Episode 382: Late But Not Too Late

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this episode was recorded on Monday, but despite the lateness, it’s full of rich news items, including some very disturbing trends in videogames, as well as a question by a listener that got mental juices flowing. This week’s Gaming Flashback is Professor Pac-Man.

The news items include:

  • Headteachers in UK threaten to report parents who let their children play 18-rated games
  • Star Citizen‘s Vanguard “concept” fighter costs a cool $250
  • PC version of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round launches on Steam without key features
  • Zelda delay could ruin Nintendo’s 2015
  • New Jersey game store “swatting” takes an uglier turn

This week’s Question of the Week: “What do you think is the future of older games?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 382: Late But Not Too Late”

  1. Excellent episode guys!

    @UK threatens to report parents for kids playing 18 rated games: I think Paul got side tracked with other points because this story had nothing to do with Religious zealots, home schooling or bringing games to school.

    I don’t know why kids wouldn’t be allowed to talk about the games in school, I certainly did when I was in elementary. I agree with Jonah on this if you know what your kids are playing and watching and not just using them as babysitters it’s fine. I know every game my daughter plays and tv show she watches, yes I let her play Skyrim which apparently has a 15 and an 18 rating from UK. I know that game and what is in it, I feel she can handle it

    @Zelda and Nintendo: I would love if Nintendo would package a game with their system again. It’s been too long since they’ve done that.

    @Swatting is a terrible thing that needs to stop, so yes try the kid as an adult, they need to learn that there are consequences for this type of behavior.

    @QotW: I am so glad you guys enjoyed the question, and also glad that you mentioned Abandonware. I think that is going to be part of the solution there, if companies that no longer wish to hold on to the legal rights for games that aren’t earning them money than it can be given over to those that will upkeep a emulator for it, there are XP emulators for example which I think is another part to keeping some games around for the next generation to play.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

TD Gaming Podcast 95: Bad Judgement of MMOsTD Gaming Podcast 95: Bad Judgement of MMOs

This weeks gaming podcast covers two reviews, including LittleBigPlanet and Guitar Hero: World Tour. We also touch on a bit of retro NES history with ExciteBike. This weeks gaming news includes:

We’re also stepping on our soap box and asking if MMO’s are too risky for consumers who buy into MMO’s that fail in under a year.

Episode 285: Surviving SandyEpisode 285: Surviving Sandy

The podcast is back this week after being knocked out by Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City hard. As the Kickstarter continues to struggle to find donors, Jordan discusses his hands-on experience with the new Microsoft tablet, the Surface, in lieu of a Gaming Flashback.

This week’s news items include:

  • Civilization MMO being developed in Asia
  • Yoshida: PlayStation Vita sales are below expectations
  • DICE giving away Battlefield 1942 for free on Origin
  • Redding: “lower-case aaa” games where the industry should be heading
  • Microsoft and 343 Industries taking hard stance on sexism

All that and Reader Feedback. This week’s Question of the Week, “What do you do for fun when you can’t access the internet?”

Help the TD Gaming Podcast with its Kickstarter fundraising.

DSi Will Be Region-Locked, Sad Face…DSi Will Be Region-Locked, Sad Face…

One of the greatest things Nintendo has done was allowing the DS to be unlocked for regions. This allowed gamers around the world to share their favorite games from all cultures and countries with just a click of the “buy” button at an online store.

The DSi loses this great freedom by locking it down to a region. “Nintendo DS software is region free so you can play any DS software on DSi from any region. You can also browse the internet on your DSi wherever you are in the world and exchange your photos with friends from around the world,” says Nintendo (CVG).

Much like the US Entertainment Industries need to lock down everything and contribute to global piracy, Nintendo follows suit with their hand-helds, tis a sad day indeed. Of course Nintendo reasons it all away by yelling parental controls and making it easier for regions to access their own content.

“DSi is region locked because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region. Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit.”

Specifically tailored for each region is a nice way of saying that each region has to pay the penalty of not being “first” (second, or third) to get some cool new features. Although Nintendo could put emphasis on the region the gamer lives in with complete access out of those bounds if they wanted, they’ve chosen to use this as a crutch to lock users out of content.

Users will get their content, of course. It just means more home brews, software hacks, hardware hacks and workarounds for the system. If that’s what Nintendo is trying to inspire, then they’ve done their job right.

However, wouldn’t it be great if they could just come out and say “we don’t want certain people accessing specific content until we say you can.”