Eric Joyners Gemälde von Robots und Donuts hatte ich hier schon ein paar mal, mittlerweile hat er ‘ne neue Website und dieses Jahr hat er ein Bild von Robotern gemalt, die einen Blitz durch einen Donut leiten und damit Frankenstein zum Leben erwecken. It’s alive!
Donuts and Robots – The Art of Eric Joyner (via Frankensteinia)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Eric Joyners „Robots & Donuts“-Buch
Eric Joyners Robot Art
Es gibt nichts besseres als ein bisschen klassischen, viktorianischen Horror von Edgar Allen Poe aufs Ohr. Bei Vorleser.net gibt’s die Poe-Audiobücher „Die Maske des roten Todes“, „Wassergrube und Pendel“ und andere für lau und als MP3. Auf deren Startseite gibt’s auch noch kostenlose Audiobooks von Kafka und Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes. Und Mary Shelleys „Frankenstein“.
Edgar Allan Poe – kostenloses mp3-Hörbuch bei Vorleser.net (via Peter @ Twitter)
Diesen sehr schicken DIY Steampunk Arcade-Dings hätte ich eigentlich in die Links gepackt, aber dann entdeckte ich die grün leuchtenden Frankensteins auf der Seite: Monster links, seine Braut plus Mad Scientist rechts. It’s alive! Aaaaaaw!
I like steampunk, Harper Goff (designed the disney Nautilus from 20,000 leagues) and Kenneth Strickfaden (set designer and prop builder for Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein. I thought it would be fun to combine all that into a MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) cabinet to play video games and use as a jukebox. I found all kinds of inspiration at places like Stelter Creative’s website, The Steampunk Workshop and many others.
Dr. Victor Frankensteins Monster Arcade (via BoingBoing, Steampunk Workshop)
Ein verrückter Franzose hat diesen SNES-Mod gebastelt, der wie Frankensteins Lieblingskonsole aussieht mit den Schrauben und Augen und Kratzern und so und ja, das Ding funktioniert noch. Unbedingt die Bilder im Dunkeln ansehen: Es leuchtet grün und Nebel wabert um die 8Bit-Gräber, aus denen gedämpft ein Schaben und ein Kratzen toter Fingernägel an den… ich hör ja schon auf.
Game Over Project (via Technabob)
Ich liebe dieses sehr frühe Promo-Poster für Frankenstein, das offensichtlich gestaltet wurde, bevor das Creature-Design feststand und noch bevor Karloff überhaupt an Bord des Films war, hier sollte noch Bela Lugosi Frankenstein (nicht das Monster) spielen und überhaupt: Frankensteins Monster als Gigant mit Laseraugen, aaaaaw! Snip von Frankensteinia:
Frankenstein was turned over to director Robert Florey who wrote a script with Garrett Fort and, in mid-June, directed the infamous, now lost screen test with Lugosi as The Monster. Lugosi balked at playing the mute, makeup-heavy character, but he was still attached to the project after James Whale replaced Florey. News of Lugosi being “switched” to Murders in the Rue Morgue surfaced in mid-July, but his replacement, Boris Karloff, was not named until late August when the film began shooting.
The Posters of Frankenstein: Early Promotional Art, Frankenstein (1931)
Ich liebe die Konzertposter von Jesse Philips voller Steampunk, Riesenroboter, Tentakel und Frankensteins. Gibt’s hier auf Gigposters oder in seinem Portfolio.
(via Street Anatomy)
Jeez, das ist vielleicht der beste Steampunk-PC-Mod aller Zeiten, ein Ungetüm mit Schrauben in den Schläfen, der sich auch noch Frankenstein Mod nennt. Unbedingt auch die Details auf Seite Zwei ansehen. Ich meine, fuck, der hat da sogar ein Auge eingebaut! Whoa!
Auf Vorleser.net gibt es ein 7,5stündiges Hörbuch von Mary Shelleys „Frankenstein oder Der moderne Prometheus“. It’s alive!
Hörbuch: Mary Shelleys „Frankenstein oder Der moderne Prometheus“ (Danke Heini, Illu von Berni Wrightson aus seinem Frankenstein-Portfolio)
Golden Age Comicbook Stories hat eine schöne Sammlung von Illustrationen von Berni Wrightson aus Comics, seinem Frankenstein Portfolio (von dem ich gar nicht glauben kann, dass ich das Teil hier noch nicht verlinkt habe) und ein paar unveröffentlichten Zeichnungen. Ich empfehle einfach das komplette Wrightson-Tag bei GACBS.
