Wednesday, November 29, 2006
The Nintendo Wii is NOT the Game Cube
by: Kit Allen
As Nintendo chief Miyamoto says about the Wii…
‘The hardware is basically a GC. We’ve upgraded our development tools to new versions but, you can still use GC programs as they are. With that in mind, I thought we could remake GC titles for the Wii and modify them to work with the Wii remote so that they’re more fun to play.’
This statement been making its speedy journey around the web, with the predictable result.
‘i tuld u tha Wee sux0rs!’ ‘Thus proving the Wii is infact.. a repackaged gamecube’ ‘Rofl @ Nintendo’
The argument need to be split in half to avoid confusion. Lumping the two arguments together ends in a negative situation, where neither of the debating parties can influence the opposition.
Firstly, The Wii is GameCube 1.5?
Miyamoto, in his cute little ‘Wish we had an international auxillary language to stop english speaking ‘l33t’ gamers from mocking our consumers’ way, was accurate with his statement. The hardware is similar to the GameCube. WAIT! Don’t go running away just yet, for here is a word equation that will float your boat.
The Nintendo Wii hardware is similar to the Gamecube, as A gaming PC is similar to a Windows 95 word processing computer.
What! Says you, but my ‘uber el33tzo0r’ Gaming PC has 4 GB of Ram! It has 6.7 Gigahertz of processing power! THINK. Instead of thinking about the technological specifics of ‘hardware capabilities’, when the above statement is made, one is referring to the style in which hardware and software are created. The Architecture of the device.
Going out on another tangent, Nintendo would not be stupid enough to make the GameCube mistake again. The GC was not a high point for flailing Nintendo. Why now, riding on the success of the Nintendo DS, an innovative handheld device that has taken the world by storm, would Nintendo choose to release an updated version of a failure?
Wii Vs Xbox360 Vs Playstation3
To be blatantly honest, the next-gen console battle will be fought between the Xbox360, and the Playstation3. Unfortunately for Sony and Microsoft, they have launched products capable of the same types of activities, with the same types of controls and the same types of games. It’s a marketing battle to see who will triumph. But for those looking for new, innovative [ie: Not BluRay] technology with an element of fun and a totally unique experience will choose the Wii. There is nothing else on the market to compete with it.
So who would buy the Wii? Just little kids right? Nintendo has many different demographics to target. From the very young, to the very old. The DS has opened the eyes of previously video game free generations, and inspired those just entering the market, as well as gameboy fans looking for a quality handheld. Half-core gamers want something fresh. they want to play with their friends and have fun. They don’t want to shell out big bucks for a gaming system, but would be happy to pay a much lower price for entertainment.
You can not compare consoles on specifications alone. You must use implementation examples to compare things. On paper, the Playstation 3 is the strongest console. Better than the Wii, better than the Xbox360. But does it have quality games? Will there be many games? Will Sony finally be able to create a game that creates a third of the hype that Halo does? Until all consoles have been released internationally, it is futile to argue over which console is ’superior’ and which will succeed.
The Nintendo Wii is not a Game Cube. As the old saying goes, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Both are in the same general class, yet there are fundamental differences that make comparing them pointless.
About The Author
Kit Allen, the chief contributor to Nintendo Blog, http://nintendocommunity.com wrote this article to inform the world about the Nintendo Wii.
This article was posted on November 28, 2006
As Nintendo chief Miyamoto says about the Wii…
‘The hardware is basically a GC. We’ve upgraded our development tools to new versions but, you can still use GC programs as they are. With that in mind, I thought we could remake GC titles for the Wii and modify them to work with the Wii remote so that they’re more fun to play.’
This statement been making its speedy journey around the web, with the predictable result.
‘i tuld u tha Wee sux0rs!’ ‘Thus proving the Wii is infact.. a repackaged gamecube’ ‘Rofl @ Nintendo’
The argument need to be split in half to avoid confusion. Lumping the two arguments together ends in a negative situation, where neither of the debating parties can influence the opposition.
Miyamoto, in his cute little ‘Wish we had an international auxillary language to stop english speaking ‘l33t’ gamers from mocking our consumers’ way, was accurate with his statement. The hardware is similar to the GameCube. WAIT! Don’t go running away just yet, for here is a word equation that will float your boat.
The Nintendo Wii hardware is similar to the Gamecube, as A gaming PC is similar to a Windows 95 word processing computer.
What! Says you, but my ‘uber el33tzo0r’ Gaming PC has 4 GB of Ram! It has 6.7 Gigahertz of processing power! THINK. Instead of thinking about the technological specifics of ‘hardware capabilities’, when the above statement is made, one is referring to the style in which hardware and software are created. The Architecture of the device.
Going out on another tangent, Nintendo would not be stupid enough to make the GameCube mistake again. The GC was not a high point for flailing Nintendo. Why now, riding on the success of the Nintendo DS, an innovative handheld device that has taken the world by storm, would Nintendo choose to release an updated version of a failure?
Wii Vs Xbox360 Vs Playstation3
To be blatantly honest, the next-gen console battle will be fought between the Xbox360, and the Playstation3. Unfortunately for Sony and Microsoft, they have launched products capable of the same types of activities, with the same types of controls and the same types of games. It’s a marketing battle to see who will triumph. But for those looking for new, innovative [ie: Not BluRay] technology with an element of fun and a totally unique experience will choose the Wii. There is nothing else on the market to compete with it.
So who would buy the Wii? Just little kids right? Nintendo has many different demographics to target. From the very young, to the very old. The DS has opened the eyes of previously video game free generations, and inspired those just entering the market, as well as gameboy fans looking for a quality handheld. Half-core gamers want something fresh. they want to play with their friends and have fun. They don’t want to shell out big bucks for a gaming system, but would be happy to pay a much lower price for entertainment.
You can not compare consoles on specifications alone. You must use implementation examples to compare things. On paper, the Playstation 3 is the strongest console. Better than the Wii, better than the Xbox360. But does it have quality games? Will there be many games? Will Sony finally be able to create a game that creates a third of the hype that Halo does? Until all consoles have been released internationally, it is futile to argue over which console is ’superior’ and which will succeed.
The Nintendo Wii is not a Game Cube. As the old saying goes, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Both are in the same general class, yet there are fundamental differences that make comparing them pointless.
About The Author
Kit Allen, the chief contributor to Nintendo Blog, http://nintendocommunity.com wrote this article to inform the world about the Nintendo Wii.
This article was posted on November 28, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
How To Cheat In A Computer Game
by: Beverly Kane
The definition of a cheat is pretty easy to figure out. If you have an affair with someone other than your lover, you can be called a cheat. If you copy answers from another person during an exam, you can also be called a cheat. In sports, if you try to win or get an advantage by disregarding the rules you are cheating but in computer games this definition become hard to follow. Taking advantage or lying to your fellow game players does not automatically mean you are cheating.
Cheating in a computer game is defined by the game and the people who are playing it.A lot of computer games come with a “cheat code”. This is usually to help a person get started and makes the game a little easier. They are usually designed for a single player. If you use these cheat codes you are cheating technically but it doesn’t mean you have an advantage.
The most common occurrence of cheating is when there are multiplayer and mass multiplayer games through the internet. In this instance, the players are not known to each other so they don’t have the restrictive influence of being seen by their opponents.
There are two main areas of cheating in computer games. You can change your settings through the use of exploits, bugs and external software or cheesing.
If you alter your computer settings, the layout of the computer’s hardware or the computer game to fit your gaming style you are cheating in a sense and this can be alright. But if you went even further and changed the brightness or the color of the screen in order to see better in shadow areas it becomes questionable.
Exploits are termed as errors in the game itself that give an advantage to one person or another. If someone deliberately uses those it a game, it could be considered cheating but it also could add to the excitement of the game.
There are software programs you can purchase that modify a program that runs computer game. This is a more serious form of cheating. Other software programs study the status of the game through the computer’s RAM
Another form of cheating is called cheesing. This is when the players do things that cannot happen in real life or are not allowed in real life.
The most common of game cheats these days find ways to change the game’s software. Even if the game developers try to encrypt or protect the files, there are software programs that will be able to change the game’s code without changing the main program. Cheats of this kind may be detected using programs that are installed on a server.
Preventing computer game cheaters is not easy. There are a lot of grey areas to agree on and consider before you term someone a cheat.
About The Author
Beverly Kane is a staff writer at http://www.gamesenthusiast.com and is an occasional contributor to several other websites, including http://www.theshoppinggazette.com.
This article was posted on November 17, 2006
The definition of a cheat is pretty easy to figure out. If you have an affair with someone other than your lover, you can be called a cheat. If you copy answers from another person during an exam, you can also be called a cheat. In sports, if you try to win or get an advantage by disregarding the rules you are cheating but in computer games this definition become hard to follow. Taking advantage or lying to your fellow game players does not automatically mean you are cheating.
Cheating in a computer game is defined by the game and the people who are playing it.A lot of computer games come with a “cheat code”. This is usually to help a person get started and makes the game a little easier. They are usually designed for a single player. If you use these cheat codes you are cheating technically but it doesn’t mean you have an advantage.
There are two main areas of cheating in computer games. You can change your settings through the use of exploits, bugs and external software or cheesing.
If you alter your computer settings, the layout of the computer’s hardware or the computer game to fit your gaming style you are cheating in a sense and this can be alright. But if you went even further and changed the brightness or the color of the screen in order to see better in shadow areas it becomes questionable.
Exploits are termed as errors in the game itself that give an advantage to one person or another. If someone deliberately uses those it a game, it could be considered cheating but it also could add to the excitement of the game.
There are software programs you can purchase that modify a program that runs computer game. This is a more serious form of cheating. Other software programs study the status of the game through the computer’s RAM
Another form of cheating is called cheesing. This is when the players do things that cannot happen in real life or are not allowed in real life.
The most common of game cheats these days find ways to change the game’s software. Even if the game developers try to encrypt or protect the files, there are software programs that will be able to change the game’s code without changing the main program. Cheats of this kind may be detected using programs that are installed on a server.
Preventing computer game cheaters is not easy. There are a lot of grey areas to agree on and consider before you term someone a cheat.
About The Author
Beverly Kane is a staff writer at http://www.gamesenthusiast.com and is an occasional contributor to several other websites, including http://www.theshoppinggazette.com.
This article was posted on November 17, 2006
Having A Ball with X-Box Games
by: Morgan Hamilton
I love playing video games. I love it so much that I even have two video games systems at home — an x box and a Playstation. I used to play with my Playstation most of the time because it had all the games that I love to play. But recently I’ve noticed that I now have an extensive collection of x box games and my Playstation has been collecting dust in a corner.
It all began a year ago when I saw the x box in my neighbor’s multi family yard sale. He wanted to get rid of it because his son has been spending all of his me on it and I was able to get for a reasonably low price. And since he also had lots of x box games to go with the system I was able to get them for a few bucks as well. I was able to get my favorite fighting games for a lot less money than of have I bought them from a video game store.
The x box game that I’ve grown to really love is the Dance Dance Revolution. It’s a new type of game that combines a workout with the normal gaming experience. It’s a revolutionary video game that tries to accurately simulate dancing. At the time that I bought the game I had no idea that it would be challenging.
To my surprise it was quite difficult and I actually felt that I was really dancing as I played the game. It’s amazing to play a game that stimulates your mind while giving you a cardio-vascular exercise.
X box games can cost quite a lot and I learned that it would be wise to rent a game from a video store to determine if it’s worth buying. However, Dance Dance revolution was the exception. It’s the only game that was more convenient to buy than to having rent the game and the mat. The idea of using a mat that was used by other people seemed quite unhygienic.
X box games on eBay can also be bought for less money than those on video games stores so I go there to check out some games. The most economical way to get new games is to trade games with other x box gamers but you have to make sure than you ca get your games back. In recent months the only games I buy are the ones that I’ll really like and of course, the exceptional Dance Dance Revolution.
About The Author
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning X Box Games. Get more information by visiting http://www.xtraordinarysite.com/g......having-a-ball-with-x-box-games.html.
This article was posted on November 20, 2006
I love playing video games. I love it so much that I even have two video games systems at home — an x box and a Playstation. I used to play with my Playstation most of the time because it had all the games that I love to play. But recently I’ve noticed that I now have an extensive collection of x box games and my Playstation has been collecting dust in a corner.
It all began a year ago when I saw the x box in my neighbor’s multi family yard sale. He wanted to get rid of it because his son has been spending all of his me on it and I was able to get for a reasonably low price. And since he also had lots of x box games to go with the system I was able to get them for a few bucks as well. I was able to get my favorite fighting games for a lot less money than of have I bought them from a video game store.
To my surprise it was quite difficult and I actually felt that I was really dancing as I played the game. It’s amazing to play a game that stimulates your mind while giving you a cardio-vascular exercise.
X box games can cost quite a lot and I learned that it would be wise to rent a game from a video store to determine if it’s worth buying. However, Dance Dance revolution was the exception. It’s the only game that was more convenient to buy than to having rent the game and the mat. The idea of using a mat that was used by other people seemed quite unhygienic.
X box games on eBay can also be bought for less money than those on video games stores so I go there to check out some games. The most economical way to get new games is to trade games with other x box gamers but you have to make sure than you ca get your games back. In recent months the only games I buy are the ones that I’ll really like and of course, the exceptional Dance Dance Revolution.
About The Author
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning X Box Games. Get more information by visiting http://www.xtraordinarysite.com/g......having-a-ball-with-x-box-games.html.
This article was posted on November 20, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Gaming Laptops - The Five Essential Features To Consider When Buying A Gaming Laptop
by: Laura Alter
Gone are the days when you would have been laughed at if you walked into an all-night LAN party carrying your trusty laptop and expecting to hang with the giant computer towers standing at everyone's feet. The gaming laptop computers of today sport huge, crisp LCD screens, cutting-edge video cards and full-size keyboards. Not only can these gaming laptop computers hang with the standard clunky computer tower, but they can also be ordered fully custom to meet the exact specifications of any gamer.
Since there are so many customizable components in these laptops, a standard practice has been to create what some call a "system builder." This is the page where you get to add and subtract components through drop-down menus in order to create the best gaming laptop computer for your needs and your budget. This type of page can be overwhelming to someone just starting the gaming laptop shopping process, but it is very manageable if you take it just one component at a time.
The gaming Laptop GPU
This is the heart of a gaming laptop computer. The GPU – graphics processing unit – is a component that will make or break your gaming experience. If your GPU isn't up to snuff, your games won't play.
Without getting into specific models since they change all the time, the key is that the graphics card not share resources with the computer. A gaming laptop video card must have its own memory on board. Generally speaking, standard off-the-shelf laptops will not have this feature. The two current makers of laptop video cards are nVIDIA and ATI.
Without the Screen, You Don't Have Much
What good is a gaming laptop without a screen that can actually render your games? Now certainly, you can connect an external monitor, but if you can't actually play on your gaming laptop without that external monitor, then your laptop isn't all that mobile.
While the technology and terminology for LCDs (liquid crystal displays) could take up an entire article in itself, there are a few key points to keep in mind when choosing from available LCD options for your new gaming laptop computer: native resolution, aspect ratio, rise and fall time, contrast, viewing angle, and size.
Native Resolution. The native resolution is simply the setting at which your screen will render the clearest images. Since games are constantly in motion, slightly soft edges may not bother most gamers, but keep in mind that while this is your gaming laptop, you will likely also use it for other things like surfing the Internet. If the resolution isn't comfortable, you aren't going to enjoy using it.
Aspect Ratio. As you probably know, a movie theater screen and a TV screen have different proportions. Likewise, there are widescreen format gaming laptops and there are laptops that have a standard aspect ratio – like that of a TV. A widescreen format gaming laptop has advantages and disadvantages. Many games today do not have a widescreen mode. This means that the game may stretch across the screen and become distorted or you may run it with black bars that fill in the sides. There are ways to get around this, but if you want an out of the box perfect experience, the widescreen format may not be for you.
That said, a widescreen LCD does offer plenty of screen real estate for web surfing and other type of computer activities, and a game played in a wide format setting offers an expansive field of view. For this reason, there are some very loyal widescreen-loving gamers out there.
Do your best to find a balance between current and future technology and what your computer habits are beyond gaming. Even with its limitations, the widescreen format is found on most of the best gaming laptop computers.
