Links: Pittsburgh seeks middle tech, 8bit sequencing magic on video and more

DEFINITE READS

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on that city vying for ‘middle-market’ technology firms, while some chase investment on the west coast and others fail. H/T Philly Tech News
• The Inquirer reports on the oenophile vending machine movement, in which wine kiosks are making their way from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. Philly Tech News reports that Oracle has given the Pennsylvania Liquor Control board a retail excellence award.
• The University City Review reports that the first 55,000 energy efficient LED traffic light bulbs are being installed as part of a $14.1 million stimulus grant. H/T Plan Philly

Below, finding a kidney on Facebook, Curt Schilling will take his video games and move to Rhode Island and more.

Read more

Links: Scientist entrepreneurs, a Delaware cell phone ban and more

• Keystone Edge reports on the growing trend of regional scientists foraying into business startups, amidst the region being ranked the second densest collection of bioscience companies in the country — behind Boston.
• The Inquirer reports on another startup trying to offer residents the solar-power-by-lease option.
• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that two Philadelphia University laboratories, one of ‘engineered human protection’ and another of biomedical textile structures, have received nearly $1.8 million in federal funds.

• The Wilmington News Journal reports that long-delayed legislation banning the use of cell phones while driving is expected to pass.
• Fox 29 reports on an entrepreneur that says video gaming helped develop his business savvy. Watch the video below.

Read more

Shop Talk: The DIY game-makers of Port127

A screenshot from "Hipster City Cycle" Port127's iPhone game based in Philly.

Much has been written about the mass exodus of the city’s video game talent from Drexel and Penn as most students studying the digital arts usually lament the lack of job options and leave town.

The guys at Port127 decided they’d at least put up a fight.

The company is helmed by its one full-time employee: Ignite Philly presenter, Penn Digital Design-grad and video game film maker Michael Highland. The company’s other “employees” are made up of freelancers, most with ties to the University of Pennsylvania.

Highland says his ultimate goal is highlight video games as more than an entertainment device. But first, he must put the company’s trust in an 8-bit hipster riding his bike through Philadelphia.

Read more

Center City’s Final Form Games keeps it simple

A screen capture from "Jamestown" - Final Form's first title.

Edits: updated some brotherly confusion.

Mike Ambrogi along with his brother Tim and Hal Larsson don’t leave anything to chance. When all three plotted their move to Philly from the West Coast a few years back, the trio used spreadsheets to help time out the cross country operations.

I did a look for one of ‘em recently but didn’t turn it up, says Larsson.

The three are the founders of Final Form games, a video game studio based in what the guys like to call the “mathematical center” of Center City: 15th and Market.

Final Form Games is one of a handful of studios, along with the video game lobbying group VGI Philly, to begin building the foundations of a video game industry based in Philadelphia.

“There isn’t a huge game industry here. But we know what we are doing, and we can become a part of that and help grow what’s here,” says Tim Ambrogi. It’s exciting being here when it just starts. ”

Currently, Final Form is working on its first title: a SNES-style top-down shooter  tentatively titled “Jamestown” – about the colonization of Mars by the 17th century British explorers. The group plans to release the game to the PC in the first half of next year and then, if all goes well, to the Xbox Live Arcade.

But the road to Philly was a bumpy one. Just a few years ago, all three were in California but it took a detailed plan to finally set up shop in the city, a plan they say was largely motivated by “ladies and the sandwiches.”

Read more

Friday Q&A: Video Games Live co-creator Tommy Tallarico

Music from the video game Zelda is performed during a 'Video Games Live' show in London. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

This interview was conducted for a new geek culture column called Peer-to-Peer that will publish monthly for Philadelphia City Paper. See it in its original form.

On Sunday, video game music composer Tommy Tallarico will bring more than 20 years of gaming history with him to the Kimmel Center.

Before Madden started licensing real rock tunes, back when Disney’s Aladdin was the coolest Sega Genesis side-scroller this side of the playground, when Epic Games was just launching its Unreal series, Tallarico was there for all of it. In fact, he composed tunes for all of those titles. He even holds the Guinness Book of World Record as the person who’s worked on the most video games.

But this isn’t a gaming history lesson.

Tallarico is the co-creator of Video Games Live, a globally touring, full symphony that plays video game classics. The geeky orchestra will perform dozens of anthems backed by video accompaniment, light show, and rock ‘n’ roll appeal, Tallarico says. There’s even interactive segments, like live Skype sessions with famous game designers and composers.

Did we mention there’s a medley of 25 arcade classics, starting with 1972′s Pong to 1986′s Tetris, with Donkey Kong, Defender, Frogger, Dragon Slayer and more? Now you know.

But we admit our skepticism: Is this just too dorky�even for us? We caught up with Tallarico in a phone interview recently to try to figure out if we’d ever be down. What’d did we learn? We are down. So, so down. Questions and answers after the jump.

