10/01/2005
GAMES THEN AND NOW
GO TO THE EXHIBIT AND TELL US WHAT YOU THINK WWW.MERCEXTRA/COM/ GAMING By MIKE ANTONUCCIMERCURY NEWS
``This is how kids played video games when I was growing up.''
If you could get a dollar for every time a Bay Area parent is going to say that over the next few months, you could stop buying lottery tickets. It's going to be said so often that it might as well be the official phrase for the exhibit provoking it: ``Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames,'' which opens today at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation.
Think ``Space Invaders,'' just the way it appeared in arcades and hotels, as a hulking cabinet-encased game machine. Or think ``Frogger'' in its Coleco tabletop version.
But don't get the idea that ``Game On,'' developed by London's Barbican Art Gallery in conjunction with the National Museums of Scotland, is just a tribute to the blinking pixels of nostalgia. The exhibit's deep sense of worldwide gaming history also conveys some intellectual heft. Games are art, games are science, and modern games are entertainment on a level approaching film and television.
Perhaps you're the other kind of parent -- you've never laid a finger on a video game machine or controller of any kind. Then ``Game On'' is also for you. It's an easily absorbed, up-to-date course in the way gaming influences the pop culture swirling around your kids, and it will educate everybody in the family about the industry's development and impact in Japan and Europe as well as in the United States.
You'll be able to solve that never-ever-played problem, too: More than 100 games will be available for free play, ranging from the legendary ``Space War'' on a largely forgotten Vectrex machine to the current bongo-controlled ``Donkey Konga 2'' for Nintendo's GameCube.
The exhibit spans more than 8,000 square feet and is divided into 13 sections.
You can start in an area that features early arcade games, with items that include two of the strikingly designed fiberglass cabinets for the early 1970s ``Computer Space'' game.
You'll find sections devoted to the history of home console systems and examples of how games are made and marketed. You'll reflect on the Pokémon craze in a section focused on games and small children. And you'll spot a unique treasure in the section on video game characters: crayon sketches of Nintendo's Mario and Donkey Kong icons, drawn by their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, for the exhibit's organizers.
It's not a sanitized exhibit, although the Tech took pains to evaluate how much of the material might be inappropriate for children. In order to portray the full nature of the industry, there will be some games and items that fall into the Mature category, which is defined as 17 and older. But the bulk of the displays and games would qualify as Teen or Everyone products.
Of course, much of the vintage memorabilia predates the era of those age-group ratings.
Barry Hitchings, one of the game experts who travel with the exhibit, says a diligent effort is made ``to keep as many things in as original condition as possible.''
But the dinged or worn quality of some items, such as the 1975 shark-themed ``Maneater'' arcade game, only adds to the nostalgic appeal and collectible allure.
Or at least, that's how some older gamers will react. You can always let your son or daughter go off to a more contemporary corner while you ogle the token-sucking addictions that are now 30 to 35 years old.
`Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames'
Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose.
When: Today-Jan. 2.
Information: www.thetech.org
``This is how kids played video games when I was growing up.''
If you could get a dollar for every time a Bay Area parent is going to say that over the next few months, you could stop buying lottery tickets. It's going to be said so often that it might as well be the official phrase for the exhibit provoking it: ``Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames,'' which opens today at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation.
Think ``Space Invaders,'' just the way it appeared in arcades and hotels, as a hulking cabinet-encased game machine. Or think ``Frogger'' in its Coleco tabletop version.
But don't get the idea that ``Game On,'' developed by London's Barbican Art Gallery in conjunction with the National Museums of Scotland, is just a tribute to the blinking pixels of nostalgia. The exhibit's deep sense of worldwide gaming history also conveys some intellectual heft. Games are art, games are science, and modern games are entertainment on a level approaching film and television.
Perhaps you're the other kind of parent -- you've never laid a finger on a video game machine or controller of any kind. Then ``Game On'' is also for you. It's an easily absorbed, up-to-date course in the way gaming influences the pop culture swirling around your kids, and it will educate everybody in the family about the industry's development and impact in Japan and Europe as well as in the United States.
You'll be able to solve that never-ever-played problem, too: More than 100 games will be available for free play, ranging from the legendary ``Space War'' on a largely forgotten Vectrex machine to the current bongo-controlled ``Donkey Konga 2'' for Nintendo's GameCube.
The exhibit spans more than 8,000 square feet and is divided into 13 sections.
You can start in an area that features early arcade games, with items that include two of the strikingly designed fiberglass cabinets for the early 1970s ``Computer Space'' game.
You'll find sections devoted to the history of home console systems and examples of how games are made and marketed. You'll reflect on the Pokémon craze in a section focused on games and small children. And you'll spot a unique treasure in the section on video game characters: crayon sketches of Nintendo's Mario and Donkey Kong icons, drawn by their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, for the exhibit's organizers.
