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Retrogaming clothes and merchandise
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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Armitage - Cyber Attack Management for Metasploit
GUI front end for Metasploit
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int0x80/anti-forensics - GitHub
u mad bro?
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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PC Skyrim is a frustrating mess and will soon be the best version
Skyrim might be a contender for game of the year, but it's also a clunky mess once you begin to level up your character, manage your inventory, or use your map. The good news for PC players is that a full suite of modding tools is on the way, and the community will take care of all the balls that were dropped by the original development teams. And boy oh boy, so many balls were dropped.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress
This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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"NeTV is designed to work as an add-on to video sources like Boxee, Revue, Roku, PS3, Xbox360, DVR, DVD, set top boxes, etc. It sits between these devices and the TV. NeTV's key benefit is adding push delivery of personalized internet news on top of all platforms in a non-intrusive and always-on manner. By being platform agnostic, NeTV enables you to add apps to any system configuration without having to throw away your existing hardware investments. "
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Sony hacked again, 93,000 accounts breached - Edge Magazine
- massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords
- Taken from where exactly?
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Installing WordPress – Two Options at Domain.com | The Domain.com Blog
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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Windows 8: everything you need to know | News | TechRadar UK
- a reimagining of Windows, "from the chip to the interface"
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Saturday, August 20, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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This web site is dedicated to the USB adapter for 16-bit games, the Retrode. Feed your SNES or Mega Drive / Genesis emulator with games from your original cartridges!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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shmups.system11.org • View topic - XRGB-3
- OK I did that. It fixed t
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WTF: Microsoft praised by hacker for “spectacular” security approach | VentureBeat
- “Microsoft’s s
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Saturday, August 06, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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A few new Radiant Silvergun details | xblafans.com
"Earlier this week Microsoft held an event to show off some of the upcoming japanese developed XBLA releases. Upcoming Sega Saturn port Radiant Silvergun was at the event and Treasure CEO Masato Maegawa shared some details on its development."
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Looks like a great tool for managing PC save games
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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The Metagame by Local No.12 by Mike E, Colleen M, John S, & Eric Z — Kickstarter
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IDM Computer Solutions, Inc. Forums • Search and Delete text between two different search words
- (?s) allows searches to span multiple lines
- . matches any character (including newlines, thanks to (?s) above)
* allows for any number of matches (including zero)
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Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed. - Roger Ebert's Journal
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Preowned games - How and why are videogames are the only entertainment product that supermarkets sell second hand?
Game, a much vilified high street retailer of videogames here in the UK, just announced that you can now pre-order pre-owned games. Yes, you read that correctly, for a £16 discount and an additional one week wait, you can pre-order a game that someone else has opened and played. It's a depressing state of affairs to walk into a Game or Gamestation store today, where once there was a fantastic selection of games for all current consoles, now there is now row upon row of pre-owned games and a tiny selection of new ones. Pushy sales assistants will constantly remind punters that they can trade in their old games and consoles. Preowned has become such a lucrative market that even supermarkets have announced that they want to get in on the act too, making games the first and only commodity that you can buy second hand in a Tesco or Asda supermarket. Games publishers and developers are furious, some even going on the record to say that pre-owned games are worse than piracy. Of course, that's really not true, if I own an item I'm entitled to sell or give it away to whomever I please. However, I don't imagine Tesco or Asda wanting to buy my old DVDs, Blu-Rays, Books or CD's any time soon, so why are games singled out? How have pre-owned games become such big business that even supermarkets want in on the action? What the industry really needs to ask is “how did we get here and what can be done about it?”
Of course, when you ask this question there's all kinds of finger pointing that will go on. Game argue that pre-owned is providing a valuable service to gamers, who can afford more games thanks to them. The management at Game will argue that there's no profit in new games because the publishers are too greedy. The publishers will tell you that games are cheaper now than they have ever been and blame spiralling development costs for tight profit margins. Developers will blame retailers like Game for syphoning money from their pockets to line their own. Is it fair to blame Game and other retailers? Maybe, but in all probability if Game took a stand against pre-owned and decided to stock only new games, it would go out of business. If there is money to be made buying and selling legally in any commodity, there will be someone who will legitimately exploit that opportunity. Perhaps the industry needs to take a look at the bigger picture?
Those critical of the second hand retailers viewpoint are quick to point out that you certainly can't buy pre-owned books in specialist bookseller Waterstones, nor pre-owned CD's in entertainment stores such as HMV. Rental specialists Blockbuster video have a small selection of pre-owned DVD's and Blu-ray's, but even this selection pales in comparison to their range of pre-owned games. The fact of the matter is that Games are not like other types of entertainment.
