Look around you. What do you see?  What are you thinking about?  What is something you want to do?  What do you want to be?  What are some creative things you have done in the past?  You have to just think and look around you, and something is bound to inspire you eventually.

For instance, my mom is into interior design.  What if there could be a game revolved around decorating? You could do huge projects for rich after starting out small.

How do you think that all of the great video games were thought of?  Shegiru Miyamoto, the president of Nintendo, thought of his idea for The Legend of Zelda from when he was a child, and explored the land next to his house, and went into a cave with only a lantern.  Anything you can do could be used to make a game, so you just have to stop and think about it.

Now, it's your turn.  Email me your ideas for games, and tell me if you want them published in a following post, where I list some of your ideas.  So if you want a moment of worldwide fame, send it in!  If you don't want it published, but just want me to tell you what I think or answer you're questions, that's okay too!  So come up with some ideas, and send them in!

Good Luck!

Larry

La extraña (¿extraño?, me espero de todo de Ninty en esta generación) patente verá luz junto a un nuevo juego para la DS, Your Life Rhythm. El juego permitirá en un futuro no muy lejano conectarse con la Wii y , especialmente, el WiiFit.

Con este accesorio lo único que se pretende es recoger información de un paseo o ejercicio, y posteriormente descargarlo en la consola Nintendo DS. Así podremos seguir nuestro rendimiento y ver nuestros progresos. El juego recogerá también información de las calorías consumidas e incluso tendremos un personaje bastante friki que adelgazará junto a nosotros.

La gallina ha vuelto a poner un huevo...¿de oro?

Una vez más, Don Shigeru Miyamoto subió al escenario al terminar la conferencia de Satoru Iwata para presentarnos el esperadísimo Wii Music.

Haciendo gala de sus habilidades, nos muestra como se debe hacer una jam session dentro del juego.  Los asistentes están emocionados, y aplauden rabiosamente sin parar...

Esto, al menos, es lo que sucede en la mente del venerable Shigeru... que comenta que gustaría ver que sucede con aquellos niños que crezcan jugando el título además de preguntarse también que podrían hacer los músicos profesionales.

Pensé que nunca diría esto, pero don Shigueru ya está chocheando... ¿Donde quedaron los juegos NO casuales?

¿Alguien está emocionado con el Wii Music?

The "new DS" rumor has been floating around for quite a while now and it has begun to solidify. According to GoNintendo, Nintendo plans to raise the curtain upon a new DS at their press conference tomorrow in Japan. It has been speculated that the new device will have MP3 playback and camera capabilities similar to a cell phone or, perhaps, Apple's iPhone. Leaked by an "impeccable source" to MCV, this news seems to be becoming less and less of a rumor everyday.

Also poised to hype the Nintendo train to full speed is a supposed game that "everyone is waiting for". CVG reports that French site Gamekyo got an inside scoop that a revived franchise was to be unveiled at tomorrow's show. A Kid Icarus game has been beaten like a dead horse for months now and was even falsely hyped to be at E3 by a major gaming magazine. There is a chance it could be coming since Factor 5 made up some concept art for it awhile back and pitched the idea to Nintendo. It was never confirmed to be in development but that could have changed by now. Pikmin 3 was confirmed by Miyamoto himself following the E3 response so I'm more inclined to believe that will be shown sooner than Kid Icarus if anything.

But lets not forget about the MotionPlus. What type of game has been anticipated since the Wii's release and what was imagined when this new addition to the Wii's peripheral lineup was shown? A sword fighting game. Red Steel didn't quite live up to the hype and Wii Sports Resort only has a minigame version of such a game. Though this is just speculation from my standpoint, I think (or at least hope) we might see a new game of this genre tomorrow.

Sources: GoNintendo.com, ComputerandVideoGames.com [via Gamekyo]

Related Entries: Icarus, Pikmin, E3

In English | En español

Do you want to play music with the whole family, including your grandparents and your baby brothers and sisters? Do you want to play music with a trumpet, a saxophone, an electric guitar or other instruments? While other music games concentrate on the wide variety of available songs and the availability of a few musical instruments to play with, Nintendo goes one step further with Wii Music.

Players of all ages will be able to play music with the instruments of their choice by using the Wiimote and the Nunchuk controllers. There will be over 60 instruments to choose from, and over 50 available songs. What's great about playing this game is that you do not have to be an expert. The players' movements create music. Even a toddler has more of a chance to use a Wiimote to play a song than with a guitar. Another special feature is that players can add new beats to songs.

Whenever you are all happy with the music you got to play, you can share your concert with your friends through the Wii Message Board. I'll do my best to command an orchestra just like Miyamoto-san did back in 2006. Besides this Pick up the Baton mode, there are others to choose from such as Bang the Drum. The game will be on sale on October 20, though I can't wait to play some Zelda and Super Mario Bros. music now.

En español | In English

¿Quieren tocar música con toda la familia, hasta con tus abuelos y tus hermanitos y hermanitas? ¿Quieren tocar música con una trompeta, un saxófono, una guitarra eléctrica u otros instrumentos? Mientras que otros juegos de música se concentran en la amplia variedad de disponibilidad de canciones y la disponibilidad de pocos instrumentos musicales con los cuales jugar, Nintendo va aún más lejos con Wii Music.

Jugadores de todas las edades serán capaces de tocar música con los instrumentos de su elección usando los controles Wiimote y Nunchaku. Habrá más de 60 instrumentos de los que se puede elegir, y más de 50 canciones disponibles. Lo que es bueno de jugar este juego es que uno no tiene que ser un experto. Los movimientos de los jugadores crean la música. Hasta un niñito tiene más posibilidades de usar un Wiimote para tocar una canción que con una guitarra. Otra característica especial es que jugadores pueden añadir nuevos ritmos a las canciones.

Cuando sea que estén felices con la música que hayan tocado, pueden compartir el concierto con sus amigos a través del Tablero de Mensajes Wii. Haré lo mejor que pueda para conducir la orquesta tal como lo hizo Miyamoto-san en el 2006. Aparte de este modo Pick up the Baton (Alza la Batuta), hay otros de los que se pueden escoger como Bang the Drum (Dale al Tambor). El juego estará a la venta el 20 de octubre, aunque no puedo esperar en tocar ahora la música de Zelda y Super Mario Bros.

So first, lets take a look at the batting order which started against the Giants on opening day, Friday March 28th 2008:

1 Keizo Kawashima (3B)
2 Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B)
3 Norichika Aoki (CF)
4 Adam Riggs (1B)
5 Aaron Guiel (RF)
6 Shinya Miyamoto (SS)
7 Yasushi Ihara (LF)
8 Masakazu Fukukawa (C).

And next, the lineup from the recent game against the Giants on Saturday September 6th:

1 Kazuki Fukuchi (RF)
2 Shinya Miyamoto (3B)
3 Norichika Aoki (CF)
4 Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B)
5 Yasushi Ihara (LF)
6 Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B)
7 Keizo Kawashima (SS)
8 Masakazu Fukukawa (C)

So, quite a few changes both in terms of personnel and the batting order, so lets have a look at some of the key changes:

The Foreign factor (or indeed, the lack of it)

Yakult entered 2008 with an American and a Canadian expected to feature in the starting 9 night in night out: 1st baseman Adam Riggs in the no.4 slot followed by Canadian outfielder Aaron Guiel at no.5.

On paper, this looked fairly promising. Riggs joined the team in 2005 and had a slow start to his Tokyo career, but suddenly caught fire mid-way through his maiden season, and finished with a good enough record for the team to keep him around in 2006. The next season was his breakout year, in which he finished with a whopping 39 homers, 94 RBIs with an average just under .300. Injuries hampered him in 2007 as he managed just 37 games, but his average and production was well down on the previous year in the games he did contribute to.

After that year, it came as a surprise that the Swallows brought him back for 2008, but back he came. He played a part in 30 games early on in the season, but aside from a big homerun in the Tokyo Dome that helped Tokyo to a win, it was clear that he was simply no longer the player from two years ago, and the injuries had gradually taken their toll. His appearances became more fleeting until he was dropped to the farm team in early May, never to return. Adam was eventually placed on waivers and released by the team in July.

As for Guiel, the ex-Yankee joined Yakult in 2007 and had an indifferent first season, blasting 35 homers, but hitting for only a .245 average and a paltry .234 with runners in scoring position, hence his RBI total of 79 - very poor for a clean up guy.

So back he came in 2008, with the pressure on him more than ever with Alex Ramirez now at the Tokyo Dome. And initially at least, he seemed to respond to the challenge, making a hot start blasting 8 homers in the opening month, before slowing down and hitting just 2 more in May. Injuries then started to plague Aaron, limiting his playing time, and allowing others to stake their claim for a place in the starting lineup. And so now in September Guiel is limited to pinch hitting (not particularly effectively) from the bench, and now has a batting average of just .200 with 11 homers, 8 of which came in the opening month. Despite still being popular with a section of the regulars at Jingu, I don't think Aaron will be back in a Swallows uniform in 2009.

The Outfield

The outfield has seen quite a number of changes during the course of this year. The ever constant though, whenever available, has been Aoki in centrefield. I don't think I need to mention much about Norichika, apart from the fact that the man's class. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. Unfortunately the MLB scouts most likely also know it and thus how much longer he'll remain a Swallow is in question (my bet would be until after another season or two). The man who now occupies the Guiel shaped gap in right is Fukuchi. He came the other way this year as a makeweight in the free-agency move of Kazuhisa Ishii to Seibu. He started the season being used as a pinch hitter/runner, and started to see more game time in May, but initially it seemed that lightning speed was his main attribute. But he soon started to prove his worth, and really came to the fore during Aoki's absence during the Olympics. During this time he was moved to CF and was not only the anchor in the outfield, but also become a leader with the bat, as his average rose above .300 (and indeed further to around .330 at present). He also leads the league in stolen bases with 35 so far this year. In short, he's the perfect leadoff man - good contact hitter with lighting speed on the base paths, added to his quality work with the glove. Seibu's loss is our gain (erm, not that they care as they've lead the PL all year...).

The man currently occupying the leftfield position, the 25 year old Yasushi Ihara, hasn't had it all his own way despite his appearance in the opening day lineup too. A promising young batter, who has an uncanny knack for getting key hits, the problem was where to put him in the field. He started in right but was soon tried as an option to plug the gap at third, but it soon became apparent that he was no third baseman, as anyone who witnessed his numerous fluffed throws to first would attest. But Yasushi was another guy who would benefit from Aoki's absence as he saw continuous playing time in left, and this reaped rewards, as he and Fukuchi started to be two of the key guys with the bat. In fact I lost count of the amount of times I saw Ihara bring home Fukuchi to score. During the Olympics he was effectively used in the no.3 hole, but since the return of Miyamoto and Aoki to the lineup, is currently being used further down the order and is currently seeing time at no.5.

The infield

3rd base & Shortstop: Since Akinori Iwamura went off to have a (so far successful)

MLB adventure, we have had a gaping whole at 3rd that we've never quite managed to fill. Allsorts of players have been tried there, from Ihara, to Miyade, Kawashima and the plucky but ultimately useless Shiroishi. But a permanent solution has never been found, until now, with a little help from the Beijing Olympics. In the months before the Olympics, Yakult, aware that they were about to lose their veteran shortstop Shinya Miyamoto for a month, looked at what

they had tried before, realized that nothing had worked, and took action, bringing in Wilson Valdez from the Korean league as cover. In order to prepare Wilson, he was thrown straight into the lineup and Shinya was moved to third for the first time in his 12 year pro-career. Shinya left for the Olympics, but Wilson's poor batting (possibly combined with arguments with management) lead to him being dropped to the farm. The man who now found himself with time at short was utility man Keizo Kawashima. Kawashima came to the Swallows from Nippon Ham this year as part of the trade that saw starter Shugo Fuji head north. He has seen time at third and in the outfield

too this year. But when Miyamoto returned from Beijing, instead of reclaiming his position at short, he reoccupied third. In fact, with his speed and range at short decreasing now he's reached 37, the Swallows probably thought the Olympics were a perfect opportunity to re-position him at third, filling a major gap, but still retaining his gold glove. Kawashima, always gives 100% and has done well so far at short and can hopefully can make the position his own at Tokyo, though he could do with improving his batting a little (he currently averages around .250).

