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Inside Leipzig 2008

Inside Leipzig 2008

August 22, 2008

GC 2008: They Are Still Making Dreamcast Games

Apparently, people are still making Dreamcast games. I found this game--Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles--on the show floor of the Leipzig Games Convention today, tucked away into a corner of Hall 4. It's coming to Europe from publisher Redspot Games and developer Yuan Works.

It's a pretty standard little puzzle game, playing a lot like Hexic but with Chinese characters on the blocks and cute little anime characters. According to the rep who was telling me about the game, fans can go to the Wind & Water web site and make their own custom avatars which will then be featured in the game when it's released this summer, though it doesn't look like a U.S. release is planned.

Not really my type of game but it's just nice to see the Dreamcast still in action. *Sniff*, I miss 1999.

By BrianEk

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Posted by LarkAnderson, Aug 22, 2008 12:23 pm PT

August 22, 2008

Space Invaders Leipzig exhibit sparks 9/11 controversy

Although the latest and the greatest games are making the biggest buzz at the Leipzig Games Convention this week, one classic arcade staple is finding itself in the spotlight again, thanks to a controversial piece of art. The installation, Invaders!, juxtaposes an adapted version of Space Invaders against a backdrop featuring the World Trade Center towers destroyed in a September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

Created by French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley, Invaders is at the Games Convention as part of Space Invaders: The Anniversary Show, a 30th anniversary homage to the touchstone Taito game. The exhibit also features an original Space Invaders arcade game and "comprehensive documentation" of the game's historical significance.

The Games Convention write-up of Invaders explains a bit of the exhibit's message. "In [Stanley's] interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well-known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements," according to the convention's official site. "Like the original, this trial is ultimately unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy. In this regard, Douglas Edric Stanley sees Space Invaders as 'a social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power.'"

The New York Daily News asked some people who lost relatives in the September 11 attacks what they thought of the game. One firefighter called it "very, very distasteful," and a woman who lost her adult son in the tragedy labeled it "disgusting." They weren't the only people put off by Invaders, judging from the multiple posters wishing Stanley's death in the comments section of his own blog.

As for Taito, which owns the rights to Space Invaders, the Square Enix subsidiary today released a statement distancing itself from the entire affair. The company said in a statement, "Taito Corporation...today stated unequivocally that the Invaders installation by Douglas Edric Stanley and displayed at the Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany was produced entirely without Taito's knowledge and that the use of the world-famous Space Invaders content was wholly unauthorized."

Furthermore, Taito is "seriously considering all available options--including legal actions against the infringer and, if necessary, the Games Convention exhibitor involved--in order to end this unauthorized and impermissible misuse of the Space Invaders content..."

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Posted by Polybren, Aug 22, 2008 12:23 pm PT
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