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Visualized: Douglas Coupland's pixel orca
Douglas Coupland (yes, that Douglas Coupland) created this pixel sculpture which lives outside of the Vancouver convention center. He should meet these guys.
Zoomable 8-bit city maps make navigation seem so simple
Brett Camper, we salute you. We were downright enamored with your 8-bit version of an NYC city map back in March, but now that you've had time to crank out a handful of others (including Detroit, Berlin, Amsterdam, Austin and Seattle), we feel it's time to give credit where credit is obviously due. We've seen a fair amount of 8-bit gear in our day, but a zoomable map? Crème de la Crème. Hit the source link if you're up for wasting a few hours.
Students program Human Tetris into 8-bit microcontroller, give away schematics for free (video)
Sure, Project Natal is the hotness and a little bird tells us PlayStation Move is pretty bodacious, but you don't have to buy a fancy game console to sooth your motion-tracking blues. When students at Cornell University wanted to play Human Tetris (and ace a final project to boot), they taught a 20Mhz, 8-bit microcontroller how to follow their moves. Combined with an NTSC camera, the resulting system can display a 39 x 60 pixel space at 24 frames per second, apparently enough to slot your body into some grooves -- and as you'll see in videos after the break, it plays a mean game of Breakout, too. Full codebase and plans to build your own at the source link. Eat your heart out, geeks.
8 bit computer now available for all your homebrewing needs
The above 8 bit computer -- which is intended as an educational tool in emerging markets, and has been available in China and India for a while now -- is finally for sale here in the good old US of A. This hackable little package boasts a 1Mhz 6502 chip, and comes with a keyboard, mouse, two game controllers, an OS cartridge, RCA cables and nine volt power supply. You'll be jamming to your own, handheld version of "Personal Jesus" in no time at all. These bad boys are available now for the shockingly affordable price of $49.99.
Solar-powered broadcast on WFMU New York Monday night may just change your life
If you're on the planet tomorrow night, you may just want to check out Engadget's own podcast producer, Trent Wolbe, on his WFMU radio show. Sure, Trent can be found assaulting the airwaves there every single Monday, but this coming one (March 30th), the show will be live from the Solar One facility on the East River in NYC, and the broadcast will be entirely solar-powered. Oh, there's going to be live performances by some great 8 bit / handheld, artists too. We love that. Hit up WFMU.ORG for all the details, or to listen to the show live tomorrow night, from 8-10 PM EST. Should be awesome, friends.[Via Solar One]
SXSW 2009: Datapop tuneage for your Tuesday
While we're scampering around GDC in the hunt for gaming goodness, we thought we'd drop a bootleg tune from last week's Datapop concert party at SXSW, which went exceedingly well. The venue was packed with sweaty chiptune lovers, and it actually rocked a lot more than we thought it would. Check out the gallery below from the event, and bounce along to the song from Sievert -- embedded at the bottom of the post.If you're itching for more tunes, hit up the 8bitpeoples site for a ton of free music from most of the artists at the show. Warning: listening is addictive. %Gallery-48344%
SXSW 2009: Free Datapop Gameboy chiptunes party open to the public
If you're interested in all 8-bit music and chiptunes, then you'll want to get yourself to the free Datapop party in Austin this Wednesday night, March 18th. It's free, open to everyone, and will be full of Gameboy music from people like Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, IAYD, Anamanaguchi, 8Bk OK, Graffiti Monsters, and Sievert. Free game-related music, free drinks, and free admission? Three of our favorite free things. We'll be there, and if you will be too then let us know and come say hi.
i am 8-bit returns with a new show in Los Angeles
If you've been able to make it out to any of the i am 8-bit exhibitions in the past, then you've seen some incredibly cool artwork from the 8-bit movement. If you haven't, then just check out the scads of pictures from their past two shows, or pick up their book featuring high-quality photos of the pieces.If you're in the Los Angeles area from August 14th through September 7th, then stop by the World of Wonder storefront gallery at 6650 Hollywood Blvd. They're having an opening night party, and we'll be on hand to get plenty of pictures of the new art to pass along like we did last time. Hopefully, we'll have more Evil Mario this year.
