Toys for Kids & Adults

May 26, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 25, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 24, 2006

First Level of'Super Mario

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First Level of'Super Mario Bros.'- Live Action
The annual talent show at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts hit a new high this year as some imaginative students recreated the first level of'Super Mario Bros.'complete with fireballs, invincibility and sound effects. What's funny is that the…

Casting Call - Trailer for'Heavy Rain'
'Indigo Prophecy (Farenheit)'was one of those games that gets better the longer you're away from it. That's why I was excited to hear that there is going to be a sequel to the game,'Heavy Rain'. In the following…

Bay to Breaker Katamari Roll a Success
On April 19, Allison told you about the huge Katamari ball that was to be rolled along the entire course of the 12k Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco. Well, buy that man a beer because he did it!…

Ubisoft picks up'Lost'
Variety.com is reporting French video game publisher Ubisoft has struck a deal with Touchstone Television, giving them the rights to develop games based on the hugely successful"Lost"TV show. According to the article, Ubisoft is now speaking with"Lost"…

May 21, 2006

'Tomb Raider: Legend'Walkthrough and

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'Tomb Raider: Legend'Walkthrough and Strategy Guide (Download)
Lunabean's"Tomb Raider(TM): Legend"Walkthrough and Strategy Guide is all you need to explore, solve and shoot your way through each of the game's levels. Whether you can't move the gears, can't get the water flowing, or can't find that…

'Tomb Raider: Legend'for GCN, DS, and GameBoy
Eidos today announced that Tomb Raider: Legend will be available this Fall for the GameCube(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), and Game Boy(R). I'm guessing that the GameCube version will be the same as the PS2 and Xbox version, which means that the…

LB's Best of E3…in Videos
There is only so much"Hand's on with'x'Game"reading you can do before you go crazy. Yes, the gaming press does an adequate job, but how many times can you hear,"It was fun and intuitive,"or,"You'll…

New'Lego Star Wars 2'details revealed
Thanks to Eurogamer for publishing some new details for LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Among the changes from the LEGO Star Wars original is character customization, free-roam vehicles, a general improvement of vehicle levels, a co-op camera that…

LB's'Over the Hedge'Strategy Guide in the Works
We are pleased to announce that we are currently writing a LB'Over the Hedge (TM)'Walkthrough and Strategy Guide (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC).'Over the Hedge'is the companion game for the Dreamworks animated movie of the same title,…

1986 World Series Re-enacted in'RBI Baseball'
Here is San Diego Serenade blogger Conor Lastowka's entry in YouTube's Cybersmack contest, which called for the creation of the internet's bet viral video, with a re-enactment of Game Six of the 1986 World Series as played on the NES's…

20 Reasons to Still Love Zelda
1up has a good retrospective on 20 years of Zelda and 20 reasons why we still love the series. I have to say that the most poignant aspect of Zelda games is that they created Hyrule, with all of its…

May 20, 2006

Do not inflate your

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Do not inflate your stock or else…

Timothy Roberts, the former Chief Executive Officer of Infinium Lab, Inc. has been charged by the SEC for artificially inflating the value of Infinium Lab’s stock.

Timothy Roberts allegedly authorized a promoter to send junk faxes to potential investors stipulating that Infinium Lab was about to launch a new gaming console. Infinium Lab’s stock increased in value and Mr. Robert allegedly sold 1.3 million of his own shares for a significant profit.

Infinium Lab, Inc. is a Seattle based interactive media, entertainment and technology company whose common stock trades on the OTCBB (Over The Counter Bulletin Board) under the ticker symbol "IFLB". Infinium Lab is developing certain online gaming services. Mr. Roberts is no longer associated with Infinium Lab.

Read more at Infinium Lab’s website atwww.phantom.netor

Coverage at:http://shorl.com/bystyfrastimepe(Gamasutra)

GUILTY PLEA IN HOLLYWOOD XBOX COPYING CASE

A co-owner of a trendy Melrose Avenue game store has pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic in copyright-circumvention technology, conspiring to infringe copyright for financial gain, and wilfully infringing copyright by reproducing and distributing pirated works. His co-owner has agreed to enter a similar guilty plea.

The two are accused selling modified XBOX consoles with pirated games preloaded onto their hard drives. A third man has been charged but has missed his court appearances.