One more thing on Miyamoto. You'll notice that he, Yakult's traditional no.2 hitter, started the year batting 6th. This was possibly due to the fact that at his age, and with his fading speed management felt it was time to use him further down the order, but after it was clear that 2008 was shaping up to be one of his best ever with the bat (he's currently batting above .320) they reconsidered and restored him in his traditional slot.

1st base: With Riggs fading into oblivion, out of nowhere over the horizon and out of the sun came the savior, Kazuhiro Hatakeyama. Called up from the farm in April after seven seasons of obscurity with the

organisation, he started seeing time at first as it was clear Riggs was done, as well as time at third too. But it was during the interleague play in May that he really started to establish himself, managing to bring the stellar on base percentage and slugging percentage from the farm team with him. While he's not your traditional no.4 hitter, in that he doesn't hit much for power, Hatakeyama has established himself as the starting firstbaseman and cleanup man for the Swallows. He is truly one of the success stories of 2008.

2nd base: Hiroyasu Tanaka, or beavis as he is known by his teamates, has made this position his own. A beneficiary of seeing a lot of playing time during 2007's disastrous last placed season, he returned in 2008 with confidence that only consistent playing time can generate. Dubbed "the diamond master" when he was introduced at games in 2007, he is an able fielder with the glove. In 2008, he has also become adept with the bat too, batting around .340 in the first months of the year. Hiroyasu cited Aoki as his role-model, and stated that he wanted to surpass, not merely equal, the achievements of his teammate. Well, it's a bit early to be talking Aoki comparisons, and Tanaka's average is now hovering at around .300, but he is certainly improving as a ballplayer, and will have a huge part to play in the future of the Swallows for years to come.

The Catcher Conundrum

Atsuya Furuta - Swallows legend & the best Japanese catcher of recent times. A genius behind the plate and a linchpin of the batting lineup. Those are big shoes to fill. And as things stand, they're still far from being filled. Masakazu Fukukawa started the year behind home plate, and has seen the most time there this year. The 32 year old is decent enough behind the plate, but one thing lets him down - he can't bat for shit. His average has been down below .200 for most of the year, pitch him anywhere except inside and he's a goner. This gaping hole in the batting order that he provides led to manager Takada trying out a couple of other options. Such as the 26 year old Kawamoto, one for the future for sure but still a little soon for the starting position. And the 27 year old Kinugawa, an acquisition from the industrial leagues, who looks the best with the bat of the three, but is currently back down on the farm team. Of these it seems that Fukukawa is the chosen one for now at least, and he has shown signs of improvement with the bat of late, clubbing a fair few homers in recent games (now 7 on the year) and his average is now up to the giddy heights of just north of .200 (nosebleed!), but he really must continue to improve with the bat, and fast.

So, that's the current state of play for the position players at Tokyo. And as the current lineup goes, I'd say it's a pretty promising one.

pretty happy. Aoki, Miyamoto, Fukuchi, Tanaka, Ihara are all keepers, and Hatakeyama will be too if he can keep it up next year. Just a bit more power and that lineup would be a playoff contender for sure. So perhaps our scouts can find another Ramirez or Petagine rather than another another Betts or Billy Martin. But I don't hold out much hope of that. Maybe work with what we've got, with someone like Hatakeyama working on his power hitting and we can solve the power riddle from within.

Whatever happens, I'd like to see much more stability in the lineup from (I presume) Takada in 2009. No more tinkering. It's no coincidence that our recent solid form has come from playing a stable lineup night in night out. We've got the raw ingredients for a pennant push someday, but is Takada the right man to turn them into gold*? Only time will tell.

* The Tsubamegun Party Line is is: absolutely not, get rid of this halfwit as soon as possible. But we'll keep (pitching coach) Araki thank you very much.

"I really think we have cracked that nut," he said. "We look at all of the (control systems) for console RTS games, the one we learned the most from was Pikmin. That was a very good strategy game."

Well, if Halo Wars has the control methods found in Pikmin, the game should be a joy to play.

Source: Kotaku.com

Related Entries: Pikmin

"I really think we have cracked that nut," he said. "We look at all of the (control systems) for console RTS games, the one we learned the most from was Pikmin. That was a very good strategy game."

Well, if Halo Wars has the control methods found in Pikmin, the game should be a joy to play.

Source: Kotaku.com

Related Entries: Pikmin

O QUE É: Esse deveria ser um post apenas sobre o PS3, mas o fato é que não dá pra explicar as coisas de forma tão simples, ou até dá mas perderia toda a graça. Então para encerrar minha série de reviews sobre os consoles de nova geração, senhoras e senhores eu lhes dou o PS3 e a história dos videogames (*C fazendo som de torcida em extase ao fundo *ééééé, ééééé, ééééé")

Entender o que é o PS3 e onde ele fracassou épicamente não é uma história simples. História essa que eu contarei daqui por diante porque, bem, eu gosto de contar histórias e acho que história é uma das matérias basicas matérias da humanindade: sem ela estamos fadados a repetir os mesmos erros over and over. Hitler não aprendeu com os erros do passado e por isso perdeu a guerra, o mesmo pode ser dito sobre a Sony. Puxa um banquinho aí pq a história é um pouco longa, mas prometo que tentarei conta-la da forma mais interessante possível.

"Senta que lá vem a história"

O ano era 1971. O homem havia pisado na Lua a dois anos, Coca-cola custava menos de U$1 e os brasileiros não podiam votar. Também mão existia Linux ou Los Hermanos e comunistas eram caçados abertamente, o que classifica o mundo como um lugar positivamente melhor sob qualquer angulo.

Nesta era de sonhos e medo começa a h istória do PS3. Começa modesta e inocentemente, mas adquiriria proporções épicas e milhonarias e definitivamente, o mundo jamais seria o mesmo...

Em 1971 estudantes da universidade de Stanford tiveram uma idéia de uma sagacidade impar e pra serem genios só faltou a vadiagem malemolente de perceber o potencial disso e o quanto poderiam ficar ricos, no que eles bobearam bonitaço.

Acontece que estes estudantes, os embriões épicos do que viriam a ser os nerds modernos, tiveram uma idéia sagaz enquanto passavam a tarde jogando no computador e sonhavam em como seria encostar em uma garota de verdade. É necessário explicar que sim, haviam computadores em 1971 mas definitivamente não como os conhecemos atualmente e de forma alguma a idéia de "computador doméstico" era popular ou mesmo possivel. Apenas militares, grandes universidades (como Stanford) e empresas de ponta possuiam computadores.

