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Space Invader Cookies: Step-by-Step Instructions w/Pics

For your next game party why not try a snack to impress, like these homemade Space Invader cookies. As if there weren’t already enough great uses for your Play-Doh fun factory, you can make 8-bit cookies as well. Check out this Flickr page for full step-by-step image instructions for making your own.

As for me however, that looks like kitchen work, so I’ll stick to spray-painting my Rice Krispie® treats.

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The History of Pong

It started with an idea. Al Alcorn, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, pooled their efforts together to create not just the first commercially successful video game, but also one of the most famous video games ever. Many Pong articles out there offer few details to the events preceding the release of Pong, but only just recently has Gamasutra taken the opportunity to delve deep into the origins of Pong, starting with the computers used in World War 2. The article also details some of the non-commercial games that appeared prior to 1970, including a 1958 tennis game that is believed to be the official precursor to Pong.

The formation of one of the first commercial video games took almost half a century to create and not only was it just a long ride, it was an expensive one too considering the technology available at the time. So, how did it get to be just 25 cents per game and so easily accessible across the United States?
Read the full article to find out [Gamasutra]

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Evolution of Game Controllers

Many have speculated and even analyzed how video game consoles have progressed over the decades in terms of graphical capabilities, sound,  storage capacity and speed. With an abundance of specs to compare on the game system itself, it seems that the heart of user and console interactivity, known as the gamepad, has been ignored all these decades.

Damien Lopez, the author of the gamepad map that you see above, notes that from the Nintendo controllers on, number pads were no longer used. It’s  interesting to see how every couple of generations a company completely redesigns the gamepad and it becomes the standard. And it’s not unheard of for some old features to reappear in new designs. Controllers had a joystick disappeared with the introduction of the NES gamepad, but reappear later in the form of a thumbstick with the advent of the Nintendo 64 controllers.

You can see the full article here. [Pasta&Vinegar]

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X-Arcade Cocktail Mame Cabinet

Cruzilla, a user from the MameAddicts forum, build his own cocktail cabinet made for four players using a 22 inch monitor, 2 X-Arcade Solos, 1 X-Arcade Dual Stick, and a sleek exterior covered by tempered glass. Dubbed the Cruzilla Flashbacks, this arcade machine was was made by Godzilla fans for Godzilla fans. There’s nothing like rampaging cities and saving Tokyo with your friends and family

So see a list of all the pictures, you can visit the original forum post here. [MameAddicts]

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The Turbo-charged World of Japan’s Game Centers

From Destructoid:

You know those crane games they have inside movie theaters and sports bars in North America? The ones with the seemingly impossible-to-get Batman stuffed toys? They’re huge in Japanese arcades. Who knew?

Certainly not me, so it’s a good thing I had a chance to finish reading through Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan’s Game Centers during my “holiday break.” The first chapter details the strange culture of crane games, or “UFO Catchers” as they’re sometimes known as in Japan. It’s a world where skill, not luck, factors into whether you’ll make the catch, so much so that heated claw-machine competition exists. Seriously.

Click here to see the full article [Destructoid]

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Big Man vs. Machine

From The Washington Post:

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. — All around him there is music now. Jangling. Clanging. A little steel ball rolls up a ramp and down the ramp, off the bumper, off the flipper, off the wall, back up the ramp, back down the ramp. Lights flashing. Numbers roll.

At this moment, Todd MacCulloch is not watching the numbers. He seems to hear nothing of the constant noise ringing around him like a Las Vegas lobby in his basement, so engaged is he in the plight of the rolling steel ball. In fact he is a remarkable sight: a 7-foot-tall, nearly 300-pound man who once thrust his ample girth against Shaquille O’Neal’s in two NBA finals, standing at a pinball machine called Medieval Madness that is distinguished from the dozens of other machines that surround him solely by its a ghoulish, metallic moans…
See the full article here [Washington Post]

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Holiday Wish List - Top 5 gifts for the gamer

It’s that time of year again when some of the best things come to us. What’s on your wish list? Well, the people from Examiner.com have put together a shopping guide to make it easier to find gifts for the gamer in you and me. The number 1 thing most wanted? The X-Arcade Machine. Of course, we need our Yamaha RH101MS Headphones, and our King of Kong DVDs, but it all wont be complete without that X-Arcade Machine, a gift that will truly bring tears of happiness to your eyes.

Check out the full list [Examiner.com]

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