Coverage at: http://shorl.com/gysydalinoro(News.com)

VMC Game Labs sets up shop in Montreal

VMC Game Labs, a Redmond, WA based consulting agency offering technical support for the video game producers, has opened its first office in Canada and has chosen Montreal as its home.

VMC Game Labs has opted to set up shop in close proximity to the offices of one of its major competitors, British company Babel Media, which opened an office in Montreal last summer. The company hopes to be competitive in the sub-contracting of video game production industry. 165 “testers” began working in Game Labs’ office on Monday and the company expects to hire over a hundred more employees in the upcoming months.

VMC Game Labs’ decision to settle down in Montreal was encouraged in part by the fiscal advantages offered by Investment Quebec, a government Agency, but was also motivated by Montreal’s thriving multi-culturalism.“Montreal gives us access to numerous cultures and, since we service a wide array of areas, we need people who master various European and Asian languages (translation)”, stated Glenn Hoogerwerf, President of VMC Game Labs.Mr. Glenn also explained that the choice of Montreal over cities in India or China came as a result of Montreal’s proximity to the key players of the video gaming industry.

For coverage (in French): http://shorl.com/hylohehuprito

MICROSOFT GETTING MASSIVE?

We’ve talked before about in-game advertising (for example,here andhere). One of the leaders in this field is Massive Inc., a New York firm that has developed technology that lets dynamic advertisements be inserted into video games.

There are now reports that computer giant Microsoft is in negotiations to purchase Massive (perhaps for as much as $400 million). Microsoft has not confirmed these reports. If such an acquisition takes place, Microsoft will be able to increase and improve the in-game ads in its on-line XBOX games.

Coverage at:http://shorl.com/fagydrypribrynu(E-Commerce Times)


May 19, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 18, 2006

Play-Doh Scent is ImmortalizedWe

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Play-Doh Scent is Immortalized
We all remember the unique scent of Play-Doh from the time we were kids. Now, Hasbro has immortalized that scent by creating a new Play-Doh perfume available in a limited…

Toys From Disney Pixar's The Cars
Disney Pixar's Cars is a fantastic adventure/comedy movie about an assortment of animated cars. The cars go through various ups and downs throughout the movie, and emerge much wiser at…

Power Rangers Ranked The Most Popular Action Figure For Boys
The marketing information company, the NPD group has ranked Power Rangers action figures as the #1 selling action figure in the boy's action figure category, thus making it the most…

Unique Baby Gifts
Planning on attending a baby shower? Want to be different? Looking for a unique baby gift? Then, look no further! Here is a delightful collection of unique baby gifts that…

Which Are The Worst Toys You've Come Across?
There are so many toys out in the stores today. Some of them are great toys, toys which stimulate your kid's imaginations, toys which are non messy, toys which are…

May 17, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 16, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 12, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 11, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 10, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 9, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 7, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 6, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 5, 2006

LB's"Driver: Parallel Lines"Guide CompleteWe

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LB's"Driver: Parallel Lines"Guide Complete
We are pleased to announce the completion of the LB Driver(TM): Parallel Lines Walkthrough and Strategy Guide. The guide covers all of the story missions in great detail and will give you advice and tips for getting through the game…

A Lot Riding on"The Godfather"for EA
The Financial Times today has an interesting article detailing what's at stake for EA with this week's highly anticipated release of The Godfather. Aside from the reputations of both EA and The Godfather franchise, EA has pumped a reported $10…

LB'The Godfather: The Game'Strategy Guide Complete!
We are happy to report the completion of our LB The Godfather Walkthrough and Strategy Guide. In it, you'll find what you need in order to climb the ranks from Outsider to Don of the Corleone family. Whether you're learning…

"Hitman: Blood Money"Gets a Date
I figured a perfect Holy Thursday story would be to report that Eidos has announced a release date for Hitman(R): Blood Money: May 30. Christ would be so proud. Anyway, this is the fourth in the Hitman series and each…

"Lost"Game this Fall?
Joystiq is reporting on a rumor via EGM that a Lost game, based on the popular TV show, may be coming to a console near you this autumn. While this is definitely to be taken with a grain of sea…

'Tomb Raider: Legend'arrives in stores today
While our European friends have already gotten their hands on Ms. Croft and her latest adventure, those of us in North America will get our chance today, as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend is expected to infiltrate stores across the…

May 4, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 3, 2006

Oklahoma introduces violent videogames

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Oklahoma introduces violent videogames bill

The latest in the seemingly relentless political attacks on the videogames industry comes in the shape of a new violent videogames bill from the State of Oklahoma, which has successfully passed a Senate hearing. The Oklahoma legislation would make it a felony to knowingly exhibit or sell violent video games to minors.

