Infinite Lives » Infinite Lives Video

Adventures in Shit Games: Cho Aniki #1 and #3

Jenn Frank — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:49:15 +0000

I promise, I’m really trying to not use Infinite Lives as my own professional pinboard these days, but I do have a column about Cho Aniki: Bakuretsu Rantou Hen at Vice Motherboard:

The game’s wackiness and camp are superficial. They’re just show. All the while, Bakuretsu’s characters and backdrops hint at something darker. To borrow from Baudrillard, there is a gradual “perversion of reality” until, at last, we are looking at a “facsimile” with “no original copy.”

Really, I’ve never had so much fun writing something in my life. Am I really serious? Who can tell!

I also made a supplementary video:

Motherboard – Adventures in Shit Games: ‘Cho Aniki: Bakuretsu Rantou Hen’

Games I’ve never played: Shiny naked men in space

In another life

Jenn Frank — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:52:09 +0000

From the vaults:

“I’ll button-mash you!”

Chicago is a Four-Letter Word

Jenn Frank — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:36:54 +0000

I recently moved from San Francisco back to Chicago. And while I was actually born in the Bay Area, I’ve never been so proud a Californian as I’ve been a Chicagoan.

This afternoon I took to my Xbox account, intending to update my Live profile with my new geographical status. And guess what. The Xbox will not let you enter ‘Chicago’ as your location. It’ll let you enter almost anything else—Austin, San Francisco, NYC—but as soon as you type “Chicago” (or “Fuckington, NJ”), it gives you a little pop-up warning.

At least one other Chicagoan has reported he has the same “location glitch” as I have. Et tu? Can you enter “Chicago” as your location in your Xbox profile? Let me know in the comments or in email, because I’d like to make a pie chart.

Update: Kevin Cogger—who is in the know about these sorts of thing—speculates that the trouble is with ”-cago” which, alone, is a crass word in Spanish. Spanish!

As in: “Me cago en el nombre de su ciudad.”

“Now, Retro Game Challenge is hot!”

Jenn Frank — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:34:23 +0000

Retro Game Challenge, the English-language version of GameCenter CX: Arino no Chosenjou, launched earlier this month in North America. Its sequel is slated for release in Japan on the 26th (tomorrow!).

What follows are six minutes of an intriguing 23-minute program that aired on Japanese television on the 17th. It is meant, in turns, to promote Arino no Chosenjou 2, to give a history of the GameCenter CX television show, and, seemingly, to generate still more interest in the television show’s ongoing localization project.

As for the video, I kept only the advertainment bits—some of the interviews segments seemed intended for an eventual North American audience, and I’d hate to leak anything meant for a DVD extra. I also omitted the excellent Arino no Chosenjou 2 game footage.

The rest of the program, though, is essentially promotional material framed as surreal newsmagazine reporting. And while it has a slow start, the video is a fascinating depiction of cross-cultural pollination. More importantly, the folks behind GameCenter CX, it would seem, are just as anxious for a domestic DVD release as we are.

Note: This summer, the New York Asian Film Festival premiered Retro Game Master, the English-language version of GameCenter CX. Portions of that footage begin at 1:33. At 2:42, you’ll find Yuko Shiomaki’s footage of interviews with American fans. Represented in the final Japanese broadcast were: David Goldberg; Chris Person and Jenn Frank, smacking her gum; Matt Hawkins and AJ Mazur; and Brian Balsan.

Footage from California Extreme

Jenn Frank — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:11:09 +0000

This weekend, we made it out to San Jose—barely—for this year’s California Extreme, the classic arcade expo. Parkside Hall was crammed with video arcade and pinball machines spanning decades, including some contemporary machines (The Act, anybody?).

Set to the music of the New Pornographers, this shaky-hand footage is from Saturday, July 19.

Catch Retro Game Master in NYC this weekend!

Jenn Frank — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:40:01 +0000

Yesterday, Wired’s videogame blog, Game Life, posted my blarticle, “Japan’s Cult Retro-Gaming TV Show Debuts in English.”

Last weekend, as part of the New York Asian Film Festival, moviegoers were treated to screenings of Retro Game Master, a lovingly localized version of Game Center CX. I happened to be in the city at that time, so there you are.

I hope it’s OK that I post this—I think the sound of the U.S. audience giggling at Shinya Arino in a theatrical setting is what really makes this so charming.

As for the event itself, the screenings were only half-hour clips, and derived from episodes I’ve already seen (without subtitles, of course), and not many people were there. “But!” I said to Emily Balistrieri, “the real thrill is what it all could mean.”

You can still make Retro Game Master part of your weekend plans:

If you’re in New York City, you can catch an encore presentation of the Retro Game Master episodes. The Mystery of Atlantis episode will be screened Saturday at noon. The Ghosts ‘n Goblins episode airs at noon Sunday and again at 11:30 a.m. July 2. Admission is free.

IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave., New York 10014 Box office: (212) 924-7771

Wired’s Game Life – Japan’s Cult Retro-Gaming TV Show Debuts in English