Golden Age Comicbook Stories hat das Comic zu „Son of Frankenstein“, dem eher unbekannten dritten Teil der Frankenstein-Filme von Universal. Die Filmadaption stammt aus Movie Comics #1 vom April 1939.
Son of Frankenstein – fumetti adaptation from Movie Comics #1 ~ April/1939
Das hier ist wohl das beste Anatomie-Buch für Kinder aller Zeiten: Es hat kurze Notizen von Dr. Frankenstein. Aaaaaaw! Snip von Frankensteinia:
The Frankenstein references are strictly limited to short diary entries, written with gentle humor, to accompany and encourage the reader/assistant. Connecting limbs to the skeleton, the diary reads, “Up to the elbows with work. Assistant managed to put the humerus in the right place without hitting the funny bone”. Examining the central nervous system, the diary notes, “Assistant and I used our gray matter to install a brain…”. Otherwise, the text, by Richard Walker, a science writer and a veteran of anatomy books, is perfectly serious.
The information is doled out in easy-reading, bite-size pieces that support the generous iconography. Illustrations allow us to peer inside a bone or an eyeball, and a skull is exploded into its component parts. Medical photographs reveal microscopic structures and inner workings.
The book is beautifully designed and the production values are off the scale. This is one of those indestructible books with a vinyl cover and rigid, extra-thick board pages. Every spread opens flat. The cover features a lenticular 3-D image that peers inside a human heart.
Amazon-Partnerlink: Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth about How You Body Works
Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book beim Verlag
Golden Age Comic Book Stories feiert Halloween, aber richtig: haufenweise Bilder mit vintage Horror-Kram und großformatige Scans von Comics.
The Journal of Frankenstein ~ 1959
Tales From the Crypt
Web of Horror #1 ~ December/1969
Web of Horror #2 ~ Feb/1970
EC – a handful of misc images
Photoplay Editions
BIZARRE – The landmark issue from March/1962 devoted to the lives and carreer’s of James Whale ~ Tod Browning ~ Bela Lugosi ~ Boris Karloff
Aleksey Galushkov, Fotograf aus der Ukraine mit einem starken Hang zu Motiven aus den 20ern des Vergangenen Jahrhunderts, hat Frankensteins Braut abgelichtet, topless und mit Küchenmesser. Ich könnte mir „Frankensteins Braut“ mal wieder ansehen, immerhin gilt er immer noch als der beste Horrorfilm aller Zeiten, worüber man heutzutage vielleicht streiten könnte.
Galushkov’s RetroAtelier portraits mimic bygone styles, his time-traveling models — Belle Époque Belles and Forties Femme Fatales — are captured in faux hand-tinted daguerreotypes, stark Man Ray black and whites, and silvery glamour studio photography. Costumes and coiffures are impeccably dead-on, and setups evoke Caligaresque Weimar Berlin, Ziegfield Follies pinups and Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Galushkov’s Bride — in the artist’s own words, a “fantasy” photoshoot — calls us across time, the prints scratched and fading. Beautiful, delicate, and perhaps a tad unchaste, this Bride is armed and dangerous. The model is identified simply as Ksenia.
Aurora Plastics had been making figural models of the Universal monsters since the 1960’s, in fact they were really one of the first to captilize on the Monster craze of that decade. In the 1970’s they relaunched the line with a new feature, they now glowed in the dark. Monster items and glowing in the dark is still a prevelant trend to this day..
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The long lost Thomas Edison „Frankenstein“-Movie
the long-lost first film of Frankenstein, produced by Thomas Edison’s studio in 1910. An interesting document in its own right, it is also an example of the ways censorship does not merely suppress art, but influences the shape of the art that does appear.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull LEGO Spoilers
Photos of the upcoming Indiana Jones LEGO sets have been released, giving us an indication of what to expect from the high concept tentpole action sequences in the new film. But be warned, Crystal Skull spoilers are abound. Continue at your own risk.
