PS3 update 3.10 include:

• The Photo category on the XMB has been revamped to make it easier to see more of your photos stored on the PS3.
• The PSN Friends List has been modified based on feedback we received after update 3.00. Additionally, you can now choose a color for your PSN ID on the XMB.

PSP update 6.20:

• Digital Comics Reader – PlayStation Network Digital Comics is a new service launching in December. It will allow you to download hundreds of classic and new comics from the PlayStation Store and read them page by page or frame by frame on your PSP system. Firmware update (v6.20) includes the Digital Comics reader application, which you’ll find under a new section called “Extras” on the XMB. Please note, the comic reader is an additional download; once you’ve loaded (v6.20) onto your system, simply click on the comic reader icon under “Extras” to download it to your PSP. In addition, you’ll be able to try out a free digital comic sample from the service soon. Visit www.playstationcomics.com for more information.
• Export video/photo playlists – This is a new feature that allows you to export your video and photo playlists from your PC to your PSP system through Media Go. Download the latest version of Media Go (v1.3) for this and a few additional enhancements.

According to Joytstiq.com the Digital Comic Reader  will be available to Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States in December. France, Italy, Germany and Spain will get it early 2010. Japan will get a manga service slightly earlier.

Under is a video from the PS3 update.

Source: blog.us.playstation.com for PSP and PS3.

Today Nintendo in Europe released three WiiWare demos for download. You can download the demo of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, BIT.TRIP Beat and NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits. they are only available for download until 31st January, 2010. You find the demos in Wii Shop Channel under Demo in Search by Genre in WiiWare.

So three demos isn’t much, but is a small start. I do hope Nintendo will release more demos. From my own experience on Xbox 360, some of my Xbox Live Arcade titles are bought after I’ve tested the demo.

I’ve recored some gameplay of all the three demos and took some screenshoot too, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord

BIT.TRIP Beat

NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits

This blogpost is for everyone who lives in Europe, have a Nintendo Wii and haven’t connected it online you. In October Nintendo of Europe launched their Connection Ambassador Promotion. This is for helping all those of you who haven’t connected your Wii’s to Internet.

The benefit is for both of us. I give you my Nintendo Wii number which is 6418 – 9480 - 9127 – 7277, and you give your Wii number to me. You can post it in the comment or sendt it to me. Follow the instruction on Nintendo.co.uk on how to do it. When everything is done, we will each get 500 Nintendo Wii Points to spend on games from the Wii Shop Channel.

I help you, and you help me.

• Back to the Eighties – October 1987
• Back to the Nineties – May 1992
• Tales From Monkey Island
• The Making of… Jet Force Gemini
• The Classic Game – Gribbly’s Day Out
• Why You Must Play… Dragon Ninja
• The Top 25 Dreamcast Games
• The Making of… Switchblade
• Retroinspection: Neo Geo Aes
• The Making of… The Empire Strikes Back

Retro Gamer can be ordered from ImageShop.co.uk.

This is the English translation/rewrite of my original Norwegian blogpost.

I’ve been an a-ha fan since I could read and in the late 80ies I had a mixtape for a-ha songs only. When I found out this summer that a-ha was having a concert in Oslo, Norway, I thought that I had to go.

The ticket for this concert was suddenly more valuable, since a-ha decided that this is it. And before I knew it I had also purchased tickets to the farewell concert 4 December next year. So I got tickets for two shows before I even had been on an a-ha concert.

a-ha hold two concerts in Oslo on, respectively on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November. I was on the last of these two. This concert is part of Foot Of The Mountain – Tour 2009. Both concerts were sold out and the atmosphere was good already when donkey boy warmed up.

a-ha started with The Sun Always Shines On TV. And we heard both Stay on These Roads, Hunting High And Low and Velvet. With a little help from Dagbladet, a-ha sung 21 songs (I do not count songs when I’m on a concert). And finally, we heard Take On Me, the song that gave the a-ha their great breakthrough in 1985.

I think it was a cracking good gig. Paul Savoy, Magne Furuholmen and Morten Harket did well on stage. The audience was so completely present and sang a long. When Morten Harket announced the last song, Foot Of The Mountain, the audience in Spektrum rose and clapped and joyed through the whole song. This was not the last tune from a-ha guys though. And ofcourse, there was also the encore which was completed with Take On Me. It was a great concert, too bad that the time flew away so fast.

Below you’ll see a short video clip I’ve put together from the concert recored with my cellphone.

Fortunately, it is not quite the end of a-ha yet. Next year starts the farewell tour. This will probably give them a boost in both career, record sales and media coverage. It will be exciting to see how many years it takes a-ha to get back together after the last concert in Oslo 4 December next year. I’m lookinng forward to this concert.

The pictures I posted with the Creative Commons license, and are taken with mobile camera in the dark from a distance.

