OH MY ...

I was sad these days because my quite old crappy animation didn't make into Aniboom's finals (... not really ...) but I've been recently awarded with the "XNA Community Pimpage" by Sharky.

Thanks man ... ;)

ARTICLE: "GATES TAKES ON SONY AND NINTENDO"

GameIndustry.biz has published an article that summarizes Bill Gates' comments -interviewed by Dean Takahashi of the San Jose Mercury News, regarding how good the different strategies of the major console makers are doing so far, in his opinion of course.

As an indie, and from now on I will only refer to the 'game development' side of the story, I agree that the XBOX360 will do great since MS has decided to make the "development transition" easy for us: XNA.

I mean, the easier they make it for developers, the more developer's attention -and projects- they'll get, and ultimately, the more games will be created and released for their console.

If -in addition- "easy" includes "cheapper", the better.

Please do not misunderstand me, I'm not saying with this that console makers should make less restrictive the quality assurance policies and controls for commercial games. All I am saying is don't forget "indies", thus, help us produce for your consoles by providing better and affordable tools and frameworks, reducing the cost of game development (including time and effort as a "cost").

XNA GSE goes in that way, the right way imho ... ;)

FREE SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY TO UK DEVELOPERS?!!!

If you were amazed by my previous post, just read on ...

Ian Moulster has posted in his newest blog entry that they " ... are giving away 1000 free copies of Windows Vista and Office 2007 to UK developers ...".

In order to be elegible to recieve one and or the other product, you will need to register on Friday 19th for the software giveaway (details to be announce later on Ian's site, I guess), and then answer one question related to the selected product's track and then, if you are on the first 1000 people that answer it right you get your free copy.

If you live outside the UK, just hold your horses and continue reading Ian's entry since there's a catch: " ... you need to have a UK address ..." in order to receive the product.

Isn't Life fair sometimes? I don't know about you, but I'm moving to the UK just right now ...

Well, maybe next time ... but I'd really loved not to be excluded a priori from this kind of giveaways sometime ... ;)

WHERE'S MY FREE ACER FERRARI LAPTOP?!!!

According to this CRN's article (among other posts you may find in the WWW), Microsoft and AMD have been giving away "... top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops to select tech bloggers ...".

Incredible, isn't it? Just wait a second ...

Then the article adds: "... raising questions in the blogosphere over whether the companies are trying to unduly influence the writers ...".

Following the wave of raising questions in the blogosphere I find my-self in the need to ask: where is my free laptop? ... Ok, or at least a T-shirt? A cup? A discount coupon to buy food at any local supermarket?

Just tell me who I must contact to inform my address and zip-code details in order to receive the laptop a.s.a.p. ... ;)

NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 LAUNCH EVENT VIDEO

Published on GameTrailers.com, the video shows a few but still impressive images of what the new card has to offer to gamers and why not, developers.

If the computer-hardware industry continues to grow like this, and users eventually buy this powerhouses, techinques like static lightmapping may become an antique.

Coming next: XNA - Part 2 ...

JOSEPH BARBERA DIES AT 95

More sad news for the comics industry: "December 18, 2006 - The other shoe has fallen. Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera and co-creator of such favorite anmation characters as Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and The Jetsons, died of natural causes at his home with his wife, Sheila, at his side, in Studio City, California, today, Dec. 18, 2006, according to Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu."

My most sincere condolence to Barbera's family and friends.

No more posts for today.

['Tom and Jerry' is one of my favorite cartoons of all times.]

GREEN LANTERN CREATOR DIES AT 91

Sad news for the comics industry: "MIAMI - Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern, the comic book superhero who uses his magical ring to help him fight crime, has died. He was 91."

My most sincere condolence to Nodell's family and friends.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power... Green Lantern's light!"

No more posts for today.

THERE AIN'T NO TIMES LIKE THE OLD TIMES

Today I was thinking of posting some comments about some of the engines out there, but then I said "naaa! It's Friday. Let's take it easy and leave that for Monday".

So, what's for today? Doing some search for new posts in a couple forums I found some references to "old" games and I couldn't help remembering the old machines, old games, old sweet days. Snif! Snif! So let's go retro ...

Going back to the mid 80's I remember receiving my first computer ever: a ZX Spectrum Plus ... aahhh! My first love. Responsible for my passion on videogames. Titles like "Pssst", "Atic-Atac" and "Game Over" come very fast to my mind. Those were the days when you had to wait like 5 minutes or so until the game loaded into memory (48k ... wow!) while you prayed not to receive that nasty error message that appeared when the cassette player emmitted a wrong sound. Remember that? I bet you do. Then without loosing your hope, you used to rewind the tape, press "play" so that everything started again.

Then I switched to a "Commodore 128D" with a 5 1/4 drive. A whole new world for me. Just the fact of not having to use a tape was terriffic for me. Games like "Dig Dug" and "Bruce Lee" helped me tolerate those boring afternoons after high school when there was no one to call, no football matches, not even homework.

Then came an "Amiga 2000" (without hardrive I regret -too expensive back in those days) but again with an unknown hardware for me: a 3 1/2 floppy drive (I know what you're thinking: "what a challenge!"). This was a big change regarding visual quality: the graphics, colors, the cut-scenes. And also regarding sounds and music: my favorite? "Shadow of the Beast" (that guitar track that played when the game was over was really enjoyable). Games like "Prince of Persia" (with those impressive movements of the main character), "Lotus Espirit Turbo Challenge" and "The Blues Brothers" (a very funny platform game) caught my attention for hours and hours.

Finally, I bought my first PC computer: a notebook "Presario 1080". After that I realized something "I love notebooks". I have to admit that desktops are in general more powerful and you can get a better desktop for the same price or less than a notebook (especially if you buy the part separately and assemble the machine by your-self), but notebooks are quite more handy. With time I started to value more "handiness and comfort" than "hardware power" (yeah, I know, to some extent, since it has a direct relation to your needs as well as your purchasing power). We all know PC games but the first I played was "Pod" (since it came with my notebook), then "Primal Rage", "Alone in the Dark", the "FIFA" and "Star Wars" series (Rebel Assault, Tie Fighter, etc.), among others.

Now-a-days, I've got a 64-bit-processor desktop with the power to run smoothly each and every newest PC game in the market (like one of my favorites "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time") but I still enjoy playing classic retro games, every now and then.

Well, that's all guys. Have a nice weekend!

[By the way, which are/were your favorites "retro" games?]

WHAT'S THE MEANING OF ..... ?

Just a quick note folks: need to find the meaning of a concept? Search "Wikipedia", a free on-line encyclopedia available in many languages, which holds thousands of articles that cover many topics on different categories.

It's the first site you should consult, given that not only provides fully detailed descriptions of each concept but also external links to sites were you can find further references on the topic.