Justin Hall: Media Research and Development
a full list of published pieces:

November 2003 - Wireless Gaming Review - TapWave Coverage
Examining the potential and passion behind one attempt to make a remote control for the modern media lifestyle. Distributed within a Wireless Gaming Review supplement packaged with EGM and Computer Gaming World magazines.

15 October 2003 - Gamasutra - Event Wrap-Up: Tokyo Game Show 2003
A Report on Japan's premier game event for the web site of Game Developer Magazine. A focus on the state of Japan's game development, including interviews and commentary from a range of experts and participants. (Free registration required to access the piece).

October 2003 - TheFeature - Mobile Reaching Robots
Judging by the tiny cars at the Tokyo Game Show, there is some frightening fun to be had steering machines with mobile phones.

23 September 2003 - TheFeature - New Devices, Same Games
Soon we're going to see a whole bunch of devices designed for fancy mobile gaming. Each is launching with big licenses and little multiplayer. I'm still waiting for a mobile phone game that's both social and addictive.

23 August 2003 - TheFeature - Personal Life Annotation Devices
How weblogs spell out the future of mobile media making - life annotation devices. (Text from a speech presented in Finland).

13 August 2003 - TheFeature - The Onset of Connected Cameras
Now that we are just beginning to agree upon the proper place to make and receive mobile phone calls, the mobile connected camera is coming. Where is the proper place to take or distribute a picture?

14 July 2003 - Game Girl Advance - Galaxies Auctions - It Has Already Begun
Exploring the first signs of external markets in the popular massively-multiplayer online game, Star Wars Galaxies. This story was picked up by Slashdot, and later the BBC.

9 July 2003 - TheFeature - Rehearsing the Future: Report from the First International Moblogging Conference
Reporting from Tokyo-based conference to discuss the use of mobile phones with cameras for rapid publishing on the internet.

7 July 2003 - Wireless Gaming Review - Mobile No Candle to Console
Turning the unturned stones in mobile phone entertainment - what hasn't been done? Originally slated for a print run in EGM, this piece ended up free on the web instead.

July 2003 - Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine - EverBlue 2
A capsule review of a scuba-diving game for PlayStation2; the first game review to run in Scuba Diving magazine.

June-July - Xbox Nation Magazine - Live and Flawed
An opinion piece on the somewhat crippled quality of community on Xbox Live, Microsoft's early attempt at online console gaming infrastructure.

5 June 2003 - TheFeature - Talking Heads
Corporate Social Responsibility - Talking to the two far-distant sides considering radiation emitted by mobile phones.

16 May 2003 - TheFeature - Mobile Games Teach the Big Boys
Mobile games might be innovating for the entire videogame industry - a report from E3 2003, written with Jane.

5 May 2003 - TheFeature - Welcome I-Home
Turns out that personal home pages are very popular on mobile phones in Japan. Jane and I worked on this piece together after she discovered and translated some i-mode home pages.

10 April 2003 - Online Journalism Review - Ethics in Video Game Journalism
Examining the ethics of game fans writing about games. Includes an accompanying sidebar survey of online game journalism.

April 2003 - Wired Magazine - The Fantasy Life of Coder Boys
Brief coverage of the Indie Game Jam with profiles of three participating game developers, Thatcher Ulrich, Brian Sharp and Chris Hecker, talking about games they would make if they had their druthers.

12 March 2003 - Mindjack - Pleasurable but not Provocative
A joint review of Tom Clancy spy thriller video game Splinter Cell for the Xbox composed with Jane.

24 February 2003 - Mindjack - Simian Simplicity and Painful Puzzles
A somewhat embittered review of Super Monkey Ball 2 for Nintendo's Game Cube.

14 February 2003 - TheFeature - Mo' Smut in Japan
Jane and I collaborated on this article exploring the sexual uses of mobile phones in Japan.

4 January 2003 - The New York Times - Today's Visions of the Science of Tomorrow
Op-Ed piece, under the heading "Professor PlayStation." Part of a collection of essays about science in the United States put together by Brockman @ Edge.org;

3 January 2003 - TheFeature - Multiplayer - the Only Mobile Game
Single-player games are a waste of devices built for human communication.

21 November 2002 - TheFeature - From Weblog to Moblog
What happens when weblogs go mobile? Searching reality for friends and information.

