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Via Destructoid, an article at the personal site of Douglas Crockford, a gent who worked with LucasArts during the NES days. He takes a look at the silly amount of content censored to get the game Maniac Mansion acceptable for Nintendo and the Nintendo Entertainment System. "'Well, Mommy, I'm worried! He hasn't eaten in 5 years. / YEAH, SO!!! / and he's been bringing those bodies, and he carries those bodies to the basement at night.' [sic] This was from Weird Ed's dialogue with his mother, Nurse Edna, in which Ed tries to get his mother to recognize the terrible things that have happened to his father over the past 20 years. What was Nintendo's problem with the dialogue? ... In fact, Nintendo's interpretation of the speech was that Dr. Fred was a cannibal, that he was eating the bodies. That was never our intention, so we changed Ed's speech to 'He hasn't slept in 5 years,' which helps to explain why Dr. Fred is never seen in his bedroom. But even if we had intended that Dr. Fred was a cannibal, what's the harm? He would have been one under the influence of the evil purple meteor. The game recognizes that it is bad, and your mission is to rescue him from this unhappy state. Who would be offended?"

Awesome action sequence from Legend of the Seeker.

Over at the Grumpy Gamer site, Rob Gilbert is reminiscing a bit about the making of Maniac Mansion, prompted by a YouTube video depicting a 9 minute speed run for the game. "I found it fascinating to watch this video. It's was like thumbing through an old family album of childhood photos. Memories long forgotten are jarred to the surface by the smallest of details. An old and forgotten toy. The front grill of your fathers car. Things you could never have remembered if you tried become so clear they could have happened yesterday. I'd see little things like Dave hitting the edge of the porch, turning around, then walking forward and then continuing on his way. I remember this from development. It was a weird bug having to do with the walk-boxes that told the character where they could walk. I knew how to fix it, but it would have broken oh-so-many of other things. It always drove me crazy that he did that." Many thanks to Mr. Gilbert for his work on the game; Bernard's Theme still pops into my head every once in a while for no particular reason.

A snake gets iced in Cippi's latest adventure.

chia_monkey writes "An article at the Tech Law Forum asks the question 'Does DRM Enable Online Music Innovation?'. The piece looks 'at the range of legitimate online music distributors to see just how much the presence or lack of DRM affected business models.' It's a rather interesting read as the author breaks down seven online music stores (iTunes, Napster, Yahoo! Music, Zune, eMusic, Amie Street, and Magnatune...four of which use DRM and three that don't). The article mainly focuses on the ownership and 'renting' of the music (which can be seen with the 'buy the condo downtown' and 'rent a mansion in the slums' analogies) and how it applies to innovation and perceived business models. The numbers don't lie ... price-per-download is the clean winner while DRM-based models also take the lead. Will the market shift toward subscription based models in the future? Or, will DRM go the way of the dodo bird (as Steve Jobs has already proclaimed his preference for)?"

mcpike mansion. Consumer-generated reviews, buying tips and advice, ratings, price information, and searchable in a variety of ways from price to product type.

Voodoo Extreme has a feature up that's a wishlist for future sequels. They run down some great game franchises that have been off the board for a little while, and wonder out loud about the possibility of new installments. Besides the usual suspects for lists like this (StarCraft, TIE Fighter, Descent, Ultima), they touch on some cult favorites that are ... less likely to show up in modern gaming. From the article: "Planescape Torment 2: The Poop -- Loved by many a forumgoer is Planescape Torment, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed RPG set in the other planes of existence. It was a dark game with evil undertones, but also lighthearted and funny at times. Just think Baldur's Gate with an M rating. The Scoop -- Odds of a sequel are equal to or greater than Elvis coming home on the mothership." Any oldies you'd like to see back on modern systems? While I really like many of the ideas listed here, the LucasArts classics Grim Fandango and Maniac Mansion are the ones I'd most like to see rehashed.