Então os pré-nerds passam as tardes jogando paciencia com o bloco de notas e desenhando putaria em ASCII enquanto jogavam um joguinho chamado "Galaxy Game". Foi aí que eles tiveram uma daquelas sacadas que o mundo pergunta se vc quer salvar o jogo antes disso, pq as coisas mudariam e jamais voltariam a ser o que eram...

O que os nossos amigos pensaram foi simples: "escuta, a gente passa o dia aqui batendo umazinha e jogando no computador mas computador não é uma bagaça que se encontra por aí assim... e se a gente levasse esse joguinho para as pessoas e ganhasse uma grana com isso?". Nascia assim o arcade.

"Your soul is mine!"
- Shang Tsung, sobre a invenção dos fliperamas

O Galaxy Game (versão em arcade do jogo spacewar de computador daquela época) logo ficou muito popular e papou deveras mais moedinhas que qualquer outra coisa no campus de Stanford aquele ano. Os estudantes que inventaram o Galaxy Game não sacaram na hora o potencial para sua invenção, mas era só uma questão de tempo até a noticia se espalhar e mais gente viu que a brincadeira tinha potencial. Muito. Muito mesmo.

Em 1972 dois homens viram este potencial e decidiram que iriam ficar ricos. O que, se querem saber minha opinião, foi uma decisão muito boa mesmo. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Muito provavelmente estes dois homens cujos nomes não devem significar nada para vc fundaram uma empresa cujo nome talvez vc já tenha ouvido falar: ATARI.

E a ATARI chegou chutando furiosamente bundas com um jogo furiosamente furioso: PONG.
Se você esteve em coma nos ultimos 45 anos, pong é um jogo simples que simula ping pong e rapaz, eles não podiam ter acertado mais. Se o Galaxy Game chamou a atenção pelo conceito original, o Pong definitivamente ganhou corações em todo o mundo e a essa altura o processo não podia mais ser detido.

Fliperamas começaram a pipocar com o Pong no mundo todo. Em shoppings, restaurantes, pizzarias, lojas de sapatos, na America e no mundo. Onde houvesse um cantinho, provavelmente haveria um arcade para se jogar pong. Filas se formavam para rebater a bolinha um tubo de televisão e a raça humana vivia uma romantica lua-de-mel com sua mais recente criação e formas de arte.

O ano era 1972 e a verdade corria pelas ruas: em som unissono todos diziam:

Quanto a Nolan e Ted, bem, eles não ficaram ricos realmente. A idéia deles deu muito certo, mas era copiada e plagiada tão descaradamente que haviam diversas versões do pong feitas por tantas empresas que não deu pra Atari sair de férias pra Aruba definitivamente.

O pong era febre mundial, mas óbviamente a coisa não parou por aí. Outros vieram e a coisa só melhoraram: Space Invaders, Galaga e aí por diante no que ficou conhecido como "era dourada" dos arcadesfaziam os fliperamas crescerem cada vez mais e mais. Grandes cadeias de bares e restaurantes como  Chuck E Cheese, Ground Round, Dave and Busters, e Gatti's Pizza dedicavam um espaço cada vez maior aos arcades. Essa mania se espalhou tanto que chegou até mesmo do outro lado do mundo .

Aqui é necessário interromper um pouco da história da Atari e contar o que se passava nesse exato momento do outro lado do mundo. Porque a bola não para. Uma pequena e modesta empresa japonesa que iniciou em 1889 fabricando cartas para um jogo tipico japones.

Essa empresa tinha o nome de "deixe seu destino para o céu" e mudou radicalmente seu ponto de vista sobre os negócios em 1956 (sem saber que em 1952 acabava de nascer em Kyoto o homem que lhe daria o mundo). Em 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi (o neto do fundador Fusajiro Yamauchi) teve a sacada de que o mundo estava mudando e que bem, seria interessante abrir relações com o ocidente e por isso viajou aos Estados Unidos para visitar a maior empresa fabricantes de cartas do mundo na época, a United States Playing Card Company. Yamauchi ficou extremamente chocado ao descobrir que a maior empresa do seu ramo no mundo todo possuia apenas um extremamente modesto escritório.

Aquilo foi o insight, a epifania, a ligada fez com que o japones honrasse todos os seus ancestrais. Yamauchi entendeu de uma forma como nunca compreendera antes que o mundo estava mudando, mudando demais, e que o negócio das cartas era limitado demais. O mundo estava mudando tão rapido (o ano era 1956, a 2a guerra mundial começava a esfriar da cabeça das pessoas enquanto a guerra fria se levantava como um gigante de proporções épicas ao passo que alemães e japoneses desempenhavam o mais espetacular trabalho de reconstrução de um país da história da humanidade), e se a empresa dele não acompanhasse o ritmo das mudanças seria engolida pela história.

Ainda nos US and A, Yamauchi fez um acordo com a Disney para vender cartas com os personagens da empresa (que nessa época já era proporcionalmente popular e grande como é atualmente) no Japão. Aquilo trouxe muito dinheiro a sua empresa e ele retornou ao Japão como heroi, como visionario, como grande empresário e qualquer pessoa comum teria se contentado com isso. Mas não Hiroshi Yamauchi, não senhor, não ele. Yamauchi era muito mais do que um bom empresário, ele era um visionario e sabia que o futuro não estava nas cartas.

Vendendo os personagens da Disney, seus colegas e sócios estavam plenamente satisfeitos com os resultados financeiros. Hiroshi no entanto não, ele estava com a sua cabeça mais a frente, Yamauchi via o futuro e o futuro reservava um mundo muito diferente daquele que seu avo conhecia ao fundar sua empresa de cartas em 1889. Era hora de dar um passo a frente. Era hora de deixar de ser apenas um bom empresário e entrar para história. Felizmente Yamauchi ainda está vivo e bem nos dias de hoje para saber que naqueles dias ele tomou as decisões mais certas possíveis e que certamente seu avô teria muito orgulho dele.

A sua empresa começou a arriscar moderamente em outras areas: taxis, arroz instantaneo, emissora de televisão, cadeia de moteis, a sua empresa tentou de tudo um pouco e nada deu certo. Em 1964, após os jogos olimpicos de Tóquio, o futuro que Yamauchi previu veio bater a sua porta e não havia mais lugar no mundo para uma empresa fabricante de cartas. As vendas cairam tanto que a sua empresa fechou aquele ano com 60yens (cerca de 6 CENTAVOS de dolar) no saldo da contabilidade.

