Open source handheld console? Yes!

I’m not sure why I haven’t seen or heard of this console before, but it sounds like eleventy hundred and thirty different kinds of awesome. Meet the Pandora, a gaming console handheld PC hybrid. According to the official website, the Pandora is

… fast enough to emulate many other systems, run a full desktop, access the internet via FireFox and play games such as Quake3.

If that doesn’t sound pretty darn cool, I don’t know what does! The machine is slightly bigger than a Nintendo DS, and the battery clocks in at around 10 hours. The good news, is that the Pandora is now in production! Expect to see it retail for around $330.

[Link: Pandora web site]

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Video game addiction experiment: final thoughts

Ok, I know it’s been a while–sorry about that. Ok…my final thoughts and analyses about the experiment, and the aftermath.

Firstly, I think the experiment was a complete success. I managed to stay away from games, gaming, and almost anything video game related for a week. What I found interesting, however, is just how much video games have become a part of mainstream life. I walked through a local mall and found it almost impossible to avoid game-related media. More than just a few shops had huge video game posters in their display windows, and one of the days that I arrived at the mall, there was a massive Nintendo expo in the center court. I can compare this to almost 10 years ago, when all things video game were pretty much found in specialist shops in this part of the world. In fact, when I bought my first Sega Genesis (or Megadrive if you came from the UK), it was difficult to find shops that sold games for it. Now even standard groceries retailers have games on their shelves.

Back to my quest to find out whether I have an addiction: the answer is no. I didn’t go out of my way to play games, I didn’t sneak away in the middle of the night to play games, and I found that I wasn’t obsessing over video games so much the time I was away. I even learned a few things about myself. Despite these facts, however, I must say that I AM, and always will be a gamer. It’s part of who I am and I consume games in the same way, and for the very same reasons, that I consume books, movies, and tv shows. On the other hand, before the experiment, I was doing very little else in terms of entertainment other than video games, but I’ve rediscovered enjoyments in other pursuits.

I’m not going to miss the gameless week, but I do have a better perspective about it now. And I’m glad that my trusty DS is back in its pouch wherever I go.

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Since we’re in a Nintendo-hating mood this week…

Here’s a list of 100 reasons to hate Nintendo, courtesy of Games Radar. If you feel that Nintendo doesn’t deserve the hate (or if you’re an equal-opportunity hater), here are lists of 100 reasons to hate Xbox, Playstation, and PC gaming. Some of the reasons are quite entertaining, such as “Same sh!t, different Zelda”, “Viva Pinata TV show”, “Kaz ‘Ridge Racer’ Hirai”, and “Quake 2 – Hope you like brown!”

Hit the comments and list your favorite reasons for being a hater.

[Link 1: 100 Reasons to hate Nintendo]
[Link 2: 100 Reasons to hate Xbox]
[Link 3: 100 Reasons to hate Playstation]
[Link 4: 100 Reasons to hate PC gaming]

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Nintendo in 90′s and why the Wii will fail

Hi

Yes, I know, I’m not into blogging much, but I did find a really interesting article. I’m doing a course called Competitive Strategy and we’re analysing Nintendo’s early dominance of the Video Game industry. Specifically we’re at how they were able to completely take over the market at the beginning by investing more in the games cartridges than in the actual console. By licensing game development, they were able to demand royalties on every title produced. Also by controlling the quality of the games, they came up Zelda and Super Mario Brothers and even licensed games like Street Fighter. They got their developers to create really great games, which feuled the consoles, which feuled more game development, and so on. Genius!!!

Then when the 16-bit revolution (lol!!) came around, they were very slow in moving over because they belive they could ‘extract’ more from the industry by selling more 8-bit titles. They wanted to re-market the original console to younger market. Instead Sega released their MegaDrive with superior technology (better graphics) and began to release games at record speeds. Unlike Nintendo they offered many more development licenses and a few years later game development on the Sega was outstripping Nintendo. Was was done to the point where Sega claimed that Sonic was more identifyable to kids than either Mario or Mickey mouse. Needless to say it’s been a very intresting case to study.

Anyway, so my reason for posting was an interesting article I found while doing reseach for my assignment by a guy who in 2006 declared that the ‘Nintendo Wii won’t sell’. It’s a really long article, but very funny. Pay particular attention to the paragraphs about why “women won’t play the wii” (classic explainations like: “I can see a girl sitting on her bed playing the DS, but I can’t imagine a girl sitting on her bed playing the Wii”) and why we “don’t need a gaming revolution” (about why graphics are more important; and that the wii has a limited life and appeal).

http://www.productwiki.com/nintendo-wii/article/why-the-wii-won-t-sell.html

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