In issue 69 of Retro Gamer, you can read about this (among other things):

• Back to the Eighties – August 1987
• Back to the Nineties – April 1992
• The Complete History of… Final Fantasy
• The Making of… Syndicate
• Why You Must Play… Cabal
• Retroinspection: Sega Nomad
• The Classic Game – Kung Fu Master
• From the Archives – First Star Software
• Coin-op Capers: Space Harrier
• The Making of… Die Hard Triology
• In the Chair with… Geoff Chammond

Retro Gamer can be ordered from ImagineShop.co.uk.

I assigned to the Xbox Live preview update for Xbox 360 and got into the first wave on October 22. Updated the Xbox with this falls big updates, which gives you Facebook, Twitter, Zune Video store and Last.FM (but only in US & UK) right on your Xbox 360. The update will go live for everyone sometimes in November. This is a preview release, so functions can changed or added I guess.

In the YouTube-video bellow, you can watch my recordings done with my Hauppauge HD-PVR. It was recorded at 1080i and downconverted to 720p before uploading it to YouTube.

Zune Video Store

Zune Video store is the greatest news for me. Up until now only US and 5-6 selected countries in Europe had the option to rent movies on Xbox 360. With this update, 18 countries (including Norway) have the advantage to rent online. And best of all, you can stream movies in 1080p (not every movie, but some).

As of now, 89 movies are available for streaming/downloading in Norway. Not a lot, but we had zero, so it’s a start. When this is update goes public, I guess we will have more movies. Of the 89 movies, 19 are in HD. SD movies are priced at 350 Microsoft points, and HD are 470. But this price will probably vary at bit if the movies are new or old. The 19 HD movies are: Absolute Power, Constantine, Eyes Wide Shut, The Fugitive, Full Metal Jacket, Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisnoer of Azkaban, The Last Samurai, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Three Kings, Training Day, Troy – Director’s Cut, V for Vandetta.

I have a 12Mbit connection had watched Three Kings in HD. The quality was very good. When started, it buffered for a few seconds and played fine without any hickups for the whole movie. It was a great experience. I will definitivly rent more movies. Very easy, and the price is OK too.

Facebook

You can do almost everything with Facebook on the 360 as on the PC, almost. You can read news feeds, update your status, watch your pictures and your friends pictures. You can check whick of your Facebook friends who are on Xbox Live and vica versa. But there is no inbox. So you can read messages sendt to you.

Twitter

With Twitter you can see the 50 last tweets from the people you’re following. You can write your own tweets, do search and see trending topics. I works well, but it will take ages to type in those tweets with your controller, even if it’s only 140 letters. Now is the time to get that Messanger kit/chatpad (check Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Play-Asia.com), it makes it much easier to type.

Last.FM

I haven’t tested Last.FM since that service is only available in US and UK. But it lets you stream music on the Xbox 360. I used my US account the get the picture.

Conclusion

I’ve only been testing it for a couple of days, and it looks promising. It’s cool to have Facebook and Twitter on Xbox 360, but I can’t see that I will use it on a regualar basis. Both Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM can be used when you’re in the Dashboard. It cannot be used ingame. And for now, Last.FM is for the US and UK only.

The feature I will be using most is the Zune video store. For the first time, people in Norway and 11 other countries (18 in total) can enjoy movie rental on Xbox 360. Streaming movies at 1080p work very well. I have a 12Mbit connection and would like to hear from you with lower bandwidth and how it worked for you.

All in all, a good upgrade to the Dashboard.

—
If you use the screenshots, please link back to this post. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

If you’re lucky and live in Europe and have a lot of friends and family who have still not connected their Nintendo Wii to internet, you can now help them and earn Nintendo Wii points. The more you help, the more points you earn. Helping 10 persons gives you 5000 points, 20 person helped gives you 10 000 points and you can download every Virtual Console game for free.

The Nintendp Connection Ambassador Promotion was launched in Europe on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009.

Here is some of the pressrelease from Nintendo.co.uk:

By becoming a Connection Ambassador, players can gain up to 10,000 Wii Points by encouraging friends and family to get connected to the Internet with their Wii.  Each time a friend or family member connects for the first time to the Internet with the help of the Connection Ambassador, both the Connection Ambassador and the person they helped will receive 500 Wii Points.

If you help 10 people connect to the Internet, you reach Gold status and can download ALL Nintendo-published NES games for free on Virtual Console as well as receiving a total of 5,000 Wii Points. If you connect a maximum of 20 people to the Internet, not only will you attain Platinum status, you will also receive a total of 10,000 Wii Points to spend on WiiWare games and can download ALL NES, Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games on Virtual Console for FREE.

How do I become a Connection Ambassador?

• Enter the Wii Shop Channel
• There is an icon on the Wii Shop Channel entitled ‘Connection Ambassador Promotion’
• Select this icon and you will be prompted by two icons: one showing that you are the Connection Ambassador (or the Helper) and the other icon showing that you are the ‘Person Who Was Helped’
• Select the Connection Ambassador icon
• You will be prompted to enter the Wii Number of the person you have helped.
• You must do this within 30 days of when the person you have helped, has registered their connectivity using your Wii Number
• Once both parties have registered, you will have received 500 Wii Points on your  Wii Shop Channel Accounts to spend in the Wii Shop Channel

What do I do if a Connection Ambassador helps me connect to the Wii Shop Channel?

