At PAX East 2010, I was introduced to the concept of Parsely, a cross between Dungeons & Dragons and interactive fiction, the latter being the old-school text adventures we'd play as kids. Parsely turns those games into live-action entertainment that replaces the parser with a human interpreter. Though the interface is as clunky as always — GO NORTH, GET LAMP, and so forth — the results are far more hysterical and more conducive to group play.

I missed the Parsely session last year but bought my own copies of some of the scripts from Memento Mori Theatricks so that I could run them for an audience of retrocomputing enthusiasts. Wanting to be in the audience for once, I made sure to attend PAX East 2011's Parsely session. so I could be in the audience for once. Unfortunately, the first game that host Jared Sorensen presented was Action Castle, the same as last year's and the one I had run. It was still fun to watch, but the challenge for me didn't arise until that game was won and he dusted off the sequel, Action Castle II. I captured excerpts from both rounds in this YouTube video:

Here are pictures from the third and final day of PAX East 2011. Highlights include Bill Amend of FoxTrot, Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth, and the Penny Arcade Q&A (with many donations to Child's Play).

Some post-event thoughts and collected photo album to follow. In the meantime, be sure to catch up with photos from day one and day two.

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Here are pictures from the second day of PAX East 2011. Highlights include Paul Saunders, Kathleen DeVere, and Graham Stark of LoadingReadyRun, the Rooster Teeth panel debuting the trailer for Red vs. Blue Season 9: The Freelancer Project, a Pac-Man CE DX tournament, and cosplay of Cammy, Batman, Catwoman, Dr. Who, Final Fantasy IX's Vivi the black mage, Bioshock on Rock Band.

See also photos from day one and day three.

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Does this year's Cammy live up to last year's?

Here are pictures from the first day of PAX East 2011. Highlights include Jane McGonigal's keynote, Donald Hayes playing Joust, Jared Sorensen hosting Action Castle, Andrew Plotkin on a Kickstarter panel, the Red Faction 3 exoskeleton, and cosplay of Assassin's Creed, Street Fighter's Ryu, Darkstalker's Morrigan, and Zelda's Kokiri and Sheik.

See also photos from day two and day three.

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In sharp contrast to Roger Ebert's insistence that video games are not art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum of Washington. D.C., will host an exhibit entitled "The Art of Video Games" — and its curators want your input.

To decide which games are sufficiently artistic, the museum has created an online voting site where gamers of all ages are invited to vote for the software whose visual imagery warrants a place in history. The games are broken down into multiple eras and consoles:

• Start! (1970s – early 1980s)
  • Atari VCS
  • ColecoVision
  • Mattel Intellivision
• 8-Bit (1983 – 1989)
  • Commodore 64
  • Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Sega Master System
• Bit Wars! (1989 – 1994)
  • Sega Genesis
  • Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• Transition (1995 – 2002)
  • DOS/Windows
  • Nintendo 64
  • Sega Dreamcast
  • Sega Saturn
  • Sony PlayStation
• Next Generation (2003 – Current)
  • Microsoft Xbox
  • Microsoft Xbox 360
  • Modern Windows
  • Nintendo GameCube
  • Nintendo Wii
  • Sony PlayStation 2
  • Sony PlayStation 3

Gamers may vote for one of three games in each of four genre categories per console: action, adventure, target, and combat/strategy. Since there are 80 categories (four genres for each of 20 consoles), the system allots 80 votes to choose your favorite games from 240.

I put off casting my own vote due to the requirement to register for the voting system — an understandable precaution to prevent ballot stuffing. Fortunately, "registration" means only inputting one's email address. Should one wish to return later to finish casting one's votes, a four-digit PIN is provided as a password.

Once registered, I found the experience seamless, though the choices challenging. The exhibit is called "The Art of Video Games". Does that simply mean "the best graphics"? The Super Nintendo's adventure candidates were Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and EarthBound. Since EarthBound (ie, Mother 2) was originally an 8-bit game, it can't compete with the other two in terms of graphics. But is it equally artistic? I cast an inalterable vote for Chrono Trigger before asking myself that question (though of the three, Zelda 3 is my favorite).

I was heartened to see indie games like Limbo and Minecraft included in the nominees but disappointed to note the absence of entire platforms, such as the Nintendo Game Boy or the Apple II (though one can vote for ports of games from these systems). The museum's FAQ addresses these issues:

Your genres seem odd. Where are the RPG, Fighting, Racing, MMOG, etc. genres?

There are so many different types of games that we knew our show could not feature them all. We looked for four broad categories that would allow us to offer a wide selection.

How could you leave out my favorite games?

It was really difficult to narrow the tens of thousands of game choices down to just 240 titles and we appreciate that there will always be games that people feel should have made the cut but didn’t. The games that are being considered for the exhibition represent certain points in time for each of the 20 systems that also contribute to the overall narrative of the exhibition.

Where are the arcade games, handhelds, and system XYZ? How could you not include these?

We considered the size of the museum’s galleries that will house the exhibition, as well as the time that visitors will need to experience the content. The 20 selected systems represent significant points in time for the eras described. Hopefully this will be the first exhibition of many that explore the medium of video games.

That may all be understandable, but breaking from the traditional generations of consoles nonetheless seems a strange division.

When I was done voting, there was no way to indicate I didn't wish to use my remaining 40 votes, or to output a scoresheet marking off my choices. Rather than share my selections here or compare them with friends, I will have to wait for the winners to be included in the final exhibit:

The exhibition will feature 80 games through still images and video footage. Five games will be available for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity—Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and World of Warcraft. In addition, the galleries will include video interviews with developers and artists, large prints of in-game screen shots, and historic game consoles.

Gamers have more than a year before seeing these games on display: the exhibit is scheduled to run March 16 to September 30, 2012

(Hat tip to Gabriel Perna)

UPDATE: The winners have been announced! The Web site doesn't have much information, but the 12-page PDF offers a more comprehensive breakdown of the winners and genres.

Green Lantern has always been one of my favorite superheroes. Whereas Superman's abilities are physically derived, GL wields the power of imagination and creativity. Anything that he can envision becomes reality through the the magic of his power ring, which designates him a member of an intergalactic peace force of alien police.

Gl is the latest superhero to get the silver screen treatment, with Ryan Reynolds starring as the emerald knight in the film to be released on June 17. Film adaptations of comic books are hit-or-miss, with some great ones (Spider-Man, Scott Pilgrim) balanced by others that are critical or financial stumbles (Catwoman, X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Video game adaptations of movie adaptations of comic books have even less success. While the Xbox 360 game Batman: Arkham Asylum demonstrated the potential of the source material, games like Iron Man are too far removed from what makes the superhero so captivating.

So how will Green Lantern succeed in its various media this summer? It's too soon to tell, but you can get a glimpse of his arrival on home consoles in this trailer for Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which pits the Green Lantern Corps against their predecessors: the robotic Manhunters, a failed attempt by the Guardians of Oa to create intergalactic peacekeepers.

For nearly thirty years, I have been pumping quarters into arcade machines at Funspot. This vast entertainment complex, located in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, has long offered amusements for all ages, from bumper cars to crane games to indoor mini-golf. But their largest attraction by far has always been their extensive collection of coin-op machines.

No longer modern, their collection is now retro, and intentionally so. Literally the world's largest arcade, Funspot has adapted itself into the American Classic Arcade Museum , the first non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and play of vintage arcade games. Hundreds of machines, all still a quarter each, make this into a living museum, prompting nostalgia in its older visitors and education for its younger. The arcade has been featured in multiple documentaries, including King of Kong and Chasing Ghosts; it is host to the annual International Classic Videogame Tournament; and its wares are regularly transported to Boston for the enjoyment of PAX East attendees.

Now the museum needs your help. Despite the ACAM's considerable lineup of classic games, just as many are unable to be put on display, due to needing expensive repairs or a lack of space in which to present them. To overcome these limitations, the ACAM is holding an online fundraiser. Proceeds from this drive will allow Funspot to add a 5,500 square-foot expansion to the existing 7,500 square-foot game room, acquire the hardware and accessories needed to make the rest of their collection presentable, and present new displays commemorating the heyday of the arcade.

ACAM is a destination any gamer should treasure. With so few modern arcade games being developed, and most of them costing multiple dollars per play, the amount of enjoyment offered by ACAM is a bargain. My annual pilgrimage costs me only $20 (extended by a generous coupon) for an entire day of play, making a fundraiser seem a reasonable request.

More important, Funspot is a rare opportunity to be reminded of gaming's humble yet fun origins — of the potential for the medium, and of the goal that's supposed to be enhanced, not obscured, by the intervening decades' advances in technology. Just as fledgling programmers have much to learn from retrocomputers, so too can today's gamers and game developers benefit from familiarity with what has come before.

