VideoGamerz

A Salute to Sega: SG-1000

2010-03-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

What!? I bet you thought the first Sega System was Master System. But no, it's this obscure console that took place in the 2nd generation. It was released only in Japan in 1983 on the same day the Ninetendo Famicom was released. It was very unsuccessful.

A Salute To Atari, Part III: Atari 5200

2009-05-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Atari 5200, released in 1982, was amazing for its time. The system had four controller ports, and also featured a new controller with a joystick, number buttons, two buttons on each side of the controller and buttons for Start, Pause, and Reset. The Atari 5200 was originally called the Atari Video System X and was codenamed Pam after a woman working at Atari. The Atari 5200 did poorly because of its inability to games for the Atari 2600, although an adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games.
Another problem was that Atari mostly focused on the Atari 2600. The 5200 had a lot of design mistakes, and the system is generally considered to have been poor.

Next Up, the Atari 7800!

A Satute to Atari: Part II: VCS/ 2600

2009-04-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

Who couldn't like the Atari 2600? The joystick, lots of fun games....Although the 2600 isn't all glitz and glamor. One game, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, was so bad that it is blamed for the market crash and thousands of copies were buried in a New Mexico landfill. Although others, like Pitfall, have had sequels and became successful.

The joystick is simple, with one button only. It plugs into the back of the system.

The four switches next to the cartridge turn the power on, reset the game, choose between a black and white or color TV, and select the game. Complex!

Atari also made the 2600 Jr., which made the cartridges look huge.

Cool, huh? For a system from the '70's I mean. Would you rather have a 360 or PS3 or 2600?

It was one of Atari's best and most famous systems, and it still lives on, because people make homebrew for it and play it. I have an old one in my garage. Maybe I should play it?

Up next, A Salute to Atari: Part III: Atari 5200!

A Salute to Atari: Part I: Pong

2008-11-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

Pong, the simple tennis game. In 1972, it was popular, one of the most popular games in that time. Now, Mario is more popular than everything, so Atari can just barf in a gym sock.

Pong was the first game developed by Atari, founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and some other guy. Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games. Prior to working at Atari, Allan Alcorn, a colleague of Bushnell's, had no experience with video games. Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract from General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping. The project was inspired by a game included in the Magnavox Odyssey—the first video game console. In May 1972, Bushnell visited the Magnavox Profit Caravan where he played the Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis game.

Then, Alcorn did something, and Pong came out. It was popular, but the 2600 killed it off. Oh, well. Then that console version came out in 1973, so you didn't have to waste quarters to play Pong. But you did have to spend money on it, so...aw, forget this.

It is in lots of references, like in Wall-E, when he plays Pong with EVE but she is in standby mode, or in an episode of King of the Hill where Peggy and Bobby get obsessed with the game. So, Atari succeeded, but Nintendo had a far more dangerous weapon... the Color TV game. It wasn't successful, but it provided Atari's first competition. But, when Sega and PlayStation came out, Atari had to have a little funeral for making game systems. Serves 'em right for messing with the powerful, cool people, which they were not. Anyway, Pong is still cool...in a lame way.

The History of Home Consoles

2008-11-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

The history of home consoles... how could I refuse?

It was kicked off in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey. It was the world's first home console, and even though it didn't do very good, it still encouraged others to make consoles. Nolan Bushnell founded Atari and soon made Pong, a legend today. In 1976, the Fairchild VES was released. It was the first console where the games weren't just "inside" the system; you had to buy them seperately. This made Atari start making the 2600, or VCS. It outsold the Fairchild soon. In 1979, some Atari employees broke away from the company to form Activision, which was the first third party game company. Mattel's Intellivision was tough competition for Atari, but it kicked Mattel's butts. Then, the game crash in 1983 occured. After that, Nintendo, an arcade games only company, made their first console, the Famicom, aka NES. Super Mario Bros. came out for it, and side-scrolling games became popular. It soon went on to become the best selling game of all time. Some harsh competition came from Sega's Master System, and even though it was successful, it couldn't beat Nintendo. In 1987, the NEC TurboGrafx 16 was released, the first 16 bit console. But Sega and Nintendo's bitter rivalry, known as the Console Wars, knocked NEC out of the market, due to the popularity of the two companies. Franchises, like Mortal Kombat and Sonic the Hedgehog, were popular on Sega's consoles. Sonic was an offer for a cooler mascot than Mario. The Game Boy was released in 1989, and Nintendo entered the handheld market. In 1993, PCs were becoming powerful enough to be game consoles. But in 1994, Nintendo and Sega were threatened by the newcomer: The PlayStation. Sony had stolen the game console market from Sega and Nintendo. Nintendo's N64 still used cartridges, which seemed "old" and out of style, and discs were becoming the primary storage method for game consoles. The N64 was the last console to use cartridges. Atari's Jaguar, released in 1993, was supposedly the first 64-bit console, but it wasn't popular and turned out to be Atari's last console. In 1998, the Sega Dreamcast was released, starting the 128-bit era. But Sega couldn't beat the PlayStation 2. Most [normal] people would rather have a PlayStation than a Sega console. The little console sold just enough units to stay in the market, but that changed when the Xbox and GameCube were released. It was too much for Sega , and they discontinued it later that year. The Dreamcast was Sega's last console. The Xbox, made by Microsoft, a major computer company, was their first console. A notable launch title was Halo: Combat Evolved, which was considered the "killer app" for the console. It was impressive with great graphics, sound, and controls. Later that year, Nintendo released the GameCube. It wasn't as successful as the Xbox or PS2, but it was powerful, compact, and played Game Boy games, which were popular at the time. The DS and PSP were released in 2004, starting a new era. It's just called "generation seven." What happened to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6? Oh well. Then, in 2005, the Xbox 360 was released, making it the first generation seven console. Then, in 2006, the PS3 came out, followed by the Wii. The Wii is beating both in sales, so Nintendo must be pretty happy up there in their diamond tower.

Well, that's the history of game consoles. Next up, see A Salute to Atari: Part I: Pong! Now you go bye bye goo goo ga ga--zip.

A Salute to Nintendo: Part VIII: Other Miscellaneous Nintendos that Nintendo never Bothered to tell anyone About!

2008-10-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Who hasn't heard of Nintendo? But there are two of Nintendo's lesser consoles: the iQue and the Virtual Boy! First, the Virtual Boy...

To play the Virtual Boy, (takeoff on Game Boy? No idea.) the user looks into an eyepiece on the front, and then a projector allows viewing of the red image. Only red? Hey, it was old, virtual reality sucked! It was released 1995 in Japan and 1995 in North America at a price of around $180. It had a negative reception that was unaffected by continued price drops, which means that it didn't stink, but it didn't suck. Nintendo discontinued it the following year. The Virtual Boy is considered Nintendo's only failure in the video game market.

The controller is cool in a lame way. It's like a big M, like the Nintendo 64's controller. It has two D-pads, Select and Start buttons, and A and B buttons, along with L and R buttons, more like triggers.

It was like looking into 3D glasses and watching a movie: one eye got red, the other blue. If you look at the picture next to you, (left, idiot), you'd see that some parts are red, and some are blue. With both eyes in the goggle things, it appears to be 3D. But it was not successful, because of the competition. Wolud you rather have a Virtual Boy, or a Genesis or Super NES? I know the answer already.

Now, let's learn about the iQue...

It's like a controller, pretty much. It is a controller. It plugs into the TV. It is only available in China.
Games are stored on a flash card that plugs directly into controller. Games are purchased at a special "iQue depot" that can be at convenience stores or supermarkets where games cany be downloaded onto your cartridge and played later.
Only 14 games were ever realeased for the iQue, but that was on purpose. There are 14 classic N64 games for it:

Wave Race 64
Star Fox 64

Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Mario Kart 64
F-Zero X
Yoshi's Story
Paper Mario
Excite Bike 64
Super Smash Bros.

Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth
Animal Crossing
Dr. Mario 64
Custom Robo

If you had all of those for the iQue, you'd get sick of it pretty fast, especially if some of the games are cruddy. I guess that's why it didn't do very well.

Well, there is another two consoles! The Game and Watch and the Color TV Game. Click on the names to see the Wikipedia page for them.

Well, that's it for A Salute to Nintendo.

But still read my blog! Please! That will be all. Siegel out.

A Salute to Nintendo: Part VII: Wii

2008-10-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

WHO-HOO!!! The Wii! Since I have one, I know all about it! It is so awesome, and here's why!

Well, it also plays GameCube games, if you have a controller and memory card. Along with Wii and GameCube games, it can also play Genesis, NES, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Turbo Grafx 16, and Master System games via the Wii Shop Channel, an online service that lets you play certain games. The true way to enjoy the Wii is with its 3 main controllers: The Wiimote, the Nunchuk, and the Classic controller. Let us learn more about these...

