First Look: Katy Perry And Kanye West, "E.T."

You know, for all the hype, this is pretty pedestrian (although I did like the money shot at the end).



What do you think?

First Look: Teen Wolf

MTV had this genius idea awhile back - take werewolves, which are totally hot right now and an old '80s movie and make it into a TV series. So, coming this summer is Teen Wolf, the television series. Yeah, that Teen Wolf.

Presenting the first look at Teen Wolf:



Ohmigod it's like so dramatic/romantic. If I were into Twilight (which I'm really, really not) I'd probably dig this.

I'd rather just rent this:



How cute is it that they use his real name in the trailer?

Anyway, anyone going to try the new Teen Wolf?

The Power of the Internet Compels You!

Wonder Woman fans, finally some good news. Remember that fairly hideous costume that NBC revealed to the world not too long ago? According to Slice of SciFi, NBC heard our outrage and has tweaked the outfit accordingly. Gone are the oddly sky blue ill fitting pants and skank-red lipstick. Behold the new outfit in action.

Better yes? Still not totally amazing - I'd prefer if the bustier and boots and lasso didn't look really cheap (and she didn't look, I dunno, constipated). But it's definitely better.

In other news, Elizabeth Hurley has signed on to be the archnemesis Veronica Cale. And she's still really, really hot so that's something. And Cary Elwes has signed on to play the CEO of Wonder Woman's company. I kind of love Cary so that's exciting news.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"

From 2009, here's "Zero" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Enjoy!

Top 25 Atari 2600 Games

For this week's Ranked!, we decided to rank out favorite Atari 2600 games. Here are our Top 25:

25. Jungle Hunt
24. Spy Hunter
23. Dig Dug
22. Gauntlet
21. Joust
20. Mountain King
19. Pole Position
18. Q*bert
17. River Raid
16. Donkey Kong
15. Night Driver
14. Asteroids
13. Berzerk
12. Haunted House
11. Combat
10. Super Breakout
9. Defender
8. Centipede
7. Yar's Revenge

Bringing the Coin-Op Classics Home—Old School

(My interview with Rob Fulop, the man who brought Missile Command to the Atari 2600, originally published in GameRoom Magazine, July 2006)

From the moment I first encountered a coin-op video game, all I wanted was to play as much as I possibly could. When I was nine years old, though, I was kind of dependent on Mom and Dad to give me a lift to the local bowling alley or arcade—and, needless to say, that didn't just happen every day, so I spent a lot of my formative years wishing there was a way to play more frequently.

I begged my parents for a dedicated Pong system or Pong-clone—and they always refused. They knew I'd get tired of it pretty quickly (even though I swore I wouldn't). So, it wasn't until I was working as a paperboy and able to save up my own money that I got my first home video game system: the Atari 2600.

There were a lot of cool (for the time) games on the 2600, but what I was really interested in was home versions of the games I played in the arcades. Luckily for me, Atari was dedicated to licensing coin-op games and turning them into home versions. The first titles for the 2600 were adaptations of Atari coin-op games of the 70s—Video Olympics (all of the Pong variants) and Breakout were the types of games the 2600 was designed to play. Other early Atari coin-op games, like Skydiver were also fairly easy to convert. But it wasn't until Atari grabbed the home video game license for Space Invaders that the Atari 2600 really began to take off. People bought the 2600 just to play Space Invaders. After the success of this title, Atari snatched up all of the best coin-op licenses, many of which were exclusive to the 2600. And, with a vast library of their own coin-op games to draw upon, Atari was the game system for those of us who wanted to bring our arcade game experience home in the days when owning an actual coin-op game wasn't even a thought that crossed most peoples' minds.

One of the most prominent 2600 programmers when it came to converting coin-op titles to home systems was Rob Fulop. Rob joined the company in 1978 as a summer intern in the coin-op division, where his first assignment was building a sound effects editor that was used to generate sound effects for Atari's short-lived pinball lineup. The following year, after graduating from UC Berkeley, Rob went to work full time in the home division. His game credits include the 2600 conversion of Night Driver and the Atari 400/800 version of Space Invaders. In addition, Rob also designed and programmed the home version of Missile Command, a coin-op classic that is among many collectors' favorite games today. I recently talked to Rob about the challenges of taking an arcade classic and bringing it to the home market. We also discussed his views on the video game market today as compared to the classic era.

The Sweetest Movie Ever Made

When Hasbro met Hollywood back in 2008, one of the first projects announced was Candyland. Today it's one step closer to reality. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have been tasked with weaving characters like Gloppy and Princess Frostine into a coherent story. It's okay though, these guys wrote both Kung Fu Panda movies, so it’s one step closer to being good.

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Buckner And Garcia, "Pac-Man Fever"

From 1981, here's Buckner And Garcia with "Pac-Man Fever."

Enjoy!

