw with your friends--collaboratively--GE-style. Via Danny Gregory.
Introduction to Cluster Ballooning.
For All Hallow's Eve. A Murder of Scarecrows, hopelessly addicting to play and beautiful to look at too.
:-) ;-P :-[
Low Cost Tips to Improve Your Railroad Modeling. Do yourself a favor and hit the 'site map' link. Yowza.
A very, very popular link on the iMac at home, Hyperquake's Candy Toss.
Ahem. Horny Chicken Club. Via Aeiou.
Reasonably Clever's Mini-Mizer: Render yourself (or others) in Lego-esque 3-D.
Unusual Churches and Cults.
Really, really expert Origami, including The Archangel Gabriel (second version).
Congratulations to friends and clients Pam, Rob, Drayton, and Bob as CP-designed uniforms move on to the LCS.
Mini-doc from the Tokyo Game Show last week.
I live for the triple triple.
Pongmechanik. "The relay computer controls the game. It consists entirely of used telephone relays, no semiconductors such as transistors or microprocessors were used." Via Veer.
The Evolution of Lego Sorting. I live in a Stage 3 household. Found among other things.
Marshall thinks that perhaps the Tropical Fantasy: Past Tense in Jamaica theme would be appropriate for a Jewelboxing campaign. Joey the Midwife, an advertising agency.
Paper Robot Wrestling League! Kami-Robo. The 'garelly' doesn't really help to figure out exactly what's going on here, but it's sure nice to look at. Via Witold.
In 1984, the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers 16 to 10 going on to win Super Bowl XX. Yesterday the Bears beat the Pack 21 to 10 at Lambeau field. Time for us to celebrate... "We are the Bears Shuffliní Crew. Shuffliní on down, doiní it for you."
I knew I should have never started this little fellow up.
Marshall points is to this ugly but interesting site. "Urban Exploration is the art of exploring places that people normally donít, or arenít supposed to go. There are several distinct branches of Urban Exploration; exploring abandoned buildings, exploring drains, exploring college tunnels, ëinfiltratingí hotels and other buildings still used, exploring bridges, climbing buildings and more."
This is why i'll stick to 1:64 scale modeling. The horror! Brilliant while it lasted, though.
A magnificent obsession. The most complete archive of photos of the Disney World 20K ride anywhere. "it kick-started a lifelong infatuation with the undersea world and more specifically, giant squids attacking things."
Blue Chamber. Reminds me of those long nights in my room playing 7th Guest.
Paperformers: Heroic Pulpbots. Via Gizmodo.
Now I know my brain is out of shape too. The MENSA Workout.
First it was guns, then box cutters, then toenail clippers, now you can't even fly with "the most important non-religious artifact in Canada."
"If you or someone you know is planning on using the internet, we've prepared this primer."
Lord Whimsey's charts and life instructions. You'll be doing yourself a disservice if you ignore The Whys and Wherefores of Blue Collar Drag from The Affected Provincal's Almanack. Invaluable.
Modern products in a vintage light, at Worth1000.
What your bookmarks list might look like if you were General John Abizaid of United States Central Command. What, no Fark? Thanks Mabes.
The first pet-doing-something-interesting link I've ever posted.
We probably should get a Robosapien for the studio, assuming we can teach him to pack Jewelboxing orders that is.
Looking for something else completely, I stumbled on this, "To obtain good, clear hand-shadows, there should be a single, strong, bright light, and the hands should be so held that they cast a sharply defined shadow on a white or a very light-colored wall." As with any subject, you can always find an expert or two.
"In 1998 I ran for Dane County Coronor. I ran on a platform of anti-zombification with a hunchback as my deputy. I won 37,000 votes or 25%. Pity America." Via Rebecky.
Ralf's collection of old Corgi and Dinky toys.
"Absolutely no chrome spheres over checkerboards permitted in this room."
