Activity from JHarris
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Warning: Extreme cuteness
Jessica McLeod draws incredibly cute, funny, awesome cartoons. Cartoons about educated pigs, space rabbits, bad yetis, and rude flowers. You should be warned, they are very cute.
Mungo Bean: Adventure Pig!, Book 2, Book 3 Part 1, Part 2
Bad Yeti, Yeti Party
Space Rabbits: In Space, Planet Of, Battle for the Planet Of, Tea With A
Miscellaneous comics: The Indefatigable Miss Manners, Working Class Elf, Ghost Farm
She has a webcomic, Activities For Rainy Days
Mungo Bean: Adventure Pig!, Book 2, Book 3 Part 1, Part 2
Bad Yeti, Yeti Party
Space Rabbits: In Space, Planet Of, Battle for the Planet Of, Tea With A
Miscellaneous comics: The Indefatigable Miss Manners, Working Class Elf, Ghost Farm
She has a webcomic, Activities For Rainy Days
IT'S A SECRET TO-- oops, I mean OVERLOOK IT JUST THIS ONCE
Merry Christmas from lostlevels.org: An unreleased beta of The Legend of Zelda! Videos showing it off: 1, 2, 3. Cutting Room Floor has documented the differences from the release version.
Don we now our gay apparel
It just isn't Christmas without Space Ghost.
Amidakuji, a lottery from Japan
Amidakuji, or "Ghost Leg," is a lottery party game from Japan. At the top of a sheet there are a number of spaces for people to write their names. At the bottom there are prizes. There are an equal number of each. Between them is a map obscured behind a sheet. The map is made of straight vertical lines connecting the names and prizes. Connecting those lines at random intervals are horizontal lines. When it's time to pick winners, the sheet is removed and players can follow the lines to find their prize. You follow the line from your name down until you encounter any horizontal line, which you must follow, then continue down, continuing to follow all horizontal lines you encounter, until you reach your prize. No two horizontal lines can touch. Provided that, the process is perfectly deterministic and reversable. The same ends are reached whether you follow from the top down or the bottom up. If you have difficulty visualizing this, check the Wikipedia page.
A trip through time to an early 90s arcade
YouTube has a fair number of recordings of well-played classic arcade games. Dig Dug, Mr Do!, Mr Do's Castle, Do! Run Run, Lady Bug Part 2, Bagman, Super Bagman, Q*bert, Venture, Zoo Keeper, Moon Cresta, Scramble, Make Trax, Phoenix, Rastan. click through for more
"Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in 150+ movies, Rifftrax has nothing to say."
Rifftrax's new holiday release (preview highlight clips) tackles one of the most notorious bad movies of recent years, the infamous Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, filmed at a struggling Flordia amusement park and produced by a porno director. More on the movie: Agony Booth, Invasion of the B Movies, WFMU's Out Of Context Cinema. (Unfortunate note: the full version is $10, but includes the movie itself.) (Side link: The park SatICB was filmed at, Pirates World, went out of business when Disney World opened up. The locations seen in the movie are all condos now. Before it closed they were known to host rock concerts, archive.org hosts a video of the Grateful Dead playing Pirates World)
Minecraft Biome Hacks
Biome Terrain Mod is a modification for Minecraft that allows tweaking the world generation parameters for the regions in the game. The Minecraft Forums are running a contest to find cool generation settings. Some of the results are quite striking....
An overload of Mystery Science Theater musical moments
During the show's history Mystery Science Theater did many musical bits. Topless Robot recently linked to the "13 best" Mystery Science Theater 3000 songs. It's not a bad list, although there are some notable exclusions. About those, click through....
Tymar lives!
Speak With Monsters -- A comic about the most interesting parts of D&D.
Whoever Said Newspapers Can Never Return To Their Glory Days Never Joined A Korean Cult
Whoever Said Newspapers Can Never Return To Their Glory Days Never Joined A Korean Cult [via mefi projects]
An epic story of flower-selling, mass weddings, insane sex rituals, swashbuckling Cold Warriors, white supremacists and neo-segregationists, Barney Frank & Vince Foster, closeted gay Republicans and where the money goes when you order from a sushi restaurant…
An epic story of flower-selling, mass weddings, insane sex rituals, swashbuckling Cold Warriors, white supremacists and neo-segregationists, Barney Frank & Vince Foster, closeted gay Republicans and where the money goes when you order from a sushi restaurant…
Chrontendo plus
Chrontendo is a video podcast in which a guy systematically described and discusses every Famicom/NES game released. Currently up to 33 episodes and counting, and covering hundreds of games.
