Slightly different Videogame education

 Finally, they start using games for education. The important kind even. [...]
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GDC 10: Teaching child violence prevention through gaming
1 hour ago - 10:00 AM on 03.10.2010 | Ashley Davis

Allan McCullough is a man with a very noble quest. He wants to help educate children so that they know how to deal with violence. How does he plan to do it? Videogames.

As someone who loves to see developers use the power of games to do good, his GDC session, titled "Violence Prevention - Playing a Video Game Can Make a Difference", stuck out at me right away. I had to go and see what this man had up his sleeve. If you're interested in that sort of thing too, hit the jump for a summary of the talk.

Mr. McCullough opened his talk with the story of Sharon, a young girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1985. It was a grim tale that made the room go completely silent, but he told it with good reason: it was this particular case of child abuse that jumpstarted his quest. He started out by conducting a lot of research, and he concluded that the old teachings of "stranger danger" were actually more harmful than helpful. It taught children to only be wary of people they don't know or who look threatening, when they are in the most danger of being abused by someone they know and love. He knew he would have to develop a whole new way to teach violence prevention to children, but didn't know quite how... until his brother received a Commodore 64 as a gift.

McCullough was amazed at the power that simulation had, especially over younger children. Games are very engaging and can teach, even when they don't intend to. Through them, his little brother experienced consequences and learned as much from them than if he had experienced them in real life. McCullough decided that this was the way he wanted to teach children.

After a few years of development, he presented the game to police and FBI agents, who loved the idea. But the year was 1989. A lot of homes and schools didn't have computers, so he ultimately had to hold his project back and wait for computers to catch on. Over the next two decades, he deepened his studies to make the game an even better educator. He worked with children, parents, and those who had lost their children to predators.

At this point in the talk, McCullough played a little introduction to the game, entitled Sydney Safe-Seeker and the Incredible Journey Home. Like any game aimed at children, it was bright and colorful, but what was surprising was its gameplay. It wasn't outright about its intentions, but slipped its teachings into a grand adventure that, on its surface, had very little to do with violence prevention. In it, Sydney and his friends accidentally fall into a portal and have to find four stones to make another portal home. But along the way, they get into some potentially dangerous situations.

For example, there are points in the game where an NPC might steal an item out of Sydney's backpack. He needs all of his items to win the game, so you have to get it back. In order to do so, you have to make him pull out his cell phone, call the police, and complete a mini-game where you describe the culprit. This teaches children to report any trouble they run into and to pay extra close attention to whoever caused it.

Sydney Safe-Seeker also helps parents by tracking the child's prevention skills. If there are any areas where they are having trouble, a parent can access additional material from the Child Safety Research & Innovation Center so that they can help with the teaching process. This interaction is a huge part of the process, because the child needs to feel comfortable discussing these subjects with the people they trust most.

Sydney isn't the only game of this kind. McCullough is also developing a game to educate children on how to deal with cyberbullying. Games are often scapegoats, wrongly demonized by parents for causing violence among children. But Allan McCullough can see the potential games have to be the solution, not the problem.
>> # top # | Source: Destructoid.com

The Multiplayer Gaming Atmosphere Of ThisGen

  There's only one thing (and also three things) I want to say about it: I don't like it, it sucks. These are the three reasons I am looking forward to the great games of 2o1o and beyond because of their SINGLEPLAYER experience and not the multiplayer one. [...]
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1) Online vs. Pass-The-Pad
Ever since both versions of multiplayer modes found their way into existance I liked to play both of them. Of course, if you played a game offline via pass-the-pad you had to deal with limitations. For example you had two to four (or sometimes eight) players playing at the same time while the persons who were present exceeded the number of available player slots so you had to pass the controller and play the games in turns - which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Seeing each other face to face while laughing at a hilarious bit that just happened on screen is just so much funnier than instead just listening to one another over the headsets. It may also have been the case that you might had to share your screen with your friends via split-screen or a, what I might call, "group camera". Of course, you don't have all that limitations online now but who said that the online version had to substitute the pass-the-pad version. The problem isn't simply that we gamers grew older and don't "meet to game" as much as we used to when we were younger (although that might indeed be a factor) - there are simply not that many games out there anymore which are made for that purpose. Instead almost every new game that doesn't feature an online mode is automatically treated as "outdated".

2) Match-Making vs. Dedicated Servers
Who follows the gaming industry a bit (and particularly the gaming news industry) knows about the recent "Modern Warfare 2" controversy that is related to that very topic. For everyone else: in a nutshell, instead of using dedicated servers for the PC version of that game it has been decided that the game relies solely on a match-making system that creates a group of players dynamically. The good thing about it (for the developers, I guess) is that you don't have to have servers running 24/7. The bad thing about it is that you get thrown together with RANDOM people each time you enter a lobby. This includes Newcomers, Noobs, overwhelmingly skilled players and worst of all ill-mannered players. Let me come to them in a bit. The thing about dedicated servers is: they never even existed on ThisGen. Since the launch of the PlayStation 3™ and Xbox 360™ online play was realized through match-making. We gamers never even had the chance to choose a server and gather our own experiences so that we could decide where and with whom we wanted to play.

3) The Gamers
If you happen to encounter players who you can actually play with - "okay" players who know the drill and play fair, who might even see the same thing in you and send you friend requests - then that's something special. The more common experience is that you will either be slaughtered or castrated. Because either you get in a room where everyone in the opposing team is better than you - not just in the acommodation phase where everything is new - or where lots of people don't play fair. Although that's not really a new thing. Gamers camped, cheated and spawn-killed since the dawn of age and they will for all eternity. But the thing is, nowadays kids just play games that have worldwide ranking lists and want to be on top of that. So, when they encounter something like a glitch or the slightest aspect of unfavourable balance these Exploiters simply take the fun out of it.

I mean ...

