By Andrew Liszewski
The Emperor from NovelQuest is another attempt to shrink down the traditional office into a single workstation designed to increase productivity, comfort and the number of employees you can cram into your building. It features almost everything any PC user might need including 3 x 19-inch LCD monitors, a smaller 7-inch touch screen which serves as the control center, a webcam, custom work lights, a well-configured computer, a HEPA air purification system, a 30 minute UPS and even limited motion allowing the whole thing to recline or rotate 360 degrees.
And given how many of these over-engineered computer workstations I see popping up from time-to-time I can only assume there has to be people buying them, but I just don’t know who they are. Inexplicably well-funded college students? Maniacal CEOs? Mad scientists? Whoever it is they better be ready to shell out $39,950 for the Windows version, or $41,950 for the Mac one.
[ NovelQuest Emperor ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]
By Andrew Liszewski
Not only was the Game Boy the first true game console I ever owned, but it was also the first big purchase I had to ’save up’ for as a kid. And to ensure that I didn’t spend the first few weeks only playing the included copy of Tetris, I made sure to budget a few extra dollars so I could also pick up one of the Game Boy’s original launch titles. This ended up being Konami’s Motocross Maniacs and in hindsight I’m still pretty happy with the decision, since the game is one of my favorite Game Boy titles to this day. Because it was one of the first third-party games available for the new system, the graphics and gameplay in Motocross Maniacs were pretty simple, but the game was still extremely challenging and addictive.
Motocross Maniacs is basically a 2D sidescroller, but instead of running around and shooting at enemies, you’re riding a dirt bike through a series of jumps, loops and other physics-defying obstacles. And all the while you’re racing the clock trying to complete the course in the allotted time. (Harder difficulty settings simply meant less time on the clock.) The courses were also packed full of different power-ups including the all important nitro ‘N’ block which provided you with a burst of speed that was actually necessary to make it across certain jumps later in the game. And like I said, while Motocross Maniacs might have been a simple game in concept, I can remember it being quite difficult at times. But it’s amazing how you’re able to overcome the urge to frustratingly whip your Game Boy against the wall when it represents months of your own hard-earned money.
[ Wikipedia - Motocross Maniacs ]
By Andrew Liszewski
As the story goes, a reader of the Official Australian PlayStation magazine by the name of Alistair Richardson sent in this photo he took at a wedding of an uncle he hadn’t seen in quite a few years. Of course the reason he took the photo was because it turns out his uncle is obviously Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. I’m pretty sure that game was semi-biographical right? The photos were then cleverly doctored by Gameplayer to show Snake in his more recognizable uniform, and to remove all doubt as to who this really is.
…I have a brother and he got married recently, so I was at the wedding and there were lots of family members about, some of which I had not seen for years. One man in particular caught my attention. An uncle of mine that had aged considerably since I last saw him - maybe more than ten years prior. I looked at him and thought “I recognise that face and not just as the face of my aged uncle.” Then it dawned on me and I found myself thinking “Snake……. Solid Snake?……Snake….What happened…………. Snake………… SSNNNAAAAAKE!”
I had my camera with me and snapped a few shots. So there you have it! Solid Snake in real life! I thought he was a carpenter, but it looks like my uncle is a badass stealth killer.
The only downside is that during the reception he ended up sitting next to his uncle and had to endure hours of cutscenes in between the speeches and the meal. But it makes me wonder who I might run into at the next wedding I attend… oh wait… I almost forgot… I don’t get invited to weddings anymore after ‘the incident’.
[ Real-life Solid Snake discovered ] VIA [ ALBOTAS ]
By Andrew Liszewski
Long before Mortal Kombat hit the scene and got everyone riled up about video game violence, there was a game called Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior which I played on the C64. (Though I only ever knew it as Barbarian.) It was your standard 2D fighting game, but instead of fancy martial arts or magical fireballs you had to rely on your sword and basic fighting moves like kicks, rolls and even head butts. Come to think of it the game was probably pretty accurate in that regard, since it supposedly took place during the dark ages. Two opponents of slightly varying color schemes would square off in a handful of medieval venues, and eventually you’d get to challenge a wizard who was the game’s final boss. For some reason though, my copy of the game was stuck in an endless loop, so no matter how many opponents I defeated (sometimes close to 50 before I gave up) I never actually made it to the final wizard stage.
