If you’re like me (and we’ll say you are), you have a lot of great old games that you can’t play.  I’ve got dozens of old Nintendo Entertainment System games, but my NES hasn’t done anything other than gather dust in years because the console gave up the ghost during my college years.  My SNES still works like a charm, as does my ancient Game Boy… or at least it did the last time I knew where it was circa 2004.  Long story short, I have a lot of awesome retro games and no way to play the bulk of them.  That’s why I’ve been trying to find some sort of retro video game player, either an original NES or a modern emulator.  Fortunately, Hyperkin has announced the RetroN 5 console.

Not only does the RetroN play NES games, it also plays SNES games, Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advanced games, Sega Genesis and Sega Megadrive Games, and Famicom games just in case you’ve got some cool Japanese imports!  It supports saving to memory cards like emulators do, and it works with a special video processor to push the games out in something decent-looking on an HD screen via HDMI.

Sadly, there’s no definitive release date or price yet, but Hyperkin hopes to have the system on the market by July at a price around $100.  So feel free to hit the flea market and second-hand store and stock up on old-school games to prepare for the return of the consoles of your childhood!

When a game is a hit, it’s good news all around.  But when a game is too much of hit, there’s a different set of problems that come about.  In the case of EA’s relaunched version of Sim City, the problem is the always-on system that forces players to log in to play.  In the old Sim City games, your city ran locally on your computer with no interaction, but in the new version of the game, the cities are part of a wider Sim World, and that means you’ll get the standard MMO game problems.  Sim City’s server problems were so bad that Amazon actually took the game off the market for a few hours.

“What we saw was that players were having such a good time they didn’t want to leave the game, which kept our servers packed and made it difficult for new players to join,” said SimCity producer Kip Katsarelis.

In order to change things on the back end and make it easier for players to log in and play the game, EA disabled the fastest settings of the game, turned off leader boards and achievements, and increased their server capacity.  The Amazon blockade lasted only a few short hours, though the game’s downloadable version comes with a warning label telling players about the difficulties in navigating the game at launch.

Some games just shouldn’t be MMOs.

One doesn’t normally associate video games with high art. Video games are the purview of the guy in his basement with a headset shooting at digital baddies, young kids, bored people with iPhones, nerds in dingy arcades, social misfits more concerned with guiding Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom than, say, talking to other people or doing any interacting.  However, increasingly, video games are rising to the level of art, and it would take a progressive museum to honor that reality.  Enter the Museum of Modern Art, one of the world’s most interesting museums.

MOMA has installed an exhibition on video games, from early classics like Pac-Man and Tetris to modern classics like EVE Online, Myst, and Portal.  Some of the games will be playable, with custom-designed joysticks and controls to allow interaction, while other, more complex games like SimCity will simply be guided demos.  Interestingly, the games will be presented without their associated consoles; however, player behavioral engineering, elegance of code, and multiple other factors went into the selection of the chosen games.

Pretty cool, huh?  It won’t be long before this spreads elsewhere, I’m sure.

“Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation as a company,” said Andrew House, president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.  ”Today we will give you a glimpse into the future of play.”

So what’s the future of play according to Sony?  The PlayStation 4, of course.  The PS4 made its public debut yesterday to scores of interested fans.  Interestingly, to a lot of folks, the future of the console game looks a whole lot like the future of mobile gaming.  Indeed, the PS4 focuses on mobile gaming, much like the Wii U features a gaming tablet, the PS4 works much the same with the PS Vita.  Not only will the Vita work with the PS4 as a controller and game tablet, Sony’s line of Xperia Android phones and tablets will also sync with the PS4.

Not only will the PS4 be mobile, it will also make games social.  Sharing game videos online will be a snap, and Sony will integrate the PS4 with Facebook and Ustream to make gaming more of a community experience.  Users will be able to live-stream their gaming experiences online (and the DualShock 4 controller will have an instant share button to share online without waiting or even hitting pause).  Gamers will be able to share games across the network, as well as pause and resume at any time, even after turning the system off!

Sony has never captured the PlayStation magic in a portable form.  Despite sinking tens of millions of dollars into the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, and Sony’s proprietary UMD format, neither portable system has come anywhere close to matching the success of Nintendo’s Gameboy/DS family of hand-helds.  However, Sony’s not giving up.  Looking to build on their 2.2 million units moved, Sony has cut the price of the PlayStation Vita.

