Are you a human being of a certain age, whose geographical location and status as a television viewer allowed you to watch Movies Games And Videos on ITV? If so: congratulations, you are old like us, and you evidently had a lot of free time on Saturday afternoons like us too. We remember it because the show had an odd habit of featuring Neo Geo games, and you didn’t often see that outside of an arcade.
But also, you might remember Steve Priestley, the forever unseen narrator of that particular television programme. Well, thanks to Funtenga Video Software, he’s back doing the thing we all remember – narrating footage of game previews. But these are no ordinary games! Instead, you will see men fighting their trusty vessels and the wonders of Thanks Blaster. It really does defy reasonable explanation, so we’d advise you just click the play button and leave the problem of working it out to future you.
Retro Gamer issue 182 has hit the shelves today, and if you’re a fan of the Mega Drive you won’t want to miss it. Our cover feature takes a deep dive into the technology that makes the 30 year old console tick, with key developers including Mark Cerny, Trip Hawkins and Rieko Kodama giving their expert insight. What’s more, we have two added gifts – a fantastic sticker sheet featuring classic Sega sprites and iconography, and a guide to the Mega Drive’s essential games. If all that gets you in the mood for to revisit some 16-bit hits, we’ve also reviewed the new Sega Mega Drive Classics collection.
There’s plenty more inside, too. We have features on the creation of Savage, Rock ‘N’ Roll Racing and EyeToy: Play, an Ultimate Guide to Konami’s arcade racer WEC Le Mans, and a Minority Report focusing on the Atari 8-bit range. Outside of specific games, we’ve got a collector’s guide to Eighties publisher Software Projects, a look back at Brian Howarth’s Digital Fantasia, and an examination of games made using the Build engine. Our sit-down interview for the month is with Matt Gray, the musician behind games such as Last Ninja 2 and Driller. And of course we’ve got all the usual favourites including Retro Revivals, Hardware Heaven and The Unconverted.
A lot more people have had their eyes opened to wireless charging pads thanks to the latest Apple iPhones (and a couple of generations of high-end Android phones before that). PC and accessory maker Razer wants to broaden the definition even more, with a new battery-free wireless gaming mouse that pulls its power from a special mousepad.
The new HyperFlux line consists of the Mamba HyperFlux mouse, a new entry in its longstanding Mamba gaming mouse series, and the Firefly HyperFlux mat. Razer says the new technology “allows the mouse mat to create a magnetic field that efficiently transfers power directly to its companion mouse instead of charging a heavy battery.” The company adds that this is the first time a wireless gaming mouse has been able to shed its internal battery.
Now playing: A hypothetical home for the Razer Phone 1:31
Razer Mamba HyperFlux5 PHOTOS
Without the battery, the Mamba is indeed a few ounces lighter than its predecessors, and felt very responsive in a brief hands-on demo. Even with no internal battery, the mouse can hold enough charge to keep it connected for a few seconds if you lift it off the pad. The same micro-USB plug that connects the mousepad to a powered USB port can also plug directly into the mouse if you want to use it as a wired peripheral (for example, if you’re traveling without the mousepad).
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Razer product if it didn’t light up in a few million colors. Both the mouse and mousepad have Chroma accent lights which can be controlled from your PC, giving you endless customization options.
The HyperFlux series is coming sometime in the first quarter of 2018 for $249 in the US. International details were not yet available, but that works out to £185 or AU$315.
Playable on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows MR, PSVR
Imagine peeking into a tiny dollhouse world where a fairy tale mouse hops around to save the world and solve puzzles. Moss puts the player in the position of helpful spirit, guiding a little mouse hero on a massive journey through a little magic kingdom. Each level feels like a living miniature, and the illusion of being close to a tiny, living world is perfect. This is a beautiful game.
When it debuted at CES 2018, Acer billed its 14-inch Acer Swift 7 laptop as the thinnest laptop in the world. The device’s profile measured just 8.98mm and it started at $1,699 or £1,599. It hit, more or less exactly as envisioned, this summer. When CNET’s Dan Ackerman reviewed the Acer Swift 7 in August, he said the laptop “feel[s] like the rare high-design ultraportable you can really use all day long.”
