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Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Interviews, Rhythm

Dance Dance Revolution showed that rhythm titles had a life here in the States, but Guitar Hero proved they could also become full blown phenomenons. No one could have guessed it at the time, but Harmonix’s musical masterpiece quickly became the most culturally significant video game since Master Chief became a household name.The success was long overdue for Harmonix, having already shown off their rhythmic chops with the PlayStation 2 favorites Frequency and Amplitude. Teaming up with Konami, they quickly established their dominance of the microphone on this side of the ocean with Karaoke Revolution. With 2005’s Guitar Hero, they crafted the perfect blend of boyhood dreams and American rock insanity. The next step was obvious, but how could it possibly be done?

Speaking with Harmonix CEO and co-founder, Alex Rigopulos, we look into the history of the great white hope of rhythm gaming and what goes into creating what, if everything goes according to plan, will be considered one of the greatest rhythm titles of all time. From the challenges of gathering licenses to taking on their own success, this is the story of the next great franchise.

Gallery: Rock Band

Continue reading Rock Band: The next great franchise (an interview with Harmonix)

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Originally by Jared Rea from Joystiq on August 30, 2007, 7:13am

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Straight from IFA 2007 in Berlin comes Daewoo’s surprise entry into the Blu-ray camp with the company’s first player, the DBP-1000. Interestingly, even though Daewoo is probably more well-known for their Trutech ODM devices — or even their autos — this player supposedly supports the full 2.0 Profile for Blu-ray Disc, including BD Live internet functionality, picture-in-picture, and local storage. Pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but it won’t be soon enough for Blu-ray fans to see players with that interactive functionality built-in like competing HD DVD players have. Another picture after the jump.

Continue reading Daewoo shows off Blu-ray Profile 2 player at IFA

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally by Erik Hanson from Engadget on August 30, 2007, 12:02pm

Artist *ATLbladerunner posted a photo of his absolutely magnificent painting, titled Supper At Sea, to deviantART. It’s acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 48″. From the Artist’s Comments:

All of the characters are from the Thimble Theater strip by E.C. Segar, which later became just the Popeye comic strip. I tried to keep most of the characters in the same positions as the apostles are in Leonardo’s version, and tried to put in a few little fun things relating to the original. For instance, putting Olive in the same place as the apostle John, who some believe to be Mary Magdelene. I also had to put Brutus in the place of Judas Iscariot, and have him holding money (pieces of silver). Some theories also say that both Judas and Christ were reaching for the Eucharist in Leo’s version, so I included that too, replacing the bread with limes so they don’t get scurvy. And the cigar in the ashtray is a tribute to Popeye’s creator E.C. Segar who used to sign his drawings with a little cigar with the smoke forming the letter “S” in his name…

From Left to right - Alice the Goon, the Sea Hag, Poopdeck Pappy, Brutus, Professor O.G. Wattasnozzle, Olive Oyl, Popeye, the Jeep, J. Wellington Wimpy, Rough House the cook, Swee’ Pea, George Geezil, Castor Oyl

Link (via Super Punch)

And for more fun with Popeye, Bluto, and the gang, check out Fantagraphics Books‘ sumptuous hardcover collection of the earliest Thimble Theater strips from the late 1920s, “Popeye Vol. 1: ‘I Yam What I Yam.’” Link

Originally by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing on August 30, 2007, 7:56am

If any company is going to benefit from the success of BioShock, beyond 2K Boston and Take-Two, it’s Epic with their embattled Unreal Engine 3. BioShock has brought very public redemption and good press to the UE3 due to 2K Boston’s phenomenal use of the tech. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Epic’s Mark Rein who says, “We like to think we set a high bar with our own games, but more importantly we give our licensees the opportunity to take what we’ve done and do something even better with it … There are a lot more great titles coming from our licensees as well and we’re very proud of what is being accomplished and the helping role we get to play in their success.”

