video games

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  • 03 Mar

    Yeah, There’s an App for That

    I love technology, but things may be getting a bit out of hand.

    A lot of video games have advertisements designed into them — billboards you drive past, some kind of statistic brought to you by Company X or the signs at a sports arena.

    It used to be that these were completely made up, generic products that just helped to give the scenes a little more feel of reality. You might see Joe’s car repair, King brand hot dogs or A-1 Auto Insurance.

    But now, games have real ads, and because the systems can connect to the Internet, those ads can regularly change.

    Take the EA Sports hockey game I have for the Playstation 3. I grabbed a picture of the boards this morning as an example:

    That’s a T-mobile ad, and yes if you had taken the time to pause the game and type in the link the website does exist.

    But that’s nothing.

    A new(ish) tool in advertising are these things called QR codes, which are square bar codes you can scan with your smartphone. All you need is a simple app, scan the code, and it will take you to a website for whatever product or company.

    So imagine my suprise when I was playing the hockey game and saw one of the QR codes in a Subway ad along the boards. I didn’t take a picture at the time, but I roughly recreated it:

    Think about the strategy that went into this ad. Subway is banking on the fact that I will notice it, recognize what the QR code is, own a smartphone, have a bar code scanner app, and take the time to pause the game and line the screen up just right — all so I can visit the website they set up for this promotion.

    (Nerd alert: The QR code I recreated will actually take you to the Subway promotion site)

    That’s some incredible technology. Whether we need it is another question.

    By cjhannas nerdness technology Uncategorized video games
  • 02 Jun

    Call Me Junior

    As a left-handed kid who played baseball — and let’s face it, a baseball fan in the 1990s — I was a huge fan of Ken Griffey Jr.

    He hit home runs. He made awesome catches in center field. He brought a youthful energy to the game that made him the most likable perennial fixture at the All Star Game.

    Oh and he had a sweet batting stance every kid mimicked in their back yard and for a few swings at baseball practice.

    Now his baseball career is over after his retirement Wednesday night.

    He leaves behind a legacy of home runs without a hint of steroid suspicion and a thousand what-ifs related to his far-too-numerous season-ending injuries. Fortunately he also leaves the Nintendo 64 game Major League Baseball with Ken Griffey Jr. Even today, it remains one of my favorite video games of all time.

    I recently reacquired a copy thanks to eBay, and though the graphics seem incredibly outdated, the game itself is as fun as ever. It’s not really a challenge — my brother and I have racked up so many wins by dozens and dozens of runs it hardly seems we could ever lose a game. In fact, we even played an entire season as the 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays and never felt we were in danger of not achieving perfection.

    I am also not ashamed to admit I mis-heard the lyrics to the song at the beginning of the game for a long time. Take a listen:

    Did you catch the words? I originally thought Griffey said “Home, home, homey-G.” Imagine my facepalm when my brother gave me the “are you an idiot” look with the corrected “Call, call, call me Junior,” which clearly makes more sense.

    The makers of the game also put in a nice feature after any time you make a jumping or diving catch. Griffey will respond to your efforts with something like “fantastic play” or “great catch.” So if you get bored and want someone to talk to, just hit the jump button right before you catch a fly ball (really easy), and let the following unfold:

    Griffey: “Fantastic play!”
    You: “Why thank you.”

    Now that he is retired, here’s to hoping he takes a few hours to play the N64 game and have that conversation with himself.

    By cjhannas baseball home not smart Uncategorized video games
  • 05 May

    Cash for Trash

    There may be no greater site on the Internet than eBay.

    I mean, ESPN.com is pretty good. CNN.com has some good stuff. Weather.com can be useful. But when you want to turn trash into cash, those don’t do you any good.

    A few weeks ago I was helping my mom clean out a closet in her basement. Our church was having a rummage sale and it seemed like the good excuse for getting a bunch of old crap out of that closet.

    I wish I had a picture of the “before” state of the space, with 25 years of our childhood games and puzzles and other assorted random stuff piled in there. I was shocked at the number of games that actually had all of their pieces.

    But key to making that day great for me was finding the boxes that contained our Game Gears. If you don’t recall, Game Gear was the handheld video game system made by Sega. I think there were three of them in our family and a host of games to go with them.


    The stash of vintage games

    Sometime last year my younger brother and I had dug them out and found they didn’t work all that well. So when it came time to clean out the closet, they were marked for the trash. I took the box of games all the way out to the trashcan outside before realizing that in 2010, there is someone in the world who will buy just about anything.

    Thanks to eBay, I was able to find that person, and will soon have $18 for something I was perfectly willing to just throw away.

    By cjhannas Uncategorized video games
  • 21 Dec

    I Don’t Want to Grow Up

    A week ago my roommate and I spent a few hours playing 1080 Snowboarding on Nintendo 64. We were very much aware it was 2009 and not 1999, but it’s a fun game.

    That was apparently the clincher for his girlfriend later remarking that we were acting more kid-like lately. So it should have been no surprise that just a few days later we went to Toys ‘R Us and purchased Nerf guns.

    It was after that trip that we jokingly said next we’d be building forts, and well, look what happened.