2 November 2002 - South China Morning Post - HK hopes of gold and games glory depend on speedy Shing
Coverage of the Hong Kong Age of Empires team battling it out at the World Cyber Games in Daejeon, South Korea, for an English-language daily newspaper in Hong Kong.

2 November 2002 - South China Morning Post - Mainland player breaks shoot-em-up hoodoo
Coverage of "RocketBoy" from mainland China, reaching for the Quake 3 title at the World Cyber Games in Daejeon, South Korea, for an English-language daily newspaper in Hong Kong.

23 October 2002 - TheFeature - South Korea: Wireless Wonder-Workers or Game Content Sweat Shop?
Survey of the burgeoning capital of games.

18 October 2002 - TheFeature - The Wireless Angels of Our Nature
Will our application of wireless technology empower creativity or increase invasions of privacy? Or both?

October 2002 - J@pan Inc Magazine - FujiFilm Axia Eyeplate: The Chewable Digital Camera
Justin Hall puts the bite on a very small digital camera.

August 2002 - Yahoo Internet Life Magazine - Meanwhile, Over in Japan...
We turn our attention to Tokyo, where millions of cell phone addicts are thumb-typing their way into the future.

19 August 2002 - TheFeature - Living Loud: the Mobile Lifestyle
Mobile phones have changed our minds and our manners.

June 2002 - J@panInc magazine - Internet Withdrawal in Akita
It takes time, money and a steely determination to access your unsolicited commercial emails on the road.

20 June 2002 - TheFeature - 3G: Will Children Father The Industry?
What are high speed video-camera mobile phones good for anyways? Maybe Japanese teenagers will tell us, if we give them a chance.

7 June 2002 - TheFeature - E3 2002: Enter the Hardcore Mobile Gamer?
Serious mobile phone game players might make for the same sort of hardware arms race in phone technology we have with personal computers; once we can chat and exist in 3d worlds on portable communications devices, we might have the hardcore gamers to thank.

1 May 2002 - Chanpon.org - Madame Butterfly: An Early Mixed-Culture Fable
Exploring race-mixing, Japanese name-calling and Asian book-cover judging.

27 April 2002 - TheFeature - Wish upon a Wireless Wallet
Merging the mobile phone and the wallet to reduce the unsightly bulges in our pockets and purses.

17 April 2002 - TheFeature - MAKE MONEY FAST FROM ANYWHERE!!!
Spam threatens mobile messaging worldwide, legislators take aim.

28 February 2002 - Chanpon.org - Being A Broad in Japan
Western women in Japan face unique challenges, not the least of which might be remaining single.

20 February 2002 - TheFeature - Mobile Reporting: Peer to Peer News
High-speed videophones could mean widespread reporting from the field.

15 February 2002 - Wireless Gaming Review - Samurai Romanesque: Be an i-mode Mifune
Playing the first mobile phone game connecting thousands of players in feudal Japan.

4 February 2002 - TheFeature - Can Old Designers Teach Our Phones New Tricks?
Electronic entertainment old-timers know what it's like to work with limited hardware, and still make fun games.

February 2002 - J@panInc magazine - Seiko's New Pocket Monster Provides Speedy Japanese Translations
Writer Justin Hall has found that recently he is paying more attention to his Seiko RM2000 pocket dictionary than to his friends.

31 January 2002 - TheFeature - Where is Location-Based Marketing?
If your mobile phone knows where you are, what might someone try to sell you? Reporting on Japan's early location-based tests, interviews with Finns.

06 December 2001 - TheFeature - True Wireless
What if we could send electricity through the sky like we do data? Considering wireless electricity and other ways to make mobile phones truly wireless; cutting the power plug.

01 November 2001 - TheFeature - Foreigner's Phone: The Internet in My Pocket
My first report on the wireless world of Tokyo; how I came to have a camera/computer phone and what it's done for my human relationships.

25 October 2001 - TheFeature - Winged and Wired
Worried that some folks might have a moment to themselves, several companies are promising to keep business travelers online in-flight. A survey of in-flight internet options.

1 October 2001 - TheFeature - New Developers on the Block
A survey of young and established game developers working with mobile phones.

20 September 2001 - TheFeature - Entertaining Japanese People
With today's technology and bandwidth limitations, passive entertainment is tough to come by on a mobile phone, even in the mecca of mobile multimedia. A survey of Japanese mobile phone entertainment, including the first batch of 3G services.

