Category: ‘Game Chat’

Nintendo Wii Accused Of Willfully Infringing Patent That Was Applied For After Wii Was Introduced

September 14, 2011 Posted by zachary

This post was originally published on Techdirt.

Techcrunch is reporting on yet another patent dispute over the technology found in Nintendo’s Wii video game system. This time the company suing is ThinkOptics, the makers of the Wavit Remote.

The dispute is over the following patents:

  • 7,796,116: Electronic equipment for handheld vision based absolute pointing system
  • 7,852,317: Handheld Device for Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System
  • 7,864,159; Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System.

Notice a trend yet?
(more…)

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Categories: Game Chat, Politics and Law

Printing Error Shows Flaw In “Lock-It-Up” Video Game Business Model

September 8, 2011 Posted by zachary

This post was originally published on Techdirt.

It should come as no surprise to Techdirt readers that many people within the games industry hate used game sales. One of the methods these companies are implementing to fight these sales is to force buyers of used games to pay extra to gain access to the multiplayer portion. This works by inserting a one time use code in the new copies of games. Once the multiplayer code has been used, only the owner of the console used to activate it can access the multiplayer parts of the game. If that player decides to later sell or give away the game, the new owner would have to buy a new multiplayer code from the publisher, generally $10. So far EA, THQ, Ubisoft and Activision have dabbled in this system for various games. (more…)

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Categories: Current Events, Game Chat, Technology

Viewer Aggression Is Advised

July 2, 2011 Posted by zachary

Earlier today, I was glancing through some old comics in a box at a junk store when I happened to see a very interesting ad in the back of a Batman comic. I didn’t read much of the comic but it was about batman fighting the trash man or something like that.

But that was not the interesting part. What I found interesting was the ad inside the back cover. Take a look:

Viewer Agression is AdvisedThis ad for the Atari 7800 features the tag line “Viewer Aggression Is Advised.”The rest of the ad reads as follows:

Are you a man or are you a wuss? You will never find out until you go up against the Mighty Atari 7800 and hard hitting games like Commando, Xenophobe or Double Dragon.

It comes complete with arcade quality graphics, 2 deluxe joystick controllers, And the radical Pole Position II cartridge. So pick one up. And plug in one of the awesome 7800 games today (or any one of the exciting 2600 cartridges).

And remember, no one over 17 is allowed to watch unless you give them permission.

(more…)

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Categories: Current Events, Game Chat

Sega Has Been Hacked; Shows Up Sony

June 17, 2011 Posted by zachary

Sega LogoToday, I looked at my email and found an email from Sega with the subject line, “Important information regarding your SEGA Pass account”

So I took a look. It turns out that Sega’s servers were hacked and personal information has been compromised. This has been happening a lot recently. It started with Sony and has moved quickly to other game companies. There isn’t really a pattern to the companies other than the majority of them are game related.

I don’t really feel like going into any of the details or potential motives or suspects. What I want to get at is that Sega is emailing me 1 day after they took their services offline. Sony took 3 weeks. In fact, Sony was telling the press that they contacted all their PSN customers about the breach within the first week, but it wasn’t until 3 weeks after the first reports that I got my notification email.

So what’s the deal? Why did it take Sony 3 weeks and Sega only 1 day? Was it the shear number of users effected? Maybe, but I don’t think it should take 3 weeks for all people to get a notification email, especially when Sony is saying otherwise. (more…)

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N-Gage: Ahead of the Game

April 12, 2011 Posted by zachary

n-gage phone and game systemI worked in an EB Games back in 2003 during the time the N-Gage was reaching its (very small) peak in the gamer consciousness.

We had one small end cap with the 10 or so games that we had in stock and a demo system available.

I only ever knew of one person who owned one and actually bought games for it. He would come in every few weeks and ask if we had any new games for it. We never did.

