The British Steam Car spouts off as it gets ready to make a run at a 103-year-old land speed record.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)The Stanley Steamer may have finally been dethroned.
After holding onto its land speed record for 103 years, the homegrown Stanley automobile from the early days of motoring has been overtaken by a late-model import. The British Steam Car team said Tuesday that, earlier in the day, in the two runs required to be considered for the record, the Steam Car averaged 139.843 mph over a measured mile.
Charles Burnett III behind the wheel of the Steam Car.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)Tuesday's achievement still awaits official confirmation from the certifying agency, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.
The steam-powered mark to beat was 127 mph, set in 1906 by Fred Marriott, driving that Stanley Steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla. (According to the FIA, the overall World Land Speed Record is 763 mph, a supersonic speed reached in 1997 by a jet-powered car, the ThrustSSC.)
The British Steam Car, a project 10 years in the making, is no jet, but it does have its share of modern trappings, including carbon-fiber construction. The 3-ton, 25-foot-long vehicle has 12 boilers, and its steam gets superheated to 400 degrees Celsius before being injected into the turbine.
In each of its runs, the Steam Car, driven by Charles Burnett III, actually traveled more than 6 miles on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. On either side of the measured mile, it requires a 2.5-mile stretch for acceleration and deceleration. In going for the record, the vehicle had to make the second run within an hour of the first--the steam team says it made the turnaround Tuesday in 52 minutes.
The vehicle's peak speed in the first run was 136.103 mph, and in the second, 151.085 mph.
In this day and age, it's hard to imagine that there might be an automotive speed record left that's only slightly north of 100 miles per hour. Heck, I've been passed by Audis on the autobahn that seemed to be going twice that fast.
But then, we've grown accustomed to cars with internal combustion engines. The record in question, which could finally fall this month after standing for more than a century, is held by a Stanley Steamer. In 1906, a gent named Fred Marriott drove a cigar-shaped steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla., to the then amazing speed of 127 mph.
Now along comes a 21st-century contender called the British Steam Car, which looks about as much like a Stanley-built vehicle as an F-16 looks like a Sopwith Camel. Looking for a catchier point of reference, the car's backers have taken to calling the 3-ton contraption, in at least one press release, "the fastest kettle in the world."
It's been a long road already this year to get the Brit-mobile ready for a record run, now set for sometime between August 18-22 after a postponement or two and some technical and logistical challenges. But just today, the steam team proudly proclaimed that in test runs on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, their vehicle had--unofficially--bested the record, hitting a not-street-legal 131 mph.
Will they be cooking with, um, gas later this month when officials of the record-vetting Federation Internationale de l'Automobile join them in the desert? We'll know soon enough.
Grim Fandango's suave hero, Manuel "Manny" Calavera.
It used to be that playing classic, out-of-print PC games required you to find shady download sites or old dusty retail boxes on eBay, then hope that your ancient Windows 3.1 game would work under XP or Vista.
One of the most welcome recent developments in gaming is the relatively sudden availability of a huge back catalog of classic games, across multiple platforms.
Like classic films finally being released on DVD, you can now play great (and not-so-great) games from the '80s and '90s via the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, as well as on your PC via download platforms such as Steam, GameTap, and Good Old Games (which is especially notable for offering DRM-free versions of classic games for $5-10).
Recent examples include LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island (available on Xbox Live and the iPhone), and the classic Fallout and Tex Murphy games on GOG.com.
While the future of PC gaming may be in question, many of our fondest video game memories are not of console games played on a living room TV, but of classic PC adventure games -- a genre virtually ignored today.
Sadly, many of our favorites are not yet available on any of these retro gaming platforms, so we present for you, in handy gallery form, our list of five classic adventure games that need to be re-released as digital downloads, pronto. Disagree with our choices? Let us know what classic games (adventure of otherwise) deserve a second chance in the comments section below.
[Note: We fully admit to not playing any of these games since their original release, so our fond memories may be more nostalgia than reality.]
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> Laptops, games, and more--every week on the Digital City video podcast.
(Credit:
Steam)
Update: Left 4 Dead is currently discounted on Steam's website at 40% off (from $39.99 to $23.99), but just for this weekend only.
