Filed under: The DS Life
The DS Life: Phosphorescence
Even as a kid (or perhaps especially as a kid), artist David Gibbons had a fascination for all things glow-in-the-dark. Really, though, what's there to not like about glow-in-the-dark junk?
David covered his bedroom walls with every glow-in-the-dark decoration he could find -- posters, stickers, and stars. He even wore glow-in-the-dark pajamas and braces! While we never went that far, we happen to have a glow-in-the-dark rosary hanging off our car's rearview mirror (It's a Filipino thing! Also, it makes it easier for us to pick out our car in the mall parking lot at night.).
Anyway, David used his childhood glow-in-the-dark obsession as inspiration to create the art piece we've featured a today, an illustration depicting all of the Christmas toys he wished for as a kid while laying awake at night, gazing at all their glow-in-the-dark incarnations blue-tacked to his walls and ceiling.
The DS Life: Center of attention
Despite the aged look of this week's image, this photograph was actually taken quite recently, as evidenced by the DS Lite. The scene is a familiar one, especially at family get-togethers, when gangs of younger cousins, nephews, and nieces roam the house, desperate in their search for any entertainment. Join us past the post break for the full photo.
[Update: Original image has been removed at the request of copyright owner. To see the image, please visit this link.]
The DS Life: Sleepy underground
We've featured "subway gamers" in the past, and we've also posted images of sleepy gamers, but this week, through the magic of candid photography, we have a scene that captures both of those elements together. It doesn't sound that amazing, right? Well, join us past the post break to see why we thought this photo is so special!
The DS Life: A young Hylian boy
Halloween is only a day away -- do you have your costume ready yet? Still looking for video game-inspired ideas? How about Dr. Kawashima from the Brain Age series? Phoenix Wright? Travis Touchdown? How about Mario?
Need a female costume? Maybe you can dress up as one of the ninja sisters from the WarioWare games? Midna or Rosalina? Peach or Samus? Mama? Struggling for a dog outfit? Well, there's always K.K. Slider. Or, um, Nintendogs?
And when all else fails, whether you're a boy, girl, or puppy, there's always ... Link! We've featured several costume variations of the young hero -- Phantom Hourglass Link, Four Swords Link, and, of course, Hugging Girls Link -- but today's photo puts an actual kid into the green outfit! Slip into your Pegasus Boots and dash past the post break for the image!
See also: Top 5: Spooky Gaming Moments
The DS Life: i
As far as the Nintendo DSi's new features go, most of the opinions we've heard seem to think unkindly of the upcoming hardware's cameras -- some calling it a gimmick that needlessly raises the system's price, others describing it as an absent-minded addition that hardly competes with their digital cameras or phones.
As someone who runs a column on photographs about handheld gamers, however, I'm thrilled about the whole deal! I expect to see a lot more image submissions from our readers after next, um, April, when the updated handheld finally comes to the States.
With only eight days before the DSi debuts in Japan, Nintendo has put out a trailer with a guide for the portable's new features, including the camera and image manipulation capabilities. Join us past the post break for the four-and-a-half-minute clip.
The DS Life: Four Swordswomen
With Halloween on the way, it seemed like a good time to feature some cosplay in The DS Life! As you can likely guess, the most popular costumed gamers we've posted about so far were the cosplaying Link duo (see gallery below), who took their inspiration from The Legend of Zelda's Four Swords spin-off.
We've picked out another group who've dressed themselves up as the colorful Link clones, and while they might not seem as "sensual" as the blondes we featured before, we think they better capture Four Swords' bouyant, playful feel.
Gallery: Cosplaying Link Duo
The DS Life / Promotional Consideration: Leopard print ad
Yes, two columns for the price of one! The price, of course, being nothing.
This week's installment of The DS Life / Promotional Consideration looks at an advertisement for Mystery Case Files: Millionheir that ran in several "mainstream" publications like celebrity gossip magazines In Touch Weekly and Us Weekly. The print piece features Ugly Betty's America Ferrera and sub-Saharan Africa's leopard. Surprisingly, the latter doesn't maul the former, despite the ESRB's "violent references" warning.