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question: are we allowed ot WSG when getting cake for the princess

I don't do it if we agree no WSG, but I was wondering if we should make an exception here, since we're glitching with cake not the princess
>> Source: Playstation.com Boards

(WSG = warrior shield glitch. Whatever that is) What's the fucking problem with them? Have they never learned that to play honorable is better than to "pwn n00bz" at all costs, even it means to exploit a glitch or two. Or this. Why would you jump up those hills and snipe all the other players? Where's the fucking fun in it?
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Gaming in Twenty Ten & VG MOY 09

 I predict: there will be three major impacts on the world of gaming that will happen in the year 2o1o. Also I'll quickly pinpoint my Videogame Moment Of The Year 2oo9. [...]
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1) Project Natal
Don't get me wrong - I'm not hyping that "project", console or add-on, or whatever it will be in the end. Hell, I don't even know if it will be working as they say it will be, because I haven't seen anything other than a "target-render-like" video or two, the type with a high "big promises"/"actual footage" ratio. Oh yeah, and the mini-games - yaaaaaay \(-.-' )/. All I'm saying is that it will change the way games will be played. Probably not for hardcore gamers. My guess is that it will be just a gimmick for them ("us" actually), if developers try to implement it into their games "by force", like the Sixaxis functionality of the PlayStation 3™. But for the casual market - it will probably be a big hit, if you ask me.

2) OnLive
OnLive is said to deliver high definition videogaming for multiple platforms, with high internet bandwidth, including playable-demo- and spectating-mode-features among many other things (also playing the actual full length game, of course), all in one box, via the use of Cloud computing. Now, naturally, I don't know if this said "project" will turn out to be as profitable as the makers wish it to be, but even if OnLive fails to fulfill its promises, I think that a competitor might come along and succeed with its own product that makes less promises - for example it may have all the same features but standard definition or whatever. What I think though is that Cloud computing itself will have an impact on the gaming world. Probably not a very big one but still noticable.

3) 3D Gaming
Okay, maybe I'm a little bit early on this one but since James Cameron has pushed "the new" 3D into cinema with his movie "Avatar" (not to be confused with the other Avatar movie, the one that I'm actually excited for), a newer version of 3D that's supposed to not cause headaches like the "3D era" in the eighties and nineties did, I'll just go for it regarding the gaming world. So far there may have been nothing more than a few news articles pointing out the possibility of 3D on ThisGen's PS3 but I think there will be a lot more news articles to read about this topic in 2o1o. In fact, there will probably be so many news articles that a lot of videogame journalists and developers might already believe in it long before 3D will actually hit the homes of us gamers.

there's even a vid

Source: PS3 Maven.com

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

-) The Videogame Moment Of The Year 2oo9 is an easy one. There could have been a chance for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2™, with its addictive multiplayer mode - even though it didn't grip me in the first play hours - but as this one is a sequel I actually saw it coming. No, no. This year belongs to someone else.

Normally I'm a collector gamer type. I like to explore environments and discover secrets, secrets that other gamers might pass by unknowingly. Especially when there's a built-in checklist in the game I'm all the more gonna catch 'em all. This was the case for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves™ as well, of course. (I tried hard and I think it's safe to say now that there are no spoilers within the next paragraphs). Its hidden treasures demanded my full attention. When I brought the game over to my brother - that was before I finished the single player campaign on my playthrough - I experienced once again that he's not this kind of gamer, not at all. He "rushed" through the chapters in a pace that probably is to be deemed more appropriate for this game than my pace is, picking up a few of the treasures very occasionally.

Later that week I picked up the controller and continued where I left off. That was in Chapter 16 "Where Am I?". I played just the way that I usually do. I climbed every rooftop, every ledge, rock and cliff (in the later chapters), I stopped and turned the camera, looked in almost every possible direction and searched for that pulse raising sparkle in the grass, snow and mud, close by and also in the distance, a sparkle that always reveals the position of the well placed treasures. The goal for me is always to try and find as many collectables in a game, already during the first playthrough, so that I get rewarded with a high percentage in the game results screen, or a list with many filled or checked lines, an inventory with many filled item slots or anything of this sort, which satisfies the needs of the hunter buried deep within my psyche.

But at some point in this game, your temporary "safe camp" gets assaulted and you will be confronted with a big load of action. There are still a few treasures hidden in this part of the game, and I managed to grab one or two, but the action gets so tense, the enemies keep coming and the "enemy types" shift from "infantry" to "vehicular" ... I looked less and less for treasures and just advanced to the next thrilling scripted event, only to be pleased with an awesome car chase, one that I've never seen in this form before. When the game returned to a more calm moment in the beginning of the next chapter, where you have to (or rather have the option to) advance stealthily which normally goes neatly hand in hand with my already described treasure hunt, something had changed in me.

I did try to progress with stealth and search for treasures at first but when that didn't work out so well, I noticed that I played the game more like my brother did. I did not make this decision, actively, but I just played it different. Time flew by and soon I was desperately trying to complete the challenging final chapter. What an impressive act! The game was so overwhelmingly thrilling in its action-packed sequences, so appropriately calm in its pacing when it served the rhythm of the gameplay, so stunningly beautiful in its environments, so astoundingly convincing in its voice acting and motion capturing that the game literally dragged me *out* of my gaming routine and *into* its compelling narrative and gameplay experience. This year's videogame moment of the year is the point where I realized that I had so much fun playing Uncharted 2 although I played it entirely different than I'm used to.
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Making Of Metal Gear Solid

Hi, real quick, let me psot a YouTube video containing a documentary about Metal Gear Solid 4 that can be found on the (a?) BluRay. It is called "Mgs4 Documentary *Blu ray rip* Making Of" (1o parts). Despite the excellent BluRay source quality the subtitles at some points are unreadable. I don't apologize for that - it's not my video. Embed is disabled so just go there.
sent by Mika77

VideoGame Females

 Nice read about female characters and sexuality in videogame history. Oy!
[...]
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EDITORIAL
The Role of Female Characters in Video Games Part 1
April 27, 2009 | 10:19 AM PST · Joey Davidson
It wasn't until I read Brad Hilderbrand's editorial, "Are Games Gay Enough?" that I realized that Kombo was the perfect place for me to take a step in a more theoretical direction when it comes to video game studies. That's right, you read correctly, a theoretical approach to video game studies.

I'm not really writing this piece as an extension or retort to Brad's interesting thoughts. I encourage you to read Brad's article (linked above) for the thought provoking pile of words that it is. This is something slightly different. This is something that I've been kicking around ever since I started on my Film Theory degree in college. Video games are a medium not too much unlike that of film. It's fairly common knowledge, and an often shared opinion, that video games are a lot like long, interactive flicks. I don't mean to lump the entire medium into one convenient package, but for the intents and purposes of this article, you'll have to let me do just that.