Se não a empresa não tivesse outros ramos para se apoiar, obviamente teria falido naquele ano. Felizmente eles possuiam Hiroshi e assim a empresa sobreviveu tropeçando até 1966, quando finalmente aconteceu: um hit. Finalmente a empresa acertou a mão em um dos seus produtos alternativos, e ironicamente foi justamente com a "Ultra Hand" que eles acertaram a mão.

"Todo nerd deveria, necessáriamente, ter uma ultra-hand. Afinal foi este brinquedo que mudou nossas vidas nerds para sempre."

Após o sucesso da Ultra-hand, a empresa achou o rumo e viu que mais do que os brinquedos, o entretenimento para a familia era o caminho certo a ser seguido.

Vc deve estar se perguntando "ok, essa história é muito bonita, muito comovente, mas o que diabos uma empresa japonesa de brinquedos de 1889 tem haver com qq coisa aqui?". Realmente, é uma pergunta muito pertinente, extremamente.

Incidentalmente eu esqueci de mencionar que o nome da empresa do senhor Hiroshi Yamauchi e acho que isso vai explicar tudo e porque isso é tão relevante para chegarmos ao PS3 que ainda é o motivo desse tópico: a empresa se chamava Nintendo Company, Limited.

Voltando ao ocidente, o ano agora era 1975 e Atari estava com sérios problemas, "em apuros" como eles dizem nos filmes. As vendas do seu Pong caiam cada vez mais, mas esse não era o problema: a empresa tinha tido uma idéia genial que era lançar um aparelho domestico para que as pessoas jogassem jogos no conforto de seus lares, apenas o ligando a uma televisão qualquer (o que posteriormente viria a ser conhecido como "videogame"). E era realmente uma idéia muito boa, não? Afinal se as pessoas faziam fila pra jogar essas coisas fora de casa, o sucesso que não seria ter o seu proprio em casa, ja penso?

Bem, na verdade a idéia era realmente muito boa e promissora, tão boa e tão promissora que a Atari óbviamente não foi a unica a pensar nisso. O prototipo da Atari se chamava "Stella" conhecido como "Stella" (nome da bicicleta de um dos engenheiros)

O Stella era diferente de qualquer coisa inventada até então. Ele não era "programado" com um jogo, era uma idéia muito mais sagaz: ele seria um hardware para rodar (através de cartuchos inseridos) jogos programados, dando possibilidades quase infinitas comparadas a um arcade. O design inicial não iria ser baseado em cartuchos, mas após verem um sistema de cartucho falso em outra máquina os engenheiros imaginaram que poderiam colocar os jogos em cartuchos pelo preço do conector e da embalagem.

O problema mesmo foi que em agosto de 1976 Fairchild Semiconductor liberou seu próprio sistema o Channel F. O Stella ainda não estava pronto para produção, mas estava claro que deveria estar pronto antes que outros produtos similares chegassem ao mercado, que foi o que aconteceu quando a Atari lançou o Pong. A Atari simplesmente não tinha o dinheiro necessário para completar o sistema rapidamente, e, além disso, a venda de seu Pong estava diminuindo mais e mais. Nolan Bushnell procurou a Warner Communications, e vendeu a companhia para eles em 1976 por 28 milhões de dólares, com a promessa de que o Stella seria produzido o mais rápido possível.

Sem poupar recursos [/Jurassic PArk], a Warner cumpriu o prometido e no natal de 1977 chegava aos mercados o Atari 2600 (nome comercial do Stella) após um custo de desenvolvimento aproximadamente de 100 milhões de dólares.

Senhoras e senhores, com vocês o Atari 2600
[/cry]

Bom, e aí tudo foi facil e feliz né?
Er... não, definitivamente não.

O publico estava saturado de Pongs genéricos (porra, quem não estaria?) e a maioria das empresas de clones do Pong sairam do mercado e foram fazer outras coisas. Em 1977, a Atari vendeu apenas 250 000 unidades . Em 1978, apenas 55 000 de uma produção de 800 000 foram vendidos, e foi preciso ajuda financeira da Warner para cobrir prejuízos. Isso causou discordâncias e causou a saída do fundador da Atari, Nolan Bushnell, em 1978. logo a Fairchild tambem pediu as contas e a Atari estava sozinha no mercado, abandonada no meio da rua, na chuva...

O que aconteceu foi que, basicamente, ninguem teve a sagacidade de dizer as pessoas "ei, vcs podem jogar outras alem de Pong!". Sério, esse foi o maior problema do nascimento dos videogames! Incrivel, não?

Com uma boa dose de propaganda (afinal o Atari era bancado pela Warner), uma vez que o público descobriu que era possível jogar jogos diferentes de Pong e os programadores aprenderam a alcançar os limites do hardware, o 2600 ganhou popularidade. Muita.

Em 1979, o 2600 foi o presente de natal mais vendido, principalmente por seus jogos exclusivos. Milhões de consoles foram vendido esse ano.

A Atari licenciou o grande sucesso de arcade Space Invaders da Taito, o qual aumentou ainda mais a popularidade do console quando foi lançado, em maio de 1980, dobrando as vendas novamente para mais de 2 milhões de unidades vendidas. O 2600 e seus cartuchos foram o maior fator por trás do gigantesco lucro da Atari, de mais de 2 bilhões de dólares em 1980. As vendas dobraram novamente pelos 2 anos seguintes, com venda de quase 8 milhões de unidades em 1982.

Como se as coisas já não estivessem boas o bastante para a Atari, em 1982 foi lançado para o videogame o que viria a ser o seu maior sucesso de todos os tempos. Após papar corações nos arcades, a possibilidade de jogar o "come come" no conforto de seu lar fez do Atari 2600 um épico de vendas

Durante este período, a Atari continuou a crescer até possuir uma das maiores divisões de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) do Vale do Silício. Grande parte do orçamento de P&D foi gasto em projetos que pareciam não se adaptar aos videogames (e mesmo ao computador) fabricados pela companhia. Muitos destes projetos nunca viram a luz do dia.

