Take a look at C64i.com for instance: within a click you have dozens of classic Commodore 64 games to play, including Commando, Super Sprint, Spy vs. Spy and even The Great Giana Sisters. It's fair to point out that while most games do seem to run flawlessly, there are cases when the emulation is less than perfect. It's only a minor annoyance, however, as the site features more games than one can ever hope to complete.
Besides, the mighty C64, Nintendo's NES and SNES, and Sega Master System are well-catered for. Even Apple II has its own site of browser-playable games. What does put me down a bit is that I've been struggling to find one for my beloved Amstrad CPC.. but I'm not worried, with the fanbase it has in the UK someone is bound to set one up soon enough!
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1. Maybe (Peut-être) is a French film that begins from the Millennium eve. Arthur, a sombre fellow in his mid-20's, refuses his girlfriends idea of starting a family, and somehow ends up discovering a portal that takes him 70 years into the future. Confronted by his potential descenants-to-be (including his son, now three times his age), his reasoning for not making children suddenly seems feeble and downright ridiculous; how could he deny the existence of the people around him? Hilarius scenes ensue as the people of the future try to convince Arthur to "go and sleep with grandma!", and as he has to face a difficult father-son relationship with the son he has never conceived. And then they find out that the portal works both ways..
2. L'Iceberg is a charming little Belgian film about Fiona, a fast-food manager who gets trapped inside a walk-in freezer for a night. After being discovered by her colleagues in the morning and eventually defrosted, Fiona finds herself obsessed with ice and especially massive icebergs. She soon befriends a fisherman and together they embark on a journey across the ocean towards the arctic. Static, wide-angled camera work and miminal dialogue create a curious atmosphere in the film, with traces of Kaurismäki and Jarmusch. A rare gem, this.
3. East is East tells about a mixed Pakistani/English family and the cultural and religious clashes between the family members and their surroundings. The film is a curious mixture of drama and comedy, and as such it is probably more true to life than the archtypical representatives of either genre; sometimes life isn't much fun, and sometimes it is funnier than it should. Smart direction and good casting elevate this film well above the average into which it would have succumbed in the hands of a less talented crew.
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If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino is a novel in a novel in a novel in your head. The multi-layered book begins with you, the reader, starting to read Italo Calvino's new novel If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, only to discover that the book has only the first chapter, repeated over and over again. The replacement received from the book shop turns out to be a completely different novel altogether. Calvino has ingeniously combined a dozen or so different styles of narration in this excellent book about art; perceiving it, creating it, and understanding the essence of what is left out. Breathtakingly inventive.
I read Henri Murger's Bohemians of the Latin Quarter (or Scènes de la vie de bohème) because I was intriqued to find out why the film director Aki Kaurismäki was so keen on filming it - and I was not the least bit disappointed. This splendid book is a collection of episodes in the lives of poor artists in 19th century Paris, with stories about love, commercialism, friendship, ingenuity, poverty, mania, sudden success, and whatnot. One of my all time favourites - and the Kaurismäki film is also a must see!
Vladimir Bartol's Alamut took me by surprise. I bought it because someone, somewhere on the net called it "Sinuhe of Slovenia" and seemed to hold the book in high esteem. Set in 11th century Persia, the book tells the story of the legendary fortress of Alamut and its master, who craves power through total domination, and creates a elite unit of assassins, the Fedai, who will gladly die for his cause. The story about manipulation and religious fanaticism is relevant also today.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt is an autobiographical story of a poor Irish family in Brooklyn and Ireland during the '30s and '40s. Despite utter poverty, fathers alcoholism, illnesses, being despised by those better-off and all the other hardships that Frank and his family has to endure, the novel is written with incredible warmth and comforting sense of humour, albeit with a bittersweet tone.
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THIS is The Very Best Computer Game Ever Made! It's phenomenal, it's astounding, it's gorgeous, and it's incredibly addictive! And it's damn controversial too; it's the worlds first and - as far as I know - only game in which you play a reckless pyroman, burning down famous buildings such as the Louvre Museum, the Congress Library, Kreml, Buckingham Palace, AND various famous people such as the queen of England!