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Today's Document
will byers stan first human second
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Cosmic Funnies
trying on a metaphor
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
almost home
Kiana Khansmith
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
Discoholic 🪩
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@expo-99
Miikka Lommi (Finl.), director - video short for Bomfunk MC’s, ‘Freestyler’, 1999. Starring Raymond Ebanks, the song’s composer, and model Marlo Snellman, age 15. Snellman’s walkman is a Sony MZ-R55 portable MiniDisc player with remote control RM-MZR55.
Michael Tullberg, photography (1, 2) ‘90s ravers (3) Radical self expression.
“XS New York (1457 Broadway at 41st St.) points to a Times Square that’s very cyber, very meta, and very noisy. “You are twenty minutes into the future! You’re in the center of the world!” screams a uniformed blonde over an assault of sonic AK-47 fire, motocross crashes and equally violent techno music. Despite the Disney World-meets-Bladerunner creepiness of this three-story VR center (which includes a restaurant, microbrewery and cybercafe), these games aim toward the educational, teaching the basics of golf, flying and skiing and offering experiences that certainly feel as strenuous as an American Gladiators tourney. After our fourth ride, we asked the game operator if it was common to feel ill. “This is your fourth?,” he replied incredulously. “Yo, man, you are done. Get outta here.” -Time Out New York, 1997
(1) Zalman Sibler (center) at the grand opening of XS New York, December 1996.
(2) Found tourist photograph showing the western facade of XS New York with its colorful sign reading “Too much is not enough!,” as seen from the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 42nd Street in July 1997.
(3) The “virtual” Pac Man game at XS: A far cry from its scaled-down, video model.
(4) On XS’s main level, three middle-aged men race each other, maneuvering bouncing fiberglass jet skis over a wave filled course. After the race, the screens display how each racer placed. “We target an adult crowd, combining the food and drink aspect with a wide spectrum of games,” says Rob White, director of operations, whose business card lists his title as XS Head Cheese.
XS New York was open Sundays through Thursdays, 10 A.M. to midnight; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 A.M. to 2 A.M. Admission was free, but once inside visitors purchased swipe cards in increments of $20 to be used on any of the attractions.
Amateur video footage of the Pepsi MAX Drop Ride inside the London Trocadero, London W1D, on July 9th 1998.
The Piccadilly Trocadero was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, before closing in 1965. It re-opened as an entertainment and shopping complex in 1984, but by the early 1990s was struggling to find tenants. In 1994 it was purchased by Burford Group PLC, led by Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray, who endeavored to revamp the site for modern consumers.
At the same time, Sega, fresh from arcade and console video game successes, were making moves in opening Sega-branded arcades across Europe. In the United Kingdom, this began with Metropolis in late 1992 and continued with Sega World Bournemouth and a handful of smaller venues using the "Sega World" name. Sega was itself one of the biggest electronic entertainment brands in the UK at the time, riding on the successes of the Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive (and particularly Sonic the Hedgehog), and was attempting to open a new arcade venue in the region every couple of months.
Sega had already found enormous success in Japan following a similar concept. In particular, the 1996 launch of Joypolis Tokyo had proven very lucrative. Effectively an indoor theme park, Joypolis took things one step further by housing indoor rides and large scale attractions, and still remains active to this day. The plan was to emulate this idea in other parts of the world, so Sega Europe arranged with Burford Group to build SegaWorld London - a UK version of Joypolis.
Construction began in early 1996 on a planned £45 million project encompassing 100,000 square feet of the Trocadero site (covering seven floors), aiming to be the largest indoor theme park in the world. As well as housing six dedicated indoor rides, many of its floors would be devoted to arcade machines, and would become a new testing site for Sega's own arcade releases in the years which followed.
SegaWorld London opened in September 1996, at the height of Sonic the Hedgehog's popularity. From 1997, Pepsi sponsored the Pepsi Max Drop Ride and the Pepsi IMAX cinema, being the first 3D IMAX cinema to appear within the UK. The venue was heavily promoted by mid-90s editions of Sonic the Comic.
However, unlike Joypolis, visitor numbers were not large enough to keep the attraction open in its entirety, and with other financial issues at Sega hovering overhead, the company was forced to sell its share to new owners in 1999, becoming known as "FunLand.”
Visitors to London Trocadero ascend the iconic ‘rocket’ escalator to SegaWorld London, London W1D, in 1998. Photography by Jane Schumin.
First entrance to Tokyo Joypolis/東京ジョイポリス, 〒135-0091 Tokyo, Minato, Daiba, 1−6−1 Decks Odaiba, DECKS Tokyo Beach 3F～5F, opened by Sega on July 12th, 1996. Pictured prior to December, 2000 renovation.
“Sony and McDonald's have teamed up to release the Happy Disc, a PlayStation 2 demo that contains one-level versions of Ape Escape 2001 and PaRappa the Rapper 2. Ape Escape is already on Japanese shelves, but PaRappa 2 isn't scheduled for release until August 30, so this is the first time we've seen the game in action.
The demo level takes place in a McDonald's, with PaRappa and a burger-flipping ghost trading rhymes about cutting lettuce, toasting buns, and the wonderful world of condiments, among other things.“
-GameSpot, 2001
Television advertisement for PaRappa The Rapper (Sony Computer Entertainment), aired December 1997.
NanaOn-Sha/株式会社七音社 - Game play of PaRappa the Rapper/パラッパラッパ (Sony Computer Entertainment, 1996). Masaya Matsuura/松浦 雅也 - design, music; Gabin Ito - storyboard, lyrics; Rodney Alan Greenblat - artwork; Yoshihisa Suzuki - music.
