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Hardcore Gaming 101 video articles

Here is the new series of video articles started by the ultra-knowledgeable folks at Hardcore Gaming 101. The first two are up, the beginning of series on Pre-Super Mario platform games and on the early history of JRPGs. Related is the video adjunct to the Game Club 199X Podcast, with over 50 videos. (Previously.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 7:26 PM on September 29, 2015 (23 comments)

In honor of its longevity, this title will be cut o

Here's Compuserve WOW!, a new youth-oriented online service! Commercials for it. C|Net reports on it. The Chicago Tribune. Christian Science Monitor. Suck is less than enthused. (via Wayback) Advertising Age reports that its "editor" will be the guy who created Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego for PBS. Compuserve WOW! will offer its own features as well as unlimited Internet for the low price of $17.95 a month. It's coming your way Spring of 1996! And closing less than a year later....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 3:45 PM on September 28, 2015 (18 comments)

SPIKE JONES!!! (gunshot, slide whistle)

Here's a full Spike Jones special from 1952. Here's another one. Here is a short series of clips with his costars talking about Spike Jones and Live TV. Also from the Spike Jones Show: Tchaikovsky - Poet and Peasant Overture - I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter - 12th Street Rag (featuring the bottom half of Elvis) - Flight of the Bumblebee - That Old Black Magic - The Black And Blue Danube - The Shiek of Araby (warning: a bit culturally insensitive) - Clink! Clink! Another Drink - the "All Girl Band" Medley - Hits Medley (with Jim Backus at the start!) - and their famous version of Cocktails For Two. There's plenty more among the uploads from YouTube user SpikeJonesEstate. A documentary, The Spike Jones Story - Part 2. The best of Spike Jones.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:25 PM on September 27, 2015 (24 comments)

Where's Herb?

Here's an old Burger King ad campaign, created by New York firm J Walter Thompson, that was a legendary flop. 30 years ago Burger King failed to get the whole country asking: Where's Herb? He was supposedly the only person in the country not to have had a burger from their chain. They offered food discounts, but only to people who weren't Herb (weird cameo at the end of that one). They even talked to Herb's parents. Eventually Herb did have a burger and visited a BK in every state as part of a contest. The sites Go Retro and Burgatory have articles about the non-phenomenon (with an interview with Jon Menick, who played Herb). It was all an attempt to duplicate Wendy's success the year before with Where's The Beef?
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:20 PM on September 26, 2015 (42 comments)

Android x86

Here is Android x86, an open source project which allows you to put Google's Android OS on PC hardware. While there is some software that won't work, it's surprisingly capable! While obviously best for netbooks it's capable of running on many laptops, or you could consider running it in a virtual machine if you just want to run Android software on your PC for a bit. Here's the download page (the proper boot media can be found under "Android-x86-4.4") and installation instructions.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2015 (50 comments)

C= C= COMMODORE FOREVAR C= C=

Here's a retro computing oddity, info on the first portable color computer, the Commodore SX64, with a 5 1/4-inch floppy drive and a seriously tiny CRT monitor. Here's a demonstration and teardown. Here's a somewhat ridiculous commercial for it. Commodore had a lot of unreleased prototypes, but the SX actually made it to market. Not a prototype but still interesting is Steve Gray's hack on an old monochrome Commodore PET to display color. And he also has an archive of old Commodore brochures.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:46 PM on September 24, 2015 (46 comments)

HA, the "New" TV Comedy Network

Here are some promos from and other information on the long-forgotten HA!: The New TV Comedy Network.
Promos - Logos - More promos - Even more promos (with a bit of Mel Torme!) - And a few more spots. HA would merge with The Comedy Channel in 1991 to produce the nascent Comedy Central (NYT). Fred Seibert writes about positioning HA.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:17 PM on September 23, 2015 (26 comments)

Bundles and game discounters

It started with the Humble Indie Bundle. (Previously, and multiple times.) But there's now plenty of other places to get indie games bundled cheaply: IndieGala, Bundle Stars, Groupees, and, because you can't get cheaper than free, Freebie Bundle and Free Bundle. There's also Indie Game Stand, Buy-Some-Indie-Games, Fire Flower Games, Shiny Loot and GreenManGaming's Indie section.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:50 PM on September 22, 2015 (30 comments)

How to master Ms. Pac-Man

Here's David Manning's YouTube videos illustrating how to make use of ghost AI quirks on the fly while playing in Ms. Pac-Man: Ghost Behavior and On Grouping. It's excellent for building an intuitive sense of how to play the game which, because of random aspects, cannot be reliably beaten with patterns as with Pac-Man.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:12 PM on September 21, 2015 (7 comments)