Thank youu mARIO, bUTOUR &pRINC$ES$ &# aNO@**ER &?=)!&&&33377G
Take a game like Super Mario Bros. Introduce garbage data into the code, either through random Game Genie codes or a corruptor program. Try to play what results, while the laws of reality slowly go insane in the background, and upload the "best" results to YouTube. Can Mario make it to the princess when stomping a Goomba turns the air to water, when hitting a block ends the world, when the world is infinite length, if the ground can't support his weight, when touching a flagpole destroys his mind, when brought into being over an ocean immediately before a fatal heart attack, before the enemies turn into Bowser-halves, while the universe is freaking out around him? (hint: no)
The Story of Oilfurnace
A second illustrated tale of Dwarf Fortress has appeared, the saga of Oilfurnace.
Board Games with Scott!
Confused in Catan? Conflicted about Carcassonne? Puzzled in Puerto Rico? You've heard about all these awesome new board games that are out these days, but don't know where to begin? Help is here! Scott Nicholson knows all about 'em, and will explain them in great detail in his video series Board Games With Scott!
These tunnels go down forever
One of the better online random dungeon generators out there. Scroll down a bit to see it. You can change the size and learn more about it from the home page.
Eyezmaze: TRANSFORM
A lion stalks the plains. It spots an antelope. His lunch, it would seem, is assured, except for one thing. This antelope... can TRANSFORM! It's another incredibly bizarre and awesome EYEZMAZE game. Click on the various parts of the antelope to make things happen, until he's safe from the predator's attack.
The Return of Sigmund
Popular open source roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has updated to version 0.6.
It is a variant of the older game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and is regarded by many as one of the best roguelike games out there. Unlike its rival game Nethack it is undergoing rapid development. Also unlike Nethack, the game retains a more consistent difficulty level (hard) throughout, and has a much greater variety of character types.
It is a variant of the older game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and is regarded by many as one of the best roguelike games out there. Unlike its rival game Nethack it is undergoing rapid development. Also unlike Nethack, the game retains a more consistent difficulty level (hard) throughout, and has a much greater variety of character types.
Yes, Glenn Beck is #1
The Buffalo Beast has finally posted its list of the 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2009.
Beelzebub has some music set aside for you
The Kleptones put together a version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody stitched together from 33 different cover versions. Synthesizers, computer-generated voices, acoustic guitar, accordion, Weird Al, Star Trek.... (Direct MP3 link)
Remembering Dennis Wolfberg
Dennis Wolfberg was one of the most distinctive voices (literally) from the stand-up comedy boom of the early 90s. A former schoolteacher, he became a fixture on the fledgling network Comedy Central roughly fifteen years BCM (Before Carlos Mencia). His vocal style and inflections had a way of selling the most outlandish comparisons. He was a guest on both Letterman and Carson, and had guest-starred as Gooshie on Quantum Leap on multiple occasions until he tragically died from cancer in 1994. Some of his most memorable routines were his experience with Fiber One cereal and encounter with a sigmoidoscope,, his wife's pregnancy and his twins' Bris. His HBO special is available in its entirety on YouTube: part 1 - part 2 - part 3 (most of part 3 linked above).
Mysterious Sideproject Theatre 2007
Before RiffTrax (and, of course, after Mystery Science Theater 3000), Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett worked on a failed DVD MST-like movie mocking project called The Film Crew. Publisher Shout! Factory has made all four episodes available for viewing in their entirety, over five hours of video, on YouTube.
Giant of Marathon (with Steve Reeves) - Killers From Space - Wild Women of Wongo - Hollywood After Dark
Giant of Marathon (with Steve Reeves) - Killers From Space - Wild Women of Wongo - Hollywood After Dark
Their names are WHAT and WHY and WHEN/and HOW and WHERE and WHO.
Read all about it! Discover all the news! Read all about it! Track down all the clues!
With interesting people there's a mystery to be solved! An adventure is unfolding, so why not get involved? Come on and
Young Chris is left an old coach house by his missing uncle. As he and his two friends fuddle with the lock, a strange figure watches. The kids do not yet know the building is the entrance to a mystery that spans time and space! Aided by Otto the IBM Selectric robot typewriter and Theta the spooky as hell talking viewscreen, they will find that the concerns of an alien tyrant reach into the government of their own town. (24 of 40 15-minute episodes, including the entire first season, of this early-80s TV Ontario-produced "educational" show are on YouTube.)
