Over at Boing Boing, this fantastic homage to classic gaming really hit home with me. Partially because I could identify so many of the games (even though I’m much younger than some of the oldest in the video) and have played a lot of them – even up to some of the most recent.

It’s also worth noting that the single SNES game that ate a good bit of my life when I was younger, a side-scrolling shooter called UN Squadron in North America but better known as its original Japanese title, Area 88, is represented. It’s only for an instant, but it’s there. And even though I already loved the video enough to share it with the world, this made me love it more.

The music is an 8-bit remix of Mad World by Tears for Fears, and I think it’s appropriate. Enjoy!

[ Classic Arcade Deaths (Boing Boing Video) ]

The folks at Quantum Mechanix have outdone themselves: the image above is of a replica Colonial Viper, of the kind piloted by Starbuck in the BattleStar Galactica television series. There are actually three versions of the replica: one with Starbuck’s insignia on it, one with Admiral Adama’s old “Husker” placard under the cockpit, and then there’s a “fleet” edition, which can be personalized to include any callsign you prefer, including your own if you want.

The Starbuck model is autographed by Katie Sackhoff herself, and the Adama model is signed by Edward James Olmos. If that weren’t enough reason to pick one up, check this out:

The QMx Viper Mark II Artisan Replica boasts a cockpit chock full of hand-cut details, including gauges, data screens, throttle, ejection seat, and seat belts with fabric belts and metalized buckles. But the pièce de résistance of the QMx Viper is the active, working DRADIS – a 9/16″ OLED (organic light-emitting diode) video display of the remote sensing system in action, displaying the actual DRADIS video used in Battlestar Galactica. The canopy can be opened for an optimal view of the cockpit and this first-ever digital model effect.

In addition, the ship’s three rear engines feature a pulsating lighting effect that is randomized using a white-noise generator.

It takes our artisans about 50 hours to hand assemble the 140 parts that go into this spirited fighter, hand layering 18 different colors of paint, and adding special decals and hand-painted stencils.

That’s ridiculous. If you’re still not convinced, here’s a video of the design and build process of the replicas, including some delicious shots of the finished products:

[ Quantum Mechanix ]
[ Launch the Alert Vipers: An exact replica of Starbuck’s Viper, signed by Katee Sackhoff! ]

Tiny Wings is probably the most adorable mobile game that I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, Angry Birds is cute, but Tiny Wings walks the line between emotional and adorable in a way that few games manage to do successfully, and errs on the side of hopeful and happy instead of heart-string-tugging.

In the game, you play an cute, hopeful bird who’s always dreamt of flying. When the sun comes up, you wake up, jump out of your nest, and slide down the nearest hill, because today’s the day you’re going to be airborne! You have tiny little stubbly wings though, so you need the momentum you get from sliding down the hill to stay in the air as long as possible.

The only control you get is over when to tuck in your bird’s wings – that streamlines you and should be used to get a little downward speed when you’re headed down a slope. Let go at the bottom to soar into the air and flap to your heart’s content.

All along the way you can collect items and bonuses on the ground as you slide between hills, and get score multipliers by touching the clouds. You have to fly fast and far though, night is coming, and as soon as the sun sets, your bird will go back to sleep and the game will be over. As your score multiplies, you can get upgrades for your nest, which will in turn help boost your score. See how this plays out?

Anyway, the game trailer is below: it looks like a world of fun, but it’s iOS only, so if you don’t have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you might want to get one. Check out the trailer, then go grab the game.

[ iTunes :: Tiny Wings ]

Someone decided to pretend that the crew of the original Star Trek television series were a more typical workspace, with access to Facebook (better known as Spacebook) and a pretty prank-heavy set of coworkers. Aside from the virtues of not surfing Facebook when you’re at the office, I think Spock learns a valuable lesson about keeping a little separation between his personal and private life. Kirk however, just seems shameless.

Even if you’re not really a fan of the original series, this is worth watching. It’s hilarious.

[ Topless Robot: Star Trek - The Wrath of Facebook ]

Reports are that the Motorola Xoom – the iPad’s first real competitor, and the first Android tablet to run Android 3.0 “Honeycomb,” isn’t selling quite as well as people had hoped. Admittedly, there are likely a number of reasons for why this is, but ultimately the success of the Xoom is key to the success of the tablet market in general: if the iPad has a strong competitor, Apple will feel the need to push forward when it comes to improving and innovating in the marketplace. If they feel they can completely define the market direction and the technology consumers buy, they’ll make more modest steps.

Analyst Peter Misek told ZDNet:

Xoom sales have been underwhelming. While marketing has just started we believe MMI will likely have to cut production if it already has not done so. We believe the device has been a bit buggy and did not meet the magic price point of $500. We believe management knows this and is hurrying development and production of lower cost tablets. Importantly we believe management will likely have to make the painful decision to accept little to no margin initially in order to match iPad 2’s wholesale pricing.

Yowch. He even tosses in a ding at the Motorola Atrix later in the report, claiming that the Blackberry Torch – a phone that got a largely tepid response from the tech community and BlackBerry enthusiasts – is selling better than the Motorola Atrix, the highly lauded Android phone that made waves at CES back in January.

So what’s the deal? Well, the Atrix got dinged on confusing pricing and – the real draw, supposedly the laptop dock that Motorola wanted everyone to pick up – being about as expensive as the phone. Add that to the fact that the Atrix is an AT&T exclusive, and you have a great phone that’s essentially DOA.

