Nintendo let out a press release today teasing their next portable gaming system, the Nintendo 3DS (probably a working title). It’s apparently going to feature 3D gaming w/o the use of glasses.
Things I’m happy about:
- Backwards compatibility with DS and DSi. ‘Nuff said.
- I’m slightly interested in the DS online store, but don’t want to buy a DSi. They haven’t specifically stated that it’s going to be able to access the DSi store, but I’m confident it’ll be there.
- No glasses required for the 3D effects
Things I’m not excited about
- 3D gaming. I’ve been playing Chrono Trigger (both on DS and SNES9X), and the 2D atmosphere is quite fun. I love the innocent feeling of this generation of games, and even though I love my 360 (I’m nearly done w/ Assassin’s Creed 2 — AMAZING game), I don’t feel like I need a new gaming feature. There’s going to be an inevitable growth period in 3D gaming where developers try out new & different techniques, many of which are going to be ridiculous and will add no real fun to their game. Imagine the 3D effects in the Friday the 13th movies where an axe is tossed into the audience — that’s what I’m talking about.
- It’s coming out in Japan in March 2011-ish, but there’s no mention of a US release date
- Nintendo’s history with 3D gaming. Anyone remember the Virtual Boy? Oh, you don’t? I knew you didn’t.
The bluray pack is available for pre-order, but without the Extended Edition content, I’m just not interested. :(
via HDD Cool Stuff: ‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’ Blu-ray Steelbook Exclusively at Best Buy.
Ok, so by now you know that I’ve been playing some SNES games on the Macbook Mini. It’s definitely been fun, but the qwerty control method was just way too goofy for me. I needed a control pad — it was driving me nuts!
I’ve had a few in the past, but they were always cheap-ish affairs that… well, sucked. I then pondered whether or not it was possible to plug my wireless Xbox 360 controller into the Macbook Mini (mbm) for some light gaming, but it turns out that the wire that comes w/ that controller is for power only, and transmits no data whatsoever :(
After *very little* research, I discovered that there are indeed two options for using the 360′s controller on a Mac.
- Get the wireless receiver ($35)
- Get a true wired controller ($27) and use the free Tattiebogle driver
As it turns out, John lent me one, I installed the driver and it worked immediately! The only thing I had to do was open the Snes9X Controller Configuration section and then match up the SNES controls to the buttons on the controller and I was done!
Games work SO MUCH BETTER! It’s truly amazing. If you’ve got the gear and the curiousity, I highly recommend giving it a try :)
Murlock Phone Holder
Check out my iPhone holder :) This cute murlock was a gift from my woman. He makes a great phone holder. Also pictured: my Macbook Mini.
My Mac Mini’s dying :(
It started w/ the wifi acting erratically and now I have no sound (in nor out). This Mini’s been an amazing workhorse for my modest needs, and the cheap price for such a beautiful, elegant (modestly-powered) workstation was exactly what I needed.
Sensing that the end is nigh, I decided it was time for a replacement machine. I wanted a rugged, tote-able OS X machine to carry with me to & from work, but Apple’s portables start at $1k. My reliance on Omnifocus meant that my choice was limited to a Mac-based OS. Omnifocus has become an essential tool in managing the tasks in my life, but trying to enter large amounts of data into the phone-based version was just too frustrating. I’ll save that for another post. My quest became to find the cheapest portable mac possible
Enter the Macbook Mini.
Yuusou’s praised his Dell Mini 10v for months, explaining to me just how simple it is to hack Snow Leopard onto it. When I found one for just a hair above $200, I knew I had to give it a try. Following the guide post at Gizmodo and sluething around on forums at MyDellMini.com uncovered some really straight forward instructions. After about 3 hours of install time, I can happily report that Snow Leopard runs really really well on one of the Dell netbooks.
One word of caution if you choose to go this route — don’t get a Mini10. It has to be the 10v. The hardware inside the 10 is different and won’t work (as of this writing).
Holls & I spotted this old school netbook.
Justin McElroy: you sir, are the man.
This just isn’t fair — he may as well club me over the head and steal my money.
MacDork