Bite-sized Muppetry

RIP Colin McIntyre, founding editor of Ceefax. When Ceefax was...

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:08:00 +0100

RIP Colin McIntyre, founding editor of Ceefax.

When Ceefax was launched in 1974, he updated all 24 news pages on his own, feeding punch tape into machines.

When he retired in 1982, Ceefax had a 20-strong team. It went on to attract 22 million viewers a week and inspired teletext services around Europe.

— BBC News

A series of image macros made to accompany Harry Yack’s...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:53:45 +0100

A series of image macros made to accompany Harry Yack’s Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets video series.

Ceefax is currently trending on Twitter; apparently the London...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:30:00 +0100

Ceefax is currently trending on Twitter; apparently the London digital switchover has begun. Join the teletext-less club, dudes! :(

Here’s some fun teletext art courtesy yours truly, some of which appeared in the recent International Teletext Art Festival in Finland.

Teletext is dead. Long live teletext!

Ian Holloway is a fan of Harry Yack! One year too late, but who...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:28:00 +0100

Ian Holloway is a fan of Harry Yack!

One year too late, but who cares? This one incident is all I have to show for 7 years in the multimedia arts business, so I ain’t about to stop talking about it. Glad to hear Holloway, and possibly Mr Webb himself, didn’t take the whole thing as seriously as the FA.

International Teletext Art Festival 2012 is underway, and all...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:27:15 +0000

International Teletext Art Festival 2012 is underway, and all entries are viewable on the YLE Teletext pages here. Attached is another of my own attempts, entitled Zenith, which can be found via the index of my own entries; hit the ‘alasivu’ links to scroll through.

Still looking through some of the exhibits, of which there are happily quite a few more than I expected, but be sure to check out Max Capacity’s stuff. If you like what you see, his Tumblr is right here.

Information on participating artists is now available at the...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:53:00 +0000

Information on participating artists is now available at the International Teletext Festival 2012 website. Here’s a full quality version of the image they chose to represent my entries on the home page.

Here’s the blurb:

INTERNATIONAL TELETEXT ART FESTIVAL ITAF

The opening event of The International Teletext Art Festival ITAF 8th March 6pm - 9pm at XL Art Space (Vuorikatu 22 00100 Helsinki)

Program: Teletext art and music (music provided by BMTD63)

Inspired with the 30st anniversary of Teletext in Finland FixCcooperative (www.fixc.fi) has produced a International Teletext Art Festival in collaboration with YLE.

The artworks are shown on the YLE Teletext pages from 8th March to 8th Aprill. The list of Teletext-page numbers is presented here before the opening event.

ITAF is organised by FixC cooperative (http;//www.fixc.fi) in collaboration with YLE the national broadcast corporation of Finland.

more info: itaf(at)fixc.fi
Frederic Cambus

Happy St. David’s Day. Rock on!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:24:00 +0000

Happy St. David’s Day. Rock on!

Lunchtime is Over [Illogicopedia Gold]

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:44:57 +0000

Lunchtime is Over is a Hollywood film that grossed over nine million peanuts in its first week at the box office. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was the premier action movie of the period February 2006 - August 2008 and went on to scoop three Grammies and an Oscar for its services to the blowing stuff up industry.

The film’s plot revolves around mild-mannered milkman Hugh Sock’s daily tribulations and, most importantly, his quest to extend his dinner break from thirty to forty minutes. As the setting suggests, low-speed pursuits and milk crate crashes are abundant, as are milk-petrol (gas?) bomb explosions at the local supermarket.

Whilst Sock is ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to increase his dinner break, an awful lot of police, innocent bystanders and buildings are blown up, making everything OK in the end. Except, there is so much carnage and death that Sock does not have any customers to deliver to, so he gets a job as a spongemaker instead.

1) Convert an image to flattened GIF file 2) Shrink to 20% 3)...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:23:00 +0000

Who knows

Pixel snow

Peter Ebdon glitchpixified

1) Convert an image to flattened GIF file

2) Shrink to 20%

3) Scale to 500%

It doesn’t always work well, though. Here’s a few examples.

There was a power cut last night, so I spent the evening making...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:23:00 +0000

There was a power cut last night, so I spent the evening making terrible doodles on my phone. The last picture is supposed to be Harry Yack, by the way.

That godawful Skills Centre advert from a few years back. Looks...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:10:00 +0000

That godawful Skills Centre advert from a few years back. Looks a bit better now, eh?

Deadline for International Teletext Art Festival 2012 has now...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:21:45 +0000

Deadline for International Teletext Art Festival 2012 has now passed. Submitted a whole bunch of works for possible inclusion, but I guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes on the website to see how things pan out.

Oh, and here’s one I didn’t submit. All together now… du nu nuh nuh nu nuh! Dun.

"In slightly more bizarre news, the [Wigan] Evening Post has reported that “dozens of footballs” were..."

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:46:11 +0000

“In slightly more bizarre news, the [Wigan] Evening Post has reported that “dozens of footballs” were pilfered from Christopher Park, leaving the Latics lads to play training games with invisible balls. It’s been a rip-roaring success, as Conor Sammon has never scored so many goals in a single two-hour kickabout session. Kind-hearted locals have donated spare socks to be rolled up and covered in newspaper as replacements, while Robin Park Tennis Club have also given eight tennis balls to be used while the search for the ball thieves continues. Our ball skill hasn’t necessarily improved, but five members of the squad have been granted places on the ATP tour. “I’m already ranked British #8,” boasted Ben Watson of his Wimbledon chances.”

- Jesus Was a Wiganer, September 24 2011

I honestly don’t like to incite political arguments, I...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:55 +0000

I honestly don’t like to incite political arguments, I just think Gordon Brown would be better off in a 70s kung fu action flick with Bruce Lee. Who knows, maybe he’s collaborating on Jackie Chan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster as we speak? I certainly haven’t seen him for a good year or two.

Music by Carl Douglas. Hwah!

I’m currently working on entries for the International...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:29:00 +0000

I’m currently working on entries for the International Teletext Art Festival in a week or so’s time. It’s been a while since I last dabbled in such things - almost four years to the day, in fact, for the above piece was created in Feb 2008. Newer work will be exhibited here (and hopefully at ITAF12) in the coming days.

"In 1980, Alan Sugar stole the program code for the BBC Micro and created… wait for it…..."

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:33:00 +0000

“In 1980, Alan Sugar stole the program code for the BBC Micro and created… wait for it… the Amstrad CPC. Unfortunately he forgot to add a ‘run’ command at the end and thought the thing was broken, leading to its withdrawal from the market.”

- The real reason the Amstrad CPC was withdrawn from the market, courtesy the Illogicopedia

From the freshly released John Madden Football review, just in...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:02:00 +0000

From the freshly released John Madden Football review, just in time for the Superb owl.

Video game musician Rob Hubbard recounts the time he was asked...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Video game musician Rob Hubbard recounts the time he was asked to program music for the Commodore 64 game Commando.

"I’ve never delved into the electronic side of [video games]. I still expect to see a magical..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:08:39 +0000

“I’ve never delved into the electronic side of [video games]. I still expect to see a magical world of little elves ferreting away when I unscrew the cart, but I bet it’s just a load of metal and plastic. Hard to think such things could produce full-blown video games…”

- Mister Mysterio, Illogicopedia

Speaking of Freds, looks like the England cricket team could do...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:28:00 +0000

Speaking of Freds, looks like the England cricket team could do with a whole team of Freddie Flintoffs right now.