A Warner estava mais feliz que nunca, as vendas do 2600 pareciam não ter fim e o Atari era responsável por metade dos lucros da companhia.

Varios genéricos do Atari começaram a pipocar, e entre vários deles um se destacou em especial: o Magnavox Odyssey. O Odyssey foi um videogame muito especial por dois motivos: primeiro porque foi o meu primeiro videogame, segundo porque no Japão o aparelho era montado e distribuido pela Nintendo (no ocidente isso era feito pela Philips e embora não tenha tido muito retorno nos US and A, foi relativamente bem na Europa e no Brasil).

Agora imagine o pequeno Czinhu, no alto de seus 6 aninhos de pijama jogando Odyssey num sabado gelado de manhã. Oun =~ fofo demais né?

Yamauchi não demorou para entender que havia finalmente achado o caminho das pedras. Os videogames eram a resposta, o caminho, o eldorado. Mas ele sabia que a Nintendo nunca seria nada se não tivesse o seu próprio videogame, suas proprias idéias. Muitas pessoas diziam que isso era impossivel, que um japones nunca poderia ter esse tipo de sucesso em um negócio genuinamente norte-americano. Outras diziam que isso só seria possível se um genio viesse bater a sua porta e outras que nem assim isso seria possível.

Pois o gênio bateu a sua porta no ano de 1977. Neste ano o seu velho amigo Iijake Miyamoto lhe pediu um favor: que desse uma oportunidade ao seu filho que havia acabado de se formar em Design Industrial. Naquele momento Yamauchi não sabia, mas havia acabado de concordar em trazer para a sua empresa o gênio que faria da Nintendo a maior empresa de videogames de TODOS os tempos. Shigeru Miyamoto.

"Senhoras e senhores, com vocês o homem, o mito, a lenda: Shigeru Miyamoto"

Miyamoto começou criando design  de arcades, mas logo seu potencial ao design de personagens. O que era pouco, muito pouco para o potencial deste homem. Em 1981 devido a méritos próprios surgiu a primeira oportunidade do cara criar um arcade para a  Nintendo e de cara o sujeito me inventa um novo GENERO de jogos! Logo de saída, Miyamoto apenas inventou os jogos de plataforma. Donkey Kong, baseado levemente em um certo filme, onde um macaco malvado sequestra uma bela princesa e o heroi deve desviar dos obstaculos para salva-la.

Donkey Kong, o primeiro grande sucesso de Miyamoto estrelando Donkey Kong, a princesa e ... Jumpman, aquele que te pegou atrás do armario!

Um jogo anos luz a frente daqueles da época, coisa de quem é foda mesmo.

Mas se no Japão as coisas iam de vento em popa para a Nintendo, nos US and A a Atari, bem... a Atari...

(continua...)

This is not to say that Wii Sports and Wii Fit aren't fun, they just aren't of the quality that fans have come to expect. The Wii has put out very few titles that hardcore gamers can appreciate, the most notable being The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. It seems that Nintendo really doesn't care about hardcore gamers anymore. The only thing that really seems to concern Nintendo now are sales.

Nintendo's E3 2008 presentation was absolutely horrid. They basically touted their sales figures and didn't reveal any noteworthy upcoming content. With competitors Microsoft and Sony still going at it, Nintendo is meteorically rising in sales figures all the time. However, Microsoft and Sony are both gaining the audience that Nintendo is slowly losing. Hardcore gamers are "coming to the dark side", so to speak.

Whether or not Nintendo really gives a damn about their hardcore fans has yet to be seen, but if they hope to regain the many dedicated players they have amassed all these years, they'd better put out some quality games. Miyamoto needs to put out more great games (Pikmin 3 please...), or else Nintendo will lose their dedicated fanbase for good. On the other hand, if all Nintendo really cares about is $$$, they can keep going with their current plan, but, mark my words, the fans will never forgive them for leaving them in the cold.

What we heard: This morning many Nintendo fans perusing RSS feeds did a spit-take upon seeing two headlines, both from the online edition of British industry-news magazine MCV. The first proclaimed "'Wii 2' in production, confirms Nintendo," apparently indicating the successor to the console is ready for manufacturing. Another piece on the site titled "Wii Music 'Miyamoto's last idea'" gave the impression that the legendary game designer had finally hit a creative wall after three decades at Nintendo.

Unsurprisingly, the eternal game of telephone that is the forumsphere reverberated with the double-shot of news--news that actually originated from a single article in The Wall Street Journal. Titled "Keeping Up Nintendo's Momentum," the piece is a collection of quotes from an interview the financial daily's Japan correspondent did with company president Satoru Iwata. But while a pair of the executive's comments led to MCV's attention-grabbing headlines, upon closer inspection, their meaning radically diverges from what said headlines imply.

Concerning the Wii's successor, Iwata said, "The hardware team started work on the next thing as soon as they were done with their previous project, but what they think up doesn't necessarily become a product." (Emphasis added.) He went on to emphasize the conceptual nature of Nintendo's next console, and to underline the fact there is no actual Wii 2 product yet--let alone one in production. "We only turn something into a product after it's been thoroughly vetted inside the company," said Iwata. "We're not at a point where we can give specifics, but of course we're working on it."

As far as Miyamoto goes, Iwata said that Wii Music, the rhythm title awkwardly demoed at Nintendo's E3 press conference, was the last of the designer initial concepts for the Wii. "Wii Music completes what Miyamoto wrote in his proposal when he came up with the idea for the Wii," Iwata told the paper. The executive continued, "He was saying that he needs to think up more ideas now," indicating that far from being at his wit's end, Miyamoto is hard at work on Nintendo's next big thing.

The official story: See above.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that the Wii's successor is in the early stages of development--as is the fourth PlayStation and the Xbox 720 (working title). However, it's 100 percent bogus that Miyamoto has had his last idea. That won't happen until the 55-year-old designer jumps off into the great Mushroom Kingdom in the sky.

Mario Games

The character, Mario, has changed over time with new systems, technology, and graphics.  From his gaming debut, the arcade game Donkey Kong, where he is known as Jumpman, to the latest game, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario has sparked fun in every game he's been in, new and old.  He has become known by his blue overalls, red M hat, white gloves, brown shoes, and his amazing mustache around the world.  Not bad for an Itallian plumber!

