Thursday, May 26, 2011

Plugged

This week's (excellent) Extra Credits threw a plug to one of my personal favorite old(er) Game OverThinker episodes. Here's the EC (though you should already be watching this every Thursday anyway...)



And here's the episode they were referencing, if you've come here looking:



Many thanks, as always, to James, Dan, Allison etc.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Modern War 3 Trailer Teases World War III

A new trailer reveals that the new story "Call of Duty" fans will be skipping entirely on their way to engage in online deathmatches with Ritalin-addled 12 year-olds involves a world-wide conflict.



As the previous game involved full-scale military operations underway in North America, the Middle East and Europe I'm not 100% clear why this is a "new" development; but whatever.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

EPISODE 51: "Putting The Cart Before The Cloud"

UPDATE: as of 9/13/11 this video is now at THIS LINK



Behold our magnificient new opening-credits... with their retro-tastic temporary "theme music" courtest the mighty Mega Man 2!


Incidentally...

A.) YES - I'm aware that you can see me checking the monologue on the laptop. Working on that.

B.) NO, that's not The AntiThinker in a red hoddie, I wouldn't do that ;)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

EPISODE 51 coming this thursday night!

EPISODE 51 is coming this Thursday night, 5/19/11, at 11pm ET. This is, of course, the first "post-AntiThinker" episode and will debut - among other fun new things - our new Opening Credits... with temporary music, as that's still being worked on.

To tide you over, here's a trio of still images - all from the episode itself. Enjoy!


I'm thinking some version of this "desk set" might become a semi-
permanent fixture of the show, as it was very convenient to use.

Two more pix after the jump...


Fairchild Channel F: The first cartridge-based game console EVER.
You May recall it being mentioned a bit last month when it's creator
Gerald Lawson, the inventor of the Game Cartridge, passed away.

 
....?

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

MovieBob's Disturbingly Not-As-Insane-Sounding Wii2 Theory: Revisited

(reposted from the other blog, as it's mutually-relevant)

Being right about something in the realm of technology-speculation happens to me so rarely I'm actually a little scared when it looks like it might... happen, I mean. So right now... I'm actually a little alarmed...

Awhile back, when we first got word that Nintendo's yet-unamed, supposedly E3-bound Wii successor was going to have an iPad-esque touchscreen incorporated into it's controller, I was struck by a crazy notion: What if the touchscreen IS the controller - as in, the WHOLE controller?

The "big idea," as I imagined it, was that instead of having one controller with a pre-set arrangement of buttons that each game needed to be mapped to, it'd just be a blank touchscreen upon which each individual game would generate it's own specific, tailor-made set of "virtual buttons." Think about it: A six-button arcade setup for Street Fighter, SNES-style setup for platformers or retrogames, etc.

One HUGE problem with that idea: "Virtual buttons" SUCK, and for a very specific reason: You can't feel them. There's no texture, no tacticle-resistance, no "feedback." At least, not on any of the virtual-buttons we've used so far...

Check out this story from The Escapist, which details some new Wii2 rumors including a Swedish site's report that the controller's touchscreen - whatever else it is - is utilizing a form of HAPTIC TECHNOLOGY, which basically means "artificial feedback." Haptic Touchscreens, something Apple and Toshiba have been experimenting with and/or demonstrating, use an electrically-charged "film" on the screen surface to make different areas of the display "feel" noticeably different to the user's fingertips. The practical application is obvious: You can make the "clickable" parts of a website, options-menu or even a virtual keypad feel distinguishable to the touch. Theoretically, that could ELIMINATE the one drawback to virtual-button game-controls.

Now, realistically, it'd probably still have physical analogue sticks and shoulder-buttons, but otherwise... yeah, until proven wrong (which is probably what'll happen) I'm stickin' with this insane theory: Wii2's controller, to some degree, will be built around virtual-buttons on a touchscreen, and that aspect - "one controller that becomes ALL CONTROLLERS!" - will be central to the marketing.

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