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  CultureTotal Recall

  The 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
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Those 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
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  CultureTotal Recall

  There was a Good Super Mario Bros. Movie. Let’s Watch it!

  When someone talks about the Super Mario Bros. movie, you’d be forgiven for assuming they’re talking about the 1993 live-action flick starring Bob Hoskins. But there are actually two Super Mario Bros. movies, the first one – a feature-length anime – having been released in Japan in 1986. It was called スーパー マリオ ブラザーズ ピーチ姫救出大作戦!…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012
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  “After A Few Months, I Realized She Was Eating Pancakes For Every Meal”

  Hello, Kotaku! It’s almost the weekend, and that is just groovy by me. I hope you’ve had a good thursday, and are ready to get your open thread on. It’s gonna be hot! So hot! Here are some things for you to read and maybe gab about. “The State Home for Manic PIxie Dream Girls”…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Atlus Publishing Vanillaware’s Gorgeous Dragon’s Crown

  Dragon’s Crown, an action-RPG from boutique Japanese developers Vanillaware (Odin Sphere), has been missing in action since its E3 debut last year. If you were thinking that meant the game was dead, though, you’re wrong! Atlus just signed on to publish it on both PS3 and Vita, and it’ll be out next year.

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012
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  Iowa Journalism School Adds Video Games Writing to Curriculum

  This fall, the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication will offer a course in writing about video games and reporting on the industry. “My idea is that everyone can learn from video games,” Kyle Moody, the course’s instructor and a teaching assistant in the journalism school, told The Daily Iowan, the independent…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  Who’s Left for Kratos to Kill in God of War: Ascension?

  Game Informer rounds up Kratos’ hit list—of Olympians—over all the games in the God of War series. That figure stands at 23. (Obviously, this carries a huge spoiler alert). Who’s left for him to kill? [Game Informer]

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  Report: Prey 2 Studio Hasn’t Worked on the Game Since November

  There’s a good reason Prey 2 has been delayed to 2013, as announced today. It’s because its development studio hasn’t worked on the game since November, according to an anonymous source speaking to Shacknews. The reason for that? Human Head, the developer “was not happy with the terms its contract with [publisher] ZeniMax,” reports Shacknews,…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  The Man Who’s Mastered the Art of the Ridiculously Impressive YouTube Music Tribute

  This past Monday, I got hipped to this video by FreddieGredde, YouTube tribute-artist extraordinaire. I’ve seen a lot of videos that I kind of describe as “Guy With Instruments Playing Video Game Music” (GWIPVGM) videos—they can be great, or they can be dull. They can be as charming as Pomplamoose, or as annoying as… well,…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Antônio Carlos Jobim, The Great Romantic Melodist

  “I’d like to make a request.” (A woman has approached the bandstand. She’s smiling.) “Do you guys know ‘The Girl from Ipanema? I love Bossa Nova.” You and the rest of the band are midway through your second set at this wedding; this is your first request. The ceremony is over, and everyone has moved…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Introducing the Melodic Mailbag

  I’ve been having a great time writing about music and games for you guys every Thursday. I’ve also been happy to hear from many of you about different music you’re into, what you’d like to see covered here, and to generally nerd out about all things musical. So I asked myself, why not make some…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Rest In Peace, Levon Helm

  It’s a funny thing, my relationship with The Band. They were a band that I wasn’t super aware of for a long, long time—that era of rock was something of which I was mostly ignorant for most of my years growing up. A few years after college, I watched Martin Scorsese’s phenomenal film The Last…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  The Kotaku Mixtape Vol 6: SimCity and Beyond

  If you’re reading this, you probably wasted hours and hours of your youth on Simcity 2000. Chances are you also know the weird, off-beat soundtrack by heart. But in the 90’s, Will Wright’s Sim Franchise was massive, and SimCity 2000 was only one one game in a series that spanned subjects like healthcare reform and…

  By Chris Person Published April 19, 2012
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  All Of The Coolest Instruments In The World Unite For A Single Album

  Here at Kotaku Melodic, we sometimes talk about music that doesn’t turn up in video games. This week is no different! When I was writing about Botanicula earlier this week, I mentioned my well-documented bass clarinet bias; it’s one of my favorite instruments, though I don’t own one myself. And okay, yes, my headline here…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  If Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ Was Actually About Video Games. And Was Hip-Hop.

  Back when I first heard all this buzz about this singer Lana Del Rey and her song “Video Games, I wondered if it was actually about video games. Turns out, nope! It isn’t really about video games. Talking to Kill Screen, Del Rey described the song’s inspiration thusly: I would consider it a hopeful song.…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Getting Lost In Super Mario RPG‘s Forest Maze

  I’ll admit it: I’ve never played Super Mario RPG. But when I heard its music played in that amazing medley FreddeGredde did earlier this week, I thought “Wow, that is a great melody!” And so I looked it up. And so it is, a very good melody. Composed by Yoko Shimomura, it holds up despite…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Meet The Man Who’s Making The Music For Halo 4

  It’s no small thing, the Halo music. In fact, it’s kind of a big deal. As I wrote last week, Martin O’Donnell’s music for the first five Halo games evolved to become one of the most iconic soundtracks in modern video games. While many chiptune anthems have been enshrined in gamer consciousness, O’Donnell’s Halo score…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Kotaku Melodic Starts Now

  Here now begins Kotaku Melodic, your Thursday night spot for music, video games, and video game music. Sit back and enjoy the show! And remember—every post is better if you listen along.

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Don’t Send Your Ace in Pursuit of Perfection in MLB 2K12

  News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • More than 629,000 perfect games have been attempted and 555 have been verified as thrown in Major League Baseball 2K12‘s $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge, which has about 10 days left. Those numbers are the latest available from 2K Sports. That means in…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  Gabe Newell Says Valve-Apple Meeting Didn’t Happen

  Apple CEO Tim Cook and Valve head Gabe Newell did not actually meet last week as rumored, according to a new podcast interview with Newell. He squashed the week-old rumor in an interview with the fine folks at Seven Day Cooldown, who were kind enough to let us in on some early excerpts from the…

  By Kate Cox Published April 19, 2012