Exp.pack, 1000 S Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

08/27/2026

A headset today means talking trash in a Fortnite or COD lobby, but in 2002, SOCOM’s headset meant running an actual mission in the middle of war.

Built around the headset that came in the box, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs launched August 27th, 2002. Nintendo had already put a microphone in a box with Hey You, Pikachu!, but nothing ever came with a true headset. SOCOM became the first PS2 game built for voice recognition. The system had three prompts, WHO WHAT WHERE, that replaced a radio menu with your own voice mid-firefight. That headset worked online too, beating Xbox Live by nearly three months, the service we credit with setting the console voice chat standard in the first place.

Boomer, one of your AI teammates, became legendary for forever walking face-first into enemy fire. Players never let it go, so later, as a joke from the devs, SOCOM had you find him dead in an enemy prison. Most gaming headsets since have been for talking trash, but SOCOM’s was for giving actual orders, and for a second, the mission felt real.

08/26/2026

Batman’s rogues gallery was spitting hot fire.

Seventeen years ago today, Rocksteady Studios released Arkham Asylum. Yes, the game that saw you play as Batman in an action-adventure where you fall right into the Joker’s trap. What was meant to be Batman escorting his arch-nemesis back into the asylum turned into an insane night of fighting.

Throughout his quest to restore order within Arkham Asylum, Batman faces several battles against his biggest enemies. Of course, losing these fights not only meant it was game over, but that the game would figuratively rub salt in your wounds.

Upon dying, Batman’s enemies would appear in cutscenes, referred to often as death taunts, to tease Batman. Some of them were clever. Others? Not so much. The fact that the game featured cutscenes voiced by icons like Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin made it almost worth it, though.

Heck, even Kevin Conroy lends his voice for death taunts. Fans who played the “Play as the Joker” mode could experience these special lines.

Almost two decades after launching, Arkham Asylum is still loved for its fighting mechanics, immersive world, and iconic cut scenes- like the death taunts that occurred when the Bat ran out of lives.

08/25/2026

Nobody at Rare or Nintendo originally approved the part of GoldenEye that people still talk about 29 years later.

The game came from a team of less than ten people who had never made a first-person shooter before, built off a Bond movie that had already left theaters by the time the game shipped in August 1997. That extra time is how four-player split-screen deathmatch made it in at all.

Programmer Mark Edmonds had already built split-screen rendering into the engine for internal testing, so when the team wanted to make the case for multiplayer, they could show it running instead of asking permission to build it first. Steve Ellis finished coding deathmatch on top of Mark’s work in the final months of production, later saying, “The first they knew about it was when we showed it to them working.” Setting the bar for console multiplayer until Halo showed up in 2001.

The best part: if you beat Runway on Agent in under 5 minutes, you’d unlock DK Mode. Donkey Kong-sized heads with tiny bodies- Rare’s own history was snuck into a Bond game.

08/24/2026

Seeing the Duel Disk at the beginning of the Battle City arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! was a canon event.

Of course, this Duel Disk was developed by KaibaCorp. It was built off the prototype Kaiba used during the Duelist Kingdom arc. Instead of throwing the disk, this “version 2” brought the game into the wrist of the duelist in the Battle City tournament.

The colors, the functionality, the sounds, and the style made the Duel Disk such an iconic part of the anime. In 2003, Mattel brought it to life.

Mattel’s toy adaptation featured functional lights, card slots, life point trackers, and more. The Duel Disk used a Velcro strap to keep it in place on your wrist when your duels got a little hype.

The packaging was as bold as the disk itself, but the physical Duel Disk was a manifestation of cool. Other TCG’s had cool accessories, of course, but the Mattel Duel Disk was without a doubt the coolest. Suddenly, kids traded in their play-mats for disks, even though the Mattel Duel Disk wasn’t exactly the most functional toy.

That didn’t matter to fans. Its iconic design and the ability to physically hold one of the coolest anime accessories ever made it worth dealing with issues like card space limitations. Even after Mattel discontinued it in 2004, the toy and the Duel Disk remained relevant to fans of the TCG and the anime.

