Posts by Ian Bogost
Farewell Kotaku
12:00PM Ian Bogost | To: Ash From: Ian O Kotaku, so short was our affair. But like all things – a summer fling, a migraine, an immigration queue, a pudding cup – this too must end. As my run as guest editor closes, I thank all the Michaels, all the Brians, all the Lukes, and the few other forenames that grace these mighty, worthy pages. Thanks to your council I have survived my tour. Much I have learned of the Way of Kotaku. I shall take the lessons I learned here and carry them with me in both heart and spleen. To you readers, I thank you for your eyeballs and your index fingertips, that did pore over and click upon my humble offerings, and your brains that did churn their words, sometimes with flummox, sometimes with snark, and even often with interest. What you missed today Mass Effect Mega FAQ, Answered Singing the Blu-Rays Ghostbusters Teaser Trailer, Gameplay Footage Nintendo Churning Out 1.8 Million Wiis Per Month More »
The Trauma of Cosplay
11:00AM Ian Bogost | Leigh Alexander writes about the ups and downs of “Adella,” a fashion design student and cosplayer, who has struggled with fans, trolls, and creeps who can’t understand the difference between her and the characters she dresses up as, especially Aeris Gainsborough. The stories are many, but here’s a characteristic one: When I was at Anime Central … I was standing in the lobby of the hotel and talking to someone I had just met. … And some girl ran up behind me and grabbed my braid and just yanked, as hard as she could. My head was jerked back and my neck had this awful pain wrench through it. I whirled around and screamed, “don’t touch me!” And she just goes “I… I just hate Aeris…” and ran off. Like because she hates some fictitious character.. it’s okay to physically assault someone dressed up like that character? The Aberrant Gamer: Flower Girl [Game Set Watch] More »
Retro Terrorism, part II
10:00AM Ian Bogost | Those of you read closely might have noticed that yesterday’s mention of the Bandai Airport Panic LCD Game included a coy “part I” in its title. That’s because I had another early videogame with airport terrorists up my sleeve. Activision gets the credit for being the first third-party developer, but Apollo followed shortly after, in 1981 (Imagic was also started in that year, by a second round of dissatisfied Atari developers). More »
Atari Porn Games
7:00AM Ian Bogost | Controversies like the hidden sex in Hot Coffee or the alien lesbianism in Mass Effect remind us how scarce and touchy sex in games is. Fear of sex in the ratings process and the marketplace makes legitimate eroticism difficult in traditional commercial games. But the lack of a viable “unrated” commercial games market – whether for explicit sex or other types of content – makes it easy to forget that there was once a place for sexually off-colour games. Al Lowe’s Leisure Suit Larry series of adult adventure games, starting in 1987, is one precedent, but another game five years earlier, on my favourite console, the Atari 2600. Before we take a peep, a warning. While I wouldn’t characterise this post as NSFW, you might still not want your boss walking by while you’re looking at the turgid member of a naked, 8-bit wide sprite. More »
Knight Rider Lives Too?
6:00AM Ian Bogost | All this talk about Ghostbusters – whatever. What about Knight Rider. This week’s Entertainment Weekly informed me that there’s a new Knight Rider TV movie coming, helmed by Bourne Identity director Doug Liman. If successful, a new series may follow. So, what about a new game? There was an NES game based on the series in 1989, and a German-made PS2 game in 2002 (you know how the Germans love their Hasselhoff). Is it time for a proper update? Too early to tell. Until then, you can play this Spy Hunter-style Knight Rider game online on the Universal Television website. Knight Rider Game [Universal TV] More »
Kaiser Permanente’s Health Game Flatlines
5:00AM Ian Bogost | At the start of my tour of duty as guest editor here on Kotaku, I mentioned the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s announcement of a $US8.25 million grant call to support games for health. I also said I hoped the RWJF incentive might produce better health games, rather than just more health games. To drive this point home, I want to share a recent, high profile health game that represents just how these things can go very wrong. More »
Singing the Blu-Rays
2:00AM Ian Bogost | This week’s NPD console sales numbers show the shiny, opulent PS3 once again taking a sorrowful place at the rear of the line. These figures don’t reflect the recent PS3 price drop, but they are dismal nonetheless. Here’s my question about the PS3 and why it suffers so. Before and just after the console was released, Sony defended its absurd price by citing Blu-Ray as a consumer motivator. Even though the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD question has not been resolved, for the better part of this year it was possible to buy a PS3 and an Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive for less than a combo Blu-Ray/HD DVD player. Even now, a cut-rate Blu-Ray player costs around $US400-$500, which is basically the same price as a PS3. And I hear you can also play videogames on the PS3. So why hasn’t Sony followed through and pimped the machine as a Blu-Ray player? More »
Journey Escape and Music Games
2:00AM Ian Bogost | One more item from my collection. This one’s neither rare nor particularly unfamiliar to many (although this copy is still factory sealed, perversely), but it makes for an interesting provocation. In 1982 Data Age created Journey Escape, based on the then hugely popular band Journey’s album Escape. In the game, you have to help the band reach their “scarab escape vehicle” (from the album cover) after a concert, while avoiding “hordes of Love-Crazed Groupies, Sneaky Photographers, and Shifty-Eyed Promoters. For some reason the band manager looks like the Kool-Aid Man. A less successful Journey arcade game followed in 1983, from Bally Midway. What’s interesting to me about this game is that it is one of very few attempts to licence and adapt bands or music to videogames. More »
Early Advergames, part IV
1:00AM Ian Bogost | I’ll admit up front that this one is not exactly an advergame, but it’s close enough for Internet work. In 1983 Coca Cola commissioned Atari to create a cartridge for the company’s annual sales convention. The result was Pepsi Invaders, a Space Invaders variant in which the aliens were replaced by letters spelling out PEPSI. The production run was 125, one for each of the attendees of Coke’s sales convention that year. Sales executives also received an Atari 2600 console along with the game. The assumption must have been that shooting down Pepsi at night might inspire more fervent sales efforts during the day. More »
