25th-anniversary
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Star Trek Online celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Next Generation
The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation launched 25 years ago. In honor of the anniversary of the blessed event, Star Trek Online players have the opportunity to unlock some nostalgic swag for free. From now until "around" 1:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the 24th, players can take a mini-mission that will send them off to speak with good ol' Worf. Completing that mission will unlock the free swag: Federation characters will receive a TNG Season 1 uniform, male Klingon and Federation characters with hair options will receive Worf's Season 1 short hair and goatee (sorry, no bearded ladies), and Klingon and Federation characters of both species will get access to Worf's Season 1 sash. This is a per-character unlock, so be sure to talk to Worf with every character that you'd like to boldly go with a little more panache.
Capcom's throwing a party and your fan art, music is invited (you aren't)
Capcom is pretty bad at planning surprise parties. The first rule it's broken is "Don't put your plans on a big-time gaming blog" and the second is "Don't spoil the theme." Ryu is going to be so suspicious. Regardless, Capcom is celebrating Street Fighter's 25th anniversary – which lands on August 30 – with a call for fan art and remixes, to potentially be used in some sort of official capacity.Capcom urges submissions to include the "anniversary" theme in a recognizable way, with "reflection and nostalgia" as main points, community manager Brett Elston writes on the Capcom-Unity blog. The full rules for art submissions are here, and the musical notes can be found here. The deadline for both contests is May 4, 11:59 p.m. PST.
Street Fighter 25th Anniversary logo a precursor to 'international celebration'
Can you ever get enough 25th anniversary logos for Capcom properties? We hope not, because here's another one. The first Street Fighter (the one nobody played) came out in 1987, and Capcom is planning some kind of "international celebration" to mark the big anniversary. Think about that for a second -- the Street Fighter and Mega Man franchises started in the same year. The publisher has yet to announce details of the celebration, but of course the release of Street Fighter X Tekken will be part of it by default. We feel pretty safe in assuming it'll be accompanied by a few more Street Fighter games.
Nintendo celebrates Zelda's 25th with new website
To celebrate 25 years of Octorok abuse, Nintendo has launched a commemorative website. The Zelda 25th Anniversary site is home to a mess of goodies aimed at your nostalgia core, including an interactive history of the series, some wallpapers and a video of the 2011 E3 keynote where a live symphony played music from the games. For you more artistic types, Nintendo is also asking for your Zelda-themed Flipnote Studios animations, with the best entries receiving top billing on the Zelda 25th site. You can also send in a paper drawing, if you prefer, but we don't know if that'll actually make it onto the site. Flipnote Studios, as you may recall, is available as a free download on the DSi and DSi XL. Nintendo will take submissions from now on through September 9. The 25th Anniversary site is live right now, so click over if you're looking to take a trip down memory lane. Or, if you're like us and have had enough, feel free to sign our petition. If we don't help the Octorok, who will?!
The Legend of Zelda turns 25 today, celebrate in your own special way
We're wishing a happy 25th birthday today to one of gaming's seminal works: The Legend of Zelda. On February 21, 1986, Nintendo released the game in Japan, and since then we've all hunted down keys, slashed monsters with Master Swords, and bought bombs from random old men. The series has spanned more than 15 games, countless comics and spin-offs, and even -- excuuuse me princess -- a TV series. You've got a few options for celebration: Maybe make a Triforce cake to eat, browse through this gallery of Zelda oddities or this video retrospective series, or watch the TV shows, all available on Hulu. Us? We'll be watching old Zelda commercials on YouTube. In the wise words of the rapping nerd, "It's The Legend of Zelda, and it's really rad."
Nintendo reveals Super Mario 25th Anniversary DSi XL [update: now pictured!]
