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Gaming’N Tech Thread #86 - Latest Headlines, Atari VCS Updates, Pac-Man, Robotics, Videos & More

What Are We Playing This Week

I attended an event in Las Vegas that allowed me to play some arcade & pinball machines. From the new Transformers to Iron Maiden Pinball. I also finally got my hands on The Addams Family pinball machine that I purchased back in May. For as sweet as that deal was, I can’t complain about having to wait a few weeks Otherwise I didn’t really get a chance to play much else through the week as I’ve been too busy. Although admittedly I did find the time to make a T-Shirt/sticker design for the US Space Force (shameless plug) 😛

What about you?

Gaming Headlines

The Steam Summer Sale Is Live Until July 5th - Buy some games, save da monies

Once Again Real Science Shows That Violent Games Aren’t To Blame For Violence/Mass Shootings - The same result as every previous study before it

Gamestop Looking For A Buyer - Won’t it be ironic when game stores are a thing of the past but arcades are still around?

Nintendo Has Been Happy With Minecraft Cross-Platform Play - Unlike those cross-platform haters over at Sony

Vertical Games On Nintendo Switch To Benefit Even More From The Flip Grip

Microsoft Has Better Things To Do Than Fight The VR Fight On Xbox

Nintendo Promises To Keep Single Player Games Coming To The Switch

Is The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Going To End Up Like The Super Mario Bros. Film? - Sega had better hope not

WB Games Jumps Onto The “Games As A Service” Bandwagon

SteamVR Adds Skeletal Input

DEEVURSAHTAY The Primary Focus At EA For NHL 19 (As Opposed To Fixing Issues Of NHL18)

Capcom Details How They Are Designing Mega Man 11 Levels

Yokai Watch 4 Trailer For Switch

System Shock Kickstarter Adds Major Updates

Ubisoft Continues To Heart Nintendo

Non-Surprise: Mechwarrior 5 Delayed To 2019

NES Classic Is Back In Stock This Week At Best Buy

GamerHater Talia Lavin Resigns After Her & Actor Ron Perlman Try To Paint ICE Agent & US Marine Veteran As a Nazi -  (NSFW ads in link)

Today’s post is brought to you by: Meat Art & MegaMan

GAMING

Atari Accuses The Register Of Fake News, The Registers Responds In Trumpian Fashion By Releasing Recordings Of The Interview - Continuing the saga of “Why You Shouldn’t ‘Invest’ Into Atari’s Latest Scam’, this article is worth its weight in humorous gold. It is the best case to show just how pathetic the Atari brand has become under the rule of what used to be known as Infogrames but also a cautionary example as to why you really shouldn’t be contributing into funding development of a game console that to this day has not been seen operating actual games on it. The Register shows one example after another about how Atari is straight up lying and was completely clueless to answer basic questions about this new console back in March of this year. Sure, they will still take the almost $3 million they’ve raised so far as some sort of validation but the Ouya microconsole raised $9 million and they still ended up crashing and burning hard.

Moral of the story: If you’re going to release anything close to a functioning game console, you had better 1) Be honest and straightforward with your customers 2) Have have many more millions of dollars to spend on it than you think you’ll need. 3) Bring some exclusives to the table 4) Stop pretending that streaming features aren’t easily available on other devices 5) Release it at a reasonable price point. Every fanboy or girl who fancies themselves as a games expert ‘thinks’ that game hardware is a breeze, constantly lamenting why Sega or Valve or Apple or Amazon doesn’t do a console. There are good reasons as to why - managing such a thing is a lot harder than you might think.

Arcade News - Connect 4 Basketball, Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash - Speaking of hardware, one place where you do see new hardware releases all the time is the arcade industry. This past week in Las Vegas was the International Bowl Expo, normally a forgettable event unless you own or are in the process of opening up a new bowling alley. This time was different due to several arcade companies showing off their new wares, including a new Pac-Man multi-game compilation that is certain to sell well and a Wisconsin company showing off an enormous but innovative basketball game called Connect 4 Hoops. I’ve got a few more videos of other titles here(including a new Transformers shooter game); this arcade distribution company out of Florida is also uploading a few:

CastleVania Season 2 On Track For This Year - I haven’t watched this as we no longer have NF at my house but I’ve heard good things. Hopefully they will be able to keep the goodness rolling for season 2.

Universim Trailer (PC) - If you’re into “God” strategy games, then Universim might be the title for you. It reminds me a little bit of those style of games meets Super Mario Galaxy. There’s a free demo available over at gog.com; it does not have a release date yet but looks promising:

Maneater Preview (PC) - Way back in 1975, several game companies created shark games for arcades, using the best tech at their disposal. This was all to jump on the JAWS bandwagon but the pre-CPU tech left a lot to be desired. One of those games was even called Maneater and came in an awesome Great White Shark shaped cabinet. Thus, the trailer below piqued my interest. While I don’t believe there is any precise connection between that obscurity and this upcoming PC game, it seems like the concept here is where one would take the idea of controlling a great white.

Technology Headlines

DyDo Installs 500+ Umbrella Rental Mechanisms Onto Vending Machines Across Japan

SpaceX To Use Superalloys In Their Upcoming Raptor Engine

Keep The DOOM Of Venezuela In Mind When It Comes To Oil Prices Being What They Are Lately

And Your 2018 Microsoft Office Specialist PowerPoint World Champion is…um…wait…really?

If The Japanese Don’t See Robots As The “Saviors” Of The Food Industry…

EU Tyrants Continue Their Dumb War On Memes

Qualcomm To Release A PC-Focused Snapdragon Chip

PayPal Spending Cash On Acquisitions

Space Weather Forecast For Satellite Based Services This Week: Poor 

TECHNOLOGY

Ford Testing Out Exoskeletons On Their Production Floor - Exoskeletons continue to breakout from the realm of science fiction, now with Ford and a company called Ekso Bionics joining forces to help workers in their daily tasks. For more details, PC Mag has a great article on how this works and how it has been panning out so far.

3D Printed Soft Robots & Conductive Ink - Robotics aren’t known for their soft touch but with these new developments they soon might be. This explains how just 3D printed soft robotics with embedded sensors are going to make some waves. Read more details about it here.

AMD’s Threadripper 2 Trailer - Maybe I just haven’t followed stuff like this closely enough but I can’t say I recall seeing an ad for CPUs in quite some time. Enjoy the competition as AMD takes aim an Intel here:

The Measure App - The battle between practical usage of VR and AR heats up as Google has released a new AR app for taking measurements. Granted, this is Google so I’ll stay away until someone else releases their own version of it. But, this shows another application that AR can handle better than VR, which I think will eventually lead to greater AR adoption.

Space Pr0n Of The Day: The Martian Blue Dune - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to provide amazing views from the 4th planet out from the Sun, this week providing an enhanced color view of an oddity found inside of Lyot Crater (Northern Mars). Without a probe on the ground, we don’t know for sure the what and why but for now it provides a fantastic alien view.

 
Spartan Hero

Written by Spartan Hero

I play games, poke fun at society and occasionally write things about politics. Located somewhere in the Rocky Mountains...

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