News

The great nostalgia IP hunt has found its way to Chuck E. Cheese.

The “pizza time theater” and its surreally dystopic kids birthday party destination are inspiring a TV game show.

Magical Elves, the producers of Top Chef and other reality TV hits, is developing a series based on the restaurant chain.

The show will remind some of Netflix’s Squid Game, as it has adults competing in larger versions of games they played as kids: The official description: “The format will feature stand-alone comedic physical challenges where duos of ‘big kids’ (aka adults) will compete over supersized arcade games — including pinball, air hockey, alley roller and the human claw. The top ticket earning duo will get the chance to exchange their tickets for prizes off the massive version of the iconic Chuck E. Cheese prize wall.”

“Chuck E. Cheese is The place where a kid can be a kid — but as grown adults,...

Long before video games were portable enough to fit inside your phone — or at the very least require a backpack to travel between houses — they were restricted to large, immobile cabinets known as arcade machines. Among the first video games, they barely resemble what most people these days associate with the modern idea of video games.

Yet, a quick look at the evolution of arcade games during that format’s golden days paints a very clear map from where we started to where we are now. From technological innovators to cultural disruptors, these are some of the most important arcade games ever made.

Computer Space (1971)

Every industry has to start somewhere. You can’t make a classic platformer like Super Mario Bros. without someone else making a less impressive platformer first. That’s where Computer Space comes in.

Computer Space launched in 1971, making it the first arcade video game ever commercially released.

When discussing modern horror, it's strange to think how Chuck E. Cheese managed to inspire so much terror and pave the way for the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. However, everything has an origin, and even the most innocuous media can make mechanical mice into monsters. So, before Scott Cawthon's creations headline the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, let's look at how their animatronic antecedents had their own bizarre film, Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000.

Established in 1977 by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre introduced the world to Charles Entertainment Cheese III. Originally imagined as a coyote, then evolving into a cigar-smoking rat and eventually a rock star mouse, "The Big Cheese" helped to launch an entire chain of arcades complete with a pizzeria and animatronic shows. However, now evoking nostalgia for the '80s and '90s, the rad rodent's legacy lives on,...

In case you missed it, Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas started last night, and the holiday will come at you from all directions as the weeks progress.

There are also several documentaries and docuseries premiering this week that are worth the watch.

And don't forget to watch Netflix's adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which is a devastating look at World War I.

Saturday, October 22

8/7c We Wish You a Married Christmas (Hallmark)

Robby and Becca have run into a tough time in their marriage.

Although they’ve tried counseling, their hopes are pretty much dashed when their therapist suggests a holiday retreat to a cozy Vermont inn.

From the moment they arrive, forces seem determined to keep them together, but will the holiday magic succeed in repairing their torn relationship? This is the one Hallmark Christmas movie you don’t want to miss. It’s playful, romantic,...

Italy’s Lucca Comics & Games, which is Europe’s biggest pop-culture and cosplay meet, is back in full post-pandemic swing with a slew of premieres and high-caliber talent set to engage with thousands of fans in the medieval Tuscan town.

The immersive Oct. 28-Nov. 1 event, dedicated to fandom and the whole universe of comics — including movies, TV and music – has been increasingly gaining traction with studios and streamers. So much so that Netflix has chosen Lucca to launch Tim Burton’s “Wednesday” series, starring Jenna Ortega as gothic feminist icon Wednesday Addams. The hotly anticipated show’s first episode will have its European fan screening on Oct. 31 in the Renaissance gem with Burton in tow.

In the series, Wednesday attends Nevermore Academy, where she attempts to master her new psychic abilities and solve a murder mystery connected to the Addams family’s past.

Lucca Comics – which regularly attracts more than...

Innovation comes in many forms. Some of the most notable innovators in history earned their notoriety by refining or popularizing an idea rather than strictly inventing it. Even still, there’s something special about those who did it “first,” especially when it comes to video games.

While video game companies haven’t always done the best job of preserving the medium’s history, we always have to remind ourselves that gaming really isn’t that old. As such, we actually know who to credit for a surprising amount of video game firsts. For that matter, many people were probably still alive when many of those firsts occurred. Yet, we rarely give credit where credit is due when it comes to video game firsts. Innovation may come in many forms, but understanding the earliest day of certain concepts is an important part of understanding and appreciating how the modern gaming industry came to be.

