Alternative Games

In addition to mainstream games and indy games, like the games designed by girls, a number of designing tools, including new ways to learn programming are in production. Many are aimed at interesting atypical programmers. Projects like Mary Flanagan’s Rapunsel Project, which aims to build a software environment to teach programming concepts to kids. […]

Plasma Pong is a completely tripped-out version of regular Pong that incorporates fluid dynamics. In addition to deflecting the ball with your paddle, you can now use jets and vortices of fluid pressure to help guide the ball. And all of this is rendered in a super-colorful “plasma” style. If you love the visual style of games like Geometry Wars, Mutant Storm, and Darwinia, then you need to check this one out. Click here to download Plasma Pong, free for Windows PCs.

First released in July 2004 by David Münnich, a German artist, musician, and game creator, Not Pr0n is billed as “the Internet’s hardest riddle.” Not Pr0n was conceived after seeing an earlier game, This Is Not Porn, which, in Münnich’s opinion is “pretty unfair and rather boring.” To make a more fair, more enjoyable […]

Millions of Games is just that: A web database cataloging as many browser-based games as the collective Internet can spew forth. What a lovely thing! It’s kind of like New Grounds meets Digg with a little Shadows thrown in for taggy-meta goodness. Right now there are not quite 7000 games listed, which is more than enough to kill a few afternoons at work. A lot of these are sex games, and plenty of them are so amateur they’ll make your Stupid Internet Crap Meter go *ding*, but there’s plenty of gold to mine from this here database. Click here to visit Millions of Games.

The third annual ChicTech Retreat (pronounced ’sheek-tek’) was held April 22-23, 2006 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ChicTech is an outreach program created by the UIUC Department of Computer Science, and the Retreat is the annual culmination of a year-long high school program serving 300 of Illinois’ teenage girls. The ChicTech program […]

Arcadia is not a new game, but it’s one that is worth returning to, and if you’ve never played it, then you absolutely must. Created by indy game dev house Gamelab, Arcadia asks players to manage four old-school games at the same time. At first the slow-motion pace of all four is manageable, but soon Arcadium becomes a manic multitasking challenge. In the words of its creators “Arcadia may be the first postmodern arcade classic.” And these are creators worth noting: Founders Peter Lee and Eric Zimmerman should be well-known to game scholars for their critical writings. Plus, these are the folks who made Diner Dash! ‘Nuff said. Click here to play Arcadia (for free, of course).

Formosoft and Viva Media have paired to bring My Sim Aquarium to the US, and it’s not exactly a winfall for either gamers or aquarium fanatics. My Sim Aquarium promises realistic aquarium sim action plus integration of your fishies with your screensaver for some frame-breaking game integration on your PC. It’s an odd idea, […]

Maple Story is a completely insane MMO-Platformer. You read that right: For an idea of the level of chaos involved, check out the screen at the top of this post. What the heck is going on there? In Maple Story you become a protector of Maple World, playing with others in minigames and platform-style games. It’s free to play (users pay in small transactions for upgrades and extras for your character), although the website requires Internet Explorer, which is a total bummer. Expect more on Maple Story soon.

Wired News has a good round-up of the details surrounding the strange case of James Bragg, who has just filed suit against Linden Labs for shutting down his Second Life account. Bragg was shut down for exploiting a flaw in the Second Life land auctions system and purchasing large amounts of land far under normal cost. The issue at hand stems from the fact that Second Life is one of the few games that allows users to retain ownership over anything they purchase or create within the game, and these in-game items have real-world values. According to Wired News’ estimate, Bragg’s in-game cash holdings alone value approximately $3200 in US currency. Bragg, however, is suing for $8000, factoring his in-game land holdings into the lawsuit. Read the full story on Wired News.

I’ve seen a lot of RPG Maker games. The RPG Maker software has been available since the late 1990s on PCs and PlayStation (1 and 2) platforms. The software allows a decent amount of flexibility to create simple, sprite-based 2D role-playing games in the style of SNES titles like Final Fantasy or Secret of […]