Tag Archives | Gaming

The Rules of Scrabble, They Are A-Changin’

Posted by Jared Newman on April 6, 2010 at 9:09 am

I’m going to get a little silly here and talk about Scrabble, and Mattel’s announcement that it will change the rules to allow proper nouns, but I promise there’s a technology angle. Bear with me.

The BBC reports that Mattel will launch a new version of the word-making board game in July, for the first time allowing players to create proper nouns. Mattel says this will “add a new dimension” to the game and hopefully encourage more young people to play.

Note that Mattel owns the rights to Scrabble everywhere except the United States and Canada, where Hasbro owns the rights. Presumably — and hopefully, in my opinion — Hasbro’s version won’t change.

Here’s where technology comes in: Scrabble, or games like it, have become quite popular on computers and mobile devices. Scrabulous was one of the most popular games on Facebook before it was suspended amidst lawsuits from Hasbro and Mattel (the game eventually came back as Lexulous). One of my favorite iPhone apps is Words With Friends, another Scrabble clone that lets you play remotely with friends at your leisure, and it’s at least popular enough to have its own fan site.

So I reject the notion that Mattel needs to bend the rules in order to attract more players. The players are there, it’s just that Mattel hasn’t been able to capture them itself.

My hope is that Mattel’s rule change doesn’t creep into any online versions of Scrabble. Enforcing the proper use of proper nouns online would be difficult, and a computer-made set of rules would make it impossible for players to debate which words qualify and which are clearly made up.

Update: CNet’s Daniel Terdiman learned that Mattel is actually going to release a new version of the game called “Scrabble Trickster,” which seems more like a hopeless spinoff than sacrilege. If there ever exists a “Words With Friends Trickster,” I’ll be sure to avoid it.

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iPad Gaming Gives New Life to the Touch Screen

Posted by Jared Newman on April 4, 2010 at 11:58 am

The iPad’s most striking feature is its large touch screen, but for most apps, that boils down to more real estate for menus, information or video. In video games, the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen shines as an input device in ways that the iPhone and iPod Touch never could.

This became most apparent to me, oddly enough, while playing some iPhone games pixel-doubled to fill the iPad screen. Suddenly, it seemed like I had an unfair advantage. I was slaughtering deadly viruses in Nano Fighter, a fast-paced shooter that uses virtual joysticks to steer your vessel and fire. I could neatly stack blocks in Topple 2. Jupiter Lander for the Commodore 64 app (free today, by the way) no longer seemed impossible.

For video games that require button-like input, the iPhone’s touch screen is a concession. Sure, it makes tower defense and card games more fun, but any attempts to demand precise input or emulate a game console controller lead to frustration.

The iPad is a major improvement simply because it allows for better accuracy. For button-based games, it’s not perfect, in the same way that the iPad’s virtual keyboard can’t replace the feel a physical one, but like the keyboard, it’s a vast improvement over anything with a sub-4-inch screen.

The iPhone’s advantage remains its accelerometer. You don’t gain any accuracy by twisting and turning the iPad in a racing game, and it feels clumsier and nerdier to do so. But the iPad makes the most compelling case for touch-based controls I’ve seen yet.

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Nintendo Says “No” to DSiWare Game Transfers

Posted by Jared Newman on March 30, 2010 at 5:13 pm

Nintendo is doing digital distribution wrong by not letting Nintendo DSi owners transfer their downloaded games to the new Nintendo DSi XL.

Following the new, large-screen handheld’s launch last Sunday, GameSpot’s Tor Thorsen wondered whether Nintendo might have a way for DSi owners to upgrade without sacrificing the DSiWare game downloads they already bought. “No,” a Nintendo of America representative said, “the games and applications are specific to each system, not each user.”

That’d be like Apple saying you can’t take your apps with you when upgrading to the iPhone 3GS from an older model. Of course that’s not the case, because Apple ties its games and apps to the user, not the device. That means you can also take your apps to an iPod Touch or iPad. It’s a system that encourages brand loyalty and lots of purchases.

