Passage is an art game. Although I deplore the term, it is actually the most consistent term we have to describe this genre of game: there is no right or wrong way to play, no stated objective, and, ultimately, no way to win. The game lasts only 5 minutes and represents your character’s condensed lifetime.
The game is an interactive (another term I despise, ranking up there with “multimedia”) reflection on life, the tradeoffs between achievement and exploration, and death. Despite admitting its own purposelessness (the creator notes that even your score “looks pretty meaningless hovering there” in the end) the result of playing even one round is surprisingly powerful. But I won’t draw your conclusions for you…
So go ahead, try Passage. Even if you don’t like games, you have no excuse. It only will take 5 minutes, it runs on PCs and Macs, and takes up a svelte 5 MB. Read the creator’s statement before or afterwards: there are some interesting thoughts on the representation of death in video games as well as explanations of some of the game’s various metaphors.
Mr. Robusto was shot for a short film competition put on by the good (if occasionally cantankerous) people at Pro8mm in Burbank. As a rather last minute production, Mr. Robusto was a blast to shoot. Everything seemed to coalesce perfectly: From the haphazard costume selection (derived from the only costume I could find on a day’s notice, someone or something named ‘Purpella’) to the fantastically clear and sunny Sunday we just happened to choose to shoot on. Not to mention the willingness of amazing participants Andrew and Luke to make complete fools of themselves in broad daylight.
Shooting with a single roll of Super8 film meant not knowing what we got until the results came in weeks/months later. It also meant we didn’t have an exact estimate of how much of the scant ~3.5min on each reel we had left to work with. Sadly, the ending of this masterpiece didn’t make it onto the roll. If I had realized at the time, I would have switched to a new one to complete the saga. As it is, the conclusion will have to remain a mystery. Do I smell a sequel?
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I’m thankful for many things. Among them, specialty cameras. For example:
Nikonos V. The fifth iteration of Nikon’s legendary underwater camera. Look at this thing! The photographic equivalent of Nemo’s Nautilus, the Nikonos is straight seafaring, nay, all-terrain. Specialty for certain, but I can’t help but think a camera like this would prompt me to explore the California coast a bit more often… Aperture priority and scale focusing with a variety of lenses available, from 15mm to 80mm. Pictured here is the handy 35mm 2.5. One of only two ‘affordable’ cameras on this list.
Epson R-D1. The world’s first digital rangefinder camera created by, yes, Epson. Well, not really. This camera is a modified Voigtlander Bessa, compatible with all Leica (makers of that other digital rangefinder) screw mount and M-mount lenses. A shame Voigtlander had to rely on Epson for them digital innards, or perhaps the camera would have had some better support (not to mention design). Sure, it’s not without its problems, but the biggest problem has to be its limited 10,000 production run, which, of course, translates to prices that continue well past $2000 for this 6MP manual camera. Oh well. But what fun it would be…
Olympus XA. Discussed at length elsewhere, but what a fine companion for every moment spent out of the house. Classic 35mm 2.8 lens with aperture priority and a rangefinder! Less than $60. Hoping to land one soon. Very soon.
Mamiya 6. Wow. A light and compact medium format camera that isn’t a Holga (no disrespect intended.) Hardly well made but what a sleeper when traveling amongst those who simply don’t know. This camera is the equivalent of the boxy 80s Japanese sports car that surprises the BMW M3 (again, no disrespect) driver at the stoplight. All but full-frame digital cameras beware. Years after production ceased, prices in the states are well past $2000 (incl. lens).
Fuji Natura Black. Speaking of sleepers, this discreet little box has a wide 24mm 1.9 lens in a modern (well, if you count the 35mm film, which I do), automatic P&S package. When the Olympus XA subs out as the sun goes down, the Fuji Natura S steps in to close the game with finesse. Japan-only, and therefore, too expensive.
It must have been around ought-three or ought-four when I first discovered the original Bobby is Going Home while casually surfing some Atari 2600 ROMs by title. The exceedingly simple premise intrigued me:
Who is Bobby? What is his deal? What’s the hurry to get home, anyway?
Who knows? Who cares? Wherever he is, Bobby is getting the hell out of there and is going home, and it’s your job to make sure it happens.
The game itself offers no further contextual clues. Bobby must merely waddle his way, stage after neon-colored stage, past feeble winged creatures and gaping holes in the ground. All of this must be achieved with the use of only his wits and some surprising hops n’ hangtime.
