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'Star Wars: Tiny Death Star' puts you to work for the Empire in glorious 8-bit
There's no shortage of official Star Wars-themed apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, but Star Wars: Tiny Death Star might be the most retro of them all. A spin-off of NimbleBit's popular iOS classic Tiny Tower, Tiny Death Star puts you to work for the Empire as you buy, build and oversee the development of its moon-sized space station. It's the result of a partnership between Disney, LucasArts and NimbleBit, bringing together all of your favorite Star Wars characters in the familiar Tiny 8-bit style. You'll also employ 30 unique galactic "bitizens," including Wookiees and Ewoks, as you build as many as 80 residential and commercial Death Star floors. Like other freemium titles, Star Wars: Tiny Death Star uses its own in-game currency, called "Imperial Bux," which boost construction and lift time restrictions, meaning you probably won't go it Solo in your fight against the Rebels.
Future soldier: Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku on building a Death Star and Silicon Valley brain drain
Morning light shines softly through a large glass window as a travel-weary Michio Kaku gamely musters a smile. Just a few hours removed from a cross-country flight from the East Coast, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this physicist is plain tired. Then the camera starts rolling. In an instant, Kaku looks rejuvenated as he plays to his audience and waxes poetic about his favorite subject -- science. In the world occupied by nerds and techno geeks, theoretical physicist and futurist Kaku is akin to a rock star. Chalk it up to a flowing mane of pepper-gray locks and the fact he co-created string field theory (which tries to unravel the inner workings of the universe). These days, Kaku can mostly be found teaching at City College of New York where he holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics. When he isn't teaching, Kaku still spends most of his extra time talking science, whether it be through his radio programs, best-selling books such as Physics of the Future or appearances on shows like The Colbert Report, where he recently enlightened Stephen Colbert about the dangers of sending Bruce Willis into space to blow up a deadly asteroid. As fun as it is for Kaku to talk physics, however, he also considers it a matter of survival
Exclusive Star Trek Online Season 6 reveal: Fleet starbases
You read that headline right: Star Trek Online will be introducing player starbases in its upcoming Season 6. For the first time in the game, fleets will be able to band together to build a virtual home in the icy blackness of space. The project was spearheaded by Cryptic Lead Artist Jeremy Mattson, who was given the task of conceptualizing and designing this core feature of the path. Mattson sent us an exclusive developer diary to take us through this process, starting with his examination of starbases in Star Trek's canon all the way through the construction and finished product.
DARPA's crowdsourced UAV competition heats up, takes off (video)
Late last year, DARPA launched UAVForge -- a competition that invites contestants to create their very own unmanned aerial vehicles, and submit them for voter-based evaluation. The project is far from over, but competing teams have already started sending in their proof-of-flight videos, giving us a glimpse of what's to come. So far, it looks like the GremLion UAV (pictured above) is the early favorite, after coming out victorious in the first round of voting. Developed by a team from the National University of Singapore, the GremLion looks like a bite-sized Death Star and flies around using a coaxial set of rotors that expand tulip-style out of its shell. Also included in the UAVForge showdown is a guy known as X-MAUS -- an Arduino-controlled quadcopter that can apparently transform into a more aerodynamic plane form upon liftoff. And, rounding out the list of notables is a submission from TU Delft known as the QuadShot, which is basically a miniature B-Wing from Star Wars. Except it's real. Hit up the break to see all three in action.
The Daily Grind: Have the post-NDA testimonials changed your mind about SWTOR?
It's been a half a week or so since BioWare hit Star Wars: The Old Republic's NDA with a Death Star-sized superlaser, and boy have the spaceships hit the fan. Massively readers, fansite operators, forumites, Tweeters, podcasters, and the entire cantina at Mos Eisley have piped up with impressions, thoughts, analysis, and opinions as to whether this MMO has lived up to expectations or not. While we cannot stress enough that a beta is a beta and not a launched product deserving of a full-range judgment, many curious players have taken this opportunity to soak up the information, particularly if they have not been in the beta as of yet. Others might have dipped their toes in the beta but are interested to hear what some of the long-time vets have to say at this juncture. So what about you? Has anything you read or heard about SWTOR following the NDA drop changed your mind? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Wars Stormtroopers use Mac System 6
The evil Galactic Empire is well-known for cutting corners in its engineering, with gaping chasms scattered seemingly at random throughout the Death Star without a single guardrail in sight. It turns out the Empire's computer systems are also woefully out of date; as designer Matt Chase demonstrates, it seems Imperial Stormtroopers, like TK-421, are still using System 6 on their Macs. From the contents of TK-421's email inbox, it appears a Stormtrooper's work is never done. Not only is there some mandatory target practice scheduled, Darth Vader keeps sending increasingly frantic messages concerning a pair of missing droids. The final email, pictured above, is a rather ominous message from rebels@rebelalliance.org threatening to blow up the Death Star. Not to worry, TK-421; any attack against the station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained. Check out the full graphic of this decidedly old-school Mac desktop here. Note that one or two items in the graphic may be NSFW depending on your locale, especially if your boss is anything like Darth Vader. [via Neatorama]
Steve Jobs introduces the Death Star
This is an idea so beautiful in its execution that you wonder why it hasn't been done before -- take Steve Jobs' rapturous introduction of the iPad, and put it over the footage from Star Wars of the Death Star briefing. It's a perfect geeky mashup -- I especially love Han Solo's indifference ("It's just a big iPod touch, Chewie"), and the random jeers from the audience. Also, Google Maps on the Death Star looks a little different than on my phone, but I guess that Pac Man stuff is cool. Brilliant little short. It's funny how Apple product announcements have become almost as culturally significant as the products themselves. Of course, that's exactly the way Apple wants it, but it doesn't stop us from skewering the presentations with mashups like this. [via Cult of Mac]
EVE Evolved: Five useful starbase configurations
Player housing is one of those features we love to see in an MMO but every game that has it seems to implement it differently. Sometimes it's limited to instanced rooms the player can decorate and sometimes it's a little more functional like shared guild halls. In EVE Online, the closest thing to widely-available player housing would be anchorable starbases, which can be configured to serve a variety of functional roles. Originally, their primary purpose was to mine moon minerals and react them to produce advanced materials for Tech 2 production. Starbases can be very useful as tactical staging points for PvP operations. With the right modules anchored around them, they can also be configured for use in other industries, from mining and manufacturing to research and deep space exploration. Until recently, they also played a critical role in EVE's alliance sovereignty warfare as the alliance with the most starbases in a system gained control of it. With that role now fulfilled by Outposts, Infrastructure Hubs and Territorial Claim Units, starbases have mostly returned to their former industrial and tactical uses. In this article, I look at five different starbase configurations that can be very useful to organised corporations.
