If the photo didn’t give it away, for one of today’s topics we’re touching on double standards in the electronics market, or at least the way products are covered in the press and by fanboys. We’re also doing a revisit on Windows Vista as well as discussing PC versus Console gaming. As an added bonus we’ve tacked on a review for Michael Bay’s latest explosion-fest Transformers, which, like a lot of current movies, would be twice as good at half the length.
“I finally really did it, didn’t I?” Realizing there “must be a better way” to help people find info I have slapped a Wiki onto the site. Specifically in a subdomain, wiki.benheck.com.
 We just fired it up yesterday so I encourage anyone interested to “get in there” and start adding content. We’d like to focus on gaming, technology and how-to’s, including some classic Atari projects from this site and help and support for some newer ones, like the 360 and controller modding.
Topic 1 of this episode is “How Many Times Can Gaming Go Mainstream?” While a person might think this would only happen once, according to the media it occurs every 10 years or so. We think this is rubbish and pull out a lot of numbers to support our theory – with the basic premise being Nintendo did it, but 20 years ago, not last fall. Also touched on are things like the N64 being considered a failure, yet selling more than either Xbox or the Gamecube.
Continuing our examination of sloppy journalism and misplaced labels, Topic 2 involves Hardcore VS Casual gamers, and when did there magically become a difference? 10 years ago a hardcore gamer might have been some dude playing Quake 8 hours a day on his PC, but now, to understand gaming press it appears to be anyone who owned a console before or other than the Wii? Granted, our journalism is just as sloppy, we just take it from another angle and look back through the history of gaming to form our opinions, rather than the last 2-3 years. Also a person often hears that hardcore gamers – despite the fact they buy the most games and systems – “don’t matter”. We take that to task as well.
Finally Topic 3 asks the question “Could another gaming crash happen?”. Our opinion on what could cause one shouldn’t surprise longtime listeners, but we felt this topic tied in well with the other 2. Enjoy and feel free to N-gage in healthy debate.
Since about 50% of my email involves requests for an Xbox 360 laptop, and since I like money, I have decided to relent and cave into the enormous pressure to build one more. Sigh.
Proposed specs:
Please visit this page for the terms of this one-time offer, thanks.
In other news, I’m still working on a new prototype for my 3rd revision of the single-handed controller. Should be the best one yet!
This Friday, June 15th I shall appear on the latest episode of Spike TV’s Game Head show. This was filmed last month right here in Verona, WI and the interview takes place in my amazing basement/workshop. Here’s a preview:
This is where the “magic” happens.
Should be more in-depth than the MTV Gametrailers segment. (You may even get to see footage of my not-terribly-clean living room, depending on how they edit it) We discuss some of the same things as the MTV spot, but here we also play the Xbox 360 Laptop 2 and talk briefly with Jason Jones about our podcast. Check www.spiketv.com for times and schedules, and we’ll see you on the ‘tube!
Well everyone is probably back from the Midwest Gaming Classic by now, so I thought I’d recap the show.
Along with my presentation, which will probably show up on YouTube or something, I displayed my latest Yobo NES portable, as shown above. Pretty standard stuff, but I had to bring something. Didn’t have any VCSp Rev 5.1’s laying around ready to go unfortunately. Continued…
Here it is, only a day late this time, Benheck.com Podcast Episode 21! Topic 1 involves televisions ads, why people pay for things and still have to sit through ads, spam and annoying marketing in general. Topic 2 touches on “Games made from movies”, inspired by the news that for some reason a company is making a “Dirty Dancing” game (clearly they were inspired by our Wii video). Jones and I think of some cool movies that they should make games of. We also talk about the Xbox 360 Elite that Jones picked up, along with his HD-DVD drive add-on.
As for the intro, it’s the thrilling conclusion to our “Video Pirates of the Caribbean” series, so enjoy.
Regarding the Midwest Gaming Classic, I shall be speaking at 5:00 PM Saturday. See you all there.