by: Allen Brown
Recently, many new online gaming services have been introduced. The world is having a visible affect on the online gaming industry, as more and more people turned towards playing and enjoying online games.
Games on net were once an imaginary phrase, but since the introduction of thousands of user friendly and easy operating games on the Internet, people are finding that fiction has become reality.
But, now you can read about what you want to learn and play free online games at paying no money. This is the ultimate playing way for anyone frightened by the complex layout of games. To play online games, read introduction to the games and play along.
Another main reason people want to play free online games is to get refreshed from the monotonous and hectic routine. With games on net, all of that excitement can be put into action. The people may choose to play free online games for recreation. Many people just want to chill out at the end of a day, and playing with a pool or slot machine etc. doesn't provide sufficient amusement.
According to a leading company’s survey on online gamers, women around or above age 40 are the informal gaming hardcore, playing games at an average of nearly nine hours a week. As far as men of all age group are concerned, they spend nearly six hours gaming while women of all ages average to around seven hours per week. This show increasing urges to play online games in all age groups and both genders.
The report also unveils an interesting point, 54 percent of adults said that they play games to wipe-off stress and the 20 percent of teens who play for just relaxation.
With free online games one can experience the excitement of playing, without the fear of losing any single cent. Many sites on the Internet also let you to post messages in forum and even facilitate to chat with friends while you play.
This is excellent news for gaming authors and websites, as the more-n-more people are moving towards playing online games on net, the more excitement around the globe will be.
All in all, it can be pretty relaxing experience and certainly it is becoming very popular time-pass.
Friday 1 August 2008
Different Categories of Computer Games
by: David Chandler
Computer games can be categorized mainly into PC games that are played in your computer after installation using the CDs that contain the software, downloadable pc games, and the online games. Many websites provide you with the downloadable version of the PC games.Category based on permission to useThe games can be categorized based on licenses. Some of the games are free and they can be downloaded on the internet free. Some pc games are free downloadable games but are shareware. Shareware games have limitations in the features. Some of the shareware can be used for only 30 days time and some are limited by the number of times that software is used. Trial versions of the software are also available which are time limited or feature limited.Online GamesOnline games are those that are played online. The user who is playing the online games should have an internet connection in his PC. You should be aware that your internet bill is on the rise during the time you play the online games. Yahoo games are one among the popular online games. Many websites provide you online games. Some of the sites require you to become a member to play these online games. Some charge you on per game basis for playing. PC GamesPC Games are those that require an installation through a CD to play the pc games. Some of the games even require the CD to be present in the CD drive to play the game. These software CDs are to be purchased by the user. There are many pc games available like Tomb Raider that requires you to purchase the CD. Most of the games that contain Car races and Motorbike races require the software to be installed through the CD bought by you. Downloadable PC GamesThese games can be downloaded from the internet and can be installed in your computer. Most of the free game downloads are small enough to be downloaded from the internet. There websites like www.download.com that can be searched for free game downloads. A good search engine would give you thousands of links to free downloadable games.What you need in your PC to play these games?Most of the games can be played without any additional hardware. If you are having the latest configuration of the PC, which has the software pre-installed in your computer, then you might not need any additional software to be installed. Some of the online games require you to install plug-ins to run the online games. Plug-in is additional software that is required to run an application in your computer. You will be provided appropriate links to download the plug-ins required by your browser or your computer. You need to check the system requirements for the computer games that is downloaded or installed in your system and install them before you start playing the game.
Computer games can be categorized mainly into PC games that are played in your computer after installation using the CDs that contain the software, downloadable pc games, and the online games. Many websites provide you with the downloadable version of the PC games.Category based on permission to useThe games can be categorized based on licenses. Some of the games are free and they can be downloaded on the internet free. Some pc games are free downloadable games but are shareware. Shareware games have limitations in the features. Some of the shareware can be used for only 30 days time and some are limited by the number of times that software is used. Trial versions of the software are also available which are time limited or feature limited.Online GamesOnline games are those that are played online. The user who is playing the online games should have an internet connection in his PC. You should be aware that your internet bill is on the rise during the time you play the online games. Yahoo games are one among the popular online games. Many websites provide you online games. Some of the sites require you to become a member to play these online games. Some charge you on per game basis for playing. PC GamesPC Games are those that require an installation through a CD to play the pc games. Some of the games even require the CD to be present in the CD drive to play the game. These software CDs are to be purchased by the user. There are many pc games available like Tomb Raider that requires you to purchase the CD. Most of the games that contain Car races and Motorbike races require the software to be installed through the CD bought by you. Downloadable PC GamesThese games can be downloaded from the internet and can be installed in your computer. Most of the free game downloads are small enough to be downloaded from the internet. There websites like www.download.com that can be searched for free game downloads. A good search engine would give you thousands of links to free downloadable games.What you need in your PC to play these games?Most of the games can be played without any additional hardware. If you are having the latest configuration of the PC, which has the software pre-installed in your computer, then you might not need any additional software to be installed. Some of the online games require you to install plug-ins to run the online games. Plug-in is additional software that is required to run an application in your computer. You will be provided appropriate links to download the plug-ins required by your browser or your computer. You need to check the system requirements for the computer games that is downloaded or installed in your system and install them before you start playing the game.
Evolution of Gaming : Graphics vs Gameplay
by: Tony James
If you are old enough to remember the early days of computer gaming you know there were a lot of great games that were fun because of the exceptional gameplay and not just the graphics. Gaming started to become a little more popular in the 90s once people started buying computers. In the early 90s games like Maniac Mansion, X-com 1, and Civilization were extremely hot because of their addictive unique gameplay. Today gaming is mainstream and marketed towards a mass audience. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists. These days, a lot of games try to be as realistic as possible and have the most textures and polygons jammed in to wow your eyes. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. Although there is nothing wrong with a game with beautiful graphics, once the novelty of the graphics runs out, the gameplay is what keeps you playing. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists. There are a few games like Halo 2 where the developers obviously spent a lot of time fine tuning to make sure the gameplay was as enjoyable as possible. With Halo 2, the two things that give it an edge in my opinion is the fact that the movement of players is slower than most games and the weapons are highly balanced. Also, rather than throwing tons of multiplayer maps at the player, the developers focused on making a limited number of quality maps.Freeware games are an option for people on a small budget who value gameplay over graphics. A freeware game is simply a game that is completely free with no fees attached. Freeware developers usually don’t have the million dollar 3d engines to run their games so they must make the games as fun as they can without all the bells and whistles of retail games. These developers make games simply for the love of making them and sometimes come up with some unique and quality games that are definitely worth a look. Especially considering that these games are completely free. These games span all the categories of retail games from Massively Multiplayer to 3d First Person Shooter. Some companies also release production quality games as freeware because they decide not to put the game into production or as promotion.
If you are old enough to remember the early days of computer gaming you know there were a lot of great games that were fun because of the exceptional gameplay and not just the graphics. Gaming started to become a little more popular in the 90s once people started buying computers. In the early 90s games like Maniac Mansion, X-com 1, and Civilization were extremely hot because of their addictive unique gameplay. Today gaming is mainstream and marketed towards a mass audience. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists. These days, a lot of games try to be as realistic as possible and have the most textures and polygons jammed in to wow your eyes. In order to market to everyone, many games these days focus on the graphics and special effects rather than unique gameplay. Although there is nothing wrong with a game with beautiful graphics, once the novelty of the graphics runs out, the gameplay is what keeps you playing. You see many games that seem to be carbon copies of each other with slightly different twists. There are a few games like Halo 2 where the developers obviously spent a lot of time fine tuning to make sure the gameplay was as enjoyable as possible. With Halo 2, the two things that give it an edge in my opinion is the fact that the movement of players is slower than most games and the weapons are highly balanced. Also, rather than throwing tons of multiplayer maps at the player, the developers focused on making a limited number of quality maps.Freeware games are an option for people on a small budget who value gameplay over graphics. A freeware game is simply a game that is completely free with no fees attached. Freeware developers usually don’t have the million dollar 3d engines to run their games so they must make the games as fun as they can without all the bells and whistles of retail games. These developers make games simply for the love of making them and sometimes come up with some unique and quality games that are definitely worth a look. Especially considering that these games are completely free. These games span all the categories of retail games from Massively Multiplayer to 3d First Person Shooter. Some companies also release production quality games as freeware because they decide not to put the game into production or as promotion.
Finding friends by playing online games
by: Dakota Caudilla
There are tens of thousands of websites offering free online games for those who want to have some fun online or find friends online. Don’t believe me? Make a simple search through your favorite search engine and you’ll see the vast amount of websites offering free online games. Finding friends through online games is easy and simple because you get to understand each other while playing games and connect with each other through the website’s chat or communicate function available right there in the website. Although not all online games website requires you to sign up in order to play their online games, some websites do require a simple sign-up. The information that you input into the online games website will become your member’s profile. Other members will be able to view your profile. Your likes, dislikes, favorite games, favorite movies, location (not address, please. Never enter your complete address online, anywhere), and personal characteristics will help you find friends through online games. Engaged in a competitive battle with each other, you are in a better position to gauge the kind of person that your opponent is, for instance, is he/she an aggressive person? Is he/she a strategically-minded person who is capable of planning everything from scratch? What is his/her favorite character and how does he/she use that online game character to his/her benefit?The reason why finding friends through online games is easy is because there are forums and chat rooms that online game fans can use to connect, share tips, communicate, make alliance, and chat with online. They share a common interest, a common goal...and the online games that they like become the foundation for their friendship. Not only do they battle it out playing online games but they essentially turn into friends after chatting and communicating with each other. It’s also safer finding friends through online games. Because the common interest is online games, basically, they just want to have some fun online and not lurk around endangering the lives of others. Although we should still be careful about revealing too much of ourselves online, we generally feel safer when we make friends through online games. You not only make new friends through online games, you can also connect with and play online games with your friends without having to visit an internet café. Even if your friends have gone to college or are working elsewhere in the world, you can still log on at the same time and enjoy a couple of hours of fun, unbridled fun through online games.
There are tens of thousands of websites offering free online games for those who want to have some fun online or find friends online. Don’t believe me? Make a simple search through your favorite search engine and you’ll see the vast amount of websites offering free online games. Finding friends through online games is easy and simple because you get to understand each other while playing games and connect with each other through the website’s chat or communicate function available right there in the website. Although not all online games website requires you to sign up in order to play their online games, some websites do require a simple sign-up. The information that you input into the online games website will become your member’s profile. Other members will be able to view your profile. Your likes, dislikes, favorite games, favorite movies, location (not address, please. Never enter your complete address online, anywhere), and personal characteristics will help you find friends through online games. Engaged in a competitive battle with each other, you are in a better position to gauge the kind of person that your opponent is, for instance, is he/she an aggressive person? Is he/she a strategically-minded person who is capable of planning everything from scratch? What is his/her favorite character and how does he/she use that online game character to his/her benefit?The reason why finding friends through online games is easy is because there are forums and chat rooms that online game fans can use to connect, share tips, communicate, make alliance, and chat with online. They share a common interest, a common goal...and the online games that they like become the foundation for their friendship. Not only do they battle it out playing online games but they essentially turn into friends after chatting and communicating with each other. It’s also safer finding friends through online games. Because the common interest is online games, basically, they just want to have some fun online and not lurk around endangering the lives of others. Although we should still be careful about revealing too much of ourselves online, we generally feel safer when we make friends through online games. You not only make new friends through online games, you can also connect with and play online games with your friends without having to visit an internet café. Even if your friends have gone to college or are working elsewhere in the world, you can still log on at the same time and enjoy a couple of hours of fun, unbridled fun through online games.
Which way are mobile phone games heading?
by: Peter Lenkefi
Aside online games and static game devices like Playstation, mobile games are the next most popular games around now.The popularity has grown so big that mobile operators are competing against each other by offering their subscribers loads of both free and paid games for their pleasure. Not only mobile operators, cell phone manufacturers are also pre-programming their phones with a variety of games. The growing interest in mobile gaming is producing a lot of benefits for the mobile industry. The operators are deriving sizable revenue from selling these games, software developers are regularly deriving royalties from phone manufacturers and the manufacturers themselves are cashing in heavily on revenue from subscribers. You will appreciate the level of income in this are if you consider the fact that by the year 2009, there would be 220 million mobile phone game fans in the world.Now lets delve into the kinds of games we have around:We have the embedded games that are factory coded into the phones, SMS games that operate by interacting with a SMS server upon which the game resides and browser games that are played online using the cell phones mini browser. Of all these games the cheapest and most popular is the inbuilt ones though the excitement offered by SMS and online games are not a deterrent to people who would spend every dime to get hooked on. The reason is browser games are of multi-media origin and can be compared to the type experienced on Playstation or xbox.There are several ways to develop mobile games though the most popular language used are C++, Java and Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform .Out of these three, Java is the most popular method. The reason is obvious – java is widely supported by the web and supported by all the principal phone manufacturers. Again a medium like J2ME is open source and thus cheap to use as a development medium.Java as we know it is highly portable across platforms and leaves developers with little worry that their program will not work on certain phones. Programmers choose this language platform because it does not interfere with programs running natively on the phone.But in reality the future of mobile game development is in MIDP 2.0 API which is a compilation of high end applications that allow developers to come up with sophiscated and highly interactive games for fans. It is fast to use and ensures a stable program after compilation.It is projected that this program, though futuristic, shall be the standard for mobile game developers for a long time as it exhibits versatility and the quick deployment – qualities programmer love.
Aside online games and static game devices like Playstation, mobile games are the next most popular games around now.The popularity has grown so big that mobile operators are competing against each other by offering their subscribers loads of both free and paid games for their pleasure. Not only mobile operators, cell phone manufacturers are also pre-programming their phones with a variety of games. The growing interest in mobile gaming is producing a lot of benefits for the mobile industry. The operators are deriving sizable revenue from selling these games, software developers are regularly deriving royalties from phone manufacturers and the manufacturers themselves are cashing in heavily on revenue from subscribers. You will appreciate the level of income in this are if you consider the fact that by the year 2009, there would be 220 million mobile phone game fans in the world.Now lets delve into the kinds of games we have around:We have the embedded games that are factory coded into the phones, SMS games that operate by interacting with a SMS server upon which the game resides and browser games that are played online using the cell phones mini browser. Of all these games the cheapest and most popular is the inbuilt ones though the excitement offered by SMS and online games are not a deterrent to people who would spend every dime to get hooked on. The reason is browser games are of multi-media origin and can be compared to the type experienced on Playstation or xbox.There are several ways to develop mobile games though the most popular language used are C++, Java and Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform .Out of these three, Java is the most popular method. The reason is obvious – java is widely supported by the web and supported by all the principal phone manufacturers. Again a medium like J2ME is open source and thus cheap to use as a development medium.Java as we know it is highly portable across platforms and leaves developers with little worry that their program will not work on certain phones. Programmers choose this language platform because it does not interfere with programs running natively on the phone.But in reality the future of mobile game development is in MIDP 2.0 API which is a compilation of high end applications that allow developers to come up with sophiscated and highly interactive games for fans. It is fast to use and ensures a stable program after compilation.It is projected that this program, though futuristic, shall be the standard for mobile game developers for a long time as it exhibits versatility and the quick deployment – qualities programmer love.