Mmm, regional flavors for carbonic acid

Here's The Daily Meal's list of 10 favorite regional soft drinks (SLIDESHOW). And here's Mental Floss's stories behind 11 regional soft drinks. More info follows....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:55 AM on September 20, 2015 (125 comments)

Unlimited Adventures, Gold Box D&D construction set

Here are two Let's Plays (text) devoted to SSI's classic DOS D&D "Gold Box" construction set program Unlimited Adventures, one of the most revered user-level RPG creator programs and now available on GoG.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:49 AM on September 19, 2015 (8 comments)

And his consort, Tyrannosaurus Bathory

Here's Dinosaur Dracula, a pop culture retro nostalgia site from the guys who formerly brought us X-Entertainment (currently "down for repairs"), the subject of many many MeFi posts. Some pages of interest:
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2015 (11 comments)

Enter this command to bork your machine

Here is some information on the "Killer Poke" of the Commodore PET 2001 computer, an infamous command that could actually damage hardware, by causing its monitor to lose sync. Like this.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:28 AM on September 17, 2015 (63 comments)

We'll chase them like rats across the tundra

Here's Hunter S. Thompson in the 80s, a post on Rants, Ravings, Gibberish & Jabs. And here's an encode of a rare VHS video of Dr. Thompson at this time in his life, "The Crazy Never Die." (31m, NSFW for a little full nudity.) And here's video of a commercial for Dr. Thompson writing for the San Francisco Examiner.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:07 AM on September 16, 2015 (13 comments)

Replace X with Y

Here is the Chrome extension Word Replacer II, and here is the Firefox extension FoxReplace. You can use them to replace words on web pages you visit with other words of your choosing. They could be used to duplicate the action of previous extension cloud-to-butt, or you might think of other things you could do with it. There's another extension for Chrome that automatically changes all uses of "millennials" to "snake people".
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 10:21 AM on September 15, 2015 (40 comments)

John's Arcade, game collecting and restoration

Here is John's Arcade, a resource about collecting, maintaining and playing classic arcade video and pinball machines. But the real reason I'm posting this is his YouTube channel, which is full of long videos (many over an hour) about arcade repair and maintenance. Like restoring an incredibly rare I, Robot machine, or Computer Space, the first video arcade game, or Quantum, a rare Atari game developed by GCC, programmers of Ms. Pac-Man. Or you can just watch him try to break 300,000 in Donkey Kong over several half-hour videos.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 10:14 AM on September 14, 2015 (14 comments)

Bugs in old arcade games

Here is what causes the kill screens of Ms. Pac-Man and why they happen long before level 256. Here is why you can sometimes control the attract mode demo in Galaga. Computer Archeology explains the "no fire" cheat in Galaga, which causes the enemies to stop firing if you keep two specific bugs alive long enough. (What, you don't know what Galaga is? galaga.info has you covered.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 8:45 AM on September 13, 2015 (25 comments)

Some of these comics sold hundreds of thousands

Here, from the cool cats at Mister Kitty, is Stupid Comics, covering all the finest in terrible artwork and regrettable writing. Here's a very small portion of what awaits you: Teenage Mutant Ninja Ripoffs - Madam Satan - Badly Drawn Anime Heroine Skye Blue and more pseudo-manga - Lois Lane marries Astounding Man - Kissing Canvas - Badly drawn 80s comics: The Protectors - How To Publish (bad TMNT knockoff) Comics - I Can't Believe It's Not Archie: 1, 2, 3, 4 - Vampire Girls (prob NSFW) - OMG GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - The Human Race - "You've got the wrong Lincoln there!" - Faux-go - Sexy Jaguar Adventures (NSFW) - Comics Advisor - Reggie Mantle actually flips a bird
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 7:37 AM on September 12, 2015 (19 comments)

Building cool dungeons in D&D

Here is Justin Alexander's "Jaquaying the Dungeon," a crash course in old-school D&D adventure complex design, for all you grognards out there.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 6:10 AM on September 11, 2015 (60 comments)

Super Glitchy Mario World

Here is Let's Glitch Super Mario World, an in-depth series of 47 YouTube videos (each from 10 to 30 minutes long) that demonstrate breaking the game in myriad ways, with clear descriptions of what is going on.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:49 AM on September 10, 2015 (11 comments)

Better Living Through Television

Here's The Adventures of Milkman, How To Be Swell, The Lost Brady, Phoebe, Classic TV Rewinds, and the "Guy Series" (which has a couple of unexpected cameos), as well as three collections of commercials, all callbacks from 80s-90s Nick At Nite, and that age when MTV's success inspired channels to put more personality into their promotion.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:24 AM on September 9, 2015 (22 comments)

