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Nintendo gifts birthday boy Bush with DS Lite, Brain Age
Just like you're not supposed to tug on Superman's cape, it's probably not the best idea to send the most powerful man in the world a gag gift on his birthday, so we've got to give props to our good friends at Nintendo for risking an ugly international incident to break President Bush off with a DS Lite in honor of his sixtieth -- and bundling in a copy of Brain Age to presumably help ward off his impending dementia. According to our sources inside the White House, after muttering under his breath about how "this doesn't work like my iPod," Mr. Bush decided to move onto more important matters like national security and regift the console to his Scottish Terrier Barney -- who was able to have a game of Nintendogs up and running within minutes. [Via Joystiq]
Wii set to drop on November 6th?
You may remember us passing along a rumor last month from Cubed3 which claimed that Nintendo would be launching the Wii on November 6th; as usual, we took the info with no small amount of skepticism, but now that date actually seems to have been confirmed, and in the most unlikely of places: this month's issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids (Disclaimer: Engadget and SI for Kids are part of the same loving corporate family). Generally not known for getting the inside scoop on the video game industry, the magazine nonetheless seems confident enough in its sources to have published the supposed release date as fact without even the hint of a disclaimer, which combined with the Cubed3 info, makes us think that they might be onto something here. Obviously any deets related to the launch and pricing of this console are up in the air until the official word comes down from Japan, but with Xbox 360 already firmly entrenched and the PS3 scheduled to roll out a little later in the month, it certainly makes sense that Nintendo would be looking to leverage even the tiniest advantage.[Via Joystiq]
Gamepark Holdings releases GP2X breakout board
Good news for GP2X owners: Gamepark Holdings (not to be confused with Gamepark, makers of the similarly-named XGP) has just released a breakout board that will turn your handheld console into a fully-functional, albeit underpowered, home PC. The board plugs into the EXT port on your device and features audio and video outs for hooking up an external monitor and sound system, four USB ports for attaching keyboards, mice, and joysticks, and RS232 and Jtag connectors for reflashing your firmware or running a debugging script on software you've developed. Although the kit -- available now for just $46 -- can be employed to create a home DivX or digital audio system, it will probably be most widely used in building emulation cabinets around the open-source, Linux-powered player. [Via DCEmu]
Ben Heckendorn's new, improved nPod
Never one to rest on his laurels,the great Ben Heckendorn has taken his already-stylin' nPod portable 8-bit Nintendo console and reworked it around a smaller "NES on a chip" to come up with a unit that's even more polished and compact than the original. Like the nPod 1.0, this new version is only slightly bigger than those bulky plastic cartridges it plays, yet still manages to include a headphone jack and convenient sliding battery pack powered by four regular AAs. As usual, the talented Mr. Heckendorn is happy to part with the prototype (for the right price), but this time around he's also seeking feedback to gauge the market for a potential limited production run of these devices. If the NES emulator on your smartphone just isn't doing it for you anymore, then head over to Ben's site and let him know how much you'd be willing to throw down for one of these -- he may even equip them with such niceties as a system link and TV out if that's what his adoring public demands. Keep reading if you want to catch a tantalizing glimpse of the nPod 2.0 from behind...[Via Make]
Toshiba taking $200 loss on each HD-A1, sez iSuppli
We've long wondered how Toshiba's able to price its HD-A1 HD DVD player at $500 while the Blu-ray camp will be charging $1,000 and up for their next-gen machines, and now the eggheads over at iSuppli are claiming to have the answer. After furiously running all the numbers through their high-tech calculators, the same company that brought us breakdowns of the iPod nano and Xbox 360 production costs is estimating that it takes $674 worth of parts to build an HD-A1 -- bringing the total cost to well over $700 when you include labor, packaging, etc. -- which means that Toshiba is taking a $200 loss on each unit sold. Rarely seen outside the world of videogame hardware, this pricing strategy is usually employed to build up a customer base for the devices' highly-profitable software, but in Toshiba's case, achieving significant HD DVD penetration prior to the Blu-ray rollout was probably even more important than the few bucks they make from each HD DVD disc that gets sold. Unfortunately for those of us waiting on a burner to hit the market before making the HD optical plunge, it doesn't sound like Toshiba will also be willing take a loss on that RD-A1 introduced the other day, as its $3,400 pricetag seems to more than cover every little component they're stuffing in there.[Via HDBeat]
Evesham releases SLI-enabled Quest Nemesis notebook
If Evesham's 19-inch Quest A630 gaming rig was just a little too much laptop for you, now the company has introduced another dual-core model that maintains the A630's SLI goodness but drops two inches off the screen -- and a full $1,300 off the pricetag. The new 17-inch Quest Nemesis features a Turion 64 processor from AMD, dual nVidia GeForce Go 7900 video cards, 1,680 x 1,050 WSXGA resolution, 160GB worth of 5400RPM SATA drives, and 1GB of rather pokey 333MHz DDR RAM, along with a DVD burner, 3-in-1 card reader, and Bluetooth and 802.11g radios. There's also a full suite of connectivity options, including FireWire, DVI, VGA, S-Video, S/PDIF, and 4 USB 2.0 ports, as well as an ExpressCard slot for eventually adding a wireless 3G modem. You can order the 8.8-pound Nemesis right away starting at $2,775, or wait around for the inevitable flood of identical rebadges that will probably drive the price down a bit.[Via Pocket-Lint]
Wiimote getting more changes?