With interesting people there's a mystery to be solved! An adventure is unfolding, so why not get involved? Come on and
READ ALL ABOUT IT.Young Chris is left an old coach house by his missing uncle. As he and his two friends fuddle with the lock, a strange figure watches. The kids do not yet know the building is the entrance to a mystery that spans time and space! Aided by Otto the IBM Selectric robot typewriter and Theta the spooky as hell talking viewscreen, they will find that the concerns of an alien tyrant reach into the government of their own town. (24 of 40 15-minute episodes, including the entire first season, of this early-80s TV Ontario-produced "educational" show are on YouTube.)
Waka-waka-waka
The Pac-Man Dossier is an extremely detailed description of the game logic of arcade Pac-Man. It explains why, once in a while, monsters will harmlessly pass through Pac-Man. It explains why they won't go up through the tunnels above the monster box. It explains why occasionally, after losing a life, monsters will refuse to leave the box. It explains when and why Blinky becomes Cruise Elroy, and why sometimes Pinky gets confused and loses track of Pac-Man. It even explains, as far as the player can continue to play, what to do on the kill screen. It is awesome. Previously....
Soupy twist!
Before moving on to House (Laurie) and being bloody awesome (Fry), even before Jeeves and Wooster, but after Blackadder I think, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry appeared in an amazing sketch show called A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Fry, in particular, has a way of taking any bit of linguistic madness at all and turning it into something that sounds almost respectable.
To start off, these are calculated to make your brain explode: Tricky Linguistics and Part 2, Buying an Engagement Ring, and The Haircut
To start off, these are calculated to make your brain explode: Tricky Linguistics and Part 2, Buying an Engagement Ring, and The Haircut
What? No Gravy?
"Chow Hound" - IMDB - Directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese, voices by Mel Blanc
Classic-era Warner Bros. Generally absent (with exceptions, sometimes butchered) from the airwaves due to its connotations of cruelty, the troublesome get-up they put the mouse in at the zoo, and the ending. Quite a devious and funny cartoon. (SLYT)
Classic-era Warner Bros. Generally absent (with exceptions, sometimes butchered) from the airwaves due to its connotations of cruelty, the troublesome get-up they put the mouse in at the zoo, and the ending. Quite a devious and funny cartoon. (SLYT)
HI I'M ON METAFILTER AND I CAN OVERTHINK A WORLD OF BEANS
Tales of the Beanworld ("A most peculiar comic book experience") recently resumed publication after a long hiatus. It's a strange and abstract mix of Native American mythology and culture, with a strong ecological focus, into an wonderfully charming cosmology. While it certainly invites, uh, overthinking, it's also entertaining on a purely casual level.
A sample short Beanworld story is on the Dark Horse Comics Myspace page.
If you have questions about it, the BeanWeb just may have answers, along with illustrations from the comics. There is now a Beanworld Wiki to supplement it, and creator Larry Marder keeps a blog where he talks about things bean.
Okay, now that it's properly introduced... the real point of this post is to link to this awesome Beanworld Flash cartoon, animated by Fashionbuddha and with music by They Might Be Giants!
A sample short Beanworld story is on the Dark Horse Comics Myspace page.
If you have questions about it, the BeanWeb just may have answers, along with illustrations from the comics. There is now a Beanworld Wiki to supplement it, and creator Larry Marder keeps a blog where he talks about things bean.
Okay, now that it's properly introduced... the real point of this post is to link to this awesome Beanworld Flash cartoon, animated by Fashionbuddha and with music by They Might Be Giants!
A merry "Bah, Humbug!" to us all
- Robert E. Howard-themed fantasy blog The Cimmerian posts a different take on a holiday classic.
- Mystery Science Theater presents A Child's Christmas in Space, A Patrick Swazye Christmas, Merry Christmas (If That's Okay), a critique of Christmas movies and shows, and a little yuletide hysteria.
- Tom Lehrer: "A Christmas Carol"
- Futurama: The Elves' Christmas Song
- Finally, there's The Colbert Report's book-burning Yule Log, both on the web and downloadable for Windows and Macintosh.
TIGsource Demakes competition results
Nearly a month ago jbickers made a post that mentioned the TIGsource Demakes competition. The competition is over, and the winners have been announced. All of these are playable. Most are for Windows, except for those that are Flash or something else:
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)
Lots more after the jump!
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)
Lots more after the jump!
