I suppose this is an inflection point in entertainment media: Hollywood’s favorite stock-sound effect, The Wilhelm Scream, is increasingly finding its way into today’s videogames.

Next thing you know, the gaming studios will get even more cinematic and start using the same newspaper prop over and over.

I’m well enough removed from gaming circles that, while I’m aware of the Halo franchise, I don’t know all too much about it.

That’s why a lovingly-crafted Atari 2600 rendition would be right up my alley:

Ed Fries, former vice president of Microsoft’s Game Publishing Division, programmed an old-school version of the beloved game that features blocky graphics, deliberately basic sound effects, and simplified movements. And yet it’s still recognizable as “Halo.”

The game, called “Halo 2600,” made its debut at the recent Classic Gaming Expo, where cartridges (nice!) of the game were given away to lucky recipients.

And it’s playable online, on the above link. It’s addictive fun in a low-impact way. Sort of reminiscent of Robotron 2084, with a far less manic pace and a lack of rapid-fire.

I do think that a name change is in order — after all, those 8-bit pixels can’t really form a cleanly-circular halo shape, can they?

How much narrative can you discern from even the most thought-out gaming franchises? That’s what “Theater of the Arcade” in Brooklyn aims to find out, in the form of stage-play vignettes:

What if Pac-Man is really a gluttonous German burgher out to gorge himself while dodging the ghosts of those he has so callously wronged, à la Dickens?

What if the pilots in Asteroids are merely profane technicians existentially trapped within a corporation that knows nothing more than to send them into the void to shoot rocks, until they become smaller rocks and smaller rocks, until they become nothing?

I liken this in-depth re-imagination to the box art on the old Atari 2600 videogames from the 1970s and ’80s: Visualizations of the game action that were far more fully-formed than the primitive pixelation that the game cartridges actually contained. In fact, those box-art interpretations often bore only marginal resemblance to their game themes. Funny how decades later, these stage productions play off the same narrative-thin videogaming base..

On the one hand, there’s the customary disdain over the Boy Scouts of America’s newly-minted merit badges (or belt loops, or pins, or whatever) for videogaming prowess.

Take that disdain, re-channel it along gender lines, and you get a new complaint: Why don’t Girl Scouts get a shot at videogame achievements?

Either way, it’s trading jamborees for joysticks. Why commune with nature when you can immerse yourself in a virtual pixelated setting, and get rewarded all the same?

In the grand tradition of Hollywood’s spectacularly-destructive edifice envy, New York City gets an 8-bit beatdown in Patrick Jean’s short film, “Pixels”:

The old coin-op characters never looked so good. I particularly liked how the Tetris blocks conspired to drop-wedge onto the skyscrapers, destroying them floor-by-floor via the game’s horizontal-row completion. My second-favorite is the Breakout paddle pulverizing the Brooklyn Bridge, appropriately brick-by-brick. And I was glad to see representation by Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders in this playful carnage. Bonus image: A flyby view, about 1:21 in, of the Atari logo on one of the buildings in the Manhattan skyline.

I just wanna know who was holding the joystick while this videogamed assault was running wild. And what his/her final high score was.

A new so-bad-it’s-good cult classic is born, out of last year’s Sundance Film Festival of all places. Birdemic: Shock and Terror is the realization of one man’s cinematic vision, bad spelling and all:

Evan Husney, who now works for the independent distributor Severin Films, was also at Sundance in 2009, where he spotted [director James] Nguyen driving a beat-up sport utility vehicle decorated with a prop eagle and fake blood, and blaring bird noises from its stereo.

“On the side of his car,” Mr. Husney said, “he had spelled the name of his own movie wrong. He had spelled it ‘Bidemic,’ without the R.”

Intrigued, Mr. Husney met Mr. Nguyen at a sparsely attended “Birdemic” screening. The movie, Mr. Husney said, looked “like a Super Nintendo game,” adding, “It was, like, the funniest thing I had ever seen in my entire life.”

I keep flubbing the film title myself, thinking it’s “Birdicide”; considering the backstory, I guess I shouldn’t feel bad about mangling it. Maybe I subconsciously think that “Birdicide” is more suggestive of violence, and less avian-flu redolent, than “Birdemic”. Or “Bidemic”, for that matter (which sounds like some kind of disease afflicting, or afflicted by, Vice President Joe Biden).

As for the videogame comparison, I’ll go a couple of steps further back in time: The swooping buzzards pictured above remind me less of Hitchcock’s The Birds and more of the old birds of prey from the coin-op classic “Phoenix”. Only less threatening. Even 8-bit arcade fare probably trumps the not-so-special effects in this flick.

Since it’s a given that most kids nowadays have grown up playing multiplayer/multilevel videogames, maybe it should also be a given that they should approach college coursework within the same framework:

Students at several of Indiana University’s game design courses begin their class with zero “experience points,” which corresponds to an F grade. Instead of completing presentations, they’ll perform “quests;” sitting exams becomes “fighting monsters;” and handing in assignments becomes “crafting.” Students even team up into “guilds” to tackle group projects. Setting assessments in the context of video game achievements helps students get motivated, according to the courses’ coordinator, Indiana University’s Lee Sheldon.

What’s the equivalent of getting past the boss stage — outwitting the teaching assistant? I think they should go oldschool and give students three lives to conquer the curriculum. And if you fail? The professor announces your flunk-out by playing the Pac-Man death sound effect.

While it’s probably true that “there’s an app for that” — no matter what “that” calls for — it’s not surprising that most people stick to a tried-and-true handful of favorite icons:

The average iPhone or iPod Touch owner uses 5 to 10 apps regularly, according to Flurry, a research firm that studies mobile trends. This despite the surfeit of available apps: some 140,000 and counting… The next generation of gadget users might prove different, but for now it is clear that people prefer fewer choices, and that they gravitate consistently toward the same small number of things that they like. Owners of iPhones are no different from cable TV subscribers with hundreds of channels to choose from who end up watching the same half-dozen.

For me and my iTouch, I figure I’m on the low end of that estimate. I play two games almost exclusively (although I’ve just picked up a new one, Bird Strike, that I anticipate will keep me occupied for a while), use Twitterrific pretty regularly, and fire up WifiTrak most days. Then there are the apps that come pre-loaded: I use Mail, Safari, Weather, Clock, and Notes all the time — but I’m not sure they count in this context.

When it comes to acquiring new apps, I do have a self-imposed restriction that keeps the additions low: They must be able to run while simultaneously allowing the iTouch’s music library to play uninterrupted. You’d think that would be a no-brainer, yet it seems like most apps — particularly games — don’t work this way. But since my primary use of the device is to listen to music, it’s a dealbreaker. Therefore, that simple requirement keeps me from overloading on page after page of apps.

But it’s nice to know that extra doo-dads are only a short download away. Even if I’ll never try, or even see, 99 percent of them.

I have to say, I spend an inordinate amount of time playing both Sumo! and Saucelifter! on my iTouch. While listening to music, usually — multi-tasking in everything, of course.

The games can’t be much more different, in either theme or mechanics. Sumo! is strictly a tap-and-count board game, nicely ported for touchscreen but hardly reliant upon the iPhone/iTouch interface. Saucelifter!, on the other hand, makes good use of the accelerometer for navigation, to complement the touch controls for action. You’re body-slamming belly-to-belly in one, and laser-blasting military armor in the other — all for fun.

If I’m going to endorse any iTunes App, I guess these two would have to be the ones. Neither is free, but considering how many hours I’ve spent playing them, I’d say they’re well worth the purchase price.

