Drop-off

Wired has an article called “The End of the Affair” which talks about the strange feeling that often happens when playing games:

This is one of the abiding mysteries of games: Why do they let us go so suddenly? Every gamer I know describes the same abrupt drop-off, totally unexpected, arriving after hours or even weeks of feverish play. It is like a curious, unintentional form of cold turkey. You wake up one day fully expecting to spend another four hours in an eye-glazed stupor, only to discover that the thrill is gone.

via [SmashBOT]

Urban Dead

Like zombies, like free browser games? Then you’ll love the browser-based MMOG Urban Dead. Developed by Kevan Davis and currently has more than 100.000 players playing. That is an enormous number for a free browser-based game and a clear kudos to Davis and his game. There is even a large community around the game making maps and different Firefox extensions.

Jay has a longer (and better) review of the game at his website. All I can say is that you should at least give it a try; it’s been a long time since I played a free game that on the surface was very simple but soon showed to contain deep and very rewarding gameplay.

Vivendi shuts down King’s Quest fan game

An ambitious fan game, in development since 2000 and nearing completion has been shut down by Vivendi Universal Games (aka Sierra Entertainment). King’s Quest IX was to be an alternative ending to the popular King’s Quest series.

Time line of video games 1950 – 2004

A time line of video and computer games in reverse chronological order. Though the history of the video game spans almost five decades, video games themselves didn’t become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s.

Sonic Invaders

a.Shooter is a solely acoustical ego-shooter game referring to the classical form of interaction in the game Space Invaders. Wearing headphones and using a joystick, the player has to shoot up sonic invaders conquering a virtual room as defined by panorama, pitch and volume.

Atari re-releasing 2600 console

The console itself looks like a scaled-down version of an old Atari 2600, with faux wood paneling and other dated details. There are no cartridges to plug in, as technology advances have made it easy to stuff all of the games onto a small chip inside. And the controllers are exactly like the Atari 2600 joysticks. Looking good.