Copying XBOX Games
by: Terry Dunn
There really is no shortcut to copying XBOX games. In fact, this is a mightily complicated process and has stumped some really techie people. This is evident with the prevalence of the question on copying XBOX games in Internet message boards and tech chat rooms. But why does one need to be going about there and copying XBOX games? Is this not legal?If you have an XBOX and you have purchased original games to play on it, chances are you must have ran through a huge chunk of your savings. Original games are very expensive and because CDs are not exactly immortal, you can eventually wear out a game especially if you use it every minute of the day.To give value to consumers, most countries allow original CD buyers to make back-up copies of their XBOX games in case their original got damaged or got lost provided that they are aware of the law against pirated software and that they actually own an original cd and are only copying XBOX games for their personal use only.While it is relatively easy to do the copying of XBOX games, the same cannot be said in actually using the XBOX games that you have copied. Most software contain an encryption that must be met when inserted in an XBOX. Copying an XBOX game, however, does not copy this encryption. This is a protection system that most XBOX consoles have as protection against flagrant copying of XBOX games.To be able to run XBOX games that you have copied, you need to modify your XBOX. This can be a daunting task especially to beginners who are afraid of destroying their XBOXes with their tinkering.According to most tech experts, there are a lot of ways to modifying your XBOX in order to accommodate the practice of copying of XBOX games. Some are quite complicated and only a tech expert could do while other ways can be expensive but easy.One is to buy and install a MOD-chip. This will allow your console to play XBOX games that you have copied as well as play imported games from other countries with perfect sound and video with no problem at all. While it may seem that all you have to do is purchase a MOD-Chip and then voila, you have another think coming. There are actually a lot of things that you should consider when buying a MOD-Chip. Most recommend the Divineo Modchips, which are purported to be really reliable. Some of the popular brands are the Xecuter 2 and 3, Xenium, SmartXX, X-bit, Alladin, Chameleon and Xchip.Another way in copying and using XBOX games is to change the BIOS of the XBOX so that it will no longer read the requirements of the digitally-signed software. This is basically reprogramming the whole BIOS.You might also consider purchasing a bigger hard drive and just save all your games inside the XBOX. This way, you already have copy of your favorite games inside and would no longer need to swap CDs.The third way is to do the game swapping technique, wherein you will first boot the original CD and then swap the copy once it has already booted up. This might be very complicated and will not actually serve your purpose in copying your XBOX games… that is to preserve your original CDs.
There really is no shortcut to copying XBOX games. In fact, this is a mightily complicated process and has stumped some really techie people. This is evident with the prevalence of the question on copying XBOX games in Internet message boards and tech chat rooms. But why does one need to be going about there and copying XBOX games? Is this not legal?If you have an XBOX and you have purchased original games to play on it, chances are you must have ran through a huge chunk of your savings. Original games are very expensive and because CDs are not exactly immortal, you can eventually wear out a game especially if you use it every minute of the day.To give value to consumers, most countries allow original CD buyers to make back-up copies of their XBOX games in case their original got damaged or got lost provided that they are aware of the law against pirated software and that they actually own an original cd and are only copying XBOX games for their personal use only.While it is relatively easy to do the copying of XBOX games, the same cannot be said in actually using the XBOX games that you have copied. Most software contain an encryption that must be met when inserted in an XBOX. Copying an XBOX game, however, does not copy this encryption. This is a protection system that most XBOX consoles have as protection against flagrant copying of XBOX games.To be able to run XBOX games that you have copied, you need to modify your XBOX. This can be a daunting task especially to beginners who are afraid of destroying their XBOXes with their tinkering.According to most tech experts, there are a lot of ways to modifying your XBOX in order to accommodate the practice of copying of XBOX games. Some are quite complicated and only a tech expert could do while other ways can be expensive but easy.One is to buy and install a MOD-chip. This will allow your console to play XBOX games that you have copied as well as play imported games from other countries with perfect sound and video with no problem at all. While it may seem that all you have to do is purchase a MOD-Chip and then voila, you have another think coming. There are actually a lot of things that you should consider when buying a MOD-Chip. Most recommend the Divineo Modchips, which are purported to be really reliable. Some of the popular brands are the Xecuter 2 and 3, Xenium, SmartXX, X-bit, Alladin, Chameleon and Xchip.Another way in copying and using XBOX games is to change the BIOS of the XBOX so that it will no longer read the requirements of the digitally-signed software. This is basically reprogramming the whole BIOS.You might also consider purchasing a bigger hard drive and just save all your games inside the XBOX. This way, you already have copy of your favorite games inside and would no longer need to swap CDs.The third way is to do the game swapping technique, wherein you will first boot the original CD and then swap the copy once it has already booted up. This might be very complicated and will not actually serve your purpose in copying your XBOX games… that is to preserve your original CDs.
Why We Play Games, Part 1
by: Steve Hall
There exists some ephemeral quality that separates gamers from the rest of humanity, some thing that makes us, us and them, not us. I've never been able to quite put my finger on it, but it is inescapably there. Today, in hopes of moving closer to that essential quality of gamerosity, we examine part of what makes us tick. In particular, we take a look at what draws different types of gamers to the hobby. Every gamer plays for different reasons, but there are common threads that tie the experience together.Many gamers are motivated by the challenge a game can present. Success in a game may be governed by any of a wide variety of abilities. A First Person Shooter requires twitch reflexes, a steady hand and the ability to remain calm under pressure. A word puzzle game may require an extensive vocabulary and the ability to rethink the uses of old words, but no measure of speed. A sports simulation might well require an in-depth knowledge of the topic, in addition to arcade skill, but is unlikely to have terribly much concern for linguistic acumen.The common thread is that all of the games challenge some subset of a player's abilities. This challenge can be a powerful motivator. The Challenge Motivated gamer is drawn to a game that tests their skills, preferably one that tests them to their limits. The gamer may also be motivated by the natural improvement that comes from working at peak. They are driven then, not only to excel, but to improve. Challenge Motivated Gamers thrive whenever a game pushes their skill set of choice, but may be disinterested in games that fall too far away from the target.Competition is a close cousin of challenge. Many gamers are driven by the need to prove they are the best, to be pitted against their fellows and come out on top. Competition minded gamers range from those looking for a challenge in a fair fight to the sort of win-at-all cost leet speaking infants that give us all a bad name. Competition can be easy to take too far. There is nothing inherently wrong with being driven by competition. To some extent, competition is merely challenge taken to the extreme. It is only when it leads to mistreating your fellow player that it begins to become less a motivation and more an unfortunate personality quirk. Competition Motivated players thrive on those games where they are pitted against one another with the outcome dictated by skill at playing the game. They will often wane in those environments that either require cooperation, such as many MMORPGs, or in games where skill plays a much smaller role, such as in less sophisticated card or dice games.Next week we will take a look at some other common gamer motivations, including Creativity, Escapism and Social Interaction.
There exists some ephemeral quality that separates gamers from the rest of humanity, some thing that makes us, us and them, not us. I've never been able to quite put my finger on it, but it is inescapably there. Today, in hopes of moving closer to that essential quality of gamerosity, we examine part of what makes us tick. In particular, we take a look at what draws different types of gamers to the hobby. Every gamer plays for different reasons, but there are common threads that tie the experience together.Many gamers are motivated by the challenge a game can present. Success in a game may be governed by any of a wide variety of abilities. A First Person Shooter requires twitch reflexes, a steady hand and the ability to remain calm under pressure. A word puzzle game may require an extensive vocabulary and the ability to rethink the uses of old words, but no measure of speed. A sports simulation might well require an in-depth knowledge of the topic, in addition to arcade skill, but is unlikely to have terribly much concern for linguistic acumen.The common thread is that all of the games challenge some subset of a player's abilities. This challenge can be a powerful motivator. The Challenge Motivated gamer is drawn to a game that tests their skills, preferably one that tests them to their limits. The gamer may also be motivated by the natural improvement that comes from working at peak. They are driven then, not only to excel, but to improve. Challenge Motivated Gamers thrive whenever a game pushes their skill set of choice, but may be disinterested in games that fall too far away from the target.Competition is a close cousin of challenge. Many gamers are driven by the need to prove they are the best, to be pitted against their fellows and come out on top. Competition minded gamers range from those looking for a challenge in a fair fight to the sort of win-at-all cost leet speaking infants that give us all a bad name. Competition can be easy to take too far. There is nothing inherently wrong with being driven by competition. To some extent, competition is merely challenge taken to the extreme. It is only when it leads to mistreating your fellow player that it begins to become less a motivation and more an unfortunate personality quirk. Competition Motivated players thrive on those games where they are pitted against one another with the outcome dictated by skill at playing the game. They will often wane in those environments that either require cooperation, such as many MMORPGs, or in games where skill plays a much smaller role, such as in less sophisticated card or dice games.Next week we will take a look at some other common gamer motivations, including Creativity, Escapism and Social Interaction.
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The Future of Video Games
by: Daniel Punch
I’ve recently been thinking about where video games could be going in the future. I’m hoping to work in the game industry one day after I’ve finished university study and I’ve been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into ‘play’ in the not too distant future.Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They’ve tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It’s probably never going to work very well in its current form. They’re still around and you can still buy them but they really don’t seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It’s threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren’t going to appreciate it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain. A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local ‘Science and Technology Centre’ (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of ‘Augmented Reality’. Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren’t actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film ‘They Live!’ The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from the University of South Australia created the ‘ARQuake’ project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can’t do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that’s just one person’s view…). Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it’s quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we’ll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the ‘Casual Gamer’ will probably lead to more simplistic games being released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down until another time. These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a ‘fast food’ kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects. Hopefully the two game types can co-exist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer. As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost anything given the right emulation software. Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and vice-versa. We’ll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more expensive computers. Ideally we’ll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly for one particular company.The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful hand-held machines than before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo’s GameBoy. There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system’s games (including some PC games).I can’t say for sure what’s going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I’ve had recently. Hopefully the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories, characters and ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.
I’ve recently been thinking about where video games could be going in the future. I’m hoping to work in the game industry one day after I’ve finished university study and I’ve been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into ‘play’ in the not too distant future.Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They’ve tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It’s probably never going to work very well in its current form. They’re still around and you can still buy them but they really don’t seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It’s threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren’t going to appreciate it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain. A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local ‘Science and Technology Centre’ (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of ‘Augmented Reality’. Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren’t actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film ‘They Live!’ The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from the University of South Australia created the ‘ARQuake’ project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can’t do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that’s just one person’s view…). Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it’s quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we’ll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the ‘Casual Gamer’ will probably lead to more simplistic games being released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down until another time. These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a ‘fast food’ kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects. Hopefully the two game types can co-exist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer. As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost anything given the right emulation software. Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and vice-versa. We’ll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more expensive computers. Ideally we’ll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly for one particular company.The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful hand-held machines than before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo’s GameBoy. There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system’s games (including some PC games).I can’t say for sure what’s going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I’ve had recently. Hopefully the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories, characters and ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.
Video Game Violence...What do you think about it?
by: Daniel Punch
Ever since video game designers were able to put red pixels on their imaginary characters that had recently deceased, there have been people crusading against their subversive ways. The outrage at video games seems to be cyclic, fading very briefly before exploding into the public eye once more with renewed frenzy. The controversy seems to have sparked up again in recent times, with numerous crimes being blamed on the corruptive influence of video games. There have also been various "controversies" surrounding recent video games and their content in the areas of both violence and sexuality.The first game to receive widespread criticism and media attention was the martial art fighting game "Mortal Kombat". This game included large spurts of blood emitted from attacks and also "Fatalities" that could be performed on stunned opponents after their defeat. These Fatalities were gruesome animation sequences showing the victorious player killing their defeated opponent in a vast variety of ways. Gamers revelled in this new experience and the controversy surrounding the violence caused mass hype that informed the less informed gamers that the game was out there. Consequently gamers played the new game just to find out what all the talk was about, thereby greatly increasing revenue.One of the largest sparks of controversy has been the recent "Hot Coffee" modification for "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA)". This involved unlocking a sexually oriented mini-game that had been removed from the game before release, although evidently not from the source code. The creators of the game, Rockstar Entertainment, obviously realised that this particular part of the game was not appropriate for the video gaming public and removed access to it. An enterprising fan of the game found out and modified the original code to give access to the content once again. Lawsuits were brought against Rockstar for including such content in their game, although the validity of the lawsuit has to be questioned. If the game is simply purchased and played as intended by the developers, this admittedly tasteless and inappropriate mini game would never be encountered. It is not until the user-made modification is downloaded and installed that the player is able to access the content.Regardless of who's to blame, "GTA: SA" was re-rated in America and banned from sale in Australia. Oddly enough the gratuitous and encouraged violence in the game went largely unnoticed in the wake of the "scandalous" sex scenes involving clothed, cartoonesque people. When examined objectively almost all games contain a certain amount of violent content. The kid-friendly bright and colourful "Mario" games by Nintendo feature a character stomping on animated creature's heads. In fact the majority of games, even children's games, involve the protagonist crusading against an enemy horde of some sort and generally "disposing" of them in some manner, whether it be striking them with a weapon or body part (feet, hands, possibly a tail depending on the nature of the character). The only real stand out difference is that in a children's game the 'bad' characters will generally bounce backwards in a cute manner and explode with a humorous puff sound (or simply disappear) whereas in a game oriented towards older mature players, the characters are more likely to be (somewhat) realistic, spraying a gusher of red upon their demise.Whenever some young person somewhere commits a violent crime these days it seems to get blamed on a video game, from "Duke Nukem" and "Quake" being accused for the Columbine High massacre, to a more recent incident involving a group of minors attributing their violent actions to the "Mortal Kombat" video games. Without any solid evidence either way it's hard to say whether or not video game violence actually has much of an influence on players. To really be sure you'd probably have to have a control group of isolated children that have never seen a violent movie or played a bloodthirsty video game. History does however show that brutal crimes were committed long before video games or even movies came into existence.Children are quite easily influenced by something that they're excited about and I've seen this happen a lot. Playing a wrestling video game with a group of eight year olds often leads to the eight year olds screaming raucously and trying to pin each other down on the ground. Pre-teens will often punch and kick their way out of a cinema in terrible combat stances after having viewed a martial arts movie. The current content rating system in place is not geared towards consumer restriction; it is largely aimed at simply informing the public about what they are going to experience. Legal restrictions are not actually put in place until the higher, more severe ratings like in x-rated films. Parents, guardians, and society in general need to start taking an interest in who is viewing certain types of content. Instead of complaining about the entertainment a child is enjoying, the parent could be there at the beginning looking at the rating that is printed clearly on the packaging of all entertainment. A simple "I don't think that's suitable, how about this game? It has a lizard!" distracts the child a surprising number of times. In my experience, children genuinely just want people to take an interest in what they're interested in, not just murmuring indistinctly, "Yes dear, that's nice." as the child installs the newest violent game.What about the children that are playing the games in the restricted ratings categories? The only way that they can even get the game into their possession is if a parent (or someone of legal age) purchases the game for the child, or if the store disregards the rating guidelines in place and sells it to them regardless. Either way the fact that a game's content has fallen into a minor's hands is not the fault of the game developer.I'm not out to defend the integrity of artistic vision presented in video games as many other gamers are. Frankly there seems to me to be little artistic integrity in rendering blood that is ever more liquid in appearance. I do however enjoy playing some games that are quite violent in nature and in many cases the violent nature of the game increases my enjoyment. Video games are escapism, there's (arguably) no point in playing a video game that simulates something you can just walk outside and do (and yet sports games somehow consistently sell in large numbers... curious...). Interestingly I have never yet felt the overwhelming desire to break down into a kung fu stance and commit murder. Perhaps more important than simply banning questionable content in video games would be studying why this content is so appealing to today's society?