Spend some time travelling the links from Interesting Idea's Roadside Connections and you'll find lots of Things 'n' Stuff. You can keep the memory of Tiki Gardens alive. Or decode the labyrinth of the griddle with a sketchbook, at Pancakes Across America.
If you want to learn to play Euchre simply ask someone from the Midwest. Reading this ridiculous attempt to explain the rules, I almost forgot how to play.
Google, 1960. Via *.*
Design Animals. Thanks Carlos.
Someone finally figured out how to use those cool assembly line robot arms for more than just making automobiles. I can't wait to ride this puppy next week. Robocoaster
Once in a while you see something that reinforces your belief in the power of the web. Like Hedgehog Cam for example. "Expect unparalled hedgehog access."
Strange, wildly clever humor just seems to come naturally to Jay Carlson, who maintains the website, The Plug. This month, he's putting out priceless Ming Vases on the sidewalk and leaving strangers voice-mail-based medleys of Phil Collins classics. The archives hold similar weirdness, like his wardrobe betting, mystery foods, and opening a lemonade stand.
Don't blame us if this goes horribly wrong on the Fourth of July and don't show this link to any boy between the ages of 10-15. Thanks Jimmy.
"The key to a good game, based on many year's experience with this format, is preparation and consistancy. Understand the proper or expected "political line" of the period and try to understand what important aspects of the line may have changed or be changing." I wish I had the option to sign up for this class.
"From the exuberant Art Deco disintegrator pistols of the 1930s, to the streamlined and futuristic tin litho sparkers of the 50s and the darkly post-apocalyptic nitro blasters of today." Toy Ray Guns.
Extreme Valet Parking.
Addictive fun with archery, Bowman. Via Veer.
Los Angeles to Bedford, Oregon in six minutes. Sweet camera-on-front bumper experiment. Via SlasHDot.
Famous nudes, now clothed, at Worth1000. Brilliantly done.
Need a 38 foot yacht or mental floss? How about a highly-deceiving disguise? You would then, of course, need a rubber chicken. And my favorite, a nail puzzle. All at A Cup of Ideas Inc. in beautiful Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
"Maschinen Krieger, formerly known as SF3D, is the brainchild of Kow Yokoyama, a prominent and influential Graphic Designer in Japan. First appearing in the early to mid eighties in the pages of Hobby Japan Magazine, SF3D became legend. The model kits produced by Nitto were the first truly multimedia model kits, and to this day are still the best injection-plastic Sci-Fi kits manufactured." From Jason Eaton who knows more than a little abut this sort of thing. Via k10k.
Chillbot's Battle of the Brands is down to the Sweet Sixteen and my office pool is still alive with a six-seed, "Punchy" from Hawaiian Punch, going all the way. Wait a minute. It's not still March is it?
"We don't really have much of a history. We could put one of those cheesy blurbs about how we're dedicated to making your life better, but we're sure you've heard it all before." Sure, and then you go and build this super sweet looking online Stratego game.
In detail, Dan Madden describes how to make your own Karate Kid (Part I) shower costume as worn by baby-faced, lead actor Ralph Macchio.
Took the kids to Uncle Fun yesterday and came home with a motherlode of stuff including some wind-up dinosaurs, Speed Racer magnets and a Wiffle Ball in old-school packaging. I'm proud of myself for resisting the urge to buy The Albino Bowler action figure.
"A new page to cope with the increasing amount of celebrity owned Rivieras I'm being told about." Sweet. Via America's No. 1 website.
Spalding Baseball Guides 1889-1939 at The Library of Congress. Click pretty much anywhere for interesting hardball stuff. Via the always watchful Plep.
"A futuristic robot polices the chaotic streets of a developing nation in this spec commercial / corporate piece." Unsettling. Created by The Embassy Visual Effects. Via TSR.
Here Is My Subwoofer and Here Is the Little Man That Lives Inside It.
<*)) >=<
That Jan Tschichold has a wicked left hook. Via Mefi.
