I was browsing Slashdot's Top Indie Games You Wouldn't Mind Paying For and came across GameBiz, an absolutely fascinating game that puts you in the role of a game developer. You get to create games and then market them on a range of platforms including the Amiga (the game begins in 1980). You can also make your own platforms! It's a freebie, so might as well try it out. I know it'd be fun to finally get to see how the Amiga would've turned out with proper management! If you do try the game, please let us know what you think. Click more to see the developer's blurb.

Pac-ManPac-Man fever! That's what I have now that I've started work on the Pac-Man chapter in the book I'm currently writing with Bill Loguidice, the acclaimed collector and game historian. :) As usual, I started off by reading the wikipedia entry on the game, which this time was actually extremely detailed and helpful. One interesting thing about the wikipedia article is that it claims that the game designer, Toru Iwatani, was not inspired by a pizza as the old story goes. The article cites a book called Programmers at Work: Interviews, which I unfortunately do not own. If anyone does have this book or has thoughts on this matter, please let me know!

Building on the platforms already impressive homebrew efforts to date, Dale Wick wrote in to tell me that the new ColecoVision mini-games cartridge compilation is now in stock. I already got my order in previously, but now it's available to everyone more easily. When you're there, be sure to check out the info on a second mini-games cartridge and get a sneak peak at early development on a game inspired by Coleco's never developed (but advertised) Dracula game. All the info here.

Microsoft has decided to make some of the XNA games available for download to non-developers. This is a FREE preview to ALL Xbox LIVE members.

In an article about the influences of console games on the development of DX10 PC based video games PC News interviews Mark Rein - CEO of Epic Games and he had some interesting things to say - read more!

Two great games are coming to Apple Macintosh and will run on OSX natively. The games are Gears of War and UT3.

As you know, running a site such as Armchair Arcade takes money, and, while we'd still do this even if the Website didn't generate a penny to help offset our hosting and bandwidth costs, it's nice when something we offer does work. This brings me to our affiliate program with PlayFirst, publishers of fine small form games for platforms like the PC, Macintosh and Web. That's been by far the biggest hit of our modest efforts and we just wanted to take a moment to thank all the AA'ers who took the time to click on the links, play some of the games offered and make purchases of their favorites. It's very much appreciated! For those who haven't checked it out yet, click on over to PlayFirst with the following links: