Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Etcetera
The making of Tetris will be chronicled in a new graphic novel this October
Most people know that Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris while working for the Soviet government in the early 80s, but the story will be retold this October in a brand new graphic novel by Box Brown.
Tetris: The Games People Play will be published by the Macmillan imprint First Second, and it’ll reveal the story behind the game’s creation and the subsequent legal battle over distribution rights to the puzzle game outside the USSR:
Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. Nintendo, Atari, Sega—game developers big and small all wanted Tetris. A bidding war was sparked, followed by clandestine trips to Moscow, backroom deals, innumerable miscommunications, and outright theft.
New York Times–bestselling author Box Brown untangles this complex history and delves deep into the role games play in art, culture, and commerce. For the first time and in unparalleled detail, Tetris: The Games People Play tells the true story of the world’s most popular video game.
Brown has experience with finding larger-than-life figures from pop culture and adapting their lives into graphic novels. The writer and artist was previously responsible for Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, a well-received graphic novel that was originally published in 2014.
Meanwhile, Pajitnov seems to a popular biography subject these days. Director Brett Ratner announced plans to develop a film based on the developer’s life last year, and Interestingly enough, the untitled film will also feature an emphasis on the court case surrounding Tetris.
Tetris: The Games People Play will be available on store shelves on October 11.
Mario helped Japanese PM Shinzo Abe make it to the Olympics Closing Ceremony on time
The 2016 Summer Olympics came to an end last night with the Closing Ceremonies. Team USA won 121 total medals, including six more for Michael Phelps, one for “mugging victim” Ryan Lochte, and Gold for both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. But now the eyes of the world turn to Tokyo as they prepare for the 2020 Games, and naturally, Mario was on hand to help them out.
In a great little video to symbolize the Olympic handover, Japanese athletes perform alongside the country’s greatest cultural exports… Hello Kitty, Pac-Man, and Mario. Mario even lent a warp pipe and his signature hat hat to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe so he could make it to the Closing Ceremony on time. Cutting to live events in the stadium, Abe even emerged from a massive green wipe wearing Mario’s coveralls.
You can watch the full video at NBCOlympics.com and I’m sure Nintendo and Sega are already thinking about the Nintendo NX launch of Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in four years.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Watch a hamster run through Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros.
ハムケツ動画のノーカット版(35秒)に、BGMをつけてみました=^･ω･^= pic.twitter.com/ocyqGUTVxg
— ゆたこ (@yutako55) August 19, 2016
Prepare yourself… Here’s a video of a hamster running through Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Created by Twitter user Yutako55, the video even includes the appropriate music and sound effects. Though be sure to turn your speakers up really loud so you can hear them over your squeals of delight.
Happy Sunday!
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Florence + The Machine just released a three-song soundtrack for Final Fantasy XV
After using a Florence + The Machine cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” during their Final Fantasy XV “Uncovered” event, Square Enix is teaming up with the British band again for a three-song soundtrack album.
Songs From Final Fantasy XV contains the aforementioned “Stand By Me” cover, as well as two original songs. “Too Much Is Never Enough” is described as “a cinematic epic, featuring sweeping strings and Florence’s rich, emotive vocals.” And “I Will Be,” which is featured in the new Final Fantasy XV trailer embedded above, showcases the band’s quieter side with a ballad.
“I’ve always seen Final Fantasy as a beautiful and creative game so I don’t think I could have worked with another video game. It wouldn’t have made sense,” said lead singer Florence Welch. “In some ways the landscape of Final Fantasy and my own internal landscape seemed to fit quite well, it’s mythical and beautiful and epic.”
Final Fantasy XV’s Director, Hajime Tabata, added: “We are incredibly excited to have collaborated with Florence on both the cover of ‘Stand by Me’ and on the two original tracks inspired by the world and story of Final Fantasy XV. Music has always been a hugely important and much beloved part of the Final Fantasy series, and with these three tracks we really wanted to create a musical experience to live within the game, and that will transport listeners, whether new to the series or not, into the epic Final Fantasy XV Universe.”
