vulcan
Latest
Star Trek Online producer confirms familiar races and locales
Bet you'd just about forgotten about Star Trek Online by this point, hadn't you? There was a big explosion of information when Cryptic announced its iteration of the game in August, but since then, we've seen less and less information as time's gone by. But lo! There has been an update at the officlal site! Turns out the executive producer, Craig Zinkievich, did an interview with Skewed and Reviewed.It makes for a decent overview if you're new to Star Trek Online, but there isn't much in the way of new gameplay information except for some specific revelations about visitable locales and playable races. First of all, he confirmed that Deep Space Nine -- the setting of the TV series of the same name -- will be in the game. He also rattled off a few of the playable races (but not all, and remember you can create your own): "Human, Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon, Orion and several others." Trekkers / trekkies should be glad to hear that there will be no shortage of scantily clad green people or blue antennae.
The Digital Continuum: Pondering Star Trek Online
As a kid, I grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Mostly because my parents watched it constantly, but also because I found that I enjoyed the show. Another staple of my nerd-influenced upbringing was a steady diet of Star Trek movies. Since those formative years I've also watched Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, Voyager and more recently Battlestar Galactica. So it's safe to say I'm at least a casual sci-fi and space nerd. In fact, when I'm not entrenched in some form of entertainment, I tend to spend my extra time over at the official website of Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Of course Star Trek has never been purely about Science. It's always been -- to me, at least -- a mixture of social-political issues, engaging drama and several degrees of actual science. Different writers and directors have, over several decades, writ large their envisioned versions of Star Trek, with varying amounts of the three critical factors that make up a Star Trek experience. So, obviously, I now find myself wondering what Cryptic Studio's massively multiplayer online version is going to be like.
The hidden art of Star Trek Online
There is much buzz in the MMOG universe this morning about the upcoming title Star Trek Online. Being absolute fanboys and fangirls of Star Trek ourselves (much like our friends at STO Zone who had the same idea) we wanted to show you a couple of nuggets of interesting art that we've extracted. These two images were taken from the backgrounds of the Cryptic Star Trek Online site that was unveiled last night. The top image shows an Andorian female in the foreground of what appears to be an away team. Some of the staff think that may be either a Bolian, Benzite or an Orion male to her left, but it's very hard to make out. (Not that many people remember the Orion males anyway.) Below that is a Klingon at the helm of what appears to be a Bird of Prey with a Human, Ferengi, Cardassian and Vulcan manning the controls, dressed in Federation uniform, or wearing Federation insignia. Speculation from some blog sites suggest that Cryptic is likely looking at a period of time post-DS9, tied to the Officer Exchange Program that started in the episode "A Matter of Honor" during the TNG series. It seems like an excellent spot in the continuity to place an MMO, we think.
The Daily Grind: Which Star Trek races do you most want in the MMO?
There are many races within the Star Trek universe to choose from when it comes to your favorites -- and we say that in plural form because lets be honest, you can't pick just one -- so of course we're curious about your personal choices. If you had the power to choose four or five races for Star Trek Online, what would they be? Vulcan? Cardassian, Bajoran, Ferengi, Klingon, or Romulan? Or maybe something less expected like the Voth? We'd totally roll some bipedal hyper-dinosaur characters. Obviously we're assuming that Humans are included in this list, but hey if you want to exclude them feel free.There's certainly a lot of room for discussion on this topic, seeing as there have been six Star Trek series (if you count the animated series) and ten -- but soon to be eleven -- movies. One thing we personally thing is that all Game Masters should be forced to be the Q race, because come on... that just makes too much sense!
DARPA's Vulcan engine combines turbo jet with scramjet, faces will melt
When you're building a jet that exponentially accelerates past Mach 6 -- as one does -- you need to come up with a way to get it off the ground. Scramjets, or Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engines, use compressed air and a reduced nozzle to accelerate planes, and they're a hot technology in aviation. Problem is, you have to get them to Mach 4 before the magic happens. Traditionally, scramjet tests have involved strapping the craft to supersonic jets to get the jet up to speed -- not a very cost-effective solution. DARPA has come up with a hybrid engine design called Vulcan that can power a craft like the Falcon HTV-3X to the magical point with a turbo jet and then switch to the CVC to get the craft to the promised land. They expect to have a working prototype by 2012. Check the concept video after the break.
Is FlipStart closing up shop?
Look, we're not saying that FlipStart is on the way out, but when you only sell one product, put it on fire sale, and then your "store" page tells people that the stock of your device has been "sold out" and then directs them to a third-party retailer for accessories, well, things might not be looking so good.[Thanks, Marke]
FlipStart retail price nosedives, we're a little worried
It's one thing to have a price reduction, it's another thing to go from $1500 to $700 -- more than half off -- in a single day. Then again, if you want to move units, there's nothing like a fire sale. Perhaps the FlipStart 2.0 is just around the corner. Or perhaps these things simply weren't moving as fast as Paul Allen might have hoped.
Star Trek Online devlogs explore strange new world-building techniques
If you've been following Star Trek Online, then you know we get the sweetest little tastes of information in Perpetual's monthly devlogs. This month's devlog is about game art -- specifically, putting together different building-block pieces of it to form a variety of locales. This is appropriately demonstrated with pieces of a Vulcan town -- "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations," get it?While that's (Vulcan voice) fascinating, the highlights of the devlog are arguably the little bits of concept art. Most if it is Vulcan stuff, but devlogger Mike Stemmle did toss in the above-pictured TOS Doomsday Machine. If you're a real Trekkie, that bit alone should make the wait unbearable. We're trying our best to be patient and to not let Perpetual's Gods & Heroes self-destruction get to us. To quote Spock, "you must have faith that the universe will unfold as it should."[Via Warcry]
Make it so: virtual reality Enterprise hits Canada
The 1,500 Trek-obssesed citizens of Vulcan, Alberta are spicing up their annual Galaxyfest this year with the launch of the "Vulcan Space Adventure," an immersive VR game that takes place inside a recreation of the Enterprise. The CA$250,000 game, built by VR firm GestureTek, allows up to three players cast as Starfleet trainees to simulataneously interact with a virtual environment created by multple cameras and holographic screens. After being led into the simulation chamber -- built to look like the bridge of the Enterprise -- by "Captain Krok," visitors take orders from Starfleet Command and then use GestureTek's "point-and-click" VR system to complete their mission. The system, which doesn't require the player to wear any cumbersome VR gear, is one of only two GestureTek installations in Canada. We just hope the game doesn't get too real: what happened to that poor redshirt in these photos? A couple more after the jump...
FlipStart handtop now shipping; Sprint EV-DO Rev. A available
It's been in the oven for almost four years now, but Paul Allen and team Vulcan have finally deemed the Flipstart handtop / UMPC well-done and ready to serve. You should already know most of the specs from our several posts about the device (not counting the older ones where we mock it as vaporware) -- 1.1GHz Pentium M ULV CPU, 512MB DDR RAM (just enough to run Vista!), 5.6-inch SVGA screen, three wireless radios -- but what's been kept under wraps until now is that the starting-at-$2,000 machine rocks EV-DO Rev A courtesy of Sprint for getting your mobile broadband on. Now this sub-sub-notebook is certainly not for everyone -- not to mention the fact that it faces stiff competition from OQO, Sony, and Samsung, among others -- but if you have a few extra bucks laying around, there are worse things you could do with your money than pick up this gadget lover's dream. [Thanks, Thomas L.]