• Enter the Wii Shop Channel
• On the Wii Shop Channel welcome page there is an icon called ‘Connection Ambassador Promotion’
• Select this icon and you will be prompted by two icons: one showing that you are the Connection Ambassador (or the Helper) and the other icon showing that you are the ‘Person Who Was Helped’
• Select the ‘Person Who Was Helped’ icon
• You will be prompted to enter the Wii Number of the person who has helped you connect
• You must do this within 30 days of accessing the Wii Shop Channel
• You will be asked to fill in a short questionnaire
• Once both parties have registered, you will have received 500 Wii Points on your Wii Shop Channel Accounts to spend in the Wii Shop Channel

Source: GoNintendo

Source: buzzfeed.com via Twitter

It’s getting closer to the next Xbox 360 Dashboard update. The new firmware will bring you four new services to the Xbox. It will let you use Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune from the Xbox 360 Dashboard. According to Xbox UK the update will come on November 17. Also there will be a public beta end of this month. If you live in UK, you will also get the Sky Player sometime this fall, which will let you watch TV on the Xbox.

If you are a heavy user of Facebook and/or Twitter, now is the time to invest in Xbox 360 Messenger Kit for text typing. I’ve been using it close to a couple of years now and it’s way better to type text than useing the controller.

For an indepth preview of the new services, you can check out Joystiq.com or watch the video from Engadget.com below.

This years Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 goes to the president Barack Obama. It’s an interesting choice, since he haven’t been president for that long. But he do have visions, and that is probably the reason he got this years prize.

The comitee leader, Torbjørn Jagland read the following announcement:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

When Cory Doctorow visited Norway in September for the release of Little Brother in Norwegian, he also taked about the importance of newspapers in the new media world where Internet is the big new thing.

(Videosource: bibpop.wordpress.com)

Forgot to blog about this when I received issue 68 of Retro Gamer weeks ago. But this is what it contained:

• Back to the Eighties – July 1987
• Back to the Nineties – March 1992
• The Making of… Asteroids
• Retroinspection: Tiger Game.com
• The Making of… Starblade
• The Comple History of Ultima
• The Making of… Super Sprint
• The Making of… Legend

Next issue, that should be number 69, is out on October 6.

In mid-September Cory Doctorow was in Oslo, Norway for the Norwegian release of his book Little Brother. In that context he also held a speech at Litteraturhuset where he among other things talked about DRM. Luckily, this speech was taped and you can watch it below. It runs for about 30 minutes.

Doctorow @ Litteraturhuset from Veslebror Serdeg on Vimeo.

There is a new CSI game in the horizon, CSI: Deadly Intent. And here is an interview with the  developers. Video taken from IGN.com.

I have a eBay auction going on witch ends on September 23rd. I have seven UMD movies for the European PSP (region 2), the movies will not work on PSP from the US or Japan, region 2 only.

The movies for sale are: Blade – Trinity, Blade 2, Austin Powers 2 – The Spy Who Shagged Me, Austin Powers 3: Goldmember, Daredevil, Cursed and Chain Reaction. It’s FREE SHIPPING to Europe.

September 19th is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. And as it happens to be your lucky day. Telltalegames.com is giving away a free copy of chapter 1 of Tales of Monkey Island for PC. Download the game now, since it’s only free until midnight on September 19 PST (check this link for you local time around the world).

About chapter 1 – Launch of the Screaming Narwhal:

The saga begins with a heated battle involving the brave but often bumbling Mighty Pirate™ Guybrush, his beloved wife Elaine, and their nemesis, the demon pirate LeChuck. When the showdown goes up in flames, Guybrush finds himself marooned on a strange island with winds that always blow inward. How will our hero manage to escape this meteorological anomaly? What has become of LeChuck and Elaine? And what’s the story with the infectious voodoo pox that’s spreading across the Caribbean, causing Guybrush and other pirates to act like unruly hooligans? These are just some of the many questions posed in this first chapter of one of the most rollicking and rip-roaring entertainment experiences this summer.

Source: GoNintendo.com and wii.kombo.com

Under you can watch some Behind the scenes from the Seinfeld reunion (taken from IGN.com).

The new Zelda game for Nintendo DS – The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - will be released in Europe on December 4th and in North America on December 7th. So it it’s not that many month to wait.

You can already pre-order the game from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Play-Asia.com.

You can watch the trailer below.

(Source: G4TV.com via GoNintendo.com)

Fringe returns on September 17 in the US.

Today & Tomorrow Channel is the new free channel you can download from Wii Shop Channel on Nintendo Wii. To quote Nintendo.co.uk: “Check your daily fortune and get hints on relationships, activities and even the types of food that your horoscope recommends.”

