Beware the jackass side of the Force. Once you journey down its path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

Link via Popped Culture | Image: Kalafioro

Last Wednesday, I posted six geeky love songs. Thanks to some excellent suggestions by readers, I've added six more. Enjoy!

The theme music from The Legend of Zelda, written by video game musical composer Koji Kondo in 1986, has captivated gamers as a musical score of enduring quality. Here's a roundup of variations on that music.

(Image: Qinni)


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George Randy performed the theme on a Moog Etherwave Theremin.


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YouTube user DrGusto and his friends formed a quartet consisting of a trumpet, two trombones, and a tuba.


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This past May, YouTube user JapanJens got married in Linkoping, Sweden and used the Zelda theme as a wedding march. The organist switches from Wagner's Bridal Chorus to Zelda at 1:40.


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Diwa de Leon vocalized four parts and accompanied himself on a violin in this arrangement.


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This demonstration of Tesla coil music was given at DucKon 18 last year in Chicago.


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There's an app that turns an iPhone into a functional ocarina. This is, of course, a reference to the LOZ game The Ocarina of Time.


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No amateurs here -- this is the actual Boston Symphony Orchestra performing the Zelda theme.


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I Fight Dragons, a Chicago-based band that drinks deep from the well of the Nintendo tradition, offered this glorious version. The voice balloons by band member Laura were a nice touch. (via Nerd Bastards)

Remember those spooky scenes from Star Trek when Borg drones would attack -- and the first sign of them was their laser eyepieces peering through the mist? Instructables user lemonie was inspired by them to create his own functional laser eyepiece. It's functional in the sense that the lens is from a set of binoculars. Scroll down for a video of the gadget in action.

Link via technabob | Lemonie's Website | Photo: lemonie


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This video is in Russian, so I can only guess about the conversation between Logan and the manicurist. But she clearly doesn't take it very well.

Thanks to commenter themidnight, we now have a subtitled video. Anyway, I think that this is a fake. The real Wolverine has claws about two or three inches longer than this guy.

via Bits & Pieces

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Mattheiu S. of Buzzfeed compiled ten different versions of the Imperial March from Star Wars, some of which we've already covered here. But this one is new to our humble blog: a performance by the official band of the Buckingham Palace guards.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ

Etsy user Undead made this simply adorable zombie Snorlax. Makes you just want to hug him to pieces, right?

Well, maybe that's just me. Anyway: notice that someone has been shooting him in the belly. Bad, bad, bad. Aim for the head, folks.

The whole Etsy store is pretty interesting, especially the sociopathic Care Bears.

Link via Albotas | Previously: Snorlax Dress

This image, by an artist unknown to me, is spot on. I've never had a game master that insisted on using encumbrance rules, so as long no one tried to put a horse in a fanny pack. Most video games that I've played had a limited number of inventory spots or mutually-exclusive pieces of equipment (e.g. you can't wear two flack vests at the same time). That's probably a good compromise.

via Geekstir

Confession time: I haven't played a role-playing game since 2004. I haven't had the time, what with school, work, and kids. And most importantly, blogging. It'd be really hard to get back into it, not only because of the 3-5 hours spent in a typical gaming session, but the enormous amount of time necessary to get up to speed and be prepared for a game.

That's why I'm interested in a new development by Wizards of the Coast, which hopes to lure back busy, older people like me. They've come up with a simplified version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The new "D&D Encounters" provides all the materials needed to run a D&D game, but in a relatively short period of time. The goal, said brand director Liz Schuh, is to get those former gamers rolling the dice again.

"We wanted to try and create experiences to fit in their current time frames," Schuh said. "It is also an opportunity to learn the new rules system."

"Encounters" has premade characters and a premade adventure provided to the game's referee and storyteller, the Dungeon Master. Maps, tokens, game pieces and player aids, such as bonus cards, are all included.

The adventure is spread out over 12 weeks, but it only takes about two hours to play each week's encounter. Mark Watkins, a Dungeon Master for the "Encounters" game at Ravens Nest store in Marietta, Georgia, said the new version is simple and timely.

"It is very easy to DM. They give you everything," Watkins said. "This is really good for people to drop in and play."

Link via Nerd Bastards | Official Website | Photo by flickr user House of Sims used under Creative Commons license

Scott Edelman of Sci Fi Wire compiled a gallery of eighteen great Star Wars-themed sand sculptures. Sand seems like a good medium of Jabba, wouldn't you say? I do not know, but I suspect that this one was made by the Sand Sculpture Company.

http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/gallery-xx-amazing-star-w.php

Stupid scientist, ruining my dreams:

The first snag you run into is that battery. "Although real-life battery technology is coming along great," Gluesenkamp writes, "we are a long way off from creating handheld batteries with capacities like that the ones found in the lightsaber's diatium power cell." In Star Wars, Jedi didn't have to worry about that because "diatium" is a convenient bit of fiction and are attuned to the Force, so, really, they could do anything.[...]

There's another problem in getting a focused, powerful blade of plasma with an exact length and shape, which is where the concept of a lightsaber gets "really convoluted," according to Gluesenkamp.

"There are also no crystals that can 'direct' a plasma," Gluesenkamp writes, noting that today we use magnetic fields are used, but are limited as the machinery involved has to enclose the plasma. "In fact, a plasma 'being directed' by a crystal lens doesn't make any physical sense anyway. A plasma is really just an ionized gas — a gas in which the electrons have been stripped from their atomic nuclei."

Well, yeah, he has "facts" and "science" on his side. But we look really cool when we hang out at the mall in our Jedi robes. So we have that going for us.

Link | Image: Lucasfilms

Artist Andrew Leipzig mashes up classic works of Western art with modern features, including those from science fiction themes. Pictured above is Godzilla in the place of Jesus from Raphael's "The Transfiguration." io9 has a gallery of some of his best works, but his entire website is worth checking out.

Gallery and Artist's Website

Created by what I gather is a taxidermy studio in the Ukraine, this rug will let extraterrestrial visitors to your home know who's boss. Also cool: the eyes glow in the dark.

Link via Geekologie | Photo: Bob Basset

This flowchart from UGO explains how a series of bad decisions leads to bad video game movies. In any event, it warns, don't make a sequel.

One video game movie that I really liked was Hitman. I played the games a lot and the movie was packed with delicious little references that only a fan would notice.

What is your favorite video game movie?

http://www.ugo.com/games/how-video-games-become-movies-an-infographic?cmpid=0101 via Digg

A simply lovely watercolor by deviantART user Lora8. If any superhero would have the coordination to tackle ballet, it'd be Spidey.

I wonder what the sheet music represents. Does anyone recognize the tune?

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