I really hope he was forced to post that.

Lesson One in how to turn your community completely against you.

Zelda Four Swords + 5 Gamecubes + 5 TVs

= Sweet Zelda Party

ASI Coin-Op Olympics

A bit last minute, just found out about the show from Adam this morning:

The public is invited to try cutting-edge arcade games before they even appear in local entertainment centers! The Amusement Showcase International is pleased to announce that for the first time in its history, it will open its doors to the public on its final show day, Saturday, March 29, from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Members of the public who attend will be the first outside of the industry to try exciting new games from well-known arcade companies. Tournament play will be available on many new games with prizes awarded to the highest scores of the day. Local Las Vegas celebrities will be attending to compete in a special celebrity tournament with prizes going to their favorite charities.

“We want to give the public a chance to try the newest, hottest games on the market,” said Michael Rudowicz, President of the American Amusement Machine Association, which sponsors ASI. “The consumer’s opinion of the new games is important to the game manufacturers as well as to the buyers who attend the show. Who better to help an entertainment center operator choose which new games to buy than the people who will be playing them?”

Public admission to ASI is available only on Saturday, March 29, from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $10 per person. Children under 10 are free. Registration will close at 3 p.m.

Pre-registration is recommended. Please click here to download a registration form.

The Amusement Showcase International will be located in the lower level of the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall S1. ASI is the annual spring trade show for distributors, operators, manufacturers and suppliers of coin- operated amusements, music and games.

Operation: Darkness

A tactical RPG by Atlus featuring Nazi werewolves, zombies and vampires. How can this not be awesome.

Fuji Television Divers 2000 Series CX-1

Holy crap I want one of these.

There’s one currently on ebay, seller is asking for a tidy $799, a bit more than I’m interested in spending right now on a Dreamcast. Read more about this console oddity here.

On the Best Buy HD-DVD Gift Card.

So Best Buy announced earlier this week that they’d be giving away $50 gift cards to those of us unfortunate enough to buy into the HD-DVD format. This just landed in my inbox:

Our records show that you may have purchased an HD DVD player from Best Buy™. Recently, Toshiba announced that they will no longer produce HD DVD players, and movie studios decided they will no longer release new movies in HD DVD.

At Best Buy, we are dedicated to making sure you always have the right technology for you. That is why purchasers of an HD DVD player are eligible to receive a Best Buy™ gift card. To confirm your purchase, please call us at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289) with your receipt handy.

If you are interested in trading in your HD DVD player and HD DVDs, check out our technology trade-in service at BestBuyTradeIn.com where we will accept HD DVD hardware and software in exchange for a Best Buy gift card based on its market value.

We truly appreciate you as a customer. If you have further questions, please go to BestBuy.com/hddvd.

I called and asked a few questions. Anyone who purchased the HD-DVD player with a Rewards Zone card should automatically receive the Hah Hah Wrong Format Sucker Here’s Fifty Bucks Gift Card in a month or so. Everyone else, as the email above states, can call with their receipt (yeah, the same receipt they probably sent away in the envelope for the free movies offer) and get things sorted out for a free card.

Maybe I’ll use the gift card for HD-DVD movies.

I like ours better.

A comparison of covers, discovered by an astute observer on the Petro forums. Alien Front Online for the Dreamcast, the first console title to use voice chat online, and our very own Universe at War, out on the 360 this week.

While I own a Dreamcast (and recently jumped headfirst back into it, a topic for another post), I was a latecomer to the console, and never had the chance to play AFO while the servers were still active. Just picked up a copy for super cheap on half.com, I want to see this thing in person.

Sigh. They’re even doing the same dance.

Does it come down to trust?

Brad Wardell, founder of Stardock, had some interesting things to say about piracy in a post he made on his blog last week:

So even though Galactic Civilizations II sold 300,000 copies making 8 digits in revenue on a budget of less than $1 million, it’s still largely off the radar. I practically have to agree to mow editors lawns to get coverage. And you should see Jeff Green’s (Games for Windows) yard. I still can’t find my hedge trimmers.

Another game that has been off the radar until recently was Sins of a Solar Empire. With a small budget, it has already sold about 200,000 copies in the first month of release. It’s the highest rated PC game of 2008 and probably the best selling 2008 PC title. Neither of these titles have CD copy protection.

While I don’t see Sins as the best-selling PC title of 2008 (leave that to the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Spore, or The Sims 3 if it’s out in time), that’s not the interesting part. Brad goes on to say that the key to a successful PC title is to find a demographic that buys games, and then to build them a game.

When you make a game for a target market, you have to look at how many people will actually buy your game combined with how much it will cost to make a game for that target market. What good is a large number of users if they’re not going to buy your game? And what good is a market where the minimal commitment to make a game for it is $10 million if the target audience isn’t likely to pay for the game?

If the target demographic for your game is full of pirates who won’t buy your game, then why support them? That’s one of the things I have a hard time understanding. It’s irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you’re in the business of selling games that is). It’s only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game.

He also says that the key to a high selling PC title is to develop a game that will play on the widest variety of hardware configurations out there, ie to support players beyond the traditional hard core frequent video card buying market. While I agree that catering to a lower spec machine is one way of increasing sales, it’s not a requirement. Relatively demanding games such as Crysis breaking into the top 10 are not an anomaly. There’s something more. Let me say at this point that I don’t have the answer, so here’s your way out if you wanted one, but I am going to ask questions and throw out a few bits that I feel correlate with the above.
Continue reading »

FlyTunes

Good stuff, and works very well, at least over the wifi network. Haven’t had a chance to really test the Edge performance, but the thought of being able to listen to Secret Agent or Space Station Soma while driving makes me happy.

http://flytunes.fm/

Texas caucus.

“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”

Hah, looks like things went just as smoothly for Texas Democrats.