Digital City Podcast

In anticipation of the July 4th weekend, we're coming to you a bit early this week. Topics include the late Billy Mays, Joey's theory on how to fix Madden, and why your Windows 7 beta is about to self-destruct.

Related links:
>>Is The Conduit the Wii's best shooter?
>>Xbox Live's Jacko tribute: Free 'Thriller' video downloads
>>Moving objects with the brainwave-reading Mindflex
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Tell me more, tell me more, can you play with a friend?

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

As if movie-to-game licenses weren't already a bizarre enough landscape, Paramount Pictures announced Wednesday that 505 Games will develop "Grease" into a family game for Nintendo systems--meaning the Wii and DS. We already have cooking shows turned games and a game version of "Grey's Anatomy," and now Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta will be getting musical with your Wiimote/stylus. How the game works has not been announced, and the mind boggles with the possibilities.

Paramount promises players will be able to "sing and dance alongside Danny, Sandy, The Pink Ladies, and the T-Birds," taking "full advantage of the Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing controls and microphone, and the DS' touch screen." Well, the Wii doesn't have a microphone, so we assume Grease is including one...unless they meant the DS microphone. Should we expect a sing-along karaoke experience? A '50s-rhythm-high-school-gang-fight game (we hope so)? Or some sort of mutant vaguely misogynistic platformer? Perhaps all three?

"Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance, and have fun with a party-style game," John Kavanagh, senior vice president of video games for Paramount Digital Entertainment, said in a press release.

Is this true? Have gamers out there been secretly hoping for a Grease game all this time, keeping their fervent dreams a secret, lest they be mocked by a legion of Mario and Zelda acolytes? Stand up and be counted.

505 Games' previous and current projects include Cooking Mama and Armored Core, as well as Hotel for Dogs and Discovery Games' Dolphin Discovery, so be sure to keep those summer lovin' dreams in check.

The release date has not yet been announced, but we'd guess it'll slide into stores this holiday.

Now, how long until our Rocky Horror video game?

Episode 38 of the Digital City, where we pretty much throw the playbook out of the window to discuss the legacy of Michael Jackson (and his "Moonwalker" video game).

Plus, thoughts on upgrading to Windows 7 and how Dan got his iPhone repaired.

Related: Remembering Michael Jackson's video game legacy

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Microsoft is among the organizations paying tribute to legendary musician Michael Jackson, with an offer to Xbox 360 owners who are Xbox Live subscribers.

According to a note we just got from a Microsoft PR person, members can download the video for the classic track "Thriller," free from 5 p.m. PDT Friday through the end of Sunday.

We are all mourning the loss of an icon. In memory and honor of the King of Pop, Xbox LIVE is launching a tribute to Michael Jackson. Starting at 5:00 p.m. PT on Friday through Sunday, visit Xbox LIVE for a free download of his number one video of all time "Thriller" and celebrate the life of one of the greatest music legends that ever lived.

>For more on Michael Jackson, check out our exploration of the 'Moonwalker' video game.
>Jacko is the topic of the day on the Digital City podcast.

First off, let me say I've always wanted to make things move with my mind--at least, some small amount of levitation, like, say, lifting a car through the air like Yoda lifted Luke Skywalker's X-Wing. "Star Wars" has played no small part in that fantasy. Oh, wait, did I say fantasy?

Mattel is releasing a toy this holiday that actually lets people raise and lower things with their mind. Well, make that one thing: a blue foam ball.

Obviously, when Mattel reps called CNET asking for a meeting, we quickly ushered them in. We'd heard about this product at CES and in other applications in the past, including the Swedish Mindball (no, we're not making that up). But Mattel's desire to bring this to the masses is admirable, and as we were soon to find out, bizarre. Look above to see the somewhat embarrassing video if you have any doubts.

Like something dropped in out of a late-'70s science fiction movie, Mindflex comes in two parts: a stark white-and-blue plastic obstacle course for a series of small foam balls, and a strange wireless headset/headband. The parts were unloaded from a shopping bag here at our CNET Labs, and quickly assembled. The obstacle course looks almost like a future version of the old kinetic board game, Mouse Trap. Except, as we said, this one's mind-controlled.

Scott Stein: ready for mind control!

(Credit: Joseph Kaminski/CNET)

Mattel's representatives showed how Mindflex worked with a demonstration before throwing me into amateur mind control, raising and lowering the blue ball through a series of plastic hoops and tunnels.

