Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma'am!

I have to say something about mysterious Swedish game designer Stefan Eriksson's spectacular Ferrari bust up on the Pacific Coast Highway yesterday that was covered in "So Speedy, So Exclusive, So Expensive, So Totaled" in this morning's Los Angeles Times. Eriksson was associated with the failed Gizmondo, an all-in-one handheld device promoted by Formula One driver Jensen Button. The flashy young company's balance sheet included $170,000 paid to one Gizmondo executive's wife that also covered "an introduction to the performer Sting." Eriksson has also worked for Electronic Arts in developing Battlefield 1942. Apparently, it was a little too difficult for Eriksson to separate virtual reality from highway safety, although -- as of midday -- he was still asserting that a mysterious German named "Dietrich" was to blame for the accident.

For those fond of Scandinavian game design, how much more peaceful it is to enjoy these Lego recreations of classic video games, which are featured in the current Games Digest. (See above.) It takes the artifacts of the Homebrew culture that Brett Camper of MIT has been analyzing to a whole new and surreal level of children's manipulatives. Now that's my idea of a handheld!

Of course, maybe Lego adaptations aren't always so tame, as this Lego parody of Grand Theft Auto demonstrates.