elioncho

Duke Nukem Forever has changed its release date from “when it’s done” to “done with it”. Fans haven’t stop posting since the news broke out. These are the highlights of an online conversation:

Dude 1:

QUAKE was always better than Duke

Dude 2:

At least Duke had a theme going instead of mixing all kinds of crazy shit at random (samurai sword guys, soldiers with laser guns, zombies, tar balls, demons, ghosts, lightning-shooting mutant polar bears, wtf)

Dude 1:

Lizards with jetpacks, flying mentalist octopodes, pigs in cop costumes… yeah, totally.

From the NES classic: Pro Wrestling

A truly winner in primitive engrish

The Polybius was an arcade game released in 1981 by a company called Sinnesloschen (german for sense-delete). The company initially installed a couple of machines in Portland, Oregon for testing purposes. The game had vectorial graphics and sounds far more advance than anything ever seen, but its story was very primitive and similar to Condor Wars – control a spaceship and shoot enemies.

Rumors began to spread that people who played it suffered from health problems, including amnesia, insomnia, headaches and nightmares. Gamers claimed the game had subliminal messages which appeared for fractions of a second:

OBEY, COOPERATE, NO IDEAS, NO IMAGINATION, CONSUME, REWARD INDIFFERENCE, SUBMIT, OBEY AUTHORITY

Voices were heard during the game and ghostly pixelated faces appeared. Some arcade owners said guys in suits came from time to time prompting questions about the players reactions and checking to see which were the high scorers. Soon after its initial release, a 13 year old kid died from epilepsy which ultimately was the reason the machines were taken off the market. Sinnesloschen disappeared from the face of the world too.

The only known picture of a Polybius

Parody in The Simpsons

A government project during the cold war years? A failed new approach on computer graphics that prompted epileptic fits? An all around urban legend? Have your say!

• Special thanks to Pablo who told us about the Polybius on our guestbook.

Hi guys,

I am terribly sorry for the lack of updates, I was on vacation and got totally disconnected from electronic devices. The good thing is that there are a thousand new topics to talk about in the next couple of weeks now that I am fully recovered, so stay in touch and be sure to subscribe to the new RSS feed. I chose feedburner which offers a lot more analytics and stuff, so DO IT NOW!

I’ve spent the last couple of days with my 5 year old cousin being my shadow wherever I go; telling me weird stories (theatrics included), shouting and jumping without any apparent reason and playing a little piano that I regret lending to him.

“GIVE HIM A NINTENDO!!!”, I exclaimed in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

It was clear to me why my parents bought me my first console. An easy decision after the amount of pain and sadness I was causing on them. I even used the word “Nintendo” to reference any type of video game console, just like they did.

Luckily, in the end my cousin got his console…

The next step will now involve his parents moaning about how he doesn’t wants to spend more time with the family, but hey, just don’t blame it on the Nintendo.

Merry Christmas to all!

Imitating Geordie La Forge’s VISOR

• The guy in the photo is James Rolfe

The Virtual Boy: A pair of goggles on a stand

As most of you already know, the Virtual Boy is considered the worst console made by Nintendo. Along with the Sega CD, Sega 32X, 3D0 and other assorted calamities, it miserably praised its own crapiness. Believe me, you could read it between lines:

“Its unique design eliminates most external stimuli, totally immersing players into their own private universe with high-resolution red images against a deep, black background“

…just in case you got immersed in a coma after reading that:

“Every Virtual Boy game has the option to pause automatically every 15-30 minutes to remind the player to take a break, to prevent undue eye strain and possible headaches”

So there you have it, Nintendo kindly warned us all about this sunken ship since day one and no one listened.

Now let me take you on a brief journey to the past and share a related story to the “true 3D graphics” machine.

1995 – Release Year

At my hometown Barranquilla, Colombia, there was a guy named Juan Carlos Díaz, also known as “muro” (the wall), due to his great (but overhyped) goalkeeping skills. “Muro” was the first guy I ever saw playing the Virtual Boy at a local video game site called GAMEMANIA. Immediate fear of catching eye disease prevented me from placing my eyes on those binoculars. The funny thing is that the only guy I actually saw playing it was “muro”. He ALWAYS WAS THERE. In fact, thanks to him I never touched that piece of garbage.

