98 Kōshien is a high school baseball videogame released only in Japan for the PlayStation in 1998. One of the features is the ability to customize the pitchers' windups. This resulted in delightful ballets like the ones seen above and below. (via r/ObscureMedia)
In 1991, four developers created the original Mortal Kombat, a fighting game that upset adults because of its ultraviolence before growing into a massive media franchise. The characters were digitized sprites (two-dimensional bitmaps) based on the above video recordings of live actors kicking, punching, jumping around, and walking on a treadmill. It wasn't until Mortal […]
EndeavorRx is a first-person racing videogame designed to help children with ADHD and this summer, the FDA approved it as a "prescription treatment." Meanwhile, other researchers are developing videogames that can help lift depression and reduce anxiety by interrupting the feedback loops of negativity and fear. "It's a well-known fact that so many mobile games […]
Therapy sessions for families of Mario addicts? "Nintendpendent"? OK boomer, 1991. (r/ObscureMedia, thanks UPSO!)
Minecraft is premiering a new series called How We Make Minecraft this month. It promises to give fans details about how programmers make decisions about characters and gameplay, all presented in an irreverent and fun style.
Videogame developer Phil Compile and 4-year-old son Ollie made this absolutely wonderful Super Mario stop motion animation using refrigerator magnets. That's so good! How long did that take?? — Garrett Cooper (@superdupergc) June 28, 2020
In 2018, Taipei resident Chen San-yuan, 72, had attached 15 smartphones to his bicycle so he could play numerous games of Pokemon Go at once. Dubbed the "Pokémon Go grandpa," he has upped his game with a new total of 64 mobile phones in his array. Gotta catch 'em all, I guess. The phrase 危險行為請勿模仿 […]
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? In 1994, Atari released COPS, a LaserDisc-based videogame based on the now-cancelled "reality" TV series. Above is rare footage of the gameplay. According to the International Arcade Museum description, "You play a cop who must either shoot armed criminals while protecting the innocent or chase after escaping criminals […]
Man, 81, goes on rampage with HTC Vive VR headset
Pegged on SEGA's 60th anniversary, the company announced a tiny version of their Game Gear 8-bit handheld console first released in 1990. It will sell for 4,980 yen (US$50). From IGN: The Game Gear Micro is currently only available to preorder in Japan and will launch on October 6th. At time of writing, there has […]
Seattle maker Brennen Johnston wanted his friends to play Animal Crossing with him but they couldn't get their hands on a Nintendo Switch, a scarce commodity amid COVID-19 lockdowns. Enraged by the prices scalpers were charging for a Switch, Brennen set out to build one himself from individual components. The Internet fell in love with […]
"NVIDIA GameGAN is a powerful new AI model created by NVIDIA Research and was trained on 50,000 episodes of PAC-MAN to produce a fully functional version of the classic without an underlying game engine." Read the article about it was done here. Image: Nvidia
Graham Dunning replaced all of the Half-Life in-game sounds with clips of 90s EDM tracks and rave music sample CDs. He basically turned the entire game into a Launchpad so he can play Half-Life like it's a techno orchestra. (via Waxy)
Game designer and publisher Dave Gilbert founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006. This interview features conversation about point and click adventure games; digital game development, marketing and publishing; and the relationship between art, passion and real world commerce. Jeffery Klaehn: How did you first become interested in point and click adventure games? Dave Gilbert: I […]
In 1977, Steve "Woz" Wozniak used a neat hack to bring color to the Apple II computer. According to IEEE Spectrum, the obscure trick, called NTSC artifact color, "allows digital systems without specialized graphics hardware to produce color images by exploiting quirks in how TVs decode analog video signals." That hack later was employed by […]
All for the love of Animal Crossing in the coronavirus pandemic.
In 1969, astronaut Richard Gordon used this hand controller to steer the Apollo 12 command and service module Yankee Clipper around the moon while his colleagues frolicked on the lunar surface. The controller, complete with trigger switch, just sold at auction for $56,000. I hope the buyer is using it to mod a vintage Lunar […]
