New Portable GameBoy Advance DVD Player
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
The new Portable DVD Player was announced a few weeks ago. The main attraction of this DVD Player is that it has a slot in the lid for the GameBoy Advance games. This news was anticipated for a very long time, but nonetheless it’s a brilliant idea.
It is licensed by Nintendo. Their systems are considered to be game systems first and foremost. The GameBoy Advance game library is considered superior than the PSP. Also it plays real DVDs and not UMDs (Universal Media Disk). Many believe that if this feature was announced a couple of years ago, it might have been something different. Everything this device is capable of, Sony PSP handles it even better now. But even possessing the same technical features, the 4.3’ inches Sony PSP screen is no match for 10.2’ inches flip down screen of GameBoy Advance DVD Player.
One of the negative aspects might be the playability. Also one of the concerns is the price of the product (expected to be around $1200). One might buy a separate DVD Player and GameBoy Advance along with a Nintendo DS. But on the other hand, it’s a perfect gift for everyone, especially for children.
Ever imagine the day where you could have a GPS receiver that was small enough to fit in your pocket? Those days may not be too far out of reach when the soon-to-be released Columbus V-700 Bluetooth GPS receiver will be available for use with the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Developed by a Chinese company called Fuzhou Victory Technology (FVT), the Columbus V-700 will weigh a mere 33 grams and has dimensions of 53.5mm high, 32mm wide, and 13.9mm deep. The Columbus will also include a Li-Polymer battery (runtime currently unavailable) and the SiRF III chip. With all this in mind, this powerful (and yet tiny) GPS receiver will be able to connect with up-to 20 satellites for the shortest fixation time and it will be accurate within 1.5 meters of the specified target. Not available in the United States yet, the V-700 is currently priced at $199. It may be the price of a video game console, but having the ability to get pinpoint directions from your pocket is priceless.
Rockstar’s controversial Grand Theft Auto franchise was in news again but not because of its comprehensiveness, graphics or game play. This time, GTA was victim of the allegations imposed on it. The players were so influenced by this game that they started playing it in real life. Many stories in this regard came up. A year ago, man named Tyrone McMillan was taken into custody after a 55 minute car chase on the roads of Albany, New York. Initially, officers wanted him to pull over for the parole violation, but McMillan assumed he can outrun the cops because he has done it so many times on his PS2 playing GTA. With the experience of navigating the illusory San Andreas and Vice City in hand, he thought that he can easily out smart the cops. He even had his girlfriend’s daughter and her cousin in the backseat. After slamming into two cars, he was finally caught. In his statement to the police, he blamed GTA for what ever happened. No Attorney could help him now, as a court judge slapped him with two concurrent seven-year jail terms. After serving time, he will be on parole for 10 years.
Thousands of games, tens of thousands of competitive man-hours, and over a decade later, Sony has decided to cut the cord on the production of the PSone. Sony announced that the PlayStation 2 will now become the standard entry-level system, with both it and the PlayStation 3 being backwards compatible for PSone games. With their well-recognized and mysteriously ambiguous launch ads, such as the “Enos Lives” (meaning “Ready Ninth of September”) ad, the PlayStation began its successful career on September 9, 1995 at a price of $299. Having sold over 100 million units across the world, the PSone kept gamers on their toes with such titles as Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Tekken, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, and many more. Since placing the PSone on the chopping block, Sony has also announced that it is currently developing an emulator that will allow owners of the PlayStation Portable to download PSone games and play them on their handheld device. No release date for the emulator or any other details have been made public so far.
Generally the first instinct for millions of people worldwide is to turn on electronic games when they want to be entertained. Entertainment is nowadays a fast growing industry with millions of subscribers from different countries. Now TV is no longer the main attraction and a good game can be more captivating than any TV network. The good games are involving interactivity, strategy, thinking, and in many of them a basic story line is followed. The games are not just for young boys but also for girls, and their main advantage is the interactivity. The quality of TV is going down too much and in those conditions 2 in 5 in 10 adults turn their attention to electronic games. Video games are the highest form of art mankind ever has made, because they combine everything: music, art and feelings are melted together and the best part is that you are actually in the game. Movies, no matter how good they get, are not interactive. In video games you actually are in the story instead of just watching it, and people are starting to finally realize the advantages of that.