Two free literary RPGs: The Drones, and Wuthering Heights

Here is The Drones, a free "light-hearted after-dinnerish roleplay game" based on Bertie Wooster's social club from out of P.G. Wodehouse. And here is Wuthering Heights, the free roleplaying game about tortured brooding Byronic heroes.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 4:36 AM on September 8, 2015 (21 comments)

Chocolatey, a package manager for Windows

Here is Chocolatey, a package manager for Windows built on NuGet, like apt-get on Debian-based Linux systems. It requires copying and pasting a couple of command lines for initial installation, but once it's installed you can use it to install ChocolateyGUI to automate installing, upgrading and uninstalling software with a friendlier interface. Once it's working, it's a good way to quickly install software. Here you can browse the packages it can download and install for you..
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 3:40 AM on September 7, 2015 (38 comments)

SUPER DAVID BECKHAM ISLAND

Here is video of an unusual moment in David Beckham's varied career: the time he was called upon to defeat Mister Woe and the monsters of the Fourth Division. It's GO! GO! BECKHAM! Here's when he fought a giant bird with his soccer powers. Here is the beginning of his adventure on Soccer Island, and here's a complete speedrun.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 3:32 AM on September 6, 2015 (11 comments)

Claw machines are often less games of skill as chance

Here's some information on claw, also called crane, machines. Did you ever play one of those games to try to win a plush toy, only for the prize to tumble out of the claw at first grasp, or even outright drop it halfway up? Think you just didn't play well enough? Maybe the machine just decided to make you lose by randomly reducing claw power. Here's more information. Via Dubious Quality, although I did page through a few manuals on my own....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:53 AM on September 5, 2015 (31 comments)

"Google Glass: 2013-?"

Here are some useful websites from our pals at Google. Well actually, the websites and tools have all been killed, but their dev blogs helpfully remain!
Google Notebook - iGoogle - Google Desktop - Google Video - Orkut - Jaiku (Here's a hilarious-in-retrospect article from Venturebeat about Google buying Jaiku.) - Google Talk (semi-dead, hasn't updated since 2010) - Google Reader.
A good list of killed Google services can be found on Slate's Google Graveyard, unrelated to the one Joe Beese linked in 2010 which has, itself, died.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:47 AM on September 4, 2015 (87 comments)

Sam Sweetmilk ep. 1 & part one of ep. 2

Here is the first episode of Sam Sweetmilk. A funny/serious sci-fi cartoon, you know, like those that are all the rage these days, extra words. There is currently only one episode (and part of it is an animatic), but a second is nearing completion! Part one.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:10 AM on September 3, 2015 (3 comments)

The epic story of 30 circles as they battle the squares, and themselves

Here's a collection of Sesame Street "30 Dots" shorts, from the show's classic days. They build in an entertaining way, but whatever they're supposed to teach beats the heck out of me.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:53 AM on September 2, 2015 (52 comments)

How to make Mario levels, by negative example

Here's a list of things not to do in your Mario levels, consider it advice for when Super Mario Maker comes out in a week and a half. Also, here's things not to do in your Mario overworld. They both come from the rom hacking community at SMWCentral.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:52 AM on September 1, 2015 (232 comments)

Where do you want to go today?

20 years ago: August 24, 1995 was the release date of Microsoft Windows 95. Its legacy was vast....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 10:30 AM on August 24, 2015 (114 comments)

The state of being both kid and squid simultaneously

Nintendo's quirky squad shooter Splatoon, which sold 1.6 million worldwide copies in two months of release, is their first real new property since the Gamecube era. People are calling it the game that could save the Wii-U.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 4:06 PM on August 6, 2015 (84 comments)

You can't fuck osmosis jones

you can't fuck osmosis jones. other things you can't fuck: ratigan, rats from secret of nimh, the alan rickman fish from help im a fish, the iron giant, the weed ghost from cartoon all stars to the rescue, mufasa's ghost, the horrible cgi dinosaurs from dinosaur, or many other cartoon things. The deets: on tumblr. on youtube (2m) (via @Monodi)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 9:44 AM on August 2, 2015 (25 comments)

I sort of admire his dedication

Adventure Time with Snoop & Dogg - Graweedy Falls - Stweed Smokeverse - Smokémon - Nichijoint - My Ordinary Weed
Whaddaya mean previously?!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 10:17 AM on July 25, 2015 (16 comments)

