May 17, 2004

Singing Science Records — full MP3s for five classic science-themed folk albums (via) #

Video: Official Catwoman trailer — compare to the leaked trailer, they're marketing it without any dialogue (via) #

Carnegie Mellon students develop new NES games — the games from the class are free for download #

Coolio Maximo! — in which Jeff embarrasses his daughter (via) #

Andy Kaufman's new blog — written as if he's back from the dead (via) #

Springs World 3D — like a 3D version of Sodaplay, but harder to use (via) #

Video: New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS #

Celebrity faces used to collect discarded gum — like the urinal fly, it's UI with a purpose (via) #

Origami folding robot videos — it makes a decent paper airplane (via) #

Wired on PearPC, the first PowerPC emulator that runs OS X — albeit very slowly, but it'll get better (via) #

Vacuum Tube Agonizer — effects pedal that turns all audio into terrible noise (via) #

DIY ringtone software panics record labels — make your own ringtones from MP3s with Xingtone, user/pass #

Online gamblers and phone phreakers tampering with American Idol voting — text messaging is much more influential because it scales (via) #

Katamari Damashii FAQ and Walkthrough — gives translated information about the game (via) #

Sunflower, the character Disney cut from Fantasia (via) #

May 16, 2004

The Waxy Effect? — 15 pageviews in a half hour is closer to a "Slashnot Effect" #

O'Reilly's Open Books Project (via) #

Cameron charts the usage of "weblog" in the media — he's doing really great research #

Phatbot trojan suspect linked to HL2 code theft? #

E3 Oddball Roundup

Posted May 16, 2004 by Andy Baio

There were plenty of exciting high-profile games at E3 this year, dominated by sequels. Paper Mario 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and Prince of Persia 2 were among my favorites, but they’ve been heavily covered on 1UP, Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and everywhere else. Instead, I’d like to mention some of the obscure and bizarre titles that might fall under the radar of the mainstream gaming press, including my favorite game of the show.

Best of Show: Katamaridamacy (PS2)

I found the Japanese commercial for this game back in February, and was intrigued. Playing it at Namco’s booth yesterday, I was stunned by the originality and addictive gameplay. (It also has the best game cover art I’ve ever seen.)

Namco says the game will come out in the US, but they’re not sure when. Gameplay video (MPEG, 10 MB), desktop wallpapers. 1UP loved it, and I love 1UP.

Other Highlights:

Chulip (PS2). A “kissing simulator” with the goal of kissing underground-dwelling people to make them feel better. Read the 1UP preview, with screenshots. Punchline, the game’s developer, has a Chulip homepage, with videos and wallpaper.
XTango: Shuffling Roses (Xbox). Multiplayer ballroom dancing, with a control scheme similar to fighting games like Virtua Fighter.
Under the Skin (PS2). An alien comes to Earth, scanning and assuming the identity of people around town. When the citizens figure you out, they attack you with special moves and you lose your clothes. 1UP preview.
Odama (Gamecube). Military pinball, a bizarre mix of the Japanese battlefield with a giant pinball and bumpers. Original concept, but didn’t seem particularly fun. From the developers of the very odd Seaman for the Dreamcast. 1UP preview.
Rumble Roses (PS2). All-female wrestling game, pairing big-breasted characters against each other. The gameplay wasn’t very good, and the uninterruptible cut scenes were unbelievably long. But considering the game advertises a “hands-free” mud wrestling mode, I’m not sure the gameplay matters much. 1UP preview.
Ribbit King (Gamecube). Like Frog Baseball, but played with golf clubs instead. Adorable, and approved by the ASPCA. Trailer.

Anyone find any other unusual and exciting games this year?

Fish's Russian photo manipulations — more from his homepage #

Ctrl Alt Del's "The Rainbow Goes Smoosh" — to relax, I bathe in ketchup #

The Spot is back — new season of the original web soap opera (via) #

Snarkout on oil commodities — it's a Mad Max world #

Final Fantasy XI's player census — half a million paying users, and other stats (via) #

May 15, 2004

Stalking the Bogeyman — a writer confronts the man who molested him at age 7 (via) #

John Gruber's thoughts on Six Apart's two big mistakes — Mark Pilgrim and Jason Kottke have interesting takes, as well #

Cell phone ignites gas station fire — read the urban legend update on Snopes (via) #

New wave of identity cloaking P2P apps #

Web thumbnails with VNC and Firefox (via) #

Brad's thoughts on MT 3.0 — includes discussion of today's licensing changes #

Nintendo iQue, the N64 TV game — N64 console in the shape of a controller (via) #

May 14, 2004

Guardian UK interviews Ev — several good questions answered #

New trailer for Pixar's The Incredibles #

P-P-P-Powerbook — an excellent tale of revenge on an eBay scam artist #

Electronic press kit for the Neverhood — you can download this underrated game of the early CD-ROM era #

May 13, 2004

RIAA's reported losses contradicts Soundscan sales — more details at Musicdish (via) #

Test audiences trashed the Friends pilot — Smoking Gun has the screening report (via) #

Sex in wartime propaganda — amazing German, Japanese, British and American examples from WWII, Vietnam, and the Korean War (via) #

Napster gags Ohio University from discussing music fees (via) #

Google bug allowed Microsoft site to be removed — it's fixed now, but giving them a PR0 sounds like fun #

Video: Car commercial — the music is particularly peaceful (via) #

WaPo interviews eDonkey President — he answers reader questions #

eBay Yamaha seller gets owned — wait for the hotlinked images in the auction to load (via) #

Friends finale audio stretched to three hours — like 9 Beet Stretch for sitcoms (via) #

Movable Type moves to paid model — the new pricing, plenty of commentary in the trackbacks #

Long Half-Life 2 interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi — including a torrent for the new HL2 video (via) #

Passion and 21 Grams tops list of most pirated films last month — Finding Nemo and Shaolin Soccer (!) were the most pirated in the last year #

May 12, 2004

Google Adsense, now with images! — hey, Google: don't be evil (via) #

Google Groups beta UI — it lets you create your own groups (via) #