We'll do it live!
Oh, they'll pay.
JollyMetaFilter
In the years after leaving MST, Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater, and his "smarter brother" Jim Hodgson, worked on a new movie-repurposing concept for USA Networks. The introduction for the test clip read:
"The Jolly Filter segment is a proof of concept test for a new film process. You will first view 2 minutes of the original film 'Rollercoaster' and then the same 2 minutes utilizing the JollyFilter technique.
"Note: If you find yourself getting bored during the original 'Rollercoaster' footage, don't worry, this is normal."
(SLYT, but an awesome one.)
"The Jolly Filter segment is a proof of concept test for a new film process. You will first view 2 minutes of the original film 'Rollercoaster' and then the same 2 minutes utilizing the JollyFilter technique.
"Note: If you find yourself getting bored during the original 'Rollercoaster' footage, don't worry, this is normal."
(SLYT, but an awesome one.)
Kind of like Corel Painter, but without the crashing
Artweaver is a freeware "natural media" paint program, of the same type as Corel Painter. Natural media means it uses tools that are intended to simulate actual art tools, like oils, pastels, pencils and so forth. It's not as feature-rich as Painter, but it's getting better.
"He makes Gozer look like little Mary Sunshine."
Back in the 80s DiC produced a cartoon, aired in syndication and on ABC Saturday Mornings, called "The Real Ghostbusters." Based on the popular action-comedy movie, it more-or-less continued the adventures of Ray, Egon, Winston and Garfield Peter through seven seasons of supernatural shenanigans. It could have been a mere cash-in, but there was something more to it. It aspired to realism, at least as much as possible. It was story-edited by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5. (He also worked on He-Man and Murder She Wrote!)
This may explain the second season episode, written by Michael Reaves and rife with Lovecraft references, in which the Ghostbusters face down the Cthulhu cult. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
This may explain the second season episode, written by Michael Reaves and rife with Lovecraft references, in which the Ghostbusters face down the Cthulhu cult. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Do you seek to live a "more abundant life?"
Matt Taibbi goes undercover in one of pastor John Hagee's "Encounter" weekends. Yes, the Hagee who recently endorsed John McCain. Published in Rolling Stone, and a part of Taibbi's forthcoming book The Great Derangement.
Fafblog's back baby! Have some pie!
After nearly 21 months of hiatus, whimsical politics blog Fafblog is back! And it's redesigned, too!
Right now I would ordinarily include a link to best posts of the past, but I would have to include all of them.
Hack and slash
Remember old D&D? What, 3rd edition? Pah! Not 2nd edition AD&D either, nor 1st edition. Not even "original" Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal. I'm talking really original D&D, based off of Chainmail wargaming rules. OD&D! Read about it at Delta's D&D Hotspot, which discusses the development of a game system that is almost 35 years old.
You are not yet enlightened, Inky-san.
Retro Sabotage is a collection of recreations of classic video games.
Or is it?
Genocide of the Marios
Remember Super Mario Frustration? Kaizo Mario World is another of those super-hard Mario level hacks, this one of Super Mario World. Someone played through its first level 134 times, with save states, recording all his deaths, then digitally composited them into one trip through the level. The result was Many-Worlds Mario. (For those interested, here's a video of a tool-assisted perfect run of much of the game. Here's the rest. Here's some more.)
A reading of "In the Late December," by Greg van Eekhout
"In the Late December" (MP3 link), by Greg van Eekhout, is a Nebula award-nominated story about Santa Claus and the end of the universe, and is Escape Pod #138. (By the way, this is a very dark story -- there's no sex or violence but this probably isn't suitable for kids, where "kids" is defined as a stereotypical aggregate of child-like characteristics. Yours may be different.)
Y'ha N'thlei is deeper than they know.
The Ten Doctors
The geekiest thing you will see this month is this fan-made comic called The Ten Doctors. Unexpectedly awesome, though!
That's MSTafilter to you
So besides RiffTrax (prior) and The Film Crew (some time back), what else are former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni doing with their undoubtedly-copious free time?
Frank Conniff is working with cartoon historian Jerry Beck on the charming stage show and internet flash video series Cartoon Dump, which presents extremely crappy 60s TV cartoons like Mighty Mr. Titan, Big World of Little Adam, and Bucky and Pepito sandwiched between segments of a dysfunctional children's show.
Brie. Roquefort. Camembert. Gouda. Edam. Gorgonzola. Parmesan. Cheddar.
