Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Yak attack


I was trying to figure out what wii was, and then I got to thinking about the time I spent brain storming at Interval Research, (a Paul Allen start-up), and then I opened the file cabinet and lost several hours looking at all the notes for these elaborate games we were imagining, which didn't quite have the technology ready for them. This yak picture was in the files. I was just learning Photoshop and having much fun with it.

There were some very wild ideas in the works... I only participated in it for a couple of months. It was in 1996, and that's when I got my first pooter. One name for the project that I liked was "Refried Beam."

They had technology to track movement so you became a character on screen. But cameras still all had wires, and it never turned into anything.

EXCEPT, googling right along I found that in 1999 they did come out with a product which related to what we were working on.



but I don't think that caught on either. We were going to have them surfing in hot lava with tiki trolls and other weirdness.

Is this what wii is like now?


I see that one of the nice people associated with the deep code of the project is now "creating a new computing paradigm that replicates the structure and function of the human neocortex."

7 comments:

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

I like how your team planned to throw lava and tikis into the surfing game! I find it odd that people are often so prosaic in whatever medium they're working in. They aren't thinking, "Hey, this is a cartoon (or video game), and anything is possible...

Linda Davick said...

Yak Attack = hilarious.

I've been curious about wii too. Then yesterday in the comics, Sally Forth and her husband were playing with one, and instantly my interest faded. (Sally Forth is elderly!) Then it occured to me that I could probably be Sally Forth's mudda.

Sally said...

Namowal, I couldn't agree more about how prosaic people get. And when it's a new medium, that's the time to break things wide open.

If you saw all the truly nutty ideas we were developing-- what a bring down the final product was.

Linda, it caught my idea on Pioneer W's blog that she's now being sponsored by wii, which seems rather unpioneer like. When I followed the advertiser link it didn't clarify anything.

Anonymous said...

I love Wii but don't have a clue how it works.

We play with the grandkids or just the two of us. Bowling is my fav. Boxing tuckers me right out. So perhaps I should box more...

Sally said...

So Jean, is it virtual traditional sports?

Anonymous said...

I just keep thinking of the lyrics "Yakety yak (don't talk back)!"

Linda, how can you read Sally Forth? I haven't been able to read mainstream comics since we produced Funnnies!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, Linda, I forgot: I was the one reading single-panel gags 8 hours a day, not you!