Another entry in the audio universe that I wanted to share. If you haven’t heard the recently dugg “holophonic clip” yet, here it is (headphones are required for this). This may not have anything to do with computer games, but it damn well should!

This technology has been around a while, slightly analogous to how holographic images are created out of multiple images. If you’re interested, Wikipedia has a nice article.

Pretty cool, yet I’m sort of surprised that this isn’t used more often (Pink Floyd has the most famous example).

If you are like me and enjoy blippy, boopy, synth-generated music inspired by videogames and sometimes (but not necessarily) sharks, FreezePop might be just for you! Check out their o.fi.cial Site and some samples. Their claim to fame is a few game soundtracks, so its nice to see them break out into the analog world.

My favourite of the moment is “I am not your Gameboy” but that may change in the next five minutes.

This is fun music for the distracted. Ooh, love the battery-powered sequencer!

(Thank-you pandora.com)

After two weeks in a media spin-cycle, the latest rumours finally circled around the truth. The Disney shark has gulped down Pixar for a cool 7.5 billion dollars. Wow.

I’m quite sure this has been tried many times in the past, but while a potential acquisition unquestionably benefits Grandfather Disney, its always been a dubious deal for Pixar. Thus, the answer from Jobs has always been a flat “no”.

So whats changed? Well, there is one big reason that I can think of.

This new development would never have happened if it weren’t for the iPod and its software sister, iTunes. Yes, one can talk about better Pixar relations that Disney has cultivated with new CEO Igor, or that Pixar should sell while they’re still on top, etc. But the real deal is this : Jobs is changing his Disney song for iTunes.

This is huge. Big media is finally going to pay attention to online distribution in a big way. With Pixar, Disney, iTunes (and their subsidiaries which include ABC and ESPN) doing it, its now a competition. Thats the only thing that will move those guys into the 21st century. Competition is the ultimate wake-up call.

The specifics on how this will play is anyone’s guess. I suspect that it will be somewhat organic; they’ll see what works for them (and the video-ipod-downloading consumer) and go with it. Will iTunes become the primary mechanism for watching media? I have no idea. But this will open the sluices for online media purchases, and it won’t just be television shows and movies. This will change what television essentially is.

So this is how the merger benefits Steve Jobs. How will it benefit a culturally sensitive Pixar? Well, I’ll leave that question for the experts.

Dystopia, the best Source mod ever, gets to Update 4 this week. Signed, sealed and released! Cyberfans rejoice and a big congratulations out to Team Dystopia.

The update contains two new maps, with numerous gameplay tweaks overall. I am guiltily addicted to this slaverous mix of teamplay and action. Forget BF2! Dystopia features mixed team objectives and dual-sourced gameplay. Play as a decker and breach security systems in cyberspace… or join the fireteam and forage ahead as a heavy mechdroid in meatspace. Its fast. Its hard. But so much variety and choice are packed into this game that its virtually impossible to get bored. An extremely well conceived effort, and a visual treat.

Support the Source mod scene and go vote for Dystopia as Mod of the Year!

Valve and Dystopia

Team Dystopia’s early intentions were to release this as a demonstation of their capabilities. First as a Half-Life2 Source Engine modification, and ultimately as a commercial venture. They’ve met with mixed success, partially due to Valve’s (the maker of Half-Life2) resistance. Valve, rarely famous for kind shepherding of young game-makers, typically likes to completely own property invented within their engine. And with Dystopia, we can only guess that Valve is playing the same old game.

When Dystopia was released, Valve introduced a crashing bug into their game engine, which effectively killed Dystopia completely. Momentum lost. Its not likely intentional, but once that was fixed, we heard murmurings from Valve stating that “commercial-level releases in the mod community are discouraged”, supposedly because quality is “never achieved by indies on the first go”. Do it fast, do it iteratively, and build your fanbase. This was Valve’s preference. Listen to us, they said : Be Like Counterstrike.

Ah Counterstrike. The mod that grew into the most popular online activity since pr0n.

And Valve owns it.

Now their reticence starts to make some sense. Don’t make your mod perfect on the first go, they say. Perhaps they mean : Let us examine its potential, first. Its too bad we’re a little smarter about this stuff now? The early mod days, including Counterstrike’s debut, had very little engineering sense to them at all. This made quality releases almost impossible. But when you look at the detail and the testing that go into upper-echelon mods today, you’ll find an entirely different animal. Some of them have pros on their teams. Others are funded. And many hope for a commercial payoff one day. The mod scene runs the spectrum, of course, with jokers and amateurs alike. But with Dystopia, it was a wholly different beast, and was professional right from conception to execution. Truly a model that should be rewarded. You can’t really blame the publisher, since its in their interest to see a return on their investment - which was the very platform from which these games have sprung. Yet, arguably, it was precisely those initial successes that fed Valve’s success today. They simply wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to play the new Counterstrike (including yours truly - seven years running!). Valve wants to own the best of them, and its far easier to do that when they exhibit the merest seeds of success.

Rest assured, there are many people (some of whom I know personally) that are watching the outcome of the Dystopia venture with intense interest. Dystopia’s success could serve as a model for indie gamedev in general. I sincerely hope that Valve does the “right thing” and gives them a Steam publishing deal (like they did with Darwinia, another indie developed game). With quality, with fanbase, with a dedicated team and a healthy product, what do they have to lose?

In the meantime, we’ll have fun with Dystopia, and here’s to one day seeing them take their game to the bank. This stuff is the power politics of business, and Dystopia may not win. Personally, it’s Valve’s loss if Dystopia chooses to go elsewhere. I mean, what if Counterstrike was made for Quake?