Of course, there is some bad news.  The PS Vita price cut is only in Japan.  At least for now, anyway.  It’s only a matter of time before Sony cuts the price here in the United States, too.  In Japan, the Vita 3G went from 30000 yen ($320) to 19980 (4214).  The Wifi Vita dropped from 25000 yen ($267) to the same price point.  That seems like a good price drop, but I think you’d almost have to have two separate price points in the United States, since you’re starting out with two price points ($288 and $250 on Amazon).

Still, it’s a choice you make as a company.  Not move as many units and miss out on game sales, or cut prices, take more of a loss, and still maybe not sell any games?

The Sony PlayStation 4 is right around the corner, or so the Internet rumor mill would have us believe.  To throw fuel onto the fire of these rumors, there’s a leaked image out there that is reported to be a prototype of the redesigned PlayStation 4 controller.  Combining the traditional Sony DualShock design with a touch screen, controller-mounted speakers, a new directional pad, and new analog joysticks, the rumored PS4 controller looks like a pretty plausible design.  It takes the familiar and traditional, and kicks it up a notch.

It seems pretty awkward, but the touch screen might be the thing that makes all the difference.  The PS Vita had a touch screen, and while the console itself was a bomb, the touch capability seemed to draw rave reviews.  Maybe the PS4 will allow gamers to use their PS Vitas as controllers akin to the way the Wii U makes use of the Wii U GamePad as a primary controller augmented by Wii controllers.  That would be a pretty clever way of making use of the Vita’s capabilities by Sony, but I doubt they’ll go that direction.  Instead, the DualShock Touch (or whatever they’ll call the PS4 controller) seems like a better way to go.

I’m not sure if it’s the most ergonomically friendly controller on the market, but I imagine if the use of the touchpad is limited, or the use of the axis buttons are limited, then it could work.

Image via Failblog

The men of Seal Team Six, the team of special forces soldiers who infiltrated the armed compound of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and killed America’s most-wanted fugitive, are national heroes.  However, while they are heroes, they’re also still soldiers, and they have rules and regulations to follow.  The US Navy has disciplined seven members of Seal Team Six for working on a video game from Electronic Arts.  The game was EA’s Medal of Honor:  Warfighter.

“We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy,” said a strongly-worded comment from Deputy Commander of Naval Special Warfare Command Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli.  He added the Navy’s actions would “send a clear message throughout our force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability.”

It is not clear what secrets, if any, the Navy revealed to EA during their two days of consultancy work on Medal of Honor:  Warfighter.  They were also docked two months’ pay for their trouble.  Medal of Honor:  Warfighter boasts of its realistic military raids, but it does not recreate the Bin Laden raid (though I think we all wish it would).

Once upon a time, World of Warcraft was the 800-pound gorilla in the video game world.  Everyone played WoW, and by everyone I mean 12 million people.  While WoW has gone on the downswing lately, with subscription numbers dipping slightly, Activision-Blizzard has released some news that might make fans perk up and bring former fans back to the fold.  At gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany, Blizzard released the first trailer for World of Warcraft:  Mists of Pandaria.

How does it look?  Well, check it out yourself.

Will this win me back?  No, not really.  I was done before the last expansion came out, and I’ll stay away now.  Still, it looks like it might be fun if you can get past the whole “Kung Fu Panda” vibe the entire expansion gives off.  I like the idea of a melee-based class for WoW, but I don’t like the fact that they’re pandas.  Pandas aren’t exactly the most awesome, violent, scary of creatures.  They’re cute, and I don’t care how many orcs and humans a panda can beat up, he’s still just a little cuddly guy.

You may not have heard of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph yet, but you will.  The star-studded (John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, and Jack McBrayer) salute to video games both modern and classic has the kind of appeal that will cross generations while still having enough stuff to keep the kids amused.  Check out the trailer below, then tell me what you think!

It has to be said that as one of the generation that grew up with video games like Wreck-It Ralph, I’m thrilled about this.  Just the villain support group alone was enough to make me smile with all the nods to classic games like Street Fighter II, Pac-Man, and the Mario series.  This is the kind of nostalgia that Pixar does really well, and there’s no doubt Pixar’s influence has finally started bleeding over into Disney productions when Disney does this kind of digital animation.  There’s a sense of modern style to it, despite the film being Disney’s 52nd animated feature.

I’m sure John Lassiter has a lot to do with this movie, and that’s why it seems like it is going to be so much better than Disney’s recent output.