I'm still stuck in the Crimson Room but I bet it's cool once I get out.
The Star Wars Papercraft Gallery, fold up a TIE Fighter to go along with your Gamera.
Katamari Damashii. Ha. Playstation game advert. Via Mr. Pants.
Pinch the tail. Suck the head. Burn in Hell. God Hates Shrimp. Thanks Kelli.
Superbad.
Make your own avatar.
Once in a while you see how valuable the web really is. Tracking an overnight package. Searching for an obscure movie credit. Evaluating historical mutual fund returns and of course, finding the Pantone color value of a Lego block using a spectrometer. Plus check Roy Lichtenstein's 'Girl in Mirror' in Lego.
Informative yet aesthetically pleasing, Instructoart by Matthew Vescovo, self-proclaimed Master of the Obvious. Via Beautiful Stuff.
StrangeCo, Purveyors of the Peculiar "...liberates mass-produced products from the ordinary confines of the toy box. We love toys, and we love art. Canít they just get along? Sure can!" Amen to that.
You might want to keep an eye on this later today. Via tmftml.
Superdeux, the Cliche People Company. Check the toys in the initial popup. Via Newstoday.
Joey Ramone Vinyl Action Figure. Thanks Kelli.
Precious but dangerously addictive, Starry Night at Orisinal. Thanks EMF.
"We are pleased to announce new Concord service from Sarscity to Amnisia. Sarsair has recently acquired 2 Concords from other airlines which have found no use for them." Via CL.
Question: Now where am I going get artificial hanging meats for display in my deli? Answer. Thanks Jesse.
Can't start a Christmas list too early.
"Here you will find information on my rotary fish tanks." Via Blurbism.
From the folks that brought you these, a game to pass a Friday afternoon. Via Metafilter
We rec'd our excellent Stalker Sticker from Sharpeworld but since you can't see the front bumper on any of our cars because of the snow, we put it on the wall of the CP studio washroom and BB took a snap of it.
Han Solo in Carbonite made from Legos. Via Marusin.
"I'm Ken Blackburn, and this web site is here to share what I know about paper airplanes."
"We were initially influenced by the Hong Kong vinyl movement and the Kubrick mini figure craze. We loved the idea of artists transcribing their work into three-dimensional figures and wanted to bring a piece of Asian toy culture to Canada." Magic Pony. Via All Maple.
"Friends, are you tired of the free-wheeling, undisciplined chaos of the non-corporate world around you? The power of middle-management is as close as your printer." Instant Bureaucracy. Via Blurbism.
Morphases is an ingenious interface for creating and changing human facial characteristics. Via Netdiver.
A bunch of receipts.
More found photos: women and dogs.
Our friend Pazen sends us this cheerful holiday message about peace, love and understanding. Has a bit of swearing, of course. Thanks, Paz!
Matthew Baldwin's compendium of interesting board games.
"This is a deconstructed Nintendo emulator that shows how sprites and sprite memory are handled while a game is being played. The intent is to show insight for how software and hardware work, given the relatively simple example of a minimal architecture from an old game console system." Brilliant presentation, captivating for geeks and non-geeks too. Via Kottke.
Play Mr. Picassohead.
At the risk of sucking what little pre-holiday productivity there is in the studio right now, I give you Online Foosball or 'Babyfoot,' if you will. Created by Naked Penguin Boy. Via February 7.
World's Dullest Spectator Sport. Via Reenhead.
I've spent the last couple days looking at ex-hockey-stars' web pages, and none can top Dave "The Hammer" Schultz's site.
Shanghai Mahjong. Available for free. On the web. Online. What else is there to do in the long winter evenings, apart from the naughty things of course? Enjoy; the graphics are wonderful. Via Kosmonautentraum.
A history of Crayola Crayon colors found at Heaneyland, the long overdue weblog from the author of the brilliant Holy Tango of Poetry.
Neil Armstrong, The Truth. Defintely not safe for work.
