Gadzooki

5 Puzzle Games Your Kids Will Love

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If your kids have been home all summer, they’ve probably complained about being bored at least a few times (and probably more). Like most children, they’re probably spending a lot of time watching TV and playing video games. Those activities can be encouraged to a point.

Why it’s OK for tour kids to play video games

Before you tell your kids to shut down that video game, consider the fact that there are a lot of benefits from gaming which are finally being supported by research.
Video games can improve social skills, decision making, and motor skills, and build confidence in players of all ages. Gaming can also improve moods and increase happiness while decreasing depression. Video games of all kinds have their benefits and can offer a lot more than just a way to kill some time.

While there are benefits to playing all kinds of games, some games are more beneficial for younger players. Plenty of online educational games for various ages cover a broad range of skills and interests. Word games are great for kids who are working to expand their vocabulary and strengthen their spelling skills; puzzle games can help with problem solving and decision-making skills.

Here are five puzzle games that kids can play online for free that are a great introduction to online games in general. [Read more…]

Achievements in Games Mirrored in The Military

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Game achievements or trophies are a big part of video gaming. Introduced first in the game Halo 2, the concept of earning achievements or trophies has caught on in a big way that it has been implemented not just in PC games or console-based games but even in games that you can find in social media sites or on your smartphones or tablets. [Read more…]

Target Alarm Clock: It Just Might Wake You Up

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I don’t know about you, but I am not a morning person. Ever since I was a child, waking up – and actually getting out of bed – has been the hardest thing for me. I’m pretty lucky that my job does not require me to get up before 8 am every day, but even getting up before 10 is such a task. Well, I can wake up but is no assurance that I will not go back to sleep after hitting the snooze button.

If you are anything like me and you really need something to wake you up effectively in the morning, then here’s a gadget that might just do the trick: the Target Alarm Clock.
Target Alarm Clock
As you can see, it looks just like any ordinary alarm clock, but it does have something that other alarm clocks don’t come with – a gun. Well, the gun is not included for you to shoot yourself, the clock, or whatever it is that is trying to get you out of bed when all you want it 5 more minutes. The gun is actually functional and safe.

When the alarm sounds – and boy, the noise is supposedly loud enough to wake up your neighborhood – you can’t reach out and press the snooze button for your extra 5 minutes. In fact, there is no such thing as a snooze button in this clock. Instead, you will have to grab the gun and shoot the target, which pops up as shown below.
Target Alarm Clock 2
The only issue here is if you wear contact lenses, and you take them out at night. You have to hit bullseye to shut the alarm clock up, and being practically blind, you probably will not make it. Then again, that mere fact will force you to go to the bathroom to put your lenses on, waking you up for good. Either that or you grab the clock and smash it against your bedroom door.

Oh, this gadget also includes some games which you can play when you have nothing else to do.

Get the Target Alarm Clock from Amazon for $22.96.

35 Tetris-like games pulled out of Android Market

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Tetris would probably be the one game that got most of us addicted to gaming. Count me as one of the people who spent hours playing Tetris, cursing silently under my breath as I painfully waited for that one brick that can get rid of the five lines I’ve already accumulated. Since this game is one of the most iconic games of all time, it’s no surprise that there are imitators abound.

But thanks to The Tetris Company, LLC (the company that apparently holds the rights to the game) 35 clones of the game have been pulled out of the Android Market. Okay, I understand that they are just trying to protect their copyright. I don’t blame them. But if you read the reaction of one app developer, there’s more to it:

Google promptly answered that The Tetris Company, LLC notified them under DMCA to remove various Tetris clones from Android Market. My app was removed together with other 35 Tetris clones.

      So, I checked online on various sources, and all of them say that there’s no copyright on gameplay. There could be some sort of patent. But besides not having a patent, which would last 20 years, so it would be over on 2005.

      It’s a shame that The Tetris Company, LLC uses its power to stop developers from creating good and free games for Android users. Without resources for a legal fight, our application and many others will cease to exist, even knowing that they are legit. Users will be forced to buy the paid official version, which is worse than many of the one available for free on the market.

I really don’t know why The Tetris Company decided to act just now, but it’s a shame that app developers consider the official Tetris App to be inferior to the clones. What do you think?

Use your Nokia N900 to play SNES games

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Okay, sure, old-school gaming emulators are a dime a dozen. You can easily download one off the net for a small price – or if your Google-fu is strong, free – and you can just download the ROMS of the games that you legally (heh) purchased back in the console’s heyday, and play away! I actually have quite a few installed on my computer and a NES and GBA emulator on my Nokia E63 as well.

So what’s the big deal about playing SNES games on the Nokia N900?

Well, I don’t think any other cellphone can allow you to play SNES games through a PS3 SixAxis controller. And if you use the Nokia N900’s TV out function, you can actually connect your diminutive cellphone to a ginormous HDTV and enjoy your games on a huge screen!

Setting it up is a bit complicated though. Pairing the PS3 SixAxis controller to your N900 via bluetooth isn’t as easy as it looks, though. Unfortunately N900’s Maemo does not come with joystick and mouse support in kernel. These instructions will help you reconfigure the device’s kernel to enable joystick device and mouse support.

Were you able to get SNES emulators to work on your N900? Don’t be afraid to try it, and tell me what happens!

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Nintendo announces massive Autumn/Winter software collection

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Whether you’re a Wii fanatic or prefer pocket-sized fun with the DS, you’re likely to find something worth getting excited about as Nintendo today announces its Autumn/Winter collection of games and other software titles, hitting stores from tomorrow, through Christmas and into the new year.

First up, Wii Fit Plus will hit European stores at the end of October, offering a range of new exercise features including personalised yoga and strength training routines, lifestyle routines, calorimeter, and a range of new training regimes.

On 20th November, Super Mario Bros arrives on Wii, featuring a fully-fledged adventure that up to four people can play simultaneously.

[Read more…]

Microsoft Confirm Xbox 360 Price Cut And New Version

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Ahead of their E3 related announcements on Monday morning, Microsoft have made some announcements regarding the state of play for the Xbox 360. First up, there’s a discount of the 20Gb version by $50 (no discount on the Arcade or Elite though). Next up is that the 20Gb is effectively being replaced by a 60Gb console, which will be available from August. This will cost around $350.

Below is the official Microsoft press release:

Redmond, Washington—Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck. The company today announced an Xbox 360® console with triple the storage space of the original console, but for the same price of $349 (U.S.) estimated retail price.
Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content. In addition, Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.

“We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we’re giving it to them at no extra charge,” said Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft. “No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you’ll have three times the storage to manage all that great content.”

Xbox 360 is just one of three Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment systems Microsoft offers. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox LIVE Arcade games, is a value for the whole family for $279 (U.S.) (ERP), and the premium Xbox 360 Elite console is available with a 120GB hard drive for $449 (U.S.) (ERP).