Continue reading “The DS Life / Promotional Consideration: Leopard print ad”
The DS Life: Vanilla Beans
Rena and Lisa make up Vanilla Beans, a Japanese pop idol duo with a fanciful style that separates them from typical J-pop groups. The two recently appeared at Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing to promote their new music single with an interesting publicity stunt -- dressed as retro flight attendants, they sat inside a window-fronted truck for passer-bys to watch and wonder, "What in the world are those strangely dressed girls doing in there?"
Sitting inside a closed window display all day can get boring, but the two thoughtfully brought something to pass the afternoon.
The DS Life: A DS Country For Old Men
Over the course of this human-interest column, we've collected photographs of gamers from a variety of countries, collecting scenes from Spain's parks, South Korea subways, La Palma's streets, and even Antartica's glaciers.
For this week's image, we'll visit a new region, Central America -- Guatemala specifically -- where a young girl is teaching her uncle how to play with a Nintendo DS.
The DS Life: Wish Tree
Since the 1990s, Yoko Ono has helped install Wish Trees around the world, just like the ones she used to see in Japan, inviting passerbys to write down their wishes and tie them around the tree's branches. So far, the project has gathered over a hundred thousand wishes.
Many of the wishes are what you'd expect from such an idealistic installation, hopes for peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men. Some are goofy, like petitions for super powers, and a few are even vulgar, such as this one here. The bit of paper we're featuring for this edition of The DS Life, however, is a wish that might melt your heart. Join us past the post break!
The DS Life: His and hers
As someone who planned and enjoyed a wedding less than a year ago (actually, my wife organized it all, as I was busy blogging), I can tell you this -- it is a difficult thing to find a good wedding photographer.
It's tempting to hire anyone local who seems the least bit adequate with a camera, so long as they're cheap. Even worse, you might consider relying on that friend of yours with a fancy digital camera, or on some dude videotaping the ceremony.
But if you manage to fight off that rational part of you that keeps begging you to hire a photographer for a sensible price, the next time your friends pull out their bland wedding photo album, you'll be able to smugly think to yourself, "Ha, our wedding totally kicked their wedding's ass."
The DS Life: Prank call
Midas wasn't sure what he should do when the phone, which sat unattended across from him, began to beep. His father left the handset on the chair before stepping away for a moment, and Midas was too young to know what the appropriate action would be for situations such as these.
Would it be rude if he answered the phone? How would he explain to the caller that his father was currently indisposed? What exactly does "indisposed" mean, anyway?
Children aren't known for their patience, so it was only a few seconds before Midas hopped off his chair, peeked at the mobile's screen to see if it was a number he recognized, and lifted the phone to his ear.
The DS Life: Missed Connections
Aug 27 - Girl At Keisei Takasago Station - m4w - 37 - (Katsushika) pic
Reply to: pers-8160291452720@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-27, 11:59PM JT
The DS Life: Guitar Heroics
No, the above clip isn't our primary subject for this week's The DS Life, but it is related and, not to mention, totally awesome.
Looking for a more console-authentic experience with Guitar Hero: On Tour, Hack A Day reader Eric Ruckerman modified a wireless Guitar Hero PS2 controller to fit a Nintendo DS and wired the peripheral's buttons into the system. He also added a transmitter to play the game's sound through his home sound system.
Pretty slick, but how can he see the notes coming down on the screen? A mirror would help! Anyway, step past the post break for a shot of Eric's setup and a photograph of someone playing Guitar Hero: On Tour with more traditional controls.
See also: The DS Life: While My Guitar Grip Gently Weeps
The DS Life: Captionz needed
Never one to let a good thing last, we've packed this week's edition of The DS Life with no less than nine kittens! The images all have two things in common, felines and DSes. It's your job to find that missing component -- lulz!