Microsoft and Sony handle game downloads in a similar fashion, linking purchases to Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, rather than a specific console. Though Microsoft hasn’t yet been tested with the kinds of incremental hardware upgrades Nintendo offers (it doesn’t sell a handheld gaming console, for that matter), PSP owners tell me you can tie games to several hardware devices. Between the DSi, the DSi XL and the upcoming 3DS, Nintendo will have released three handheld gaming devices in a two-year span. If Nintendo won’t let a user move downloaded content between devices, how can that person buy with confidence?

Nintendo’s system for digital distribution needs a major overhaul based on user accounts rather than hardware. Otherwise, the company is telling its best customers — the ones that upgrade hardware often — that downloadable games are a bad investment.

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Sony Shuts Down Linux on Older PS3s

Posted by Jared Newman on March 29, 2010 at 6:44 pm

Video game systems are more like computers than ever, with PC-like power and connectivity to the Web and to other hardware. It’s all wonderful, but it’s causing console makers to draw and redraw lines in the sand on what you’re allowed to do with these powerful machines.

The latest news on this front comes from Sony, with the announcement that it will kill the Playstation 3’s little-known “Install Other OS” feature with a firmware update on April 1. The feature allowed users to install Linux distributions on the PS3 and run “hundreds of familiar applications for home and office use,” according to Sony’s Web page on open platforms for the console, which you can still read.

Sony already stopped including the feature on the PS3 Slim, released in September, but this firmware update will apply to all PS3 models. Spokesman Patrick Seybold said Sony axed the feature due to “security concerns,” but elaborated no further. However, hacker George Hotz, who is best known for his iPhone jailbreaks and who released the first-ever PS3 hack earlier this year, thinks he had something to do with it. He apologized to PS3 Linux users on his blog, saying he “weighed the pros and cons, and considered the possibility of an impact on OtherOS support” before releasing the hack, which could potentially be used to pirate games.

In theory, I like the idea of gaming consoles as open systems, in which users can experiment with the hardware and software without fear of persecution by the console maker. Amazing things can come from user ingenuity, like the Wii Remote-powered interactive whiteboard and a thriving Wii homebrew scene. But companies worry, for good reason, that letting users do whatever they please opens the door to piracy, cheating and other exploits. Microsoft uses that rationale to outlaw modified consoles from Xbox Live, and presumably will require a specially-made partition on external USB storage for the same reason.

Regardless of whose argument you prefer, I think we can all agree that it’s wrong of Sony to remove an advertised feature of the Playstation 3. I wonder if the company did a cost-benefit analysis of locking down the console at the expense of people who bought it based on its open platform support.

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The Ups and Downs of Microsoft Game Room

Posted by Jared Newman on March 25, 2010 at 9:28 am

Microsoft Game Room launched yesterday for the Xbox 360 and Windows PCs. At its core, the Game Room is a fancy menu for playing classic arcade games such as Combat, Centipede and Lunar Lander, but with a few extra features that Microsoft hopes will get you to stick around and spend lots of money. After playing around in the arcade last night, I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll be an arcade junkie once again.

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Lessons From Nintendo’s 3D Ventures

Posted by Jared Newman on March 23, 2010 at 3:36 pm

Nintendo surprised us all today with the announcement of a 3D handheld gaming device, tentatively called the Nintendo 3DS. The company didn’t explain how the technology would work, only saying that the 3DS will be released this fiscal year (before March 2011) and will be shown in greater detail at the E3 expo in June.

Surely, I’m not the only one whose mind jumped to the Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s short-lived foray into 3D from 15 years ago. In lieu of any hard facts about what Nintendo’s doing this time, here are a few lessons that could be learned from that failed experiment.

Gimmicks don’t work: Short-sighted gamers once thought the Wii and the Nintendo DS were gimmicks, and they were wrong. These gaming devices fundamentally changed how games are played, with new control methods and ways of seeing the action. The same couldn’t be said for the Virtual Boy, whose games were often like any other console but with a cheap 3D effect (the controller’s dual D-Pads were meant to enable 3D controls, but most games used them interchangeably). Hopefully the 3DS will unlock new possibilities for gaming instead of just looking cool.

