Picture from Timex Sinclair 2068 keyboard (1983)

The article I link here is called “The 10 Worst PC Keyboards of all Time“, but I don’t see it like that. Instead it’s an interesting part of computing history, with good designs that were not very popular in parts, because they were not wildly distributed. Manufacturers from today could lend some old wisdom (but enhance ergonomics), mostly on the graphic design of keyboards. Nevertheless… nostalgia and cool pictures from old keyboards, that makes computing history so cute and interesting. Not to mention, that I am about to fall in love with the design of Sinclair.

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Lately I came across this interesting research-site and lowtech.propositions.org.uk. They focus on how to apply art-strategies on robotics with lo-fi parts, that are cheap, available and enable basic robotic stuff for even projects with less money. Looks very interesting, especially how to make a very basic touchscreen out of your old keyboard, look in this wiki. Have fun watching. Did something yourself? Feel free to comment.

Detail of GURUs user interface.

Have you ever dreamed of the perfect one-in-all solution tool, that is compact, versatile and every knob and key just at the right place? Welcome to GURU, the sound-sequencer I really have waited for a long time now.

The basic interaction concept is similar to Fruity Loops. When you liked Fruity’s usability concept, than you will be in love with GURU, because they took the interaction concept much further and tightened it up to fit to drum-based sequences and loops. The sound engine is cool and professional, while the performance of the application is CPU optimized like it should be. Best: there are no useless features. Every feature got its own place, is working tight with versatile features showing up just in the right places.

GURU is basically a drum pattern editor made by the company fxpansion that focuses on drum software only. A very sympathic approach and this difference you can experience. You can’t design such a tool without love and devotion to your product. If there is a perfect drum sequencer, than it’s GURU.

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Homebrewed VJ system.

Pikilipita VJ is a homebrew software, that took in total three years in the making. It’s a VJ software for doing visuals at night clubs. You can select different levels and “play” the visuals, selecting colors etc. It is available for Game Boy Advanced, so also Nintendo DS compatible. The cartridge is available for about 40 Euro – shipping worldwide. A version for GP2X is also available.

The creator says about himself at the website:
“I’m a ‘no laptop VJ’, I mix moving pictures only using handheld video game devices.” …and this is great. Another brilliant homebrew release directly from within the scene. You can see it directly in action here: at the club or here a tech-demo.

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DHTML Lemmings

Maybe JavaScript is the “next big thing”. After millions of widgets and other stuff written in JavaScript on the Web 2.0-aged internet, making of browser-based games could be the next thing in the obscure career of JavaScript, since every modern browser and at least every modern user has JavaScript enabled to get AJAX and MashUp-goodness. I would bet, that since GoogleMaps everyone will have JavaScript enabled. That’s the presence or the recent history.

But then. Have a look at a complete implementation of Lemmings and a clone of Super Mario Brothers to see the abilities of JavaScript in browsers in gaming action. How do you do this? Follow this short tutorial on get your html to JavaScript games. It is not that difficult as you might imagine, because basically you model user input, game logic and the visible objects on the screen. I haven’t researched into performance yet, but JavaScript games in browsers could be an alternative to 2D-Flash games. The good side on JavaScript is, that it integrates seamlessly into the Web 2.0 wonderland plus it is easy, straightforward and open-source. Hi-scores and community-features galore!

Transmigration is a wild mixture of sound, music and gameplay. This shooter is not too hard, but the emphasis is clearly on the dynamic of music and play. Feels like interactive video or better the future of music videos. Have a instant play now. And read this related article.

There are some cool pictures for everyone interested in the making of “Cave Story“. The creator Pixel released pictures on the making of, while Derek Yu from the Independend Gaming Source collected them all on one page. Enjoy, relax, have fun, develop.