It's not a sanitized exhibit, although the Tech took pains to evaluate how much of the material might be inappropriate for children. In order to portray the full nature of the industry, there will be some games and items that fall into the Mature category, which is defined as 17 and older. But the bulk of the displays and games would qualify as Teen or Everyone products.
Of course, much of the vintage memorabilia predates the era of those age-group ratings.
Barry Hitchings, one of the game experts who travel with the exhibit, says a diligent effort is made ``to keep as many things in as original condition as possible.''
But the dinged or worn quality of some items, such as the 1975 shark-themed ``Maneater'' arcade game, only adds to the nostalgic appeal and collectible allure.
Or at least, that's how some older gamers will react. You can always let your son or daughter go off to a more contemporary corner while you ogle the token-sucking addictions that are now 30 to 35 years old.
`Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames'
Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose.
When: Today-Jan. 2.
Information: www.thetech.org
GAMES THEN AND NOW
GO TO THE EXHIBIT AND TELL US WHAT YOU THINK WWW.MERCEXTRA/COM/ GAMING By MIKE ANTONUCCIMERCURY NEWS
``This is how kids played video games when I was growing up.''
If you could get a dollar for every time a Bay Area parent is going to say that over the next few months, you could stop buying lottery tickets. It's going to be said so often that it might as well be the official phrase for the exhibit provoking it: ``Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames,'' which opens today at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation.
Think ``Space Invaders,'' just the way it appeared in arcades and hotels, as a hulking cabinet-encased game machine. Or think ``Frogger'' in its Coleco tabletop version.
But don't get the idea that ``Game On,'' developed by London's Barbican Art Gallery in conjunction with the National Museums of Scotland, is just a tribute to the blinking pixels of nostalgia. The exhibit's deep sense of worldwide gaming history also conveys some intellectual heft. Games are art, games are science, and modern games are entertainment on a level approaching film and television.
Perhaps you're the other kind of parent -- you've never laid a finger on a video game machine or controller of any kind. Then ``Game On'' is also for you. It's an easily absorbed, up-to-date course in the way gaming influences the pop culture swirling around your kids, and it will educate everybody in the family about the industry's development and impact in Japan and Europe as well as in the United States.
You'll be able to solve that never-ever-played problem, too: More than 100 games will be available for free play, ranging from the legendary ``Space War'' on a largely forgotten Vectrex machine to the current bongo-controlled ``Donkey Konga 2'' for Nintendo's GameCube.
The exhibit spans more than 8,000 square feet and is divided into 13 sections.
You can start in an area that features early arcade games, with items that include two of the strikingly designed fiberglass cabinets for the early 1970s ``Computer Space'' game.
You'll find sections devoted to the history of home console systems and examples of how games are made and marketed. You'll reflect on the Pokémon craze in a section focused on games and small children. And you'll spot a unique treasure in the section on video game characters: crayon sketches of Nintendo's Mario and Donkey Kong icons, drawn by their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, for the exhibit's organizers.
It's not a sanitized exhibit, although the Tech took pains to evaluate how much of the material might be inappropriate for children. In order to portray the full nature of the industry, there will be some games and items that fall into the Mature category, which is defined as 17 and older. But the bulk of the displays and games would qualify as Teen or Everyone products.
Of course, much of the vintage memorabilia predates the era of those age-group ratings.
Barry Hitchings, one of the game experts who travel with the exhibit, says a diligent effort is made ``to keep as many things in as original condition as possible.''
But the dinged or worn quality of some items, such as the 1975 shark-themed ``Maneater'' arcade game, only adds to the nostalgic appeal and collectible allure.
Or at least, that's how some older gamers will react. You can always let your son or daughter go off to a more contemporary corner while you ogle the token-sucking addictions that are now 30 to 35 years old.
`Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames'
Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose.
When: Today-Jan. 2.
Information: www.thetech.org
``This is how kids played video games when I was growing up.''
If you could get a dollar for every time a Bay Area parent is going to say that over the next few months, you could stop buying lottery tickets. It's going to be said so often that it might as well be the official phrase for the exhibit provoking it: ``Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames,'' which opens today at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation.
Think ``Space Invaders,'' just the way it appeared in arcades and hotels, as a hulking cabinet-encased game machine. Or think ``Frogger'' in its Coleco tabletop version.
But don't get the idea that ``Game On,'' developed by London's Barbican Art Gallery in conjunction with the National Museums of Scotland, is just a tribute to the blinking pixels of nostalgia. The exhibit's deep sense of worldwide gaming history also conveys some intellectual heft. Games are art, games are science, and modern games are entertainment on a level approaching film and television.
