I would watch it...

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3DS 3Destroys All!

Sweet, merciful Poseidon, this is a good one. Earlier this week Nintendo announced the final specs, library and features of their next generation handheld system: the Nintendo 3DS. While there had been a decent amount of information that had been released during it's initial unveiling at E3 (as well as some launch titles), Wednesday's news revealed cold, hard facts about it's latest and most glorious handheld.

First off, the 3DS (as the name implies) is 3D. Full-on, stereoscopic 3D, but WITHOUT GLASSES. Suck it, Sony. The 3.53-inch screen provides autostereoscopic 3D with a sliding dial on the side to determine how much depth of field you want or to turn off the 3D completely.

The hardware for this device is pretty great too...for Nintendo. The (boring) facts of this handheld. 3DS sports:

CPU: 2 x 266MHz ARM11

GPU: PICA200 133MHz GPU by DMP

RAM: 64MB

Storage: 1.5GB Flash-based plus available SD card expansion.

Blah, blue, snore. Right? But here's the thing. Below are the specs for Nintendo's last home console: the Gamecube.

CPU: 486 MHz IBM "Gekko" PowerPC CPU

GPU: 62 MHz "Flipper" LSI GPU

RAM: 43 MB total non-unified RAM

Storage: None. All storage is on removable (and easily corrupted) memory cards.

I'm not a scientist or anything, but it seems tome that the new 3DS has more horsepower than the 'Cube. You can run and tell THAT, homeboy.

To be fair though, there have been rumors that the Gamecube had the internal capabilities for 3D way back in 2001, but the cost of the associated monitor was cost-prohibitive

The starting line-up of titles is pretty impressive: (*INHALES*) Kid Icarus, Mega Man, Metal Gear Solid, two Resident Evil titles, Super Street Fighter IV, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, Final Fantasy and 3D re-releases of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Star, Fox 64 and (supposedly) Super Mario World.

But the fun doesn't stop there. 3DS will play DS titles (presumably) in 3D.

Chrono Trigger...in 3D. Oh god. It's full of stars!

That's it, right? You're sold. Well shut up for a sec. There's more. Nintendo will be offering a Virtual Console for previous Gameboy and Gameboy Color titles. Kirby's Dreamland, Metroid II, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Link's Awakening. Now you have no reason not to.

There's also talk that the 3DS will have streaming TV coming to it as well, but only in Japan.

Dear Santa....

Remember all those years when I asked for a Hoverboard and ONLY a Hoverboard?

Well you owe me. This Omega-awesome shirt from GlitchGear.com will do.

You got three months, get crackin'.

Signed,

The Nicest Boy in the World.

Old School Gaming Rekindled

As of late I have been simultaneously enthralled and challenged by the glorious specter of the Angry Video Game Nerd. The premise is simple, a nerd plays old school video games and points out how much they suck. He occasionally reviews some classic mainstream games but mostly it's games that I've never heard of. And I have played a lot of games. More than you think.

After his review of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, I felt the need to give the game another try. I had been stuck at the same point for probably years. That game is so ridiculous because of its non-linear gameplay and absolute lack of in-game advice. Everything the NPCs (non-playable characters to the jocks) tell you is useless and probably a lie. His sarcastic review, however, provided several clues that have allowed me to get to the last level.

The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES is a demon and another classic game that I devoted HOURS of my life to. It is ridiculously hard. Plain and simple. The farthest I've EVER gotten is level 4. Before puberty I was an epic gaming monster and was capable of intuitively wailing on any game you handed to me. Now, not so much. I blame boobs. But the subsequent sequels were less difficult, more rewarding with better action and geared toward playing with friends. If I had only had friends, it would have been great.

The biggest thing that grabs my attention about this web-series though is the nostalgia. I remember fondly renting a video game every Friday and staying up to the wee hours of morning for a couple days just playing games. The games that immediately spring to mind for these weekends of juvenescence: Super Mario 3, Rampage, Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, The Adventures of Bayou Billy, Excitebike, Jaws: The Video Game, Faxanadu and a specific Mega Man title that escapes me. It was a good one, but easy enough that I could beat some of the bosses...Nevermind.

The Nerd captures this nostalgia perfectly with his Game-Cave. But seeing his walls o' NES cartridges has roused some long-dormant gamer feelings in me.

Though I wholly love my Wii and its contemporary games, one of the reasons for its purchase was the promise of being able to play my old favorite NES and Super NES titles. There have been a few essential titles that have come over for the wii, but for the most part they have barely scratched the surface of the 600+ titles for the NES and the 700+ titles for the Super NES. As of today there are 89 NES titles and 58 Super NES titles available for download from the Virtual Console. Instead Nintendo seems to be focussing on the Wiiware original titles rather than the classics. I guess they need to focus on the games that bring in the big bucks and leave their older fan-base to play with ourselves.

To this end however I have started to research obtaining a used NES and/or Super NES. I have no room for this trove nor the financial means to procure it. But the idea of coming home from work on a Friday night, strolling through a massive library of titles and picking one to play well into the night fills me with a giddy, nerdy anticipation and almost a sense of tranquility.

The Father of Stereoscopic 3D visits Attack of the Show

James Cameron stopped by G4's Attack of the Show to talk a little bit about the upcoming re-release of "Avatar". The re-release will be solely in digital 3D and will include an additional 9-minutes of footage. Cameron also says that there will be more Na'avi lovin'. Pass...

More importantly he showed off the rig he used to shoot the live-action scenes of last year's cash cow. Weighing in at 28 pounds, his rig uses a beam splitter rather than the standard side-by-side in order to capture images in 3D. Cameron goes on to say that he's been working on this technology for around seven years.

To put that into perspective, seven years ago I was well on my way to gaining ten pounds from eating Wendy's everyday.

Also of news in the world of 3D, Toshiba has announced plans to release one of the first glasses-free stereoscopic 3DTVs before the year's end. Following hot on the heels of the Nintendo 3DS announced at E3 this year, this could be a sign that the industry is shifting away from the bulky glasses that a lot of people cite as the biggest complaints about 3D movies.

New Mac-1000

Over the weekend Apple signed an agreement with a Delaware-based company by the name of Liquidmetal Technologies for use of all filed patents. Liquidmetal specializes in exactly that, newly developed applications of their uniquely crafted, super-strong metal. They boast that it is twice as strong and weighs less than titanium.

Liquidmetal's website seems pretty dinky, having not been updated since 2007 and is laid out like a high school computer project. But if their products can live up to their claims this could be overlooked. check out their Youtube video of a bounce test of their material versus titanium and adamantium...or something.

I would think the main purpose of Mac's pursuit of this company would be as a new, stronger casing for Mac portable laptops. Imagine a Macbook Pro that cools fast, can take a fall unscathed and still run efficiently all while being about 20% thinner than the current models. This could mean an even longer battery charge for the already efficient models.

If this were to play out along with the rumored patent of using idle USB and Firewire ports as additional thermal vents, then the future models could be EXTREMELY efficient.

I'm kinda glad I didn't break down and buy one when they released the line-up with the new processors in April.

Slow Tech News Day...

Not much tech news these last couple days, so here's a pretty bad ass depiction of my favorite bounty hunter!