It's all about rhythm. When the Instructor says "Kick!", you press the Triangle button. At the top of the screen is a moving indicator that shows which button to press, and when. When you first play the game you can watch the moving indicator, until you learn which buttons to use and where they are. After you get a feel for the controller, start listening to the beat. Hit the buttons at the right times and you are "Rappin Good."
"Rappin Good" will let you pass the levels, and see all the characters. Of course it's harder than you think. Then what you want to do is "Rappin Cool." For this you must improvise. Freestyle your rap, and if the instructor likes it, the game changes and you are on your own. Rap "Cool" to all the levels and you win. It's as simple as that. -Rodney Alan Greenblat
Rodney Alan Greenblat - Graphic design, illustration, package design for PaRappa the Rapper/パラッパラッパ (Sony Computer Entertainment, 1996)
(1) Original poster included with the Japan edition of the game (2) detail of illustration on North America edition packaging (3-6) clockwise, from left: Japan edition released Dec. 6th, 1996; North America edition released Oct. 31st, 1997; Europe edition released Sept. 26th, 1997; China and Asia edition.
Rodney Alan Greenblat (Amer.) - Character Design, Parappa The Rapper (Sony Creative Products, 1994-1996)
In 1994 I was hired by Sony Creative Products, a licensing company inside Sony Music Japan. I was visiting their Tokyo office, and designing cute characters for printed products, clothing and toys. I designed a bored brown bear named PJ Berri, a cute precocious girl named Pony Pony, a blue fashionable cat named Katy Kat, and a super happy flower girl named Sunny Funny. Sony Creative was designing products with these fun characters.
Little did I know in another Sony office, Matsaya Matsuura, a well know pop musician was developing a game for a brand new game platform called Playstation. His game was an interesting “simon says” that used rap beats. He was already a fan of my artwork, and when he found out I was already working for Sony, he asked the people at Sony Creative Products if I would design the characters and world for his game.
Of course I said yes. When I went to meet Matsuura’s team, they had already made a crude animation demo of the rap-music-simon-says-game using my characters from my 1993 CD-ROM Dazzeloids. Matsuura’s animation people loved the flatness of my work, and thought of creating flat characters who move around in a 3D world. Playstation was a first generation a 3d platform, a real technical feat at the time.
I returned to New York and set about making sketches for the characters and world. I got word from Sony Creative that they wanted to put my colorful funky PJ, Katy, and Sunny characters in the game. For some reason Pony Pony did not make the cut. I started drawing a wacky funny cute American suburban land where my characters could live and play. The Japan team loved it.
Matsuura wanted the main character to be an upbeat, lovable slightly naive dog. I made several sketches and Sony Creative chose a dog with a pointed cap. Matsuura liked it too, and he had come up with a name for the game: Parappa The Rapper. “Parappa” is some kind of play on Japanese words that means “paper thin”. So Parappa was born.
The crazy great story was written by Gabin Ito and he asked for several “teacher” characters who would challenge Parappa to rapping contests. They needed a Karate/Kung Fu master, a driving instructor, an owner of a flea market, a cooking show host, and also a “bad guy” rival for Parappa. I drew and named all of those characters. The game was in production for most of 1996. When I met Ryu Watabe and heard the lyrics he was writing and heard him singing in the voice of Chop Chop Master Onion, I started to realize we were making something great. Even so I had no idea it would be a hit. I made super colorful package art that included a poster with a map of Parappa Town. The game was released in Japan on December 6th 1996. It started selling well right away, but by the spring of 1997 it was a huge hit in Japan. It was released in the US and UK in November 1997. By the end of 1997 Parappa the Rapper had sold nearly one million copies. Yea!
My dream was that Parappa would have been Sony’s ultimate mascot, as Super Mario is to Nintendo, so Parappa should have been to Sony.
Rodney Alan Greenblat (Amer.) - Graphic design, packaging design for Parappa The Rapper Printing Toaster (Vacuum Records, 1998)
“How am I going to have breakfast in the morning?
I know...I gotta make toast!
Straight from the toy stores in Japan come the hippest in kitchen appliances: The Parappa the Rapper toaster. Not only will it heat and cook both sides of two slices of bread, it will also burn your favorite paper-thin rapper on a single side of each! How cool is that?
We were so excited when we got our hands on this "Space Age" appliance that we had to put it to good use. The thing works like a charm. Not only can it fit the standard size of bread, but it can fit two pieces of them...and bake them to breakfasty perfection! Associate Editor Craig Harris has put the toaster into his morning routine ¿ Coffee, San Francisco Chronicle, and Parappa the Rapper toast. "It's the only way to wake up in the morning," he says. And just take a look at how well the pieces of Wonder Bread come out. Mmm...tasty.
Now you can show off your appreciation for both Parappa the Rapper and toast! What a perfect combination.
Unfortunately, the Parappa the Rapper toaster is only available in Japan, for 12,800 yen...which converts to around $100 US. Ouch! That burns!”
-IGN Entertainment, March 8th 1999
TV promo for Royal Trux Accelerator (Drag City, 1998)
Stylish and effervescent Irish punk-pop trio Chicks. From left: Isabel Reyes-Feeney, Lucy Clark and Annie Tierney (wearing Casio Baby-G watch).
A debut album, Chicks Do Philly, produced in Philadelphia by Adam & Eve (a pseudonym of Royal Trux‘s Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema) for Disney’s Dreamworks label, was completed but never appeared.
Photo taken from Little Monkeys with Lots of Money album cover (Supremo, 1998).
Archival footage of the Shibuya district of Tokyo, 1999