games

Looks like I just lost my bragging rights for gaming on a 100-inch screen.

Someone has patented a 180-degree gaming system dubbed jDome, which delivers a one-of-a-kind wraparound visual experience. Interestingly, it works pretty much like a rear projection screen and relies on a front projector to recreate the Omnimax-like effects. One of these will easily set you back $6,000, though its inventor John Nilsson apparently spent only around $125 to $200 to patent and develop the product, according to Ubergizmo.

We're just wondering whether anyone would like to give this a go using a white brolly instead. … Read more

It may take awhile for people to regularly use only hand gestures to play games on the phone, but that's not stopping new titles from coming out. The latest is called Get Cookin' from Glu Mobile, which was developed specifically for Sony Ericsson W910 handsets.

The motion sensor technology required to play the game, which lets you prepare meals Cooking Mama-style, uses the kind of accelerometer that has gotten a lot of press because of the iPhone's version: It changes the display's orientation depending on the angle of the handset. With Get Cookin', you can flip … Read more

As impressive as the GPS Bluetooth rear-view mirror may be, its functions are pretty boring for the most part. At least, that's how it looks when compared with something like this multimedia visor.

Other visors with built-in TVs and DVD players have been around for awhile, but this one is out of control--which, by the way, is exactly what the driver would be if he gets distracted by it. Even though it's on the passenger side, there's no way to completely ignore a visor that lets you play games on its 7-inch LCD and comes with two gamepad controllers … Read more

Remember the movie The Game, with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn as unlikely brothers, shot before the backdrop of vertiginous San Francisco?

Well, here's a new interface for the city by the Bay: SFZero is "a new representation for the data that's already there. Your mind is full of inaccurate representations that are affecting the way you use the San Francisco data flow, steering you away from interaction and collaboration and toward unproductive reflexive data loops.

SFZero designers are working double shifts to engineer this next-generation interface that will bring you together with your cohabitants to experience … Read more

The Wii Fit isn't even out yet, and already competition is gearing up. Atari just announced that it will launch its own exercise game, called Family Trainer.

The main difference in Atari's version--other than the lack of hype and branding power of its Nintendo rival--is that it uses an interactive mat rather than the Wii Fit's Balance Board. The move is somewhat awkward because the game apparently still requires use of the Wiimote, as Tech Digest notes, and Atari's Family Ski is designed to use the Wii board as well. The games, meanwhile, sound only mildly … Read more

NeoEdge, a casual-games-based ad network company whose chairman is Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, launched on Wednesday a system designed to make it easy for Web sites to add a widget that links to its library of games.

The company, which previously built a system that "wraps" ads around casual games like Diner Dash, is now attempting to leverage the huge popularity of such titles by making it simple for any Web site to use its widget and become a front end to its more than 400 games.

Casual games--which can be played in a short period of time … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--If ever there was pressure, it falls on the shoulders of development teams trying to follow up a smash hit with a sequel.

That's the position that the folks at Epic Games find themselves in right now as they put the finishing touches on their forthcoming video game, Gears of War 2. And that's because the original Gears of War sold more than 5 million copies, becoming one of the most successful titles for Microsoft's next-generation video game console.

On Tuesday, Gears of War 2 was one of the featured games at the Microsoft Games Studio Spring Showcase … Read more

Sonic the Hedgehog has seen a platform or four.

The spikey-furred rodent first brought to life by Sega in 1991 for proprietary consoles rolled with technology's punches onto TV, Xbox, PS3, and recently, onto mobile phones. April saw the spawning of Sega Mobile, when several flagship games, including Sonic the Hedgehog, were ported to mobile phone format and offered to cell phone gamers for subscription or sale through their carrier's Web portals. Now Sega Mobile is offering Sonic Jump, Afterburner II, and Golden Axe free of charge for U.S. residents.

The catch, as you may have guessed, … Read more

In a few minutes, I'll be heading over to Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco for what seems to be an annual showcase of new Xbox 360 games from Microsoft Game Studios (MGS).

I'll have more on this later on Tuesday, but for now, I'll give a brief peek of what I'm expecting to find when I get there.

The gorilla in the room, as it were, is surely going to be Gears of War 2, developed by Epic Games for MGS and the sequel to one of the biggest games in Xbox 360 history.

"Attendees … Read more