Rise and Fall. The phrase ‘rise and fall time' is used to describe how fast the LCD can respond to changes. In the past, LCDs have been plagued with the inability to render images as fast as computer games can spit them out. This presents a major problem for laptop gamers because if they can't see the images properly, they can't play the game properly. This lag can mean the difference between playing to win and barely playing.
Fortunately, gaming laptop LCDs have come a long way and they are only getting better. While once it was impossible to game on a laptop screen, the gaming laptop LCDs of today offer 25 milliseconds or less rise and fall time while generally off-the-shelf laptops have 40 milliseconds or less rise and fall time.
Contrast. If a gaming laptop LCD has poor contrast, that means that the black areas aren't quite as black as they should be and the white areas aren't quite as white. This is important to a laptop gamer because you have to see the game properly – as it was intended to be seen – in order to compete effectively. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher in a custom gaming laptop computer.
Viewing Angle. This is an often-overlooked LCD feature, but it must be considered if you are building a gaming laptop computer. Many high quality LCDs on the market are difficult to see clearly at any angle other than straight on and at the right height. This can be a big drawback to gaming on a LCD screen because a screen with poor viewing angles won't allow others to watch the screen as you play and also hurts your view when doing something as simple as adjusting your seating, which can require you to then adjust to position of your laptop screen to see it properly again.
But gaming on a laptop does not mean that you are doomed to have poor viewing angles. There are LCDs on the market that have amazing viewing angles – up to 120 degrees. These screens not only allow gaming onlookers, but they also allow you to use that giant, crisp screen to do things like play movies and even make presentations.
Size. In a gaming laptop computer, size is everything. Most gaming laptops are large, robust pieces of electronics. Having a machine of this stature means you also get to have a large screen. The best gaming laptop computer LCD screens out there are at least 15 inches. A crowd favorite is a 17 inch widescreen (even with the challenges that widescreens present). Largr 19 inch laptop screens are just starting to be talked about with consumers expecting to see 19 inch or even large models on the market in the near future.
The best way to really get a feel for what laptop LCDs are all about is to take a trip to a local box store and play with the LCDs on the display laptops while keeping in mind what you have read here. While these laptops are not custom gaming laptops, you can see what the sizes really look like, what different resolutions look like, and what the viewing angles truly are so you can start to develop your own preferences.
The RAM – What Type and How Much?
The RAM (random access memory) found in laptops is called SODIMM (small outline dual inline memory module). The RAM is responsible for your processing power. If you are shopping for a custom gaming laptop, you will generally be offered DDR2 RAM with the choice of how much you want in your computer. Most high-end games being released today need 1GB of RAM for optimum, lag-free game play. Some people are going with 2GB to ensure that they can run multiple applications along with the game and not experience any slow down in response time. This is a large investment and you want to be able to use this gaming laptop for some time in the future. Most custom laptops are user upgradeable, but this should be left up to professionals.
The CPU – Not Just Mobile Technology
The CPUs (central processing units) found in many custom gaming laptops are identical to those found in desktops. These chips require a great deal of cooling power, which in turn can make your laptop louder than light weight, lower power ultra portables when the fans kick on and it can become somewhat warm to the touch. Don't be alarmed by this – it is normal. And with these desktop processors comes screaming power! Don't waste your money on the latest CPU release that likely has an inflated price tag (and that price will likely come down before long). Stick with a current CPU speed that is offered by a reputable custom gaming laptop reseller, and you really can't go wrong.
The gaming Laptop Hard Drive
This is the final component to consider when building a gaming laptop. Laptop hard drives come in a variety of speeds and capacities ranging from 4200 to 7200 RPMs and 40 to over 100 GBs. For the most part, this is user preference. Whenever possible, go for a 7200 RPM hard drive, but if you need a capacity not offered in this speed, it's okay to go for the 5400 RPM drive. Take a look at your current computer, and buy your capacity based on this. Also keep in mind that with many custom gaming laptop manufacturers, you have the ability to upgrade or add another hard drive at a later date.
At the end of the day, gaming laptop computers are all about power. Don't expect a twelve-pound notebook with a desktop processor, numerous fans, a giant heatsink, and independent video card to last on battery power all that long. But do make sure to enjoy the jawdrops that you'll get as you walk into your regular LAN party location with your new, screaming-fast gaming laptop computer. Crack that puppy open, fire it up, and stand clear of the drool as you take on your favorite game with fellow gamers gathered around to take in the action. gaming is not just for desktops anymore!
About The Author
PC Torque Ltd is a leading authority on laptop gaming news and technology. For more information on how to to build the best gaming laptop, or to check out the latest offerings in the custom gaming laptop industry, visit http://www.pctorque.com
Copyright Laura Alter - http://www.pctorque.com
Gone are the days when you would have been laughed at if you walked into an all-night LAN party carrying your trusty laptop and expecting to hang with the giant computer towers standing at everyone's feet. The gaming laptop computers of today sport huge, crisp LCD screens, cutting-edge video cards and full-size keyboards. Not only can these gaming laptop computers hang with the standard clunky computer tower, but they can also be ordered fully custom to meet the exact specifications of any gamer.
Since there are so many customizable components in these laptops, a standard practice has been to create what some call a "system builder." This is the page where you get to add and subtract components through drop-down menus in order to create the best gaming laptop computer for your needs and your budget. This type of page can be overwhelming to someone just starting the gaming laptop shopping process, but it is very manageable if you take it just one component at a time.
This is the heart of a gaming laptop computer. The GPU – graphics processing unit – is a component that will make or break your gaming experience. If your GPU isn't up to snuff, your games won't play.
Without getting into specific models since they change all the time, the key is that the graphics card not share resources with the computer. A gaming laptop video card must have its own memory on board. Generally speaking, standard off-the-shelf laptops will not have this feature. The two current makers of laptop video cards are nVIDIA and ATI.
Without the Screen, You Don't Have Much
What good is a gaming laptop without a screen that can actually render your games? Now certainly, you can connect an external monitor, but if you can't actually play on your gaming laptop without that external monitor, then your laptop isn't all that mobile.
While the technology and terminology for LCDs (liquid crystal displays) could take up an entire article in itself, there are a few key points to keep in mind when choosing from available LCD options for your new gaming laptop computer: native resolution, aspect ratio, rise and fall time, contrast, viewing angle, and size.
Native Resolution. The native resolution is simply the setting at which your screen will render the clearest images. Since games are constantly in motion, slightly soft edges may not bother most gamers, but keep in mind that while this is your gaming laptop, you will likely also use it for other things like surfing the Internet. If the resolution isn't comfortable, you aren't going to enjoy using it.
Aspect Ratio. As you probably know, a movie theater screen and a TV screen have different proportions. Likewise, there are widescreen format gaming laptops and there are laptops that have a standard aspect ratio – like that of a TV. A widescreen format gaming laptop has advantages and disadvantages. Many games today do not have a widescreen mode. This means that the game may stretch across the screen and become distorted or you may run it with black bars that fill in the sides. There are ways to get around this, but if you want an out of the box perfect experience, the widescreen format may not be for you.
That said, a widescreen LCD does offer plenty of screen real estate for web surfing and other type of computer activities, and a game played in a wide format setting offers an expansive field of view. For this reason, there are some very loyal widescreen-loving gamers out there.
Do your best to find a balance between current and future technology and what your computer habits are beyond gaming. Even with its limitations, the widescreen format is found on most of the best gaming laptop computers.
Rise and Fall. The phrase ‘rise and fall time' is used to describe how fast the LCD can respond to changes. In the past, LCDs have been plagued with the inability to render images as fast as computer games can spit them out. This presents a major problem for laptop gamers because if they can't see the images properly, they can't play the game properly. This lag can mean the difference between playing to win and barely playing.
Fortunately, gaming laptop LCDs have come a long way and they are only getting better. While once it was impossible to game on a laptop screen, the gaming laptop LCDs of today offer 25 milliseconds or less rise and fall time while generally off-the-shelf laptops have 40 milliseconds or less rise and fall time.
Contrast. If a gaming laptop LCD has poor contrast, that means that the black areas aren't quite as black as they should be and the white areas aren't quite as white. This is important to a laptop gamer because you have to see the game properly – as it was intended to be seen – in order to compete effectively. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher in a custom gaming laptop computer.
Viewing Angle. This is an often-overlooked LCD feature, but it must be considered if you are building a gaming laptop computer. Many high quality LCDs on the market are difficult to see clearly at any angle other than straight on and at the right height. This can be a big drawback to gaming on a LCD screen because a screen with poor viewing angles won't allow others to watch the screen as you play and also hurts your view when doing something as simple as adjusting your seating, which can require you to then adjust to position of your laptop screen to see it properly again.
But gaming on a laptop does not mean that you are doomed to have poor viewing angles. There are LCDs on the market that have amazing viewing angles – up to 120 degrees. These screens not only allow gaming onlookers, but they also allow you to use that giant, crisp screen to do things like play movies and even make presentations.
Size. In a gaming laptop computer, size is everything. Most gaming laptops are large, robust pieces of electronics. Having a machine of this stature means you also get to have a large screen. The best gaming laptop computer LCD screens out there are at least 15 inches. A crowd favorite is a 17 inch widescreen (even with the challenges that widescreens present). Largr 19 inch laptop screens are just starting to be talked about with consumers expecting to see 19 inch or even large models on the market in the near future.
The best way to really get a feel for what laptop LCDs are all about is to take a trip to a local box store and play with the LCDs on the display laptops while keeping in mind what you have read here. While these laptops are not custom gaming laptops, you can see what the sizes really look like, what different resolutions look like, and what the viewing angles truly are so you can start to develop your own preferences.
The RAM – What Type and How Much?
The RAM (random access memory) found in laptops is called SODIMM (small outline dual inline memory module). The RAM is responsible for your processing power. If you are shopping for a custom gaming laptop, you will generally be offered DDR2 RAM with the choice of how much you want in your computer. Most high-end games being released today need 1GB of RAM for optimum, lag-free game play. Some people are going with 2GB to ensure that they can run multiple applications along with the game and not experience any slow down in response time. This is a large investment and you want to be able to use this gaming laptop for some time in the future. Most custom laptops are user upgradeable, but this should be left up to professionals.
The CPU – Not Just Mobile Technology
The CPUs (central processing units) found in many custom gaming laptops are identical to those found in desktops. These chips require a great deal of cooling power, which in turn can make your laptop louder than light weight, lower power ultra portables when the fans kick on and it can become somewhat warm to the touch. Don't be alarmed by this – it is normal. And with these desktop processors comes screaming power! Don't waste your money on the latest CPU release that likely has an inflated price tag (and that price will likely come down before long). Stick with a current CPU speed that is offered by a reputable custom gaming laptop reseller, and you really can't go wrong.
The gaming Laptop Hard Drive
This is the final component to consider when building a gaming laptop. Laptop hard drives come in a variety of speeds and capacities ranging from 4200 to 7200 RPMs and 40 to over 100 GBs. For the most part, this is user preference. Whenever possible, go for a 7200 RPM hard drive, but if you need a capacity not offered in this speed, it's okay to go for the 5400 RPM drive. Take a look at your current computer, and buy your capacity based on this. Also keep in mind that with many custom gaming laptop manufacturers, you have the ability to upgrade or add another hard drive at a later date.
At the end of the day, gaming laptop computers are all about power. Don't expect a twelve-pound notebook with a desktop processor, numerous fans, a giant heatsink, and independent video card to last on battery power all that long. But do make sure to enjoy the jawdrops that you'll get as you walk into your regular LAN party location with your new, screaming-fast gaming laptop computer. Crack that puppy open, fire it up, and stand clear of the drool as you take on your favorite game with fellow gamers gathered around to take in the action. gaming is not just for desktops anymore!
About The Author
PC Torque Ltd is a leading authority on laptop gaming news and technology. For more information on how to to build the best gaming laptop, or to check out the latest offerings in the custom gaming laptop industry, visit http://www.pctorque.com
Copyright Laura Alter - http://www.pctorque.com
The Future of Submarine Games
by: Neal Stevens
In the last six months, the demise of sims has been pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim webzines have been telling you sims are being cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. Wolfpack II: Cancelled. Silent Steel II: MIA. M1Tank Platoon 3: Cancelled. Fighting Steel Deluxe: Cancelled. Jane's Attack Squadron: MIA. Thunder Over Europe: MIA. The list goes on.
We all know that this is a down cycle for sims and we believe there is hope that in a couple of years, things will turn around and sims will be hot stuff again. Hey, I remember in 1973 when the EPA and OPEC throttled the life out of the muscle car scene. I had a 1970 Cobra Torino that had 450 hp and ran the quarter in the high 13s. In less than three years every car out of Detroit was a smog controlled, gas economizing slug. They even started making them as ugly as they were slow! It was heartbreaking.
But over time, things change. Now you can get a high performance machine that handles and has luxuries like front/rear AC. My '99 Riviera has a supercharged V-6 that would make my old Torino proud.
So, keep the faith. Things will improve, even if no one knows when. Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command are showing signs of life. Harpoon 4 is still under development. There are stirrings from the Sonalysts camp.
When a new subsim does hit the shore, try to remember, the developers and game producers are our friends. They make the kind of games we like because they like them too. Why would they labor over armor thickness tables, ship model physics, and torpedo trajectories for a niche market? I know a few developers and they all love the genre.
Try to keep your criticism balanced. Should you blast a sim you had trouble with or didn't enjoy with all the invective and animosity you would normally reserve for someone who stole your car or used your toothbrush? I was told by one producer that high-level executives frequently ask him about hard-core negative postings on newsgroups and forums. The industry sees us as demanding, unappreciative, and impossible to satisfy. It's much easier and more lucrative to crank out Deer Hunter and Barbie games and their users rarely flame the game company to a crisp.
I work with a CPA accountant who likes computer games and is pretty good at them. He can play a mean Age of Empires warrior. I tried to interest him in learning Jane's 688(I) for some multiplay. He took one look at the hefty manual and waved it off. He assumed he would need to learn all the material to play competitive. The blessing and the curse of a good sim is its complexity. You want to command a battle fleet or do TMA on a Los Angeles class submarine? You need to learn skills and study. And this restricts the popularity of the sim. Mass market games generally do not carry the steep learning curve a sim does. So while we hard core sim players are delighting in the minutia of seven different stations and all their controls, casual gamers are passing up the sim at a 20 to 1 ratio. Sims truly are a niche market.
Niche market games have limited budgets. This mean a small number of programmers and artists must concentrate on the basics. Don't expect to see everything you want and imagine in a sim. Oh yeah, I'm with you--I wish a subsim could have full motion crews and other fun stuff. But as one producer told me, "We don't have the money to design and integrate these features into the product. I wish we could, too."
We should be finding out the status of Silent Hunter II soon. Either Mattel Interactive is going to sign someone to complete it or it will be canned. I went through the "we are planning to do this" stage with the fabled Jane's Ice Pack add-on for 688(I), Crusader Studios' Akula: Red Hunter, Silent Steel 2, and the interoperability between Jane's Fleet Command and 688(I). I'm not passing judgment here, just stating that when the momentum dies, so does the objective. For whatever reasons, the product champions behind those sims were unable to secure the financing to start work. To get a better feel for the whole process, read my friend John Sponauer's analysis of the life and death of a sim, M1 Tank Platoon 2, from its early development as an upgrade all the way through its last couple of weeks.
Despite my previous experiences with other sim companies, I am optimistic that Carl Norman and Rick Martinez mean what they say and SSI will continue to raise the banner of the Digital Combat Series while the Jane's, NovaLogics, and Microproses around them fall like unfortunate tin soldiers. This is not to say SH2 is a done deal--that moment will come when you hold the box in your hand. We look to the next rumored subsim as our best hope for advanced underwater warfare. All we can do is stay positive, supportive, and if it's decent, buy four copies when it comes out.
About The Author
Neal Stevens is the editor of Subsim.com and contributing author of the coffee table book United States Submarines.
In the last six months, the demise of sims has been pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim webzines have been telling you sims are being cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. Wolfpack II: Cancelled. Silent Steel II: MIA. M1Tank Platoon 3: Cancelled. Fighting Steel Deluxe: Cancelled. Jane's Attack Squadron: MIA. Thunder Over Europe: MIA. The list goes on.