Read more

Technically Not Tech: South Street’s J1Studios to release first video game

In junior high school most students doodle or play hangman when not paying attention. Jason Richardson, on the other hand, wrote code.

“All during school I just wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher. It looked like I was taking notes but I was just writing code on graph paper,” he says. “I have a thing for creating.”

The 31-year-old founder of South Street-based J1 Studios spent his youth making board games, card games and video games and hasn’t let up since. Richardson is taking the hobbies of his youth and slowly building a geek media empire complete with anime-style comics, podcasts and video game development and will have a booth at the upcoming GameX expo.

But, if you ask Richardson, he’ll tell you it all started with an Apple II and a Zelda instruction manual.

Read more

Technically Not Tech: Game Time Philly puts Philly on the top of the Madden World

Ron Jackson may be the best football player in Philadelphia you’ve never heard of.

The Mayfair resident is one of the founding members of Game Time Philly, the most successful and respected crew of Madden gamers in the nation and the home of the city’s pseudo-underground training and tournament ground for the popular NFL video game.

If training for a video game sounds bizarre to you, then you haven’t peaked into the world of the professional Madden player. Much like their real-life counterparts, talented Madden gamers can score thousands of dollars by playing a game they love, especially in the burgeoning world of professional video game tournaments.

The Madden world’s most celebrated tournament is the Madden Challenge. The tournament has been the subject of an ESPN reality TV show with the champion often taking home six figures in winnings, and Philly just happens to be the city with the most championships.

“Someone from Philly is always coming home with $100,000,” says Jackson, “All of the Madden Challenge winners except for one or two have come from Philly.”

Read more

Technically Philly and Geekadelphia Section 8 release party crowds Tattooed Mom

"Is that a trident," asks Bianca Cevoli, the Geekadelphia contributor who snagged this photo of a portion of Wednesday night's crowd at Tattooed Mom for our Section 8 release party.

Above a relatively sleepy Wednesday night bar crowd on the first floor of Tattooed Mom was the noise of our first co-hosted event with culture blog Geekadelphia, held earlier this week.

The eclectic hipster grunge South Street institution played host to the Philadelphia release party for Section 8, the soon-to-debut Timegate first person science-fiction shooter for XBox and PCs. A decidedly more 20-something crowd of 60 scenesters and geeks came for the party, sharing the bar’s tagged and multicolored upstairs with two dozen others who trickled in and out throughout the night.

Read more

Event highlights for the week of August 24 – August 30, 2009

We’re sick of this friggin’ humidity. Can we get an Aaa-men on that?

But it’s fine, really, because there’s plenty of indoor events with satisfying air conditioning on this week’s calendar – which brings joy to this farmer’s tanned writer – and plenty of ice cold brewski to go with it.

Often featured, always entertaining Duane Swierczynski will be signing autographs for his new comic at McGillan’s Tuesday, because Swierczynski made the Center City pub part of the story line. We’re crossing our fingers that if we keep posting about him, he’ll write us into his next comic. Pretty please?

Social Media Club gives back this week as it hosts a session on using tweets and fan pages for good. They’ve got some great speakers lined up who will share insight on using Web 2.0 for philanthropy, including representatives from Blame Drew’s Cancer, American Red Cross and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Attending will be like the millennial version of helping an old lady across the street.

Wednesday, don’t miss Technically Philly and Geekadelphia‘s first joint event, as we, along with TimeGate Studios, host a launch party for Section 8, a new Xbox/PC first person shooter at Tattooed Mom. Don’t miss it, if not for the free swag and cupcakes from Open Source Cupcakes, then for the tales I’m going to tell about missing just about every high school social event to play Quake2 with a 56k modem. I still say LPBs can eat it.

Later in the week, PhillyCHI is all about staying healthy and the Philly Chapter of International Game Developers Association hosts its August meeting. Details after the jump.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.
Read more

Section 8 bash at Tattooed Mom on South Street: A Technically Philly and Geekadelphia co-sponsored event

You are invited to our second Technically Philly event.

Working with our friends at Geekadelphia, we are hosting a release party for Timegate’s upcoming first person science-fiction shooter, Section 8 on Wednesday, Aug. 26th beginning at 8 p.m. at Tattooed Mom on South Street near 5th Street.

This is primed to be a great event for the geekier portion of our readership, complete with free games, T-shirts, posters, drink specials and even appropriately-themed goodies from Open Source Cupcakes. We’re expecting appearances from Joystiq, the Videogame Growth Initiative and many, many others.

You can confirm on the Facebook announcement.

For those of you who love big community events with lots of free swag and great people, then consider this the end of the announcement. For those of you who are following our growth as a news product, here’s a quick tour through our logic.

Read more