Mindflex announces the start of challenges (with a straight-from-Epcot robotic female voice), and then players can register their successful moves by pressing buttons on the front of the machine. A large knob turns the motorized fan around the circular track, carrying the ball around the mini-course.

The brain control part comes in when raising and lowering the ball (activating and deactivating the fan), which is all triggered via what the headset is reading from my little brain. To be specific, the control is done digitally: the headband senses concentration and relaxation, and raises and lowers the ball accordingly. Then, it was my turn.

A bit of consolidation going on in the video game biz today, as ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3), is acquiring id Software, developer of the classic Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein franchises.

While responsible for some of the most important PC games of all time (and essentially creating the first-person shooter with 1992's Wolfenstein 3D), iD has struggled in recent years to find the same relevance among console gamers and develop new properties. The company has also needed to form a more mutually beneficial relationship with a publisher (which is why there are very few marquee standalone game developers today -- most are owned by, or have exclusive deals with, a single publisher).

Good news for iD fans is that co-founder John Carmack (also co-creator of games such as Doom and Quake) is along for the ride, signing a long-term employment contract, according to a press release about the deal. In it, Carmack says, "This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward...We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

A handful of iD projects already in development, including a new Wolfenstein game, will be published by Activision and EA, but Bethesda would publish any new sequels.

Episode 37of the Digital City, where we discuss the new Apple iPhone 3Gs and the Palm Pre; the best of E3, according to Nielson; a record legal judgment against online music sharing; and why you can't trust anyone's laptop battery life tests, except ours.

You'll notice that we're also part of the new CNET Live slate of programs, and you can catch the Digital City every Friday at 3pm EST at cnet.com/live, or just catch up on it later right here on our blog.

[Note: As Joseph is obsessed with the idea of doing a giveaway of some kind, we gave in and came up with some E3 goodies to give away. Watch or listen to the show for details on how to enter...]

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live!
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The iPhone 3G S launch is well under way, and AT&T made a big deal this week with a capitulation to iPhone customers under contract (click the link for the CNET story). It promised that some 3G customers who would normally be upgrade-eligible later this summer (June, July, August) will finally be able to get their 3G S now for the new-contract prices of $99, $199, and $299.

It was a nice promise, but were you able to take advantage of it? I ask because I bought my 3G last August 31, and I pay more than $99 a month on my bill--a prerequisite according to AT&T's news update. However, after half an hour spent on the phone with customer service managers, I discovered that what I had been told on AT&T's Web site and via text message was still true: I don't qualify until 1/31/10, which is more than halfway toward the release of the next iPhone after this one.

Moreover, AT&T wouldn't specify what, exactly, determines whether a customer gets a 12-month or 18-month upgrade window. Even their official message remains gray on the matter. To make matters even more inexplicable, the manager said it was "Apple's decision," and that I needed to spend more than $99 a month just on my voice plan, not including data (required with every iPhone contract) and texting. On the other hand, our editor in chief, Scott Ard, told me he was successful, and that he was a 3G owner who had been eligible late July. What was the magic powder that sealed the deal? He's been with AT&T longer than I have, which may have helped.

Sound off: did you get an upgrade? Were you denied? Was it a pain to do, or remarkably easy? Let us know. At the least, I can feel sympathy in numbers (and wonder why I'm so excited about spending so much for a faster chip, a video camera, and a compass). For more on my AT&T rant, check out this week's Digital City podcast when it goes live.

Hollywood brains occasionally act in unintended tandem, producing simultaneous movies about, say, dangerous volcano eruptions, or killer meteors threatening to wipe out mankind. It's all completely unintentional, at least according to the lawyers, so we shouldn't be surprised to see the same seemingly cloned concepts come to game consoles.

Two of the most buzzed about current games are the PS3 exclusive Infamous--an open-city game with a superpowered anti-hero--and Prototype--also an open-city game with a superpowered anti-hero. How deeply do the similarities go? We've created a handy chart to sort it all out. ... Read more

New MacBook day in the CNET Labs.

Episode 36 of the Digital City, where Dan reports back from the E3 video game trade show, we check out the new MacBook laptops, and Joey jumps on the Palm Pre bandwagon.

Note that there are two versions of the show available now, the traditional audio stream, and our exciting, new video version -- check out both below.

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Unboxing: It's New MacBook Day