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towers

Indie brick-and-mortar record store sells MP3s

Other Music isn't the sort of place you'd go to pick up the new U2 record; its primary mission is to turn its customers onto, well, other music. Now, some of Other Music's titles are available as MP3 downloads.

The physical and download Other Music stores are an attempt to classify the unclassifiable; there's "In" (indie rock); "Out" (experimental, free jazz, noise, 20th century composers, and early electronic pioneers); "Electronica" (new electronic music including ambient, electro, and underground hip-hop); "Then" (influential artists from the '60s, '70s, and '80s); … Read more

DSiWare, WiiWare, and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us plenty of Animal Crossing accessories for your DSi as well as a Commodore 64 classic.

DSiWare Animal Crossing Calculator (Nintendo, 200 DSi Points): This download isn't necessarily a game, it's actually just a calculator with Animal Crossing-themed buttons. Use conversions and other features everywhere you bring your DSi. Animal Crossing Clock (Nintendo, 200 DSi Points): Another download that isn't actually a real game, Animal Crossing Clock is just that. It's a clock--with Animal Crossing characters plastered all over it. You can view an analog or digital display as well as set an … Read more

Spain plugs in largest solar-tower power plant

Abengoa Solar of Spain on Monday reported successful tests of its second solar tower in operation, in which the sun's heat is used to make electricity.

The 531-foot solar tower, located near Seville, Spain, features a number of improvements on the first design and has exceeded the anticipated output. Called PS20, the installation is the largest in the world with a capacity of 20 megawatts, enough electricity to supply 10,000 homes, according to the company.

A solar tower configuration uses a field of heliostats, or mirrors, to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver held in the tower. The heat … Read more

Challenging tower defense fun

GeoDefense is a fun and extremely challenging tower-defense game, with unique gameplay that combines intense puzzle-solving with arcade action in a frenetic, colorful, vector-graphics environment.

The interface and basic play-style resembles other similar tower-defense games: you drag and drop five types of upgradeable, sellable towers into strategic positions along a preset path to destroy waves of incoming "creeps" (geometric shapes and blobs of varying toughness and speed). What makes GeoDefense so compelling is its surprisingly rich level design, forcing you to formulate--and precisely execute--unusual strategies for nearly every level, with changing maps, resources, durations, and enemies, on 30 … Read more

Classic literature and difficult tower defense: iPhone apps of the week

I write this post every week and while I try to bring you folks all my favorite iPhone app finds, inevitably I end up missing a few along the way. With the current count of apps at the iTunes store now at almost 35,000, it would be impossible to cover everything, but hopefully I can at least bring you a worthy download every week. With that said, this week I'm going to talk about a new game and then grab one app out of the past that's worthy of a look if you haven't checked it … Read more

Will iTunes kill the CD?

We're getting close to the day when a major artist or group releases a download-only album. Maybe it'll be the next Rolling Stones or Sufjan Stevens album. That'll be a dark day.

Just last week, I went to my local record store to pick up "Hemispheres," the new release of Bill Frisell and Jim Hall, a jazz guitar duo. I left the store empty-handed.

Next, I checked on Amazon.com. It stocked the album in MP3 format only. Great, but I refuse to pay $17.98 for a crappy-sounding MP3.

Next, I checked the record … Read more

They're attacking from the river!

7 Cities is a "tower defense" real-time strategy game, which pits your bristling array of Meso-American towers against a relentless pirate armada and their beastly aquatic allies. You can play the game's survival or seven-level campaign mode (in which you defend seven ever-more-precariously situated cities), and in both you must spend your gold wisely to build defenses around the set path--a river or rivers--upon which your enemies advance.

Similar to other games, you can choose from a variety of towers (such as arrows, cannons, lightning, and even power-boosting Obelisk towers) to take down enemies and boss monsters … Read more

Stop the undead hordes

Zombie Attack Free is a free preview of Zombie Attack, a "tower defense" real-time strategy game in which you fight off a horde of zombies with strategically deployed gun turrets. An endless stream of zombies (punctuated by progressively more difficult levels) rushes across a field, trying to reach and attack your humble shack, as you run around on the field (by tilting your device, or using touch-and-drag controls) placing and upgrading gun emplacements. You earn money for every zombie you drop, and the game ends when the zombies destroy your shack.

Like other tower defense games, the heart … Read more