Wonderland

Mario nails. Yes, fingernails.

Aren't they something? All they need is some embedded minature sound-fx chips too, and they'd be pure William Gibson. Give it a year or two...

(Thank you *very* much, Dan Page!)

David Braben live at BAFTA

The smiley man who made Elite is going to be talking about his world, at BAFTA, next week. It's a fiver, and for that you get a glass of booze, too (champagne, apparently, there's a "Taittinger reception").

Celebrating 25 years since the release of ground-breaking 3D space simulator Elite, British development legend David Braben reveals his unique perspective on combining cutting-edge technology with innovative gameplay. David is founder and chairman of independent Cambridge developer Frontier, whose releases include the LostWinds launch title for Nintendo's WiiWare digital download service, and the BAFTA-nominated Dog's Life and Wallace & Gromit In Project Zoo.

It's on Monday 14th. Sign up here.

Gamey accessories

These all stood out for their unusualness, or their quality (or both):

Piranha Plant iPhone case:

Bullet Bill necklace:

Ritzy d10 earrings:

And, a bit off the wall, some LESS QQ MORE PEW PEW ("stop crying and get on with it") knitting markers. Whatever they are.

More WoW cakes

CakeWrecks has compiled a few WoW cakes into one post; the shield cake I've already blogged, but there are two in there I've not seen before that are pure jawdrop.

Not only pretty, but funny too:

 

Apparently the yellow book is "Shamen for Dummies".

And the Orgrimmar bank! Ambitious and delicious.

(via my auld guildies, thank you!)

Arcade, a picture taken in The (Democratic Republic of) Congo

Definitely a 360 controller I can see there... commenters cleverer than me viewed the large size and pointed out that it's a silver PS2 controller.

 

This lovely, peaceful shot belongs to Tomas.

Heavy Rain trailer

So, Heavy Rain's nearly upon us. It's got a very movie-like game trailer. Interesting. Reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on. Does the main character look a bit like ... I don't know, John Rogers crossed with that guy from the X-files? Or is it the environment... bit 24, bit zombie holocaust, bit Afterworld. Hmm.

I like it!

Noby Noby Boy hat & scarf

You'd have to be a pretty dedicated Noby Noby fan to wear this brave and lovely hat. But then again, Takahashi fans are usually Pretty Dedicated.

 

Definitely for massive brownie points at the next videogame con you go to.

Awful fake Wii, spotted in a service station Claw game

Si sent me this gem:

"As I was travelling down the M40 I discovered this hilarious Wii clone in a fairground-style crane grab cabinet.

My favourite thing is that as it definitely won't have motion control, the sports attachments would just be there to make your controller massive and unwieldy.

If I could have bought it I would, just to see what it would be like to play the included games, like "Girl" and "Assart", "Aimless" and "Grot Kid".

Oh, and it's 16bit too. PIMP."

Ooh it's classy alright!

 

"Knocking"? "The Farmer"?? Gorgeous.

Lava Ballad, by Orioto

Very beautifully done:

Lava Ballad by *Orioto on deviantART

(DeviantArt's embedder's a bit ugly though, hey?!)

R2D2 USB humidifier

Yes, it's true. In the long, inglorious history of R2-D2 merch, now there's a desktop artoo humidifier.

Um.

And an artoo torch keyring.

AND an artoo desk bin.

I've given up thinking that they can't go any further with this meme! Next up, I'm thinking the artoo fliptop drinks cabinet, or possibly the artoo kettle BBQ cover. May as well go the whole hog. The artoo parrot cage cover. Beer fridge. Turntable and hifi. Onwards!