…but still, this pathetic handheld football game, a blatant Wii remote ripoff, is pretty appalling. When I see something like this, I just try to imagine being the kind of person who would mastermind a product like this. But I just can’t. I really cannot understand valuing a quick buck over having any kind of integrity.
Yes, the manualist from my previous post also played the Super Mario Bros. theme, but I think this is even better: the SMB theme is here being performed by a pair of Tesla coils!
Of course, a quick search on YouTube reveals a ton of creative arrangements of this timeless piece of music. I have to give credit to even some of the less-than-stellar performances, like the one on a ruler. But for sheer audacity, the award has to go to this kid who played it on a church pipe organ… at a service!
Valve Software, makers of the Half-Life series, will soon release a new set of games set in that universe, called The Orange Box. The most intriguing element of this, for me, is a game called Portal. The game equips you with a special gun that can create teleportation holes at will. What does that mean? Allow them to demonstrate:
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The more that things change, the more they stay the same.—Rush, “Circumstances”
Hemispheres (1978)
Today Microsoft announced the new Zune line, intended to compete with the iPod nano. Immediately when I saw it, the elongated form factor and weirdish looking “Zune pad” control device brought to mind another questionably designed technological also-ran from yesteryear.
P.S. Yes, I know Neil Peart did not invent the phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” But I can’t hear it without thinking of that song.
I think I’ll hold off on showing these artists’ interpretations to my Mario-obsessed 4-year-old son.