‘Elite’ Brought Open-Worlds To Videogames Before Their Time

Whoa, a sudden burst of activity on the website for a 25-year-old game? The official site for Elite is in the middle of a series of new posts, artwork, and even an upcoming interview with one of the game’s creators.

If you’re not acquainted with Elite, you might be surprised to learn that open-world games are 25 years old. As co-creator David Braben explains in an introductory video:

In Elite, you play the role of a space pilot where you’re given a slightly rubbish space ship and a 100 credits and you get to fly around the galaxy — in fact, several galaxies — doing exactly what you like. The idea is, by the way you play the game — you can either play the game as a pirate, you can play the game as a trader, you can play the game as a bounty hunter — there are all different roles. But you don’t actually select a role. It’s not like a role-playing game. You can do any and all of these things as the whim takes you.

He furthermore says the game was a tough sell back in 1984 because “you didn’t have three lives and it took longer than ten minutes to play through”.

Among young whipsnappers who don’t know Elite, Braben’s studio, Frontier, is better known for the third RollerCoaster Tycoon. They also created the sublime Lost Winds, available as Wii Ware, and they’re currently at work on the follow-up, Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias.

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Fujitsu Shows Off Venus, World’s Fastest Processor

Look out, Intel. Fujitsu just unleashed the fastest processor in the world, a startling 2.5 times quicker than Intel’s speediest chip. Supercomputer users will love "Venus," the eight core processor that’s capable of 128 billion computations per second.

What all those numbers mean? While its 45-nanometer architecture doesn’t pack its components together as tightly as Intel’s latest 32-nanometer configuration, it accomplishes that world-record blistering speed while sipping one third the power of Intel’s flagship chip.

Alas, this monster processor is not for you and me — it’s destined for enormously expensive supercomputers doing high-end research, and won’t see practical application for "several years." But its power and design gives us a sneak preview into what’s possible, and hints at Intel’s next move to answer Fujitsu’s slam-dunk.

Via CrunchGear

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Shuttle X50 Touch Screen Due Out In April Of 2009

Shuttle has recently unveiled the X50, an all-in-one touchscreen nettop. I’m not really even certain what a nettop is, but this one looks like it could become quite popular.

The thing that makes me want to buy it is the “lunchbox” handle on top, which just screams portability. The screen is a big 15.6 inch (1,336 x 768 resolution), and all the applications on its Windows XP Home operating system can be accessed with a fingertip or stylus.

The computer is 1.4 inches thick, and comes with WiFi b/g/n, of course. Other features include an Atom 330 processor, 1GB of RAM, plus a 160GB hard drive. The X-50 also has a 1.3 megapixel webcam, as well as ezCam software. It also comes with a 4-in-1 memory card reader, VGA output, audio in and out, and five USB ports. The big thing is that it is powered by an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor.

Maybe I am new to this whole All-in-one PC nettop thing, but I don’t see any keyboard on this thing. I suppose you could attach one via USB, but maybe there is a possibility of using the touchscreen of a keyboard.

Interested in the X50? You will have to wait until the end of the month to get it, for a price of about $499.

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Internet Explorer 8 Available for Download

Windows only: The final version of Internet Explorer 8 is now available for download from the IE home page.

The latest release of Internet Explorer is a lot faster, finally follows internet standards, and adds a lot of new features like a smarter address bar, tab grouping, private browsing, and tab crash protection. Check out our previous coverage of the IE Beta for a full walk-through of the new features, or just download it and check them out for yourself.

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Nvidia Debuts GeForce 3D Vision Glasses

Nvidia today released a new line of wireless shutter 3D glasses–another revival of a technology long perceived as a gimmick.

The real shocker? These things might be worth a look.

“The visual effect is more than simply cheap Hollywood-style 3D flash,” writes CNET in its positive preview. “In Left 4 Dead, we had the sense of a much more immersive depth of field than you get from standard 3D games on a 2D display.”

The GeForce 3D Vision glasses use battery-powered, active stereoscopic technology to create its 3D effect at 60 FPS–different from ATI’s passive iZ3D pair. …

Read the rest on these cool new toys at ShackNews.com

100 Amiga Games In 10 Minutes

I owned an Amiga 2000HD about 16-17 years ago. My friend Andy was the Amiga guru at the time and it turned out to be one of my favorite systems. I have fond memories of that computer, and I even ran a BBS on it for about a year.

Here is a neat little video that shows off the Amiga’s excellent gaming capabilities. If you’ve owned one in the past or still have one, see how many of these games you recognize. Read more