1996

A year passed and the Virtual Boy had already descended into dead stock. The machine stand that was once the home of Juan Carlos, now stood alone as a monument of its former self. No longer appreciated by fans and no longer working (and no Juan Carlos to be seen), my chances to ever play it were scarce until life offered me a new opportunity when I visited a friend’s house (his name Jonathan). “There you go, a Virtual Boy in a family house, a more hygienic machine!”, I thought. Out of curiosity I asked Jonathan to let me play it, but sadly (?), the Virtual Boy was dead for good, I could perceive it in him.

Back to the Future (2008)

I recently got in touch with Jonathan and in the midst of our conversation the Virtual Boy subject strangely surfaced. We laughed and trashed the console, but I still sensed tormented feelings on him. I told him that the only guy I saw playing that thing in Barranquilla was Juan Carlos Díaz, to which he immediately responded:

“That was the guy who told me to buy it!”

What are the chances!? This is a small world indeed.

So 13 years have passed and I haven’t touched the Virtual Boy for once. I always felt that spending my money to get only 2 colors on a screen was a rip off. For instance, what will you rather play, RED and BLACK golf or the classic 8-bit NES golf? After watching the screenshots, the decision is pretty clear.

Red Alarm: Supposedly a flying game

Nintendo simply got it all wrong. Just one year later came the Nintendo 64 along with Super Mario 64, full of brilliant colors and 3d gameplay which made the Virtual Boy look totally outdated, obsolete and the worthy owner of a place at the nearest closet.

Super Mario 64: A defining moment in gaming history

If only we could have got something closer to this picture things would definitely have been different.

What immersive red and black graphics should look like

Today the Virtual Boy has become a “hot” collector’s item which suggests that people just can’t get enough of its rubbishness. They keep waking up each day, turning ON those goggles, trying to find “true 3D graphics” and “parallel universes” and 15-30 minutes later get caught in frustration, eye strain and failed hope.

• “muro’s” whereabout is currently unknown (he is for sure immersed in his own private universe of pain), blame it on the red and black machine.

Well, here is my first grain of sand to Elioncho, who decided to let me post here after NOT ASKING HIM that much. (I’ll keep doing it unless I have to “throw code” like a brick mason… hahaha)

I almost cry when I found a blog where the author shows a modding for a PSP slim. There are many kinds of mods you can find, but… is there any sense on connecting a SNES joypad? For us, SNES lovers who keep living of those great nostalgic moments from the past, it makes perfect sense…How it was done?, simply:

“This mod was achieved by adding a small socket to the back of the psp ( the socket was sent to me by a friend some time ago so I dont have a part number. I believe it was intended for a cell phone). I taped all of the relevant points on the psp mother board (some of which where horribly close together and tiny. Actually not some ALL of them where), and then ran these to the socket. I used a file and dremal to cut a whole in the back of the psp and the socket fitted in with a satisfying *click*. I then put together a custom cable and plug that would fit the newly attached socket. This was then wired to the snes controllers pcb (attached directly to the traces of each button. And thats about it.”

Here’s a short demostration:

So after watching this, do you think it’s more comfortable to play SNES with its original joypad or maybe with another one? Lets open a debate. Comment about it!

Cheers,

David

After 4 years and 6 dollars on revenue thanks to the late addition of AdSense, the time has come to move forward to the much obliged “.com” era and extend our reach into new territories.

BIG THINGS are coming along the way:

* Code named buttonmashers, the web application that will gather the gaming world to discuss and share experiences (tentative release : New Year’s Eve) .
* Fan contributions that will surface feelings of desperation.
* Abysmal NEW! games made in Flash (our new de facto game development platform chosed by the newly installed Brain Dead Studios Center for Technology Research).
* Ramblings in all things life.

So be sure to subscribe via RSS and stay in put for new updates.

Thanks once again for your immense support,

Elioncho

P.S. The angelfire and google pages sites will remain intact as a testimony of our humble beginnings.

Get a sneak preview of “Tetris 2000″, the new Fan Project submitted by bbtox before the final review is published, but beware, if you feel that even after you close the page the game’s music is haunting you, closing the browser may be your last resort.

Update : Some users experienced problems opening Tetris 2000. This issue has been solved now.