Oh, and that said, this car, spotted on the street by one intrepid photographer, is more than a little fantastic. And it's not likely to be replaced by various forms of emulation any time soon, which is a plus.

gamer 4 [deviantART]

I'm part of a wee small music collective from Ireland... (O)ne of our "artists" who goes by the moniker of KickAcid has taken a bunch of gameboy cartridges, plugged them into to his sampler, [bleeped] around a bit and made the seven minute magnum opus of a videogame theme nostalga fest that is "Computer Lame".

Those Irish have such potty mouths! In any case, I took a listen to it and I think it is worth the free download. Why? Well, on top of the fact I liked it (I would sneak it into a dinner party playlist for fun), you could also pull some of those fantastic Gameboy sounds yourself without all that nasty '.m4p' encoding. Kim Phu

Back Once Again [Shingdig Records]

It seems to be Nintendo video day today so I have one last one for you. This time it's a GameBoy commercial featuring a giant armoured robot thing that shooots blue lasers out of it's fingers. Apparently the blue laser has the power to transport human boys into the misty land of the GameBoy nebula. When used by humans, however, the blue finger laser can be used to destroy your robot enemies.

After seeing this, I went and plugged in my old GameBoy, but unfortunately as hard as I tried, I couldn't manage to get the laser thing to work. Man, I got gypped. Flynn De Marco

Shannon over at ModBlog has posted this pic of a young lady's rather saucily placed tattoo that I'm sure will make some of you a bit overexcited and still others of you go "Um...why?" While I appreciate the sentiment behind the Konami code part, I feel kind of bad for her that she will have to go through life with that rather poorly done Gameboy right where every boyfriend and or girlfriend will have to be faced with it every time they want to get "biz-ay". Flynn De Marco

Many thanks Felipe!

Wow, Japanese commercials are so freaking awesome! This is a spot from 1992 advertising Metroid: The Return of Samus in Japan. Interestingly, the only time you see any actual gameplay footage is towards the end in a reflection in Samus' helmet. The comic book styling and use of what looks like an animated Samus action figure makes this commercial a real standout. Flynn De Marco

Thursday night, presidential hopeful Barack Obama spoke to the teeming crowds at an Austin, TX political rally about the upcoming election. In particular, Obama targeted the youth market in an attempt to get them to recruit their friends to his side with this rousing call to action.

"I want you to tell them, 'It's time for you to turn off the TV and stop playing GameBoy,'" Obama said. "We've got work to do."

I think it's very touching that Mr. Obama wants the kids of America to put down their antiquated gaming systems and work on the sorry state of the nation. Now if he could just convince the rest of them, you know, the ones who are actually using game devices from this century. Flynn De Marco

The Brothers brick is one of those sites it's almost impossible to stop looking at. They gather the best Lego creations from around the "blog-o-tubes" and display them in one, easy to browse place. The range of work is incredible, covering alien spaceships, mechs and a nice variety of video game related subjects. To save us all the trouble of having to search out all the great video game pieces, my robot half-brother Neiro over at Destructoid has gathered the best of the best creations into a little gallery for your perusal. The newly added Gameboy piece (pictured) by the Brothers Arvo is especially impressive and even has a battery compartment, Lego batteries and a Game Pak. Bravo! Flynn De Marco

The Brothers Brick - Lego Blog [Brothers Brick]
Mega gallery: 07' LEGO video game art [Destructoid]

I know you've all been following the saga of the masturbating Gameboy with baited breath. First there came the video, which ruined the childhood memories of thousands. Then came the contest wherin the bits, bytes, pixels and sprites team sought your aid in placing a label on this madness. Now, finally, fear has a name.

Jackie T.

I can't help but think one of you had a hand in this. No pun intended. I know Kotaku doesn't exactly dominate the making fun of lawyer market, but our commentors do it with such style. Let's just hope their choice of names doesn't open them up to any ineffectual lawsuits! Michael Fahey

We Have a Winner! The Gameboy has been named! [bits bytes pixels & sprites]

Name that Gameboy! [bits, bytes, pixels and sprites]

If you live in Savannah, Georgia best put down your Mint Julip and head on over to Telfair's Jepson Center for the Arts for a chance to catch chipsician Bubblyfish lay down her groovy GameBoy tunes.

