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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 12
Volume 18, Issue 12 Atari Online News, Etc. March 25, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1812 03/25/16
~ Atari Vault Launches! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee News Update!
~ Pi Guide To Use Alexa! ~ Wii U's Days Numbered? ~ France Fines Google!
~ Halo 5 - Guardians News! ~ Create Strong Passwords ~ MiNT Binutils Out!
~ Bushnell Talks VR Gaming ~ Facebook Hunts Fakes! ~ Microsoft Monday!
-* Game Design Treasure Trove! *-
-* Microsoft Deeply Sorry for Chatbot! *-
-* Get Terrorism Off Internet? Not So Simple! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, we survived the snowstorm earlier in the week! It didn't
turn out to be the big storm that was initially forecast; and it
warmed up fairly quickly so the snow that we did get melted fairly
quickly. Now if we can only warm those temperatures back up again,
I'll be even more happy!
Presidential election politics! Just when you thought that
things couldn't get more bizarre (but not really believing that!),
the candidates continue to find another hand from which another
glove comes off! Early on, one could find some humor in much of
the antics going on among all of the candidates, but it's gone
beyond that now. The rest of the world must certainly feel some
embarassment toward us these days! What also bothers me about a
lot of this is that I honestly believe much of it is contrived to
generate negativity and other issues - by the candidates and/or
their staff/supporters. When will things get serious in this
campaign? I guess time will tell!
A lot of this week's issue pertains to quite a bit of news
regarding "retro-gaming" and the like. Some really interesting
stuff - especially to those of us who were weaned on Atari in
its infancy some 40 years or so ago! Wow, has it been THAT long?!
We hope that you enjoy it, along with the rest of the issue.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
FireBee Update News
By Fred Horvat
With last weeks installment I discussed N.AES being patched to
run on the FireBee. One thing I neglected to say was that N.AES
is still available for purchase or so the sellerís Web Site says.
To purchase N.AES you can get it here : http://woller.com/n.aes.html
Also someone else was having the same issues I was with EasyMiNT
not installing on their FireBee from a SD Card. Their solution
that worked was to copy the EasyMiNT installer to the CF Card and
install EasyMiNT directly off the CF Card you are installing to.
Since I have three partitions on the CF Card I want to install on
this will not be a problem. I do wish to install EasyMiNT on the
FireBee to get SpareMiNT and its Unix capability on my FireBee.
MiNT Binutils, GDB and GCC on GitHub
Hello.
I have put the m68k-atari-mint cross-tools on GitHub.
https:///github.com/vinriviere/m68k-atari-mint-binutils-gdb
https:///github.com/vinriviere/m68k-atari-mint-gcc
I have imported *all* the available sources and patches,
including:
- full history of the original GNU sources (!)
- Frank Naumann's original patches for GCC 2.95.3
- Patrice Mandin's patches for GCC 3.x
- all my own patches from GCC 3.2.3 to 4.7.1
- and also binutils and GDB
The advantages of GitHub are:
1) It is a Git repository. It can store the sources efficiently,
and gives easy access to the whole history.
2) It has a nice web interface. Anyone can easily see what
changed between patches, or compare any file version.
3) It allows anyone to clone or fork the repositories, in order
to easily work on the sources, and maybe contribute.
Before that, working on the patches was a real pain. The sources
are huge. When I published a new patch, it was virtually
impossible to see what had changed. It was also impossible to get
previous patches and learn from the history. And very difficult
to contribute.
Now everything should be easy!
I hope this will help to go forward together.
The sources are organized in many branches, to follow official
releases.
For example, gcc-4_6-branch is the official GNU branch, while the
MiNT patches are located on the gcc-4_6-mint branch. And so on. I
have included as much information as possible in the commit
messages, including original authors, dates, changelogs, and
bugtracker links. My whole knowledge is there.
I have also included preliminary and unreleased work, including:
- all my patches on GCC 3.x since 2003, based on Patrice Mandin's
original patch for GCC 3.0.1 (thanks again to him for having
published his work!)
- my patch for binutils 2.25, ready for 1 year
- my patch for gdb 7.0, almost ready for 3 years (without gdbserver)
- my patch for GCC 4.7.1, ready for 4 years
- and a few other goodies
Next step will be to upgrade the binutils to 2.26.
Enjoy!
--
Vincent RiviËre
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Halo 5: Guardians Massive Co-op Battles!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Nintendo Wii U Isn't Getting Canned, Yet!
Atari Vault Launches With 100 Games!
And much, much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Halo 5: Guardians Will Get Massive Co-op Battles
With Warzone Firefight Multiplayer
Halo 5: Guardians is getting a big new multiplayer feature dubbed
Warzone Firefight, which will enable teams of up to eight players
to work cooperatively against huge waves of enemies.
Announced yesterday during the Halo World Championship Finals,
the new content from Microsoft and 343 Industries combines the
Warzone mode of massive battles in Halo 5 with Firefight, a
popular mode from the 2009 game, Halo 3: ODST. Microsoft hopes
the new mode will help retain players and inject new life into
Halo 5: Guardians, which debuted last fall. Before Halo 5ís
launch, the Halo series had sold more than 65 million units since
2001 and generated more than $4.6 billion in sales at retail for
Microsoft.
In this mode, the enemy A.I. attacks in increasingly powerful
waves for five rounds. Players can use the requisition system
from Warzone to gain new capabilities such as weapons, armor, or
vehicles during the fighting. And Warzone Firefight will introduce
a new class of Mythic bosses to make the challenge harder.
Warzone Firefight is set to debut during the summer.
Nintendo Wii U Isn't Getting Canned ó Yet
Nintendo is sticking by its poorly selling console.
Are the Nintendo Wii Uís days numbered?
Thereís some controversy in Japan over whether the gaming company
will stop production on its Wii U. Earlier on Wednesday, Japanese
news outlet Nikkei reported that Nintendo was halting production
on the Wii U, implying that it was deciding instead to focus on
software and its follow-up hardware platform, the NX. Soon after,
a Nintendo spokesperson spoke to another Japanese news outlet, IT
Media, saying that the report was inaccurate and that ìfrom the
next quarter and thereafter as wellî Wii U production would
continue.