If you haven't tried playing Left 4 Dead yet because of the price, or aren't sure about the game in general, that's OK. Valve has decided to let you try it out for free.
At 5:01 p.m. PDT Thursday, you'll be able to download and play the game for free via Steam for a whole 24 hours. Better still, to get your full 24-hour allotment of play time Steam allows you to preload it to your account right now.
This isn't a free-forever offer, nor is there going to be a discount available afterward (as with what happened with UT3 in March). Alas, the game will be locked again the following night, but at least it will give you a chance to play and decide for yourself. Obviously, Valve is hoping you'll love it and send some cash their way to keep playing.
Meet the British Steam Car, which looks a bit like the love child of the Batmobile and an F-15 fighter jet. The goal for this sleek, modern-day automotive design is to break the 127 mph land speed record set by a Stanley Steamer in 1906.
The vehicle, which uses superheated steam as its driving force, this week passed a milestone with a run of better than 80 mph on a test track in England. Next month, the British Steam Car will be shipped from England to the U.S. The goal is to make the record attempt in a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in California--depending on the weather.
Find out more about how the Steam Car works in the gallery above, and watch it take a steamy spin in the video.
(Credit:
Valve)
If you enjoy (legally) downloading PC game content over the Internet, then you're most likely familiar with Valve Software's Steam, a platform for the delivery and management of PC games.
On Tuesday, Valve announced an upgrade to "Steamworks," a suite of publishing and development tools available to, well, publishers and developers for free.
The first of the new notable features include Custom Executable Generation (CEG) technology. According to Valve, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user, allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits on their PC. Players that like to play from multiple locations (home, a friend's house, and definitely not work) should find this news heartening.
Another new feature is the in-game downloadable content (DLC) and matchmaking system. Developers can now deliver new content from inside the game itself. Users can now make new content purchases and immediately experience the new content in the same same game session. Without necessitating a restart.
The new "Steamworks" matchmaking system utilizes the same lobby system used in Left 4 Dead.
These new additions are good news especially for smaller developers that need this kind of regular support from Valve, when using Steam as a distribution system.
Much more information can be found in Valve's "Steamworks" brochure.
Also, check out the Games for Windows - LIVE announcement made by Microsoft today to see if you can pick out the similarities.
(Credit:
Steam)
Have any plans for the weekend? Yeah, I'm talking to you. If not, here's a suggestion: how's about some online Capture-the-Flag action (or Deathmatch action, whatever floats your boat) on Unreal Tournament III Black. Oh, and it's free. OK, so it's for the PC only and doesn't apply to the PlayStation 3, but it's still a pretty cool deal and it's something to do.
Whether or not you have the game, it's all good. The free weekend includes the game, the Titan Pack expansion, and the 2.0 patch. Now, all you have to do is sign up for a Steam account, which is also free, and you are good to go.
After the entire weekend hullabaloo dies down, Unreal Tournament III Black will be available on Steam at a 40 percent discount, costing around 12 bucks, and will remain so, right up until March 15.
In the meantime, go frag some people online tonight. Go ahead. Frag the hell outta them. (There are more than a few screenshots of the game below.)
We're kickin' it old school with some technology that might not be so modern, but you can't deny that this stuff is cool!
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EPISODE 113 |
Datamancer Ergo keyboard takes steampunk in an oddly comfortable direction
Teac LP-R500: The 20th century CD-LP-cassette geek re-education box
Retro plasma HDTV looks like an ancient TV set
Hand Crank Locomotives Are A Child's Dream Toy
Your MacBook is too classy to be wrapped in neoprene
NES-inspired Nike sneakers take us back to ‘85
$2,500 titanium tricycle seems reasonable
It’s About time (retro edition!)
Alarm clock lets you wake up a winner
Pink Watch
Calling all lady DJs--do we have a turntable for you
Hello Kitty Watch
Hello Kitty’s birthday! (Thanks, Dr. Karl)
FUG
Nintendo garter belt--sexy fun gaming times
Kill Me (I will kill someone edition)
The Keyboard for Blondes makes my blood boil
Kill Me (this will probably kill someone edition)
Burning hair remover lets your hygiene play with fire
Later this week Valve Software, makers of the popular Half Life series, and the Steam software distribution system are releasing the first version of the Steam Cloud service in the demo for the upcoming cross-platform title Left 4 Dead. The service will keeps things like game saves, mouse and keyboard settings, and player profiles the same across multiple PCs.
