http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:17:03 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/22414/Nintendo_Sees_52_Profit_Drop/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22414/Nintendo_Sees_52_Profit_Drop/ Thanks to the massive success of the Wii and DS game consoles, Nintendo was able to turn the tide and once again become the number one game company in the world. As with any honeymoon, however, it must come to an end at some point. Nintendo reported its financial results for the first half of 2009 yesterday, and it didn't look good. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:04:55 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 53 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22138/Dreamcast_Turns_10_New_Game_To_Be_Released_in_October/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22138/Dreamcast_Turns_10_New_Game_To_Be_Released_in_October/ It's time for a trip down memory lane. Exactly ten years ago today - 09-09-1999 - Sega released the Dreamcast on the North American market. Widely regarded as far, far ahead of its time, the Dreamcast pioneered several concepts which the competition only picked up on years and years later. Sadly, the Dreamcast would face an early grave. Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:38:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 25 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22127/C64_Emulator_for_iPhone_Approved_by_Apple_del_Now_Available_del_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22127/C64_Emulator_for_iPhone_Approved_by_Apple_del_Now_Available_del_/ "Manomio's Commodore 64 emulator has finally been approved by Apple. We first reported on the project back in June, after Manomio had received their first rejection from Apple. The rejection was particularly disappointing considering the efforts that Manomio had made in making sure their emulator fully licensed and legal." Update by Kroc: The app has been pulled, after Apple caught wind of the much publicised trick to enable BASIC in the emulator. Tsk, tsk; if you're going to put in easter eggs, the point is to keep them a secret, umm'kay. Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:48:17 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 16 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22080/Microsoft_Opens_Popfly_Source_Code/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22080/Microsoft_Opens_Popfly_Source_Code/ "Popfly, a platform developed by Microsoft to help people create and share games with their friends, was shut down this week, according to a blog post on the project's Web site. It's not a total loss to the gaming community, however, since Microsoft decided to open source the code and host it on CodePlex for anyone who still wants to tinker with the game engine." Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:13:50 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 1 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News poundsmack http://www.osnews.com/story/22073/Why_No_OtherOS_Option_on_PS3_Slim_Sony_Answers/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22073/Why_No_OtherOS_Option_on_PS3_Slim_Sony_Answers/ The recent release of the PS3 Slim brought about joy for those who were waiting for a less expensive/smaller gaming system and indignation for those who were waiting for a Linux experimental machine of the same type as there was no "OtherOS" or Linux option on this model. Why? we cry sadly. Because, the deep, omniscient voices of two Sony representatives boom back. Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:31:47 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 41 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22046/Sacred_2_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22046/Sacred_2_XBox_360/ PC gamers vs. console gamers. There's this assumption that PC gamers are capable of playing more complex games than console gamers. The games industry itself has picked up on this assumption and generally dumbs down games for the consoles because they assume us poor console gamers are not capable enough, and as the consoles have increasingly become the focal point of the industry, PC games also started suffering from the dumbing down effect. That's why the developers behind Sacred 2 deserve all the more praise for not assuming all gamers on consoles are 13-year-old Halo-addicted kids by releasing a traditional top-down hack and slash game with an incredibly detailed world and intricate character development. Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:17:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 36 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/22021/Some_of_the_Best_Free_Linux_Games/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22021/Some_of_the_Best_Free_Linux_Games/ "The many thousands of free games available for Linux has made it difficult to select which ones deserve a special mention. For this article, our objective is not to necessarily select games which have flawless graphics and sound, but instead to identify games which are highly addictive and have great playability. It has taken us weeks of heated discussions to whittle down the games into just 42 titles. We have tried to cover a wide range of game genres. Hopefully there will be something in this article which will be of interest to any type of gamer." Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:47:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 8 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News linuxlinks http://www.osnews.com/story/22014/Sony_Reveals_PS3_Slim_Slashes_Price_Removes_Linux_Option/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22014/Sony_Reveals_PS3_Slim_Slashes_Price_Removes_Linux_Option/ As everybody had been more or less anticipating for months now, Sony has released the Playstation 3 Slim, a much smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient variant of the regular Playstation 3. There's good news for people who held out on the PS3 because it was too expensive, and there's bad news for those of us who liked the idea of running Linux on the PS3. Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:24:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 50 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News John Mills http://www.osnews.com/story/21823/EA_Creates_Division_for_iPhone_Games/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21823/EA_Creates_Division_for_iPhone_Games/ EA has already redesigned a group of its games specifically for the iPhone, and the company's been pretty successful in its plight thus far. However, they're changing their focus to design entirely new games specifically for the iPhone platform, and they've made an entire (small) studio, called 8lb Gorilla, to design and deploy said games. The first iPhone title coming from the group is, of course, all about zombies and the splattering thereof. Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:06:21 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 8 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21773/Thoughts_of_a_Linux_Game_Porter/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21773/Thoughts_of_a_Linux_Game_Porter/ The folks over at Phoronix had an interesting interview with Linux game porter, Frank Earl. Despite the apparent decline in PC gaming, Earl has worked for Linux Game Publishing for several years and was seeking input from the community at large for game suggestions at Phoronix. He's also done work independently on porting various software over from Windows. The interview covers work that Earl has done, difficulties that arise in porting commercial games to Linux, successes they've had, his views on Linux in general, and his thoughts on the future of gaming in Linux. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:56:30 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 12 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News Michael http://www.osnews.com/story/21607/E3_Roundup_Natal_Left_4_Dead_2_The_Last_Guardian/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21607/E3_Roundup_Natal_Left_4_Dead_2_The_Last_Guardian/ The E3 is underway, and with OSNews having a renewed casual interest in gaming, I figured I'd summarise the news around the big three console players, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Microsoft probably had the most interesting news to give us, Nintendo suffers from a severe case of milking the cow (and who would blame them), and Sony repackaged the PSP, announced a few games, and gave the promise it would come with motion sensing technology at some point in the future too. Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:31:26 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21526/Game_Review_Mirror_s_Edge_XBox_360/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21526/Game_Review_Mirror_s_Edge_XBox_360/ Thanks to documentaries like Jump London, free running was all the rage a couple of years ago on TV. Since the gaming industry is more or less completely void of creative thinking these days, it was only a matter of time before someone would take free running, and shoehorn it into a game. Behold, Mirror's Edge. Wed, 20 May 2009 21:00:19 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 25 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/21498/GP2x_Wiz_Finally_Hits_the_Shelves/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21498/GP2x_Wiz_Finally_Hits_the_Shelves/ Korean company GamePark Holdings have finally released the GP2x Wiz portable games console, the successor to the popular, but abruptly end-of-life'd, GP2x. What makes these portable devices special is that they run Linux, and are more or less aimed at the enthusiast and homebrew markets. Thu, 14 May 2009 23:20:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21423/Your_Favorite_Gaming_Consoles_in_Stunning_X-Ray_Color/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21423/Your_Favorite_Gaming_Consoles_in_Stunning_X-Ray_Color/ Reintji from Flickr was good enough to upload some photos of some of the popular gaming consoles throughout the years to his Flickr account. The catch? Not only is he an avid gamer, but he's also an x-ray technician. Combining his two fortes, he's provided these pictures in lovely black and white x-ray colors for us all to enjoy. Sat, 02 May 2009 19:40:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Games 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21266/Fallout_Fan_Creates_Pip-Boy_3000_Using_iPod_Touch/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21266/Fallout_Fan_Creates_Pip-Boy_3000_Using_iPod_Touch/ "The Pip-Boy 3000 is by far one of the coolest gadgets I can imagine owning, and it's no surprise to me that some crafty guy with a little spare time on his hands might try to create the real thing. YouTube user larpcast uploaded a video of a fully functional Pip-Boy, created using the one that came with the Amazon.com exclusive version of the game and an iTouch [by Sony?!?]. Mix throughly and tah-dah, your very own Pip-Boy!" Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:59:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/42 News