8-BIT CULTURE

(image from Make Magazine)

8-Bit Music
• 8-Bit Peoples - a site dedicated to a number of chiptune composers [LINK].
• 8-Bit Weapon - renowned chiptune composer [LINK].
• Anamanaguchi - 8-bit musician, releases a new single each week [LINK].
• Amelie Poulain Plays Korg DS - 8-Bit remake of the "Amelie" theme-song [LINK].

• 8-Bit "Tron Legacy" remix by 8-Bit Weapon:




• 8-Bit - another of the great chiptunes composers [LINK].
• Beck "Gameboy Homeboy" and "Bad Cartridge" 8-Bit remixes and videos [LINK and LINK].
• Europe's Blip Festival - a chiptune music extravaganza [LINK].
• 8-Bitone chiptune music application for the iPhone (make your own chiptunes without having to tear apart a Gameboy!) [LINK].

• Video of how a Gameboy chiptune is composed:




 • Interview with chiptune composer Nullsleep:




8-Bit Miscellany
• A photo gallery of Japan's Nintendo Museum [LINK].
• A great 8-Bit Halloween Costume [LINK].
• Mario Adventure - hacking "Mario" Gameboy code to create an entirely new "Mario Bros" game (requires an NES emulator - available online free) [LINK].
• Console Wars Veterans medals [LINK].
• 8-Bit Wristwatch [LINK].

"Pixels" by Patrick Jean:




• BabyCastles - the rocking 8-bit website experience by Josephs Salina [LINK].
• Röyksopp's "Happy Up Here" music video (not chiptune music, but using Atari "Space Invaders" characters in the video) [LINK].
• L.A.-based artist and jeweler Han Cholo has released a number of 8-Bit inspired pendants ("Space Invaders") [LINK].
• Miscellaneous 8-Bit artworks and products [LINK].
• "Invaded Space" photographic artworks that incorporate 8-Bit imagery into photos of modern warfare [LINK].




















• The (online) Atari Museum [LINK].
• A gallery of cloth patches you could win by getting a high score on Activision console games in the early 1980's [LINK].
• "Demakes" of modern video games into 8-Bit and 16-Bit games by Junkboy [LINK].
• Aled Lewis's cool 8-bit artworks [LINK].

• "PacMan Highway" by NotWorkingFilms:




For Those of You Looking to Experience Early 8-Bit Video Games:
1). To start with, you will need an "Atari 2600 Emulator." The Stella emulator is the best, it works on Mac and PC, and it's free.
2). Download Stella (the "Binary DMG" for MacOSX or the "Binary exe/ZIP" for Windows depending upon your computer).
3). For Mac: download the application, put it in your applications folder. For PC: get a Mac.
4). On your computer, make a folder somewhere called "Atari 2600 Games," or something similar.
5). Go to Atari Age - download the ".BIN" files of the games you want to play (just click on the name of the game in the long list of games), put these downloaded ".BIN" files in your "Atari 2600 Games" folder.
6). Open Stella, it will first give you a directory window where you can search for your "Atari 2600 Games" folder on your computer. Find the folder, open it, and then select the ".BIN" file of the game you want to play.
7a). Play the game. Or . . .
7b). SETTING UP YOUR GAME CONTROLS/KEYPAD: on a Mac, click your "TAB" key and a menu window will open in Stella. Click on the "Input Settings" button in the menu. A window will open that should look something like this:

. . . assign a key on your computer keypad for each of the control/input options they have listed. For example, to turn your keypad into a Joystick controller, select "P0 Joystick Up," then click on "Erase" (this will erase the pre-set key assigned to "UP" in the game), then select "Map" - whatever key (on your computer keyboard) you press will now be considered the "Joystick UP" key. Do this with each Joystick and Fire option they have listed. REMEMBER: The control settings need to account for two joysticks (some games have two), so you will have to pick keys for both joysticks and their "Fire" buttons, etc. and you cannot assign a key on your keyboard to more than one thing. I have mine mapped like this: Joystick 0: Up (W), Down (X), Left (A), Right (D), Fire (E), Reset/Game Start (Backspace) and Joystick 1: Up (I), Down (M), Left (J), Right (L), Fire (U)

MODERN (RECENTLY MADE) VIDEO GAMES:

• Play First-Person Tetris - a beautiful new take on the old favorite [LINK].
• Play "Where's an Egg" - there are no directions, but the game is simple: find out who has the egg and shoot them. Ask suspects about the egg (some will lie, some will not) - they will tell you a correct combination of person, place, and object (or not) [LINK].
• Jason Rohrer's "Passage" [LINK] and "Gravitation" [LINK].
• Molle Industria's "Every Day the Same Dream" [LINK]
• Videlectrix - they make (really fun) new games that have the appearance of old (Generation 2) video games [LINK].
• Jason Rohrer is perhaps one of the most well acclaimed creators of modern 8-Bit games. A number of his games are free on his website; I recommend trying a couple [LINK].
• Mark Essen is renowned for making modern 8-bit games, often with incredibly fun gameplay (take a look at his videos) [LINK].
• Mark Essen's game "Turbo-Turbo-Turbo" can be played on the Adult Swim website [LINK].
• Ian Bogost's 8-bit poem/game "A Slow Year" (you will have to buy this one) [LINK].
• Pica-Pic has a beautiful gallery of retro handheld games (old LCD display games) which you can play online in Flash format [LINK].
• Games You Should Play has a nice directory and gallery of new 8-bit games worth playing [LINK]. • This is not an 8-Bit game, but you should totally play it if you haven't yet - "flOw" by Jenova Chen [LINK].