This is not a usefull channel to have, but it’s free so at least you can download it an play around with it. If you have a brother or sister you can always make a competition out of it like to get highest total luck.

You can register up to six Mii’s and you can get todays and tomorrows fortune for all of them. The horoscope will tell you about Love, Work, Study, Communication and Money. You will also get the colour of the day.

The new channel will also give you food hints, fun hints and care hints. And if that wasn’t enough, you can check the compatibility check between Mii’s.

I won’t use this channel much, but it’s fun to play with for a while.

I recorded a YouTube- video of the Today & Tomorrow Channel, and below that, it’s a bunch of screenshots I made.

• Games can now be grouped and displayed in folders based on their expire date under [Game]
• Under [Settings], [Network Update] has been changed to [System Update]. Under [System Update], you can now choose how to update the system software.
• The numbers of colours that can be selected under [Settings] > [Theme Settings] has been increased
• Revisions to strenghtens security have been updated (Internet Browser)

The Dreamcast was Sega’s last console and was actually a short-lived one. It was discontinued after around 3 years in most part of the world, but it lived until 2006 in Japan.

I never owned and have hardly never played the Dreamcast, but I’ve many times thought of buying one. should be the place to start. I’ve also seen that Play-Asia.com, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk have both old games and accessories. So it shouldin’t be that hard to get a console and some games.

You can read much more about Dreamcast on Wikipedia, blogs.sega.com have written a post with a lot of links to sites that write about the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast, and IGN.com have an in-depth article about the history of Dreamcast. You can watch their video of it below.

There is also a new game coming in October for Dreamcast. Rush Rush Rally Racing is a new 2D top-down racing gam. It’s region free and will play on PAL, NTSC-US and NTSC-J Dreamcast. The game can be pre-ordered from the makers site at redspotgames.com, and they will ship worldwide. You can watch the trailer of the game below.

I’ve also found another History of Dreamcast video on YouTube which is also worth a look.

Watch the teaser below.

This Weekly Special at Play-Asia.com is Midnight Club: Los Angeles for Xbox 360 at US$ 18.90. The offer ends Tuesday Septermber 15, 2009 Hong Kong time. The game will work on Asian (NTSC-J) and European (PAL) Xbox 360 consoles.

About the game, taken from Play-Asia.com:

The best way to see Los Angeles is at 245mph.

Race at breakneck speeds through the streets of modern-day L.A. recreated in stunning detail. Drive the hottest range of real-world tuners, muscle cars, exotics and superbikes on the streets today. Customize your vehicle with the best after-market performance parts and custom kits. Illegal street racing with no track, no load times, no rules: Welcome to the Midnight Club.

You can read a review about the game on IGN.com or watch their vidoe-review below.

In August, Google changed their policy for AdSense and will ”allow multiple Google-certified ad networks to compete for display ad space on your site“. On adsense.blogspot.com it states that “This new capability will help you generate the most profit for every ad that appears on your site, whether the ads come from AdWords advertisers or Google-certified ad networks.” and:

We’ll slowly begin allowing ads from Google-certified ad networks to appear on AdSense pages over the coming months, so you won’t see an immediate impact on your ads or earnings. As new networks are certified, you’ll see them appear in your account. This feature will initially be available to publishers in North America and Europe, but we hope to roll it out to additional parts of the world in the future.

So this is good for all Google AdSense users. You can watch the promo video below.

Photo: Frank Eivind Rundholt, creative commons

Today is also a big Beatles day. Not only is The Beatles: Rock Band released for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But you can also buy The Beatles in to re-mastered editions, The Beatles In Stereo and The Beatles In Mono.

IGN.com’s review of The Beatles Rock Band

September 9th also marks the 10th anniversary for Sega Dreamcast in North-America. You can read a lenghty article at IGN.com or watch their YouTube-video of the history of Dreamcast.

You now have a chance to “Design a unique t-shirt and win the chance to show it off exclusively on your Avatar“. The competition is open to the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

The submited file to avatar@wearegt.com have to be in JPG or PDF format and not greater than 4MB, closing date is 17:00 CET on 21 September 2009. For more info, go to xbox.com/en-GB/live/myxboxmyway, Terms & Conditions.

In 1997 cyber dating or internet dating was the big new thing, and the video bellow cover that topic. Here’s the program discription:

One of the most popular early uses of the Internet was finding a date. This program looks at some of the first sites that offered to find that special someone. Sites demonstrated include match.com, americansingles.com, NetNoir, blinddate.com, and cupidnet.com. Guests include cyber dating counselor Dr. Judith Schwambach and netiquette advisor Larry Magid.

Watch and enjoy!

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

You watch the weather report everyday. But have you seen it performed in a song? No, then you should watch the Norwegian weather lady Eli Kari Gjengedal perform the weather report on TV2, Thursday September 3, 2009. It’s amazing, it’s good.

The video is not uploaded by me.

Here is a teaser of season 2 of Fringe.

Here is a small interview with J.J Abrams on season 2.

