gaming
Design
Absolutely Amazing Video Game Remake Wallpapers, Take Two
2:00AM The How-To Geek | Lifehacker reader Orioto stunned us a few months ago with his gorgeous paintings of classic video games for your desktop—and he’s at it again with another must-see collection for your eye-candy needs. More »
Design
Absolutely Amazing Video Game Remake Wallpapers
2:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Last week we highlighted a few retro gaming wallpapers for some Friday fun. That was nothing compared to DeviantArt member Orioto’s high-resolution, you-won’t-believe-your-eyes paintings of classic video games for your desktop—a must-see for any gaming enthusiast. More »
Organise
Fancy Yourself As A Monopoly Champion?
4:00PM Angus Kidman | OK, we know that gaming is really Kotaku’s bag, but here at Lifehacker we’re great believers in games and puzzles to enhance your mental health. And while we’re not sure that perennial board game favourite Monopoly quite qualifies, it’s certainly good for your basic arithmetic skills. Registration for the National Monopoly Championships has just begun, with six regional championships scheduled in January and February throughout the country to find a contestant who will represent Australia at a global showdown in Las Vegas later in 2009. Get rolling! Monopoly Australia Championships [via OzBargain More »
Work
Sharpen Your Chess Game
9:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Whether you’d like to increase your mental health or just relax after a stressful holiday visit, there aren’t many games more classic than chess. Over at tips and tricks blog MakeUseOf, they have rounded up a variety of ways you can both play and sharpen your chess game. The screenshot above is from FlashChessIII, a beautifully rendered flash-based and free for download chess game. If you’re concerned that all the playing in the world won’t make you any better, they have a variety of resources listed for helping you not just play but increase your grasp of the game. My favourite was Chess Problems, a site which generates “puzzles” based on chess board setups ranging from simple to extremely complicated. After some practice at Chess Problems you won’t find yourself often staring down a chess board without a clue what your next move will be. The Best Online Sources to Learn and Play Chess [MakeUseOf] More »
Fix
Run Quake 3 On Your Nokia Phone
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Decoder details how you can go about installing classing first-person shooter Quake 3 Arena on your Nokia phone (supported models include the N82, the E80 and 8Gb versions of the N95). The installation process sounds fiddly, and the lack of sufficient input mechanisms on the phones themselves means you need to use a Bluetooth keyboard to actually play, but the post still sums it up pretty well: “Who would have thought that a game that I shelled out hundreds of dollars for a graphics card to run it on back in the day, would be ported to a mobile phone with full multiplayer, keyboard and mouse support?” Play Quake 3 Arena on Nokia N95 8GB, N82 & E90 [Decoder] More »
Communicate
5:00AM Angus Kidman | Apparently not content merely with offering access to iTunes and the ABC’s iView without affecting your monthly download limit, ISP iiNet has also now added Xbox Live gaming content to the list of quota-free material. The announcement makes it pretty clear that it’s gaming-only for now, though Xbox options in Australia being more restricted than the US, this isn’t much of a problem. What we’d really like to see is other ISPs following iiNet’s lead: come on people, it’s supposed to be a competitive market! More »
iiNet Adds Xbox Gaming To Quota-Free List
5:00AM Angus Kidman | Apparently not content merely with offering access to iTunes and the ABC’s iView without affecting your monthly download limit, ISP iiNet has also now added Xbox Live gaming content to the list of quota-free material. The announcement makes it pretty clear that it’s gaming-only for now, though Xbox options in Australia being more restricted than the US, this isn’t much of a problem. What we’d really like to see is other ISPs following iiNet’s lead: come on people, it’s supposed to be a competitive market! More »
Fix
Play Burned Game Backups On Your Wii Without A Modchip
5:30AM Adam Pash | Ever since video game consoles moved to optical discs, manufacturers and users have battled over backups. Manufacturers fear that if they allow users to burn disc backups, users will download and burn games they haven’t paid for. Users argue that the discs they paid for are so easily scratched and ruined that it’s absurd for the manufacturer to not allow it. Despite manufacturers’ best efforts, every console is eventually hacked to play backups, often using a hardware modchip. Well, if you’ve got a Wii, a friendly Instructables user details how to play game backups on any Wii without using a modchip. All you’ve got to do is hack your Wii for homebrew apps and then follow the instructions in the post. Run Backups on any Wii Without a Modchip [Instructables] More »
How To Use Your Rock Band Drums With GarageBand
7:30AM Adam Pash | The Mac|Life weblog demonstrates how to hook up your Rock Band drum set to your Mac for a low-latency electronic drum kit. If you do a lot of music-making on your Mac with GarageBand, one of the two setups covered in the post should take your composition chops to new heights. On the other hand, if you’re a Windows user, you may remember our previous post on turning your Rock Band drums into a real synth kit with a free Windows app (which, incidentally, looks like it’s come a long way since we covered it last). Rock Out in GarageBand with the Rock Band Drum Controller [Mac|Life via TUAW] More »
Communicate
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Australian research institute NICTA is working on the development of Badumna, a peer-to-peer system specifically designed to make it easier to players in massively multiplayer environments to communicate. NICTA has released a beta version of the technology to games developers, who typically have to spend millions building reliable infrastructure for multiplayer communication. It might be a while before this technology hits the average consumer, but it’s a timely reminder that the need for P2P development didn’t die when BitTorrent appeared.
Badumna
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NICTA Preps P2P Engine For Game Developers
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Australian research institute NICTA is working on the development of Badumna, a peer-to-peer system specifically designed to make it easier to players in massively multiplayer environments to communicate. NICTA has released a beta version of the technology to games developers, who typically have to spend millions building reliable infrastructure for multiplayer communication. It might be a while before this technology hits the average consumer, but it’s a timely reminder that the need for P2P development didn’t die when BitTorrent appeared.
Badumna
More »
Fix
