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It'sa me, Mario! ... And you're out of milk.
We don't have a whole lot that we can add to this Mario mosaic made of fridge magnets. We know that it was lovingly crafted from about 1,500 half-inch "Fridgets" and that it took a presumably very dedicated Annie Rush around 12 hours to construct. We also learn from her site that she wants to tackle some other 8-bit games, as well as Van Gogh's Starry Night ... and, we hope, Alex Kidd in Van Gogh's Starry Night. Some other shots of the project can be seen here, on her Flickr site.Oh, one more thing: We know that if Annie Rush's possibly non-existent children bring home any crayon drawings or spelling tests they are particularly proud of, they will promptly be told to go straight to hell.
TUAW Tip: Re-embed iTunes artwork in media files
One of the backend changes that came with the release of iTunes 7 is how the app stores album artwork. The days of embedding album artwork in music files are gone, due in part (I assume) to the purchase and integration of CoverFlow, a flashy new way to browse your albums. Artwork is now stored in a new ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder, but what if you want your album artwork embedded in those files? Users can have any number of reasons for wanting this, such as the Growl notifications that Quicksilver creates when iTunes starts playing something new. Those notifications (as I understand it) are incapable of properly display album artwork unless the image is embedded in the file, so iTunes 7 has created a bit of a conundrum with this new organization feature.Never fear, however, for Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is yet again to the rescue. Doug has a handy script aptly titled Embed Artwork that can do just what it says: embed the album art back into your files. This should make things easier on Quicksilver + Growl, as well as if you move your media files to a new computer, artwork in tow.As usual, Doug's scripts are provided for free, but donations for all his hard work are strongly encouraged.[via Quicksilver's forums]
Etrian Odyssey Age
Developer Atlus admits that it will have a tough time selling Etrian Odyssey to anyone who isn't already a fan of dungeon crawls or other niche genres. As great as a turn-based, first-person RPG might sound to some of you, it's rare for that kind of game to register even a blip on the radar of most gamers or gaming media.Atlus has been updating Etrian Odyssey's official site with promotional webcomics, the first of which proposes how the title can attach itself to current trends and elbow its way to the front of the crowd. Likening the game's dungeon crawl experience to Brain Age is a huge stretch, but we have to applaud the creative approach. See what we mean after the post break!
Ouendan 2's epic boxart
Due for release in Japan this May 17th, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2's packaging art has two-stepped its way onto the internet. The cover features the sequel's two rival cheer squad team leaders with their arms outstretched, magnificent rays of light bursting behind them. Their eyes and expressions are brimming with determination, as if to say, "If you don't dance, well you're no friends of mine."With a partial songlist, screenshots, and boxart now out on the internet, unchained, all that's left to cast loose is the actual cartridge. We've already put in our pre-orders for the rhythm game. Have you decided whether or not you'll be importing Ouendan 2 yet?
"I Am 8-Bit" art exhibit opens tomorrow night in Los Angeles
We previewed some of the art from "I am 8-Bit" at GDC earlier this year, and now the actual show is upon us. It opens Tuesday, April 17th in Los Angeles and runs until May 12th at Gallery Ninteen Eighty Eight. If you're in the LA area, check out their opening night extravaganza tomorrow night which will feature live performances, drinks, and some "other surprises."They'll have 200 piece of artwork from over 100 different artists, including the giant, working, five foot tall Atari 2600 controller pictured above, which was commissioned for the show. Playable on the controller, projected 30 feet wide, will be "Mega Man 2600,"a homebrewed game by David Galloway, created for The Blue Bomber's 20th Anniversary. Talk about a "mega" man. (How could you not see that coming?)"I Am 8-Bit" is "a talented arsenal of artists painting, sculpting, molding, or inking their old-school videogame memories. For some photographic evidence, check out our preview gallery below.%Gallery-2037%
Big Brain Academy screens, WiiConnect24 details
It breaks our hearts to see that only a few games on the Wii's roster support Mii integration and WiiConnect24. Nintendo's lack of third-party cooperation might be to blame, but at least the company will be implementing both features with Big Brain Academy for the Wii. Users will be able to import their Miis when creating a student profile, solving the game's reflex puzzles with their customized characters. According to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, WiiConnect24 will allow other people's Miis to wander into your game, equipped with the student profiles of their creators. You will also be able to test your brain against theirs in any of the multiplayer modes. We're going to be pretty depressed if our friends' Miis turn out to be much smarter than us. At least we have our wit! There's always that, right? Big Brain Academy won't be coming out in the US until June 11, so there's still some time to hit the books and get your brain in shape. Jeux-France has several dozen screenshots of the game in action along with some Mii artwork. Check past the post break for a few of those images.
iTunes Artwork with Curator
Kavasoft has released version 1.0 of Curator, an iTunes Artwork management utility. Curator allows you to search for missing artwork and download any MIA items from Amazon. It also has a few spiffy features like creating Finder icons for your music and helping you perform custom searches for hard-to-find artwork. It costs $18 and there's a free trial version. One thing I've got to give Kavasoft huge props for is it's online guided product tour. I wish every software developer provided one. It gives a quick rundown of the software, complete with screen shots.
