Category: Mindlessness

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Flash Games Mindlessness

Friday Timewaster: Z-Type

Banner image: Z-Type

We know, we know. Friday afternoons are where productivity levels are at the utmost worst. You’ve eaten your lunch, you’ve had some coffee, and now your head is fuzzy from a week of too many numbers. Or colors. Or words. Or graphs. Or people. Darn those graphs! It sounds to me like you need a little something to do while waiting for 5pm to roll around. How about trying this fun little browser-based game that lets you practice your typing and spelling? Z-Type is a shoot-em-up in the style of Galaxian (created by a guy called Dominic Szablewski who writes his thoughts in his blog), although instead of repeatedly pressing fire, you have to type the word that each enemy displays. This locks your ship onto that enemy, blasting it from the skies in a shower of sparks and fire and death and destruction. Glorious!

Z-Type screenshot

Surprising addictive? Yes. Enough to get you to 5pm? Probably. Give it a shot, Commander, and let us know your high score in the comments.

Link: Phoboslab Z-Type

Categories
History Mindlessness

MS-DOS Games Now Streaming to Your Browser

I’m sure many of you have visited the Internet Archive at one point or another, or taken advantage of the massive library of free music, books, or film. In fact, many of you are probably aware of the Archive’s Arcade Emulation section, allowing to you to play many arcade games from years of yore. But we’re not interested in yorish arcade games right now. We’re after a different species of nostalgia: MS-DOS games. If you’re an old fogey like me, you’ll likely have misspent much of your youth playing games in CGA and EGA, and longing for a VGA. Or listening to the blips on PC speaker and wishing for a SoundBlaster for christmas. Or, hell, tapping away happily on your 8086 connected to a 20MB hard drive and a 360kb floppy drive, and hearing about the wonders of the 286 and the 720kb “stiffy” drive. Ahh….memories…

Gauntlet for MS-DOSIn any event, it was with much glee that I was pointed at the Archive.org’s insanely exhaustive repository of MS-DOS games, available to be streamed in your browser to you (like Gauntlet in the image above). No mucking about with DOSBox or fiddling settings; it’s all ready to play. And for someone like me, it’s pure nostalgic gloriousness. Oh, and a word to the uninitiated: most MS-DOS games are far far harder than the pansy stuff you kids play today.

I’m not sure how long this particular archive has been active, but I’ve had to tear myself away from it long enough to write a post about it—after this, you’re on your own again until I’ve sated my nostalgia-gland.

Check it out: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games

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Cartoons & Comics Humor Mindlessness Useful/Useless Info

Princess Peach: Political Mastermind?

Redditor DrunkRobot97 makes an interesting case for the reason why Princess Peach from the Mario series keeps getting kidnapped, and why she’s still in power in the Mushroom Kingdom. Even if you don’t pay too much attention to the Mario games, you still have to wonder how she manages to pull it off. I know it’s a bit long, but take a look at this brilliant theory and let us know what you think. I’ve posted the text of the theory here, but it’s worth going to the site to read the followup discussion.

Continue reading “Princess Peach: Political Mastermind?”
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Awesomeness Entertainment Mindlessness Music Video Clips

Farty Anaconda

Nicki Minaj’s famous booty twerks centre stage in the (NSFW) music video to Anaconda. That thing is so big it needs its own postal code.

Two of Nicki’s biggest South African fans have decided to pay tribute in their own special way. From the same people who brought you Hipsters and Hastags and the Payday Song, come a remix of Anaconda that’s certainly a roar from the rear.

http://youtu.be/OxHngEGuXRA

[via Shaun Roos]

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Gaming News Mindlessness

Play This: Flappy48

Daniel J. Moran, what have you done?!?! The unthinkable as it so happens. The student of Computer Science at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada has combined two of the most infuriating and addictive games of 2014 — Flappy Bird and 2048 — to create the “ultimate flapping/exponential growth crossover you haven’t been waiting for”. So do not delay a moment longer, play Flappy48 at http://broxxar.itch.io/flappy48 and experience a whole new level of rage.

flappy48_howto

[via SA Gamer]

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Entertainment Mindlessness Video Clips

Website Model Involuntarily Pumps Up the Jam

25 years ago, the World Wide Web didn’t exist. For all the good (and bad) it has brought we owe a its inventor—Tim Berners-Lee—the biggest of pats on the back. Good job, Tim. If you’d like to find out how it all began, check out Wikipedia, read this news article, or even watch this YouTube video.

But you’re not here for that, no siree. Hit the jump to view a 30-second clip of a website model involuntarily dancing to Technotronic’s Pump Up the Jam.

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Cautionary Tales Mindlessness Video Clips

The Most Epic Twerk Fail of All Time

Twerking is serious business. This woman just fell off a locker. Gravity thwarted this young lady’s bad attempt, and this girl’s twerking is so horrible that it resembles someone falling down a set of stairs.

Some times, twerking can get too hot to handle. This lady wants to create a sexy video for her boyfriend, and attempts the masterclass “upside down twerk”. Watch what happens next in The Most Epic Twerk Fail Of All Time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7HzxA8Fe6U

Update: It turns out that Jimmy Kimmel was behind the little prank. The awkward twerker is not “Caitlin Heller” rather stunt woman, Daphne Avalon. Have a look at Kimmel’s director’s cut of the video below.

[via @Anatinus | @grim_tenmiles]

Categories
Mindlessness

Ballsy Pickup Lines From Famous Historical Figures

According to the history books King Solomon had some 700 wives and a further 300 concubines. Can you imagine what sweet-nothings the king would utter to get more notches on his royal bed post? In a series of illustrations, CollegeHumor thinks up cheeky pickup lines for the king and some of history’s other famous figures.

From a rumbling in Marx’ lower classes to Nostradamus’ prediction of a good night, have a look at CollegeHumor’s imaginary pickup lines of famous historical figures after the jump.

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Arty Mindlessness

Comical Water Wigs by Tim Tadder

L.A. Photographer Tim Tadder combines water balloons and bald people to produce a rather comical photo series. To create the effect of Water Wigs, Tadder would either drop balloons onto the domes of his subjects or use skinny balloons to form the shapes around the bald heads. He’d pop them and capture the resulting explosions.

Have a look at some of Tadder’s watery wigs after the jump.

Continue reading “Comical Water Wigs by Tim Tadder”