"You want the truth? I'll give you the truth." Crackle has released an official trailer for a documentary called Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story, which will debut streaming as a five-part series about the story behind video game giant Nintendo. The focus seems to be on the rise and prominence of Nintendo in America, not so much its origins in Japan, as told through interviews with many game industry veterans. We love Nintendo and good docs and can't help posting about this anyway. Via Nintendo Enthusiast, the film features interviews with "actor Wil Wheaton, actor Alison Haislip, Nintendo of America co-founder Ron Judy, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske, former Nintendo CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé, and Xbox head Phil Spencer. But there are even more knowledgeable industry figures in the documentary where that came from, such as Digital Eclipse Editorial Director Chris Kohler, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski,...

Exclusive: Crackle has set March 1 as the world premiere date for five-part documentary series Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story.

The show is written and directed by Jeremy Snead and executive produced (and narrated) by Sean Astin. World rights were acquired by Screen Media Ventures, the exclusive supplier of original programming to free, ad-supported Crackle. Both entities are owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Sony, Crackle’s longtime owner, swapped its equity in Crackle for a minority stake in Csse at the end of 2020.

Playing with Power tells the sprawling story of Nintendo, the secretive Japanese company whose origins date to the 19th century. It features interviews with Wil Wheaton; Alison Haislip; Nintendo of America co-founder Ron Judy; Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell; former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske; former Nintendo CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé; and head of Xbox Phil Spencer.

Snead has explored the world of gaming in...

Amid nationwide restaurant reopenings, family-friendly arcade and pizza place Chuck E. Cheese is filing for bankruptcy protection.

Parent company Cec Entertainment Inc. filed for bankruptcy on Thursday after 43 years of business, it announced in a statement on Thursday. Though the chain had been struggling before Covid-19, prolonged closures as a result of the pandemic were the final straw.

Although Cec has reopened 266 Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurants as states began to ease coronavirus restrictions, it has become clear that families won’t be hosting their kids’ birthday parties there anytime soon. Cec will continue to offer carryout and reopen some of its 734 restaurants in 47 states and 16 countries while they negotiate their debts and leases.

“The Chapter 11 process will allow us to strengthen our financial structure as we recover from what has undoubtedly been the most challenging event in our company’s history,” CEO David McKillips said in a statement.

With a history spanning over half a century, the video game industry has grown significantly from its humble beginnings of Pong and Atari. 

Oscar winner Daniel Jung's latest documentary, Game Changers: Inside the Video Game Wars, premieres on History on Sunday night, telling the story of the video game industry's early successes, failures, rivalries and lawsuits between gaming giants such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega and Sony.

Featuring new interviews with Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell; former head of Nintendo of America, Howard Lincoln; and former head of Sega of America, Tom Kalinske, the doc tells, in chronological order, how ...

Pop culture is full of wizened older figures (usually male) who guide the hero on their journey. Obi-Wan and Yoda. Dumbledore. Mr. Miyagi. We adore these characters in our media, yet in the real world it’s sometimes easy to overlook the contributions of older, experienced people.

Kate Edwards wants to change that. She’s the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association (Igda), as well as a consultant who uses her background as a geographer to assist studios with political and cultural content in their projects. She believes ageism is a rampant problem in the video game industry, one that’s being largely ignored.

“While sexism in the industry has garnered tremendous attention, and rightfully so, in the wake of Gamergate and other incidents, the response to ageism has typically been tepid by comparison,” she said.

Edwards thinks the problem is exacerbated whenever various media outlets enthusiastically...

Atari co-founder Samuel “Ted” Dabney died on Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 81.

An electrical engineer and former U.S. Marine from San Francisco, Calif., Dabney developed “Computer Space,” the world’s very first commercial video game, with Nolan Bushnell in 1970. The game was a failure upon release in 1971, but in June of the following year, the pair launched Pong, Atari’s smash arcade hit.

Although he left the company in 1973 after a falling out with Bushnell, Dabney made an indelible mark on the video-game industry. He famously built Atari’s earliest arcade machines from repurposed TV components, and played an instrumental role in shaping the unmistakable sound effects that defined the arcades of the ’70s and ’80s. Despite the differences, the pair collaborated on Pizza Time Theatre, which later became known as Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Dabney spent time at Raytheon and Fujitsu, and continued making games under...

