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Niyari brings back Atari 400 nostalgia with USB keyboard, brown never looked so good
We never got around to reviewing the Atari 400 back in 1979, but it was probably for the best -- according to Technabob, the game console's membrane keyboard was more of a finger torturing tool. But if you dig this iconic design regardless, then you may consider Niyari's similar-looking chiclet keyboard from Japan. Sure, $148.55 is pretty steep for an otherwise ordinary USB peripheral, but some old schoolers may gladly pay for this much improved typing experience, albeit 32 years too late. Head past the break to compare this device with an actual Atari 400.
Atari's Greatest Hits collection brings 100 classic games to iOS devices
You still can't play them with an iCade cabinet just yet -- though that's coming, in June -- but Atari has now delivered quite a present to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners. The company has just released its Greatest Hits collection for iOS devices, which includes 18 classic arcade games and 82 Atari 2600 games -- those available either in 25 separate packs for $0.99 apiece, or in one massive time sink bundle for $14.99 (Pong comes free with the app itself). As you can see, you'll also get things like the original box art and arcade cabinets for each game, and some of the titles will even let you play head-to-head with a friend over Bluetooth. Ready to get started? You know where to find it.
A series of unfortunate demises: classic arcade game deaths compiled into a tender tribute video
Whatever your flavor of old school gaming, whether you were a future-loving RoboCop killer or a skeleton-slaying Golden Axe swinger, there's a little slice of nostalgia here for you. The guys from BoingBoing have lovingly compiled some of the most memorable death scenes from the games of yore into a video tribute, and they've been nice enough to leave out the names of all the games featured. There's no Pokémon action in there, but still, can you guess 'em all?
Visualized: classic biplane gets a glass cockpit
Waco's YMF-5D biplane may look like an authentically vintage aircraft from the outside, but it's an entirely different story once you strap yourself into the pilot's seat. The plane is available with a number of different "glass cockpit" options, including the top of the line model pictured above that's outfitted with a whole slew of Garmin aviation gear and other 21st century niceties. Of course, that doesn't exactly come cheap - all told, the full glass configuration runs just over $99,000, or over $500,000 including the plane itself (you can see what it looks like after the break).
Palm Pre 2 gets official webOS 2.1 update, Classic emulator hacked to work on it
Hey, Pre 2 owners: want the webOS 2.1 action that Germans have been enjoying on their Pre Pluses for a couple weeks now? Of course you do -- and HP's got your back. The new update's been posted with support for the Touchstone's Exhibition mode, Voice Dial, and a plethora of updates to existing apps throughout the system (interestingly, the unlocked Pre 2 seems to have the Rogers model's update information, but we're pretty sure it makes no difference). On a related note, remember Classic? The old-school Palm OS emulator for webOS was so neat back during the Pre's introduction that Palm worked closely with the developer to get it supported and available -- but when webOS 2.0 happened, Palm dropped the emulator like a hot potato by removing critical stuff from the platform's updated libraries. Well, with some sweat, blood, and a whole lot of elbow grease, it appears that PreCentral forum members have somehow managed to get Classic working on webOS 2.1 once again -- and you can, too, with a ten-step procedure. It feels like Palm OS is becoming more of a vintage novelty than a mission-critical platform by the day, but hey, we can understand the sentimental value.
The Daily Grind: What game can you never truly leave behind?
Play MMOs long enough and you'll eventually come to realize that there's one game out there with your name on it. It may be your first, it may be the one you played the longest, or it may be a combination of those two variables (or countless others). One thing's for certain, though: You'll never truly get it out of your system. Whether he's comparing each new game to "the one," rolling his eyes when "next gen" titles fail to incorporate innovative aspects of said older game, or returning home as he inevitably gets bored with new and shiny, eventually almost every gamer comes to realize how much a particular title meant to him (and ultimately shaped his MMO worldview). For this morning's edition of The Daily Grind, tell us which title sticks in your craw, refuses to let you move on, or otherwise informs your MMO-related opinions and discourse. In short, what game can you never really leave (and is that a good thing)? 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!
Library of Congress receives 200,000 vintage master recordings from Universal, will stream them online
The US Library of Congress hasn't been shy about embracing the modern age of digital media, though in this case it's having to deal with some decidedly lower-fi data storage. Universal Music Group has announced it's donating over 200,000 master recordings of early 20th century music to the Library, which will be cataloged and digitized -- for future safekeeping and in order to be streamed online starting in the spring. It doesn't seem, however, that the intellectual property rights will be passing with these recordings, as the press release states this agreement continues the Library's "unprecedented authority to stream commercially owned sound recordings online." Either way, it's good to know that the original copies of works by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald will reside in the hands of an organization dedicated to their preservation. Full press release follows after the break.