Now, all these years later, the Duel Disk has seen rereleases. Fans have created their own customs, even using them as subjects for their photoshoots.

Mattel’s 2003 Duel Disk brought the Battle City arc to life. In doing so, it made us feel like the coolest kids ever.

Credits: Yu-Gi-Oh.Fandom, yugipedia ANYWARE & Port Klause on TikTok

08/23/2026

Thirty-five years ago today, Super Mario World launched in North America.

By the time the game launched in 1991, the Super Mario Franchise was deep into its history. With several games under the franchise’s belt, Super Mario World seemingly perfected the franchise.

Today, we are looking back at some of the reasons Super Mario World was so great, and why several fans think it’s one of the best games of all time.

What are your favorite memories from Super Mario World?

08/22/2026

Martín López’s art is the amalgamation of a generation of pop culture.

Finding a rise in popularity in the 1990s, López’s art used characters from The Simpsons (primarily Homer and Bart) to recreate iconic characters from comic books, movies, and even real-life revolutionaries.

Whether it was making Homer a Mexican Revolutionary like Pancho Villa, or having Bart mourn Milhouse in a recreation of the iconic Batman “ Death in the Family” art, López’s work knew almost no bounds.

Of course, López’s art eventually became the subject of merchandise. Tiangis (or Flea Markets for my English speakers) across Mexico began stocking t-shirts that featured his famous art. The striking air brush created a deep feeling of understanding. Martín’s work had an audience that loved his blends of pop-culture. In return, the demand for merchandise only exploded more.

There were trading cards that were developed that featured his art, but the action figures became the most collectable pieces of López’s art. Before KAWS was selling companion figures, López was working with Mexican sculptors to create these action figures that depicted Homer Simpson as all sorts of superheroes.

The action figures became so popular across Mexico that eventually vendors began selling unauthorized versions. They bootlegged the bootlegger. Martín doesn’t hold it against them, though. In an interview last year, he stated that he found it “marvelous” that his art and collectables were able to reach such an audience that has crossed generations.

López’s art crossed borders. After all, its pop culture references were relatable to audiences across the globe. Today, t-shirts featuring Martín’s art are vintage grails. And the toys? They remain a relic of 1990s toy collecting- a time before mass distribution, or a time before collectables cost a plastic arm and a leg.

If you are in the L.A area, visit Momotoys to check out Martín’s toys in person.

Credits: Juguetes Olvidados, flormats BG4 CLOTHES Joshua Martinez & hued

08/21/2026

BioShock did something to players in 2007 that critics didn’t have a word for. So one of them invented one.

Landing on North American shelves on August 21st, 2007, it dropped players into Rapture, an underwater Art Deco city built by magnate Andrew Ryan, whose name is a partial anagram of the philosopher Ayn Rand. Ryan built it on Objectivism, his philosophy of freedom from government, church, and what he called “the clutching hand of the parasites.” Rapture is less a setting and more of an argument.

Director Ken Levine wanted BioShock to feel like his earlier game System Shock 2, and publishers passed (“we can’t make those games because they don’t sell,” they said). So his team planted BioShock details inside a System Shock 2 retrospective with GameSpot. Calls started coming in the next day.

“Would you kindly” turns up constantly throughout the first act, a tic from your radio guide, Atlas, that nobody thinks twice about, until the game reveals it was a hypnotic trigger.

Every locked door, every “choice,” none of it was ever yours. That October, designer Clint Hocking tried to explain what BioShock had done to him and coined a new term, “ludonarrative dissonance.” This new term speaks to the gap between what a game tells you and what it lets you do. Nineteen years later, critics still use it in their reviews.

Rapture never got its utopia, and gaming got a brand new word.

08/20/2026

Before vendors priced everything based on eBay last-sold listings, they referred to magazines like Beckett.

Sometimes referred to as the “bible” for sports and trading card collectors, Beckett offered monthly pricing guides that determined the value of cards in a market before the internet was popularized.

