Jamestown Gameplay

The video game community in Philadelphia is ever-growing but Final Form Games has exploded onto the scene with their recent release of Jamestown.

A game 2 years in the making, its June 7th release has yielded so much buzz that Steam made it one of the featured games on their homepage. Not to shabby for this small Philly video game company that can tout itself as the 1st Philly video game release to Steam!

I had the chance to visit Final Form’s studio space and demo the game this past week and I can tell you first hand that all the fuss about this awesome game is well worth it. (more…)

Some delicious noms from Nicole Yates’ Polish Goodness

So the Philadelphia Geek Awards are on their way, and we’re pretty damn excited. Apparently, a lot of other folks are psyched too, and we’ve brought them on as sponsors.

I’d like to welcome on LiveNation and Nicole Yates of Polish Goodness (last week’s Geek of the Week), to the sponsor pool for the Philadelphia Geek Awards.

LiveNation will be helping us print some really lovely programs for the awards ceremony, while Nicole Yates will join National Mechanics and DrinkPhilly during the cocktail hour. She’ll be dishing out her famous pierogis, which you’ve likely snacked on at PYT, to hungry guests.

So. Go ahead and get even more excited about the awards. And if you’re interested in being a sponsor, drop us a line! Join us!

Philadelphia Geek Awards
Friday, August 19th, 2011
www.phillygeekawards.com

Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 299-1009
www.ansp.org

Photo by Danya Henninger

Today’s Geek of the Week column features Collin Flatt, who a lot of you might know from his food writing here in Philadelphia. From Phoodie to the Feast, you’ve surely read his blogs about tasty noms. Read on to learn about how he got into food writing, his massive video game collection (MASSIVE), and his favorite haunts for food and drink.

Let’s start off with you telling me about yourself. People might know you best for your former involvement with Phoodie and presently with The Feast. How did you get into the food scene and blogging about it?

I am a food obsessed individual, like most young Philadelphians, but I just happened to get obsessed a little ahead of the curve. My mom was a bad cook (love you, moms), and because of this, I wasn’t exposed to great vittles when I was little and have no allegiance to her gravy or casseroles, like most food folks I know.

What this did, though, was provide my palate with an early education on odd flavor combinations, and food that was inexplicably out of balance. She made meatloaf that was covered in Rice Krispies, and her Chicken a la King is legendary for it’s bonding properties. Obviously it has scarred me for life. Because of those experiences, I searched out food from cultures all around the world, and made it my mission to be a better cook than she was.

I started writing about wine first, and it spread into food journaling, and then beer as well. Hobbies become your job if you decide to spend more time on them than what you’re paid to do.

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Everybody loves a good story, and local non-profit First Person Arts believes everyone’s got a good one to tell. If you’ve never been to one of their famed slams, you should do yourself a favor and stop by the next one.

Their latest and greatest idea for encouraging us to share our stories with each other comes in the form of a slick little Tumblr page.

The idea is simple: monthly themes are announced and YOU get to submit a story that goes along with it. At the end of the month, a favorite is picked. Even better, in celebration of their 10th anniversary, the stories are limited to just 10 words. (more…)

Friend of Geekadelphia Britt Miller has long been a staple of the Philadelphia art scene.

Her amazing work can be found around the city on almost any First Friday and now can be seen on her brand new website. There you can check out a full gallery of her remarkable works, read her blog and find out where her work is going to be exhibited next.

It should be your first stop to get the complete story on one of Philadelphia’s premier local artists.

Britt Miller
www.brittmillerart.com

If you’re a regular Geekadelphia reader, by now you know the deal. When the Academy of Natural Sciences announces another Mad Bad Movie Night, you can expect a ticket giveaway here on the ol’ blog.

Next month, on Thursday, July 14th, the Academy of Natural Sciences will be screening the cinematic masterpiece Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. Two titans of the silver screen are united in this epic film. Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. The plot is believable enough. “After a species of giant python invades the everglades, park rangers breed mutant alligators to counter the threat. Soon, the battle between massive pythons and enormous gators threatens all of Florida.”

It could happen.

Before the screening, you’ll be able to “grab some snacks and a beer, and then check out the many cool things on display at the Academy.” The museum will have out “some amazing boa, python, and alligator specimens from [their] Herpetology Collection. And keep an eye out for some live reptiles too!”

While the movie is playing, the Academy’s “own experts will be onstage to comment on the many scientific absurdities. Think Mystery Science Theater 3000.”After the film, swing by Public House for a bite. You’ll get 20% off your tab if you register online for the screening. Just make sure you show your receipt to your server before ordering.

Oh, and as for winning tickets. I’ve got three pairs of tickets to the screening to giveaway AND six pairs of tickets to the museum. Since Philadelphia treasure Danny Bonaduce will be in the Asylum’s Bigfoot film… let’s go with a local theme for this giveaway. What local Philly celebrity would you want to see in one of these films, and facing what kind of giant animal / monster? I’ll pick my favorites and let you know sometime next week.

Snacks. Drinks. Reptiles. MST3K style commentary? You want to be there. To register, visit the Academy of Natural Science’s Eventbrite page.

Mega Bad Movie Night 3: Mega Python vs. Gatoroid
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Cost: $10 Academy members, $15 nonmembers

It’s that time of year. That magical time when TLA packs a one-two punch with film festivals with Q-Fest and Danger After Dark.

You’re in for 9 days of great films you wont see anywhere else. Not to be confused with the previous incarnation from Cinefest this Danger After Dark is programmed by Travis Crawford.

This looks to be another year of noteworthy programming, from some very intriguing foreign films, to some insane Japanese cinema as well. My must see film this year has to be the Noboru Iguchi directed Karate-Robo Zaborgar, a tribute to a popular 1970s Japanese sci-fi television series that has been getting rave reviews on the festival circuit.

The festival is set to run from July 8th to July 17th. You can pick up tickets at www.qfest.com/dad.

Check out the full schedule after the jump!

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This week in the Roundup, The Death of Spider-Man concludes, the new id Software game Rage gets a prequel comic and Image brings us the best book of the week, All Nighter.

All Nighter #1
By David Hahn

I am a huge fan of slice of life stories. Books like Strangers in Paradise or The New York Four are a great way to break up the monotony of reading so many super hero comics week after week. The problem is that many of them read the same because they all use similar stereotypes that can become tiresome after awhile. But then comes a book like All Nighter that makes the whole genre look new again.

The book is the story of Kit Bradley and the diner she and her friends call the All Nighter. In Kit, Hahn has created a character that is pretty far removed from most of the female leads I have seen in comics like this. First, she is a small time criminal who thinks it is okay to lie and second, she may or may not have killed her mother. Hahn writes a completely convincing character here that you could run into on any given night in the city. His art is done in a simple style that fits the mood of the book perfectly.

Image has been on quite a tear lately of producing great titles that offer a respite from the world of men in tights. All Nighter can head to the top of the list and is a “must read” as far as I’m concerned. (more…)

Are you a female who’s into gadgets, technology, video gaming, programming, or any other kind of tech-geek related stuff? Are you looking to connect with other girls who share your passion – and possibly plot world domination?

Look no further – Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia is here to bring you together with other like-minded ladies. GGD has monthly happy hours, the next of which will be this Thursday, June 30th, at 6pm at Varga Bar.

GGD is also host to quarterly dinners, the first of which was back in April, and had Maggie Avener of the Prometheus Radio Project give a talk on making technical topics more accessible to less geeky audiences. The next dinner will be held in late July or early August. For now, dinners are for women only. Sorry, fellas!

Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia was started by Tristin Hightower, a longtime member of several groups in which she is usually the only female present (who isn’t someone else’s significant other). She wanted to start a group in which women could talk with other women and feel safe discussing their passions. So far, the attendance has been stellar, and the feedback has been positive and enthusiastic.

For more information, or to get more involved with the group, check out their website.

Girl Geek Dinners
www.girlgeekdinners.com

While Wizard World Philadelphia is now known as a place where you can meet your favorite pop culture icons and the stars of the latest sci-fi television shows, it wasn’t always that way. Way back when, Wizard World used to be all about the comic books.

DC, Marvel, Image and all the bigger comic book companies would have huge, lavish booths where they would give away swag, writers and artists would do signings, and they would sell variant covers to the latest titles. I remember one year where the Crossgen booth was a wonder to behold.

Unfortunately, Marvel, DC and most other publishers have since abandoned Wizard World, deciding to spend their time and money elsewhere. The result it that the convention has become something of a spotlight for small press and indie companies and that the dealers area is now a mass of ½ price trade paperbacks and $1 and 50 cent comic boxes.

What surprised me this year was that the $1 comic boxes seemed to have much better stuff in them than in years past. I can remember spending hours going through tables of longboxes to only find titles like U.S.1, Sleepwalker and Fate, loads of books from Valiant, and the thousands of unsold issues of Warriors of Plasm. But this year I found loot like the three part Return to New York storyline from volume 1 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jim Lee’s first X-Men work in Uncanny X-Men # 256 and 257 and early issues from Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol. Not exactly what you would normally call dollar bin material.

I really think this speaks to the fact that the days when back issues were actually worth something is coming to an end. Pretty much anything published after 1980 is now available in trade paperbacks and the individual issues just aren’t worth that much. Why pay sky high prices for an issue of Avengers when you can just buy the trade? And it is only going to get worse as more comics become available digitally.

What does this mean? In a nutshell, if you are looking to complete that run of Green Arrow or need only 5 issues to have every comic book with West Coast Avengers in the title, Wizard World was the place to do it this year. I know I found some great stuff and can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Thanks to the success of their Helldriver screening, the Philly Japan Arts Matsuri are back and planning another great event to benefit the Philadelphia-Japan Disaster Relief Fund. This time they are presenting 3 back-to-back nights of Japanese films currently hitting the festival circuit, as well as some great music.

The series will be running from July 7th – 9th at the Prince Music Theater, featuring films from such directors as Tak Sakaguchi and Takashi Miike, with special musical guests Chipocrite and Data Parade.

Check out the schedule after the jump! (more…)

Dorian’s Parlor isn’t the only local Steampunk soiree. Philly’s own DJ’s Kiltboy and Dave Ghoul have been offering the Steamwerk Ball to our friends in Lancaster. July 2nd will be the 3rd year for the annual event.

From 9pm till 2am The Chameleon Club will host the Steamwerk Ball for all those aged 21+ with a penchant for Neo-Victorian and Steampunk. This year’s performers include The Clockwork Dolls: a lady duo that rock the Neo-Vic electronic sound, and Troupe SYN belly dancing of the tribal and modern variety.

Of course Kiltboy and Dave Ghoul will be playing a mix of Goth, Industrial, Electro, Synth, Steampunk, Neo-swing, Dark Cabaret and more! In addition to the dancing and performances there will be vendors to attend to your every Chrononaut need. There is no dress code but Steampunk and Neo-Victorian dress is encouraged… and could earn you some sweet prizes!

So fire up the train or your flying machine and get thee out to Lancaster for this exciting event!

Steamwerk Ball
July 2nd, 2011
www.steamwerkball.com