While Nintendoís reported response seems to have put the issue to
bed, it highlights an important issue for the company: Exactly
what to do with the Wii U.
Nintendo launched its Wii U console in 2012 after coming off the
wildly successful Wii. The console features better graphical
capabilities than its predecessor, as well as a controller that
delivers dual-screen functionality.
While the feature seemed appealing to some, the Wii U got off to a
slow start that it never overcame. Nintendo revealed earlier this
year that it had sold just 12.6 million units worldwide by the end
of 2015 and acknowledged that sales were relatively stagnant.
Meanwhile, its top two competitors, Sonyís PlayStation 4 and
Microsoftís Xbox One, which both launched well after the Wii U,
have easily surpassed Nintendoís console in total sales. Sony, for
instance, said that it had sold nearly 36 million PlayStation 4
consoles worldwide by the end of 2015. The consoleís success puts
it on pace to be one of the most popular of all time.
Meanwhile, the Wii U has floundered, forcing Nintendo to perhaps
prematurely announce that it was working on new hardware,
currently codenamed NX. The company has also moved into mobile
apps, though its first attempt in that arena stumbled out of the
gate.
Those issues, coupled with Nikkeiís strong, reliable track record
in covering the Japanese video game market, lent some credibility
to its report. While it would seem odd that Nintendo would stop
production before it has another console ready to go, if demand
isnít there, producing more inventory might not make much sense.
Nintendo Will Reportedly Stop Wii U Production This Year - Update
2016 is potentially the end of the road for the Wii U.
Nintendo is going to end production of its latest home console,
according to a report from Japanese newspaper Nikkei ó although
the hardware manufacturer told Japanese site It Media this is not
an official announcement. This will essentially put the
struggling system out of its misery as the gaming company shifts
from Wii U and the aging 3DS handheld to mobile games (like
Miitomo) and its upcoming dedicated NX device. The report goes on
to say (as translated by gaming analyst Serkan Toto of Kantan
Games) that Nintendo has already stopped making certain Wii U
accessories. This makes sense. The Wii U has fallen far behind
its Microsoft and Sony competition despite having a one-year
headstart. In a gaming industry worth $99.3 billion, Nintendo
doesnít want to give up any more ground while putting money into
a sinking platform.
GamesBeat has reached out to Nintendo for comment. While the
companyís American division has not yet responded, a spokesperson
did tell IT Media that this is ìnot an announcement from the
companyî and Nintendo ìplans to continue production through the
next fiscal period and beyond.î Weíve also requested that Nintendo
clarify that translation because ìfiscal periodî could refer to
the next quarter from April through July or the entire 12-month
period of April through March.
The Nikkei report, however, claims that Nintendo will fully
announce the NX this year, which is something the company has said
in the past. But ending Wii U production suggests Nintendo could
potentially launch the successor this year. Weíve seen lots of
evidence pointing to a 2016 launch for the NX, and this is just
the latest piece on that pile.
As for the Wii U, 2016 is only its fourth year on the market.
Microsoftís original Xbox and Segaís Dreamcast are the only other
major console release to have such stunted runs. Like with those
systems, Nintendo never established the Wii U as a viable
platform for the mass market. The company set it apart with its
odd tablet-like controller, but that and everything else about it
felt a step behind products from Apple, Microsoft, and Sony.
Quickly after the Wii U debuted, third-party publishers like
Electronic Arts reportedly sent back their Wii U development
kits. This led to a machine that primarily existed to play
Nintendo first-party games.
The Wii U does have some standout hits. Super Mario 3D World is
one of the best platforming games ever. Splatoon is an exciting,
hip new shooter that shows Nintendo now understands online
multiplayer. Mario Kart 8 is probably the best entry in that
series. Bayonetta 2 is one of the finest action games ever made.
And Super Mario Maker is an incredible experience that won
GamesBeatís Game of the Year awards in 2015.
Looking ahead, the Wii U still has a few noteworthy releases
coming this year. Star Fox: Zero hits April 22. Paper Mario: Color
Splash also has a 2016 release date. But, of course, the most
anticipated game is The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo has delayed that
action-adventure hit a few times, but it has most recently said
that it will come out for Wii U in 2016. But it also seems more
likely than ever that the game could also end up simultaneously
coming out for the NX, which is something fans have speculated
about for the last year.
Regardless of when production ends or what happens with Zelda,
the Wii U will have a murky legacy. It is clearly one of
Nintendoís greatest failures, but it also has some truly
wonderful games. And while it seems primed to have a quick exit,
I donít regret buying mine.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Atari Vault Launches With 100 Games, Controller
Support, and Online Features
Earlier this year, Atari announced a 100-game bundle for PC, and
now this Atari Vault has just gone live. For those who want to
relive their blocky childhood gaming memories, this is the most
convenient method of doing so without resorting to emulators or
retro consoles. And if thatís not enough, the collection also
adds online features and full controller support. Titles from the
dawn of gaming have been released in various formats over the
years, and it appears that the nostalgia factor is still strong
enough for further releases and re-releases.
The bundle is now available on Steam, as confirmed by an official
post. 100 games from the 1970s and 80s are included, with the list
encompassing Pong, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command,
Gravitar, Breakout, Warlords, Tempest, Yarsë Revenge, Haunted
House, Joust, Pitfall, Q*Bert, Berzerk, Star Wars: The Empire
Strikes Back, Frogger, Pole Position, and 83 more. Note that all
the included titles come from Atari itself. You can choose the
game via virtual 3D arcade cabinets or 3D Atari VCS/2600 original
box art.
Atari Vaultís online features are explained in the post: ìChallenge
your friends in your rec room or compete with arcade champs from
around the world with local and online multiplayer. Show the world
youíre the best Centipede (or Basic Math) player alive with global
online Steam Leaderboards!î
You can dive into nostalgia via keyboard and mouse, Steam
controller, or any other compatible controller. For a real trip
back in time, plug in a trackball or 2600-style joystick. Beyond
the games, you can explore game manuals and marketing materials.
Atari Vault is available for download for $17, which sounds like
a lot for some old games, but then again youíre paying just
17 cents for each. And sure, there are other ways to get your
old-school gaming fix, but with the added features and controller
support, this isnít a bad bargain at all.
Bandit Gaming - Castlevania Coming to Atari 2600
Konami never brought Castlevania to the Atari 2600. That is not
stopping fans though. While this is a work in progress, an early
one at that, it is impressive already. This is definitely
shaping up to be an interesting homebrew release, from the music
to the graphics as they stand. This is a must see.
Castlevania was one of the seminal Konami titles during the 8 and
16-bit era. In North America if you wanted to play this game,
you had to own a Nintendo console. Sure, Sega got one game -
Bloodlines, which was better than the SNES Super Castlevania IV.
Nintendoís Super Nintendo went on to get at least one more
official Castlevania title (it was common for Sega to get snubbed
by 3rd parties like this).
Atariís 2600 was still receiving games when the Nintendo
Entertainment System was receiving Castlevania games but Konami
chose to show no love to it. This was probably due to the way the
contracts with Nintendo were setup- companies could release their
NES games on computers but not competing consoles for a specific
period of time.
While there are obviously creative freedoms being taken with this
fan port, it is still apparent to fans- this is Castlevania on
the Atari 2600. The graphical and audio cues are there even if
the little details are lost- such as peeling paint on the walls.
Obviously there will probably not be a release of this game on
cartridge, which would require money to be transferred. This
would definitely raise the ire of Konami and get the project shut
down. The likelihood this title would see an official release is
quite low but not non-existent.
In the meantime, Castlevania fans have plenty of official content
to enjoy, even if Konami has stopped making new games. Ebay is a
great resource for getting decent prices on Castlevania games.
We will follow the development of the 2600 port as it continues.
Shadow of the Colossus Atari 2600 Revived After Hardware Crash
A while back I covered the Atari 2600 port of Shadow of the
Colossus by AtariAge member, ìUltimaî. Since I last covered
Shadow of the Colossus for the Atari 2600 there has been a
hardware crash that cost Ultima all of his previous code. Since
then he has gone back to the drawing board and reworked
everything based on memory along with improvements. What is here
now is quite interesting.
Shadow of the Colossus for the Playstation 2, and HD remake for
the PS3, was all about the giant monsters. On those platforms
Shadow was 3D and quite visually impressive. On the Atari 2600
though, 99.99% of the stuff that made Colossus the success on
those platforms is kind of gone. Not a chance in hell that the
Atari 2600 would be able to compete with a Playstation 2, let
alone the Playstation 3 HD remake version.
Ultima has his work cut out for him, for sure. Visually, the
essence of Shadow of the Colossus is slowly appearing in this
port. There are multiple screens, a sword attack and the horse
from the original. I am not sure if I ran into any of the
Colossi in this video but I kept running into white creatures
that teleported me back to another screen.
So far the Atari 2600 port of Shadow of the Colossus, while not
complete, fits in less than 20KB of space. That is miniscule by
todayís standards. Just the text from this article is bigger
than that.
As this develops I will be doing my best to keep you updated here
on Retro Gaming Magazine. The last update (in the video) was
posted on December 20th, so very recently. We may see another
update soon but I doubt it due to the holidays. If one comes
available I will make sure to update it here on RGM.
Previous updates are covered here on RGM and in the AtariAge
thread.
Bandit Gaming ñ Super Mario Bros Texas Instruments 99/4a Port
Okay, Nintendo shot down Princess Rescue on the Atari 2600. That
has not stopped other fans from porting Super Mario Bros to other
platforms. One such platform is the Texas Instruments 99/4a
computer. What we have here is obviously not an official port
but a pretty interesting fan creation.
Okay, before we go too far - who the hell knew the Texas
Instruments 99/4a could do this? My next question is, why
havenít these abilities of the hardware been promoted more?
Okay, I got my disbelief out of the way.
There are some liberties that have been taken in this fan port.
For one, the backgrounds are currently swappable. There are the
original backgrounds that are one plane moving with the level.
There is also the option to swap them out for backgrounds that
mix Super Mario World with Super Mario Bros in a cool mashup.
Other liberties that have been taken focus more on Mario
himself. When grabbing the fire power plant, there is no slight
pause as Mario changes. It is just instant.
What is here in this fan port is quite interesting. This is
almost a carbon copy of Super Mario Bros running on the Texas
Instruments 99/4a. Take into consideration that this is a fan
working in their spare time and it is even more awesome.
The music seems slightly slower than in the Nintendo NES original
too. There is no sound effect in place for breaking blocks.
When hit as big Mario, it is nearly instant that he becomes small
again. There is no transition animation, yet.
There is a high chance that Nintendo will shoot this developer a
cease and desist letter when it comes closer to completion. This
could probably be avoided if the developer continues just
releasing it for free, rather than selling it on cartridge (like
Princes Rescue was).
Mario is a big man in gaming and there are a ton of official
releases. This port to the Texas Instruments 99/4a is chronicled
over on AtariAge. Head over to Ebay and grab any copies of those
elusive Mario games you donít already own.
ColecoVision - We Would Like Your Opinions on Specs
Ok. We get it. Atari Age users are the gurus at Hardware and
Emulation.
Everyone is asking for the Minis. We do need your help.
Our goal is to create a Mini that is similar in size and quality
as the mini's from the 80s. The goal here would be to have each
mini focus on one featured game (for EXAMPLE only: Say its Ms.
Pac Man on one unit, Donkey Kong on another etc.), then each unit
may have a few other games on the system as well, but they would
not be featured on the side stickers, and only mentioned on the
box art.
Please feel free to give your opinion on the technical
specification of the Mini's that you would suggest.
Screen type and size, emulators, hardware, platform or any other
specs that you think we should consider. The more specific the
better.