There’s a certain amount of irony in Mark Hamill having outgrown his Star Wars typecasting by establishing himself as a voiceover actor — and then, despite ample opportunities in the gaming industry, never applying those skills into a reprise of the Luke Skywalker role:

Hamill’s credited with a bevy of vocal performances in non-Star Wars games, most notably as The Joker in last year’s best-seller Batman: Arkham Asylum, but revealed why he’s never played Luke in a recent interview with PC Zone magazine.

“When I played Luke from 1977 to 1983, games were in their infancy,” Hamill told PC Zone. “I talked about turning a page and starting a new chapter. Those movies had a beginning, middle and end, and everyone sort of moved on… I don’t really know how to answer that, because I’ve never been asked to do it. That’s fine, though.”

“If you’re playing Luke the way he was in the films — from his late teens to mid-20s — I’ve outgrown the role. In the story, Luke is so boy-next-door farm boy, it’s like Dorothy in Oz. All the other characters that surround him are fantastic.”

“Outgrown the role”? We’re talking vocals, not visuals. Hamill’s voice hasn’t changed that much over the years — he still sounds like Luke Skywalker. I’d think the promotional opportunities in having the original Luke voicing a CGI Luke would be huge.

And it just happens to dovetail that way, given Hamill’s second career. It’s not like Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher would be good fits to do videogame voiceover work for their characters, even if they could be persuaded to do it. But since Hamill’s already working in the same proximity, it’s a natural.

I was unaware of the indirect lineage between Popeye and Mario:

[Nintendo game designer Shigeru] Miyamoto: So I sketched out a few ideas for games using Popeye. At that point, Yokoi-san was good enough to bring these ideas to the President’s attention and in the end one of the ideas received official approval… And that’s how “Donkey Kong” came about.

[Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata: But originally it was going to be a Popeye game.

Miyamoto: That’s right. But while I can’t recall exactly why it was, we were unable to use Popeye in that title. It really felt like the ladder had been pulled out from under us, so to speak… Anyway, at the time we were at a loss as to how to proceed. Then we thought: “Why not come up with our own original character?”

Iwata: So basically “Donkey Kong” and Mario came about once the ladder had been pulled out from beneath you.

Miyamoto: Exactly.

Further backstory: During the early ’80s, Nintendo was the Japanese market licensee for Popeye the Sailor Man merchandise. That’s how Miyamoto came to use the character in his videogame mockups for the then-nascent videogame division of the company.

The further irony is that Nintendo did, indeed, put out a “Popeye” coin-op game not long after the success of “Donkey Kong”. I remember playing that game as a kid, even though it was pretty hard to find it in most arcades.

When I bought a new videogame for my iTouch yesterday, I didn’t give much thought to whether or not the game’s soundtrack was also available for purchase. (In fact, one of my persistent gripes about App Store games is that too few of them allow you the option to override in-game music in favor of letting the iPod music play; but that’s something for another post…)

But indeed, the oddly-named hovercraft-racing game “Ground Effect” comes with an embedded iTunes link to buy the theme music. Here’s the philosophy behind the move:

Diefenbach, a really cool Danish indie band, have allowed us to feature an instrumental version of one of their most amazing tracks “A Rock in a Pond” as the soundtrack for “Ground Effect” from their album “Dark Spinner”.

[App developer Glenn Corpes] was really excited as an indie developer about the prospect of teaming up with an indie band; much has been made recently about the cross-promotional possibilities and it makes sense that if gamers habitually listen to music on their iPhones it would be shame not to use the opportunity as a game developer to introduce them to great bands they might otherwise have not been exposed to.

That last part is the heart of it: Providing an opportunity for exposure on the audience’s preferred platform. This is the same concept as what’s driving music sales via “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” console interfaces. You take your wares where the action is.

I’d be surprised if there aren’t more apps that meld this experience — not just games either. The ability to push sales of multimedia elements within an app could soon be a commonplace and expected aspect of iPhone/iPod interaction.

