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Today's throwbackiest video: Atari Pole Position commercial from the 80s
"HEY! You look like a jerk!" Any commercial that starts off like this is gold in our book. We can't remember seeing a commercial so disproportionally different from the actual gameplay experience. Even the raw processing power *ahem* of the Atari 5200 couldn't make Pole Position look this exciting.You've got 80s metal, crazy haircuts, wacky family racing, and something that'll leave skidmarks on your soul. We need more commercials like this for video games.
Sewing the seeds of retro: crocheted Atari 2600
Who said that grandma's skill set wasn't that useful? It's a custom crocheted Atari 2600, complete with two controllers, a game cartridge, and Pitfall on the screen. Amazing! These is exactly the sort of old school stuff we'd be filling our homes and offices up with if it was for sale in stores.Now the real proof comes when someone knits us a next-gen system complete with a multiplayer game playing out on the crocheted screen in -- wait for it -- high definition. That'd be like a million lines of yarn or something. Better get to knitting before Super HDTV gets invented.[Thanks, Mike]
The Atari 2600 changed the world
The Atari 2600 makes Wired's list of the top 10 gadgets that changed the world. This article from Wired Test lists the Walkman, Western Electric rotary phone, microwave, and other gadgets that we take for granted.The Atari 2600 spurred the home game industry, being the original must-own console. We didn't realize that it was still available until 1992, giving it a 15-year lifespan. Wired Test picks the Wii as today's version of the 2600. Will any of our current systems be as iconic as the classic Atari console?
Microsoft to pull a PS3, place motion sensors in Xbox 360 pad?
In a recent episode of Gamertag radio, Peter Moore speaks out about the increasing complexity of video game controllers, comparing today's gamepads to the simplicity of the Atari 2600's button-and-stick joystick. He didn't exclude the Xbox 360 controller's design from criticism, mentioning that his 14-year old daughter found the controller somewhat confusing. Naturally, there was a point to his self-criticism; later on in the podcast he says that Microsoft is "doing a lot of stuff there. Nothing that we're ready to talk about, and we're not going to force anything that is not going to be intuitive and innovative."The most obvious conclusion to make from this statement would be that Microsoft is working on a new, simplified controller, which may or may not "borrow" the Wiimote's defining feature, although the part where Moore says that "[Microsoft is] not going to force anything that is not going to be... innovative" could suggest that simply slapping a motion sensor inside an Xbox 360 pad isn't on the cards.British tech magazine T3 points out that the company could possibly be working on a simplified controller--to be sold in parallel with the main Xbox 360 pad--designed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade games. The magazine reasons that the company won't want to make the Xbox 360 pad's ergonomic design obsolete any time soon, which lends credence to the possibility of a simplified controller designed to play simple games to compliment the "hardcore" 360 gamepad.[Via Engadget]
