robot porn » Gaming

Nintendo DS = wireless MIDI controller

philip — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:24:13 +0000

Tob has just told me about DSMidiWifi — a program for Nintendo DS handheld gaming consoles that sends out MIDI data to a host application on a computer. Play any MIDI instrument, virtual or real, by tapping on the DS’s touchscreen, KaossPad-style. (Actually, you can control anything controllable via MIDI, which is about everything electrical in existance, given the right interface.) Chiptune fans also can have the DS receive MIDI data in realtime and use it as an instrument.

Now I really consider having a DS on my x-mas wishlist…

Cool self-made vintage Pong cabinet

philip — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:48:27 +0000

Update: Actually, the text below is all wrong. The box on the picture is an original Pong cabinet. The rebuilt cabinet is on this picture. Still could be nice with some faux wood and yellow paint.

On Tuesday, I’m off to Stuttgart to set up the computers and DVD players for the pong.mythos exhibition. Some people of the team are already busy setting things up for some days now. Andreas Lange (left), the exhibition’s curator told me that (as getting an original Pong cabinet is almost impossible) we’d have somebody build a lookalike cabinet. Now look at that box, it’s perfect. I want to have it as soon as the exhibition ends…

I’ll try to persuade the guy who build it to publish the construction plans. Everybody should have one of these.

My video podcasts about the exhibition will continue as soon as I’m in Stuttgart. I already know I’m sharing quarters with the Blinkenlights guys. Gonna have Spa� am Ger�t.

Podcast #1: pong.mythos

philip — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 20:17:47 +0000

I’m currently preparing the computers for an upcoming art exhibition called pong.mythos, curated by Andreas Lange of the Computer Games Museum here in Berlin. I’ll be in Stuttgart from February 7th till 11th to set up all the interactive and video artworks. The exhibition then will travel to Leipzig in Summer and to Berne (Switzerland) in 2007.

This video podcast is an experiment for myself to put the nice movie function of my Casio digital camera to good use and have a try at programs like Apple’s iMovie. I plan to interview some of the artists and show you what this exhibition is about.

Podcast #1 is my first attempt at doing so. It features myself, some computers and a very bad voice-over (in terms of accent and recording quality), but please have a look and give some feedback. My video podcasts will be in MPEG-4 format (H.264 codec, which seems to be the de-facto standard by now). Use VLC if none of your other players work. Everybody should have VLC anyway. The podcast will also work on iPod Video players.

Video podcast #1: pong.mythos introduction (3.8 MB, 2:00 minutes)

You can also subscribe to the RSS podcast feed with programs such as Juice or iTunes.