This man, Jack Rossi, created a simulation proton pack + thrower so he can play the Wii version of Ghostbusters with as much realism as possible. This is the result.
I gotta admire him for his preference of playability over having this-gen graphics. And for finding a use for all that junk he had lying around his house. [GBFans via Destructoid via Nerd Aproved]
Popularity: 2% [?]
We’ve seen the hacker-friendly, Bluetooth-based Wiimote used for so many purposes by now that it’s hard to get excited about just any amalgamation of accelerometer-based fun. Patrick Flanagan’s ‘Jazari’ project breaks past the yawn factor with a veritable museum’s worth of robotic instruments, which are all controlled from a pair of Wiimotes and some rather intelligent software. It all seems a little too complicated to be live-controlled, but as Patrick himself explains in true music nerd detail, there’s pretty much a button or a twist or a tilt behind every bit of the wild djembe, bongo and cowbell stylings that make up Jazari’s “steamfunk” (his term) music. Check out both videos after the break.
Wiimote-controlled ‘Jazari’ robot percussion takes us back to our tribal, Nintendo-hacking roots originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Popularity: 2% [?]
In what may be a precursor to the hippie/robot showdown we’ve always hoped for, musician Patrick Flanagan has founded Jazari, a three-piece robotic drum circle with some impressive grooves. If that’s not fun enough, it’s all controlled by two Wiimotes.
Last week we looked at Marv, a robotic vibraphone that banged out an impressive rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” This week’s robotunes come courtesy of an ensemble.
Flanagan wields two Wiimotes to control the rhythm, volume, and pitch of the three different drums. The D-pad determines which part of the drum is struck (and thus the sound it makes) while turning the Wiimote side to side controls the tempo of the notes and pointing it up and down controls their volume. Other buttons allow Flanagan to record loops on the fly and manipulate those patterns live.
Flanagan’s software even allows the other drums to analyze the grooves he’s creating and improvise their own patterns, though he doesn’t spend too much time talking about this capability. I think, as frontmen often do, he likes the control. [PopSci]
Popularity: unranked [?]
Bioshock 2 is out, genre-bender Heavy Rain has been reviewed and there’s news on Fable III, Crackdown II and Alan Wake. So let’s do this.
Heavy Rain Review: No Wrong Conclusion
In 10-20 years, it’s my guess that you’ll see a lot more games like Heavy Rain.
Frankenreview: Heavy Rain
For a second opinion.
Your First Look At Fable III In Action
We all knew Fable III was coming, but official news just broke yesterday.
New Crackdown 2 Screens Show Off Shiny Preorder Armor
If you haven’t played Crackdown, it’s like co-op GTA for superheroes.
More Alan Wake Footage, More Flashlights In The Dark
A lot of people are comparing adventure game Alan Wake to adventure game Heavy Rain. Really, Alan Wake looks like survival horror with a narrator. That’s not a bad thing, but the title doesn’t feel quite as ambitious as an interactive movie.
City Of Heroes Gets A Visual Makeover
It’s always kind of neat when an MMO gets reskinned, like a whole world has been made better.
Frankenreview: BioShock 2
I’ve got Bioshock 2 sitting about 5 feet from me. But I think I’m playing through Mass Effect 2 again before cracking the case.
Star Trek Online Couldn’t Resist The Borg
And we couldn’t resist the Borg either.
Popularity: unranked [?]
It’s been a long road from conceptual render to final product, but the Riiflex Wii weights (for Wii Fit, or any other game) are available now for $30/pair. Me? I’m too lazy to even waggle a stock Wiimote. [Riiflex]
Popularity: 2% [?]
Netflix: lack of HD streaming ‘no loss’ for Wii owners originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Joystiq | 
The Wiire | Email this | Comments
Popularity: unranked [?]
Normally Nintendo’s slip-ups come from the mouth of Satoru Iwata, but this time Shigeru Miyamoto has blabbed about upcoming hardware and a new project using the MotionPlus peripheral.
Collecting a Special Achievement Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival on the weekend, Miyamoto referred to upcoming new hardware, the latest Zelda game, and a project involving MotionPlus. No Wii HD mention sadly, but I’ll keep my fingers and toes crossed. [Andriasang via Joystiq]
Popularity: unranked [?]
Do you think non-disclosure agreements apply if you’re one of the guys who built the company you represent? Probably not, as evidenced by Shigeru Miyamoto, who recently took the opportunity — while receiving an award, no less — to blab about forthcoming hardware and games based around the MotionPlus peripheral. There wasn’t much content to his mentions, beyond us now knowing that he’s actively engaged in the design of multiple games outside of the next Zelda iteration, but this is the firmest confirmation yet that the Wii is set for a Wiiplacement. Parsing this with earlier comments from Miyamoto-san would suggest the company will be looking to optimize its present formula (maybe with a touch of HD?) rather than revolutionize what is already a wildly successful console. Until then, let’s just be happy that one of gaming’s patriarchs is still going strong and dropping crumbs of knowledge for us undeserving earthlings.
