Over at NineteenEightyEight they’ve got some neat artwork up on display. The above ‘game themed’ artwork was done by Greg Simkins. Now that’s some creatively freaky stuff!

If you didn’t make it to the NY Comic-Con this year, take a gander at the Comics Reporters site- since I didn’t go. Check out Comics Foundry’s photos of some of the ‘goings on’ at the Con. As you can see from the above snapshot our friend, Dan Goodsell from The Imaginary World, was in attendance.

This event was so popular that they had to suspend ticket sales on Sunday. So it looks like it was a pretty fun and crowded show this year. With Jim Lee, John Romita Jr., Kevin Smith and many others there, it must have been a blast. I just can’t wait until the San Diego Comic-Con!

Did you go to New York Comic-Con? What did you enjoy the most?

Gamespot is taking a look back at one of our beloved gaming systems, the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original NES was released in the U.S. back in August, 1985 and was an instant hit. Its graphics were far superior to any home-based console that had come before it, and it went on to sell over 60 million units worldwide.

I can still recall playing all those great NES games (PDF) for all those hours. I was especially fond of the Dragon Warrior, Mega Man and Zelda games. Leveling up, collecting goodies and clobbering the bad guys- it was great! More great Nintendo nostalgia. What were some of your favorite games from the NES?

While in Hong Kong, I took this photo because the sign really caught my eye. Enjoy the “clean mouth feel” and the taste of America -with 0 milligrams of total carbonhydrates! Now I know they probably meant carbohydrates, but it still doesn’t make sense since the average donut is almost all carbohydrates. So perhaps to follow the low-carb fad, they came up with the 0% carbonhydrates marketing campaign. (You know, truth in advertising.) It’s all in how you market and sell your product!

Now I leave you with some questions (and I invite you to comment):

• What does your country taste like?
• What are carbonhydrates and should donuts be made of them?
• What is a clean mouth feel to you?

Comboling is a great puzzle game to play. Try to link all the squares vertically or diagonally and each square can only be linked once. You can play it over and over and it’s always different! 25 levels in 25 minutes - good luck!

What level can you get to?

It’s another Thursday and that means it’s another Sacks10 Throwback Thursday. But this time there’s a contest! Anyone of any age can submit their original work of “Fat Albert and the Cosby kids” character(s) in any style and medium you want. You could do a digital illustration of Dumb Donald, a painting of Mushmouth, a hand drawn masterpiece of the whole gang or a sculpture of the big man himself. It’s up to you, get creative and let your friends know. The contest ends March 16th, so get on the ball! Check out the site for more details.

This site contains exactly one billion mazes in high-quality printable PDF format. You may view, print and solve these mazes. There are plenty to choose from and some are easier than others. These mazes will keep you or the kids busy for years to come. So plan to get lost in a labyrinth.

If online mazes are more your thing check - out - this - handful - of - links.

And now for something completely different. “Monty Python’s Personal Best,” a series of six outrageous one-hour specials showcasing the groundbreaking comedians with new footage and original clips, will premiere on PBS February 22, 2006. Check your local listings for airtimes.

Each episode will include members of the original Monty Python troupe performing in favorite clips from their unorthodox television series, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” repurposed with exclusive new material. Each of the five living Pythons — John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — produced and wrote his own episode, and collaborated to create the sixth special in honor of deceased member Graham Chapman. The episodes will air over a three week period in two-hour blocks on PBS on February 22, March 1 and March 8.

I know I’ll be watching. What about you? What I object to is all this sex on the television. I mean, I keep falling off. Thank you and we miss you Graham Chapman.

Source: PBS

Engadget interviews Reggie Fils-Aime, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo. The chat covers the latest news from Nintendo about the Revolution, DS and the Gamecube. There is even a brief statement about a possible third iteration of the DS about 18 months from now. There is still no word on a U.S. release date for the DS lite. More info at E3.

Well there was Game Boy Original, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, and then Game Boy micro. So if the DS follows that lineage, perhaps a DS lite Advance is next in line. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Over at Cracked they created a list of some of the Olympic mascots that didn’t make the cut. You might recall that I already mentioned about the Olympic mascots, but I still think I preferred Homer’s Springy, the Springfield Spring.

Homer: It’s fun for the whole family, and the ends are razor
sharp to protect our nation and its interests.
Bart: [touches the end and gets pricked] Ow!
Homer: God bless America.

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The site is called Kleeman and Mike. There’s this fun and educational game all about birds. Just click on the birds as the guys walk past them and correctly identify five different birds to advance to the next level. Most of the birds are from the south eastern U.S. but most are found throughout the U.S.

The site also features comics, animation, artwork and other cool things. A lot of the stuff involves skating and surfing as well as animals -so it’s pretty neat. Check out the animation extras and learn how the cartoons were made. Randall Christopher is the talented guy behind Kleeman and Mike. Check out the site!

I found this while reading up at Game|Life. Drag your mouse around to guide the rolling ball and then try to snag up successively larger objects as they float by. I found that after a minute that I could just let the window sit in background and it was still going strong. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a game- it’s more of an interactive Flash with music. Try clicking your mouse when you’ve collected a large amount- kaboom!

After about 10 minutes the Flash window was completely filled with red fire engines, plenty of grey vans and a sprinkling of people. It’s all in Japanese so I couldn’t read the site, but I imagine I got the high score. Well, at least it took up 100% of my CPU…

Update: Broken link updated.

Sing along with this cute Flash. It’s been around for awhile now, but it’s still quite enjoyable. As of earlier this month, this toon has been seen 7.5 million times on the Weebls Stuff website, more than any other Weebls toon. The tune is so catchy you’ll be singing it all day!

If this toon has got you dancing, check out the Christmas version, called Lapland.

Note: Based on recent data from the World Tourism Organization, Kenya does seem to be a more favorable tourist destination then Norway … it must be the cute little lions and tigers!

Another funny comic from VG Cats. Pac-Man has a secret he wants to tell. I always enjoy their take on humor and games. Enjoy!

Back in the early 1990’s I ran a BBS as a hobby. Those were the days of dot-matrix printers, VGA, CGA, EGA and monochromatic monitors and DOS. The software I used to run my BBS was Telegard 2.7. It had a Monty Python theme to it and I created all my own ANSI art. The name of my BBS was “the Flying Circus” and my sysop handle was “SpamClog”, which referred to a funny Monty Python skit. I even wrote a letter to Hormel and got permission to make mention of their product Spam, throughout my site. (I created a lovely can of SPAM using only colored ANSI.)

In those days, only one person at a time could connect to your BBS, which you ran off your computer. You connected by directly dialing a phone number over a phone line from your computer modem. Unlike the web of today, when someone was on your site, you were able to watch exactly what they were doing. My BBS offered original ANSI art and popular text based games such as Tradewars, the Pit, and one like Rogue. There was also a download section that offered shareware and gifs. It was a fun hobby and I really enjoyed the technical and creative aspects that came with running a BBS.

Time past and things changed. First came the release of DOS 6.22, then Windows 3.1 and then I took BBS offline. People were discovering the Internet and leaving BBS’s behind. My days as a BBS sysop were fun and will always have a special place in my memories… Back in the days of ANSI.

Note: The above image isn’t in ANSI but is actually ASCII. ANSI is the “colored” cousin of ASCII and isn’t really supported by Windows anymore.

Note 2: It’s been ages since I used TheDraw and created ANSI artwork. I also can’t seem to find a single one of my BBS backups on floppy disk. If I do, I’ll post them.