Museum Establishes World Video Game Hall of Fame
The Strong, a collections-based museum in Rochester, New York, has established the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame will recognize games from all platforms, including arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile. In order to be considered for induction, a game must meet the following criteria: icon-status, longevity, geographical reach, and influence. The museum notes that if a game's influence is strong enough, it doesn't have to meet the first three criteria.
The Strong is currently home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, as well as the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, which contains over 55,000 video games and related artifacts.
Why We Haven’t Seen Another Zelda Like Majora’s Mask
During the N64 era, Nintendo wanted to use shorter development cycles to create new games in the Zelda series. The result was The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which released in 2000, and it was developed in a single year.
In an interview with IGN, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma discussed the origins of Majora’s Mask, and why the Japanese video game maker hasn’t experimented with a one-year development cycle since.
“It’s interesting, because there’s definitely this way that we talk about that sort of thing in development circles here in Japan,” he explained. “It’s often presented as a challenge to the developers themselves to accomplish something like that, because it can be very difficult to do. Since I’ve been in the role of producer, though, it’s not something that’s been presented to me as a challenge to take on very often.
Rosetta Probe Spends Valentine’s Day Snapping Comet Photos
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe spent Valentine's Day snapping high-resolution portraits of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The probe was a mere 10.6 km, or around 6.5 miles, above the surface of the celestial body and passed through the "zero-phase" angle, with the sun directly behind the spacecraft. This lead to ideal lighting conditions for capturing the uneven surface of the comet.
On its blog, the ESA also pointed out that such a pass provides the craft with more than just a great photo op, but it also allows "Rosetta’s instruments to sample the innermost parts of the comet’s atmosphere," or "coma."
Hot Comics to Buy This Week: 2/17/2015
We all want the best of the best, so let us point out the hottest comics and collectibles released each week. We spotlight our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent, new books that look cool, and any toys we can't wait to play with.
Check out our picks, then take to the comments to let us know what looks good to you!
Written by Frank Barbiere & Drawn by Marco Checchetto | Marvel Comics
Deck-Building Action Game Hand of Fate Out Today
Defiant Development's deck-building / action-adventure hybrid, Hand of Fate, is now available on PC for $20 USD. It will also be available digitally on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One today at 4pm PT, for the same price.
Hand of Fate begins with you building a deck of cards, which includes equipment, enemies, encounters, loot, and surprises. Certain cards will force you to make choices that impact the game, while others force you into combat. When these cards are played, Hand of Fate transforms into a third-person action game with combat similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum's.
The Kickstarter-funded game launches with a story mode, as well as an endless mode, which has you compete with a never ending deck for the top spot on the leaderboard. Hand of Fate features 465 different cards, 1000 lines of dialogue, twenty-four different types of enemies, and thirteen boss battles.
FAA Drone Regulations May Leave Amazon Earthbound
Proposed Federal Aviation Administration regulations for drone operation may spell the premature end of Amazon.com's drone delivery service.
Amazon's Prime Air service, set to launch this year, will have a hard time balancing speedy delivery times with the proposed regulations. Most significant in the draft are stipulations that "the unmanned aircraft must remain" within visual line-of-sight, or VLOS, of the operator or visual observer.
Additionally, drones may not operate over persons not directly involved with operation of the device, and drones must stay "close enough to the operator for the operator to be capable of seeing the aircraft" without the aid of any device other than corrective lenses. In other words, binoculars, device-mounted cameras, and other vision enhancing aids can't be used to guide the craft.
World of Warcraft Patch to Add Colorblind Options
The upcoming patch for World of Warcraft will add new UI settings to help colorblind players.
According to ColorVisionTesting.com, between 5 and 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women worldwide are born colorblind, depending on the study cited. The vast majority (99 percent) of colorblind cases involve a lack of sensitivity to red or green, which is poses a problem in a lot of games.
Game developers have begun to take notice of the problem, and many popular games like the Battlefield series and This War of Mine already have colorblind settings. The AbleGamers charity even named the latter one of the most accessible games of 2014.
Podcast: Join the Digigods Oscar Pool!
From their secluded home-theater compound, film critics Wade Major and Mark Keizer mix insightful commentary with irreverent banter, covering the latest DVD and Blu-ray news and new releases of the week, including studio, independent, television and special-interest titles.
Digigods Podcast, 02/17/15 (MP3) -- 34.4 MB
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When Minions and Dinosaurs Collide
The Minions and the dinosaurs joined forces at Toy Fair this week -- with an assist from LEGO Chris Pratt -- to show off the upcoming toys, collectibles and products that are getting a big push from Universal in the coming months.
The Despicable Me characters are getting their own spin-off film in July, which will result in over 740 licenses worldwide. That’s a lot of bananas, and includes Thinkway Toys’ action figures, a plush line, playsets, Hasbro games like Life and Operation, and Mega Bloks construction sets. Jurassic World, meanwhile, is getting figures from Hasbro -- with the new dino the Indominus Rex being the centerpiece there -- LEGO sets, a LEGO video game, and lots more.
How This Police Training Simulator Uses Kinect
MILO Range is a Kinect-centric training simulation for cops.
The simulation program, powered by Kinect, aims to provide a pseudo-realistic training ground for police officers, armed forces, and other public safety jobs.
According to the range’s website, the program can detect and respond to a myriad of verbal and non-verbal actions, such as baton swings, punches, strikes and kicks, defensive and offensive positioning, poses and gestures, and speech and verbal commands.
As showcased in the videos, the MILO Range also utilises firearm training through the use of plastic guns, complete with recoil and a reloadable magazine.