18 September 2001 - Mindjack - Mobile Phones: Reporting from Death's Doorstep
Suddenly, people are reporting on their own deaths using mobile phones. Article about the of mobile phones during the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

September 2001 - Supercade, MIT Press
For this "visual history of the videogame age" I contributed essays on the Apple II, BurgerTime and Spy Hunter.

September 2001 - Hypertext Kitchen - GameStudies.org
A critique of the first issue of an academic journal of videogame studies. The short version: "GameStudies would do well to put down their George Landow books and download some Dani Bunten games."

28 August 2001 - TheFeature - HaikuHaiku
Jay Bain has a vision for grassroots location-based publishing for the people.

5 June 2001 - TheFeature - Japanese media junkies stream video from their laps.
The Biportable wireless network in Japan allows you to watch movies pulled from the sky; DVD quality content streamed wirelessly from the Internet.

22 May 2001 - TheFeature - WE3 - The Wireless Entertainment Expo
Wireless games were vibrating in the pocket of E3, America's largest electronic gaming conference.

18 May 2001 - Salon - Battle of the gaming giants
"At opening day of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft eye each other warily." Meditations on the body language of the senior VPs of the three largest game hardware makers.
Salon won this article in an auction.

16 April 2001 - Feed - The X-Box Hustle
"The Microsoft marketing machine went to great lengths to dazzle the Tokyo Games Show audience. In the cafeteria, each lunch tray featured a picture of Bill Gates, smiling and holding up a Japanese X-Box controller in one hand, and a cheeseburger in the other. An inscription in the upper right-hand corner read, "Which Is More Delicious?"

16 April 2001 - FiringSquad - Tokyo Game Show 2001
"We sent Justin to Japan to cover the Tokyo Game Show. Read on to hear about Justin's adventures with the XBox, GameBoy Advance, other various games, and the women that stand near them." Note: I didn't write many of the captions on the photos.

4 March 2001 - TheFeature - Unplugging Games
Greg Costikyan has a reputation for making procative pen and paper role-playing games. What the heck is he doing designing games for wireless mobile phones?

13 February 2001 - Feed - Counter-Strike
"Game-players grow up seeing footage of real men with real guns storming into houses and buildings and fields. Television made that veracity attractive. Minh Le made it interactive."

4 December 2000 - Gamers.com - Preview: Tropico
Examining the political implications of a Cuba 1960s simulation. More political than most games, fortunately my editors Sandy and Terence made me strip most of my political ramblings.

December 2000 - Gamers.com - The Dungeons & Dragons Movie
Interviews with several of the folks involved with the D&D Movie

2 December 2000 - ZDTV/TechTV - Games Getting Out of Hand
How can people with hand problems play modern computer games?

November 2000 - Gamers.com - Star Wars Role Playing Game
A history of Star Wars games across board, dice, card, arcade, video and computer - whew!
PlayTest: Dringthan, an eco-priest with little to do on the starship frontiers.

12 October 2000 - Rolling Stone - Hire This Boy To Play Your Video Games
Josh Griffith is paid by people to play online multiplayer games for them.

October 2000 - Gamers.com - Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition
Interview: Game Master Gary Gygax Gives Gamers Good Guidance
Digging into the chain-smoking co-founder of modern role-playing games.
Interview: In the Kitchen with Monte Cook
The Third Edition Dungeon Master
PlayTest: Glem Gaddle
My journal as a troublemaking Gnome Illusionist playing D&D Third Edition.

September 2000 - Gamers.com - History: The Roots of Computer Roleplaying
Too dry - fun history for me, but I didn't reach out enough with the piece. Sidebar for a Baldur's Gate 2 feature.

September 2000 - Gamers.com - Senate Hearings on Marketing Violence to Youth
Reportage: Marketing Violence in the Senate
"Media violence is a hot topic this election year; after recent shootings in well-heeled schools, politicians are rushing to demand accountability from the entertainment industry. But behind their statements and demands, there was little threat of action."
Parody: $enate Kommerce Kommittee Killfest
What if the Senators had just cut loose with all of their vitriol about violence in the media? Hearing as deathmatch.

29 August 2000 - TheFeature.com: The Fantasy of the Forever Game
An article for a Nokia-sponsored web site about the future of wireless web gaming. They stripped most of the links, so I have posted a version with full links.