Take this for what you will, but IGN is reporting that a comment made by the esteemed Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview with Japan's Famitsu may indicate that the supposed "final design" of the Wii controller that we saw at E3 isn't so final after all. Responding to a question about problems the company had in developing the Wiimote, Miyamoto stated that in fact "we're still debating on the area of how many buttons to use," which could be taken to mean that Nintendo has PS3-like changes in mind for the controller before the console ships. Of course, it could just as easily mean that although the design has been finalized, the Wii development team still discusses its merits and detriments amongst themselves, and the fact that the interview was translated over from the native Japanese only further muddies the issue, as Miyamoto's comments may have been taken out of context or lost the meaning he intended. Like we said, this is all just pie-in-the-sky speculation for now, and we're mainly passing it along so you don't freak out if you go to pick up your new Wii in a few months and the controller doesn't look exactly like you've been daydreaming it would.[Thanks, Dave Z.]
L64 redefines portable N64 style
So, no disrespect intended towards the great Ben Heckendorn, but this reworked Nintendo 64 painstakingly assembled by a modder named "Marshall" is one of the best looking DIY portable consoles we've ever seen. Known as the L64 (which stands, rather geekily, for L337-N64), this device takes Heckendorn's N64p and styles it in a completely faithful Nintendo-inspired package, with support for external controllers and all of the N64's titles including those that require an expansion pack. Seriously, this thing looks so good, we're thinking that instead of paying professionals thousands of bucks to develop crappy hardware like the N-Gage, Nokia and friends might be better off crowdsourcing their product design to guys like Marshall, Ben, and their legions of fellow fanboys who seem to have a real flair for this kind of work.[Via digg]
Gaming plague sweeps South Korea, at least 1 million infected
First SARS, then bird flu, and now video games. In the past three years, South Korea has been a hotbed for the contemporary world's most deadly plagues.Despite government intervention, an estimated 1 million South Koreans exhibit symptoms of the most severe stages of the gaming virus, forcing many to drop out of school or quit their jobs. Some are so sick they can barely eat or maintain an appropriate level of personal hygiene. In 2005, at least seven individuals fell victim to the disease, and according to a recent survey, 6 out of 10 South Koreans, ages 9 to 39, show signs of infection.Some speculate that the gaming plague has found a home in South Korea due to the country's fascination with new technology, a government policy that encourages the internet as an engine for economic growth, and a prevalence of urban, high-rise apartment blocks that make broadband networks commercially viable. It is not known at this time, to what extent, the video game virus has spread beyond South Korean borders. Here in the US, the threat level remains 'orange.'