The Wii remote (left) is one of the most vital of the Wii's controllers. Its motion sensing and pointer function is one of the major functions of the Wiimote. On the top left is a Power button, which lets you (obviously) turn the console on and off. Below that is a 4-way D-pad. On the front below that, an A button, and on the back of the controller, a B button, or trigger. Below A are 3 buttons: the minus button, the Home Menu button, then the plus button. Below that, a 1 and 2 button, followed by the Player LED and the controller port. And, of course, there's a wrist strap.

Now, for playing Virtual Console (below) and some WiiWare (belower than Virtual Console) games, with some Wii games, you gotta have this. It can let you...uh, do stuff. In the bottom, there are 2 control sticks. Above those are the Select, Start, and Home buttons. To the left of that is the D-pad. To the right is the a, b, x, and y buttons. On the top are the L, ZL, R, and ZR buttons. The middle button doesn't do anything.

The Nunchuk is another attachment to the Wiimote. It features a control stick, and the C (top) and Z (bottom) buttons. It also has motion-sensing, but to a leeser extent than the Wiimote. It is mainly used so that a control stick can be used in games, because today most games are 3D. It's not the Nunchuk that you kill people with, but it's just called that, go ask Nintendo, not me.

Ah, WiiWare and Virtual Console. Let's talk about these. You buy them with Wii Points.

WiiWare is pretty much Wii games

that were put onto the Wii Shop Channel.

They sometimes use the Classic Controller,

though not always. Some use the Wiimote

and Nunchuk, or the GameCube controller.
They are usually 500-1500 Wii Points.

Virtual console games are classic games from

older consoles, like Super Mario Bros.

and Sonic the Hedgehog. They can be from the

NES, Super Nintendo, Genesis,

Turbo Grafx 16, Nintendo 64, and Master System.

They are usually 500-1000 Wii Points.

It also comes with a game, Wii Sports. It lets you play five sports: Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. You use the Wii remote as a tennis racquet, baseball bat, bowling ball, golf club, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as boxing gloves. It lets you use Miis (below) as sports players competing in events. It's pretty fun.

There are also these Avatars you can make of yourself called Miis. They are mainly used as playable characters, ex. Guitar Hero World Tour, Wii Sports, save icons, ex. Super Mario Galaxy

Well, that's about all with the Wii that I have to talk about. Coming up next the final installment in the A Salute to Nintendo series, Other Miscellaneous Consoles that Nintendo Never Bothered to tell Anyone About!

See you again next time!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part VII: Nintendo GameCube

2008-10-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

The GameCube! A Cube...that plays games. Because of being tiny, cute, and being able to play Game Boy games, it ended up being popular, though not as popular as the PS2 or Xbox. Let's learn more about this GameCube...

The GameCube controller has a wing grip design, and is designed to fit well in the player's hands. The primary analog stick is on the left, and the Start button is next to it. Below it is the D-pad. On the right is a set of four buttons: in the middle, a green A button, to the left of that, a red B button, to the right, a gray X button, and above that, another gray button, the Y button. On the top are 3 shoulder buttons: L, R, and Z. The Z button is blue, and L and R are gray. The Z button is in front of the R button.

The console itself is, well, a cube. On the top, there are 3 buttons: On the top left is the Power button, below that is the Reset button, and on the right is the Eject button. In the back, there is a handle, which can be used to carry the console around. Not much else, unless you want to hang it off of a clothes hanger. In the front are four controller ports, indicated by dots, like this:

. .. ... ....

O O O O

Below that are the memory card slots. On the bottom of the Cube there are plugs used to plug in the Game Boy Player peripheral. What's a Game Boy Player? Let's find out!

Pretty, much, it just lets you play Game Boy games on a TV.
A special Game Boy Player for the Panasonic Q (below) was released because the Q's legs are placed differently than the original GameCube's. All Game Boy Players have screws on the bottom to secure it to the bottom of the GameCube and also have an eject button on the right side for removing Game Boy Advance games. Game Boy and Game Boy Color games stick out from the unit, so they can just be pulled out when the system is off or Change Cartridge has been selected from the menu.

Now, what the heck is a Panasonic Q? It's a GameCube that can play DVDs, CDs, MP3 as well as several other features. The system was officially released only in Japan. Since the GameCube couldn't play DVDs, a feature its competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had, the system was licensed by Nintendo and was released in December 2001 in Japan only. Nintendo's decision to license the gaming technology to Panasonic is a result of the deal broken between Matsushita (owners of Panasonic and makers of the

GameCube discs) and Nintendo. When Nintendo signed Matsushita as the producer of the optical disc drives that power the GameCube, an agreement was struck allowing Matsushita to produce a DVD system able to play GameCube games.
Other features of the Q include a backlit LCD, a front-loading slot disc tray, an optical sound output supporting Dolby Digital 5.1, and a stainless steel chassis. The Q is capable of installing all of the GameCube hardware upgrades; however, because of the legs on the bottom, it requires a special Panasonic Q Game Boy Player unit designed specifically for it.

What about the discs, they were tiny. On the picture below, on the left is a GameCube Disc, on the right a Wii disc. They were very tiny, but hey, would you rather have a giant heavy cube, or a small, compact, easy to carry one? I think I know the answer. The GameCube Game Disc was criticized for its small storage, because some games with large amounts of data have needed to be on two discs, reducing their quality. Prior to the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo consoles usually used cartridges.

For the Wii, Nintendo extended the technology to use a full size DVD-based disc, enabling it to have the benefits of the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc, while having the standard capacity of a DVD-ROM. Although the Wii can use double-layer discs, all titles were single-layer up until the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. With the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo has admitted that some Wii systems may have trouble reading dual-layer discs due to a dirty laser lens. Nintendo is repairing systems with dual-layer problems.

Well, well, well, looks loike our time is up with the GameCube. But next, the mother of Nintendo consoles, the most popular console right now, the Wii! Keep on following my blog for the Wii post! When we meet again...I don't know.

:-)

Console of the Week: PlayStation 2

2008-10-25T08:32:00.001-07:00

The Console of the Week! PlayStation 2! The period button on my keyboard is jammed!
Oh, wait. There it is. I'm giving the console of the week to the PlayStation 2 because of its wide library of games, something else, and that thing in the middle there. Eww... oh, well!

If you'd please look up at the PlayStation 2, You'd better...that Playstation logo that you see on the front can turn 90 degrees, so that it'll look good when it's horizantal and vertical. Next to that is the Power button. Below that and to the left, there are two USB ports, for microphones and other accessories. Above those is the eject button. Left of the eject button are the two memory card slots, and below those are the controller ports.

Speaking ( no wait... writing? Reading? Aw, nuts to this!) of the controller, called the DualShock 2, it is interesting.

Look above at the controller. It has two analog sticks at the bottom, and in between those is the analog button. Above that are the Select and Start buttons. Left of those is the D-pad. To the far right is the face buttons:

From Left to Right:
X, Circle, Square, Triangle

On the top there are 4 shoulder buttons: L1 and L2 on the left, and R1 and R2 on the right.

The PlayStation 2 is the Best-selling game console of all time, so get out your credit cards and go to Best Buy to make it even more, and knock off the competition. Thank you all for reading! See you next week!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part V: Nintendo 64

2008-10-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Nintendo 64, the beginning of 3d games for Nintendo consoles. Even though it uses cartridges, the lamest storage type of video games, it was still awesome. Was. It isn't right now.

Now, what's up with that title, 64? If you were a video game expert, you'd know that the 32/64 bit era was in the mid-90's. It was a 64 bit console...very ::sarcasm:: creative. The developers must have been ffeling lazy. Now, what about the N64's (let's call it that)

history? Well... it was originally called the Ultra 64 or in Japan, Ultra Famicom. It's code name was Project Reality. Why the moniker? I don't care. Today I'm too lazy to do research.

One of the launch titles was Super Mario 64. Probably one of the greatest games ever, and at least I know a thing or two about it.

Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer, the first one in the Mario series, where the player controls Mario through several courses (but no Luigi...crud!) Each course is a little world in which the player is free to wander about in all directions and discover the environment without time limits. The worlds are filled with enemies that attack Mario as well as friendly creatures that offer information, or ask a favor (such as pink Bob-omb Buddies). The player looks for stars in each course; some stars only appear after completing certain tasks, like beating a boss, solving puzzles, racing an opponent, and grabbing coins. As more stars are collected, more areas of the castle become opened.
Some courses have special cap power-ups which augment Mario's abilities. The Wing Cap lets Mario fly; the Metal Cap makes him immune to most damage, allows him to withstand wind, walk underwater, and be unaffected by gases; and the Vanish Cap makes him partially invisible and allows him to walk through some stuff, as well as invincible to some forms of damage. Some courses have cannons that Mario can access by speaking to a Bob-

omb Buddy. After entering a cannon, Mario can be shot out to reach places he couldn't normally access. When the player has the Wing Cap, cannons can be used to reach high altitudes or fly across most levels quickly. Oh, and there's a lot of awesome stuff he can do, too! You can make Mario walk, run, crouch, crawl, swim, climb, and jump using the game controller's control stick and buttons. Special jumps, like a double and triple jump, the long jump, and the backflip can be done by pressing combinations of buttons. There are also special moves, such as wall jumping; jumping from one wall to another in to reach areas that would be too high.

