Video Games helping Autistic Children Communicate
Erik Ackerlund – The article below comes to us from our friend Patrick Scott Patterson. News organizations have a certain love affair with bad news, and with video games it is no different, often various studies are done trying to link video games with aggressive behavior or other negative traits. But there is a flip side, Scott is out there finding the great untold stores of gamers and their personalities. Here Scott delves into how one particular family has utilized video games to help their autistic child become a better communicator.
Patrick Scott Patterson – writes: John Pompa, a video gaming champion with Twin Galaxies and a resident of DuBois, PA, has been taking on a challenge far greater than any video game for several years now.
“My eleven year old son Donovan is diagnosed with Autism,” said Pompa. “He was about two or three years old when the doctors at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh diagnosed him. It’s the most challenging thing for me to communicate with him, because he is pretty much non-verbal.”
It’s on Ebay – 1994 Nintendo Powerfest Pamphlet
Erik Ackerlund – It’s on Ebay! 1994 Nintendo Powerfest Pamphlet. Hwagner’s description: “Up for sale is a Vintage 1994 POWERFEST brochure, promoting the next video game championship following the 1990 NWC Nintendo World Championships! I am an active game collector, and NWC collector, and have NEVER seen this listed anywhere else!!! Now is your chance to own a very rare part of the 1994 POWERFEST! Inside are coupons, as well as a set of official RULES for the event! It also describes what you can win, aka what the prizes are, among other cool stuff”
Ecstasy of Order the movie: from fantasy to final cut
Part 1
Robin Mihara – As a NWC (Nintendo World Championship) finalist, the contest has always stayed with me. It has been a part of my identity in a way. From completely defining me in my younger years, to being an amusing tale in bars as an adult, I never shed the connection. Tetris was the most important game in that contest, and to this day, I believe the most challenging NES game ever. Even the greatest players still struggle with it’s sadistic timing.
About 2 years ago, I looked at a NES Tetris game on Youtube played by Trey Harrison with a score of 801,222. My high was somewhere in the 550k range I believe, and seeing this guy play was unbelievable. I had seen 3 players clearly better than me in the NWC, but those players (Thor, Jeff Falco and Kenny Welch) were always playing at the slower speeds (due to the time limit)… never to get passed level 12 or so. Trey got to level 29 that game (my highest was 26 I think) where I saw the “kill screen” for the first time (where the speed goes so fast you cant even get a piece to the side). On Trey’s description he wrote that he first became obsessed with Tetris during the 1990 NWC! I didn’t remember a Trey there, so I wrote him and asked what his story was.
He replied that he had come in 3rd and 2nd place in the final two cities and never won a regional contest of his own. He went on to say that he had even broken 3 million points (NWC cart score), which as far ask I know was only the 5th person to do so at the time (the others being the previously mentioned greats, and Jeff Hansen the eventual winner of the younger age group). Trey then said that if I wanted to see the greatest player he had ever seen, to look up Jonas. Jonas had maxed out the score at a million and had done it starting on level 19. Level 19, for those of you who don’t know, is the speed where Tetris gets really really hard. Impossible for most. Once I hit 19, I just scramble to survive, with an occasional Tetris from luck and inevitably a sad miss drop or brain hiccup that kills me 2 pieces later. It’s a nightmare usually, and I’m pretty darn good.
Trey and I emailed back and forth for a while, and both remembered Thor (a friend of Trey’s, and recent Nintendoage acquaintance of mine) claiming that he could get past level 29 into the 30s. It was that night that I realized that I really needed to see these guys play each other. To me Tetris is the thinking man’s game of today. The ADD version of chess if you will. Thor vs. Jonas would be like the Bobby Fisher vs. Boris Spassky of the 21st century. Even if not taken seriously today, the game would some day be talked about as the first true legendary heads-up contest* for the most played video game of all time.
There was only one problem: Thor was now a keyboard player (due mostly to convenience), and Jonas didn’t play anything except the NES version.
That was about the time I met Adam Cornelius. Portland filmmaker and Tetris player himself, Adam was already starting a documentary about Harry Hong - The first official maxout player according to Twin Galaxies record keeping. Adam was under the impression that Harry was the reigning king of NES Tetris (Harry had a small amount of internet fame from his climb to the million-point grail) and had started a low budget documentary about the maxout and Harry funded by Trey Harrison! I excitedly (and nervously for fear that my news would break his dream project) told Adam that there were 2 players that may even be better than Harry. He took the news well, and from there we fantasized about holding a live contest with all the greats, and having big screens, announcers, spotlights, all like we did in 1990. The next day I got a call from Adam. ”OK I want to do it. You’re my star. You put it together” I was in my car speeding to his house in 30 seconds.
to be continued….
* no disrespect to the hard drop/hold chamber players of today. I just consider that version a different game entirely from the NES/Gameboy version I know as Tetris
Will Apple’s next major product be a Gaming Console, Ipad 2 could give us some clues.