Ever since video game designers were able to put red pixels on their imaginary characters that had recently deceased, there have been people crusading against their subversive ways. The outrage at video games seems to be cyclic, fading very briefly before exploding into the public eye once more with renewed frenzy. The controversy seems to have sparked up again in recent times, with numerous crimes being blamed on the corruptive influence of video games. There have also been various "controversies" surrounding recent video games and their content in the areas of both violence and sexuality.The first game to receive widespread criticism and media attention was the martial art fighting game "Mortal Kombat". This game included large spurts of blood emitted from attacks and also "Fatalities" that could be performed on stunned opponents after their defeat. These Fatalities were gruesome animation sequences showing the victorious player killing their defeated opponent in a vast variety of ways. Gamers revelled in this new experience and the controversy surrounding the violence caused mass hype that informed the less informed gamers that the game was out there. Consequently gamers played the new game just to find out what all the talk was about, thereby greatly increasing revenue.One of the largest sparks of controversy has been the recent "Hot Coffee" modification for "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA)". This involved unlocking a sexually oriented mini-game that had been removed from the game before release, although evidently not from the source code. The creators of the game, Rockstar Entertainment, obviously realised that this particular part of the game was not appropriate for the video gaming public and removed access to it. An enterprising fan of the game found out and modified the original code to give access to the content once again. Lawsuits were brought against Rockstar for including such content in their game, although the validity of the lawsuit has to be questioned. If the game is simply purchased and played as intended by the developers, this admittedly tasteless and inappropriate mini game would never be encountered. It is not until the user-made modification is downloaded and installed that the player is able to access the content.Regardless of who's to blame, "GTA: SA" was re-rated in America and banned from sale in Australia. Oddly enough the gratuitous and encouraged violence in the game went largely unnoticed in the wake of the "scandalous" sex scenes involving clothed, cartoonesque people. When examined objectively almost all games contain a certain amount of violent content. The kid-friendly bright and colourful "Mario" games by Nintendo feature a character stomping on animated creature's heads. In fact the majority of games, even children's games, involve the protagonist crusading against an enemy horde of some sort and generally "disposing" of them in some manner, whether it be striking them with a weapon or body part (feet, hands, possibly a tail depending on the nature of the character). The only real stand out difference is that in a children's game the 'bad' characters will generally bounce backwards in a cute manner and explode with a humorous puff sound (or simply disappear) whereas in a game oriented towards older mature players, the characters are more likely to be (somewhat) realistic, spraying a gusher of red upon their demise.Whenever some young person somewhere commits a violent crime these days it seems to get blamed on a video game, from "Duke Nukem" and "Quake" being accused for the Columbine High massacre, to a more recent incident involving a group of minors attributing their violent actions to the "Mortal Kombat" video games. Without any solid evidence either way it's hard to say whether or not video game violence actually has much of an influence on players. To really be sure you'd probably have to have a control group of isolated children that have never seen a violent movie or played a bloodthirsty video game. History does however show that brutal crimes were committed long before video games or even movies came into existence.Children are quite easily influenced by something that they're excited about and I've seen this happen a lot. Playing a wrestling video game with a group of eight year olds often leads to the eight year olds screaming raucously and trying to pin each other down on the ground. Pre-teens will often punch and kick their way out of a cinema in terrible combat stances after having viewed a martial arts movie. The current content rating system in place is not geared towards consumer restriction; it is largely aimed at simply informing the public about what they are going to experience. Legal restrictions are not actually put in place until the higher, more severe ratings like in x-rated films. Parents, guardians, and society in general need to start taking an interest in who is viewing certain types of content. Instead of complaining about the entertainment a child is enjoying, the parent could be there at the beginning looking at the rating that is printed clearly on the packaging of all entertainment. A simple "I don't think that's suitable, how about this game? It has a lizard!" distracts the child a surprising number of times. In my experience, children genuinely just want people to take an interest in what they're interested in, not just murmuring indistinctly, "Yes dear, that's nice." as the child installs the newest violent game.What about the children that are playing the games in the restricted ratings categories? The only way that they can even get the game into their possession is if a parent (or someone of legal age) purchases the game for the child, or if the store disregards the rating guidelines in place and sells it to them regardless. Either way the fact that a game's content has fallen into a minor's hands is not the fault of the game developer.I'm not out to defend the integrity of artistic vision presented in video games as many other gamers are. Frankly there seems to me to be little artistic integrity in rendering blood that is ever more liquid in appearance. I do however enjoy playing some games that are quite violent in nature and in many cases the violent nature of the game increases my enjoyment. Video games are escapism, there's (arguably) no point in playing a video game that simulates something you can just walk outside and do (and yet sports games somehow consistently sell in large numbers... curious...). Interestingly I have never yet felt the overwhelming desire to break down into a kung fu stance and commit murder. Perhaps more important than simply banning questionable content in video games would be studying why this content is so appealing to today's society?
Reviving Old Computer Games
by: Daniel Punch
Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I’ve also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet.The wonderfully technologically gifted and giving Internet populace is out in force in their attempts to preserve the older side of gaming. Remakes and Emulators for almost any old machine can be found around the Internet. Emulators act as a layer between old software and new hardware allowing modern PCs to run programs that such hardware was never meant to see. Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, Master System, Arcade Machines and more have all been emulated and the necessary programs placed online for download, usually for free.Emulation is not a new idea. I had a hardware emulator for the VIC20 that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64 and allowed the use of the older VIC20 cartridges with the new hardware (I never actually owned a VIC20 or any programs for it but that’s another issue). Emulator popularity has been fading in and out for many years, only coming into many people’s attention with the release of Bleem!, a Playstation emulator for PC that was released while the PSOne still held a dominant share of the video game market. Bleemcast (a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast) soon followed causing one of the more interesting video game legal battles as Sony fought to have the emulator shut down. However, the emulators have a strong following and very active user base.Emulators are easy to find and download. Simply search for the system you want and add the word emulator to the end (e.g. “SNES Emulator”) and you’ll probably come up with a lot of hits. Be slightly wary as some emulator sites will either be false links or may contain pornographic ads. Setting the emulators up to run is usually fairly straightforward and there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to find some documentation and help. Some of the newer systems require a BIOS image to be installed with the emulator. This is to get around the legal issues raised by Sony in the Bleem! legal battles by requiring you to be in possession of a Playstation BIOS (and hence, presumably, a Playstation) in order to play the games on your computer. Making a BIOS image to load into your computer will most likely be beyond your technical expertise, but a quick check of your console’s case will reveal the file you need to get and then it’s as simple as searching the internet for a BIOS image that matches the BIOS you already own.Of interest are the PC emulators now available. Windows no longer has very good support for older DOS-based games so there are a few emulators out there now to emulate the DOS environment. DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best known of the crop. There are also game-specific emulators such as ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) or DOOM Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/) that focus specifically on certain games and hence are able to improve the experience for those particular titles.Once you have yourself an emulator you’ll need to get yourself some programs to run with it. These programs are called ‘ROMs’ and are images of the original storage device that the program came on (be it a cartridge, tape, floppy or other). The process of creating a ROM is probably far too technical for the vast majority of computer users so you’re probably going to have to find a ‘backup’ from somewhere to download. This is where the venture gets slightly foggy. Basically the deal is that you can only have a program ROM if you own the original program. So if you have boxes of old Amiga disks, NES cartridges, or other old gaming programs stored away somewhere, you’re in luck, otherwise you’re treading on legally shifty ground. While it can easily be argued that the downloading of a 1987 computer game is of no real consequence to the company that has in all likelihood closed down, copyright doesn’t actually expire for 50 years and computer games just haven’t been around that long.Online ‘emulation’ is a new area now being explored. The idea is that you simply play the game in your browser through a Java applet or Flash application. These might not always strictly be emulated programs but many remakes are feature perfect with the originals. The graphics, sounds, and game play remain intact. One excellent place to look for online games is Every Video Game (http://www.everyvideogame.com). While the site does not in fact contain ‘every video game’ it does have a very large list of old games from the arcades, GameBoy, NES, and Master System all playable through your browser. Many remakes can also be found at Shockwave’s site (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics/). Some of the old games have even been remade and updated for this modern world we now live in. Try doing a search for remakes of a game title you particularly enjoyed and you may be surprised at what you find. There are games that have been updated to be 3D, such as some old favourites of mine: Pac man (http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1292.html) and Barbarian (http://www.dgdevteam.tk/), and while these might not always be brilliant games or remakes in their own right, the thought and effort put in often leads to an enjoyable diversion. There are also more traditional versions of games that have just updated the code as well as possibly the graphics so that they can still be run. So if you’re feeling nostalgic or just can’t get the hang of these new-fangled games that require you to push fifty buttons in a precise configuration just to jump, you may like to check out the emulation and remake scene. It’s surprisingly entertaining to go back in time to when games were simple yet fun.
Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I’ve also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet.The wonderfully technologically gifted and giving Internet populace is out in force in their attempts to preserve the older side of gaming. Remakes and Emulators for almost any old machine can be found around the Internet. Emulators act as a layer between old software and new hardware allowing modern PCs to run programs that such hardware was never meant to see. Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, Master System, Arcade Machines and more have all been emulated and the necessary programs placed online for download, usually for free.Emulation is not a new idea. I had a hardware emulator for the VIC20 that plugged into the back of my Commodore 64 and allowed the use of the older VIC20 cartridges with the new hardware (I never actually owned a VIC20 or any programs for it but that’s another issue). Emulator popularity has been fading in and out for many years, only coming into many people’s attention with the release of Bleem!, a Playstation emulator for PC that was released while the PSOne still held a dominant share of the video game market. Bleemcast (a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast) soon followed causing one of the more interesting video game legal battles as Sony fought to have the emulator shut down. However, the emulators have a strong following and very active user base.Emulators are easy to find and download. Simply search for the system you want and add the word emulator to the end (e.g. “SNES Emulator”) and you’ll probably come up with a lot of hits. Be slightly wary as some emulator sites will either be false links or may contain pornographic ads. Setting the emulators up to run is usually fairly straightforward and there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to find some documentation and help. Some of the newer systems require a BIOS image to be installed with the emulator. This is to get around the legal issues raised by Sony in the Bleem! legal battles by requiring you to be in possession of a Playstation BIOS (and hence, presumably, a Playstation) in order to play the games on your computer. Making a BIOS image to load into your computer will most likely be beyond your technical expertise, but a quick check of your console’s case will reveal the file you need to get and then it’s as simple as searching the internet for a BIOS image that matches the BIOS you already own.Of interest are the PC emulators now available. Windows no longer has very good support for older DOS-based games so there are a few emulators out there now to emulate the DOS environment. DOSBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best known of the crop. There are also game-specific emulators such as ScummVM (www.scummvm.org) or DOOM Legacy (http://legacy.newdoom.com/) that focus specifically on certain games and hence are able to improve the experience for those particular titles.Once you have yourself an emulator you’ll need to get yourself some programs to run with it. These programs are called ‘ROMs’ and are images of the original storage device that the program came on (be it a cartridge, tape, floppy or other). The process of creating a ROM is probably far too technical for the vast majority of computer users so you’re probably going to have to find a ‘backup’ from somewhere to download. This is where the venture gets slightly foggy. Basically the deal is that you can only have a program ROM if you own the original program. So if you have boxes of old Amiga disks, NES cartridges, or other old gaming programs stored away somewhere, you’re in luck, otherwise you’re treading on legally shifty ground. While it can easily be argued that the downloading of a 1987 computer game is of no real consequence to the company that has in all likelihood closed down, copyright doesn’t actually expire for 50 years and computer games just haven’t been around that long.Online ‘emulation’ is a new area now being explored. The idea is that you simply play the game in your browser through a Java applet or Flash application. These might not always strictly be emulated programs but many remakes are feature perfect with the originals. The graphics, sounds, and game play remain intact. One excellent place to look for online games is Every Video Game (http://www.everyvideogame.com). While the site does not in fact contain ‘every video game’ it does have a very large list of old games from the arcades, GameBoy, NES, and Master System all playable through your browser. Many remakes can also be found at Shockwave’s site (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics/). Some of the old games have even been remade and updated for this modern world we now live in. Try doing a search for remakes of a game title you particularly enjoyed and you may be surprised at what you find. There are games that have been updated to be 3D, such as some old favourites of mine: Pac man (http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1292.html) and Barbarian (http://www.dgdevteam.tk/), and while these might not always be brilliant games or remakes in their own right, the thought and effort put in often leads to an enjoyable diversion. There are also more traditional versions of games that have just updated the code as well as possibly the graphics so that they can still be run. So if you’re feeling nostalgic or just can’t get the hang of these new-fangled games that require you to push fifty buttons in a precise configuration just to jump, you may like to check out the emulation and remake scene. It’s surprisingly entertaining to go back in time to when games were simple yet fun.
