Remember all those old Warner Brothers cartoons with the weird Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson-style contraptions? You know, the one where the ball goes down a ramp, knocks over a line of dominoes, sending one down onto a teeter totter with a lit candle at the other end which burns a hold in a rope allowing a piece of cheese to drop into a mouse cage, making the mouse inside run while powering a pulley which opens a door that hides a spring-loaded boxing glove behind it? Or how about the one where a toy car with a matchstick attached to it rolls down a ramp, striking the match lit, then lighting a small firecracker which sends a small rock flying on top of a button which activated a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box that bumps a wooden plank holding a small glass of water which knocks over and pours into a measuring cup which then gets heavy enough to activate a catapult that flings a bomb at the unwitting target? Ever wondered how cool it would be to actually build one yourself? Well thanks to developer Kevin Ryan and publisher Jeff Tunnell, now you can. The Incredible Machine was originally published by Dynamix and Sierra Entertainment. From 93 to 95, the series had the same developers, but a different group of developers worked on 2000’s Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions and 2001’s The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions. The entire series and intellectual property was acquired by Jeff Tunnell’s Pushbutton Labs earlier this month.
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The best way to describe Epic/Chair Entertainment’s Xbox Live offering is an old school gaming experience with a new school style. Although Shadow Complex contains 3D graphics powered by Unreal 3, its gameplay is reminiscent of old school 2d games such as Metroid. The game’s plot, penned by comic book writer Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, X-Factor), is a side story to the Orson Scott Card novel Empire. You play as Jason Flemming, an everyday guy who was doing some rock climbing with his girlfriend Claire. When Claire is captured by members of a terrorist organization (which has already assassinated the vice president by the way), it’s up to you to rescue her.
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HollywoodReporter is reporting that Nickelodeon has spent US$60 million to purchase the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from Mirage Studios and 4Kids Entertainment. This will bring an end to the current TMNT animated series produced by 4Kids. Nickelodeon reportedly has plans for a CG animated television series and a feature film both shooting for a 2012 debut. They wish to reboot and reintroduce the series to new and old audiences. All merchandising rights were also part of the deal and it has already been stated they plan to continue working closely with Playmates Toys, who have long held the TMNT toy license. It was not clear whether or not Mirage would continue to publish TMNT comics, though I would find it hard to believe that wouldn’t be part of the contract negotations to at least let the TMNT creators continue to add content to their creations.

One wonders if the breakdown in talks with Fathom Entertainment to release the Turtles Forever movie nationwide in theaters was a result of these negotiations. We reported on the Turtles Forever movie here and recently talked about its theatrical release cancelation in the most recent podcast found here.

We also have an active discussion on the movie on our forums here. Feel free to add your thoughts on the movie in the thread or your thoughts on the TMNT franchise deal in the comments below!

UPDATE! – Peter Laird updated his blog with some thoughts on the deal and his decision.

This video features Daredevil, Tigra, Astonishing Beast, and Nova. Stay tuned for Part 2 in two weeks!

Does LOST’s handling of time travel make Flashforward fall flat? Can anything top it ever again? Logan lets us know his thoughts on Brutal Legend, Bioware announces the street date for Mass Effect 2, and — try as they might — Mattel can’t seem to get anything right.

(Are you excited for Flashforward? Mass Effect 2? The end of the Pontiac line? Leave your thoughts in a comment below!)

Show notes after the jump!

Audio Netcast Details
Subscribe to the Powetcast on iTunes
Direct Link: Powetcast Episode 21: Back in Time

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Dane Boe of Gagfilms.com knows how to mash. Sure theres a thousand Mugen videos on Youtube, and there’s no shortage of flash junk on Newgrounds either. But these simple and to the point videos are ridiculous fun and have better production values than you might expect.

Watch two more films putting pitting Contra and Sonic against easy targets. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

When Sony entered the market as a console manufacturer, they began a whole new era of gaming, and much of it was due to the rise of disc-based gaming. Disc based systems at the time were becoming more commonplace due to CDs being easier and cheaper to manufacture. Since they could hold more information than floppy disks and cartridges, it was easy to see why they were becoming increasingly attractive to developers. Even before the Sony, there were already several disc-based systems on the market, although few of them fully utilized the potential of the added storage space and horse power of the medium. The Sega CD for instance, was merely an add-on to the Sega Genesis. Most of its line up either consisted of amped-up versions of Sega Genesis titles, arcade ports, and interactive movies. such as the controversial Night Trap. The Super CD, an add on for the Turbographix-16, had a slightly more impressive lineup (including the highly sought after Dracula X), but it never made it beyond the borders of Japan. The 3DO, which was a standalone system, carried many of the interactive movies that graced the Sega CD, and it also boasted arcade-perfect ports of games such as Samurai Showdown and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. However, its high price tag prevented it from making a huge impact in the marketplace. The Phillips CD-I, just plain sucked.

Around the early 90s, Nintendo wanted to jump into the CD gaming market. Originally, it was Sony who would help them develop the technology that would power the new system. Sony was of course no stranger to gaming. Under the name Sony Imagesoft, they developed and published several games for their soon-to-be competitors (in fact, you may have even seen a couple of them as Lost Classics). However, the deal would fall through due to lawsuits on both sides, and Nintendo opted to go with Phillips instead. That deal would also fall apart, and Nintendo would eventually abandon the concept of a CD based gaming system altogether in favor of cartridge-based the Nintendo 64. It’s because of this reason that many suspect that the Playstation is what Nintendo’s CD system would have been. Regardless of weather or not that rumor was true, it was ironic that Sony, the people slated to work with Nintendo on their new hardware, instead usurped their place as top dog console manufacturer.
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