the dark hero - Slashdot User

Submission + - Art Community Probed for Opinions on Videogames

Submitted by Dim on Monday April 16, 2007 @05:34PM

Dim writes: Gamesradar has a feature and short documentary (on the first page of the article) up in which they discuss the question, 'Are games art?' Rather than speaking to developers, they prodded SF Museum of Modern Art employees and visitors. The general response from the mostly non-gamer public was, 'yes, games can be art.'

Submission + - Sony Planning 80GB PS3

Submitted by

narramissic

on Thursday March 29, 2007 @08:41AM

narramissic writes: "Included in a filing made by Sony to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this month regarding a change to the PlayStation 3's Bluetooth module is notification of a new PS3 game console with a higher-capacity hard-disk drive. From the cover letter: 'The model CECHE01 to be added by the difference of the capacity of hard disk.' It then says the new model will have an 80G-byte drive."

Submission + - Exigent and the future of gaming in India - Part 1

Submitted by

Ishaan

on Thursday March 29, 2007 @12:53AM

Ishaan writes: "http://flamewaradvance.blogspot.com/2007/03/exigen t.html

Exigent is an outsourcing company in India involved in video game art direction. What sets these guys apart from the rest is that they hope to compete with China and eventually grow into a fulltime PC game developer. With industry veterans on board who have worked for Atari, EA, Raven and Artificial Studio, Exigent looks to be a huge step in the right direction for the gaming scene in a country where the industry is only just starting to pick up.

Part 1 of this two-part interview is with Exigent CCO Paul Steed, who talks about outsourcing, cultural differences in game development, fighting piracy and the possibility of a separate Game Developers Conference for India."

Submission + - Charlie Stross on Future of MMORPGs

Submitted by

Tarinth

on Wednesday March 28, 2007 @08:49AM

Tarinth writes: "Charlie Stross, a science fiction novelist who has written about the Singularity and a variety of man-meets-machine topics for the past decade, takes a stab at predicting where MMORPGs will take us over 25 years — including thoughts about metacomputing platforms for serverless virtual worlds, better interfaces, integration with 3D printers and the overall cultural impact of online gaming. See: Life's a Game and Then You Die: the Future of Online Games"

Submission + - Irish PS3 Launch Feedback

Submitted by

GI Primal

on Friday March 23, 2007 @03:27PM

GI Primal writes: "Gaming Ireland's KiZmEt took a field trip today to gauge the success of the PS3 launch in Ireland. The results were somewhat disappointing however if not surprising. With a trip around most of Ireland's major electronics and game retailers to talk with their employees about the launch it was discovered that none of the stores had sold out the console and that in fact some stores had yet to sell a single console. While some of the retail staff were quick to point out that neither the Xbox 360 nor the Nintendo Wii had sold out on launch day it has to be pointed out that all pre-orders were booked out in both cases whereas you can still walk into a shop right now and pick up a PS3 immediately. It also must be pointed out that none of the stores visited today could actually supply us with a Nintendo Wii as it is still sold out. It appears that in the strongest gaming market in europe people are not overly enamoured with Sony's behemoth console. For the full story check out this article"

PlayStation 3 Launches in EU/AU 123

Posted by Zonk on Friday March 23, 2007 @02:38PM from the it's-everywhere-it's-everywhere dept.

stpk4 wrote to mention some articles discussing the launch of the PlayStation 3 in Europe; London saw Phil Harrison handing out HD sets, while Microsoft's party barge and lackluster crowds marked the Parisian launch. The Australian launch went well but also saw disappointing crowds, with media, security, and store officials outnumbering the customers for much of the event. Eurogamer has a comprehensive list of launch titles, for those of you in the new territories thinking of picking up a console.

Submission + - Microsoft Harasses PS3 Buyers

Submitted by

Shimdaddy

on Friday March 23, 2007 @02:04PM

Shimdaddy writes: "Microsoft decided to drown out the free press that Sony was getting with their European PS3 launch. Stunts include driving a large boat past Sony's launch event, handing out chairs with the url of a website telling Sony it was "Too Late." No word as to whether or not they were behind the failed attempt at stealing the PS3 from a buyer."

Submission + - Wii bowling over U.S. retirees

Submitted by

murdock238

on Friday March 23, 2007 @12:50PM

murdock238 writes: ""That bet paid off. The Wii outsold the new Microsoft and Sony consoles in January and February and is generating its own buzz with everyone from nuns to cancer patients to toddlers. There are Wii parties and Wii bowling contests. Players, who often look quite silly and occasionally injure themselves in fits of overzealous play, upload video of their Wii antics to a variety of technology Web sites like GameTrailers.com and Google's YouTube. "I thought it was tremendous," said Ted Campbell, 77. Last week he played the Wii for the first time at Springfield, Virginia's Greenspring Retirement Community, where Ebert is also a resident.""

Submission + - Neoflash Homebrew Coding Contest

Submitted by YokimaSun on Friday March 23, 2007 @12:11PM

YokimaSun writes: The Neoflash Homebrew Coding Contest has just finished and this years event partnered by Homebrew communities DCEmu and Emuboards has had 55 entries by the best amateur coders in the Nintendo DS and PSP Homebrew scenes. Pick of the bunch this year for the DS was the port of Duke Nukem 3D, DS Sports (a Wii Sports Clone), Beup (MSN for DS) & WolveSlayer . Best of the PSP Entries were Afkim3 (Trillian type app) and Hexaxis . Enjoy the best of legal homebrew development on your games consoles.