We all know that this is a down cycle for sims and we believe there is hope that in a couple of years, things will turn around and sims will be hot stuff again. Hey, I remember in 1973 when the EPA and OPEC throttled the life out of the muscle car scene. I had a 1970 Cobra Torino that had 450 hp and ran the quarter in the high 13s. In less than three years every car out of Detroit was a smog controlled, gas economizing slug. They even started making them as ugly as they were slow! It was heartbreaking.
So, keep the faith. Things will improve, even if no one knows when. Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command are showing signs of life. Harpoon 4 is still under development. There are stirrings from the Sonalysts camp.
When a new subsim does hit the shore, try to remember, the developers and game producers are our friends. They make the kind of games we like because they like them too. Why would they labor over armor thickness tables, ship model physics, and torpedo trajectories for a niche market? I know a few developers and they all love the genre.
Try to keep your criticism balanced. Should you blast a sim you had trouble with or didn't enjoy with all the invective and animosity you would normally reserve for someone who stole your car or used your toothbrush? I was told by one producer that high-level executives frequently ask him about hard-core negative postings on newsgroups and forums. The industry sees us as demanding, unappreciative, and impossible to satisfy. It's much easier and more lucrative to crank out Deer Hunter and Barbie games and their users rarely flame the game company to a crisp.
I work with a CPA accountant who likes computer games and is pretty good at them. He can play a mean Age of Empires warrior. I tried to interest him in learning Jane's 688(I) for some multiplay. He took one look at the hefty manual and waved it off. He assumed he would need to learn all the material to play competitive. The blessing and the curse of a good sim is its complexity. You want to command a battle fleet or do TMA on a Los Angeles class submarine? You need to learn skills and study. And this restricts the popularity of the sim. Mass market games generally do not carry the steep learning curve a sim does. So while we hard core sim players are delighting in the minutia of seven different stations and all their controls, casual gamers are passing up the sim at a 20 to 1 ratio. Sims truly are a niche market.
Niche market games have limited budgets. This mean a small number of programmers and artists must concentrate on the basics. Don't expect to see everything you want and imagine in a sim. Oh yeah, I'm with you--I wish a subsim could have full motion crews and other fun stuff. But as one producer told me, "We don't have the money to design and integrate these features into the product. I wish we could, too."
We should be finding out the status of Silent Hunter II soon. Either Mattel Interactive is going to sign someone to complete it or it will be canned. I went through the "we are planning to do this" stage with the fabled Jane's Ice Pack add-on for 688(I), Crusader Studios' Akula: Red Hunter, Silent Steel 2, and the interoperability between Jane's Fleet Command and 688(I). I'm not passing judgment here, just stating that when the momentum dies, so does the objective. For whatever reasons, the product champions behind those sims were unable to secure the financing to start work. To get a better feel for the whole process, read my friend John Sponauer's analysis of the life and death of a sim, M1 Tank Platoon 2, from its early development as an upgrade all the way through its last couple of weeks.
Despite my previous experiences with other sim companies, I am optimistic that Carl Norman and Rick Martinez mean what they say and SSI will continue to raise the banner of the Digital Combat Series while the Jane's, NovaLogics, and Microproses around them fall like unfortunate tin soldiers. This is not to say SH2 is a done deal--that moment will come when you hold the box in your hand. We look to the next rumored subsim as our best hope for advanced underwater warfare. All we can do is stay positive, supportive, and if it's decent, buy four copies when it comes out.
About The Author
Neal Stevens is the editor of Subsim.com and contributing author of the coffee table book United States Submarines.
Computer Game Review - Innovations And Developments
by: Sandra Stammberger
The continuing advances in graphics technology, platform gaming infrastructure, processor technology and innovations in design will see more aggressive developments in computer games this 2006.
Gaming has traveled a long way today from the baby steps of the video games about thirty years ago. The square and jagged edged figures that used to dominate and entertain gamers on the screen is now more video-movie like if not life like that people today finds computer games more challenging and exciting.
The constant improvements made in computer technology exceeded expectations in the sales of computer games soft ware and has turned it into one big business in a very short span of time. The biggest impact on these games coming form the role playing games and the first person shooters.
The development of broadband had contributed very substantially to online gaming that in countries like South Korea, online gaming (Starcraft Gozu) has gathered a lot of followers dubbing the game fondly as its national sport. Online gaming has gained a popularity never seen before (or possible before), that international tournament are waged and battled online. Always trying to outwit and outplay the competition, world wide, online gaming has become very challenging and intense.
Where computer game designs used to be a simpler affair, today teams of artists, musicians, producers and gaming industries are working together to make the best and offer their best to the public that has patronized the games very well. The industry however has not, in marketing parlance, reached the peak. In my opinion, it is nowhere near it. The constant innovations that are shaping the computer games industry is so vast varied exciting and rewarding, enough material to motivate the designers and gamers to move on, that who knows what surprises are in store for the gaming public in the future.
What make computer games very popular are the regular releases of good computer game software. If you have not yet tried out the following, find a demo and find out for yourself.
1) Backyard Baseball 2005
2) Battlefield 2
3) Civilization IV
4) Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX3
5) FEAR
6) Fifa 06
7) Food Fight!
8) Grand Theft Auto
9) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
10) Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
11) Mario Kant DS
12) Need for Speed
13) Ninja Gaiden Black
14) Peter Jackson's King Kong
15) Resident Evil 4
16) Sid Meier's Pirates!
17) Sly 3: Honor Amongst Thieves
18) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
19) The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
20) We Love Katamari
Console Gaming
The technology race in the computer games category will be heavily participated by Microsoft with their Xbox 360 - powered by a multi core processing unit, Sony's Playstation 3 by a cell processor technology, and Revolution by Nintendo will allow player interaction through a wireless motion sensing controller.
The popularity of the computer and video games has been a big business that it has surpassed the revenues of the film industry excluding the films ancillary revenues. However additional business for the computer games also comes in the form of trading cards, T-shirt prints of popular characters in video games and game titles and television shows that features reviews and gaming competitions. Judging from continuing developments and innovations in the game designs and computer technology, the year 2006 will even be more exciting.
About The Author
S. stammberger is the owner of A1 computer Games. A daily updated blog dealing with video and computer games. http://www.a1computergames.co.uk
Copyright Sandra Stammberger - http://www.a1computergames.co.uk
The continuing advances in graphics technology, platform gaming infrastructure, processor technology and innovations in design will see more aggressive developments in computer games this 2006.
Gaming has traveled a long way today from the baby steps of the video games about thirty years ago. The square and jagged edged figures that used to dominate and entertain gamers on the screen is now more video-movie like if not life like that people today finds computer games more challenging and exciting.
The constant improvements made in computer technology exceeded expectations in the sales of computer games soft ware and has turned it into one big business in a very short span of time. The biggest impact on these games coming form the role playing games and the first person shooters.
Where computer game designs used to be a simpler affair, today teams of artists, musicians, producers and gaming industries are working together to make the best and offer their best to the public that has patronized the games very well. The industry however has not, in marketing parlance, reached the peak. In my opinion, it is nowhere near it. The constant innovations that are shaping the computer games industry is so vast varied exciting and rewarding, enough material to motivate the designers and gamers to move on, that who knows what surprises are in store for the gaming public in the future.
What make computer games very popular are the regular releases of good computer game software. If you have not yet tried out the following, find a demo and find out for yourself.
1) Backyard Baseball 2005
2) Battlefield 2
3) Civilization IV
4) Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX3
5) FEAR
6) Fifa 06
7) Food Fight!
8) Grand Theft Auto
9) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
10) Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
11) Mario Kant DS
12) Need for Speed
13) Ninja Gaiden Black
14) Peter Jackson's King Kong
15) Resident Evil 4
16) Sid Meier's Pirates!
17) Sly 3: Honor Amongst Thieves
18) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
19) The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
20) We Love Katamari
Console Gaming
The technology race in the computer games category will be heavily participated by Microsoft with their Xbox 360 - powered by a multi core processing unit, Sony's Playstation 3 by a cell processor technology, and Revolution by Nintendo will allow player interaction through a wireless motion sensing controller.
The popularity of the computer and video games has been a big business that it has surpassed the revenues of the film industry excluding the films ancillary revenues. However additional business for the computer games also comes in the form of trading cards, T-shirt prints of popular characters in video games and game titles and television shows that features reviews and gaming competitions. Judging from continuing developments and innovations in the game designs and computer technology, the year 2006 will even be more exciting.
About The Author
S. stammberger is the owner of A1 computer Games. A daily updated blog dealing with video and computer games. http://www.a1computergames.co.uk
Copyright Sandra Stammberger - http://www.a1computergames.co.uk
Learning About Computer Game Design
by: Ron Eletrick
Computer games have become extremely popular in the past few years. With new games being launched almost every year world over, the demand seems never ending. Those adept at computer programming, computer aided art and computer hardware are the masterminds to produces these extremely sought after games.
Usually, an interest sparks if you are a passionate about playing games. One may be an expert player, but subsequently gets bored of the games available and there by begins thinking of concepts for new games or means of improvising the already existing games. Taking a computer game design class and ultimately enrolling in a full fledged course for the same are the next steps. At the end of it a new computer game designer is created.
Computer games have become such a technology rage in themselves that schools have begun offering classes in computer game design. The popularity of these classes leads to their getting filled up soon and they can be a bit expensive. I found some great computer information at http://www.mycomputingnews.com. Hundreds of schools, most of them very much techno oriented have come up in order to fulfill the desires of those who wish to learn computer game design. Those who opt for a complete course of computer game design will be exposed initially to concepts like game balance, level design, narrative and storytelling, basic game architecture, motion planning and control.
As a career, it's not at all simple. Hundreds of different aspects that comprise the computer game design have to be considered. Those aspiring to learn all will learn about the history of computer games, software architecture, animated sprites, sound and music, realism ,challenges, level design, plot pacing, interface techniques, 3D loading , camera control, rule based approaches among many other concepts.
Most fail to understand that designing a computer game is just like writing a technology filled book. A good game needs a good storyline that comprises a plot, characters, narrative, a thrilling begin, middle and end. Also emotion, repercussions and interaction also are a vital part. The domain of computer game design has many challenges for anyone who aspires and decides to master the basics.
Computer game design, has become a profession for many today. The average money one can spin is about $74,900 annually. That's not bad at all to work on especially when you enjoy it thoroughly. Some computer game designers are able to clinch contracts with big players and make over $100,000 per year. For those who indulge in computer game design as a freelancer can enhance their earnings from a regular job by about $10,000 to $30,000 a year. Hence, in conclusion, computer game design is surely fun filled, challenging and lucrative from every possible perspective.
About The Author:
Ron often works with: http://www.communicationroad.com http://www.ecommercetrain.com
Computer games have become extremely popular in the past few years. With new games being launched almost every year world over, the demand seems never ending. Those adept at computer programming, computer aided art and computer hardware are the masterminds to produces these extremely sought after games.
Usually, an interest sparks if you are a passionate about playing games. One may be an expert player, but subsequently gets bored of the games available and there by begins thinking of concepts for new games or means of improvising the already existing games. Taking a computer game design class and ultimately enrolling in a full fledged course for the same are the next steps. At the end of it a new computer game designer is created.
As a career, it's not at all simple. Hundreds of different aspects that comprise the computer game design have to be considered. Those aspiring to learn all will learn about the history of computer games, software architecture, animated sprites, sound and music, realism ,challenges, level design, plot pacing, interface techniques, 3D loading , camera control, rule based approaches among many other concepts.
Most fail to understand that designing a computer game is just like writing a technology filled book. A good game needs a good storyline that comprises a plot, characters, narrative, a thrilling begin, middle and end. Also emotion, repercussions and interaction also are a vital part. The domain of computer game design has many challenges for anyone who aspires and decides to master the basics.
Computer game design, has become a profession for many today. The average money one can spin is about $74,900 annually. That's not bad at all to work on especially when you enjoy it thoroughly. Some computer game designers are able to clinch contracts with big players and make over $100,000 per year. For those who indulge in computer game design as a freelancer can enhance their earnings from a regular job by about $10,000 to $30,000 a year. Hence, in conclusion, computer game design is surely fun filled, challenging and lucrative from every possible perspective.
About The Author:
Ron often works with: http://www.communicationroad.com http://www.ecommercetrain.com
Dora The Explorer Online Games: Giving Your Child Fun For Free
by: Low Jeremy
What can be better than getting your children something to play with in your computer that provides fun, excitement, challenge, and education for free?
The internet provides these kinds of games that will really get your children excited. An example of free online games for children is Dora the Explorer. You may have seen Dora the Explorer on TV. And, you may notice how your child can really learn about math, music, physical coordination and even learn how to speak some basic Spanish language with Dora the Explorer.
Dora the Explorer online games will let your children interact with Dora and her friends and can take them to the imaginative world of Dora where your child can meet Dora’s friends.
You may notice that Dora the Explorer television show can also teach your children how to observe situations and solve problems. Because of this, you may want to consider letting your children play Dora the Explorer free online games.
Dora the Explorer free online game is available in a number of websites where you can easily access it and let your child start playing the game. All you have to do after the play page load is to read the instruction and orient your child how to play with Dora the Explorer online game.
Dora the Explorer online games, like the TV show will let your child interact with Dora and her pet monkey, Boots, to help them solve different situations and problems. And, like the TV show, your child can learn a bit of Spanish language.
Dora the Explorer online game can be fun for your child to play with and it is also a great way to spend some time with them. Dora the Explorer online game has easy to understand instruction where your child can easily comprehend and figure out how to play the game.
There are a number of different kinds of Dora the Explorer free online games available, some are adventure games, some are puzzle games and some are downloadable games that you can play even if you’re offline or when you’re not connected to the Internet.
These games usually include Dora’s voice to make it more appealing to your children. Another great feature is that it teaches your children about things while they are having fun. Playing these games can really develop a child’s problem solving skills. This is because, it provides fun and as you may know it is easier to learn something when you are having fun.
Dora the Explorer online games can also make your children more outgoing and sociable with other children. They will be more willing and eager to explore their surroundings and learn new things about it. Dora the Explorer online games can really make your child very eager to explore their surroundings and can really develop their situational skills and problem solving skills.
So, if you want a free online game that is both fun and educational for your children, Dora the Explorer is perfect for it. It will provide your children fun and excitement and at the same time, learn something from it.
Dora the Explorer TV and games will really develop your child’s mind at an early age. Just imagine your 6 year old child can already speak basic Spanish simply because of playing Dora the Explorer games and watching Dora the Explorer TV shows.
About The Author
This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more information on dora, wallpapers, websites, information & story, please visit http://dora.articlekeep.com.
This article was posted on November 16, 2006
What can be better than getting your children something to play with in your computer that provides fun, excitement, challenge, and education for free?
The internet provides these kinds of games that will really get your children excited. An example of free online games for children is Dora the Explorer. You may have seen Dora the Explorer on TV. And, you may notice how your child can really learn about math, music, physical coordination and even learn how to speak some basic Spanish language with Dora the Explorer.
Dora the Explorer online games will let your children interact with Dora and her friends and can take them to the imaginative world of Dora where your child can meet Dora’s friends.
Dora the Explorer free online game is available in a number of websites where you can easily access it and let your child start playing the game. All you have to do after the play page load is to read the instruction and orient your child how to play with Dora the Explorer online game.
Dora the Explorer online games, like the TV show will let your child interact with Dora and her pet monkey, Boots, to help them solve different situations and problems. And, like the TV show, your child can learn a bit of Spanish language.
Dora the Explorer online game can be fun for your child to play with and it is also a great way to spend some time with them. Dora the Explorer online game has easy to understand instruction where your child can easily comprehend and figure out how to play the game.
There are a number of different kinds of Dora the Explorer free online games available, some are adventure games, some are puzzle games and some are downloadable games that you can play even if you’re offline or when you’re not connected to the Internet.
These games usually include Dora’s voice to make it more appealing to your children. Another great feature is that it teaches your children about things while they are having fun. Playing these games can really develop a child’s problem solving skills. This is because, it provides fun and as you may know it is easier to learn something when you are having fun.
Dora the Explorer online games can also make your children more outgoing and sociable with other children. They will be more willing and eager to explore their surroundings and learn new things about it. Dora the Explorer online games can really make your child very eager to explore their surroundings and can really develop their situational skills and problem solving skills.