In a world where most arcades in America are currently also trendy bars, there was one man who saw the need to do that long ago. That man, however, took things one step further and added a fun zone for children, a somewhat addictive pizza, and beer for parents. It was ahead of its time, and while I don't think most people would make the connection between modern barcades and Chuck E. Cheese, I'd make the argument this place is the Og barcade, just for people who have kids. Learn more about the business, and its creator Nolan Bushnell in the video below:...

The much-anticipated epic space adventure Valerian: City of Alpha is now live on iOS and Google Play. And thanks to our friends at Stx Films, we have one of their limited edition mouse pads to give away.

It is the official mobile game of Luc Besson’s upcoming sci-fi movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne. The legendary director is famous for creating sci-fi blockbusters including The Fifth Element and Lucy.

All you have to do is tell us what most excites you about the game and why. We want your responses no later than 11:59 p.m., Friday, July 28. This contest is open to readers only in North America. The decision of ComicMix‘s judges will be final.

The film has been described as visually spectacular and the mobile game creates an engaging experience that will draw players into the Valerian universe.

It may be time to dust off the old Pong paddles, ladies and gentleman. After more than 20 years, Atari is coming back with a brand new home gaming console. Much of this new console remains a mystery right now, but at some point in the presumably not-too-distant future, we will be able to get our hands on a brand new console from Atari and party like it's 1977.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, without revealing all that much about it, Atari CEO Fred Chesnais announced that the company is indeed getting ready to put out their first console since 1993's failed Jaguar. The system is going to be titled Atari Box, or Ataribox, the company has yet to make it clear how it is going to be stylized yet, and not much else about the mysterious new console has been revealed thus far. Here is Chesnais' very simple statement about...

Steve McNeil Jun 1, 2017

Go 8-Bit's Steve McNeil salutes the PS4 and its commitment to retro gaming...

If you’ve got a PS4, you might assume it’s just one of those new-fangled computer gaming devices the young people use for whizzbang graphics and whatnot. But it’s actually host to a hidden treasure trove of retro classics too. You’d be forgiven for not noticing, as many of them are buried in the darker corners of the Playstation Store, but they’ll languish there no longer – here’s what you’ve been missing out on…unless you’ve already bought them, in which case, as you were…

See related The Handmaid’s Tale episode 1 review: Offred The Handmaid's Tale episodes 1-3 spoiler-free review Namco

One name synonymous with early arcades is Namco, and there are several titles of theirs available – Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac Man and Ms Pac Man. They’re £3.29 a pop or,...

This is the story of everything that happened next.

Being a bit on the nerd side myself, it's hard for me to dispute the central theme of Gameplay (2014), which is that video games have become an integral part of human life. The argument goes well beyond Candy Crush and Farmville--though they are definitely a part of it--to the psychological ordering of global retail. The phenomenon began in a very humble state. Utah, in fact, with a group of computer nerds playing a game of their own creation called Spacewar! where they shot little square dots at larger square dots. Nolan Bushnell met these guys one day and was inspired to put together a similar toy box alongside pinball machines. His first attempt failed quite miserably, but his second entry into the field was a massive success: Pong. A game with two paddles going up and down to bounce a little...

The Play “Expo” events in Blackpool and Manchester are, in some ways, an attempt to recapture and relive the community spirit of video gaming in an age where keyboard warriors and faceless online gaming rule the roost. It’s also a celebration of the history of gaming, from the early years of arcade games like Space Invaders and Pac Man, through the early gaming years of the Zx Spectrum and Commodore 64, all the way to the last-gen of consoles…

And Play are not the only ones interested in the history of video gaming. There have been a number of film makers have eleased documentaries in recent years that look at gaming in a nostalgic light, many from a Us perspective, including World 1-1: The Pioneers – which had its European debut at this years Play Blackpool; and From Bedrooms to Billions, (a big seller for Play sponsors Funstock.co.uk...

With Play Blackpool only a day or so away, we’re getting excited for our second trip to a Play convention (we attended last years Manchester event, which was a fantastic success) but, of course, there are some folks who’ll need a little more persuading as to just why they should attend such an event – if not for the experience alone…

1) The Games (of course)

Play Blackpool 2015 features an exclusive first UK hands on preview of SkySaga: Infinite Isles. Which, for retro-gaming fans, is the welcome return of the ‘The Oliver Twins’ who, in the 1980s, developed several hugely successful franchises including the ‘Dizzy’ adventures and the ‘Simulator’ series. Chief Technical Officer Andrew Oliver will also give a developer talk and take part in a Q&A session about the game and its progress.

