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CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo Power Sure Had Some Amazing Artwork Inside
After I posted those amazing old Zelda images from Nintendo Power the other day, I got an email from reader Yannick, who just so happens to run a blog that collects all kinds of awesome old Nintendo Power artwork by Katsuya Terada. Double Dragon, Contra, there’s all kinds of old NES games Terada has brought…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 26, 2012 -
Culture
The Art of Prototype 2
Because Prototype 2 is out this week, artists involved in the game are now able to share their work. One of those is Venezuelan César Rizo, who did a lot of environment pieces for the game. Rizo has been a professional concept artist since 2005, and has worked with companies like Radical Entertainment and Relic.…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 26, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallBatman…Why so Serious? It’s Just a Video Game!
If you’re sensitive to unnecessary amounts of drama in your video game advertisements, a word of caution: this contains an unnecessary amount of drama for a video game commercial. If anyone ever tells you the 1990s weren’t the golden age of video game advertising, you slap them, hard, and tell them they are wrong
By Luke Plunkett Published April 25, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Third World War Brought Clinton and Saddam Closer Together
The Sega CD was home to some terrible things, but it was also home to some wonderful curiosities as well. And few are as curious as Micronet’s 1993 strategy game The Third World War. Let’s start with the cover art. That amazing cover art. Sadly, it was only for the Japanese edition of the game…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 25, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWhy Did This Game Store Fail? Hilariously Awful Training Videos, Perhaps
Game Crazy, a now-defunct minor player in the US games retail space, operated for around a decade, kicking off in 1999 and winding down in 2010. Those involved with the chain, a subsidiary of Movie Gallery, will tell you its because increased competition squeezed it out of the market. They’re wrong. It’s because a generation…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Making of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
In the late 1980s, Nintendo’s internal development teams set out to make two games that would forever define its classic Super Nintendo Entertainment System. One was Super Mario World. The other was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Work on both games began almost simultaneously. “At Nintendo, we don’t spend a long…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 24, 2012 -
Culture
More Killer Concept Art From Korea
Not content with showcasing the talents of one Korean artist this month, I’m now going to feature a second, NCSoft’s Tae Won Jun. Also known as “Taega”, he’s an artist at the company behind games such as Lineage, Guild Wars, Wildstar and City of Heroes To see more of his work, visit Taega’s personal page…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallOmega Boost’s Intro Might be the Coolest Thing 90s Video Games Ever Did
This is Omega Boost. It was an OK shooter released in 1999 on the PlayStation. I remember it, and pay tribute to it here today, not for the game, but for everything around it. Like the incredible FMV intro sequence, which goes from corny to amazing to “wow those aren’t bad props and costumes for…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallPortal was First Released in 1986, and was an Activision Adventure Game
Portal may be the name for a contemporary series from Valve, about mad robots and jumpsuits, but it’s also the name of a video game first released nearly thirty years ago. That game, Portal – Valve got the trademark after the original ceased using it – was a strange adventure title for personal computers, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
Culture
The Cast of Tekken, in Glorious Sketch-o-Vision
Japanese artist Shunya Yamashita is to thank for these sketches of the cast of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, used as promotional art for the 2011 arcade fighter. Interestingly, they’re also forming the basis for Kotobukiya’s fancy “Bishoujo” line of Tekken figures You can see the entire collection at the link below. Tekken Tag 2 –…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012 -
Culture
Anti-Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find
The Prototype narrative picks up with James Heller in the lead role of Prototype 2 this week, smashing, slashing, and beating ass galore in New York Zero. Other highlights include the Euro 2012 mode for FIFA 12 and Xbox Live Arcade title Bloodforge Tuesday • Risen 2: Dark Waters (PC) • Prototype 2 (PS3, 360)…
By Owen Good Published April 22, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Born to Kill
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. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published April 19.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published April 22, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Mass Effect Music-Maker Remixes Mass Effect 1 Music, It Is Rad
A little while back, Jimmy “Big Giant Circles” Hinsen released an album of music that he’d written for Mass Effect 2 but that didn’t make the cut. Now, he’s put out a free remix album called Max Effect featuring music from Mass Effect 1, originally composed by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques and David…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Geek Squad Who Rescued a Gaming Classic
At the end of March, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner found the source code for the game years after he’d thought it was lost. But the data was saved on computer disks that were more than 20 years old—would they still be readable after all these years? Would it be safe to put them…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 20, 2012 -
Culture
Beautiful Video Game Art, Direct From Korea
You probably haven’t even heard of the games Korean artist Kang Jin has worked on, let alone played them. But that’s OK. These Fine Art posts aren’t about what the game is, but how nice the art is, and Kang’s art is nice Now employed at online gaming powerhouse Neowiz, Kang has also worked at…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWhat Computer Animation Looked Like in 1971
Us 21st century kids with our Unreal Engines and fancy computers think our animation is just so shit hot. And it is! But it had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere are these very humble beginnings. This 1971 Canadian documentary looks at the very early days of the practice of key frame animation. For…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Man Bringing Classic Arcade Cabinets Back
The 80’s were an awesome and bizarre time for arcades. Nobody knows this better than Gary Vincent, owner and operator of the American Classic Arcade Musuem in New Hampshire. For the past 3 years, he’s been shipping 30 arcade cabinets to PAX East in an attempt to recapture the feel of those classic 1980’s arcades.…
By Chris Person Published April 19, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThose Dudes in Castlevania are Pretty Intense
Unlike the Konami of today, which relies almost entirely on milking a couple of key franchises and selling mobile games in Japan, the Konami of the 1980s was a more exciting company. You could say, in fact, they were jammin
By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012