But enough about freakin' launch titles. Lets get to the N64 stuff!

Nintendo noted several advantages for making the N64 cartridge-based. ROM cartridges have very fast load times compared to disc-based games, as CD-ROM drives rarely had speeds above 4x. This can be observed from the loading screens that appear in many Sony PlayStation games but are typically non-existent in N64 versions. ROM carts were so much faster than the 2x CD-ROM drives in other consoles that developers could stream data in real-time off them. Also, ROM cartridges are difficult and expensive to duplicate, thus making it harder for piracy. Compared to the N64, there was a lot of piracy on the PlayStation. The cartridges are also far more durable than compact discs, which must be carefully used and stored in protective cases. It also prevents accidental scratches and read errors from dust and dirt. Whoo hoo! now the bad stuff about cartridges!

While game cartridges are more resistant than CDs to physical damage, they are sometimes less resistant to environmental damage, particularly wear of their electrical thingies inside causing a blank or frozen screen, or static electricity (KA-BOOM!!!). Console cartridges are usually larger and heavier than optical discs and take up more room to store. They also have a more complex manufacturing process, which meant that games were usually more expensive than their optical versions. The cartridges held a maximum of 64 MB of data, where CDs held over 650 MB. As games became more complex in content, sound, and graphics, it pushed cartridges to the limits of their storage capacity. Games ported from other consoles had to reduce content in order to be released on the N64. Extremely large games could be made on multiple discs on CD systems, while cartridge games had to be contained within one unit since using an additional cartridge was expensive (and was never tried).

The controller for the Nintendo 64 could be held in several different positions. It could be held by the two outer grips, allowing use of the D-pad, face buttons and the L and R shoulder buttons (but not the Z trigger or analog stick). It could be also held by the center and right grip, allowing the use of the analog stick, the face buttons, the R shoulder button, and the Z trigger on the rear (but not the L shoulder button or D-pad). More often than the analog stick was not used in games, the analog stick was used in games while in some, both the analog stick and directional pad could be interchangeable. Very few games used the directional pad exclusively; two examples are Tetrisphere and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
The controller also included four C buttons, which were yellow and originally intended to control the camera in the N64's 3D environments. However, since the controller only contained three other face buttons, the C-buttons often became assigned to functions. An example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which I own for the Wii Virtual Console, where the C-buttons can be assigned to secondary items and the Z-trigger is used to move the camera.

Well, that's about it for the Nintendo 64. See you next time for A Salute to Nintendo: Part VI: Nintendo GameCube! Thanks for reading!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part IV: Super Nintendo

2008-10-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

Most of you have heard of a Super Nintendo. It's a Nintendo... but super. It was released in 1990, and even though it was released later than the Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafx-16, it outsold both of them. Now, it had stiff competition against Sega in what was called the console wars.

At first, the Sega Genesis competed against the NES, and it had superior sound and better graphics than it. Despite this, the Mega Drive was ignored in Japan. Some positive information came out of magazines, but Sega shipped under one million units in the first year. In order to sell more units, Sega tried some risky moves, including creating an online banking system and answering machine called the Sega Anser and several peripherals and games. The Mega Drive remained a distant third in Japan behind the Super NES and NEC's Turbo Grafx 16 throughout the era.

It was an instant success: Nintendo's initial shipment sold out within hours. With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the console market. Nintendo's success was partially due to its retention of most of its key third-party developers from its earlier system, including Capcom, Konami, and Tecmo.

Sega of America instituted a two-part approach to build sales in that region. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis, summarized by the slogan "Genesis does what Nintendon't". The second part, since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, involved creating a library of instantly-recognizable titles by contracting with celebrities and athletes to produce games using their names and likenesses; Joe Montana Football and others stemmed from this initiative. Nevertheless, it had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's presence in the consumer's home.

All versions of the SNES are gray, although the shade may differ. The original North American version has a boxy design with purple sliding switches and a dark gray eject lever. The Japanese and European versions are more rounded, with darker gray accents and buttons. All versions have a top-loading slot for game cartridges, although the shape of the slot differs between regions to match the different shapes of the cartridges.

The SNES controller adds two additional buttons to the design of the NES controller, arranging the four in a diamond shape, and has two shoulder buttons. The Japanese and PAL region versions incorporate the system's logo in the colors of the four action buttons, while the North American version colors them lavender and purple to match the redesigned console and gives the lighter two a concave rather than convex top. Several later consoles have elements of their controller design from the SNES, including the PlayStation, PS2, PS3, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube Game Boy Player, NES 2, and Wii (Classic Controller).

49 million SNES units were sold worldwide, with 23 million of those units sold in the Americas. Although it could not repeat the success of the NES, which sold 61 million units worldwide, the Super NES was the best-selling console of its era. The Genesis came in second with 29 million sold worldwide, and the TurboGrafx-16 was third with 10 million sold worldwide.

Well, even with lots of competition, it was pretty good! You can't mess with Nintendo! :-)

Coming up next, the first Nintendo console with a control stick, the Nintendo 64! Also, it has most of the first 3D games for Zelda, Mario, and other Nintendo series! Stay Tuned!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part III: Nintendo Entertainment System

2008-10-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Now, who wants to know about Nintendo's first console? The NES, aka Famicom in Japan, is currently Nintendo's most successful console, with 61.91 million units sold. If you have a Wii, you have to go on over to the Wii Shop Channel and download NES/Famicom until your credit card is empty! (It's your choice)

If you want to know the history of this thing, read on!

Following a series of arcade games in the 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce a console. The Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) was slow to become popular; a bad chip set caused the first release of the system to crash. Following a recall and a reissue with a better motherboard, the Famicom’s popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. Encouraged by these successes, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the North American market. Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom under Atari’s name as the name Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System; however, this deal eventually fell apart. Plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller, and a special cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never happened.
In 1985, Nintendo revealed its American version of the Famicom . It rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on October 18, 1985, following up with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year. Nintendo simultaneously released eighteen launch titles.
In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Distribution in region B, consisting of most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy), was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases; most of region B saw a 1986 release. Mattel handled distribution for region A, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, starting the following year. Not until 1990 did Nintendo’s newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe. Despite the system’s lackluster performance outside of Japan and North America, by 1990 the NES had outsold all previously released consoles worldwide.

For its North American release in 1985, the NES was released in two different "bundles". The console deck itself was identical, but each bundle was packaged with different game paks and accessories. The first of these sets, the Control Deck, retailed from $199.99, and included the console itself, two game controllers, and a Super Mario Bros. game cartridge. The second bundle, the Deluxe Set, retailed for $249.99, and consisted of the console, a R.O.B. accessory, an NES Zapper gun, and two game paks: Duck Hunt and Gyromite.
For the remainder of the NES's lifespan in North America, Nintendo frequently repackaged the console in new configurations to capitalize on newer accessories or popular game titles. Subsequent bundle packages included the NES Action Set, released in November 1988 for $149.99, which replaced both of the earlier two sets, and included the console, the NES Zapper, two game controllers, and a multicart version of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. The Action Set became the most successful of the packages released by Nintendo. One month later, in December 1988, to coincide with the release of the Power Pad floor mat controller, Nintendo released a new Power Set bundle, consisting of the console, the Power Pad, the NES Zapper, two controllers, and a multicart containing Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and World Class Track Meet. In 1990, a Sports Set bundle was released, including the console, an NES Satellite infrared wireless multitap adapter, four game controllers, and a multicart featuring Super Spike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup.
Two more bundle packages were released using the original model NES console. The Challenge Set included the console, two controllers, and a Super Mario Bros. 3 game pak. The Basic Set, first released in 1987, included only the console and two controllers with no pack-in cartridge. Instead, it contained a book called the The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which contained detailed information for every NES game made up to that point. Finally, the redesigned NES 2 was released as part of the final Nintendo-released bundle package, once again under the name Control Deck, including the new style NES 2 console, and one redesigned "dogbone" game controller. Released in October 1993, this final bundle retailed for US$49.99, and remained in production until the discontinuation of the NES in 1995.

The game controller used for both the NES and the Famicom featured a brick-like design with a simple four button layout: two round buttons labeled B and A, a START button, and a SELECT button. Also, the controllers had a D-pad, designed by Nintendo for the Game & Watch, to replace the bulkier joysticks on earlier gaming consoles’ controllers.
The original model Famicom featured two game controllers, both of which were hardwired to the back of the console. The second controller lacked the START and SELECT buttons, but featured a small microphone. Relatively few games made use of this feature. The earliest produced Famicom units initially had square A and B buttons. This was changed to the circular designs because of the square buttons being caught in the controller casing when pressed down, and glitches within the hardware causing the system to freeze sometimes while playing a game.