Given that I’ve previously bitched about the cluelessness of the typical crossword-puzzle clues, imagine my surprise to come across this peculiar one this morning:

44-ACROSS: Game my dad refused to install on our computer in 1993 because it took up 40 megabytes

The answer, of course, is the classic first-person shooter (and crossword-friendly title) “Doom”. The morning wordgrid is probably the last place you’d expect to run across mention of a videogame about blasting demonic hellspawn.

The above clue probably seems super-long (not to mention vaguely whiny) for the confines of a newspaper crossword section. In fact, I was doing the puzzle on my iTouch. The Crosswords app does help pass the time on the train. Although the tunnel views this morning only accentuated the unexpected “Doom” scenario…

Only a couple of years ago, Disney went to unusual measures to acquire the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: Essentially trading sportscaster Al Michaels and a bunch of sports-related airtime in exchange for the first animated character Walt Disney himself originated, thus consolidating the legendary animator’s creative heritage.

Now, we’re seeing that piece of heritage put to work. Epic Mickey is a wave-making videogame, featuring a less-than-squeaky-clean Mickey Mouse adventuring in a dark cartoon underworld. And he’s got company:

The game opens with a six-minute cartoon that shows Mickey being kidnapped into the Cartoon Wasteland, a world that’s home to all of Disney’s rejected creativity. Strapped to a table facing a variety of threats, he’s soon freed by a cartoon rabbit who quickly runs away.

That rabbit, Oswald, was actually Walt Disney’s first cartoon creation — one he lost the rights to in 1928, when the financier and distributor of his films fired him. (Disney recently reacquired those rights, in part because of the pivotal role Oswald plays in this game.)

All that maneuvering to reel in a wayward Disney rabbit, just so an edgier, pixelated Mickey could see the light of day? Suddenly I have more respect for The Walt Disney Company, as a content-driven concern.

Nothing says “girly geek” quite like this homemade dress, no doubt inspired by countless hours of Tetris-playing. Frenetic block-dropping never looked so fashionable!

(Via dustbury, who I’m betting saw the same tweet that I did on this)

Remember Microsoft Surface? Of course you don’t — no one else does either. The Big Redmond Machine’s mostly-vaporware attempt at replicating Apple’s iPhone touchscreen technology (right down to the Apple-like logo, above) has gone pretty much nowhere since being announced last year.

So no better way to revive interest in it than demonstrating it as a Dungeons & Dragons gameplaying platform, right? I’m sure the D&D crowd will be the ideal vanguard userbase to spread the Surface gospel.

I strictly adhere to the correct notion that World Wrestling Federation Entertainment’s televised spectacles are not, despite surface appearances and trappings, sporting events. (Therefore, I’m not slotting this post under my Other Sports category.) Accordant with that acknowledgment comes a general disdain for WWE and all such related fake-sports spectacles — a disdain forged from years of enduring the rants from rasslin’ fans who insisted upon major metropolitan newspaper coverage in the Sports section (as if).

That said, I like the ring of WWE “Hell in a Cell”. Strictly for the wordplay. It’s a snappy brand, and nicely captures the malevolent melee spirit that it’s trying to sell (despite the staged phoniness of the whole thing).

What doesn’t help: That the latest edition of this cagefighting series is being sponsored by the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogame. Kinda takes the edge off, money aside. If they’re going to take that route, why not spin off a truly kid-friendly sidebar event, and call it “Heck in a Sec”? Might as well work all the angles.

EA has been letting it rip with the shock-value stunts to promote upcoming title “Dante’s Inferno”. Following incitements to commit “acts of lust”, fake religious protesters, and gluttony-inspired cakes in the shape of severed limbs, the guerilla marketing machine is moving on to bribery, in the form of $200 checks sent to gaming journalists.

They are being thoughtfully creative within the Divine Comedy theme, though:

[T]he checks arrived in presentation boxes accompanied by a note reading:

“In Dante’s Inferno, Greed is a two-headed beast. Hoarding wealth feeds on beast and squandering it satiates the other. By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by hoarding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality. Make your choice and suffer the consequence for your sin. And scoff not, for consequences are imminent.”