    Nerf guns are quite advanced these days, which fortunately supported our hypothesis about how far toys could come since our childhood. The model we selected (we got the same kind) has detachable parts that allow you to make anything from a handgun up to an assault rifle. It is also complete with a “laser” site that is quite enjoyable to use when trying to shoot your roommate in the dark.


    The gloriousness of the modern Nerf gun

    In fact, in our short experience with our toy weapons it is clear that everyone should own one. See a stuffed animal on the other side of the room? Blast it with a Nerf dart. Your roommate walks in after a long day at work? Shoot him as he flips through the mail. The fun is endless.

    Maybe everyone should take a step back and recapture a piece of their childhood. Mad after a crappy day at work? Play some old-school MarioKart. Get dumped by your boyfriend? Tape his picture to the wall and hit it with a Nerf gun. Two feet of snow falls, dashing your weekend plans? Get out a sled (or make a sweet fort). The world is your candy cane (candy canes being far tastier than oysters).

    By cjhannas snow Uncategorized video games
  • 17 Aug

    Padilla, not Vick, is True Sports Loss

    While Michael Vick considers pleading guilty to federal charges concerning dog fighting, columnists, pundits and sports fans across the country are talking about what that means for his NFL future. Also at stake is the future of the Atlanta Falcons who will probably one way or another lose their star quarterback through imprisonment or having had enough of the Vick experience.

    It’s always sad to see a person throw their livelihood away for making bad choices, especially when you’re in a position that so many other people would give anything for. It’s also sad when the fallout from those actions affects so many other people, which in Vick’s case includes the franchise that has reinvented itself solely to fit his style of play.

    But today came news that an even bigger star has lost his freedom to excel on the field and carry his team to glory. That’s the story of Jose Padilla, also known as Justice Jose Padilla.

    Maybe you’ve heard the name. He was detained by the government as an enemy combatant in the war on terror. He was held under that status without a lawyer for several years in solitary confinement. He took his case–just to get access to the legal system–all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which said he should be tried in South Carolina. Ultimately, the United States changed tactics, dropping his original charges of planning to detonate a dirty bomb and instead going after new charges in federal court of conspiring to support jihad overseas.

    Yesterday he was convicted of those charges and faces life in prison.

    That is bad new for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Two years ago Padilla became their starting catcher. Not only is he the premier defensive catcher in the league, he’s also a top hitting talent. After seeing the Nats to several titles and leading the on-field charge for the outfitting of a brilliant new stadium, Padilla now faces an eternity of bars and concrete.

    Of couse, this didn’t happen in real life. Rather, it happened in the XBOX version of MVP baseball in a franchise created by my roommates and myself. We had some wonderful players named after ourselves, but also included players like Juan Rocker and Justice Padilla to put our talent over the top.

    Prior to living in that apartment, the three of us had lived together at lovely Susquehanna University. It was there that Jason and I took a class our senior year called Law & Politics. We discussed things like the Padilla case from the legal standpoint and how that affected, and was affected, by politics. Absolutely fascinating.

    The fall after taking the class there was an opening on the Supreme Court. While most people interested in the debate talked about real candidates, we instead went with more unconventional options. Our two favorite were George W. Bush and Jose Padilla–hence, Justice Padilla.

    Sadly, neither were nominated nor confirmed. I still think Bush would have been a great option. At least give it a shot. You’re in the second, and last possible, term as president. You are the guy who nominates candidates to the court. It’s a lifetime appointment with a good salary. Why not try?

    Of course after discussing the issue with the professor of Law & Politics, it became clear that President Bush is not a great candidate. To be confirmed he would need a huge supporting cast in the Senate (which was eroding at the time), and behind that would need a populous willing to support that decision. Oh and the whole giving up the presidency thing. But hey, there’s always hope for a future very popular president in the waning days of his term right?

    By cjhannas baseball football Supreme Court Susquehanna Uncategorized video games
  • 28 Jul

    I Wanna be the First, the Best…

    Sometimes we do things that are stupid, awesome, or stupidly awesome. You might think, “Man, I bet not a lot of people have ever one that.”

    But what if nobody has? What if you’re the first person to ever do it?

    We have lots of records or so-called “important” milestones—The first guy to reach the north pole (Santa of course), fly around the world, hit 50 home runs in a season, eat 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

    But what about the stuff that doesn’t matter?

    The other day I was playing pool in my basement with my brother Pat. It was during our rousing game of 15-ball that I assert Pat became the first person on the planet to skip a cue ball off a pool table, and have it land on a Playstation 3 controller.

    Think about all of the pieces involved, and how unlikely it is that they come together. It’s not often that you hit the cue ball off the table. Sure, when you mess around all the time and attempt the number of jumps we do, it does happen more frequently, but in the greater world it just doesn’t happen.

    Then take into consideration the placement of most billiards tables in the world. How many of them are even in the same dwelling, let alone the same room as a Playstation 3? Then you have to have the controller within striking distance, and in a position to be struck by the cue ball. Line up the angles just right, and bam, you’ve got history.

    I’m still pondering whether to get him a trophy. Maybe just a gift certificate to the Selinsgrove Sub Shop.

    A pictorial version of the feat (recreated):

    Click here, yo.

    By cjhannas family home Uncategorized video games
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