Infinity and Beyond

Nintendo sent some media outlets copies of Wild World, an Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo DS.  Apparently you can share and import some of the player-created content into the Nintendo Wii’s console version of Animal Crossing.  

Wired’s reporting that somehow a player managed to get around Nintendo’s content filters and inserted an offensive word into the game.  This offensive content was unlocked and incorporated into the version Nintendo sent out to the media outlets.  See below:

Apparently Nintendo has since been scrambling to pull these copies back, and has released an official statement.  Oops.

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Google threw up this article on my Gmail news ticker–Frogger, anyone?  Old-school gamers revel in nostalgia.  I thought it was a pretty sweet idea to turn a garage or spare room into an old-school style arcade.  I remembered a site I came across when I was trying to get into physical computing which sold a ton of sweet arcade buttons and joysticks for creating your own stand-up arcade boxes.  The site even has templates and layouts for your reference.

This makes me want to get back into physical computing projects.  The board I’ve used in the past is the Arduino board, which is pretty cheap and has an easy USB connection (no painful USB-serial converters necessary).  A good reference book that I’ve got is Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, by Tom Igoe and Dan O’Sullivan.  It’s a little outdated, but the basic concepts are all covered, and there are a lot of code examples which can easily be adapted to the Arduino.  They cover basic tools needed, soldering, all the various kinds of components you’re likely to use, explain how to read diagrams, and much more.

But, physical computing projects aside, this brings up the point that I tend to agree with the assessment that most gaming companies these days seemed driven to provide only the best visual gaming experience, while they often seem to ignore the actual gameplay itself.  Which is perhaps why the Wii does so well–the games don’t look the absolute best, but many are geared to have a quick learning curve and are focused on fun.  Wii Tennis for instance is arguably an awful looking game when compared to the graphics of nearly any Xbox 360 game.  But that doesn’t matter, because the gameplay is super easy to learn and you can start having fun immediately.  This has always been one of Nintendo’s strong points.

Thinking about this makes me want to build a stand-up arcade and put on some of the classic Nintendo and Atari games.  Maybe some Super Mario Bros, Frogger, Pac Man, Lolo…perhaps even some Super NES games like F-Zero…or better yet, a 4-player arcade version of the original Mario Kart.

Now all I need is a crappy TV, the Nintendo from the closet in my mom’s house, and a spot to put it.

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An alliance has been forged. Microsoft and it’s Xbox 360 has teamed up with Netflix to deliver downloadable movies straight to their console (check out a video of the announcement here). The deal includes 10,000 movies and tv shows and was announced Monday  at the E3 Media and Business Summit in L.A., which I’m sure we’ll be invited to next year.

“This generation of consoles will change the face of home entertainment more than any other generation before,” said John Schappert, corporate VP of MSFT’s interactive entertainment division. This tool will help allow Netflix to move furhter from the computer towards the television screen, a line that was blurred even further after the success of Roku. This will allow more of Netflixs’ 8.2 million subscribers to stream video content and not be forced to watching it on the computer. About 8,000 more titles should become available in the next few months and Netflix is hoping this new venture is just as successful as Roku has been. Now if only someone could mention this new fangle technology called ‘the internet’ to the folks at Blockbuster they might be able to keep the battle for video home rentals alive, but much like the recent format battle, the companies that develop the best technologies and form the strongest alliances will go home the winners at the end of the day. As Blockbuster continues to sink further and further into a 10-year low stock price. I’ve been saying it over and over but Blockbuster has been making the wrong decision time and time again while Netflix continues to evolve and advance moving into every possible corner of the market it can. When it comes to streaming legal content online through second party devices I think Netflix takes the cake. “The company already has announced that LG electronics will include streaming capability on a Blu-ray DVD player that will debut this year.” Netflic CEO promised “at least one more major consumer electronics company will unveil a set-top box for Netflix before 2009.”

Netflix isn’t the only company embracing the future. This announcement came on a day when MSFT is trying to makeover the Xbox 360. With the HUGE success of Nintendo’s ultimate gaming device, the Wii, MSFT is trying to regain some the market share it has lost to its local rival (Nintendo of America’s headquarters is across the freeway from Microsoft in Redmond, WA). Moving from a hardcore gaming console to appeal to the ‘casual’ gamer the Xbox is becoming a “multipurpose entertainment machine to watch movies, TV shows, and listen to music.” With the demise of HD-DVD the ailing console has been needing a boost to bring it back into the limelight. While partnering with NBC/Universal to stream TV shows like “30 Rock” and movies like “The Bourne Supremacy” to the console might help, its ultimately going to be its diverse capabilities that draw the larger audience. If that doesn’t help get the attention of the average family then hopefully that $50 price cut will at least bring it within $100 of the cheaper Wii.

 We’ll find out how Nintendo intends to counter this new development tomorrow when they take the stage for day two of the E3 conference, which as I said before, we’ll for sure be going to next year? That and ShoWest.

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The “Home” 3D virtual online space for the PS3 owners will be delayed until autumn, according to Sony Corp.  This is the second delay of the “Home” service, which I believe will be similar to the offerings Xbox users can currently access via Xbox Live.  The announcement is another blow to the PS3, which is trailing both Nindendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles in unit sales.  It’s hoped that when (if?) the service launches, it will help to boost sales of the system.

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