Best Buy also has PS3 games for pre-order
What, you thought Best Buy liked Nintendo better than Sony? Never one to play favorites (except to customers who buy those shady warranties), the big-box retail giant has also put some tantalizing PS3 titles up for pre-order to join the Wii games we saw the other day. Like the Wii listings, the PS3 titles also cite December 1st as a release date -- probably just a placeholder -- although the $60 prices are more in line with Xbox 360 games than the $50 Nintendo will be charging for its discs. Among the nine titles online are classic franchise sequels such as Resident Evil 5, Tekken 6, and Devil May Cry 4, along with Indiana Jones, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007, but the lack of details or screenshots on Best Buy's site means you're better off skipping the Read link and heading straight over to Joystiq if you have any interest in these games.[Thanks, khrokon]
NPR starts a gaming podcast
National Public Radio in the U.S. has started a fortnightly podcast on the topic of video game culture called Press Start. Kyle Orland, the guy that runs VGMWatch, is one of the hosts of the show along with Ralph Cooper, an ex-NPR staffer and current stand-up comedian, and Robert Holt, NPR's server guy who also reviews games for All Things Considered. Their first show, which runs for a short but sweet 15 minutes, covers that time old topic "video games as art". Some choice quotes:Kyle - "You really need to know what art is before you can determine whether video games are art".Ralph - "I feel like a lot of video games, at least right now, they're not really trying to make statements".Rob - "When I was in Grand Theft Auto... I was driving through the city and listening to the radio and I drove over a hill and I saw... this huge moon rise over the horizon, I was just in it at that point. I just knew that this was not your normal game. Of course, I could have just been beating up hookers..."If you're up for some interesting and to-the-point video game culture commentary but want to skip on the usual "I like to hear the sound of my own voice" crap from the host(s), then make sure to add Press Start to your player of choice (iTunes link, My Yahoo! link, generic podcast RSS feed).
Sony's Stringer reveals "obsession" over Xbox 360
Making it perfectly clear that even the mightiest CEOs sit up at night fretting over their competitors' products, his highness Sir Howard Stringer recently confessed to having an "obsession" with Microsoft's Xbox 360 after inadvertently mentioning the PS3-rival in an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Stringer's admission followed what can only be described as a classic Freudian slip, in which he substituted the words "Xbox 360" for "X-Men III" when bragging about the success of Sony Pictures' The Da Vinci Code. After some prodding from Mossberg, Stringer even went on to pay Microsoft founder Bill Gates something of a backhanded compliment, admiring Gates' ability to put a positive spin on setbacks like the constantly-slipping Vista release date while still managing to take shots at the PS3 for its own delayed arrival. So, the obvious question that now presents itself is: who would win in a fight, Gates or Stringer? Comments are on and awaiting your thoughtful analysis.
Alienware Aurora 7500 gaming tower reviewed
When reviewing a computer from Alienware (or any other "boutique" electronics manufacturer, for that matter) it's difficult to compare to other systems on the market, mainly because these machines will offer a lot more power than your typical white box PC but also cost a good deal more than a similarly-equipped rig that you've built yourself. Therefore, setups like the ~$3,000 Aurora 7500 tower will never lead the pack in value, but XYZ Computing gives this particular model a thumbs up when it comes to performance, build quality, and upgradability -- and those benefits don't come cheap. As you'd expect, the 7500's dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor and dual nVidia GeForce 7900GT cards in SLI configuration make short work of even the toughest benchmarks, delivering more-than-acceptable framerates for high-end games even at a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200. Besides the steep price (though again, if you want this kind of power on the cheap, you're gonna have to spend hours building your own box), there's not much to criticize about this model, although XYZ laments the lack of dedicated fans for the dual hard drives and the fact that the toasty GPUs don't receive the same kind of liquid-cooling love as the CPU. Still, if you've got some extra dough laying around, but not a lot of extra time, it sounds like you can rest assured that the Aurora 7500 will deliver the top-notch fragging capabilities you desire.
AMD's "4 x 4" platform pairs 2 dual-core CPUs, 4 GPUs
Gamers gather 'round, for we have a tale of a new platform from AMD that will surely get your pulses racing, at least if the idea of having two dual-core processors and four graphics cards in one machine sounds as appealing to you as it does to us. Known as the "4 x 4" Enthusiasts Platform (four cores plus four GPUs -- we know, it's a bit of a stretch), the setup will allow manufacturers to offer configurations which users can upgrade over time, so consumers could start out with one dual-core chip and and one or more video cards, for example, instead of laying down what will likely be loads of cash on a maxed-out system. Another interesting bit of info revealed at the AMD analyst day in Austin, Texas was the fact that dual ATI Crossfire configurations can be used with 4 x 4, which indicates that AMD's possible acquisition target is probably working on a quad-SLI-esque solution to match rival nVidia. So start saving your pennies, dear gamers, because things are looking to get mighty interesting this year.