In this series of posts, I'm going to go over the major games, characters, enemies, spinoffs, history, powerups, his future, and everything you can imagine!  Also, I'm going to keep this updated, so when you look at it, it will be fully updated and in tune with any changes in the Mario universe.

Donkey Kong- Mario's first appearence, although he wouldn't be known as Mario until four years later, when his own series of games started.  He was known as Jumpman, and was a carpenter.  The Princess Peach was actually known as The Lady!  Anyways, Mario was the breakthrough Nintendo needed to get into the gaming market of America.  Shegiru Miyamoto designed the game with others help to be different than the usual game of the day.  He used cutscenes to advance an actual story, and made it fun, challenging, and different.  The story starts when Jumpman mistreats his pet, so he in turn steals Jumpman's girl.  It's up to him to save The Lady from the King Kong-like creature.  When you win, the game starts over, but harder.  Nintendo had trouble communicating the name Jumpman to Nintendo of America, so they named him Mario, after their landlord.  It was the perfect match, and the game became very popular.

Mario Bros.- In 1983, Nintendo released the first game in the mario bros. series, Mario Bros.  It didn't have Donkey Kong, and was another arcade game.  The game was based around Mario and his brother Luigi, two plumbers, who fight enemies coming out of pipes.  It was later made a game playable on other home systems.

Super Mario Bros.- The video game market was dry when Miyamoto and Nintendo released another Mario game, Super Mario Bros., for the Nintendo NES.  It is the top bestselling game of all time, selling forty million copies!  It got two direct sequels, and is credited for making the NES popular.  It is a side-scrolling adventure, in which Princess Peach gets kidnapped by King Bowser.  Mario must fight his way through the Koopas and rescue the princess!  If two are playing, Luigi becomes the second character.  You must go through eight worlds, each with their own castle and boss battle.  This game set a lot of consistencies throughout the series, including collecting coins, jumping on enemies, kicking shells, hitting ? blocks, and more.

Super Mario Bros. 2- Super Mario Bros. 2, released in 1988 in the U.S., had some changes in the game.  You could play either Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach (who wasn't captured this time!), and Toad.  By squating, your character would flash, and when you jumped, it would be extra high.  Also, you could actually pluck objects from the ground, and throw certain ones at enemies.  It also used a real life meter, in which if you collect hearts, you can be hurt multiple times without dying.  Anyways, the story goes when Mario has a dream where he here's a voice telling him to save their kingdom from the evil Wart.  He talks to his friends, and they go on a picnic together.  They see a cave, enter, and go up a staircase and through a door like in Mario's dream.  They see a completely new world, and must save it.

Super Mario Bros. 3- Super Mario Bros. 3, released in 1990 in the U.S., intoduced a map screen, powerups, enemies, minigames, and even Bowsers kids, the Koopalings.  This game is called one of the best of all time, and was even promoted by McDonalds!  Mario and Luigi must go through several worlds, rescuing kings in order to save Peach from Bowser.  In each castle, they fight a Koopaling (boss), and take back the kings magic wand.  This game, along with the other classic Mario games, have been remade for newer systems, and many are on the Wii's virtual console.

Super Mario Land- Super Mario Land, released in 1989 for the gameboy, was very similar to the last two.  In this game, Mario must defeat Tatango, and save Princess Daisy.  There aren't any other playable characters in this game, though.  Also, in a couple of levels, Mario rides a submarine and airplane that can shoot for the whole level.  Tatanga captures Daisy to marry her, and sends his minions to defeat him, some who pretend to be Daisy to fool Mario.  The game did OK because many thought that every game was almost exactly like the one before it, with only small changes and different stories.

Super Mario World- Super Mario World was bundled with the Super NES, and is the bestselling game for that system.  Released in 1991 in the U.S., it has been remade for the gameboy advance (like the other Mario games), and is popular on the virtual console for the Wii.  It was probably the biggest game thus far in the Mario series, and had secret exits, secret worlds, and lots of other secrets that made it fun to go through and play a second time around.

Super Mario Land 2- Released in 1992 for the Gameboy, Super Mario Land 2 was one of the largest games for the Gameboy.  It had secret zones, levels, exits, and even kept track how many enemies you killed.  It also was the first game to feature Wario.  It also had a few minigames, sort of like the old Kirby games.  It takes place after Super Mario Land.  When Mario leaves, Wario takes over and calls it Wario Land.  He brainwashes all of the creatures and makes them believe that Mario is evil.  Mario must collect all six coins to open Wario's castle and defeat him.

Super Mario 64- Super Mario 64, released in 1996, was a revolution in the gaming history.  Instead of a 2D sidescrolling game, Super Mario 64 was a grand 3D adventure, and is the seventh best-selling game in the U.S.  It has been rereleased, remade for the DS, and is on the Wii's virtual console.  A sequel was actually planned, but was cancelled eventually.  In this game, Princess Peach invites Mario over for cake, but when he gets there, he finds Bowser and his minions have captured her and have taken over the castle using the Power Stars they stole, and dispersed over the castle, and hidden in paintings that lead to other worlds.  Mario must get the stars, unlock more of the castle, search for hidden stars, and defeat Bowser multiple times to rescue Princess Peach.  This game is one of my faves, and it's even better knowing even after you get Peach, there are still lots of stars you can go back and collect to completely finish the game.  It has a great storyline, fun, good challenges, and you really have to think to solve puzzles and challenges.  What makes it even better is that YOU get to decide where you want to go and what you want to do.  You can explore the castle, go to certain levels, replay certain levels, and have an amazing time doing it.

Super Mario Sunshine- Super Mario Sunshine, released in 2002, was the "sequel" to Super Mario 64, although they aren't very alike.  Two sequels had been cancelled already: Super Mario 64 2, and Super Mario 128.  When Super Mario Sunshine came out, critics were definitely pleased, but didn't think it was one of the best Mario games, like they had expected after waiting for six years.  It takes place in Isle Delfino, where Mario and Peach are taking a vacation after the events in Super Mario 64.  A character known as Shadow Mario comes, vandalizes the town, and blames it on Mario.  The sun sprites, the stars that give the island energy, go away.  He has to clean up, while going after Shadow Mario who has kidnapped Princess Peach, and collect the sun sprites.  The major theme in this game is the FLUDD, or the backpack Mario has.  He got it to help him clean up the graffiti and pollution, and uses it to get up high, go fast on land or water, break down doors, and many other actions.