I first heard about Bubblyfish a few years ago while researching a story for MTV's Overdrive. Since then Bubbly, aka Haeyoung Kim, who is trained as a classic pianist, has been featured in the documentary 8 Bit.

Tonight Bubblyfish will be teaming up with Savannah VJ and SCAD professor Alessandro Imperato for a free concert. The thing will kick off in the Neises Auditorium at 7 p.m.

If you go make sure to take pics and report back in, I'd love to hear how she's doing. I wonder if she'd be back in town in time to catch our party in Brooklyn? Brian Crecente

[Thanks to Seeker for the heads-up]

This has got to be the best Ipod mod I think I have ever seen. Creator sirljohns took an old Gameboy, disemboweled it and then inserted the the Ipod inside after doing a bit of fancy wiring work to get the Gameboy buttons to actually control the device.

Sirljohns has many more pictures of the process he went through to create the masterpiece and provides explanation as to exactly how he did it. Thanks to an internal dock connector, he says, no Ipods were harmed in the making of this Frankenmachine. Now if I can just get him to make me one.

Sirljohns Iboy [Flickr]
[via Engadget]

The Masturbating Gameboy [Bits, Bytes, Pixels and Sprites]

Boy, 7, dies of Gameboy power shock - Metro.co.uk
KILLED BY HIS XMAS GAME BOY - Mirror.co.uk
'Gameboy shock' kills wet boy - itv News

Imagine if you were a parent and just caught any number of those headlines. Remember, don't think like an informed gamer...think like a parent. Right. No Gameboy for your kids. If not anti-game bias, this is at least irresponsible sensationalism, making it seem as if the Gameboy itself were the cause of the poor child's death, to the point where Nintendo of Europe felt they had to issue a statement.

"Nintendo wishes to offer its sincere condolences to the family of Connor O'Keefe...Details of the accident are currently unclear so we are unable to make any further comment at this stage."

Tabloid reports on child 'Killed by Game Boy'
Nintendo responds to Game Boy accident [GamesIndustry.biz]

This wee lad's shit-eating grin shows that he fully understands the ultimate gaming power that only the blessing of one Mr. Jesus H. Christ can grant. He's pictured touching his clamshellerific Game Boy Advance SP to the The Stone of the Anointing, "believed to be the place where Jesus' body was prepared for burial" in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, way over there in Jerusalem. Why? He's absorbing the sanctity of Our Lord into a portable gaming device, of course.

This ironically devilish photo is just one in a set of world spanning shots of this kid playing his silver GBA in front of world famous monuments and tourist attractions (eg. Stonehenge, Big Ben, Cliffs of Dover). I wish I had a GBA when my parents were carting me around to things like this. Michael McWhertor

Game Boy Around the World [via BoingBoing]

Crecente could probably confirm, but this scorched, decayed, melted and exploded Gameboy managed to survive the Gulf War and get shipped home. As a vet? It lounges around the New York Nintendo Store all day, playing Tetris. "The horror!" Florian Eckhardt

oceanpark's photostream [Flickr]

Does heated condensation have the power to run an ancient GameBoy? Apparently so. The better question is: "Do a thousand locomotives have the power to run one Playstation 3?" Florian Eckhardt

I'm talking, of course, about Gunpei Yokoi, who would have been 65 today, had he not been killed in a car accident in 1997. After giving us countless hours of enjoyment with his and his team's fantastic products, whether we're talking about Dr. Mario or Kid Icarus, he should be well remembered by anyone who calls themselves a gamer. Hell, anyone who's used a crosspad enabled controller should be thanking Mr. Yokoi right about now.

If you aren't aware of the technical and artistic achievements Gunpei brought to this industry, you're well advised to read up on him at his Wikipedia entry and at this much more personal article by Wired's Chris Kohler.