Also, unlike the Famicom, the controllers included with the NES were identical to each other—the second controller lacked the microphone that was present on the Famicom model, and had the same START and SELECT buttons as the regular controller.
Recently, the original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the system. Nintendo has mimicked the look of the controller in several recent products, from promotional merchandise to limited edition versions of the Game Boy Advance SP and Game Boy Micro handheld game consoles.

When Nintendo released the NES in the United States, the design styling was deliberately different from that of other game consoles. Nintendo wanted to distinguish its product from those of competitors, and to avoid the generally poor reputation that game consoles had acquired following the video game crash of 1983. One result of this philosophy was a front-loading zero insertion force cartridge socket designed to resemble the front-loading mechanism of a VCR. The connector and the cartridges were clean and the pins on the connector were new. Unfortunately, the connector was not truly zero insertion force. When a user inserted the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge down and into place bent the contact pins slightly, as well as pressing the cartridge’s ROM board back into the cartridge itself. Repeated insertion and removal of cartridges caused the pins to wear out pretty quick, and the ZIF design proved far more prone to interference by dirt and dust. Add-ons like the popular Game Genie cheat cartridge tended to further exaggerate this problem by bending the front-loading mechanism during gameplay.

Well, I hope you liked it! Next up, A Salute to Nintendo: Part IV: Super Nintendo

A Salute to Nintendo: Part II: Game Boy line

2008-10-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

So...A handheld console by Nintendo? Not a small console, one screen,
big cartridges...at first it seems kinda cruddy. But then you find out that it's a Game Boy...you immediately think of good things. Why? Maybe because it was popular, or the only good handheld, because the Atari Lynx sucked like a baby on a pacifier. But the Game Gear provided healthy competition. The Game Boy is a success...too bad it's discontinued now. Well, that's what you get for competing against the DS!

Anyway, The Game Boy's controls for playing games are located on the lower half of its front frame. The Game Boy has four buttons called A, B, Select, and Start as well as a d-pad. The functions of these buttons vary from game to game. There is a volume control dial on the right side of the handheld. The on-off switch is located at the top of the Game Boy in which the player can slide to turn the system on or off. The slot for the Game Boy cartridges (called Game Paks by Nintendo) is located on top of the system. To play a game, the person puts the cartridge into the Game Boy and then turns the power on. Normally,the cartridge is left in the system when the system is off as recommended by Nintendo to prevent dust and dirt from entering the system. On the right side is an external connector port that allows a user to connect to another Game Boy system with a link cable, but only if both people are playing the same game. The port can also be used to connect a Game Boy Printer. The link cable was originally designed for players to play head to head two–player games like in Tetris.

When it was released in 1989, the Atari Lynx was also just being introduced. This system featured color graphics, a backlit screen, and networking capabilities. But its release price of $179.99 and the requirement of 6 AA batteries that would provide about only four or five hours of gameplay doomed it. Nintendo also experienced heavy competition from Sega's Game Gear. To promote its new color console, Sega aired a number of negative but unsuccessful ad campaigns in the United States that criticized the Game Boy. Like the Lynx, it required six AA batteries that only lasted about 4-6 hours and was much more expensive than the Game Boy. The Game Gear had the advantage of being fully compatible (with an adapter) with all Sega Master System games and, while not as successful as the Game Boy, it sold from 1991 until 1997.

The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new and much more complex system of playing, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest version, the Game Boy Pocket, was not good enough. The result product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld console system, and played the large library of games of the Game Boy. This became an awesome feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a larger library than any of its competition.

Transparent cartridges are designed for and only work with the Game Boy Color or the Game Boy Advance. Black cartridges are designed for the Game Boy Color and will also work on previous systems, because they have a similar design to the original gray Game Boy cartridges. The black cartridges can be easily identified from the gray ones. The European and American releases of the Pokémon games have different color cartridges.

The Game Boy Advance handheld video game console was developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color.
"Allowing similar to SNES standard games-playing to be played in the palm of your hand"—a description that more closely matches the Game Boy Advance.

In early 2003, Nintendo introduced a new Game Boy Advance, with an internal front-light that can be turned on or off, a rechargeable battery, as well as a folding case about half the original size. It was designed to address some common complaints with the original Game Boy Advance which was criticized for being uncomfortable, especially due to an overly dark screen. The Game Boy Advance SP also came with a new and much brighter screen for improved gameplay.
Around the same time as the release of the Game Boy Micro, Nintendo released a new version of the SP in North America, which was called the Game Boy Advance SP Plus. The switch that controls the light now goes between "normal" and "bright," an intense brightness level similar to a TV.

In 2005, Nintendo released a second redesign of the Game Boy Advance. This model, called the Game Boy Micro, is similar in style to the original Game Boy Advance's horizontal orientation, but is much smaller and sleeker. The Game Boy Micro also allows the user an ability to switch between several colored faceplates to allow customization, a feature which Nintendo advertised heavily around the Game Boy Micro's launch. Nintendo also hoped that this "fashion" feature will help target audiences outside of typical video game players, much like its new Wii. Unlike the previous Game Boy Advance models, Game Boy Micro can't support Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles, which sucks. The Game Boy Micro did not make much of an impact in the video game market, as it was beaten by Nintendo's other portable, the Nintendo DS, as well as Sony's portable system, the PSP. So, wah, wah, boo hoo, discontinuation! FART!

Well, now that you know about the *cough*boring*cough* Game Boy, Stay tuned! coming tomorrow: Console of the Week and A Salute to Nintendo Part III: The Original Nintendo!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part I: Nintendo DS

2008-10-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The first installment of a Salute to Nintendo, uh, thingies. 3 out of 5 kids have a DS. I bet 4 out of five kids don't know this, the fifth being me! Enjoy!

In 2003, Nintendo announced that it would be creating a new console. On January 20, 2004, the console was announced under the codename "Nintendo DS". Nintendo released very few details at that time, only saying that the console would have two separate LCD screens, separate processors, and up to 1 gigabit of memory. In March, the codename was changed to "Nitro" and a document containing most of the console's technical stuff was leaked. In May, the codename was changed back to "Nintendo DS" and the console was shown at E3. All of the features of the console were released by Nintendo at E3. Also, the codename "Nintendo DS" became the official name of the console.

The Nintendo DS has a resemblance to Nintendo's first handheld console, the Game & Watch, specifically the multi-screen versions such as Donkey Kong.
Nintendo announced that the Nintendo DS would be released in North America on November 21, 2004 for $149.99. It was set to release on December 2, 2004 in Japan and 2005 in Europe and Australia. The console was released in North America with a midnight launch event at Universal CityWalk EB Games (that's where I got my Wii!) in Los Angeles, California. The console was launched quietly in Japan compared to the North America launch. In January 2005, the Australia release date of February 24, 2005 and the Europe release date of March 11, 2005 were announced.

Also new on the DS agenda, the Nintendo DSi! Read to find out more...

Nintendo has announced that it will be thinner than the DS Lite. The new handheld will contain two cameras, larger screens, and improved speakers. The power switch was replaced with a power button, as the original DS had, now located next to the bottom left side of the touch screen. A new SD card slot will be for storage of pictures and downloaded software. The front slot for Game Boy Advance cartridges will be removed, thus removing the unit's backward compatibility and its compatibility with accessories that require the GBA slot. The DSi will have its own internal flash memory and will ship with a built-in web browser. Photos can be sent to the Wii's Photo Channel. It is possible to download games from an online store, called the DSWare Shop, and store them on the DSi. The applications will either be free, 200, 500, or 800 Nintendo Points. Due to the higher power consumption and slimmer profile the battery life is reduced compared to its predecessor, the DS Lite.
It has been reported that the DSi will utilize region locking for DSi-specific software, since it will provide Internet services tailored individually for each region. In addition, the DSi uses rating-based parental controls, which differ by country.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Stay tuned for the Game Boy! Yay!

Sorry...

2008-10-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

I am very sorry, but I am unable to post the Console of the Week Post because I was assigned a book report yesterday, and I did A Salute to PlayStation Part 5 instead. Maybe tomorrow, okay?

Sincerely,

EMS :-)

A Salute to PlayStation: Part V: Other Miscellaneous PlayStations that Sony never bothered to tell anyone about

2008-10-10T20:19:00.001-07:00

Now, for the final installment of the blah blah blah blah. I don't like typing, Okay? Now, Have you ever heard of a PSX? Probably not, because it was only released in Japan. If you're reading this in Japan, sorry, but a North American hasn't heard of a PSX enough for me to make it a blah blah blah. Now, if you haven't heard about a PSX, you may think of a PSX as a PS1. You are crazy. That is not official, and here's the scoop on the real PSX.

The PSX is a fully functional DVR. It comes with a remote and can be also linked with the PSP to transfer videos and music with USB ports. It also has software for video, photo, and audio editing.
The device lets PlayStation and PS2 games be played based on PlayStation 2 hardware, allowing PlayStation backward compatibility as the PS2 original console. It supports fully online game compatibility. Oddly enough, the PSX has a joystick on retail package. A special DualShock 2 ceramic-white was released separately. However, original DualShocks are supported by two joystick ports in the back side and memory cards are also supported with the port in the front side.
The PSX is also known for its introduction of Sony's XCross Media Bar interface, used later on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, and other Sony devices.

Now, did you know that another PlayStation was released only in Japan? that's right, A portable console, the PocketStation! So you weirdos who think the PSP was the first Portable PlayStation, YOU'RE WRONG!!! (No offense to weirdos)

Software for the PocketStation was usually distributed as extras for PlayStation games, included in the Disc, enhancing the games with added features. Standalone software could also be downloaded through the PlayStation console. The software is then transferred to the PocketStation for use. A built-in infrared data interface allows direct transfer of data such as game saves between PocketStation units, as well as multiplayer gaming. This thingamabob also can be a memory card for the original blah blah blah blah and blah blah blah 2. (I should stop that now.)

Now, for the final part of the article: The Net Yaroze. Alright, it's just another version of the PlayStation, but you have to talk about something.

For about $750, the Net Yaroze package contained a special black-colored PlayStation unit with documentation, software, and no regional lockout. The user still had to provide a personal computer (PC or Macintosh) to write the computer code, compile it, and send the program to the PlayStation.
While without regional lockout, the Net Yaroze console exists in three variations, for Japan, North America, and Europe + Australia. The Europe and Australia version boots in PAL mode, while the others boot in NTSC mode (I have no idea what that means.). There are further differences between the Japanese kit and the others; the manuals probably come in Japanese, the software for Japanese PC is included, and the discs and access card sticker have different printing.
The Net Yaroze was only available for purchase by mail order, but Sony also provided it to universities, at least in the UK and in Japan.
The European Net Yaroze kit contains:
1 Net Yaroze PlayStation console (black matte)
2 PlayStation controllers (black matte)
1 AC power cord
1 AV cable
1 euro AV adapter
1 Net Yaroze boot disc
1 Net Yaroze software development disc
1 access card, with sticker
1 communications cable (a cable used to link the console and the computer)
1 "Start Up Guide" manual
1 "Library Reference" manual
1 "User Guide" manual

The Net Yaroze lacks many of the features the full Playstation developers' suite provides, such as advanced hardware or software tools and Sony's extensive technical support. Dedicated groups, with access restricted to Net Yaroze members, were maintained by Sony; homepage hosting was also provided. The access was restricted according to the kit's region of origin.

Well, this is the end of the A Salute to PlayStation series of posts. Maybe I'll start A Salute to Nintendo... See it tomorrow! Bye! I hope you enjoyed it.

A Salute to PlayStation: Part IV: PlayStation 3

2008-10-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

The trademarks of PlayStation, Sony, Tokyo Game Show, E3, belong to their subsidiary rights... aw, let's skip this crud and get on with it.

Welcome to the almost final installment of the "A Salute to PlayStation" series. Now, I was using some info from Wikipedia, but this time, it's mostly my own words, but I have done lots of research. Let's begin.

Sony revealed the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005. A functional version was not there, although demonstrations of games (such as Metal Gear Solid 4) were held at the event. Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 was also shown. Two versions were also announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model. The 60 GB version would be the only configuration to feature Wi-Fi internet. Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11 for Japan and November 17 for North America and Europe.
In 2006, Sony announced that the Europe and Oceania version of the PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, due to a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive.

At the Tokyo Game Show, it was revealed that the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%. During the event, Sony showed some playable PS3 titles running. So when you want to know about a console that's coming out in 2 years, go on to E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.

The PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006. Soon after its release in Japan, the PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006. Reports of violence surrounding the release of the PS3 include a customer shot, campers robbed, customers hurt in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, and 60 campers fighting over 10 systems, and I mean fighting.

The PlayStation 3 has a Blu-ray Disc drive for games, Blu-ray movies, DVDs, CDs, and other discy-stuff. It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB, and only the 60 GB model was available in certain regions. An 80 GB model has been introduced, and a 40 GB model has been introduced in all regions. Make up your mind! And Sony might release a 160 GB hard drive this Christmas! Oh my gosh! What next?

The PlayStation 3 version of the XrossMediaBar (pronounced Cross Media Bar for you non-PlayStation People) includes nine options. These are: Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Network, PlayStation Network, and Friends (similar to the PlayStation Portable media bar). The PS3 can store various user profiles, manage and explore photos with or without a slide show, play music and copy CD tracks to a storage device, play movies and video files from the hard drive, an optional USB storage or Flash card, or an optical disc (Blu-ray Disc or DVD), compatibility for a USB keyboard and mouse, and a web browser. The Friends menu lets mail with emoticon and attached picture features and video chat which requires a PlayStation Eye or Eyetoy webcam. The Network menu features online shopping through the PlayStation Store.

Speaking of the PlayStation Store, here's how Sony got this idea:

Because of Microsoft's success with their Xbox Live network, Sony announced an online service for the PlayStation 3 at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting. Sony also confirmed that the service will always be connected free, and have multiplayer support. Also, the registration interface can only be accessed through the PS3 system interface.
At the Tokyo Game Show (what's the deal with these shows!?) in 2006, it was revealed that users will be able to download some of the many PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles from the PlayStation Network for about $5–$15, starting with those with the smallest game data.
In May 2007 Sony announced PlayStation Network Cards, a form of electronic money that can be used with the Store. PlayStation Network Tickets can be purchased at convenience stores throughout Japan. Each ticket contains a code which can be put in to the PlayStation Network to place credits in the virtual wallet. The tickets are available through electronic kiosks at convenience stores. They are also available at post office ATMs, although registration is required first at a special website.

The PSP can connect with the PlayStation 3 in many ways, including in-game connectivity. It is possible to download PlayStation 1 games to the PlayStation 3 from the PlayStation Store. These games were not originally playable on the PS3. They could only be sent to a PSP, and played using the PSP's PlayStation Emulator. Sony has also demonstrated the PSP playing back video content, including content from the PlayStation 3 hard drive across a wireless network. This feature is referred to as Remote Play, located under the browser icon on both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. Remote play has since expanded to allow remote access to the PS3 through the PSP from any wireless access point in the world.

And there are lots of awesome games like the Simpsons, Ratchet and Clank, and Sonic the Hedghehog, and many more. It was launched in North America with twelve games. Some of the launch titles were delayed, like Sonic the Hedgehog.

Maybe next time, I will meet some of you other PlayStation fans, In a Salute to PlayStation: Part V:Other Miscellaneous PlayStations that Sony never bothered to tell anyone about!

Sources of info:

-Wikipedia

-GameSpot

-Google images, web

CONSOLE OF THE WEEK

2008-10-04T08:54:00.001-07:00

And the winner of the first ever console of the week award is... The Microsoft Xbox! Here's why (I hope you like long explainations!):

The Xbox was Microsoft's first product that ventured into the video game console market, after having collaborated with Sega in porting Windows CE to the Dreamcast console. Notable launch titles for the console included Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, Dead or Alive 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and Project Gotham Racing.

The Xbox was initially developed within Microsoft by a small team that included game developer Seamus Blackley. Microsoft repeatedly delayed the console, which was revealed at the end of 1999 following interviews of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Gates stated that a gaming/multimedia device was essential for multimedia convergence in the new times, confirmed by Microsoft with a press release.
According to the book Smartbomb, the remarkable success of the upstart Sony PlayStation worried Microsoft in late 1990s. The growing video game market seemed to threaten the PC market which Microsoft had dominated and relied upon for most of its revenues. Additionally, a venture into the gaming console market would diversify Microsoft's product line, which up to that time had been heavily concentrated on software.
According to Dean Takahashi's book, Opening the Xbox, the Xbox was originally to be named "DirectXbox", to show the extensive use of DirectX within the console's technology. "Xbox" was the final name decided by marketing, but the console still retains some hints towards DirectX, most notably the "X"-shaped logo, which DirectX is famous for, along with the "X" shape on the top of the system.
As the console approached launch, Microsoft's J Allard was responsible for the hardware and system software development, Ed Fries was responsible for game development on the platform, and Mitch Koch was responsible for sales and marketing; all three reported to Robbie Bach. This team was also primarily responsible for Microsoft's follow-up product, the Xbox 360.

With an expensive PlayStation 2 and the moderately priced but seemingly family entertainment focused GameCube as competition, many gamers were eager to invest in the console. The Xbox initially sold very well. All three platform-holders had difficulty manufacturing and selling the systems profitably.
By September 15, 2005, Microsoft reported a four billion dollar loss in selling the Xbox gaming system.