Despite its failings in the market, it was a novel innovation in portable gaming. It was a phone as well as a portable gaming systems. Its major flaws and the reason it was so panned by the gaming community as well as the phone buying community were the convoluted way you had to change out games and the way you held the phone to your ear. (more…)

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Categories: Game Chat, Game Philosophy

PS3 Troubles Abound

February 4, 2011 Posted by zachary

Dead PS3

Not my PS3

Well, I have been enjoying my PS3 since Christmas, at least when it works.

I can’t play all PS3 games for it. I have no idea why. I borrowed Folklore from my brother and the game locks up right at the beginning. I have been able to play it for maybe 5 minutes. But after that initial 5 minutes the game completely locks up and I have to hard shut down the PS3. So I gave up on that. I gave it back to him and borrowed White Knight Chronicles. Fun game if you ignore the graphics glitches.

Next I bought three games for it (all brand new), Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea 3 and Resonance of Fate. Valkyria Chronicles and Disgaea 3 play just fine and are really fun. Resonance of Fate, however, is a different story.

Resonance of Fate gives me an infinite loading problem. The first transition between levels locks up on the loading screen. Sega has been of little help. According to this forum thread, this is a fairly widespread issue, but Sega refuses to acknowledge the problem. When I contacted support, this is all they said:

Hi,

After thorough testing our QA team have been unable to replicate the issue.

This indicates the problem is hardware related (as opposed to software)

In order to fix the issue, please follow the solutions below:

1. You can try to create a new user account on your PS3.
2. As stated previously ensure you possess the latest firmware.
3. Ensure the disc lens is clean
4. If you bought a second hand disc ensure there is no scratch or dust on the surface of the disc

Best regards,

SEGA Customer Support

Yeah, big help.

So I tried replacing my PS3 with the same model (CECHA01) and the game disk with the same result. So thanks Sega for the great game I can’t play.

Now my PS3’s disk drive died on me. I went to play a game and ejected the music cd that was in it and the gears gave out. Now it won’t take in any disk. I plan on taking it to the store I got it from and they said they will see if they can fix it. If they can’t I may just return it and use the money to fix my computer. Maybe.

Maybe this is all for the better. Sony is doing some really annoying things in regards to their “security” issues. Capcom has decided that you have to be logged in to PSN to play single player games and it seems more of this is coming. Is it really worth it to own a console that the manufacturer doesn’t think you own? Is it worth it to invest in games that the developer doesn’t think you own? I am really beginning to wonder about the direction of the mainstream games industry.

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Something Fun for the New Year

December 27, 2010 Posted by zachary

PS3I got a PS3 for Christmas. Not just any PS3, a Backwards Compatible PS3. I can play all my PS1, 2, and 3 games on it. I am very excited about that. That was my only hold out on getting one and my wife came through.

Starting it up, I needed to update the console to the latest firmware. I would have kept the current version as to be able to use the Other OS feature, but I really wanted to be able to use Netflix which requires the latest firmware version. So I carefully weighed my options  and decided that I would probably use Netflix more than Linux (I have Linux on my personal computer).

Back to the update, I started the update and sat there for 10 minutes and watched it move from 0% complete to 5% complete and got a bit annoyed. I had read all the stories about the update process and how slow it is, but you can’t really comment until you have experienced it first hand. So my wife and I switched over to the Wii and played Lego Indiana Jones 2 (one of my other gifts) and played that for about an hour. By the time we were ready for bed, the update had completed. Not sure if it took the full hour or not, but that was an hour that I was not on the PS3 thanks to the update process.

In comparison, when I got my Wii last year, the update that I had to make then, took all of 10 minutes. 10 minutes or an hour, I think I would rather wait 10 minutes.

The next thing I noticed was the really bland UI. Luckily, it is possible for the user to change the UI. I look forward to that. My brother showed me some resources to check out to find some new UI schemes and even create my own. I have a few art assets that are just dying to be turned into an icon set.

So I will be enjoying the next year.

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