Submission + - Dreamcast Homebrew game to be published on the DS

Submitted by YokimaSun on Friday March 23, 2007 @11:43AM

YokimaSun writes: Alten8 are to (commercially) publish, Harmless lion's Dreamcast independent/homebrew game, Cool Herders for the Nintendo DS. Cool Herders was a homebrew game for the Dreamcast release with the Tonic disc at E3, back in 2001 Its great to see homebrew hit the big time. Heres More info: " Four player wi-fi action will feature in this great game , which is based on its creators original Dreamcast version but with all new features for the DS . It is a perfect first market entry for Alten8 as a publisher , to launch itself into the console market. Full details will be released over the coming weeks of both this , and the other future console titles from Alten8."

Submission + - Top 5 Most Overrated People In The Industry

Submitted by

njkid1

on Friday March 23, 2007 @11:38AM

njkid1 writes: "Peruse any video game forum and you'll stumble across crazed fans who put their idols (in this case, game developers and corporate figureheads) on golden pedestals. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but we decided to dig a little deeper to see if theselegendary figures live up to the hype. Behold, the top five most overrated industry people. Try not to pop a blood vessel."

Submission + - The Elderly & The Wii

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Friday March 23, 2007 @10:26AM

eldavojohn writes: "Rueters is running an interesting story on elderly retired people spending more time playing the Wii. The article notes that many people in the older generations missed video game consoles but have found joy later in life in playing them.

"It's a very social thing and it's good exercise ... and you don't have to throw a 16-pound (7.25-kg) bowling ball to get results," said Dierbach, who added the competition had people who hardly knew each other cheering and hugging in the span of a few hours. "We just had a ball with it. You think it's your grandkids' game and it's not," she said, noting that Erickson paid for the Wiis in its facilities.
The Wii is looking more and more like a tool for weight loss and entertainment in your twilight years than the teenage gamer's choice."

Submission + - Dreamcast homebrew game to be published on the DS

Submitted by

DS69

on Friday March 23, 2007 @08:26AM

DS69 writes: "dcemu reports, that Alten8 are going to publish, Harmless lion's Dreamcast independent game, Cool Herders for the DS.

Cool Herders was a homebrew game for the Dreamcast release with the Tonic disc at E3, back in 2001 (you can download the freeware/demo version here)

Later GOAT Store published a (much improved) commercial Version for the dreamcast, which you can still order here.

From press release

Cool Herders For The Nintendo DS

Alten8 is pleased to reveal the first title for the Nintendo DS to be released by Alten8 during 2007. Working closely with Harmless Lion Studios , Alten8 is bringing this title to the market which will appeal to a wide variety of players of all ages , and genders. With bright colourful characters , and good game play , lead your flock of sheep to safety , protect them from dangers , and don't just follow the herd...!!

Four player wi-fi action will feature in this great game , which is based on its creators original Dreamcast version but with all new features for the DS . It is a perfect first market entry for Alten8 as a publisher , to launch itself into the console market. Full details will be released over the coming weeks of both this , and the other future console titles from Alten8.

Alten8 has a range of ten , DS games in production and confirmed . This number is set to grow over the coming weeks with other further games in discussion. Some of the games under development will also cover PC and Wii versions as they progress , giving Alten8 various multi-format title releases.

Alten8 will both publish these games itself in some regions , and in partnership with other interested companies , for regions not yet covered or signed. Alten8 welcomes interest from third parties in this future DS range , or other content or business services it can offer."

The Godfather of Sudoku 47

Posted by Zonk on Thursday March 22, 2007 @06:36PM from the brain-twisting- dept.

circletimessquare writes "The New York Times profiles 55 year old Maki Kaji who runs Nikoli, in its article Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace. Nikoli is a puzzle publisher that prides itself on 'a kind of democratization of puzzle invention. The company itself does not actually create many new puzzles — an American invented an earlier version of sudoku, for example. Instead, Nikoli provides a forum for testing and perfecting them.' Also notable is how Mr. Kaji describes how he did not get the trademark for Sudoku in the United States before it was too late. But reminiscent of a theme many Slashdotters will find familiar about intellectual property: 'In hindsight, though, he now thinks that oversight was a brilliant mistake. The fact that no one controlled sudoku's intellectual property rights let the game's popularity grow unfettered, Mr. Kaji says.' Will Nikoli be the source of the next big puzzle fad after Sudoku?"

How To Make the DS Even Better 82

Posted by Zonk on Thursday March 22, 2007 @05:46PM from the add-a-totally-wicked-spoiler dept.

Next Generation has up an interesting piece considering ways to make the ultra-successful Nintendo DS even better. Thoughts include streamlining the needlessly complicated 'friend code' system, adding internal flash ram to the device, and rolling out a virtual console system ala the Wii. Their best idea, I think, is to use the GBA slot on the system for a cartridge including all of these new elements: "The advantage over typical 'system upgrades', like the ram expansion for the N64 or the PS2 hard drive, is that this cartridge should have little direct effect on game software; it would simply transform the DS into a more useful and personal tool. Such an update would also weed out the necessity to offer a whole new DS model, further annoying people who felt forced to upgrade to the DS Lite - itself only a cosmetic adjustment."

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