The Sunday Papers

Fridays are for compiling a list of interesting reading across the week for the RPS readership's attention to be posted on Sunday, because I almost certainly won't be around and/or sober on Sunday due to some Best Man Duties and if I do it now, I can set it to go up automatically then and not worry about it any more. Let's just hope I don't do it in such a rush that I end up linking to some bally pop music.

• • 2K Marin's Steve Gaynor writes about what he describes as Single A Games. As in games which are neither the hyper-budget AAA nor the deliberately restricted aesthetics of the underground indie/retro scenes. Cases in point, Zeno Clash and The Path. He wonders whether this is a sustainable new niche between the two. The comments thread is also interesting, to say the least, as Jonathan Blow notes it's almost certainly Zeno Clash making enough cash to pay for its team. Of course, there's an expense of living aspect to that too. SF is a little bit more expensive than Chile.

• Gamasutra publishes an off-cut from the book Vintage Games, this time a length piece about the origin of Rogue and what followed it. Good stuff, and clearly something I always like.
• Webcomic about my occasional nom de plume Ada Lovelace. Part of me suspects she may have been the first games journalist, in that she seemed to grasp that something like the modern videogame was out there. I may be reaching.
• Comments-threader Helm writes about the artistic aesthetics of ancient adventure games. Pictures are down at the time of writing this, which is somewhat sad.
• Picked up from the comments thread about Qwak - which you really should bloody well play - there's an interview with its developer about its history, touching on a lot of indie-centric topics.
• This was mentioned in the podcast, but think it's worth lobbing here too. The Tale of Tales have a think about the nature of games some more. It's a more subtle and radical argument than you may initially think, if a little semantic and one-hand-clapping. Single player games aren't games. They're actually more akin to tests. There's something there, even if you have to reject it for other reasons.
• It's been Plans Versus Zombies' week. In which case, let's join the celebration with The Examiner's interview with Popcap about it. I think I'm the only member of RPS to not write about it yet. I suspect we'll do a verdict, but it's just plain lovely. In case anyone was wondering what I made of it. I also find Tall nut sexy.
• Not really about Videogames, but this New Yorker article about asymmetrical warfare - as in, David Goliath - around Basketball is dazzlingly written and a fascinating piece of journalism. Anything that ties Laurence of Arabia with something called Full-court-press has my attention. I got it from this thread about the Darkfall situation. Since I'm sort of involved with it, I'm not saying anything else about it. At least, yet.
• So, at the wedding - and this is a last minute edit -the first dance was this: Bobby Darin's Beyond The Sea. Well, at the time of writing "Will be". But still - it's beautiful, it's human and these things matter... and was done for nowt to do with Bioshock, though if it becomes a midnight rumble with mutants, we're well up for it. Congratulations to Peter and Josie.

Failed. But who cares?