A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought. Put on the headset, made by Emotiv Systems in San Francisco, and when a giant boulder blocks the path in a game you are playing, you can levitate it — not by something as crude as a keystroke, but just by concentrating on raising it, said Tan Le, Emotiv's president. The headset captures electrical signals when you concentrate; then the computer processes these signals and pairs a screen action with them, like lifting a stone or repairing a falling bridge.

The headset is the consumer cousin of brain-computer interfaces developed in research labs and used, for example, by monkeys who manipulate prosthetic arms with thoughts. The monkeys’ intentions are detected by sensors, translated into machine language and used to move the arm. In general, some interfaces use sensors implanted directly in the brain; others use electrode-studded caps.

For humans, Emotiv plans to have its noninvasive, wireless EPOC headset ($299) on sale in time for Christmas, Ms. Le said. With 16 sensors that lightly touch the head, it uses a standard technology, electroencephalography, or EEG, to pick up electrical signals from the scalp's surface and convert them to actions that control or enhance what happens on screen.

To help players master the art of moving on-screen objects solely through concentration, the headset will come bundled with a game, set on a magical mountain, that includes practice exercises, said Geoffrey Mackellar, Emotiv's research and development manager. "You clear the mind," he said, and then do 30 to 40 seconds of training, by concentrating, for instance, on visualizing a block lifting from the earth. "On the first or second attempt, you can lift it at will."

Other, harder challenges follow. In constant feedback, he said, the machine learns more about how users think just as users grow more skillful at concentrating.

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Grand Theft Auto Release Worries TV and Movie Execs

Grand Theft Auto will be released on April 29th and executives from other media, such as films and television, are worried that the new video game will cut into their revenues this summer.

When "Grand Theft Auto IV" launches April 29, it's expected to gross a record-breaking $400 million worldwide in its first week. That's good news for the game biz, but daunting for execs in other sectors of the media industry. TV network execs who pay attention to the numbers know that young male viewership can dip in the first few days after a blockbuster videogame launches. And home-entertainment honchos avoid releasing big titles aimed at that demo in the same time period. Now the question is whether film execs will have to factor videogames into their release strategies.

Last summer, "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" broke all box office records, with a $404 million worldwide haul in its first six days, roughly the same amount expected for "GTA IV." But while "Pirates" was only three hours out of someone's life at an average price of about $7, "GTA IV" is a $60 investment that provides dozens, if not hundreds of hours of content. That's money and time that has to come from somewhere else. And "Pirates" encouraged audiences to go to the movies. "GTA IV" is encouraging audiences to stay home.

So far this year, box office is 3% down from last year. The biz could use some megahits to ignite folks to start going to the multiplex in droves. But "Auto" may create a detour for some moviegoers, particularly the young men who play it most devotedly and are often first in line for tentpole releases.

April is not traditionally a time for big vidgame releases, but "GTA IV" was pushed back from its original date last October. So now the title from Rockstar Games, a subsid of Take-Two Interactive, comes just a few days before the start of the summer movie season and during the first week of May sweeps.

We think that videogames will occupy more and more of the free time of consumers that used to watch more television and see more movies. It's a growing area, and execs will have to factor it into their media release dates.

Posted on April 19, 2008
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Lego Indiana Jones is at it Again

If Adventure had a name, it would be Lego Indiana Jones. Here's the trailer for Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. This is the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Watch the great whip action!



Posted on March 8, 2008
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Co-Creator of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax Dead At 69

Gary Gygax the c0-creator of Dungeons and Dragons has died at the age of 69. Wired reports:

Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games. Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels.

"I don't think I've really grokked it yet," said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. "He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers."

Gygax was not directly involved with Dungeons & Dragons after 1985, and his relationship with his former company, TSR Inc., was not friendly at first. The company sued him over his competing game Dangerous Journeys, and in a 2004 interview with GameSpy he stated that he was "pleased to say" that he thought the cost of the suit and settlement drove TSR to sell the rights to the game.

While reportedly unimpressed with the current edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game, he created adventures and settings that could be used with it, which were published by Troll Lord Games. Gygax went well beyond the role of game developer and became an icon to gamers, appearing as himself in episodes of Futurama and Code Monkeys and participating in discussions on roleplaying-related message boards.

Fans can post remembrances and and thoughts about Gygax on the Troll Lords message boards. Fans are planning a massive day of D&D in his honor, so check the boards for more details.

Posted on March 4, 2008
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Jon Stewart Loves His Big Screen Wii

One highlight of the Oscars was when Jon Stewart played Wii with the 11 year-old singer on the giant screen behind him. Now that's what we call a nice big screen. Here's the clip:



Posted on February 26, 2008
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U.S. Navy Brings Railgun to Life

The U.S. Navy may have invented a railgun but gamers have been using railguns to destroy enemies for several years now. Wikipedia describes a railgun as type a gun that "converts electrical energy (rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant) into projectile kinetic energy." Wikipedia's entry also mentions that railguns were part of the plot in the 1996 film Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams. The Free-Lance Star points to railgun video game usage as early as the Quake II video game.

Railgun technology has been featured in popular games such as Quake II, in which players can choose weapons for combat. In a 2006 listing by Game trailers.com, a handheld railgun was ranked seventh on the list of the 10 favorite video-game weapons.

Mark Daniel, a self-described gamer from Fredericksburg, said the weaponry in video games can be almost as much of a draw as the characters or story line. He said it's "cool to see technology can be influenced by science fiction, video games and movies."

"Every time they have a new idea for a weapon in a video game you get a lot of hype about it," he said.

Indeed, a Free Lance-Star story on the railgun last year drew more than 300,000 hits online.

Even though it is not a novel idea the U.S. Navy's railgun is still very impressive and unlike the video game and movie railguns it is worth noting that the Navy's railgun is real. Gizmodo says it destroys everything it touches at 5,640 mph. Here's a video of the Navy's railgun in action.



Posted on February 2, 2008
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Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game to Be a Video Game

Orson Scott Card's classic novel Ender's Game is set to become a videogame. Chair Entertainment the game studio that produced Undertow will be creating new gaming titles bases on Card's compelling SF story about a boy military genius.

The novel, with its probing of the line between reality and games, has long been eyed by video game fans as a rich source of material for the medium. Chair plans to make several titles based on the book, with the first one slated to be a downloadable game that should be available in 2009. Card said he decided to move ahead with an "Ender's Game" video game after years of wrangling to make a feature film bore no fruit. "There is going to be a universe of 'Ender's Game' games, hopefully. But that's like someone starting a restaurant and thinking about opening 100 franchises all over the country," Card told Reuters. "Let's make this one work first," Card said.

The first game will focus on the Battle Room, the elite military academy where Ender hones his strategic and tactical skills and that provided some of the most memorable scenes in the book. Based in Provo, Utah, privately held Chair enjoyed success with "Undertow", a downloadable game for Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 console that pits teams of players against each other in a fast-paced underwater battle.

"The really cool thing about 'Ender's Game' is that there's lots of potential for lots of types of gameplay. We wanted to initially create the Battle Room, that's really what jumped out to me as a gamer that I really wanted to play," said Chair's creative director Donald Mustard. "We have not fully designed the game yet. I think that the game will play very much what we've all imagined the Battle School is, a cross between 'Call of Duty' with zero-g with hardcore strategy elements more like a sports game," Mustard said, referring to a popular military shooting game.

Ender's Game is perfect for a videogame. It's really a shame that the movie hasn't come together yet.

Posted on January 29, 2008
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