LET'S do this as a team!...
Keep in mind that we would like to keep the quality of the
plastic high as well as having a mid range quality on the guts
of the machine. BUT, at the same time, we would need to be able
to have a retail price point that consumers would be interested
in. (And while we are at it, you may as well give us an idea of
what you would expect to pay for a mini).
Any other advice would be appreciated.
This is out first thread, and we are hoping to keep up with
responses the best that we can!
You can also give your opinion on the same topic on our facebook
page.
SCUMM Co-creator Digs Up Game Design Treasure Trove
After spending his career at Atari, LucasArts, 3DO, and
Microsoft, veteran programmer Aric Wilmunder has amassed a
treasure trove of design documents, and now he's going to share
them with the world.
Although he might not be a household name, Wilmunder has worked
on some of the industry's most adored, critically-acclaimed
releases, including Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Maniac
Mansion, The Dig, and Indy Iron Phoenix.
Most of those titles have been out for decades, but Wilmunder
is giving us a chance to turn back the clock and dig into the
design techniques of yesteryear by uploading a whole catalog of
tantalizingly detailed design documents.
"Years ago I visited the LucasArts facility in the San Francisco
Presidio and brought along two grocery bags of design documents,"
wrote Wilmunder, on his personal website.
"I asked if they had an archivist and I was told that since I had
kept these safe for over two decades, it was best if I just kept
them together.
"I have met with the archivist at Stanford and these documents
will either end up there or at a museum dedicated to preserving
game design. Until then, I plan to release a few documents every
month."
Scanning and uploading the documents will be a gradual process,
but there's already a healthy pile available for viewing right
here.
What's more, in the interest of preservation, Wilmunder is also
planning on using GitHub to archive the SCUMM source code.
SCUMM, or "Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion", is the
video game engine behind some of some of the most memorable games
ever made, such as Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and Sam &
Max Hit the Road.
Wilmunder coded the original version of SCUMM alongside Chip
Morningstar and Ron Gilbert in 1987. You can hear his account of
how the legendary engine was born right here on Gamasutra.
Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Thinks VR Gaming Will Bring Arcades Back
In the early 1960s, Nolan Bushnell worked at an amusement park to
help put himself through college, where he studied electrical
engineering. That seemingly inconsequential side job set into
motion a course of events that would vastly reshape the
interactive-media landscape across the world.
ìIt was my game MBA,î Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E.
Cheeseís, told International Business Times. ìI knew the economics
of the coin-operated game business. And so in some ways it was an
accident in space and time that I was the only electrical engineer
who played on video computers and, at the same time, understood
the arcade business.î
Combining his knowledge of arcade amusements with the emerging
field of computers, Bushnell went on to develop ìComputer Space,î
the first coin-operated video game, released 45 years ago this
summer. The endeavor ultimately led to the founding of Atari Inc.
at the dawn of the home video game revolution. Today, the gaming
industry is bigger than Hollywood, and next year, revenue from
games is projected to reach $107 billion worldwide, according to
the Global Games Market Report.
IBT spoke with Bushnell here at the South by Southwest interactive
conference, where he was on hand as part of the ìTech for
Humanityî series hosted by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, or IEEE. Bushnell gave a talk on the future
of out-of-home entertainment, joined by three of his eight
children: his sons Brent and Tyler and his daughter Alissa.
All four of them are still pushing the industry forward in some
way, and with advances in virtual reality, augmented reality and
sensor technology, they say arcades ó or some variation of them ó
are due for a comeback. (Brent runs the Los Angeles-based Two Bit
Circus, which produces interactive, amusement park-like shows
complete with robots, lasers and racing simulators. And Tyler
recently launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to create a
retro arcade game that you can mount to your wall.)
At 73, Bushnell is both philosophical and professorial, with a
full white beard and rich speaking voice that adds weight to
everything he says. And he had a lot to say about the past,
present and future of the industry he helped create.
Pong An Atari Super Pong retro console is seen at the 2014
Gamescom gaming trade fair in Cologne, Germany. Photo: Sascha
Steinbach/Getty Images
International Business Times: Thereís a whole industry now based
around people watching other people play video games. Is that
something you ever thought would happen when you first got into
this?
Nolan Bushnell: No, I didnít. Somehow there were a couple of
things that were not on my radar screen, and one of them was that
your mobile telephone was going to be a game platform. Somehow I
didnít perceive that, because that was a time when mobile phones
were like a brick. And then the idea of watching someone else
play a video game ó that was not part of my reality early on, but
later on I started thinking it would be.
IBT: Obviously, Twitch is the big platform that brought it
mainstream in a lot of peopleís eyes. Do you think it adds to or
subtracts from the video game experience when you have a group of
people who arenít participating but just watching?
Bushnell: I think itís helpful. I think theyíre watching to get
strategies. These games are getting very complex. When you see
somebody executing well, itís like a kid on the sandlot seeing a
really good play in football. I see it as part of the training
aspect, but also aspirational: ìOh, I can do that.î Whenever you
can create a dream for a lot of people, that dream is good enough
itself. People play the lottery not because they think theyíre
going to win, but because they can dream about winning.
IBT: Weíre coming up on 45 years since ìComputer Space,î which was
the first coin-operated video game. What did you think that was
going to be when you first decided it was something you were going
to create?
Bushnell: I always had this attitude about evolving technology,
and I felt that I was nothing more than being the deliverer of
cost to the coin-op business. I played games in the big computer
centers the minute they had screens attached.
IBT: At what point did you realize this was going to be something
that people would bring into their homes and hook up to their TVs?
Bushnell: Right from the outset. I knew that would happen as soon
as the costs would allow it.
IBT: From my perspective, Iím 45, the Atari 2600 was pretty much
was my childhood. Did you know it was going to be this kind of
phenomenon that would define a generationís experience with media.
Bushnell: I actually have to give credit to [ìPongî designer]
Allan Alcorn for that. We talked a lot about home games, and one
day he came in and said, ìI think I can put ëPongí on a chip, and
Iíve got the guy who can do it.î
IBT: I was always perplexed by the decision to package it with
just one video game, which was ìCombat.î How did that decision
happen?
Bushnell: We just did a little bit of research and we found out
that was the game people liked to play the most. That was
actually one of my many million-dollar mistakes.
IBT: The ìCombatî thing?
Bushnell: No, the fact that we launched the product with eight
cartridges, and I felt that we would sell an average of three
cartridges per unit. What we didnít know is that the early buyers
would buy all the cartridges. And so we had a whole bunch of
players out there who only had the ìCombatî cartridge.
IBT: So you underestimated the demand?
Bushnell: Massively.
IBT: What do you think of the gaming industry today?
Bushnell: I donít think you can talk about it as the gaming
industry anymore. There are gaming industries, and theyíre all
as different as cheese and chalk.
SXSW cube A welcome sign is seen at the SXSW festival, which
celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Photo: Christopher
Zara/International Business Times
IBT: What do you think when you see stuff like Gamergate scandal?
It was a big issue this year at South By. All of this somehow
ties into gaming, and videogame reviews, and harassment of women
online. What do you think about that aspect of the culture?
Bushnell: I think bad behavior is always going to be with us.
In the gaming business, or in anything.
IBT: Do you think that weíll see a return to the arcade era?
Bushnell: From a big standpoint, the arcade was the birthing
place where technology from the labs was made available to the
public before it could be priced appropriately for the home. And
I think that the arcade has failed for almost 20 years. When
there was a parity in the graphic resolution of the home and the
graphic resolution in public, all of a sudden the arcade said,
ìGee, why are we here?î
IBT: The challenge is getting people out of their houses and off
their phones. How do you do that with an arcade in 2016?
Bushnell: You do things that arenít possible in the home yet.
Right now, VR and AR arenít ready for the home.
IBT: You think there are going to be VR arcades?
Bushnell: Weíre building them right now ... What I want to say,
too, is that gaming as an educational platform is just in its
infancy. I think that weíre going to be able to accelerate
learning at unprecedented speeds. Thereís no reason that college
should take four years and high school should take four years. I
think all of it could be at least cut in half.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Get Terrorism Off The Internet? Itís (Still) Not So Simple
Since this weekís mass murder in Brussels ó yet another terrorist
attack launched by locals, not foreigners ó people have again
been asking a simple question: Why do we allow the authors of
such atrocities to keep recruiting people online?
The most public and extreme expression of that came in December,
when Republican frontrunner Donald Trump said heíd support ìclosing
the Internet up in some wayî to shut out terrorist groups like the
Daesh death-cult that pretends itís an ìIslamic State.î
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders recognize
that you canít actually build a wall in the Internet. But after
Brussels, they too called out the importance of stopping terrorist
recruitment online.
Social networks arenít just sitting around
Itís not as if the major U.S. social networks have been idle. In
February, Twitter announced on its own blog that it had ìsuspended
over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts,
primarily related to ISIS.î
That post went on to explain that the company had increased its
staff devoted to the issue and had begun combining reviews of
suspicious accounts with automated scrutiny to find others like
them.
Has that made a difference? A February study published by George
Washington Universityís Program on Extremism found that this
campaign was not a futile Whack-A-Mole game; as Daesh/ISIS
supporters came back online with new accounts, they found fewer
followers.
Facebook, in turn, has tightened its community standards to ban
even condoning terrorism, and now has five offices around the
world devoted to monitoring and taking down terrorist content.
At a panel discussion yesterday on the responsibilities of tech
companies vis a vis terrorists, the Software & Information
Industry Associationís public-policy vice president, Mark
MacCarthy, commended the ìzero toleranceî rules at Twitter and
Facebook for terrorist recruitment. ìThese policies are proving to
be reasonably effective,î he said.
Another panel member, Google public-policy counsel Alexandria
Walden, said that companyís YouTube service takes action on
100,000 videos a day that violate its community standards.
Beyond the fact that blocking access from an entire country as
Trump has called for is nearly impossible if you donít occupy it
first (and itís still not easy afterwards), State Department
special advisor Jason Pielemeier observed that such a move would
risk cutting off some of our own intelligence sources: ìIt might
also block human rights activists who are trying to document
atrocities.î
He added: ìThere are parts of the government that are very
concerned about taking this stuff off the Internet where itís
visible and can be tracked.î
Filtering out the the filth of Daesh propaganda automatically
would be even harder, and in some cases could lead to evidence
of atrocities going unseen.
This sort of screening and erasure of content would violate the
First Amendment if the government ordered it. But Twitter,
Facebook, and Googleís platforms are private spaces, and they get
to set the rules for who gets to post things there for free.
The second half of this discussion often goes something like
this: How can America, the superpower of advertising and
marketing, win this battle of ideas?
Early attempts at such countermessaging have gone over as well
as most government propaganda (which is to say not very well at
all). More recently, Washington has been seeking the help of
private industry in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
But effective marketing requires knowing your target market.
At Wednesdayís panel, Emma LlansÛ, who runs the Center for
Democracy and Technologyís Free Expression Project, said she
doubted that any such ìMadison Valleywood Projectî would look
ìvery authentic or credible.î
The most effective ìcounterspeechî is likely to come from people
with similar backgrounds as the targets of radicalization efforts
ó say, an imam who doesnít subscribe to Daeshís abhorrent
distortion of Islam. But keeping people off the Internet because
they tweet from a certain area or about certain topics risks
silencing those positive contributions.
(Remember that most of Daeshís victims are themselves Muslim.
Over this month, Daesh-linked attacks in Ankara and Istanbul
killed more people than in Brussels.)
A more recent government program, as outlined in a Daily Beast
post by Kimberly Dozier, would identify those authentic voices
and channel technical help and funding towards them. That might
work better ó as long as the intended audience doesnít then see
those counterspeakers as U.S. puppets.
The Internet isnít really the issue anyway
As a deeper read of coverage about the Brussels atrocities should
make clear, our bigger problem remains not piecing together clues
that were already in hand. Itís starting to look like Belgian
investigators didnít follow up on leads they had, just as French
police missed hints about the Paris attacks, and U.S. authorities
did the same with clues prior to the 9/11 attacks.
