3DS Augmented Reality Gaming Demo from Japan

Erik Ackerlund – Japan gamers have been treated to the release of the Nintendo 3DS there,  there are all ready a number of user videos floating around.   This one was particularly impressive.   The guy throws a AR card down on the table.  The 3DS then scans with it’s cameras for the location of the card.  You see the gamer do some slight configuration.  Once the 3DS recognizes it, things begin to develop over the scene and the game begins,   Its great how the user can rotate the 3DS to get different angles on the game, all while watching this in 3D without glasses.

The 3DS will launch on March 27th for $250 in either Black or Blue.  It comes packaged with a 2GB SD card, a charging cradle, and six augmented reality cards.

It’s on Ebay – Signed Nintendo World Championship poster

Erik Ackerlund -Here is an unusual find that turned up on Ebay. A replica poster signed by Thor at the Nintendo AgeExpo. You never know what your going to find on ebay. Too bad it is not actually vintage. How many of you NWC veterans out there still have your original?

From the seller’s description, “The poster is 9″ x 15″ and is perfect for any Nintendo collector!!! Frame it! stare at it! love it! Definitely, a one of a kind item. The poster itself was fabricated in 2008 and came with the NWC game cartridge re-release from Retrozone, it has the retrozone seal of quality on it, it was signed at the AgeExpo 2008 in Knoxville, TN – brand new never used. “

ttp://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-World-Championships-1990-NES-poster-SIGNED-NWC-/290530226278

Oscar Weekend Predictions

Thor Aackerlund – These are my predictions for the Academy Awards tomorrow night, but not necessarily who I want to win

Best Actor : Colin Firth      “Yes”

Best Actress : Natalie Portman       “Yes”

Best Supporting Actor : Geoffrey Rush        “Nope, the fighter Bale got it”

Best Supporting Actress : Melissa Leo    “Yes”

Best Picture : The Social Network    “No , King me”

Best Original Screenplay : Christopher Nolan      “King’s Speech”

Best Adapted Screenplay : Aaron Sorkin      “Yes – Good call”

Best Director : David Fincher   “No – Kinged again”

Best Animated Feature : Toy Story 3    “This was a can’t miss”

Best Original Score : Trent Reznor / Atticus Ross    “Amazing”

Best Sound Editing : Richard King for Inception     “Yes”

Best Sound Mixing : Inception

Best Cinematography : True Grit      “No Inception, True Grit got the shaft”

Best Editing : The Social Network    “Yes – good call”

Best Visual Effects : Inception     “Yes”

I could be totally wrong, but I think those have a good chance of winning.

Battlefield 3 First Video with actual in game footage

Erik Ackerlund – The return of 64 player maps and going prone! Dice did it right this time and based the core game around the PC utilizing the new Frostbite 2.0 engine. While each version will get it’s own attention to detail, the PC one is going to be epic. You may have to freeze frame some of the shots to take it all in. These shots look to be from the single player mode.

You can pre-order it now on Amazon, or GameStop or your favorite game vendor. I suspect it will hit the streets sometime in October or November.

UPDATE: New video released shows a lot more gameplay.   The environment looks a lot richer than previously.   Dragging wounded soldiers is a new feature.

Tetris on a Roll? Torus is a real innovoation

Erik Ackerlund – There are plenty of Tetris clones out there, and few if any ever really innovate on the given principals of what we know of Tetris. This however is one of the coolest I have seen. Our collective hats off to Ben Joffe for the originality here.

Torus is played around a ring so you can rotate your pieces around in a 3d column. Just think of the Nintendo 3DS and future 3D gaming implications of something like this. The game play is instantly apparent. There many a typical pieces, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The only downside is perhaps a limitation of HTML 5 or the code underneath, but the game play is rather slow. From my tests, I felt that it would be pretty addictive if it was only faster*. This requires an extra memory skill to know what the other side of your column looks like, it plays very naturally however. Quite enjoyable. Hopefully we will see this get developed more into a full product.

Currently it offers three modes, Traditional, Time Attack, and Garbage, all of which are pretty self explanatory. If you can get beyond the slowness.*

* Update from Ben Joffe: “I’d just like to point out one thing, you mention it is slow, I hear this from quite a few of the players, but it is often because the player/reviewer has not played for long enough, it does slowly get faster as you play. In regular mode if you get to about 80 lines cleared then it becomes very fast, and I don’t think I’ve gotten past 150 or so.”

Check out Torus here: http://www.benjoffe.com/code/games/torus/

Why you should not sleep on airplanes.

Tetris Art – Not a Level Playing Field

1980′s Memory Primer for those that do not know.

Harry Hong posts Level 19 Maxout on NES Tetris

Breaking the Odometer

Erik Ackerlund – Harry pushes down a masterful game of Tetris here, that proves he is one of a handful in the world that has achieved this greatness. He pushes the NES Tetris to the score breaking point, where the score odometer no longer counts up. Watch it and weep.

“I have been wanting to achieve a run where I could consider it my masterpiece, and I believe this truly signifies all of the skills and knowledge I have developed over the past couple of years.” – Harry “SuPa” Hong

 

2011 Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees To Be Nominated By Public

Erik Ackerlund -The International Video Game Hall of Fame and Museum has relaunched their official website as they prepare for their 2011 Big Bang event.

New features included on the official IVGHOF website include histories of the video game industry and the location, a list of the organization’s board members and qualifications, and a location where the public can send in nominations on those to be inducted in the 2011 Hall of Fame class.

Full article here courtesy of our friend Patrick Scott Patterson

Miss old school Tetris? Which was the greatest NES, Tengen, Gameboy?

* Tengen Arcade Tetris should read Atari Arcade Tetris