So, continuing under the assumption that video games can and should be supported by the same theories and applications as film making and film studies, perhaps you'll join me as I step out into the realm of critical thought and undressing. I intend to approach the concept of the role of female characters in video games through the perspectives of respected and often cited film theorists. These theorists, as is normal in the field of Film Theory, lean on the psychoanalytical methods of Sigmund Freud and the theories of Jacques Lacan. As we encounter these theories throughout this article, I will try and add enough insight and information at each juncture so that those without a background in Film Studies can feel extremely welcome. With a little elbow grease, I intend to provide a gamut of reasoning for females being portrayed the way they are, and have always been, in most titles within my favorite medium.

I would like to slide this disclaimer out in front of you readers just so that I can quell any early senses of anger before we proceed. I may say some things here and there that place the female sex and gender into a position that's well below the politically correct norm. I want you to know that while I may be using these viewpoints and positions in order to further prove my argument, I know as a human being and a member of society that women are equal to men. My goal with this article is to dismantle the accepted image of females in video games and educate those that may look at their typical portrayal as normal and commonplace.

So, on we go...

Super Mario Brothers (NES) It doesn't take an avid gamer to realize that women have often been portrayed in gaming as the damsels in distress. We've been given a princess that needed rescuing since the beginning of video games with a narrative plot. That's right, the first game to institute and, thus, perpetuate the modern conception of female characters in video games is Super Mario Bros. for the NES (I am dismissing the likes of Donkey Kong, as its plot structure can't really be considered solid enough for my purposes). I don't even think I really need to continue with my explanation but, just in case, I will. SMB is all about rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. You quest from castle to castle in search of the fair maiden, and when you finally get her, you get a kiss on the cheek.

So what's wrong with this portrayal? Well, logically speaking, it puts the female character in a position of weakness. It takes you, as a male, to rescue her from a situation that she herself cannot escape from. But the quest to see her, the quest to rescue her and, most importantly, the earning of a kiss from her all put the female role in video games at an extreme disadvantage.

Laura Mulvey wrote an essay concerning the role of females in narrative cinema, and it's there that I'd like to draw support for my thoughts regarding the princess in SMB. We'll start with the perspective of the game. Players are situated facing and controlling Mario (or Luigi). This first and seemingly simple step is what sparks the series of events that places Princess Peach in the realm relegated to the lower female gender. So, all gamers are assumed, from the beginning, to be male. If they are not already male, then they are females controlling a male. Since Mario is placed front and relative center of the screen at all times, he is the focus and thus the landing place of our look and projection. We watch Mario, we control Mario, we are Mario...

In her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," Mulvey looks to Freud and Lacan in order to explain a series of "gazes" in cinema. Lacan's theory states, extremely basically, that children are born without a recognition of self. At a young age, kids cannot tell themselves as existing as a separate piece of the world. They are merely part of the world, but their sense of "I" has not formed yet. It is when they look into a mirror for the first time (i.e. Lacan's Mirror Stage) that they develop the situational sense of "I" and "otherness" and realize that they exist independently in the world. Mulvey takes the concept of the Mirror Stage and places it onto the silver screen. When viewers watch a film, according to Mulvey, they start to narcissistically involve themselves with the main character on screen. They revert back to the moment when they had no sense of self. They see the big character in front of them as an extension of themselves and, sometimes, as themselves entirely. For instance, I watch Indiana Jones fighting jungle natives, Indiana Jones is the center of my attention, Indiana Jones becomes me, I am Indiana Jones.

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

I'd like to contend that video games develop an even stronger sense of connection with the main characters as we, the players, not only watch them on the screen, but we control them in their narrative and, thus, become more intrinsically involved with them. Instead of simply watching and projecting ourselves onto the characters, we're becoming involved with the goals and objectives of the main character. We adopt these goals and objectives as our own. Mario wants to save Princess Peach from Bowser, we watch Mario, we control Mario, we are Mario and therefore we desire to achieve Mario's goals and save Princess Peach from Bowser.

Therefore, it is with that instant connection to Mario as being "me" that we start to view women as lower and weaker in form and capabilities. We have become Mario. The Princess obviously can't save herself from Bowser because she is too weak, so we, as a man, have to save her from Bowser ourselves.

Finally, with SMB at least, I'd like to tackle the game's end reward for saving the Princess, the supposed kiss. I say supposed because it does not actually happen on screen. We've seen the kiss in the SNES remake of SMB on Super Mario All-Stars, but the NES version leaves that bit out. We will, once again, have to assume it is implied in order to achieve full effect for this argument. Mulvey looks to Freud in order to get a grasp on the concept of sex and making love on screen and why it is that we, as viewers, find the moments so pleasurable. According to Freud, almost every member of the human race could be considered scopophiliac. We get pleasure from looking and watching, and we get pleasure from imagining that we are what we are watching.

Now, I realize that the 8-bit version of Princess Peach is far from sexy. You could never logically consider her an object of sexual desire in her NES state.

But I would like to demonstrate that what she represents in the game is a prize of sexuality.

You romp through the Mushroom Kingdom facing bottomless pits and giant turtles in order to save her, and you're implied to be rewarded with a kiss. You are given a piece of her sexuality as a female for saving her from her demise. It is right here that Nintendo forms the first moment of females as sexual objects in the narratives of video games. Princess Peach is the trophy and the kiss she'll give you is the champagne at the end of your journey, she is the coveted sexual prize, she represents females in gaming. I will definitely be returning to the following quote again as these articles move forward, but I'd like to take this chance to prove my point of sexual objectivity with a tiny excerpt from Mulvey's essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."

"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed…Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to strip-tease…she holds the male look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combines spectacle and narrative. The presence of woman is an indispensible element of spectacle…" -- Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

I'll point to this exceptionally not safe for work song for pop proof.

What SMB did for video games is that it built a narrative into their structure. Games now had plot lines. What it also did for the role of females in video games, through the desire and kiss of Princess Peach, is force them into the position of erotic spectacle. And that's only the beginning of the downfall of females as characters in gaming.

I intend to continue these articles on a regular basis. Do not expect to see them occur every week. I will write them as often as I can while still remaining thorough. They also won't last forever. I'll continue to work on them until I feel I've done what I set out to accomplish.
>> # top # | Source: Kombo.com


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EDITORIAL
The Role of Female Characters in Video Games Part 2 - Samus Aran
July 2, 2009 | 3:17 PM PST · Joey Davidson
I started this series of articles just a few months ago. I have already told you that my intention here is to investigate the role of female characters in gaming. I am not necessarily trying to provide a solution, but I am definitely looking to further unearth the inherent problem. Female characters in gaming cast a negative shadow over the medium and gender perception as a whole.