As for the Motorola Xoom, some people are complaining that the Xoom is buggy, Honeycomb isn’t ready for prime time, and of course, the fact that there’s a ridiculous lack of Honeycomb apps available, so you’re stuck using apps for Froyo if you can get them to work properly.

To me, there have been three nails in the coffin of the Xoom right now – the lack of tablet-based apps, the confusing pricing structure, and the delay of a WiFi only model. The delay of a WiFi only model all but positions the Xoom as something that people would have to go to a wireless carrier to get, and not everyone who may be interested in a tablet want to get into an added contract with their wireless carrier to enjoy. The lack of tablet-based apps has been talked to death. The pricing structure has been its own problem: there are three prices for the WiFi model, three prices for the 3G model, a cost to upgrade to 4G, an activation fee, a fee to pay Verizon Wireless to get a WiFi only model, and so on. Ultimately, when you buy a Xoom, or think about buying a Xoom, you have absolutely no idea what your out of pocket expenses will be.

Still, all of those woes aside, I really like the Xoom – or rather, the idea of the Xoom – since competition is good and the iPad needs some. After all, I’m still convinced that Apple got away with a fairly lackluster update to the original iPad largely to fanfare because there still aren’t solid competitors in the market yet that can stand toe-to-toe with Apple on the software front.

What do you think? Are you pondering a Motorola Xoom, or are you waiting for additional Honeycomb tablets to hit the market? Maybe you’re looking instead for more Honeycomb apps to appear? Let me know in the comments.

[ Motorola Xoom Sales Tepid; Production Cuts Next? ]

So this trailer for an upcoming MMO called The Secret World was unveiled at the Game Developer’s Conference earlier this month, and while at first blush it wouldn’t look terribly interesting, the trailer video belies an incredibly interesting concept. The game does away with classes and levels entirely, and removes progression paths in order to create a truly open, user-customizable, and free-playing character experience.

Your character can do anything in the game, and isn’t restricted any specific manner – you can be good at lots of things, a master of one thing, or terrible at anything, and it’s likely that there will wind up being paths to excellence in certain areas, but I like the notion that you’ll be able to do anything the game offers.

The trailer is really solid, and the commentary from the developers and designers is exciting. You get to join one of three secret societies and experience a massive storyline that stretches around the modern world and experiences the natural, the technological, and the supernatural.

What do you think? Does The Secret World sound like the kind of MMO you would play? Leave us a note in the comments.

[ The Secret World ]

The guys over at DownloadSquad turned me on to this little time waster (the image is theirs too, by the way!) and I really just couldn’t get enough of it.

In BattlePaint, you’re a small square with a lifebar that can shoot at other squares. Your job? Stay alive as wave after wave of enemy paint squares emerge from portals that open all over the map. The game is in classic arcade style – the longer you survive the harder the game gets.

As you blow the paint out of enemy squares, slide across their left-behind paint to collect points. That’s all there is to it! It’s a simple, fun, and quick time wasting game that you can jump in and out of at any time to have a little fun and de-stress, even if you’re at the office. Requires flash though, so no tablet or mobile action for you. Enjoy!

[ BattlePaint ]

(this brand new image for Spinning Gears columns is courtesy of Narilka, who graciously gave permission to use it!)

So the blogs have been buzzing recently thanks to a report that for SpaceTime Studios, the developers of the popular mobile MMO Pocket Legends, has found that its Android version is simply more profitable than the iOS version of the same game.

SpaceTime runs Pocket Legends for both platforms, and since the game is an MMO, anyone on any platform can play with each other. But SpaceTime noted that they’re seeing more sales from its Android customers than from its iOS customers. Does this mean – as many tech news sites have jumped to the conclusion – that Android owners are somehow more willing to shell out for apps than iOS users? Does it mean that developers should all switch to building games for Android now?

Well, what exactly does it mean? I know – partially because unlike a number of people who have covered the story in a couple of places, I’ve actually played Pocket Legends (on my Android phone, no less,) understand SpaceTime’s business model, and get what they’re really trying to say here. Let’s dive in after the jump.

Continue reading Spinning Gears :: Is Android More Profitable than iOS for Developers?…

This short video is as intriguing as it is terrifying, actually. Someone dubbed over a little gameplay of the original Super Mario Bros. game with realistic sound effects that you’d actually hear if someone were getting chomped by a Goomba or climbing down a pipe.

It actually makes me appreciate the simple platform-game sound effects more than ever. Not everything needs to suffer the curse of realism!

It’s entertaining that the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) that’s taking place this week is also taking place just after the 25th birthday of the ridiculously iconic Legend of Zelda series of videogames.

As if on cue, at GDC this week we saw the following trailer for the upcoming Wii title, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which frankly looks like crazy, sword-slashing, puzzle-solving fun:

I’ve been on a bit of a Zelda kick these past few days, one that started with The Most Epic Zelda Painting Ever Created over at Geekologie, which had me Googling the names of the characters I didn’t recognize from Zelda games I haven’t played.

Sure enough, they followed up that post with The Swords of Zelda, one fan’s collection and chart of all of the notable swords that have appeared in Legend of Zelda games over the years – including the multiple iterations and changes to the Master Sword itself.

Now I have to get a Wii.