Also at Play will be a PS4 Zone, featuring loads of cool Psn titles such...

The documentary Atari: Game Over investigates the burial of E.T. cartridges in the New Mexico desert. Here's our review...

Ask any gamer to name the medium's most famous legend, and they might tell you about E.T.

The story goes that, back in 1982, the videogame tie-in was so rushed, and so appallingly received, that Atari was forced to quietly bury millions of unsold cartridges in the New Mexico desert. Within months of the game's release, Atari had gone from owning an 80 percent share of the videogame market to collapse, and thus, an enduring myth was born: E.T. killed Atari.

Atari: Game Over digs into the true story behind the legend, and its director, Zak Penn, is no stranger to modern mythmaking - he's the screenwriter behind such comic book blockbusters as X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk, and he also made the quirky mockumentary Incident At Loch Ness with Werner Herzog.

Microsoft has completely shut down Xbox Entertainment Studios, but at least one of the bygone studio's projects has still managed to see the light of day. Atari: Game Over, which chronicles the disastrous impact of the 1982 E.T. video game often regarded as the worst of all time, is now available on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Atari: Game Over's subject is one of the most famous urban legends in video game history. The E.T. game was so poorly received that, in 1983, Atari decided to bury hundreds of unsold copies at a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This story remained the stuff of legend until 2013, when an excavation effort run by Fuel Industries turned up the long-discarded cartridges. Atari: Game Over, directed by Zak Penn, shares this story with viewers and includes interviews with Howard Scott Warshaw (the designer of the E.T. game) and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Xbox owners can...

Writer (and with this project, director) Zak Penn is best known for films such as The Incredible Hulk and X2 (along with the upcoming Pacific Rim 2), but with Atari: Game Over he turns his attention to a smaller-scale story about the demise of one of the world’s worst video games. The game in question? Atari’s E.T. tie-in, which was rushed on a 5-week production schedule in order to be ready for stores by Christmas. Those in charge? Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell and the designer of the E.T. game, Howard Scott Warshaw. Now we have a look at the trailer for Atari: Game Over and it seems really compelling. It’s a classic rise and fall story, the kind of narrative that occurs millions of times over in every culture of the world that we are eternally doomed to repeat. It also just looks like...

Video Games: The Movie takes a breezy tour of history, but shows mainstream gaming in a less than favourable light, Ryan writes...

There is no propaganda in the Star Wars movies. You don't see posters devoted to praising Emperor Palpatine's benign leadership. You don't see adverts or bill board posters positioning Darth Vader as a wheezing man of the people.

But if you did see propaganda in the Star Wars universe, it might look a little bit like Video Games: The Movie - a slickly-produced, 105-minute hymn to an industry that is itself an all-conquering empire. Valued at approximately $66bn in 2013, gaming is now the most lucrative form of entertainment on the planet - and filmmaker Jeremy Snead's documentary charts the medium's rise with unquestioning fervour, from its bleeping, rudimentary inception in the middle of the 20th century to its technically astonishing achievements in the present.

There are contributions...

Video games, where did they begin? We have a new exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary Video Games: The Movie that delves deep into that question. Watch as narrator Sean Astin takes us back in time, to when Atari first introduced video games to the American youth culture, spawning a never-dying phenomenon that continues today. This scene will surely have you feeling nostalgic for the 80s, as it quickly breezes through archival footage of the arcade boom and all the classic games it brought in its wake, including Pole Position, Ms. Pac-Man and, of course, Pong.

From executive producer Zach Braff and director Jeremy Snead, Video Games: The Movie is an epic feature length documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of video games from nerd niche to multi-billion dollar industry. Narrated by Sean Astin and featuring in-depth interviews with the godfathers who started it all, the icons of game design, and...

Photo found at Dorkly

Are you ready for San Diego Comic-Con?! The event is closing in on us really fast, and it's going to be so great to be in San Diego among hundreds of thousands of other like-minded geeky individuals. Every year I attend Comic-Con it's like coming home. It's my most anticipated event of the year. Comic-Con International has released the full event and panel schedule for Friday, July 25th that you can see in its entirety here. But I've provided a few of the most notable panels that will be taking place that day below. It's a big day for TV as The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones panels will both be held in Hall H.

Marvel: Spider-Verse - It's the most epic Spider-Man event of all time as every Spider-Man Ever come together to face a world-ending threat! Senior editor Nick Lowe, Dan Slott (Amazing...

