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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.1</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">pixel obscura</font></a>://1, 
        <a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E">2</font></a></font></b></h5>
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          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
             </font> <p><webdog><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#693A0C">What's 
           new today:</font></b></font> 
          
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../../index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">New!!!</font></b></a><br></b>
  The archives have been cleaned up, dead links fixed, and the printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the main page!</font></p>

 
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Livin' 
  With The Sims</font></b></a><br></b>
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Pixel 
  Obscura </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Josh Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Real 
  Life </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Check out our newest comic strip, <b>Real Life</b>! Updated daily!</font></p>
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              <p align="left"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#00025E">Random 
                Feature:</font></b></font> </font> </p>
              <p><p align="CENTER"><img src="../../images/thumbs/pixel.jpg" width="92" height="117" align="MIDDLE" border="0"></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html">Pixel Obscura</a>: Josh Vasquez's regular look at the convergence of film and videogames.</font></p>
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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/pixel_final.jpg" width="193" height="245" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 1<br>
                November 9, 1999<br>
                </font></b></h5>
              <h5 align="right"><font color="#00025E"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                </font></b></font></h5>
              <div align="center">
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Pixel 
                  Obscura:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  Adventures in CandyLand</font></i></font></b> </p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  <a href="mailto:citizen21@hotmail.com">Josh Vasquez</a></font></p>
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              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
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              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/v.jpg" width="23" height="39" align="left">ideo 
                games have become infested with ghosts. One of the trends in the 
                industry over the last few years seems to be an exploratory revisitation 
                of the successes of the past. Old bones, however, are just that, 
                and the stars of yesteryear needed a bit of &quot;fleshing&quot; 

                out (fade to a boardroom meeting: &quot;men, we gotta think big&quot; 
                the boss says as a chorus quietly sings &quot;Dem Bones&quot; 
                in the background). In a ritual of redressing, paradigmatic characters 
                like <b>Donkey Kong</b>, <b>Frogger</b> and, most recently, <b>Pac-Man</b> 
                have all been resurrected with a day-glow pulse and bubbled out 
                into a new landscape by way of a wonderful conceit: the illusion 
                that one can implant the third dimension into the second. In essence 
                this neoteric life promised to the faithful is a movement to the 
                geometry that applies in depth. It's a deepening meant to tap 
                into nostalgia and thus, hopefully, into wallets as fans trade 
                for a peek at the &quot;new world.&quot;<br>
                <br>
                As a side effect of this marketing strategy, a new aesthetic has 
                arisen around these once flat heroes that stretches beyond the 
                &quot;fish out of water&quot; charm of seeing them turn 360 degrees. 
                On the one hand, watching something being brought back to life 
                can persuade the observer to develop a new appreciation for the 
                tools used to work such a miracle. Seeing <b>Pac-Man</b> in the 
                increasingly standard &quot;3D environment&quot; format has the 
                potential to help the surfeited player rediscover a magical sense 
                of awe at such video game advances, like seeing the sun rise through 
                the eyes of someone regaining their sight after a year. Now, while 
                I don't want to overstate the power of this awakening (in the 
                end it is just a game after all), there is something to be said 
                for its ability to induce a warm smile if nothing else. On the 
                other hand, there is an interesting A+B=C equation taking shape 
                here.<br>
                <br>
                Mixing the cartoonish with a more fully &quot;realized&quot; environment 
                has some curious side-effects. Treating <b>Mario</b> or <b>Donkey 
                Kong</b> like, for example, Lara Croft (and whether Tomb Raider 
                came before or after is beside the point), or at least placing 
                them in a similarly rendered quest format, forces a strange marriage 
                of the serious and the silly. Even though the ideas behind the 
                games may be completely different, utilizing the same type of 
                overall design to reach utterly different goals, the viewer can't 
                help but see one in the newly cast light of the other. Just by 
                3D-ing the environment of a game you are evolving the narrative, 
                raising the stakes if you will. This is true even if the new <b>Pac-Man</b> 
                is still all about gobbling those little white dots; the walls 
                of the maze are instantly more &quot;dramatic&quot; in a three 
                dimensional setting than in the original by virtue of their being 
                made more concrete. I am not suggesting that the creators have 
                to have intentionally worked out a more detailed plot line for 
                this to be true. If the individual is inspired to let his or her 
                mind wander, stretching to account and plan for the possibility 
                that a threat awaits behind that next hill or around the corner, 
                then a more heightened interaction is automatically taking place 
                between game and player. The intriguing and humorous bent comes 
                in when the character is not a barbarian warlord or a robot monster 
                but <b>Frogger</b>. </loonystart></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Pixel Obscura is &copy; 1999 Josh Vasequez. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  you cartoonish villian, you.</font></i></p>
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