Funspot and the American Classic Arcade Museum are about more than just fun — they're dedicated to preserving an important part of America's history. Documentaries and emulators can capture only so much; to actually understand and be a part of this tale, you need hands-on experience. Nowhere else can you get that as comprehensively as at the ACAM. Gamers deserve for this institution to realize its vision.

This being the last day of the year, and the last weekend of your holiday vacation, it's a great time to spend those Microsoft Points you received as gifts, or to treat yourself to something fun with which to usher in the new year. Here are my recommendations of games released to Xbox Live in 2010 that aren't to be missed.

Limbo: This platform-puzzle game is perhaps most memorable for its morose atmosphere and the macabre results of failure. With almost no backstory, a boy sets out on an adventure through a woods devoid of color or background music. His weapons with which to defend himself from giant spiders and worse are limited to the player's ability to make him jump, climb, push, and think. At $15, the game is pricey for a digital title, but it's 33% off today only — either way, a fair price for what Wired called one of the best games of 2010.

Cthulhu Saves the World: You may not have heard of indie developer Zeboyd Games, but their previous Xbox Live release, Breath of Death VII, sold 30,000 copies. Created by a long-time gamer and RPG aficionado, the game capitalized on the rich history and tradition of 8-bit RPGs while correcting many frustrating aspects of the genre, such as random encounters. Cthulhu Saves the World is its spiritual successor, with more inside jokes and great gameplay but with a presentation that's been bumped up to 16 bits and a story that will take ten hours to experience, unlocking multiple replay modes. The price tag on this game is triple that of its predecessor and will set you back a whopping $3.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX: Despite the name, Pac-Man CE DX is so much more than a remix of the 2007 Championship Edition. With "ghost trains" that harken back to the old computer game Snake, a bullet-time effect when Pac-Man is cornered, a variety of skins by which to customize the game's look, and more gameplay modes than you can shake a power pellet at, it's an impressive amount of content and replay value for $10. As the creator of Cthulhu Saves the World wrote:

Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX is a worthy sequel to some of the best games ever created (the original Pac-Man and Pac-Man: Championship Edition) and is probably the best game that will come out this year. Given that this is a year that has included gems like Super Meat Boy & Civilization V, that’s saying a lot.

Return All Robots!: RAR! is a top-down puzzle game in the tradition of the Adventures of Lolo. Players direct a scientist whose remote control will send good robots back to base while avoiding their evil counterparts. Check out our preview for more details and a gameplay video. Again, you'll be supporting an indie developer and getting a great title for a mere $3.

Chime: Released in early 2010, this top-down puzzle game invites you to place blocks anywhere on a playing field such that they form perfect rectangles. As with Lumines, a line regularly sweeps the playing field, clearing any completed pieces. An excellent soundtrack, including a piece by renowned composer Philip Glass, is enhanced by sound effects made when the line encounters your shapes. Play until you've completed the level, or in time trials of 3, 6, or 9 minutes, for only $5.

RISK Factions: The classic board game comes to Xbox 360 with multiple enhancements and features. Though the classic map and rules are available, other modes offer rewards for capturing specific terrain; multiple factions (all identical in gameplay); battle animations; online play; and more. This game has been on sale for 50% off all week; today is the last chance to get it for only $5. Check out the reference to an Apple II contemporary in this cutscene:

Worms 2: Armageddon: You'd never guess how much fun it could be to arm a nematode with a bazooka and send him to kill his brethren until you've tried it. This turn-based, 2D strategy game pits teams of worms against each other, using bizarre terrain (a construction site, a moon made of cheese) and armaments (banana bombs and exploding sheep). This $10 iteration in the 15-year-old franchise is already a few years old, but a $5 battle pack released in the summer of 2010 adds new levels, weapons, and more.

Portal: Still Alive: Valve's release of Portal 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, Mac, and PC has been continuously delayed and is currently slated for April 18, 2011. While waiting for this full-fledged retail game, you'll find it's not too late to crawl out from under your rock and discover what all the fuss is about. Portal came out in 2007 as part of a compilation of games, but an enhanced version of this first-person puzzle game was released as a standalone product for Xbox Live in 2008. Although not a 2010 release, it's the only Portal product available this year — and at $15, it's the cheapest Portal experience you'll find in 2011, too.

With so many games available for the Xbox 360, this list can only begin to scratch the surface. What were your favorites this year?