For one week only, and I believe that week is almost up, those shepherds of cool, those sters of hip, those Arcade Fire career-makers over at Pitchfork Media, are screening Reformat the Planet, a documentary film about the origins and growth of the current chiptune scene set against the backdrop of the 2006 Blip Festival.

Every now and then something useful comes along in a MySpace bulletin, and no, it has nothing to do with a Macy's gift certificate or a free iPhone. If only MySpace itself was more user-friendly, seriously, how about the ability to forward bulletins, sometimes I think the whole thing is held together by Scotch tape, and powered by roomful of daisy chained solar powered calculators.

I haven't posted or read much here in awhile, but I think I've got something of interest to the main demographic of AA, and a quick search didn't come up with anything on it. Which would make this the post equivalent of the folks that have to be the first commenter somewhere and add nothing to the conversation but, "Frist!" (And that would be the correct spelling over at Crooks & Liars.)

I am inexplicably fascinated by my discovery of the kill screen. And, no I didn't reach the 256th level of Pac-Man.

Note to someone: Make a t-shirt with the Pac-Man kill screen covering every square inch and you will have a buyer.

If I buy two can you reduce the shipping charges? Sweet.

I AM 8-BITSometimes I think I'm more intrigued by the video games culture bleeding into other forms of media and seeping deeper into popular culture, than I am in the games themselves. The "I AM 8-BIT" show at Gallery 1988 was referenced in a previous post as being featured in a vidcast elsewhere, but there was not a link in the AA post to the artwork featured. So, here it is:

Halitosis sux.Katamari reference on LOL Bots with Transformers as the medium.

In a record store (there's an anachronism for ya), I would call it the cutout bin. I guess at Toys R' Us it could be called the same. I laid out the $9.99 for Atari Anthology for PS2. Is it worth it? I'm not sure.

I never had the Atari 2600, having only played it at friend's houses, until I got my Atari computer, but I always remember looking at the JCPenney catalog each year at the screenshots of the games and circling which ones I would get if I actually had an Atari. This is back when the JCPenney in East Brunswick, NJ still had a cafe and I would eat the blueberry cheesecake with my older sister, who worked in the catalog department.

So tonight, I tried a few of these games, in lieu of a few extra hours of sleep, job hunting, paying bills, or whatever else folks do at night when they're not playing video games (yeah, I could think of a few others).

kong invadersYours too, I'm sure. Here's the link. It may take awhile, and I should probably waterproof the place first, but of course it would be worth it. This certainly would entertain the spiders. Hopefully even keep them occupied, so they no longer visit us on the first floor.

As I write this I realize I am posting this 4th generation. But I'm guessing there's plenty of people who still haven't seen it. And I'm pretty sure my three friends who actually read my blog haven't seen it.

I'm pressed for time, so I'll be brief.

One man is auctioning off his exhaustive console & game collection (including Mr. Do) on eBay, currently for the bargain price of $ 610.-- (Reserve Not Met).

The music of Kraftwerk performed on 8-bit video game systems.