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Sportsfriends invades your living room on May 6
Get ready for sports, friends. Local co-op game collection Sportsfriends is due out on May 6 for PS3 and PS4, for $15. Sportsfriends includes four games: JS Joust, BaraBariBall, Super Pole Riders and Hokra. PS3 and PS4 versions get optional Move support for JS Joust. PS4 allows up to four players to play JS Joust with DualShock 4 controllers, while PS3 allows up to seven players with DualShock 3 controllers and the ability to load your own music files into the game. Plus, buy the PS3 version and get the PS4 download for free. Sportsfriends was Kickstarted in December 2012 to the tune of $152,451. [Images: Die Gute Fabrik]
The iam8bit Entertainment System's homemade console premieres in Los Angeles
The iam8bit gallery in Los Angeles premiered its latest video game-related art show last night, called the iam8bit Entertainment System. The centerpiece of the show was Travis Chen's homemade two-player console, which is a custom-made PC running MAME encased in natural bamboo, with two homemade controller boxes playing three different indie games: Canabalt's two-player version, the Sportsfriends bundle's BaraBariBall, and Chen's own Adventure Time game jam game, Bad Atticube. Chen is a former Neversoft developer who now works on both iOS games with Scopely and his own indie creations, including the recent Typing Karaoke. iam8bit pitched the new show to him as "being kind of like a mock release of a game console" (in the shadow of next week's E3 and its two new consoles), and Chen said he emailed iam8bit co-founder Jon Gibson to say, "Jon, I'm building the console." Chen's work is impressive: The "iES" wood case was laser-cut (though Chen says some sanding was needed to bring it all together), and the front of the console has an LED screen that shows various ASCII text. There are colored buttons on the top of the main unit, and pressing those changes whatever's shown on the screen, from crazy visualizers to a running dialogue between the console and its player. The console is being offered for sale in the gallery, and Chen says if it does sell he wants to customize it for the buyer. But if it doesn't sell, Chen has other plans in mind. "I want to enter it into Indiecade and maybe even the IGF," he says. "Not too many guys are entering hardware, and I think that's really interesting; the idea of indie hardware." The iam8bit Entertainment System, and the rest of the work in the show, will be on display through June 30 at iam8bit.%Gallery-190691%
J.S. Joust, Hokra, Pole Riders, and BaraBariBall unite as 'Sportsfriends' on PS3 and computers
Johann Sebastian Joust, the game of dueling Move controllers you may have seen at industry events, is officially coming to the PlayStation 3 and computers. And it's bringing friends.Sportsfriends is a collection of four indie games that all share a focus on local multiplayer and a capacity to draw crowds of spectators. Producer Doug Wilson, who also created J.S. Joust, told Joystiq he thinks of the downloadable collection as "a 21st-century reincarnation of Summer Games." Accordingly, it'll be released in "Summer/Fall 2013."The collection will be funded both by Sony's Pub Fund and through a Kickstarter, which will also act as a pre-order platform. Now let's make friends with the four new sports:
