8-Bit Google Maps Is The Best Thing Ever!

This is so awesome.

Google added a new view to Google Maps, basically turning the Earth into Hyrule (or Alefgard, since it looks just like Dragon Warrior). Everything is tiled and pixelated, with little castles replacing the cities.

First watch this promo video:

Then go to http://maps.google.com and click on the Quest button in the top right corner. Try street view too.

Also, during your quest look out for hidden items! Things like Area 51, Google's offices, Churchill Downs, Nessie, random monster encounters, and much more.

Of course there are already websites listing the hidden items. Ben Garvey has an ongoing list at his site, and there is also Google Maps 8 Bit Easter Eggs on Tumblr. Let us know in the comments if you find anything really cool.

Ingenious Danish Shill Lego Avengers!

I love Lego, and I love the ingenious, devious, wily Danish bastards who have built their bazillion dollar empire brick by brick. You have to admire any company that can make you genuinely excited to be handed advertising from them, and that's exactly what those crafty Danish maniacs have managed to pull off here. They are going to hand out something crazy like 2 million Lego Avengers posters to movie-goers who are going to be incredibly happy to receive them.

Have you ever had a sweaty desperado try to hand you a pamphlet on the street? How did you react? Did you slap it out of his hand? Well, that's not going to happen here. People are going to keep these advertisements and stick them on their wall and then buy a shit-ton of Avengers Lego products. And I'm going to join them! I desperately want a Scarlett Johansson minifig even those she has a completely flat chest and no nose.

Check out how cool this is:

And Tony Stark is even proudly holding aloft the LEGO logo!!

I'm telling you, I love those cunning Danish masterminds, but don't ever turn your back on one...

It's Time For Some Movie Sequels!

Lots of movie sequel news today. First, there was the amazing appearance by Ron Burgundy himself, announcing the Anchorman sequel on Conan last night.

Then, there was the announcement of a sequel we've been waiting all of our lives for...

Here's the scoop from HollywoodReporter.com:

Is the world ready for a sequel to Twins?

Universal and Montecito Picture Co. are hoping to develop a doozy of a follow-up to the 1988 hit comedy that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito that would reunite the two stars.

But wait, there’s a twist: In the new scenario, Eddie Murphy would act as a third brother.

Hollywood Reporter may have beaten us to the big scoop, but we secured an exclusive first look at the teaser poster.

Thank GIF it's Friday

I tend towards cat gifs, but looking to make a change today. It's an elitist gif since it means nothing to those who haven't seen The Room, but if you haven't seen The Room then you have far more serious problems than not understanding this gif. So there.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Theme - For Orchestra!

I'm a huge fan of Eastman and Laird's original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics - created when they were so poor they shared a sweater and written and drawn in their own glorious blood. So it's no secret that I think that the dumbed-down, kiddified cartoon is a bastard, bloodless abomination that trades black and white ninja grit for technicolour pie-faced Californian surfer dudes vomiting pizza in your eager face while you grin and clap like an idiot monkey. I barely missed an episode.

How about saying yes to sticking a sai through an opposing ninja's face.

But let's all agree that the one undeniably awesome thing about the cartoon was the theme-song - which many of us also enjoyed on the grudgingly kickass TMNT arcade game. But is there a way to make this awesome theme even more awesome? Hell. Yes.

Musical genius Walt Ribieru alerted us to his version of the TMNT theme which he has arranged for a giant orchestra. Walt is a man of great taste and vision who makes this song far more epic than it's ever dreamed of being. He packs more instruments into this puppy than an overzealous vet.

Listen to it RIGHT HERE.

And who knows, if you're one of those sissy-babies that has been crying about Michael Bay's Super Explosion Space Turtle Adventure (even though I already schooled you) maybe hearing this kickass theme will calm your nerves and vaporise your tears.

And if you enjoy Walt's work, did you know he puts up new music every Friday? You might also enjoy his orchestrated Pokemon theme HERE.

And if you're doing something even half as cool as Walt, don't be afraid to drop us a line and let us know!

The Readthrough of Time: The Great Hunt

Book two of the Readthrough of Time is complete! The Great Hunt is the second book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and our readthrough began, appropriately, with the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. I found The Great Hunt to be about as good as Eye, and about as frustrating at times, too. My complaint stands on the books so far - Jordan, when writing about things that are exciting, appears to be one of the best. When I'm interested in what's going on, I can't get enough. Unfortunately, the books often take some time to get there, and that's often difficult, especially when you see how much book you have left. The end of this was better than the end of Eye however, and I'm excited to jump into the third book sooner rather than later.

As before, come beyond the jump for some scattered thoughts and another bonus.

Celebrity Apprentice Recaps: Episode Six: Dance Monkey Dance.

Want to see a group of fake people, at a fake party, on a fake beach, having fake fun, while pretending to care about a fake cocktail - all because a rich, old white man told them to? Dance, monkey, dance! Welcome back to the wonderfully twisted world of the Celebrity Apprentice!

Last week another jaded, defeated, and disgusted celebrity chose to remove herself from the competition before Donald’s pudgy digit could fire her. Who will become irreparably bored with the proceedings this week?

Join me after the jump to find out!

What's Out? 28th of March 2012

I've risen out of my sickbed to tell you what's what re: comic shop releases for today. Let's make it worth it:

Stryder's Favourite Comics - 3/21/2012 PART II

Hey! Just like I promised LAST TIME I`m back with more comics!  Let`s start right away with JUSTICE LEAGUE

Justice League #7 - This month's Justice League features a guest penciller and a back-up story.  This could be good or bad news, depending on your tastes.  The league find themselves battling a random weird spore villain in what seems to be a prologue to a much more important story...the entire battle is just a side-effect of a deeper plot to steal an artifact called the "Orb of Ra" from some government facility.  No one knows what it does, but I'm absolutely certain that it's going to cause problems!

Some interesting characterization in this issue, not only of league members, who have some pretty amusing dialogue wherein they, for lack of a better term, "bicker" a lot, but also with Colonel Steve Trevor, who is not only the League's liaison with the world governments but is also in love with Wonder Woman!  He's certainly going to become an important supporting character to the team!   It looks like the mysterious villain also has plans to use the good Colonel to get to the League and, well, you know how villains are...

Oh so the back-up story was also interesting...it's a story featuring the super hero once known as Captain Marvel, but now known simply as SHAZAM!  I don't know anything about this character, aside from some fuzzy childhood memories and a single cartoon appearance in the old JLA cartoon, but he seems to be taking a darker turn in the new 52.  From what I recall, he was something of a goody-goody in the old universe, but here he looks like someone crossed him with Assassin's Creed!  Billy seems like a brat, too, rather than the "Leave it to Beaver" type that I recall.  Thank goodness!  Well, maybe Captain Marvel fans are up in arms.  It is probably a pretty drastic change.  I personally don't mind it at ALL, though...perhaps it's just what the character needs to make a comeback!

Check out Wonder Woman and more after the JUMP!

Papercraft Music Video by Belle and Sebastian!

Are you a fan of papercraft too? I visit cubeecraft.com on a regular basis, and I've made a few of my own creations over time. Belle and Sebastian have taken papercraft to a whole new level with their video of The Primitives poppy Dumb and Dumber anthem, "Crash". 

Check out the video below, and click through the jump for the original video by The Primitives, and a few cool papercraft creations. 

Nerd History: Old Papers

Two really cool things caught my eye in the last week that may be of interest:

* Alex Bellos reprinted the entirety of Alan Turing's report cards. The young Turing, pictured above, was, among other things, fairly poor at Latin, not very tidy, and comes across, quite frankly, as someone who would never turn out to be as important as Alan Turing ended up being. We don't get to see this sort of thing very often, especially for someone of another era, so it's a neat little look into the life of Turing. Bellos also shared Turing's library list, which shows a very science-curious young man, quite the contrast from his marks from school.

* The Albert Einstein Archives are being digitized. I haven't had much of a chance to poke around in here yet, but there's a lot of cool stuff:

The documents — everything from personal letters to scientific manuscripts — are held by the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology.

Unsurprisingly, Einstein also struggled with school somewhat, having problems with authority. Nothing wrong with that, considering how he turned out.

Tuesday Bounty! Glorious Bounty Gets Famous!

So after years of plugging away at sci-fi/humour webcomic Glorious Bounty in silence (drawn by Edward J. Grug III and written by me) we had the great honour of being featured at Comics Alliance today as part of their Best Webcomics Ever (This Week) series! Comics Alliance had this to say:

"Almost like if Johnny Ryan did a more light-hearted take on The Bulletproof Coffin, but set in outer space, Glorious Bounty has the brillant combination of low-brow art, violence, porn jokes and jerk characters you can't help but love."

Take that, Axe Cop! Let's celebrate with a brand new victory lap page!

