SUPER iam8bit :: VIDEO GAMES & ART :: ECHO PARK

My work was fortunate to be involved with iam8bit, who recently had a show in Los Angeles.

The line stretched down the block on Thursday, August 11, for the opening of "SUPER iam8bit" at iam8bit world headquarters in Echo Park. Hundred of international artists participated in the show, which featured a gigantic Galaga game and an interactive Kinect hack.

iam8bit founder Jon Gibson says the opening of the new Super iam8bit art show in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood this week is really about a "rebirth." Iam8bit is not only premiering over 100 new pieces by artists inspired by old-school video games, but it's also showing off a brand new gallery space, and reinventing itself as a company.

"It was just me before, by my lonesome for so many years," says Gibson. "And now I have three partners and we're all equal, and we're all taking charge." Taylor Harrington, Amanda White, and Nick Ahrens have now officially joined the company, and the group will all work together on the art collective's various projects.

The new space will be helpful as well -- iam8bit originally found it while putting an event together with Capcom, and eventually leased it themselves. Gibson plans to use it for a number of different functions. "It's so big," he says. "We can do shows here, we can have concerts, we can do movie screenings."

The Super iam8bit show has a book associated with it, currently available in the gallery's storefront, open for business Thursdays through Saturdays in LA. And the art show itself is open for the next month

NEW & OLD SCHOOL JOIN FORCES :: iCADE

This is pretty rad. I would love to have this in my collection. Technology...

JERSEY SHORE VIDEO GAME

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

BREAK STREET - 1984

Breakdancing sim for the Commodore 64. Players take control of a breakdancer and execute moves to the soundtrack selection. Classic moves include the "moon", a version of the familiar moonwalk, the "tut" (complete with crooked hands and sideways head motion to mimic the old wall paintings), the swinging "uprock", the spinning "footwork" (probably the move most associated with breakdancing, where you scramble your feet in a tight pattern while you spin in a circle near the ground), the "headspin" (not a good idea without a decent mat beneath you, at least in real life), "knee spin", the wild "windmill", "poppin'", "handspin", "scorpion," the "wave", the "check", and the "freeze."

Players can warm up, or they can record their performance with a record feature, then take on competitors, trying to keep your style bar up in the time allotted.

I LOVE ANIMATION

GOTTA LOVE IT!!!

DJ HERO TRAILER. NOT A FAN!!!!!

DO THE REAL THING

IM SELLING MY RECORDS, TURNTABLES AND GEAR TO BECOME A SHAOLIN MONK

Recent Activision acquisition FreeStyleGames is hard at work on DJ Hero, a music rhythm game that will let gamers scratch to the beat of popular mash-ups with a laptop turntable peripheral, informed sources tell us today.

The game, which has been in development for nearly two years, is expected to hit shelves next summer and will likely include the ability to use Guitar Hero guitars for versus mode face-offs.

The controller, key to the game's success, has been through nearly a half-dozen iterations.

In the latest form, the device looks a lot like a simplified DJ Deck. There is a platter for scratching which will act like the strum toggle on a Guitar Hero guitar. Above the platter are three buttons for sampling. The controller also includes a cross fader and a sound effects dial which will act like the whammy bar in Guitar Hero.

Instead of flowing the musical notes down a guitar neck, DJ Hero will flow the music down and around a virtual record in a half arc. Either left top to middle bottom if you are left handed, or right top to middle bottom if you are right handed.

To play you will have to either hold a sample button and scratch, just hold a button or just scratch as the neon icons flow around the virtual vinyl.

Currently the wireless controller has grooves molded into the bottom so it will sit comfortably in a player's lap, though the team is also looking into legs for the deck so gamers can play while standing up.

The game in its current form features all mash-ups, think Beyonce Vs Jimi Hendrix, 50 cent Vs Beastie Boys. If they can nail the interface and get licensing for the music this could be a mammoth hit. Then again I love mash-ups.




IS IT ME OR ARE PEOPLE LAZY? GO OUT AND DO THE REAL THING...

Wii SPRAY

THIS IS SO TIGHT...

The foundational basis for the project goes well beyond replacing real graffiti as an art form. Moreover, WiiSpray
is to be seen as an interface to give graffiti a new virtual level surpassing tactile boundaries of the tangible world.

Within the system, there is a symbiosis of digital and analog as well as overcoming restrictions of distance and time. An advantage of the system proves to possess a user-friendly design simple enough for children to use. The virtual canvas allows the user to decide what is saved and what is discarded, all the while keeping the surrounding area clean and free of what otherwise would be a messy form of media.


WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo.