No more games I said. And still, this one is just to good to pass on. I already wrote about it on my new games blog Take9 but since it’s relatively new I thought it would be ok to post about this game here at Ghacks as well. Typeracer is a game that you play in your browser. It worked surprisingly well in Firefox which is something that I have not expected.

The objective of Typeracer is to type faster than all the other players. Each race consists of a few sentences that have to be typed as fast as possible in a text field. Typing a word correctly moves your car a tad closer to the finish line. That pretty much sums the whole game up.

What I like about Typeracer is that you can start playing right away. No registration, no plugins, no downloads. That’s awesome. If you are a little bit shy you can practice at first and start a real race once you feel comfortable with the game mechanics.

continue reading "Typeracer"

You heard me talk about a game blog that I wanted to create for several months and probably asked yourself if the blog would ever go live. I know that it has been a long time but I finally found some time to setup the game blog after purchasing a great domain name for the gaming site. It’s not yet ready for prime time but I definitely think I owe it to you that you are the first to be notified about this new website.

Take 9 is the name of the gaming website and it will cover gaming related articles with a strong emphasize on free games. Much like those that I introduced each Friday for a long time. The articles will be longer at Take 9 and definitely contain more screenshots and even videos if I can get my hands on some. I might even produce my own videos from time to time if I find a game that’s extraordinary.

If you visit the website I would like to receive some feedback on it. What do you think of the design, the functionality. Anything missing that you want to see on that website ? I can make changes and additions to the website with ease.

continue reading "My Game Blog is ready to go live"

I really loved the 8-bit gaming systems. I was pretty much a Sega fan back then and only played some Nintendo games like Super Mario Brothers or Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I did however follow the news and games and know lots of old classic games that came out for that Nintendo video game system and I actually bought a few already on my Nintendo Wii using the Virtual Console.

Still, it’s sometimes nice to just play a quick game and that’s where browsers excel. Nintendo 8 is a website that has huge list of available games that can be played in the browser which has to support Java because the games are emulated in a Java applet.

You can choose to browse a category like Action and RPG or browse all available games. Every category except the one that lists all games displays a preview image of the game. A click on the title or screenshot loads the game. Controls are usually the arrow keys for directions, B-key being Z, A-key being X, Start key being enter and Select mapped to CTRL.

continue reading "Play Nintendo 8-bit games in your browser"

Keyboard, Mouse and Gamepads: Those are the standard controls of today’s video gamers and I personally did not think that this would change anytime soon. Then came the presentation of the OCZ Actuator which changed my mind. It looks like a high tech headband but it’s actually more than that.

It decodes neural signals into unique commands that are used to interact with the computer. I found a video on Youtube that was taken on the CEBIT 2007 (a year ago) were someone was playing an ego shooter with a mouse and the OCZ Actuator. He did not have to press buttons to shoot, he did not have to press the forward key to move, all he needed the mouse for was to look around.

continue reading "OCZ Actuator Next Gen Video Gaming"

The high definition format war is almost over with Blu-Ray winning the field. Microsoft was supporting the HD DVD format by offering the HD DVD player add-on for their XBOX 360 gaming system. In an announcement made today they made clear that HD DVD will be pulled as add-ons for the XBOX 360 as well.

Roughly 300.000 HD DVD player add-ons have been sold for the XBOX 360 and the owners find themselves in an awkward position although the HD DVD player was never needed for gaming purposes and won’t have an impact on that.

Microsoft does have two options at the moment. They could create a Blu-Ray add-on for the XBOX 360 which I think is unlikely or they could push digital downloads which is the most likely scenario. The major problem in my opinion is the size of the hard drive which seems way to small for huge digital downloads.

continue reading "No HD DVD Players for XBOX 360 anymore"