games

List

8 Awesome Videogame Quilts

I love the concept of combining the old and the new. Quilting is an oh-so-useful craft that goes back hundreds of years. Recycling scraps of fabric to make a sturdy bedcover has been elevated to an art form. It seems anachronistic at first glance, but 8-bit pixelated arcade game icons lend themselves well to the design of patchwork quilts. 1. Galaga Quilt Emily at Carolina Patchworks made this quilt depicting the arcade game Galaga. It's for sale at Etsy. 2. Quiltbert Lenore at Evil Mad... READ ON

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Monday Fun - Wii Fit Parody

So I saw a video a few weeks ago that got me excited about the Nintendo Wii. It was a Wii Fit video advertising this little white add-on pad and a set of "fitness games" that involve stepping on the pad and doing stuff. I figured: finally, a way to exercise while playing video games! Tragically, the Wii Fit add-on (the white thing you step on) isn't shipping yet, so I may have to wait until next year to get my step on. Then I saw a parody video that made me think twice about whether I needed to buy a... READ ON

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Dice Stacking

Today's revelation: Dice Stacking. According to Wikipedia: Dice stacking is a performance art, akin to juggling or sleight-of-hand, in which the performer scoops dice off of a flat surface with a dice cup and then sets the cup down to build a vertical column of dice. Various dice arrangements, colors of dice and scooping patterns allow for many degrees of complexity and difficulty. Okay, what? Here's a video from Thomas Fischbach demonstrating the art: Am I correct in understanding that... READ ON

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Calvinball

Watching Layer Tennis last Friday, commentator John Gruber compared the competition to Calvinball, which brought me back to my childhood, reading the Sunday funnies. Remember Calvinball? In my book, it's the ultimate Nomic game -- a game in which the rules change and evolve as part of gameplay. Back in April, I wrote about another Nomic game, 1000 Blank White Cards. 1KBWC (as it's, uh, less commonly known) is a card game in which players make up their own cards, which may implement new rules (like... READ ON

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Live Online Today: Layer Tennis!

Are you a live sports fan? Are you a graphic design geek? Well, for the three of you who fit both descriptions, grab a drink and get ready for a new event guaranteed* to rock you. Starting today at 3pm Eastern (that's noon Pacific or 7pm in London), you can witness the online debut of Layer Tennis. What's Layer Tennis, you ask? The official description states: We'll be playing matches using lots of different applications, from Adobe® Photoshop® to Adobe® Flash®, but the basic idea... READ ON

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Advanced Tetris Gameplay

We've covered Tetris Shelving and Tetris Shower Stalls, but I think it's time to share some hardcore Tetris knowledge and killer gameplay. The only resource you need is tetrisconcept.com, which has a Tetris wiki containing a series of insanely technical articles about Tetris strategy, including: general technique, non-overstacking construction (also known as the thing I can never do right), the elusive zangi-move, and the nearly mind-blowing article on tactical rotation. Or perhaps you just want to... READ ON

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Faceball

Do you work in an office? Do you like wasting time? How about hitting people in the face with beachballs? If you answered yes to any of these, I hereby command you to investigate Faceball, invented at Flickr, but now sweeping offices worldwide. The game is pretty simple -- two people sit in office chairs, ten feet from each other, and throw beachballs at each other's faces. No ducking is allowed. If you score a face-hit, you keep throwing until you miss, gaining points all the while. After an... READ ON

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The Oregon Trail (Apple II Edition)

I'm a long-time fan of the Oregon Trail computer game (and I've been thinking about all things Oregon Trail lately). I remember first encountering the game on an Apple IIe computer during the second grade -- it fascinated me. Why did my oxen keep dying? How come people kept getting dysentery and breaking their legs? Why can't I just play this game all day?! In later years, I bought an Apple IIgs for the sole purpose of playing Oregon Trail. It didn't fascinate me quite as much, though it did bring... READ ON

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The Boss Key

This weekend I was enjoying some performance from Coachella via AT&T Blue Room and noticed something fun: their online video player has a Boss Button. Pressing the Boss Button pops up a fullscreen fake Excel spreadsheet (pictured at left), designed to fake out your boss or coworkers if they happen to walk by while you're, uh, not being productive. This feature brought me back to video games from the 80's, where a Boss Key (often F10 or some other generally unused key) was a common feature. Where did... READ ON

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Five Super Mario Brothers Videos

Over the past few months, I've noticed a trend -- for some reason, Super Mario Brothers videos have been popping up all over the web. Here's a rundown of some recent SMB madness. YouTube user s00pcan plays levels 1-1 and 1-2 with his eyes closed: (Via Engadget) More feats of SMB awesomeness after the... READ ON