But I still thoroughly enjoyed the game, mostly because of one special move where your character would do an impressive 360 degree spin with his sword, taking your opponent’s head clean off in the process. In fact I found this move worked right from the start of the match, but only with every other opponent. The ones in-between apparently had some level of improved AI that allowed them to block the attack. But for those who weren’t so lucky, once beheaded they would slump to the ground and a bizarre green troll-like creature would stroll across the screen, kick the head out of frame and then drag the body away. (After stopping to make some weird sound effect.) And again, by today’s standards the game looks pretty lame, but in 1987 that pixelated blood was more than enough to send the squeamish running from the room. But if you have any doubt about the awesomeness of Barbarian, I’ve included a YouTube video showing the game in action, after the jump. (Note: The squeamish still might want to look away.)
[ Lemon64.com - Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior ]
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By Andrew Liszewski
Even though the graphics in racing games like Gran Turismo or Project Gotham Racing are incredibly realistic these days, if you were hoping to recreate the feel of tearing down the road in your favorite high-performance sports car, sitting on a couch with a vibrating controller in your hand just doesn’t cut it. You’ll need to upgrade to something like the Force Dynamics 301 simulator, even if it means ditching that couch to make room.
Believe it or not the 301 is actually one of the smallest full-motion simulators on the market, and is low enough to the ground that you don’t need a ladder or extra steps to climb in and out of the sunken racing seat. The motion is provided by 3 ball-screw based linear actuators that feature 18 inches of travel and 500lbs of peak thrust each. It also features a raised center of rotation that “provides superior onset cueing compared to existing motion systems, and reduces parasitic forces that cause motion sickness.” Supposedly fewer than 1% of the riders that have used the Force Dynamics 301 have experienced motion sickness. And while the simulator is marketed as being ‘low-cost’, something tells me the $15,000 price tag is going to keep it from being the hot-ticket item this Christmas.
[ Force Dynamics 301 Simulator ] VIA [ Planeta Gadget ]
By Andrew Liszewski
Not to be outdone by the handheld NES in an NES cartridge that popped up a few weeks ago, another modder on the BenHeck.com forums with the alias of ‘G-force’ has crammed a famiclone (a Super Joy III) into an NES controller. While the famiclone already came with about 70 built-in pirated games, this NES controller NES goes one step further with an actual cartridge slot on the bottom allowing you to play any old NES title you can get your hands on. Here’s some more info on the mod:
-Came with built-in pirate games, including the 2 player version of tetris, and a level select hacked Contra, among 70 or so more games. Nearly endless supply of old-school-nes there. I didn’t even get to play every one before I gave it away, lol.
-Ca(r)tridge connector on back for playing those NES games that aren’t built in. Just switch the power switch over to the left and it disables built in games, and the ca(r)tridge is playing. I wasn’t going to add this at first, but thought about how she had a weird pirate game with a guy who threw rocks, and it wouldn’t work on her blinking NES. I really wanted to play it, so thats why I added it. A bit selfish maybe, but I don’t think anyone will complain.
-Nintendo logo is backlit! Looks insanely cool in real life. I’m going to do this to all my NES controllers when I can get around to it! It’s that cool. Only thing that bugs me is that one LED is too close to the logo and unblablances the light. Something only a perfectionist would notice.
Something tells me if G-force found a way to produce a limited run of these Mini NES’s, he’d make himself a small fortune.
[ BenHeck.com Forums - NES mini (entire NES system in controller!) ] VIA [ ALBOTAS ]
By Andrew Liszewski
You might remember a few months ago I posted a story about Microsoft partnering with Companions in Courage and donating hundreds of standalone Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across the US. Well Nintendo is now following suit and have partnered with the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation to create Fun Center portable kiosks with built-in Wii consoles designed to provide entertainment and enjoyment for hospitalized kids.