Anniversary Giveaway: Win A Totally Awesome '80s Prize Package

To help celebrate our one-year anniversary, we put together a prize package to give away to one lucky reader! Check it:

Here's what the lucky winner will receive:

1. '80s Alternative CD

Here's the tracklisting:

1. "Just Like Heaven," The Cure
2. "So Alive," Love & Rockets
3. "Blister In The Sun," Violent Femmes
4. "Veronica," Elvis Costello
5. "Like The Weather," 10,000 Maniacs
6. "Lips Like Sugar," Echo & The Bunnymen
7. "Under The Milky Way," The Church
8. "Here's Where The Story Ends," The Sundays
9. "Original Sin," INXS
10. "Mirror In The Bathroom," English Beat
11. "Rock Lobster," The B-52's
12. "She Sells Sanctuary," The Cult
13. "Birdhouse In Your Soul," They Might Be Giants
14. "Just Like Honey," Jesus & Mary Chain
15. "Jane Says," Jane's Addiction
16. "A Girl Like You," The Smithereens
17. "I'll Be You," The Replacements

2. Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 (Nintendo DS)

Contains the following classic Atari games for the Nintendo DS:

1. Adventure
2. Asteroids
3. Centipede
4. Football
5. Haunted House
6. Missile Command
7. Pong
8. Tempest
9. ... and 42 other classic Atari titles!

3. Caddyshack DVD

"But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

4. Kid's Breakfast Club T-shirt

Tag has been removed. I believe it might be a kid's Medium. Here's your chance to give the middle finger to that guy in the cul-de-sac who always has his kid in that Black Flag onesie.

How Do You Enter?

Easy. Just sign up for our newsletter. That's it. No tweeting, facebooking, or essay writing.

Giveaway ends April 15, 2011. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing. Void where prohibited. Yadda, yadda. yadda.

Good luck!

Culture Brats Year One: A Look Back

To help commemorate our one-year anniversary, some of us decided to share our favorite posts from the past year. Enjoy!

It's my favorite because to this day I still love the song even with the abysmal cover. My love for "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake is and always will be true and ever-lasting. Also? I can still torture my friend with it whenever it comes on the radio, which is surprisingly often. It's like our little tradition that I can see happening well into our nineties when we've forgotten to pop in our dentures and all the S's come out with a cute little whistle. "Like a drifter I wassssss (add whistle here) born to walk alone."


I didn't write the whole article but I did write the intro. It was kind of a childhood dream to "get" an interview from Corey, and, in my mind, was the first big "get" for the Brats. For me it marked the instant when I realized we were, in fact, rad and were going to take over the internet one '80s star at a time.


Concrete Blonde had been one of my favorite bands growing up (hell, I threw away good money for Sting tickets once just to see them open for him). I found her email address and asked if she'd answer a few questions for Culture Brats. I never expected her to say, "Yes." She did and that led to my favorite moment of the year, my interview with Johnette Napolitano. It wasn't groundbreaking, I was nervous as everything, but I thought I was cool as hell for the rest of that day.


One of the best things about being a Culture Brat, aside from getting to highlight pop culture goodness, is sparring with other writers. One of the most fun I've had writing a post was my Criss Cross Counter Punch throwdown with a Vapid Blonde when we debated the best Pfeifferest role. I loved our back and forth and it was a creative challenge to match wits with such a brilliant writer.

I'm not quite as prolific as some of my fellow Brats, but I definitely had a post that stood out in our first year. I am old enough to remember the Apollo program, the Apollo-Soyuz mission, and SkyLab, but the part of the space program I followed most closely was the space shuttle program. The loss of the Challenger is something that will always stay with me, and it was the least I could do to post my short memorial to the crew on the anniversary of that fateful day.


Last August, I'd only been a member of the Culture Brats family for a few weeks before Hollywood gave moviegoers the gift that keeps on giving: Piranha 3-D. I knew I had to write about it. I loved the movie, but it occurred to me that if I wasn't a college English teacher who deals with lovable, beery-eyed, hedonistic students every day, I might not have enjoyed all that gory teen evisceration quite so much. Read and see what I mean.


I'm not quite sure why this is my favorite post. Maybe it's because I have short term memory loss and can't remember everything I've written. Or maybe it's because George Michael has been on my radar for the last few weeks and it's OBVIOUS that he took my advice from last year to heart. Whatever the reason, this is it.



The jelly bracelet one. Because I still like jelly bracelets and I'm deep like that. I really do feel they are the under-appreciated accessory of this new century.


I had so much fun writing this post for a number of reasons: it was when the site first started and we were all buzzing off that energy; it was awesome interacting with my fellow writers in these Criss Cross Counter Punches; and I think most importantly my research led me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of both artists, which is really what loving pop culture is all about. Plus, Chag and I got some really good digs in. Burn!