Some of our favorite Famicom and NES games are nearing the end of their respective lifespans. Famicom Disk System games degrade, no matter how well you take care of them. Cartridge games with battery backups will eventually lose power, along with your data, and never be able to save again. Even the batteries that help consoles like the PS2 and Dreamcase keep time are fizzling out. Is there anything we can do to stop it. Sean and Vinnk ponder the move to digital media as a way to preserve their game collections, but at what cost? No, literally, what would that cost? Especially since only a portion of those games are even available on anything but the original release media.

Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/107

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Physical game releases, and increasingly their digital versions as well, often get a hefty price cut as the game ages, but the price of the DLC never goes down. Should it? Vinnk and Sean backtrack on some earlier positions to talk about DLC they like, grapple with their feelings on DLC in general, and what alternatives publishers can pursue without giving up a revenue stream that helps to increase the software development tail of a game and its engine.

Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/95

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Zac, Adam, and Will do not sing anything at the end of this episode.

We look back at the PS2, Look forward at Retro City Rampage, talk about the end of life and contemplate insuring a party bus.

The Powetcast theme song, “Button Masher” is now available for free download!

Listen live on this page, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
Direct Link:POWETCAST 149: We Bought A PS2

[Read the rest of this entry…]

It’s hard for the average gamer to play absolutely EVERYTHING, even everything that’s good. But is that any excuse? Should gamers be shamed for failure to expose themselves to certain kinds of games? In our first Video Game Confessional, Vinnk and SeanOrange talk about the game franchises we should have played, but didn’t. And for good measure, we also discuss a few games we love to death, but have no business liking.

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 10: Never Played Pokemon

Listen to Pokemon Days of Summer and read the complete show notes only at:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/10

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The Kingdom Hearts franchise is a series of video games which varies in quality from amazing to barely playable. Let’s look at the series at it’s best and worst.

The concept was a weird one that didn’t seem to mesh at all. Take some Disney characters, throw them in with a bunch of Final Fantasy characters, toss in a few Keyblades and see what comes up. The result, it would seem, was something gamers really took to.

Though the game was Japanese first, it included a ton of Disney characters. The concept in the first game on the PlayStation 2 was basically that each new world was based on a new Disney movie which brought it’s characters into the fold as well. Even amongst the Disney characters the range of types of movies varied greatly, but they still managed to coexist in the rich world that was created quite well.

The game’s Hero is accompanied by Donald Duck, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket. Disney themed worlds are based on Alice in Wonderland, Hercules, Tarzan, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, Pinnochio, The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Peter Pan. Beyond these worlds other characters from other Disney properties make appearances. We see Mickey, Minnie, the Brooms from Fantasia, Merlin, 101 Dalmatians, the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella, Aurora and Maleficent, Snow White, Belle and the Beast, Simba, Dumbo, Bambi, Mushu, Chip and Dale and Huey, Dewey and Louis.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

 

Not much out this week aside from more PS3 move accessories, F1 and Civilization V. Let us know what you think of this week’s releases in the comments!
Listings are after the jump!
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The whole world is 3D, so maybe I should be more specific. This article is to discuss the optical effect of making something appear 3D to a human viewer. This effect can be done a number of ways, but in pretty much all instances this is achieved by having each eye see a different image to create the illusion of depth.

Close one eye at a time and you’ll see that each eye sees something slightly different. This is the real trick to 3D called paralax. The left eye needs to see an image as it would appear from a few inches to the left than the right eye and your brain is smart enough to use this to extrapolate depth. An easy way of showing this to be the real source of the effect is to try closing one eye while using pretty much any kind of 3D technology, and you will see the effect disappear.

Iconic blue and red 3D glasses

Encore/Black Ops entertainment are no less than geniuses. By tapping into America’s post-9/11 desire to kill Osama Bin Laden and assorted other brown and black people, Fugitive Hunter deserves a special place in every PS2/PS3 owner’s collection. Playing as Jake Seaver, a former Navy Seal turned bounty hunter, you pursue the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives throughout the world. You run through various global hotspots blasting at anything that gets in your way. When you get to the target in question, the game switches to a side by side fighting game in order to take down the criminal ALIVE. That’s right folks, although you’ll blast dozens of his henchmen to pieces, the game teaches humanitarian values and civil rights by having players beat their opponent down with kung fu moves and bring them in alive! No matter who you’re facing, all the bosses seem to know the same style of Kung Fu, even Bin laden!

[Read the rest of this entry…]