split/screen co-op

• What Alan Wake Gets Wrong, and Right, About Being a Writer (Magical Wasteland)
  Tom “actual writer” Bissell was in Seattle recently to read from his book about video games, Extra Lives. While he was here, we got into a discussion about Alan Wake, a recent game that casts a writer as a hero.

Many more links after the jump.

These pictures really say it all, but let me spell it out for you (and for the sake of this post having an excerpt to show on the homepage): You can easily have a Portal portal in your home — all you need is a mirror, some paint and some sponge. Then just take a look at the pictures and DIY away.

Min Portal-spegel by de KING 91 on Game reactor

Self Portrait with Unicorns by vanjau

Vanja Utne is a Norway-based artist drawing great stuff on old computers such as the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. She adds little comments to her drawings, things whose significance my unartistic mind is unable to fully comprehend but that sound both very professional and funny. Stuff like:

Self Portrait with Unicorns, 2006. Yes, it says unicorns, plural. The cow thinks she is a unicorn and the unicorn doesn’t seem to mind, so it’s really none of our business telling them otherwise now, is it.

Drawn on the Commodore 64. 160×200 pixels, 16 colours. Each 4×8 pixel block can have 3 colours + the background colour which is the same for the entire picture. In addition this picture uses some magic raster timing trickery to display more colours per 4×8 pixel block, to the C64 geeks this is known as “FLI”.

Etc.

I’ve never owned a C64 or an Amiga computer but I’m fascinated by old things that still work. I’m doubly fascinated by people who know how to work them.

Commodore 64 1986-2010 by *vanjau on deviantART

Also, KJKXCEEQNXC3.