Talking about Remote Keyboard for MCE

Wireless keyboard for Windows MCE! Sweet!

I hope it also works with my Xbox 360… when I get one

Link

Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Hardware – Remote Keyboard for Windows® XP Media Center Edition

Game Night

Friday I went to yet another gaming group and played a few new games:

• Industrial Waste: this is a nice game of resource gathering (oil) and development (worker efficiency, oil economy and waste reduction). Relatively quick game (played the first time in less than an hour with three players). I would play this game again and it’s certainly a nice to have.
• Arkham Horror: OMG, this game is for really hard core players, but it’s not enough, you also need to be a huge fan of the H.P. Lovercraft novels, the main theme for the game. There is a ton of stuff happening and the rules are complex. We started playing it, none of the 6 players had tried it before and after not even a turn we gave up. I would play this game again only with an experienced playeras I really did not get it.
• Big Boss: this was a fun game of entrepreneurs, company mergers and stocks. Sounds boring? It’s not, the dynamics are very interesting. Unfortunately the game is out of print, but I would definitely play this again.
• Web of Power: this is a nice, simple game. Set in Europe, you develop your "web" across several states, forming alliances with other nations. I did not get the scorig for the advisors until the very end and that affected my game. The game is out of print, but another version, same rules, different setting, was published under the name China in 2005. This is a nice to have game.

UPDATE: You can play Web of Power online at http://www.onlinebrettspiele.de/old/kuk/?en

Talking about Fable for XBox

 The missing chapters from the great game Fable are coming to XBox too after being released for the PC. This is good news for xbox players that don’t want the PC versions. This also shows the power of having a single platform for developing games, making ports easier.

More info…

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/08/news_6128771.html

Ribs

I just discovered that my blog ranks third on Google if you’re looking for ribs and Rendevouz.

 

I’ll make your life easier, here is the address of this great restaurant:

 

52 South Second
Memphis , TN 38103
(901) 523-2746

Hours of operation (Central Time)

Tuesday – Thursday, 4:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Friday, 11 am – 11 pm
Saturday, 11:30 am – 11 pm

Web: http://www.hogsfly.com

Or check out the map

Also it is spelled Rendevous, my bad.

 

Enjoy the ribs and let me know if you liked them!

Welcome Addition to Orb

Orb added the ability to view shows on a remote PC even if there is no user logged. This is a welcome addition to an already incredible piece of software for an incredible low price (free!!). Before that you had to be logged on on the host in order to run the Orb services that would enable the streaming.

Now I will be able to watch the new Battlestart Galactica episodes from Italy when I go there on vacation  !!

 

One minor annoiance is that somehow Windows XP lost the MIME type association for the .asx files (used to point Media Player to the live stream).

 

There are two simple workarounds for this:

• Download the LiveStream.asx file from the my.orb.com web site to your desktop and then play it from there by double clicking on it
• Reinstall Windows Media Player 10

The more difficult one is to good look in the registry to re-establish the association, but I still have not figured this out.

 

I have my finger on QuickTime as the culprit, but I have not been able to confirm my suspects, yet…

Games Tonight

I went to another game group gathering tonight and we played a few games, some old, some new:

• Lost Cities by Reiner Knizia: cool card game, quick and easy to learn. Would play again before deciding to buy it or not
• Oasis: I played this one before, I managed to be second out of five while still not getting a full grasp of the game. Place your camels, build your oasis, cultivate your crops… The game is fun and would definitely play it again although is not one of my highest ranking games like Settlers and Puerto Rico.
• Diamant: very nice card game, little bit of luck and gambling. I would definitely buy this game.
• Alhambra: now this was a surprise. I thought I really liked the game by having a look at the materials in the board and the instructions, but playinb it was a different deal. This game is like the setup phase in Settlers: don’t look at the board because it’s not going to be there when it’s your turn… Now, imagine that repeated over and over, it really hurts. I won the game by a decent amount by holding the lead on the most valuable buildings, purple, and tying or coming in second in a few others. Even though I won, I’m not sure I will be playing this game again… Who knows…

Game Night

Last night I got together with some other "game board fanatics" to play some games. I tried several different games, here is the list:

• Pickomino: a nice dice game, very quick, good for kids. Verdict: nice to have.
• Shadows Over Camelot: a new board game from the publishers of Ticket to Ride, Days of Wonder. The game is a cooperative board game with a twist, one of the players could be a traitor that is trying to have evil win over good. Would play again, but not buy.
• Tower of Babel: this is another cool game with little nice colored wooden temples. Relatively quick with nice strategy options. No dice, which majes the game even more interesting. I would buy this game.
• Merchants of Amsterdam: resource gathering, auctions, turn-based, but still ton of stuff to do when others are playing. It goes very quickly. Verdict: would play it again, but not buy.
• Trendy: another card game, very quick, based on fashion and stylists. I would definitely play this game again, it’s a nice warmup for a deeper game.
• Loot: fun card game, quick and easy to learn. Try to sink other’s ships while protecting your own. Nice to have.  
• Turn the Tide: this is a slightly more complex card game, I didn’t really got the point and I almost ended up winning it . I would probably play this game again with more than three players just to see how it work, but probably would not buy it (unless I’m missing something).

A fun night, unfortunately I have Karate training on Thursdays and will not be able to play with these guys frequently.