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Famicom leaves college and settles in to a secure office job
Time to get nostalgic, proud, and teary-eyed all at the same time. On this fifteenth day of July in the year 2008, the legendary Famicom turns 25 years young. Some of us (though not all of us) weren't even born when the Famicom was released in Japan in 1983, and that day marked the beginning of Nintendo's plot of world domination. They didn't get around to the United States until 1985 with the NES, but it's the thought that counts.A few committed folks at 1up have gone to extreme lengths marking this occasion, reminiscing about the life and times and significant games that made the little white box of fun so legendary. Is the Famicom dead? Hellz to the no -- in fact, you might say the Famicom legacy is just taking shape with new games and new ideas, all with origins dating back a quarter of a century.As we begin today's E3 proceedings, spare a single thought for the console that changed the world for the better. Happy 25th birthday, Famicom!
Laptop cakes pay homage to internet dating
Shockingly enough, the image you see above isn't as radical as you probably think. Just last year we saw a San Francisco couple profess their inexplicable love for TiVo with a his and her cake arrangement, while another treated guests to a flavorful version of their wedding day playlist. This perky pair, however, decided to create cakes that would visually describe just how they ended up together, complete with on-screen profiles and a crossover cable (or something) with a heart along the way. Gives a whole new meaning to the networking category, now doesn't it?
Let them eat (store-bought) cake
Not all of us are blessed with the talents needed to bake an edible cake, much less a video game cake with an identifiable shape. More often than not, the desserts we've pulled from the oven look like something you'd shoot and put out of its misery. As you turn your head and watered eyes to the side, pulling back the hammer on your heavy, shaking pistol, you sometimes catch the cakes looking up at to you, wishing they had more time to spend with you. For those of you left in depressed states after having to euthanize so many cakes, there might still be hope for you, an opportunity to make things right. Flickr user Neko Joe spotted this pre-made Nintendo DS and New Super Mario Bros. layered sponge cake at Sainsbury's, a UK supermarket chain. It comes with a janky cardboard top screen, but you can add your own custom message: "It's-a-me, Mario Cake!" or "Sorry we didn't buy you a real DS!" or "You're adopted!" We don't suggest you bring this sponge cake to any birthday parties, however ... Watch the NSFW video past the break to find out why! %Gallery-25835%
Breakfast Topic: Father's Day for gamers
Happy Father's Day, to all of you fathers out there!* If you and yours aren't the type to go out and about on a day like this, never fear. For the family that games together, I Heart Chaos has 8 great ideas for an Azerothian Father's Day. A few other things that come to mind for Dad's special day: Roll a new alt with your pops, maybe crossing your primary faction lines. Sometimes leveling together is more meaningful than twinking an alt. Talk your guild into having a Father's Day raid night! Take your dad to Karazhan or Zul'Aman, assuming he isn't further progressed than you are. Hey, don't give me that look. My raid has Dads in some pretty phat purps. Yes, I did just say 'phat'. And 'purps'. Don't judge me! Fill his mailbox with delicious cake. Do any of you have Father's Day plans in Azeroth, or any Father's Day plans at all?*Sorry if I missed any of you!
Cooking is so fun, cooking is so fun ... yay! Video is ready!
Cake Mania 2 is roasting away in the proverbial oven of development, ready to rock our socks on the DS. The original title was a bit on the non-good side, but hopefully this latest entry can pull something magical out of the baking tray. Funnily enough, the above trailer claims that we will experience "cake-baking nirvana," reaching a higher plane of human existence localized entirely within our kitchens! If a lifetime of happiness isn't enough, CM2 features Endless Baking Mode -- for those who feel the need to get their cake on until the end of time.Ice up that mouse and click through past the break for some extra screenshots. This is simulation with sugar, people.
Kart this cake to your wedding
It may seem strange, suggesting to your fiancee that the iconic wedding cake should have a Mario Kart theme -- but then again, everyone loves Mario Kart, so chances of success are pretty good.This happy couple featured a stunning cake, which isn't just a replica of a particular object or character. This is the spirit of the entire Mario Kart world, baked and iced to picturesque perfection. Atop the many layers of goodness, each representing different courses and characters, is a kissing Mario and Peach figurine. So very sweet ... and tasty. Hit the jump for a few close-ups of this artistic achievement.%Gallery-4772%
World of WarCrafts: Edible timberling
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.This cupcake is sure to resonate with anyone (Alliance, sorry Horde) who has done the Planting the Heart quest in Teldrassil. The Cleansed Timberling Heart you receive as a reward allows you to summon an ally for 20 minutes, but don't expect this tasty treat to last that long.Here is what you will need: Cake Batter (cake mix and ingredients required) Frosting Food Coloring (green, red, blue) Decorating Bag with Tip Blue Candy Pieces Fruit Leather (grape) Knife (to cut the mask) Optional supplies: Yellow Food Coloring Gushers Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-22898% DISCLAIMER: Don't stab yourself with the knife.
