Game

If you’re a fan of the military strategy game Risk, then you definitely might be interested in this: on October 13th, Bonhams Auction House in London will be selling off an “extremely rare” copy of The Game of War, a complex military board game dating from 1890. Unlike Risk, which is played for amusement and to shed excess friends, The Game of War was designed to be played by real military officers, to train them for the upcoming First World War. It was based on Kriegsspiel, a war game invented by Lieutenant Georg von Reiswitz in the early 19th century for training officers in the Prussian army. If you’re interested, however, be sure to stop by the bank machine on your way there – the game is expected to fetch between £1,500 to £2000, or US$2,330 to $3,100. Read More

Google's front page today pays tribute to the iconic video game, Pacman. It's just 30 years ago today since Pacman was first released in Japan, indicating the warp speed at which gaming has become part of the global social fabric. Fittingly for such a landmark date for a landmark game, Google's front page is more than just an idle tribute – it is actually a fully playable game of Pacman and will be seen around 3 billion times during this 24 hour period. Read More

While it might not be ideal for fighting apparitions of the dearly departed, Microsoft claims its latest keyboard boasts the most advanced anti-ghosting technology ever to grace a keyboard. The ghosting being referred to is when multiple keys are pressed on a keyboard simultaneously result in the incorrect key signal being sent to the PC, or some of the key presses being ignored altogether. To combat this Microsoft’s SideWinder X4 Keyboard can detect up to 26 key presses at once, which is sure to appeal to hard-core gamers and 26 fingered typists alike. Read More

Wii has a knack for turning everyday activities into stimulating interactive games. We’ve seen cooking and yoga work their way into people’s consoles and Nintendo hasn’t stopped there. The company's latest creation - Baby and Me - allows anyone to play mom and raise a baby through their Wii console. Read More

Finally, video-gamers whose parents told them that playing games would never help them get a job can point to research that proves them wrong – well, sort of, anyway. A new study by a University of Warwick researcher has demonstrated that scientists trying to model a range of processes could ‘borrow’ an Xbox chip to get all the power and capabilities they need, saving thousands of dollars on parallel processing hardware and/or countless man-hours. Read More