Jake

Like that sorta.

Mac mini 2" tall, 6.5"x6.5" square. Slot-load Combo optical drive (cd R/RW + dvd playing) or optional Superdrive upgrade (CD R/RW burning, DVD burning). Play DVDs, burn CDs. Queit. Tiny, FireWire, ethernet, USB 2.o, both DVI/VGA output. Very tine. Height is half the size of an iPod mini. BYODKM. Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, Mouse. First one is $499: 1.25GHz 256MB/40GB More memory and larger hard drive for $599. Will ship on January 22. Ships in a box smaller than the regular iPod box. iPod shuffle Flash based iPod. $99 for 512meg, $149 for 1 GB. Has no screen. Can play through one long playlist, or shuffle songs only. But is pretty cheap. USB based. Also works as USB flash drive, obviously. I predict Apple will sell a hell of a lot of both of these products. The Mac mini is the Mac everyone has told Apple they should be making ever since the first iMac came out, and now with the popularity of the iPod line, maybe they'll make a dent in the budget PC market (moms and family computers, university students, secretaries, libraries, etc). Obviously neither of these are targeted at hardcore/gamers, but still ... great products in my opinion.

Surely you all saw this on Penny Arcade earlier about their new show "Girls Gone Wired"... Read that a few times. Has your brain combusted yet? Are you clawing out your eyes. Our audience interacts with digital girls as much as real girls and we're tapping into that fantasy. What the fuck? Fuck? Fucking hell . What fantasy? I interact with digital girls as much as real ones? What? Who are you. Who do they think their audience is. What the fuck. I definitely don't interact with real girls in the same way as video game characters even if I did somehow spend an equal amount of time playing a video game with a female character and "interacting" with real girls there would be no similarities. Even the girls who I don't know and who are just scantily clad pictures on the Internet I interact with differently than the ladies of the digital realm.Why did Penny Arcade let this remark slip by? I hope another update appears reaming that a bit further.

So its so hearty you can eat it for a fork, then? But meant for a spoon.

Infected, the new game by Planet Moon has been announced for a while... well the logo was shown and it was announced to be a PSP game. Majesco has apprently signed as the publisher of Infected. Whee.

Sue the shit out of her and make her eat it.

The answer is: it doesn't matter, and you guys are just groping for another shout-out to past Schafer games, or looking to be offended where none was intended. The KOTOR reference is fine. It conveys the intended meaning, imparts the necessary info to the reader, in very few words. Therefore it did its one and only job as a sentence in a very condensed news writeup.

Well, in the world of console gaming, KOTOR is the most recent example of really good use of dialogue trees. Gamers will be able to immediately say "ah like KOTOR, but not as involved" and fully know how Psychonauts handles conversations between characters. Had they said "you know, like Day of the Tentacle and Broken Sword, but funnier," that wouldn't have gained them much ground as far as conveying what it's like to a casual console gamer goes.

I hope the next Airport Express revision includes support for streaming video over the network. I'd assume that if they ever include video on the iPod (and therefore iTunes as well probably), it'll show up in Airport Express. *fingers crossed*

Most PC's didn't have soundcards. I remember a handful of people I knew bought sound cards specifically to play Wing Commander 2 with the speech pack. That was so hardcore I could hardly believe it (the awesomeness of it I mean). That said, I'd had an Apple IIgs for a couple years by then and was beyond used to having (for the time) quality sound in my games and stuff. Amiga users are probably in a simliar boat.

An old Mac with the same specs would probably cost the same amount or more... A directly comparable Mac doesn't exist. 1.2 Ghz G4's only come in tower models, and with a DVD burner or Combo drive... At least in the US someone is going to try and charge you $400 or so for it anyway. I tried to buy an 800mhz G4 recently after someone stole my 500 mhz one from work through the window, and every single used one in Santa Cruz County was priced over $300. And then its 8 times as big, and used. It is a bit lame that they don't include a keyboard and mouse, but they're probably hoping (probably accurately) that in many cases people will just replace their PC with a Mac mini, using the old USB keyboard/screen/speakers. Its what I'd recommend to people.

Er yes except this computer is tiny, and new, and not shit. Its goal is to appeal to very casual users, especially people who like their iPods and want something that is built with the same mentality. Theres still going to be a huge PC market and the majority of people will still see things in the PC that they like/want more than in Macs, but as far as Apple doing smart things instead of stupid things goes, this is a pretty good one.

Games usually take 2-3 years, not 4-5. Psychonauts has been in development for a long time.

Yufster you have to take pictures of this, if only to prove that you're not just a huge liar. Either way, I'm enjoying this.

¬ ¬ I read that Majesco letter as the games publishing date being April as well... Maybe they did mean the newsletter. That would be weird though.

Ah that is a refreshing game.

The publisher usually has last say, and usually does the graphic design. Or rather, usually outsources it to a design company. That said, the actual illustration work for the cover seems to be oftentimes done by the development team itself. Not always (see: the original US box to Broken Sword 3, and the box to Escape from Monkey Island - two shitty boxes I'm overly familiar with).

I got bored and made a slightly modified version. I know, I know, shut up. I couldn't help myself. I have a sordid history with box art mockups. Still not ideal but something kinda more like that maybe would offend me less at least. Also anyone remember this logo from the early Microsoft Psychonauts days? I miss it. Note Raz's similar pose though.

TP you're entirely right about the layout being a bit amateur looking. Majesco doesn't seem to have the best designers, that or they're allowed to put up work that isn't refined enough. The illustration is great though. I guess you're right on two counts

Er no. Note that it links to majesco.com. Also notice that the art looks quite a lot like Double Fine Action Comics. Tis real.

So maybe they are close. Weren't we promised 2?

:awesome: smiley added. Also... I don't know what that proves to be honest.

Did you not notice that it was created by typing : fart : without the spaces?

Who are you ? What is going on here?

Collectors etc like boxes.