Songs From Final Fantasy XV is now available to buy from your favorite digital music service, and you can also listen to it for free through Spotify.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Final Fantasy XV
First Resident Evil: The Final Chapter trailer promises a return to Raccoon City
The Resident Evil film series is, without a doubt, the most successful set of game-to-movie adaptations ever. And after five films, director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich have taken a simple zombie and cranked the crazy up to 11. Now there’s monsters and clones and hypnotic brain slugs and psychotic British AIs and a girl named K-Mart…
And it’s all been leading up to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
Set to open in theaters on January 27th (just three days after Resident Evil 7‘s January 24th launch), The Final Chapter promises a return to Raccoon City for Alice, along with reunions with Claire, Wesker, and Dr. Isaacs. You can get a little taste of the action in the film’s first trailer, which has been embedded above.
Even though the Resident Evil film franchise doesn’t have even the slightest resemblance to Capcom’s original storyline anymore, I’m still eager to see how everything comes to an end.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Resident Evil
Almost every issue of Nintendo Power is now available as a free download at Internet Archive
UPDATE: All issues of Nintendo Power have been removed from the Internet Archive.
Do you consider yourself something of an amateur video game historian? Then good news… nearly every issue of Nintendo Power is now available to download (for free) through the Internet Archive. As of today, the site has digitized more than 100 issues of Nintendo Power, which covers more than half of the magazine’s complete 24-year run. So that means there’s still a few holes, but every issue from Nintendo’s NES-Super NES-Nintendo 64 heyday is just a click away.
This isn’t the first time that the Internet Archive has come to the aid of retro-minded gamers. The site also serves as a repository for playable versions of classic Atari 2600, MS-DOS, and Windows 3.1 games.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Internet Archive and get reading. Me, I’m going to catch up on old Howard & Nester strips.
Bad Boys 3 director Joe Carnahan is the latest to get a crack at the Uncharted movie script
The film adaptation of Uncharted is setting sail for uncharted waters once again, as Sony Pictures has revealed to Variety that Joe Carnahan will write a new version of the script.
Carnahan is currently working with Sony to write and direct Bad Boys 3, but the director established his action-adventure bona fides many years ago with Smokin’ Aces, The Grey, and The A-Team.
“Archaeology today is in itself an antiquity, but that world has always fascinated me. Especially when you go to a museum today and wonder how a piece got there to begin with,” [Carnahan] said. “Plus, the property itself is so popular that it was hard to turn down an opportunity to work on it.”
The Uncharted movie is currently expected to open on June 30, 2017. But with no script, no director, and no actors, Sony Pictures will likely be forced to reschedule it to a later date.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Legendary and Square Enix will produce a live-action adaptation of Life Is Strange
Legendary Entertainment has been bitten hard by the video game adaptation bug. Warcraft opened in theaters earlier this Summer, and more recently, the studio signed a deal with The Pokemon Company to produce a movie based on Detective Pikachu.
Now, they’ve set their sights on Dontnod’s Life Is Strange.
Square Enix has announced they’re teaming up with Legendary Digital Studios and DJ2 Entertainment to produce a live-action webseries based on Life Is Strange. Like the game, the adaptation will follow teenage photographer Max Caulfield as she learns to deal with her newly-discovered time travel powers in the face of apocalyptic visions.
In other coincidentally recent Life Is Strange news, Square Enix and Dontnod re-released the game’s first episode as a free download last week.
“Life is Strange is one of those rare properties that combines incredibly developed characters and storylines with deeply engaging gameplay,” said Greg Siegel, the Senior Vice President of Development and Production for Legendary Digital Studios. “It lends itself perfectly to live-action imaginings. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Square Enix, Dontnod Entertainment, and DJ2 to bring the world of Arcadia Bay to life in an exciting new way.”
The search is currently on for a screenwriter, so hopefully we’ll learn more about Life Is Strange’s live-action adaptation soon.