J2ME developers and programmers: The mobile game industry winners
by: Chris Palau
Who could have predicted that the 80’s game of Pong would spawn a multi-billion dollar gaming industry complete with PCs, PDAs, and wireless phones that are specifically designed to handle the speed and graphics that today’s games demand?If you think that current gaming technology is hot then, as they say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”Wireless or mobile gaming is the future and the future is now. 2004 saw an explosion in mobile gaming technology which redefined the mobile phone as a gaming device. Handsets capable of displaying graphics equal in quality to the GameStations and GameCubes of the 1990’s were available everywhere, and game developers like Synergetix and It's Alive! were on everyone’s radar screen. Now, just a year later, Real-time multiplayer games, some offering high-quality, 3D graphics, can be played over most telecom networks at prices that won’t put you in the poorhouse.Never one to be too far behind the bleeding edge, even the Adult Entertainment industry is turning out PDA and cell phone-based games including gambling programs and a variety of role-based and action games where lots of sexy women end up losing their clothes. The graphics are, shall we say, stunning.A peek under the technology hoodWhile the average gamer may be ignorant of the technology that is driving the wireless gaming industry, the geeks among us are very familiar with terms like J2ME, Symbian, and Brew; the development and distribution platforms upon which the wireless gaming industry has built its success.J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) is a derivative of Sun Microcomputer’s JAVA development platform. J2ME is specifically designed to build applications that run on portable and wireless devices including cell phones and PDAs. It’s also finding wide acceptance among companies that develop applications for TV boxes and many of the new embedded devices which are flooding both the consumer and industrial markets.BREW, another development language from QUALCOMM, provides a development platform that’s also suited for the wireless industry. BREW’s claim to fame is that fact that the developer can write device-independent applications which do not need to be recompiled for different phone manufacturers.SYMBIAN is probably the most commonly used OS in the game-enabled wireless telephone market. Embraced by all major phone manufacturers, SYMBIAN supports J2ME, BREW, C++, and JAVA.So, what does the future hold for this high-tech blockbuster that’s still in its infancy?According to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, the “global mobile game industry, which generated US$436.4 million in 2002, will balloon to US$9.34 billion by 2008.“ Asia is at the epicenter of the wireless gaming explosion where an estimated 500 million people are wireless Internet subscribers and two out of five are wireless gamers.Some gaming fortune tellers predict that the convergence of GPS and wireless gaming technology will result in live-action and role playing games that will adapt themselves to the player’s physical location and include geographic-specific scenarios that change as the player moves to new locations.Judging by the progress that’s been made in the last two years alone, the future of wireless gaming may be the most revenue and employment-generating technology of the 21st century.
Who could have predicted that the 80’s game of Pong would spawn a multi-billion dollar gaming industry complete with PCs, PDAs, and wireless phones that are specifically designed to handle the speed and graphics that today’s games demand?If you think that current gaming technology is hot then, as they say, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”Wireless or mobile gaming is the future and the future is now. 2004 saw an explosion in mobile gaming technology which redefined the mobile phone as a gaming device. Handsets capable of displaying graphics equal in quality to the GameStations and GameCubes of the 1990’s were available everywhere, and game developers like Synergetix and It's Alive! were on everyone’s radar screen. Now, just a year later, Real-time multiplayer games, some offering high-quality, 3D graphics, can be played over most telecom networks at prices that won’t put you in the poorhouse.Never one to be too far behind the bleeding edge, even the Adult Entertainment industry is turning out PDA and cell phone-based games including gambling programs and a variety of role-based and action games where lots of sexy women end up losing their clothes. The graphics are, shall we say, stunning.A peek under the technology hoodWhile the average gamer may be ignorant of the technology that is driving the wireless gaming industry, the geeks among us are very familiar with terms like J2ME, Symbian, and Brew; the development and distribution platforms upon which the wireless gaming industry has built its success.J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) is a derivative of Sun Microcomputer’s JAVA development platform. J2ME is specifically designed to build applications that run on portable and wireless devices including cell phones and PDAs. It’s also finding wide acceptance among companies that develop applications for TV boxes and many of the new embedded devices which are flooding both the consumer and industrial markets.BREW, another development language from QUALCOMM, provides a development platform that’s also suited for the wireless industry. BREW’s claim to fame is that fact that the developer can write device-independent applications which do not need to be recompiled for different phone manufacturers.SYMBIAN is probably the most commonly used OS in the game-enabled wireless telephone market. Embraced by all major phone manufacturers, SYMBIAN supports J2ME, BREW, C++, and JAVA.So, what does the future hold for this high-tech blockbuster that’s still in its infancy?According to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, the “global mobile game industry, which generated US$436.4 million in 2002, will balloon to US$9.34 billion by 2008.“ Asia is at the epicenter of the wireless gaming explosion where an estimated 500 million people are wireless Internet subscribers and two out of five are wireless gamers.Some gaming fortune tellers predict that the convergence of GPS and wireless gaming technology will result in live-action and role playing games that will adapt themselves to the player’s physical location and include geographic-specific scenarios that change as the player moves to new locations.Judging by the progress that’s been made in the last two years alone, the future of wireless gaming may be the most revenue and employment-generating technology of the 21st century.
Why We Play Games, Part 2
by: Steve Hall
In part one we started to get into the motivation of the gamer. We discussed challenge and its ugly stepsister competition, two of the most common motivators. Today, we look at two more on the way to forming an overall model for what moves us.Perhaps less common than the first two motivators, creativity is nonetheless an important driving force in the gamer psyche. Though at first gaming doesn't seem like a particularly creative act, what with its formalized rules and structured systems, there is much more room for self expression than one might think. Some games play to this directly through unique presentations or artistic themes. Music games and many of the Sim titles are basically just expressive outlets that happen to be governed by a computerized system of rules. Other creatives find their outlet in multiplayer gaming. The modern MMORPG sports equipment and decorative combinations numbering well into the millions. The Creatively Motivated gamer takes pleasure in designing how their character looks as well as changing how they interact with their environment. Creatively Motivated gamers thrive when outlets are available. Anything involving a high degree of expression, decoration, or a large abstract component draws them. They wilt in gaming environments governed purely by numbers, and in those where presentation is extremely homogeneous.Though we sometimes don't like to admit it, escapism is a motivation that lives in the heart of every gamer. By design, a game creates an inherently different world. Even games which have as one of their primary goals simulation of some aspect of the real world recast the player into some role they find more exciting than their own. Escaping into the role of adventurer, pilot, quarterback or even zookeeper provides motivation for nearly every gamer. Escapism Motivated gamers seek out games where the environment is rich, comprehensive, real. They thrive in worlds where suspension of disbelief is high, where they can lose themselves in the depth and complexity available to them. They gravitate toward role playing and simulation, environments where the world is rich and believable. They tend to avoid abstract games where the underlying reality is difficult to believe or understand. It is a strange sort of paradox that MMORPGS, with their incredibly deep histories and expansive worlds, are not as attractive to Escapism Motivated gamers as pure RPGs. This effect arises from the multiplayer aspect. Players talking in a public channel about out of game topics or, worse, about the mechanical and numerical aspects of the game world may well ruin the escapists experience and cause them to seek the company of non player characters or others who share their motivation.Much has been made of the downside of escapism. A gamer who spends too much time in a world not their own can begin to lose touch. This sort of disassociation with reality can, and has, lead to all sorts of problems with work, school and personal relations. This does not mean, however, that escapism is itself an unhealthy thing. It is a basic part of the human experience. The reason we vacation, watch moves, enjoy sporting events or go camping is inherently escapist. As people, we are often unsatisfied with out lot in life. It's natural to seek out activities that allow us to experience something outside of our day to day. Gaming is no different. However, as gamers, we are an oft misunderstood community. We owe it to ourselves and to the world at large both to fight with information, by spreading the positive realities of gaming and gamer culture, and to fight internally against obsession. No matter how good a substitute for the real world a game may seem it is, in the end, only a pastime. Leave it once in a while.In the final part of this series we get to Social Interaction. Then, we'll move on to some sort of unified theory about all this.
In part one we started to get into the motivation of the gamer. We discussed challenge and its ugly stepsister competition, two of the most common motivators. Today, we look at two more on the way to forming an overall model for what moves us.Perhaps less common than the first two motivators, creativity is nonetheless an important driving force in the gamer psyche. Though at first gaming doesn't seem like a particularly creative act, what with its formalized rules and structured systems, there is much more room for self expression than one might think. Some games play to this directly through unique presentations or artistic themes. Music games and many of the Sim titles are basically just expressive outlets that happen to be governed by a computerized system of rules. Other creatives find their outlet in multiplayer gaming. The modern MMORPG sports equipment and decorative combinations numbering well into the millions. The Creatively Motivated gamer takes pleasure in designing how their character looks as well as changing how they interact with their environment. Creatively Motivated gamers thrive when outlets are available. Anything involving a high degree of expression, decoration, or a large abstract component draws them. They wilt in gaming environments governed purely by numbers, and in those where presentation is extremely homogeneous.Though we sometimes don't like to admit it, escapism is a motivation that lives in the heart of every gamer. By design, a game creates an inherently different world. Even games which have as one of their primary goals simulation of some aspect of the real world recast the player into some role they find more exciting than their own. Escaping into the role of adventurer, pilot, quarterback or even zookeeper provides motivation for nearly every gamer. Escapism Motivated gamers seek out games where the environment is rich, comprehensive, real. They thrive in worlds where suspension of disbelief is high, where they can lose themselves in the depth and complexity available to them. They gravitate toward role playing and simulation, environments where the world is rich and believable. They tend to avoid abstract games where the underlying reality is difficult to believe or understand. It is a strange sort of paradox that MMORPGS, with their incredibly deep histories and expansive worlds, are not as attractive to Escapism Motivated gamers as pure RPGs. This effect arises from the multiplayer aspect. Players talking in a public channel about out of game topics or, worse, about the mechanical and numerical aspects of the game world may well ruin the escapists experience and cause them to seek the company of non player characters or others who share their motivation.Much has been made of the downside of escapism. A gamer who spends too much time in a world not their own can begin to lose touch. This sort of disassociation with reality can, and has, lead to all sorts of problems with work, school and personal relations. This does not mean, however, that escapism is itself an unhealthy thing. It is a basic part of the human experience. The reason we vacation, watch moves, enjoy sporting events or go camping is inherently escapist. As people, we are often unsatisfied with out lot in life. It's natural to seek out activities that allow us to experience something outside of our day to day. Gaming is no different. However, as gamers, we are an oft misunderstood community. We owe it to ourselves and to the world at large both to fight with information, by spreading the positive realities of gaming and gamer culture, and to fight internally against obsession. No matter how good a substitute for the real world a game may seem it is, in the end, only a pastime. Leave it once in a while.In the final part of this series we get to Social Interaction. Then, we'll move on to some sort of unified theory about all this.
Playing creative games for fun: a great way to relax
by: Alexandur Marias
Play is a state of mind that is safe, inquisitive and exists in the moment. It is also a bodily state of relaxation and an uplifting and engaged emotional state. Some say play is a spiritual state of profound connection and joy. Play can be something we do by ourselves or with others, but it is also something we can watch others do. Play is often described as a time when we feel most alive, yet we often take it for granted and may completely forget about it. Play can be entirely positive, or have a negative. Most people believe that play is unproductive, and therefore inferior to “productive” activities. Perhaps this is because we equate play with feeling –happy joyous feeling –that traditionally is seen as less important than thinking. Many of us have lists, at home and at the office, prioritizing tasks by how productive they are. When we run out of time, we cut the fun stuff and do the “productive” stuff because we may feel guilty or bad if we play hooky or goof off by playing a game of golf or chess, taking a hike in the woods or daydreaming for an hour. New research on the brain contradicts this cultural dismissal of play, by emphasizing the importance of feelings and the necessity of feeling safe and relaxed in order to think clearly and productively. Play teaches us how to manage and transform our “negative” emotions and experiences; it supercharges learning, and is a foundational factor in good mental and physical health. And, it can make work more pleasurable. How can play trigger the flow state? Psychiatrist and writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (pronounced "chicks send me high”) studied play in Sidney, Australia and described it as a flow state that requires just the right balance of challenge and opportunity. If the game is too hard or too easy, it loses its sense of pleasure and fun. Maintaining a flow state in games with others requires all participants, regardless of age or ability, to feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has been undertaken and confirmed in several countries, and now reaches 250,000 surveys. In the flow state we feel: Why is play an important part of our lives? Humans are designed by nature to play, and have played throughout evolution. Playfulness is an inborn ability that is hardwired into our genetic code. Play is part of how humans have adapted and survived everywhere on Earth, from the tropics to the great deserts to the Arctic Circle. We want to play because it is instinctive and fundamental to our existence; it is one of the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled us to develop as a species. Playing helps us survive by connecting us to other human beings and to sources of energy and excitement within ourselves. Play is simultaneously a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body. Play will be important to our future. Some futurists have said that we'll need to be more inventive, creative, and flexible to handle the tasks, flow and rhythm of life in this century and beyond. A sure (and fun) way to develop these abilities is to play – with your children and grandchildren, your officemates and friends. Why is it important to play at work? When researchers follow pre-teen children’s attitude about play, they discovered that some children called almost everything they did “play” while others called almost everything they did “work”. Reconnecting with the children at the end of adolescence, the children who thought of everything as play were more successful and happier in school and were more content socially than the people who saw everything as “work”. Success at work does not depend on the amount of time you work. It depends upon the quality of work, and the quality of work depends on the level of well-being of the workers. The level of well-being depends significantly on the how often they replenish themselves through play in any of its forms. Work is where we spend much of our time. That is why it is especially important for us to play during work. Without some recreation, our work suffers. Most of us have been working faster, harder, and smarter, and with diminishing free time. We first thought that working faster, harder, and smarter would handle our increased workload, but that is not the case. We still got behind and became chronically overwhelmed. When the project you're working on hits a serious glitch (as they frequently do), heading out to the basketball court with your colleagues to shoot some hoops and have a few laughs does a lot more than take your mind off the problem. If basketball isn't your cup of tea, having a model airplane contest, telling stories, or flying kites in the parking lot will also allow your relationship to the problem to shift and enable you to approach it from a new perspective. Interjecting play into the work cycle: keeps you sane and functional during times of stress; refreshes your mind and body; renews hope; triggers creativity; and increases energy.
Play is a state of mind that is safe, inquisitive and exists in the moment. It is also a bodily state of relaxation and an uplifting and engaged emotional state. Some say play is a spiritual state of profound connection and joy. Play can be something we do by ourselves or with others, but it is also something we can watch others do. Play is often described as a time when we feel most alive, yet we often take it for granted and may completely forget about it. Play can be entirely positive, or have a negative. Most people believe that play is unproductive, and therefore inferior to “productive” activities. Perhaps this is because we equate play with feeling –happy joyous feeling –that traditionally is seen as less important than thinking. Many of us have lists, at home and at the office, prioritizing tasks by how productive they are. When we run out of time, we cut the fun stuff and do the “productive” stuff because we may feel guilty or bad if we play hooky or goof off by playing a game of golf or chess, taking a hike in the woods or daydreaming for an hour. New research on the brain contradicts this cultural dismissal of play, by emphasizing the importance of feelings and the necessity of feeling safe and relaxed in order to think clearly and productively. Play teaches us how to manage and transform our “negative” emotions and experiences; it supercharges learning, and is a foundational factor in good mental and physical health. And, it can make work more pleasurable. How can play trigger the flow state? Psychiatrist and writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (pronounced "chicks send me high”) studied play in Sidney, Australia and described it as a flow state that requires just the right balance of challenge and opportunity. If the game is too hard or too easy, it loses its sense of pleasure and fun. Maintaining a flow state in games with others requires all participants, regardless of age or ability, to feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has been undertaken and confirmed in several countries, and now reaches 250,000 surveys. In the flow state we feel: Why is play an important part of our lives? Humans are designed by nature to play, and have played throughout evolution. Playfulness is an inborn ability that is hardwired into our genetic code. Play is part of how humans have adapted and survived everywhere on Earth, from the tropics to the great deserts to the Arctic Circle. We want to play because it is instinctive and fundamental to our existence; it is one of the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled us to develop as a species. Playing helps us survive by connecting us to other human beings and to sources of energy and excitement within ourselves. Play is simultaneously a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body. Play will be important to our future. Some futurists have said that we'll need to be more inventive, creative, and flexible to handle the tasks, flow and rhythm of life in this century and beyond. A sure (and fun) way to develop these abilities is to play – with your children and grandchildren, your officemates and friends. Why is it important to play at work? When researchers follow pre-teen children’s attitude about play, they discovered that some children called almost everything they did “play” while others called almost everything they did “work”. Reconnecting with the children at the end of adolescence, the children who thought of everything as play were more successful and happier in school and were more content socially than the people who saw everything as “work”. Success at work does not depend on the amount of time you work. It depends upon the quality of work, and the quality of work depends on the level of well-being of the workers. The level of well-being depends significantly on the how often they replenish themselves through play in any of its forms. Work is where we spend much of our time. That is why it is especially important for us to play during work. Without some recreation, our work suffers. Most of us have been working faster, harder, and smarter, and with diminishing free time. We first thought that working faster, harder, and smarter would handle our increased workload, but that is not the case. We still got behind and became chronically overwhelmed. When the project you're working on hits a serious glitch (as they frequently do), heading out to the basketball court with your colleagues to shoot some hoops and have a few laughs does a lot more than take your mind off the problem. If basketball isn't your cup of tea, having a model airplane contest, telling stories, or flying kites in the parking lot will also allow your relationship to the problem to shift and enable you to approach it from a new perspective. Interjecting play into the work cycle: keeps you sane and functional during times of stress; refreshes your mind and body; renews hope; triggers creativity; and increases energy.