(Video from blog.eu.playstation.com)

Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”.

The Los Angeles County coroner rules Michael Jackson’s death a homicide. CNN’s Kara Finnstrom reports.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on the results of the coroner’s report in Michael Jackson’s death and the drugs that killed him.

Play-Asia.com now have 20% discount on all in-stock items when using a Visa card. The deal runs until September 6, 2009.

Here his the press release (or some of it anyway):

Play-Asia’s summer deals are so sweet they even attract bees. Drop your ice-cream, we are opening up our flower gardens, with incredible bargains blossoming everywhere. No matter if you look for consoles, video games, CDs, DVDs or toys, surely you will feel like a bee in a flower field – hard to decide where to fly first.

In partnership with VISA, from now until September 6th, all in-stock items except those that have been released during the last 30 days, are discounted by 20%. Please be reminded that this is a VISA exclusive promotion, only valid for orders paid with your VISA card directly at Play-Asia.com. Make sure to watch out for the 20% off discount logo on the final payment page.

So go badger the bank or latch onto a friend who has a VISA card if you don’t have one already! All products eligible for the discount will be marked with a VISA icon. The icon will remain on the product page for as long as the item is in stock. Some products are restocked steadily so the icon comes back every once in a while, others have limited availability and might not get restocked.

Source: netbooknews.com via Engadget.com

Source: GoNintendo.com

Source: blog.us.playstation.com

Here are a video with reaction to Sony press conference.

Trailer of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service.

Source: Kombo.com

Sony will soon release firmware v3.0 for Playstation 3. It looks like a very nice udpdate. Here is the list of what the update will contain.

• “What’s New” – The “Information Board” will be replaced with a “What’s New” section, which allows you to enjoy interactive PlayStation news every time you start the PS3 system. Located under the PlayStation Network icon, “What’s New” displays the latest and greatest game, video, PlayStation Network and PlayStation news and releases, as well as your recently played games, in a sleek, new animated format.
• Status Indicator – In the top right corner we’ve added an indicator bar, which displays your user icon, friend icon, the number of friends you have online and a small message icon to let you know if you have any new messages. The indicator also includes a scrolling ticker that features the latest news from PlayStation Network. In addition, when you press the PS button, the battery life indicator will no longer cover up the clock.
• Friends List – Now your PlayStation Network friends will appear in a slightly redesigned format on your Friends List. Also, messages will now be viewable from each of your friends’ respective profiles.
• PlayStation Store Shortcuts – We’ve added a handy shortcut icon to the PlayStation Store under both the Game and Video categories so you can access the latest content quickly and easily.
• Personalization – Personalize your PS3 with new dynamic custom themes and avatars. Dynamic themes as well as free and premium avatars will be available through PlayStation Store. A dynamic theme takes your screen to a whole new level as it incorporates animated objects into the background.
• Trophies – Showcasing your hard earned trophies just got better. Update 3.00 gives game developers the ability to modify how they display trophies for add-on content. Base and add-on game trophies will continue to be combined into a single list so you can see where you stand in a game as a whole. Within that list, trophies will be broken out into subcategories—base trophies and add-on trophies—that way, you can easily view the percentage of your base game trophy collection, and separately track your trophy progress in add-on packs. Look for this enhancement to be included in upcoming games.

Source: blog.us.playstation.com

You can now download The Pirate Bay. OK, not everything available for download, but all the torrents that you can find on the site. That’s 21.3 GB data, 873 671 torrent-files. The pirates download this because they are afraid of what will happend to The Pirate Bay. I guess some pirate sites of Pirate Bay will pop-up.

(Source: Gizmodo.com and IDG.se)

• Retro Evolution – Might and Magic
• Back to the Eighties – June 1987
• Back to the Nineties – February 1992
• The Complete History of Bomberman
• Retroinspection: Finaru Furantier
• From the archives – Hudson Soft (part 2)
• Why You Must Play… Slap Fight
• The Making of… Shootem-up Construction Kit
• The Making of… Lands of Lore series
• Coin-op Capers: Operation Wolf
• The Making of… Apidya

You can get the latest issue from Imageshop.co.uk.

The Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 28, 1988 and in Europe two years later in November 30, 1990. Gamers in US only had to wait a year before it got its Genesis as it was named in the States on August 14, 1990. So that marks its 20 Anniversary of the Genesis in the states.

You can read more about the anniversary on:

blogs.sega.com

joystiq.com

kotaku.com

You can also vote for the next Mega Drive/Genesis game to appear on Xbox Live Arcade on genesispoll.com. My contribution to the anniversary is to post some old Norwegian SEGA Official Software News letters from 1991 and 1992. I found them in my old stuff earlier this Summer. Click on the pictures to see fullscreen versions of them.

Have you ever experienced the buffer problem when you stream video online? You watch 10 seconds, and then you have to wait another 20 seconds to watch a few seconds more of the video. Not the best experience.

A few years ago the Norwegian comedians Bård Tufte Johansen, Harald Eia and Atle Antonsen made a very good sketch about the subject buffering.

