Today is a triumphant day for cat lovers everywhere, but especially for those who despise ironing. Hasbro’s Facebook stunt, devilishly proposed to distract us from the fact that Monopoly takes for-freakin-ever, has reached a delightful conclusion. Today reports that the iron token is getting the boot, and will be replaced with a sparkling cat token. Congratulations, Internet! Read More
When Google launched its new worldwide alternative reality game earlier this month, the web lit up with widespread questions. The game, called Ingress, allows users to move through the physical world with their Android devices, collecting pockets of energy in various locations that they can then use to complete virtual quests. It was an interesting idea, but on the surface appeared to not make any significant contributions to the company’s bottom line. Why would Google, which has $217.59 billion market cap, allocate time and resources to a free Android game?
Technology Review called it “augmented reality’s first killer app.” AllThingsD reported that because the game incorporates real stores and businesses into its plotline, it’s a natural next-level venue for advertisers–Zipcar, Jamba Juice and Chrome apparel have already all signs on to host ads on Ingress. Read More
If getting the shit scared out of you at a Broadway showing of Cats was a rite of passage for you, then you’ll be pleased to know that the man responsible for that feline phenomenon is putting his immeasurable talents to good use by penning music for Nintendo Wii games. Oh, how the mighty have fallen…into the arms of Dance Dance Revolution.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has signed on for a game cleverly called “Sing & Dance,” coming to a Nintendo Wii near you in mid-September. As one Observer arts reporter remarked, “This is like the equivalent of Orson Welles doing commercials in the ’80s.” Read More
It appears that Zynga, the evil mastermind behind FarmVille and Mafia Wars, is not completely hell-bent on destroying the world. The online game producer turned super villain announced today that it would help design a Facebook game to fight the oppression of women around the world.
The game is based on the novel Half the Sky, which follows the lives of women who have been victimized through sexual violence and trafficking, insufficient educational and financial opportunities and poor healthcare. It is part of a larger multimedia effort based on the book’s themes that will include a PBS miniseries as well as mobile games in India and Africa. Read More
It’s pretty rare that a “Show HN” post actually makes it to the top of the front page of Hacker News, as a lot of them are just half-baked startup ideas. Not so with fontBomb, a delightfully fun plugin that lets you blow up the text on your favorite (or least favorite) websites.
fontBomb is an HTML 5 plugin by Canadian programmer Philippe-Antoine Lehoux. As one commenter put it, “So awesome. Spent 10 min blowing the hell out of hn. Now instead of raging against trolls I can simply blow them up.” Read More
In the heady year of 1977, from that slice of meteorological heaven called San Jose, Nolan Bushnell–the cofounder of Atari–had a charming idea. In a fit of inspiration, he decided to fuse two of the best things on earth and then also tack on one of the creepiest (but who are we to judge?): Pizza, arcade games and animatronic animals so scary they make children hide behind their parents’ legs.
He would build it, furnish it with a stinky ballpit, and they would come: it would be called Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. Read More
If you enjoy some pinball with your pints, you’ll be happy to hear that a new retro arcade–dubbed Two-Bits–will soon open at 153 Essex Street on the Lower East Side. Local blog Bowery Boogie spotted the signs announcing the new gaming spot a few days back. “Teaser signage, complete with punk-on-a-coin logo, arrived in the windows of 153 Essex late last week,” they wrote. “We’ve since noticed numerous pedestrians stopping themselves at the sight.”
Unfortunately, Two-Bit’s website is disappointingly sparse, offering only the signage in question and some unnecessary share buttons (one for MySpace, for example). In the meantime, maybe you can catch Tyler DeAngelo and his mobile Frogger game if you’re feeling especially nostalgic about ’80s arcade games.
MegaMillions isn’t the only game in town capable of inspiring a feeding frenzy. Not content merely to snap up OMGPOP at something like $180 million, Zynga is making it known they’ve still got IPO cash burning a hole in their corporate pockets. Merger chief Barry Cottle basically told Bloomberg that they are hungry, ready to move fast, and rich as hell: Read More
Oh, those New York Times Magazine folks–they’re so edgy these days. In a think piece about the rise of “Angry Birds, Farmville and other hyperaddictive ‘stupid games,’” the Times proves how truly addictive the Zynga canon is by embedding their own version of a “stupid” game as an illustrative complement to the story. The game allows you to destroy pieces of the website with your arrow keys and space bar–for example, we took the liberty of destroying the Style section, and automatically the Times became 10x less pretentious and assholey. If only every article offered this kind of catharsis. Read More