Copy any DVD movie with EZ DVD Copy™
by: Johnathan Crews
Have you ever wanted to copy a DVD movie that you own? Now you can with EZ DVD Copy™. Our powerful, easy-to-use software will allow you to copy virtually any DVD, using a CD-R or DVD-R! EZ DVD Copy allows you to extract all of the features that are available on the original disc. Or you may leave off extras so you can fit your entire DVD movie on to just one blank disc. You don't have to split your DVD movie across two separate discs. Finish copying in less than an hour! All you will be using is either your CD-R or DVD-R burners and blank media to record! For less than the cost of few DVDs, you will have everything you need to copy your favorite collection in one easy to use software program! EZ DVD Copy is the fastest and easiest way to copy DVDs! Our updated software includes the following features: Built-In CSS Decryption Ripper Watch copies on your DVD player or computer Fit your entire movie to a single disc Copy a movie in less than an hour! FREE ONE YEAR software updates. FREE Helpdesk Support. Available for instant download.Supports both NTSC and PAL DVDs.30 Day Money Back Guarantee! Don't wait for theaters... Download all the movies you want on the Internet today! With our EZ Download Club, you could search and watch unlimited movies (even titles that are still in theaters). We even show you how to find video games. Want to download ANONYMOUSLY and have access to UNMONITORED archives of files? Our EZ Download Club is the answer. Below is a small list of the DVDs that are now available for download. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Matchstick Men House Of The Dead Secondhand Lions The Italian Job Pirates of the Carribean Thirteen American Splendor Uptown Girls Out of Time S.W.A.T. The Order The Medallion Freaky Friday Assassination Tango Bad Boys II Gigli How to Deal Seabiscuit Rugrats Go Wild The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Anything Else Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of Black Pearl X2: X-Men United Bruce Almighty Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas The Santa Clause 2 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines American Wedding The Matrix Reloaded Discover how to backup any Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSX, Dreamcast and PC video games with our EZ Video Game Copy. No more scratches, cracks or buying games you used to own. Protect your gaming investment with our step-by-step guide to copying your games. Want to record your favorite TV programs and movies on to CDs that you can watch on your PC or DVD Player? With our comprehensive instructions, step by step guidance and screen shots - you can kiss your outdated analogue video good bye! With EZ VHS Copy, you will be able to convert all your old VHS movies to CD or DVD. Our software will help you to transfer your VHS tapes to digital format! No more clutter of tapes lying around. Never worry about your precious home movies becoming corrupt. Transfer your old vinyl records or cassettes to CD. You can turn that old musical format into digital and copy your LPs to CD-R or even DVD-R media. We’ll show you how to do it with our detailed instruction guide. All you need is your stereo equipment, PC and RCA cables. Start enjoying again the music you love, in your car or home with great sound quality. Preserve your collection of LPs and cassette tapes now, before they become too deteriorated. Tired of paying high prices for your favorite DVDS and video games? Now you can buy popular titles and new releases from our wholesale sources for as low as $3.00. All DVDs and video games are brand new and are made by the actual manufacturers. Our DVD Wholesalers List comes with e-mail contacts, websites, phone numbers and physical mailing addresses in the USA and the UK. This is not some useless and outdated directory you have seen on the Internet. This list has current sources and has been compiled in June of 2003.
Have you ever wanted to copy a DVD movie that you own? Now you can with EZ DVD Copy™. Our powerful, easy-to-use software will allow you to copy virtually any DVD, using a CD-R or DVD-R! EZ DVD Copy allows you to extract all of the features that are available on the original disc. Or you may leave off extras so you can fit your entire DVD movie on to just one blank disc. You don't have to split your DVD movie across two separate discs. Finish copying in less than an hour! All you will be using is either your CD-R or DVD-R burners and blank media to record! For less than the cost of few DVDs, you will have everything you need to copy your favorite collection in one easy to use software program! EZ DVD Copy is the fastest and easiest way to copy DVDs! Our updated software includes the following features: Built-In CSS Decryption Ripper Watch copies on your DVD player or computer Fit your entire movie to a single disc Copy a movie in less than an hour! FREE ONE YEAR software updates. FREE Helpdesk Support. Available for instant download.Supports both NTSC and PAL DVDs.30 Day Money Back Guarantee! Don't wait for theaters... Download all the movies you want on the Internet today! With our EZ Download Club, you could search and watch unlimited movies (even titles that are still in theaters). We even show you how to find video games. Want to download ANONYMOUSLY and have access to UNMONITORED archives of files? Our EZ Download Club is the answer. Below is a small list of the DVDs that are now available for download. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Matchstick Men House Of The Dead Secondhand Lions The Italian Job Pirates of the Carribean Thirteen American Splendor Uptown Girls Out of Time S.W.A.T. The Order The Medallion Freaky Friday Assassination Tango Bad Boys II Gigli How to Deal Seabiscuit Rugrats Go Wild The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Anything Else Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of Black Pearl X2: X-Men United Bruce Almighty Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas The Santa Clause 2 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines American Wedding The Matrix Reloaded Discover how to backup any Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSX, Dreamcast and PC video games with our EZ Video Game Copy. No more scratches, cracks or buying games you used to own. Protect your gaming investment with our step-by-step guide to copying your games. Want to record your favorite TV programs and movies on to CDs that you can watch on your PC or DVD Player? With our comprehensive instructions, step by step guidance and screen shots - you can kiss your outdated analogue video good bye! With EZ VHS Copy, you will be able to convert all your old VHS movies to CD or DVD. Our software will help you to transfer your VHS tapes to digital format! No more clutter of tapes lying around. Never worry about your precious home movies becoming corrupt. Transfer your old vinyl records or cassettes to CD. You can turn that old musical format into digital and copy your LPs to CD-R or even DVD-R media. We’ll show you how to do it with our detailed instruction guide. All you need is your stereo equipment, PC and RCA cables. Start enjoying again the music you love, in your car or home with great sound quality. Preserve your collection of LPs and cassette tapes now, before they become too deteriorated. Tired of paying high prices for your favorite DVDS and video games? Now you can buy popular titles and new releases from our wholesale sources for as low as $3.00. All DVDs and video games are brand new and are made by the actual manufacturers. Our DVD Wholesalers List comes with e-mail contacts, websites, phone numbers and physical mailing addresses in the USA and the UK. This is not some useless and outdated directory you have seen on the Internet. This list has current sources and has been compiled in June of 2003.
Halo 2 Multiplayer Tips for Beginners and Advanced players
by: Tony James
Here are some general tips from an advanced player for all of you who are looking for an edge in this game. You may know some or all the things in this article depending on your skill level. Even if you are an expert player this article should help you remember the fundamental that make you a good player. This article focuses on individual fighting tips, perhaps a future article will address team strategy.Weapon Combos:From close range you can hit for a lot more damage when holding two weapons. From a distance, the battle rifle is the weapon of choice if you cannot get your hands on a sniper rifle. My favorite combo for quick kills is the plasma rifle/smg combo and the pistol/smg combo. If you aim at the opponents head and they don’t aim at your head, like most people, they will be wondering how they died so fast. The plasma rifle combo is better against multiple opponents and the pistol is more effective against single opponents. This is because the pistol runs out of ammo quickly. If you can find a plasma pistol, the plasma pistol/smg combo is not bad, but it leaves you vulnerable if you miss the charged shot or if there are multiple opponents.Plasma Pistol/Battle Rifle:This in my opinion is the ultimate combo. If you are at close to medium range, hit them with the plasma pistol and shoot them in the head with the battle rifle. At long range, pick them off with the battle rifle. This is a frustrating combo to fight against when the opponent is good. This is one of the reasons you see a lot of Human Slayer games now.Grenades:This is one of the things that separate good players from weaker ones. It takes a lot of practice to become an expert with grenades, but it is one of the easiest ways to kill someone. Use common sense, throw the grenade where the player will be not where they are right now. If you see someone running towards you, backup behind a wall and throw a grenade in their path. If you are surrounded, try to get off two grenades and you will sometimes get several kills. If you hit someone with a frag grenade, and you hit them in the head with a battle rifle, they die in one shot.Melee:If you are shooting someone and you can walk up to them, melee them if you can. Sometimes it is better to back up rather than melee. For example if you are dual wielding and did not get the first shot off against a single wielder, back off so you kill him rather than get meleed. Don’t forget that you lunge slightly when you melee, so use that to your advantage.Where to walk:Try to flank people as much as possible. For example if you are on top of big base sniping and you see someone on the radar coming up, look through or jump through the hole behind you and take them out. On ivory tower, if you are at the top and see someone coming from dark side, jump down a level and flank them. Do not run into rooms with more than one enemy, let them come to you or weaken them with grenades first, it is much easier to kill them that way.Summary: The #1 tip I can give you is to aim for the head no matter what weapon you are using, except the shotgun. You will kill them a lot faster. Other than that, learn the maps and the weapon combos that work best in different situations.
Here are some general tips from an advanced player for all of you who are looking for an edge in this game. You may know some or all the things in this article depending on your skill level. Even if you are an expert player this article should help you remember the fundamental that make you a good player. This article focuses on individual fighting tips, perhaps a future article will address team strategy.Weapon Combos:From close range you can hit for a lot more damage when holding two weapons. From a distance, the battle rifle is the weapon of choice if you cannot get your hands on a sniper rifle. My favorite combo for quick kills is the plasma rifle/smg combo and the pistol/smg combo. If you aim at the opponents head and they don’t aim at your head, like most people, they will be wondering how they died so fast. The plasma rifle combo is better against multiple opponents and the pistol is more effective against single opponents. This is because the pistol runs out of ammo quickly. If you can find a plasma pistol, the plasma pistol/smg combo is not bad, but it leaves you vulnerable if you miss the charged shot or if there are multiple opponents.Plasma Pistol/Battle Rifle:This in my opinion is the ultimate combo. If you are at close to medium range, hit them with the plasma pistol and shoot them in the head with the battle rifle. At long range, pick them off with the battle rifle. This is a frustrating combo to fight against when the opponent is good. This is one of the reasons you see a lot of Human Slayer games now.Grenades:This is one of the things that separate good players from weaker ones. It takes a lot of practice to become an expert with grenades, but it is one of the easiest ways to kill someone. Use common sense, throw the grenade where the player will be not where they are right now. If you see someone running towards you, backup behind a wall and throw a grenade in their path. If you are surrounded, try to get off two grenades and you will sometimes get several kills. If you hit someone with a frag grenade, and you hit them in the head with a battle rifle, they die in one shot.Melee:If you are shooting someone and you can walk up to them, melee them if you can. Sometimes it is better to back up rather than melee. For example if you are dual wielding and did not get the first shot off against a single wielder, back off so you kill him rather than get meleed. Don’t forget that you lunge slightly when you melee, so use that to your advantage.Where to walk:Try to flank people as much as possible. For example if you are on top of big base sniping and you see someone on the radar coming up, look through or jump through the hole behind you and take them out. On ivory tower, if you are at the top and see someone coming from dark side, jump down a level and flank them. Do not run into rooms with more than one enemy, let them come to you or weaken them with grenades first, it is much easier to kill them that way.Summary: The #1 tip I can give you is to aim for the head no matter what weapon you are using, except the shotgun. You will kill them a lot faster. Other than that, learn the maps and the weapon combos that work best in different situations.
Software For Your Kids
by: Zack Macchio
Computers are all the rage today for people of all ages including children. There are many different types of software that you can choose from when it comes to picking something for your children to enjoy on the computer. Depending on the age bracket of your children you�ll have to take some time to choose software that does what you want it to do.For the younger child aged three to five there is software that features some of their favorite television characters such as Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder. Your children will be both entertained and educated as they play games, learn the alphabet, and learn to count. Software for very young children is easy for them to play so that you�re not always coming to their assistance whenever they press a wrong key.Software for older children aged five to ten has even more interactive features than software for the younger child. You can buy software that is exclusively for learning and software that will only provide entertainment. Most software comes with a rating to let you know that it doesn�t contain any material that is inappropriate for children. Some types of software for this age group of children include puzzle games, software for learning a second language, math and science software, video game software, software for the artist, and software that allows your child to connect with the internet and play games with other children around the world. Software for teens is something that you�ll need to supervise a little more closely since much of the software on the market can be objectionable and will often test the morals and virtues that you are trying to teach your children. When you buy software for your teen make sure that you take a good long look at what the software is all about, since many of the software games can feature a large amount of violence. There are, of course, software programs for your teen that are educational as well as fun and that they can use to enhance their schoolwork. With so many different software choices out there how do you know that you�re making the right choices? Check out some of the parental listings that can be found on the internet. Many parent websites will offer you advice and ratings for much of the new software that comes out each month. This way you can be assured that other parents are approving a certain piece of software before you make your purchase.Keep in mind that you should always limit the amount of time that your children spend on the computer. Children should be encouraged to spend just as much time playing outdoors as they do playing and learning on the computer.