In the 80s, kids of my generation cut their teeth on Super Mario Bros.. They went through high school with Mario Kart, and bonded with college friends playing Super Smash Bros. By 1999, though, the N64 had long since proven that Nintendo's dominance in American videogaming was over. The GameCube that followed was largely a disappointment. Nintendo failed to interest third party developers, and frustrated fans with long-delayed chapters of the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid franchises. Coming into this no-longer-next generation of consoles, Nintendo announced they were aiming for a Revolution, and then confused everyone by renaming it Wii. Their actions left a lot of people wondering if the company still had what it took to compete with committed powerhouses like Microsoft and Sony. The launch lineup is kind of tepid, and the controls really do take some getting used to. We've already established that they're not aiming to compete in the graphics race. So what is the console really like? Why is it selling so quickly? What does it have to offer? I've had two weeks to find out. Read on, so that you can get a feel for the system you'll definitely be playing (if not owning) at some point in the future.

TechDock writes "Gamasutra reports that several Commodore 64 games will be emulated on the Wii's virtual console." From the article: "Although no specific titles were named, the only indications so far are of titles from now defunct U.S. developer Epyx, maker of the likes of Impossible Mission and the Summer/Winter/World/California Games series. Best known for their work on the 8-bit Commodore 64 home computer, Epyx also designed the prototype Lynx console for Atari as well as several of its games." I'm thinking we need Ghostbusters, Defenders of the Crown, Maniac Mansion, and (of course) Boulder Dash.

1up has an entertaining article visiting some Animal Crossing player towns, and commenting on what life is like in some far away places and personalities. From the article: "Friend No. 3 is a writer, which means that her normal brain functions bombed a long time ago. Regardless, I visited her town to observe what Animal Crossing brings to her surface. Things were off to a great start when No. 3 met me at the town gate and began watering me. Apparently, I 'needed nutrients.' She then bestowed an owl clock on me, though whether through generosity or as a part of my newly prescribed diet, I'm still not sure. The town was clean and well maintained. The glittering constellation of Runner 2046 AD was particularly awesome, but entering No. 3's mansion was like falling into an ocean of junk. " Jeremy Parish comments in his blog about why he enjoys seeing the article on the site.

It would be an understatement to say that Nintendo's signature character, the shell-stomping princess-saving Mario, needs no introduction. He's a world-wide phenomenon and has appeared in enough game spin-offs to spawn a genre of his own. The title that just keeps coming back, though, is Mario Kart. The irreverent and addictive combat racing gameplay is just as enjoyable today on Nintendo's Dual-Screen wonderkind as it was on the SNES. Read on for my impressions of another powerhouse title featuring the mustachioed multitalented plumber.

Revvy wrote to mention that Stephen Cohen has finally been brought to justice. From the article: "Cohen, a multiple felon and longtime con man, had been on the run since before 2001, when a judge ordered him to pay a San Francisco entrepreneur for hijacking the Internet address Sex.com. In 1995, Cohen forged a letter to Internet authorities to gain control of the address, which he transformed into a highly profitable site for pornography ads. Cohen, who had been living in a Tijuana mansion, was arrested on an immigration violation by Mexican authorities and turned over to agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service, according to Deputy Marshal Tania Tyler."

Chris Morris talks virtual nudity in his latest Game Over column, as videogame characters return to the pages of Playboy magazine. From the article: "[Game characters to be featured in the magazine hail from] Midway's upcoming 'Blitz: The League', Sony's megahit 'God of War,' Vivendi's '50 Cent: Bulletproof,' 'Playboy: The Mansion - Private Party,' 'Darkwatch,' and 'Hellgate: London'. While nude video game characters are nothing new for Playboy, the October issue hits stands just as the storm surrounding an unlockable sex scene in 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' begins to pass. The magazine said it never considered delaying the layout."

Lilla P Trunk Show at Daisy Clover Boutique - July 18-24. Compiled by Susan Luberda ST.

Ms. Day isn't afraid to admit it: She believes in ghosts. And that's why she'll only be touring the McPike Mansion during the daylight hours.

A recently released book about some unexplained events includes more than 50 haunted locations around the state of Illinois, namely two sites in Coles County.

Mitt Romney announced today that he has finally ended his relationship with a lawn care company that employed illegal workers on his property.

Halloween is the time of year when people wonder most if there really is something out there, in the netherworld beyond.