Nintendo’s Miyamoto casually references new hardware, MotionPlus games originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Joystiq | 4Gamer | Email this | Comments
Popularity: 1% [?]
Only one in 12 Netflixers subscribe to the Blu-ray service, and at just 6% of their total streaming catalog, HD content is “underwhelming,” according to Netflix. Two stories, one lesson: HD just isn’t what matters right now to Netflix.
For all the marketing dollars thrown behind HD, Blu-ray is still a marginal technology when compared to DVD, the obsoleting of which is taking longer than many expected. That less than 10% of Netflix subscribers opt for the Blu-ray option isn’t that surprising. In the larger context of Blu-ray adoption, this isn’t too surprising.
What is surprising, though, is hearing Netflix actively downplaying the importance of HD content in this interview with The Wiire:
PS3 and Xbox users have 1 in 17 titles available in HD, and it’s streamed in 720… it’s not in 1080, and it’s not in 5.1 surround sound or anything…So, the HD experience at Netflix Instant Watching isn’t that overwhelming. It’s a little bit underwhelming. So the Wii folks aren’t going to miss that much.
Yep, that’s Netflix Communications VP Steve Swasey. His job is specifically to make Netflix sound whelming, without the “under.” And yet, in the context of the Wii, deflation. It’s obvious why Nintendo would talk like that, but Netflix? Really?
Rest assured, there’s a plan here. Netflix is wrestling with two inevitabilities: HD content will supplant SD content, and physical media for video will die. Netflix knows this, which is why they were willing to go along with Warner Brothers’ irritating disc availability delays in the service of streaming deals.
By downplaying Netflix’s HD content to help ease their Wii rollout, Netflix is rightly choosing customer expansion over video quality, which many customers wouldn’t even notice. I mean honestly, it won’t be long before recording movies to a disc, sending that disc in an envelope, inserting that disc into a DVD player and sending the disc back in the mail will sound like some kind of Rube Goldberg contrivance (when you put it that way, it sort of already does…), and when streaming video over IP will be the only way to watch movies, so if making 26 million Wii owners feel like their lack of HD support isn’t a big deal is what it takes to convert them into subscribers in your eventual streaming mega-empire, Netflix, deflate all you want. [TheWiire, HomeMediaMagazine]
Popularity: 1% [?]
A British doctor was so kind as to write a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, handily summarizing what is known about Nintendo-related injuries. The gist: Your Wii wants you dead.
The point of the letter was to highlight a new case, in which a girl hurt her foot playing Wii Fit. But in the process, it provides a tidy little history of ways people have managed to injure themselves playing video games.
• Nintendinitis: This is the classic videogame injury, and one you’ve probably heard of before. This is a repetitive stress injury in the “extensor tendon of [the] thumb,” which you can get from pretty much any game console.
• Wiiitis: Sounds like something a lot of people have probably just slept off:
A healthy 29-year-old medical resident awoke one Sunday morning with intense pain in the right shoulder. He did not recall any recent injuries or trauma and had not participated in any sports or physical exercise recently. He consulted a rheumatology colleague. The Patte’s test was positive, consistent with acute tendonitis isolated to the right infraspinatus.
After just a day with the Wii, this kid was out of commission for a week. What does Nintendo have against healthy tendons?
• Traumatic Hemothorax: If this sounds terrifying, you probably did well in Latin class. Doctors have apparently documented the cavities around patients’ lungs filling with blood after Wii-related falls. This can kill you.
• Dislocations: This one is the most predictable of the lot, since honestly, who hasn’t gotten carried away trying to Happy-Gilmore-bowl their way through Wii Sports? And anyway, fake sport/real injury humor is universal.
• Head Injuries: Wiimote straps may save your HDTV, but they won’t save your kid sister from getting clocked in the skull while you’re playing Zelda.
• Wii Fracture: This is the new one:
In the United Kingdom, a healthy 14-year-old girl presented to the emergency department at Horton General Hospital in Banbury (near Oxford), having sustained an injury to her right foot with associated difficulty in mobilization. She had been playing on her Wii Fit balance board and had fallen off, sustaining an inversion injury.
Apparently, rolling your foot off the side of the balance board—which, really, anyone who’s played Wii Fit has done multiple times—can be enough to crack a bone in your foot.
So basically your Wii is actively trying to maim you and your children, the end. [NEJM—Thanks, Michael from Medgadget!]
Popularity: 3% [?]
 |
 |
Website Design and Development by activeDesigns.
Tech2Crave is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