Kirby's latest ability: being delicious
Kirby is a smart choice for video game-inspired cooking projects, because his games are eating-themed. In addition, his circular shape is the easiest to recreate in food of any of the Nintendo stable -- chances are you don't have a Samus Aran cake pan. For that matter, based on the general cutesyness of his universe, Kirby could very well be made of cake or something, unlike other Nintendo characters like Mario, who are unambiguously made of human flesh.For her cousin's birthday, Craftster indeliblechange made 24 sweet cuppin' cakes featuring Kirbies of different colors as well as various Kirbyana. The chili-chocolate (!) cupcakes were decorated using fondant. They look really great![Via Craftster]
The Joystiq Weekend: May 3 - 4, 2008
We're normally not in the business of showing off game cakes, but we give credit to this Mario pasty since it's a wedding a cake and there's also plenty of other gamer-themed shenanigans at this wedding, according to these photos. (Thanks, Lipton) Check out the highlights for today:JoystiqueryJoystiq Podcast 048 - You have to burn the show editionWeekly Webcomic Wrapup is, like, totally popular and stuffNewsUwe Boll confirms 'Boll vs. Bay' brawl, Michael Bay denies accepting Boll's challengeGuitar Hero III getting triple-pack of Muse on May 8Rockstar's Dan Houser disses casual gaming, explains process of rebuilding NYCid Software admits uncertainty regarding plans for E3Activision, 7-Eleven to promote Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, quench thirstRumors & SpeculationY2K finally strikes, crushes Grand Theft Auto 2 fans' dreams Culture & CommunityGrand Theft Auto IV takes late night comedy world by stormExplore Liberty City with Google Map application
Birthday Microsoft points, the new cake currency
Not everyone enjoys Xbox Live's made up Microsoft points currency due to the fact that the conversion rate is confusing and you always seem to end up with an odd amount points in your account. But even if you hate Microsoft points we can guarantee that you'll love the sugary sweet (and very edible) Birthday Microsoft points pictured above. The creative Birthday Microsoft points birthday cake you see above was made in honor of Smokemholcomb's 29th birthday, which took his wife over six hours to make. We aren't sure what the conversion rate between real currency and Birthday Microsoft points is, but one has to think they're expensive if the entire cake is only worth 29 points. Also, for the caring fanboys of the world, if you want to buy some Birthday Microsoft points for your favorite blogger on his birthday, we're sure he'd appreciate it very much.
Interview with Antiarc, author of Omen
Even if you don't use Omen, it's likely you've seen it or heard about it here on WoW Insider, in WoW itself, or somewhere else in the WoW community. Patch 2.4 and the redesign of WoW's combat log called for a complete rebuild of many mods, and Omen was far and away the highest in demand.There were certainly some issues with Omen the day 2.4 launched, but the one man army behind the mod worked endlessly to get the addon in working order, while somehow making time for a chat mod, too. I think it's fair to say we know a thing or two about the mods, but what about the modder behind them?Luckily for all of you, Antiarc(aka Adrine) is open to bribes(not really) so I've managed to sucker him into answering a few questions for us, many of which are taken from you, the readers! We'll go through a series of three categories. The Man, in which we delve into Antiarc's personal and professional life. The Mods, wherein we ask a few questions about his experiences in mod-writing. The Miscellaneous, where we ask Antiarc random questions that hold no bearing on absolutely anything! Hooray! Read on!
Wedding cake toppers reflect our high-tech, loveless reality
"Dude, I totally just got married! No, I'm serious -- can't you hear the organ playing?"[Via textually.org and geeksugar]
Cake battle update: Horde wins (so far)!
The cake madness continues! Ackman from the Burning Legion got married recently and his (oh-so-supportive) wife agreed to a cake design of his choosing. His idea? A Horde crest identical to the one designed by Samwise. The cake looks absolutely awesome, if not necessarily delectable (are those real or fondant feathers?). Ackman attests to its edibility, though, as he describes the cake as chocolate fudge with mint frosting and fondant, highlighted with silver leafing. That certainly makes me hungry like an orc!To recap this cake battle, a couple of cakes that resemble the Alliance crest put the Alliance at two, while an Orc shield and one of Orgrimmar give the Hordies a score of three along with the cake pictured above. So, are any creative bakers up to the challenge of making another Alliance-themed cake? Maybe one of Stormwind or -- even more challenging, the Exodar! If you send it to the WoW Insider offices, we'll generously put the score up by two. I'm We're greedy for cake. Check out the link for another pic.
