Video Games and Art (Video Games AS Art) (and so on)

thanks, i pretty much ran out of black bricks after this. but i want to do another one instead and keep it on my shelf. perhaps one with more colour

also the aspect ratio of the brick sizes means they look a little stretched horizontally. this would lend itself well to atari type ones, or bbc mode 2 graphics!

Modes 2 and 5 had pixels that were twice as wide as they were tall. Modes 1 and 4 had square pixels. The aspect ratio for Lego bricks is something like 1 unit high, two thirds of a unit wide?
http://www.lugnet.com/~330/FAQ/Build/dimensions

oh i'm using 2 brick slots horizontally to 1 vertically, because i have more thick bricks than thin.

so yeah, if i just used single bricks it would be then stretched upwards. i tried this actually with a galaxian sprite and it looked stupid.

some interesting picks.
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/winninggames.pdf

― Stone Colde Sylke Freek (forksclovetofu), Friday, May 6, 2011 12:10 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hmm... "interesting" indeed

― Nhex, Friday, May 6, 2011 10:21 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

messed up

― Lamp, Friday, May 6, 2011 10:23 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

metroid prime 2... smh...

okay i'm happy with this one, i didn't have any pink lego tho

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_I3eKqGiWLz8/TcxM_D4ykRI/AAAAAAAAAFM/wyYc8P-srR0/s512/2011-05-12%2022.04.25.jpg

Way of the AS-PLODING FIST!!!

that looks A+!
instructions, please

Good work, sir!

(eyes .jpg, looks at bag of lego on the floor, strokes chin)

Those look very fun to make! They also look awesome.

Games= art, apparently http://www.techspot.com/news/43696-the-us-legally-recognizes-video-games-as-an-art-form.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dc8487e9cc70318%2C0

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2011/06/the-aesthetics-of-video-games.html#more

scroll down. video game art exhibit

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters/

what is...art

Marble Madness is art

Over the next few years, we would like to complete this initial selection with Spacewar! (1962), an assortment of games for the Magnavox Odyssey console (1972), Pong (1972), Snake (originally designed in the 1970s; Nokia phone version dates from 1997), Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), Zork (1979), Tempest (1981), Donkey Kong (1981), Yars’ Revenge (1982), M.U.L.E. (1983), Core War (1984), Marble Madness (1984), Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), NetHack (1987), Street Fighter II (1991), Chrono Trigger (1995), Super Mario 64 (1996), Grim Fandango (1998), Animal Crossing (2001), and Minecraft (2011).

way to reach for the stars there

or you know, i could just let them come over to my house and borrow some stuff

For one weird, horrible moment there I thought Yars' Revenge read Custer's Revenge.

okay that would be amazing

hahaha oh god that would be an amazing choice

xposts!

the world's most unsurprising xpost

was coming to post that link in lolz thread

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/moma-video-games-art

I haven't read this yet but I suspect dude's picture is going to tell me everything I need to know about the article:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/2/26/1235669002764/Badge-Jonathan-Jones-on-A-001.jpg

JONATHANJONES
SHART
BLOG

I read about three sentences of dude's column before the urge to punch my computer became overwhelming and I had to stop

good choice w/ dwarf fortress!

The worlds created by electronic games are more like playgrounds where experience is created by the interaction between a player and a programme.

nabokov to thread

ya seems like a sound enough defn of art to me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD_(video_game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnNgv1qDLGM

So often when someone wants to challenge the idea of what a game is, the solution is: meandering around in some landscape, no points or score or levels. Virtual reality, Second Life, Proteus ... it's a very TED conference mode of game abstraction. But to me the real essence of video gaming is in rule sets, and the nuances of gameplay. The absence of rules in a game can be an choice in an art game, but if you can't abstract the idea of game rules beyond eliminating them altogether I don't really feel like you're qualified to think about games as art.

i don't disagree with that. journey does a good job of it i think.

Agreed.

otm. As with most art, it isn't the song, it's the singer.

what do you guys think of demo scene stuff? those dudes seem to have gotten lost in the conversation.

I think of that stuff as programming art.

like their code is really clean? a lot of those dudes went on to games and gaming hardware.

Not just that it's clean, but it's creative. They're like Joey Pants in The Matrix, to use the most hackneyed example possible.

But also it's very much in the tradition of abstract animation, going back to Oskar Fischinger or whatev

i feel the same way, they're sort of related to this, but essentially little pieces or code sculptures

what's the barrier to accepting them as the standard bearers for video game art rather than footnotes? as for influences, i really see them being more aligned with graffiti than avant animation.

what's the barrier to accepting them as the standard bearers for video game art rather than footnotes?

They can be, and maybe they are. But these demoscene videos aren't games, in the same way that cutscenes aren't games. In the same way that the matte painting isn't a game, but if you put it in the background and let Mario run across it then it's part of a game's art assets. And it offers programmers the sort of challenges that make them great candidates to work in the game industry, as you said.

as for influences, i really see them being more aligned with graffiti than avant animation.

why?

re: graffiti, they're grouped in crews, it's full of boasting and shoutouts, associated with vaguely illegal activity, etc... The effects are deployed and received, and when you read reactions from their peers to their execution, it's a lot like someone landing a particularly difficult skateboard trick.
i agree they aren't games in the traditional sense, but they are certainly not videos -- they are intended to be "played" on what you could call a specific set of instruments, and it's up to the audience to meet those demands, in the same way it's up to a game player to gather some arbitrary set of achievements to advance the game.

So are the demoscenes different every time, based on some sort of user input?

re: graffiti, they're grouped in crews, it's full of boasting and shoutouts, associated with vaguely illegal activity, etc...

You could say the same thing about abstract expressionism. Also there are plenty of graffiti artists who don't fit that description.

"So are the demoscenes different every time, based on some sort of user input?"
kind of. they depend on what kind of hardware you put together etc... what modes you choose.

that would be an interesting game, pick which name is the abstract expressionist, graffiti crew, or demo group.

they depend on what kind of hardware you put together etc... what modes you choose.

Like a synthesizer?

some demos were optimized for gravis sound board if that's what you mean. there's very much a performative aspect to it, since what's impressive about them is the ability to do so much with so little. to flatten them to videos destroys the ritual.

some demos were optimized for gravis sound board if that's what you mean.

What I mean is: the visuals are different depending on how you adjust the knobs or levers or etc., whether they're tangible or virtual. A live performance.