ART211W - Entry 7

Associated link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz0PaPpmGa8&fmt=18

The YouTube video above links to an amazing modification of the SNES classic Super Mario world. If you were to read this before linking to the video, you would probably assume someone simply took the game and either hacked sprites in, perhaps some swapping of music, or maybe just modifying the levels slightly. fortunately, the video above is an extreme of all of these traits of any game modification.

Adaptly titled "Automatic Mario", this video has spread vastly since the original posting on the Japanese site "Nico Nico Douga". The audio heard in the background is an original to the site, the "Nico Nico Medly", which is composed of a vast quantity of video game and anime music. Thankfully, to some, one individual took months out of his life to make a modification of Super Mario World to produce tones matching the original video's pitches. In a site that interviewed the creator, he said approx. 7 months went into creating this, and that was putting in about 5 hours per day of work on this, along with other daily work, and school. This brings us to a very interesting topic.

When do games become purely art?

Within the last few topics we have reviewed, gaming has become a persistant topic. We have often mentioned about games blending art and gameplay. The game modification presented has completely removed the gameplay aspect of the original, and replaced it with a purely artistic piece that is watched, rather than played. This takes the whole aspect of modding a game for visual and auditorial enjoyance, rather than physical interraction.

ART211W - Entry 6

Associated link

Edit: Okay, Blogspot just wiped my post... let's try this again...

What is seen above is the result of a very creative and brilliant college student. Mr. Lee has taken the simple concept of having an IR sensor in the Wii-remote and applied to what, hopefully, can be utilized in a new generation of games.

The exact specifications and requirements to set up a similar setup as shown are explained in the video, the basic gist, etc. By wearing a special set of glasses with two, small, IR LED's attached to them, it is possible to track the player's position in 3d space by using cheaply manufactured, and widely available, hardware. This allows for complete motion control by not only the controllers, but player-driven responses as well. Another amazing, and the primary reason for attempting such an interface, is the visual effect of creating a true three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Games can take advantage of this, as a simple example, creating a duck-and-cover system for shooters. Instead of having to press a button, the player simply ducks. If there is a window in the game, the player has the ability to approach the screen and "look over" the ledge to peer below.

This kind of interaction between game and player will, no doubt, become the next "big thing" in gaming. Taking a look at Mr. Lee's other videos reveals other potentially inventive ways to interact with games, including virtual multi-touch interfaces (think Minority Report) and creating virtual whiteboards by, of course, using a simple Wii-remote.