A little vroom vroom to start the week.
The Worst Book Covers. Truly frightening. Thanks Marshall.
I don't have a clue what this is all about.
Aaargh. There goes the last hour of the day. The Telescope Game. Wicked.
What is "Pythonesque?" John Fortune attempts to answer the question while writing a lukewarm review of the new Monty Python Autobiography for the Guardian.
History and photos of Old Chicago, the world's first fully enclosed theme park. Via Gaper's Block
RSVP, The Dinner Party Game. Great illustrations in this flash game where you try to arrange dinner guests at your next soiree. Programmed by Bulletproofbaby.
Taprats: computer-generated Islamic star-patterns. Via Deepfun.
Etched in Time. Check The Process: From Sketches to Etches.
Stealth Disco! Via Veer.
Akiyoshi's illusion pages, the latest works. Via Blurbism.
No matter how much I practice, I'll still finish well behind my wife and my sister. A great looking site, via TMN.
Corgi and Dinky boys toys collected by the excellent Cartoonist. Via Scrubbles.
The Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. "The inexplicable, the surreal and the strange." Via the always enlightening Geisha Asobi.
1000 Blank White Cards isn't a drinking game, but I'm going to spend my weekend trying to turn it into one.
"Am I Hot or Not?" meets the California governor debacle. It's about time.
Elegantly designed and engagingly smooth, this game lets you guide a little fleet of cybermice through a virtual world. It's like Neuromancer, minus the angst!
The Random Personal Picture Finder takes the default naming convention for popular digital cameras and generates random Google searches for those images. Surprisingly involving.
Grill chefs and gadget lovers alike: Behold the Octodog.
"tring-twitter FLIP-FLOP-CLIPPETY-CLOP HICCUP-AIEE *bradadada!* drip klackety" Reload for more, says M.
The Glasses Project. An experiment in repetition and the effects of Americana on strangers in the supermarket. Found among other things.
"It's just me talking and then they'll like, offer me like twenty-two grand a year or something."
While we're playing games. 20 Questions. Very smart.
Gambits from the Rock Paper Scissors Society, including my personal favorite, The Avalanche, "A subtle, yet aggressive gambit. Was the first of the Triple Gambits developed in the early 1890s (the others being The Bureaucrat and Toolbox)."
Keep your hand on the left hand wall at all times. Maze Maker.
Flash fun: the Helvetica vs. Arial showdown.
A compendium of tricks you can do with a Zippo brand lighter. What would you name such a site? Yep, me too. All that's missing is that signature petroleum smell for added authenticity.
Retrolounge - oodles of links of a retro nature. Could lead to a sleepless night.
As if I needed proof, the '90-'91 Penguins woulda beat the '02-'03 Devils. Simulation by What If Sports, link from largehearted boy.
Today in Wrestling History.
Practice your spycraft at Spooks, from the BBC, a portfolio of great games in the Special Operations Simulator, created by Preloaded.
A perfect Friday afternoon activity, "let's make some folding paper robots!" Via Pixelsurgeon.
Build a cool van. All you need is Acrobat, a printer, an exacto knife and some glue. Owen Nerfect says "It takes a keen mind and skillful hands to put it all together, but it is worth it in the end."
Have you got what it takes to be James Bond 007? Take the Secret Service Test to find out.
I'm not sure exactly what is going on here but I'm pretty sure it has to do with cleavage and test-tubes or something. It's all very campy and dramatic. Check the story titles, like "Death is a Little Man," and "Satan's Pygmy Horde," and the shocking-sounding, "The Terrible People." Note: Andrew of GMT+9 explains that "some good 'ol Japanese Science Fiction fan fun is a goin' on here. Ice Classic is a collection of old SF and horror pulp magazines with covers that have to do with ice. Cool. It's part of his Ice Museum... 'for fans of girls frozen in blocks of ice.'"