Perhaps you're the other kind of parent -- you've never laid a finger on a video game machine or controller of any kind. Then ``Game On'' is also for you. It's an easily absorbed, up-to-date course in the way gaming influences the pop culture swirling around your kids, and it will educate everybody in the family about the industry's development and impact in Japan and Europe as well as in the United States.
You'll be able to solve that never-ever-played problem, too: More than 100 games will be available for free play, ranging from the legendary ``Space War'' on a largely forgotten Vectrex machine to the current bongo-controlled ``Donkey Konga 2'' for Nintendo's GameCube.
The exhibit spans more than 8,000 square feet and is divided into 13 sections.
You can start in an area that features early arcade games, with items that include two of the strikingly designed fiberglass cabinets for the early 1970s ``Computer Space'' game.
You'll find sections devoted to the history of home console systems and examples of how games are made and marketed. You'll reflect on the Pokémon craze in a section focused on games and small children. And you'll spot a unique treasure in the section on video game characters: crayon sketches of Nintendo's Mario and Donkey Kong icons, drawn by their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, for the exhibit's organizers.
It's not a sanitized exhibit, although the Tech took pains to evaluate how much of the material might be inappropriate for children. In order to portray the full nature of the industry, there will be some games and items that fall into the Mature category, which is defined as 17 and older. But the bulk of the displays and games would qualify as Teen or Everyone products.
Of course, much of the vintage memorabilia predates the era of those age-group ratings.
Barry Hitchings, one of the game experts who travel with the exhibit, says a diligent effort is made ``to keep as many things in as original condition as possible.''
But the dinged or worn quality of some items, such as the 1975 shark-themed ``Maneater'' arcade game, only adds to the nostalgic appeal and collectible allure.
Or at least, that's how some older gamers will react. You can always let your son or daughter go off to a more contemporary corner while you ogle the token-sucking addictions that are now 30 to 35 years old.
`Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Videogames'
Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose.
When: Today-Jan. 2.
Information: www.thetech.org
9/27/2005
Several Young Quebecers Working On Developing Video Games In China
Norman Delisle
Canadian Press
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
SHANGHAI (CP) - Several young Quebecers are working for Ubisoft in China to help develop video games in the world's biggest market.
"China appealed to us a lot, as did the Ubisoft project," Ariel Gauthier told Jean Charest on Monday as the Quebec premier continued his trade mission in the Asian country. "In Shanghai, the company was looking for engineers specialized in artificial intelligence to help them. When the opportunity came up, I grabbed it."
Gauthier, who studied at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal, and his colleagues are working on a new video game called Splinter Cell 4, which is expected to be out in the first four months of 2006.
"We're still at the prototype stage but we'll be ready for the launch."
European-based Ubisoft provides the workers with a salary, an apartment and an expense account and also has them take Chinese lessons.
The Quebec workers said they appreciate the income-tax level of 18 per cent in China. They also have to pay taxes to the Quebec and Canadian governments, although that stipulation disappears after they have been out of Canada for more than two years.
Ubisoft has 1,400 employees in Montreal and 600 in Shanghai but Corrine Le Roy, the company's chief in the Asian country, says the Chinese workforce should double by 2010.
"We're hiring 25 new people a month," Le Roy said. "We're getting the best graduates from Chinese universities."
But Martin Tremblay, president of Ubisoft's Montreal division, said there is a glaring dearth of qualified workers at the high end of the video sector.
The original Splinter Cell and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - the third installation - were made in Montreal, while the No. 2 Pandora Tomorrow and the as-yet unnamed 4 are Chinese-produced.
Ubisoft has also notched other big-selling video game titles such as the Prince of Persia adventure series and the Ghost Recon squad-based combat series.
Charest, meanwhile, praised the relationship between Ubisoft's units in Montreal and Shanghai as the type he would like to see between Quebec and China.
The premier's trip ends later this week.
Lawmakers Cracking Down On Video Games Bill Would Ban Minors From Buying, Renting Violent Video Games.
Linda Stender, D-Fanwood, is one of two lawmakers trying to keep violent video games out of the hands of minors.
TRENTON -- Two New Jersey lawmakers don't think minors should be able to rent or purchase video games adorned with phrases such as "you'll have to rob, steal and kill just to stay out of serious trouble."
But that is exactly what happened Sunday when a 14-year-old girl in Assemblywoman Linda Stender's district easily bought "Grand Theft Auto III" for PlayStation 2. The game is rated "M" for mature, meaning its contents are suitable for those 17 and up.
"And that's not the most recent version," said Stender, D-Fanwood, referring to recently released "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," which was given a "M" rating, then pulled from shelves and given an "AO" or "Adults Only" rating, after hidden sexual content was found. The game will go back on sale next month.