So, if you want a free online game that is both fun and educational for your children, Dora the Explorer is perfect for it. It will provide your children fun and excitement and at the same time, learn something from it.
Dora the Explorer TV and games will really develop your child’s mind at an early age. Just imagine your 6 year old child can already speak basic Spanish simply because of playing Dora the Explorer games and watching Dora the Explorer TV shows.
About The Author
This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more information on dora, wallpapers, websites, information & story, please visit http://dora.articlekeep.com.
This article was posted on November 16, 2006
Xbox 360: Which Core Bundle is Right for You?
by: Barry Games
If you've lived under a rock since May then you'd be surprised to learn that Microsoft has released their second Xbox titled XBOX 360. Upon your emergence it wouldn't take long for you to figure out that this is no regular system; the XBOX 360 will lead the next generation consoles by including some of the latest wireless and graphic technology to-date. What some of you may not know is the fact Microsoft will release TWO different systems. They were concerned about the price of all the gadgets so they made a second, cheaper system. What's the difference? This article will explain some of the must knows before buying the XBOX 360.
First off, what do the systems hold that are the same? Both hold a DVD-ROM so you can play DVD's, CD's, all XBOX 360 games. You can plug into one of the 3 USB ports to access iPOD's, video, cameras, MP3 players, etc. pretty much the generic gaming experience will be available on both systems. But now for the fun stuff. Should I shell out the extra $100 for the more expensive system?
You'll be surprised about the differences between the two bundled systems so consider these things before buying. In no particular order here are some CONS of buying the CHEAPER system. (Believe me, I wouldn't pump the more expensive system if it wasn't a big deal, I'm here to save gamers money.)
First off, remember backwards compatibility? Your ability to play 200 XBox games on the next generation XBOX 360? Well you NEED to download patches for most games and those patches stay on the hard drive. The cheaper system does NOT come equipped with the 20GB hard drive.
What's the difference in cables? The cheaper version comes complete with AV cables for your TV, the expensive version comes complete with cables for HD-TV hook up. BUT get this: the graphic difference of the Xbox to Xbox 360 will be marginal if you have an old TV. This is what we've been told, and if you experience otherwise post it in our Xbox forum. It seems that you need a new TV to really experience the bells and whistles of the new system.
If you want to save games then you NEED to buy a 64MB memory unit (for the cheaper system) which will cost 40 bucks. That bumps up the price of the original to $340 from $299. For an extra $60 bucks you can have EVERYTHING in the better system. (As an aside, the Canadian companies are going to make a bundle (well not a bundle since Microsoft will likely loose money to start off with.) But, the US price for the basic system is $299 while the Canadian counterpart is $399. The current exchange rate does not warrant a $100 increase to adjust. The price should be closer to $350. Just a thought.)
The one controller that comes with the new cheaper bundle is wired, whereas the more expensive bundle will come complete with a single WIRELESS controller. Enough said. You be the judge regarding its value.
Judging by looks, the Xbox 360 games will typically be sharper and crisper, but not an all out blow out. I'll say that Microsoft BETTER get some more games going than the initial 18 or risk losing market share and interest in a hurry. This article concludes that for the extra $60 bucks (you need the 64 MB card to save games so that's why it's $60,) you shold go out and place an order for the more expensive system. Why Xbox made two different ones when the prices would be so close is beyond me. Mind you, coupled with game packages, the price does climb up there. That's my take, now back to gaming.
About The Author
Barry Games
Visit DiscussVideoGames for online Xbox 360 video game forums that includes all gaming systems. Dedicated Halo 2 forum, Xbox 360, Xbox live, and Xbox cheat code forums for your enjoyment.
discussvideogames.com
This article was posted on December 05, 2005
If you've lived under a rock since May then you'd be surprised to learn that Microsoft has released their second Xbox titled XBOX 360. Upon your emergence it wouldn't take long for you to figure out that this is no regular system; the XBOX 360 will lead the next generation consoles by including some of the latest wireless and graphic technology to-date. What some of you may not know is the fact Microsoft will release TWO different systems. They were concerned about the price of all the gadgets so they made a second, cheaper system. What's the difference? This article will explain some of the must knows before buying the XBOX 360.
First off, what do the systems hold that are the same? Both hold a DVD-ROM so you can play DVD's, CD's, all XBOX 360 games. You can plug into one of the 3 USB ports to access iPOD's, video, cameras, MP3 players, etc. pretty much the generic gaming experience will be available on both systems. But now for the fun stuff. Should I shell out the extra $100 for the more expensive system?
First off, remember backwards compatibility? Your ability to play 200 XBox games on the next generation XBOX 360? Well you NEED to download patches for most games and those patches stay on the hard drive. The cheaper system does NOT come equipped with the 20GB hard drive.
What's the difference in cables? The cheaper version comes complete with AV cables for your TV, the expensive version comes complete with cables for HD-TV hook up. BUT get this: the graphic difference of the Xbox to Xbox 360 will be marginal if you have an old TV. This is what we've been told, and if you experience otherwise post it in our Xbox forum. It seems that you need a new TV to really experience the bells and whistles of the new system.
If you want to save games then you NEED to buy a 64MB memory unit (for the cheaper system) which will cost 40 bucks. That bumps up the price of the original to $340 from $299. For an extra $60 bucks you can have EVERYTHING in the better system. (As an aside, the Canadian companies are going to make a bundle (well not a bundle since Microsoft will likely loose money to start off with.) But, the US price for the basic system is $299 while the Canadian counterpart is $399. The current exchange rate does not warrant a $100 increase to adjust. The price should be closer to $350. Just a thought.)
The one controller that comes with the new cheaper bundle is wired, whereas the more expensive bundle will come complete with a single WIRELESS controller. Enough said. You be the judge regarding its value.
Judging by looks, the Xbox 360 games will typically be sharper and crisper, but not an all out blow out. I'll say that Microsoft BETTER get some more games going than the initial 18 or risk losing market share and interest in a hurry. This article concludes that for the extra $60 bucks (you need the 64 MB card to save games so that's why it's $60,) you shold go out and place an order for the more expensive system. Why Xbox made two different ones when the prices would be so close is beyond me. Mind you, coupled with game packages, the price does climb up there. That's my take, now back to gaming.
About The Author
Barry Games
Visit DiscussVideoGames for online Xbox 360 video game forums that includes all gaming systems. Dedicated Halo 2 forum, Xbox 360, Xbox live, and Xbox cheat code forums for your enjoyment.
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This article was posted on December 05, 2005
Should You Upgrade To An XBox 360
by: Colette Ianieri
The XBox 360 is going to be one of the most sought after gifts of this upcoming holiday season. However many people want to know is it worth upgrading now, or should you wait, here are some factors you may want to consider.
The base price for and XBox 360 is $300, the most common accessories are the 20GB hard drive ($100), wireless controllers ($50) and headsets ($20). Many vendors are offering packages with a variety of options with prices of $500 or more. While some of these options depend on your gaming style and preferences the hard drive is the one option we recommend you get right away. The hard drive allows you to save games to play back later and install updates that make many older games compatible on the new platform.
One of the advantages the XBox 360 will have over other game systems is graphics. The graphics of other gaming systems are top notch but on newer games like Project Gotham Racing 3, NFL 06 and Call of Duty 2 which were written for this platform, there simply is no comparison. When you compare the specifications the XBox 360 to any of its competitors, it’s anywhere from 2 to 10 times more powerful. If you are lucky enough to own and HDTV you will really notice the difference, although it will work on standard TV’s as well.
With this console Microsoft is also making a concerted effort to make the Xbox part of your media center. It can connect to any other windows networked computer in your house. It can be used to play movies, slideshows of pictures, and MP3 files. If you own and IPod or digital camera you can also connect them directly to the USB port located on the front game console.
Lastly you’ll want to think about Xbox Live. This is a paid online membership that allows you to get free trials of new games and play in head to head action against other players over your high speed internet connection. You also have access to updates and patches as they become available.
For hard core gamers there is no choice, they will do practically anything to get their hands on the newest and latest systems available. For others it may be worth waiting until 2006 when Playstation 3 is released to see how platforms compare.
© Copyright Gamer411.net, All Rights Reserved.
About The Author
This article was written by Colette Ianieri who runs http://www.Gamer411.net which features news and reviews of video games, game systems, and portable video games.
This article was posted on December 12, 2005
The XBox 360 is going to be one of the most sought after gifts of this upcoming holiday season. However many people want to know is it worth upgrading now, or should you wait, here are some factors you may want to consider.
The base price for and XBox 360 is $300, the most common accessories are the 20GB hard drive ($100), wireless controllers ($50) and headsets ($20). Many vendors are offering packages with a variety of options with prices of $500 or more. While some of these options depend on your gaming style and preferences the hard drive is the one option we recommend you get right away. The hard drive allows you to save games to play back later and install updates that make many older games compatible on the new platform.
With this console Microsoft is also making a concerted effort to make the Xbox part of your media center. It can connect to any other windows networked computer in your house. It can be used to play movies, slideshows of pictures, and MP3 files. If you own and IPod or digital camera you can also connect them directly to the USB port located on the front game console.
Lastly you’ll want to think about Xbox Live. This is a paid online membership that allows you to get free trials of new games and play in head to head action against other players over your high speed internet connection. You also have access to updates and patches as they become available.
For hard core gamers there is no choice, they will do practically anything to get their hands on the newest and latest systems available. For others it may be worth waiting until 2006 when Playstation 3 is released to see how platforms compare.
© Copyright Gamer411.net, All Rights Reserved.
About The Author
This article was written by Colette Ianieri who runs http://www.Gamer411.net which features news and reviews of video games, game systems, and portable video games.
This article was posted on December 12, 2005
Xbox 360: A Revolution in Console Gaming
by: Mitchell Medford
It wasn't so long ago that kids who got the "new" Nintendo 8-bit gaming console or the Sega system for Christmas were the envy of every less fortunate and burned out Atari owning neighborhood playmate. As time elapsed, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and NES's Turbo Graphix 16 became all the rave. Anyone now in their twenties can recall being impressed by the awesome advancements in playability and graphic display of the Nintendo 64 and Sega's Dreamcast system, and even more recently (only five or so years ago) the advent of Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's Game Cube, and the Play Station by Sony. The Video Gaming industry has made great strides in the past twenty years: from slow-moving, barely recognizable forms on screen in original Atari games such as Pac-Man, Calga, and Tron, to the extremely vivid and life-like graphics of Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, and Tekken; available for the Xbox and Play Station. Now, just in time for Christmas 2005, Microsoft has made the next move in the continuing race for Video Gaming Supremacy with the introduction of the Xbox 360. The result is truly phenomenal.
The Xbox 360, as with all video game consoles, is basically just a computer with hardware and software dedicated to the function of running video games. The original Xbox was pretty much just a Microsoft PC with a modified Pentium III processor, some powerful graphics and audio capabilities, and a modified version of the Windows 2000 operating system, all packaged in that distinctive black box.
This year Microsoft has released two versions of the Xbox 360: the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Core System. The Xbox 360Core System is "plug and play", that is, that in addition to the console, it includes an integrated controller and an AV cable. The Xbox 360 (not the "Core system") comes with a wireless controller, an HD AV cable, an Ethernet connectivity cable, a headset, a media remote, and a removable 20-GB hard drive.
For anyone who thought the original Xbox was a technological marvel, you must try this out! As amazing and realistic as the play on the first Xbox was, the Xbox 360 makes its predecessor look tired and worn-out. Microsoft has rebuilt the Xbox from the ground up. From the name to the look, from hardware to features, the Xbox 360 is a radically different and more powerful machine than the original Xbox. Far more than a video game console, the Xbox 360 is a total media center that allows users to play games, network with other 360 owners; rip, stream and download all types of media, including high-definition movies, music, digital pictures and game content, as well as play DVD movies and audio CD's.
The Xbox 360 will revolutionize the gaming world. Microsoft has definitely set the new standard in video game technology.
About The Author
Mitchell Medford is an author and product development consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his websites for more information on the Xbox 360 and satellite TV:
http://www.newtechnologytv.com
http://www.1stboard.com
This article was posted on January 05, 2006
It wasn't so long ago that kids who got the "new" Nintendo 8-bit gaming console or the Sega system for Christmas were the envy of every less fortunate and burned out Atari owning neighborhood playmate. As time elapsed, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and NES's Turbo Graphix 16 became all the rave. Anyone now in their twenties can recall being impressed by the awesome advancements in playability and graphic display of the Nintendo 64 and Sega's Dreamcast system, and even more recently (only five or so years ago) the advent of Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's Game Cube, and the Play Station by Sony. The Video Gaming industry has made great strides in the past twenty years: from slow-moving, barely recognizable forms on screen in original Atari games such as Pac-Man, Calga, and Tron, to the extremely vivid and life-like graphics of Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, and Tekken; available for the Xbox and Play Station. Now, just in time for Christmas 2005, Microsoft has made the next move in the continuing race for Video Gaming Supremacy with the introduction of the Xbox 360. The result is truly phenomenal.
This year Microsoft has released two versions of the Xbox 360: the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Core System. The Xbox 360Core System is "plug and play", that is, that in addition to the console, it includes an integrated controller and an AV cable. The Xbox 360 (not the "Core system") comes with a wireless controller, an HD AV cable, an Ethernet connectivity cable, a headset, a media remote, and a removable 20-GB hard drive.
For anyone who thought the original Xbox was a technological marvel, you must try this out! As amazing and realistic as the play on the first Xbox was, the Xbox 360 makes its predecessor look tired and worn-out. Microsoft has rebuilt the Xbox from the ground up. From the name to the look, from hardware to features, the Xbox 360 is a radically different and more powerful machine than the original Xbox. Far more than a video game console, the Xbox 360 is a total media center that allows users to play games, network with other 360 owners; rip, stream and download all types of media, including high-definition movies, music, digital pictures and game content, as well as play DVD movies and audio CD's.
The Xbox 360 will revolutionize the gaming world. Microsoft has definitely set the new standard in video game technology.
About The Author
Mitchell Medford is an author and product development consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his websites for more information on the Xbox 360 and satellite TV:
http://www.newtechnologytv.com
http://www.1stboard.com
This article was posted on January 05, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
PSP Game: Online PSP Game Membership versus Buying a Game in a Store
by: Paquita Gillis
What do you think would be the best value for money, the best deal?
Have your really compared all the ways of purchasing PSP Game, Full length Movies even Music, TV shows, Game demos for your PSP.
There is a bit on a tendency to race down to the nearest Games Shop to find the latest and best Games out there but, are you getting your moneys worth?
Have you ever thought of and done any comparing to other methods?
Have you ever thought that an Online Internet PSP Store could offer exactly the same quality and quantity of Games plus so much more for minimal cost?
Let’s take a quick look at the advantages and disadvantages of doing two methods of obtaining that new game you want so bad.
Buying Games in a Games Store Versus
Buying a Membership with an Internet PSP Download Store
Advantages Buying in a Game Store
• Usually first with the latest game
• Nothing like browsing and reading the back and checking out the graphics.
• Gaining extras like a poster, t shirt, competition entry etc
• Discussing the game with so called experts (sales assistants) who you would only assume have flogged the latest to give their critique on the game.
• Potential to buy second hand games that are no longer available.
• The thrill of handing money over the counter!
Disadvantages buying in a Game Store
• Paying in excess of $60+ for the latest game
• Buying more then ONE game at a time will get really expensive.
• If you don’t like the game it collects dust on the shelf (some places will give you 3 days to exchange it though).
• Shops don’t stock all the games that are on the market, you may have to wait weeks to get it once you have ordered it in. (If it is still available of course!)
• Shops can get crowded with over zealous gamers, especially if latest game is out on shelves.
• Shops Close at night!
• Getting only a DVD and that’s it, nothing else.
• Having to buy the latest magazines for reviews and checking the Internet for possible reviews.
• An old Game is no longer available.
Advantages buying from an Internet Download Store
• One time fee nothing over $40US and that’s it no more to pay for life.
• Having the ability to download anything at anytime any hour your want regardless 24/7
• Over 20 000000 items to download (including music and movies, cheat codes etc)
• No dust collecting DVDs
• On going support & tech support, manuals galore!
• You can Store all Games Music, Movies on your PC or your memory Stick
• Easy instructions to pop anything onto your PSP
• Competitions are available at times
• Easy access to Reviews on Games and Movies which is included in your membership (no downloading something you don’t want to play.)