The video is well worth a look. Norwegian audio with English subtitles.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Source: Kombo.com

Last week Nintendo DSi owner is Japan and Europe could update their DSi to firmware 1.4 (will come to US in the fall US August 3rd). The biggest news is that you now can upload pictures taken with the Nintendo DSi to your Facebook account. Pretty cool. It’s also blocking all flashcards. You can read more on Nintendo.co.uk.

To update the DSi firmware, go to System Settings and choose System Update (on page 4).

Here is a small YouTube video I made.

Here are some screenshot from the DSi.

A quote from Nintendo.co.uk:

The Facebook integration with the Nintendo DSi Camera is one feature of a new system update for the Nintendo DSi, which also includes other improvements to the technical features of the console.  This update is accessed by performing a system update in the System Settings of the Nintendo DSi, which will automatically upgrade the console’s firmware to version 1.4.

The exciting new Facebook integration with the Nintendo DSi Camera allows you to send photos directly to your Facebook stream, where they will be shared with friends and stored in an Album on your profile. A Facebook logo will then appear in the album section of the camera, and a Facebook icon will now be present above your picture. Tap this to immediately connect online to your Facebook account and upload your picture.

1999 was the year Internet Explorer 5.0 got released. It’s amazing that it took a whole 10 year to get to version 8 of IE. We got Office 2000, which I still use and it works perfect for my needs. We also got Windows 98 Second Edition, I still have an old computer running on it. ‘99 was also the year of The Matrix, one of the best movies ever made. It was also the first movie I bought on DVD.

If you haven’t watch all the episodes of The History of Microsoft, go to channel9.msdn.com and download them, it’s well worth a look.

I really liked season 1 and season 2 of The IT Crowd. I’m happy say that season 3 is as good as the previously seasons. We’re still following Moss (Richard Ayoade), Jen (Katherine Parkinson) and Roy (Chris O’Dowd) in their everyday life as IT people. If this crowd can work in IT, everyone can.

Here’s the episode titles of series 3:

1. From Hell
2. Are We Not Men?
3. Tramps Like Us
4. The Speech
5. Friendface
6. Calendar Geeks

My favourite episodes are The Speech where Moss and Roy convince Jen into belive that the Internet is in a small black box. Friendface is also a great episode. It’s a parody on Facebook. Real fun.

Here is the text from the backcover:

Whilst Reynholm Industries boss, Douglas, is spending the pension fund on gold flakes in the water supply, the dysfunctional IT department – Moss, Roy and Jen – build up the courage to face the frightening world of people who somehow communicate without using a keyboard.

As well as the usual bickering, time wasting and incompetence, the co-dependent trio become the victims of sexual harassment, create a fundraising nude erotic calendar, confront the builders from hell and join a social networking site.

In addition to six good episode you also get this:

• Audio commentary w/Graham Linehan
• An Interview with Graham
• Original Title Sequence Animatic
• Deleted Scene 1: “Look After Yourself”
• Deleted Scene 2: “Roy’s Sex Life”
• Cracking the IT Crowd
• Set Tour
• Out-takes

If you liked the previously seasons of The IT Crowd, you will like this one. If you like British comedy, this is the show for you, start with season 1. The IT Crowd is highly recommanded!

I was going through some of my old stuff and came across an old comic I made in 1991 when I was 14. It’s about Mario and the Turtles, joining forces.

The short story was written in Norwegian so I have translated as best as I could into English. You can click the pictures for a bigger version.

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported.

This weekly special at Play-Asia.com is Juushinden: Ultimate Beast Battlers for Nintendo DS at only US$ 9.90. It looks like the game only will work on a DS and not a DSi, since it have a swiping-device pluged into the GBA-slot. The game is in Japanese too, so that limits it even further. The offer ends on August 4th, 2009.

Here is the description of the game taken from Play-Asia.com:

Think battle card games are over in this digital age? Think again.

Beast Battlers, the ultimate card action game is here. Slip the magic reader into the Nintendo DS and have it turn your 2D beast into breathing monster in your console. You don’t have to take the beasts as they are, upgrade their power and other attributes through a power-up card. The bigger the deck you have, the better an edge you have over your opponents.

Each package comes with a pack of 40 cards and a battlefield card. Be sure to get to know other beast battlers to play in different battle fields and keep an eye out on booster packs for the better beast warriors.

Please bear in mind however, that the game does not work on Nintendo DSi as there was no slot on the new console for the magic reader.

Here is the Japanese trailer for the game.

I guess a lot of fans are happy to learn that Halo will become a seven part anime short films as Halo Legend. Should be fun for a lot of gamers. Read more on IGN.com.

Here is the debut trailer of Halo Legend shown at SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con).

