
Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on Google Japan - mouhtasi
http://www.google.co.jp/
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thristian
On the subject of Japan and Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", here's another
curiousity: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTo-wFfIXKo>

Somebody took a copy of Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo and hex-
edited the levels so that instead of requiring a human player, the game's
built-in physics propels Mario through the level. And, the levels were
designed so that the various sound effects caused by Mario stomping on and
bumping into things vaguely approximate the music to Don't Stop Me Now. AND
four entirely different levels were created, each attempting to reproduce the
part of some particular member of Queen. _AND_ they occasionally sync up for
the more spectactular parts of the song.

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spiralganglion
It never ceases to amaze me what people are doing with these "classic" video
games. I have immense hope that the current generation of video games, ten or
twenty years on, will have fostered the same degree of love and devotion in
their fans, leading to such astounding mods. I can't wait to see how the more
advanced physics and rendering technologies in recent games are twisted by the
brilliant and insane minds of hackers and digital circuit-benders.

There are some good examples already (the GTA4 negative wheel friction hack
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0cUkU9rZyE>) or some of the Mario64 Tool-
Asisted-Speedruns come to mind), but we're not yet anywhere near these
beautifully orchestrated sublimations of classic Mario, Zelda and Super
Metriod.

~~~
philwelch
I think contemporary videogames are too complicated to do this with. Older,
simpler games have a minimalistic beauty all of their own; newer, complex
games are more of a spectacle but lose a lot of the simple elegance. It's
similar to the difference between the deliberate, minimalistic, kendo-style
lightsaber battle in Empire Strikes Back and the hyperactive, flashy
lightsaber battles in the Star Wars prequels.

~~~
spiralganglion
We already have things like this mod of Half Life:
<http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/about/>

But perhaps you're right. There does seem to be a sweet spot in the balance of
16-bit era games, where the technical complexity wasn't so constrained as to
force a boring outcome (as with 8-bit and earlier), nor so complex as to
require a herculean amount of effort.

Time will tell. I would rather err on the side of being hopeful.

~~~
philwelch
I think it's possible to use newer technology more tastefully and
minimalistically. I was going to add a huge analogy to the end of my comment
about the subdued use of color in recent films, comparing that with earlier
color films which were more vivid and gaudy, but I don't think I have enough
of a grasp of film history to really tell whether that was the case.

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klausa
For those that are wondering: today (Sept. 5th) Freddy Mercury would turn 65.

It's also absolutely amazing, I recommend you to watch it in it's entirety.

(I think it's also no longer Japan only, it was on .pl and .com for me also,
but YMMV.)

~~~
patrickaljord
You can watch it on youtube here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX2BQM0D01M>

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jamesgagan
Cool as Freddy was, let's not forget these are ads for google - would he have
wanted his image used to shill for a giant corporation?

~~~
atypicaluser
I don't think you know Freddy Mercury or Queen all that well. Considering they
provided the score for two films (Flash Gordon, Highlander) and allowed their
music on scores of commercials (e.g.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zr5lZWx9X0> ) yeah, he'd/they'd shill.

~~~
jamesgagan
I know them well enough to know that commerical features Dwight Yoakum's
version of the song and it aired many years after Freddy Mercury died.

~~~
atypicaluser
My apologies. Would a spot from 1980 suffice?
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9KDXJ2AlKQ>

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schiptsov
That is really nice mix of several genres - anime, video games, that new crazy
trend to design everything like screenshot from a ZX Spectrum game, and, of
course, that vocal and drive. Really nice work of a modern art. ^_^

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paxswill
Unrelated, but is anyone else's Google+ name being translated properly? I'm a
little surprised at that touch.

~~~
makmanalp
Nope, but I get a "san" at the end of my name.

~~~
w1ntermute
They probably only cover the common names.

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ck2
Wow that was really beautiful. Why not on the US site? I hope they write a
"making of" somewhere.

That's probably the most time I have ever spent on the Google front page,
maybe that's a hint to advertisers.

At the end it auto-googles him too, isn't that a first too - Google auto-
forwarding?

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iamichi
I saw this just after reading the Teal and Orange post
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2960235>). The entire Google animation
is basically teal and orange.

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thefox
Google Japan? Not only Japan. The whole Google servers shows Freddy.

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rrpp
This is HTML5 right?

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bonzoesc
No, it uses a proprietary browser plugin.

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magicalist
to be more specific, it's a youtube video:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX2BQM0D01M>

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Teeooe
Youtube video's are proprietary now?

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magicalist
Well, it's possible to play youtube videos in an html5 player, but I wasn't
able to induce it to use anything but the flash player.

