The War on Backwards Compatibility Continues

Man, not this again. I'll concede that even as someone who like to play old games I've barely used the backward compatibility options on a lot of my consoles (portables are another story though). However, the thing that really bugs me about this is it ignores the rise of downloadable games this generation. In fact, I can actually see how the lack of backwards compatibility could actually hurt more in the long term plan.

Let's say I'm a gamer that insists on staying on top of the latest trends so I rarely ever replay games. In the past, when a new console comes out I could trade in the old one and all the old titles I still own to finance the new one. Technically I cold be "evil" (in the eyes of publishers) and use that credit to by used, but if I insist at getting the console at launch I'm probably going to be buying new by default.

With this generation though I'd only be able to trade in the games I bought on disc. I'd be effectively throwing away any titles I bought digitally, be it arcade or retail titles. That might not discourage me from upgrading to the current generation, but it might make me hesitant to get as many downloadable titles.

Now I'm pretty sure the the CEO of Take Two doesn't give a crap that I can't get anything back from my downloadable titles. Plus he could point out that right now the Xbox One and PS4 are selling better now than the lifetime sales of the Wii U, the only console still with full backwards compatibility. I still maintain that a system's launch sales don't necessarily predict a system's success (see the Dreamcast) and it will be much more interesting to see how all three consoles are doing in a year.

GeoCities Closes Doors, Receives Most Attention in Years

Today we've officially reached the end of an era for the Internet: GeoCities is dead.  Yes, Yahoo finally pulled the plug on the free web hosting service.  While the news is sad, it's certainly not unexpected.  How many people out there actually visited, much less created or maintained, a GeoCities site in the past five years?

This is pretty much every GeoCites Page ever

While GeoCities ultimately became cesspool of bad layouts, broken images, blinking text and those little animated "under construction" gifs, it still deserves some respect.  GeoCities attempted to provide an outlet for the major creative outpouring that occurred at the beginning of the public Internet.  Their ambition wasn't just to create a free hosting service though, they wanted create a virtual global community.  If you have any doubts, then just look back at some of the original terminology they used.  Their users were called "homesteaders" and their sites were grouped into "neighborhoods."  Heck, their very own name embodies the idea of a single global city.

In retrospect, they were doomed to fail from day one.

In Memory of Captain Lou Albano, the voice (and face) of Mario for a Generation

Do you remember the Super Mario Bros. Super Show?  Of course you do.  Anyone who had an NES and a pulse watched that show religiously back in the day.  They ignored the fact that the plot lines were contrived fairy tale/movie/whatever parodies of the week simply because it was Mario in cartoon form.

Nowadays though, most people deride the show cheap cash in it basically was.  It didn't help that since every episode was a parody of something, they often felt like they had nothing to do with Mario (Nintendo must have noticed this too, since later Mario series would be much more game orientated).  If there is any part of the show that is remembered with any fondness though, it was the show's live-action segments featuring wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Mario.

It kind of amazing that Nintendo got him to shave his beard for this

Unlike the cartoon, these segments were more like a sit-com with Mario and Luigi (played by Danny Wells) siting at home, while occasionally receiving celebrity guest stars including Vanna White, Magic Johnson and Sgt. Slaughter.