Archive for March, 2008
Arcade Links for 2008-03-16
- Game Trailers Comprehensive Video Review of Star Wars in arcades and for the consoles http://www.gametrailers.com/player/31944.html #
Arcade Links for 2008-03-15
- History of the 1942 franchise at IGN: http://tinyurl.com/359fzt #
- Heard of Williams Varkon? 90 units made, pinball / arcade hybrid. Cool. http://www.tollianweb.com/uc/Varkon/Varkon.html #
- Atari pencils? Talk about a Brand! http://tinyurl.com/36xk8a #
- The Harvey Dent Dark Knight Viral Campaign Stops in Chicago http://tinyurl.com/2j8r2l #
Is Wagner Gameworks Closing?
Wagner Gameworks (Doc Pinball) is one of two or three local arcade shops that I know of that build and service coin operated machines. But if you were to read his Craigslist posting this week, it seems as though he is going out of business. But Wagner is still doing business. Read on to see what inside information I know about whether his arcade shop is actually closing up shop or if his choice of wording was just exceptionally poor. (more…)
Gravatars enabled for comments
Just a quick note. I was hanging out, “spending time” with Sarah before she left this morning, so I decided to look more in gravatars and get a real understanding of what they are and how they apply to blogs.
Gravatars = Globally Recognized Avatars
Hopefully most people know what an avatar is, it’s the little icon your use in comments and on forums to identify yourself. All of the wordpress feeds have been abuzz about Gravatars because WordPress 2.5 has some sort of functionality to use this service built into the core. But while we wait for that unknown release, I added some code to my comments.php file to get your Gravatars to show up. I was using the “Easy Gravatars” plugin to start, but I couldn’t figure out how to change where the code was inserted in my comments.php file, because the positioning was less than perfect or ideal. I just decided to go the manual route instead.
I like the idea of global avatars because it helps universally brand your identity and you only have to update your avatar in one place, on Gravatar.com with your chosen email address. I have heard that there is another similar service, MyBlogLog who also provides a universal avatar solution. If you take a look at the comments on any post by clicking on my ghosty friend on the homepage excerpts or scrolling down to the bottom of the post (if there are any) You’ll see most of your comments have an appropriate desaturated Food Fight avatar next to them. These are for commenters who don’t have a Gravatar yet.
My question to you is, how many people actually use Gravatars? Does anyone even bother with this? Do more people have avatars at MyBlogLog? Hopefully some of your will at least check out some sort of global avatar service and be full on geek just like me:)
Arcade Links for 2008-03-14
- Came across another forum last night, for classic Atari catridges : http://tinyurl.com/3486r7 #
- Love Spyhunter? Me too. What would Spyhunter look like in the real world? – http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1454928825 #
- Maybe I forgot? RAM controls will eventually be making Food Fight gimbal joysticks? http://www.ram-controls.com/blogs.html #
- Had no concept of value for a Cinematronics War Of The Worlds #
- Joe Magiera has one in Chicago, Joe = Nice, other guy, less than humble http://tinyurl.com/3xyqop?#531e0fea5c2dcbc5 #
- Stern is making a Shrek pinball? Cool. http://tinyurl.com/2saktm #
Arcade Links for 2008-03-13
- Cute Self Decorating Vinyl Arcade Cabinet on Geekologie #
- http://tinyurl.com/2kuoya #
- Came across WeGame.com before, but kind of glossed over it until I read Techcrunch, http://tinyurl.com/2m9zoc #
- WeGames only records certain games, http://www.wegame.com/download/ #
- Would this make a successful targeted website for classic games? People already record videos for Twin Galaxies. Why not share them? #
- Did everyone know that IGN has a "Retro" games section? I didn’t until yesterday… #
- Here is the link for the IGN Retro section: http://retro.ign.com/ #
- And the link to insightful Al Alcorn interview: http://retro.ign.com/articles/858/858351p1.html #
- Cool to see how Atari was pretty disorganized at the start, like a startup #
- The Incredible Hulk trailer is out, and I will say, I am impressed #
- http://www.movieweb.com/news/53/27253.php #
Arcade Twitter added!
Never heard of Twitter? You are not alone, many people haven’t heard of this Web 2.0 idea. What is it? Let me try to explain in my own words.
Twitter is a website where you can update your status with thoughts, ideas, or information. The nanoposts are supposed to be within 140 characters, working well for many services including RSS, XML, and SMS for phones. The main problem with the service is finding a true usefulness to justify spending time writing messages.
The main reason I have chosen to use Twitter is because it is perfect for sharing information on my blog that isn’t noteworthy enough to have a whole post about. I don’t have to go into WordPress and make a new post, I just write a short note integrated from my email and my Twitter status updates.
I have determined that Twitter is perfect for sharing and explaining links to cool arcade related sites that may or may not have been shared all over the forums, or some piece of information I found but don’t plan on developing a post about. (Of course, most of these links are also included in my Diigo links on the “links” button above, and they rotate constantly as I may bookmark about 20 websites a day, depending on how much research I am doing.)
I also like Twitter because by incorporating it into my blog, my blog always has that “fresh” information feel. It let’s people know what I am up to, and fosters that much more of a community.
One of the downsides right now is who else even uses Twitter? It would be cool to follow some other people and what they are doing, but I don’t have that many geeky friends. Among that set of friends, my perception is that if they don’t see a monetary purpose in using Twitter, why use it? I agree totally, so I need to try to find other serious bloggers and online entrepreneurs that find Twitter useful, and that may mean finding a whole new group of friends. That would be swell and rad all at once.
Check out my Twitter’s in the sidebar, see what I am up to, and check out a ton of cool arcade related links. This Twitter Tools plugin by Alex King should compile my daily twitter’s into a WordPress post where users can comment on the links. But I haven’t seen how that works yet. Should be cool.
Are any of my readers using Twitter?
I don’t like the fact that there is no “edit” feature, but maybe that will be added in later. What do you like or dislike about the service? What do you use it for?