Expensive yet beautiful

GLITCH TV
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 11:42 AM on July 18, 2015 (11 comments)

Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and HAL, dead at 55

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo and former president and star programmer at HAL Laboratories (he was one of their first programmers), main coder of Earthbound, programmer of NES/Famicom Balloon Fight, coder on some early games in the Kirby series and many other games besides, and the author of the Iwata Asks columns on Nintendo's website, has died at 55 of a bile duct growth. Kotaku article. The Verge.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:42 PM on July 12, 2015 (117 comments)

The most awesome show nobody watched

PREVIOUSLY, on the Aquabats Super Show... (YouTube 4m) Grocery Store Attack - Fighting the aliens from Laserblast - The Thingy
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 6:24 AM on June 10, 2015 (14 comments)

Nintendo's company guides to job applicants

In Japan, people applying to work at Nintendo are given an amazing company guide (2015), bursting with color, that they remake every year. 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 ( via Simon Carless [Twitter], thnx)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:54 PM on May 10, 2015 (10 comments)

Second Quest

In 2012 Tevis Thompson (writer of Saving Zelda, previously) and David Hellman (illustrator of Braid) had a Kickstarter for a graphic novel. (Previously.) What had been assumed to be "a comic book about Zelda pedantry" has turned out to be something rather different. The graphic novel is now available for purchase on Fangamer, but 20 pages of it (one-sixth of it by length) can be seen as a free preview on the project website. Second Quest is about a young girl, Azalea, living in a city floating in the clouds, but burdened with dreams of the world below and visions of an age before.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:14 AM on April 23, 2015 (11 comments)

Thanks for all the good times, Lore. A+

The Brunching Shuttlecocks was (and is) a humor website that ran from 1997 to 2003. It was founded by David Neilsen and Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg. Neilsen, also known on the site as The Self-Made Critic (which was wonderful), was a funny guy in his own right. But the focus of this post is Lore... who is a Metafilter member btw... twice, in fact. Here's a taste:
Porn Star or My Little Pony?  *  Ratings: Cat Toys ("Catnip Anything: Very entertaining.")  *  I Ought to be a Law (Note: Sjöberg's Law of Lexical Drift.)  *  Ad for PLACEBOTM ("It Works Because You Want It To.")  *  Ratings: Star Wars Lego Figures  *  An Open Letter From Metallica (Published after Metallica sparked controversy when they sued Napster.)  *  The Björk Song (In RealAudio or MP3, with David Neilsen. Causes insanity.)  *  Pikachewy ("'Twas Beedrill, and the Starmie Gloom/Did Grimer and Gengar in the Mew")  *  Twelve AP Headlines Which Can Be Sung to 'Camptown Races' ("Man in Wheelchair Killed by Train, doo-dah, doo-dah")  *  The Geek Hierarchy: Abridged But Managable - Unabridged but Large - For Printing (PDF) - Frequently Paraphrased Questions (Perhaps the Shuttlecocks' most enduring legacy, you might still find new links to this around the internet.)  *  Roshambo Run (A Flash game. Read the intro, but in essence: lure the rocks, scissors and papers into each other, without getting eaten by them, and get to the coffee cup.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:01 AM on April 12, 2015 (65 comments)

DOMAIN OF PRIME FROG

"This blog is dedicated to discussing games where you play as a frog, but it might also talk about games which just have heavy frog presence in them. The borders are unclear and the road ahead is hazy. Come with me on the journey to be a frog."
♥FROG WORLD♥
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:09 PM on March 24, 2015 (45 comments)

"What could be nicer? I draw funny pictures and people send me money."

Roy Doty, awesome illustrator, particularly known for drawing the popular, 50-year-running Wordless Workshop instructional comic strip for Popular Science, Family Handyman and syndication, the puzzle page for Make, and also the covers and illustrations for popular Judy Blume books Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge and Otherwise Known As Shelia The Great, among many other things, has died at 92. This episode of the Danny Dee Show (YouTube 27m) shows off his drawing and narration skills. Here's some illustrations from his website. Here's a sample panel of Wordless Workshop.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 3:13 PM on March 20, 2015 (19 comments)

Stop motion joy: the short films of PES

PES Film makes amazing stop-motion film shorts in which everyday objects take on unexpected utility.
Western Spaghetti (YT 1½m) - Fresh Guacamole (YT 1½m, Oscar-nominated "Best Short Film" 2013) - Game Over (YT 1½m) - The Deep (YT 1½m) - Submarine Sandwich (YT 2m previously) - Fireworks (YT 32s) - Moth (YT 20s)
These may be slightly NSFW depending on workplace: Roof Sex (YT 1m) - Black Gold (YT 1m) - Pee-Nut (YT 1m)
A few bits made for advertisements after the break.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:59 AM on February 25, 2015 (8 comments)

