Anniversary Archives

Half-Life is Free on Steam for 25th Anniversary Celebration, Update Includes Uplink Mini-Campaign

Half-Life 1 is free on Steam through November 20th for its 25th anniversary celebration. A new update revitalizes this 1998 game with updated graphics settings, including lighting fixes and an actual widescreen field of view, controller / Steam Networking support, as well as Steam Deck compatibility.

Most importantly, the 25th Anniversary Update includes added content from Half-Life Uplink as well as four new multiplayer maps. Plus, Valve restored some content for the true nostalgia-seekers, such as the original main menu artwork as well as some early prototype player models from the alpha builds of the game. Download it here now.

QUJUSO ONEXPLAYER 2 Handheld Game Console Portable 8.4' PC Mini Laptop UMPC Tetachable Handle 2560 * 1600...

QUJUSO ONEXPLAYER 2 Handheld Game Console Portable 8.4″ PC Mini Laptop UMPC Tetachable Handle 2560 * 1600…

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We invited the the original development team to get back together to reminisce about what it was like working on Half-Life all those years ago. (For those of us who worked on it, 25 years is, after all, literally half a life.) The fine folks at Secret Tape captured the reunion on film,” said Valve.

Author
Bill Smith

When it comes to cars, video games or geek culture, Bill is an expert of those and more. If not writing, Bill can be found traveling the world.

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1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Hero Car from Wolf of Wall Street Could be Yours

Remember the wrecked 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Hero Car from ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’? Well, it could be yours for the right price, as the vehicle is headed to auction.

This isn’t a kit car, but the actual US-spec 25th Anniversary model finished in Bianco Polo over Bianco interior driven by Leonardo DiCaprio It has been preserved in as-filmed condition and includes a Jordan Belfort costume, director’s chair, a clapboard signed by Scorsese, DiCaprio, as well as Robbie, two crew hoodies, and two DVDs of the film. You can see it in person at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and expected to fetch between $1,500,000 – $2,000,000 USD.

Since its final scene wrapped, the Hero Car has been meticulously preserved in the same condition it last flaunted on the big screen, an undisturbed time capsule of the film’s unbridled debauchery and infamous extravagance. For the first time since its cinematic debut, the Hero Car emerges from its sanctuary,” said Bonhams.

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Author
Bill Smith

When it comes to cars, video games or geek culture, Bill is an expert of those and more. If not writing, Bill can be found traveling the world.

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Mario Kart Double Dash Celebrates 20th Anniversary, Here’s a Look Back at the 3D Polygonal Masterpiece

Nintendo released Mario Kart Double Dash on November 7, 2003 in Japan, and this 3D polygonal masterpiece most certainly deserves a retrospective. Unlike Mario Kart 64, which only used polygons for the environments and 2D sprites for the racers, Double Dash is the first game in the Mario Kart series to use 3D polygons for the characters.

What didn’t change was the gameplay where players race against each other on Mario-themed tracks, but it did introduce a number of new gameplay features like co-op gameplay with two riders per kart. That’s right, one player drives the kart and the other uses the power-up items. Either player can switch at any time, making Double Dash the only game in the Mario Kart series to allow cooperative gameplay so far. It supports LAN play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter, enabling up to 16 players to compete simultaneously.

The familiar Grand Prix mode lets you race against 7 (or 6) computer-controlled teams in a series of predetermined courses. Players can select from 3 different engine size classes: 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. There is a fourth unlockable class, Mirror Mode, that lets the player race through a mirrored version of the tracks with 150cc kart. When in Versus mode, players can choose any course and race against up to 4 local (or 15 LAN) opponents with custom rules like changing the item frequency. As of 2023, 6.96-million copies of Mario Kart Double Dash have been sold worldwide, making it a commercial success.
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Author
Bill Smith

When it comes to cars, video games or geek culture, Bill is an expert of those and more. If not writing, Bill can be found traveling the world.

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Sony PlayStation 2 Celebrates 23rd Anniversary of North American Release, Here’s a Look Back

On October 26, 2000, the Sony PlayStation 2 was released in North America, and since then, the game console has sold nearly 158 million units worldwide. What set it apart from its main competitors, the Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox, and SEGA Dreamcast, was the Sony / Toshiba developed Emotion Engine processor.

Aside from the 64-bit R5900-based “Emotion Engine” consisting of eight separate units, it also came equipped with a Graphics Synthesiser boasting a fillrate of 2.4 gigapixels per second, and 32MB of RDRAM. Similar to the Dreamcast’s Visual Memory Unit (VMU), the PlayStation 2 memory card features an 8 megabyte (MB) capacity, complete with MagicGate encryption. During its 13-year run, there were over 4,000 games released worldwide and over 1.5 billion copies sold.

One interesting fact is that besides the “fat” and slimline” models, there was also a 22-inch HD-ready Sony TV that had a built-in PlayStation 2 console, called the Bravia KDL-22PX300. That’s right, it also offered four HDMI ports, three USB sockets, VGA / component inputs and an integrated Freeview tuner with an Ethernet connection for IPTV viewing. Most surprising of all, it retailed for just $243 USD at the time of its release in 2010.
[Source]

Author
Bill Smith

When it comes to cars, video games or geek culture, Bill is an expert of those and more. If not writing, Bill can be found traveling the world.

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