Entertainment

The BBC and the estate of Terry Nation are a wee bit angry at makers of a recent Dalek porn movie, entitled Abducted by The Daleks. Said movie apparently features, uh, hot plunger action, and unlicenced action at that. The Beeb has prevented the movie being distributed, but naturally a torrent is out there for those of you interested in such a thing.

Lego is now allowing you to design a model online, and then order a kit that contains the parts necesary to build it — via digg

Futurama May Get New Lease on Life
Talks have begun at 20th Century Fox TV to revive Futurama, which takes place in the next millennium, much in the same way Family Guy found new life after cancellation. The final original episode of Futurama aired on Fox in August 2003. But since then, the show has found new life via DVD releases and repeatedly high-rated airings on the Cartoon Network — via digg

Vincent Schiavelli, the droopy-eyed character actor who appeared in scores of movies, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Ghost, died Monday of lung cancer at his home in Sicily. He was 57. He also wrote three cookbooks and many food articles for magazines and newspapers — via Boing Boing

Public Domain Torrents offers an extensive collection of Classic and B-Movie torrents. The copyright of these movies has expired so you are free to share them — via digg

I was going to write an article on my pick for game of the year in various formats, but realised that it would largely be a repeat of my enthusiastic blurb about Resident Evil 4. That being the case, I’ll assume you’ve all dutifully obtained a copy of RE4 and are now dying to know which board game to rest the console of your choice on. Read on…

In a strong year for board games, my choice for board game of the year is Bonaparte at Marengo by Bowen Simmons. For those unfamiliar with the game (which I imagine is most of you, given that it’s self-published), BaM is a block wargame of the Battle of Marengo.

As a block game, one of Bonaparte at Marengo’s distinguishing features is that information about a player’s pieces is hidden from his or her opponent. The pieces are blocks with information on one face only, and the information side is kept facing the piece’s owner (as in the classic 1950s game game Stratego). When a battle occurs, the pieces are revealed and the winner determined.

Close-up of wooden blocks showing hidden unit markings

Why do I like BaM better than any other board game released this year? There are many reasons, but the main ones are:

• It’s lavishly produced: the blocks are made of wood, the board is attractive and properly mounted (a rarity in wargames, which commonly use paper or cardboard maps), and two copies of the rules are provided.
• There’s plenty of strategic interest: both sides have different pieces, objectives, and playing styles, with an emphasis on manouvering that feels like chess with a wide open board
• A game takes 90 minutes, which means that you can play a game, switch sides, then have a rematch, and still get to the pub before closing time.
• The rules are brief (10 pages) and comprehenisble, though admittedly it’s not the sort of thing you could play with a random family member.

Bonaparte at Marengo will be hard to find in a retail store, but if you’re interested in it you can buy it direct from Simmons Games, or from an online retailer such as Boards and Bits. The BaM page on boardgamegeek.com has reviews and other information if you’d just like to check it out.

BaM photo by Kurt Tolley used under CC licence.

Bunny Suicides is a large collection of cartoons of depressive bunnies showing great enthusiasm and inventiveness for removing themselves from the gene pool

Stanford is going to be republishing several of the Sherlock Holmes stories in serial installments as they originally appeared printed and illustrated in The Strand magazine. You can subscribe to get them either as paper copies or electronically, and either way is completely free. It starts in January, but you signups are open now — voa boingboing

The science fiction spoof Star Wreck: in the Pirkinning has become Finland’s most viewed movie. Relying on free distribution over the Internet to reach more than 3 million viewers in less than two months

Here’s me dressed as d’Artagnan (of three musketeers fame) for a costume party. Thought you might find it amusing.