If you are looking to understand my full intentions throughout this series, I would like to offer you a chance to read my first article. I spend a lot of time in the early goings trying to explain my position. Well, I have done that already. So I decided that here, and with future editions of this editorial, I will begin more quickly than before.

When I finished the first piece, I immediately started to get a slew of reactions from colleagues, friends and readers. Not all of them were positive, of course, but they did spark the types of discussions for which I was looking. And a lot of people started to offer Samus Aran as a solution for the model of strong females in games. She immediately became my next target.

So I spent the last month or so looking into the portrayal of Samus. I will say that through my research I have realized that no other female character in the world of video games carries the same type of love and respect as Samus Aran. In light of that, lovers of Samus and the world of Metroid should realize that this is not an attack on the bounty hunter. I merely aim to use her in order to reach my destination.

Samus Aran Samus Aran first appeared in the original Metroid for the NES in 1986. She is a bounty hunter that works missions given to her by the Galactic Federation. She consistently tangles with Space Pirates and the alien parasites known as Metroids. But what is most special and identifiable about Samus is her suit. She is covered from head to toe in a wonderfully capable set of armor. It serves as both a defense mechanism and a disguise.

And it's the suit that operates perfectly for my intentions. Players familiar with the world of Metroid and Samus Aran already know that Samus' gender came as a surprise back in 1986. In the opening section of the game, players see Samus as she is above. Completely concealed by her armor. No one that played the game back in 1986 realized that Samus was female once they got a look at her here.

And that's the way the game continued. Until the very end. Much like Princess Peach in Super Mario Brothers, Samus Aran's sexual objectivity is held until the conclusion of the game and hinges on the success of the player. Defeat an entire swarm of alien beasts whilst traversing all types of insanely difficult terrain and the game rewards you with an object of your sexual desire. Don't believe me? Here's Samus as we see her with her suit off.

She is standing there in a bikini. There is simply no way to explain the need for here to wear a two piece beneath her space armor. To further demonstrate my point, look at the Zero Suit.

Revealing? Yes. But it's almost as if Nintendo decided to take a step back and redesign the sexuality of Samus and make it slightly less apparent. Although the model from Super Smash Brothers Brawl depicted above is still highly sexualized, it is not a bikini. The need to back away from the sexualization of a character is immediately checked back into place by a less-and-more revealing version.

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

I will even take this one step further and try and prove to you that Samus' suit symbolizes an object of phallic power. Okay, wait, do not try and run off so soon. With film theory, the symbol of power is called the phallus. Yes, initially this was used to identify a male's sexual organ, but with film it's used to identify that which makes one character more masculine than another. In Indiana Jones it's his whip. In Star Wars it's Luke's lightsaber. A lot of theorists look at these objects and consider their phallic nature when trying to argue their sense of masculinity. But a Phallus doesn't always have to look phallic. It is merely a symbol of power. Let me offer this textbook definition:

"...the phallus is a symbol of power, of having (note how guns are used in film: guns = phallus = power). The woman has no phallus...the woman is lacking and therefore inferior..." -- Jill Nelmes, An Introduction to Film Studies

Take away Samus' suit and she is powerless. Even more than her suit, take away her arm cannon, and she is powerless. Both mechanisms represent her masculine image, and it is not enough that she becomes weaker when she removes them. She actually wears a bikini beneath all of that masculine strength, as if to say, "without the power, I am only an object of sex."

You can make an argument here that SSBB proves my point invalid. I will accept that Zero Suit Samus is a perfectly powerful combatant. However, the Samus without a suit in the early Metroid universe is powerless. If she did not need the suit, why would she have it at all?

I return to the objectification of Samus. All of this sexualization fits perfectly into my pre-established argument about Princess Peach. In fact, despite her combat capabilities, Samus Aran fits the role of sexually objectified females more perfectly than the victim in SMB. Here's the same quote I used from Laura Mulvey in my initial argument, and understand that it works more efficiently here.

"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed…Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to strip-tease…she holds the male look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combines spectacle and narrative. The presence of woman is an indispensible element of spectacle…" -- Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

Consider the moment at the end of the original Metroid when we see Samus without her suit. She's waving at us. She becomes a pin-up, a girl in a bikini. She loses all of her power and is nothing more than a coy, sexual image used to reward the male demographic in gaming.

Now try Google Image searching "Samus Aran" without a search filter. You will find in the first few pages that the internet, no surprise here, harbors a vast multitude of images concerning the sexualized nature of Samus. I will concede, however, that the same trick works with almost every single female on this planet. But it served the cause of Samus Aran no benefit when Nintendo originally threw her up on the screen in a bikini after defeating a horde of alien beasts (I don't mean to blame Nintendo here, but they're the folks with these types of games during the era in question).

Stepping back, I do recognize that Samus Aran does represent a lot of positive strength for females in the world of gaming. She's a strong, confident, independent woman that regularly sets of to do what others cannot. But her flagrant sexualization as a reward for a job well done is something that cannot be dismissed. For all of her strengths and conquests, Samus is still immediately chopped down to an inferior form.

And for all of its shortcomings, the Zero Suit in SSBB is probably the best representation of strength and sexuality for the character. Without her suit in the originals, Samus becomes a waving pin-up. More recently, however, she's become something of a combative vixen. But, as I'll argue later when I tackle more recent games that use this same model, the sexualization of women in gaming still puts them at a disadvantage. Do her breasts still need to be so overtly apparent in the Zero Suit?

I'll close this off by saying that, once again, this series is not finished. It's only started. For those wondering why I'm doing such old games, please recognize that I'm trying to handle this topic in a chronological nature. I do intend to approach more recent titles eventually. For now, I believe a lot of understanding can be found in the roots of gaming.
>> # top # | Source: Kombo.com

Build worlds, destroy worlds, then create a montage

 Another video session, but a rather short one this time, because the third one that I found just now is a must-show-immediately. I think. Simply amazing.
[...]
(show me)(don't show me)

[..]: World Builder (high quality)
sent by f2k

[.·]: Destroyed in Seconds Bulldozer Rampage
sent by Mika

[·.]: Video Games
Tue, Sep 16, 2008 3:28am EST (Eastern Standard Time) · by Musclebeaver

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

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///A Film directed and animated by MUSCLEBEAVER///

MSLBVR 2008 (c)

This animation we did was planned and animated for the prologue of a documentary.
(That explains the absurd, unfinished seeming, ending.That is where the actual documentary starts.... )
The briefing was to show an evolution of computer games.
The documentary itself is about different people, based here in germany, showing their everyday life, and their addiction to the same specific, famous MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game):"Wo.."

