Do you remember 0 and 1, my friends? This is an odd short, but it's has some damn good animation. I'm not entirely sure what it's about, but it involves a big bad guy, an unlikely hero, and a princess that keeps being taken to another castle--classic video game themes. The art reminds me of Psychonauts and the presentation style is a lot like Viewtiful Joe. Never heard of these games? That's fine. You're bound to notice something, be it the 2D transfers, Super Mario sounds, Sonic the Hedgehog bounces, Street Fighter boss battle, Zelda princess, TMNT exit, super copter, or race car ending. If not, hey, it's still a fun 4 minutes. 

This video was part of a Bachelor thesis at the University of Applied science and art Hannover. The Super Mario Bros. game, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, is not longer bound to the television size and get interactive with a new environment. The emphasis of my thesis is on the matchmoving work. It is the process of matching CG elements into live-action footage.

Sure, we've seen Tetris  pop up in unusual places before, but never on a liquid 3DTV. While rows of droplets don't actually create the image here -- it's merely "painted" onto the falling H2O pixels -- computer-controlled solenoid valves can cycle 50-droplet curtains of water at up to 60Hz, making for a video-capable projector screen. See it in action after the break, or hit up the source link for a deep dive into how it works.

Now that OnLive's beta is (kind of) out the door -- a "bumpy takeoff" as coined by founder Steve Perlman -- the company is talking about its future plans. One of those happens to be a piece of hardware dubbed the MicroConsole that'll serve as the link from the service to your TV. Talking with Joystiq at E3, Perlman said it expects to push the device out "by the end of 2010" and that beta users are already using it. So, when can we get in on that beta?

As if smoking didn't make us look cool enough, nicotine lovers now have another way to enjoy their cancer sticks, thanks to a new set of Zippo lighters from SEGA. As Walyou reports, the game company recently unveiled a new line of lighters designed to look like SEGA game consoles. Smokers and/or pyromaniacs can choose between a 16-bit Mega Drive Genesis console, or a 32-bit Saturn version. Both are available in white or black and are reportedly small enough to fit in your pocket. The only problem, though, is that a single console lighter will cost you about $114 -- not to mention the fact that it apparently requires a (Japanese language) manual to use properly. Then again, if you're serious about smoking, gaming or just wasting money, this kind of stuff is probably right up your alley.

A movie about Second Life and gaming is screening at this year's prestigious Cannes Film Festival, which opens today. The name of the film is R U There, a Dutch/French production partly shot in Taipei, and partly in Second Life. It's about a professional gamer who falls in love with a beautiful Taiwanese girl, who invites him to deepen their relationship in the metaverse. Check out the immensely stylish trailer, which sort of suggests Wong Kar-Wai meets CounterStrike.

Tetris and Contra, 2 games that were highly popular during the 8bit ~ 16bit video game age. And somebody clever enough has come with a funny little animation where you can see how Contra fights through Tetris.

This is short film directed by Gavin Kelly, it follows 4 MMORPG players talking about their online persona's. As they tell their stories, we see them go about their everyday lives against the mundane backdrop of city life...but as their Avatars.

It's Memorial Day Weekend, so how about a little stop-motion video game battle? We don't want you to have to think too hard while you're drinking yourself into the emergency room (in honor of the men and women who have died in service to our country, of course). So, we submit to you two amateur videos that have recently hit the Interwebs for a little compare/contrast debate.