» Games

The Wii Gets an Upgrade in July

Joe Rybicki — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:02:22 +0000

Nintendo’s Wii has been turning heads since it was originally released in 2006. The mostly motion-based controls took a radically different approach to game-system design, and it hooked millions of folks who never have considered themselves “gamers” (and probably still don’t).

But if there’s been one big complaint about the system itself, it’s that the controls can be a little unresponsive. That changes in July, when Nintendo releases the Wii MotionPlus adaptor, a little box that plugs into the end of the Wii remote and allows for true one-to-one movement control.

The MotionPlus is launching alongside a new Wii Sports game called Wii Sports Resort, which collects a bunch of lighthearted, summer-themed games that all make use of the enhanced control of the MotionPlus. One game, for example, has you throwing frisbees to a cute little dog who will chase them down — and the angle of your hand dictates the angle of the frisbee’s movement. Another is a wave-runner game where you twist the Wii remote like the throttle of a jet-ski. And my favorite: a sword-fighting game where the in-game sword mirrors your own movement exactly.Nintendo hasn’t announced pricing yet, but I’d be surprised if it’s more than the price of Wii Play — which is to say, about 50 bucks.

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Play Old Apple II Games for Free

Joe Rybicki — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:12:46 +0000

If you are a child of the ’80s, chances are you spent some face time with an Apple II. These computers were mainstays of school computer classes in the mid ’80s, classes that usually included some light programming:

10 PRINT “HELLO!”
20 GOTO 10

…and, if you were lucky, perhaps an educational game like Lemonade Stand or The Oregon Trail. These state-of-the-art machines could display 16 different colors with their 64 kilobytes of memory, and ran at speeds just over 1 Megahertz. (By contrast, Apple recently released a device that includes two thousand times the memory, displays about a million times as many colors, and runs over six hundred times as fast. And it’s a phone.)

Now, Macworld reports that thanks to near-incomprehensible advances in technology, you can play an assortment of games for old Apple machines in your web browser with the Virtual Apple emulator. They even have Lemonade Stand and The Oregon Trail.

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Online Gambling Could Be Profitable for U.S.

Joe Rybicki — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:32:09 +0000

Some interesting news for gamblers and poker aficionados: Reuters is reporting that the U.S. could stand to rake in around 5 billion dollars a year by lifting the ban on internet gambling that went into effect in 2006. Citing a study by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the report indicates that these numbers could lay the groundwork for a re-evaluation of internet gambling legislation here.

Now, before we go any further, a disclaimer: I love gambling. Love it. I especially love poker, which I play every chance I get. Before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 went into effect, making it illegal for U.S. banks to do business with poker sites, I played poker online regularly (for very small stakes, but still). I believe that poker is a game of skill more than chance, and I find the fact that it is for all intents and purposes illegal to play online here — and pretty much only here — faintly ridiculous.So understand that I do indeed have a horse in this race, as it were.

But it’s also important to note that this study isn’t coming from fringe sources. Reuters is one of the preeminent news organizations in the world, and PwC has a sterling reputation as well. And if these numbers are correct, this could be a relatively painless way of shaving a bit off the government’s budget deficit.

It seems to me that we can scarcely afford not to re-evaluate the UIGEA. But then, I’m clearly biased. What do you think?

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