20081114
SDHC does work on SD devices - Click!
Contrary to what you may have hear, Yes, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards do work on devices that use SD (Secure Digital) devices.There may be a few devices that are not compatible with SDHC, but so far it works on my computer's media card reader, my Palm Treo 650, and there is a good chance it will work on the Wii.
In any case, now is a good time to stock up on SDHC cards for Chirstmas items such as digital cameras, music players, cell phones, and computer file storage.
I still haven't run into any DRM issues, then again, DRM is really stupid in the first place.
Labels: handhelds, hardware, palm, phone, Wii
posted by Bushido Hacks 11/14/2008 10:57:00 AM (0) comments top
20081111
The Battle of the Virtual Cooks - Click!
Videogames are starting to evolve from a form of entertainment into a fun learning lab. They are becoming more interactive, educational, and physical. While game maker now have integrated many of the physical and interactive attributes thanks to more advanced technology and better programming, the next step now comes to make games more educational and fun.Words like "exergaming" (exercise gaming) and "edutaiment" (educational entertainment) are starting to become quite popular as there are certainly more skills and degrees of freedom to work with.
We are already seeing this phenomenon with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band sparking more interest in learning how to play music. (From my own personal experience, learning the piano (somewhat well), guitar (not so well, but still having a good time), and the harmonica have been fun when you find time to play them.) And the Nintendo Wii and Konami's Dance Dance Revolution have certainly been praised for the involvement of physical activies.
But how would they be applied with other skills such as mechanics (tuning a bike, repairing a car, or building a small robot), gardening (in general, or just taking care of a few house plants), or in the case of a rising videogame trends, cooking?
Videogame developers had to be smart with this genre. Though many people have critized the genre of cooking videogames like they have exergames, they've probably never have been scared of working out in a gym, playing a musical recital, or cooked a mean without using the microwave.
Learning to cook is probably one of the most important skills for any person to learn. By instinct, it is one of the fundamental survival skills that a human being must know along with how to build a fire, what plants are healthy, edible and can be grown over the length of one growing season, which speices of fish or fauna would taste good to eat, and how to tend to injuries or other medical emergencies.
Face it, eating out is expensive. Eating out at fast food can be unhealthy. And eating pre packaged foods or the same thing constantly can also be unhealthy.
So it is important to know how to cook (and to plan meals if you are on a diet) so that you can live a healthy life style, along with exercise and good hygine.
Since good hygine isn't really something a videogame should teach (as you should probably learn this on your own), and exercise (be it mental or physical) seems to be undergoing a revival in the gaming industry, cooking seems to be the next challege of the video game industry.
Enter the battle of cooking games!
The game series that seems have kicked off this genre is Cooking Mama. It's mild popularity has sparked the interest of Gordon Ramsay and Alton Brown to jump on board. (Hopefully, Rachel Ray will sit this one out.)
Cooking Mama is an outstanding series. Despite the deadpan reviews by the critics (who also gave deadpan reviews to many other exergame and cooking games), Mama has persevered. So much so she has recieve sponsorship and endorsements from a couple of food companies as have her rivals.
In fact, embeded advertising has become quite popular in video games. If advertisers do a good job (easter eggs in online games, visible advertisments), gamers become interested in their products. If advertisers do a bad job (i.e. subliminal advertising, constant berating, lame products, or annoying adverts), gamers--and consumers for that matter--are less interested. (Take a few tips from Google Adwords, madmen.) One of the most interesting product placements this year, being an election year, was the campaign of the President-elect Barack Obama, who's campaign bought ad space in virtual reality and was certainly a good talking point in terms of advancement in technology.
Mama's latest advertising has been with Nestle. (Cheat: If you can't want for the latest Mama game to come out, check out Meals.com. Although, I've traditionally been a fan of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.)
There are pleanty of cooking websites out their with many recipies either through interest, method, grocier, distributor, food, or culinary style. Thanks to videogames, cooking is now something to get fired up about.
Labels: cooking, food, games, Wii
posted by Bushido Hacks 11/11/2008 08:02:00 PM (0) comments top
20070128
The Pope Condems Video Game, Cartoon Violence - Click!
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI gave lapsed Catholics one more reason to skip Church on Sunday by condemning video game and cartoon violence on Wednesday, January 24, taking a few lines from Miami lawyer and anti-videogame activist Jack Thompson.This is ironic considering there is a VeggieTales videogame on the market that is not very good which has pleanty of Cartoon Violence and a Left Behind videogame which is really bad. (Yeah, so what if non-Catholics make that blasphemous crap. They still sell it at the Catholic supply store and at Christian bookstores.) I miss the old Pope.
I guess if saving the Princess by slaying a few demons is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
Labels: animation, dogma, fud, games, movies, music, news, PS3, thevirus, Wii, wtf
posted by Bushido Hacks 1/28/2007 10:25:00 AM (1) comments top
20061202
PS3 Hacks - Click!
Ken Kutaragi is now sidelined at Sony, but not fired. (Baka-Sony!). If paying $600 for a system burns you up, then so will the device when the Consumer Product Saftey Commission orders it to be recalled becase of defects. (It happened with the PS2 and the PSP. Why not go for a hattrick and fubar this power-sucking--correction, all out sucking--console. I mean, the PS3 uses up electrical power like an American SUV and Gasoline, or Rosie O'Donnell and a Hostess Bakery Thriftstore.So in order to fix these defects the right way, and make this console Japanese again, you should perform a few hacks on the console, of course with expert knowledge.
The PS3 is offered in two forms: Value-Suck ($499/20GB/No WiFi/No Flash Card Readers), and Azathoth ($599/60GB/WiFi/Flash Card Readers). For those who know something about computers, here's a video to replace those dinking hard drives with a 100 GB hard drive you can pick up on eBay.
So much for Ridge Racer.
Wii shall overcome.
posted by Bushido Hacks 12/02/2006 11:51:00 PM (0) comments top
20061120
PS3 Do Not Want
Man, this was PAINFUL TO WATCH!I was watched XPlay, read Maddox's Latest post, read Penny Arcade's review, and Slashdot even the business and technical aspects of the PS3. Then I saw it first hand myself.
The PS3 is not just a train wreck, it is a train wreck with a chemical chlorine spill at 3AM that kills everyone in the nearby town in their sleep.
The Business men say that the PS3 is a finanical loss. The game critics were floored by several of the games because they sucked so bad. Being an OpenGL programmer, the horrendous use of glOrtho (the function that controls camera angle and viewport) is enough to make me vomit!
You hear me! VOMIT!
I've never used such a word in my blog in the two years it has been online in such a literal context. The graphics in these games make me want to cry, and I'm a casual gamer who plays less than two hours of video games per week.
I mean, AWEFUL!
Vehimate (sp) words can only describe the PS3. It hurts so bad.
On the other hand, this proves that proprietary SHOVELWARE and overpriced five-minutes-ago technology suggested by the salarymen at Sony in order to "bring in a profit" ONLY TO HAVE IT BACKFIRE because more money went into advertising than supporting the programmers who make the games.
EVERYONE AT SONY SHOULD BE FIRED! NO EXCEPTIONS! And if they are not fired, the need to be struck down with the wrath of God.
The winner this fall: Wii and Xbox 360.
Labels: games, IBM, OpenGL, PS3, shovelware, tech, Wii, wtf
posted by Bushido Hacks 11/20/2006 04:56:00 PM (0) comments top