When we last left the Bounty crew they were running away from an alien threat like a bunch of sissy babies.  Bruce and Deevis - in their fancy temporary robot bodies - were jumping gaps in buildings with their powerful new legs. But wait.... PK doesn't have any legs...

Click to embiggen or read it at the official site.

And if you're a newcomer who believes Comics Alliance more than us, you can start reading right from the very beginning here. 

Final Fantasy 7 pronunciation

This animated short from Dorkly is really good. 

This was actually a problem my friends and I used to have talking about this game when it came out...gees 13 years ago!! This of course was the time before full voice acting. Oh and I totally used to call Red 13 Red 12 because not only was I bad at pronunciation  I also don't read properly.

There's also another really good post on Dorkly about Mass effect morality choices in movies. 

The Book Was Better: Stargate!

Stargate: decent 90s sci-fi flick or godawful desert slog? Whether you side with Jessica or Luke, you'll surely agree that the novelisation is a nightmare. Let us fill you in on some details that didn't make it into the movie, including molesting mastadges and a crucifixion scene!

Citadel to Release 145 New Paints. Credit Cards Shudder.

The good folk at Games Workshop sent me an email informing me that they are going to release 145 new Citadel paints to replace their current range. And my wallet yelped and skittered under the bed. If you didn't know, in the last few months I have been painting a hell of a lot of Warhammer, so this is very much feeding an uncontrollable addiction for me. I mean look at this stuff...

In order to make it easier, paints now come in: base paints, shades, dry compounds (dry paint for dry-brushing), layer paints, glazes (washes?), texture paints (for bases), and technical paints (for confusing the crap out of me). It really makes it sound like there's no longer any excuse for not painting like a pro, because now you know exactly what to basecoat, wash, layer and highlight with. It's a process now! They've even finally got pink paint so those pink horrors I've been putting off will finally get some love.

I guess the only bad news is if you're halfway through an army (like I am with my Orks) and you're using the existing colours. Maybe it's time to stock up on some of those. I, of course, just want to buy that huge box set pictured above but am actually going to control myself because it isn't cheap. At $870 Australian it's more expensive than the new iPad. I opted for the iPad. Still, you can go and buy it right here.

I don't know the exact release date, but they are currently available for pre-order on the site, along with some new smaller paint sets, and the new book/dvd combo: Only a Stupid Idiot Is Incapable of Painting Kickass Warhammer Miniatures Now. When I pick up my pathetic handful of colours (man, I want that big box set) I'll let you know how I go. Time I showed you my Orks anyway...

Board Game Unboxing: Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre

Oh man... I've been waiting patiently for this game. I didn't know much about it beyond the artwork and spell combo mechanic, but that wasn't enough to stop me from driving all over to find a copy.

After a few stores (and about 40 miles) I found one!

Join me after the jump for a look inside the box. Warning though, it can be a little risqué. Especially for a board game. If you can handle spells like 'Muzzlesnap's Ballsy Testikill' or a treasure called 'The "Let's End This" Shit', then follow me for some imagery and wizardry.

Stryder's Favourite Comics - 3/21/2012 PART I

Tons of my favourite comics came out on the 21st...so many that I'm doing a double-post again!  Whoa!

Okay, so that's not exactly Earth-shaking.  You know what is?  Batman!  Let's get right to it:

  
Batman #7 - Last month, Batman managed to barely escape the Court of Owls, who came as close as anyone ever has to murdering him - they didn't bother to chase him, he was all ready dead.  If you haven't been keeping up SHAME on YOU!  This title is incredible!  Anyway, this issue, the first thing we see is Batman being resuscitated with a car battery by a young, pierced woman named Harper.  They obviously have a history together, as Bruce seems angry to see her and yells at her to leave him alone.

After flipping through the first 7 issues of Batman in vain, I turned to Google to refresh my memory and found this quote from series writer Scott Snyder:  

"Harper Row is her name and she's a character I've been thinking about for some time. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll be seeing more of her in Gotham soon - she has an important role to play in upcoming stories."

So no, despite the context, you HAVEN'T seen her before and you're NOT crazy.  It's her first appearance.  Phew.

Anyway Batman stumbles back to the batcave and gives us all a chance to catch our breath and figure out what the heck is going on!  A few mysteries regarding the Court of Owls and the Talon in particular are revealed.  Things start to make more sense, whilst simultaneously looking much, much worse.  Still, this is a very timely break because it looks like all hell's about to break loose for the Dark Knight and all of his companions.  Next month:  The Talons Strike!

Of COURSE there's MORE after the JUMP!!!