And yes, it does not help our cause when political candidates who
probably couldnít name the five pillars of the Islamic faith
announce that Muslims represent a collective risk. No discussion
of radicalization can ignore that factor.
But thereís a rich history of politicians suggesting the Internet
and the tools we use on it represent a primary explanation for
real-world problems ó see, for instance, blaming encrypted phones
and communication for making the Paris and San Bernardino attacks
possible. We invented all this stuff, the arguments go; why canít
we just tell the nerds to think harder, flip the right switches
and make the issue go away?
France Fines Google Over 'Right To Be Forgotten'
The French data protection authority said it has fined Google
100,000 euros ($111,720) for not scrubbing web search results
widely enough in response to a European privacy ruling.
The only way for Google to uphold the Europeans' right to privacy
was by delisting inaccurate results popping up under name
searches across all its websites, the Commission Nationale de
l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL) said in a statement on
Thursday.
In May 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that people could
ask search engines, such as Google and Microsoft's Bing , to
remove inadequate or irrelevant information from web results
appearing under searches for people's names - dubbed the "right
to be forgotten".
The U.S. Internet giant has been at odds with European Union data
protection authorities over the territorial scope of the ruling.
Google complied, but it only scrubbed results across its European
websites such as Google.de in Germany and Google.fr in France on
the grounds that to do otherwise would have a chilling effect on
the free flow of information.
In May last year the CNIL ordered Google to expand its
application of the ruling to all its domains, including
Google.com, because of the ease of switching from a European
domain to Google.com.
"Contrary to Google's statements, applying delisting to all of
the extensions does not curtail freedom of expression insofar as
it does not entail any deletion of content from the Internet,"
the CNIL said.
A spokesman for Google, now a unit of holding company Alphabet
Inc, said the company had worked hard to implement the "right to
be forgotten ruling thoughtfully and comprehensively in Europe."
"But as a matter of principle, we disagree with the CNILís
assertion that it has the authority to control the content that
people can access outside France, and we plan to appeal their
ruling," Al Verney, Google's spokesman, said.
The company did try to assuage the regulator's concerns in
February by delisting search results across all its websites -
including Google.com - when accessed from the country where the
request came from.
That meant that if a German resident asks Google to de-list a
link popping up under searches for his or her name, the link will
not be visible on any version of Google's website, including
Google.com, when the search engine is accessed from Germany.
But the CNIL rejected that approach, saying that a person's right
to privacy could not depend on the "geographic origin of those
viewing the search results."
"Only delisting on all of the search engine's extensions,
regardless of the extension used or the geographic origin of the
person performing the search, can effectively uphold this right,"
it said.
Microsoft 'Deeply Sorry' for Tay Chatbot
A Microsoft executive said Friday that the company was ìdeeply
sorryî for the ìunintended offensive and hurtfulî tweets the
companyís Tay chatbot delivered earlier this week.
ìTay is now offline and weíll look to bring Tay back only when
we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that
conflicts with our principles and values,î Peter Lee, the
corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft Research, wrote
in a blog post.
While that echoes the message that Microsoft delivered earlier,
Lee attempted to show how Tay wasnít simply unleashed onto the
Internet without preparation. Tay was the outgrowth of a similar
Microsoft chatbot known as XiaoIce, which is already ìdelightingî
40 million people in China, Lee explained.
ìThe great experience with XiaoIce led us to wonder: Would an AI
like this be just as captivating in a radically different cultural
environment?î Lee wrote. ìTay ó a chatbot created for 18- to 24-
year-olds in the U.S. for entertainment purposesóis our first
attempt to answer this question.î
Why this matters: Leeís disclosure that Microsoft has already
released a chatbot that 40 million Chinese people are using with
civility makes the Tay debacle even more humiliating for the
western world. Microsoft and Lee are clearly embarrassed, but
itís difficult to tell whether theyíre ashamed of their own
failure, or of the audience that abused Tayís algorithm. Perhaps
thereís a lesson here: Social constructs have to be thought of in
terms of social vulnerabilities in the same way software must be
constructed with security exploits in mind.
Just one of the bizarre tweets issued by the Tay chatbot from
Microsoft.
Tayís troubled past
Lee wrote that Tay had been developed with filtering built in,
and had been tested with ìdiverseî user groups. ìWe stress-tested
Tay under a variety of conditions, specifically to make
interacting with Tay a positive experience,î Lee wrote.
Tayís platforms included Qik and Twitter, and the latter platform
became the true test for Tayís maturity. Within 24 hours of
coming online, Lee wrote that Tay had been subject to a
ìcoordinated attack by a subset of people.î
ìAlthough we had prepared for many types of abuses of the system,
we had made a critical oversight for this specific attack,î Lee
wrote. ìAs a result, Tay tweeted wildly inappropriate and
reprehensible words and images. We take full responsibility for
not seeing this possibility ahead of time.î
Lee didnít say how the attack worked, specifically, but many
believe that by asking the Tay bot to ìrepeat after me,î Tay
would not only parrot the phrase but also ìlearnî it, and
incorporate it into her vocabulary.
Lee wrote that Microsoft sees Tay as a research effort, and that
AI systems feed off both positive and negative interactions with
people. The problem, of course, is how Microsoft will reintroduce
Tay publicly, with the risk that the same vulnerability, or a
different one, may be used to offend others.
ìTo do AI right, one needs to iterate with many people and often
in public forums,î Lee wrote. ìWe must enter each one with great
caution and ultimately learn and improve, step by step, and to do
this without offending people in the process.î
And right now, Microsoft doesnít seem to have a ready answer.
Facebook Tests Tool That Identifies Fake Accounts
Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks have been
battling the issue of fake accounts for quite some time, but
Facebook may gain some serious ground in this fight soon. The
company could score some big points with both users and
advertisers with the tool itís in the process of pushing out to
everyone.
