Go is to Chess as Poetry is to Double-Entry Accounting.
The Mystery of Go, the Ancient Game That Computers Still Can’t Win The challenge is daunting. In 1994, machines took the checkers crown, when a program called Chinook beat the top human. Then, three...
View Article“the pièce de resistance is the Fix-It Felix Jr.”
We make our way down the hall and he ceremoniously opens the door. It is a portal into the past. The first thing I see is a Donkey Kong cabinet, but then my eyes are drawn to a row of pristine gumball...
View ArticleThe art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.
The Diplomatic Pouch is the web home of the Allen B. Calhamer–designed board game, Diplomacy.
View ArticleCAX 2014
California Extreme is “an annual celebration of coin operated pinball machines, video games and other novelties you once found in game arcades.” It’ll be in Santa Clara, CA July 12 & 13. “All games...
View Articleyou are mountain – you are god
“MOUNTAIN is a mountain simulator.” More at Laughing Squid. Available June/July 2014.
View ArticleDiscovery through Play
“If I only go to one gaming conference to get my feet wet in this type of community, what would that most excellent conference be?” That would be the Games Learning Society, where “We design games for...
View Articlekids know more about pokemon than about the animals around them
Phylo is a DIY, crowdsourced trading-card game where players create foodwebs and biomes (PDF) to score points.
View ArticleEscheresque
Monument Valley is “an illusory adventure of impossible architecture and forgiveness.” Trailer
View ArticleFun For Everybirdy
Hatoful Boyfriend is the newest release from Mediatonic Games and Devolver Digital. It’s a dating sim set a high school … for pigeons.
View ArticleThe Very Worst Video Game Ever Made
Desert Bus is released for iPhone and iPad and Android. Now you cans simulate driving from Tucson to Vegas …. while on a bus from Tucson to Vegas.
View Article“So now drink deep of battle.”
Apotheon is a Metroidvania-style 2d sidescroller released on Steam earlier this week by Alientrap Games. The artwork? It’s traditional
View Articleall those games!
Jason Scott of the internet Archive announced that the software library, MS-DOS archive and living room console archive can now embed games. Look for the ‘share this’ link.
View ArticleCharacter Assassination
Though they foreground models over characters, systems-oriented video games can’t evade the issues of identity politics The pedagogy of simulation games — city simulators in particular — is worth...
View ArticleAn experiment in forced nostalgia and questionable parenting
Playing With My Son My son Eliot was born in 2004 — the year of Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and the launch of the Nintendo DS. By the time he was born, video games were a $26B industry. I love games, and I...
View ArticleA philosopher plays Minecraft
On killing virtual dogs I have killed three dogs in Minecraft. The way to get a dog is to find a wolf, and then feed bones to the wolf until red Valentine’s hearts blossom forth from the wolf, and then...
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