Pointers (May, June, July 2024)

Below, things that trigger the thrill of recognition.

Space Vacation reinterprets movies and TV as comic book art that’s just far enough removed from the original to make it fun to puzzle out who’s who and what’s what. Similarly, these Bauhaus-style pictures of birds, printed with Lego pieces, ought to appeal to anyone who’s visited a park, museum, and toy store. MapSCII, on the other hand, is an online map for people who spent their formative years staring at computer terminals; I’d say I can’t imagine anyone using it regularly, but I check wttr.in for little thunderstorms made of parentheses and slashes every day.

Sometimes “I see what you did there” comes with a side of “thanks, I hate it.” See Level Devil, a quick take on the frustration platformer genre. Give it a try even if you usually hate games that’re difficult just to be difficult: even if it’s deeply—and intentionally—unfair, it’s not sadistic; it’s about rapid-fire pranks, not impossible challenges. But if it is impossible challenges you’re after, Neltris is happy to provide them in the form of a Tetris variant where the prize for winning is (a lot) more Tetris.

Finally, let me end with an homage to an underappreciated master of reinterpretation: Miley Cyrus.