My most memorable Gunpei inspired moment? Dedicating a Saturday to replaying Super Metroid from start to finish to get the Samus sans armor ending, only to receive many puzzled WTF-esque stares from my college roommates. "That's IT?" they said, "You spent 3 hours for that?!". Michael McWhertor

What an amazing technology that Gameboy Camera was. So now that we have the first music video filmed on the Gameboy Camera in James Kochalka's 'Spread Your Evil Wings And Fly', how about taking the fuzzy, black-and-white, surreal and creepy medium to its natural conclusion? I refer, of course, to the first Gameboy Camera snuff film.

I have to admit, as gleefully incompetent as this all is, I sort of dig it. Florian Eckhardt

Ah, the simpler days of portable gaming. When sophistication was just starting to seep into a field of LCD Game & Watches and execrable Tiger Electronic NES "ports" on sale for 20 bucks at your local Zayre's.

I still think back fondly about the early days of the Gameboy, when the concept of playing a video game in black-on-mustard in the backseat of your parent's car still seemed like the best gaming ever could get. Throughly pandering to my nostalgia, Modojo has posted an excellent retro list of the GameBoy's Elite, Black and White 8.

I'm particularly pleased to see Gargoyle's Quest on the list, which was a personal favorite. I beg to differ about the inclusion of Metroid II, though. "Who could possibly deny the genius of a Metroid title?" Any Metroid title that doesn't include a frickin' map should be buried along with Hip Tanaka. Florian Eckhardt

Representin' the OG: The Elite * [Modojo.com]

This one was sent in by Peter, who was immediately sent his Kotaku Scout Starter Kit and "game music" merit badge. The YCMK Magical 8bit Plug is an apparently mind-blowing plugin for all sorts of programs that lets you rock out, NES power ballad style. Says Create Digital Music:

Totally free, totally cross-platform (Windows VST, Mac AU). Via Adrian Anders and the CDM forums, where we're trying to figure out why it's crashing someone's installation of Ableton Live. Not Universal: Note that this plug-in is not Intel-native (nor any of the other examples listed here, as far as I know), so you'll need to go elsewhere for 8-bit sounds on an Intel Mac, ironically enough. Also, as several readers note over on TUAW, GarageBand has its own Atari Sings patch, though I don't think it clips as realistically as this does for a true NES sound. (Makes sense that it doesn't, since those patches are built with Logic's synths.)

CDM is hosting an extensive tutorial on how to get the best beeps and bloops from this here doohicky, and I wish I could fondle it a little myself, but I'm on one of those newfangled Intel Macs. Give it a shot (it's free) and let me know how it goes. Ten points and an autographed headshot to whoever composes the rousing theme to "Captain Gauger's Flying Monkey Moshpit". Eliza gauger

Article and tutorials here [Create Digital Music]

Thought you've seen ever possible Micro faceplate? Japanese blogger takuronyan whipped up a DIY Super Size Me faceplate. Bewildered, I have no idea why. Perhaps he was making a biting comment on fast food. Perhaps he was making a word play on "Super Size" and "Micro." Or perhaps he was bored.

Smart money says bored. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [FAMIcomplex]

Charmed Labs has come out with a homebrew GameBoy Advance insertable called the Xport 2.0. The naked widget plugs into the cartridge slot of the Game Boy Advance and:

[...] allows the Xport hardware to be tailored to your target application, and the 64 digital I/O signals provide programmable I/O for interfacing to practically any hardware device.

The website has some awesome .WMVs of the GBA-bots in action, demonstrating basic wandering and barrier-avoidance (complete with event-triggered They Might Be Giants audio samples from the bot itself), holonomic motion (frisbee-like spinning while scooting across the floor), and a video entitled "Teach" in which the GameBot is shoved around like a toy car being played with, and then released. It then autonomously repeats the movements it was "taught" just a few seconds ago. Outstanding! Eliza Gauger

Gameboy + LEGO = Robot [Charmed Labs]

The Guardian Gamesblog has posted the timeless question, "What's your favorite song about video games?" then posted up a list of their own favorite picks. Personally, we're a fan of Ozma's take on the Tetris theme, Korobienicki. But it's hard to beat this pick:

