Crave

The start of point-and-click adventure games to go?

(Credit: LucasArts)

As a gaming system, the iPhone has had its share of praises and attacks, but it's hard to challenge the appeal of retro titles on the system. With a perfect version of Myst under its belt, the iPhone's gone one better with a release of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition that launched last night on iTunes.

For those who don't remember, The Secret of Monkey Island is perhaps one of the most celebrated graphic adventures in the once-popular genre. Originally released in 1990, there were three other sequels released, the last in 2000. LucasArts once had that genre all locked up with titles like Full Throttle, The Dig, and Sam & Max Hit The Road. In graphic adventures, generally, the main character wanders around a series of landscapes, interacting with the environment and picking up items as the story unfolds. The various rooms and spaces of the game are displayed like giant panoramas, static but full of areas to explore. Being point-and-click based instead of control pad-focused, it's probably the perfect genre to make a new splash on the iPhone and iPod Touch formats. First off, the original graphics resolutions match what the iPhone can output. Secondly, there's a ton of good, cheap content just waiting to be rereleased. Monkey Island is $7.99 on the iTunes store, several dollars cheaper than the recent Xbox Live Arcade release.

By swiping fingers, you get a revamped graphics mode or the original, more pixelated but authentic version. The music and gameplay are all retained.

We hope other former classics get released in short order. Space Quest, the Gabriel Knight series, Maniac Mansion, or our personal favorite blast from the past, Tass Times in Tonetown.

Any others you'd like to see?

After months of not even a peep from Creative Labs' stateside operation, I was starting to worry that one of my favorite MP3 player manufacturers had given up the ghost in the good ol' U.S. of A. Then today, an astute reader lured me over to the company's Web site with the following two screenshots:

(Credit: Creative Labs)

(Credit: Creative Labs)

So what's the deal, Creative? What dost thou have up thine sleeve? My curiosity has officially been piqued. I can only assume that a device being touted as an acoustic masterpiece that "you will want to wear" is some kind of ultraportable MP3 player. The image brings to mind a lipstick tube made to dangle around your neck. I'm guessing this little device will have no screen, a nonstandard user interface operated by twisting, and will be visually supported by a ring-like LED. Or perhaps it isn't an MP3 player at all. The item shown in the ad could just as easily be part of a set of headphones...who can tell for sure? The suspense is killing me!

(Thanks, Scott!)

Update, May 19: It looks as if the folks that commented below are dead on. The Creative teaser from yesterday was for the Aurvana Air earphones, as indicated by the e-mail screen grab below. You can pick up a pair for about $200. Stay tuned for a review in the coming weeks.

Fear the gaze of the Allpowerful...

(Credit: NotebookReview Forums via Engadget)

Alienware's alien-alphabet-infused teaser site for the Allpowerful laptop has been counting down steadily, now at 15 days until the static-fringed menacing alien head reveals all there is to know in the world of ultrabeefy mobile gaming rigs. Or, it's a teaser for a new Crystal Skull movie.

Nevertheless, new intel has dropped in the forums at NotebookReview.com: a mysterious image from "mingocr83" features the contours of and is claimed to be the Allpowerful itself. Subsequent image-brightened posts seem to clearly reveal something else...... Read more

Steve Guttenberg, the Audiophiliac, joins the show today to talk about the coming "singularity."

(Credit: CNET)

For those of you not from the future, the "singularity" is a concept from Raymond Kurzweil's book "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." According to him, human beings will eventually live forever because of nano-machines that will repair our bodies and miracle drugs. That's about as deep as the show gets today. Again, you don't really want us to be discussing the ever-increasing amounts of entropy in the universe.

Steve is generally disappointed with the quality of the sound systems at the New York auto show. You'd expect that a $200,000 Bentley would have pretty great speakers, but you'd be wrong.