Zach Braff Quotes
“I mean, I’m a writer, actor, AND director. Not to rock the boat or anything, but compare that to a carpenter and, in the end, who is the better man?” – Zach Braff on Jesus
Cool Stuff: Nintendo Wii Clerks Mod
Ramon Stokes spent 60 hours creating this custom modified Clerks-themed Nintendo Wii. Stokes’ company Morphon Mods was commissioned by Smith’s friends “Ken, Zak and Joey” to create the Wii as a Christmas Gift for the Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith.
Top 10 Most Disgusting Scenes in American Cinema
James Bond Stamps
Diamonds are forever . . . and so is this classic James Bond cover. The design, stylish simple to compliment the colourful stamps, shows luscious diamonds cascading before the faintest hint of a gun barrel. The cover is postmarked at Mayfair, when James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was born – and you will see dice in the postmark, in keeping with the latest Bond film, Casino Royale.
Humanoid robot drawing portraits
When the robot recognizes a face in its field of view, it first grabs a snapshot of this face and extracts the relevant features and contours characterizing it. The robot then grabs a pen and start drawing the user’s portrait, starting from the rough contours and adding details iteratively.
Surreal Monuments in former Yugoslavia
In »SPOMENIK / The End of History« Jan Kempenaers portrays monuments raised by the communist regime in former Yugoslavia.
Bill McMullens Drum Machine Ring
The Sex Singularity – When Machines Surpass Human Hotness
2007 – Several top roboticists, materials engineers, and SFX modelmakers are hired away to work for a secretive startup based in Las Vegas, and disappear from all professional correspondence.
2009 – The startup, Pygmalion Systems, Inc., ends speculation by introducing its first product: the Supermod Doll. This stunningly beautiful, sexbot features three self-lubricating, removable-core orifices, and can autonomously navigate most indoor environments. It understands over 60 voice commands, and performs over 20 sex acts and positions. An internal battery heats and powers the bot for up to 45 minutes in between charges. Retail price: $5000.
Sony acknowledges the existence of its Comfort Robotics program, which has been working on sexbots for six years. The company announces that it expects to bring its first sexbots to market by 2011.
Space Shuttle Concept Art from 1971
Imagine a spacecraft that carries 12 passengers and lands as easily as an airplane. It will be ferrying back and forth to space by the late 1970’s. And if the future is like the present, Tang will be in its galley
How to copyright Michelangelo
Some of the world’s greatest artworks are turning into copyrighted properties.Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Today, those images are copyrighted. How can ancient cultural icons become commercial properties, centuries after they fall into the public domain?
How this happened is a story that takes us from a Crusading Pope in the Borgias era, all the way to Bill Gates’ mansion on the shores of Lake Washington.
End of Support for Netscape web browsers
AOL has a long history on the internet, being one of the first companies to really get people online. Throughout its lifetime, it has been involved with a number of high profile acquisitions, perhaps the largest of which was the 1999 acquisition of the Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape was known to many as the thought leader in web browsing, and had developed a number of complementary pieces of software that allowed for a rich suite of internet tools.
Optimus Tactus Keyboard
Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size. Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images.
giant airship hangars
One of Silicon Valley’s most famous landmarks, and possibly its only truly monumental one is under threat of demolition. The giant airship Hangar One at NASA’s Moffett Field, is one of America’s architectural treasures. Airship hangars were collectively the largest spaces ever built, larger than cathedrals and just as awe inspiring.
Metal Fingers in My Body: Interview with David Levy, Author of “Love + Sex With Robots”
What essentially human traits do you envision future sexbots changing forever?
I believe that sexbots will change our perceptions of human relationships, and in some ways we will become more demanding with respect to what we want from a human partner. This is not entirely a good thing. If someone has great sex with their robot, they will want the sex with their human partners to be great as well, which could lead to disappointment. On the other hand, sexbots will be excellent tutors, so people will be able to be taught the skills necessary in a great lover.
When Robot Programmers get bored
Industrieroboter-Funride
Youtube: Harder Bodies Faster Stronger
Zwei halbnackte Roboter-Mädchen machen Daft Punk.
Aphex Twin Mashups
How ill is Aphex Twin with the beats? I’ve been listening to his work for about a decade now and none of it sounds dated. Maybe more heads will recognize if I throw some vocals on top… here we have some quality mashups including verses by Busta Rhymes, Peaches, Nas, TI, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Q-Tip, Afrika Bambaataa, OC, and Kool Keith. Technically one of the instrumentals is co-produced by Squarepusher, but whatever. That dude is crazy too.