Every game character in this prologue was reinterpreted, redrawn (...one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame.

Animation: musclebeaver.com
Sound by: nichtvonpappe-platten.de
>> # top # | Source: Vimeo.com

CaseMod: PlayStation shaped iPod felt case

 I'm just as astounded as the author I'm copying from ;^) [...]
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iPhone PlayStation Case Gives Me Warm Fuzzies

STYLE GUIDE: The idea of a PlayStation Console case for iPhone with matching controller key chain is one fantastical work of genius that instantly restored a feeling of childlike wonder for me at first glance. Hand tooled with a felt outside and black felt lining, this magical sheath is hand embroidered with great detail certain to spark epic conversations about the glory days of video gaming.

Notice the Sony and PlayStation logos and geek-tastic detailing put into designing the controller. It's like buying an iPhone case and plush toy all in one. Dimensions are 5" by 3" making it capable of fitting an iPod touch or gadget of similar size.

Expect to pay $20.00 for the case and an optional $7.00 for lusting after the felt PS1 Controller. An ultra-fashionable iPhone accessory worth twice the price.

[Rabbitrampage via Etsy] | [Game Boy Pouch]
Posted at 10:26 AM in Style Guide
Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, iphone case, playstation console case, PS1 keychain
>> # top # | Source: iPhone Savior.com
sent by Foifur

Original flickr pages: 1 2

Theremin gaming music

 "The theremin is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without contact from the player." ^{Wikipedia 2oo9-o4}

Enough introduction - let's watch some YouTube clips featuring space music. [...]
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The Legend of Zelda Theme on theremin

Super Mario Bros. on the Theremin!

Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand - Randy George, theremin

Bonus: this one's so nerdy ... x^D

Zelda Theme on Ocarina

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Wii Theremin: Motion-Tracking über die Infrarotkamera der Wiimote
Tags: Controller, infrarot, johnny lee, ken moore, motion tracking, theremin, wii, wii theremin, wiimote

Wii Theremin - Star Trek Theme

Der Controller der Spielkonsole Wii bietet für den Preis von knapp 40€ unglaublich viel an Technik: Bewegungssensoren, Infrarotkamera und Bluetooth-Fähigkeit eröffnen dem Musiker unzählige neue Möglichkeiten. Bis jetzt habe ich die Wiimote als Controller für Musik aber nur in einer bestimmten Verwendungsweise gesehen: der Musiker bewegt die Wiimote, die Bewegungsdaten werden ausgelesen und in Töne umgewandelt. Wie das aussieht, kann man z.B. in diesem Live-Mitschnitt meines Projektes Presetsurfer sehen.

Man kann die Sache aber auch anders angehen, die Wiimote stationär positionieren und mit Hilfe der integrierten Infrarotkamera die Bewegung von Gegenständen oder Händen verfolgen. Genau das hat Ken Moore gemacht und dabei eine Simulation des Theremin entwickelt - das Wii Theremin. Die eine Hand steuert dabei die Tonhöhe, die andere die Lautstärke eines Klanges. Möglich wird das durch LEDs in den Handschuhen, die von der Infrarotkamera der Wiimote verfolgt werden können. Zugegeben, Ken Moores Interpretation der Titelmelodie von Star Trek reicht nicht annähernd an das Original heran. Sie zeigt aber eindrucksvoll die Möglichkeiten, die sein Konzept bietet: das gleichzeitige Tracking von mehreren Punkten. Damit können verschiedene Parameter eines Klanges nur mit den Händen gesteuert werden.

Ken Moores Wii Theremin basiert auf der Arbeit von Johnny Lee, dem Pionier des Wii-Hacking. Auf dessen Website finden sich einige äußerst kreative Anwendungen der Wiimote, viele der von ihm entwickelten Programme stehen zum Download zur Verfügung. Wer Johnny Lees Projekte noch nicht kennt, sollte unbedingt seine Website besuchen - mir schwirrt der Kopf vor lauter Ideen, was man damit alles anstellen kann…
>> # top # | Q: Go Make Music.de
initial stuff sent by Mika77

Chrono Trigger Marriage Proposal

 I just got hold of this lovely marriage proposal. I've seen marriage proposals woven into gaming experiences before - but nothing as beautiful as this one. Nerd proposals are so gorgeous. [...]
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<<
by TheRealPfhreak · October 24, 2008
On October 17th, 2008, I proposed to my (now) Fiancee. Originally I wanted to return to the site of our first date, Mount Baker, near Bellingham Washington. Sadly, there was no discreet way to get her out there. So I turned to the next best thing, digitally recreating the mountain!

But why stop there? I figured I'd try and recreate many of our other favorite memories -- stargazing, dancing, even her favorite song lyrics (from the Princess Bride). I'm a college student who is studying Computer Science, and I wanted to do something unique that used my talents, so I did some research on Rom hacking, as she was playing through Chrono Trigger. (A perennial favorite of mine, I can't wait to buy it for my DS.) I even put in her cat, Cleo!

I had several goals in mind:
First) Keep the area in the context of the original game, the proposal should be a surprise.
Second) Get it done quick! I had the ring, I had the Father's blessing, and you can't sit on either of those for too long. You'll notice some of the NPC collision information is missing (the cat runs through a lot of weird places) and I didn't have time to properly debug every tile.
Third) Place memories that might be poignant enough to remind her of our relationship, while not inadvertently giving away that this was somehow hacked.(See goal #1.)

Overall, it was a resounding success. She had no idea that this wasn't part of the original. She asked, "Hey, are those the Princess Bride lyrics? Do the Japanese really love that movie?" to which I responded, "Yeah! That's probably it! Either that or a bored translator slipping in an easter egg."

When her name appeared on screen (blurred in this video), she glanced over to me (on one knee, with the ring out), wondering, "How did they get my name in this game?" When she saw the ring, she reread the proposal, nodded yes, and said, "You are such a huge nerd! I love this!"

I spent a long time debating whether or not this proposal was awesome or incredibly stupid. Her friends, and my friends helped talk me into it, and it was a huge success!

I built the area by fusing a pre-existing area (Denodoro Mountains) with concepts I had in my mind. Each NPC in the area (save the cat, and the young girl at the beginning) is supposed to be either myself or my fiance.

UPDATE: It has been dugg!

