games

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Why Do People Play Farmville?

Farmville is a popular online game, usually played through Facebook, but now available on platforms including the iPhone. I've played several similar games (like We Rule) and found it a baffling experience. The game was simultaneously boring and addictive. "Gameplay" consisted of laborious, mechanical management tasks, and demanded that the player constantly return to the game at specific times to harvest crops in order to get virtual currency, so you could...plant more crops and set your clock again.... READ ON

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More on IBM's Jeopardyputer

I mentioned Watson, IBM's Jeopardy-playing computer, back in February. But the details were a little thin back then. Now, the New York Times Magazine has a full profile of Watson, and it sounds like this thing is a monster. IBM has been staging "live" games and plans to pit Watson against former TV champions later this year (note to TV people: please televise this). As Andy Baio (of Waxy.org) said: "Ken Jennings, you're our only hope!" Here's a taste: Over the rest of the day, Watson went on a... READ ON

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Full Monopoly Game in 21 Seconds

I've been in plenty of Monopoly games that dragged on for hours, with one or two bankrupt players sitting on the sidelines, bored to death. But a few intrepid gamers decided to figure out the shortest theoretically possible Monopoly game. Their solution is explained here and depicted in the video below. While extremely unlikely, it's theoretically possible that it could happen. It takes only nine rolls of the dice. But what's more interesting is this comment thread in which several other Monopoly... READ ON

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Early 90's Video Game Promo Video

What has three bonus stages and a terrible promo video? Street Fighter II Turbo for SNES, dudes!! Apparently in the early 90's, Capcom sent out a viral videotape to players. They encourage viewers to share the VHS videotape with friends. Now, that tape has finally gone viral. It's pretty awful. Here are some quotes: Host: "A lot of players think this is the greatest fighting game of all time!" (No citation provided.) Host: "Did you see that new move!?" Vaguely interested onlooker: "Aww,... READ ON

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Siskel and Ebert Play a Sega Boxing Game

Roger Ebert made waves a while back when he claimed that video games can never be art. While I'm not touching that argument with a ten-foot pole, I thought you might enjoy the video below -- shot in 1993, it shows Ebert and his pal Gene Siskel playing Greatest Heavyweights of the Ring on a Sega Genesis, using the Sega Activator™ "Full Body Controller." This video game, and the resulting clip of the Siskel/Ebert bout, is certainly not art. Though it is brought to you by Jelly Belly, Lady Remington,... READ ON

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FAIL! 5 Toys/Games that need improvement

We don't spoil our 2 Â½ year old, but he has collected his fair share of toys and games, especially over the last year or so. Here are four that hold a special place in our hearts (read: make us laugh every time we hear them). 1. The O Sole Mio Dog By the sound of it, you probably think our batteries need replacing. But guess what? This is what the dog sounds like whether the batteries are fresh or not! And, no, we did not buy this for him... a kookie relative did, who'll remain anonymous. The... READ ON

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1Cup1Coffee

Who doesn't like to kill zombies? Here's my new favorite kill-a-zombie game (listen to the zombie dying sound effect!) on my new favorite flash game site: 1cup1coffee.com For physics-geeks and general game-play fun-lovers, there's Demolition Dude (love the music!). A little more family-friendly than killing zombies. There's TONS of fun games (read: time wasters) over on the site, so check 'em all out here. Oh, and make sure you tell us what level you got up to on Demolition... READ ON

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How "The Wrestler's" 8-bit Nintendo Game Was Made

I finally saw The Wrestler this weekend, and it was great. One little detail jumped out at me, though -- in one scene, the eponymous wrestler plays a Nintendo game with a neighborhood kid. The game is based on the character in the movie, and appears to be a real mid-80's NES game, but it can't be, because the wrestler character (Randy "The Ram" Robinson) is fictional. But in this scene they're playing the game, executing moves like the "Ram Slam" on each other. What? How did they do that? It turns... READ ON

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The Origins of Whac-A-Mole

Aaron Fechter invented the original Whac-A-Mole game in 1971. Well...he took the idea from "some Japanese guys" who had created a creature-whacking game first, but Fechter made the mechanism work reliably by inventing an air cylinder system to power the moles and an audio-tape-driven pattern that governed the moles' timing. Also, Fechter's game used only moles, rather than a variety of animals in the Japanese game. In the video below, Fechter (who went on to create the Rock-afire Explosion animatronic... READ ON

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TED Talk: Save the World by Playing Online Games

"I believe that if we want to survive the next century on this planet, we need...21 billion hours of gameplay every week. ... No, I'm serious." So says Jane McGonigal in a recent TED Talk. McGonigal is a game designer who studies gaming, cooperation, and how games can actually make a difference in the real world. Her thesis is basically that kids are already spending zillions of hours (specifically, 10,000 hours on average by age 21) playing games -- so why not use that game time to do something... READ ON