Over the past year an trend is happening with midrange Android phones: They are becoming more niche targeting consumers with a feature that’s not designed for everyone. That’s the case with the Moviphone a midrange Android device with a built-in projector: No mods needed.
The company Wireless Mobi Solution (WMS) from San Diego introduced the Moviphone at CES 2018.
As the name so rudimentarily suggests, it’s all about movies. And what better way to watch a movie than projecting it onto a wall as big as you can? The 50-lumen projector supports a 720p HD image that can be projected up 100 inches in size.
Watch this: Moviphone looks like a OnePlus 5 with a built-in projector 1:25
The projector simply mirrors whatever is on the screen. If you’re watching Netflix or YouTube on the phone’s display, it’s projected. If you have a PowerPoint presentation or just want to show off some snaps, then they go up on the wall.
The 720p HD projector can project an image up to a 100 inches big.Josh Miller/CNET
What’s exciting about the Moviphone is when the projector is off, you would never know the phone had one. Svelte, with a 5.5-inch display, it looks like a OnePlus 5 had a phone baby with a Motorola Z2 Play.
The Moviphone is unlocked and comes with 128GB of storage. It has a fingerprint reader on the back — conveniently located in the middle like a Google Pixel 2. It runs a stock version of Android Nougat and is available now for $599, which converts to about £445 or AU$765, from the WMS website. Part of the reason WMS is at CES is to connect with carriers and third-party retailers in hopes of having the Moviphone become more widely available.
All the new phones at CES 201833 PHOTOS
We only had a quick look at the Moviphone, but look forward to testing one out more in-depth.
CES 2019 is almost here and Earthquake Sound would like to announce that we are teaming up with SimXperience this year. We will have a SimXperience Stage 4 Motion Racing Simulator Kit equipped with full roll, pitch, yaw, and G-Force simulation. Those who can attend CES this year will have the opportunity to demo some of the latest racing simulation products from SimXperience. In addition, we have our own personal touch with some of our products to further enhance this virtual racing experience such as the MPower 8 and award-winning Supernova MKVI.
Beyond the standard 2.1 setup, Earthquake’s Q10B and MQB-1 tactile transducers will be placed on the simulator to provide you with the most immersive racing experience you will ever have by simulating road noise, impact, RPM and much more. We invite all who can attend to stop by our booth and witness what our technologies can do for virtual reality. Earthquake Sound is shaking things up at CES so come by for one hell of a test drive.
Not only were we impressed by Chinese electric car maker Byton’s M-Byte concept SUV in general, but its cabin, which featured a 49-inch LCD dashboard display, wowed us too. The screen, which the company calls its Shared Experience Display, can be viewed by all passengers. And when the car switches to autonomous mode, the display can show entertainment content in addition to driving info.
Byton demoed the same car and its display at MWC Shanghai in June and in August, the company began to test drive the car on tracks located in Nanjing, China, under real-world traffic conditions. Byton aims to kick off production of the M-Byte by Fall 2019.
Status: Available, but more intended for niche commercial applications rather than consumer use
The PowerSpot transmitter powers devices like keyboards, remotes and wearables wirelessly. And when it says wirelessly, it means wirelessly — there are no charging mats here. The transmitter works by emitting radio frequency energy on a certain band. Special receivers inside other devices convert that radio energy into direct current, which power the devices and charge their batteries. The PowerSpot promises to charge up to 30 devices as far as 80 feet away.
You can purchase the PowerSpot for $100 from certain distributors, which includes a power cord and a USB wall outlet adapter. The company also plans to sell a development kit for $400.
CNET’s Scott Stein called this one of his favorite things at CES 2018. The Merge Blaster is like an AR Nerf Gun, and it lets you play Laser Tag with your iOS or Android phone. The gun also allows players six degrees of freedom and tracks movement, meaning you can duck, aim and walk around quickly.
Exact timing, price and availability is still unknown, and Merge didn’t immediately reply for a request to comment. In March, TechRadar had a chance to check out a pre-production model and said it hoped that the device would launch “later in the year.” That doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen so for now, you can settle for a Merge AR cube, a headset or some shirts at its online store.