The Xbox was the first console to incorporate a hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves compressed in ZIP archives and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards (although some older consoles, such as the TurboGrafx-CD, Sega CD and Sega Saturn had featured built-in battery backup memory prior 2007). Most of the games also use the hard drive as a disk cache, for faster game loading times. An Xbox user could rip music from standard audio CDs to the hard drive, and these songs were used for the custom soundtracks in some games.
The Xbox was the first product in the gaming industry to feature Dolby Interactive Content-Encoding Technology, which allows real-time Dolby Digital encoding in game consoles. Whereas previous game consoles could only utilize Dolby Digital 5.1 during non-interactive "cut scene" playback.
The Xbox is based on commodity PC hardware and runs a custom operating system which exposes APIs based largely on DirectX 8.1; the API commonality led to a common confusion that the OS was a stripped-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel.
The Xbox itself is much larger and heavier than its contemporaries. This is largely due to a bulky tray-loading DVD-ROM drive and the standard-size 3.5 inch hard drive. However, the Xbox has also pioneered safety features, such as breakaway cables for the controllers to prevent the console from being pulled from the surface it resides on.
The original game controller design, which was particularly large, was similarly often criticized since it was ill-suited to those with small hands and caused cramping in the hands of some users. In response to these criticisms, a smaller controller was introduced for the Japanese Xbox launch. This Japanese controller (which was briefly imported by even mainstream video game store chains such as GameStop) was subsequently released in other markets as the "Xbox Controller S". In addition, all future Xbox consoles were shipped with a "Controller S", while the original controller (known as Controller "0" or "The Duke") was quietly discontinued. Several internal hardware revisions have been made in an ongoing battle to discourage modding (hackers continually updated modchip designs in an attempt to defeat them), to cut manufacturing costs, and to provide a more reliable DVD-ROM drive (some of the early units' drives gave Disc Reading Errors due to the unreliable Thomson DVD-ROM drives used). Later generations of Xbox units that used the Thomson TGM-600 DVD-ROM drives and the Philips VAD6011 DVD-ROM drives were still vulnerable to failure that rendered the consoles either unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating a PIO/DMA identification failure, respectively. These units would not be covered under the extended warranty.
In 2002, Microsoft and NVIDIA entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of NVIDIA's chips for the Xbox. NVIDIA's filing with the SEC indicated that Microsoft was seeking a US$13 million discount on shipments for NVIDIA's fiscal year 2002. Additionally, Microsoft alleged violations of the agreement the two companies entered, sought reduced chipset pricing, and sought to ensure that NVIDIA fulfill Microsoft's chipset orders without limits on quantity. The matter was settled on February 6, 2003, and no terms of the settlement were released.
Launch-era Xbox gaming units were manufactured in Hungary, while the controllers were manufactured primarily in Indonesia.

The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, Black/duh and White/duh).
The standard Xbox controller (also known as the "Duke" controller) was originally the Xbox controller for all territories except Japan. The Duke controller has been criticized for being relatively large and bulky compared to other video game controllers (it was awarded "Blunder of the Year" by Game Informer in 2001 and a Guinness World Record for the biggest controller in Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008). The black and white buttons are located above the A, B, X, and Y buttons, and the Back/Start buttons are located between and below the d-pad and right analog stick. Also, the standard face buttons (A, B, X, and Y) were oriented in an oblong parallelogram rather than a uniform diamond, which was very unusual compared to other standard controllers. The Controller S, a smaller, lighter Xbox controller was originally the standard Xbox controller only in Japan (codenamed "Akebono"). It was designed to be more comfortable for those with smaller hands. The controller S was released in other territories by popular demand, and eventually replaced the standard controller in the Xbox's retail package, with the larger original controller available as an accessory. The white and black buttons are located below the A, B, X, and Y buttons, and the Back/Start buttons are similarly placed below the left analog stick. This controller has received its share of criticism as well, especially with regards to placement of the black/white and back/start buttons.
An 8 MB removable solid state memory card can be plugged into the controllers, onto which game saves can either be copied from the hard drive when in the Xbox dashboard's memory manager or saved during a game. Most Xbox games can be copied to the memory unit and to another console but some Xbox saves are digitally signed, each console has a unique signing key, and some games (e.g., Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball) will not load saved games signed by a different Xbox, limiting the utility of the memory card. Additionally, game saves can be tagged as uncopyable, or simply padded to over 8 MB (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). The signing mechanism has been reverse-engineered by the Xbox hacking community, who have developed tools to modify savegames to work in a different console, though the signing key of the recipient Xbox (the 'HDkey'), and the ramped-up title key of the game (the 'authkey'), must be known. It is also possible to save an Xbox Live account on a memory unit, to simplify its use on more than one Xbox. In order to play on Xbox Live you must pay a monthly fee.

The Xbox launched in North America on November 15, 2001. The greatest success of the Xbox's launch titles was Halo: Combat Evolved which was well received by critics. Its sequel, Halo 2, is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game worldwide. Other successful launch titles included NFL Fever 2002, Project Gotham Racing, and Dead or Alive 3; however, the failure of several first-party games (including Azurik: Rise of Perathia) damaged the initial public reputation of the Xbox.
Although the console enjoyed strong third party support from its inception, many early Xbox games did not take full advantage of its powerful hardware, with few additional features or graphical improvements to distinguish them from the PS2 version, thus negating one of the Xbox's main selling points. Additionally, Sony countered the Xbox for a short time by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (although they were later ported to the Xbox and are no longer exclusive).
In 2002 and 2003, several releases helped the Xbox to gain momentum and distinguish itself from the PS2. The Xbox Live online service was launched in late 2002 alongside pilot titles MotoGP, MechAssault and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Several best-selling and critically acclaimed titles for the Xbox were published, such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Ninja Gaiden and LucasArts' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Take-Two Interactive's exclusivity deal with Sony was amended to allow Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels to be published on the Xbox. In addition, many other publishers got into the trend of releasing the Xbox version alongside the PS2 version, instead of delaying it for months.
In 2004, Halo 2 set records as the highest-grossing release in entertainment history making over $125 million in its first day, as well as being a successful killer app for the online service. That year, Microsoft and Electronic Arts reached a deal that would see the latter's popular titles enabled on Xbox Live.
A total of 949 commercial games were released for the Xbox during its lifespan.

On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live online gaming service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with (or against) other subscribers all around the world and download new content for their games to the system's hard drive. This online service works exclusively with a broadband Internet connection. Approximately 250,000 subscribers had signed up within two months of Xbox Live's launch. In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached one million subscribers, and a year later, in July 2005, that membership had reached two million.

The popularity of the Xbox, as well as its relatively short 90 day warranty, inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms, a practice informally known as modding. Within a few months of its release the Xbox BIOS was dumped and hacked by MIT student Andrew Huang so that it would skip digital signature checks and media flags, allowing unsigned code, Xbox game backups, etc., to be run. This was possible due to flaws in the Xbox's security. Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of the console. Having a modified Xbox will also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live as it contravenes the Xbox Live Terms of Use, however most modchips can be disabled, allowing the Xbox to boot in a "stock" configuration, softmods can be disabled by "coldbooting" a game (having the game in the DVD drive before turning the console on, so the softmod is not loaded) or by using a multiboot configuration.
Four main methods exist of modding the Xbox :
*Modchip: Installing a modchip inside the Xbox that bypasses the original BIOS, with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms.
*TSOP flashing: Re-flashing the onboard BIOS chip with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms. The Xbox BIOS is contained on a commodity EEPROM (the 'TSOP'), which can be made writable by the Xbox by bridging points on the motherboard. Flashing is usually carried out by using a specially-crafted gamesave (see 'Game save exploit', below) to flash the onboard TSOP, but the TSOP can also be de-soldered and re-written in a standard EEPROM programmer. This method only works on 1.0 to 1.5 Xboxes, as later versions replace the commodity TSOP with an LPC ROM contained within a proprietary chip.
*Softmods: Installing additional software files to the Xbox hard drive, which exploit programming errors in the Dashboard to gain control of the system, and overwrite the in-memory copy of the BIOS. Soft modification is known to be safe for Xbox Live if the user enables multibooting with the Microsoft dashboard and an original game disc is used.
*Game save exploit: Using select official game releases to load game saves that exploit buffer overflows in the save game handling. When these special game saves are loaded, they access an interface with scripts for installing the necessary softmod files. Disassembly of the Xbox is not required when installing most game save exploits.
*Hot swap: Using a computer to change the data on the hard drive. This requires having the Xbox unlock the hard drive when it is turned on, then swapping the powered hard drive into a running computer. By using a Linux-based Live CD, data on the hard drive can be read, altered, and deleted. In most cases, an automated script will automatically install the softmod files directly to the Xbox hard drive. This technique has been used extensively to harbor cheating on many online games. Disassembly of the console is required to perform a hot swap.

Beyond gaming, a modded Xbox can be used as a media center with the Xbox Media Center.

Now, the Xbox has officially won! Congratulations, Microsoft! Although it's more money to Bill Gates...It's still a fun console! Buy it! They sell 'em on the Internet or at GameStop.

Anyway, congratulations!

