McDonald’s Lost Nintendo DS Training Game
Finding prototype and undistributed copies of retro games has turned into a modern day treasure hunt. Finding such a gem can result in your copy selling for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Here’s the story of a long-lost Nintendo DS game that was finally found and given away – for free. It was called eCDP (eCrew Development Program) and was distributed to various McDonalds throughout Japan to help train employees. Follow the fun adventures Nick Robinson had tracking this down, buying it, and then finally playing through it.
Or, if you want, you can download a copy yourself and play it on a DS emulator. I applaud Nick’s values of not seeking profits first, but preservation by offering copies for free.
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The Husbands of Target
Charlie Berens has a very Midwest style of humor that speaks to me.
Hooking 2 modems together without an active phone line
Land lines are getting hard to find these days. Almost as hard to find as old modems.
Back when I was a kid, I wanted to play a network game between two computers in my own house. I achieved this by hooking the modems up in a daisy chain. One modem plugged into the phone line like normal. On the ‘out’ port of the modem, I ran another line from it to the IN line of the 2nd modem. I then had the 2nd modem call our home phone number – which caused our phone to ring, the other modem picked up, and they made their normal connection sounds and connected! I could then unplug modem 1 from the phone line and the computers stayed in contact without issue.
At the time, I thought I needed a dialtone generator or line generator. Little did I know, I could have done it with a simple 9 volt battery and the right sized resistor. Skip along to 8:25 to see how to wire them together.
360 VR Spheres
Nova is an “untethered VR motion simulator,” making virtual reality games and training programs feel more real by rotating in any direction. Their 5.9 foot diameter sphere, which has been compared to a “human-sized hamster ball,” weighs about 1,100 lbs and simulate vehicles of all sorts by being able to move 360 degrees in any direction.
These units are too expensive for the home gaming market, the company leases each Nova unit with ongoing maintenance and upgrades, at a cost of $150,000 US Dollars per year. Eight360 is working with defense forces, mining and forestry industries, where vehicles cost millions of dollars, accidents are a very big deal and training needs to encompass tilt angles.
Steeple Jacks and laddering towers
Scaffolding used to be done a completely different way. With guys like Fred Dibnah.
Once you’re up at the top, you still have to build the plank scaffolding.
Developing for foldable devices
A recent Meetup event I went to featured Alexis Menard talking about development for foldable devices.
The original Ford Interceptor from ‘Mad Max’ is up for sale
One of the V8 Interceptors used on-screen in the cult classic film Mad Max is being put up for sale in Florida by the Orlando Auto Museum.
Titular character Mad Max’s ride of choice was a 1974 Ford Falcon XB GT, modified with a “Concorde” nose and nicknamed “the Pursuit Special.” The car was built in 1977 for Mad Max, which saw wide release in theatres in 1979.
Facebook Connect: John Carmack Keynote
Check out some current and future developments in the world of VR.
GWar has new competition
Cybertronic Spree is a Transformers-themed tribute band who plays a variety of cartoon, videogame, and anime theme songs dressed in awesome costumes. During a 2019 concert, they also performed a truly entertaining cover of Led Zeppelin’s emphatically chanted Immigrant Song.