Also on today's show, we've got more Twitter stories: 1) Justin is attempting to bring back the $5-dollar Italian BMT from Subway with the world's first Twitition (that's Twitter + petition); 2) Post Secret meets Twitter with SecretTweet.com. Honestly, it's one of the most depressing Web sites ever. Kind of like a not-funny fmylife.com.

Finally, it's the weekend, so we know you have the time. Be sure to send in your call backs! We need them!

(Credit: LG)

It looks like the LG CF750 Secret may be coming over to AT&T, according to this listing on LG's U.S. site. Hopefully it'll have many of the features found on its Asian/European counterpart, like the 5-megapixel camera, 3G, a touch-sensitive display, support for shooting video at 120fps into DivX format, Bluetooth, a music player, and also access to Google products like GMail and Google Maps.

No word on pricing or availability of course, but if it's already showing up on LG's site, we could see it soon.

(Via Engadget Mobile)

This week brings us a gooey puzzle game for WiiWare along with a classic arcade-fighter.

WiiWare

• World of Goo (2D Boy, 1,500 Wii points): World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game that allows you to construct your own goo-based buildings and bridges for the World of Goo Corporation.
  
• Art Style: Cubello (Nintendo, 600 Wii points): Cubello has you matching like-colored cube shapes. Enjoy two game modes: endless play or stage-based action.
  

Virtual Console

• Secret of Mana (1993, Super Nitendo, 800 Wii points): Secret of Mana has you searching the land for Mana seeds, the only thing that can bring balance to the fight of good versus evil. But be warned: nothing is what it seems in this adventure title.
  
• Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (1993, Sega Gensis, 800 Wii points): Being the first Street Fighter game to be released on the Genesis, it brought with it two different game modes: Champion and Hyper. Also included in the game is Group Battle, where you select various different fighters. This arcade-to-console title is sure to satisfy the old-school fighter in everyone.
  

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!

(Credit: Activision)

It's been interesting to hear Sarah Palin, the Republican VP nominee, accusing Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists"--a huge distraction, in my opinion, from the economic crisis and other pressing issues. If that's not the kind of distraction you enjoy, I have another that might prove more fun.

Activision announced Friday that its new first-person shooter Secret Service will be released later this year for three platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and the PC. The title will let players assume the role of an elite agent tasked with protecting America's top leadership under high pressure.

The story takes place on Inauguration Day in Washington D.C. An extremist assault has been launched against the capitol and it's unclear who's friend or foe. There's no time for negotiation as players get thrust into the line of fire to protect the nation's leaders. The action takes place among famous landmarks and everywhere in between, including both Marine One and Air Force One.

Secret Service will cost $39.99 for the Xbox 360, $29.99 for PlayStation 2, and $19.99 for PC. Now with all the confusion and distraction going in the political arena, I think it's necessary to say that this game is not approved, endorsed, or authorized by the real U.S. Secret Service.

(Credit: Crave Asia)

We knew about the LG Secret KF750 since a couple of months back when the company first launched it in Europe. Today, LG has officially announced this handset for Asia at a press conference held at CommunicAsia.

As reported earlier, this model features a tempered glass screen and carbon-fiber finish for the back cover. Though it has a slide-out numeric keypad, the thickness is kept low at just 11.8 millimeters. Some of the KF750's features include a 5-megapixel camera, touch-screen display, and HSDPA connectivity up to 3.6Mbps. Also built into this device is a motion sensor. This feature is currently used to orientate the phone display and also for the bundled games.

The Secret will go on sale in Singapore on June 21 and elsewhere throughout Asia Pacific around the same time. (Get more CommunicAsia 2008 coverage here.)

(Source: Crave Asia)

Before tossing out your first-generation iPhone for the iPhone 3G we're all anticipating on July 11, you'll need to wipe off personal data, including your passwords and user IDs. CNET's Tom Merritt shows off three paths to iPhone data-cleanliness using iTunes for Mac and Windows. The first method is simple, but will likely leave a swatch of information behind. The second method is for the ultraparanoid with a lot of time on their hands, and the third method averages techniques to get the data coffers mostly spotless. Check it out.