Game Tech News

To date, all of Microsoft’s communications regarding upcoming consoles have focused on one product — the Xbox Series X. Normally, a “Series” contains more than one product, but Microsoft has continually communicated that the XSX is what there is. We now know that’s wrong — courtesy of Microsoft’s own packaging.

Twitter user Zak S found a white Xbox controller for sale on OfferUp and bought it. The typical Xbox Series controller is black — this has already been illustrated — and the box for this new controller clearly states that it’s compatible with both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.

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It was an unexpected but pleasant surprise when mobile developer Aspyr released a full port of Civilization VI on the iPad two years ago. Sadly, Android fans were left in the lurch. Now, Aspyr has surprised us again with an Android version of the game. This isn’t one of those Revolution-branded mobile versions of Civ — this is the full game on your phone or tablet, and you can try it for free right now.

The Civilization series launched in the early 90s, quickly becoming the gold standard for turn-based strategy video games. The formula has been refined over the years with the addition of religion, larger urban centers, and more ways for Gandhi to nuke your cities. That’s all in the Android version, which looks and works very much like the full PC edition.

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The Microsoft Surface Duo may be one of Microsoft's most unusual experiments. It's a dual-screened Android phone. And I have one. But for now, I'm just looking inside the box. A full review of the Duo is coming soon, but in the meantime I opened it up to see what's inside. I got a look at a see-through version of the Duo to peek at its circuits a few weeks ago, but didn't have the retail boxed device. We don't know the international price of the Duo yet, but its $1,399 price tag converts to about £1,070 or AU$1,960.

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Apple has maintained an iron grip on the iOS software ecosystem since the platform launched, but 2020 has brought new challenges. While Apple wrangles with Epic in court, Google and Microsoft are pushing to get cloud gaming on iOS. Apple has caved on cloud gaming today — a little. The latest App Store rules allow for cloud gaming apps like xCloud and Stadia, but the proposed restrictions are ludicrous.

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Numerous production issues have dogged the PlayStation 5 for months, but the most recent news seemed positive, with Sony reportedly increasing its console orders. New information casts doubt on whether the company can achieve its goal, however. Sony has supposedly cut its production goal for the PlayStation 5 to 11 million units, down from 15 million units, for this fiscal year. Sony’s fiscal year is offset from the calendar year and begins on March 31, so we’re effectively discussing sales for the first five months of the PlayStation 5’s life.

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Super Mario Galaxy, but not as you remember.

On Friday, Nintendo is releasing a new Super Mario game that's not reallya new Super Mario game at all: Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The collection, for the Nintendo Switch, features three of the most lauded 3D Mario titles of all time. Our sister site, GameSpot, reviewed them all favorably when they were first released. Super Mario 64 got a 9.4 in 1996, Super Mario Sunshine, the black sheep of 3D Mario games, got an 8 in 2002. Super Mario Galaxy, for the Nintendo Wii, received a 9.5 in 2007.

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Cloud gaming is not a new idea — companies have been trying and failing to make streaming game experiences stick for a decade, but it seems like we’re finally reaching critical mass. Amazon has joined the likes of Microsoft and Google to announce its own cloud gaming service called Luna. It will cost just $5.99 per month during the testing phase, but we don’t know what Amazon has in store for the full launch.

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A new book by ExtremeTech editor-in-chief Jamie Lendino shows how for the first 25 years of the video game industry, arcade coin-ops set the standards all console and computer games aspired to–and that in some ways have yet to be matched.

Arcade fans remember the Golden Age of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but the heyday of coin-op video games spanned more than 20 years–from the very beginning of the industry through the renaissance of the early 1990s. If you were there, you know these were incredible moments in time unlike any other. But eventually, arcades mostly just disappeared. Some are still around even today, but coin-ops no longer lead the industry.

The obvious reason was that video games came home; as consoles and computers became more capable, there was little reason to play arcade coin-ops. But there was much more to the story, and I really wanted to write a book about it. The result of 15 months of hard work, Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games covers more than 130 coin-ops in detail, from 1971’s Computer Space to 1994’s Ridge Racer. It includes notes and context throughout on the greater coin-op industry, plus additional details on some 200 more machines.

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When Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Series X, it was obvious that the console was going to have some serious heat to dissipate. Its components — an eight-core Ryzen CPU, powerful SSD, and 52-CU RDNA2 GPU running at over 1.8GHz — were all guaranteed to be power-hungry parts. The Xbox Series X was accordingly large (though not as large as the PlayStation 5), and mounted a 130mm fan to vent heat from the entire console.

There are reports that the console, while quiet, runs quite warm. It sounds as though it’s hovering around the point where touching certain parts of it, like the expansion card for SSDs, can be uncomfortable while the console is in operation.

Our sister site PCMag quotes multiple individuals who have tested the console remarking on just how hot it is, with Jeux Video’s Ken Bogard saying in a no-longer-available video that: “The Series X is hot, like really hot! It doesn’t make any noise, but damn it’s hot! The console is emitting heat like crazy. It’s almost like a fireplace shaft. You can heat up your flat with it.”

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Typically, when someone presents a demonstration of “Doom running on X,” it’s a way to demonstrate how powerful low-end computing has become. The reason we use Doom for this purpose, I suspect, is because Doom is more-or-less the father of the FPS genre. This tendency also results in Doom being played on devices that aren’t a lot of fun to play with (which is integral to this story). This story is a bit different. The device in question — a Ti-84 graphing calculator — is long-conquered territory, as far as Doom is concerned. What sets this project apart is the fact that the graphing calculator is powered entirely by potatoes.

Ever heard of a potato battery? Stick zinc and copper electrodes into a potato, and voila — you’ve got yourself a tiny, crappy battery. Boiling the potatoes first helps. The electrical output from this kind of battery is tiny — Wikipedia helpfully notes that “We can conclude that it would take more than 6 million lemons to give us the power of an average 4320W car battery.” This is not a task for the faint of heart or those with less-than-strong stomachs.

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