Comfort is Key: One issue with the Virtual Boy that I’ve never experienced on other gaming consoles is the requirement to sit in a very specific position, at a table with your head stuck into a set of tripod-mounted goggles. Obviously the Nintendo 3DS won’t be so extreme, but it could be a pain in the neck if you’re required to hold the device at specific viewing angles.

Headaches stink, and so do breaks: In the middle of some intense gaming, no one likes being told by the machine that it’s time to rest, as the Virtual Boy did. Nor does anyone enjoy getting a headache, as induced by the Virtual Boy, after ignoring the advice. I hope Nintendo’s new attempt at 3D doesn’t present the same dilemma.

Don’t Underestimate the Killer App: The Virtual Boy’s pack-in title, Mario Tennis, failed to convey the technology’s advantages, because it was basically a straightforward tennis game with a 3D perspective. By comparison, the Nintendo DS hit Nintendogs effortlessly showed the advantages of stylus and touch screen gaming. The 3DS needs to come out of the gate with something that sells the console over the existing and wildly popular Nintendo DS.

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App Store Dev Disses Apple, Messes With Prices, Pays

Posted by Jared Newman on March 19, 2010 at 3:36 pm

An iPhone game developer has learned the hard way that one of the following we’ll get your app banned: Publicly slamming the iPhone App Store, or gradually increasing prices until someone pays hundreds of dollars for a simple time waster.

I’m inclined to think it’s the latter, but let’s backtrack.

According to Kotaku, Tommy Refenes’ game, Zits & Giggles (a simple pimple-popping game), disappeared from the App Store this week with no explanation from Apple. Refenes isn’t an unknown developer; he’s part of the team working on Super Meat Boy, a highly anticipated indie game for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PC.

As such, Refenes was one of the speakers during the “Indie Gamemakers Rant” at last week’s Game Developers Conference. These events encourage the speakers to vent on whatever they like, and Refenes chose the iPhone App Store as one of his targets. Not everything he said is suitable for our family-friendly blog, but he did liken the iPhone to those Tiger Electronics LCD games of the early 1990s, which often carried big brand names but weren’t particularly fun to play.

Now for the other facet of the story: Refenes had been playing around with the game’s pricing, noting that people continued to buy the game even as its cost reached $15, $50 and $299. On Monday, someone paid $400 for the game, the same day Apple pulled the plug.

It’s amusing to think that Apple squashed Zits & Giggles because of Refenes’ insolence during GDC, but I have a tough time believing the game’s price wasn’t to blame. It’s not like Apple hasn’t removed apps because of ridiculous prices before. Of course, all this speculation could have been avoided if Apple had explained to Refenes why the app was pulled, or given him a chance to settle on a price, but alas, communication isn’t Apple’s strong suit.

I’m tempted to dig into Refenes’ comments on the quality of iPhone gaming, but that’s an issue best saved for another day and a fresh blog post. On a related note, I do kind of miss those Tiger LCD games…

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USB Storage for the Xbox 360

Posted by Jared Newman on March 18, 2010 at 6:32 pm

Joystiq’s Alexander Sliwinski reports a credible rumor: Come this spring, Microsoft will allow Xbox 360 owners to install and download games onto external USB storage. He’s got photo documentation supposedly written by a senior Microsoft engineer and confirmation from two anonymous sources to prove it.

The documents say you’ll be able to store Xbox Live Arcade games,  downloadable content, full-scale Games on Demand and title updates on up to two connected storage devices at a time. Installing disc-based games to USB drives is also a possibility, but you’ll still need a disc in the tray, just like when you install a game to the hard drive now.

I still think the 120 GB hard drive on current Xbox 360 models is enough, but the earliest Xbox 360 models, which had 20 GB drives, can feel the squeeze. Microsoft gets a lot of heat for the price of its memory cards ($30 for 512 MB) and replacement hard drives ($130 for 120 GB), so this rumor will make Xbox 360 owners happy if it comes to fruition. This would definitely bolster the appeal of the $200 Xbox 360 Arcade, which lacks a hard drive. Joystiq says hard drives will be partitioned for 16 GB of storage maximum, but a 16 GB USB stick for $40 is still a better deal than Microsoft’s memory cards.