Zelda bedding: perfect for those cold Hyrule nights
It's official: not only is Wii Fanboy the web's leading resource for all things Wii, we're also the number one online source of Zelda bedding. This is the third Zelda quilt we've featured on the site, and it also happens to be the cheapest so far -- a mere $135 will buy you this queen-sized duvet, as stitched from 2" squares of real Octorok skin cotton. For an extra $30, you can even have matching pillowcases: just make sure you pack it all away when any would-be lovers arrive in your room after a particularly successful first date.If you fancy spending $165 on some of the most awesome bedding in the universe, contact Etsy user punzie and show her the color of your money. Explore past the break for a close-up of the quilt.Read: The Quilt of CourageRead: The Pillows of Wisdom
Mama Mia! Mario gets stitched up
As we have seen on previous occasions, patchwork quilts are perfect for recreating scenes from NES-era games. However, the Mario depicted on this quilt is a little more modern, and the results are no less spectacular.Crafted by the wife of BoingBoing reader Brian (a.k.a bishmasterb), this work of art uses sixteen types of fabric, and is 36 columns by 44 rows tall (six feet by eight feet). Oh, and it's hung on that wall for the last five years, hidden from an appreciative world! For the record, we fully support the decision to show it off on its own wall. You can't actually use things that are this beautiful. That would be madness.%Gallery-16878%
You got The Quilt of Power!
Look, it's all well and good stomping off to rescue princesses and reassemble golden triangular relics, but at least remember that it's a cold, unforgiving world out there, and you'll need something warm to wrap around yourself at some point. As the only other Zelda quilt we've posted about was never put up for sale, this one should do the trick, even if it is ... $475?! We advise chopping grass to raise the required funds.Take a closer look at this work of art after the break.
Blip Festival returns to New York with 8-bit music, workshops, and more
Last year, the Blip Festival brought together a plethora of chiptune musical artists, visual artists, and filmmakers to relish in the aeshtetics of an 8-bit lifestyle. This Thursday, Blip Festival 2007 kicks off with an even more ambitious roster of international chiptune musicians, artists, and more.The event will be held at Eyebeam in New York City from Thursday to Sunday. Concerts each day will include a variety of musical artists, including heavy hitters like Bit Shifter, Nullsleep and Anamanaguchi. Saturday and Sunday of the event will also feature workshops and film screenings. Admission is $10 for each day's events, although multi-day passes are also available on the website.Fans of anything and everything 8-bit are encouraged to attend. Chiptune artists have to be seen to be believed.[Via GameSetWatch]
Artist's Game Boy concerts get machine-based visuals
A gentleman who goes by the name Gieskes has created an interesting conflation of seemingly opposing mediums. The DIY'er / artist in question has combined Game Boy-based music with a low-fi, mechanical system of lights and motors, which create kinetic-art visuals that are synced to the sound. The concept is to build screen-saver-like displays which are actually created with analog equipment. The device features three components -- cans, lights, and a camera -- all of which can be "sequenced" much like the Game Boy, thus producing constantly changing (and changeable) effects. Want to see it for yourself? Watch the video after the break (especially towards the end) to learn how it all takes shape.[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]
Remembering the 8-bit sunsets
We've spent the week regaling releases of yore, celebrating the intricacies and conventions that made them so memorable, but if there's one trait about some of these retro titles that we don't remember fondly, it's trudging through waves of enemies and uninteresting levels only to find our efforts rewarded with little more than a shot of the protagonist staring off into the sunset.These twilight scenes weren't anomalous, phenomena exclusive to games of a certain genre or limited to a few occurrences. With just a cursory check, Games Radar was able to dig up no less than 18 NES titles that featured these over-the-horizon endings. Were developers just too lazy to try for anything more? Or was it something more sinister -- a secret cabal of Apollo acolytes looking to resurrect their solar deity with these 8-bit tributes? Think about that the next time you wonder why the sun seems to have somehow increased in size since you last saw it ...