San Diego Comic-Con has released the full schedule of events for Friday, July 25, following the Thursday schedule that was released yesterday. You can clickHere to view the lineup in its entirety, which includes numerous comic book panels and events, but we have pulled out all of the movie, DVD and TV-related panels for your convenience.

Friday, July 25

10:00am - 11:00am - Cartoon Network: Uncle Grandpa & Clarence

Good mornin'! What's better than a panel of one Cartoon Network Comedy? Two cartoon network comedies! That's right fans, prepare yourself for double the comedy, double the fun and double the friends with Uncle Grandpa and Clarence! Join the always-entertaining cast and crew for a behind-the-scenes look at two of the newest hit shows on Cartoon Network. It's woooooorth it. Appearing from Uncle Grandpa are creator Peter Browngardt (Uncle Grandpa), Kevin Michael Richardson (Mr. Gus), and Eric Bauza (Belly Bag). Appearing from...

Video Game fans will lose their shit with Video Games The Movie. A documentary looking at the impact video games have had, their history and indeed their future. It’s got a tonne of legends in here from Nolan Bushnell (Atari founder) to Cliff Blezinski (Gears Of War creator) and Sean Astin (Yes! Goonies Sean Astin) not to mention tonnes more in between. The movie was funded through Kickstarter last year and raised nearly double it’s $60,000 goal. It’s at selected theaters from July 18th (see here for when and where) and it’s also on VOD. We’re big gamers here at The Movie Bit and we genuinely can’t wait for this one! Check out the brilliant trailer below, which no matter how old you are, and regardless of when you last played a video game, you can relate to it!

A brand new documentary is incoming, charting the rise of videogames from the early days through to today. Here's the trailer.

News

We're surprised that there haven't been more documentaries along these lines, so we're really quite looking forward to this. Video Games: The Movie is going to tell the story of gaming, from the very early days, to the multi-billion dollar franchise-dominated world of today. Directed by Jeremy Snead and executive produced by Zach Braff, Sean Astin narrates this one. It features interviews with lots of interesting people to do with videogaming as well, right down to Nolan Bushnell.

Here's the trailer for the film, which gets a limited theatrical opening in the Us and a video on demand release in July. Looks interesting...

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

Simon Brew 18 Jun 2014 - 06:48 GamesVideo Games...

Variance Films has released the first trailer for Video Games: The Movie, while announcing that the documentary will debut in U.S. and Canadian theaters July 18, and it will also be available on iTunes and other digital platforms starting July 15. Zach Braff, who executive produces the documentary, is one of many celebrities such as Chris Hardwick, Alison Haislip and Wil Wheaton, who reveal how video games have changed their lives, along with experts who tease what's in store for the future of gaming. Check out the first footage from director Jeremy Snead's documentary, then take a look at the official press release for more details.

Variance Films, a division of Amplify, has acquired distribution rights for the documentary feature Video Games: The Movie. The film will be released theatrically in the United States and Canada starting July 18th, and available on iTunes and other digital platforms starting July 15th.

Variance Films, a division of Amplify, has acquired distribution rights for the documentary feature Video Games: The Movie. The film will be released theatrically in the United States and Canada starting July 18th, and available on iTunes and other digital platforms starting July 15th.

The film will play as a part of the Webster University Film Series from the 22-24 in August.

From executive producer Zach Braff and director Jeremy Snead, Video Games: The Movie is an epic feature length documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of video games from nerd niche to multi-billion dollar industry.

Narrated by Sean Astin and featuring in-depth interviews with the godfathers who started it all, the icons of game design, and the geek gurus who are leading us into the future, Video Games: The Movie is a celebration of gaming from Atari to Xbox and an eye-opening look at what lies ahead.

The film features interviews with Zach Braff,...

Here is the trailer for the documentary feature Video Games: The Movie from Variance Films which chronicles the meteoric rise of video games from nerd niche to multi-billion dollar industry. The movie is narrated by Sean Astin and features in-depth interviews with the people who started it all from the icons of game design to the geeks who are leading us into the future.

“Everyone loves a great video game, but in recent years, they’ve evolved into something way beyond what any of us who grew up playing an 8-bit system could imagine,” said Dylan Marchetti of Variance Films. “But regardless of whether you’re up gaming until 3 a.m. or haven’t played a video game in decades, there’s something for you in this film, and we think audiences will be delighted.”

“Games are a part of the human experience and permeate our culture now more than ever before,...

