If you think video games based on movie licenses are bad, did you ever check out board games based on video game licenses? Professional blogger Yehuda has compiled a great little trip through the land of video game to board game conversion.

He begins with the early games like Berzerk, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong (pictured). Quick recap of a few of those game's gameplay mechanics: In Berzerk you would flick the back of your guy and his arms would swing up knocking over the bad guy in the next tile; Pac-Man you pressed as hard as you could over marbles to make them pop into the protagonist, and in Donkey Kong there was actually a rubber band inside the arm to drop barrels -- if you got through a full game without a malfunction you were very lucky.

Yehuda takes us all the way from the strong beginnings in the '80s to the modern seventh generation in gaming. Definitely a gasp-inducing bit of nostalgia for any kid whose parents thought buying the board game was a reasonable equivalent to the video game.

[Via Raph Koster's Website]

Sierra and Microsoft have revisited the grid-based fortified town of Carcassonne, as the XBLA rendition of the popular European board game has gotten a new downloadable expansion titled "The King and Baron" as part of today's regular XBLA update, which also includes block dropper Tetris Splash.

With an asking price of 300 Microsoft Points ($3.75), the download is the second such expansion following the already available "River I & II," and adds a set of five additional tiles described as 'interesting configurations of Town pieces,' as well as pair of new rules. We're not exactly sure what they mean by "interesting" ... perhaps they glow.

The new rules are designed to award those players with either the largest city or the longest road at the end of the game with a pair of icons placed next to their avatars and Gamertags. But it's not just for looks or bragging rights, no sir! With this expansion, the player with the biggest city, identified by a newly added 'portly' King icon, will receive one point for each completed city in the game, while the player with the mightiest of roads, denoted by a 'crafty' Robber Baron, will take home one point for each completed road in the game -- and you know how much we love to pile up them points.

Between Wii Sports, Raving Rabbids and Wario Ware, the Wii is the perfect system for making a fool of yourself at parties. With challenges that involve impersonating celebrities, sculpting modeling clay and manipulating friends like puppets, Cranium is the perfect board game for making a fool of yourself at parties. Put them together and you have a perfect storm of embarrassment that will set your party ablaze with sudden attacks of modesty.

UbiSoft's Cranium Kabookii, revealed at this week's Leipzig Games Convention, will feature Wii-controlled twists on Cranium's usual mix of word puzzles, trivia, performance and artist challenges. Special decoder glasses will allow one player to see super-secret on-screen hints, and the game will come in custom international editions so the pop culture questions will be intelligible to players in France, Canada, Spain, the UK and the US. The game is due out in December.

Atari today dribbled out screenshots along with a press release confirming the existence of a Jenga game for the Wii and DS to be released in November. The game doesn't appear to be much more than a stylized table-top Jenga with exotic backgrounds and textures, but according to Atari it features a "wealth of exciting new enhancements, power-ups and twists that are possible only in the videogame world". Bombs? Gravity-defying bricks? We'll have to wait and see. Jenga could be a lot more exciting with the right power-ups.

Flickr user Universal Donor made a smaller version of Carcassonne to fit in an Altoids tin. "I know this stupid, but I like creating versions of my favorite games that can fit in an Altoids tin," he writes -- we think it's cool, though. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
The Guessing Game: Sony's E3 showing
Joystiq at the Ninja Gaiden Band concert
Today's most retro action game: Die Hard (NES)

News
Believe it or not: Zelda in Smash Bros Brawl
F-Zero X, Street Fighter II Turbo rush onto Virtual Console
Nintendo officially bigger than Sony in Japan
New games this week: The Darkness edition
PSP firmware hack drives Lumines sales
Nicole Kidman the pretty face of More Brain Training DS
Newsweek's Croal, MTV's Totilo hands-on with Manhunt 2
This Wednesday: Carcassonne taunts from the castle wall
Pokemon takes Wii online in US
Concept trailer for LEGO Universe: building, battling, bricking
Sony tells PSP devs to get creative, attract customers
Romero unearths unreleased Doom music
Insomniac lands 8th in the '50 Best Companies to Work For' list
Analysing the $1mil acquistion of WoW database site
Shadowrun developer gets honest (or scary)
Square Enix: No PS3 games (Final Fantasy XIII) until after April 2008
Third-party HDMI cable coming for non-Elite Xbox 360
Turrican remake released, rocks you like a Hurrican
ESRB seeks to rate game trailers
GameTap 'leaks' franchises coming to service
Cory Barlog talks E3 inside the developers studio