The Google US Puzzle Championship is tomorrow. It's too late to register, but not too late to get in a a little practice.
"We at Domino Artwork are truly obsessed with making pictures out of dominoes!"
DR is our studio expert on the history and application of bar codes in commerce. Scott Blake has taken things quite a bit further.
Sega Europe.
Tony from Melvis TN asks, What time is it?
Do not taunt the octopus please.
Jim Monroe's Travelogue: My trip to Liberty City. "I never feel like getting in a car is the best way to see a city." Via Blurbism.
Discovery Kids presents Whizzball, an ingenious and addictive game.
Crapping you negative: A web-based and playable version of the Donkey Kong, Jr. Game and Watch.
Iconomy writes, "The Museum of Counter Art is filled with the ugliest god-awful counters ever." Amen.
"The Retail Alphabet Game is one part puzzle, one part self assessment, and a pinch of postmodern art. When you select one of the editions to the left to play the Game, you will be presented with 26 alphabet letterforms, extracted from product and corporate logos within the United States. Your job is to figure out the source of each." Via Blurbism.
Cover art from The Aberee, a 1950s magazine of Scientology humor. Via bb.
Dan Burton's Flight Club, an online glider simulator built in Java. Super slick and dangerous for compulsive types. Hint: "The spacebar is niether a toggle nor something you hold down. Just hit it when you think you are in a thermal. If you are in a thermal the glider will start to circle. It will continue climbing until you press z or x; or until the cloud you are under decays. If you are not in lift the glider will shake its head and then resume normal flight."
Holy Virginity.
Royal Shakespeare Company plans video game based on The Tempest.
Play more.
WheelBarrow Freestyle. Gnarly.
1893 is a meticulously researched text adventure set at the Chicago World's Fair, transporting you back 100 years in history and 20 years in gaming. (Read a review.) Thanks Daniel.
While working on pulling a bunch of disparate information together for a client site, and appreciating how easy it has become, it occurs to me that while this is very funny, it doesn't seem so far-fetched. From Perry Hoberman's Accept Series.
The adventures of a plastic dinosaur.
YUSA is the Yugoslav Stuntmenís Association: "peril is their specialty" (galleries: I, II).
What time is it?
Games Kids Play. Definitive rules to hundreds of playground games. Via Memepool.
How Much Is Inside? More than you might imagine.
Internet Tennis.
For Valentine's Day, Edith asks, What could be cuter than Pandas?
Icon War. Via I Me Michael.
Design your own O'Reilly computer book cover. Like
this one.
Via Acts of Volition.
"Jim Coyle and Mal Sharpe roved the street of San Francisco in the early Sixties looking to 'terrorize' people in the interest of humor. Their surreal encounters were captured on tape, then rebroadcast on thier nightly radio show. 'On the Loose.'" Mal is also our pal Jen Sharpe's father and Jen has created an excellent site cataloging and archiving their work.
Pitfall, Activision's masterpiece for the Atari 2600, has been lovingly ported to Shockwave. Gold bars, diamond rings, and those goddamn scorpians. Jungle fever, circa 1982.
Nike Shox. "and he's off, like a bull with gas."
Please.
"The files below are examples of the kinds of sounds that can be made using one of my modified Speak & Spells." Via Newstoday.
"It only takes about 5 thousandths of a second for the potato to exit the barrel and blow a hole through the board." High Velocity Produce Ordnance. Via blurbism.
A celebration of the unity of your eyebrows.
How to blow 5 months of your life building a faux cityscape to improve the view from your kitchen window. The Cityscape Project. Via Mr. Pants.
Nothing but airline food.
While it can't approach the jaw-dropping kitsch wonder that is The Alcoa Book of Decorations, Alcoa's pamphlet, How to Decorate Your New Aluminum Christmas Tree, is still an important artifact of American bad taste. Via Scrubbles.
