Paul Brownlee

Your morning dose of weepies — in which a family is formed and loss turns into love. All with the help of science.

Today's customer was submitted by Ernest M. from Southern Arizona who over heard this in his local comic book store. Check back all week to see the other winners of the 2013 OVC submission contest!

Comics creator Paul Dini did a guest appearance on Kevin Smith's podcast "Fatman on Batman" podcast, and talked, in part, about the gender considerations of execs in new animation/superhero kids' show design, Vi transcribed the relevant piece, in which Dini recounts conversations he's had with execs who insist that they don't want any girl fans of their shows, because girls don't buy toys. And to keep girls from watching the shows, they make sure that girls are always presented as sidekicks, "one step behind the boys." It's absolutely infuriating.

DINI: "They're all for boys 'we do not want the girls', I mean, I've heard executives say this, you know, not Ryan(?) but at other places, saying like, 'We do not want girls watching this show."

SMITH: "WHY? That's 51% of the population."

DINI: "They. Do. Not. Buy. Toys. The girls buy different toys. The girls may watch the show -- "

SMITH: "So you can sell them T-shirts if they don't-- I disagree, A, I think girls buy toys as well, I mean not as many as f***ing boys do, but, B, sell them something else, man! Don't be lazy and be like, 'well I can't sell a girl a toy.' Sell 'em a T-shirt, man, sell them f***ing umbrella with the f***ing character on it, something like that. But if it's not a toy, there's something else you could sell 'em! Like, just because you can't figure out your job, don't kill chances of, like, something that's gonna reach an audi -- that's just so self-defeating, when people go, like… these are the same fuckers who go, like, 'Oh, girls don't read comics, girls aren't into comics.' It's all self-fulfilling prophecies. They just make it that way, by going like, 'I can't sell 'em a toy, what's the point?'

DINI: "That's the thing, you know I hate being Mr. Sour Grapes here, but I'll just lay it on the line: that's the thing that got us cancelled on Tower Prep, honest-to-God was, like, 'we need boys, but we need girls right there, right one step behind the boys' -- this is the network talking -- 'one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as the boys, but right there.' And then we began writing stories that got into the two girls' back stories, and they were really interesting. And suddenly we had families and girls watching, and girls really became a big part of our audience, in sort of like they picked up that Harry Potter type of serialized way, which is what The Batman and [indistinct]'s really gonna kill. But, the Cartoon Network was saying, 'F***, no, we want the boys' action, it's boys' action, this goofy boy humor we've gotta get that in there. And we can't -- ' and I'd say, but look at the numbers, we've got parents watching, with the families, and then when you break it down -- 'Yeah, but the -- so many -- we've got too many girls. We need more boys.'"

SMITH: "That's heart-breaking."

DINI: "And then that's why they cancelled us, and they put on a show called Level Up, which is, you know, goofy nerds fighting CG monsters. It's like, 'We don't want the girls because the girls won't buy toys.' We had a whole… we had a whole, a merchandise line for Tower Prep that they s***canned before it ever got off the launching pad, because it's like, 'Boys, boys, boys. Boys buy the little spinny tops, they but the action figures, girls buy princesses, we're not selling princesses.'"

Fatman on Batman 52: 'Beware the Batman' talk (via IO9)

Own the SNES Urinal ⊟

A Craigslist poster in Denver is selling this custom urinal made of SNES cartridges – mostly extremely common sports games, from the look of it. While I have serious concerns about all those grooves and nooks being hard to clean, the seller says that the cartridges have been sealed to avoid leaks.

But be warned, if you’re considering this video game cartridge fixture as a practical item in your home: “I have not hooked this up in a working environment with full plumbing so people can use it.” The good news: “It has never been peed in either.”

I’m tempted to call this a Duchamp-esque artwork, but kind of the whole point of Duchamp’s “Fountain” was that it was already produced for non-art-related purposes. And now I’m thinking way too hard about this.

BUY Nintendo 2DS & 3DS/XL, upcoming games, our holiday gift guide

"Boston Dynamics, a Google company." Wow.

Writes Markoff in the NYT: "Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham, Mass., has gained an international reputation for machines that walk with an uncanny sense of balance and even — cheetahlike — run faster than the fastest humans."

Nothing could ever go wrong here. I mean, seriously: tell me if you saw one of these things running after you, you wouldn’t crap your pants and have a heart attack at the same time.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars for $9.95 ⊟

Hey, one of our favorite 3DS games, Julian Gollop (X-Com) and Ubisoft’s excellent modern war strategy RPG Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, is just ten bucks at Amazon. I think that’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen it? You can even grab one of the custom inside cover inserts to decorate the box with.

Other worthwhile handheld games in the bargain bin (stocking stuffers!):

• Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl - $22.12
• Steel Diver - $9.99
• Crosswords Plus - $6.99
• Shinobi - $11.86
• Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir - $10.46
• Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita) - $16.99 (sidebar link)
• Virtue’s Last Reward - $19.99 (sidebar link)

The photo comes from Emmiranda, by the way.

BUY Nintendo 2DS & 3DS/XL, upcoming games, our holiday gift guide

While PlayStation 4 and Xbox One both saw successful launches in the U.S. last month, neither system's launch exclusives made it into the top-10 best-selling games of the month.