Alderaan added to SWTOR's list of planets
If you're like us, you've probably always wondered what Alderaan looked like before it was blown into space dust by the first Death Star. It's lucky that BioWare seems to feel the same way, as we'll now be able to see the planet in all its regal glory. The first set of screens make the world seem like one whole planet covered by landscape from Washington state, but a closer look at the concept art reveals some truly breathtaking imagery that we can't wait to see rendered into the game. You'll find all the information on Alderaan on the planet's official web page. Since you're probably recovering from either work or turkey we'll leave it at that and let you enjoy the new Star Wars: The Old Republic information.%Gallery-35033%%Gallery-35034%
Destroy the Death Star from the comfort of your iPhone
Wanna blow up the Death Star? There's an app for that! At least there should be soon. StarWars.com has word of the upcoming iPhone and iPod Touch game "Star Wars: Trench Run," letting players do the cool stuff Luke Skywalker did in Episode IV (minus the whining), namely: blow up the Death Star. Developers say "Trench Run" uses simple motion controls, relying on a player's command of the iPhone's accelerometer to avoid walls, other ships, gun turrets, and inexplicable solid beams laid across the trench (video). Manage all of that and they can take their shot at the Death Star's exhaust port and send the Empire reeling. Why did they never cover that port, anyway (YouTube)? If blowing up a space station the size of a small moon isn't a player's cup of tea, they can engage in dogfights with TIE fighters over the Death Star instead. The game's pitch promises music, sound effects, and clips from the movie for immersive gameplay, varying degrees of difficulty (from Easy to Jedi), and Leader Boards to let pilots see how they rank with other would-be Jedi from around the world. As exciting as blowing up the Death Star may be, the game screams for in-app purchases. Can pilots buy "Battle of Hoth" expansions down the road? And fly against the second Death Star? Can we?!? I mean... can they?!? Please? Until then, "Star Wars: Trench Run" has a price set of $4.99. No word on when the game will hit the App Store but it needs to happen soon. The Death Star must be stopped! [via starwars.com]
A look at the geography of WoW from Interesting '08
This is just beautiful, from the title ("Brave Noob World") to the idea -- a geographical survey of Azeroth. James Wallis, the director of Hogshead Publishing, gave this presentation at an "unconference" called Interesting '08, in which he tried to do a survey of Azeroth, in the same way that Tobold did -- by walking from one end to the other. And he discovers that Azeroth is pretty small and pretty dense -- it's about 12km across, according to him (I really like his comparison image of the Death Star), and using a Female Tauren, he even comes up with the force of gravity, which is about equal to Earth -- about 1g. Which makes sense; Blizzard would want the virtual world to feel the same as our world, no matter how big it is.There's a problem with that, though -- if you have a small planet with the same gravity as a much larger planet, the only answer is that the mass of the planet is much more dense. And when you get a really small, densely packed mass, you start to mess around with the flow of time. So Wallis actually ends up explaining one of the more annoying features of Azeroth with actual science. Very nice.It's definitely a fun example of looking for more in this MMO than Blizzard probably put there, but Wallis covers it with enough zest and logic that it works, strangely. Now if he could only explain the weather...[via Massively]Update: Looks like the video got pulled. It's been stowed after the break, just in case it comes back.
Conceptual hotel takes a note from the Death Star
We can't say with a straight face that the capital of Azerbaijan is high on our list of places to vacation at, but for Star Wars fanatics, the case could be different. Reportedly, Heerim Architects has dreamt up a couple of "lunar inspired" projects for the Asian country, one of which (Full Moon Bay) looks an awful lot like the Death Star. Granted, the building looks entirely different from varying angles, but we're choosing to focus on the one that brings back fond memories of light sabers blazing and wookiees waltzing. Truth be told, we've no idea if these facilities will ever break ground, but we're absolutely certain the powers in Dubai are already planning to recreate the entire Star Wars universe if this thing goes forward.[Via Inhabitat]
Star Wars gets Lethal
Ubisoft has announced today that they're developing a new, original Star Wars game for the PSP and DS. Entitled Lethal Alliance, the game will take place in the time between the so-so Episode III and the good Episode IV. You'll play as Twi'lek Rianna Saren and her security droid Zeeo, and it's your job to uncover the most lethal weapon the Empire has ever come up with: the Death Star (cue dramatic music). GameSpot has some screenshots of the PSP game, and also an interview:On [the] PSP, we wanted to utilize the powerful hardware by making an action-packed, fun-filled game set in beautiful environments... Both versions of the game offer local Wi-Fi capabilities... On PSP you will play Twi'lek versus Twi'lek, while on DS you will play droid versus droid.[Thanks, steve & daniel-kun!]
