Nintendo Censorship

Did you know that Nintendo US has a censorship policy? Some games released in Japan were altered for the release in US. This page details some examples which include changing blook to sweat in Mortal Kombat and changing the cross on tombstones of Ducktales to the letters RIP. Interesting.

Sony Ericsson Concept Phones

This webpage contains the many entries submitted for a Sony Ericsson concept phone design competition. Some are looks cool, others look functional. There are also some that looks futuristic, and yet others are just downright insane. Whatever it is, it'll be so cool if even one of these makes it into the market.

Turn off that TV set!

Irritated by TV sets blasting everywhere? Wanna turn them off? There's this device called the TV-B-Gone, which is a new key-chain size universal remote that turns off almost any television. The device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first. Good when you need some quiet time or some prank at your local electronics store.

Give to Child's Play

The folks at Penny Arcade are doing their bit for charity again. Last year, they got gamers around the world to donate over $250,000 in cash and toys (you can check out the pictures of the amount of toys and games they bought on their website) to the Seattle Children's Hospital. This year, they are expanding their effort to more hospitals in the US. Who says gamers are not socially conscious? And won't it be good if we can do something similar in Singapore? This will help to dispel the misconception that gamers are recluse.

Understanding Games

How about that? Raph Koster, the lead designer of Ultima Online is writing this book called Theory of Fun for Game Design. It's suppose to be for gaming what Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is for comics. For those who read McCloud's book, it is an essential read for comic book fans or anyone trying to understand what comics is all about. It explains the theory of how comic books works. If Theory of Fun can do a similar thing, then it will certainly help more non-gamers understand gaming.

Gaming helps traders score big-time

More evidence of why gaming is good for you. I bet now everyone wants to be a gamer...

Video game skills and a good poker face online are becoming essential job qualifications in the financial markets, with recruitment drives assessing potential star traders in online gaming exams.
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And part of their assessment process involves studying an applicant in a video game exercise.
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"It is unlikely that we would hire someone who didn't show good proficiency at a GameBoy or online poker or similar video-type game where hand-to-eye coordination is important."

Media Center extender using a Xbox controller

What this guy did was to repurpose a Xbox controller and a Hip Gear LCD screen and use it to remotely control his Media Center PC. Quite an ingenius use of the Xbox controller.

Bible stories using LEGO

Is there any story that you can't use LEGO bricks to tell? This site called The Brick Testament uses LEGO bricks to tell the stories in the Bible. Come on, it contains the greatest story ever told and now it's told using LEGO. Is that cool or what?

The New Games Journalism

This piece could become a manifesto for games journalism and writing in general.

New Games Journalism exists to try and explain and transfer the sensations allowed by videogaming to anyone who's willing to sit and take time to read it. It paradoxically manages find a way to be more accessible to the average human being by actually concentrating on the real reasons why people devote huge chunks of their waking hours to games rather than obsessing in tedious detail over the ephemera that surrounds it (How many levels? how many guns? Can I be Goro?). It asks the question “Why game anyway” and then gives as many answers as they are people, as interesting as people, as precious.

I fully agree. It's time games writing grows up, time to be taken seriously.

The Dilbert Ultimate House

Based on readers' suggestions, Scott Adams have come up with the Dilbert house for Dilbert to stay in. Real world experts have also helped to conceptualised this house. There are indeed some nifty features found here, including basketball court in the basement and a vacuum robot. Must be a dream home for a single guy!

Video games stars in MTV

We've seen many crossovers in media today. Book characters in movies. Movie characters in games. Comic book heroes in movies. Now, video games characters are on MTV. MTV's programme Video Mods have game characters from games like Tribes and BloodRayne forming a band and playing the music of bands like Evanescence and Fountains of Wayne. Sounds like a promo tool for the games? You bet. But it's yet another proof that gaming's cultural influence is here to stay.

Star Wars TV show in the works?

First the Star Wars original trilogy on DVD. Next year, Episode 3 the Revenge of the Sith. There's more. Apparently, a Star Wars TV show is in the works. Lucas won't be helming the thing, but a possible name which cropped up is "fan boy" Kevin Smith. As a Kevin Smith and Star Wars fan, I certainly hope this will come true. Seems like all Star Wars fans will still have something to look forward to even after the prequels are done.

P2P and the Copyright Law

Anyone who's interested in developing P2P applications, or just anyone who's interested in copyright and file sharing in general should take a look at this piece. The writer, Fred von Lohmann, is the same guy who won the Grokster case which ruled that P2P networks are legal. So, what he's saying is not just musings, but actual truths that was held up in the US courts.

The Pez MP3 Project

This is definitely a cool idea. Imagine a PEZ dispenser that doesn't give you candy but music! That will be really really sweet! Plus, you can swap the big heads with any time you want.

Worst Jobs in History

Tony Robinson, who played Baldric on the funny Black Adder series, is doing a series called "The Worst Jobs In History". This is interesting because he looks at some of the most disgusting jobs over the years, many of them found in the medieval times. In this piece, he highlights some of the jobs... and thankfully most of us don't have to do these jobs any more. Here's an excerpt for the job of Bath Attendant.

In the Georgian period (1714-1837) people were employed to help others in and out of the baths at Bath.

It was a very foul job because the posh ladies and gentlemen of the time did what we constantly tell our children they mustn't do – they p***ed in the water!

The baths were like minestrone soup by the end of the day, and you had these assistants with smiles on their faces constantly having to sweep the surface to get rid of all these little bits and pieces bobbing around all the time.

Oakley says wear your MP3 player

This one brings wearable tech to a next stylish level. Oakley is releasing the world's first digital music eyewear, which is essentially a MP3 player attached to the sunglasses. Knowing Oakley's stylish design, this gadget looks cool will make you look like a music fanatic from a sci-fi movie. Although it's pretty expensive at US$395 for the 128MB version and US$495 for the 256MB one, those with the cash will want to order it for Christmas! How about adding a HUD display to the glasses sound for the future model?

Star Wars DVD updates Xbox dashboard

Xbox-scene.com has reported that the recently released Star Wars trilogy DVD actually contains a feature that some would rather not have. The bonus disc of this set comes with the Star Wars: Battlefront game demo. But if you try to play it on a modded Xbox, the disc will automatically update your Xbox dashboard. Why is this important? Well, for those power users doing homebrew stuff on their box, this will affect those with older bioses (booting xboxdash.xbe), people using exploits or simply those who don't want their dash upgraded. Not good. Thankfully, there's still a way to get to the demo if you really want it. The site has more details of the work-around.

What's inside an iMac G5

Curious as to how Apple manage to squeeze everything into the slim form factor of the new iMac? Here's a series of pictures where a user strips open the machine so that we can see how the fit the parts inside this box. There goes his warranty but hey, it's the hacker spirit at work!

Emulator will let Xbox 2 play Xbox games

A company called Transitive Corp is claiming that they've come up with a piece of software, named QuickTransit, that allow Xbox games to be played on the Xbox 2 consoles. This is certainly good news for gamers considering that the have been news that the next-gen console will not be backward compatible. However it's too early to cheer, because it's not clear whether Transitive is actually working with Microsoft on Xenon emulation technology, and it seems like it is an unlikely scenario.

So until there is definite news, those who love their Xbox games should hope that their original Xbox consoles will last for a long, long time.

Mini lightsabers

Someone get me one of these! It's a lightsaber-like lighting device shaped like the weapon used by the Jedis. It's powered by AA-batteries and lights up just like the real lightsaber. Just imaging having a whole series of these things to decorate your house. It's the Force, baby!