If you know your D&D history then you know the first run was very small and the boxes were made by Gary Gygax with some friends in his basement. This guy, who goes under the name Eruantien, has decided to pay some bills and sell this beautiful piece of history up on eBay. → Read More
We wrote about a blatant theft of IP a few weeks back. It was about the company Halfbot and their game Blocks Cometh and how their original flash game was stolen and put on the iTunes App store. After we (and many others) wrote about the theft, Apple took down game. Ars Technica followed up with the two-person development team. They tell their side of the horror story and discuss their options going forward. → Read More
Remember Lazer Tag? Remember how great it was? What if you could play Lazer Tag with 100 of your closest friends? Sounds great, right? The new Light Strike gun game kit is for kids eight and up and includes a gun with customizable features including upgradable features, unique target vests, and a unique health and ammo system built-into the guns. You can create up to four teams of undetermined size and you can even switch teams during the game. → Read More
I remember going over to a friend’s house back in the 1980s. His dad had something called a PC and when you turned it on instead of making showing a READY prompt it did something strange. After a quick beep, something inside started churning and in a minute you saw a menu of games and programs available on something called a “hard disk,” which I assumed were the standard 3 1/2 inch “hard disks” I’d seen in computer magazines. After hitting a key, we began to play a game called “King’s Quest.” The graphics were bright and fluid – although they were, in fact, green on black – and the story was amazing. You’re a dude! Looking for a princess! There’s a frog! With a ball! What was this sorcery? That game, King’s Quest from Sierra, was one of the first Graphic Adventures, a mixture of text and graphics-based play that created an entire generation of hardcore gamers. → Read More
Do you like fun? Do you like chess? Do you like being alone? Well, ThinkFun has the chess game for you. Called Solitaire Chess, the game is a cross between a puzzle and standard chess. How it Works • Each game begins with the pieces set on the board in specific positions. Challenges range from Easy to Expert levels. • Pieces move as in regular Chess. • Every move must be a capture. • When there’s only one piece left, YOU WIN! Now, go ahead and click through to actually play the game and find out how you can win one of three iPhone/iPad apps or one of three actual board games. → Read More
This man, one Steven Paul Archer of Greeneville, Tennessee, cut through a metal storage area to access the drywall and studs of a GameStop game store next door. He then proceeded to cut through the drywall and entered the GameStop after hours. He was able to steal $288.55 in cash and $5,342 in merchandise and, for once, he wasn’t asked if he wanted to join that damned GameStop savings club nor did he have to accept a subscription to Game Informer that “pays for itself.”
He also did not have to fill out a survey online to win a $500 gift card, mostly because he had already stolen more than $500. → Read More
The Pew Internet organization put out results of a survey on how many people pay for digital content online. The study found that 65 percent of people online have paid to download some form of digital content or for a subscription to a digital media service. The survey excluded physical goods bought online and was focussed only on digital content such as music, software, news, and other online or electronic publications.
For those who do spend money online on digital media, most spend between $1 and $10 a month, with 68 percent spending less than $30 a month. (You can see the distribution of amount spend in the chart above). The two kinds of digital goods people are most willing to pay for by far are music and software. One third of respondents (33 percent) say they have paid for either digital music or software online. And 21 percent have paid for mobile apps. So if you combine mobile apps and other forms of software, that is the largest single category even accounting for overlap in the numbers. Paying for digital games comes in fourth at 19 percent.
What about digital newspapers or magazines behind paywalls or for sale for tablets like the iPad? → Read More
Star Wars and video games go hand-in-hand. There is a long line of Star Wars-themed games going back to the days of arcade games, and continuing through home console and mobile games. Now, the first augmented reality Star Wars game for the iPhone just hit the app store. It is called Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner ($4.99, iTunes link).
The game starts with the scene from the original Star Wars inside the Millennium Falcon after they escape the Death Star and the TIE Fighters attack. You are Luke Skywalker in the gunner’s turret below, and you turn the iPhone to rotate around and shoot the attacking TIE Fighters while Han Solo and Princess Leah either encourage or heckle you depending on your skills. (“Let me guess, you are trying not to hit anyone.”) In the 360-degree background is the Death Star and an earth-like planet, which come into view depending on which way you turn. The game is completely immersive, and works especially well while sitting in a swivel office chair. → Read More
I was just watching the documentary GET LAMP, a movie about text adventure games. As gripping as that sounds, I wondered if I could find the first text adventure game in the world online. In mere moments I was presented with the COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE in glorious green-screen. Thank you, Internet! → Read More
West of House.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
> OPEN MAILBOX
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.