The Vive Pro was a VR system that needed a high-end PC and a cable attaching the two together. But as an update to 2016’s HTC Vive, the Pro had a sharper, more higher-resolution display, built-in headphones and a redesigned headstrap.
In March, HTC announced the Vive Pro would go on sale on April 5 for $799. But that price only included the headset, not the controllers or base stations. If you wanted those required accessories, a controller cost $130 separately, and each base station is $135.
HTC later offered a Vive Pro Starter Kit bundle that included the headset, two first-generation controllers and two first-gen base stations for $1,099. There was also a Vive Pro Full Kit with second-gen controllers that briefly went on sale during this year’s Black Friday.
After the lights went dark in the Monte Carlo resort’s Park Theater, a buzzing army of 110 small drones with flickering red lights started to float up to the ceiling from offstage.
While Kygo‘s dreamy pop song “Stargazing” played, the drones pulled together into pulsing, swirling clouds that reached into the audience, at times forming rotating stars or shimmering sheets of light.
That was the finale of Intel’s keynote event at the CES tech show last month in Las Vegas, where CEO Brian Krzanich introduced to the world these hand-sized Shooting Star Mini drones, the next generation of drones Intel’s made specifically for drone light shows.
The chipmaker made a splash with its bigger sister Shooting Star drones at last year’s Super Bowl, with an array of 300 drones turning themselves into an American flag in the sky behind Lady Gaga during a pretaped portion of the halftime show. The new younger sibling Mini drones were built to perform light shows indoors, part of Intel’s plans to bring this new form of entertainment to many more places this year.
“This is a new way to tell storytelling in the sky, where you have a blank canvas, like a night canvas in the sky,” Natalie Cheung, Intel’s general manager of drone light shows, told me a few hours before the keynote presentation. “It’s sort of like digital fireworks.”
Now playing: Intel’s drone show turns Las Vegas into a real bright-light… 2:32
Cheung said she sees the light-show drones as offering a lot more than some passing distraction at a football game or concert. Intel plans to apply what it’s learning from light shows to industrial uses for its other drones, like coordinated drone search parties and inspections of cell towers. More broadly, Cheung views the light shows as a way of introducing drones to the general public in a more positive way, as a balance against controversies like delivery drones potentially taking away people’s jobs.
“We’re able to change how people are looking at drones,” she said. “They see it as a fascination.”
Merging tech and art
Cheung joined Intel in 2011 after graduating that year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science. After a rotational program for engineers, she landed an opportunity as a research analyst for the CEO.
That led to a chat in the hallway with Krzanich in 2015 about using 100 drones to create the Intel logo in front of a company building.
“We didn’t know the answer at that time, but said OK, I think we can do this. What do we need to do to make this possible,” she said.
A close-up look at an Intel Shooting Star drone.Ben Fox Rubin/CNET
In November of that year, Cheung helped organize a team in Germany that flew 100 Hummingbird drones made by Ascending Technology, snagging a Guinness World Record for the most drones that were airborne simultaneously.
“I realized there that we were just scratching the surface and we had just gotten into something that was much bigger than I expected,” Cheung said with a Shooting Star drone sitting by her during our conversation.
After the Germany test run, Cheung took over the new light-show team and helped pulled off four international shows using 100 drones in 2016. That year, Intel also acquired Ascending Technologies and later introduced its own Shooting Star drone.
The hardware of a Shooting Star is fairly simple. The drone weighs about as much as a volleyball, is made of foam and plastic, and carries an LED payload that can flash red, green, blue or white. It doesn’t have cameras. The Shooting Star, flying outdoors, is guided by GPS, and the Mini drones use a similar tech called the Intel Indoor Location System. And, no, neither drone is available for sale to the public.
Intel built software to program groups of hundreds of these drones that can be operated by a single drone pilot, helping it create intricate moving shapes and logos for festivals, sporting events and movie premieres all over the world.
Each show can take months to plan, needing to coordinate the aerial animations, local permits and on-site preparation. To ensure safety, the drones are programmed with two geofences to protect the audience and with multiple emergency protocols, Cheung said.