NEON GLITCHY PIXART MADNESS

It's gloriously incomprehensible and very Japanese, but still: BUGGG, a game, or rather several games. (Requires Unity)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 9:14 PM on January 17, 2015 (12 comments)

RIP Christine Cavanaugh

Deceased is Christine Cavanaugh at age 52. She was an accomplished voice performer, familiar for roles such as Marty (full episode ~22m) from The Critic, Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, and Babe the pig.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 10:30 AM on December 30, 2014 (54 comments)

How to Draw (expert mode)

Model Sheets is a Twitter feed where someone is collecting model sheets from all kinds of cartoons, including South Park, classic Warner Bros. and Disney, Don Bluth, cable cartoons, old saturday morning stuff, and anime.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 9:02 PM on December 27, 2014 (12 comments)

Sights from Zelda games that will probably never be released again

It's Zelda Day! Presented for your consideration: BS-Zelda, the satellite radio-based Zelda games that never got released outside of Japan.
The first BS Zelda game was an update/modification of the original Legend of Zelda. It was intended to be played over four weeks, an hour at a time, with different areas of the overworld unveiled each week. Here is video, with broadcasts included: 1 (YT 1h) - 2 (YT 58m) - 3 (YT 58m) - 4 (YT 1h2m) Each takes several minutes to get started, which mirrors the time delay before the game started when broadcast.
The second game was called Ancient Stone Tablets, and it used the Link To The Past engine, and much of its map. YouTube playlist (YT 12 items, 3h50m)
More information and emulator files hacked to be playable are at: The BS-Zelda Homepage.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 4:15 PM on December 26, 2014 (11 comments)

It's A Licensed Character Christmas

For use spreading misery and pain during this holiday season, have a heaping shovelful of bad bad 80s Chrismas cartoon specials. Hail Grinch!
He-Man & She-Ra's Christmas Special (YouTube 44m)
Christmas Comes To Pac-Land (Dailymotion 23m)
The Wacky 12 Days of Christmas (YouTube 24m) (with Phil Hartman)
And the one that inspired this post, the amazing Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls (YouTube 23m) That is to say, the Wacky Wallwalker Christmas Special. Written by Mark Evanier!
After the break... TWENTY-ONE MORE OF THESE THINGS. You're welcome!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 4:39 AM on December 13, 2014 (60 comments)

HAVE SOME PEABNUT BUBBER

I'm Baman! I'm Piderman! I go over da house! We're best friends!
Best watched in order:
Season 1:Find Da Sandwich(33s) - Hab Da Pumkin(43s) - Make Da Band(1m) - Pwactice Da Counting(1½m) - Escape Da Cakes(1m) - Make Da Cards(1½m) - Guess Da Number(1½m) - Hab Da Sleepover(2m) - Tell Da Joke(2m) - Happy Winter Friends Part 1(2m) - Part 2(3m) - Frow Da Party(3m)
Season 2:Intro(1½m) - Fimd Da Jobs(4m) - Revealations Part 1(3m) - Part 2(4m) - Play Da Song(5m) - In Da Basement(1½m) - Weirdy Feeling(4m) - Squib Week(3m) - Drawing Song(2m) - Ghost Night(7m) - Drink Da Tee(2m) - Play Da Concert(6m)
And now beginning: Season 3(3m) Kickstarber Vibeo for Seeson 3(4m) (concluded, successful)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:10 PM on November 2, 2014 (25 comments)

Don't Let's Stop

Why is the world in love again?
Why are we marching hand in hand?
Why are the ocean levels rising up?
It's a brand new record
for nineteen-ninety,
They Might Be Giants' brand new album:
FLOOD (43m)
Or, if you'd rather meet James Ensor, there's John Henry (57m)! For something Fingertippy, there's Apollo 18 (43m)! More recent: Nanobots (45m) - Join Us (47m) - The Else (38m) (Official links from the band's YouTube channel! Oh, and they also have a podcast.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:33 PM on October 20, 2014 (48 comments)

It's-a me, Mercutio, gimme all your money or I'll cut you!

Bad video game merchandise found on a Chinese website
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 4:17 PM on September 17, 2014 (17 comments)

RIP Douglas E. Smith

Douglas E. Smith, creator of the classic 8-bit computer game Lode Runner, which got a second life as one of HudsonSoft's most iconic Famicom titles in Japan, has died at the age of 57.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 7:50 PM on September 14, 2014 (47 comments)

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