MST3K
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RiffSync for Mac perfects RiffTrax from the MST3K gang
RiffSync (US$9.99) in the Mac App Store has found very clever way to perfect RiffTrax, ... but before I get to the Riffsync app, you might need a little background about RiffTrax. If the names Gypsy, Tom Servo, Cambot and Crow T. Robot sound familiar, you know about Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The premise was that Joel Robinson was trapped in space on the Satellite of Love by Dr. Clayton Forester and was forced to watch horribly bad movies, mostly science fiction stinkers. With the assistance of four robot pals, Joel (later replaced by the show's head writer, Michael J. Nelson) and the robots provided running commentary as the movie played. A large cult grew around the show. After the show was canceled, some of the MST3K gang created RiffTrax. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and a host of guest riffers sell audio tracks (usually about $3.99 each) to be synced with movies, bringing the MST3K experience to a huge catalog of current films. By running the film in the DVD Player application, VLC, iTunes or a physical DVD player, and simultaneously playing the MP3 RiffTrax in iTunes or QuickTime Player (if iTunes is playing the film), the guys recreated the art of skewering movies for the current generation of bad movie enthusiasts. Though the results are hilarious, syncing the RiffTrax to the movie is a challenge. RiffTrax tries its best to help by giving you a chapter listing of how the RiffTrax relates to the film. They even give you a DisembAudio robot narrator that repeats a line in the film every so often to help sync. This can be tricky when you're trying to figure out whether the movie or the RiffTrax is slower. If you want to pause the movie, you have to pause the film and the RiffTrax audio separately. RiffSync solves this audio-sync problem and gives a few additional options to improve the movie experience. Read on for a full review of RiffSync.
SCEA files patent for interactive movie technology
"Interactive movie technology," you may find yourself asking, "isn't that just another word for video games?" Well, grandpa, yes and no. While this recently filed patent from Sony Computer Entertainment America will likely be implemented in some form of game -- our guess is PlayStation Home -- it doesn't really resemble anything we've ever seen from a ludological offering. Basically, SCEA is designing a framework for "avatars" to interact with a film in a number of different ways, such as tossing tomatoes at on-screen actors, or climbing into the film to deliver a swift kick to one of the characters' behinds. The patent's illustrations resemble pencil-drawn versions of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where a player's avatar can be seen sitting in a chair in front of the interactive movie. These interactions can even be scored, granting bonus points for a well-aimed tomato toss. We have no idea how well this type of technology would work, but our deep, deep fondness for Mike and the 'Bots makes us more than a little interested in how SCEA is planning on using it. [Via Siliconera]
MST3K crew appears during the Summer Olympics broadcast?
Now look, we're not sure if this was someone's drug-induced fever dream or not, but if it did really go down, it might be the best thing that's happened at the entire 2008 Summer Olympics. According to the Dirty Red Commie, sometime on August 17th between 2:00 PM and 3:13 PM Mountain Time, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 appeared on NBC's broadcast of the summer games. The DRC says they were simply static -- no hilarious jokes or animated banter -- but cut out during local commercials, giving him the impression that this was coming from the NBC mothership rather than his local station. Apparently a video of the action was set to go up on YouTube, but was "copyright-killed before it was even done processing." If anyone out there on the interblogs is able to confirm this, we'd love to hear from you. Update: While not exactly proving the authenticity of this, we've now got video of it after the break. Update: Aaaaaand... the video has been taken down.
Found Footage: Tom Servo's a Mac, and Crow's a PC
If you enjoyed Mystery Science Theater 3000 as much as I did (and still do), this clip from 1991 should warm your precious little heart. We find Servo having problems with his PC, and pining for the Mac that he used to have. Bonus references to WordPerfect 5.1, Amiga, and autoexec.bat! And System 7? "It's coming, OK?!"