I’ve read Retro Gamer for many years now and still love the magazine. Here’s a list of what you can read in issue 66 of Retro Gamer:

• Retro Evelution – Simon the Sorcerer
• Back to the Eighties – May 1987
• Back to the Ninteties – January 1992
• The Making of… Spy Hunter
• The History of… Wally Week
• Import Only – Yu Yu Hakusho Sunset Fighters
• The Making of… Stunt Race
• The Definitive… Android
• Retroinspection – Sinclair QL
• From the Archives – Hudson Soft – part 1
• The Making of… Road Runner
• In the Chair with… The Oliver Twins

You can get Retro Gamer 66 from ImagineShop.co.uk.

The next update for Xbox Live Dashboard arrives on August 11. There is also a Xbox LIVE Update Preview Program which you can sign up for to get the update early.

Here is all the new features, copied from Joystiq.com:

Netflix Updates (US only)
Now you can watch movies with your friends no matter where they are and manage your queue from the comfort of your couch.

• Movie Parties – Xbox LIVE Gold members can sit together in a virtual theater with up to seven friends no matter where they are while your Avatars watch a movie, flirt or even throw popcorn at each other.
• Manage Your Queue – Browse the Netflix Instant Watch video catalogue, choose from the most popular movies and genres and add to your queue all from the comfort of your couch – no computer required.
• Enhanced Playback Experience – Enjoy a smooth viewing experience when your internet bandwidth fluctuates.
• Friends Info – Richer information is now displayed in the Friends channel and in the Guide showing what you and your friends are doing.

Avatar Marketplace

• Express yourself! Deck your Avatar out with the latest clothing and props from the top brands and game franchises. Please note that only limited content is currently available in the preview.
• Clothing – Download premium items, including branded apparel from your favorite fashion labels and Xbox 360 games such as “Halo.”
• Props – You can now equip your avatar with animated items they can carry around and interact with.
• Awardables – The ability to earn Avatar clothing and props as rewards within games has been added. Please stay tuned for an update on supporting titles.

Games on Demand
Please note that Games on Demand will be available in the preview beginning early August.

• Enjoy 24 x 7 access to a growing online library of popular full game titles on Xbox LIVE whenever you want them, in the comfort of your living room.
• Purchase Options – Browse and download a great selection of full Xbox 360 games using Microsoft Points, direct debit, or credit card.
• Game Manuals – Game manuals for Games on Demand titles can be viewed, downloaded or printed on Xbox.com.
• It’s Yours Forever! – As with other Xbox LIVE content, Games on Demand titles are linked to your Xbox LIVE account, so you can delete and re-download anything you have already purchased to the same console or another console.

User Ratings
User ratings help you find games that other people think are awesome!

• Rate it – You can now rate every game on the Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace using a 5-star system.
• Sort and Find it – Now you can easily find the games that everyone’s been raving about by visiting the Top Rated games in the Browse All category of Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace.

Xbox LIVE Parties
Everyone loves to Party! Check out the new and improved Xbox LIVE Party features.

• Party Reconnections – If you are accidently disconnected from your party, Xbox LIVE will automatically reconnect you.
• Streamlined Party Invites – Invites are now just one click away! No need to click through multiple screens to get all your friends together.

Video Display Options

• We’ve made it easier for you to see your entertainment in the highest resolution possible on your TV using an HDMI connection.
• Display Discovery – Make sure you can see and hear your entertainment in the highest resolution and sound quality possible with the option to override and select audio and video formats independent of the information your television sends to your Xbox 360 console.

Other Improvements
We’re always listening to you for feedback, and this Xbox LIVE update will include numerous dashboard updates.

• Gold Member Veterans – Xbox LIVE Gold members get to show it off with a stamp on your Gamer Card that tells people how long you’ve been a Gold member.
• Indie Games – Xbox LIVE Community Games has been renamed Xbox LIVE Indie Games. We feel this new name better represents the independent spirit of these titles.
• Achievement Browser – We’ve revamped the Achievements browser so it’s now easier to read through all the achievements while playing a game. You can now also launch a game directly from the browser.
• Achievements Tracking – A new view inside the profile panel which includes a summary of Achievements earned across all the games played, and shows of all your completed games.
• Streamlined Navigation – Streamlined navigation, including new entry points in the dashboard for Active Downloads, redeeming codes, recovering Gamertags and more.
• Voice Messages – No more blank voice messages! When recording a voice message, a warning will pop up if no audio is detected.
• Friends List Sorting – It’s now easier to find your friends! Find and sort your friends by activity, Gamertag or online status by pressing the Y button while viewing the friends list in the Guide.
• Memory – Time stamps now appear in the memory area, which particular handy when managing saved games.

Account Management
We’ve made some changes to make your life easier.

• Subscription Notification – If your Xbox LIVE subscription is about to run out, you will now be notified when you sign into Xbox LIVE.
• Updates for Invalid Windows Live IDs – If the Windows Live ID you provided has expired, you will now be prompted to update it the next time you sign into Xbox LIVE.
• Account recovery – We’ve enhanced the account recovery process to make it faster and more reliable.

