Well, it's been quite some time since I've bothered doing any on camera work (2004 to be exact) and I was kind of itching to do something a bit different again, so I came up with the idea for "The Goodnight Gamer", where, late at night, after my family goes to sleep (and already in my "jammies"), I go downstairs and do quick 10 minute or less episodes covering all kinds of (mostly vintage) videogame and computer content, much like Armchair Arcade itself. This first episode breaks that rule by being much longer than 10 minutes (hence being broken down into four parts), but was necessary to provide the baseline tour of the "facility". The idea is to have fun and knock these out quick - in one take - with minimal editing and post processing from a cheap flash memory-based pocket camcorder. I'll of course refine the concept over time. Enjoy and I'd love to hear feedback (bad and good). Thanks! [Note: I had to use Revver this time due to exceeding 10 minutes, but I'll get it down for the next episode so it also fits YouTube]

Episode 1, Part 1 (of 4):

Episode 1, Part 2 (of 4):

Battlecast Primetime: These sportscasters, er, gamecasters deliver colorful C&C commentary.

In South Korea, Starcraft became a national obsession, spawning a following comparable to professional sports with star players, matches played in stadiums with play by plays, and even little Zergling sneakers. But what about in the USA? Can EA try to make Command and Conquer as popular in the US as Blizzard did with Starcraft in Korea? EA's new online show, Battlecast Primetime, isn't a bad start.

The first episode runs around an hour and covers an online match of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars with play by play from no less than 4 commentators, features an interview with actor Joe Kucan (Kane from the C&C series), a preview of the upcoming expansion pack, and no less than 5 commercial breaks for other EA products. The commercials are short at least and the Simpsons game looks surprisingly promising. Players can submit recordings of online matches for consideration for future episodes of the show.

As many of you know, for the past what, two years+ now, I've been working on a book to be published by No Starch Press and distributed by O'Reilly online and at bookstores everywhere in October 2007 (tentative, but looks likely). One of the issues I and my co-author, Matt Barton, have been struggling with with the publisher has been titling this potential opus.

Simon Says: Their ubiquitous gaze haunts me to this day . . .I was unable to cajole my son into playing this game with me, but since there is a kitty cat on the Überlay I was able to lure my three year old daughter into playing it. She enjoyed it so much, that she requested to play it again on three separate occasions since.

Simon Says is best played with three people. Two people each handling a controller and a third person who plays the role of Simon. Simon draws one of the provided off-screen accessory cards, reads it and says aloud: "Simon Says: fine the (body part indicated on card)". The players have to move their PlayerSpots from their starting square to the corresponding body-part on one of the colorful Überlay children or one of their strangely legless pets. The person who gets their PlayerSpot to the correct spot first, gets to keep the card. The person with the most cards wins the game.

If the person playing Simon chooses to make it so, then the role of Simon can be played as a crafty trickster, sometimes omitting the words "Simon Says" from the command phrase. The rule being, of course, that if Simon doesn’t say “Simon says” than nobody is supposed to move their PlayerSpot at all or suffer terrible consequences, such as the loss of a card. Being the playful, tormenting father that I am, I tried it that way but quickly discovered that I should probably wait until she turns four before trying to “fake out” my daughter. It just pissed her off in a very, “Why must you cause me such pain, Daddy?” kind of way. I changed the rule to Simon having to say “please” for a command to be followed. This was more easily understood by my daughter because it’s something my wife and I are drilling into her in real life. She enjoyed chirping back at me "You didn't say 'please'!" whenever I tried to trick her.

What is it about these physics-defying games that makes them one of the most long lasting genres around?

Introduction
Shoot‘em ups (SHMUPS) are a very specific kind of videogame that everybody will recognize, a type of game where you control a maneuverable weapon – often in the form of a spaceship – stopping enemies from destroying you or your bases. Control is often fairly limited, four- or eight-way control, but sometimes only sideways, combined with one or more fire-buttons. One of the most well known incarnations of the game is Space Invaders and a lot of later games all seem to be inspired by this old granddaddy of SHMUPS from the late 1970’s. Even non-gamers know what Space Invaders is about, often describing a modern day SHMUP as ‘being like Space Invaders’.

What is it about these physics-defying games that makes them one of the most long lasting genres around?

Introduction
Shoot‘em ups (SHMUPS) are a very specific kind of videogame that everybody will recognize, a type of game where you control a maneuverable weapon – often in the form of a spaceship – stopping enemies from destroying you or your bases. Control is often fairly limited, four- or eight-way control, but sometimes only sideways, combined with one or more fire-buttons. One of the most well known incarnations of the game is Space Invaders and a lot of later games all seem to be inspired by this old granddaddy of SHMUPS from the late 1970’s. Even non-gamers know what Space Invaders is about, often describing a modern day SHMUP as ‘being like Space Invaders’.