Adrenalin

Masculinity can be defined by two aspects: the cocktail adrenalin+ testosterone added to the liking for shooters.

Shooters, generally on a coin-op platform, were a dominant genre in the realm of early videogames. It’s easy to recall Galaxian, or Tempest, one of the first games to bring deepness to game mechanics. I would like to highlight one among them: Robotron 2084, the first game I ever knew that needed two joysticks to be used simultaneously, one for movement and the other for shooting.

Of course, the genre never died. People everywhere, especially asians as it seems, keep on devouring one shooter after another: Ikaruga, Bangai-O, Radiant Silvergun… Continue reading Adrenalin

Groboto-beta: new videos

http://www.groboto.com

The antialiasing is real-time and perfect (no really it is) while the textures use conformal mapping which means no stretching or mapping artifacts like you get with typical projective mapping.

Jeff Anderson has updated his blog with some new videos showing Groboto, the 3D organic art program, in action. It seems that the hopes I showed in my last article on the beta are being confirmed. The interface proves to be friendly and powerful; you can rotate the model effortlessly at any moment, and manipulating the seed (the little shape you start with) or the lighting is also very easy. Everything casts shadows over everything, and the textures have a crisp look due to the special kind of bump mapping used.

There are still many things about Groboto that remain a mystery: will it feature predefined shapes like the previous version? will it have a genetics lab? what will the export options be? When the beta testing is open I’ll be able to answer those questions. Until then, the expectations are getting pretty high 😀

Related Article: Groboto 2.0 in the works

Related Article: Groboto-beta: new screens

The Greengrass Supremacy

Who is Paul Greengrass? He is the director of two films as different as excellent: the brutally real “Bloody Sunday” and the more popular “The Bourne Supremacy”. Our target today will be the second title I’ve mentioned, perhaps the best action film (in my opinion) since “Die Hard”.

Action movies usually have a bad press, due to the dreadful quality (it´s true) of some of these products. Many of them attempt on the audience’s intelligence: We are fed up of watching bad guys killing lots of people with great precision, only to become true idiots when it´s about killing the hero. “The Bourne Supremacy” fortunately respects our capacity of thinking.

When Greengrass was hired to take up again the character of CIA agent Jason Bourne, after the great reception obtained by “The Bourne Identity”, he found himself with some questions to Continue reading The Greengrass Supremacy

The Orilamp

Some time ago my friends in the Origami Group showed me how to make a box model originally designed by Clemente Giusto. I found it interesting, especially since when folding it you have to use a “twisting” technique that afterwards, when the model is finished, allows you to open and close it without needing to make a second matching part.

The fact is that the flaps of paper on top of the box made it look kinda strange, as they were really big in comparison to the rest of the piece. Therefore, I started fiddling with it to see if I could Continue reading The Orilamp

Game Flyers Galore!

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/

a repository for arcade related promotional flyers that are used by the coin-operated amusement industry to promote the sales of their games.

The product of a fusion between two already big flyer collections, the Arcade Flyer Archive is, since 1999, an evergrowing showcase of arcade flyers and a paradise for the video game enthusiast.

In wandering through the many images available (usually there are several flyers for a single videogame,) you will find amazing artworks covering the entire story of arcades from 1971 to almost yesterday (the database is constantly updated). From an aesthetical point of view this is enough to Continue reading Game Flyers Galore!

Good night, and good luck: Afterthoughts

The smoke and the Truth

When the lights went on a sepulchral silence filled the room. I thought that most of the audience had found it difficult to digest this wonderful but complex film, not suitable for the general public (better for journalists and such), shot in a glorious black and white as the story it tells is one of those stories which can only be recalled in black and white. Some of the audience ran away most likely to smoke as soon they could, since in “Good night, and good luck”, people smoke lots and with such class, especially the main character, Edward R. Munrow (David Strathairn). The smoke itself is actually another character, so good that it would have Continue reading Good night, and good luck: Afterthoughts

The “Museical” absolution

Hello everybody. This morning I was listening to the radio and heared the tune “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Then I asked myself a question: Why do some people use the term “rock opera” when talking about some affected musicals created by Weber, Rice and company? Is it logical? I don´t think so.

In case you don’t agree with me, let’s bring up the first works of this genre. The Who’s “Tommy” represents the opening title of this rock style music, and it was followed by distinguished albums (“The Wall”, for example). “Cats” is not rock, but a mixture of pop and soft rock.

I have been searching for some current equivalent to those previous extraordinary conceptual rock pieces. It has to Continue reading The “Museical” absolution

Lego of Choice: Harpsichord

http://www.henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html

With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts(…) approximate 150 lbs. weight, and an estimated 100,000 LEGO piece count (…) It’s taken two years of theorizing, designing, collecting parts, building, testing, and rebuilding.

I first knew of the Lego Harpsichord after an article in make magazine, and have been wanting to write about it since then. From my point of view, this project stands on its own not only because of the sheer amount of Lego blocks used, but because Henry Lim has overcome the very specific problems that arise when designing and building a music instrument, plus the added challenge of making every single part of it out of Lego (well, obviously not the strings), departing with no previous knowledge on the field!

It is true that, if you Continue reading Lego of Choice: Harpsichord