New Super Mario Bros.- Released in 2006 for the DS, New Super Mario Bros. was like a blast from the past, only fresh and new.  It has the usual storyline, where Peach is kidnapped, and Mario must travel through eight worlds to rescue her.  It is very similar to the old games, with very similar controls, enemies, storyline, ect.  It is the bestselling DS game with only one version (unlike Nintendogs and Pokemon).

Super Mario Galaxy- Super Mario Galaxy, released in 2007, is one of the most stunning and mindblowing games on the Wii.  You can check my post on Super Mario Galaxy for more details and pics.  It takes place in outer space, after Bowser kidnaps Peach at a festival, and Mario is blasted into outer space.  He is rescued by Rosalina and her ship full of Lumas, or stars.  They say that Bowser stole the stars that powered the ship, and they are unable to fly, so they can't reach Bowser to rescue her.  Mario must travel to different galaxies through the ships several observatories, collect stars in order to power the ship to rescue Princess Peach.  Again, for more details, visit my post on Super Mario Galaxy.  The game sold amazingly, and was the best rated Mario game since Super Mario 64, over ten years earlier.  A sequel has been mentioned, and at E3 2008, Shigeru Miyamoto, announced that the sequel is being worked on, along with Zelda and Pikmin.

Thank you for reading The Complete Guide to Mario: Part 1--History(Games).  Next time, I'll go over all of the major and minor characters, followed by the enemies.  Stay tuned!

Wii would like to play

¿Habrá una nueva DS para Navidad?… los rumores hace ya tiempo que vienen apuntando a que esta serie una de las armas secretas de Nintendo para la campaña navideña.

Con millones de unidades vendidas, Nintendo buscaría renovar la formula que la ha llevado a ser la líder del mercado. Además de estilizar el diseño, la nueva Nintendo aumentaría el tamaño de la pantalla e integraría nuevas funcionalidades multimedia como reproducción MP3 y MP4 acercándose a un mercado que ahora domina la consola  PSP de Sony.

Con este nuevo producto Nintendo buscaría arrebatar mercado al producto de Sony que ha conseguido erigirse como la competencia entre el segmento de la población de entre 18 y 25 años atraídos por sus prestaciones multimedia y un concepto más para jovenes

Pacific League 5

(Kyocera Dome)

Aoki went 2 for 3 and struck out once, while Miyamoto didn't come up to bat in the Central League's All-Star Game loss tonight. Kanemoto (solo HR off Darvish plus one more RBI), Uchikawa, and Abe all had RBIs.
On the Pacific League side, Morimoto, Yamazaki, Kokubo, and Matsunaka all had RBIs. No homers for them.

The CL pitching staff threw 6 Ks, no walks, while the PL struck out 5 and walked 1.

Katoh got the win for the PL, while Kubota took the loss for the CL.

It was a fairly exciting one, as far as All-Star Games go, with the PL rallying from a one-run deficit in the bottom of the 9th to win the game.

The second All-Star Game will be at Yokohama Stadium tomorrow evening.

And then I considered something.  Nintendo has three main competitors at E3 every year: Microsoft, Sony, and the computer gaming industry.  Microsoft produced its first console seven years ago, releasing the first Xbox to the North American public in late 2001.  In comparison, Sony has been in the business more than twice as long, with the PlayStation being released to Japan in 1993.  Computer gaming arguably started a little bit before that.  Nintendo released the Famicon in Japan in 1983.  They've been doing video games for 25 years now.  So why haven't you heard anything about a "25 year anniversary"?  Nintendo has been around since 1889. They must be doing something right.  But what is it?

If Wikipedia is to be believed, and the list of best-selling video games of all time is true, there are some things that can be gathered here.  As you move down the list you can spot some of the games that have generated a lot of excitement in the past few years.  Halo 2 and Halo 3 sold approximately 8 million copies each, which is nothing to laugh at.  Call of Duty sold at most maybe 5 million between the two console "giants" and the PC.  GTAIV sold 4.6 million between both of the consoles.  Wii Play sold 11.5 million.  Wait, what?

That may sound surprising, but it starts to make sense the more you look at what kind of games are top sellers.  Wii Sports is at 21.56 million copies.  Nintendogs has sold 18.67 million copies.  Even looking at the PC, the most flexible system there is, The Sims dominates the list with 50 million copies of the game sold to the public.  The only game even close to that in the console market is the original Super Mario Bros., a 23 year old game, clocking in at just over 40 million copies sold.  The next highest is Tetris, again a Nintendo offering, 33 million.

What the numbers mean, then, is that Nintendo is in fact far from collapsing.  On the contrary, they're actually rolling in it.  A lot of it.  Nintendo is doing things just as they always have, appealing to a wide audience instead of a core of avid hobbyists.  It's been working for the past 25 years, and they have no reason to change their formula.  The core gamers who have stuck with Nintendo have been rewarded with such gems as Twilight Princess, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid Prime 3 for the Wii, just to name a few.  The DS isn't being left out either, getting its own offering of Call of Duty 4 and rumours of a GTA title lined up for it as well.

So, are us core gamers really that important in the big picture?  No, not at all, and while Nintendo does try to make ends meet for core gamers, they have made the right decision to target the broader audience.  Should we be bitter towards the gaming giant for assigning core gamers to second fiddle?  Probably not, and our effort could be better directed towards thanking the corporations such as Microsoft and Sony, as well as the countless developers and publishers out there, that continue to target the core despite the potential for so much more.

- Mike

"Making these 'traditional' games is what I am best at. Because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be 50-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams."

"They are all working on more Mario, Zelda and Pikmin projects," he said. "And they all work in close proximity to me, so I can keep a good eye on them."

So while we were disappointed that we didn't hear any Mario or Zelda at E3, they are definitely being worked on. YAY! We were not forgotten about after all.

{Telegraph}

“As game designers, the trend is often for concentrating on pushing graphics, or other capabilities, or network features in new games. But I like to think that game designers would be better off trying to think about things such as health or mental improvement, rather than technology itself. Making these ‘traditional’ games is what I am best at. Because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be 50-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams. They are all working on more Mario, Zelda and Pikmin projects. And they all work in close proximity to me, so I can keep a good eye on them.” - Shigeru Miyamoto

You can find the rest of the interview Here

Philthy