Eight channel stereo sound

This is a nice piece of nostalgia. Using 16 bit animated pixel art, a creative person has created an animated video of the battle scene between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. It reminds me of the Super Star Wars games that were released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System between 1992 and 1994.

Misspent youth

Nintendo fans around the world are excited by Nintendo's announcement of the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It will be released at the end of September, and come with 21 games pre-installed, including the previously unreleased Starfox 2.

By coincidence, it is 25 years since the SNES was released in Australia. I always preferred the design of the PAL console to the boxy North American version.

http://www.nintendo.com.au/nintendo-announces-the-nintendo-classic-mini-super-nintendo-entertainment-system

Money down the drain

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, every so often some parents get upset, perhaps understandably, because their children may have access to gambling apps. Some of these smartphone and tablet games are played using real money, deducted from the player's credit card. Some of them even allow the play to collect actual winnings. It's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to see how this could lead to them becoming problem gamblers later in life.

This is nothing new, however. In 1993 Nintendo released Vegas Stakes for their Super Nintendo console. The player visits Las Vegas casinos to play Craps, Blackjack, Roulette, Poker, and Seven Card Stud. I remember playing this game once in a department store demonstration area. I called it quits after two minutes. If more children played games like this, it would actually act as a gambling deterrent, showing it for the boring and pointless activity that it is.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Vegas_Stakes?file=VegasStakes.jpg

http://www.nintendolife.com/games/snes/vegas_stakes