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Remembering Widget Workshop

Widget Workshop Logo
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If you had a computer during the early 1990s, then you may have had the pleasure of playing Widget Workshop. While it was something of an “educational” game (which usually connotes a lot of boredom and that the game would only be interesting to really nerdy people), it was still a lot of fun, especially when you got into making your own custom displays and puzzles. But of course, you could keep yourself occupied for a good long time trying to figure out and finally solve the “vanilla” puzzles that the game came with. But let’s back track a little bit, and describe Widget Workshop in some more detail. Basically, you played a mad scientist whose goal was to solve puzzles using visually interesting little props.

You could connect switches (from a light switch to a an “If-then” logic gate) to various types of displays (from a light bulb or a picture to a color screen), and put together solutions to problems that the game would pose for you. And if you ever got bored with that, you could make your own musical instruments (by connecting the push of a certain key on your keyboard to a particular sound), or make a color show (by hooking up the hearts of gerbils to random number generators, and then hooking those up to color screens- it isn’t as weird as it sounds).

All in all, you had a whole lot of different things you could do. For instance, how much would you weight on the Moon? How much would you weigh on Jupiter? You could set up a little “widget” which would let you input your weight on Earth, and find out the other two numbers (as well as those for the other planets in the solar system) with just a click of your mouse. Overall, Widget Workshop is the kind of game they ought to make more of. With today’s hardware, they could do even better.

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Simon: a Blast From the Past

If you ever go to garage sales, you have certainly seen a Simon game or two laying around, just waiting to be picked up. If by some crazy miracle you have never heard of Simon, it is a game that came out in the 80s, which requires its players to remember a series of random colors, and then to press them in the right sequence in order to advance through its levels. It starts off easily enough (with just one press of a single color), but within a pretty short time this is a game which can get seriously intense and extremely difficult. After all, it is not just the number of lights which increases, but often the speed goes up as well.

For the first few rounds, all you will be doing is pressing a few colors. And each color presents itself in a slow, gentle way for your easy remembrance. However, in time the colors begin to get faster and faster, which is basically guaranteed to tax not only your memory but also your observational skills. It can be all too easy for you to think it was red-green-green-blue-yellow-red-blue, when it reality it was red-green-green-blue-blue-yellow-red-blue instead. And if you did not notice the difference within this sentence, your chances of doing well without a lot of practice are slim and none… and slim left town awhile ago.

The neat thing about Simon is not just in the fact that it trains your mind without turning into an “educational” game. And aside from the mental gains it can help you make, both in memory and observational skills, it is also pretty good for the coordination between your eyes and your hands. While just about anybody can see the order of the lights, actually putting them back down properly can be a seriously challenging endeavor, even for a pretty nimble individual. Over all, considering Simon is a pretty good deal at only a few bucks.

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Arcade Game Cabinets

Combination of two Nuvola KDE icons.
Image via Wikipedia

Arcade games are a great way to outfit a game room or simply own for games that you have absolute obsession of. A good indicator of this might be if you have this particular games theme as a free ringtone. But what you should look for when purchasing a used arcade game? Obviously one of the first things is to check the physical condition of the unit. Is it in good shape? Check for chips, cracks or other damage. Does it feel sturdy? All questions you should verify. Next, are you able to test the machine? Can you verify the unit works? You should try playing a game see if the controls all work, as they should. Check out the sound and the picture quality, too.

One more thing is to check out the coin mechanism. Does it function properly accepting coins and registering them on screen? If the machine is in good shape, even if one or more of these things are bad, you can actually replace them usually with not too much expense. Most of these are actually user replaceable and aren’t very difficult to do. If you do not want to do it yourself, you can find a local shop in your area that can do it for you. You should also ask your seller if they know the history of the cabinet and if they have any extra parts or manuals for it. You may find these very helpful later. If the unit has cosmetic damage, you can find the decals and marquees for sale by private sellers or for sale in online auctions.

It is a good idea to have a basic understanding of arcade games and arcade game cabinets in order to check all this stuff out. The more you know about the cabinet, the better able you will be to appraise it for what it is really worth.

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Three Popular Video Games for Your PC

From GNOME version of Nuvola. May be included ...
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With all of the video games on the market to choose from, it may be hard to narrow your list down to fit within you budget. One way to find the ones that you will enjoy the most is to read reviews of various games and choose the ones that seem to be the most popular. Here are three popular video games that you can play on your computer for hours of entertainment.

Mafia II
This is the latest in the Mafia series of video games and it was just released on August 24, 2010. It involves a story of Vito Scaletta, the leading man who lives a life full of murder, betrayal and more. As for the gaming aspect, there is a great deal of hand-to-hand shooting and combat that is satisfying for the gamer who loves action. The setting also has impeccable details that takes you back to the time of gangster wars combined with involved plots and lifelike characters that help bring the game right into your living room.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
This computer video game, which was released in July 2010, has the ideal blend of traditional playing and fresh graphics and ideas. The choices give gamers the idea that they are a part of the game and the great acting by characters helps move the plot along in a realistic way. There are several levels of play so beginners can break into the game easily as they work their way up to expert status.

Elemental: War of Magic
This strategic game of war and wizardry is great for the gamers who like to develop strategies for winning. There are a number of tactical battles to play to keep things interesting and pass the time away. Graphics on this video game are decent and the storyline helps draw you in for even more fun.

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Modern Day Zen Machine

Computers are known to be the emotional scourge of the 20th century. Every joke known to mankind has been re-written to include the computer as the antagonist with the user playing the part of the victim protagonist. But the computer becomes less of a nemesis when the user realizes one thing: the computer has no emotions. Honest! At least not yet. That may come later as technologies become more available. The robot explosion in Japan has not yet reached your lap top, so calm down.

More often than is healthy, the average computer users find themselves at odds with the little machine that was manufactured to make their lives easier. To be fair, computers do malfunction and eventually break. There is, however, one human behavior that almost every computer user practices when the program of choice does not jump to immediate command: hitting the key continually in rapid succession to relieve the stress of the program’s inability to jump to the users emotions. Guess what? The program doesn’t care. Neither does the computer.

Rapid fire key banging is a wonderful way to make your frustration permanent for the remainder of the work day. It sends the signal that is already malfunctioning to the CPU dozens of times, creating a snowball effect that allows you to enjoy that frustration you were waiting for! What a deal! Frustration times ten cubed all for the tiny price of an uncontrolled vibrating finger over the enter key. If you practice this often you may even provide yourself with the entertainment that comes with the blue screen of death. Then you know you’ve won the contest of mind over mindless.

Computers are mankind’s modern day Zen machine. Monks in Japan spent hundreds of years practicing the play of the Shakuhachi, a bamboo end blown flute, to form self-discipline unmatched in most societies. With the need to create better tools for a busy modern society, manufacturers inadvertently gave us this electronic Shakuhachi as a test of our resolve to find centered peace.

Score: Computers 1. Humanity 0.

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