Why aren't games like films? When a film is released, if it is a film that you really want to see, you can buy a ticket and see it on a huge screen, with high quality sound. Effectively, you can see a new film on a huge screen with a (hopefully) fantastic sound system for between £5 and £10. If you miss the film at the cinema, you can still have the option of renting the movie a few months later. Miss the rental and you can pay to stream the film on pay per view or through your computer. If you miss this opportunity, you can purchase the film and keep and watch it as often as you like, or you can wait and see it, ad-supported, on Television. Now, at each one of these delivery points, the film can make money.
Likewise with music, when a new song is released, I can hear it on the radio for free, either ad-supported or license fee supported. If I like the music I can listen to it on Spotify or buy the CD or Mp3. Again, at each delivery point there is potential to make money.
Perhaps games are most like books? There's no cinema release for books and very few are read on the TV or Radio. However, a book requires the skill of one talented writer and perhaps several proof readers and editors for QA. In short, books are a lot less labour intensive to bring to the market than most games. The second hand book market is rife, but it's rare for a store to sell both second hand books and new ones under the same roof.
Considering the above, games are really not like other media. While blockbuster games take millions to develop, there's no cinema release for games of course. Game rental services are gaining in popularity, but again, games are different to other types of media. When you rent a movie, you can put aside a couple of hours to watch the film and be done. Predicting how long it will take to exhaust a game is a wholly different matter, especially when multiplayer is taken into consideration.
The simple fact is, the market for preowned games is so huge because there is customer demand. People buy games, get tired of them and then naturally want to sell them to make space and money for new games. Only the most fanatical of customers want to keep all the games they buy, for most users, the games they buy and then play simply become clutter when they have tired of them. The same thing happens with books and the same thing would happen with films, only Hollywood has more than one delivery point to capitalise on.
This is what needs to happen with games, the industry needs to find more delivery points. A boxed, retail copy of a game is perfect for a core gamer. This type of individual will happily spend extra to get special editions of games he/she loves. They will then proudly display the game on their shelves, along with the rest of their other collection.
Rather than pitching digital downloads as competition to this, why not simply delay the digital version by several months? This allows your first-wave customers (equivalent to the cinema audience for a film) to buy and cherish their copies of the game. Next, release a digital download version of the game for around half the price, allowing those users who simply want to play the game to obtain it more cost effectively. At this point, the game could be released to the rental market too, on a one-in one-out basis allowing customers to rent the game for extended periods of time (just like how the Lovefilm/Netflix system works).
Much later, the game could be re-released on budget, in cost-reduced packaging with minimal marketing spend, and also on the digital download channels, giving the game another shot at making money. This does happen already, of course, but Publishers should enlist the help of websites and magazines to re-review budget titles for free promotion and use digital store-fronts to help push bargain new titles over newer, pre-owned ones.
Finally, for games more than three years old, perhaps entirely new entry points are possible. Once upon a time, there was a system called EDOS, which stood for “Electronic Distribution of Software”. Now, this was before the internet was a widespread phenomenon. It worked by having a computer in a store with a duplicating machine. Customers would simply pick the game they wanted and the machine would record their media while they waited. The system and the company behind this product went bankrupt, yet there are publishers now on the internet that work similar systems and can produce boxed products at minimal cost (around $1 or less). Wouldn't it be great if Steam or other distribution platforms offered something like this, allowing you to buy boxed versions of all popular steam games for gifts or keep-sakes?
What about an ad-supported gaming channel? Something like Spotify for games. Imagine turning on your console and checking this months free, add-supported games line-up. While the game loaded (or even streamed, though I still don't think the idea of game streaming is practical), adverts could be displayed or even overlaid. Annoying? Possibly, but then the player would be getting this content for free and could hit a “keep it” button at any time to remove the ads and keep the game permanently. A game 'channel' like this with rotating content would not only be a fantastic way of introducing people to new types of games they wouldn't normally play, but yet another way to monetise older games.
Now, I'm not saying all the above ideas are workable, profitable or even sensible (my instant-boxed copy idea particularly is a fantasy that caters more to my videogame collecting fetish than any real mass market). If big-budget games are to survive however, companies need to look at how to maximise return on investment and this means getting games into more peoples hands, not just those who are fanatical about playing them from day one. Bundling exclusive content or creating online pass systems is one way of fighting pre-owned by adding more value to the new copy, but it still leaves a massive chunk of the market who are only interested in the single player campaign. For them, pre-owned allows them to obtain the game at a price they consider value for money and until the industry finds ways to compete with this (or until everything goes digital only, which will have it's own consequences), the pre-owned problem is never going to go away.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
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Corstat Transit Packs with Foam Insert | Boxes For Electronics
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Bing Setting the record straight - Search Blog - Site Blogs - Bing Community
Microsoft denies copying Google.. I like Bing and I like Google.. but which is better?