According to Mashable, Facebookís new tool notifies users when it
detects a fake account set up by someone who may be impersonating
them. When the tool identifies such an account, it alerts the
user. To identify these fake accounts, the feature looks at the
profile pictures and names. Upon receiving the alert that someone
may be impersonating them, users are asked to say whether the
profile is a fake one meant to impersonate them using their
personal information.
All the notifications for this feature automated, but a Facebook
team reviews all the profiles it flags as potentially
impersonating accounts. The social network started testing the
tool in November and has pushed it out to accounts in
approximately 75% of the world, said Mashable. Facebook intends
to expand it soon, the website reported, citing Antigone Davis,
the social networkís Global Safety Head.
According to Mashable, impersonating people isnít a widespread
problem, but it is a source of harassment. Women in particular
have been reporting problems with harassment, Davis told the
tech website. This issue has received quite a lot of attention
in the media, particularly in cases involving public figures
like reporters or politicians, some of whom have received death
threats on the network. On Facebook, the issue is a bit different
though.
ìItís a real point of concern for some women in certain regions
of the world where it [impersonation] may have certain cultural
or social ramifications,î Davis told Mashable, adding that the
impersonation tool is aimed at helping women feel safer using
Facebook.
One thing Mashable doesnít point out about this new tool is its
implications for advertisers as well. Identifying and eliminating
fake accounts can increase the returns on their investments
because it means that more ìrealî users are seeing their ads. It
seems that this isnít the focus of the impersonation tool, and
certainly it shouldnít be because user safety is more important.
Benefiting advertisers seems to be just a sort of bonus. Of note,
Twitter launched a tool in 2014 that aims to identify bot
accounts, which can be used for everything from slander to
spreading misinformation or malware.
In 2014, Facebook reported in a regulatory filing that up to 137
million accounts might be fake, with the percentage range being
given as between 5.5% and 11.2% of accounts. At the time, the
social network had about 1.23 billion users. Itís unclear
whether it is making progress on this front, but the new feature
should help.
Mashable also reports that two additional safety features are
being tested on Facebook as well. One involves new ways to report
intimate photos that were posted without a userís consent, and
the other is described as a ìphoto checkup feature.î
The social network banned the posting of intimate photos without
a userís consent in 2012, but Mashable describes the goal of
Facebook in rolling out the feature tweak as making it ìmore
compassionate for victims of abuse.î The tweak enables users to
not only report a photo as inappropriate but also say that they
are in the photo.
After that, outside links will appear so that users can find
support groups for victims of abuse or see potential legal
actions they might pursue. Of course the feature will also
trigger the internal review that already occurs when someone
reports a potentially inappropriate photo. According to Mashable,
theyíre happy with the results of their tests on this tweak so
far, but they still want more information before making it
available more widely.
The photo checkup tool walks Facebook users through their privacy
settings for their photos and explains who can see them in a
fashion similar to the privacy dinosaur. Currently this tool is
available to users in India, South America, Southeast Asia and
Africa.
Microsoft Monday: Xbox One Price Drop, Windows 10 Upgrade
Problems, Apology For Afterparty Dancers
ìMicrosoft Mondayî takes a look back at the past week of news
related to Microsoft. This week, ìMicrosoft Mondayî includes
details about HERE Maps being discontinued, a Reddit thread going
viral about the problems associated with the automatic upgrade of
Windows 10, Sonyís response to the Xbox One cross-network
feature, the HoloLens team highlighting the capabilities of
Actiongram, the possibility of a 64 person party chat on the
Xbox, Windows 10 Mobile being rolled out to older devices, the
Xbox One price drop as part of the ìSpring Sale,î the progress
of Cortana for Xbox One, the extension of Windows 7 and Windows
8.1 support on Skylake-based PCs, support for Windows 10 apps in
the Xbox One coming in several months, Microsoftís apology for
the scantily-clad dancers at the Game Developers Conference
afterparty and more.
HERE recently announced in a blog post that it will be removing
the HERE branded apps from the Windows 10 store on March 29, 2016
and the development of apps for Windows Phone 8 will be limited to
critical bug fixes.
ìIn the last few months, we made the HERE apps compatible with
Windows 10 by using a workaround that will no longer be effective
after June 30, 2016. To continue offering the HERE apps for
Windows 10 would require us to redevelop the apps from the ground
up, a scenario that led to the business decision to remove our
apps from the Windows 10 store,î said Pino Bonetti, the social
media lead of HERE.
The HERE apps will no longer work on Windows 10 mobile devices
after June 30, 2016. And the HERE apps will be removed from the
Windows 10 store on March 29th. Google Maps is not available on
Windows phones so HERE Maps was an essential app for that
platform.
HERE was actually a division of Nokia, but it was sold to a
consortium of German automotive companies including Audi, BMW and
Daimler AG, according to Business Insider. HERE is also known for
selling geographic data to technology companies like Facebook and
Amazon. HERE is recommending Windows 10 phone users to rely on
the Windows Maps app instead, which is powered by HERE Maps data.
Recommended by Forbes
Fortunately, Microsoft has a plan to make up for the removal of
the HERE app. A Microsoft employee wrote on a Reddit post that
there is an ìexciting updateî planned for the Windows 10 Maps app.
The update will include an improved driving mode ó which will be
available for Windows 10 testers first.
There is a Reddit thread with over 5,100 up votes and 3,000
comments about the problems users are having with the automatic
Windows 10 upgrade. A computer repair shop employee said that the
business has been receiving calls ìall week from doctorís
offices, dental practices, B&Bs and roofing companiesî that were
hit by the automatic upgrade and itís a ìmess.î
Microsoft seemed to downplay the issue by releasing this
statement via HotHardware:
ìWe shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed
to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to
upgrade to Windows 10. As stated in that post, we have updated
the upgrade experience to make it easier for customers to
schedule a time for their upgrade to take place. Customers
continue to be fully in control of their devices, and can choose
to not install the Windows 10 upgrade or remove the upgrade from
Windows Update (WU) by changing the WU settings.î
Last week, Microsoft announced a native cross-platform play
service between the Xbox One and Windows 10 systems. This means
that Xbox One and Windows 10 users will be able to use Xbox Live
to play with people on different online multiplayer networks
including the Sony PlayStation Plus network. What does Sony
think of Microsoftís olive branch?