In local Chicago news, our friends at 37signals have redesigned their excellent Signal vs. Noise feature and Charles Foreman of SetPixel has contributed to the holiday mayhem with Snowglobe Simon, an addictive game with a fabulous soundtrack.
OK, let's do one more for safety, back to Position A Neil, marker, speed, and.... action.
Normal people will want to bail out before even clicking. Dorks continue please, The Evolution Of The Cost-Effective TrainCam.
One man's obsession with Fox's British biscuits. Revel in his glorious biscuit descriptions. Keep abreast of new biscuit releases. Get your biscuit on.
The July sun caused a fragment of black pine wax to ooze on the velvet quilt.
Does an obsession with pixel art have a historical precedent? Thanks and feel better Jen.
This is what the Internet looks like. WebCollage automatically combines images grabbed at random from various places, makes 'em clickable and reloads every minute or so. Always.
"...because opportunity doesn't knock anymore, it double-clicks!" Wow. Via Veer.
There's a nice spot for one of these next to the reception desk. Thanks Andrew.
Trish writes, "that no one understand the Canadian
attraction to curling, so here's on online version of the game." I'm not sure how this helps however.
Building up your "Homies" collection 50¢ at a time is for suckers. Now, what am I going to do with 250 sets of Hillbilly Teeth?
A little diversion for the time between volley's of today's PsT match. Lite-Brite
Whoa. There goes the afternoon. Thanks to Ratchet & Clank.
Lego + Escher = This.
Can't get enough Ellen Feiss? try ellenfeiss.net. A must for all fans of the questionably sober Macintosh spokesmodel.
Brain Taylor of Rustboy writes, The Checkershadow Illusion is the kind of thing that fascinated me when I was a kid, and still does for that matter."
Pearls before Swine reminds me of those evil math problems from back in the computer science days. If you get fed up, try playing Insaniquarium instead. It's twice the fun and requires half the brainwork.
Flash Matchstick Puzzles. I had a great book of these when I was a kid. I also remember there were lots of matches around the house even though my parents didn't smoke, nor ever lit candles. What was up with that?
During my quest to find something mindless to do on business trips, I stumbled across Nintendo's e-reader. It allows you to play classic NES games on your Gameboy Advance. Now I can play Excitebike on the commuter rail.
I'm not doing any work today. Know why? Because I don't feel like it. Instead, I'm playing The Chicken Game. And when I'm done with the chickens, I'm moving on to Headkicker II.
Another beautiful game from Orisinal. Get on your bike and fly a kite while playing Windy Days. Simple and simply perfect. Thanks EMF.
Did you know that the National Security Agency has a children's page? Isn't that sort of creepy?
The game consoles have changed and so has the advertising promoting them. Check out George Plimpton for Mattel's Intellivision system.
Still have some extra room in your cubicle? Want more toys? Check out monsterism.net - home to the artwork, watches and interchangeable action figures designed by Pete Fowler (better known for his work with Super Furry Animals). I'm no expert at currency conversion, but these things look really expensive. Via CatcHDubs.
Stikfas, "The highly articulated posable action figure." Hasbro just started mass producing them for the U.S. Perfect for reenacting your favorite John Woo scenes. Pick one up and watch your productivity level plunge.
Assemble your own crime fighter and send them off to protect the world from n'er-do-wells at the Hero Machine.
Lone Wolf
if you already know how to play Risk you don't need to read the rules. Snapcount is a clickety-fun game of world domination promoting The Sum of All Fears. Hint: As in the board game, North America is easily defended and a good place to start your campaign.
FIFA Team Planet by the always amazing Studio AKA.
Christopher Doyle presents the Mini-Mizer. With this tool almost everyone can be cute. From Reasonably Clever. Indeed.
The Gospel according to Lego, The Brick Testament. Via M. Sokoloff.
So a guy fires off an email telling his boss he quits. He then gets a call from the same boss telling him he's doing a great job and promoting him. Can he get to the email before his boss sees it? Play Pink Slip-Up and find out. From Dave and company at Streams here in Chicago.