• Extra items that can convert your old DVD’s (Games Movies) onto your PSP
• Read the Reviews on the Game download it; get a few Cheat codes and you’re on level 20 within a couple of hours!
Disadvantages Buying off an Internet Download Store
• You don’t own a computer!
• No CD/disc Cover to peruse and graphics to admire.
• No T shirt, poster promotions etc
• Buying a couple pieces of extra equipment (Requires Sony Memory Stick to play games, mind you the largest can hold up to 20 games)
• Not sure which Internet Download PSP sites are scams and rip offs!
• You only have dial up!
• An old Game is no longer available
Well after a little brain storming it really is up to the individual.
There is nothing like going into the store to grab the latest and best new Game on the market, but we all have to ask the question is this one CD/DVD worth the money.
My verdict is that I feel that since the younger generation tend to play the PSP Game more so then the older generation then the $ factor has to be taken into consideration. It’s a case of stating that “Yes the cover of the latest Game is “cool” with the promotional T shirt but, is it worth $45-90 bucks.
Especially when you know that you can get that game and a thousand other Games and items for half the price of that one DVD.
It all boils down to what is the most economical and what suits the individual. And what you are prepared to do to get the most out of your PSP.
Plus There is a tendency to not trust the Internet and assume that somewhere somehow you may get “ripped off”.
However there are respectable services available it’s just a matter of looking and researching and finding consistent reviews on whom and what is out there.
On that note there are a handful of respectable and legal Online PSP download centers that come highly recommended for quality quantity and value for money such as such as http://psp--game-.blogspot.com Enjoy.
About The Author
Paquita Gillis owns blogs on how to get the best PSP Game and provides articles, tips and ideas So you can have the best PSP entertainment available. http://psp--game-.blogspot.com
This article was posted on September 18, 2006
What do you think would be the best value for money, the best deal?
Have your really compared all the ways of purchasing PSP Game, Full length Movies even Music, TV shows, Game demos for your PSP.
There is a bit on a tendency to race down to the nearest Games Shop to find the latest and best Games out there but, are you getting your moneys worth?
Have you ever thought of and done any comparing to other methods?
Have you ever thought that an Online Internet PSP Store could offer exactly the same quality and quantity of Games plus so much more for minimal cost?
Let’s take a quick look at the advantages and disadvantages of doing two methods of obtaining that new game you want so bad.
Buying Games in a Games Store Versus
Buying a Membership with an Internet PSP Download Store
Advantages Buying in a Game Store
• Usually first with the latest game
• Nothing like browsing and reading the back and checking out the graphics.
• Gaining extras like a poster, t shirt, competition entry etc
• Discussing the game with so called experts (sales assistants) who you would only assume have flogged the latest to give their critique on the game.
• Potential to buy second hand games that are no longer available.
• The thrill of handing money over the counter!
• Paying in excess of $60+ for the latest game
• Buying more then ONE game at a time will get really expensive.
• If you don’t like the game it collects dust on the shelf (some places will give you 3 days to exchange it though).
• Shops don’t stock all the games that are on the market, you may have to wait weeks to get it once you have ordered it in. (If it is still available of course!)
• Shops can get crowded with over zealous gamers, especially if latest game is out on shelves.
• Shops Close at night!
• Getting only a DVD and that’s it, nothing else.
• Having to buy the latest magazines for reviews and checking the Internet for possible reviews.
• An old Game is no longer available.
Advantages buying from an Internet Download Store
• One time fee nothing over $40US and that’s it no more to pay for life.
• Having the ability to download anything at anytime any hour your want regardless 24/7
• Over 20 000000 items to download (including music and movies, cheat codes etc)
• No dust collecting DVDs
• On going support & tech support, manuals galore!
• You can Store all Games Music, Movies on your PC or your memory Stick
• Easy instructions to pop anything onto your PSP
• Competitions are available at times
• Easy access to Reviews on Games and Movies which is included in your membership (no downloading something you don’t want to play.)
• Extra items that can convert your old DVD’s (Games Movies) onto your PSP
• Read the Reviews on the Game download it; get a few Cheat codes and you’re on level 20 within a couple of hours!
Disadvantages Buying off an Internet Download Store
• You don’t own a computer!
• No CD/disc Cover to peruse and graphics to admire.
• No T shirt, poster promotions etc
• Buying a couple pieces of extra equipment (Requires Sony Memory Stick to play games, mind you the largest can hold up to 20 games)
• Not sure which Internet Download PSP sites are scams and rip offs!
• You only have dial up!
• An old Game is no longer available
Well after a little brain storming it really is up to the individual.
There is nothing like going into the store to grab the latest and best new Game on the market, but we all have to ask the question is this one CD/DVD worth the money.
My verdict is that I feel that since the younger generation tend to play the PSP Game more so then the older generation then the $ factor has to be taken into consideration. It’s a case of stating that “Yes the cover of the latest Game is “cool” with the promotional T shirt but, is it worth $45-90 bucks.
Especially when you know that you can get that game and a thousand other Games and items for half the price of that one DVD.
It all boils down to what is the most economical and what suits the individual. And what you are prepared to do to get the most out of your PSP.
Plus There is a tendency to not trust the Internet and assume that somewhere somehow you may get “ripped off”.
However there are respectable services available it’s just a matter of looking and researching and finding consistent reviews on whom and what is out there.
On that note there are a handful of respectable and legal Online PSP download centers that come highly recommended for quality quantity and value for money such as such as http://psp--game-.blogspot.com Enjoy.
About The Author
Paquita Gillis owns blogs on how to get the best PSP Game and provides articles, tips and ideas So you can have the best PSP entertainment available. http://psp--game-.blogspot.com
This article was posted on September 18, 2006
How to Watch Movies on Your PSP
by: Neil Wallace
If you’re like most people who own one of Sony’s beautiful PlayStation Portables, you’re probably in love with it. But you also want to be sure you get the most out of your investment and enjoy every one of its incredible features. And that includes the ability to watch all your favorite movies.
Sony’s PlayStation Portable or PSP, built primarily for gaming, comes fully equipped with superb multimedia features. So if you thought it was just for playing games, think again. Not only can you play multiplayer games over the Internet, you can also watch movies, listen to music, browse the Internet, and more. It uses a small, yet powerful, Memory Stick PRO Duo, and the performance is superb due to advanced technology using Mp4 encoding.
Mp4, also known as MPEG-4, is the global multimedia standard defined by the Moving Picture Experts Group that delivers professional-quality audio and video streams over a wide range of bandwidths. Mp4 enables DVD-quality video to be delivered at lower data rates and smaller file sizes, and that’s very important on smaller devices with limited storage capacity.
Your PSP comes ready to play music and movies in Mp4 format. Transferring music and movie files to your PSP is easy. First, download the files you want from the Internet to your PC. Second, ensure any movies are in mp4 format. Third, transfer the files to your Memory Stick PRO Duo. Your PSP instruction manual offers several ways to do that. Finally, insert the Memory Stick PRO Duo in your PSP and select either video or music from the home menu.
This is a beautiful device and it would be a shame to use it only for one purpose and to miss out on all its other uses. So I guess now you’ll be watching movies, listening to music and playing games, all day long. Who’s going to get any work done?
About The Author
Neil Wallace is an avid multimedia enthusiast and the editor of Mp4 Magazine. For movies, music and multimedia resources, visit http://www.Mp4Magazine.com.
This article was posted on September 01, 2006
If you’re like most people who own one of Sony’s beautiful PlayStation Portables, you’re probably in love with it. But you also want to be sure you get the most out of your investment and enjoy every one of its incredible features. And that includes the ability to watch all your favorite movies.
Sony’s PlayStation Portable or PSP, built primarily for gaming, comes fully equipped with superb multimedia features. So if you thought it was just for playing games, think again. Not only can you play multiplayer games over the Internet, you can also watch movies, listen to music, browse the Internet, and more. It uses a small, yet powerful, Memory Stick PRO Duo, and the performance is superb due to advanced technology using Mp4 encoding.
Your PSP comes ready to play music and movies in Mp4 format. Transferring music and movie files to your PSP is easy. First, download the files you want from the Internet to your PC. Second, ensure any movies are in mp4 format. Third, transfer the files to your Memory Stick PRO Duo. Your PSP instruction manual offers several ways to do that. Finally, insert the Memory Stick PRO Duo in your PSP and select either video or music from the home menu.
This is a beautiful device and it would be a shame to use it only for one purpose and to miss out on all its other uses. So I guess now you’ll be watching movies, listening to music and playing games, all day long. Who’s going to get any work done?
About The Author
Neil Wallace is an avid multimedia enthusiast and the editor of Mp4 Magazine. For movies, music and multimedia resources, visit http://www.Mp4Magazine.com.
This article was posted on September 01, 2006
Unleash The Power Of The PSP Gigapack And PSP Download Services
by: Terry Brazil
The PSP Gigapack is the most powerful handheld gaming package ever created. But not only is it powerful it is also a great value if you are looking to get the most out of your handheld gaming.
The heart of the Gigapack is the Play Station Personal handheld gaming system. The PSP is the most powerful handheld gaming device ever created. The PSP runs on a 333Mhz processor that is almost equal to that of the Play Station 2. It incorporates 32MB of main memory and 4MB of DRAM.
The screen measures at 4.3 inches. This is the largest screen size for any handheld with the Nintendo DS measuring in at 3 inches. The PSP also has a screen resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. This is almost double the Nintendo DS’s screen. This makes for a really high resolution image.
The PSP has built in stereo speakers as well as a slew of different ways to communicate with it. Among the communication methods are 802.11b wireless networking, USB 2.0, Pro Duo memory stick, IrDA, and an infra red remote.
The PSP takes UMD cartridges which is made for the PSP exclusivly. The recognized file formats are the PSP game format, UMD Audio, and UMD Video. All of these can easily be created on a computer and loaded to your PSP’s memory stick via the USB cable. This allows you to download a very large variety of files for use on your PSP.
The PSP also features a headphone and microphone jack. This allows you to talk to others while playing online. The PSP is basically a computer you can fit in your pocket. It also has a power connector to recharge the PSP’s built in battery.
The buttons consist of the standard PlayStation controller buttons with a few extras. The additional buttons are home, power, brightness control, sound mode, volume, wireless networking on/off switch, and a disk eject button.
The PSP also features parental controls. This will allow concerned parents to lock their children out of games and movies they shouldn't he seeing. This is a great feature and the PSP is the only handheld gaming device to offer it.
Sony also plans on delivering a slew of accessories to even further your handheld experience. You can also pick up the USB Camera for PSP, USB GPS for PSP, and USB Keyboard for PSP.
The Gigapack takes this outstanding gaming system and teams it up with a bunch of the added extras. Some Gigapack vary in what they give but most are the same. Included in the Gigapack is a 1GB memory stick (to hold your favorite games, movies, music, and more), PSP headphones with remote control, soft carrying case, PSP AC adaptor, PSP battery pack, travel plug (so you can charge your PSP anywhere in the world), PSP stand, USB cable, cleaning cloth, and usually two games.
You can obviously see why the PSP Gigapack is the most powerful handheld gaming package in the world. Teamed up with a great PSP download service you will have all you will ever need for handheld entertainment. Even if you already have a PSP you should at least invest about $55 on a 1GB memory stick.
There are a few PSP download services on the market and I have tried most all of them. The one I am most satisfied with and use on a daily basis is PSP Download Services. They offer a ton of benefits to get the most out of your PSP.
Although you can find PSP files for download on the Internet for free they are usually fairly speratic. It may take a few hours just to locate what you are looking for and a lot of the time the file may be taken down. This happens a lot if the game has not just recently been released. The same is true for PSP movies that can be found for free.
I strongly suggest you use a PSP download service. This way you will not waste away hours just to find out that the file you are looking for has been taken down. With a download service you simply search for what you are looking for and it will come back with a list of results. You are usually guaranteed to find what you are looking for. For instance PSP Download Services offers an amazing 20+ million files. You will always find exactly what you are looking for.
Depending on who you choose you may have a monthly download limit or even a monthly bandwidth limit. Others may give you a content limit so you can only get a certain amount of say games or movies in any given month. You will never experience any of these problems with PSP Download Services. You will always get UNLIMITED PSP game, movie, music, mp3, software, screen savers, background image, themes, e-books, and more.
PSP Download Services also runs on the world fastest network and uses a download excelerator. That means that you can use this great service even if you only have dial up. What this mean for you is that your downloads that usually take a matter of hours will only take you a matter of minutes with PSP Download Services.
You will also get step-by-step instructions on how to use this great technology. Even a complete computer novice can use this service with no problems. Even if you do get caught up on something you can always call technical support. They will also give you the file transfer software needed to load your PSP full of your favorite titles.
Now that I have packed you full of wonderful information on how to get the best out of your PSP the choice is yours. Quite simply it is a no brainer. How could anybody ever go wrong with a PSP Gigapack and PSP Download Services. There is no way for you to loose. Even if you end up wanting to try another download service they offer an unconditional 60 day money back guarantee.
Don’t hesitate though act now and get your own piece of handheld gaming heaven. This is only high tech device you will ever need. You can surf the Internet, chat, play games, watch movies, talk with friends, listen to music and mp3’s, read e-books and much more with this astonishing piece of hardware and PSP Download Services is its perfect match.
Below are a list of where to find the best deals to start your PSP gaming experience.
entertainment.guruofinfo.com/ultimatepsp.htm - PSP Download Services
entertainment.guruofinfo.com/bestpspdeals.html - Best Deals On PSP Gigapack And Memory Cards
About The Author
Terry Brazil
www.guruofinfo.com
This article was posted on March 24, 2006
The PSP Gigapack is the most powerful handheld gaming package ever created. But not only is it powerful it is also a great value if you are looking to get the most out of your handheld gaming.
The heart of the Gigapack is the Play Station Personal handheld gaming system. The PSP is the most powerful handheld gaming device ever created. The PSP runs on a 333Mhz processor that is almost equal to that of the Play Station 2. It incorporates 32MB of main memory and 4MB of DRAM.
The screen measures at 4.3 inches. This is the largest screen size for any handheld with the Nintendo DS measuring in at 3 inches. The PSP also has a screen resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. This is almost double the Nintendo DS’s screen. This makes for a really high resolution image.
The PSP has built in stereo speakers as well as a slew of different ways to communicate with it. Among the communication methods are 802.11b wireless networking, USB 2.0, Pro Duo memory stick, IrDA, and an infra red remote.
The PSP takes UMD cartridges which is made for the PSP exclusivly. The recognized file formats are the PSP game format, UMD Audio, and UMD Video. All of these can easily be created on a computer and loaded to your PSP’s memory stick via the USB cable. This allows you to download a very large variety of files for use on your PSP.
The buttons consist of the standard PlayStation controller buttons with a few extras. The additional buttons are home, power, brightness control, sound mode, volume, wireless networking on/off switch, and a disk eject button.
The PSP also features parental controls. This will allow concerned parents to lock their children out of games and movies they shouldn't he seeing. This is a great feature and the PSP is the only handheld gaming device to offer it.
Sony also plans on delivering a slew of accessories to even further your handheld experience. You can also pick up the USB Camera for PSP, USB GPS for PSP, and USB Keyboard for PSP.
The Gigapack takes this outstanding gaming system and teams it up with a bunch of the added extras. Some Gigapack vary in what they give but most are the same. Included in the Gigapack is a 1GB memory stick (to hold your favorite games, movies, music, and more), PSP headphones with remote control, soft carrying case, PSP AC adaptor, PSP battery pack, travel plug (so you can charge your PSP anywhere in the world), PSP stand, USB cable, cleaning cloth, and usually two games.
You can obviously see why the PSP Gigapack is the most powerful handheld gaming package in the world. Teamed up with a great PSP download service you will have all you will ever need for handheld entertainment. Even if you already have a PSP you should at least invest about $55 on a 1GB memory stick.
There are a few PSP download services on the market and I have tried most all of them. The one I am most satisfied with and use on a daily basis is PSP Download Services. They offer a ton of benefits to get the most out of your PSP.
Although you can find PSP files for download on the Internet for free they are usually fairly speratic. It may take a few hours just to locate what you are looking for and a lot of the time the file may be taken down. This happens a lot if the game has not just recently been released. The same is true for PSP movies that can be found for free.
