Somehow I think I accidentally stumbled into an episode of “Sliders” yesterday. (It happens sometime if you are a Cross-Platform Slider) Its look like I ended up in a parallel universe that looked like a lovechild between TRON and A society inspired by George Orwell’s ‘1984’. In this warped dimension of Space Time a new gaming console was launched that cost quite a bit of money for people to purchase. The games on this console could be bought in the shops and did cost quite a bit of money. So far I was not surprised (aside from the fact the console had the size of a BabyG grand piano). The amazing part that after purchase of both the console AND the games .. the consumer was completely controlled by “Big Brother”. This overseeing entity tied the purchased game to a certain console and a certain user. Borrowing games to friends .. not allowed, Playing your own game on a different console ? Not allowed. Having a friend come over and play on YOUR console under HIS account ? Not allowed. Sell your game second hand ? Not allowed… and so on. What ? ? It looked more like a giant rental scheme to me that tied the users hands behind their backs while giving ‘big brother’ free access to their wallets.
Bah Humbug ! If you do have some cash to spend why not take a trip down nostalgia lane. Not only will we take you back to a time where Laura Crofts boobies were still square .. its also a time where both the games and the console belonged to you. Take a look at ThinkGeeks a380’s “Pocket Emulator”. It ties the availability of lots of classic “ROMS” (complete images of old classic games) to an easy to use (and to carry) game console. Imagine having an entire arcade in your pocket AND a slew of game consoles from your childhood to boot.
Thinkgeek Quotes ” The Pocket Retro Game Emulator looks a bit like the GameBoy Micro but that’s where the similarities end. Load on NES, SNES, GBA, Sega Genesis, or Neo Geo roms and play your old favorites in the palm of your hand. With 4GB of built-in storage and (a micro SD slot for expansion) you can bring every single game from the best classic consoles with you. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. You can also play movie files, audio files, FM radio. You can view images or read ebooks. You can even do Hi-Fi voice recording.”
Games are to be found all around the internet and since the licences on most of them have long expired , most of them are classified as “abandonware” , you don’t have to resort to piracy.
So before you sell your soul to the xbox-overlord .. Try the a380 from Thinkgeek.