fighter

The 404 206: Where we only like you as a friend

It's true that we only think of you as a close friend, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate your support! On today's show, we attempt to sell off Jeff's old busted G4 Powerbook, make fun of Don Cheadle's awful British accent, fan out over the new Avengers movie, and do our impression of some of the most popular video game quotes. If nothing else, listen to this show for Jeff's spot on Mario!

So after yesterday's Apple announcement, Jeff and I have finally agreed to shed our ancient G4 Powerbooks for one of the new Macbooks. The question that I'm sure other people are asking right now is which one should we get? We both want to spend less than $2,ooo, so it's a toss-up between the $1,600 Macbook and the $1,999 Macbook Pro. Is the slightly larger screen and dual-video cards worth the $4,000 price difference? We've both gotten so comfortable using a 15 inch screen that it seems difficult to adjust to a 13 incher. And what about that giant one-piece track pad? There are so many questions to answer about the design, but we'll be getting both models into the office tomorrow, so that's when the deliberation will begin. Is anyone else in this boat with us, trying to decide between the two? For me, it's less a question about performance and more a deliberation about screen size. I don't travel much and don't do image or video editing (I don't even have Photoshop!), so maybe all those extra features aren't worth it for my purposes. Help!!

EPISODE 206 Download today's podcast … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us a gooey puzzle game for WiiWare along with a classic arcade-fighter.

WiiWare World of Goo (2D Boy, 1,500 Wii points): World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game that allows you to construct your own goo-based buildings and bridges for the World of Goo Corporation. Art Style: Cubello (Nintendo, 600 Wii points): Cubello has you matching like-colored cube shapes. Enjoy two game modes: endless play or stage-based action. Virtual Console Secret of Mana (1993, Super Nitendo, 800 Wii points): Secret of Mana has you searching the land for Mana seeds, the only thing that can … Read more

The 404 179: Where we're all getting some action

Sometimes things just don't go the way they were planned. Such is the theme of today's show; although we have a full rundown of stories, we digress in typical 404 fashion and get sidetracked by Street Fighter 4, the social climate, and subsequent death of the American video game arcade, Spaceballs cartoons, and superhero fandom. Don't worry, we'll reheat the leftover stories for tomorrow's show!

There are two very specific video games that stick out in my memory as quintessential to my adolescence; games that took up a majority of my time after school and helped form bonds of friendship that continue to remain strong in adulthood. Those two games are Street Fighter 2 for Super Nintendo and GoldenEye for Nintendo 64. Since we only talk about the former on today's episode, I'll take this opportunity to speak a bit about the latter. GoldenEye pretty much ruled. I can't even begin to count how many hours I spent sitting in my buddy Konrad's living room eating 39 cent Del Taco tacos and staring at a single square within a crosshatched television screen. Proximity mines, timed mines, golden guns, double RCP-90s, and secret sniping spots dominated my youth. Some unspoken rules of the game that needed to be reinforced from time to time: don't look at my screen, you can't choose Oddjob (short=very cheap), and absolutely NO SNIPING! Wow, what I wouldn't give to get my hands on another N64 and a copy of GoldenEye. That, and my blissfully ignorant youth.

EPISODE 179 Download today's podcast … Read more

The 404 154: Where we eat wasabi peas for breakfast

On the show today: Linda Nguyen from Chickipedia, dirty door-to-door Verizon salesmen, weekend box office hits and misses, and guest call-in from Lou Bakalar!

Why do all of our most exciting shows happen on Fridays? Could be because everyone's in a great mood today, instead of just Wilson. Or maybe it's because we actually managed to con two females into joining the show today. Alex, aka A-Rod, plays team Mom for the day and brings us cookies to munch on and Linda Nguyen from Break Media jumps on the mic and shows us Chickipedia.com, the world's … Read more

Finally, a $10,000 simulator for adults

We've never quite understood why so many high-end game simulators for the home basically look the same as the ones at the mall or the theater lobby. After all, if you're going to shell out several grand, the least they can do is design some that don't look like they came directly from an arcade fire sale.

That's why we appreciate Global VR's efforts on its "Blazing Angels" simulator, which is designed to look like the cockpit of a World War II fighter plane, complete with faux bullet holes in the fuselage. It … Read more

Where we let the chatroom pick the show name, and this was the best they did

EPISODE 40

The three guys today talk about Street Fighter being the best game ever...We wax reminiscent over old video games. Plus, Stanford drops tuition, XNA gets more open, Gears of War 2, and three actors replace Heath Ledger.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

After labels, Qtrax must satisfy Prince, Van Morrison

Should troubled file-sharing site Qtrax, eventually strike licensing deals with the major music companies, it still may face a significant hurdle.

Web Sheriff, a company representing music acts such as Prince, Van Morrison, and The Black Crowes, has notified Qtrax that it shouldn't think about offering their music, photographs, or other intellectual property until it has secured the artists' OK.

"Whilst Qtrax is an interesting model, many major label and indie artists will not be happy about their music being given away free (to consumers) in return for a currently opaque return from advertising revenues," said John … Read more

Norton Fighter returns

Back in October, I wrote about the Norton Fighter, a Kamen Rider-inspired mascot for Symantec in Japan to help the company sell Norton 360 to the denizens of the Floating Kingdom. Did I say sell? I meant, "fight honorably and do great battle to protect from evil." Or something.

Anyway, whoever's marketing Norton 360 sure knows its audience. The company has now put out a series of long commercials, filmed on grainy stock and in the Technicolor style of the '70s, showing the Fighter doing his best to not only defeat the evil Botlas, but also to … Read more

Fire truck with MiG engine: insanity defined

And here we thought the 727 jet limo was insane. The vehicle pictured here might seem like an ordinary fire engine at first look--until it's turned around. From that angle, it's a work of insanity.

Not only is it modded with a turbine engine, but it's one from a Russian MiG fighter jet--making it "the largest turbine motor in a land vehicle anywhere in the world," according to LifeOnTop. The size alone would seem to lend credence to that claim, at 27 feet long and 5.5 feet in diameter.

If they add one of … Read more

Air Force fighter to use speech recognition

The next U.S. Air Force maverick may be talking to her plane instead of looking at its dash for updates.

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, which the Air Force plans to roll out in 2008, will be the first U.S. fighter to respond to voice commands, the Air Force announced Wednesday.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate has been working on the idea for some time, trying out different systems from a variety of companies.

After years of testing, it now has a speech-recognition system that works from a microphone within a pilot'… Read more