Freezepop - I am not your Game Boy

Fizzy electro-pop nonsense from 2004's Fancy Ultra Fresh album. The aggrieved singer might not be her lover's Gameboy ("don't play with me, I am not your toy"), but she's not short of classic videogame references:

"I don't have Spyhunter
Galaga or burger time
don't look here for Frogger
Dig-Dug aint no friend of mine
don't ask me, you'll cross the line"

Kotakuites, we'll be honest with you. It's a slow news day. The (ugh) Wii seems to have taken the wind out of everyone's sails. So why not join us in the comments section and give us your favorite video game inspired songs? Lyric quoting encouraged!

The best songs about videogames [Guardian Gamesblog]

For some reason, I keep on thinking Japanese surreality is a recent thing, as opposed to some Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test they've all been tripping on since Hiroshima.

Japanese Dr. Mario Commercial [Google Video]

Tomb Raider: Legend getting GameCubed [GameSpot]

Top Spin 2

For every busty woman in a fighter there should be a slight, bright female heroine like Jill in GameFreak's (the Pokemon developers) platformer Drill Dozer. The gameplay in Drill Dozer is typical if the company you're including in that definition includes superb 2D action games like the NES Mega Man titles crossed with the platforming functionality of Bionic Commando. To some gamers the aforementioned are probably relics they've never gotten their hands on - to others the comparisons will ring true.

The Drill Dozer is Jill's mode of transportation, method of inflicting punishment on her foes and puzzle solving mechanism. The bit can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise via the GBA or DS's shoulder buttons and is used to solve some of game's puzzles. The cute art style reinforces the very Mega Man feeling, coupled with all of the technical whodads and whatzits in the background. In addition to buying upgrades to your Dozer's arsenal, extra stages are available in the game to buy - however, you may catch yourself revisiting some stages to farm cash for them.

When I first got my hands on Drill Dozer late last year, it was a smart, well-thought out 2D platformer - something gaming could always use more of. The game fares the same at retail as it did in the build I played late last year. It's a fun little title with plenty of action crammed into a small, compact, cohesive adventure.

Pricing for Drill Dozer [Amazon]

On Dec. 6, according to Wordtracker, "Santa Claus" sat as the 130th most searched term on the internet. Two spots behind it? Dr. Sudoku. Citing the playful goal of making their GBA puzzler more popular than Santa Claus, Mastiff points out that Santa's advantage this holiday season is short-lived. Surely, by the time Dr. Sudoku is in the office in February 2006 they'll have passed him on the most-searched-for list.

They showed the faceplate on its own a few months ago, but here's the final packaging for FF IV GameBoy Micro Pack. I will admit, it looks pretty slick.

First GameBoy Micro Pack (Japan) [British Gaming Blog]

...except good taste: this horrendous solid-gold retro Gameboy, encrusted with diamonds and shipped in a blue leather case. Could it get any worse? Billed as 'exceptionally heavy' for added RSI possibilities, this quasimodo of shiny things can be yours for 25 thousand bucks.

Godawful Golden Gameboy [BoingBoing]

A vexxing price drop this is (if it sticks). Online retailer EBGames is listing Nintendo's mini GameBoy, the Micro, at $89.99. Considering the SP is listed at $79.99, I don't know if I'd really be into having a Micro, but for the niche crowd, the price has slipped. If only this had an NES faceplate. Then the nostalgia would suck the cash right out of my wallet.

Due in Feb. 2006, Game Freak s Drill Dozer is a cutesy platformer with depth that belies its cartoony appearance. Sure, L and R rotate your drill-bit (the primary weapon and travel tool in Drill Dozer) in different directions, but the game will have you spinning your wheels and that drill bit in different directions as later in the game you ll face unwitting jumping challenges. The slow-mo tutorial beginning manages to stay interesting and the two levels I played through showed great promise for the future of this GBA title. This could be a sleeper in 06.

I didn't really tinker with it much, but the remodeled GameBoy SP's new backlighting is freaky-amazing. Just check out that pic comparing the old screen to the new one. Unbelievable.