:-)

[:-D

:=)

*Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the info!

A Salute to PlayStation: Part III: PlayStation 2

2008-10-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Now we're talking! Now, what's the deal with this thing! In addition to PS2 software, the PS2 can read both CDs and DVDs and is backward compatible with PlayStation games. The ability to play DVD movies was an added incentive for consumers to be able to justify purchasing the PS2 (the price was US$300 in October 2000). The PS2 also supports PlayStation memory cards (for PlayStation game saves only) and controllers, although the memory cards only work with PS1 games and the controllers may not support all functions for PS2 games. Now, you might be asking why the PS2 is different than an Xbox or GameCube. One of the major things was the backward compatibility with PS1 games. If they thought that thing had a wide library of games, check this thing out! It can play almost all PlayStation games and with over 9000 games and new games still coming, it has one of the widest libraries of games of any console. The PS2's DualShock 2 controller is essentially an upgraded PlayStation DualShock; analog face, shoulder and D-pad buttons replaced the digital buttons of the original. Like its predecessor, the DualShock 2 controller has the "vibration" function. The standard PlayStation 2 memory card has an 8MB capacity and uses Sony's MagicGate encryption. This requirement prevented the production of memory cards by third parties who did not purchase a license for the MagicGate encryption. The memory card can store PlayStation game saves, but PlayStation games cannot read from or write to the card - it can only be used as a backup.

Three of the original PS2 launch models were only sold in Japan, and lacked the expansion bay of current PS2 models. These models included a PCMCIA slot instead of the Dev9 port of newer models. A PCMCIA-to-Dev9 adapter was later made available for these models. Two models did not have a built-in DVD movie playback and instead relied on encrypted playback software that was copied to a memory card from an included CD-ROM (normally, the PS2 will only execute encrypted software from its memory card.) V3 had a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards. As of V4 everything was unified into one board, except the power supply. V5 introduced minor internal changes, and the only difference between V6 (sometimes called V5.1) and V5 is the orientation of the Power/Reset switch board connector, which was reversed to prevent the use of no-solder modchips. V7 and V8 included only minor revisions to V6. Assembly of the PS2 moved to the People's Republic of China during the development of V9 (model numbers SCPH-50000 and SCPH-50001). The upgraded console added an infrared port for the optional DVD remote control, removed the IEEE 1394 port, added the capability to read DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs, added progressive-scan output of DVD movies, and added a quieter fan. V10 and V11 were only minor revisions to V9.
The PS2 standard color is matte black. Several different variations in color have been produced in different quantities and regions, including ceramic white, light yellow, metallic blue, metallic silver, navy, opaque blue, opaque black, pearl white, Sakura purple, satin gold, satin silver, snow white, super red, and transparent blue.
The small PlayStation logo on the front of the disc tray could be rotated ninety degrees, in order for the logo to be the right way up in both vertical and horizontal console orientations.

In September 2004, Sony unveiled its third major hardware revision,V12. Available in November 2004, it is smaller, thinner, and quieter than the older versions and includes a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). Due to its thinner profile, it does not contain the 3.5" expansion bay and therefore does not support the internal hard disk drive. It also lacks an internal power supply, similar to the GameCube, and has a modified Multitap expansion. The removal of the expansion bay has been criticized as a limitation due to the existence of titles such as Final Fantasy XI, which require the use of the HDD. The official PS2 Linux also requires an expansion bay to function. Currently only the modified MultiTap is sold in stores, meaning that owners of older PS2s must find a used or non-Sony MultiTap in order to have 4 or 8 players during a single game. Third-party connectors can be soldered into the unit giving hard drive support, however IDE connections were completely removed in the V14 revision, thereby eliminating this option.

There are some disputes on the numbering for this PS2 version, since there are actually two sub-versions of the SCPH-70000. One of them includes the old EE and GS chips, and the other contains the newer unified EE+GS chip, but otherwise they are identical. Since the V12 version had already been established for this model, there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions. Two propositions were to name the old model (with separate EE and GS chips) V11.5 and the newer model V12, and to name the old model V12 and the newer model V13. Currently, most people use V12 for both models, or V12 for the old model and V13 for the newer one. The slimline version was discontinued on July 1, 2008. The V12 model was first released in black, but a silver edition is available in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, United Arab Emirates and other GCC Countries, France, Italy, South Africa, and most recently, North America. It is unknown whether or not this will follow the color schemes of the older model, although a limited edition Pink PS2 has become available since March 2007.
V12 (or V13) was succeeded by V14 (SCPH-75001 and SCPH-75002), which contains integrated EE and GS chips, and different ASICs compared to previous revisions, with some

chips having a copyright date of 2005, compared to 2000 or 2001 for earlier models. It also has a different lens and some compatibility issues with a different number of PlayStation games and even some PS2 games.
In the beginning of 2005 it was found that some black slimline console power transformers bought between November and December 2004 were faulty and could overheat. The units were recalled by Sony, with the company supplying a replacement model made in 2005.
Later hardware revisions had better compatibility with PlayStation games

(Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions operates on most silver models); however, the new Japanese slim models have more issues with playing PlayStation games than the first PS2 revisions.

In 2006, Sony released the latest hardware revisions (V15, model numbers SCPH-77001a and SCPH-77001b). It was first released in Japan on September 15, 2006, including the Silver limited edition. After its release in Japan, it was then released in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world. The new revision uses an integrated, unified EE+GS chip, a redesigned ASIC, a different laser lens, an updated BIOS, and updated drivers.
In July 2007, Sony started shipping a revision of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-79000) featuring a reduced weight of 600 grams compared to 900 grams of the SCPH-77001, achieved through a reduction in parts. The unit also uses a smaller motherboard as well as a custom ASIC which houses the Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer, and the RDRAM. The AC adaptor's weight was also reduced to 250 grams from the 350 grams in the previous revision.[24]
Another refinement of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-90000) was released in Japan on November 22, 2007, with an overhauled internal design that incorporates the power supply into the console itself, with a further reduced total weight of 720 grams.

The PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 controller is largely identical to the PlayStation's DualShock, with the same basic functionality; however, it includes analog pressure sensitivity on the face, shoulder and D-pad buttons, is lighter and includes two more levels of vibration. The L2 and R2 buttons are also significantly larger. The fact that the design did not change pleased some consumers who were already used to the DualShock controller.

Optional hardware includes DualShock or DualShock 2 controllers, a PS2 DVD remote control, an internal or external HDD, a network adapter, horizontal and vertical stands, PlayStation or PS2 memory cards, light guns, fishing rod and reel controllers. Also available are various cables and interconnects, including the Multitap for PlayStation or PS2, S-Video, RGB, SCART, VGA (for progressive scan games and PS2 Linux only), component and composite video cables, an RF modulator, a USB camera (the EyeToy), dance pads for Dance Dance Revolution, In the Groove, and Pump It Up titles, Konami microphones for use with the Karaoke Revolution games, dual microphones (sold with and used exclusively for SingStar games), various "guitar" controllers (for the Guitar Freaks series and Guitar Hero series), the drum set controller (sold in a box set (or by itself) with a "guitar" controller and a USB microphone for use with Rock Band), Onimusha 3 katana controller, Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller, a USB keyboard and mouse, and a headset. Unlike the PlayStation, which required the use of an official Sony PlayStation mouse to play mouse-compatible games, the few PS2 games with mouse support work with standard PC-compatible USB mice. Early versions of the PS2 could be networked via an iLink port, though this had little game support and was dropped. The original PS2 multitap cannot be plugged into the newer slim models (as the multitap connects to the memory card slot as well as the controller slot and the memory card slot on the slimline is shallower). New slim-design multitaps are manufactured for these models, however third-party adapters also exist to permit original multitaps to be used.

No doubt about it, the PlayStation 2 is deftinitely one of the best PlayStations made. Although... later we may find out about a new system:

PLAYSTATION 3!

*Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the info!