Ratmaze 2 is a flash game by PixelJam. You are a RAT. Start ACTING LIKE ONE. You noble mission: to EAT ALL CHEESE. Your universe consists of an ATARI MAZE. Your soundtrack is COOL PCM MUSIC. Eating cheese awards MORE TIME. DON'T FORGET THE CRUMBS! Eating FRUIT speeds you up. Eat LETTERS for SECRET BONUS. Some walls are FAKE. Get ALL THE CHEESE for AWESOME BONUS ROUND. Solve bonus round for COSMIC CHEESE BONUS.
PixelJam also made Gamma Bros., previously seen. This post brought to you by the Committee for the Preservation of Williams-style Arcade Instruction Screens.
PixelJam also made Gamma Bros., previously seen. This post brought to you by the Committee for the Preservation of Williams-style Arcade Instruction Screens.
What was the deal with Wade's innertube? Conjoined twin?
Jim Davis' other strip was U.S. Acres, with Orson the Pig, Roy the Rooster, chick and egg Booker and Sheldon, sheep Bo and Lanolyn, and... a dog named Cody and a cat named Blue? Everyone who grew up from that time remembers the long-running Saturday morning show, but no one remembers the strip, which ended a couple of years before the cartoon did and evolved on a different track. Platypus Comix brings us highlights from the strip's surprisingly good, yet neglected, newspaper run.
Surprise! Fish!
La-Mulana is a Japanese homebrew game, with English translation available, for Windows that exhaustively replicates the experience of playing on an MSX home computer, a machine not sold in the U.S. but was contemporary with the likes of the Commodore 64 and Amiga in other markets. (Fun fact: the "MS" in MSX stands for Microsoft!) Although it looks very much like retro warez, La-Mulana is freeware. It is also notoriously long and difficult, with a character who controls like old-school Castlevania, enemies that will frequently knock you around like a rag doll, puzzles of amazing deviousness, and traps that think nothing of walling up a player without escape, or forever restricting access to certain powerups.
That said, the game does have charm, and is basically a love letter to the MSX hardware. Those who want to see it without beating their hands bloody against the keyboard can watch a guy play through the whole game in 85 installments, cursing at it all along the way.
That said, the game does have charm, and is basically a love letter to the MSX hardware. Those who want to see it without beating their hands bloody against the keyboard can watch a guy play through the whole game in 85 installments, cursing at it all along the way.
I name this island "BINKS'S WOE!"
George R. Binks : The tragic story of Jar Jar's father! Posted here in "celebration" of the Star Wars anniversary. Written and drawn by Tony Millionaire! (Warning: frames. Link is to the pages in his e-commerce site, and two pages are missing, but you should be able to figure it out.)
Smokey Stover
How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran
How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran by Joshuah Bearman. As history keeps on happening, all people and events are becoming linked to each other in strange and inexplicable ways. Once in a while those links surface into view. Here, then, is the key event that connects Jack Kirby and Roger Zelazny to the CIA's handling of the Iranian hostage crisis.
Via Wired Magazine and good evening.
But PURGEgate? I'm sorry, that's a dumb name.
The Purgegate Primer is a helpful document from The Morning News to assist all us armchair pundits in making sense of the U.S. Attorney scandal. Brought to us by the letter Q and recently-mentioned defective yeti, who it seems is about more than just laughs. (Also see his Plamegate Cheatsheet.)
Grandpa had become a mean thing
I Am Babycakes, created by Creased Comics' Brad Neely (who did that "Washington" video seen some time ago), is the good-natured, incredibly dark musings of a man-child who lives with his dad/wizard, roleplays ("I had described to my friends the most beautiful demon"), writes songs, and fills both his diary, and his days, with emptiness. Alternating funny, then sad, then cool as one turns it over in the mind. Or I think so anyway. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 (All links NSFW due to language.)
EyezFilter
Chronon is yet another new, incredibly charming, Eyezmaze puzzle game from On, that GROW guy. It is along similar lines, but while in GROW the arrow of time is firmly fixed in the forward direction, here you can flip back and forth between different times whenever you want.
Despite this, the game is quite a bit more difficult than GROW (especially if you want the maximum score - keep going after the little guy escapes from his cage!), and it's very new so there may still be a few bugs, but it's immensely satisfying to solve!
Despite this, the game is quite a bit more difficult than GROW (especially if you want the maximum score - keep going after the little guy escapes from his cage!), and it's very new so there may still be a few bugs, but it's immensely satisfying to solve!