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For a very long time game-makers have been acting as if they wanted to be movie-makers. Cut scenes and intros have been interrupting our game time for a long-ass time, but now Nintendo's taken their hatred for you, the player, to a new level.

I finally caved and bought a new plasma TV. Fifty inches of astonishing clarity at a price I could justify, and wow, it makes digital TV (which I've enjoyed since moving to Australia 4 years ago) look amazing. The Xbox 360 looks astonishing as well, with HDMI at the TV's native resolution of 1033 x 720. It doesn't have 15kHz RGB/SCART inputs, but based on its handling of non-interlaced signals, I don't think I'm really missing it.

A couple of years ago I got into a fiery argument on a forum with someone who thought he knew the 'right way' to display a video game, and all other ways were simply wrong 'cause the designers wouldn't want it that way.. He went through great lengths to add screen curvature, scanlines and even reflections of overhead lights to try and replicate the appearance of gaming on a CRT monitor.

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I've been playing Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island a lot lately, and I think I spend equal amounts of time enjoying the game and marvelling at the incredible graphics. It's still, 14 years later, one of the best looking games I've ever seen.

So I saw a new console announced today and I just can't figure out what kind of scam it is, or if it's just run by idiots. The hype: A cellular console jointly developed with Qualcomm (who make mobile phone chips) that will allow gamers in developing countries to download games over mobile networks. Games will use the BREW development platform, the same used for countless mobile phone games, and the console features Qualcomm's 3D chip, adreno.

While ripping some sprites for Twyst's project, I found some stunning title screen art in some Toaplan (née Cave) games. Here they are, for your enjoyment. ^_^

A post I made on another forum where people were quite vehement about the 'racism' in Resident Evil Five:

I like to rip fonts and sprites from games, and I'm occasionally asked how I do it. Well, here's the guide!

Thi is the official update thread for the NFG Arcade Font Engine. You can track new fonts, script changes and other useless stuff here. Note also the RSS feed if you'd like to stay up to date without bookmarking.

You may have seen my Arcade Font Engine and wanted to have such useless toys for your own magnificent site, but couldn't bring yourself to ask for the code.

The NFG Font Engine now has 70 different video game fonts, which is nearly a quarter of a percent of arcade games in existence. MAME emulates nearly 4,000 games at last count, and I'd estimate that probably 2-400 of them have unique or interesting fonts. By my reckoning, anyway.

I have maintained for some time that games in the old days were 'casual' games, and that the modern trend of trying to capture the casual gamer (ie: your mom) is nothing more than recognizing the simplicity and appeal of games that don't have complicated controls, wowee-3D graphics.

Last night, without my intervention, the following Zork-like conversation erupted in #NFG: