Dragon tears, meteorites, or just plain shit – ambergris is an olfactory miracle of the deep. Sought after for thousands of years, and worth upwards of $10,000/kg today, ambergris washes up on beaches across New Zealand all year long. Don Rowe goes looking for it. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine under the title … Read more
The Donbox is a regular series where killing machine Don Rowe watches a movie based on, inspired by, or just damn ripped from a video game. This week Don revisits the first Pokémon movie and finds a film about about friendship, adventure, the thrill of battle … and the agony of existing in a meaningless … Read more
Candy Elsmore is a seasoned veteran of Ingress, the Niantic-developed predecessor to Pokémon Go. Here she compares the two, and puts Pokémon Go in its rightful place. Ten days or so ago, Pokémon GO hit the world like a giant Magikarp in the face. Before that, the concept of real world gaming was somewhat of a … Read more
Resident Spinoff float master Don Rowe gets deep with Billy T James award winning comedian David Correos in the first installment of Tank Talk, a partnership with Float Culture. David Correos waved as he ran across the courtyard, a towel draped over his shoulders. “Don,” he said, stepping into my girlfriend’s Ford Laser. “Mate. Do I need a … Read more
Appearing every few years when New Zealand needs him most, Stephen Donald once again struck fear into the hearts of our enemies last night. Don Rowe considers the Beaver’s leadership, and places him amongst the finest we’ve ever seen. Last night Stephen Donald drew a line in the turf over which the entire nation of Wales … Read more
Tens gathered outside Queen Street McDonald’s this morning for a chance at a cheap feed. Don Rowe feeds at the corporate teat and reports. “Oh my God. No way. Oh. My. God.” These were not the words of some Pentecostal in the throes of religious ecstasy, wrapped in snakes and screaming at the roof, but a real reaction … Read more
Back in the days before 30gb download files and region-locked downloadable content, video games were delivered on floppy disk with a physical tome of instructions. Liam Maguren explains why Doom had the best of them all. Modern games pour a lot into their prologues. It’s very tricky to balance a well-rounded gameplay tutorial with a story … Read more
After 14 years, Ratchet and Clank are back! Don Rowe delves deep into Ratchet and Clank 2016 to see how, after all this time, the game stacks up. Amoeboids! O’ green bastards, chlorophyllic Matryoshka’s of slime! Knock one down and two take its place, shambling and leering and grasping. From all angles they slither, loitering in the … Read more