The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Saw some concepts from Tham Hoi Mun‘s (aka numioh) deviantART gallery (featured here not too long ago) which were conceptualized in Alchemy (free!) before being painted over in Photoshop. (sorry, this one’s not free )

For those who prefer a more hands-on approach, there’s also a video demo of Alchemy by Andrew “Android” Jones (more here) recorded at the Digital Conference of Creative Elite (DCCE) in Shanghai.

While I’m no artist, Alchemy feels very different from any drawing or painting application I’ve played around before as it doesn’t try to fully emulate the traditional drawing and painting tools and process (try and find the Undo button ). You can simply use Alchemy to sketch and draw but its beauty lies in its ability to quickly inject randomness into your ideas through a variety of create modules which are essentially shape and line generators. Applying one or more alter modules which further process and add effects to your input allows you to realize your imagination on digital canvas in a lot of different and interesting ways.

The above was done in 2 minutes by someone with zero artistic skills (namely me) and Alchemy with the Pull Shapes and Mirror modules Amazing, isn’t it?

My first attempt with Alchemy to draw an Ork Warboss from Warhammer 40,000

While Alchemy is still in alpha, you can try it out by visiting and registering at www.al.chemy.org. Alchemy is currently available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Android Jones – Musical Art & Much More
Fun Drawing Tools For The Masses
Create Your Own Graffiti Masterpiece with Graffiti Studio 2.0

Capcom has teamed up with digital music download site Trackitdown.net for …

where you stand to …

Here’s what you to have to do …

What’s more, it’s … (*)

(*) :  Internet charges apply. Check with your ISP for prevailing rates.

Enter this competition is as easy as 1-2-3!.

1. Register for a free Trackitdown account (if you haven’t)
2. Download the whopping 152.7 MB(!) Sample Pack (also free as mentioned above)
3. Unleash your creativity with the 29 music tracks and 290 sound FX from the classic 8-bit Street Fighter II contained within. OK, maybe this part isn’t that easy

Do note that all participants must submit their tracks in MP3 format by Monday, 02 Feb 2009 in order to qualify.

More details at Trackitdown.net.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Marvel vs Capcom 2 FE (Free Edition?)
Street Fighter IV AOU 2008 Amusement Expo Trailer
Tony-B Machine – Flash Toy for Creating Early 90’s Techno/Electro
UFS Wallpapers – Darkstalkers, Soul Calibur III, Samurai Shodown V, Street Fighter & King of Fighters 2006

A couple of Flash toys originally for children to learn about gladiator and medieval armour but I found these mini-toys educational yet entertaining.

© BBC

The first mini toy from BBC – Gladiator : Dressed To Kill teaches players the major differences of three classes of gladiators – the myrmillo, the retiarius and the hoplomachus.

© BBC

You have 60 seconds to select 4 pieces of weapons and equipment for a particular gladiator before he’s thrust into mortal combat with another gladiator of an opposing class e.g myrmillo vs thraex or retiarius vs secutor.

© BBC

To maximize your chances of winning the fight as well as the wooden sword thereby granting your gladiator his freedom, four clues are provided to assist you in the proper selection of his equipment ; a improperly armed and equipped gladiator runs the risk of getting condemned to death for losing in the arena.

For illustrations of gladiators, check out Johnny Shumate’s portfolio on ImagineFX.

© National Army Museum UK

The other mini toy Battle Dress comes from National Army Museum of the United Kingdom and educates players on the proper names of each piece of medieval armour and the correct sequence to don each armour piece. There are three characters to suit up : a warhorse, an archer and a heavily armoured medieval knight.

© National Army Museum UK

Although the warhorse has the least number of armour pieces (nine), it was the most enlightening experience of all three – I didn’t even know that there was a specific name Escutcheon for the metal spike affixed onto the head armour of a horse.

© National Army Museum UK

Dressing up the archer and knight is comparatively easy if you’ve played your share of fantasy RPGs

Play Gladiator : Dressed To Kill or Battledress.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Edutainment Games (II) – Alpha Assault
Edutainment Games (I) – Typeracer
King Richard I The Lionheart & Saladin Wallpapers from Medieval Total War 2
Warrior Knight Wallpapers
Soul of the Ultimate Nation Wallpapers
Mark of Chaos – The Collected Concept Art

A collection of nearly 100 soccer jerseys intricately recreated in 32×32 sized icons by Germany-based pixel artist Mr Wong. The last time I’ve ever seen jerseys this small were in the tabletop game Subbuteo. Anyone still remember that game ?

© Mr Wong (www.mrwong.de)

The five sets available for download include 3 different collections for the German Bundesliga as well as a set for the Americian MLS (Major League Soccer) and another containing the jerseys of the 32 national teams in the 2002 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

Now if you were looking for corresponding heads for some of these jerseys, you’ll be pleased to know that Mikio Inose of mikworks.com has produced a great looking set of pixel art icons graced by the faces of 18 famous soccer players hailing from the previous decade. Admittedly, I believe most of the ones featured never did play in the Bundesliga or MLS with the exception of Jurgen Klinsmann to the best of my very limited and grossly outdated soccer knowledge.

© Mikio Inose (www.mikworks.com)

Download Mr Wong’s jersey icons (under Goodies) or grab those heads from Mikworks.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Official Tuzki (兔斯基) Emoticons
Links to Singapore Related Pixel Art & More!

Another electronic music toy, Tony-B is the brainchild of a French flash developer with the same name.

You get synthesized melodies, bass and percussion (snares, hi-hats, kickdrums) with some early 90′s techno/electro soundbites (try pressing R for that classic C+C Music Factory’s Everybody Dance Now sample) as well as some nifty EFX which you can activate via Street Fighter like controls (Down,Right,Left,Up) for the Thunder Break snare roll or (Up,Down,Up,Down) for Extreme Danger sirens.

© www.tony-b.org

The Tony-B machine boasts a very well-designed and intuitive interface where everything can be accessed either via the keyboard or the mouse (or both for optimal effect). Switch the instruments on and off by pressing the number keys, play the keyboard via the ASDFGHJKL; keys for the standard QWERTY keyboard layout (it also supports the AZERTY keyboards used in France and Belgium) and trigger the sound samples with the QWERTYUIOP keys.

© www.tony-b.org

Check out my 3 minutes track (2.90 MB) recorded with Audacity. It doesn’t exactly show off the full power of the Tony-B machine since my reflexes suck when attempting to control all the instruments, samples and the EFX simultaneously but it should give you an good idea of the style of audio generated by this marvellous little Flash toy.

Start creating your own track with the Tony-B Machine. You might want to read what each of the sound samples correspond to over at the official site before playing around with it.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Orange Mixer – Create your own Electronic Tracks Online
Rebirh RB-338 – Free Drum Machine
Saiko – Cool Electronic Music Generator
Be Your Own One Man Band
Takuya Kashiwada @ Under Water Bar Praha