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Mojib Ribbon Game Promises Musical Spam
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamers.com report discussing the bizarre Japanese PlayStation 2 game, Mojib Ribbon, from the creators of Parappa The Rapper and this title's cult prequel, Vib Ribbon. The article says, "Like its predecessor, [Mojib Ribbon] ..is a simple rhythm game, but ..the game takes any text file and converts it into a Parappa-style rap, which players must then follow through stick inputs." Furthermore, the game uses the network adaptor and "..lets players send game data back and forth between each other. Players could e-mail especially inspiring raps to each other, or simply use their morning spam to generate a new game challenge." There's more info available via a preview at The GIA and pictures from this year's GDC.
Someone rapping would I like to enlarge my penis or get bigger breasts or would I like a new credit card with a 'low' apr...
I put a text file containing the DMCA in it? Would a updated version of "Don't copy that floppy" play?
I wonder what kind of rap it would come up with if I were to pipe in my latest PERL/Python/Java/C++ program. ;)
I'll bet it could do COBOL pretty well, as the creation of COBOL was to make easily readable code...
(Remember the reason why spam is called "spam")...
if i can rap DeCSS code to neo-trance tunes, it will be a form of expression and protected under the first admendment?
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Personally, I think that this simply goes to show that "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the Japanese public".
This is a fairly cool feature for a video game. The problem is that it requires people to own extra hardware. A tool called the Dex Drive had a similar idea but it never caught on therefor the community never grew. For this game to work there has to be a universal site where people could share raps like rapsharer.com or something and learn from the mistakes of the Dex Drive.
...to use the ASCII-animated Star Wars as an input source? That way you could combine two inexplicable Japanese obsessions into a single tarball of inscrutable geekiness! Now if there was only a way to add tentacle porn to the results...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
This game looks absolutely awesome.
Now, here's the problem: Will we ever actually see this game in the U.S.? Or, like its brilliant predecessor Vib Ribbon (i still want to find a copy of this, somehow, i've just no idea where to look), will this game never be released to us?
I guess there's really no way of knowing right now.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Would a pr0n spam message make a rap that sounds like most pr0n music?
The sequel's visual style has been vastly upgraded from the first game. Where Vib Ribbon went with simple vector graphics, Mojib Ribbon employs cel-shading to create an effect somewhat like sumi-e ink artwork. Sadly, charismatic mascot character Vibri won't be returning; Mojib Ribbon has a new and currently unnamed onscreen avatar.
Hmmm
How about "Mojo"?
That seems like an utterly appropriate name
I would turn on MTV or VIVA.
I saw the intro movie for vib ribbon game a while back - I would totally buy that game if it were in stores. As it stands, I'm waiting for a hastle-free ps2 mod so I can import the sucker. It is totally cool.
Use to do the same kind of things in Apple's Simple Text for the mac.
To bad I don't have any of them around anymore. That was a longer time ago than I would care to admit (see my sig).
Inkjets and laser printers just don't present the kinds of opportunities that inkjets and line printers did.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Until the game can recive its input from stin which is in turn piped from fortune, zippy or the aspell dictionary file piped through a sed routine based on /dev/random it will fall short of the nessicary geekiness required to captivate a slashdot audience.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Old news maybe?
I only ask, because the Gaming Intelligence Agency (GIA) closed it's site over a year ago... (The site was www.thegia.com) (The link in the story is just a mirror...)
See, with RIAA, they have artists do really bad, rehashed music, and they want you to pay for it. With Mojib Ribbon, you pay to make the music, and you listen to it, or give it to your friends (or enemies?) because you can pretty much guarantee that no one wants to pay for it...now if you could sue them for not wanting to pay you, maybe it would be the same.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
What's Ice-'motherfucking'-T going to do? Call the cops? :P
Just as long as he doesn't voice act in this game....he did the voice acting for a game called Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. The only redeeming quality of that game was that its inanity was mildly amusing. Ice T was mostly just irritating.
Been there, done that.
Check out Spamradio.
Great fun, with great music from Mono.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
So they finally figured out what to do with spam emails...
;-p Just another reason Office will continue to ship for Mac. Look for the SoundTrack export plugin soon...
they need to instantly file for a Business Process Patent on this one!
Watch out, Microshaft is watching and they might get one in before you have a chance then monopolize it via a new browser plugin using DirectX that only works with Passport in conjunction with a Hotmail account and Internet Explorer.... or maybe Apple will append one of their many patents to show that THEY invented it in the 90s as part of the Sosumi project in response to Apple Music's lawsuit regarding never going into the music business...
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
You've tried the rest;
Now try the best!
Here's a natural way
to enhance your breasts!
This is great:
Low mortgage rates!
With deals like this,
how can you wait?
Credit good or credit bad
We'll give you money, you bankrupt lad!
This offer here is just the neatest;
an all-natural way to enlarge your penis!