Update 2: Now on Reddit!
Thanks to zeptobyte, and all the others!
>> # top # | Q: YouTube
sent by Foifur

I proposed by hacking Chrono Trigger

Legacy Of Kain: Information Retrieval

 I always knew that the story told in the two Soul Reaver games had a deeper meaning than I had grasped because those two were the only games of the five-part saga that I have played, but for various reasons, one for example being that one of the other three games was based much more on combat than puzzling, I didn't feel the urge to play those. Because I hate this degree of combat/puzzle distribution in general. But with the help of Google, Wikipedia and YouTube I could feast on the story that is beknownst to the gaming world as the "Legacy Of Kain" saga. [...]
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Spoiler Alert: I won't spoil much - at least not deliberately - but if you still want to experience the story by playing the games then I don't recommend reading this.

I'm not here to retell the tale though, after I've read all this. I just want you to be able to acquire the same wisdom that I could acquire. The saga obviously depicts the "adventures" of Kain just as it shows Raziel's destiny. Speaking of which, there is a vague little difference between destiny & fate that I learned about during this excursion but it seems to me that it is so vague and unclear that it is hard to grasp. Or believe. Just like religion. But anyway, these two are not the only characters in this complex saga.

The saga itself consists of these five games created for several systems, spanning from Playstation One™ to Xbox™, Xbox 36o™, Playstation 2™, Windows™ and even the Dreamcast™, Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain, Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2: Legacy Of Kain and Legacy Of Kain: Defiance. While in the Blood Omen games you control Kain, in the Soul Reaver sub series you wander through Nosghoth as Raziel, whilst in Defiance you play as both of them.

Its story borrows ideas from different concepts, like the wheel of fortune or soul devouring fallen angels and the like. Or the aforementioned idea of destiny vs. the idea of free will. But because of these complicated features and many others - like time traveling which is always a big step to the genre "fantasy"/"surrealism" - there were quite a few story complications, paradoxes and similar things that diluted the saga a bit. Most of my questions that arose in that context vanished after I compared my new knowledge of the saga with this additional information though: firstly I found two timelines that describe the events of Nosgoth, an official one ^(source) covering only two games and describing history rather unbiased, and an inoffial one covering four games and describing the path of the Soul Reaver, Raziel as well as the blade in two parallel charts.

Secondly there is this Q&A session with Amy Hennig, the director & writer of three out of five of these games. It took place after (or in the course of) the release for the last game so far, Defiance. I guess this was the last chance for the developers to fill in some gaps for the fans. On an interesting sidenote, here you can see Amy's path through the videogame industry. It's not very long but all the more exciting. At least in my humblest of opinions.

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

If you are a careful reader you might have noticed my phrasing "last game so far" which expresses my hope and strong feeling that there will be a next game some time in the future. It might be announced next year, it might as well be announced in ten years, but my stomach tells me that these developers want to add more betrayals and manipulations to this epic story. These easter eggs that can be found in Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary, two further games from Crystal Dynamics, the same development team of most of the Legacy Of Kain games, confirm my theory, although I'm absolutely clear about the possibility that these easter eggs could be merely a gimmick without further meaning.

Tomb Raider easter eggs


Last but not least, as I've played only two out of five, I still was very much interested in the whole saga and while reading is one thing, viewing the cutscenes is a completely different thing (completely in unison with the spirit of the cutscenes section of this website). What follows is the vid sub section of this article containing all the cutscenes (and therefore much of the story) from the first videogame, Blood Omen, the opening cinematic from the paradox Blood Omen 2 (or a trailer that could easily be the opening cinematic), as well as - what I believe is - all the cutscenes from Defiance, the latter being edited a bit carelessly so that you might be missing one or two seconds of dialogue. If the YouTube clips are down however - as it happens so often with these clips - feel free to try your luck here. I haven't included videos of the two Soul Reaver games, because of the selfish reaseson that I've played them already. Just recently. But again, feel free to try your luck here.

Have fun.

Blood Omen (2 YouTube parts)

• part 1
  
• part 2
  
  
  
  Blood Omen 2
  
• intro
  
  
  
  Defiance - The Fan Movie (7 YouTube parts)
  by Dunniebrasco
  
• part 1
  
• part 2
  
• part 3
  
• part 4
  
• part 5
  
• part 6
  
• part 7
  

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Lost Soul ... or just lost?

 Recently I've finished Soul Reaver for the PS One™, part one that is, and I must say it really was some experience. The motivation was me waking up one morning with an incredible lust for this retro-cultural two-piece saga. It was not the first time I was hit by nostalgica-lust; a few weeks ago I felt the urge to replay Jak & Daxter, and also Beyond Good & Evil. Additionally I listened to the soundtracks ANUBIS: Zone Of The Enders and Shadow Of The Colossus: Roar Of The Earth which also made me reach for the discs. So I did gather them and actually created my nostalgia stack ... now I laugh at the people who suggested to sell the good ol' PS2™ ... [...]
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Of course I've had in mind that ancient masterpieces like Soul Reaver weren't made to be exhibited on a TV set as big as mine so I wasn't all too suprised with huge video artifacts and oversized polygon models but there were certain other things that I haven't had in mind and that made this experience so special. For instance I completely forgot that the default controller for this oldschool console was indeed pre-Dualshock (and pre-Nintendo-Trident most obviously) meaning that the (now somewhat self-evident) analogue sticks came later. Thus, all camera control the player had just had to be realized via the shoulder buttons L2/R2. Being able to push both buttons at once to create a first-person-perspective-mode therefore was quite big at the time.

Another thing I've observated about programming videogames in the "old age" was how often I completely lost track of where I had to go. I absolutely got lost, several times. There were so many times I didn't know which of two paths to go and when I did know which one of the two it was, I was already inmidst of a boss battle or something similar. There was this tutorial dude/force that seemed to accompany Raziel and give his comment every now and then, especially after earning a new ability, but it was either a rough hint to the next dungeon (which was good) or a story-related comment. Nothing in-dungeon, no short-range-ish advice. By the time I fought against Kain for the last time I hadn't activated half of all the portals. And besides the portals, I vaguely remember having had the ability to forge your Soul Reaver blade with a new color/element. And I'm sure it was already featured in this first part because I ran into an oddly isolated fireplace that had this very purpose. There was also this temple where I didn't know what to do so I left again, and all these glowing icons on the floor where I didn't know what to do either - long story short, I missed a lot of goodies, when I replayed the game this time around. I mean, I actually wanted to skip some optional stuff but I don't think that I really chose this option the way I played the game and got lost that often.