> TAKE LEAFLET
Taken.
> READ LEAFLET
“WELCOME TO ZORK ON THE KINDLE!
If you jailbreak your Kindle you can run Zork and other Infocom games natively on your Kindle. If you’re anything like me, this should make you very, very happy. These kids these days with their Tendas and XStations don’t know how good they have it. → Read More
Bored? Don’t have anything to play when you hit the old WC at work? Why not win a free copy of Blaze: Fire Puzzle from Handmark. I have 15 copies to give away, 8 to folks who tweet me with the hashtag #blazeon (don’t forget to follow me so I can DM you if you win) and 7 to commenters who comment below. You can enter both ways but you’ll only win once. I’ll send the codes out randomly over the next few hours and will close the contest tomorrow morning. → Read More
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/video_embed.php?id=3645 I’m going through a bit of the new Metroid game by Team Ninja, the same guys who made Ninja Gaiden and I’m pleased to report that the game, although a departure from the tamer Metroid games, the injection of real emotion and a bit of (non-bloody) space horror adds considerably to the game. → Read More
Good news if you’re a fan of bullet hell shooters (on the iPhone): Japan-based game maker Cave today released new screenshots and the first gameplay trailer for Dodonpachi Resurrection, its second shooting game for i-devices (following Espgaluda II in April). Dodonpachi is a fairly famous game series, and Resurrection’s iPhone version is actually the first home conversion of the Arcade title. → Read More
Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Alex Ahlund, the former CEO and founder of AppVee and AndroidApps, which were acquired by mobile application directory Appolicious.
I’ve been involved in the iPhone app industry since it first began in 2008 and I have to say that it has come a long way. I’ve seen it grow from a meager launch of 500 applications in the App Store to currently over 225,000. In only two years, the industry has matured at hyperspeed.
However, the novelty land grab is definitely over. When you run a search on the App Store, most of the gimmicks have already been created—at least twice. Clones still litter the store and it’s becoming even more difficult for quality apps to get noticed. But, if you have a bit of patience and are willing to sift through less exciting apps, there are some fantastic gems just waiting to be discovered.
So without further ado, here are my top 30 picks for applications released this year thus far. Try one or try them all. → Read More
When you find a rare and beautiful unicorn, you see them mostly on the glens of Nellseven or the Seven Hills of Valpinore – not down in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. However, our buddy BrklynSurfer brought this new-in-box Gizmondo to my attention including the spam-gasmic extra text and a blurry-cam photo so blurry it could be mistaken for modern art. But friends, if this is a real Gizmondo it’s definitely in unicorn territory. → Read More
Waste Management and its subsidiary Greenopolis are diving into social gaming with a new Facebook app called Oceanopolis. The game will launch in beta, with a full rollout expected in the coming weeks.
In the game, players maintain their own island by recycling trash to build a sustainable community and interacting with friends. Points earned virtually turn into printable coupons that can be used at movie theaters, restaurants and stores. Alternatively, they can be turned into cash donations. Points can also be earned in real life through recycling or through blogging on Greenopolis‘ site. → Read More
Although it’s not the world’s best mobile gaming platform, there are lots of games available for the iPhone. There are lots of iterations and variations of the same games. Would you like to try something new? How about a game of badminton? It’ll give you an excuse to say “shuttlecock” without feeling silly. And, interestingly, there is only one badminton game on the App Store: Super Badminton 2010 from developer Rolocule. → Read More
Get it? Icy? Because Hoth is the ice planet. And like when you’re on that planet you’re so cold that you could die if you didn’t go into the belly of that fish cow thing that they put Han Solo into. Thoughts? Anyway, this game, coming soon from THQ, is probably the coolest thing ever although the enemy sprites look a little childish. Thoughts? → Read More
http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=701341 Deep within the 2001 GameCube game Super Smash Bros. Melee lurks a hidden playable character – the game’s boss, Master Hand. By performing a deft controller maneuver that essentially tricks the game into grabbing Master Hand’s player data before it is overwritten (watch the video), you can flick characters off the screen and even smash them while you fly through the air like superhand. → Read More
