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A look at Blizzard's canceled squad-based sci-fi RPG: Nomad
At this morning's Austin Game Developer's Conference keynote, J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce of Blizzard took the stage to talk about the inner workings of Blizzard. Most of what they covered was stats and trvia. Did you know the Blizzard bug team is currently tracking over 179,484 bugs? Now you do. There are 7,650 quests in WoW since Wrath of the Lich King! Consider yourself informed. Some of the trivia was actually pretty interesting, like the fact that when Blizzard releases a patch, almost half of that data is audio. Pearce also mentioned that BlizzCon is operated "at a substantial loss for Blizzard," but the value is that it's a huge marketing/PR opportunity for them. Considering how many tickets they sell (in only eight minutes), that's around $3.5 million that's written off. Plus whatever Blizzard spends above and beyond that. No wonder Blizzard employees have to buy their own tickets.However, the most interesting part of the keynote was when they briefly spoke about Nomad, the canceled squad-based sci-fi game. Ten years ago, Blizzard put a lot of work in on the game, but eventually looked at it and said "Is this really the game we want to be working on right now? The answer ended up being "no," and the team went on to start work on World of Warcraft. Here we are ten years later with WoW going strong, and no Nomad in sight.They'd mentioned this canceled game, along with a slew of others, at last year's DICE summit, but without any other information. Sadly, the only thing they had to show were pieces of concept art, including some by "The Bourbon Cowboy," Chris Metzen. The art itself isn't that exciting (the best one is above and there's a couple more in the gallery below), but the words "squad-based sci-fi RPG" are exciting. Could this be Blizzard's next game? Possibly mutated into MMO form? Who knows when we'll find out, since one of the stats they flashed onscreen this morning was "Number of Unannounced MMOs: 1." %Gallery-73341%
Trimble Nomad handheld gets Android 1.5 upgrade
It's not exactly one of the first places you'd expect to see Cupcake popping up, but SDG Systems has announced that the Android update (or a developer build of it, specifically) is now available on its Trimble Nomad rugged handheld. That device, in case you missed it, has primarily relied on Windows Mobile for an OS to date, and packs an 806 MHz Marvell PXA320 XScale processor, 128MB of RAM, up to 2GB of storage, CompactFlash and SD card slots for expansion, built-in GPS, and a hot swappable lithium-ion battery that supposedly lasts a whole day on a charge. Anyone looking for an alternative to the G1 will likely want to look elsewhere though, as the Nomad isn't actually a phone, and this particular $1,200+ Android-equipped device is apparently intended specifically for developers looking to test out Android apps on a rugged device.
PlayMad takes PSOne portable, shouts out to Sega's Nomad
Clearly, this is the month to be making portable PSOne mods. Just weeks after checking out Bacteria's totally bodacious IntoPlay comes a formidable opponent from G-force. The aptly named PlayMad gets its label from the innate ability to handle original PlayStation titles and its uncanny resemblance to Sega's own Nomad. We could just bore you with more details, but instead, we'll point you to the build links below and the hands-on demonstration vid just beyond the break. Trust us, it's worth a look (or two). [Via NowhereElse]
EVE Evolved: Gear up for wormhole exploration
In EVE Online, large alliances of corporations lay claim to the lucrative 0.0 security rating areas of the game and smaller corporate operations generally don't stand a chance against them. Corps who want to claim a little corner of space for themselves are forced to join an existing alliance or compete with them for space. With the recent news of 2500 new star systems coming to EVE with the release of wormholes in the march expansion, small corps may find themselves able to carve out their own little corner of space to live in without being squashed by the big alliances.How will wormholes work? The information we have so far suggests that wormholes into one of the 2500 new hidden star systems will open randomly in all security levels of system. Wormholes will have a diameter that restricts the maximum size of ship that can enter it and a mass limit that restricts the total mass of ships that can use the wormhole before it collapses. Once the wormhole collapses, the chances of finding another leading to the same system are astronomical so choosing which ships you bring in carefully is a must.Read on as I describe how wormholes could allow corps to more safely own systems and go on to describe what equipment and ships you'll need to take up residence in your own system.
BlizzCon press conference with Mike Morhaime
Mike Morhaime held a press conference earlier this afternoon, which WoW Insider was able to attend. I arrived a little late since it started before I finished up the UI panel liveblog, but I managed to catch a majority of the Q&A. Unlike the various panels, most of these questions were aimed at the philosophy and business model at Blizzard. How they've operated in the past, and how they'll operate in the future.BlizzCon itself came up a lot throughout the conference, the big question being will this BlizzCon be a letdown? There haven't been any major announcements. Announcements, sure, but nothing on the scale of Starcraft II or Diablo III. Mike Morhaime actually seemed most excited about this particular BlizzCon, because it isn't just showcasing one game. All three of their primary franchises have something new on the way, and fans of all of those games are in attendance. Beyond that, he believes the community is extremely important, and gatherings like BlizzCon are important as well. Blizzard themselves were blown away by just how many people were trying to attend the convention this time around. The number of hopefuls completely dwarfed both last year's BlizzCon and the more recent Worldwide Invitational. Will BlizzCon continue to be an annual event? Maybe. They'll focus on this weekend first, and then they'll start talking about next year once it's through.What I found most interesting, though? Morhaime was asked what the most unusual, off the wall concepts they had for a game that simply did not work out. He mentioned a game titled Nomad that Blizzard was developing after Starcraft was first released. A game they had never mentioned or announced until now. It was a post-apocalyptic style setting, but each day they sat down to work on it, it was with a little trepidation. Eventually they asked themselves, "If we were going to work on just one project today, would it be Nomad or would it be something else?" They went with something else. That something else was World of Warcraft.