Anyway, when I look now at games like and trailers of Killzone 2 I think it's really sad that the graphics were pushed so hard over the last couple of years. I mean it's nice to look at but if you compare it with what might have be achieved instead - better AI, better gameplay mechanics, better sound, better camera AI - that would have really altered the experience we have right now.

I still wait for the game where you fight one single boss in a huge epic battle and eeeeevery single experience is totally different. Because the boss - the game - actually learns. Real artificial intelligence and not some pre-decided causes, animated pre-renderedly using pre-performed motion capturing and pre-recorded sound effects, that are falsely called "AI". I mean it could even borrow this online database aspect of spore. Well .... a boy can dream, right? ;^)

Next up, Soul Reaver 2.
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o8/o9 News from the wooden lands

 Despite the title I don't have very much (and new) to tell you, I'm just here to say that I'm still here. Somehow I made it through 2oo8. I don't know how though - I just sat here ;^p  Didn't move a muscle. [...]
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Recently I've heard about this new game that's about to be released in the near future, it's called Let's Tap. It's a rhythm game for the Wii™ that doesn't need any new peripheral - except for a cardboard box. At first I feared you needed a special box that came shipped with the game. Nintendo making money with the simplest most rudimentary peripherals again. But no, oh no, you can use any box. Apparently the box is just needed to transport the vibrations of your tapping on the box. The peculiar thing (to me) is that the Wiimote, that is to be laid on top of the box, doesn't have a microphone to process the tapping. It is solely using its motion sensor technology - how incredibly sensitive is that thing? After playing Wii Sports and other games I found the Wiimote to be rather inaccurate about the angle input. Well, it's not inaccurate about its movement input, I guess.

But I shouldn't have been all too surprised about that after having seen the scientific art of Johnny Chung Lee. Have you seen his usage of the Wii™? Maybe you have - I've wanted to tell you about his works for a very long time ...

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

sent by Mika77

As we can see each year the tradition of reflecting the last three hundred and sixty or so days around this time of the calendar you can see how the gaming community (or a gaming community) elected Grand Theft Auto IV to be the best Game Of The Year 2oo8 - come on!! The game was good but not at all the best one. Especially not the best PS3 game. But what's my opinion worth anyway?

Anyway, as we are already here we might as well go the last step and discuss (lol) my very own VG MOY (that's Video Game Moment Of The Year for ... well, for everybody, I guess). For me personally there haven't been that many, only two to be precisely, and both originate from the same game: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. Expect me to spoil.
For once, there was this gorgeous scene when you enter Shadow Moses and "The Best Is Yet To Come" by Rika Muranaka & Aoife Ní Fhearraigh commences, triggering wave after wave of nostalgia, both visually and auditive, mixed with the graphical new version of Shadow Moses. That was a very touching moment for me, and also quite impressive: in-game nostalgica features.
The other scene was the ending. Simply the ending. The end of this game which was also the end of four games (at least), a testosterone-laden ending that matched the preliminary action, an ending full of story twists, climaxes and conclusions. An orchestrated cutscene-feast. It forced you to push Old Snake through an ridiculously dangerous hallway of "microwaves" while you see in the split-screen the battles of your comrades, until he reaches the graveyard-like server room of Outer Haven where he passes out only to fight Liquid Ocelot on top of the giant submarine - but not right away. As if the game heard me say "Don't let me play the boss battle right away. The preceding cutscenes built up so much momentum - it would only destroy the atmosphere." the game listened to me and started with a cutscene version of the boss battle which only lead to the inevitable clash of the titan seniors that you had to control - followed by another long memorable dialogue scene on another graveyard - a real one this time - which culminates in the most incredible version of "Here's To You" (by Lisbeth Scott, originally by Ennio Morricone) that I've ever heard.
That - finishing MGS4 - was my most remarkable Video Game Moment Of The Year 2oo8 that no other game even came close to.

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

[End of MGS4-Spoilers] Not even the new Prince Of Persia. I mean ... considering POP once made a personal VG MOY I was expecting quite a bit. Strangely enough I wasn't as thrilled of the visual look of the game when I saw it in-game (as opposed to in a trailer). I even disliked it at some moments while at others I adored the beauty of the corruption. But it's still a very good game. I just happen to be done with it because I got the platinum trophy. I'm just mentioning because it's my first one. Sorry ;^p  If you're playing it now or in the future, here's a tip: take the green power lastly and heal the land in front of the Warrior's black gates at the very end. I think the game is a bit easier that way.

Talking about videogames, a pal of mine, Foifur - one of my few loyal readers - is playing Secret Of Mana at the moment. Every now and then he asks me for advice which I then give him eagerly. Since then I feel this itching inside me .. this longing for nostalgic greatness that this game embodies, IMHO. I want to play it like I used to and re-live the joy I've had back then in the old days. I know though, that this is not possible ...

Just like with Street Fighter II: Turbo. There's this new version called Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (or SSFIITHDR for still-long-but-short) that is basically a refined version of this old game. But, oh refined it truly is: Capcom actually approached the fans over at OverClocked ReMix (okay, professional fans) to do the soundtrack for the game - because they would have remixed it anyway (>< ). Fans doing the soundtrack for a full-fledged videogame?!?! The mere thought of this is so awesome that I temporarily lose my eyesight, blinded by the joy of the little kid inside me. And it's completely for free! And it's online, the game I mean. It's an online version of a Beat 'em Up game that I liked, that I actually played back in the days, often too - that I actually *owned*. Yes, it was one of my "exclusive" six Super Nintendo™ titles. Oh, those were the days when you didn't have the money to buy them all.
The online part of the new game is even allegedly decent so I was indeed considering to buy it ... but to be true it would have been a waste of money. There's no way that I could play a Street Fighter game as joyfully and enthusiastically as "once". It's over ... ( ´.`)

But hey, look at the future: there's a new Street Fighter movie in the making featuring Kristin Kreuk, and it's called Street Fighter: Legend Of Chun-Li. It will probably be a disappointment just as many other videogame-to-motion-picture-conversions before but I sure as hell know that I'm going to check it out anyway. Here's a trailer. Judging solely by this footage I'd say it looks like an Uwe Boll movie, but if it was really was one it would have been his best (although I must say that I haven't seen all of his "work").

