Ace

Space Ace is pretty ace on iPhone

One of the first games I got for my Amiga was Space Ace. Although most of the original game from the arcade was missing and the graphics were made from actual 2D sprites and not an actual cel-animated cartoon, I still played the hell out of it until I could beat it in less than fives minutes in my sleep.

Space Ace was originally released for arcades in 1984, following the huge success of Dragon's Lair. Both games were Laser Disc-based and were essentially controllable cartoons. Well, at least that the was illusion they so successfully cast.

Former Disney animator Don Bluth created the art and animation for the games and each featured gameplay in which at certain points during the animation, the player was required to press a single button or move the joystick in a single direction to progress.

Basically, the animation was playing and you had to make the right choice, with the right timing, to keep it playing.

Although I always preferred Dragon's Lair, Space Ace added the ability to transform your character from a meek wimpy wimp into the huge, musclebound hero archetype. Changing your character in this way usually added a new puzzle to whatever sequence you were in the middle of. Given the game some added replay value.

On Thursday, Digital Leisure announced Space Ace's availability on the iPhone app store for $4.99. I never played the original arcade game to the very end, but as far as I can tell, the whole game is here. … Read more

Spreadsheet-style tracking

Personal finance programs are a dime a dozen these days, so the bar is set pretty high when it comes to performance. AceMoney offers tools for creating and maintaining budgets, tracking investments, and even online banking. And while it successfully let us do all of the above, we found that it lacked protection for sensitive information.

The program's interface is very businesslike, and its simple, straightforward design makes the array of options easy to understand and navigate. Large commands at the top of the window let you toggle between seven categories, including accounts, portfolio, banks, payees, and reports. Although … Read more

Fly into the danger zone with your iPhone

Flight simulators used to be a staple of gaming when I was younger. I remember spending hours playing the hell out of an F-15-based game on the Sega Master System. It was pretty pathetic. The missiles were basically white dots, but it was all I had at the time and I loved it for a while.

I guess we were all still buzzing from our post Top Gun and maybe Iron Eagle obsession in the late '80s and early '90s. Nowadays, flight sims just aren't as popular. However, if you've been aching for a true dogfight flight sim … Read more

Featured Freeware: AceMoney Lite

The financial implosion that we've been warned about for years is upon us, so there's no time like the present to grab a hold of a piece of freeware to manage your cash flow. Even it flows more like a glacier--pre-global warming, of course--AceMoney Lite will help you keep track of home and small-business expenses.

All commands are accessible from buttons within the interface, as well as in the menus. The program performs all types of calculations, downloads the latest exchange rates from the Internet, and handles online banking. Bank account and credit card information can be … Read more

First Montalvo patent is issued

Finally, I can call myself an inventor.

I've been inventing things for almost 20 years now, but Montalvo Systems was the first company I worked for that took intellectual property seriously. (That was no coincidence; it was also the first company I worked for where I helped develop the intellectual-property strategy.)

During my years at Montalvo, I came up with quite a few ideas and participated in brainstorming sessions that yielded more ideas. Most of these sessions were limited to Montalvo's own people, but there was one person I brought in to help us as a consultant--Don Alpert, who was the principal architect of Intel's Pentium processor and, possibly less significantly, a member of the editorial board at Microprocessor Report.

Working with three of us from Montalvo--myself and chief architects Greg Favor and Peter Song--Don took the lead in preparing a set of related patent applications describing a new way to design microprocessors.

The first patent from this set was… Read more

Sprint announces world-roaming Samsung Ace

Good news for Sprint business customers who want a world-roaming smartphone but don't want the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition. Today, the carrier introduced the Samsung Ace, a Samsung BlackJack lookalike, that offers dual-mode CDMA/GSM functionality so you can use your smartphone internationally. This means that the Ace will use Sprint's CDMA network for all domestic calls, and then you can use the included SIM card to make calls on GSM networks abroad. In addition, the SIM is unlocked so you're not restricted to the one packaged with the smartphone. That means travelers can buy a … Read more

Where all your Valentine are belong to us

EPISODE 36

Today, we talk about Valentine Day's best and worst dates with ace reporter Caroline McCarthy. Also, Time Warner and Viacom are coming to Hulu, Spielberg's new video game Boom Blox, and EA's GameShow. We also hear from some our loyal listeners about Optimash Prime.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Media recliner goes wireless

We have a soft spot for furniture maker Ace Bayou, because one of its media chairs appeared on Crave just days after we launched. In fact, we were hoping that our bosses might take the hint and buy us one to celebrate. We're still waiting.

Now the company has updated that model with its new "Wireless Audio Recliner," which has all the accoutrements of the earlier version (except for the leather), including a built-in 2.1 sound system, two speakers, and a subwoofer. But it does it one better, by doing away with those unsightly wires.

It'… Read more