Sony told GameSpot that it is open to the idea of cross-console
play, but it did not specifically cite Xbox Live. ìPlayStation
has been supporting cross-platform play between PC on several
software titles starting with Final Fantasy 11 on PS2 and PC
back in 2002,î said Sony via GameSpot. Sony provided this
statement when it was directly asked whether a partnership
with Microsoft would happen.
Rocket League is the first Xbox One game that will be able to
utilize the cross-platform feature. But itís worth mentioning that
there is already a cross-network feature built into the
PlayStation Network that allows users to play with Steam users.
Amazon's Raspberry Pi Guide Lets Coders Use Alexa
Amazon has published an online guide explaining how to access
its virtual assistant Alexa via a Raspberry Pi.
The technique presents a lower-cost alternative to buying one of
its Echo devices - which are not yet available outside of the US
- and an incentive to gain computer skills.
The walkthrough includes access to the necessary app data and
certificates in order to link the budget computer up to the
tech giant's servers.
Coding experts welcomed the initiative.
The Raspberry Pi pocket-sized computer was designed by a British
charity to encourage children and others to learn how to write
computer programs. More than eight million units have been sold
or given away.
Amazon says that users require at least the second-generation
model, released in February 2015, as well as:
a plug-in USB microphone
a MicroSD card
an ethernet cable
a wi-fi wireless adapter
a mouse, keyboard and screen
Most Raspberry Pi owners would already own most if not all of
these add-ons.
The coding involved is limited to typing in sets of commands, but
the guide explains the purpose of each one.
Users also need to register for an Amazon Developer Account,
which they can get for free.
Rik Cross, from the UK's after-school Code Club initiative,
described it as an "interesting project", but added that parents
should be aware of the privacy implications involved.
"It's important to remember that this data could be captured and
stored by Amazon, in the same way that any website can store the
data provided," he told the BBC.
"However, with the Raspberry Pi version, communication is via a
button press, and so this serves as a much more 'active' way of
interacting with the service, rather than a service that
'passively' listens to all your nearby conversations, as is the
case with the Echo."
Amazon's Alexa service can be used to stream music, provide
weather and news updates, create lists and answer general
knowledge questions.
The online retailer was relatively late to the field - following
Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and Google's Now services.
But the firm has sought to make Alexa popular by allowing
third-party developers to offer the facility. An internet
connection is required because Amazon's own data centres do the
processing required for the voice recognition and other
artificial intelligence tasks involved.
France's Invoxia became the first to take up the offer last year
with Triby, an Alexa-powered fridge speaker.
In January, a New York-based developer released a tutorial of
his own explaining how a Raspberry Pi could be used to create an
Echo-like device.
But Amazon's guide, which has been published on the code-sharing
site Github, is likely to drive interest in the idea.
"Anything that helps people to make and create with the technology
that was otherwise closed, mysterious and inaccessible seems like
a good thing to me," commented Bethany Koby, co-founder of
Technology Will Save Us - an education-focused start-up currently
involved with the launch of another mini-computer, the Micro Bit.
"What it doesn't do is create a way for a broader 'untechy'
audiences to partake - but that isn't really its intention."
Those not attracted by the idea can download an Alexa app for
devices powered by Google's Android or Apple's iOS operating
systems - however, the apps are restricted to US-based users at
this time.
Tips for Creating Stronger Passwords
An alarming number of people use weak and ineffective passwords.
Learn how you can make the most out of one of the most basic
security measures online.
Just because you donít write your passwords down on a sticky note
attached to your computer monitor doesnít mean you are doing
everything you can to keep your online accounts secure. You might
think your passwords are a secret, but unfortunately there is a
good chance that they are not.
According to recent studies on data breaches, password hacks
occur frequently ó and they are often successful. Thatís because
many people use simple passwords that may seem strong to them, but
are actually very easy to crack using ìbrute forceî methods (in
which a hacker will repeatedly try different common password
combinations until one works).
One study, conducted by cyber security company Imperva, found that
some of the most common passwords are ìPasswordî and ì123456î, as
well as other similar variations. Obviously, these are quite easy
to guess, and would be among the first inputted by anyone who is
trying to access your account.
All it takes is one weak password guarding an online banking
account, or an email account, and you could find your finances
and digital life compromised in minutes. With that in mind, letís
look at some tips to create strong passwords.
In one sense, preventing hackers from using brute force techniques
on your online accounts is a matter of simple math. If your
password is longer, there is a lower chance that anyone will be
able to guess all of the correct characters in the right order.
Unfortunately, many people donít bother to create longer
passwords. Imperva estimates that about 30 percent of users
choose passwords with six characters or less. This is even worse
when you realize that almost 60 percent of users create these
passwords by using a limited variety of characters.
At a minimum, a password should be at least eight characters
long, though in many cases 12 characters is preferable. It should
also contain at least four different types of characters ó such
as upper case and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation.
One obvious problem with creating a series of complex passwords
is that they can be hard to remember. This is the reason why so
many people are tempted to use names or other short passwords in
the first place. However, there are other, better ways to
accomplish this.
For instance, security expert Bruce Schneir told PC World that
many people find it useful to turn common sentences into complex
passwords. The phrase, ìNow I lay me down to sleepî can be turned
into ìnilmDOWN2s.î This password would be easy enough for a user
to remember, but difficult for someone to guess using brute force
tactics.
The best part is, you could feel safe writing down the sentence
as a reminder.
For many people, a password is the only thing that stands in the
way of a data breach and identity theft. But a strong password
can be a formidable defense, especially if it is used in
conjunction with other protective measures.
For the best protection, consumers should consider signing up for
a credit monitoring service that can alert you to certain activity
on your credit file that may be indicative of fraud.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
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Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
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material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