Real signs, packaging, apparel, etc. in Japan adorned with "English" words and phrases. Apparently not intended to be read by English-speaking people and therefore hilarious when they are.
Planetarium. A puzzle-story in weekly installments. 'A girl with complete foresight but no recollection of the past receives a love-letter from beyond the end of her future. Guided by her friend the mathemagician, she begins a journey through the events which his calculations have predicted and her intuition has foreseen, towards the source of the curious letter. '
The Virtual Autopsy. From Leicester University. Good for Quincy wannabes; your task is to determine the cause of death for deceased patients, given their case histories.
L. Silky's Periodic Table of Funk.
Golf pros are preparing for next week's Masters, and so can everyone who plans to waste time at their desks following the early rounds.
Circlemakers.org, 'home of England's crop circle makers' - photographs, perpetrators' and witnesses' accounts and the history of England's most unusual land art. Imagine the sheer amount of planning and effort involved in making this.
A floating department store? A cow-breeding finance minister? Bribes to be legalised? The BBC rounds up this year's April Fool stories in the business pages.
Do not go to this site if you have things that need to get done in the next hour or so. Otherwise, throw a daisy in the dashboard vase and have at it. From wireframe in South Africa.
Brick Builder, the ultimate online Lego app. Build something cool, take a screen-shot and send it in and we'll feature it on the front page.
A small but amusing collection of ads from early computer magazines. (The "adult-oriented" one is quite, um, interesting.) And more videogame magazine covers. Anyone else have a more distinct memory of some of these issues than of anything they read in college?
Sims Survivor.
Perfect. Finally a video game I can master.Text-Based Pong.
Have fun, look tidy! GEIS, German Extreme Ironing Section.
In case you missed this a couple of years ago: I don't know whether it's the biggest interactive art installation on record, but it's certainly the geekiest—an entire building turned into an enormous game of Tetris.
Andrew Abb's tenure as guest contributor has ended, yet the links keep coming when I steal them from his site. Ken: The Man Behind the Doll.
Officially licensed toys and action figures are well and good, but welcome to the world of really bad knock-offs. It takes a little digging to find some of the really funny ones. A few to get you started: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Here's another small gallery with some pretty good ones, and an extensive Star Wars collection. (Another great site, The Island of Bootleg Toys, seems to be AWOL at the moment, hopefully not for good.)
Make your own candy heart.
"I've found a great little fishing nook just around the corner. let's go." Catch o' the Day.
A little reading for the weekend, The History of Video Games. Of course you already knew that "the original Asteroids was merely an updated version of Nolan Bushnell's Computer Space, which was really a jazzed-up copy of Steve Russell's Spacewar." Via xplane.
F9000 The International Federation of Anti-Gravity Racing. Slick promo site for the Wipeout Fusion video game.
For my next career move, I'd like to work at The Foundry. I've been honing my skills with my kids, but I fear that won't be enough.
I used to be good at this. But, then again, I used to be good at a lot of things.
They're all here; Star Wars, Simpsons, LOTR. Action figures galore at Entertainment Earth. I've got my eye on these however, or perhaps the Elvis Eagle Jumpsuit Doll.
Post holidays blues? You're not alone. Check the depressionman.
Old school computer game Christmas greeting from the elves at 4 Ontwerpers.
Some holiday fun from THREAT.
happy japan bakery love bunny.
Very nice. ASCII Star Wars. Most satisfying is the touching scene depicting the death of Jar Jar Binks.
Here's the first official holiday nonsense post of the season, from setpixel. Santa's Workshop Game.
Spelling your name in maritime flags has never been easier. Ò12.7.kg
What I want for Christmas: Reservoir Dogs kubricks.
The search for Molly. Created byHoudini in Sweden, a firm that has even more pixely portraits than we do, plus a raft of great work. Thnx to Tony.
khaki mobs rot = bookmark this.