The new Fun Centers feature a Sharp Aquos LCD display, a DVD player and a Wii console with family-friendly titles like Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Party 8. The first two units, which were donated by Nintendo, were presented to the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles in late June. But in total the company is manufacturing 1,250 of the Fun Center Wii kiosks in their first run, and the Starlight foundation hopes to have about 500 of them distributed to hospitals across Canada and the US by the end of the year. So I guess the ball’s now in Sony’s court.
[ Starlight and Nintendo Unveil New Fun Center Featuring the Wii ] VIA [ Joystiq ]
By Andrew Liszewski
I think it’s safe to say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the original Test Drive was the greatest ‘driving around a mountain’ simulator ever developed for any gaming console. At least that’s what I assumed the game was about, since there was always a towering brown wall to the right of your vehicle you had to avoid, in addition to the occasional traffic coming from the opposite direction. And even though I had no idea where they could set up a speed trap on a mountain road, the game also required you to watch your speed, otherwise you’d find the police chasing you in your rear-view mirror. Thankfully your car was also equipped with a radar detector (the device in the upper left corner of the screen) so you knew when to keep your speed down and when you could jam your joystick all the way forward.
But I think what really attracted most kids and even automotive enthusiasts to the game was that Test Drive featured actual licensed cars, and as far as I know it was the first driving simulator to have that. You had your choice of 5 different performance vehicles including the Chevrolet Corvette, the Lamborghini Countach, the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Ferrari Testarossa and the Lotus Esprit Turbo. As you scrolled through the choices you also got a brief spec sheet for each ride so you could see how they performed in terms of acceleration or 0-60 times. (Not that any of those numbers actually translated that well when it came to the in-game driving.) As a kid I can remember being absolutely blown away at the ‘high-resolution’ graphics of each car on the selection screen, and while I shake my head looking at them today, back then it made me wonder how things could ever improve. Thankfully though, the original Test Drive was far from the pinnacle of video game graphics.
[ Lemon64.com - Test Drive ]
By Andrew Liszewski
If you’re a fan of classic portable gaming then check out this handheld NES that’s been built into an actual NES cartridge. The NESp was created by the BenHeck.com forum member ‘darkeru’ and features all of the standard NES controller buttons (including start and select hidden on the sides) as well as a decent sized color LCD screen. It’s powered by 3 n-cell batteries which are located on the bottom of the cartridge where the game pins originally were, and since having an NES cartridge slot for loading games would reduce its portability, the NESp uses a 99-games-in-1 NES ROM instead.
[ BenHeck.com Forums - darkeru's NESp ] VIA [ Joystiq ]
By Andrew Liszewski
It seems that if you want to guarantee your sports title has some level of success these days, you need to make sure it features a professional athlete in some capacity. But believe it or not there was a time when game developers didn’t shell out millions of dollars to license actual players. In fact the first game to feature sports celebrities didn’t come out until 1983 when a then small company known as Electronic Arts released Julius Erving & Larry Bird: One-On-One for the Commodore 64. While the in-game characters looked nothing like their real-life counterparts, the box featured a photo of both NBA stars on the front which pretty much guaranteed the game would appeal to even the most passive of basketball fans.
As you can see the graphics were particularly bland, even for a Commodore 64 title, but the background music was quite addictive and the gameplay was pretty decent. One thing I never really liked though was that the players got tired as you approached the end of each quarter. As a result they would start to move as slow as molasses, so we’d usually just put down our joysticks and let the clock run out until they were back to full speed at the start of the next quarter. I’m sure the feature seemed like a clever idea on paper, but it became quite tedious when you were actually trying to play the game.
And to be honest, the sports celebrity angle was never the reason my friends and I played the game. In fact as grade school kids we barely knew who Dr. J or Larry Bird even were. But we loved their game for the simple fact that you could shatter the backboard with a slam dunk. You never knew when it was going to happen, but when it did the backboard would turn into a pixelated mess as it fell to the floor, and a disgruntled janitor would have to come out and sweep it up before the game could continue. It was actually a very small part of the game, but as far as my friends and I were concerned, shattering the backboard after a dunk was probably the greatest accomplishment any NBA player could pull off in their career. And it was just as satisfying for us to do it sitting in front of our C64s.
[ 1UP.com - Erving Vs. Bird: One-On-One ] & [ Lemon64.com - One on One: Julius Erving and Larry Bird ]
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