Charlie Brooker will front a Channel 4 documentary about the impact of video games as part of a special night dedicated to gaming next month.

How Video Games Changed the World is a one-off two-hour doc, hosted by Brooker, which will look at the history of video games and how they have changed society,

The press release promised that the show will provide "an intelligent, funny and entertaining look at some of the most influential and iconic video games in history (even the absolutely dreadful ones)".

Starting in the '80s with the birth of Pac-Man, the show will also examine the '90s boom in gaming, the first female gaming icon Lara Croft and modern phenomenon such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.

Games industry figures such as Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn (the creators of Pong) and Will Wright (the man behind The Sims) will be interviewed for the show,...

In what could be considered a pretty unpopular and controversial statement founder of Atari Nolan Bushnell says that he thinks Nintendo may be shoot themselves in the foot. Freshly behind Nintendo’s recent Nintendo 2Ds announcement, Bushnell spoke to the BBC during the Campus Party developer event and gave his thoughts on Nintendo’s place in the […]

The post Atari Founder Says Nintendo is on ‘Path to Irrelevance’ appeared first on The Flickcast.

We may never find out if Big Foot exists, who Carly Simon wrote “You’re So Vain” about, or whether Leonardo DiCaprio is dreaming at the end of Inception. But there is one pop culture mystery which might be cleared up in the near future. For decades, it has been rumored that Atari buried millions of copies of its E.T. videogame at a landfill site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Now, the Alamogordo city council has given the Los Angeles-based Fuel Entertainment permission to search the site for a film project and find out if one of the videogame industry’s...

Video Games: The Movie has achieved Kickstarter funding, Mediajuice Studios has announced.

Aiming to tell the story of the video game industry through a series of interviews with developers, publishers and consumers, filmmaker Jeremy Snead's Mediajuice Studios were seeking $60,000 in Kickstarter funding.

Having passed its original target, Mediajuice has introduced a number of stretch goals to appeal to new backers.

Raising $80,000 will see the studio hire a celebrity narrator, with $100,000 the filmmakers will purchase the rights to popular songs for the soundtrack, while $120,000 will see MediaJuice employ a famous band or composer to create an original score.

Aiming for a late summer release, the film features interviews with the likes of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, celebrity gamer Will Wheaton, Capcom's Yoshinoro Ono and Deus Ex creator Warren Spector.

Other contributors include Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, industry veteran David Perry and Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey.

Feature Ryan Lambie 17 May 2013 - 05:47

Here's a fresh batch of worthy, geek-friendly crowdfunding projects that have caught our eye this week...

The best part of putting together this weekly crowdfunding column? While trawling through the dozens of ideas that appear online every day, we stumble on all kinds of weird and wonderful things.

Some ideas are semi-practical - a new kind of flip-flop with soles made from astro turf, for people who want to feel as though they're walking on grass all day long - while others are downright strange - such as a set of tabletop gaming figures shaped neat like little human backsides.

Some ideas are commercial and enticing enough to sale past their funding goal - a zombie Lego Batman mash-up animation's already doing well - while others are rather more niche - we spotted a strip poker text adventure, which has, unsurprisingly, attracted rather less interest so far.

San Francisco (AP) — It's back.

The virtual reality headset, the gizmo that was supposed to seamlessly transport wearers to three-dimensional virtual worlds, has made a remarkable return at this year's Game Developers Conference, an annual gathering of video game makers in San Francisco.

After drumming up hype over the past year and banking $2.4 million from crowdfunding, the Irvine, Calif.-based company Oculus Vr captured the conference's attention this week with the Oculus Rift, its Vr headset that's more like a pair of ski goggles than those bulky gaming helmets of the 1990s that usually left users with headaches.

"Developers who start working on Vr games now are going to be able to do cool things," said Oculus Vr founder Palmer Luckey. "This is the first time when the technology, software, community and rendering power is all really there."

While Vr technology has successfully been employed in recent years for military and medical training purposes,...

San Francisco (AP) — When Steve Jobs adopted "think different" as Apple's mantra in the late 1990s, the company's ads featured Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Amelia Earhart and a constellation of other starry-eyed oddballs who reshaped society.

Nolan Bushnell never appeared in those tributes, even though Apple was riffing on an iconoclastic philosophy he embraced while running video game pioneer Atari in the early 1970s. Atari's refusal to be corralled by the status quo was one of the reasons Jobs went to work there in 1974 as an unkempt, contemptuous 19-year-old. Bushnell says Jobs offended some Atari employees so much that Bushnell eventually told Jobs to work nights when one else was around.

