The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

This fantastic artwork on a promotional wallpaper for BrikWars caught my eye as I was randomly browsing the web. It strongly reminds me of Kev Walker’s Last Stand artwork for Warhammer 40,000 Space Marines (bottom right picture).

© Mike Rayhawk

© Kev Walker / Games Workshop

Mikle Rayhawk’s BrikWars online rulebook for tabletop games of mini-fig warfare is a well-formatted and immensely enjoyable read for a rulebook (most rulebooks that I come across read more like my Mathematics textbook. Since combat between several mini-figs is a waste of the massive plastic brick collections that some collectors possess, rules are also provided for heroes and squad combat as well as for those who wish to include vehicles, large units and buildings for additional mayhem.

© Mike Rayhawk

The rules aren’t overly complex since they emphasize fun over rules-fiddling – I especially love the What I Say Goes rule in Chapter 1.2 which succintly states that “Players are smarter than rulebooks. Especially the ones with the highest dice rolls.” A very handy rule indeed for resolving difference of opinions during games

Unforunately the 8 chapters of rules are available as online HTML only so you’ll have to download it with a website copier like WinHTTrack if you wish to peruse it offline.

Read the BrikWars rules (10th Anniversary’s Edition – 2005) or download the cool wallpapers over at BrikWars. More of Mike’s artwork for BrikWars available at his official site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Warhammer 40,000 vehicles in Lego
Devil Brigade’s Lux – Customized Risk Game
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Crusade Wallpapers From RelicForums

© DragonRain Productions

Love this wallpaper from DragonRain.com. Beautiful stuff

DragonRain Productions also hosts wallpapers for anime/manga series too, like this one for Loveless (below). Many thanks to Just Walls for recommending DragonRain, wouldn’t have found it otherwise.

© DragonRain Productions

Download wallpapers from DragonRain.com.

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DeskMutations.com
Concept Art by Kai aka Ukitakumuki
Needa Schuetlitch Wallpaper
Anime Wallpapers @ Madman.com.au
Official Tenjho Tenge Anime Wallpapers

© Wang Momo

Someone sent me an custom emoticon via MSN a few weeks ago but I had no idea what the character was until I read about Nuffnang’s contest for the Motorola Moto Q9H. No, this isn’t an entry for the contest

Tuzki (兔斯基) is a creation by Chinese artist Wang Momo (王卯卯) and his official blog has a collection of 55 animated GIFs featuring the silly little rabbit. Found his site via Pond Musings.

Below are five of my favourites:

© Wang Momo

My favourite is still the first one I received via MSN – reminds me of the dancers in Bollywood movies

Download the emoticons from Wang Momo’s site. Wallpapers and other assorted collectables (including 24 additional emoticons) are also available from Motorola’s Asian Q9H website.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Artwork @ InertGreyMatter.com
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Wallpaper
Taiko no Tatsujin DS Wallpaper
The Bitter Stickgirl

InertGreyMatter is one of the recent finds from the Singaporean blog aggregator ping.sg. Showcasing a selection of graphic design works, photos, architecture, music (mainly downtempo, minimal, deep house) and of course my favourite illustrations and concept art.

Didn’t really notice InertGreyMatter at first due to the enormous amount of blogs in ping.sg these days. The first post that caught my interest was the link to a collection of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for Star Wars.

After browsing through the entire archives, I have compiled a list of my favourite posts over at InertGreyMatter.

Museum of Russian Posters

Retro-futurisms

© Matthew Woodson

Los Ladrones Decorazones by Matthew Woodson

© Clayton Crain

Clayton Crain – I love skulls!

© Florent Sacre
Rayman Raving Rabbids Artwork by Florent Sacre

© Jerome Castro

Jerome Castro

and more …

Bausch & Lomb: Eye Test
Pultius TV Remote Control
Taktshang Monastery, Bhutan
Build Your Own Chicago Downloadable Papermodels

Hopefully, the above recommendations have piqued your interest in InertGreyMatter

Since I often approach art from a gamer’s perspective, it’s nice to discover lots of beautiful stuff that I could never find on my own. I’m not too keen on posts in other categories like architecture although I must admit graphic design and occasionally photography do have their attractions like Hellohikimori’s website which showcases some of their cool works and comes with a nice splash screen (below – too bad it’s only shown for a few seconds) as well as a rocking tune ‘Cross The Line’ by UK breakmeister Elite Force.

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Max Grundy – Fear is The New Beauty
Junny – Japanese Illustrator
Simone Legno – Tokidoki
Art. Lebedev Illustrations
Shin Tanaka’s Spiky Babies & Mask Hoodies

Filler is a fun little strategy game for those short two to three minute breaks. Developed by Alexander Vikulin back in 1995 for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, Filler places two players (human or AI) on different ends (configurable) of a playing area of 1377 hexagons coloured in up to nine different colours (default is 9 colours but the number of colours can be set from 5 to 9).

Each player takes turns to select a colour from the colours on the top bar which will then add any adjacent hexagons of that colour to your territory as well as change all hexagons in your territory to the selected colour. Whoever occupies more than 688 hexagons first wins!

-40 hexagon difference between me and the AI

The only catch is that you cannot choose the same colour as that selected by your opponent in his previous turn. This rule actually allows players to play defensively and deny their opponent from occupying large number of hexagons of a certain colour in the next turn, thereby maintaining their numerical advantage (or reducing their disadvantage if they are on the losing end)

Major victory by the AI again!

The ability to think far ahead, expand agressively on multiple fronts and play defensively are essential skills to win consistently at this game. Luck does play a considerable part in this game as a lucky player can grow very fast during the crucial first few turns. Since growth is proportional to the number of hexagons along the border of a player’s territory, it’s possible to achieve an almost unbeatable numerical advantage over the hapless opponent after several turns – I usually start a new game when I’m have a -100 difference with my opponent

Download Filler (32 bit) from Alexander Vikulin’s homepage (right bottom) or if you’re running Windows 3.1, the 16 bit version from Theodor Lauppert’s Game Gallery where I first found this game. Theodor Lauppert’s pages happen to be an excellent resource if you’re interested in classic puzzle games

NOTE: Filler does not appear in the Windows taskbar so after switching to another application, you’ll need to Alt-Tab back to it and close it with Alt+F4 or click on the door icon (fifth icon from the left) after playing.

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Wodan : The Trial
Bubblets – Jawbreaker for Windows
Vantage Master Online
Peoples’ Tactics by Victor Reijkersz