Author: Peter Swimm

  • Tiny Cartridge on “Wrestle Game Challange”

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    “I haven’t seen The Wrestler, but I understand it’s a very sad movie about a washed-up pro wrestler. For me, though, it’s always going to be a very sad movie about the washed-up NES Pro Wrestling, thanks to the appearance of this lookalike game.

    Surprisingly, motion graphics artist Kristyn Hume and programmer Randall Furino created a real game for the movie’s video game sequence.”

    Read more at Tiny Cartridge:

    EDIT Kotaku has a great behind the scenes on how the game was made:

    “It reminded me to keep everything simple, not to ‘over-write’ the track. I think I made about 6 completely different versions, each one more simplified than the previous arrangement and different sound events.”

    “The director opted for the the most simplified version i believe.”

    That track, titled “8-bit Wrestler,” is barely audible in the final cut, but Feinberg has made a version available on YouTube.

    While Wrestle Jam may not be a technical marvel, a month’s worth of work from its two creators, plus Feinberg’s score, went into making the NES game convincing as a narrative device.

    “Given the prevalence of video games, you would think you’d see more of it,” commented Robert Denerstein, former film critic at the Rocky Mountain News. “Advances in technology, like the introduction of the cell phone, have made things possible in storytelling that weren’t possible before.”

    “I think it’s something you’ll see more of,” Denerstein added. In the case of The Wrestler, the film critic says the references to the NES and Call of Duty 4 add a sort of poignancy, helping to make narrative leaps.”

  • Open Emu in action


    Dan Sez:

    “I generated the video live using the Open Emu QC plugins (openemu.sourceforge.net), which let me play original NES ROMs in emulation, live. I used several ROMs on this song, one written by No Carrier (no-carrier.com) and several more by Chris Covell (nesdev.parodius.com/#NESChris). These ROMs are being played totally live — no pre-recorded video.”

    Also check out this starscream video from the same event.

  • Battle of the Bits proud to present Winter Chip IV

    winter-chip-iv_coverBattle of the Bits proud to present Winter Chip IV
    BotB and it’s resident BotBrs invites any and all to participate, listen and/or vote in BotB’s fourth annual Winter Chip competition.  As always, this year’s compo has added even more chiptune formats totalling at a balmy sixteen.  That’s right!!  16 different ways to share yer skillz in chip.  Each participant can submit an entry to each category if their heart so desires.
    Submission Deadline :: March 9th
    Voting will follow for ten days.
    Categories this year are :: heart-magic, brain-tech, bleep-squeeze, deep-tweak & oh-noes-my-pants!
    Results will be posted March 20.
    This is the first competition to be hosted by BotB’s new engine.  Over six months ago a great effort was initiated by lead developer puke7 to give BotB an actual framework to stand on.  This has successfully brought about reducing database call redundancies, decreasing load times, and making BotB not a complete pain in the ass to update.  All code was started from scratch again.  Old site features are still springing up.
    All n00bz!! =D/
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  • Digital Tools Profiles: Ptoing

    ptoing-zxfaces“Brilliant Pixelartists don’t fall from trees. But there are people who know just how to place the right colors on the right places. Sven Ruthner is such a man. The demoscener known under the alias Ptoing just got the right feel for colors and for intense shapes and proportions. The illustrator works with different media, but is also very enthusiastic about vintage homecomputers, like using C64, Amiga or Spectrum ZX”

    Read More:

  • 8BITTODAY: 256k Byte Compo

    rawwy2009_articleNice dissection of the entrants in a compo earlier this month. Great read, with plenty of videos. Excerpt:

    What could you say in 256 characters? To get an idea; it’s a little more than one and a half text messages on your mobile phone. Now if you had to program something in 256 characters, what would, or maybe mostly could that be? It’s the same idea like our article on Artefacts by Plush, working with artificial limitations on limited hardware.

    8bittoday