Coffee Break 2/14/2011

We know that the work week is hard but fear not! The ever-industrious members of Team Unwinnable have been scouring the internet to find ways to make the week easier on you. Braving the wilds of the internet, they risk life and limb at the hands of porno pop-up ads and feral ad-ware to bring back gems worthy of your consideration.

Every Monday we present to you the five best links that we come across in the hopes that they will entertain, edify, charm and distract you. Save one for each day of the week or check them out all at once – the choice is yours. Just know that Unwinnable has your back. Don’t worry, we’ll warn you if you boss is coming.

So pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and let the internet entertain you.

First up this week is a vintage TV spot for Spider-Man on the Atari. It’s immediately far more believable than anything you’ve seen for the Spider-Man musical and has a better Green Goblin than the first Sam Raimi movie.

Next up is a piece from one of our favorite nostalgia blogs, The Haunted Closet. Brother Bill takes a fun look at the book, toy, and comics inspired by the Star Wars cantina scene (with a little bit of The Twilight Zone thrown in to boot). It is a great reminder of the impact that scene made with a lot of kids, most of Team Unwinnable included.

Now that you have the Max Rebo Band music stuck in your head, you can click through to the Vidya Interweb Playlist, an in-browser music player that randomly cycles through 527 cuts from videogame soundtracks. Check out Jets’n’Guns – Death from Above, a tune that almost immediately became El Jefe’s ringer.

With that playing in the background, you’re ready for an editorial from Unwinnable’s good friend Gus Mastrapa. His column, ‘Pretension +1,’ over on Joystick Division, is a weekly dose of musings on the world of videogames. They are all worth a look, but our recent favorite is ‘Videogames Make Tresspassers Out of Us All.’ A brief taste:

Games transform us into heroes. They transport us to other worlds. When we play we’re immortal and we’re privy to sights rarely seen by the average Joe. Our foes include zombies, dragons, vampires and demonic beasts too horrible to mention. We meet and slay them all. Video games help us realize the fantasy of power. And yet they also have a capacity to deliver mundane, forbidden experiences too.

Our last link for you, Dear Reader, simply defies explanation: