D&D’s Gary Gygax is Gone
March 4, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under Dungeons & Dragons, GAMING
Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the world famous Dungeons & Dragons game and one of the original members of D&D publishing company TSR, has passed away at the age of 69. According to his wife, Gail Gygax, he had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, some previous strokes and a near-heart attack, but no specific cause of death was given. Read more
Blu-ray Wins By Default
February 21, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under GAMING, MOVIES, TECH
It appears that in the battle of the formats, Toshiba America has finally thrown in the towel, and announced that they will be discontinuing their HD DVD format players/recorders, giving the Blu-Ray format backed by Sony the match by default.
Quite a few people are upset given that they purchased player/recorders and XBox’s with HD DVD heavily last year and for Christmas in anticipation of many more titles to come, and now the big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Best Buy, and movie studios like Universal and Paramount have said they will follow Toshiba’s lead, and drop providing new stuff in HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. Owners of the pretty much now-defunct format are saying they would have gone PS3 instead if Toshiba could have admitted they lost the format wars way back when instead of making sure they were able to sell of existing inventory at full price for the holidays.
Read more
ENDER’S GAME – It’s About Time…
January 31, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under GAMING, MOVIES
In August 1977, Orson Scott Card’s novelette ENDER’S GAME was published in ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT and it amazed the sci fi world with its tale of very young, extremely smart, children trained to play war games for an upcoming battle with an alien species called the Formics, a group who had already beaten Earth forces 70 years before, and who are now back to finish the job.
Now, finally, more than 30 years after the story was released and a host of expanded and sequel novels were published (XENOCIDE, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, CHILDREN OF THE MIND, FIRST MEETINGS IN THE ENDERVERSE), director Wolfgang Petersen (TROY) is currently working on a film version of the book series with Card writing the screenplay. (Of course, the whole project has been in “development hell” for years, and no list of actors is attached yet, so no guarantees that it will make it for the 2008-2009 movie season, especially since Warner Brothers put it into “turnaround” but I’m keeping my fingers crossed…)
Orson Scott Card has also given Chair Entertainment Group the exclusive license to create games based on the Ender books. They plan to offer the games on all next-generation console, hand-held and PC platforms. With Card’s help, Chair Entertainment will begin development later this year on a game inspired by the Battle Room, the mainstay of ENDER’S GAME. The first version is expected for release via downloadable platforms.
In the meantime, we wait for a chance to train at Battle School to see for ourselves how we’d stack up against a bunch of precocious kids. (Can you say movie “tie-ins”?)
The Dark Portal Opens Jan 16th!
December 31, 2007 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under GAMING, World of Warcraft
The Burning Legion’s renewed assault on Azeroth begins Midnight, January 16th and the Blizzard development team will be on hand to celebrate the event while signing copies of the game at four California area retailers. For Orange County residents, the Fountain Valley Fry’s will open up at midnight for signings, with a second location available in Anaheim. If you are in Los Angeles, you can check out a midnight opening at the Hollywood Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games retail store. Finally, for those in the San Francisco area, the Sunnyvale Fry’s will open its doors to those interested in meeting the developers.
Here are the details for each event:
| Retailer | Address | Signed Copies Available | Time Line- Up Begins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fry’s Fountain Valley | 10800 Kalama River Ave Fountain Valley, CA 92708 |
4500 | January 15th |
| Fry’s Anaheim | 3370 E. La Palma Ave Anaheim, CA 92806 |
4500 | January 15th |
| Fry’s Sunnyvale | 1077 E. Arques Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94085 |
4500 | January 15th |
| Universal Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games |
1000 Universal Studios Blvd (Cross Street: Buddy Holly Drive) Universal City, CA 91608 |
1500 | January 15th |
At each location, line-up begins at 6:00 AM PCT on January 15th. There are limited quantities available on a first-come, first-served basis. Wristbands will be issued at each event to guarantee signed copies, so make sure you are there in time to receive one.
If you don’t live in California or can’t make it to one of these four events, don’t worry: There are a legion of retail locations across the country opening early to sell copies of The Burning Crusade. Best Buy and Gamestop/EB Games will have select locations open at Midnight, January 16th. For a full list of participating retail stores, check out the Web sites listed below:
(Info from the Blizzard.com World of Warcraft Newsletter)
