Kotaku: mattel

Digital Kriegspiel Creator Under Fire From Dead Marxist

Maggie Greene — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:30:00 MDT

Alex Galloway has put together a lovely digital adaptation of a chess-like game created by French Marxist Guy Debord dubbed Kriegspiel; now the estate of Debord is sending cease and desist letters to Galloway, claiming the digital version is infringing on the intellectual property rights of Debord. Reminiscent of the problem faced by the Scrabulous creators, Galloway is insisting that the idea of a game and rules are not subject to copyright. Ian Bogost weighs in:

Galloway has been served a cease and desist by the attorney representing Guy Debord's widow. It's too early to tell what will happen next ... Galloway's situation bears some similarity to that of popular Facebook app Scrabulous. The irony, of course, is the estate of a dead Marxist pursuing litigation over the exchange value of the name and image of its intellectual property.

Raising ire from Mattel I can see, but raising ire from the estate of a Marxist thinker over his little-known game from the '70s? Hm. We'll see what happens in this case — is it curtains for digital Kriegspiel?

The Revolution will be Litigated [Water Cooler Games]

U.B. Funkeys, Figurines that Game

Mark Wilson — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:40:09 MDT

U.B. Funkeys are collectible figures that hold games. You plug one of the 42 Funkeys into a base station, and they'll load custom minigames in which you can earn money to buy decor for the Funkeys' collective home (thing Sims with less tasks and more radioactivity). The starter pack with four Funkeys and a base unit runs about $40-$50, so we're guessing individuals will be in the sub $10 range.

Who knows if the games are any good, but the whole concept looks addictive as hell. Seriously, if they made kiddie crack it would be smoked from an anime-inspired midget animal pipe.

U.B. Funkeys [product page]

Clips: Intellivision Lock n' Chase Commercial

fdemarco — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:00:27 MST

Here's a little throw back to 1982 with a commercial from Mattel promoting the Intellivision game Lock n' Chase. The kid in the commercial is none other than E.T.'s best buddy, Henry Thomas. Not too sure if this came before of after E.T., but my guess would be before. You notice you didn't see Henry promoting the E.T. video game... Flynn De Marco

A Console for Pre-Pubescent Players

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:22:37 MDT

Mattel, the folks behind Nintendo's Power Glove and the Intellivision game console of yore, is back in the gaming saddle. The company is releasing a new game console called the Hyper Scan, which aimed at the "tween" (between 8 and 12 years old) market. Apparently, this bracket isn't quite ready for real hardware and needs training consoles. Um, okay. Sure.

The 32-bit system is CD based and merges paper card games with scanning technology. The discs go in the left side, while the cards are scanned over the red light on the right side. Players scan cards during play to update characters or save data. The system combines rewritable intellicards tech with "the fast-paced, button-mashing action of video games." It's about time! Because what's button-mashing with out writable cards? Nothing!

The game machine is packaged with an X-Men fighter and six game cards. The console boasts two controller ports, but includes only one joypad. Cough up that lunch money for an extra game cards and controller, kiddos. (Come this October, the Hyper Scan ships for US $70.) Me, I love the Hyper Scan. It's so bad! Brian Ashcraft

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