Review of Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Eric Marcarelli

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan was a fun, quick read. I have to agree with other reviewers that the book lacks a certain amount of depth, and anyone interested in the history of video games probably already knows most of the material in the book. It manages not to feel like a rehash, however, and there are a number of interesting trivia gems throughout. The humor is mostly corny, and not always in a good way. It doesn’t add much for me, but isn’t too distracting either. The book kept my interest all the way through, and it certainly makes you want to go play Mario. Overall I’d recommend it for any Nintendo fan.

Posted in Books, History | Leave a comment

Review of The Design of Everyday Things

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Eric Marcarelli

This book is a classic, but until now I’ve never gotten around to reading more than a chapter of it. The major premise of the book is that things should be designed in ways that make it as easy as possible to use them. While this sounds obvious enough, Norman points out how the every day objects around us, from doors to telephones, consistently violate the principle. He gives concrete guidance for designing just about any sort of project, be it physical or digital. At times the book delves deeply into psychological analysis, yet it provides many entertaining antidotes throughout and avoids coming across as dense. Definitely a must read for anyone who designs (or uses!) any product.

Posted in Books, Culture, Technology | Leave a comment

An introduction to Vidle

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Eric Marcarelli

Vidle is a hybrid social network and video search engine that will change the way we teach one another through video. It is currently my main project and is still in private alpha.

For the moment, all you can do is sign up to be notified when Vidle is opened to the public, but I wanted to take this moment to introduce it here so I can post updates about it as they’re ready.

Posted in Projects, Technology | Leave a comment

The Watchmaker

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Eric Marcarelli

A little interlude between project posts… I’ve uncovered a lost character from the Canterbury Tales:

A watchmaker was anachronistically there,
His bent back and crooked hands his sins to bear.
He carried the tools of his wicked trade,
The masters of men he slavishly made.
No longer a dial, a candle, a glass;
Banish the sun and moon alas.
Equal hours were his dark art,
Crafting time as empty as his heart.
The Prince of Darkness beside him as he rode,
A pilgrimage was his hope’s last abode.

Posted in Poems | Leave a comment

Inheritance

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Eric Marcarelli

Inheritance is a Facebook game that tasks the player with fixing up and redesigning a large mansion. I was originally part of the dev team when I worked for Fusion Creative Studios, and am currently leading development of a major update under Infinite Epsilon. In addition to adding a bunch of new content to the game, this update involves a major back end overhaul that includes making the game scale with Amazon RDS and work with Facebook’s Graph API. I expect to post much more on this when the update goes live, for now you can see last Summer’s version of the game here.

Posted in Projects, Technology | Leave a comment