I strongly suggest you use a PSP download service. This way you will not waste away hours just to find out that the file you are looking for has been taken down. With a download service you simply search for what you are looking for and it will come back with a list of results. You are usually guaranteed to find what you are looking for. For instance PSP Download Services offers an amazing 20+ million files. You will always find exactly what you are looking for.
Depending on who you choose you may have a monthly download limit or even a monthly bandwidth limit. Others may give you a content limit so you can only get a certain amount of say games or movies in any given month. You will never experience any of these problems with PSP Download Services. You will always get UNLIMITED PSP game, movie, music, mp3, software, screen savers, background image, themes, e-books, and more.
PSP Download Services also runs on the world fastest network and uses a download excelerator. That means that you can use this great service even if you only have dial up. What this mean for you is that your downloads that usually take a matter of hours will only take you a matter of minutes with PSP Download Services.
You will also get step-by-step instructions on how to use this great technology. Even a complete computer novice can use this service with no problems. Even if you do get caught up on something you can always call technical support. They will also give you the file transfer software needed to load your PSP full of your favorite titles.
Now that I have packed you full of wonderful information on how to get the best out of your PSP the choice is yours. Quite simply it is a no brainer. How could anybody ever go wrong with a PSP Gigapack and PSP Download Services. There is no way for you to loose. Even if you end up wanting to try another download service they offer an unconditional 60 day money back guarantee.
Don’t hesitate though act now and get your own piece of handheld gaming heaven. This is only high tech device you will ever need. You can surf the Internet, chat, play games, watch movies, talk with friends, listen to music and mp3’s, read e-books and much more with this astonishing piece of hardware and PSP Download Services is its perfect match.
Below are a list of where to find the best deals to start your PSP gaming experience.
entertainment.guruofinfo.com/ultimatepsp.htm - PSP Download Services
entertainment.guruofinfo.com/bestpspdeals.html - Best Deals On PSP Gigapack And Memory Cards
About The Author
Terry Brazil
www.guruofinfo.com
This article was posted on March 24, 2006
Christmas PS3 Blues
by: Rob O'Neill
Patience is a virtue, and you're going to have to be pretty virtuous if you're one of the millions of UK PlayStation Fans awaiting the arrival of the PS3. As if it wasn't bad enough we had to rewrite our letters to Santa this year (because it now won't hit our shelves until March), we're also all going to be green with envy as the web fills up with the usual reviews, cheats, and walkthroughs etc from sites in the States where they will get their hands on the console from November 17th.
Personally, my patience (lost my virtue a long time ago) ran out already, and my craving for HD gaming led me to the XBOX 360. I suspect many others will do the same this Christmas and I don't blame you. To not release the most hyped console of all time for Christmas has got to be the craziest decision Sony has made (apart from the choice of software packed with their MP3 Walkman - but don't get me started on that one). It can't even be based on format because the PS3 will be region free, and you can play any PS3 game on it no matter what part of the world you bought it from.
If you do decide to cut your losses and go for the XBOX 360 you won't be disappointed, I certainly haven't been. But you should be aware that in their hurry to steal the HD gaming market, Microsoft left a couple of jobs as 'work in progress'. Although the list is growing, the XBOX 360 still only plays a handful of original XBOX games. If you're starting afresh that?s fine, but if you've got a hefty back-catalogue of XBOX titles you were planning to play then that?s a real bummer. Backwards compatibility was a target that simply wasn't reached in time for release and early release was obviously of greater importance to Microsoft than it appears to be for Sony.
However, if you're a PlayStation purist, or simply do not fancy the XBOX 360 or the Nintendo Wii, then your virtue will be well rewarded. Although I find it difficult to understand some of Sony's business decisions, I can fully understand the hype surrounding the PS3. It will be without doubt the most powerful domestic games console available, boasting the 'Cell' processor, twelve times faster than processors found in top range PC's. The PS3 will also offer 'Blue-ray' technology which Sony are heavily promoting to take over from DVD, as well as offering free 'out of the box' online gaming (broadband connection required).
All of this extra 'oomph' inevitably comes at a cost, and you should expect to pay more for the prestige of owning such a machine. You'll also need to keep an eye on game prices too from November and compare them to its rivals, afterall there is no point owning the thing if you have to rob a bank every time you want something to play on it. On the plus side it will play any PS2 or PS1 titles you have tucked away.
Whatever you decide, have a happy Christmas, and keep on gaming !
About The Author
Rob O'Neill is owner of Console Fun, the one stop shop for information on video games consoles including XBOX, XBOX 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and DS.
http://www.consolefun.co.uk
This article was posted on October 18, 2006
Patience is a virtue, and you're going to have to be pretty virtuous if you're one of the millions of UK PlayStation Fans awaiting the arrival of the PS3. As if it wasn't bad enough we had to rewrite our letters to Santa this year (because it now won't hit our shelves until March), we're also all going to be green with envy as the web fills up with the usual reviews, cheats, and walkthroughs etc from sites in the States where they will get their hands on the console from November 17th.
Personally, my patience (lost my virtue a long time ago) ran out already, and my craving for HD gaming led me to the XBOX 360. I suspect many others will do the same this Christmas and I don't blame you. To not release the most hyped console of all time for Christmas has got to be the craziest decision Sony has made (apart from the choice of software packed with their MP3 Walkman - but don't get me started on that one). It can't even be based on format because the PS3 will be region free, and you can play any PS3 game on it no matter what part of the world you bought it from.
However, if you're a PlayStation purist, or simply do not fancy the XBOX 360 or the Nintendo Wii, then your virtue will be well rewarded. Although I find it difficult to understand some of Sony's business decisions, I can fully understand the hype surrounding the PS3. It will be without doubt the most powerful domestic games console available, boasting the 'Cell' processor, twelve times faster than processors found in top range PC's. The PS3 will also offer 'Blue-ray' technology which Sony are heavily promoting to take over from DVD, as well as offering free 'out of the box' online gaming (broadband connection required).
All of this extra 'oomph' inevitably comes at a cost, and you should expect to pay more for the prestige of owning such a machine. You'll also need to keep an eye on game prices too from November and compare them to its rivals, afterall there is no point owning the thing if you have to rob a bank every time you want something to play on it. On the plus side it will play any PS2 or PS1 titles you have tucked away.
Whatever you decide, have a happy Christmas, and keep on gaming !
About The Author
Rob O'Neill is owner of Console Fun, the one stop shop for information on video games consoles including XBOX, XBOX 360, PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and DS.
http://www.consolefun.co.uk
This article was posted on October 18, 2006
PS3 Game Previews and Reviews
by: Andrew M. Lawrence
The Sony PS3 will be the most powerful game console ever released. The impressive parallel processing architecture and powerful GPU allows for arguably the most ambitious releases on a console ever. Certainly, the graphics and performance the system will deliver will outstrip that of its more prudent competitors, Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii. It should come as no surprise then, that many of the most anticipated titles of 2007 will launch on the PS3, some on multiple platforms, others exclusively. As impressive as the hardware is, it's really not important in the scheme of things; what really matters is what games you can actually play!
The PS3 is costly enough as it is, and as with anything else you invest in, you wouldn't want to do it before reading up on it first. What better way to do that, than to check out some PS3 game previews? Generally speaking, the best sources of PS3 previews will come from those websites and magazines that have generally covered PS2 and the original PS from the outset. General gaming sites like Gamespy/IGN, Gamespot, 1up, and GamesIndustry.biz are generally good sources of quick, easy to read news, game previews, and reviews. The quality varies, but what is common to each of these is that they will compare their subject matter to the competition. In this case, exclusive PS3 titles would be compared against games on Xbox 360 and Wii in any PS3 game review.
If you're already a fan, and you're set on having a PS3, you might prefer PS3 reviews from sites that deal with nothing else. Dedicated community fansites tend to have active discussion forms full of analysis of every last detail. More to the point, the staff who run such sites are generally fans themselves, and are just as interested in the system and games they post about, which is usually reflected in their reporting. Sites like PSXextreme, PSrules, PS3 Power, and PS3 Land are all good sources of PS3 game previews. Naturally, there aren't any PS3 reviews out yet, but these sites are already geared up and equipped to start posting them as soon as they hit the shelves in November.
Anticipated titles at release time will include the fourth game in the ever popular Gran Turismo series, Madden 07, Vampire's Rain, Crysis, Fatal Inertia, MotorStorm, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 3, NBA Live 07, Need for Speed: Carbon, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, Resistance: Fall of Man, and F.E.A.R. Also keep in mind that the PS3 is going to be widely backwards compatible with older PS and PS2 games, which you'll be able to buy from Son'y PNP service, if you don't already have them – one of the major selling points! For your PS3, game reviews already written will be just as useful. Finally, going back even further, Sony has announced that a wide variety of Sega Genesis (MegaDrive) games will be also be compatible with the PS3, opening up yet more games to its repertoire.
About The Author
Andrew Lawrence is the developer of http://www.e-bookz-online.co.uk a site that promotes mostly info products on all subjects.
To find out more info on the PS3 you can find a full in depth report at http://www.theps3report.e-bookz-online.co.uk.
This article was posted on October 30, 2006
The Sony PS3 will be the most powerful game console ever released. The impressive parallel processing architecture and powerful GPU allows for arguably the most ambitious releases on a console ever. Certainly, the graphics and performance the system will deliver will outstrip that of its more prudent competitors, Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii. It should come as no surprise then, that many of the most anticipated titles of 2007 will launch on the PS3, some on multiple platforms, others exclusively. As impressive as the hardware is, it's really not important in the scheme of things; what really matters is what games you can actually play!
The PS3 is costly enough as it is, and as with anything else you invest in, you wouldn't want to do it before reading up on it first. What better way to do that, than to check out some PS3 game previews? Generally speaking, the best sources of PS3 previews will come from those websites and magazines that have generally covered PS2 and the original PS from the outset. General gaming sites like Gamespy/IGN, Gamespot, 1up, and GamesIndustry.biz are generally good sources of quick, easy to read news, game previews, and reviews. The quality varies, but what is common to each of these is that they will compare their subject matter to the competition. In this case, exclusive PS3 titles would be compared against games on Xbox 360 and Wii in any PS3 game review.
Anticipated titles at release time will include the fourth game in the ever popular Gran Turismo series, Madden 07, Vampire's Rain, Crysis, Fatal Inertia, MotorStorm, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 3, NBA Live 07, Need for Speed: Carbon, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, Resistance: Fall of Man, and F.E.A.R. Also keep in mind that the PS3 is going to be widely backwards compatible with older PS and PS2 games, which you'll be able to buy from Son'y PNP service, if you don't already have them – one of the major selling points! For your PS3, game reviews already written will be just as useful. Finally, going back even further, Sony has announced that a wide variety of Sega Genesis (MegaDrive) games will be also be compatible with the PS3, opening up yet more games to its repertoire.
About The Author
Andrew Lawrence is the developer of http://www.e-bookz-online.co.uk a site that promotes mostly info products on all subjects.
To find out more info on the PS3 you can find a full in depth report at http://www.theps3report.e-bookz-online.co.uk.
This article was posted on October 30, 2006
How Kids Learn To Cooperate In Video Games -- A Guide for Parents and Teachers
by: Marc Prensky
A great many parents are concerned that the electronic games their kids play are teaching the kids “negative” messages such as aggression, violence, and isolation from real people. I want to illustrate here how computer and video game playing, can have positive effects on kids. This includes even the “addictive” game playing associated with many of these games. The learning from these games is well worth the effort the kids put in playing them, and kids typically sense this at some level, which is one reason they fight so hard for their games.
One key lesson many of their games is teaching them is the value of people working together and helping each other. To illustrate how this occurs, I will use one particular game, Toontown, as an example.
Toontown (www.toontown.com) is the Walt Disney Company’s entry into the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) category. For the non-initiated, that means a computer game that supports thousands of players online simultaneously, all of whom can see and interact with each other. A key feature of these worlds is that they are “persistent,” meaning that the worlds continue to exist and change whether or not you are there, just any other place in the real world.
[Note: There are two types of multiplayer online games, both of which have their advantages. One type, the “multiplayer” game, lets you interact with a limited group of people, such as those on your team or squad, in a game world that typically exists for only the time you are playing. The game America’s Army is a good example of this. The second type, the “massively multiplayer” game, lets you interact with everyone you meet in the ongoing world. Massively multiplayer games like EverQuest, Asheron’s Call, and Dark Age of Camelot have captured the time and imaginations of hundreds of thousands of US teenage and older players. The Korean massively multiplayer game Lineage has over 4 million registered users, often with up to half a million players on-line at once. The players typically meet in relatively thinly-populated areas of very large and often interconnected virtual worlds, so even with these huge numbers, it is not like pushing your way through Times Square on New Year’s Eve.]
Toontown is the first massively multiplayer game designed specifically designed for younger kids (pre-teens, I think, though they don’t specifically say.) In addition, many older kids and even adults enjoy playing it. In the game you create, name and dress a character, and then you take it out to play in the virtual world. Your character is the representation (“avatar”) of you playing in the world – it is the “you” that other players know.
Although if you wanted to you could spend your entire time in Toontown merely running around the virtual world, the “object” of the game is to defeat “Cogs,” members of the evil gang that wants to take over the town. The Cogs to fight come in many varieties and strengths. To defeat a Cog you employ “gags”– such as squirt bottles or pies in the face – that you purchase with jelly bean currency that you earn in a number of ways.
In your early days in Toontown, when you have earned relatively few gags, you typically run around alone, deciding when to confront a low-level Cog you pass in the street. (You do this by running into it.) You and the Cog then square off and do battle, taking turns throwing gags at each other. If you defeat the Cog, he explodes and you are rewarded with points towards additional gags. If the Cog defeats you, you “die,” which means you lose all your gags (although, importantly, you do not lose the “experience” you attained – i.e. the types and levels of gags you are allowed to purchase and use.)
There are a lot of other twists, but that’s essentially the game: Earn and buy gags, use them to fight Cogs.
But here’s where the cooperative part comes in. As you move to higher experience levels, the tasks you are required to accomplish become more and more difficult. You often have to “rescue” buildings that the Cogs have taken over, buildings that have multiple floors filled with high-level, hard-to-defeat Cogs.
And you can’t do this alone, no matter how much experience you have. So you begin to learn to play the game with others. The game encourages this, with “friends lists” and built in “speed chat” menus consisting, for kids’ protection, of a limited number of phrases you can use. For example, you can invite your friends to help you defeat a building (or, if you prefer, you can just wait outside for others to show up.)
But it gets subtle. Just because someone is your friend (or wants to be) or happens to show up, doesn’t mean he or she has the experience to defeat the higher-level Cogs. You can check out someone’s gags when they are in range to help you decide whom to work with, but success depends not only on the level and number of gags one has, but also on knowing how to use them in battle. You learn over time what players you want on your team to achieve success in particular situations. Sometimes, to be sure all of you survive, you have to reject players who ask to work with you on a certain task. One of the things you can say through the speed chat is “I think this is too risky for you.” Just as in the real world, such advice is not always well-received, and the game gives you the opportunity to learn to deal with this.
In the midst of any battle – players typically fight higher-level Cogs in groups of four – a player can choose, rather than to throw a gag at the Cogs, to instead give his or her fellow players additional “laff points” (i.e. health). Doing this helps prevent them from “dying” and dropping out of the battle. One skill typically gained from frequent play is knowing when to help your teammates versus when to attack the Cogs. This is not trivial. One adult player described her first battle with ultra-high-level Cogs as “extremely nerve wracking,” and characterized the strategies she had to employ to work successfully with the other players as “the most emotional experience I’ve ever had in a game.” And this is the version for kids!
And there is yet another way Toontown players learn there is value in cooperation. Some of the tasks available to higher-level players allow them to earn jelly beans by helping out new players. When these experienced players see a Newbie fighting a Cog on the street, they can join in and assist. When the Cog is defeated, both the experienced player and the Newbie get rewarded game at their own level.
Is it Boring?
Still, while the tasks at the start of the game involve defeating only one Cog at a time and the tasks at higher levels require players to defeat hundreds of Cogs on their way to liberate bigger and bigger buildings, the battles are very similar. “Isn’t that boring?” I asked one “addicted” player. “After all it’s basically the same thing over and over – fighting Cogs.”