Digimon’s popularity in 1999 led to the series getting its own dedicated Magazine in May of 2000. Beckett Digimon Collector included reference guides, exclusive giveaways, promo sets, posters, and much more.

Magazines at the time had to compete for shelf space at grocery stores and magazine stands. That, of course, meant the art had to stand out. And it did.

Digimon Collector’s covers were designed by artist Ken Penders. The covers were familiar to other Beckett magazines from the era in the sense that they were bright and full of saturated colors. The bold and dark edges allowed these colors to pop more on stands and catch the audience’s eyes. Penders stated on Twitter in 2023 that designing these covers was a learning experience, as they were the first covers he had created digitally.

Beckett discontinued Digimon Collector after a 16-issue-run in 2001, citing waning demand.

08/19/2026

A rap beef that settled with no real consequences. Well… almost none.

Since coming into the rap scene in the 2010s, Action Bronson drew comparisons thanks to his style and delivery to the Wu-Tang icon Ghostface Killah. The comparisons continued for years, often being used by Bronson haters to discredit his work.

The “beef” officially kicked off thanks to Action Bronson’s 2015 appearance on ESPN’s SportsNation. When asked about the comparisons, Bronson initially said he saw it as a compliment. As the hosts continued to pile on, Bronson would drop the fateful line that would kick everything off. A tongue-in-cheek: “He’s not rapping like this no more.”

Ghost’s response came in a scathing six-minute video where he threatened Bronson and questioned his character. Action Bronson would immediately take to Twitter to apologize, admitting he got carried away. Ghost would go on the record saying he did not accept his apology. That said, the dust settled, well, for the most part.

Swamp Penguins would make a joke of this “beef” by developing their own flash computer game. “Ghost Face Killah vs Action Bronson” pulled from classic Nintendo platformers to create a funny 8-bit game that saw you play as Action Bronson. You ran through a 36-Chambers-inspired arena to pick up Twitter icons. Oh yeah, a giant Ghostface Killah chased you around. All the while, an 8-bit rendition of Bronson’s “Actin’ Crazy” served as a soundtrack.

Since those eventful days in 2015, the pair has largely avoided talking about the situation. That was until Ghost appeared on Drink Champs in 2022. There, he revealed he actually had a lot of love for Bronson. No, they hadn’t spoken since the incident, but he would “show him love” if he ran into him. More so, he explained that he would love to work on a song together if the situation ever presented itself.

Time heals all 8-bit wounds, it looks like.

08/18/2026

The Tommy Game Boy walked so the Supreme Analog Pocket could run. Or is it the other way around?

In 1999, Nintendo teamed up with Tommy Hilfiger for a special edition Game Boy Color. This partnership would mark the first time Nintendo allowed for another imprint to brand their handhelds.

The Dandelion yellow Gameboy Color was part of a special promotion (see slide two). Department stores like Macy’s offered the limited-edition console for $57.50 when you spent a minimum of $50 on kids’ Tommy Hilfiger apparel.

This partnership was, obviously, multibeneficial. Nintendo got to move more Game Boy Colors, while Tommy got to use the handheld as a way to sell kids’ products. In the end, the consumer got a decent deal by getting both Tommy apparel and a Game Boy for only about twenty bucks more than a regular Game Boy would run you in 1999.

The Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy left its bright yellow marks on gaming, fashion, and hypebeast culture in the years that followed. The same (minus the dandelion yellow) can be said for Supreme.

The streetwear giant has spent the last few decades redefining streetwear and hypebeast culture. This week, during the official reveal of their FW26 collection, a collaborative Analogue Pocket was announced. Analog’s Pocket handheld has been the talk of gaming for years. Their handheld has surely contributed to the popularity of handheld gaming in 2026.

The Supreme x Analog Pocket will surely be one of the most anticipated items the brand releases this year. It is already causing a lot of discourse within the gaming community, ahead of its launch later this week.

The world of fashion and handheld gaming has once again collided. Things look a lot different than when that Dandelion Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy dropped, though.

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