Kinect used to control Super Mario on a PC, redefine convergence (video)
If, like us, you've been waiting to see Kinect in control of a truly marquee game, your wait has now come to an end. The same fella that brought us the Kinect lightsaber has returned with a hack enabling eager nostalgics to enjoy a bout of Super Mario controlled only by their body contortions. OpenKinect was used to get the motion-sensing peripheral -- originally intended exclusively for use with an Xbox 360 -- to communicate with his PC, while a simple NES emulator took care of bringing the 25-year old plumber to life. The video awaits after the break.
MotionApps' Classic emulator for webOS doesn't -- and can't -- work with 2.0
If you've still got some critical Palm OS apps after all these years... well, maybe it's time to try to find a way to move on. But in the meantime, you might be a little distraught to learn that MotionApps' Classic emulator is completely borked in webOS 2.0. Turns out there's a rather unrecoverable reason for that: Palm has apparently elected to remove the Classic ROM from webOS 2.0's binaries, which MotionApps claims is a violation of the agreement the two companies had in place. As a last-ditch effort to get things rolling again, MotionApps has turned over Classic's source to Palm, but it's not looking good; in light of that, they've stopped selling the app effective immediately, though they're saying they'll continue to support customer on webOS 1.x (which, for the moment, is still pretty much everybody). After this, looks like the only way to get your Palm OS on will be to hit up Access for some Garnet action -- so the question is, just how hardcore of a legacy user are you?
GOG offers community favorites for half off this weekend
Assuming you're still buying games from GOG.com after last week's shutdown stunt, there are some excellent deals to be had this week on the site's "Community Favorites" list. All of the games on the list are half off, which means you can pick up Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition or Myst: Masterpiece Edition for just three bucks, and Psychonauts or Syberia for just five. Sure, the site may have played a little too hard on your heartstrings with its fake story of shutting down for good just to promote a site revamp, but everybody appreciates cheap, classic PC games, right? And even if not, you can always go grab one of those iPhone games instead -- that's a great sale, too.
Apple hasn't buried the iPod classic yet
Rejoice, ye lovers of magnetic drives and scroll wheels! While Steve announced no updates to the iPod Classic, that doesn't mean it is going anywhere. In fact, it is prominently displayed on the iPod page over at Apple.com. So if you're into "retro" tech and you like big capacities and thick gadgets, you can still grab one of the hard drive-based multitaskers for US$249.
Confirmed: the iPod Classic is alive and well
If you were afraid that the iPod Classic may have bit the dust at today's music event, well, rest assured, it's still alive. While we awaited word on just that question from Apple, our good friend Michael Gartenberg confirmed with the company that it lives on to see another day.. and a beautiful performance by Chris Martin.
Breakfast Topic: I can do what now?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. I've been watching the clips of people flying about Eastern Kingdoms. I can hardly wait! It got me to thinking about all the mount changes I've witnessed in the course of my gaming time. I started towards the end of vanilla. The Burning Crusade had been announced. My daughter was in the beta, actually, and telling me that I needed to get into this game before it "expanded," whatever that meant. So I made my character and started to run everywhere. Dun Morogh, Loch Modan, Elwynn Forest, Redridge, Westfall, Wetlands, Arathi Highlands, Hinterlands, Ashenvale, Desolace, Feralas, Felwood were all done on foot. I knew the route from Nijel's Point to Maraudon to the point that I could hit auto run and be pretty certain I'd make it there without too much trouble, just a few swoops and centaur along the way. I didn't get my first ram until level 45, as I couldn't afford it. I didn't get my epic ram until level 65 because I couldn't afford it. I was four months into level 70 before getting flying because, yup, couldn't afford it. The joke "When I was your level, I ran everywhere, uphill, both ways, in snow, barefoot ..." is semi-serious. This isn't about Blizzard's changing the levels for mounts. I have low-level alts, and I absolutely love their having mounts to get to the places my main once ran. This is a post about those things you do even when you don't have to anymore.
