Archive for April, 2007

The ZX Spectrum turns 25!

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

According to World of Spectrum (also seen on Slashdot), the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was released exactly 25 years ago.

I don’t need to tell you how important this little black rubber-keyed beast was to me, during my late childhood and early teens. It was my first “real” computer (technically, it was my father’s, but…), and not only did I spent thousands of hours playing hundreds of games on it, it was also the computer I learned to program (BASIC) on, when I was 9 or 10.

It was a time that seemed magical, with endless possibilities. I still remember the afternoon when my father introduced that (at the time) weird thing at home. I didn’t know it then, but it would be one of the most important and enduring influences on my life.

Twenty-five years. Doesn’t even seem that long ago.

And people are still creating new games for it… who’d have thought?

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

For the last few days, the only cartridge inside my Nintendo DS has been this game: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, by Infinite Interactive, authors of the Warlords and Warlords Battlecry series.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

From everything I’ve seen, this game has had very little promotion, and has been relatively hard to find. But most reviews have been quite good (either 8/10 or 9/10), and most people online speak highly of the game as well.

If I was to concisely explain to someone what the game is like, I’d say the following:

  • 50% Bejeweled (the basic “match 3″ game);
  • 30% Warlords Battlecry 3 (the setting, the RPG elements);
  • 20% Magic: the Gathering (the accumulating of several colors of mana to cast spells, the damage system).

(more…)

RE4 for Wii: dreams come true?

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

From IGN:

After rumours that a Wii version of Resident Evil 4 was appearing on the release schedules of Japanese retailers, the latest issue of Famitsu has confirmed the tittle-tattle and gives a few details about the Wii installment.

Imaginatively titled Bio Hazard 4: Wii Edition, this updated version features new Wiimote-specific controls. These include using the remote to aim weapons, moving the control to reload and using a knife by waggling the controller.

According to Famitsu it also features Ada’s missions from Resi 4 on PS2 and comes with a trailer for the upcoming Umbrella Chronicles, which is also on Wii.

A Capcom representative was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

I hope it includes true widescreen support as well. This is a dream come true. :)

EDIT: More details (though no definitive confirmation yet) here and here.

EDIT2: According to Famitsu, it is indeed confirmed, at least in Japan… and does include widescreen. Yes! :)

Yet another EDIT: More info here.


Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal
This work by Dehumanizer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal.