I know that few AA regulars will want to miss this interview with Adam Chowaniec, a PC pioneer who was responsible for creating the Amiga (probably my favorite computer platform of all time).

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!

Extremetech has an excellent post up about building a gaming rig for under $800. Looks like they're going with a Core 2 Duo processor and an XFX GeForce 7600 GT graphics card.

One of the many aspects of gaming culture that tends to get ignored by the majority of critics is the game demo. No, I'm not talking about the "produkts" of the "demoscene" groups, but rather those programs that purport to offer users a "trial sample" of a commercial title. Who cares? Well, game demos have played (and continue to play) an intriguing and potentially vital role in the game industry--they expose gamers to new games, help sell game magazines, and might eventually become more important than the "full versions" they represent. Although I'm not prepared here to offer a full history of the phenemonon, I would like to mention a few important developments and hopefully raise some issues for discussion.

What's the #1 thing slowing down your modern PC? According to Tom's Hardware, it may be your hard drive. According to authors Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos, hard drive technology has greatly expanded in capacity, yet lagged seriously behind in terms of performance. The authors take a look back at the past 15 years of hard drive technology, going into plenty of detail about compression technology. However, all is not bleak:

Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe Edition: Package Contents (Image courtesy 2K)Normally I don't mention new items such as this unless there's something particularly intriguing about it (that's what more mainstream Websites are paid to do), but the packaging for this one is kind of nifty - and - as a proponent of exquisite game packaging, I'm putting this PRESS RELEASE right to the top (click on the image at right to see a larger version):

"Willy Byte in the Digital Dimension" for the Apple III don't know if this'll show up on my profile page, but I felt like writing up a short history of me and gaming. (ed.: I bumped this to the front page of AA)

1978 - Mmm. Coding basic text games on our Apple II+. Plus I could make a cool string of wine goblets run up the side of the screen.

10 PRINT "Y"
20 PRINT "I"
30 GOTO 10

1980 - The folks bring home an Atari 2600. Love blooms. The games I remember most from this time are Pac Man, Space Invaders, Berzerk, Swordquest: Earthworld, and Combat. Like many people I've talked to, you always had to have one friend with an Intellivision and one with a ColecoVision so that everyone could play every system. :)