Before you get into the next office war, you might want to bone up on the "Double-fisted six-shot pre-ban high cap band assault" and other rubber band firing techniques. With informative pictures.
Need a science project for school or fun? Here is your resource for making everything from a pinhole camera to a foxhole radio (you'll need a rusty razor blade and a cardboard toilet paper tube).
Not usually a big fan of first-person shooters, but this flash game is slick.
This is a pretty good way for Americans to learn about cricket, I think.
They're donning their toques, loading up on Tim Horton's and back bacon and taking over.
Wanna start the week behind in your work? Check online airhockey from electrotank.
After attending a course by Edward Tufte, I was full of ideas about information design and enjoyed his thoughts on everything from interface design to the presentation of scientific data. He made a great case for clean, simple web navigation while touting the superior resolution of the printed page as a display surface. He ended, as promised, with an example of what might have happened if the Gettysburg Address had been a PowerPoint presentation. If you haven't read his three books on information design, you're in for a treat.
Irratatingly attractive and pitch perfect. The Vibraphone from jetset.
Remember when four D-Cell batteries would supply enough power to play 30 minutes of Zaxxon at the kitchen table? Sure you do.
10£ Note ó .5 Queen Elizabeth + .5 Charles Darwin = John McEnroe.
The Postmodernism Generator. Create indecipherable literary essays at the click of a mouse, from elsewhere.org.
The Jim Morrison Simulatron.
"Because your boss thinks you're slacking off anyway." Pixelflo.
Forget high-def televison, the future of home electronics is pig television.
Everybody is linking up this stick figure kung-fu action and it's very nice, but if that's what you like, you better not miss threecolor's Gradientors.
Eugene, "The Marvelous Crooning Child," sings Hotel California and other pop classics.
Fraq frperg rapbqrq zrffntrf gb fbzrbar lbh ybir. Rot 13.
Damn that Cockatoo. Online slot car racing from tv4 in Sweden. Ò4.18.01.bb
How to build the best paper airplane in the world.
"MonkeyPhoneCall is a SM2C (Simulated Monkey to Consumer) new media venture."
Michael McNevin is a singer-songwriter I've never heard of, but his Etch-a-Sketch art is pretty impressive.
404.
Tracie Bedell 's Festival o' Links:
Stars on Crutches
Table of Condiments Gone Bad
Internet Anagram Server
Pancakes Across America
Alanis Morissette Lyrics Generator
Bad Candy
Orphanage of Cast-Off Mascots
Find-A-Grave
Things to Say When Your Losing a Technical Argument.
Somebody please help that raccoon. He needs a vet's attention right away. Amazing Japanese commercial.
Play pong online.
AIR (The Annals of Improbable Research) attempted to mail a variety of odd objects: from a helium balloon to a hammer to a deer tibia -- all improperly wrapped, if wrapped at all. See the results.
Personal home page of the guy who invented the UPC bar code.
The Alcoa Book of Decorations. "This booklet was published in 1959, obviously in response to the 'Aluminum the Wonder Metal' craze, to show the masses that in addition to being useful in pioneering lightweight industrial construction, one could waste literally miles of the stuff in making crappy craft monstrosities and calling them 'decoration'."
I'm not smart enough to know what this means but it's good fun.
"My name is Sabrina. I draw everything I eat on my Palm Pilot." I suppose this qualifies as some sort of eating disorder but I love pocketpig.com.
Very comprehensive breakfast cereal character guide. I had forgotten about the Fruit Brute, to be honest.
So you're playing your favorite board game -- let's say Password, or Masterpiece, or Rack-O -- and a fight breaks out over an obscure rule, which you can't resolve because you lost the cover of the box ten years ago when there was all that water damage in your basement. Get on over to the Game Cabinet.
In the category of things you didn't know you needed. Virtual Lite-Brite.
"Underwater hockey is as stupid as any other sport," says one of its defenders.