Computers are all the rage today for people of all ages including children. There are many different types of software that you can choose from when it comes to picking something for your children to enjoy on the computer. Depending on the age bracket of your children you�ll have to take some time to choose software that does what you want it to do.For the younger child aged three to five there is software that features some of their favorite television characters such as Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder. Your children will be both entertained and educated as they play games, learn the alphabet, and learn to count. Software for very young children is easy for them to play so that you�re not always coming to their assistance whenever they press a wrong key.Software for older children aged five to ten has even more interactive features than software for the younger child. You can buy software that is exclusively for learning and software that will only provide entertainment. Most software comes with a rating to let you know that it doesn�t contain any material that is inappropriate for children. Some types of software for this age group of children include puzzle games, software for learning a second language, math and science software, video game software, software for the artist, and software that allows your child to connect with the internet and play games with other children around the world. Software for teens is something that you�ll need to supervise a little more closely since much of the software on the market can be objectionable and will often test the morals and virtues that you are trying to teach your children. When you buy software for your teen make sure that you take a good long look at what the software is all about, since many of the software games can feature a large amount of violence. There are, of course, software programs for your teen that are educational as well as fun and that they can use to enhance their schoolwork. With so many different software choices out there how do you know that you�re making the right choices? Check out some of the parental listings that can be found on the internet. Many parent websites will offer you advice and ratings for much of the new software that comes out each month. This way you can be assured that other parents are approving a certain piece of software before you make your purchase.Keep in mind that you should always limit the amount of time that your children spend on the computer. Children should be encouraged to spend just as much time playing outdoors as they do playing and learning on the computer.
Malicious Advertising
by: Daniel Punch
Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You can't drive down the street without coming across an ad, either a billboard suspended over a road or a large poster plastered down the side of a bus. If you walk into a shopping centre it doesn't matter where you look, you see an advertisement of some kind. Even the tables in the food court now have ads embedded in them, and on my last trip to Melbourne I noticed that they were starting to embed flat screen TVs into the tables to deliver the full commercial experience to your meal. If you jump on the Internet you have to contend with pop-ups and banner ads, with some advertising agents being ruthless enough to write malicious code that embeds the ad into your computer so that you still receive the pop-ups even when you're not at the original site.In the past, pop-ups and banner ads have been easy enough to avoid with the right software installed (incidentally, am I the only one who finds pop-up ads that advertise pop-up blockers tremendously amusing?) but now the software developers have worked their way around that little problem. The solution was simple; sell advertising space in your software, not just on your web page.As much as I like to complain about this new idea, it does come with a significant upside. These days, not all Shareware applications drop out after a limited period of use, nor do they constantly remind you to register. Having ads in the software provides the application developers with the necessary funding to live but leaves the user free from having to pay to use the software. It ends up being in the developer's best interest to ensure that the user continues to use the software for as long as possible, because that means an increased income. In my opinion this was a brilliant idea, and I wholeheartedly supported it until they started building unblockable pop-ups into the software.The gaming world is getting in on the act as well, which could be both positive and negative. The Internet provides the functionality for games to constantly update the virtual world with new billboards, TV ads, clothing and so on, keeping the content fresh and the ads current. From an advertising standpoint it's an amazing idea, people are spending less and less time watching TV and more and more time immersed in virtual worlds. The interactive nature of the ads means that they will remain in a player's mind for a lot longer than the TV ad break that can be walked away from, flicked over or simply ignored. The game developers on the other hand now have an added source of income, meaning that they can take more risks without the fear of losing money.Advertising in games is not a new idea, the soft drink '7-Up' created a game many years ago called 'Cool Spot', which had the player controlling a red dot with sunglasses in his quest to collect 7-Up logos. The game was remarkably solid, leaving the players to enjoy the game while still getting its message across. I played it a long time ago as a child, but I still remember how much fun it was and exactly what product it was pushing. Pepsi released a Playstation game called 'Pepsi Man' that involved a blue and white striped super-hero running around collecting cans of Pepsi. Red Bull got in on the game with 'Wipeout' featuring 'Red Bull' banners and a loading screen bearing the phrase "Increase your reaction time with Red Bull". 'Worms 3D' featured Red Bull as a power up. 'Crazy Taxi' had customers jump in the player's taxi and holler "Take me to KFC!" or any of the numerous other licensed locations in the game. 'True Crime' had the characters dressed in 'Puma' attire, with the main character changing his outfits several times throughout the game. Until now I've always thought that the ads in games were amusing and, so long as they didn't interfere with the playing of the game, I was all for them. However, there are new ideas afoot that seem set to change my mind.The main problem I have with ads in games now is the same as my issue with Pay TV. You're shelling out a lot of money for a product (new games being sold for upwards of $50.00 U.S.) and you're still getting ads. If developers are going to start flooding my entertainment with advertising, I'd like to see a significant drop in the price of games.The other big issue is that of spyware. Until now, spyware has been a hated part of existence. This malicious software digs its way into your system and collects information about you: your Internet surfing habits, the contents of your hard drive(s) and even the unblocked ports available on your computer. This has lead to the necessity of loading a system with anti-spyware utilities to run alongside the pop-up killers, anti-virus programs, firewalls, registry guards and whatever other protective measures a paranoid PC user has to implement. Now paradoxically, someone has had the 'fantastic' idea of building spyware into software, and games in particular.In the future the games that you've just paid such a high price for will sit there monitoring you in the background, watching your every virtual move. Then they can target ads that are more likely to have an impact on you based on the contents of your hard drive or your Internet surfing habits. The best part about it is that as soon as you click 'I Agree' and install the software, it becomes legitimate and you've agreed for them to access information about you. Many software products already feature clauses in their license agreements that have the user permitting the developers to collect 'anonymous information in order to provide the customer with a better experience'. The other part of this that irks me is the fact that I'm going to have to have my computer connected to the Internet and chew through my download limit just to play a single-player game.In the end, I suppose that there's no way to avoid advertising in our current world. Having it implemented into software and games was simply the next logical step. I suspect that I will be looking to download the inevitable 'Ad Blocker' cracks that I imagine will appear shortly after the wholesale introduction of advertising into the gaming industry, but I do believe that with appropriate tact and respect for privacy, advertising could turn out to be a positive addition to the interactive experience.
Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You can't drive down the street without coming across an ad, either a billboard suspended over a road or a large poster plastered down the side of a bus. If you walk into a shopping centre it doesn't matter where you look, you see an advertisement of some kind. Even the tables in the food court now have ads embedded in them, and on my last trip to Melbourne I noticed that they were starting to embed flat screen TVs into the tables to deliver the full commercial experience to your meal. If you jump on the Internet you have to contend with pop-ups and banner ads, with some advertising agents being ruthless enough to write malicious code that embeds the ad into your computer so that you still receive the pop-ups even when you're not at the original site.In the past, pop-ups and banner ads have been easy enough to avoid with the right software installed (incidentally, am I the only one who finds pop-up ads that advertise pop-up blockers tremendously amusing?) but now the software developers have worked their way around that little problem. The solution was simple; sell advertising space in your software, not just on your web page.As much as I like to complain about this new idea, it does come with a significant upside. These days, not all Shareware applications drop out after a limited period of use, nor do they constantly remind you to register. Having ads in the software provides the application developers with the necessary funding to live but leaves the user free from having to pay to use the software. It ends up being in the developer's best interest to ensure that the user continues to use the software for as long as possible, because that means an increased income. In my opinion this was a brilliant idea, and I wholeheartedly supported it until they started building unblockable pop-ups into the software.The gaming world is getting in on the act as well, which could be both positive and negative. The Internet provides the functionality for games to constantly update the virtual world with new billboards, TV ads, clothing and so on, keeping the content fresh and the ads current. From an advertising standpoint it's an amazing idea, people are spending less and less time watching TV and more and more time immersed in virtual worlds. The interactive nature of the ads means that they will remain in a player's mind for a lot longer than the TV ad break that can be walked away from, flicked over or simply ignored. The game developers on the other hand now have an added source of income, meaning that they can take more risks without the fear of losing money.Advertising in games is not a new idea, the soft drink '7-Up' created a game many years ago called 'Cool Spot', which had the player controlling a red dot with sunglasses in his quest to collect 7-Up logos. The game was remarkably solid, leaving the players to enjoy the game while still getting its message across. I played it a long time ago as a child, but I still remember how much fun it was and exactly what product it was pushing. Pepsi released a Playstation game called 'Pepsi Man' that involved a blue and white striped super-hero running around collecting cans of Pepsi. Red Bull got in on the game with 'Wipeout' featuring 'Red Bull' banners and a loading screen bearing the phrase "Increase your reaction time with Red Bull". 'Worms 3D' featured Red Bull as a power up. 'Crazy Taxi' had customers jump in the player's taxi and holler "Take me to KFC!" or any of the numerous other licensed locations in the game. 'True Crime' had the characters dressed in 'Puma' attire, with the main character changing his outfits several times throughout the game. Until now I've always thought that the ads in games were amusing and, so long as they didn't interfere with the playing of the game, I was all for them. However, there are new ideas afoot that seem set to change my mind.The main problem I have with ads in games now is the same as my issue with Pay TV. You're shelling out a lot of money for a product (new games being sold for upwards of $50.00 U.S.) and you're still getting ads. If developers are going to start flooding my entertainment with advertising, I'd like to see a significant drop in the price of games.The other big issue is that of spyware. Until now, spyware has been a hated part of existence. This malicious software digs its way into your system and collects information about you: your Internet surfing habits, the contents of your hard drive(s) and even the unblocked ports available on your computer. This has lead to the necessity of loading a system with anti-spyware utilities to run alongside the pop-up killers, anti-virus programs, firewalls, registry guards and whatever other protective measures a paranoid PC user has to implement. Now paradoxically, someone has had the 'fantastic' idea of building spyware into software, and games in particular.In the future the games that you've just paid such a high price for will sit there monitoring you in the background, watching your every virtual move. Then they can target ads that are more likely to have an impact on you based on the contents of your hard drive or your Internet surfing habits. The best part about it is that as soon as you click 'I Agree' and install the software, it becomes legitimate and you've agreed for them to access information about you. Many software products already feature clauses in their license agreements that have the user permitting the developers to collect 'anonymous information in order to provide the customer with a better experience'. The other part of this that irks me is the fact that I'm going to have to have my computer connected to the Internet and chew through my download limit just to play a single-player game.In the end, I suppose that there's no way to avoid advertising in our current world. Having it implemented into software and games was simply the next logical step. I suspect that I will be looking to download the inevitable 'Ad Blocker' cracks that I imagine will appear shortly after the wholesale introduction of advertising into the gaming industry, but I do believe that with appropriate tact and respect for privacy, advertising could turn out to be a positive addition to the interactive experience.
RPG:table and computer
by: Efimov Peter
RPG: table and computerIt’s not a secret that table RPG games are not so popular as they used to be. However a certain number of amateurs are still fond of them. What is so particular about a pasteboard box or a book with rules? It seems that all the advantages have their ” younger computer brothers”: no manual calculations, no bricks ( the number of which is from one to almost 20). In general, no additional efforts are needed- just relax, play and don’t worry. But nothing of the kind- groups of maniacs with burning eyes run to the special shop( if there is any), buy another book, and having met in some dark place in the evening, start to crunch with pens and tinkle the dice.Why are these poor things so attracted by this desperately ancient way of entertainment?Let’s try to answer this question by displaying the most similar and different features of table and computer RPG.Firstly, any RPG is a Role Paying Game, which is supposed to have a character, and a system of his development. This feature is typical for both the “brothers”. The character as the player’s realization in the created RPG world is very important. Your playing capabilities depend on his features. Secondly, any decent RPG is based on some world (sometimes, realistic but more often-fantastic one). The depth of the world ( The card details, atmosphere entirety, detailed development of the world components) and , so to say, the mood (optimistic and colorful or destructive and gloomy, funny or extremely rigid, strict),- all this taken together defines the audience of the game.These two points have a great meaning, they allow the player to associate himself with a certain character and being in his shoes to go through the situations which are impossible in ordinary life.All this is very good but let’s return to our muttons: to the difference between computer and table RPG.Probably, trite comparison of books and films will be to the place here. The former make us use our brains and imagination, the latter give us everything ready-made. The peculiarity of table RPG, its strong and at the same time weak point is hope for player’s imagination.. In the classical table RPG you’ll find a text, some illustrations and… all the rest you should imagine yourself. It’s true, that during the gaming process everything depends on the leader (Dungeon Master, Game Master, etc.) and on the players. The leader explains the situation, describes the characters and the events orally (yes, he does it with the help of words!!!) and the players perceive this information judging from their abilities. What are the advantages of such a game play? They are quite evident: everyone perceives the game in his own way (with the help of his imagination), but at the same time, if the game is rather good, a special “field” of common perception and mood is formed. It’s not an allegation as the author has great experience of playing table RPG and so he knows all ins and outs. When the game has a success, the players seem to be in the same “information field” and sometimes they don’t even perceive the events in real life. It’s just like reading a thrilling book. But sometimes such beauty turns into a terrible thing. What is so horrible about it? The trouble is, the game may be a complete failure if it’s leaded by a talentless and not very experienced master, or if the players turn out to be so-so (that is less critical). In such a case the game fails no matter how beautiful the original RPG world is. Everything gets wrong when after each word the master utters: ”well, eh, oh…” and it takes the players 10 minutes to think over each further act. The game reaches a deadlock, a perfect illusion is breaking into the small pieces of separate sentences.I must admit, sometimes it’s all RPG developers ‘fault that such failures take place, especially when the rules of the game aren’t logical or overcharged with unnecessary details. May the fans forgive me, but the last time the author had to play AD&D, there was such a situation:-Player:” I want to kill that Gobline!”-Master: ”throw the dice for marksmanship. Uph, you shoot in the darkness-that means, the fine should be taken into account. Well.. have you got the bonus? Aha…I’ll find it, wait a bit… Oh…throw these three bricks on D-20,…Hmmm…where is that table? OK, we are going to count all the damages and take into account his armor and the spell and that’s all!”I don’t say everything was exactly so, but on the whole-just the way I described. What absorption into fantastic world can we talk about if you have to remember 20 figures and throw the dice dozen times for each act! But not all the table games have such a disadvantage. Besides, we may ignore too “hard” rules.Now let’s analyze what we have in computer RPG. From the first look everyt5hing is just the same-the game system, characters, the game world. But all these things are already made, you can see the picture with your eyes. Is it good or bad?It depends. By all means, it’s pleasant to see “visual” character, a charming landscape, fire from shots, etc. But your own brains don’t work any longer since there’s no necessity in it. Besides, we won’t see “our own world”. We perceive things as they should be from the game developers’ point of view. Their way of perception becomes ours as well. You will never be able to see the world with your own eyes and make the character really yours, no matter how hard the developers tried to improve the game. Such a situation has two consequences:1) Tragic one: your imagination is completely blocked and you don’t like the others’ vision.( such a situation is typical for the most of projects).2) Pleasant one: some painters and designers create real masterpieces and we can’t but admire their world vision ( here you perfectly understand the difference between your plain brains and a talented professional’s work). But are there many games like that in the second point? Frankly speaking, I know only one-Fallout. And I appreciate not the graphics but amazing style, exact place of every button, picture, character.Let’s also mention incontestable advantage of computer RPG. It deals with those calculations which make so many table RPG boring. Computer will calculate all the fines, bonuses and character’s features in a flash. Strange as it may seem but computer games are based just on the table systems and the developers of the former ones don’t aim to overcharge machines with numerous correlations and parameters.At last we’ve come to a very sensitive problem of the computer RPG- opportunities provided in the game. Sometimes playing RPG on the computer you may suddenly want to act the way not offered by the plot of the game. ( to look into the hatch which is pictured on the background or to take the car you are not allowed to). I am sure that such things are familiar to every gamer. It’s great if the plot and the locations are well considered. And what if they are not ( as it happens more often)? We must admit that the developers of computer games are constantly improving the gamer’s opportunities in the installed worlds. But if the direction is not perfect, the game turns into hard work and it makes the player take advantage of all the improvements (even if he is not willing to).Table RPG is another matter: the action there is equal to one word, no talks linearity ( you can communicate with the leader the way you like), no plot linearity ( you can do what you like until you are killed). Full freedom of the decisions and actions provided by table RPG will never be substituted by any perfect program. Here you can act as you like.Besides, the standard of the game can be easily changed. For example, I can tell you from my own experience that once I started the game as a guard (pure RPG adventure) and finished as an emperor (RPG+tactics+strategy). That’s it.It’s for you to judge what is better. What and how to play is also for you. But I’d like to say (from my own experience again) that table RPG develop our brains while computer ones don’t.A friend of mine being an active table player suddenly began reading books( he didn’t use to do it since his childhood). He started to read not classical masterpieces or since fiction. That was fantasy. But anyway he began READING, and that’s the point.Another my friend got used to computer and became a real fan and gamer. Now I constantly see blue areas under his eyes and our communication is bothered by a turned on PC.Of course, these are separate examples and the author must admit, he is addicted to computer RPG . But nevertheless it’s table RPG which gives us the opportunity to communicate and improve. That ‘s what all the author’s life experience tells about.P.S. I’m ready to an open discussion of the topic. You are free to write your thoughts to me.By the way, an interesting question: does anybody see the opportunity to combine the two kinds of RPG described above? What if there is the golden mean? What if there is?About the Author-Efimof Peter is a game designer of White Elephant, a great collection of shareware games. Please, visit his site www.elephant-games.com for only best games for you and your children! Note: If you find this article useful, you may reprint it on your website, e-zine, or in your newsletter as long as the credits above remain in tact and the hyperlinks stay active.
