pong

Hey Facebook: No beer pong for you

With a $15 billion valuation, big-name investors, and high-profile Google employees jumping onto its payroll, Facebook can't play with the kids anymore.

That's probably why its New York branch's hyped-up beer pong tournament against dude entertainment site CollegeHumor was cancelled.

The match, scheduled for Thursday evening at CollegeHumor parent company Connected Ventures' offices near Manhattan's Union Square, was abruptly called off, according to a blog post from Josh Mohrer, director of retail at Connected Ventures brand BustedTees. "Facebook has backed out of the CH vs. Facebook beer pong tournament for 'legal and PR' reasons," … Read more

The history of the Atari 2600

Last month, some of Silicon Valley's biggest names showed up at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., for the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64.

What no one I heard mentioned, despite the presence of Pong designer Al Alcorn, was that October marked the 30th anniversary of what may have been an even more influential video game machine, the Atari 2600.

Now, over at GameSpy, Marty Goldberg has spun for us the story of the creation of that iconic console.

And when I say iconic, I do mean it. After all, who doesn't recognize the 2600'… Read more

Buy a Pong arcade machine, stay single

As hard as it might be to imagine today, a simple game like Pong once required a machine as big as phone booth to play (which may or may not make sense, depending on whether you remember what a phone booth looks like). Even more amazing is that there's at least one of still around for sale.

Up for auction on eBay is a 1970s-vintage Atari original, which was made by SYZYGY, as every schoolboy knows. It even has fairly low miles--around 12,000 plays--considering its age, according to Technabob.

The bidding, which opened at $1.20, stood … Read more

CNET Live - Episode 6

Had a great time on CNET Live even when the spirits of evil grabbed Cooley's website of the week and twisted it until dead. Great thanks to Ashwin Navin, President of BitTorrent for coming on the show. Here are some helpful links to go along with what we discussed.

Watch Episode 6

Things we Crave

A gadget for germaphobes in space

Motorola Q 9 headed for Italy first; calls out iPhone

Download of the Week

Plasma Pong 1.2

Best of the Web

Sneak peak at Mogulus: new live blogging platform

Calls

Fixing the GIMP - Try to delete … Read more

Retro handheld relives ancient games

With all these ultra-violent games everywhere, do you ever pine for the more innocent days of Frogger and Q-bert? OK, maybe not. But if you do have other favorites from an old Sega or Nintendo console, South Korea's Plezo says you can play them on the new PMG-250 handheld and its 2.5-inch color LCD.

This gadget may not have all the bells and whistles of its better-known counterparts, but it will let you pretend to be a real gamer as long as people can't see what you're playing. And it's an MP3 player too, so … Read more

LED turns tables into game machines

While companies are making use of LED technology in such products as lamps and watches, it's good to see that some people are applying it to something that really counts: games.

Techie Diva reports that designer/inventor/technologist Moritz Waldemeyer has used LED lights and touchpads to transform ordinary tables into interactive game platforms that are on display at London's Rabih Hage Gallery: "The white table transforms itself into a ping-pong machine at the flick of a switch, while the roulette table (pictured) shows an illuminated map." We hope he'll turn his attention next to … Read more