benr75

Ok, I play a lot of Guitar Hero, but I have nothing on this performance. He misses 3 notes on expert.

The Rock Star Games site has been counting down to the trailer of GTA IV for a long time, so today when the counter hit 0 I was waiting to watch it. Unfortunately the site instantly stalled due to the high load. I was able to pull the source code from the page, even though the flash did not load, and thought this snippet was cute:

var hasRightVersion = DetectFlashVer(requiredMajorVersion, requiredMinorVersion, requiredRevision);
if(hasRightVersion) { // if we've detected an acceptable version
theDudeAbides();
} else { // flash is too old or we can't detect the plugin
var alternateContent = ''
+ 'The Rockstar Games Presents Grand Theft Auto IV website requires the Macromedia Flash Player 8.'
+ 'Get Flash'; document.write(alternateContent); // insert non-flash content
}

Nintendo Keynote with none other than the Miyamoto is in progress, check it out:

1up Coverage or
Joystiq Coverage

Update: Just finished reading the keynote, talk about weak. I know that there wasn't supposed to be anything new, but c'mon! Sony has been more impressive at GDC. Their announcement of Home really kicked ass and made me see a potential reason to pick up a PS3.

Can't wait to play a Star Wars game on Wii? Use this program to turn your Wiimote into a motion sensitive lightsaber with sound on Mac OS X. The video below shows it in action. I have also included a fan video of how you could potentially use the Wii controls to really control a Star Wars title. Enjoy.

I was lucky and was able to pre-order a PS3 with EBgames. Today they called and left me a message saying that the PS3 will come bundled with a Blu-ray copy of Talladega Nights. As updates come from EBgames I will be sure to pass them along. I will also try to get the audio from the message recorded.

John Carmack is probably the most important person when it comes to 3d game development advances. He spoke at QuakeCon 06 and delivered a really great talk. You can view it here at PlanetQuake4.net.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon a great app for Mac OS X, DTV - Internet TV for your Mac. It eats RSS video feeds and you can subscribe to various channels. One in particular caught my interest, Player 1 vs. Player 2. It is a video game show from two crazy guys from Oklahoma. There are a couple of things that set this show apart from the main stream gaming media. First it is brutally honest with expletives and all. Second it is really done by gamers. Curtis and Ben, the hosts, have been gaming for a long time and bring back memories from all kinds of gaming. PC, Console, Arcade, and more. So far 7 episodes have been produced for the show. The editing is superb, with lots of cutscenes to the current topic.

Topics have included RPGs, the Console Wars, Xbox 360, and some WoW bashing. Overall it is quality ~ check it out here: http://www.ransomtv.com/.

The original Nintendo Entertainment System was an amazing gaming console. Developers created rich worlds and experiences with very little in the way of processing power. I remember the day our family bought the NES. My brother and I sold a ton of toys at our family garage sale, including our original Kenner Star Wars Toys. In hindsight letting the Star Wars toys go for little to nothing was poor form, but later that day we were Super Mario'ing it up. We even found the hidden warp area at the end of the first dungeon, but not knowing you could go down the tubes, we died when time ran out. Classic...

I play many original Nintendo Games using various emulators to this day. I still have the NES and all the games, but you have to jiggle the game up and down and blow on the contacts to get them to work.

So in honor of the NES I will be posting screens and thoughts on some of my favorite NES games. If you have a favorite, leave a comment and I'll be sure to mention it. Hell if you leave a comment I will mention you. That's right you on my fantastic blog.