What does this Xbox LIVE Update not include?
The following features will be coming in future Xbox LIVE updates, which we’ll be sure to let you know about.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Zune video and 1080p Instant On
• Last.fm

YouTube is experimenting with 3D videos in the site. You can use red-cyan glasses or you can just cross your eyes. Not the best method, but it works. You can read a bit more about it on the YouTube forum and and different 3D techniques on Wikipedia.org.

To watch the videoes bellow with 3D effect, cross your eyes. To watch it with other 3D techniques, you have to click the links bellow the video to go to YouTube and choose other options.

Source: seroundtable.com via gizmodo.com

Click to see the video on YouTube

Click to see the video on YouTube

Click to see the video on YouTube

I follow Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb) on Twitter. He wrote that he was shooting some videos for an upcoming Inside Xbox video where he was set on fire. The pictures look cool, and I guess the video will too which will air in a few weeks.

On his Flickr page he wrote that “I was trained by professionals and had licensed safety professionals standing by.” and “Do not try this at home!“.

President John F. Kennedy had courageous when he in a speach (which you can read here) in May 1961 said the following:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

And the Americans managed to fulfill the goal of Kennedy. On July 16, 1969, the three astronauts Neil Alden Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr. was onboard Apollo 11 on the way to the Moon. Four days later, July 20th, The Eagle landed on the Lunar surface, Sea of Tranquility.

Here you can hear the countdown to the launches of Apollo 11.

So today does marks the 40th years anniversary of Moon landing. There was great competition in the 50’s and 60’s  between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Russians where ahead in the space race after they were first to send an artificial satellite (Sputnik 1), a living being (Laika the dog) and the first man (Jurij Gagarin) into space. But the Americans were the first to land on another planet.

While Michael Collins was left in the main vessel Columbia, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin where in The Eagle on the way to the Moon’s surface. In addition to the moon landing whitch was a technical achievement for the Americans, it gave us perhaps two of the most famous quotes from the last century, namely “The Eagle has landed” and “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” as Armstrong said after he was the first to set foot on foreign soil.

Here you can hear the sound clip from the Eagle’s landing on the Moon.

And here is the sound clip from Armstrong’s “speach“.

Here is the remastered edition of the moon landing in connection with the 40 year anniversary.

If you need more information about moon landing, so check out NASA’s Apollo 40th Anniversary pages or Wikipedia.org (which is also my sources for this article).

Here are some images from the Apollo 11 expedition (taken from Great Images in NASA).

Photos, audio and video are used in accordance with NASA guidelines, “NASA generally has no objections to the reproduction and use of NASA material” and “You may use NASA imagery, video and audio material if it is for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits and Internet Web pages.“

I’ve always liked to look inside electronic gadget and other products. My sister was so kind to donate her deceased DVD-player to science. I performed a autopsy of a United  DVD  5054M DVD-player. The cause of death is still unknown, but the last meal was Cry Baby.

Pictures and video have a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Norway lisence.

According to HighDefDigest.com it will come on five BD-50 Blu-ray discs with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, 1080p video and a bunch of featurettes and deleted scenes. From the picture it looks like you get a VHS too, but no detailed infromation is available as of yet.

A cheaper regular Blu-ray version is also available.

This week, on July 15, you can download The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on Xbox Live Arcade for only 800 points. I’m a bit suprised that it’s only 800 points, and not 1200 which look like the new norm. But at this price, it’s a must have title for all that loved the game nearly 20 years ago.

A cool feature is that you can switch between the 1990 PC version with only 256 colours and the new and updated 2009 XBLA version with HD graphics. You can see it in the video bellow.

The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition

Pirates! Adventure! Monkeys! Relive the hilarious swashbuckling misadventures of the wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he attempts to become the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean! Back by popular demand, The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition faithfully re-imagines the internationally-acclaimed classic pirate adventure game from LucasArts in gorgeous HD detail.

Featuring an all new re-imagined contemporary art style, hand-drawn and presented in 1080p, complete voice over by members of the original Monkey Island™ franchise cast, a re-mastered musical score using live instruments, plus scene-for scene-hot swap to seamlessly transition between Special Edition and Classic modes at anytime.

• Hilarious swashbuckling misadventures: Embark on a bumbling misadventure in an attempt to become the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean, win the heart of the beautiful governor, Elaine Marley, and confront the evil ghost pirate, LeChuck!
• High-definition graphics: The game is all-new and re-imagined with a contemporary art style, hand-drawn and presented in 1080p.
• Voiceover talent: Complete voice over using original Monkey Island franchise cast members brings the story and characters to life like never before.
• Renewed music score: Enjoy the re-mastered and re-recorded musical score using live instruments.
• Special Edition and Classic modes: Scene-for-scene hot swap lets you seamlessly transition between Special Edition and Classic modes at anytime during gameplay.
• Enhanced gameplay: The all-new intuitive game interface and controls provide a more interactive gameplay experience.
• Hint system: Not sure what to do next? The in-game puzzle hint system keeps the puzzles fresh and fun.