15 Minutes of Fame: Classic raiders keep a different pace
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft personalities of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. The old days are long gone, Gramps; take off the rose-colored glasses and play Wrath, where raiding is better than ever. So goes conventional wisdom in the comments whenever anyone espouses a little nostalgia for the old days of vanilla WoW. Raiding was a far different animal back then. Players who raided were still considered hardcore -- "casual raiding" wasn't on the radar yet -- and devoted week after week of angling for a 40-man raid slot in hopes of earning the chance at a purple drop. Even though strategy sites for WoW raids blossomed sooner rather than later, videos and the trustworthy guides remained relatively sparse, and many early guilds developed their own tactics and jealously guarded alternative strategies. Standing at the mailbox in Ironforge with a massive, raid-sized weapon on your back meant wielding a badge of achievement that attracted a small crowd; bearers would be flooded with awed whispers asking where it was from. A thoughtful look back at WoW's 40-man past yields both positives and negatives. It wasn't simply the size of the raids that made them feel so different than today's raids ; it was the interplay of raid size, the inexperience of the raiding player base, the scarcity and difficulty of rewards, the lack of universally accepted tactics and strategies ... A whole host of influences that simply can't be replicated today. But while the era may long cold and dead, the content is still very much alive. Beyond the bored, pre-expansion players who are fending off burnout by sightseeing in vanilla WoW and The Burning Crusade instances lies another layer of players who are attacking old content with level-appropriate characters. These classic raiders aren't fruitlessly attempting to recreate the past; rather, they're enjoying an entirely different pacing for the game.
Super Mario Crossover would have killed us in 1989
Sometimes, we wonder what it would be like if versions of ourselves from the past could be magically transported to today and have their minds blown by all the technological advances in video gaming technology. We have a feeling that they'd be disinterested in our "movement controllers" and "big definition graphicals," and would instead become entranced by a new Flash game by Exploding Rabbit that's sweeping the nation at terrifying velocities: Super Mario Crossover. The premise of the game is simple: It is the original Super Mario Bros., only your choice of playable characters isn't just limited to squat, Italian plumbers. You can also wreck Goombas while playing as Link, Mega Man, Samus, Simon Belmont or Bill (you know, from Contra). You could also just be Mario, but why would you do that, when you could be Bill from Contra? Stop being so silly. [Thanks, Eric]
Finally, WiiWare gets a Descent game
The best thing about Interplay having one foot in the grave is the easy access it has to all the corpses in the cemetery. Having already cast a resurrection spell on Stonekeep and Clayfighter, the publisher now looks to bring classic 3D shooter Descent to WiiWare this Fall. Interplay CEO Hervé Caen calls the disorienting game's reorientation on Wii an "exciting move," noting that "Descent remains the most popular 1080º 3D blasting game." The task of translating all that super-hot 3D to WiiWare will fall to independent studio G1M2, which previously worked on portollections like Data East Arcade Classics for Wii and Metal Slug PC Collection. Also, now that we're revisiting Descent, aren't we halfway to a Descent: Freespace revival? Everyone, say "yes."
Goozex now accepts SNES, Genesis and other retro game trades
The increasingly popular game-trading service Goozex is expanding its capabilities to encompass the game platforms of yesteryear. New to the site is an option to trade NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Genesis, Sega CD, and Atari 2600 amongst the site's growing user base. Sadly, there's still no support for our precious Virtual Boy. Now we'll never be able to get our hands on that copy of Teleroboxer we've always dreamed of owning. There's already a ton of games from each platform up for trading on Goozex right now. Like, good games. Not the nine pathetic copies of WCW Mayhem which comprise your local used games store's N64 selection.
Beauty and the Beast coming to Blu-ray October 5
We should all be familiar with Disney's system of scheduling releases from its valuable archive of animated hits by now, and it's staying on path with Beauty and the Beast, arriving on Blu-ray for the first time on October 5, a year after the first Diamond Edition release, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.All that means is to expect another Blu-ray + DVD combo pack (with standalone DVD to follow later, on November 23) with carefully restored imagery, 7.1 surround audio and plenty of extras. The trailer is embedded after the break, but we suspect the decision to buy this one has already been made.
Warner Bros. in talks to produce Space Invaders movie
According to a recent report from the L.A. Times, Warner Bros. is in talks with Japanese game developer Taito to secure the rights for a film adaptation of Space Invaders. The Times speculates the film would be a big-budget action-blockbuster, helmed by prolific producers of big-budget action-blockbusters, such as Mark Gordon, Jason Blum and Guymon Casady. In other news, we're planning on doing our own version of Space Invaders pretty soon, only it will be about us, attempting to invade outer space, because we don't want to live on this stupid, terrible planet anymore. [Via IGN]
LG's Classic TV gives old CRT new legs
In these complex, digital days, it's easy to yearn for simpler, analog times -- when everything was daisy-chained coax cable and all you needed was the odd RF adapter to get your gaming on. LG is taking its customers back in time with the Classic TV, an honest to gosh CRT clothed in period-appropriate attire. While it does break with tradition slightly by including a remote control, it offers nicely tactile dials and even a set of color-matched rabbit ears, making it the perfect thing for hooking up your Famicom or watching Astroboy re-runs. It's available now in Korea, your choice of basic black or cheeky red for ₩ 249,000. That equates to about $215, but don't go looking for it in your local Caldor flier.
