Owen Good

Someone’s Going to Dig Up Atari’s Infamous New Mexico Landfill

Alamogordo’s city council has granted an excavation permit for the infamous landfill said to hold thousands of copies of E.T. and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600—two titles blamed for the mid-1980s crash of console gaming—and yes, the permit-holder is digging out the site specifically to find those games’ remains. The story is well known to…

For Sale: A $2,500 Video Gaming Chamber That Could Probably Kill You

Craigslist ain’t simply your one-stop source for $27 flea-infested futons, or where you celebrate a third DUI by buying a moped. No, you can find some truly bizarre shit, like this rolling deathtrap in which you may play an Xbox 360 with your knees tucked to your chest. Why on God’s green earth someone would…

There’s Only One Way to Play ‘Legitimate Rape’: the Pinball Machine

The Missouri goober who last year was leading a senate race against the incumbent until he decided to mouth off about his personal concept of “legitimate rape” has been immortalized by a pinball machine. In France. And in keeping with Todd Akin’s dumbfuck worldview, it’s ball out, every time. You may recall that Akin was…

Here’s what’s going on at Talk Amongst Yourselves, Kotaku’s reader-written blog: Heigham offers regrets for disposing of old console games, while keeping the consoles. And The Geek Empress compares the evolution of games’ visual sophistication with that of classical art’s. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in…

Teen’s School Shooting Plan Included Call of Duty’s ‘No Russian’ Theme

The teenager accused of plotting a bombing attack on his school in Albany, Ore., wanted his car stereo to blare the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 soundtrack—specifically, the song from the infamous “No Russian” mission—as he carried out his assault, according to his handwritten plans, police there said. At 11:10 a.m. on the day…

These are the 89 Best Buys Where You Can Play Nintendo’s E3 Games

Nintendo just released the list of more than 75 U.S. cities where Best Buy stores will be holding public, playable demonstrations of games the company will be showing off at E3. The demos will take place during four-hour blocks on two different days during the week of E3. The list of games to be shown…

In the popular consciousness, “Tecmo Bowl” usually means the 1989 NES port, if not 1991’s Tecmo Super Bowl. Today, The Onion, satirizing White House sports photo ops, shows off its gamer cred by going back to the game’s original arcade version, which featured only the “Bulldogs” and “Wildcats”—coached by BOB and ASS.

Police Blotter: He Smashed, She Smashed

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. He Sends a Laptop to the Hospital, You Send…

The NHL is Down to Three Active Players Who Appeared in NHL ’94

Hyping the cover vote for NHL 14, the league reached back to that old 16-bit crowd-pleaser, NHL ’94, to make this adorable video. It’s appropriate because one of the finalists is the New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur, the only active goalie whose NHL career is older than the video game. So, once again, it’s time…

The Man Who Played Luigi Recalls the Disastrous Super Mario Bros Movie

Super Mario Bros., the 1993 film, paved the way video game movies for all time to come. Namely, that everyone would expect them to be terrible. It opened 20 years ago on Tuesday, and John Leguizamo, who starred as Luigi, had the grace and good humor to record this message for a Super Mario Bros.…

Baseball’s Video Game Diehards Savor a Slow Dance on the Basepaths

Paul Goldschmidt fishes for the 1-1 slider way outside of the strike zone. He kicks dirt over the batter’s box chalk, walks in a counterclockwise semicircle, fidgets with the brim of his helmet, and digs back in. Jon Garland rolls his shoulders and sweeps his foot twice over the pitching rubber. Now I may press…

Microsoft Doesn’t Own XboxOne.com, Files Dispute Against Guy Who Does

Though it may seem ridiculous that Microsoft would name its new console without already owning the domain name for it, there are a couple of mitigating factors here. One is that the guy who owns XboxOne.com registered the name almost two years ago. That’s some good guessing! Fusible reports that Microsoft has filed a complaint…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Dog Duty

Well, we had the big Xbox One reveal. The big news:TV, sports, TV, sports and all that, and oh yeah, apparently Air Bud is gonna be in the next Call of Duty. If you saw the video and didn’t immediately think this week’s ‘Shop Contest was gonna do it doggie style, you must be new…

What Was Inside Curiosity‘s Cube? ‘The Ability to be a Digital God’

Curiosity, a mobile game experiment that began six months ago as a collective effort to excavate a giant cube and discover a magical secret at its center, has been completed. The winner, whom creator Peter Molyneux identified as Bryan Henderson of Edinburgh, Scotland, will become the all-ruling god of Molyneux’s next game. Henderson will write…

Capcom Cancels Blood-and-Guts Stunt After Grisly London Murder

Filling a swimming pool with fake blood and body parts to promote a video game never seemed to me like a particularly tasteful idea in the first place. It’s even less so after a grisly machete killing, described as an act of terrorism, roiled anger throughout London this week. Capcom planned the stunt to promote…

Sunday Comics: With Friends Like These …

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerd Rage by Andy Kluthe. Published May 24. Read more of Nerd Rage Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published May…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Roboshop: The Winners

The three prime directives of the ‘Shop Contest: Serve the public trust; protect the innocent; uphold the funny. Working from a bigass statue of Robocop that, dead or alive, is coming to Detroit, we’ve got a baker’s dozen of hilarious ‘Shops inside, including overall No. 1 Negitoro! First, the original exploitable: And here are the…

NCAA Football Used Tim Tebow’s Real Name Before He Graduated

Real college football players’ names are not supposed to appear in video games if they’re still in school at the time they are published. But Tim Tebow’s name slipped into NCAA Football 10, which came out during the Heisman Trophy winner’s senior year at Florida. Tebow still was called “QB#15” in the game itself, unless…

The 360 Figures to Hang Around a Lot Longer than the Original Xbox Did

The Xbox 360 launched Nov. 22, 2005. Within two years, Microsoft unceremoniously discontinued its predecessor. The company expects the 360 to be with us a little longer this time. Yusuf Mehdi, a senior Microsoft executive, told Official Xbox Magazine that the company has a goal for the Xbox 360 of reaching a 100 million-unit installation…

The World’s Coolest Iron Man Game Is Still GTA IV—and It’s Even Better

Five months ago, modder H1Vltg3 gave us an Iron Man script for Grand Theft Auto IV, and it was already loads better than the official Iron Man moviegame of 2008. With another five months’ worth of polish, it’s even better. [Update:] There was some dispute over credit in the original video so the uploader swapped…