We're thinking it's not a coincidence that VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi chose Earth Day to publish an interview with Henk Rogers about his efforts to save the environment. You may remember Rogers as the visionary who first noticed an unassuming game called Tetris at a trade show and went on a crusade to get the game licensed outside of Russia. If you're not familiar with his story, we must insist you track down a copy of David Sheff's excellent book Game Over and read all about it. Go ahead ... we'll wait.

Done reading? Well, then you might be interested to know that Rogers is now using the money he made selling the Tetris license to do nothing less than getting the world completely off of carbon-based energy. After accomplishing that modest goal, Rogers says he hopes to realize the vision of his company's upcoming Blue Mars MMO by actually terraforming part of the red planet. Say what you will, you have to admit, the guy's ambitious.

Sure, you may be well aware of the fact that last week's 2.1 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 gifted the console with support for the ubiquitous DivX video codec, but did you also know that nestled deep within the update was a new space-faring music visualizer? Seen in motion through the magic of YouTube, it's an incredibly nifty way to relax to those newly unwrapped CDs, but it also makes us wax nostalgic and wonder whatever happened to those grade school dreams of becoming astronauts when we grew up.

The new tool was created by Q-Games, who developed the terrifically fun PSN downloadable PixelJunk Racers, and the studios' PR manager Duncan Flett tells Gamasutra that the project went through a number of changes prior to release, including an initial stint as the boot sequence for Sony's console. Also interesting is that the visualizer uses texture data lifted from the NASA Blue Marble project, making this one of the neatest uses of science since the application of baking soda to vinegar.

Full disclosure: This writer did, in fact, pen stories for Gamasutra in a previous life before his current tour of duty on board the starship Joystiq.

[Via Gamasutra]

The train of good press for Nintendo just keeps chugging along. The latest piece comes from GoNintendo, who had a reader contact Nintendo about their environmental policies. The full response can be found after the break, but a couple things that stand out are that Nintendo purchases recycled paper towels, report covers, message pads, and writing pads. They also use 80% recycled paper in all their shipping packaging.

So, now that we know what Nintendo does to help save our little planet, we wonder what Microsoft and Sony do? We doubt that either tests their products on animals, but are they using recycled toilet paper (not used, there's a difference) and recycling 70% of the waste from their headquarters? We don't know about Sony, but at least we know that Microsoft recycles their broken Xbox 360s. Oh come on, it had to be said.