This is a really fun game! Hold the “A” key to switch. Hold the “S” to bounce. Hit the space bar to reverse.
Swing and bounce from dot to dot to progress through each level. Your goal is to get to the bright star. Avoid enemies and obstacles!
There are two ways you can play:
1) Hit as few of the dots as possible on your way to the star.
2) Be sure to hit all of the dots on your way to the star.
Save the access codes to jump back in the game at the level where you left off!
For many game lovers, this may ring a bell: A spin off of a game that allows players to form words in order to score points was made. When RealNetworks, one of the many companies that have claim on Scrabble, tried to introduce an online Scrabble on Facebook, its attempt was overshadowed by that of an existing version of the game. The popular, yet unauthorized Scrabulous.
RealNetworks is quietly introducing a version of Scrabble on Facebook, despite pledging to save Scrabulous, the wildly popular, unauthorized online version of the board game.
In recent weeks, Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks, introduced “Scrabble by Mattel” on the social networking site Facebook. The game, an online version of Scrabble, is technically available only to players outside the United States and Canada, though it relies on users to be honest about their location to make that distinction.
The rights to Scrabble are owned by multiple and competing companies, a situation that seems to be hobbling the game’s introduction to Facebook and other social networking sites, and complicating negotiations with the creators of Scrabulous.
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel in the rest of the world. RealNetworks of Seattle has signed deals with both companies for electronic rights, but Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., also has a deal with Hasbro.
As of Sunday, the official Scrabble game had attracted fewer than 2,000 daily Facebook users, in contrast to more than 600,000 on Scrabulous.
Scrabulous’s popularity attracted the attention of Hasbro and Mattel earlier this year, and they threatened legal action to shut it down. The game companies’ actions spurred tens of thousands of Scrabulous players to sign petitions and join online clubs supporting the unauthorized game, and many have pledged to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if the companies shut Scrabulous down.
RealNetworks said in early March that it was working with the creators of Scrabulous to save the game. The introduction of a competing game on Facebook seems to indicate an about-face in strategy.
RealNetworks would not make an executive available for an interview for this article, but the public relations manager, Ryan Luckin, said in an e-mail message that the company had been “working with Mattel for a few months now on a version of Scrabble for Facebook.” Scrabble by Mattel is “in beta,” the message said, meaning it is still being tested.
RealNetworks said that “it is important to remember that even if we reach an arrangement with the Scrabulous owners, both Hasbro and Mattel must approve” any Scrabble-related game.
Rajat Agarwalla, one of the brothers in Calcutta who developed Scrabulous, said that he could not comment on the status of discussions with Mattel, Real Networks or Hasbro. Rajat and his brother Jayant have recently introduced a version of chess for Facebook, and Wordscraper, a Scrabble-like game in which players make up their own board configuration.
Facebook Scrabble takes a long time to load, it does not always update quickly to show recent moves, and the words the game will accept do not reflect the Tournament World List Scrabble dictionary. In a recent game, for example, Scrabble by Mattel accepted “feen.” Right now there is no way to challenge opponents’ moves, and no way to play commonly used words like “zen” that are not officially sanctioned Scrabble words.
So far, Facebook users’ response to Scrabble by Mattel has been split. One user wrote that it had “a few bugs, but over all it’s excellent,” while another said, “Beta Testers: View the Scrabulous site; see how well it works; and build your beta off of that.”
As if two wasn’t enough, Asus decided to produce a video card with, count ‘em, three GPUs. Note that this is one one board, not at all like the GX2 deals from NVIDIA that are basically two regular boards with only one connector. The card houses the RV670 core, ATI’s fastest chip.
More pictures and details after the break…
Fun Stuff!
Its new segment time! Previously, I’ve been issuing news updates that consist of several stubs of stories that aren’t post-worthy individually. Well, Miscellanea isn’t exactly news, it is more like a collection of unrelated, cool stories that I want to bring to a larger audience. OK then, lets jump right into it.
First of all, Acer’s Vice President, James Wong, had said that they plan to release an open platform gaming console. To quote Gizmodo, “WTF?” Wong allegedly takes issue with the current proprietary, closed consoles that dominate the market. The console should use PC technology. I think the decision to make it entirely open platform closes off some potential money, but since it is good for the consumer, I’m fine with it. My German isn’t good enough to fully comprehend the original source, but if someone is better than Google Translator, feel free to repost it in the comments.
After months of tediously waiting for the newest installations of Red Alert, gamers everywhere can rejoice at the opportunity to play the new game. In this version of Red Alert, the Soviets had gone back in time to prevent Einstein from assisting the Allies. However, after going back in time, the Soviets allowed a new fraction to enter the fray. This mysterious new faction is the Empire of Rising Sun, the Japanese. After this change in time, the Allies have lost some of their laser technologies, but still kept the mirage technology. Now, a new technology has allowed buildings to be built on water as well as land. Another change was the fact that most of the units are now able to move on land and water, although some weapons might be a little weakened when it’s on a different terrain. The Japanese units are supposedly mysterious: An insider saw some kind of tsunami tank and ninjas. Here is the official press release, a way to get the beta version of the RA3, and the cover of PC Gamer. Screens after the break… Read the rest of this entry »
With the usual spin, Microsoft released figures the other day that claim 42% market share for the Xbox 360. This figure factors in hardware, software, and accessories. Assuming that 360 owners, who usually tend to be more active gamers, buy more games than Wii owners for instance then the figure could be skewed. Also factored in is the Xbox Live subscription fee, and as Kotaku puts it, this figure is good for revenue showboating, but not so much for apples-to-apples dick waving contests. The reported install base of the 360 is about 17.7 million, but we don’t know if that factors in the extra 16% that have failed.
Over 18 million Xbox 360s have sold through since the console’s launch in November 2005, but just how many of those are still working? Squaretrade, a company that specializes in providing warranty support to purchasers of electronic goods from various manufacturers, claims 16% of Xbox 360s experience a hardware failure within six to ten months after a warranty purchase. Three out of every five failures were for the infamous “Red Ring of Death” general hardware failure error, a problem often linked to overheating.The Xbox’s figures compare poorly to competing consoles, which have a failure rate of around 3% — and if anything, the Squaretrade figure underestimates the scale of the Xbox 360’s reliability issues. It’s a good bet that some buyers of Squaretrade warranties went straight to Microsoft after experiencing hardware issues and don’t factor into the 16% number. On its company blog, Squaretrade pointed out that failure rates are “certain to go up” as the machines in their study group grow older.
This movie is basically just a fan fiction video based on Half-Life 2. It was written by a 9-year old child with a transparent understanding of the English language. It’s a hilarious movie, even if you have no idea what Half-Life 2 is.
3D Film and Projection:
After many years of learning from the Jedi, we have learned to make our own holographic film, although it IS a little more crude than those in the Star Wars movies. Right now, our main source of entertainment is that little metal box we call TV. But that all will change soon as a new polymer will develop to help doctors, military personal, and engineers to analyze disorders, plan battles, and plan future constructions respectively. (If you feel offended that doctors cannot plan battles or engineers cannot analyze disorders, please make a mental block on the word “respectively”. Want to move on now?) Best of all, these holograms could soon replace the TV and computer! Score: Mankind-1 Dolphins-0!
To read more about 3D-Projections, click here.
Teleportation:
As there could be a possibility to hack the universe, why couldn’t there be a way to teleport from point A to point B? In fact, it is very easy to teleport with a new, revolutionary idea. First, we must understand that the shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line that can be called line AB. Then, there could be a number of different ways to get from one point to another by a route of more than one point. Let’s call any such path A…B. Finally, let’s consider the mechanics of going forward or backwards. When we head toward point A from point B, we are going forward in the right way. However, if we begin to walk away from point B, we would be going forward in the wrong way. Finally, we can see that we are still approaching point B even if we are going the WRONG way. As a result, by going the wrong way toward our target, we must be going faster at our target the RIGHT way than a straight line. Thus, by going the WRONG way, we have discovered how to get to point B in a shorter distance than a straight line. What do we get if the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line? Teleportation!
There will be cake.
Feed Yourself