Tim Burtons Frankenweenie
Als ich damals „Nightmare before Christmas“ im Kino sah, lief im Vorprogramm sein Kurzfilm „Frankenweenie“ von 1984. Ein wunderbarer Film, der das „Frankenstein“-Thema mit einem Kind und einem Hund nacherzählt. Und genau den wird er als Film realisieren. Yeah!
Ghostbusters 3 kommt. Als Game.
Und zwar nicht einfach so irgendwie, sondern richtig: mit allen vier Hauptakteuren Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray und Harold Ramis plus einigen Nebenrollen plus den Scriptschreibern (Akroyd, Ramis), die eine Story für das Teil schreiben werden, die an den zweiten Teil anknüpft.
Ghostbusters 3 Videogame – erste Ausschnitte
Friday 13th – Script Spoiler
After that the Survivor Girl and her boyfriend wander off into the woods, where they find a shitty old cabin. Inside are some clues, like a bed with the name Jason carved in it. An old picture of a girl who looks just like Survivor Girl. And Mama Voorhees’ head.
Cue Jason. He murderizes the other four kids, and as he grabs Survivor Girl… slam into the opening credits.
Star Trek Home Theater
Someone thought it would be a good idea to model their home theater after the Enterprise NCC-1701D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The result is super geeky, but actually rather cool.
Only Shatner can make Satanists melt
All hail 70s-era Shatner! He began his career with some rather prestigious projects, appearing in The Brothers Karamazov and Judgment at Nuremberg, as well as some rather high profile appearance in Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. But even then, there were hints of exploitation, such as 1961’s The Explosive Generation, in which Shatner played a teacher whose job is endangered when she speaks candidly to kids about sex. And there was 1962’s The Intruder, a Roger Corman film from 1963 in which Shatner played a carpetbagging racist inciting violence in a southern town. And, of course, there was Incubus from 1965, a horror film in Esperanto. But, after Star Trek, at the start of the 70s, something went haywire.
Muppet Wiki
Muppet Wiki is a collaborative encyclopedia for everything related to Jim Henson and the Muppets.
Flaming Lotus Girls
The Flaming Lotus Girls are a San Francisco-based fire art collective.
Food company annual report has to be cooked first
Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Zinić have designed an annual report for food company Podravka that has to be baked in an oven before it can be read.
New York Times Books: My Favorite Book Covers of 2007
School in a Cave
Children attend class at the Dongzhong (literally meaning “in cave”) primary school at a Miao village in Ziyun county, southwest China’s Guizhou province, November 14, 2007. The school is built in a huge, aircraft hanger-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind, water and seismic shifts.
Video: “The Computer Chronicles” Visits Japan Tech Expo ‘85
A full half-hour video from a show called “The Computer Chronicles” as they travel to Japan for the 1985 Computer Expo in Japan, full of dancing robot girls, an early version of the French Minitel, early text-to-speech, the first JumboTRON—pretty much all the stuff we’re currently enjoying today, just in boxes much more beige and square.
A History of Matching Tile Games
This article aims to write the history of a video game genre. The genre is that of matching tile games, video games where the object of the player is to manipulate tiles on a grid in order to create matches.
Laser Pistol from Lost in Space
Sci-Fi Metropolis in collaboration with master propsmith Richard Coyle, created this 1:1 scale model of a laser pistol from the 1960s sci-fi TV series Lost in Space.
28 fantastic vintage tvs
As flat screen TVs become ubiquitous, vintage TVs look more and more interesting and unusual. From early mechanical TVs consisting of a spinning disk and lens (which look even better without an enclosure), to Sony’s original transistor TV and portable LCD sets from as early as the 80s. Here are some of our favorites from collector sites around the web.
Diese Grafik bei Robert erinnert mich ja ziemlich an die Bilder von den Evolutionsstufen der ersten einzelligen Lebensformen und an diese Theorie, nach der das Internet, wenn es einmal eine kritische Masse an Knotenpunkten, Vernetzung und Daten überschritten hat, anfangen wird, selbständig zu denken und als eine Art lebendes Meta-Wesen im Cyberspace die Weltherrschaft an sich reißen existieren wird. Das da oben wären quasi die ersten Evolutionsschritte dahin.