August 2000 - Gamers.com - Gencon, a role-playing games conference in Milwaukee Wisconsin:
Analysis: Real Role-Playing?
Exploring the unspoken tension between pen and paper role-playing gamers and computer role-playing games.
GenCon Journal
Lunch with Gary Gygax, CardFighters Clash of the Titans, and other wet adventures.

August 2000 - Gamers.com - Origins, a miniatures wargaming convention in Columbus Ohio:
The Next Generation of Bearded Men
Most miniatures wargamers are bearded middle aged men with a paunch. How do young gamers get into this stuff?
Unplugging Games
Some of the the best known, best loved computer games started out as board games, card games or role-playing games. What about games that go the other way?
A View from the News Bunker
Working with the ex-military Gamers.com news team was intense. For them.

August 2000 - Gamers.com - DragonCon, a Science Fiction/Gaming convention in Atlanta Georgia:
Miss Klingon Empire
A beauty pageant where women dress up as aliens. Scratch that, beautiful aliens.
Masquerade Ball
A parade of DragonCon freaks and fans.
The Dealer's Room
You can get any media you want, in the dealer's room at a con.
DragonCon Journal
The Salvation Army meets young goth girls with black wings, while the floors are littered with syringes and I buy into the Illuminati.

July 2000 - Gamers.com - Interview: Peter Moore, President of Sega USA
The President of Sega USA used to work in marketing for Reebok during a human rights scandal there. This was video and text interview.

16 February 2000 - FiringSquad.com - Game Review: The Sims

9 February 2000 - FiringSquad.com - Interview: John Carmack, Quake Maker
Carmack represents the mathematical brains behind the modern first person shooter. He has uncanny discipline, yet just before the interview it was announced that he was to be married. My questions concerned mostly his personal life and his growing up - the stuff about graphics and games was asked mostly by Bob, my co-interviewer (both of us are labelled FS).

December 1999 - Nude as the News - Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual
Nude as the News ran a series on the "100 Most Influential Albums of the 90s," and Ritual de lo Habitual was ranked number 12. I was able to share my love for the band with some text for them.

31 October 1999 - FiringSquad.com - Game Review: Jagged Alliance 2
My first review for FiringSquad; I used the term "genre-defining" to describe a sequel. Sheesh. My coworkers rightfully made fun of me for that.

November 1999 to January 2000 - Gamers.com - Gamer of the Day Interviews
Near-daily interviews with average readers and some celebrities from the world of video games. I was worn out by the rate and GOTD stopped after nearly two months. The archives came down during a site redesign. Here's Van as a sample.

19 August 1999 - Rolling Stone Magazine - Where The Geeks Are
Profile of the two core young men responsible for Slashdot, a major technology community site, grown grassroots style. An exploration of the best geek news site on the eve of their purchase by Andover.net.

Early-Mid 1999 - WildWeb Games
To cut my teeth on game writing I signed up for a bunch of $150-a-pop game reviews for a catalog. The site seems to have gone down, so I've republished them here, lengthy and unedited. Caesar III, Carmageddon 2 (I wrote a version of Jingle Bells to describe the game), Grand Theft Auto, Rage of Mages, Might & Magic VI, BladeRunner.

December 1995 - Internet Underground - 403 Forbidden: Sex in Context
I wrote a 403 Forbidden column, "sex in context: forget kids and cyberporn, let's confront our prudish culture" for their first issue, dated december 1995. I was also listed as a contributing editor for a few issues. Aspiring to cover Internet culture with some edge, this magazine folded within eighteen months.

30 November 1995 - Rolling Stone #722
I wrote a half page piece for the Rolling Stone "Cyber Nation" issue. i summed up my path to personal web publishing nirvana and encouraged others to settle the turf. they neglected to print my URL, instead my e-mail address, listed as "justin@cyborganic.con" They tried. (This issue also included the "Webheads on Ramona Street" Jeff Goodell portrait of Cyborganic).

March 1995 - Wired Magazine - Publish the Spew: The Way of a Web Publisher
This was my basic web autobiography and evangelism that I'd been spewing around the office so much that finally kind-hearted Kristen Spence said, Why don't you write it down?

Visit writing archives for self-published articles on Holy Ghost drug-users, Swedish toilets, ambient dance, and physical assault by Kurt Vonnegut.

Ten articles: sustainable development in Honduras from August 1997.

contact justin@justin.org with any inquiries

justin's links

justin photo by G.A.Carafelli - thanks!