Read November U.S. Sales: New Consoles, Familiar Games on Siliconera!

Etrian Odyssey Untold is $22 at Amazon ⊟

Thanks for letting us know about the deal, funny-looking wolf dude. The number of high-profile releases coming out has slowed down, and our holiday vacations are nearing — seems like a good time to pick up Millennium Girl. Credit to TuteMyPokéFlute for the derp wolf pic.

BUY Nintendo 2DS & 3DS/XL, upcoming games, our holiday gift guide

3D Galaxy Force II is the most ambitious 3D Remaster Project yet. Find out the hurdles Sega and M2 had to go through, in order to get the game running... with improved graphics.

Read 3D Galaxy Force II – "It’s Not Going To Run!" on Siliconera!

Samurai Gunn out for PC right now ⊟

It won’t release for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita until some time next year, but Teknopants/Beau Blyth’s “lightning-fast Bushido brawler” is out RIGHT NOW for Windows computer machines.

Why you should pick Samurai Gunn up posthaste:

• It’s like a bloodier Smash Bros. with samurai (who also pack heat), with support for 2-4 players!
• How awesome is this new trailer?
• Duels by the sunset! Dudes getting beheaded!
• Music by Doseone!
• Logo by Maré Odomo and Cory Schmitz!
• Other Tiny friends (Adam Robezzoli, Lamar Abrams, and more) lending their voices as dying samurai!

You can grab Samurai Gunn from the official site, the Humble Store, or Steam for $11.99 now.

Super Crate Box free on PS Vita ⊟

As part of the almost totally unannounced PlayStation Mobile Festive Giveaway, Vlambeer’s Super Crate Box is free right now on PS Vita and other “PlayStation Certified” devices. 

You should already have it, but if you don’t, the Vita version is the absolute best SCB, thanks to the Vita’s excellent d-pad and buttons and the same portability/replayability combo that benefits Spelunky.

Speaking of Spelunky, the PS3/Vita version is also on sale! It’s $7.49, or an insane $3.75 for Plus members. Buy this.

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With procedurally-generated game content being the hot issue of the weekend, what better time to get a closer look at how indie hit Spelunky used the programming technique to generate its endlessly-explorable caverns? A perfectly tuned mix of apparent randomness and clever structural design, Derek Yu's game yields its secrets thanks to Darius Kazemi, who hacked the code to show entire levels at a glance. (Note that the generator works only on Chrome).

If you're unfamiliar with Spelunky, well, kiss goodbye to your morning.

walterbyrd writes "A team of engineers at Microsoft Research have developed a high-tech bra that's intended to monitor women's stress levels and dissuade them from emotional over-eating. The undergarment has sensors that track the user's heart rate, respiration, skin conductance and movement — all of which can indicate the type of stressful emotions that lead to over-eating, according to Microsoft researchers. The data is sent to a smartphone app, which then alerts users about their mood."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The American Psychological Association has released a paper called The Benefits of Playing Video Games. I found the graph called the Conceptual Map of the Main Genres of Video Games particularly interesting.

I think this chart sums up my gaming personality perfectly. All of my favorite genres lean towards non-social: platformers, RPGs, puzzles, and sandboxes… sandboxers… whatever (solo). Sorry ladies, but this gamer prefers to play with himself.

Yeah, besides social media games, of which I only actually play Candy Crush Saga, all the game I pretty much play are anti-social. Yay, anti-socialness! In all honesty, if I could play Candy Crush Saga without interacting with anyone for lives or tickets I most definitely would. I just feel awkward asking people I haven’t seen for over a decade to give me stuff. Still, it beats the alternative where I have to pay actual money to King a.k.a. the creators of Bejeweled Candy Crush Saga to get stuff. That’ll never happen.

In April of 2010, I shared the very first incarnation of Super Mario Bros. Crossover on Dueling Analogs. At the time, you had the ability to play as Mario (Super Mario Bros.), Samus Aran (Metroid), Simon Belmont (Castlevania), Link (The Legend of Zelda), Bill Rizer (Contra), and Mega Man (Mega Man). Since then a lot has changed.

For starters, you can now change the skin of the maps in Super Mario Bros. Crossover. Your choices include Super Mario Bros. (NES & SNES), Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES & SNES), Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES & SNES), Super Mario World, Super Mario Land 2, Super Mario Bros. Special, Blaster Master, Castlevania, Zelda II, Demon Returns, and invisible. Now you call also still play with all of the characters I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but now you also have access to Luigi (Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2), Bass (Mega Man 10), Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden), and Sophia III (Blaster Master). On top of that, each of the characters comes with multiple customization options and their own strengths, weaknesses, and upgrades. Needless to say, a lot more than just that has changed over the years.

As I’ve said, a lot has changes since I first shared the original Super Mario Bros. Crossover and that’s why I’m sharing it again. If you’ve already played the game or never before, I equally recommend playing the game again for the very first time.

Controls
Arrow Keys ~ Movement
Z ~ Jump
X ~ Attack
C ~ Special
Enter Key ~ pause
A ~ Select