Sculptor crafting 3D replicas of your Mii
We know, you've been catching up on a world of news this morning thanks to the Wii News Channel going live, but if you're one of those folks who snapped up your Mii on a Tee just as soon as you found the funds, this is for you. Sculptor and illustrator Paul Thiel crafted a 3D figure of a friend's Mii as a Christmas gift, but soon realized that geeks like us would hit up the Ramen diet for a few days in order to have one of our own, so now he's hard at work constructing a proper way to take and process orders. Even though no prices have been set just yet, you can take one look at this masterpiece and see how priceless your very own could be, so be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny of how to get your pre-order in and secure yet another piece of obscure, albeit nifty, video game art.[Via Joystiq]
CoverSutra - a customizable iTunes controller with style
These days, there is absolutely no shortage of apps that let you control iTunes in one way or another. You can use your PSP, tiny menubar controllers, countless iTunes widgets and now - CoverSutra. Featuring a stylish bezel with loads of control feedback and album art display, CoverSutra aims to give you complete control over iTunes without invading your space. It can even work with the Apple Remote, offering visual feedback without the need to enter something like Front Row. A 10-day demo of CoverSutra is available, and it sells for just under $13 USD (€9.95). While CoverSutra is a brand new 1.0 app, the developer is promising "plenty of new things in [the works] for you," and upgrades are free until version 2.0. If other controllers such as the über-everything Quicksilver don't quite float yer boat, CoverSutra looks like a great solution for controlling iTunes without interrupting your flow.
RFID Audiobar brings enjoyment to audio art
While today might not seem all that out of the ordinary, it's not everyday that we find not just one, but two cases of folks using RFID technology to enhance our lives and bring excitement to otherwise mundane exhibits. Following up on ET's playful garb, Mogens Jacobsen has crafted the Audiobar (Hørbar), which is a "physical bar-like social environment that enable visitors to interact with sounds via RFID tagged bottles." His was recently commissioned by The Museum for Contemporary Art Roskild to come up with a new and varied way to present the museum's "vast archive of sound-art," and is now garnering worldwide attention for his success. Each tagged RFID bottle responds to the reader installed in the table, and the housed computer channels the appropriate audio clips to correspond with the bottle movements. While it still might take a bit more pizazz to get a gang of second graders to listen to anything on a museum field trip, this is most certainly a step in the right direction, and can be checked out now if you're stopping through Denmark.[Via Textually]
Sonic fingerprinting could safeguard masterpieces, detect fakes
We know, we're suckers for cheesy art, but we give props where props are due for the well designed, masterfully engineered pieces as well. While we doubt the Digital Stag is atop any thief's list of things to swipe, there's a decent chance the Italian funeral urn Cratere dei Niobidi is. This urn spurned (ahem) a restorer and a geophysicist to envision sonic tomography as a means to protecting authentic works of art and giving museums and art buyers alike a way to spot fakes. The system works by attaching a network of sensors in and around the artifact, and when tapped with a rubber hammer, computer software can record the sonic fingerprint that will only match up with the original. Additionally, the waves could inform restorers if a segment of a structure is weaker than the eye can tell, giving them extra time to build reinforcements on ancient buildings, walls, etc. The chance of such a system ever being used outside of highly trafficked museums, however, is slim, primarily due to the $19,000 to $26,000 price range that the system falls in, not to mention the "trained staff" (read: loyal and innocent) required to run it.
Gears of War -- single-player cross-stitching action
[Click image to enlarge]One of our readers has the coolest grandmother ever. She cross stitched the Gears of War logo for him, and just look how nice it is all framed and ready to go next to the family photos in the hallway. Our grandmother would never have stitched this for us ... even if we'd begged her. The closest we could probably get would be a quilted gingham checkerboard.Now what we really want to know is: does your grandma play the game? Have her hit us up in multiplayer and show us if those skills with a needle translate to a chainsaw.[Thanks, Alex -- and thank granny for us too]
World of Warcraft TCG: UDeck Cover Art
With the World of Warcraft trading card game due for an October release, we're starting to get more and more information on it. Today, WoW TCG News posted scans of the eight different UDeck covers, each one done by a different artist. The UDeck is a plastic card case that you'll get when you purchase a starter deck and the outer artwork will be customizable with the options you see here (and, no doubt, more to come). And even if the idea of a trading card game isn't your thing, Upper deck has a great line up of artists on the project.
A look at Into the Pixel: video game artwork
Tucked away near between the West and South Halls lies the "Into the Pixel" exhibition. Attendees can walk in and check out some very impressive artwork that they have on display. Here's a taste of what's inside.