The more I thought about it, the more this ridiculous and slightly pathetic little game exemplified the Atari 2600 era* in my mind: forget story, cutscenes, or characters- hell, you’re lucky to even be entrusted with the control of a vaguely humanoid shape. After all, you could be stuck navigating a colored square, or something.
Enter Bobby is Going Home 2. Originally conceived as my first attempt to create a game free from the trappings of a story or high expectations, it eventually grew to encompass far too much of my life. So here it is, a side-scrolling platformer with 40 “mind-bending” levels and 5 “awesome” powerups; bigger and badder than the original (at least in some respects) and enjoyable to me if only for its homage to delicious obscurity.
* It should be noted that I am in no way opposed to simplicty and elegance in game design- in fact, I generally classify overwrought “storylines” and bloated cutscenes alongside low-carb beer, cheap merchandise, and “Access Hollywood” on life’s grand barometer of desirability.
As you may know, Bobby is Going Home 2 is (finally) complete! Although it may seem to be of questionable taste to bribe you to play my game, I’m interested in seeing what sort of scores you can come up with. The player who can send me a screenshot of the highest score by November 15th, 2007 will win this refurbished Nintendo Entertainment System (Bobby is Going Home 2 Edition)!
This veritable and truly unique ‘pleasure pak’ includes:
1 refurbished NES system (Bobby is Going Home 2 ed.) with replaced pinset
All necessary cords
2 original NES controllers
1 Tetris cartridge
1 Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt cartridge
1 Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge
I believe this package is all you need to have a quality retro gaming blast in your pants. Although the prize is straight notable and although it would be easy to do so, somehow I trust you heady members of my inner circle to abstain from doctoring screenshots.
I hate when an inferior product dominates the market just because it has an established userbase. Case in point, AOL Instant Messenger. AOL Sucks. You know this, I know this. And as loathe as I am (was) to use their products, lets face it… everyone I wanted to talk to was on AOL or AIM. Enter Meebo. I can log in on AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, or any other 2-bit chat client… all from a tab in my browser. I don’t have to download anything? Even better. I originally feared a javascript application emulating draggable ‘windows’ and such would be pretty hokey, but it’s actually quite solid. Check it out.
NIKOLA WOULD BE PROUD An Electric Car that could kick your ass, go 0-60 in 4 seconds, and has a 300 mile range, too. Wow. Got a chance to see one of these in person recently. Hey Tesla, how about making one for the regular joes that goes 0-60 in a modest 7 seconds, seats 4, and costs $25,000?
iTunes, once the populist darling of the digital music world has gotten too big for its britches. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for a replacement. Here are my conditions:
Be Lean. Run fast, even on shitty computers. Don’t slow my computer down, don’t clutter my screen unless its necessary, certainly not with ads or provocations to buy things. *shudder*
Be Well Designed. Be able to sort by album, artist, track, etc. I shouldn’t even have to ask for this by now…
Be Cross Platform. Run on PCs and Macs. ‘Nuff said.
Work with CDs. Be able to rip CDs and burn them. And not in your own bullshit proprietary format (I’m looking at you, Windows Media Player). I’m talking Mp3s, here.
Work With Mp3 Players. Preferably iPods and all drag/drop players.
Is this too much to ask for? I don’t think so. Songbird seems like it might be on its way. It certainly looks nice, and the ability to download directly from mp3 blogs is cool… but I think its going to fail my ‘be lean’ requirement. It took up 1.5x as much ram as iTunes does… but I won’t complain too much, since this is only a ‘developer preview’ release. (Is version ’0.2.1 Developer Preview’ too early to have your own line of hip t-shirts and icons? Hell no!) I await a savior from the bloated behemoth that is iTunes. Anyone have any thoughts? Suggestions for alternatives? I’m open to anything at this point-
You owe it to yourself to play Passage.
Epson R-D1
Olympus XA
Mamiya 6
Fuji Natura Black. Speaking of sleepers, this discreet little box has a wide 24mm 1.9 lens in a modern (well, if you count the 35mm film, which I do), automatic P&S package. When the Olympus XA subs out as the sun goes down, the Fuji Natura S steps in to close the game with finesse. Japan-only, and therefore, too expensive. 
Your chance to win this is coming to a close. Submit your score by this Friday or forever wonder what could have been…
Enter 
As you may know, 
'Go Girl'
The Making of Bonk's Return
Burgertopia 2k6 (Coming Soon)
Gas Man
Nightshade
