It’s been a long time coming, but Pac-Man turns 30 today– that is if you are Japanese. American arcade buffs will have to wait until October for the milestone. Where did the time go? Visit the official Pac-Man website.
My first recollections of Pac-Man were from inside a dark arcade. A little yellow character eating dots being chased by ghosts, all the wile being encased in a soft, blue glow from the maze pattern. Even until this day, when I see that blue glow I instantly go back to the early 1980s. Thankfully I have an original arcade “cocktail” machine, so I can pretty much get my fix anytime I want. You can find out more about my Pac-Man machine and the restoration I performed on it. I don’t know which was more fun, playing the game or fixing it.
Without A Thought For Tomorrow
When I was a kid back in 1982/1983, I was a total Pac-Punk. I had the stickers, cereal, Mac & Cheese, video game, slippers, and countless other Pac-Paraphernalia. And don’t forget about the cartoon! It wasn’t until The Transformers about a year later that I gave Pac-Man a game over. But I never really forgot about him. Besides my arcade machine, I have Pac-Man on both my iPhone and my iPad. The iPad version is really nice. However, you can’t hide in a “T” anymore. Don’t know what that means? You’re probably too young. For a great Pac-Primer, visit The Virtual Pac-Man Museum.
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Sony just released the public beta of MAG, a new type of FPS. MAG’s claim to fame is that it will allow up to 256 players in a game world at one time. This would be the largest FPS to date. Aside from this technical achievement, there are no others to be had for this game. If this game only played 24 or 32 players, no one would be talking about this one at all.
Presentation
The game’s interface is not slick or polished and features one of my biggest pet peeves. So my question… why do all games that show some type of computer display on-screen, and as part or the GUI or in-game experience, show a flickering screen with scan lines? Hello? CRTs have been dead for years. There are no scan lines in LCD screens, which obviously is the equipment depicted in the game. Seems this game is trying to capture the realism of displays 15 years in the past. Enough already. You can also see scan lines when you are connecting to server, deploying to your missions, and a few other places within the interface.
The interface looks dated– badly.
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Hardware is great. Graphics are awesome. But when it comes to what I want in a gaming console– OnLine Multiplayer– the PS3 falls waaaaay short. I’ve had the PS3 for about a month now and if I didn’t care about online multiplayer, I’d probably keep it. But I do care, so I’m selling it. Got eBay?
Test 1, Test 2, Test 3
The bottom line is that the vast majority of PS3 players DO NOT have headsets. The ones that do end up sounding like transistor radio broadcasts, and it’s usually the noobs who are talking anyway. It’s as if voice communication was an afterthought. I blame Sony for this as they don’t pack a headset with their system. Microsoft included headsets with their Xbox Live subscription kits. Sony, unlike Microsoft who has a pay online service, offers theirs for free– and it shows. My advice to Sony: charge a fee to use the online service, and take some of the profit and include headsets with your system.
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I have finally rid myself of this horrible excuse for a video game system. Yes, I now have an eXbox 360! I sold it on eBay for $335.01, which was a very good price, considering I didn’t think I’d get $150.00. Of course, I paid $800.00 for it, so I lost my shirt on that deal.
In other news, I sold my iMac and an AirPort Express. I still have two Macs, so don’t get the idea I’m jumping ship.
Nintendo today announced partnerships with Sega and Hudson to offer 1,000 classic Genesis and Turbografx games for download on the Revolution’s Virtual Console!
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Wow! The Nintendo Revolution looks like it’s getting better and better with every press release. With the sad state console gaming is in right now, I hope Nintendo can go retro, and actually make it work. I’d rather play tried and true, time-tested games I know I loved rather than spend $60.00 on an Xbox 360 dud!
I’ve always said for some time that Nintendo needs to do a hardware-based “game library” of all their best titles. I don’t think that will happen any time soon, but the Virtual Console is the next best thing. I think this could work and make millions of people very happy.
In May 2000, I was lucky enough to purchase a Pac-Man cocktail arcade machine. The machine was in working order, and the outside of the machine was in remarkable condition. The inside however, did show its age. Overall, the machine was a beauty, and well worth the $1,699.00 I paid.
From 20 years of dust, smoke and grime, the inside was like a nightmare. The wires were brittle and dirty. The transformers looked horrible. Solder joints looked like they would fail any moment. In short, the inside needed some work. But it wouldn’t be until some four years later that I actually did the complete re-wire.
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I purchased World of Warcraft, a MMORPG played by thousands and thousands of people all across the world. It’s basically a virtual world, where people can go and do quests, battle, or group together to accomplish tasks– mainly killing things.
The game cost $49.99, but that includes your first month of play. This is a subscription-based game. Thereafter, you must pay $15.00/month to Blizzard Entertainment in order play the game. The monthly cost may seem high or not worth the price, but the “world” is constantly being updated and new things are always being added.
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Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console might not appear in key markets this year and could cost the company $900 per unit to produce initially, according to Merrill Lynch analysts quoted in the Financial Times on Sunday.
Sony has indicated a spring launch for its console in Japan and the industry is not expecting a North American launch until November, the FT said. But Hitoshi Kuriyama of Merrill Lynch in Japan said there are reports that the PS3 could be delayed by between six and 12 months.
Merrill Lynch analysts estimated that the initial bill of materials for the PS3 could approach $900, dropping down to $320 by three years after launch.
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Call Of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 is the worst on-line experience you could ever wish upon anyone; friend or foe. Mere words can’t describe the trials and tribulations one must go through just to get the chance of playing in a game. Just the chance that is, as getting in a game is not the same thing as being able to play a game.
Infinity Ward, developer of the Call Of Duty franchise for the PC, and now Xbox 360, slapped this game together from what looks like rough pieces of computer code, salted with a nice soundtrack.
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My impressions of Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360 are mixed. On the one hand, it’s a nice departure from the torment of a Halo 2 hell. On the other had, the few things it doesn’t do right are glaring and need to be addressed.
I Walk the Line
Movement is slow and the character response when turning, even with the settings set to 100, they still seem too slow. Also, since there is no auto-aim, to prevent your reticle from flying across the screen, you’ll probably want to lower the Y axis sensitivity, which makes looking up and down even slower.
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