Wenn man nun davon ausgeht, dass sich die ersten komplexen Moleküle im Archaikum vor 3,8 Millarden Jahren auf der Erde bildeten und der nächste Evolutionsschritt im Paläoproterozoikum vor 2,5 Mrd. Jahren stattfand, wo sich erste einzellige Lebensformen bildeten und zwischen beiden Evolutionsschritten 1,3 Milliarden Jahre liegen, ergeben sich für komplexes Leben quasi drei Einheiten. Molekül, Einzeller, Mehrzeller, und das innerhalb von 3,8 Mrd. Jahren. Wenn man nun annimmt, die obige Grafik zeigt den ersten Evolutionsschritt, die Bildung eines komplexen Moleküls nämlich in Form eines komplexen Netzwerks innerhalb von 27 Jahren seit den Achtzigern, dann finge das Web in ungefähr 54 Jahren an, wirklich zu leben, wenn man von einer linearen Entwicklung ausgeht. Bei exponentieller Evolution wäre das Web ein paar Jahre früher lebendig.
Und mit etwas Glück und weniger Alkoholkonsum bin ich dann noch da, um dem ollen Internetz dann die Hand zu schütteln und ihm zu sagen, dass ich an seiner Evolution ein klitzekleines bißchen beteiligt war. Fuck, yeah! Es wird Zeit, dass jemand den modernen Prometheus für das digitale Zeitalter schreibt.
Youtube: The Spotnicks – The Rocket Man (1962)
Youtube: William Shatner performs “It Was a Very Good Year”
Loudblog on Air
Zusammen mit Freunden und Kollegen starteten wir das Projekt, bei dem es darum geht, Demo-Material von freien Künstlern zu sammeln. Neben dem Download und einem Bewertungssystem, das ebenso wie ein Widget noch in Arbeit ist, werden wir als zusätzlichen Anreit eine echte CD herstellen und diese verkaufen. Die Künstler bekommen den größten Anteil am Verkaufserlös.
Modest Mouse “Untitled” Documentary
Shot in 1997 by indie filmmaker Rick Madsen, this 36 min documentary filmed during the recording of the Modest Mouse album “The Lonesome … Alle » Crowded West” will never be released commercially. Artists interviewed for the film include Elliott Smith, Spencer Moody from The Murder City Devils, Doug Martsch of Built To Spill, Sam Coombs of Quasi and Calvin Johnson.
The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville.
Blonde on Blonde borrows from several musical styles, including ’40s Memphis and Chicago blues, turn-of-the-century vintage New Orleans processionals, contemporary pop, and blast-furnace rock & roll. And with every appropriation, Dylan moved closer to a sound of his own.
A Fistfull of DJ-Sets:
DJ Shum – Loungectro # 4 (MP3)
A Shitload of a Bunch of Bootlegs:
Interpol – Peel Sessions
Interpol – AOL Sessions (June 29th,07)
The Verve – Raw Club, Toronto (1995)
Radiohead – MTV Live
Radiohead – 2001-04-28 – Paris
Bloc Party – 2005-02-07 – Paris
Beck – 2006-10-31 – Santa Monica
Nada Surf – Live @ Brussels 95
Stereophonics – Completely Acoustic
Supergrass – Live – Feel Alright (Bootleg)
Supergrass – Glastonbury festival, uk, june 1995
Supergrass – sound city bristol, uk, april 1995
Placebo – Various Acoustics
Placebo – FM4 Acoustic Session
Secret Machines – Live – 01.19.06 Manchester Academy 3
Oasis – Rare Acoustic Session
Oasis – Acoustic Bit and Bobs
Oasis – Interview (The Story And The Glory)
Frankensteinia – The Frankenstein Blog
Tracking Frankenstein and all things related in the arts, media and popular culture.
RARE UK Documentary on 1989 Batman Movie
Die Komiker Stan Laurel und Oliver Hardy
Der Schriftsteller Kurt Vonnegut jr. schrieb einmal sinngemäß, der große Charme des Komikergespanns Laurel und Hardy habe seinen Ursprung in dem Umstand, daß sie im Angesicht widriger Umstände ihr Bestes tun. Der fromme Vorsatz geht natürlich meistens klangvoll in die Hose, aber das liegt nicht an ihnen, sondern an der Welt, in der sie und ihr Publikum leben.