Bushnell, though, says he always saw something special in Jobs, who evidently came to appreciate his eccentric boss, too. The two remained in touch until shortly before Jobs died in October 2011 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Atari Inc. (the U.S. branch of Atari S.A.) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in an attempt to separate itself from its French parent holding company and start over as an independent business.

Citing the need to remove itself from the “structural financial encumbrances” of Atari S.A. and turn its focus on digital games into “a growth engine”, Atari Inc. and its other U.S. businesses (Humongous Inc., Atari Interactive Inc., and California U.S. Holdings Inc.) plan to sell all of their assets in the next 90 to 120 days and completely shift from retail games to digital and licensing.

The sale will include all of the company’s classic brands (Pong, Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Battlezone, Tempest, Test Drive, Backyard Sports, and Humongous) and their iconic logo.

In addition to the complete asset sale, Atari Inc. is also hoping to secure $5.25 million in debtor-in-possession financing from the financial investment company Tenor Capital Management.

A couple of days ago, it was revealed that Sony had registered a bunch of domain names that were variations on the phrase "The Console Wars." Although they have not yet announced anything official related to that name, that hasn't stopped people from speculating wildly about what it could mean. The obvious assumption is that it is part of a marketing campaign for the upcoming Playstation 4, which is expected to be announced sometime next year. However, it's interesting to note that the domain names were registered by Sony Pictures Entertainment and that many of them contain the word "movie" at the end. Could Sony be working on a feature film about the video game console wars? It was Fusible that first broke the news about the domain registrations, and although additional details have been hard to come by, Kris Tapley of In Contention revealed via Twitter that he had caught...

I’ve always thought that it was pointless to argue about whether videogames can be art. After all, “Art” is one of the most loosely defined words in any known language. A great athlete is sometimes said to be an artist on the field. Virginia Woolf wrote a couple of books about women who carefully construct their parties as a form of art. Really, everyone could be called an “artist” — except for maybe Brett Ratner. Roger Ebert seemed to realize this point when, after throwing down the gauntlet and declaring that videogames could never be art, he back-pedaled by cheerfully...

BAFTA Fellowship: Few Women, Few Outside UK/Hollywood, Steven Spielberg Before Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder [Photo: Laurence Olivier] 1971 Alfred Hitchcock 1972 Freddie Young 1973 Grace Wyndham Goldie 1974 David Lean 1975 Jacques Cousteau 1976 Charles Chaplin, Laurence Olivier 1977 Denis Forman 1978 Fred Zinnemann 1979 Lew Grade, Huw Wheldon 1980 David Attenborough, John Huston 1981 Abel Gance, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger 1982 Andrzej Wajda 1983 Richard Attenborough 1984 Hugh Greene, Sam Spiegel 1985 Jeremy Isaacs 1986 Steven Spielberg 1987 Federico Fellini 1988 Ingmar Bergman 1989 Alec Guinness 1990 Paul Fox 1991 Louis Malle 1992 John Gielgud, David Plowright 1993 Sydney Samuelson, Colin Young 1994 Michael Grade 1995 Billy Wilder 1996 Jeanne Moreau, Ronald Neame, John Schlesinger, Maggie Smith 1997 Woody Allen, Steven Bochco, Julie Christie, Oswald Morris, Harold Pinter, David Rose 1998 Sean Connery, Bill Cotton 1999 Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise, Elizabeth Taylor 2000 Michael Caine, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bazalgette 2001 Albert Finney, John Thaw, Judi Dench 2002 Warren Beatty, Merchant Ivory Productions (James Ivory, Ismail Merchant) 2002 Andrew Davies, John Mills 2003 Saul Zaentz, David Jason 2004 John Boorman, Roger Graef 2005 John Barry, David Frost 2006 David Puttnam,...

George Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov will take a trip back to the '60s for their next effort, a film about comedians Tom and Dicky Smothers. Specifically, the movie will focus on the brothers' show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which went from clean-cut humor to a promoting the politics of the counter-culture movement. The show was also notable for featuring cutting-edge music acts such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane as well as providing a start for future stars like Steve Martin and Rob Reiner who were part of the writing staff. The film will be based on the David Bianculli book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. No word on whether Clooney will take on acting or directing duties for the project, but since he's involved, expect to see some notable names attached. This material seems well within Clooney's wheelhouse, like...