Because of this talented output on display, I actually don’t have a problem with this tactic. Nor with any of the preceding trickery, for that matter. My only criticism is that, if anything, all this build-up will heighten expectations too much. If “Inferno” doesn’t deliver an amped-up gameplaying experience, the promotional trickery will have backfired, and EA will be (pun intended) burned.

How can someone not have thought of this before: A videogame starring Salvador Dali, set in a level-based world of his surrealistic imagery like melting clocks, spindley-legged boss elephants, and more?

Alas, such a pixelated dreamscape does not exist. Except in the mind of jalonso, who mocked up this theoretical Game Boy title, dubbed “Ledali II: The Crystal Egg”:

Lead Salvador through 12 exiting worlds in search of the Crystal Egg in this sequel to “Ledali: Sir Reel’s Adventure”. Collect eggs as you race the clock and battle new foes and many old ones. New Salvador abilities include slowing time and speed warp.. you’ll need them too if you are ever to collect the Crystal Egg Leda has demanded in return for everlasting love.

An inspired idea, especially that theme of “everlasting love”, which factors into Dali’s body of work. What’s more, Dali practically looked like a videogame character, with that wild moustache and those bugged-out eyes. I think it’s a safe assumption that he’d have been all for this, if he were alive today. He had a penchant for making his mark in other media, including film; as cinematic as games have become nowadays, he’d probably have insisted on designing his digital homage himself.

Accordingly, in keeping with the surreal touch, I don’t think the Salvador character should use weapons, per se. I mean, instead of firing some projectile like the slingshot pictured above, he should, I dunno, rub a dead fish or something as a combat move. The unconventional action agent to fit the in-game reality.

As for matching the iconic Super Mario motif, I think the real-life characters are all in place: Dali as Mario, his wife Gala as the princess (referenced as “Leda” above)…

…And, somewhat grimly, the part of Mario’s brother Luigi would be played by Dali’s older brother, also named Salvador, who died prior to the artist’s birth. I can only imagine how that phantasmical presence would be incorporated into two-player gameplay… (Hey, no one said a Dali scroller would be all fun and whimsy…)

In response to the bemused dismay over the studio jockeying over film rights to “Asteroids”, Topless Robot is running a contest for the most ridiculous pixels-to-celluloid pitch imaginable:

I’m the moronic hollywood exec with a nose full of blow and a head up my ass, and you’re the producer — sell me on the most ludicrous movie adaptation of the most inappropriate videogame you can think of. You don’t have to include potential cast members, but you’re welcome to. I’m not sure whether I’ll be looking for a terrible pitch that could genuinely get made into a movie, or if I’m looking for the most ludicrous idea in the entire world, but you might as well shoot for either.

I’m only a little perturbed that, as of this writing (and with an entire day to go for submitting entries), already there have been three pitches for Atari 2600 proto-porno cartridge “Custer’s Revenge”. And none at all for “Robotron: 2084″.

If nothing else, the above (admittedly crappy) cameraphone photo at least proves that someone in New York is reading this blog. Specifically someone(s) at The Orchard’s offices overlooking Lafayette Street, who have a thing for decorative Post-It Noting of the windows.

How do I know they read my previous post on this NoHo sighting? Because that paper-pixelated “Pac-Man” used to be a peach:

Accordingly, I guess I’m wrong about that pixelated fruit being the bonus-points orange from “Pac-Man”. It’s actually The Orchard’s corporate logo, which, from the looks of it, is supposed to be a peach. That would make sense, as peaches do grow in orchards, while oranges grow in groves. (Although this Post-It creation could be doubling as both, just to fit in better with the “Space Invaders” alien and spaceship.)

So either I was right in the first place, and that really was an orange all along, or else they’re just screwing around. If they’re taking requests, the next oldschool blocky videogame I’d like to see represented is “Robotron: 2084″…