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Sunday Comics

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 11. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published April 12. – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published April 17, 2011

CultureShop Contest

Adventures in Babysitting — For Sony

Some snippiness from Sony’s CEO provided the grist for last week’s ‘Shop Contest challenge, in which we explored the challenges of child rearing by those who gave us the PSP. We’ve got 20 hot and fresh ‘shops waiting for you inside! Let’s get things started with frequent flyer boopadoo (4), who racks up the Sony…

By Owen Good Published April 16, 2011

Culture

This Week In The Business: $11.76 million

SERIOUS | “Group of multi ethnic business people laughing and smiling” (Shutterstock) “Nintendo has to upgrade this Christmas.” The flurry of Wii 2 rumors this week have prompted analysts to comment and Sterne Agee’s Arvind Bhatia believes Nintendo must launch a new console this year, or else lose significant share to Microsoft and Sony. “Smartphones…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published April 15, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

No Game Suffered From “Valve Time” More Than Team Fortress 2

You think you’ve been waiting a long time for a new Half-Life game? You haven’t, really. It’s “only” been three and a half years. Now, Team Fortress 2, that was a game long in the making. The staggered development of Valve’s iconic shooter took so long, and went through so many twists and turns, that…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 15, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of PlayStation Advertising

The Sony PlayStation was the first ever console to truly pitch itself at an adult market. This meant that the machine’s advertisements set a more mature, often strange tone that continues through to this day. The PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3, all have had their share of kooky advertisements, and all have had their share…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 14, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Captain Commando, Capcom’s Greatest Hero

Boy, Capcom really went to town today on the news and media, didn’t they? It’s a damn shame, then, that none of it involved the company’s original mascot – and my all-time favourite Capcom hero – Captain Commando. Just like Sega, in the 1980s Capcom felt the need to create a mascot for itself, to…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Remembering The First Console To Use Cartridges

Today’s video game news was tinged with sadness, as the world learned of the death of Jerry Lawson, the man who led the team behind the creation of the video game cartridge. Those cartridges were used in the Fairchild Channel F, the console Lawson helped develop along with Ron Smith and Nick Talesfore. While it…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 12, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Video Game Console That Never Was

Some game machines are killed long before they enter production. Others at least make it to market before dying, whether of old age or lack of demand. And then there’s the Konix Multisystem. The history of console video gaming is one dominated by American (Atari, Microsoft) and Japanese (Sony, Nintendo, Sega) companies. When you think…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 11, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 4 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published April 8 – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published April 10, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Game Boy Creator’s Last Handheld Was A Wonderful Little Thing

Since Brian’s story earlier about the tragic death of former Nintendo great Gunpei Yokoi, I figured today would be a good time to take a look at the last thing he ever worked on: the WonderSwan handheld gaming device. While Yokoi will always be remembered as the man who created the Game & Watch, the…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 8, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

This Place Was Like A Breeding Program For Awesome Games And Famous Developers

Aside from perhaps Nintendo, there are few video game studios that have ever been home to so many of the industry’s best and brightest as Looking Glass managed. Founded in 1990, Looking Glass was not only responsible for some of that decade’s most innovative and memorable games, but was also a place where people like…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 7, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Remembering Sega’s Exiled Mascot

Nintendo has Mario. Microsoft has Master Chief. And Sega, well, for a long time Sega has had Sonic the Hedgehog as its mascot. Thing is, Sonic is an usurper Before the blue, spiky hero with the red shoes burst onto the scene in 1991, Sega already had a mascot: Alex Kidd. A character we have…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 6, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

How A Company Went From Rocking Horses To Pac-Man

Continuing on from recent looks at the unlikely beginnings of companies like Nintendo and Sega, let’s today see where Namco – now part of Namco Bandai – got its start. Here’s a hint: it certainly wasn’t making video games. No, like Nintendo and Sega, Namco began long before the commercial electronic video game had been…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2011

Culture

Is This The Greatest Super Mario Bros. Playthrough Ever?

It may not be the speediest of speed runs. It may not dazzle with its exploitation of glitches. But this Super Mario Bros. speed run is notable because the player is also simultaneously beating Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. This is the work of Japanese…

By Michael McWhertor Published April 4, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Meet The Four Americans Who Built Sega

Nintendo and Sega. Hardware rivals for decades, and even today they remain the archetype Japanese video game companies. Only, Sega isn’t entirely Japanese. It was founded by some American guys. While Nintendo, with its history in trading cards and love hotels, is as Japanese as they come, Sega’s history can actually be traced back to…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published March 27 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published March 26 – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published April 3, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

This Nintendo Was Inside A Television Set

I don’t know what it is about old Nintendo hardware that makes it so interesting. Maybe it’s because, outside of Nintendo’s home run successes, there are a lot of straight-up strange devices in the company’s history as well. Not weird in a bad way, mind you. Just in a “well, it’s awesome somebody thought this…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Let’s Talk About The Very First Street Fighter

Not Street Fighter II , that was...the second Street Fighter

By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Joys Of A Console’s First Moments

Know what I tend to remember consoles by? Not their games, or controllers, or even hardware casings. I usually remember them for their boot-up jingles. As silly as that sounds, those first few seconds of animation and music really set the tone for what the platform holder hopes is to come, and more than any…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Only In The 80’s Would They Put Video Games On A VHS Tape

Video games have made their home on any number of storage mediums over the years, from compact discs to cassette tapes to plastic cartridges. Someone even, in the 1980s, thought it was a good idea to put them on video tapes. It wasn’t. In the mid-to-late-80’s, three companies began working on consoles designed to use…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011