RPG: table and computerIt’s not a secret that table RPG games are not so popular as they used to be. However a certain number of amateurs are still fond of them. What is so particular about a pasteboard box or a book with rules? It seems that all the advantages have their ” younger computer brothers”: no manual calculations, no bricks ( the number of which is from one to almost 20). In general, no additional efforts are needed- just relax, play and don’t worry. But nothing of the kind- groups of maniacs with burning eyes run to the special shop( if there is any), buy another book, and having met in some dark place in the evening, start to crunch with pens and tinkle the dice.Why are these poor things so attracted by this desperately ancient way of entertainment?Let’s try to answer this question by displaying the most similar and different features of table and computer RPG.Firstly, any RPG is a Role Paying Game, which is supposed to have a character, and a system of his development. This feature is typical for both the “brothers”. The character as the player’s realization in the created RPG world is very important. Your playing capabilities depend on his features. Secondly, any decent RPG is based on some world (sometimes, realistic but more often-fantastic one). The depth of the world ( The card details, atmosphere entirety, detailed development of the world components) and , so to say, the mood (optimistic and colorful or destructive and gloomy, funny or extremely rigid, strict),- all this taken together defines the audience of the game.These two points have a great meaning, they allow the player to associate himself with a certain character and being in his shoes to go through the situations which are impossible in ordinary life.All this is very good but let’s return to our muttons: to the difference between computer and table RPG.Probably, trite comparison of books and films will be to the place here. The former make us use our brains and imagination, the latter give us everything ready-made. The peculiarity of table RPG, its strong and at the same time weak point is hope for player’s imagination.. In the classical table RPG you’ll find a text, some illustrations and… all the rest you should imagine yourself. It’s true, that during the gaming process everything depends on the leader (Dungeon Master, Game Master, etc.) and on the players. The leader explains the situation, describes the characters and the events orally (yes, he does it with the help of words!!!) and the players perceive this information judging from their abilities. What are the advantages of such a game play? They are quite evident: everyone perceives the game in his own way (with the help of his imagination), but at the same time, if the game is rather good, a special “field” of common perception and mood is formed. It’s not an allegation as the author has great experience of playing table RPG and so he knows all ins and outs. When the game has a success, the players seem to be in the same “information field” and sometimes they don’t even perceive the events in real life. It’s just like reading a thrilling book. But sometimes such beauty turns into a terrible thing. What is so horrible about it? The trouble is, the game may be a complete failure if it’s leaded by a talentless and not very experienced master, or if the players turn out to be so-so (that is less critical). In such a case the game fails no matter how beautiful the original RPG world is. Everything gets wrong when after each word the master utters: ”well, eh, oh…” and it takes the players 10 minutes to think over each further act. The game reaches a deadlock, a perfect illusion is breaking into the small pieces of separate sentences.I must admit, sometimes it’s all RPG developers ‘fault that such failures take place, especially when the rules of the game aren’t logical or overcharged with unnecessary details. May the fans forgive me, but the last time the author had to play AD&D, there was such a situation:-Player:” I want to kill that Gobline!”-Master: ”throw the dice for marksmanship. Uph, you shoot in the darkness-that means, the fine should be taken into account. Well.. have you got the bonus? Aha…I’ll find it, wait a bit… Oh…throw these three bricks on D-20,…Hmmm…where is that table? OK, we are going to count all the damages and take into account his armor and the spell and that’s all!”I don’t say everything was exactly so, but on the whole-just the way I described. What absorption into fantastic world can we talk about if you have to remember 20 figures and throw the dice dozen times for each act! But not all the table games have such a disadvantage. Besides, we may ignore too “hard” rules.Now let’s analyze what we have in computer RPG. From the first look everyt5hing is just the same-the game system, characters, the game world. But all these things are already made, you can see the picture with your eyes. Is it good or bad?It depends. By all means, it’s pleasant to see “visual” character, a charming landscape, fire from shots, etc. But your own brains don’t work any longer since there’s no necessity in it. Besides, we won’t see “our own world”. We perceive things as they should be from the game developers’ point of view. Their way of perception becomes ours as well. You will never be able to see the world with your own eyes and make the character really yours, no matter how hard the developers tried to improve the game. Such a situation has two consequences:1) Tragic one: your imagination is completely blocked and you don’t like the others’ vision.( such a situation is typical for the most of projects).2) Pleasant one: some painters and designers create real masterpieces and we can’t but admire their world vision ( here you perfectly understand the difference between your plain brains and a talented professional’s work). But are there many games like that in the second point? Frankly speaking, I know only one-Fallout. And I appreciate not the graphics but amazing style, exact place of every button, picture, character.Let’s also mention incontestable advantage of computer RPG. It deals with those calculations which make so many table RPG boring. Computer will calculate all the fines, bonuses and character’s features in a flash. Strange as it may seem but computer games are based just on the table systems and the developers of the former ones don’t aim to overcharge machines with numerous correlations and parameters.At last we’ve come to a very sensitive problem of the computer RPG- opportunities provided in the game. Sometimes playing RPG on the computer you may suddenly want to act the way not offered by the plot of the game. ( to look into the hatch which is pictured on the background or to take the car you are not allowed to). I am sure that such things are familiar to every gamer. It’s great if the plot and the locations are well considered. And what if they are not ( as it happens more often)? We must admit that the developers of computer games are constantly improving the gamer’s opportunities in the installed worlds. But if the direction is not perfect, the game turns into hard work and it makes the player take advantage of all the improvements (even if he is not willing to).Table RPG is another matter: the action there is equal to one word, no talks linearity ( you can communicate with the leader the way you like), no plot linearity ( you can do what you like until you are killed). Full freedom of the decisions and actions provided by table RPG will never be substituted by any perfect program. Here you can act as you like.Besides, the standard of the game can be easily changed. For example, I can tell you from my own experience that once I started the game as a guard (pure RPG adventure) and finished as an emperor (RPG+tactics+strategy). That’s it.It’s for you to judge what is better. What and how to play is also for you. But I’d like to say (from my own experience again) that table RPG develop our brains while computer ones don’t.A friend of mine being an active table player suddenly began reading books( he didn’t use to do it since his childhood). He started to read not classical masterpieces or since fiction. That was fantasy. But anyway he began READING, and that’s the point.Another my friend got used to computer and became a real fan and gamer. Now I constantly see blue areas under his eyes and our communication is bothered by a turned on PC.Of course, these are separate examples and the author must admit, he is addicted to computer RPG . But nevertheless it’s table RPG which gives us the opportunity to communicate and improve. That ‘s what all the author’s life experience tells about.P.S. I’m ready to an open discussion of the topic. You are free to write your thoughts to me.By the way, an interesting question: does anybody see the opportunity to combine the two kinds of RPG described above? What if there is the golden mean? What if there is?About the Author-Efimof Peter is a game designer of White Elephant, a great collection of shareware games. Please, visit his site www.elephant-games.com for only best games for you and your children! Note: If you find this article useful, you may reprint it on your website, e-zine, or in your newsletter as long as the credits above remain in tact and the hyperlinks stay active.
How to get repeat visitors to your site
by: Jonathan White
When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it’s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:1. Updating your Website content continuouslyThis is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere. 2. Making your site more stickyGiving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.htmlYou can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php3. Checking your site for broken linksThis is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/4. Getting other people’s opinionsWhen having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people’s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.
When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it’s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:1. Updating your Website content continuouslyThis is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere. 2. Making your site more stickyGiving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.htmlYou can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php3. Checking your site for broken linksThis is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/4. Getting other people’s opinionsWhen having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people’s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.
Switching To Broadband Internet - Is It Really Worth It?
by: Jed Baguio
The internet is a growing and dynamic entity. Growing in exponential rate everyday and changing as just as fast. Naturally companies try to offer access to internet in growing number of ways. Dial-up, Broadband, Wi-fi and such. But we'll talk about broadband today and is it really that necessary to switch from dial-up to broadband. Is it worth it to switch to broadband service? As most things are, it depends on you're situation. Dial-ups are cheap, today it's almost dirt cheap. That’s it's advantage, but don't expect to surf the net in cruising speed. If speed is what you want then broadband is significantly faster that dial-ups. Back to the question. What really helps in deciding if switching to broadband is a must. Is try to ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". By the way I’m a big fan of the saying “Questions Are Answers”. If you're using the internet for: - checking and sending e-mail - chatting (without video) - surfing for text based information Then switching to broadband is a waste of money. like most people, they just use the internet for checking and sending e-mails. Dial-up will work for you just as fine. If you're using the internet for:- Downloading movies and music - Watching streaming videos - Chatting with video and voice - Playing online games Just like me. I use the internet for online games, checking my websites, downloading music and videos. So broadband was a huge help for my internet life. To conclude. The internet is becoming the wave of the future. Easy access to information and services. But switching to broadband is up to you and you're needs. So I suggest that you ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". Knowing the answer would be a great help in deciding if broadband internet is for you.
The internet is a growing and dynamic entity. Growing in exponential rate everyday and changing as just as fast. Naturally companies try to offer access to internet in growing number of ways. Dial-up, Broadband, Wi-fi and such. But we'll talk about broadband today and is it really that necessary to switch from dial-up to broadband. Is it worth it to switch to broadband service? As most things are, it depends on you're situation. Dial-ups are cheap, today it's almost dirt cheap. That’s it's advantage, but don't expect to surf the net in cruising speed. If speed is what you want then broadband is significantly faster that dial-ups. Back to the question. What really helps in deciding if switching to broadband is a must. Is try to ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". By the way I’m a big fan of the saying “Questions Are Answers”. If you're using the internet for: - checking and sending e-mail - chatting (without video) - surfing for text based information Then switching to broadband is a waste of money. like most people, they just use the internet for checking and sending e-mails. Dial-up will work for you just as fine. If you're using the internet for:- Downloading movies and music - Watching streaming videos - Chatting with video and voice - Playing online games Just like me. I use the internet for online games, checking my websites, downloading music and videos. So broadband was a huge help for my internet life. To conclude. The internet is becoming the wave of the future. Easy access to information and services. But switching to broadband is up to you and you're needs. So I suggest that you ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". Knowing the answer would be a great help in deciding if broadband internet is for you.
Buying a Personal Computer
by: Bonnie Archer
For so many people the computer world is a seeming unsolvable jungle filled with mysterious words. Here is a guide to help you understand the personal computer and to give you the information needed to make a shopping decision you can live with so you can enjoy your PC for years to come.Not long ago the average 'cheaper' personal computer cost was about $1500. - $2000. And this price did not necessarily include the power to edit videos, pictures, or play games. For that you would have had to spend more on upgrades. Now things such as video editing are standard on the newest personal computers. PC’s have become less expensive than ever before and they come with more capabilities than ever.The personal computer (PC) you purchase will depend upon what it will be used for. So will you surf the Internet and email, working in spreadsheets, playing video games? Who is using the PC and what are there interests? More than likely you will have to accommodate a combination of these or maybe even all of them.Many personal computers (PC) today offer very similar capabilities so your main decision will be based upon which specialties your personal needs present. For instance if you are mainly interested in gaming than you will be sure to spend more for a good 3D graphics card. If you want to make music you will need a good sound card. If you work all day on your computer or use it for photo editing you will want to invest in a better monitor. Also, make sure your PC has enough memory to quickly work the tasks you have planed.For the best value for your dollar spend your money on the personal computer components that will best suit your needs.
For so many people the computer world is a seeming unsolvable jungle filled with mysterious words. Here is a guide to help you understand the personal computer and to give you the information needed to make a shopping decision you can live with so you can enjoy your PC for years to come.Not long ago the average 'cheaper' personal computer cost was about $1500. - $2000. And this price did not necessarily include the power to edit videos, pictures, or play games. For that you would have had to spend more on upgrades. Now things such as video editing are standard on the newest personal computers. PC’s have become less expensive than ever before and they come with more capabilities than ever.The personal computer (PC) you purchase will depend upon what it will be used for. So will you surf the Internet and email, working in spreadsheets, playing video games? Who is using the PC and what are there interests? More than likely you will have to accommodate a combination of these or maybe even all of them.Many personal computers (PC) today offer very similar capabilities so your main decision will be based upon which specialties your personal needs present. For instance if you are mainly interested in gaming than you will be sure to spend more for a good 3D graphics card. If you want to make music you will need a good sound card. If you work all day on your computer or use it for photo editing you will want to invest in a better monitor. Also, make sure your PC has enough memory to quickly work the tasks you have planed.For the best value for your dollar spend your money on the personal computer components that will best suit your needs.