WAR MADE EASY: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Narrated by Sean Penn (Trailer)
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
Rock Paper Scissors Documentary Premieres September 25th
Proving that every conceivable documentary has not yet been made, the Calgary International Film Festival will premiere the new doc “Rock Paper Scissors” this Tuesday September 25th. In the film we see the behind the scenes machinations of running an international RPS shampionship event. Like any good documentary the film turns out to be less about the game itself, and more about the fanatics who play it.
10 Japanese Coffee Commercials Starring Tommy Lee Jones
Youtube: Quack, Quack, Quack, Donald Duck Sing ALong Songs
Here is one of the songs from Mary Poppins Sing ALong Songs called Quack, Quack, Quack, Donald Duck.
MK12’s History of America
There are few stories better known or more beloved that the American Origin story. Indeed, any schoolchild can recite at least a few lines from the Declaration of Independence, or tell you abot Paul Revere’s infamous Midnight Ride. Except none of it is true…
Centuries of campfire stories have spun America’s history into a fanciful tale filled with myths and half truths. MK12’s History of America is here to set the record straight. Set against the warm sin of Las Vegas and the cold vacuum of space, this is the true story behind the story — one which chronicles the epic struggle between the Astronauts and the cowboys as they fight for life, liberty and justice for all.
Dog Star Wars Costumes, Batman Dog Costumes… Argh!
The Frog Prince
The classic story of the Frog Prince, told by Kermit.
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Most of the Universe is missing – Horizon Documentation
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10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of
Sometimes you just want to get the information you’re after, save it and move along. And you can’t. Usability nightmares — which are rather the daily routine than an exception — appear every now and again; usually almost every time you type your search keywords in Google.
Just an ordinary day
Der Tag, an dem Leonie ihr Leben beendete, war ein ganz gewöhnlicher Tag.
The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein
Alfonso Cuarón, director of “Children of Men”, and Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo”, present a short film from Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”
In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world– through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.
Vintage Technology
Welcome to Emil’s Vintage Technology Site – information on late 20th Century Technology
Jubiläum des Commodore 64 – 64 kB für ein Halleluja
Der “Commodore 64″ war in den achtziger Jahren der digitale Urknall für eine ganze Generation: der erste eigene Computer. Jetzt wird er 25 Jahre alt. stern-Redakteur Sven Stillich erinnert sich an die erste große Liebe seines Lebens.
Pepsi Invaders – Primordial Adverware
There were only ever 125 Pepsi Invaders cartridges built for Coke executives at an Atlanta convention – each exec got an Atari system, a handful of games, and this limited issue “Pepsi Invaders”. Instead of aliens, the player struggles to shoot down the letters of the word “Pepsi” floating in space. Occasionally a Pepsi logo flies by along the top for bonus points.
Artikelserie bei Retro-Thing: The Atari 2600 celebrates 30 years of low-rez fun
The 2600 very nearly didn’t happen. Originally code-named Stella, the system has a history that stretches back to 1973. The early prototypes relied on a circuit board full of video circuitry which was later miniaturized into a single IC, the TIA (Television Interface Adapter). Development costs skyrocketed, and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell realized in 1976 that the company simply didn’t have the financial strength to complete the project as Pong sales plateaued. He sold the company to Warner Communications for $28 million, and it is rumored that the final development cost of the system was more than $100 million. It proved to be an insanely risky but shrewd gamble for Warner.
Atari’s Biggest Blunder
The 2600 topped many Christmas gift lists in 1978, thanks to some solid titles and a gradual realization that the incredibly flexible microprocessor-based system wasn’t simply an expensive “Ultra Pong.” The Atari VCS game library grew to 32 titles in their 1979 catalog and cartridge sales hit an estimated $100 million annually, but there was trouble brewing in pixel paradise.
Atari Console Trivia
Things really took off for the console industry (and Atari) when they ported Taito’s arcade hit Space Invaders to the 2600 in early 1980. The cartridge grossed over $100 million, but programmer Rick Mauer is rumored to have received a mere $11,000. I hope he bought Microsoft stock.
