The Creative Shed

Marvel MMO unveils first developer diary

Editor — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:20:55 +0000

Have a look for yourself – it even contains some gameplay footage. I’m happy to make a prediction: there are going to be a LOT of people wanting to plan the Hulk.

I’m more of a Dazzler character myself – how about you?

Game Masters: Play Dozens of Games from Your Life

Editor — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:02:36 +0000

I had the pleasure this morning of attending the Australian Centre for the Moving Image‘s Game Masters exhibition.

I’ve been to ACMI exhibitions before and they’ve been superb, but this one beat them all hands down. If you’ve ever spent more than a couple of hours playing video games, you need to see this exhibition if you can.

It’s hands-on, with most of the exhibits able to be played. I’m talking everything from 1970’s arcade games right up to today’s console games. I spent a little time typing the names of every playable game I saw into my phone.

So for your benefit, here’s what you can play if you go:

Gun Fight
Space Invaders
Centipede
Asteroids
Donkey Kong
Gee Bee
Pac Man
Xevious
Rip Off
Reactor
Elevator Action
Scramble
Robotron 2084
Tempest
Missile Command
Metal Gear Solid
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
New Super Mario Bros
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Hang On
Out Run
Virtua Fighter
Shenmue
Mario Kart 7
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Sonic the Hedgehog – full series of games (I think)
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Diablo III
LEGO Star Wars
LEGO Batman
LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4
LEGO Clone Wars
Populous
Dungeon Keeper
Black & White
Fable III
Sim City
Sim City 2000
The Sims
Spore Creature Creator
Monkey Island 2: Lechucks Revenge
Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle
Grim Fandango
Ultima Underworld
Deus Ex
System Shock
Disney Epic Mickey
Singstar
Amplitude
Frequency
Rock Band
Lumines
Sega Rally Championship
Space Channel 5
Rez
Child of Eden
Minecraft
Blueberry Garden
Braid
Journey
Critter Crunch
Flight Control
Spy Mouse
Real Racing 2
Angry Birds
Machinarium
Botanicula
Samorost 2
From Dust
Heart of Darkness
Another World
Darwinia
Defcon
Parappa the Rapper
Vib-Ribbon
Jetpack Joyride
Fruit Ninja
Castle Crashers
Alien Hominid
Winta

I missed a couple of handheld games too I think, so there’s even more on offer than above. For me, playing the full working arcade version of Xevious for the first time since the mid-1980s made the price of admission worth it alone. Seriously – if you’re in Melbourne or are planning to be there in the next couple of months, go and spend half a day at Game Masters.

If you’ve already been, would love your thoughts in comments

Ten funny Star Wars videos

Editor — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:41:16 +0000

It’s time for another one of our regular humor posts. This time I thought I’d go in deep and pick the ten best videos that parody Star Wars. Obviously it’s objective and feel free to add your own picks in the comments. In the meantime, enjoy:

1. Injured Stormtrooper

2. Star Wars Help Desk

3. Lego Star Wars – The New Guy

4. Never Call Me At Work

5. Chad Vader : Day Shift Manager – A Galaxy Not So Far Away

(If you haven’t watched Chad Vader before, you haven’t lived. Check out all the episodes)

6. Star Wars Episode 3: A Lost Hope

7. Grocery Store Wars

8. Empire State of Mind

9. Interrogation Droid

10. Star Wars: The Empire Brokeback

Wii U takes the game up to Kinect

Editor — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:02:24 +0000

For those not in the know, this time of year is huge for the gaming industry. E3 is on and all the major companies are unveiling their latest and greatest. Nintendo has used the expo to unveil its follow-up to the Wii – the Wii U.

In an era where the Microsoft Kinect has broken new ground, it was always going to be a big ask for Nintendo to outstrip that, but I’d argue they’ve achieved just that. Have a watch:

Astounding. Absolutely astounding. What do you think?

The genesis of Angry Birds explained

Editor — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:52:47 +0000

I’m defintely in the huge cohort of people who loves Angry Birds. At least now one mystery is solved: who created them?

[via Tumblr]

Tron Jeremy: porn goes down the funny route

Editor — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:11:54 +0000

Yes, I know this site is called Cultured Tech. Yes, I know Ron Jeremy is a porn star, And yes I know the clip below is laden with unsubtle double-entendres (that’s why the title of this story is of such high quality).