Viva Pinata proposer tying the knot today with game-themed cake
We all had our hearts warmed last year when we heard of David Rosowski's delightful approach to nuptial queries -- the young man proposed to his girlfriend Jenn by sending her a diamond and question-popping note in Viva Piñata, immediately following up with a bended knee and a real-life rock. Nearly seven months later, their wedding day has come, and after trading vows upon a cruise ship, the two will chow down on a matrimonial pastry topped with a Horstachio and a veiled Pretztail (two of the game's more recognizable papier-mâché critters). You can watch their big day unfold on David's YouTube channel, if you have nothing better to do this Saturday morning. We here at Joystiq HQ won't be in virtual attendance, but we'd still like to wish David and Jenn a long and happy marriage, full of fulfilled romance requirements and bushels of joy candy. [Thanks, jimmcq.]
Alliance cake!
There is nothing we love more than a tasty and delicious game-related cake, be it Alliance or Horde (ok, a new content release is nice, too, but beggars can't be choosers on that one). And so this Alliance cake, made by Katalysta on Korgath for her husband's birthday, pretty much hits the spot. The crest looks great, but is that really icing on the "fabric" around the outside? Looks amazing -- no wonder it took her three days to put together. She says it's white chocolate flavored Fondant and plain Fondant, and everything else is done with dyes. Amazing!By my count, this puts us even on the Alliance vs. Horde cakemaking -- 2 and 2. Who'll be next to serve their faction with some amazing cake-making skills?
Show and Tell: Lies, damned lies, and DS Lites
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/DS_Lited_Companion_Cube'; If there's anything we like, it's customization. Call us crazy, but even if it's, uh, not the best, we'll usually find something to say about it*. Lately, though, we've been blessed here in the Show and Tell corner with some really awesome submissions from readers who've been taking the look of their Lites into their own hands. Reader Josh didn't draw the art that he's used to adorn his DS, but he made it work on the case, so we'll credit both him and the artist. Can you puzzle out what it is? If not, teleport past the break to see it in full-sized glory. Actually, go whether you can guess or not!Got something you want to show off to all the other DS fans? We like just about anything with a little Nintendo flavor, so snap a few pics, tell us your story, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.*We didn't say it would be necessarily positive, but in that case, the artist herself seemed to be with us!
The best kind of celebration
After all the holiday-foo was complete, we're willing to bet many of you relaxed with video games. It's just a feeling we have (probably because many of us did the same thing!). You know what that means? It means we have an excuse to round up a few things that celebrate both Easter and gaming. Holidays are fun!
iPhone Pic of the Day
Happy Birthday to international iPhone hacker of mystery Nicholas "Drudge" Penree--but props to Drudge's girlfriend. She put together this iPhone-themed cake, complete with it's tell-tale jailbroken Installer.app icon. It looks too beautiful to eat but we're told the cake was delicious. The silvery bits on the side of the phone/cake were created from edible paint. Mmmm. iPhone.
On MMOs, cakes, and sand castles
Most MMO blogs that we read are very upfront about the immediacy of their concerns. Are Druids getting nerfed in the next patch or not? How soon will it be before we can finally use a Personal Armor Unit? Is Warhammer Online going to ship before it's complete? It's not every day that we scroll through our RSS reader and see a blog entry that really attempts to approach higher thinking. While we have always had a tremendous amount of respect for the bloggers over at Kill Ten Rats, we were still a tad surprised to see a post Zubon made a little over a week ago where he waxes philosophic on the illusion of permanence in the MMO genre.He questions whether accomplishing things in an MMO is like baking a cake (not a lie) or building a sand castle; they're fun enterprises, and can be very fulfilling accomplishments for their time, but their very existence is fleeting. Are our nightly accomplishments in MMOs any less transient? The ultimate answer, if you were to ask this blogger, is that everything in life is ultimately ephemeral, it's just a question of shelf-life. But then, this is the sort of talk that we'd expect to hear from somebody on the verge of quitting MMOs, which we sincerely hope isn't the case. Ephemeral or not, MMOs still let us meet and keep in touch with friends and unwind after a long day's work. There's an undeniable value in that.
Caption contest: the Kindle cake
Sure, it might not be as filling as the Skoda cakemobile, or as family oriented as Martha Stewart's Wii cake, but do those contain the thrilling tale of The Light Beam Rider? Yeah, we thought not.Paul: "Unfortunately the screen refresh times of '30-35 minutes at 350 degrees' is just plain unacceptable."Chris: "Moments later, a naked Jeff Bezos burst out, ready to greet everyone at the shareholders' meeting."Richard: "Philippe Starck calls the Kindle 'a little delicious.' "Sean: "No friends, that's not the iCing phone, tis the Kindle Cake and it serves 12."Don: "You can never be too careful buying gadgets on eBay."Josh: "The Light-Beam Rider was surprisingly short."Ross: "The book is a lie."[Via The Raw Feed]