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Hitman film trailer premiering with Die Hard

Culture & Community
MacArthur Foundation funds NYC school to teach 'Gaming Literacy'
Wiimote mod gets NES Zapper zappin' again
Nintendo hearts the environment
College librarians urged to think like gamers, play more games

A forum member at NeoGAF reports that Atari may be showing a previously unannounced game at this year's E3: Jenga for the Wii. We can all guess the central mechanics (pull the block out, cringe, repeat), but Jenga as a full-fledged video game? If the rumor is true, we'd love to see how Atari fleshes out the concept. Perhaps a Warcraft-esque RTS mode played with Jenga bricks?

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Building on the success of a board game called Cesta z Ghetta (Out of the Ghetto), an organization called Tady a Ted (Here & Now) recently announced its plans to release a video game designed to educate students about the challenges of poverty in the Czech Republic. Themes in GhettOut! will include dealing with authorities, discrimination, housing, crime, and drugs. Players learn what it's like to live in constant uncertainty trying to sort everything out and live a successful life.

The game will be available as a download, and Here & Now is aiming for a December release. According to the organization, interest in GhettOut! is high in a number of countries, so an English-language release is inevitable. Also distinctly possible: a hip hop music video unveiled in tandem with the game. Seriously.

[Via GamePolitics]

Just remember, though we may complain about non-gaming properties translated into a video game with poor results (we're looking at you, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), the art of milking a franchise over every medium imaginable is an age old practice. (Image Credit) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Joystiq Hands-on: Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
Readers pick best webcomic: time to retire
Today's most if-it-happened video: Fallout 3 footage

News
Former WoW and EverQuest programmers working on sci-fi MMOG
Sony eyes May 16th for PSP Go!Cam in PAL regions
New Gears of War maps hit this Thursday
Kutaragi already planned PlayStation 4, 5, 6 and cold fusion
D3 brings Puzzle Quest and friends to XBLA
Tomb Raider: Anniversary, day and date on GameTap and more
SMU's Guildhall awards game design degrees
Dragon Quest IX screenshots! All hail cel-shaded graphics!
More Sadness details squeezed out of Nibris, the saga continues
Atari to cut workforce by 20%
Don Bluth trying to make Dragon's Lair movie
PETA talks God of War goat
Jaffe un-promises, Calling All Cars delayed
EA channels Wii Sports and comes up with EA Playground

Rumors & Speculation
Why is the PSP not putting up a video fight?

Culture & Community
Jaffe reviews the reviews of Calling All Cars
Guitar Hero controller modded for correct-handers (lefties)
Action games are broken, let's fix them!
Hironobu Sakaguchi Mixtape: Beef with Kutaragi
Game Boy fabric versus Game Boy metal
Sims 2 and H&M bring us adver-gaming v2.0
Super Mario Bros. played with eyes closed

HP showed off another research and development project, Misto, at its recent game media event. Misto is basically a coffee table with a touch-sensitive display rigged underneath its glass. That's not to say it's not impressive for a coffee table or a display; we've just seen similar projects, and other creative, homebrew game tables.

Misto's demos relied on a few simple applications to prove its touch sensitivity. I moved puzzle pieces around the screen. I browsed through photos. I looked at houses I couldn't afford; Misto is currently in-use with at least one realtor although not available for general consumers.

While a coffee table interface would be fun for certain games, Misto's current version misses big by only recognizing one touch at a time. Sure, there are technical reasons why it and many other devices can't juggle multiple users. But for the table to have the social gaming applications HP mentioned, that untouchability is a major oversight. If Misto ever makes it to market -- perhaps for virtual/actual Settlers of Catan or other social board games -- it needs to accept two or more touches at a time before we want one.

Previously only available in bite-sized DisOrDat pieces, the online version of You Don't Know Jack has been fleshed out to include a full round of trivia. Each week a new episode is released featuring several questions, including a DisOrDat as well as Jack Attack, a fast-paced match-the-pair question. All of this is wrapped in a creamy coating of narration provided by the witty (and covertly insulting) Cookie.

Jellyvision will still roll out 3-4 DisOrDats per week in addition to the full episodes. It's enough Jack to make you feel like you actually do know ... Jack.