The DS Life: Wanderers
Every single group of people you can categorize seems to have taken to the DS -- moms, dads, grandparents, babies, teachers, bloggers, movie stars, athletes, pirates, ninjas, and even crabs! They all love the Nintendo DS! What's the latest demographic to jump on the dual-screened bandwagon? Pack up your tent and travel past the post break to find out!
Creative sells 25 million MP3 players
It's been a long and winding road, but Creative announced today that it's sold 25 million MP3 players since it first shipped the parallel port-only Nomad in 1999. While that's not quite as many players as a certain fruit company, it's still a pretty astonishing number, and it speaks to the giant shift that's taken place in how we all consume media here in the future. Although the competition has gotten stiffer lately, Creative's various Zen and MuVo players seem like they're still in the fight -- here's to another 25 million.
Trimble unveils rugged lineup of Nomad handheld computers
If Trimble's Juno ST PDA wasn't rugged enough to handle your oh-so-critical field duties (or unexpected drink spills), you'll be thrilled to know that the firm has you on the brain. The Nomad lineup of handheld computers weigh just 21-ounces, are designed to "fit comfortably in a user's hand," and pack a fairly decent array of specifications. Internally, you'll find an 806MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, and optionally, you can tack on integrated Bluetooth, GPS, a bar code scanner, two-megapixel camera, and 802.11g; additionally, an SDIO and CF slot, up to 1GB of flash memory, a daylight-visible VGA touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6, and a rechargeable Li-ion are on board. Trimble is offering up four separate Nomad 800 flavors depending on your level of necessity (and budget), all of which can be found real soon ranging from $1,699 to $2,499.
PSP at the top of handheld evolution
We know that the PSP is powerful. But how powerful is it compared to handhelds before it? A lot more, as seen by Pocket Gamer's recent analysis of handheld systems. PSP's 333MHz of processing power knocks makes the rest of the chart seem miniscule in comparison.Pocket Gamer's feature is certainly an eye-opener. Of particular note is a fascinating diagram of screen sizes, overlaying each other. The PSP's wide screen LCD far exceeds the size of its nearest competitor, the Nomad. Even with such impressive statistics, the system remains one of the lightest handhelds created, and doesn't stand out as disproportionately larger than the others. This is a must-read feature for any PSP fan.
Handheld history reveals PSP's slim figure [Update 1]
Joystiq, the attention-craving parent site to PSP Fanboy, recently compared the sizes of history's greatest handhelds. When looking at the handhelds in size order, one can see that the PSP sits smack in the middle. Game Boy micro: 5.6 cubic inches Game Boy Advance SP: 9.81 cubic inches DS Lite: 12.96 cubic inches Wonderswan: 13.33 cubic inches Wonderswan Color: 14.1 cubic inches Wonderswan Crystals: 14.68 cubic inches Neo Geo Pocket Color: 17.35 cubic inches Sony PSP: 17.52 cubic inches Game Boy Advance: 17.64 cubic inches GP2X: 19.61 cubic inches DS Phat: 22.01 cubic inches Game Boy: 26.39 cubic inches Gamepark 32: 26.83 cubic inches Sega Nomad: 49.36 cubic inches Game Gear: 50.86 cubic inches Atari Lynx: 68.53 cubic inches We should be thankful that the PSP is no monstrosity like the Game Gear... Then again, I did love my Game Gear (pictured).[Thanks, Zebulunite!][Update 1: Whoa, how did that HTML glitch happen? It totally wasn't like that when I typed it. Anyways, fixed.]
Caltrain commuter rail pulls WiMAX at 79 mph
WiFi trains aren't anything new, and even WiMAX has made an appearance across the pond, bringing sweet, sweet Internets to those lucky commuters. Well now we're getting our own taste of the action, and the specs couldn't be sexier. The Caltrain commuter rail service has hooked up 16 miles of their track between Millbrae and Palo Alto, using WiMAX backbone from Redline, connectivity from Nomad and in-train WiFi routers from Sensoria to provide speedy connections to commuters while traveling at 79 mph. Tests of the system seemed to work dandy, with several commuters watching streamed video, pulling large file downloads and even answering email simultaneously. Now that the tech has been successfully demonstrated, they're planning on building it out across the rest of their line. The future is indeed nigh.[Via dailywireless]