That was awesome!! On another note, soon I am to mark the deaths of both MTV X and MUCH Music here in Cox-land. The 2 decent music video stations in existence (and Kudos Kanada for MUCH) and they drop MUCH for nothing and MTV X for MTV JAMS (it up their ass side-ways). I got nothing against rap and hip-hop, but I stopped watching MTV 1&2 cause that's all they played (that and Fake World and Road Rash). So let's all give a great big FRAG YOU to the good folks at (e)M(p)TV and the RIAA!
And the UK's EDGE magazine had a feature on it ages ago, maybe even as far back as two years.
From the GDC Pictures link:
"*This game uses only the right analog joystick for control."
If you're gonna make a game you can play with one hand, put some naked chicks in it for chrissake!
Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
Couldn't this be used to trade encrypted files, like with newsgroups?
It will come with the following and already beloved hits:
The deluxe edition will contain two green/grey dancepads designed by Italian designer Pininfarina, a replica of CowboyNeal's hat, and a T-Shirt with a random quote from memorable collection including "I'm with Taco ->" "I was flamed on /. and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" and "Would you like to pour hot grits down my pants?".
Preorder your copy now!
"I am slashbot, hear me roar!"
As for readability, I find that the actual symbol used to describe a notation doesn't change complexity much. The real complexity is always in the algorithm (in other words, in what the program is trying to accomplish). How you write that down may take a few more or less characters depending on language but it does not fundamentally change the difficulty of the problem.
That's not to say that I do not appreciate some useful tools like the C++ (I do hardcore C++ for my work so forgive me for being C++-centric) map, or string class, or even the concept of OO, and for sure, some languages tend to allow more obfuscation than others, but none of this alters the fundamental difficulty of programming (which is why you occasionally see the term "syntactic sugar").
Of course that derogatory term is most often used by misguided academics who fail to realize that those useful tools help a great deal in scaling from a one-page example to a million line working system...
But how long would it be before the spammers are using this game to send spam to other players? I can think of nothing more annoying than turning on my little game object only to find hours of clips from Bambi Jenkins about her excapades (rhymed of course) with her friends and/or pets. And I don't want to know what you can rhyme 4.9% with.
if the GIA hadn't shut down over a year ago.
That means information about the game is at LEAST a year old, if not more.
Way to go, guys =)
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
Another "use" for spam.
When spam can mow my lawn, wash my car, and take my wife out shopping, THEN I will be happy =)
It's back in the news because Sony have finally announced a Japanese release date.
The first Vib Ribbon game didn't use a text file. Once you loaded the game you would replace the game disc with a music cd. Then the game levels would be created based on your music. The levels would be different for every song. I don't know where this whole text file thing came from.
I'm hoping the sequel is the same way. Then you have a rhythm game that's only as good as your music collection.
It was demoed at the Experemental Games Workshop, and two of the guys that help run that got to borrow a copy for a couple days.
It was all in japanese, so none of us could read/understand anything, but it was STUNNING. Its simplicity is amazing (literlly it uses ONE AXIS of ONE STICK), but it still remains a completely compelling experience.
First of all, the art is amazing. The calligraphy is beautiful, the backgrounds are softly moving watercolors, and the inky partical effects add to the feeling of frantic, rhythmic writing. This game is as much a work of art as any I've seen.
Second, the music/raps are totally infectious. We'd regularly have seven or eight people in the room, with one playing, and everyone's heads would be unconsciously bobbing up and down to the rhythm. Add to that a love story (including duets and an anger-rap level when their love is on the rocks), and you have a music game with a surprising amount of variety.
Finally, it just FEELS RIGHT. There's something about the rhythmic nature of the game, the spinning of the letters, the bouncy walk of the character, that just come together to making an amazing experience.
If we ever get this game here in the states, I'm buying it in a heartbeat. You should too.
To use this as your standard E-mail program? I, for one, wouldn't mind spam that much anymore..
Are you in financial problems? (Yo, Yo) Guaranteed low rates *scratchy, scratchy* Just press this link! (Peace Out)
There once was a nigerian named Vishmay,
Who's money was locked away.
I tried to help out,
I shared my bank account,
And none of my money did stay.
There's no place like ~/
So this means that I can randomly grab a story from www.asstr.org and produce some reeeeealy filthy rap?
Oh wait, nevermind. This has been done already. Albums made and T-shirts sold.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
GIA may be gone, but the spirit still burns at Gameforms
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
...moreover, the RIAA will be coming over to rip you for the duplication and advertising costs, i.e. signing you as an artist, as a pretext to go through your stuff and sue you for impersonal use/performance of it; recursion having been realized, the legal system will arc over and virtue reign. Well, until NTT comes to collect royalties on their very nice TTS (test-to-speech) engine, which can actually sing, and seems to do a thoroughly good job of it. It doesn't sound like orthopedic devices for blind people's ugly PCs. All you need now is to hack new voices and vocal styles on your PS3 emu.