“I like going up the levels,” she replied. And of course the only way she can do this is by learning to cooperate well with real people, in real time – while sitting at her own computer.
I encourage readers of this article to try Toontown, both with your kids, and even on your own. (You can go to www.toontown.com to get started.) See how far you can get. If you happen to enjoy the experience, you can go on to the aforementioned “older players’” games, where the enemies are fantasy monsters and the buildings castles to storm, yet where the principles of cooperation are basically the same. If you actually get addicted to cooperative play, don’t blame me – these games are designed to reel you in.
But even if you don’t get hooked yourself – and the more you are from the “Digital Immigrant” generation the less likely it is that you will – hopefully you will have learned this important and generally-overlooked lesson:
What keeps the kids playing these games is not the violence (that’s all fake and the kids know it), but rather the ability to work together with others to achieve more and more difficult goals.
Can you think of any skill more useful for children to spend their time learning? I can’t.
About The Author
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001). Marc is founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites and . Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at . More of Marc’s writings on the positive effects of video games can be found at www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp.
marc@games2train.com
This article was posted on June 14, 2004
A great many parents are concerned that the electronic games their kids play are teaching the kids “negative” messages such as aggression, violence, and isolation from real people. I want to illustrate here how computer and video game playing, can have positive effects on kids. This includes even the “addictive” game playing associated with many of these games. The learning from these games is well worth the effort the kids put in playing them, and kids typically sense this at some level, which is one reason they fight so hard for their games.
One key lesson many of their games is teaching them is the value of people working together and helping each other. To illustrate how this occurs, I will use one particular game, Toontown, as an example.
Toontown (www.toontown.com) is the Walt Disney Company’s entry into the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) category. For the non-initiated, that means a computer game that supports thousands of players online simultaneously, all of whom can see and interact with each other. A key feature of these worlds is that they are “persistent,” meaning that the worlds continue to exist and change whether or not you are there, just any other place in the real world.
[Note: There are two types of multiplayer online games, both of which have their advantages. One type, the “multiplayer” game, lets you interact with a limited group of people, such as those on your team or squad, in a game world that typically exists for only the time you are playing. The game America’s Army is a good example of this. The second type, the “massively multiplayer” game, lets you interact with everyone you meet in the ongoing world. Massively multiplayer games like EverQuest, Asheron’s Call, and Dark Age of Camelot have captured the time and imaginations of hundreds of thousands of US teenage and older players. The Korean massively multiplayer game Lineage has over 4 million registered users, often with up to half a million players on-line at once. The players typically meet in relatively thinly-populated areas of very large and often interconnected virtual worlds, so even with these huge numbers, it is not like pushing your way through Times Square on New Year’s Eve.]
Although if you wanted to you could spend your entire time in Toontown merely running around the virtual world, the “object” of the game is to defeat “Cogs,” members of the evil gang that wants to take over the town. The Cogs to fight come in many varieties and strengths. To defeat a Cog you employ “gags”– such as squirt bottles or pies in the face – that you purchase with jelly bean currency that you earn in a number of ways.
In your early days in Toontown, when you have earned relatively few gags, you typically run around alone, deciding when to confront a low-level Cog you pass in the street. (You do this by running into it.) You and the Cog then square off and do battle, taking turns throwing gags at each other. If you defeat the Cog, he explodes and you are rewarded with points towards additional gags. If the Cog defeats you, you “die,” which means you lose all your gags (although, importantly, you do not lose the “experience” you attained – i.e. the types and levels of gags you are allowed to purchase and use.)
There are a lot of other twists, but that’s essentially the game: Earn and buy gags, use them to fight Cogs.
But here’s where the cooperative part comes in. As you move to higher experience levels, the tasks you are required to accomplish become more and more difficult. You often have to “rescue” buildings that the Cogs have taken over, buildings that have multiple floors filled with high-level, hard-to-defeat Cogs.
And you can’t do this alone, no matter how much experience you have. So you begin to learn to play the game with others. The game encourages this, with “friends lists” and built in “speed chat” menus consisting, for kids’ protection, of a limited number of phrases you can use. For example, you can invite your friends to help you defeat a building (or, if you prefer, you can just wait outside for others to show up.)
But it gets subtle. Just because someone is your friend (or wants to be) or happens to show up, doesn’t mean he or she has the experience to defeat the higher-level Cogs. You can check out someone’s gags when they are in range to help you decide whom to work with, but success depends not only on the level and number of gags one has, but also on knowing how to use them in battle. You learn over time what players you want on your team to achieve success in particular situations. Sometimes, to be sure all of you survive, you have to reject players who ask to work with you on a certain task. One of the things you can say through the speed chat is “I think this is too risky for you.” Just as in the real world, such advice is not always well-received, and the game gives you the opportunity to learn to deal with this.
In the midst of any battle – players typically fight higher-level Cogs in groups of four – a player can choose, rather than to throw a gag at the Cogs, to instead give his or her fellow players additional “laff points” (i.e. health). Doing this helps prevent them from “dying” and dropping out of the battle. One skill typically gained from frequent play is knowing when to help your teammates versus when to attack the Cogs. This is not trivial. One adult player described her first battle with ultra-high-level Cogs as “extremely nerve wracking,” and characterized the strategies she had to employ to work successfully with the other players as “the most emotional experience I’ve ever had in a game.” And this is the version for kids!
And there is yet another way Toontown players learn there is value in cooperation. Some of the tasks available to higher-level players allow them to earn jelly beans by helping out new players. When these experienced players see a Newbie fighting a Cog on the street, they can join in and assist. When the Cog is defeated, both the experienced player and the Newbie get rewarded game at their own level.
Is it Boring?
Still, while the tasks at the start of the game involve defeating only one Cog at a time and the tasks at higher levels require players to defeat hundreds of Cogs on their way to liberate bigger and bigger buildings, the battles are very similar. “Isn’t that boring?” I asked one “addicted” player. “After all it’s basically the same thing over and over – fighting Cogs.”
“I like going up the levels,” she replied. And of course the only way she can do this is by learning to cooperate well with real people, in real time – while sitting at her own computer.
I encourage readers of this article to try Toontown, both with your kids, and even on your own. (You can go to www.toontown.com to get started.) See how far you can get. If you happen to enjoy the experience, you can go on to the aforementioned “older players’” games, where the enemies are fantasy monsters and the buildings castles to storm, yet where the principles of cooperation are basically the same. If you actually get addicted to cooperative play, don’t blame me – these games are designed to reel you in.
But even if you don’t get hooked yourself – and the more you are from the “Digital Immigrant” generation the less likely it is that you will – hopefully you will have learned this important and generally-overlooked lesson:
What keeps the kids playing these games is not the violence (that’s all fake and the kids know it), but rather the ability to work together with others to achieve more and more difficult goals.
Can you think of any skill more useful for children to spend their time learning? I can’t.
About The Author
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001). Marc is founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites and . Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at . More of Marc’s writings on the positive effects of video games can be found at www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp.
marc@games2train.com
This article was posted on June 14, 2004
Really Good News About Your Children’s Video Games
by: Marc Prensky
Research published by University of Rochester neuroscientists C. Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier has grabbed national attention for suggesting that playing “action” video and computer games has positive effects – enhancing student’s visual selective attention. But that finding is just one small part of a more important message that all parents and educators need to hear: video games are not the enemy, but the best opportunity we have to engage our kids in real learning.
Any observer knows that the attitude of today’s children to video and computer games is the very opposite of the attitude that most of them have toward school. The amount of time they spend playing computer and video games – estimated at 10,000 hours by the time they are twenty-one, often in multi-hour bursts – belies the “short attention span” criticism of educators. And while years ago the group attracted to video and computer games was almost entirely adolescent boys, it is now increasingly girls and all children of all ages and social groups. One would be hard-pressed today to find a kid in America who doesn’t play computer or video games of one sort or another.
The evidence is quickly mounting that our “Digital Native” children’s brains are changing to accommodate these new technologies with which they spend so much time. Not only are they better at spreading their attention over a wide range of events, as Green and Bavelier report, but they are better at parallel processing, taking in information more quickly (at “twitchspeed”), understanding multimedia, and collaborating over networks.
What attracts and “glues” kids to today’s video and computer games is neither the violence, or even the surface subject matter, but rather the learning the games provide. Kids, like and all humans, love to learn when it isn’t forced on them. Modern computer and video games provide learning opportunities every second, or fraction thereof.
On the surface, kids learn to do things – to fly airplanes, to drive fast cars, to be theme park operators, war fighters, civilization builders and veterinarians. But on deeper levels they learn infinitely more: to take in information from many sources and make decisions quickly; to deduce a game’s rules from playing rather than by being told; to create strategies for overcoming obstacles; to understand complex systems through experimentation. And, increasingly, they learn to collaborate with others. Many adults are not aware that games have long ago passed out of the single-player isolation shell imposed by lack of networking, and have gone back to being the social medium they have always been – on a worldwide scale. Massively Multiplayer games such as EverQuest now have hundreds of thousands of people playing simultaneously, collaborating nightly in clans and guilds.
Today’s game-playing kid enters the first grade able to do and understand so many complex things – from building, to flying, to reasoning – that the curriculum they are given feel like they are being handed depressants. And it gets worse as the students progress. Their “Digital Immigrant” teachers know so little about the digital world of their charges – from online gaming to exchanging, sharing, meeting, evaluating, coordinating, programming, searching, customizing and socializing, that it is often impossible for them to design learning in the language and speed their students need and relish, despite their best efforts.
An emerging coalition of academics, writers, foundations, game designers, companies like Microsoft and, increasingly, the U.S. Military is working to make parents and educators aware of the enormous potential for learning contained in the gaming medium. While “edutainment,” may work for pre-schoolers, it is primitive when it comes to the enormous sophistication of today’s games. We need new and better learning games, and these are finally beginning to appear. Microsoft has sponsored a “Games-to-Teach” project at MIT which is building games for learning difficult concepts in physics and environmental science on the X-Box and Pocket PC. Lucas Games has lesson plans to help teachers integrate its games into curricula to teach critical thinking. A UK study by TEEM (Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia) has shown that certain games can help youngsters to learn logical thinking and computer literacy. Given the almost perfect overlap between the profiles of gamers and military recruits, the US Military uses over 50 different video and computer games to teach everything from doctrine, to strategy and tactics. “America’s Army, Operations,” a recruiting game released for free in 2002, now has almost 2 million registered users, with almost a million having completed virtual basic training.
Academic research into the positive effects of games on learning, which not so long ago sat unread on the shelf, is being noticed by national media. Theoretical and practical guides such as “What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy” by Professor of Education James Paul Gee, and my own “Digital Game-Based Learning,” are now on bookshelves. Experts, such as former Stanford CFO William Massey, who created the learning game “Virtual U.” are working with game designers to build games that communicate their knowledge and experience. Foundations like Sloan, Markle and others are funding these efforts. The Woodrow Wilson school has begun a project called “Serious Games” to increase the use of gaming in public policy debates, picking up an effort that begin 10 years ago with “Sim Health” from Maxis.
Yet despite all the findings, research, and cries for help from the kids in school, many parents and educators still tend to think of video and computer games as frivolous at best and harmful at worst. The press often encourages this with headlines about “killing games” when in fact two thirds of the games are rated “E (everybody),” and sixteen of the top 20 sellers are rated either “E” or “T (teen)”. To counteract this “name prejudice,” users and funders of today’s “new” educational games often refer to them by “code” names, such as “Desktop Simulators,” “Synthetic Environments,” or “Immersive Interactive Experiences.”
Yet what these new, highly effective learning tools really are a combination of the most compelling and interactive design elements of the best video and computer games with specific curricular content. The tricky part is doing this in ways that capture, rather than lose, the learner’s interest and attention. We are now becoming much better at this. The money and will is there to do it, and our students are crying for it.
About The Author
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001). Marc is founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites and . Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at . More of Marc’s writings on the positive effects of video games can be found at www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp.
marc@games2train.com
This article was posted on June 14, 2004
Research published by University of Rochester neuroscientists C. Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier has grabbed national attention for suggesting that playing “action” video and computer games has positive effects – enhancing student’s visual selective attention. But that finding is just one small part of a more important message that all parents and educators need to hear: video games are not the enemy, but the best opportunity we have to engage our kids in real learning.
Any observer knows that the attitude of today’s children to video and computer games is the very opposite of the attitude that most of them have toward school. The amount of time they spend playing computer and video games – estimated at 10,000 hours by the time they are twenty-one, often in multi-hour bursts – belies the “short attention span” criticism of educators. And while years ago the group attracted to video and computer games was almost entirely adolescent boys, it is now increasingly girls and all children of all ages and social groups. One would be hard-pressed today to find a kid in America who doesn’t play computer or video games of one sort or another.
What attracts and “glues” kids to today’s video and computer games is neither the violence, or even the surface subject matter, but rather the learning the games provide. Kids, like and all humans, love to learn when it isn’t forced on them. Modern computer and video games provide learning opportunities every second, or fraction thereof.
On the surface, kids learn to do things – to fly airplanes, to drive fast cars, to be theme park operators, war fighters, civilization builders and veterinarians. But on deeper levels they learn infinitely more: to take in information from many sources and make decisions quickly; to deduce a game’s rules from playing rather than by being told; to create strategies for overcoming obstacles; to understand complex systems through experimentation. And, increasingly, they learn to collaborate with others. Many adults are not aware that games have long ago passed out of the single-player isolation shell imposed by lack of networking, and have gone back to being the social medium they have always been – on a worldwide scale. Massively Multiplayer games such as EverQuest now have hundreds of thousands of people playing simultaneously, collaborating nightly in clans and guilds.
Today’s game-playing kid enters the first grade able to do and understand so many complex things – from building, to flying, to reasoning – that the curriculum they are given feel like they are being handed depressants. And it gets worse as the students progress. Their “Digital Immigrant” teachers know so little about the digital world of their charges – from online gaming to exchanging, sharing, meeting, evaluating, coordinating, programming, searching, customizing and socializing, that it is often impossible for them to design learning in the language and speed their students need and relish, despite their best efforts.
An emerging coalition of academics, writers, foundations, game designers, companies like Microsoft and, increasingly, the U.S. Military is working to make parents and educators aware of the enormous potential for learning contained in the gaming medium. While “edutainment,” may work for pre-schoolers, it is primitive when it comes to the enormous sophistication of today’s games. We need new and better learning games, and these are finally beginning to appear. Microsoft has sponsored a “Games-to-Teach” project at MIT which is building games for learning difficult concepts in physics and environmental science on the X-Box and Pocket PC. Lucas Games has lesson plans to help teachers integrate its games into curricula to teach critical thinking. A UK study by TEEM (Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia) has shown that certain games can help youngsters to learn logical thinking and computer literacy. Given the almost perfect overlap between the profiles of gamers and military recruits, the US Military uses over 50 different video and computer games to teach everything from doctrine, to strategy and tactics. “America’s Army, Operations,” a recruiting game released for free in 2002, now has almost 2 million registered users, with almost a million having completed virtual basic training.
Academic research into the positive effects of games on learning, which not so long ago sat unread on the shelf, is being noticed by national media. Theoretical and practical guides such as “What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy” by Professor of Education James Paul Gee, and my own “Digital Game-Based Learning,” are now on bookshelves. Experts, such as former Stanford CFO William Massey, who created the learning game “Virtual U.” are working with game designers to build games that communicate their knowledge and experience. Foundations like Sloan, Markle and others are funding these efforts. The Woodrow Wilson school has begun a project called “Serious Games” to increase the use of gaming in public policy debates, picking up an effort that begin 10 years ago with “Sim Health” from Maxis.
Yet despite all the findings, research, and cries for help from the kids in school, many parents and educators still tend to think of video and computer games as frivolous at best and harmful at worst. The press often encourages this with headlines about “killing games” when in fact two thirds of the games are rated “E (everybody),” and sixteen of the top 20 sellers are rated either “E” or “T (teen)”. To counteract this “name prejudice,” users and funders of today’s “new” educational games often refer to them by “code” names, such as “Desktop Simulators,” “Synthetic Environments,” or “Immersive Interactive Experiences.”
Yet what these new, highly effective learning tools really are a combination of the most compelling and interactive design elements of the best video and computer games with specific curricular content. The tricky part is doing this in ways that capture, rather than lose, the learner’s interest and attention. We are now becoming much better at this. The money and will is there to do it, and our students are crying for it.