Hands-on with Vulcan's Flipstart handheld PC
The Vulcan Flipstart is one of those products that just gets you juiced up about gadgets, because really, what's more gadgety than a full-fledged computer that you can slide into a coat pocket? There was a short while there (2003 to 2007) when we thought that the Flipstart would never make it out of vaporware hell; all that trepidation disappeared, however, when not one but two of the little XP-powered clamshells got delivered to our doorstep. Having already played around with both OQOs, several UMPCs, and countless smartphones, we had a pretty good idea of what we were expecting from this device, and from our preliminary evaluation, it does not disappoint. From the polished, slightly-heavy body to the port replicator to the geeky hip pouch, everything feels solidly built -- as we would hope for a product that's been in development for several years. Boot-up occurs fairly quickly, and you're up and running within the minute, with most applications performing adequately on a Pentium M CPU backed by 512MB of RAM. Input is also fairly painless; although touch-typing is a non-starter on the tiny thumb board, those used to their Treos will catch on quickly, and the dual methods for pointer control (touchpad and nubbin) felt responsive and precise. Another nice feature is the auxiliary external display, which although not powered by Slideshow, nonetheless offers PIM entries and media control in a very convenient manner. We'll have more impressions for you once we take our two new toys for a longer spin, but for now you can pass the time by checking out the loaded gallery below, complete with the all important Flipstart vs. Flipstart comparative shots.%Gallery-1960%
Vulcan FlipStart escapes vaporware status, gets reviewed
It's always fun to see a bit of vaporware finally come into existence -- if only for the clever Duke Nukem Forever jokes that invariably ensue. Well this time it's Vulcan's time to show up all the naysayers and finally get the FlipStart out the door... almost. There's actually no word on availability yet, but PC Mag got a review unit of the chubsy E-1001S and even has a pricetag for the beast: $2000. The specs are almost respectable for the size: a 5.6-inch 1024 x 600 screen, Pentium M processor, 30GB HDD, 512MB of RAM and built-in. There's touchpad up above that QWERTY keyboard, which is a nice addition in such a cramped space, along with a pointing stick for double the cursor moving pleasure. Unfortunately, PC Mag seems to have pulled the review, so we don't have much of an idea how it stacks up against the competition yet -- a certain OQO Model 02 comes to mind -- but we're sure we'll be hearing more soon.[Via Crave]
Today's flight simmiest video: Vulcan - BlackBuck raid test in Falkland/Malvinas flight sim
Anyone else heard anything about this flight sim? It looks PC-based, but it just got us to thinking that we really need to see some flight simulator goodness on the next-gen consoles. I'd even settle for a low-grade graphics version on the Nintendo Wii. Back in our college days, we spent hours and hours flying around in LucasArts' Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, and Wing Commander III, and we want to keep doing it. Build us a good, quality, realistic (and fun) flight simulator, and the masses will come. Is that too much to ask for? In the meantime, enjoy the footage, and pray for something good to come down the pipeline. Our wallets are ready and willing.
Vulcan posts FlipStart teaser page; will they finally release something?
The long-promised FlipStart mini PC has been on the vapor tip for a ridiculously long time, but could Vulcan be finally close to launching it? To be honest, we're not sure what's up -- we've been hearing about this thing for so long now that they may as well call it the FalseStart -- but they have put up a new teaser page for it. With any luck it means they're getting close to rolling something out, let's just hope it's not that hunk of junk they were beta testing a few years ago. [Via Carrypad]
Bandai's Gundam robot gets human-sized
Japan's largest toy manufacturer is about to get life sized with the unveiling of a 5-foot tall Gundam. Bandai feels the worldwide recognition of the hit show Mobile Suit Gundam will garner big interest from "20- to 40- year old men," i.e. fanboys, otaku, whatever you wanna call 'em. The 77 pound robot has 14 movable body parts right down to its finger joints, and emits a plethora of sound effects (yes, the Vulcan fires too) while you remotely control his fear-inducing flashing eyes. Marketed as a "sophisticated plastic model" (kind of like its companion to the left), Bandai hopes to ship over 1,000 of these behemoths to living rooms and anime stores everywhere when they drop this December. If this has instantly skyrocketed atop your holiday wish list, you may want to reconsider -- the ¥350,000 ($3,000) pricetag and the giant hassle of self-assembling over 250 parts might just deter all but the most hardcore fans who won't even get the pleasure of mounting up and wearing it around the house, shooting at imaginary Gundam Wings.
Star Trek: Legacy updated screens
Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) and Mad Doc Software have released 10 new screens from Star Trek: Legacy, which will combine strategy and squad-based shooting elements across all the Trek settings. Take the captain's chair of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Borg vessels this holiday season.See also: Star Trek Online tidbits