The question, of course, is why? I doubt we’ll ever hear an official explanation, but my best guess is that this has something to do with Datel’s antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Until last November, Datel sold unofficial memory cards, which stored more data at a better cost-per-megabyte than Microsoft’s official products. Microsoft banned unauthorized storage products from the Xbox 360, and Datel claimed the console maker was being anti-competitive.

Maybe it’s wacky to assume that Datel’s lawsuit has anything to do with this, but the addition of USB storage would certainly take a bite out of Datel’s argument.

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Xbox 360 Slim Gets a Big Fat Rumor

Posted by Jared Newman on March 17, 2010 at 3:56 pm

Supposedly pictured here is the motherboard for the Xbox 360’s next revision, which hardware aficionados have pinned as evidence of a console redesign.

The photos, which appeared on Chinese message board A9VG, are noteworthy for a couple reasons, as pointed out by Gamespot: It’s a smaller motherboard than ever before, it combines computer and graphics processors on a single chip and it has a SATA interface port instead of Microsoft’s proprietary hard drive port, suggesting that storage will be housed inside the console.

Put all this together with different shapes, sizes and screw locations, and you’ve got a compelling case for the Xbox 360 Slim — if the photos are real, of course.

Brushing aside idle speculation from analysts and, ahem, bloggers, this is not the first actual rumor of a slimmer Xbox 360. In 2008, TG Daily reported that after Microsoft brought its 65 nm “Jasper” chips into production that year, a 45 nm process would be next in line. The rumor held that Microsoft would release a redesigned console, with GPU and CPU on a single chip, in 2009. Obviously, the timing didn’t pan out, but the rest of the report just got a new lease on life.

Technical details aside, a redesign wouldn’t be a surprise this year, with Microsoft planning to release its motion-sensing camera, codenamed Project Natal, during the holiday season. With that extra peripheral taking up space on TV stands, new console buyers could use the extra room. Besides, the Xbox 360 is starting to look a little bulky next to the PS3 Slim.

If Microsoft is planning to launch a slimmer Xbox 360, don’t expect to hear anything official until just before the console goes on sale. In the meantime, do expect the usual fuzzy product shots and cryptic claims from anonymous sources.

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The PSP Go: Toast?

Posted by Jared Newman on March 16, 2010 at 5:30 pm

Based on some mysterious guesswork, gaming trade publication Gamasutra came up with some grim numbers for Sony’s PSP Go handheld: 6,000 to 10,000 units sold in the United States last month.

Sony has never released any official sales numbers for the PSP Go, a console that’s smaller and lighter than its predecessors and only supports downloaded games. But last week, Japanese industry watchers Media Create said 1,275 PSP Go device were sold in the first week of March. Regardless of the exact number, it’s safe to say the Go isn’t doing well. Gamasutra believes that Sony will launch a next-generation handheld this year and let the Go “experience a slow death at retail.”

That seems to be happening already. I used to see ads for the PSP Go all around Los Angeles, but no more. And the Go is conspicuously absent from Sony’s announcement of an upcoming PSP bundle for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. You won’t see much love for the Go at GameStop’s Web site or stores, either. A rumor from February held that Sony was going to relaunch the Go with a reduced price, but so far, nothing.

I believe the PSP Go’s commercial troubles are due to several errors on Sony’s part, rather than one major problem. The $250 price point is hard to justify when the $170 PSP-3000 has all the same features, albeit in a larger size. Existing PSP owners were alienated because they couldn’t transfer their UMD games onto the device. Bad reviews didn’t help — those from Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera and Destructoid’s lovably-vulgar Jim Sterling stuck in my head for noting how unfriendly the device was to its users.

But while it’s tempting to knock the PSP Go’s underlying concept — a download-only handheld that precludes people from buying and selling used games — I don’t think Sony was wrong to pursue it. Apple proved with the iPod Touch that a download-only device can find commercial success. Sony just erred on the execution, not on the idea.

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