About The Author
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001). Marc is founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites and . Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at . More of Marc’s writings on the positive effects of video games can be found at www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp.
marc@games2train.com
This article was posted on June 14, 2004
Playing Baby Computer Games – The New Parent-Child Tradition?
by: Emma Rath
About The Author
The author of this article, Emma Rath, produces free online and purchasable download baby and preschooler software, available at http://www.kiddiesgames.com.
This article was posted on January 07, 2005
Imagine cuddling up with your small child to look at a picture book together that is interactive, musical, responsive and talks to you?
This is the experience that people are having who are engaged in that relatively new pastime – playing computer games with babies.
JumpStart’s Knowledge Adventure calls it “lapware”, Kiddies Games’ logo is “Hop on the lap and tap”, and Sesame Street’s “Baby and Me” opens with an animation of a baby monster hopping onto the lap of a Daddy monster to play the computer. Playing computer games with your baby is being promoted as a fun activity that a child and their caregiver can share together. And rightly so, because whatever the activity, physical, loving closeness is an important ingredient that infants need for healthy intellectual, emotional and physical development.
Reading a bedtime story to a small eager child is a tradition in many homes. As the children get older, this may be replaced by watching TV together. Our parents’ families listened to the radio together. Playing on the computer with a small child may become a new type of family tradition. Home computers and internet are making their way into more and more homes. Some parents use the computer in their work and are delighted to share the computer for a fun activity with their kids. Other parents want to make sure their children become computer literate. Well-designed, interactive, educational computer games engage small children as much as the television and are more educational than TV because they incite the child to interact and think, rather than passively watch and listen. These are the reasons for the increasing popularity of toddler computer software. Although a relatively small industry, software for infants has been cited as being a very fast growing industry.
What type of computer software is available for babies, toddlers and preschoolers? There are free games on websites and there are download and CDROM software that you can buy. Most software for this age group is games, but computer story books also exist. Wonderful websites that offer free games of which many are suitable for preschoolers (preschoolers are able to do directed clicking with the mouse) are:
- http://www.sesamestreet.org/sesamestreet
- http://www.noggin.com
- http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc
- http://www.abc.net.au/children/games
- http://www.meddybemps.com
Great free sites for babies (whose skills tend to be more limited to banging the keyboard) are:
CDROM or download software that you buy is usually better than free internet games. The games are usually superior (more graphics, more music, more involved games for older kids) and the software takes over the entire screen, which is more appropriate for very young children who click anywhere and everywhere on the screen. Some of the well-known producers are:
- Reader Rabbit software from http://www.learningcompany.com
- JumpStart software from http://www.knowledgeadventure.com
- Fisher-Price software from http://www.knowledgeadventure.com
- Sesame Street software from http://www.encoresoftware.com or http://www.amazon.com
- http://www.babywow.com
Computer game softwares for this age group make conscientious efforts to be suitably educational. To judge their effectiveness for your child, try them out with your child. If your child finds that it’s fun, then it’s probably educational. For a baby, fun usually means that the game responds in some way to random keyboard presses and mouse clicks, and that the game continues in a positive way even when no input is forthcoming from the baby. A preschooler will need more of a challenge or more educational content, but the game should be designed to be always fun, reactive in a positive way and self-resolving when the child does not get the correct answer. At this age, it is more important that computer games contribute positively to self-esteem, rather than conscientiously correcting incorrect answers about educational concepts that the child will master when they’re older anyway. The KiddiesGames.com software is meticulous about adhering to these rules.
What types of skills are learned by playing toddler computer games? Obviously, computer software is not suitable for practicing gross motor or even fine motor skills. However, there are many types of educational concepts that computer games can help a child master, including shapes, sounds, cause and effect, identifying and naming things (such as objects and colors), increasing vocabulary, language concepts, the forms of letters and numbers, counting, pattern recognition, detail observation and word construction. At KiddiesGames, we strive to offer games for small children that are out of the ordinary, such as foreign language exposure and practicing the positions on the telephone for dialing emergency. The reactiveness and interactiveness of computer software is, of course, superior to that of books, and can be superior to that of toys, especially in the area of language. Infant computer games are also being cited as excellent resources for children with special education needs, because such games are simple, happy, brightly-colored, patient, controlled by the child and allow the child to make things happen.
An official recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics at http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics%3B107/2/423 is to “Discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing, and reading together.” This has been taken as advice to avoid exposing those young children to the computer. However, well-designed infant software actually encourages those great activities of “talking, playing, singing, and reading together”. By carrying out the play activities proposed by the computer game, the caregiver is actually prompted with a framework or script for carrying out those “talking, playing, singing, and reading” activities with the child. Experts are now saying that while computer games for infants should not replace toys and blocks and books and should not be used as an electronic babysitter, that they are yet another valid toy resource. For example, a summer 2004 newsletter from the Hawaii State Health Department at http://www.hawaii.gov/health/family-child-health/eis/summer2004 encourages playing with lapware. The emphasis is not on acquiring measurable skills or getting correct answers, but is on open-ended exploration on the part of the child – which is another way of saying “having fun”. Children are programmed to learn and practice what they learned by playing and having fun.
Playing computer games with your small child is not yet a family tradition. However, it is an enjoyable, sharing activity that is becoming more and more popular.
About The Author
The author of this article, Emma Rath, produces free online and purchasable download baby and preschooler software, available at http://www.kiddiesgames.com.
This article was posted on January 07, 2005
Great Games You've Never Played
by: Chris Campbell
Do you know what you're missing?
Some of the best computer games ever made are likely games you've never heard of. Created by individuals and small companies working in relative obscurity. They don't have million dollar budgets, some don't even have hundred dollar budgets. They don't have dedicated marketing departments, research analysts, sales teams, fancy offices, and cutting edge tools. They scrape together whatever tools they can, often discarded by the ultra rich game designers of big shiny game studios.
Making Miracles.
In spite of these deplorable working conditions, they create some of the most amazing games around. How do these game gems get created, and who are the miracle workers creating them. They're independent game designers. Sometimes called Indies for short. Working out of their bedrooms, garages, spare offices, and basements. They have a passion for what they do. They love games, they love the act of creation, and are relentlessly committed to their vision of what a game should be. They often build games they themselves would love to play. Simply because no one else will. These kind of games you won't find at the big box electronics store casting it's shadow over your end of town. These passionate Indies could care less what the marketing boys up on the 26th floor have to say about the latest game trends. Probably because their garages don't have 26 floors. They just know their love of games, and how much they enjoy playing.
Where do Indies come from?
Indie game developers come from all different areas. They're often former artists, programmers, or designers of some big name software companies. Maybe that quiet little programmer in that tiny corner cubicle dreams of being an Indie one day. Tired of the corporate rat race, and looking to express themselves creatively they become Indies. Some of been lucky enough to avoid the corporate avenue altogether and make a living doing what they love from the beginning. Regardless of their origins, they all have the passion and desire to create. To be able to put their name on something really great. They want to be recognized for their abilities and worth. But more than that, they want you to play their games, and have fun doing so.
Why are Indie games so good?
Indie games are good first and foremost, because they're fun. It's a game after all, and if it's not fun from the get go, then what's the point. They're also highly original, sometimes mainstream funny, sometimes just weird funny, sometimes morbid, sometimes creepy, and sometimes just downright gross. But, thats OK. Games should be a departure from the everyday. They should make you think in different, fantastic ways. So many big name games are just rehashed ideas done a thousand times before. Another sequel of the same old games from last year. Indie games are adventurous and risky. Indies take chances and devote their time to making something unique. So, take a look around, and try a few, till you discover the one that matches your own bizarre and fantastic interests.
About The Author
Chris Campbell, is that quiet little programmer in the tiny corner cubicle harbouring dreams of an Indie life. He likes to surround himself with his gaming masterpiece and those of other Indies at his website http://www.SunAndGames.com.
This article was posted on January 31, 2005
Do you know what you're missing?
Some of the best computer games ever made are likely games you've never heard of. Created by individuals and small companies working in relative obscurity. They don't have million dollar budgets, some don't even have hundred dollar budgets. They don't have dedicated marketing departments, research analysts, sales teams, fancy offices, and cutting edge tools. They scrape together whatever tools they can, often discarded by the ultra rich game designers of big shiny game studios.
Making Miracles.
In spite of these deplorable working conditions, they create some of the most amazing games around. How do these game gems get created, and who are the miracle workers creating them. They're independent game designers. Sometimes called Indies for short. Working out of their bedrooms, garages, spare offices, and basements. They have a passion for what they do. They love games, they love the act of creation, and are relentlessly committed to their vision of what a game should be. They often build games they themselves would love to play. Simply because no one else will. These kind of games you won't find at the big box electronics store casting it's shadow over your end of town. These passionate Indies could care less what the marketing boys up on the 26th floor have to say about the latest game trends. Probably because their garages don't have 26 floors. They just know their love of games, and how much they enjoy playing.
Indie game developers come from all different areas. They're often former artists, programmers, or designers of some big name software companies. Maybe that quiet little programmer in that tiny corner cubicle dreams of being an Indie one day. Tired of the corporate rat race, and looking to express themselves creatively they become Indies. Some of been lucky enough to avoid the corporate avenue altogether and make a living doing what they love from the beginning. Regardless of their origins, they all have the passion and desire to create. To be able to put their name on something really great. They want to be recognized for their abilities and worth. But more than that, they want you to play their games, and have fun doing so.
Why are Indie games so good?
Indie games are good first and foremost, because they're fun. It's a game after all, and if it's not fun from the get go, then what's the point. They're also highly original, sometimes mainstream funny, sometimes just weird funny, sometimes morbid, sometimes creepy, and sometimes just downright gross. But, thats OK. Games should be a departure from the everyday. They should make you think in different, fantastic ways. So many big name games are just rehashed ideas done a thousand times before. Another sequel of the same old games from last year. Indie games are adventurous and risky. Indies take chances and devote their time to making something unique. So, take a look around, and try a few, till you discover the one that matches your own bizarre and fantastic interests.
About The Author
Chris Campbell, is that quiet little programmer in the tiny corner cubicle harbouring dreams of an Indie life. He likes to surround himself with his gaming masterpiece and those of other Indies at his website http://www.SunAndGames.com.
This article was posted on January 31, 2005
Integrate Fun and Learning with PC Games
by: Steve Hall
Children are always up for a good game. Well, who isn't? Pretend that you are back in school. For the rest of the class period you have two choices as to how you can spend your time. Option #1 is to struggle through endless arithmetic and English worksheets without any feedback except for a stamp that says "Great Job!" Option #2 is to work on the same arithmetic and English content, but on a computer. Yes, you can play a computer game to learn your numbers and verbs. Which option would you choose? Which option would children most likely choose? Option #2 of course!
Using computer software in education is not a new concept. Computer games have been used as a learning tool for the past two decades because they help students with basic skills, logic, problem solving, and various other academic skills. The Oregon Trail was a popular computer game in the 1980's. This game helped students to work on their planning and problem solving skills. If you have ever played that game you might have realized that it was difficult to complete the trail. Everyone in my wagon always died of Cholera.
Parents and educators that are unfamiliar with computer game technology may automatically dismiss the use of computer games for learning. They view computer games as nothing but "shoot 'em up" and mind numbing entertainment. As avid computer gamers we all know that they are way off base. Just think of all the problem solving, logic, and planning that goes into working on a team in a computer game, playing a puzzle, or figuring out a code.
There are computer games that are specifically based around educational learning standards. These games explicitly include counting, grammar, etc. They range from learning software that has a battery of tests to mimic standardized testing to fun, interactive learning games such as Caillou Magic Playhouse. This game allows a child to learn about numbers, patterns, spelling, phonics, and many other skills.
One advantage of using computer games in education is that the student is learning whether they realize it or not. Many children sigh when it is time to work on multiplication, but if you bring out a computer game - poof! They suddenly want to go through their multiplication tables. The computer game presents the same academic material, but makes it fun by integrating colorful animations and cool sounds. Plus, computer games allow for instant feedback and gratification. We have become a society that runs on instant gratification. A computer game can provide this feedback and it can also provide a means of competition. You will be stretched to find a student that wants to "beat" their worksheet, but a child who wants to beat a computer game? You will find them everywhere you look.
Computer games are advertised as forms of entertainment, which they most certainly are, but they are learning avenues as well. Gamers of all ages are learning every time they play a game. For example, there are games that work on your business skills. Games like Lemonade Tycoon and Mall Tycoon are prime examples. You are learning the skills to succeed in a business through simulation. Simulation is how many professionals acquire the skills for their occupation. Even though you are in a computerized environment, you can still come across many different business situations.
Computer software is here to stay. Email will one day override handwritten communication and perhaps games will take over traditional education. Granted games most likely will not take over traditional education, but they should become part of the educational experience. A child is learning while playing a computer game. Their memory and reaction time increases. They are sharpening various parts of their brain. The key is to play a mixture of games that range from pure entertainment to ones that are specifically designed for educational skill sets.
If your child or student is having trouble with math, English or any academic subject, set them up with a computer game. Their interest in learning will soar. Computer games can bring any student that is hesitant about school to learning whether they realize it or not. Computer games make learning fun.
About The Author
Steve is a member of the GrandMatrix team. They provide a broad range of games and puzzle articles and reviews. Read more articles and play the latest PC games for free plus thousands of user submitted puzzles, quizzes and word games at: http://www.grandmatrix.com.
This article was posted on August 1, 2005
Children are always up for a good game. Well, who isn't? Pretend that you are back in school. For the rest of the class period you have two choices as to how you can spend your time. Option #1 is to struggle through endless arithmetic and English worksheets without any feedback except for a stamp that says "Great Job!" Option #2 is to work on the same arithmetic and English content, but on a computer. Yes, you can play a computer game to learn your numbers and verbs. Which option would you choose? Which option would children most likely choose? Option #2 of course!
Using computer software in education is not a new concept. Computer games have been used as a learning tool for the past two decades because they help students with basic skills, logic, problem solving, and various other academic skills. The Oregon Trail was a popular computer game in the 1980's. This game helped students to work on their planning and problem solving skills. If you have ever played that game you might have realized that it was difficult to complete the trail. Everyone in my wagon always died of Cholera.
There are computer games that are specifically based around educational learning standards. These games explicitly include counting, grammar, etc. They range from learning software that has a battery of tests to mimic standardized testing to fun, interactive learning games such as Caillou Magic Playhouse. This game allows a child to learn about numbers, patterns, spelling, phonics, and many other skills.
One advantage of using computer games in education is that the student is learning whether they realize it or not. Many children sigh when it is time to work on multiplication, but if you bring out a computer game - poof! They suddenly want to go through their multiplication tables. The computer game presents the same academic material, but makes it fun by integrating colorful animations and cool sounds. Plus, computer games allow for instant feedback and gratification. We have become a society that runs on instant gratification. A computer game can provide this feedback and it can also provide a means of competition. You will be stretched to find a student that wants to "beat" their worksheet, but a child who wants to beat a computer game? You will find them everywhere you look.
Computer games are advertised as forms of entertainment, which they most certainly are, but they are learning avenues as well. Gamers of all ages are learning every time they play a game. For example, there are games that work on your business skills. Games like Lemonade Tycoon and Mall Tycoon are prime examples. You are learning the skills to succeed in a business through simulation. Simulation is how many professionals acquire the skills for their occupation. Even though you are in a computerized environment, you can still come across many different business situations.
Computer software is here to stay. Email will one day override handwritten communication and perhaps games will take over traditional education. Granted games most likely will not take over traditional education, but they should become part of the educational experience. A child is learning while playing a computer game. Their memory and reaction time increases. They are sharpening various parts of their brain. The key is to play a mixture of games that range from pure entertainment to ones that are specifically designed for educational skill sets.
If your child or student is having trouble with math, English or any academic subject, set them up with a computer game. Their interest in learning will soar. Computer games can bring any student that is hesitant about school to learning whether they realize it or not. Computer games make learning fun.
About The Author
Steve is a member of the GrandMatrix team. They provide a broad range of games and puzzle articles and reviews. Read more articles and play the latest PC games for free plus thousands of user submitted puzzles, quizzes and word games at: http://www.grandmatrix.com.
This article was posted on August 1, 2005
