Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

From the random video vault, I’ve compiled a bunch of great ancient video game and computer commercials from YouTube. It’s really amazing how far we’ve come. Enjoy the retro goodness… Apple II Computer:

This just in… Next Generation is reporting that the Entertainment Software Association is expected to cancel the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video gaming expo for the forseeable future as a result of the joint pullout of a number of major exhibitors.

I recently stumbled across this video posted by k4rn4ge, the dude with the all-time high score on Geometry Wars Evolved for the Xbox 360. Personally, I’ve never managed to get past 250,000 points on the game, so I’m in awe of this unbelievable score of 21,242,600 points.

Our friends over at Oppo Digital, makers of the universally loved OPDV971H DVD Player, have just released this odd little DVD/LCD TV combo, the LT-2007. Combining a 20″ LCD screen (4:3 ratio) and a DVD player into a single white housing, the set displays a striking resemblance to some of the early Cinema Displays from Apple.

Developers Q Entertainment and Phantagram released the demo version of their Xbox 360 hack and slash title Ninety-Nine Nights on the Xbox Live Marketplace today. The game has gained alot of advance buzz due to the massive battle that can involve hundreds of enemies.

For those of us who have DirecTV’s HR10-250 TiVo, it’s a bittersweet reality that a new HD DVR has been in the works for quite some time. While I personally love the TiVo UI, the current HD DVRs have been fraught with problems ranging from overheating, to HDMI connectivity bugs, to dying hard drives.

Oregon Scientific, know for their typically utilitarian designs for weather and time gadgets went totally off the charts by hiring world reknown designer Stefano Giovannoni, to design this ultra-hip alarm clock with a great LED backlit display in a retro sci-fi font, and a nifty removeable wireless time projection sphere.

One of my favorite arcade games of all time, Galaga, has made its way onto Xbox Live Arcade today. Unlike some of the other classic games to make it to XBLA (hear me Frogger!) this one appears to be a faithful rendition of the original game, complete with online scoreboards and Xbox Live achievements.

Australian hardware and software house, 22Moo has announced that they are working on an iTunes download kiosk called the “PodBuffet” for use in airports, train stations, hotels and other public places. The device will run on a Mac Mini with a touch panel LCD screen and virtual keyboard software.

The corporate big brains at EA and ESPN have decided that some morons out there will actually grab their mommy’s credit card out of her wallet and drop $20 to watch a special Pay-Per-View preview VIDEO titled Inside Madden 07.

As a reflection of changing state of paper currency in the real world, a new version of the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly does away with all the pieces of color-coded play money, and replaces them with a mock Visa Debit Card.

According to an industry analyst with American Technology Research, features planned for some next generation video iPods will include widescreen video playback, including an advanced video processor said to be supplied by Nvidia. The rumors that the chip supports 3D puzzles me, and unless Apple is planning on adding gaming capabilities to iPods, it doesn’t make much sense to me.

The Nintendo DS Opera Browser is now on sale across Japan and here’s a video of it in action on a DS lite with commentary in English. The clip shows many popular sites running on the DS, including Digg, Slashdot, Gizmodo etc.

I believe this old NEC TurboGrafx 16 game qualifies as one of strangest games I’ve ever seen. I’ll simply let the images speak for themselves… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ASh8zrG90

It’s official. After many months of rumors and false starts, it’s been announced that chip maker AMD has plans to purchase top graphics chip maker ATI for appx. $5.4 billion. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal should close in Q4 2006.

The charlatans and snake-oil salespeople in corporate product marketing departments often are pressured to announce and hype products that are clearly not ready for prime time. Over the years, there have been numerous examples of long-delays and missed ship dates (see Windows Vista), but there is a special place in hell for these products that never, ever were released, despite years of development and buzz.