A Salute to PlayStation: Part II: PlayStation

2008-10-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know this article is 3 days late. But remember, I'm only ten, and in 5th grade you get a lot of homework. Today, I finished early, so I could write this post. Now, here's the stuff about the original PlayStation. It was released in 1995 and was Sony's first console. Now, it actually wasn't Sony's idea to make a game console. Here's what happened: Nintendo wanted to make a seperately-sold disk drive for the Super Nintendo. Nintendo asked Sony to produce a disk drive for the SNES, Sony agreed. A contract was signed, and work began on the "Super Nintendo CD." Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. The SNES-CD was to be announced at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show. But when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement pretty much handed Sony complete control over any titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had done. Lincoln and Minori Arakawa had, unknown to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a different kind—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines. After the collapse of the project, Sony considered stopping their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand-alone console. Now Nintendo got really mad, so Nintendo sued Sony, claiming breach of contract and attempted in federal court to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge in charge the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first version of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed. However, probably only 200 or so of these were ever produced. By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal where the Sony PlayStation would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the profits from the games, and the SNES would still use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the PlayStation concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was removed. The PlayStation was extremely successful, but I guess Nintendo must be pretty ticked off by this. Aside from the Sony-Nintendo deal, the PlayStation was the first video game console to sell 100 million units, soon to be replaced by the PlayStation 2, which now has sold 140 million units! It is rumored that the success of the PlayStation is widely believed to have influenced the demise of the cartridge-based home console. While not the first system to utilize an optical disc format, it was the first success story, and ended up going head-to-head with the last major home console to rely on cartridges—the Nintendo 64.
Nintendo was very public about its skepticism toward using CDs and DVDs to store games, saying that there were longer loading times and durability issues. It was widely speculated that the company was even more concerned with copyright infringement, given its substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive titles for its revenue.
The increasing complication of games (in content, graphics, and sound) pushed cartridges to their storage limits and this fact began to turn off third party developers. Also, CDs were appealing to publishers due to the fact that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more flexibility (it was easy to change production to meet demand). In turn, they were able to pass the lower costs onto consumers. One major industry disadvantage of CDs was illegal copying due to the advent of CD burners and mod chips; however, this ironically became a selling point of the PlayStation. The PlayStation's production was discontinued on March 23, 2006. But games are still sold to PlayStation 2 and 3 owners. So I guess it isn't completely dead yet, like Sega's consoles. :-)

*Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the info!

A Salute to PlayStation: Part I: PlayStation Portable

2008-09-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

Usually portable games were thought of being for families and children to gamers, rather than an actual console of your favorite video games, rated M by those jerks, the ESRB. :-) But Sony Computer Entertainment did something about it! They made the PlayStation Portable, for gamers rather than families. It takes discs, unlike the Game Boy and DS, and doesn't only play games. It plays special movies made for it, music, and stores your pictures! That's a lot better than a DS, that only plays games! The PSP also has a web browser. Man, what doesn't this thing do?
This thingy also has a lot of awesome games, like Secret Agent Clank, The Simpsons Game, Sonic Rivals, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and many more! Off of the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Store, you can buy additional games from the original PlayStation! It's kinda like an iPod, Portable DVD player, SD card, and 2 game systems in one! For all you PSP owners out there, here's a hot tip: The PSP is capable of playing back movies from a memory stick. However, if you want to do this you need to make sure that the movie is either in MPEG-4 or AVC format as other file types will not be recognized. Movies downloaded onto the PSP via the memory stick can be watched on a TV screen by connecting the PSP via a playStation 3 or Xbox 360 and streaming it over a USB cable.
Did you know that for advertising once, Sony hired graffiti artist to spray paint PSP promotional material in seven U.S. cities, including New York and San Francisco. The images are children playing with PSPs without the words Sony, PSP, or PlayStation. But this encouraged vandalism and most of the PSP advertisements were covered with regular vandalism. Also, it made graffiti artists feel like the ads were cheapening their underground culture. The campaign was eventually stopped.
Coming tomorrow: A salute to PlayStation: Part II: PlayStation 1!

Madagascar 2

2008-09-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

The original Madagascar was my favorite video game, so I've been looking forward to this game for about six and a half months. I hope that it's a fun as the first. If you want to know what it's like, watch these trailers.

I hope that you want to buy it. For more information, click here. If you like Dreamworks animation, fun video games, and anthropomorphic animals, you shold buy Madagascar or Madagascar 2. :-)

Nintendogs

2008-09-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

Do you wish that you had a dog? All you have to play with is your Nintendo DS. Well, fret no more, because the game Nintendogs is an adventure that you'll never forget! The game starts out by creating your character, a dog trainer. Then you travel to a dog pound to buy your dog(s). You choose, tell your dog his name via the microphone. The Microphone can also be used to train your dog, like saying sit, then preforming a stroke of the stylus that makes your dog comfortable, and he sits. After a while (s)he gets it.

As the trainer, you can take care of your dogs. You pet them, feed them, water them, give them baths, take them for walks, and much more. At home, you can play with your dogs, give them baths, and more. You can enter dogs you've trained in contest to earn money, usually to buy supplies for your dog. If you run out of money, you'll be forced to sell your home, but then you'll have enough to buy an apartment with one bedroom. Then I won lots of contests, sold my apartment, and bought another house. So I guess everything worked out okay.

No doubt about it, if you like The Sims, you'll love Nintendogs. You'd have to have a cold heart to not love the bright eyes and wagging tails of the extremely lifelike Nintendogs. If you have a DS, you should buy it, because it will cheer you up, definitely.

The ESRB: Your Boss

2008-09-28T08:11:00.001-07:00

Parents always want to know if their kid can buy Halo 3 or Dora the Explorer. Halo 3 is rated M, and Dora the Explorer would probably be EC. So of course a group of parent had to rate games, and that's why I can't play anything over teen. Darn. I wanted to play Halo.
The Esrb is the boss of all video game developers and publishers. They say if a game is too violent, or too sexy, or has too much language, they say that it's a big "no-no." They say "you can release it only if you cut back on the______." So that's why Sexy Violent Swear-o-rama couldn't be released. :-) If you look at the back of a game, you see why it's rated E ot E10+ or T.

To me, the Esrb shouldn't exist and every game should be rating pending. But then you'd have a two-year old playing Gears of War and Manhunt 2. So I guess living with a little brother who has a Leapfrog could be potentially dangerous. So at least there's some stuff good that they do.

So when you buy a game, just hope your parents will let you play it. Because in Canada, the ESRB headquarters is getting a copy of those games you know and love and rating them.

Mr. Aerosmith, how many notes does it take to get to the Guitar Hero center of a video game?!

2008-09-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Aerosmith, the band known for songs such as Sweet Emotion, Walk this Way, and Back on the Saddle, finally have their own video game! Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has over 25 Aerosmith songs, along with some bonus songs. Seen below, in the game you are traveling around the world on tour as none other than the band Aerosmith! Play classic Aerosmith songs and songs from bands that were close to Aerosmith.

One of the best parts of playing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is hitting the notes on the note highway, seen below. On your included guitar, play the Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Orange notes to play songs. The rock meter on the bottom right-hand corner shows haw well you are doing, and the blue lights on top of that are your Star Power. When the meter is full, you can flick the guitar up to activate Star Power, doubling, tripling, quadrupling, etc. the points you make in the 30 second time limit of Star Power. On the bottom left-hand corner, you see the points, Star Power multiplier, and the streak of notes that you've hit.

This game is for the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, and PS2. I highly recommend it for a fan of Aerosmith or Guitar Hero. Ignore the Teen rating. The ESRB is just a bunch of jerks. :-)
If you have an iPod with Aerosmith songs on it, throw it out and buy this, because you'll get a lot more fun out of this than Apple's MP4 player.

Lego Star Wars

2008-09-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Lego: The fun building toy.
Star Wars: The action-packed duo of trilogies.
Together...you get LEGO STAR WARS!!!!!
I know, it sounds crazy. but it's true. So watch and see how George Lucas turned a toy into video games, with a little help from Tt, inc.

2
3
4
5

You like that? Go and buy it, because it's a great trilogy of games. As image number 3 says,

KICK SOME BRICKS

IN ONE THROUGH SIX!

The Simpsons Game

2008-09-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well, a show that's been running for 21 years and only has one Wii game? The Wii is pretty new, but why couldn't they have another game in development at least? These are the 16 levels, in the order they are played:

The Land Of Chocolate

Bartman Begins

Around the World in 80 Bites

Lisa the Tree Hugger

Mob Rules

Enter the Cheatrix

The Day of the Dolphin

Shadow of the Colossal Donut

Invasion of the Yokel-Snatchers

Bargain Bin

NeverQuest

Medal of Homer

Grand Theft Scratchy

Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game

Five Characters in Search of an Author

Game Over

Now, we see why the game is rated T for Teen:

Alcohol and Tobacco Reference

Animated Blood

Cartoon Violence

Crude Humor

Language

Suggestive Themes

Can you believe my parents let me play that!? If there's another guy at your house who wants to play, no problemo! 2 player mode is awesome! This game is for the Wii, DS, PSP, PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360, so if you have one of those, it's a good way to spend money. :-)

Super Mario Galaxy

2008-09-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

You know, it's weird. On Christmas last year, I got it, and now I'm halfway through the game. Today I started a new game, at 7 am. Now, I'm at the same spot as I was in the new game as i was in the first. It's kind of spooky when you think about it. Wait...NO IT ISN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why I started this blog

2008-09-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, if you've seen some of my other blogs like EIGR and Shadow the Hedgeblog, you know they are wayyyyyy boring. And who doesn't like video games? Well, if you do, come to this blog, VideoGamerz, and you will find games, gameplay videos, posts about what's new about games at my house, and on every Saturday, you'll see a console win the Console of the week award, every last day of a month, the Console of the month award, and at the end of one year, the (duh) Console of the year! award. Enjoy the blog!

Signed,
E.M.S.