Another thing I might write (without having a gun being pointed at my head) is how cool Tycho from Penny Arcade is, IMHO. I mean, he's not just eloquent but his perspective on videogames has often surprised me one way or another, too. It's almost as if he could see right through the haze that distorts the image with which games are sold to the masses and pinpoint a big aspect of the core of a game that I often miss. Man, I wish I was like him. His "thing" is even more obvious with spoken words, I think, which is why I like their podcasts so much. My favourite so far is the one where they talk about how funny the idea of merging two specific universes is which ended up in this comic strip.
Also, I liked Jerry & Mike playing Dungeons & Dragons. I can't wait for the next round with Wil Wheaton.

This might be enough for now. Maybe I'll add something a little later. Now I'm headed to a thing called "Shadow Of The Colossus OST". # top #

Oddities, Stupidities & Brick-o-Wiis

  Recently I had trouble with two specific problems, one regarding a rather odd Photoshop error, the other one regarding Wii NTSC Backups. I spent several days trying to fix them but only today I (sort of) solved both of them within two hrs. Eureka! .. or so they say.

[...]
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First of all, talking about Photoshop, it was really odd. All I did was save an image I had worked on (although my fingers flew so fast over the keyboard - there might have been an intriguing first appearance of this program error which I didn't see that should have put me in alarm mode early on). After I couldn't find my saved image I decided to do the work all over again (it was merely a matter of few minutes anyway) but for some inexplicable reason, when I used the brush tool with a size bigger than 1o and/or hardness below 1oo%, Photoshop confronted me with a quite useless error notification that went like this: "Could not complete your request because of a program error.".

Googling for it prooved to be just as ridiculous as assumed. If you have a program that emits "some error" without an error code of some sort then you have to deal with an unknown unspecified program that could have its roots anywhere. Let me use a metaphor. Imagine you're sick and you see a doctor to help you find your disease. But the only symptom that your body displays is an uncomfortable pain in the belly. Now, he treats you with an injection because he thinks you've got a flu and because the patient before you has shown the very same symptoms and was successfully cured with an injection. But you don't have the flu - you're bleeding internally which your body only expresses via the pain in the belly. The next morning you die.

... *sigh* anyway, "enough of this frustrating development issue" I thought to myself. I tried to ignore the problem that I had to search in a pile of unrelated issues with the same program error and continued: "Let's move on to find a solution." This is when I found this thread:

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chelsie-ox · 12-Jan-2008, 03:06 PM
I'm having a problem with Adobe Photoshop CS, Whenever I try and use the paintbrush when its bigger than 10px a box comes up saying 'Could not complete your request because of a program error', As in I can use the paintbrush when its 10px or less but if i want a bigger brush it won't work. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling about 8 times with no luck and I've tried adobe forums but they don't have any answers. I'm using Windows XP. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[...]

chelsie-ox · 13-Jan-2008, 12:58 PM
It's ok, I've found a way around it, Thanks

[THREAD CLOSED]
>> Q: Tech Guy.org Forums

.... okay that was helpful. Why not share your workaround? Or dear forum admin: why not try to get him back via email to readress the issue and be a helping hand in the darkness of desperation - nooo, nooo, too much trouble. Just close the damn thread. And normally admins on forums wonder why so many people don't use the search function of their forums ...

Anyway, let's cut the crap. My "solution" is that I don't have any. But I found out that only the pictures in that particular folder are concerned. Big deal. Totally strange and inscrutable but .. I just ignored the folder. Was sort of done with it anyway.

[ Woody's Checkpoint: # top # ]

The other thing that bothered me for more than a week was 'how to make my PAL Wii play an NTSC backup'. When it originally did not work I tried to mess around with the WiiKey config, then sidetracked an update issue that was totally not a problem after I activated my desperate brain again. The original config was fine, my SSBB import confirmed that. Was it the TV - set it to another frequenzy? Issues from the past, actually, with an HD TV in my living room. Well, to keep things short, I just had to set the Wii language to english. I'm kind of embarassed that I forgot to check this possibility. But on the other hand, when was the last time that this was the key problem? But who cares, it works now.

Although, on my quest to find an answer I was confronted with and confused by Wii region and brick issues several times. 1) A friend said he installed an NTSC update on his PAL Wii and could now play the game. Just duplicate channels. 2) According to this thread that action should absolutely be avoided because of the guarantee of a bricked console.

<<
[GUIDE] How to Protect From Region Brick
Any PAL/NTSC(U)/NTSC(J) Wii can be bricked or semi-bricked if you play an out of region game disc on your Wii + it has a region update on it.

Below is a guide to follow when playing a Game Disc that has a firmware update on it.

NTSC(U) Game + NTSC(U) Wii = No chance of a region brick
PAL Game + PAL Wii = No chance of a region brick
NTSC(J) Game + NTSC(J) Wii = No chance of a region brick

---------------------------------------------------------------------

NTSC(U) Game + PAL/NTSC(J) Wii = Brick is possible if Wii is not updated with latest firmware + Wii Brick Blocker.

PAL Game + NTSC(U)/NTSC(J) Wii = Brick is possible if Wii is not updated with latest firmware + Wii Brick Blocker.

NTSC(J) Game + PAL/NTSC(U) Wii = Brick is possible if Wii is not updated with latest firmware + Wii Brick Blocker.
[...]
>> Q: Loving Wii.com Forums

Now I don't know what to believe. But that is my problem.
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PS3 Laptop

 I just found this awesome PS3 case mod: a Playstation 3 Portable Laptop. Complete with the black glossy look. Awesome. [...]
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Pirate's PS3 Laptop (Playstation 3 "Portable") (revived)
Well after 3 months of working on it I am proud to present my version of the Playstation 3 Laptop.

Here are a few specs:
· 80gb SKU w/320gb HDD
· 17" 720p HDTV LCD Monitor
· Keyboard
· Built in speakers with headphone jack
· Custom cooling (SilenX fans)
· Size: 16 x 10.5 x 4 inches (when closed)
· Weight: 15 pounds

This project was inspired by Ben Heck, and I decided to create my own version with a few tweaks of my own. For one I made all the back ports still accessible as I would like to play on my 1080p HDTV from time to time :)

Also another modification was custom cooling using Silenx fans, making it quieter than stock PS3's (when running during games).

And here are all the screen shots you guys have been waiting for:

Here is a video below of this baby in action:

Pirate's PS3 Laptop (Playstation 3 Portable)

I do expect to make more versions of this in the future now that I know exactly how to do it, and hopefully be slimmer and more portable :)

If you interested in custom work, drop me a PM and we can go from there.
Pirate · 08-20-2008, 07:02 PM
>> # top # | Q: PS3 Hax.net