VoodooPC's 17-inch, dual-core Envy u:734 notebook
If VoodooPC's $5,000 Envy u:909 gaming laptop is a bit too rich for your blood, the company has come out with a more reasonably-priced 17-inch model that still manages to pack in a dual-core processor and top-of-the-line graphics card. The new Envy u:734 starts at "just" $3,800 and features a T2400 Core Duo processor (upgradable to the T2500 or T2600), nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX video card, 1,900 x 1,200 pixel widescreen display,1GB of RAM (2GB max), an 80GB HDD (160GB possible), 8x DVD burner, and the usual suite of ports, card readers, and wireless radios (three flavor WiFi and Bluetooth). You can place your order for this 8.1-pound desktop replacement starting today, and as usual, you can choose from about a million different color schemes along with numerous tattoo options for shlocking up personalizing your rig.[Via DailyCE]
Nintendo releases Rumble Pack for DS Lite
No surprises here: Nintendo has loosed a version of the venerable Rumble Pak on Japanese DS Lite owners, with a US model forthcoming. Besides being smaller than its big brother in order to fit flushly in the Lite's cartridge slot, the new Rumble Pak sports all the same vibrating goodness, and for the same price too. (In case you don't remember, that price is a mere $10). Unfortunately, both versions of the Pak are still only supported by a handful of games, so here's to hoping you haven't beaten Metroid Prime Hunters yet.[Via DS Fanboy]
Dell XPS M1210 gaming notebook on sale in Japan
Not that we really doubted that the specs and pictures were fake, but now we have confirmation that Dell's XPS M1210 gaming laptop is indeed real, and already on sale in Japan. NotebookReview, who's been following this 12.1-inch UXGA model ever since it was leaked onto the web last month, reports that Dell Japan is offering the M1210 in configurations that max out with a 2.0GHz T2500 Core Duo processor, a hefty 4GB of RAM, 120GB of HDD space, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics, an ExpressCard slot, and the usual assortment of ports and wireless radios. Using our superior knowledge of feature sets, we had predicted that this model would be cheaper than its 17-inch big brother, the $5,000 M1710, and sure enough, you'll be able to shell out at as little as $1,189 for the opportunity to become a proud member of the XPS club.[Via NotebookReview]
Immersive Communications Environment adds spatial dimension to in-game audio
Although we some may scoff at any research that won't directly lead to a "cure for cancer," the less judgmental may appreciate a new technology being developed by Australian engineers that promises to add a spatial dimension to in-game audio. Called the Immersive Communications Environment, this bit of code from the Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre maps voices and sounds from MMORPGs so that players can gauge their general direction using just headphones or stereo speakers, and even adjusts audio volume to reflect a sound source's virtual distance from the listener. Besides helping players communicate with teammates or figure out that they're getting shot in the back a little faster, the ICE software could also be employed in the business world, where it would give teleconference participants a more accurate sense of their remote colleagues' activities.[Thanks, Kaius]
Lower-end PS3 to ship with wired controllers, non-upgradeable HDD?
Besides the disheartening news that the cheaper version of the PlayStation 3 will lack WiFi, a memory card reader, and most significantly, an HDMI port, we've now learned that the $500 PS3 may also be shipping with wired, and not wireless, versions of that rumble-less, Wii-like controller. While adding separate Bluetooth controllers would only set you back a few bucks -- if, in fact, the lower-end model actually ends up shipping with BT functionality -- boosting your console's storage capacity in the future may be a non-starter, as Sony reps supposedly told Games Radar that the 20GB hard drive isn't upgradeable. With so many significant differences between the two configurations (and let's not forget the snazzy metallic lettering you get on the $600 models), it's not clear how many consumers are going to agree with Sony's Kaz Hirai that the "crippled" version of the console is a "good value" for them.Update: If it wasn't entirely clear, please bear in mind that until confirmed by Sony, the information contained herein concerning the controllers and hard drive falls squarely into the rumor camp.[Thanks, J and Ameya T.]
Microsoft denies author's claim of impending Xbox2Go
In a denial that should come as a surprise to no one (what, like they were really gonna tip their hand this early?), Microsoft's Xbox chief for Northern and Eastern Europe told UK tech site T3 "that we're not even thinking about handhelds at the moment." Neil Thompson's remarks came just days after the Internet was buzzing about a claim made by author Dean Takahashi in his new book, Xbox 360 Uncloaked, that said half of the 360 development team immediately began working on a portable 'box right after the next-gen console was launched last November. Thompson went on to say that although the big M has no plans to release a PSP-like device, the huge mobile phone market offers the company a "really good opportunity" to connect people with "other entertainment experiences." You heard it here first, folks: instead of wasting all that money on hardware development, Microsoft is simply going to develop an Xbox emulator for cellphones that lets you pull content directly from the Live service (either that, or Thompson was just toeing the party line in order to keep the wraps on this supposed Xbox2Go -- you be the judge).
