Hey Steve, MS's wireless adapter is 802.11a, not 802.11g!!!

Its a big difference in terms of interference... "a" runs in the 4 Ghz band.. unlike the g and b, which runs at lower frequencies. The higher band is higher than any household appliance's interefering emissions. You ought to correct that!!! BIG difference (pricewise too.. the "a" is more expensive)

Great podcast!
-Jeff

Whoops, the name's "Stamp", not "Staamp"

P.S. the reason they chose 9802.11a is because theres no interferece when watching TV over WMCE.

:P Peace!

Awesome! I'll get a chance to listen to it tomorrow morning while working, can't wait. So long, I love it!

Actually Microsoft's wireless adapter is 802.11G (and it works with "b" as well):

http://tinyurl.com/8fvsn

If there is an "a" edition I haven't seen it. But either way there are other options other than Microsoft's adapters.

Yeah, a new podcast! Gonna listen to it as soon as the download is finished!

PS: Are you sure it's supposed to be Dragon's "Liar"? ;)

Do you know any adjectives other than "interesting"? You've used that word 1,300 times over the course of all your podcasts.

Great podcast, I always enjoy listening to them.

I just wanted to chime in on Civ 4, which I've now been playing for almost a week straight (I'm not even entirely sure what I've been eating since I got the game.) The game is certainly better than any of the previous titles in the series (except maybe Alpha Centauri, but maybe that doesn't count.) However, I was extrememly dissapointed a game or two ago when one of my gunships was defeated by a maceman.

However, what I really wanted to comment on was your comment about the culture system. You stated that it probably wasn't very realistic, but I dissagree. Certainly not much of that sort of thing goes on today, but in ages past it essentially did. The European powers colonized the new world, and those colonies then expanded to encompass all of the nearby land, which of course used to belong to the natives. The same thing happened in Austrailia, India, Africa (the Moors are an interesting case because they weren't Eurpoeans taking over the African lands, they were Africans taking over the European lands), and in Asia when the Mongols invaded what is now China, Russia, the Middle East, etc (and then again as their empire evaporated because everyone decided not to pay their tribute any more).

On the other hand, the game doesn't model the effect these takeovers have on the colonizing civ. These colonies are very likley to break away and form their own countries because the culture in the colony is a combination of the culture from the two civs (looks to me like it's pretty close to a 100% breakaway rate.)

Yay whoooo iam downloading it right now

There's a Target Store on 34th Street, jackass.

I think you guys are talking about two different wireless adaptor. Stamp is talking about the Xbox 360 wireless adaptor, which is a/b/g, while Steve is talking about the Xbox 1 wireless adaptor.

Hey, he also says, "to be quite frank". Oh and Steve don't take all this too personally. You should be flattered so many people notice all the little mistakes you make.

hey steve good blog cast. i got 1 questions for you.

1.Are you going to be at time square for the Xbox 360 launch.?

Okay, let's take these in order.

First of all "jackass" there is no Target store in Manhattan. Don't believe me? Go to:

http://tinyurl.com/bymta

to see for yourself.

Second as for the Xbox/Xbox 360 wireless adapters. There are two out there right now, the "official" Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 wireless adapters. Both retail for around $99 and use standard wireless protocols. However everything I said in the podcast is still correct, you can use a standard network bridge and just plug your Xbox 360 into the bridge and it will work just fine.

Third, I plan on going to whatever Xbox 360 event is going on that night. However, I'm not sure if it's going to be Times Square or at a Best Buy in Manhattan (which is the rumor right now). Once I find out I expect to be there!

Oh yeah, and I fixed that spelling mistake, thanks.

Your "negative" thoughts on Civ 4 remind me of the monologue from Smith to Morpheus in The Matrix -- when Smith explained the first Matrix was a paradise, but that noone would accept it, that it was too perfect to be "real" and that it had to be a dream. Games are supposed to be an escape, and exaggeration, but if there's no real obstacle to overcome, no unexpected setbacks, then the experience is pretty flat. Same with stories - what good would a book with no antagonist (physical or otherwise) be? With no problem to overcome? If all you're doing is picking between A or B, and both will get you to the goal, and there's no detours getting there, why bother making the choice in the first place?

Oh, and maybe they ought to make a "Grand Theft Audio" --starring Napster and the RIAA ;)

Another great podcast!

Good work!

"Bioware and Pandemic from Partnership. "

from?

Still downloading podcast.... 42%, 43%... argH!

I know the Name That Game. 95% sure. :)
Cool show. I like the length.

Ahhh Dragon's Lair. The memories!! I had to go to a bowling alley about 3 miles away from my house to play. My friends and I would bike ride down and spend an entire day playing Dragon's Lair. Favorite room: The black night and the chessboard. I agree with you Steve - these things took serious skill. There was also an element of art to the gameplay as well. You really had to get in the zone to finish. I finished it only ONCE in the arcade. Then I resigned. I've been resting ever since...