At it' press conference in Japan this afternoon (well, in Japan it's the afternoon), Nintendo announced plans to release a Super Mario 25th Anniversary Edition DSi LL (DSi XL, as it's known in the West) to the Japanese public on October 28. Andriasang's liveblog of the goings-on also give it an ¥18000 ($215) price point. Unfortunately, like all other things regarding Super Mario's big two five, this is likely to stay grounded in Japan. Update: here it is, straight from Nintendo's site.
Back to the Future Blu-ray trailer revealed
Get an early peek at the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Edition restored footage in this trailer (embedded after the break.) Not that a YouTube stream can hope to match Blu-ray, but you can click the 1080p switch and pretend it's October 26 already. Where we're going, we don't need (to wait for) discs.
Commodore Amiga celebrates its 25th birthday, Andy Warhol still dead
It was on July 24, 1985 that the Amiga 1000 computer had its debut at Lincoln Center in New York City. As you're no doubt aware, we have quite a fondness for Commodore in general and its Amiga offspring in particular, so it's only fitting that we would make a note of this auspicious anniversary. And if you're an unrepentant Amiga fanboy (the original fanboys), there was so much to love: color graphics! Stereo sound! Something called "multitasking!" This was a machine that took on all comers, and it coulda licked 'em, if circumstances (and some wonky decisions) on the business end of things hadn't got in the way. For a trip down memory lane, hit up the source link. As for us, we're going to go fire up our copy of Neuromancer and take it for a spin. Some things never change, indeed.
Sony Handycam celebrates 25th birthday, can now film itself renting a car
Remember the Sony Video 8? No? Well, let's recap: it was 1985, and the company releases the CCD-M8 camcorder, capturing life on 8-millimeter cassettes at just under 2.2 pounds. "Back in my day" references notwithstanding, Sony is now celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Handycam line, from that progenitor recorder all the way up to today's SD card-equipped lineup. All the festivities and a pretty detailed trip down memory lane can be found via the source link, or if you're looking for something infinitely more cornball, Sony's produced a "commemorative movie" of sorts in honor of the anniversary -- that's after the break.
Talkcast tonight, 10 pm ET: the Mac's 25th birthday show
Last week, the Mikes played a selection of your phone calls and best wishes for Steve Jobs. You can, of course, download the show from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes. This week, Christina Warren, Steve Sande and I will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Mac platform, reminiscing about our first Mac experiences, and sharing our predictions for the next 25 years of Mac. We'll also discuss the news of the week, including Apple's first-quarter conference call, the White House's IT woes, and problems with bootleg copies of iWork '09. All this, and your input too! What could be better? To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!
Happy 25th Birthday, Mac!
All of the bloggers at TUAW write about Apple and Apple products for one reason: we love Apple products. For most of us, our first Apple was a Mac (although some of us are indeed old enough to have owned the Apple II). 25 years ago today, Steven P. Jobs stood in front of a packed house and had a Macintosh Model M0001 introduce itself to the world: Over the past quarter century, hundreds of millions of people have fallen in love with the Mac. Read on to hear some personal stories about Macs we have known through the years, and be sure to leave your own memories of your first Mac in the comments section.
MartinLogan celebrates 25th anniversary with flagship CLX speakers
MartinLogan, the name synonymous with electrostatic speakers, is celebrating its 25th anniversary by launching the flagship CLX speaker. Here's what to do if your golden ears find the sound of the company's panels let down by the integrated conventional cones in other models: come on back down to Earth (we think ML's marriage of cones and panels is great) and audition the CLX. This beast packs one 57-inch membrane for the high frequencies and another one for the lows. put it all together and you get 100-pounds of speaker that use low-mass films to cover a 56 - 23,000-Hz range. No, it doesn't spec out at the magical 20-Hz, but if that figure is all that's important to you, then you won't appreciate what these are about; besides, a little bird tells us these pair up quite nicely with the company's Descent subs. The CLX will show up in June at $20,000/pair (in a variety of finishes), but act soon and you can get on the list for the 25th Anniversary Limited Edition for $25,000. More eye candy in the gallery; sorry, no ear candy. %Gallery-21513%