I don’t care, because after all that, the combination of retro and technology makes this funny. Sure it’s only 90 seconds worth but I liked it. Plus, the porn industry are renowned for leading online innovations so to some extent all this is a natural fit, although I could have done without the shot of Ron Jeremy’s man-cleavage. You’ve been warned – other than that there’s no language or imagery to be concerned about from a work-safe viewpoint:

Put your hand up if you’ve now unsubscribed from this site?

[via Gus Lozada]

Homeless under pressure: YouTube style

Editor — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 06:09:16 +0000

Homelessness is a worldwide issue that has arguably gotten worse in developed nations since the global financial crisis. There’s no shortage of stereotypes around homelessness, including the image of the beggar on the street with a sign asking for money. Like most stereotypes, they’re at least partially based on fact.

In the video below, a person claiming to be homeless is begging for money. He’s also providing some amazing entertainment to the words and music of Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie.

Have a look:

I’ve attempted to get more background on the video but am unable to find any. As someone’s said in the comments, it’d be great if you could donate money to support people in these situations. There’s an obvious non-profit business model there for the right entrepreneur: a crowdsourced capture of individual homeless people and the situations they face, with the ability to sponsor / donate. Kiva does it perfectly in developing nations and there are plenty of other micro-finance options around. This is different though – this is about that initial helping hand where a person has nothing but two Kermit puppets to make a living.

What do you think? Also – we’ll add a donation link if the background to the video is ever disclosed. This is one that deserves to go viral.

UPDATE: the person who created the video has now provided some info:

This is a performance meant to entertain and inspire.

If you want to help…

http://www.squidoo.com/help-the-homel…

http://homelessness.change.org/nonpro…

As I said this is a performance. I don’t want there to be any doubts about my situation. I am a performer. I have a roof over my head and I have yet to start my own family. But this video isn’t about me. This is for the men, women and children on our streets who don’t have bright green puppets on their hands. The people who aren’t always as easy to see. This is for you.

http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/

via [Bunny Knutson]

Games are cool for school

Editor — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:54:42 +0000

You may have heard of the term Serious Games before: essentially they’re games with a purpose beyond entertainment. There’s a growing awareness that games can be used for wider purposes such as business productivity, health support and for education. It’s that last point I’ll focus on here.

Arizona University’s James Paul Gee has completed a brilliant piece on the usefulness of games in education, which you can view below. The key point is that games are one ongoing test, like school, and there’s a bunch of good reasons why combining the two can be incredibly useful for educators.

Sceptical? You may be less so after hearing the case for serious games:

Over to you: would you like to see more games-based education in schools? If not, why not?

via [Edutopia]

Connecting a Nintendo Wii to an AirPort network

Editor — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:08:55 +0000

For those of you that own an Apple Airport or Airport Extreme, you may find the Wiiâ€s interface a little obtuse as far as connecting to that network. After spending a while twiddling I realised I was overestimating the complexity of the task at hand. So here’s how to get your Wii to connect directly to your AirPort:

1. Ensure you know your Airportâ€s â€˜nameâ€ â€“ if you go to the Airport icon at the top right of your screen youâ€ll see the name of the Airport network youâ€re connected to. This is what the Nintendo Wii calls your SSID.

2. Turn on your Wii and navigate to the Wii settings (icon is on bottom left of the screen).

3. Go to the second page of settings and click on â€˜Internetâ€, then â€˜Connection Settingsâ€. There youâ€ll enter your Airport networkâ€s name. Then click on the blue arrow to the right of where youâ€ve entered the name and youâ€ll be presented with password options.

4. I had set a WPA2 password for my network so thatâ€s the button I clicked and then entered my password. You may need to launch the Airport Admin utility (Applications -> Utilities) to confirm which type of password youâ€ve set.

5. Click â€˜Okâ€ then let the Wii do itâ€s connection test. Itâ€ll tell you if itâ€s successful and if itâ€s the first time youâ€ve connected the Wii itâ€s likely to download an update, which may take a while.

6. Thatâ€s it!

Nintendo also have an official FAQ that may help no matter what type of router you have.