Erik Ackerlund – Imagine that the next great gaming console will not be a PS4 or a new Xbox 3 or a Wii 2, but a dedicated Apple Gaming console. Imagine how great a Apple game system could be; knowing the detail and effort they put into their products.
Why on earth would Apple build a gaming system? Well the financial numbers seem to point in that direction.I think the numbers may be obvious that this is the direction that Apple will be heading in. Their iTunes business is a force to be reckoned with, at the Ipad2 unveiling; Steve Jobs’ indicated they now have a iTunes user base of 200 million credit cards. That is an amazing number that is almost unfathomable. These users obviously far exceed what Microsoft claims for Xbox Live at 20 million. Apple has shared this iTunes one click purchasing login with their iBooks and App store. It would be easy for Apple to add one more store, the games store.
According to Mobile Metrics Flurry documentation it is estimated that in 2010, Apple apps on had taken a 19% share of the portable games market, this taking away increasingly from Nintendo’s dominate position with the ever popular DS line. This percentage is on an increasing trend that Apple is becoming a larger player. The Ipad2 will only further sustain that trend.
Music sales, one of the leading profit makers for Apple is on the down trend. Video game sales surpassed music sales for the first time in 2010. “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook” data suggests that in 2011 the gaming market will be worth $50 billion, sustaining an almost 6% growth in a time of recession. This is an attractive market that Apple can’t afford to stay out of.
With the latest release products from Apple all supporting faster graphics processing, including the Ipad 2’s new 9x graphics capability, it is shows they are serious about supporting the advanced needs of gaming. Apple has already attracted major game developers such as Electronic Arts and Epic and many others porting great games onto these systems.
With the development of the AppleTV to connect to your television and network, as well as their ability to build excellent portable devices with industry leading battery life, they have the technological ability to build a gaming console literally from off the shelf technology they already possess.
I expect the Ipad2 to help increase the gaming market in the portable arena, but only to a certain point. It will be interesting to compare Ipad2 sales to Nintendo 3DS sales during 2011. Ipad 2 with it’s multiple function capability with Nintendo’s dedicated 3d gaming that is usually picked by a younger market. And of course the price point difference.
Despite the lack of the 3D technology, the nine-times better graphics in the A5 chip along with the dual core processor will be great for games. They also added the HDMI port for connecting to your television and better sound. It’s obvious that Apple is responding to gaming on the Ipad 2.
Yet the Ipad 2 is not a perfect substitute for a dedicated gaming platform. Despite having a touch interface, the gyro sensor and cameras, the iPad and iPhone and iTouch still lack functional buttons with tactile feedback that so many games require.
Apple’s competitors are also looking at getting into the gaming market in a bigger way. The Wall Street Journal reports that HTC spent $40 million to acquire the technology for streaming games from OnLive. This end run around processing games locally picks up your controller movements and sends them to the cloud where they are processed on dedicated servers with the graphics streamed back to the user. This is an interesting move by HTC, but streaming even simple video is not always functional without some waiting, due to the overburdened networks. Also the lag times involved can interfere and simply cannot compete with locally processed graphics. With the HTC model, the only place it will work really well is probably when connected to a wifi network, which then means you may just as easily be close to a dedicated gaming console. Apple is putting the power to process games locally which simply give the user a superior gaming experience that we have all come to expect.
Apple has released what they call post-pc products the iPod, iPhone, AppleTV and recently the iPad. I predict that based on Apple’s increasing experience in gaming from apps on their existing platforms, their increasing ability to produce gaming graphics, the ability to produce hardware that interfaces with televisions, and the increasing market demand, that Apple will most likely produce a gaming console. They would not be the first of their kind to pull this off; Microsoft did it with the ever successful Xbox series.
What would an Apple gaming system look like? I would imagine it would be small and sleek probably similar to the AppleTV. The user interface would probably be made very similar but perhaps tweaked to be a little bit more entertainment oriented to appeal to a younger audience. It would obviously be able to have the functionality of the AppleTV, to stream video , have iTunes and the app store. Now it would have a dedicated gaming store. I doubt there would be any cd or dvd drive. All game purchases would be online as this would match the current Apple sales model. The system would need some sort of gaming pads, wireless of course. I would imagine they would pick up from the trend of Xbox Connect and Wii to have that ability of whole body motion input. Expect that iPhones and iPads could easily be used as controls for the device as well.
When does this all go down? I would expect a release in 1st quarter 2013 would make sense. Keep an eye of any acquisitions by Apple of any gaming companies, such as Electronic Arts or others. Apple needs a core gaming company to build the in-house titles to launch the system.
Ever fallen asleep while eating?
Erik Ackerlund – Here my son, Elias aged 2, (who is wearing a great Space Invaders shirt) Goes down for the count. He is also still got a good grip on his french fry!
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.
