anniversaries

The Nintendo Entertainment System, undoubtedly one of the most iconic video game consoles ever released, turned 25 years old today.

Released on October 18, 1985, the device gave birth to Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and several other franchises that still live on today.

When the NES hit store shelves in New York City a quarter of a century ago, the future of gaming was decidedly in doubt. Some believed the industry was on its last leg, and few retailers were willing to take the kind of financial risks they once did on games.

But players got … Read more

Not so long after hearing of Toyota's plans to expand its hybrid offerings, we find a Toyota billboard teasing a new member of what will be its expanded line of hybrid vehicles. Displayed at a 10th-anniversary gathering of the Toyota Prius, this ad shows a new larger member of what will become a Prius subbrand.

Dubbed the Prius MPV by the denizens of the Internet, this new model will be both slightly longer and slightly taller than the standard Prius--expect a sort of tiny minivan à la Mazda Mazda5. Its roofline drops off much less aggressively, presumably to create … Read more

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--If you're a "Peanuts" fan, you have got to get yourself to this wine-country city about an hour north of San Francisco, the home of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. There may well be no better place on the planet to get your fill of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and the rest of the gang.

And today could be one of the best days ever to visit: it's the 60th anniversary of the famous comic strip, and what better way could there be to celebrate such an event than … Read more

Happy 25th birthday, Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. launched on September 13, 1985, in Japan. The title, which allowed players to take on the role of Mario (and Luigi for multiplayer purposes) in his trek to save Princess Peach, was the best-selling video game of all time for over 20 years before it was eventually ousted by Wii Sports in 2009. The original release of the game sold 40 million units worldwide.

The importance of Super Mario Bros. to the gaming industry should not be underestimated: it influenced slews of titles that followed and was responsible for the success … Read more

Denon will commemorate 100 years of audio innovation with its Anniversary Product Collection offerings.

One might wonder what an electronics company built in 1910, but I never really got a definitive answer at the media event held at the D&M Holdings (Denon's parent company) headquarters in Mahwah, N.J., last Thursday. True, there was some mention of the introduction of Japan's first phonograph (turntable) in 1910, but no one gave any specific information. According to Denon, it was honored to produce the very first audio recording of Japan's Emperor Hirohito's voice at the close of World War II in 1945.

Actually, the biggest surprise of the event, at least for me, was learning that Denon was founded by an American entrepreneur Frederick Whitney Horn. With Denon, he started Japan's first audio company; apparently, globalization isn't a new idea.

Denon focused most of its media event on presenting its Anniversary Product Collection's offerings, which include new amplifiers, SACD/CD and Blu-ray players, a direct-drive turntable, phono cartridge, and headphones. All of the products, except the phono cartridge and headphone, share the same $2,499 MSRP; the phono cartridge and headphone are $499 each. The Anniversary Product Collection models are limited editions and will be sold at 40 specially selected dealers in the United States starting in November. They will all be sold with five-year warranties. … Read more

There's no question it's happening: All over the place today, you can be sure that people are heading on over to Google's home page and discovering that instead of the normal multicolored Google logo, there's a fully playable version of Pac-Man sitting there, beckoning them.

This, of course, is to commemorate tomorrow's 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. And no doubt, a lot of people are having a lot of fun with this. Google is so sure of that that it is planning on keeping the Pac-Man logo--known in company terms as a "doodle"--on … Read more

It's probably impossible to count the times someone has written that video games are a business as big as or bigger than Hollywood.

But long before the Halos and the Sims and the Call of Dutys and the Maddens began bringing in billions of dollars, the world was dominated by a simple yellow character munching his way through a maze of dots, trying to avoid getting eaten by ghosts.

On May 22, 1980, a Japanese company called Namco Bandai released a game in Japan called Puck-Man. The title was rejected in the United States because some worried that the &… Read more

Saturday is the 30th anniversary of the release of Pac-Man, and to commemorate the occasion, Google is rolling out its first-ever truly interactive and playable home page logo, a fully-functional version of the iconic 1980s video game.

For years, Google has produced its so-called doodles for all kinds of holidays and special occasions, from Valentine's Day to the Fourth of July to Mother's Day and many others. In each case, the Google Doodle team works on a special logo that appears on the search engine's home page.

But a few months ago, when the team discovered that … Read more

I've reviewed many Denon receivers, but never one of the really big ones. Richard Ames, that lucky devil, had the pleasure of putting the Denon AVR-4810CI through its paces for "Home Entertainment" magazine.

Each of the receiver's nine channels puts out 140 watts. Just about every surround format is on board, including Dolby ProLogic IIz height channel processing and Audyssey's DSX (which adds the possibility of width channels as well). You also get Audyssey's MultEQ XT 8-point room correction processing.

Video signals, regardless of resolution or input, can be upconverted/transcoded to HDMI and … Read more