I thought Dragon's Lair was lost to history - until I purchased it on DVD! The 20th Anniversary Edition from http://www.digitalleisure.com/. Big drawback is the very noticable pauses using the dvd remote to play. It screws up the whole experience. Great to see those animations again though...

Hey Steve, excellent podcast as always. I enjoyed the length of this one, had to break it up until 3 listening intervals. I really do enjoy your comparisons between the video game/movie industry, I find it very interesting. Particularly the business aspects of it all, in fact I think I'm going to send you over a question or two about it and maybe you'll be able to address it in a future podcast. Thanks for making top notch content.

Sorry steve i di not really like this podcast coz of the news yes you took to long for it also my mp3 could not handle the lenght and size of the mp3 so i had to delete some songs which i hate doing

Does every podcast require NintendoSteve to go off on a Sony/PSP bashing rant?

It's not Sony's fault you're too stupid to know how to use it. Yes, the PSP does more then play games. How is that a bad thing? What's so wrong with that? I just don't understand it. I use my PSP everyday and I love it. The only reason the DS is as successful as it is is because every schoolgirl in Japan bought it for Nintendogs and that doesn't count. Its not even a game.

I use my PSP everyday and I love it too.
The thing sucks though. The video capabilities are crap because you can't encode video for the PSP's native resolution. MP3 player is alright, but we have iPods with much higher storage and features for music players. Photo's look slick on PSP, but who cares? I only use my PSP for homebrew/pirated games + The occasional episode of The Office. There are hardly any games for the PSP, and the price doesn't justify buying one. I hate UMD movies,they're garbage. Steve has a point about the PSP, it could be so much better with some real games. By the way, I own a Nintendo DS too, and I hate it. Call me a pessimist, but the DS is total crap. I have 2 games for it, and it was the hugest waste of money ever. Ugh. The PSP is worth what I paid for it because of NES emulators, and .ISO loaders.

I had a PSP, found it virtually useless after a while and sold it on eBAY. I love my PS2 but didn't enjoy my PSP very much. Not a fanboy but I do use my DS often. To each his own, it's also pointless arguing about it.

Great Podcast Steve!

Im really loving all of those different intros through your show. Im finding them getting stuck in my head throughout the day, haha.

I also agree with what you have to say about the PSP. It is pretty sad when the PSP movie isle is much bigger than the game isle. This is why Im not very happy with where Sony is going. Now, dont get me wrong, I love my PS2, but it seems that when you start adding in too much extras, the games turn out to be of less quality. I mean c'mon, photo editing and video confrencing with the PS3? All I want is something that plays fun games. This is why Im slowly starting to come back to Nintendo.

Anyways, another awesome podcast!

"Yes, the PSP does more then play games. How is that a bad thing? What's so wrong with that?"

Absolutely nothing. But look at the web address. GAMINGsteve.com. Not UMD-Movie-Watching-Plus-Occasional-Gamingsteve.com. He looks at it from the standpoint of a *video game platform*, and as a *video game platform*, the fact that there are as many (or more) movies as games, does not speak well for its success as a *video game platform*. That's not bashing, it just is what it is. Retailers must think the exact same thing, because they stock their shelves with products that will sell, and they are putting MOVIES on the shelves.

Besides, if I follow your logic that Nintendogs is not a game, then I guess the DS also does more than play games, eh? It also makes me wonder how exactly you define a "game", such that Nintendogs is not, but something like The Sims might qualify.

If you're more interested in the console war, then go listen to VGNRadio; they are more than happy to do all the Nintendo-bashing and Sony-loving your ears can take in. But if you actually want to hear something insightful from a guy who knows what he's talking about, stick around.

Another great show, Steve. If your podcast lengths are getting out of control, you may want to consider returning to a weekly format, that may get you back down close to an hour.

Nice podcast, if a bit long.

One comment: I wanted to crawl into my ipod and strangle you while you were trying to explain the intricacies of the used-game market. My God man, form an opinion, organize your thoughts, break them down, and be concise in your delivery.

Your explanation reminded me of the whiny neurotic Long Islanders who suffer from such insecurity that they have to over-explain everything so much that they lose their point. It was torturous to sit through, and when you concluded, I still wasn't sure if you were for the used-game system or against them.

Other than that, thumbs-up!

I loved the retro reviews again, mainly because your nostalgia is just a few years different (mine's older). I just wanted to add that Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp had only one element of surprise. Some of the levels would randomly come up either normal or mirrored. I used to learn laserdisc games by observing others because I had a limited budget.

There is an arcade in a Reading, PA mall that has Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Super Don Quixote. That last one is terrible, terrible, terrible. No plot, bad animation, terrible voices, etc. The old Dragon's Lair is hooked up to a large television, which brings back the days when extra monitors were hooked to the DL machines because of the large crowds.

And back in that day, the arcade games were everywhere as you said. I played them in: arcades, 7-11, subshops, grocery stores, and even a Burger King had converted the middle of the dining room to an arcade! There was a big "scandal" when game machines would show up "modded" or with bootleg copies/knockoffs. They used to raid subshops to confiscate them. The good ol' days.