2012 will be a big year for BAFTA Guru, the online resource from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts designed to inspire, educate and throw open the doors to young filmmakers and cinephiles alike.

We’ve seen some excellent and inspiring lectures, Q&As and interviews already from Martin Scorsese, Charlie Kaufman and Nolan Bushnell among others, each opening up about their particular field of expertise and giving their advice to young filmmakers, writers and video game designers.

BAFTA is perfectly placed to offer this service and it’s great to see BAFTA Guru being put together with such care and the latest video is a forty minute interview with Gary Oldman, whose recent turn in Tinker, Tailor, Solider Spy reminded us of the variety and depth of his performances, not a bad feat considered he had to step out of the considerable shadow of Sir Alec Guinness in order to do so.

George Clooney will continue his interest in real-life characters by adapting the life story of radical '60s comedian-musicians Tom and Dicky Smothers for the big screen.  Clooney and his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov have optioned the David Bianculli's "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" for Sony.    Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman, who wrote the Black Listed script "Atari," about video game pioneer Nolan Bushnell, will pen the screenplay. While Clooney and Heslov are producing, it's unknown at this time if Clooney will star, according to Deadline.com, who broke the story.   Best known for the...

George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Productions are developing a biopic about60s comedians Tom and Dicky Smothers for Sony Pictures. Deadline reports that the project is based on David Bianculli book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman are currently writing the script for Clooney and Heslov to produce. The project is still in the early stages and it’s not known if Clooney will star or direct.

The Smothers Brothers Show ran on CBS from 1967-69 and were known for making waves both on and off the screen during the tumultuous social climate of the times. They went from “squeaky clean comics to counterculture troublemakers. They were aided by a writing staff that included Steve Martin, and Rob Reiner and they were the first to introduce liberal hippie politics into the mainstream, as well as cutting edge rock acts like The Who,...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures and Smokehouse partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov will turn the story of 60s comedians Tom and Dicky Smothers into a feature film. They’ve optioned the David Bianculli book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and they’ve set Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman to write the script. Clooney and Heslov will produce. It’s too early to determine whether or not Clooney will star or direct. The show ran from 1967-69 on CBS, and the brothers, who famously squabbled on and off screen, were transformed by the period’s social upheaval. They went from squeaky clean comics to counterculture troublemakers. They were aided by a writing staff that included Steve Martin, and Rob Reiner and they were the first to introduce liberal hippie politics into the mainstream, as well as cutting edge rock acts like The Who, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors.

Despite my husband claiming that I am as much a gamer as they come, I don't really feel like one. I think video games are fun and can actually improve our happiness levels and teach us a few new things as well. But beyond that, I really just play the one game. So from my point of view, I don't have a good reason as to why I picked up this book. It has been sitting on my husband's shelf for years and one day I just picked it up and decided to see what it said. A few hours later, I was well into it and did not want to put it down. So from my husband's point of view, he says I picked up the book because that's just what a gamer does.

I absolutely loved this book, much more than I ever expected to. It's as hefty...

There's no denying the level of cultural impact video games have had in the last decade or so. Movies ache to look like them, businesses want to ape game mechanics for loyalty and profit and even book publishing's trying to tap into the creative energy of a medium once derided as disposable.

So, how did video game get to be such an electric vector in our lives and imaginations? That's exactly the question that Harold Goldberg sets out to answer in his new book, "All Your Base Are Belong to Us." Goldberg's worked on both the game-making and critic sides of the medium and he digs deep into video game history to draw out the personalities responsible for the culture's seismic shifts. Whether it's the brashness of the early Atari days to the many unsung teenage geniuses that turned ideas into experience to the Mmo revolution, Goldberg shows how the...

For years, the videogame community has been pushed aside, making way for the far "greater" social interests such as film and/or television. While we were forced to endure acceptance speech after acceptance speech - from individuals so consumed in their own worlds they had forgotten all about reality - we dreamt of bigger and better things...how things have changed.

The Videogame industry is now one of the most powerful - and profitable - in the world, with more and more companies eager to get in on the action. Conversely, this raise in popularity has seen many of these 'elitist' individuals come crawling back, like an infected arm to its unaffected owner. While the film companies and cinematic production team continue to reel off remake after remake, the videogame industry remains awash with originality, with new ideas as fruitful as they ever were.

Last year, we welcomed some of...