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Analogue Nt Brings True NES/Famicom Compatibility For A High Price
ZeniMax Files Lawsuit Against Oculus VR Over Stolen Code
Google Fiber is About to Go WiFi

Analogue Nt Brings True NES/Famicom Compatibility For A High Price

Posted: 07 May 2014 07:00 AM PDT

One console promises perfect NES and Famicom emulation, but it comes with a head-turning cost.

Retro gaming purists tend to have picky tastes when it comes to the pursuit of their chosen passion. I should know, I'm one of them. But will they pay half-a-grand just to get near perfect NES and Famicom emulation?

I guess that's for the market to decide with the Analogue Nt, a console out sometime this summer that is designed to play Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom games. Analogue Interactive, the makers of the Analogue Nt, claims on their website that they "created the Analogue Nt to experience this pivotal part of gaming history with the quality and justice it deserves."

That must be some dang good quality, because the Analogue Nt is currently on pre-order for $500. Spiffy, futuristic looking as the console may be, but $500 for a machine that only plays NES and Famicom games? That seems really steep. You can comfortably get a PlayStation 4 and a year of PlayStation Plus for that much.

The system does feature the identical hardware used in both vintage consoles, so that might be what’s driving up the asking price. Plus all original peripherals – NES Zappers to the Famicom Disk System – are said to work flawless with the Analogue Nt. For a true NES/Famicom feel, which the Analogue Nt is selling on, I guess I can see appeal, especially for folk who take their retro gaming quite seriously.

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Image Credit: Analogue Nt

ZeniMax Files Lawsuit Against Oculus VR Over Stolen Code

Posted: 07 May 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Oculus Rift makers, Oculus VR, have just been bought by Facebook for $2 billion and now ZeniMax say that Oculus have stolen some of their VR-related code.

Well this is a sticky situation like a 10-ton coating of treacle on a quicksand pit the size of Texas. The furore over Oculus Rift maker Oculus VR's sale to Facebook for $2 billion may have somewhat dissipated but ZeniMax are dragging them right back into the headlines with new claims that ex-ZeniMax employee, John Carmack, high-tailed it to Oculus VR with a bunch of stolen code after being enticed to the other company with a job offer and a bagload of Facebook money. According to ZeniMax, Carmack had been working on said stolen technology know-how for years, all during his tenure at the company, with ZeniMax and he being on the terms that he wouldn't do something like…run off with the code he was working on. They're also saying that another leading Oculus VR man, Palmer Luckey, had a written agreement with ZeniMax about some Oculus Rift related code (that's somehow unrelated to whatever code Carmack put together) thus solidifying their legal grounds. It's all a bit confusing and it's resulted in the even more complicated outcome of a whopping great lawsuit so you can read about that (as well as ZeniMax and Oculus VR's official statement) below.

"ZeniMax confirms it recently sent formal notice of its legal rights to Oculus concerning its ownership of key technology used by Oculus to develop and market the Oculus Rift. ZeniMax's technology may not be licensed, transferred or sold without ZeniMax Media's approval. ZeniMax's intellectual property rights arise by reason of extensive VR research and development works done over a number of years by John Carmack while a ZeniMax employee, and others. ZeniMax provided necessary VR technology and other valuable assistance to Palmer Luckey and other Oculus employees in 2012 and 2013 to make the Oculus Rift a viable VR product, superior to other VR market offerings."

While it's easy to just say 'them's some made up fighting words', the rest of ZeniMax's statement also explains that "well before the Facebook transaction was announced, Mr. Luckey acknowledged in writing ZeniMax's legal ownership of this intellectual property" which means that the ground that Facebook and Oculus VR are standing on to deliver their rebuttal (which you can read below) is more than a little shaky.

So what do Oculus VR have to say about this? As of yesterday, here are the highlights from their statement,

Zenimax has misstated the purposes and language of the Zenimax non-disclosure agreement that Palmer Luckey signed. A key reason that John permanently left Zenimax in August of 2013 was that Zenimax prevented John from working on VR, and stopped investing in VR games across the company. Zenimax canceled VR support for Doom 3 BFG when Oculus refused Zenimax's demands for a non-dilutable equity stake in Oculus.

Those quotes, along with additional lines that say "we are disappointed but not surprised by Zenimax's actions and we will prove that all of its claims are false" and "despite the fact that the full source code for the Oculus SDK is available online (developer.oculusvr.com), Zenimax has never identified any 'stolen' code or technology" are effectively a middle finger to ZeniMax albeit with much more legal speak.

It's unlikely that ZeniMax would challenge Oculus and their team of Facebook lawyers without a real case and Oculus et. al seem to want to fight back so this one will probably go to court. We'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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Google Fiber is About to Go WiFi

Posted: 07 May 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Internet consumption has skyrocketed the since the advent of more media streaming, specifically on mobile devices and Google is right in the middle.

Google Fiber is bringing people fast internet on the cheap. Google Fiber customers have the option of access to 5Mbps for free, or 1Gbps access for $70 per month. Everyone that is familliar with their offerings wants the service, but unfortunately it isn’t widely available yet since it is only available in two cities, Kansas City, Missouri and Provo, UT.

With increasing demands on internet providers due to the growing popularity in streaming media services coupled with consumer demands for means to end their contracts with their cable providers, high speed internet is becoming more and more necessary for the average household. Although Google sure isn’t the only provider offering speeds of 1Gbps or faster, they sure are the best priced, so consumers will only eat up their offerings so long as Google can beat any competitors to each market.

Fortunately, Google already has 34 additional markets for which it is evaluating the rollout of its Fiber services. In an epic attempt to upend the industry, documents recently obtained by IDG News Service reveal that Google is considering blanketing Fiber deployed cities in Google Fiber backed WiFi.

Having access to not only Google Fiber, but public WiFi running off said network will be an amazing service available to consumers blessed enough to live in these markets, in addition to the fact that such a move would also position Google to be able to offer competing services to many wireless carriers. With the FCC encouraging the exploration of VoIP networks and Google’s assumed plans to announce integration of Google Voice with Google Hangouts at Google I/O this year, any existing phone would be compatible with said wireless network.

The only downside is that it is still years before such a service could be widely available, not to mention the fact that the seated ISPs and wireless carriers probably won’t let Google fight this battle on two fronts without also having to fight a battle in a courtroom.

Of course, even with WiFi blanketing cities with Google Fiber, a Google hosted mobile network would still need to piggy back on another major carrier, so Verizon and AT&T don’t need to worry too much about losing all their customers; however, since they are both competing ISPs, they still have reason to sweat.

Source: BGR

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