Unknown Atari: A Few Secrets From The Labs
Curt Vendel (one of the designers of the Atari Flashback) has collected many concept sketches by Atari’s industrial designer Regan Cheng at his superlative Atari History Museum website, but a surprising number of these projects made it to the prototype stage. Others remained the kinds of dreams that only kajillionaires can have. Here are just a few…
Atari Week Kicks Off With A Paddlin’
It’s Atari Week here at Retro Thing, and all week long we’re going to looks at some lesser known aspects of the video game company that started it all; Atari. Poor old thing has fallen on hard times – after years of being bounced around, Atari’s current owners have incurred huge financial losses over the last few quarters… so it seems like a good time to remember a lot of those things that made Atari great.
The Poultry That Changed Atari History Forever
The Atari 2600’s hardware was designed with just a few games in mind – pong games, and combat type battles. Because the 2600 was only ever designed to support two moving objects on screen at a time, it took really clever programmers to expand the play abilities to the amazing point we’ve seen.
Google testet eigenes Second Life
Die Anzeichen verdichten sich, dass Google schon bald mit einer Alternative zu Second Life auf den Markt kommen will. Die Gerüchteküche angeheizt hat in diesem Fall die Arizona State University, die Studierende zur aktiven Partizipation an einem Projekt eines «grossen Webunternehmens» einlädt. Dabei soll es unter anderem um 3D-Modellierung und Video-Gaming-Komponenten gehen, so die Universitätsleitung, die schon in der Vergangenheit immer wieder eng mit Google zusammengearbeitet hat. (via)
THE THREE STIGMATA of PHILIP K. DICK
Despite his recent canonization, mainstream critics still cast this American visionary as a poor writer, a drug addict, and a wacko.
Plasma Sperm: Keep Up With Your Little Guys
For as low as about $60 bucks you can get this high tech home microscope that will allow you to check out your little guys yourself. Why spend the money and embarrassment to visit a doctor when you can do it from home.
Not sure what to look for… The Plasma Sperm has information to help you know what things to check for.
10 ways the world could end: Stephen Petranek on TED.com
Stephen Petranek reveals the question that occupies scientists at the end of the day (and the beginning of happy hour): How might the world end? He lays out the challenges that face us in the drive to preserve the human race. Will we be wiped out by an asteroid? Eco-collapse? How about a particle accelerator gone wild? (Recorded February 2002 in Monterey, California. Duration: 29:10.)
Urban Camping: Subversive City Living from Times Square to the Car Tent
Urban camping means different things to different people, from living without a vehicle or electricity and plumbing to squatting in unused properties and more. However, the most popular definition of urban camping provided by the urban dictionary is: “camping in an urban setting by sleeping on rooftops, under bushes, and in public parks.”
One step closer to the return of the woolly mammoth?
An international research team has discovered that they can obtain good DNA samples from the shafts of mammoth hair. Apparently keratin, the protein out of which hair is made, acts as a kind of plastic, preserving the DNA from contamination by marauding bacteria. The research could help scientists figure out why the mammoths went extinct at the end of the last ice age, and the technique could be applied to samples from other species that went extinct in relatively recent times, even samples that have been tucked away in museum drawers for decades.
hr2 Der Tag: Sklaven der Globalisierung: willig und billig
Eine Tube Tomatenketchup aus Italien kostet 60 Cent, maximal; T-Shirts aus Indien gibt es schon um einen Euro und Spielzeugautochen aus Plastik made in China kosten so gut wie nichts . Fein, sagt sich der Konsument, kauft und genießt die Früchte der Globalisierung, wogegen nichts zu sagen wäre, denn Fortschritt ist Fortschritt. Die schöne neue Warenwelt aber wird erkauft um den Preis dessen, was früher Sklaverei hieß und auch heute noch so genannt werden muss. Die unbestreitbaren Segnungen des weltweiten Handels, so analysiert DER TAG, beruhen nach wie vor auf diesem alten Prinzip. Es heißt nur anders. Und ist freiwillig.
Apple vergrätzt seine größten Fans
Die Stimmung kippt: Apple-Fans in den USA fühlen sich gegängelt und getäuscht. Denn Apple sperrt auf dem iPhone Software unabhängiger Programmierer. Dem Handy fehlen auf einmal nützliche Funktionen. Das harte Urteil mancher Ex-Bewunderer: Kauft das Krüppel-iPhone nicht.
Muss auch mal wieder sein, so ein olles Monsterfilmplakat.