Seeking an amendment to existing laws that are intended to regulate the distribution of pornographic and sadomasochistic material, the new bill proposed by Senator Glen Coffee once again encompasses as broad and vague a definition of what constitutes a violent videogame as possible, ensuring all the bases are covered, but opening the bill up to scrutiny and dismissal on First Amendment grounds.

The new bill defines "inappropriate violence" to mean when "video game or computer software which is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors".

Should this bill be passed by the House and Senate and then signed by the Governor of Oklahoma, it will undoubtedly be challenged by the ESA, which has successfully secured both temporary and permanent injunctions against similar bills in California, Illinois and Michigan.

Coverage at:http://shorl.com/fifrifogehydu

NEW NAME FOR REVOLUTION

Nintendo has changed the name of its next-gen consol from “Revolution” to “Wii” (pronounced “we”). 

Interestingly, it appears Nintendo has not yet filed Canadian or American trade-mark applications to protect the new name. Perhaps Nintendo has filed applications in Japan. If so, and if Nintendo files the same applications in Canada and the US within 6 months of the Japanese filing date, then the Canadian and US applications will be backdated to the Japanese filing date.

Wii website is here: http://revolution.nintendo.com/

XBOX 360 PATENT INFRINGEMENT?

Lucent Technologies has sued Microsoft for infringing Lucent’s US patent for “Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames of Fields of Video”. Lucent has claimed that the XBOX 360’s method of decoding MPEG-2 files violates the patent.

Video game patents have been hot news lately, with Immersion’s $82 million win against Sony regarding the rumble feature in Sony’s dual shock controllers, Atari’s agreement to pay $300,000 to AVG to settle a lawsuit regarding AVG’s patent for spherical panning, and Yahoo!’s lawsuit against Xfire regarding in-game instant messaging technology. 

These cases are a good reminder that game companies can’t always include standard techniques (such as 3D panning and zooming) or technology (such as force feedback) in their games and consoles, even if everyone else in the industry is doing it. 

Coverage at: http://www.shorl.com/gadrimelogrybo(Macworld)

EA SETTLES OVERTIME SUIT

Electronic Arts recently announced that it had settled a lawsuit with former employees for $14.9 million. The former employees claimed they were required to work significant overtime without receiving overtime pay. 

Under some jurisdictions’ laws, employees in high-tech jobs are not entitled to overtime pay. However, the EA employees in this case argued that they were not exempted by the law, and therefore they were owed millions in overtime pay. 

Coverage here: http://www.shorl.com/fysimidydigre(news.com)

CHEATERS SETTLE

In anearlier postingwe reported that the owner of cheatcc.com (a site dedicated to posting cheat codes for video games) recently sued a competitor, Crave Online Media, for copying his postings and replicating them on their website.  He claims Crave Online Media violated his copyright in the postings.

We now understand that the parties have settled on undisclosed terms. Which is too bad, really, because we wanted to see how the court would deal with the question of copyright ownership. The plaintiff (of course) was not the author of the actual cheat codes, so he wouldn’t own copyright in them. Perhaps his claim was based on any original content he added to his site in addition to the cheat codes, but we probably won’t ever know for sure. 

The case is Allison v. Crave Online Media, 1:2005cv01186 (USDC, District of Colorado).

May 2, 2006

learning tools

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learning tools

May 1, 2006

Unique Baby GiftsPlanning on

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Unique Baby Gifts
Planning on attending a baby shower? Want to be different? Looking for a unique baby gift? Then, look no further! Here is a delightful collection of unique baby gifts that…

Best Bikes and Scooters For Boys
Boys will be boys! Spring is a great time to be outdoors, while the weather is still not too hot. Outdoor activities like biking are an excellent way to burn…

Have Fun With Water Toys
Water toys are a lot of fun! There are loads of ways to have fun with the wide range of water toys available in the stores today. There are numerous…

Baby Bratz - Bubble Trouble
The new line of Baby Bratz called Bubble Trouble is kind of cute. The Bubble Trouble line features the Bratz Big Babyz - pretty large sized dolls standing 13" tall….