Advancement in Computer Technology
by: Saad Shamim
5 years ago we gathered around and marveled at the little specs moving at our commands, doing not much – except moving off course, we called these things games. Today the hardware in computers and other devices has changed significantly; we went from having a “spacious” 1mb hard drive to 250 GB of space. The graphics have also taken a giant leap for our computers, no longer are we confined to little dots but our 256mb graphic cards allow us to explore a virtual world in 3d. The sound has also changed from 4bit to 32 and pretty soon 64bit; we went from beeps to actually words. Finally the speed of our beloved computers has also increased from mere kilobytes to gigabytes of rams. In such a short period of time we went from what we used to call “advanced” technology to today’s much superior devices. So if you guys are like I am, there is one question that strikes our mind, what’s next? Well I would love to say that we will be able to put on our virtual glasses that will allow us to explore the virtual world as if we were in it, but this is not likely, sorry guys; however, these sorts of glasses are being constructed but its unlikely they will come out any time soon. What we can expect to see is an improvement in our Text-to-speech and vise versa programs after the 64bit sound card is released allowing the computer to understand our voices much clearly, also we should soon be seeing more “dept” in our computer as you may know that the most our computers can run on 32bit resolution, it is expected that Microsoft is like to bring out a 64bit resolution with there next version of windows. Also the speed and graphics are to increase a lot more, already some games look as they are almost real, and soon they will look real. I am not certain exactly what marvel the computer hardware’s will hold in the future, but one thing is certain it will be something to forward too, and once again the next generation will be mocking the so called advanced technology we have today.
5 years ago we gathered around and marveled at the little specs moving at our commands, doing not much – except moving off course, we called these things games. Today the hardware in computers and other devices has changed significantly; we went from having a “spacious” 1mb hard drive to 250 GB of space. The graphics have also taken a giant leap for our computers, no longer are we confined to little dots but our 256mb graphic cards allow us to explore a virtual world in 3d. The sound has also changed from 4bit to 32 and pretty soon 64bit; we went from beeps to actually words. Finally the speed of our beloved computers has also increased from mere kilobytes to gigabytes of rams. In such a short period of time we went from what we used to call “advanced” technology to today’s much superior devices. So if you guys are like I am, there is one question that strikes our mind, what’s next? Well I would love to say that we will be able to put on our virtual glasses that will allow us to explore the virtual world as if we were in it, but this is not likely, sorry guys; however, these sorts of glasses are being constructed but its unlikely they will come out any time soon. What we can expect to see is an improvement in our Text-to-speech and vise versa programs after the 64bit sound card is released allowing the computer to understand our voices much clearly, also we should soon be seeing more “dept” in our computer as you may know that the most our computers can run on 32bit resolution, it is expected that Microsoft is like to bring out a 64bit resolution with there next version of windows. Also the speed and graphics are to increase a lot more, already some games look as they are almost real, and soon they will look real. I am not certain exactly what marvel the computer hardware’s will hold in the future, but one thing is certain it will be something to forward too, and once again the next generation will be mocking the so called advanced technology we have today.
You Don't Have To Be Rich To Be A PC Gamer
by: Nathan Holsing
There is a common misconception that you have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you want to get a computer that will run all of the latest and greatest games. I don't know who started the rumor that you need to spend $3000 to get a gaming computer. The truth is, if you are smart about it, you can easily afford to get a high-end gaming computer. Here are a few simple rules to follow to put a gaming computer within reach.Rule 1. Never buy the newest technology. I know we all want to be the guy or girl with the newest toy, but you will never be able to keep up with technology. That top-of-the-line graphics card that came out today will be old news in just a couple of months and a new one will be released that is "so much better". Guess what happens to the price of the new graphics card you just broke the bank on? It dropped by about 50%. If you would have just been patient you could have purchased it for a fraction of the cost.Rule 2. You only have to keep up with the software.Rule 2 closely correlates to Rule 1. It usually takes software companies two years, give or take, to develop a new game. During this time there are new technology breakthroughs. If they went back and re-engineered the game every time a new processor or a new graphics card came out, the game would never be released. Another important factor is that they want the game to be available to the largest number of consumers. For this reason they do their best to make sure the game can be played on a wide variety of systems. Check out the system requirements for some of the more popular games. A 1.8GHz processor and a Direct X 9 compatible graphics card will run just about everything out there. Granted you might have to turn some of the settings down but it will run it.Once you reach a certain point the added performance of the new technology is noticeable. For example, the Athlon 64 chip has been out for more than a year, yet there are very few applications that require a 64 bit processor. If you check out benchmarks on the new PCI Express graphics cards you will see that they are running games at 300+ frames per second. When you watch a movie it runs at roughly 60 frames per second. A game will still run relatively smoothly at 20 frames per second. Basically anything over 60 frames per second likely will not be perceived while playing the game. You will only see the difference in your benchmark programs.Rule 3. Build Your Own ComputerThis is important for two reasons. First, you can be assured of better quality components when you pick everything out on your own. When you buy an off-the-shelf system, chances are you are getting a big name CPU and everything else is most likely generic. Do you know what motherboard, power supply, or type of RAM you are getting? This of course, is my personal opinion, I'm not saying every manufacturer builds sub standard machines, but from experience I've had greater longevity from the computers I've built myself. I've also noticed that you will often get little system memory, unless you pay a great deal more for it. You will often get 256MB of RAM with these base system. Windows XP will run, but likely with problems, on 256MB of RAM. It seems to be the most stable with 512MB or more. Other areas they cut costs is by using integrated graphics chips. This saves them having to put in a graphics card, but you will pay the price for it when you try to play a game.The second reason to build your own computer is that you can cut your costs by stealing parts from your old computer. You can save hundreds of dollars by reusing the drives, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Plus, you don't have to worry about calling a technician to install RAM or a new graphics card because you'll already know how to do it.How Much Can You Build A Computer For?I just checked out some pricing and you can build a very nice midrange gaming computer for around $600-$700 using an AMD Athlon 64 3000+. If you can steal a DVD drive from your old computer and maybe the case, you can bring the cost down even more. You can build a high-end machine for under $1000. The internet is full of useful websites about how to build computers. Look around and you'll find all the information you need. A good place to start is http://gaming-computers.net There are several books published about the topic as well. If you follow these simple rules and do a little research you can enjoy all of the best computer games even if you are on a shoestring budget.
There is a common misconception that you have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you want to get a computer that will run all of the latest and greatest games. I don't know who started the rumor that you need to spend $3000 to get a gaming computer. The truth is, if you are smart about it, you can easily afford to get a high-end gaming computer. Here are a few simple rules to follow to put a gaming computer within reach.Rule 1. Never buy the newest technology. I know we all want to be the guy or girl with the newest toy, but you will never be able to keep up with technology. That top-of-the-line graphics card that came out today will be old news in just a couple of months and a new one will be released that is "so much better". Guess what happens to the price of the new graphics card you just broke the bank on? It dropped by about 50%. If you would have just been patient you could have purchased it for a fraction of the cost.Rule 2. You only have to keep up with the software.Rule 2 closely correlates to Rule 1. It usually takes software companies two years, give or take, to develop a new game. During this time there are new technology breakthroughs. If they went back and re-engineered the game every time a new processor or a new graphics card came out, the game would never be released. Another important factor is that they want the game to be available to the largest number of consumers. For this reason they do their best to make sure the game can be played on a wide variety of systems. Check out the system requirements for some of the more popular games. A 1.8GHz processor and a Direct X 9 compatible graphics card will run just about everything out there. Granted you might have to turn some of the settings down but it will run it.Once you reach a certain point the added performance of the new technology is noticeable. For example, the Athlon 64 chip has been out for more than a year, yet there are very few applications that require a 64 bit processor. If you check out benchmarks on the new PCI Express graphics cards you will see that they are running games at 300+ frames per second. When you watch a movie it runs at roughly 60 frames per second. A game will still run relatively smoothly at 20 frames per second. Basically anything over 60 frames per second likely will not be perceived while playing the game. You will only see the difference in your benchmark programs.Rule 3. Build Your Own ComputerThis is important for two reasons. First, you can be assured of better quality components when you pick everything out on your own. When you buy an off-the-shelf system, chances are you are getting a big name CPU and everything else is most likely generic. Do you know what motherboard, power supply, or type of RAM you are getting? This of course, is my personal opinion, I'm not saying every manufacturer builds sub standard machines, but from experience I've had greater longevity from the computers I've built myself. I've also noticed that you will often get little system memory, unless you pay a great deal more for it. You will often get 256MB of RAM with these base system. Windows XP will run, but likely with problems, on 256MB of RAM. It seems to be the most stable with 512MB or more. Other areas they cut costs is by using integrated graphics chips. This saves them having to put in a graphics card, but you will pay the price for it when you try to play a game.The second reason to build your own computer is that you can cut your costs by stealing parts from your old computer. You can save hundreds of dollars by reusing the drives, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Plus, you don't have to worry about calling a technician to install RAM or a new graphics card because you'll already know how to do it.How Much Can You Build A Computer For?I just checked out some pricing and you can build a very nice midrange gaming computer for around $600-$700 using an AMD Athlon 64 3000+. If you can steal a DVD drive from your old computer and maybe the case, you can bring the cost down even more. You can build a high-end machine for under $1000. The internet is full of useful websites about how to build computers. Look around and you'll find all the information you need. A good place to start is http://gaming-computers.net There are several books published about the topic as well. If you follow these simple rules and do a little research you can enjoy all of the best computer games even if you are on a shoestring budget.
Computer Monitor Buying Guide
by: Peter Stewart
Although a monitor makes some of the least difference in terms of your computer's speed, it can make some of the biggest differences in terms of comfort and productivity. This guide aims to give you the details you need to know to choose the best monitor for what you need it for.LCD flap panel monitors have become all the rage, in a matter of just a few years, the old CRT monitors have nearly become obsolete, expecially on new computers. The old monitors are not bad. There is much to be liked, especially in terms of value for money, and in terms of performance. But you can't fight the change. We will focus on the LCD flat panel monitors as there is often more to be considered.Firstly there is the connection to the computer. Older monitors utilised a VGA cable that carried the signal from the computer to the monitor. The signal that goes along there is an analogue signal and it can become slightly degraded, and is just an old technology. Many flat panel monitors support this old style, but that is usually just for backwards compatibility. The newer cable type is a digital kind which is designed to be used for LCD monitors. The performance from this newer kind is better, but if you are upgrading an old computer, make sure your computer can run that monitor.Secondly is the screen resolution. This is how many pixels can be displayed on the monitor. The higher the resolution, the more can be fit on the screen. This means clearer images with much smoother textures, but it also means that things appear smaller as an increase in resolution does not increase the physical dimensions of the monitor. Usual nowadays is 1024 x 768 or even 1280 x 960. Computers used to have 800 x 600, but that has all but disappeared, except on very old computers or those that are not maintained properly. I run 1280 x 960 as it gives room for a lot of working space on the monitor, but with less than a 19 inch monitor, 1024 x 768 would be more suitable.Screen refresh rate is another factor that comes into play. CRT monitors used a process of changing the pixels on the screen to show the new images, updating from top to bottom in lines, at a certain rate per second. With that old style 60MHz (60 refreshes per second) would be the minimum before the screen started to flicker. LCD monitors do not have this problem and will look fine at 60MHz.When running games a refresh rate higher than that is required, often up to 85MHz or more. Make sure the monitor you plan to use supports at least 60MHz at your desired resolution for normal use and 85MHz if you want to play games.A specification that is new for flat panel monitors that didn't effect CRT monitors is latency. Although the refresh rate may be high, the table of little dots that make up the LCD panel take a small time to change, that change is the latency. Obviously if this latency is too high it is possible that you get shot in games before you even know it, which is no good. Latencies have improved, but only monitors claimed with 8ms latency have been really good for games. Latencies tend to be exagerated and a latency of 8ms actually averages out to 12ms. With most ratings multiply by 1.5 to get an average rating.The actual brightness of the screen can vary from spot to spot on the screen. Certain monitors have obvious bright parts and dull parts while others are more consistent. Most have some variation, but the less, the better. Name branded monitors tend to give better results than cheaper no name brand versions.Extras like little speakers are not worth talking about much. They have limited use and I would rather have seperate speakers and keep the monitor simple.After considering these, you should have enough to make a good purchase decision. Remember that a little extra money spent on a monitor is a good investment, and unlike many other computer parts, upgrades are not needed that often.
Although a monitor makes some of the least difference in terms of your computer's speed, it can make some of the biggest differences in terms of comfort and productivity. This guide aims to give you the details you need to know to choose the best monitor for what you need it for.LCD flap panel monitors have become all the rage, in a matter of just a few years, the old CRT monitors have nearly become obsolete, expecially on new computers. The old monitors are not bad. There is much to be liked, especially in terms of value for money, and in terms of performance. But you can't fight the change. We will focus on the LCD flat panel monitors as there is often more to be considered.Firstly there is the connection to the computer. Older monitors utilised a VGA cable that carried the signal from the computer to the monitor. The signal that goes along there is an analogue signal and it can become slightly degraded, and is just an old technology. Many flat panel monitors support this old style, but that is usually just for backwards compatibility. The newer cable type is a digital kind which is designed to be used for LCD monitors. The performance from this newer kind is better, but if you are upgrading an old computer, make sure your computer can run that monitor.Secondly is the screen resolution. This is how many pixels can be displayed on the monitor. The higher the resolution, the more can be fit on the screen. This means clearer images with much smoother textures, but it also means that things appear smaller as an increase in resolution does not increase the physical dimensions of the monitor. Usual nowadays is 1024 x 768 or even 1280 x 960. Computers used to have 800 x 600, but that has all but disappeared, except on very old computers or those that are not maintained properly. I run 1280 x 960 as it gives room for a lot of working space on the monitor, but with less than a 19 inch monitor, 1024 x 768 would be more suitable.Screen refresh rate is another factor that comes into play. CRT monitors used a process of changing the pixels on the screen to show the new images, updating from top to bottom in lines, at a certain rate per second. With that old style 60MHz (60 refreshes per second) would be the minimum before the screen started to flicker. LCD monitors do not have this problem and will look fine at 60MHz.When running games a refresh rate higher than that is required, often up to 85MHz or more. Make sure the monitor you plan to use supports at least 60MHz at your desired resolution for normal use and 85MHz if you want to play games.A specification that is new for flat panel monitors that didn't effect CRT monitors is latency. Although the refresh rate may be high, the table of little dots that make up the LCD panel take a small time to change, that change is the latency. Obviously if this latency is too high it is possible that you get shot in games before you even know it, which is no good. Latencies have improved, but only monitors claimed with 8ms latency have been really good for games. Latencies tend to be exagerated and a latency of 8ms actually averages out to 12ms. With most ratings multiply by 1.5 to get an average rating.The actual brightness of the screen can vary from spot to spot on the screen. Certain monitors have obvious bright parts and dull parts while others are more consistent. Most have some variation, but the less, the better. Name branded monitors tend to give better results than cheaper no name brand versions.Extras like little speakers are not worth talking about much. They have limited use and I would rather have seperate speakers and keep the monitor simple.After considering these, you should have enough to make a good purchase decision. Remember that a little extra money spent on a monitor is a good investment, and unlike many other computer parts, upgrades are not needed that often.
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