Best of GameSetWatch: From Q?pid to Plug In

[Gamasutra highlights a week's worth of alternative video gaming news, media, and other curiosities from sister blog GameSetWatch, as written by editor Eric Caoili.] This round-up features a small gallery of mock-ups for contemporary films (e.g. Avatar, Cloverfield) re-imagined as "Cartridge Video System 2600" games, a new experience based on the mythical and dangerous arcade game Polybius, and the finalists in a competition to design BlazeBlue's European boxart at popular gaming forum NeoGAF. Other highlights includes a look at Q?pid, a new multiplayer iPhone game from Lumines developer Q Entertainment that describes itself as a "romantic fire starter"; and Plug In, a student-designed campaign aiming to help parents make informed decisions when buying video games for their family (pictured). This past week's top stories: - Q Entertainment's 'Romantic Fire Starter' For iPhone "While you wait for Q Entertainment to release Rock Band: Japan and Ninety-Nine Nights II, you can play another recent release from the studio: Q?pid. Billed as a "flirty fun puzzle game", the game is meant to serve as "a social ice-breaker, if not a romantic fire starter" for iPhone/iPod Touch owners." - Plug In: Student-Designed Campaign For Informing Parents On Video Games "For her senior thesis at Middle Tennessee State, graphic designer Cristina Gomez created Plug In, a beautifully executed campaign mock-up seeking to help parents better understand video games and make informed decisions on what releases are appropriate for their family." - NeoGAF Decides BlazBlue's European Boxart "Looking to involve fans with the creation of its European cover for BlazBlue (even though the game released in the U.S. last June, it doesn't hit Europe until March), Arc System Works turned to gaming forum/snakepit NeoGAF to produce and vote on the artwork. " - Game Boxes With Film Titles "[Robert Penney's] covers, which are almost believable with the faded pricing stickers, tears on the corners, and notes written in marker, demonstrate what contemporary movies like Avatar, The Fast and the Furios: Tokyo Drift, and Cloverfield would look like as 8-bit titles." - The Polybius Experience Re-created "Though someone already created a real, playable version of Polybius -- the urban legend arcade game that supposedly drove some players to suicide and was eventually seized by mysterious government agents -- several years ago, Spanish video artist Raquel Meyers and chip musician Goto80 have created their own interpretation of the mythical machine." - Demoscene Special: Inside The Ultimate Meeting 2009 "Even as 2009 drew to a close, there were still demosceners feverishly working to meet the deadlines of numerous small demo parties. Events like Grep, 7d and MiniMo were all held between Christmas Day 2009 and New Year's Day 2010 and attracted a number of memorable demos. The party that I'd like to focus on though is The Ultimate Meeting. Started in 1999, TUM is a small German party held (almost) every year in late December." - Flick Of The Wrist Exhibit's Make Believe Games "The Winchester Cultural Center Gallery in Las Vegas is currently running an exhibit of [make believe] video games that didn't phase into existence completely intact. The display features seven game boxarts with a large matching black icon painted on a nearby wall, as if blasted into our dimension from a nuclear explosion that disintegrated the cartridges but permanently flashed their silhouettes onto the gallery's walls." - Ramelicious: Super Ramen Bros. "Looking for a fun iPhone game project, developers Alex Schwartz and Yilmaz Kiymaz decided to host an 'Extreme Ramen Challenge' in which they'd create a small title for the handset in just 24 hours, taking design suggestions from the TouchArcade community. To ensure that the results of their efforts turned out as interesting as the game jam itself, they made the design theme of their project "absurdity."