Since the days of Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, "Games have grown increasingly violent," said Stender, who along with Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, R-Westfield, is sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale or rental of violent and sexually explicit video games to those younger than 18.
"We need protection for our youth from these games," said Ronald Coughlin, founder of the New Jersey Violence Prevention Institute, at Monday's Statehouse news conference unveiling the proposed law.
Bramnick called games that require players to carjack, shoot and kill opponents to advance to the next level "the unlocked door to violence."
But representatives of the video game trade, an industry that last year grossed $7.3 billion dollars in computer and video game sales and about 700 million dollars in video game rentals, according to the Video Software Dealers Association, say they won't let the legislation take effect without a fight.
Similar laws have been found unconstitutional in St. Louis, Indianapolis and Washington state, and both Michigan and Illinois are currently being challenged in court over their versions of the law.
Those against such measures say they violate the First Amendment rights of both retailers and customers, substitute government judgment for parental supervision and single out video games from other constitutionally protected works such as films, music and books.
"Other states and local governments have attempted this type of legislation, and in every case, these attempts have been struck down by the courts," said Sean Bersell, vice president of public affairs for the Video Software Dealers Association.
"Should this bill be enacted, the same fate awaits it," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a party in all five lawsuits that fought such laws. He calls New Jersey's proposal "unconstitutional and unnecessary."
"The solution is to educate parents about the existing rating system for video games and encourage parents to use those ratings when selecting games for their family," Bersell said.
Since 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated video games on a scale ranging from "Early Childhood," or "EC," to "Adults Only." or "AO."
"In the last 10 years, we have seen this explosion of dreadful content," Stender said. Just as minors are limited by the law when it comes to tobacco and alcohol, there is room for limitation when it comes to "any kind of influence that can harm our kids," she said.
"If we don't stand up and say this is wrong and we need to protect our children, obviously big business isn't going to do it for us, because there is too much money to be made by selling these kinds of games to kids," Stender said.
The proposed law would fine retailers who knowingly sell or rent restricted video games to those underage $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second offense and $250 for any further offenses.
TRENTON -- Two New Jersey lawmakers don't think minors should be able to rent or purchase video games adorned with phrases such as "you'll have to rob, steal and kill just to stay out of serious trouble."
But that is exactly what happened Sunday when a 14-year-old girl in Assemblywoman Linda Stender's district easily bought "Grand Theft Auto III" for PlayStation 2. The game is rated "M" for mature, meaning its contents are suitable for those 17 and up.
"And that's not the most recent version," said Stender, D-Fanwood, referring to recently released "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," which was given a "M" rating, then pulled from shelves and given an "AO" or "Adults Only" rating, after hidden sexual content was found. The game will go back on sale next month.
Since the days of Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, "Games have grown increasingly violent," said Stender, who along with Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, R-Westfield, is sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale or rental of violent and sexually explicit video games to those younger than 18.
"We need protection for our youth from these games," said Ronald Coughlin, founder of the New Jersey Violence Prevention Institute, at Monday's Statehouse news conference unveiling the proposed law.
Bramnick called games that require players to carjack, shoot and kill opponents to advance to the next level "the unlocked door to violence."
But representatives of the video game trade, an industry that last year grossed $7.3 billion dollars in computer and video game sales and about 700 million dollars in video game rentals, according to the Video Software Dealers Association, say they won't let the legislation take effect without a fight.
Similar laws have been found unconstitutional in St. Louis, Indianapolis and Washington state, and both Michigan and Illinois are currently being challenged in court over their versions of the law.
Those against such measures say they violate the First Amendment rights of both retailers and customers, substitute government judgment for parental supervision and single out video games from other constitutionally protected works such as films, music and books.
"Other states and local governments have attempted this type of legislation, and in every case, these attempts have been struck down by the courts," said Sean Bersell, vice president of public affairs for the Video Software Dealers Association.
"Should this bill be enacted, the same fate awaits it," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a party in all five lawsuits that fought such laws. He calls New Jersey's proposal "unconstitutional and unnecessary."
"The solution is to educate parents about the existing rating system for video games and encourage parents to use those ratings when selecting games for their family," Bersell said.
Since 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated video games on a scale ranging from "Early Childhood," or "EC," to "Adults Only." or "AO."
"In the last 10 years, we have seen this explosion of dreadful content," Stender said. Just as minors are limited by the law when it comes to tobacco and alcohol, there is room for limitation when it comes to "any kind of influence that can harm our kids," she said.
"If we don't stand up and say this is wrong and we need to protect our children, obviously big business isn't going to do it for us, because there is too much money to be made by selling these kinds of games to kids," Stender said.
The proposed law would fine retailers who knowingly sell or rent restricted video games to those underage $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second offense and $250 for any further offenses.