2K Boston’s Ken Levine didn’t wimp out on talking about their issues with the UE3 during our interview with him. Levine said, “Of course, it’s an engine, engine’s are always a bear. Developing games is really hard, I think the mistake that a company like Epic might make is to say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s simple, we give you the engine and you go do it fellas, it’ll be a breeze.’ Development is hard, it gives you a leg up, but if you don’t have a great technology team you’re going to run into trouble. Even if you have a great technology team you can run into trouble.” Although the exact contractual issues regarding Silicon Knights’ license with Epic are something for the court to decide, SK’s inability to get Too Human working with the UE3 looks pretty awkward in the court of public opinion in the wake of BioShock.

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Originally by Alexander Sliwinski from Joystiq on August 29, 2007, 5:55am

David sent around this book Wholly Irresponsible Experiments to our team, I haven’t heard of this book (has anyone else?) - Here’s a review of it by Ian @ the Fortean Times -

Science can be looked at in two ways, I suppose: as a self­less quest for know­ledge in the serv­ice of human pro­gress; or as a really good excuse to blow shit up. This book sits firmly in the second camp, and as I make a living org­an­is­ing this kind of stuff for public audi­ences at one of the UK’s hands-on science centres, it was inev­it­able that Wholly Irrespons­ible Experi­ments would land in my in-tray.

d, then? Well, yes, but not actu­ally wholly irres­pons­ible. It comes with inst­ruct­ions that tell you to put the match out after light­ing a candle and does not employ any­thing more eso­teric than house­hold ingred­ients. It does not feat­ure any­thing with a blast radius, or the potent­ial to be struct­ur­ally dam­ag­ing or a gross vio­lat­ion of health and safety law.Wholly Irresponsible Experiments | Books | Reviews | Fortean Times UK - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 30, 2007, 6:00am

I’m a big fan of Moleskine journals, both the full-size and the small cahiers. I usually end up writing in them in both directions, with one collection of content, say daily thoughts, ideas, artwork, and work-related miscellany, going from front to back and another type, say brainstorming for a book, going from back to to front. And then I usually have a couple of other though clusters tossed somewhere in the middle. I’ve tried conventional tabs, but I hate the little flappy things. So I might try this idea I bumped into on a new site for “tiny inventions,” called Inventoids. Cut “innie” tabs. I think I’ll try it. You can always use color marker bands on the edges, but I think this looks cooler. It’s an interesting option, anyway. YMMV.

Moleskine indexing hack tool - Link

From the pages of CRAFT:

Journal-Art Memoirs. Make a scrapbook the Moleskine way. Read this article in our print magazine, CRAFT 02: Creative Clones, Page 127. To get CRAFT, subscribe today. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition!

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 9:00pm

W. writes - A Rubens Tube uses fire to visually demonstrate the compression effects of soundwaves. Think Winamp’s little oscilloscope, but on fire.
The construction of these tubes were documented by two people independently, and submitted simultaneously for Instructable.com’s Science Fair.

More!

• The Rubens’ Tube: Soundwaves in Fire! - Link.
• Wiimote Rubens Tube: Control Fire With Sound! (And a Nintendo Wiimote!) - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 11:00am

Stoffel writes -

Hi Philip - I noticed a couple of articles on the Make blog related to smoke art and just wanted to show you my gallery as well.. have a look at www.lumendipity.com/blog and www.lumendipity.com/smoke. The blog has some information about ‘how to’ as well (mainly in February archive)… Aalternatively, my smoke set on Flickr -

Smoke photography Link.

Related:

Paint with smoke - Link.

HOW TO - Photograph smoke - Link.

Sculptures made with smoke - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 2:00pm

Scientists from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy claim to have created a “hierarchy of adhesive forces,” using carbon nanotubes, which are strong enough to hold the weight of a person suspended from a wall or ceiling. This tech could possible lead to a kind of microscopic hook and loop configuration, a la Velcro. And a world of wall-walking “underwear perverts” will surely ensue.

Nanotech Discovery Could Lead to Spiderman Suit - Link

Related:

• Velcro being pulled apart - Link
• Nanocarbon from Graphene to Nanotubes to Buckyballs - Link

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 3:00pm

Tracy Sarroff’s Cyberplants - Link.

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 4:00pm