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January 16, 2008
Geek Bomb Wednesday Jan 16th
So first of all, I have to say, Mario Galaxy is pretty freaking amazing. I bought it over a month ago and have been putting off playing it for some reason. I can never get excited about a Mario game because, well, the world and "story" and aesthetics of it all just don't appeal to me in the least. But then the inevitable happens. I finally get around to trying it, which is what I just did, and holy shit it's a cool game! The gameplay is just about perfect. Totally bizarre. Very original. Often mind bending. I've only played about an hour, but I'm super impressed. I can see why some people named it game of the year, although I'm still all about the Bioshock, because story is so important to me and Mario Galaxy doesn't even really have a story so much as a series of mushroom inspired excuses. Still, it is a great game.
But there's more to geek out on that just Mario on my Wii. There's also Bug Labs! Now, I'm no fan of insects in any way, so luckily Bug Labs in fact has nothing to do with bugs it all. It's actually a really cool looking modular computer system that allows you to attach whatever additional bits of functionality to a central control unit to make your own cool gadget. So far they've announced a touch screen, a GPS, a camera, and an accelerometer with other add-ons coming down the line. I think this is an amazingly cool idea and I'm really excited to see what hackers more clever than I am manage to come up with for the Bug Lab stuff. I've been wanting some sort of modifiable ultra-portable computing set up and I can see how this would be a really interesting set of stuff to be able to work with. I don't have the spare cash to pre-order any of this now, but I look forward to being able to play with it some day.
In the realm of things that I'll probably never get to play with but which are also really cool, I came across this article on the Wired Danger Room blog about various kinds of portable laser weapons that are currently being tested. They're all supposedly non-lethal, which makes them kind of extra-cool in my book, although I imagine deadlier beam weapons are on the way. It's the stuff of a modern tech-fiction writer's dreams and worth checking out if you like lasers. And who doesn't like lasers?
And that's your geek bombardment for the day from me!
Posted by rdakan at January 16, 2008 02:57 PM
Comments
I've been following Bug Labs for a while. It's probably moreso what I'm after than the Android platform, which I'd dabbled with for a bit. I'm very tempted to drop my cash on the Bug launch package deal. - m
Posted by: Markleford at January 16, 2008 04:34 PM
I think they're really cool, although I'm a little curious what they think the overall market for their product is and what their business plan looks like. It seems like they're keeping things pretty small, which is probably wise. Just knowing this thing is out there is cool for me as a writer and I've already got ideas for incorporating it into a story. Hopefully they'll make it and inspire others to do similar projects.
Posted by: Rick Dakan at January 16, 2008 08:38 PM