Shrinky Dinks + 8 bit gaming = BitKits
Since the 8 Bit phenom continues to steamroll through current culture, it seems like it was only a matter of time before someone made a DIY kit available to the masses screaming for koopas, goombahs, and shyguys. These kits let you assemble the characters, iron them out to melt the pieces together, and then you glue on magnets for fridge delightment and gaming re-creations. Just don't scorch yourself as you race to re-build your childhood.
Speedrunning Shadowfang
This is something cool that I haven't seen in WoW before. The video above is a paladin named Daz on EU Bronzebeard speedrunning Shadowfang Keep in 11 minutes and 17 seconds.Now, I don't know if that's fast or not, only because I haven't seen anything at all about doing speedruns in WoW. Speedrunning (beating the game as fast as possible) has gotten popular for games in the 8bit era, probably because of emulators and save states, but WoW instances seem like a great place to race through. I wonder why it hasn't happened much yet. Well, except for that one big exception.One reason may be that, unlike battleground twinking (another "below the radar" kind of competition), the classes just aren't balanced for it-- while the paladin here does pretty well, I'd imagine that at level 70 in a lower level instance, a mage would always be faster, just because they can push out the most AoE damage. But that doesn't mean we can't pit the same classes against each other. Anyone want to give the pally's time a go and see how fast you can tear through SFK?
I am 8-Bit opening night festivities!
I am 8-Bit, the generally brilliant art show focusing on classic video games, is opening tonight at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight, and looks like it's going to be quite the event. Among the neat stuff to see and do: a giant 2600 controller, with a custom-designed 2600 Mega Man game to play on it; and performances from ComputeHer and 8 Bit Weapon, neither of whom we've heard of, but are probably fun.We would totally go gawk at some highbrow Nintendo fanart if we were in the area. If you go, bring your DS, because something tells us there will be some gamers around.[Via 4cr]
IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS QUILT.
This quilt from Craftster member dishwasher182 combines two of our favorite things in life: The original Legend of Zelda and being warm while sleeping. We aren't sure how we'd rank those two things. Maybe we should start quilting, so we can have our own enormous pixel-perfect Link holding a very ziggurat-esque Triforce. But we aren't sure we're up to the challenge of cutting and sewing together over 400 squares. In fact, we know we aren't. We're exhausted from reaching up to the number keys just now.Seen any amazing game-related crafts lately? Let us know!
I am information about I am 8-bit 2.007 [update 1]
Game Informer has posted a nice preview of the 2007 I am 8-bit art show, along with some of the art that will be featured. I am 8-bit is an annual art exhibition that celebrates classic videogame culture and iconography, with an emphasis on Nintendo and their NES-era third parties. It's also the source of some amazing game-related art, like the Donkey Kong-inspired painting shown above, "Mario's Lament" by Reuben Rude. We'd be proud to display any of these paintings, sculptures, or crafts in our own Fancaves.Just like every year, we'll be gazing wistfully at these previews and cursing our luck for not being Californian or California-adjacent. If you happen to be in the LA area between April 17 and May 12, we urge you to go to Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight and support the very best kind of fanboyism: the kind that manifests in honest creative expression (fanfic excluded).[Update 1: changed the preview picture to something friendlier.][Via 4cr]
A Flickr gallery of Perler beaded pixel art
If you haven't already hit the crafts shop and busted out the iron to make your own Perler beaded creations, then perhaps you'll allow a wave of inspiration to wash over you, courtesy of Flickr user foglera's delightful collection. We've got Pikachu, Birdo, Bomberman, Crono, and Animal Crossing's K.K. Slider in here, and plenty more. [Via Digg]