Up until now the Steam application, which lets you use the same game license on multiple computers, required users to take and make these changes across all their devices. Announced back in March, Steam Cloud puts the onus on Valve instead, and syncs up any per-game settings changes between sessions.
In addition to the Left 4 Dead demo, which will be available this Thursday, Valve is adding Steam Cloud functionality to its entire back catalog of games, making it easier to ferry settings back and forth in case you have multiple gaming rigs. No word yet on when you'll be able to do this with (now) classics like Portal and Half Life: Episode 2.
Kevin Unangst, Microsoft Senior Global Director, Games for Windows
(Credit: Microsoft)Q&A Kevin Unangst, Microsoft's Senior Director of Global Gaming, hit the interview rounds starting in April, with the goal of working to dispel the myth that PC gaming is in trouble.
That idea came about in the beginning of the year following a report from NPD research showing that U.S. retail sales of PC games trailed those of games for the various consoles. As Unangst and others have pointed out since the NPD report, those figures do not take into account subscription-based PC gaming, like the World of Warcraft juggernaut, nor do they factor digital distribution from services like GameTap and Valve Software's Steam.
Over the course of Unangst's interviews, he made some interesting points about the perception of PC gaming, the adoption of DirectX 10 hardware, and Microsoft's plans for its Games for Windows Live program. We followed up with Unangst earlier this week.
When you spoke to the game blog Kotaku, you mentioned perception as one of PC gaming's biggest problems right now. Valve Software's Doug Lombardi said the same thing in an interview with Shack News. Can you elaborate?
The perception is really what's being written about in the press since the console battle began anew with the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the Wii. When the PC's written about it's "oh, wow, the PC's not selling as many copies at retail so it must be dying." That's the story that's been written about for so long and that's where the root of this perception issue comes from. And it does get a bit frustrating for folks like Valve and Microsoft, and Intel and Nvidia and others who are investing time and money and seeing new gamers and seeing PC sales increasing and seeing Direct X card sales increasing and seeing these huge revenues in online. We've seen a growth in casual games. MSN Games and PopCap are doing incredibly well on the PC, but you're not seeing a lot of coverage about that. So that's where I think the history of the perception point comes from and it's not true.
Has there been any progress towards more balanced reporting of PC gaming's financial landscape?
NPD has a new study. They're actually taking an assessment of the online space and starting to aggregate. DFC (Intelligence, a video game market research firm) has done a bunch of work there. As you look at the DFC numbers for 2007, the PC is ahead of any other platform, with $8.2 billion in worldwide game sales, with about $5 billion of that online. So in terms of raw numbers, we think the PC is still by far the leading platform when you look at the entire picture.
What do you make of the fact that 2007 was the same year Microsoft's Games for Windows retail branding program was in full swing?
I'd be interested to see what the decline might have been had we and our partners not invested. I think there is a natural shift to online that we're seeing in the PC space, and I think we still feel like with a billion-dollar opportunity sitting at retail we needed to continue to invest in building out dedicated, branded shelf space. I can't peek into what could have been, I certainly think that our investment has kept publishers and retailers devoting shelf space to the PC that they may not have otherwise, or at least attention on the PC that they might not have otherwise.
You mentioned the installed base for Direct X 10 hardware earlier, and in your interview with Kotaku you said that there are 60 million DirectX 10 parts in the marketplace right now. Is that discrete graphics cards?
That is discrete as I understand it. And potentially laptop chips, as well.
Yet the numbers on Valve's PC Hardware Survey (which catalogs system information from users of its Steam PC game download and community software) indicate that of the 1.7 million systems it sampled, 80 percent still use Windows XP, and 90 percent do not have Direct X10-capable hardware.
That like all the others is just one more stat to look at when you're measuring adoption. You have to take into account that Steam and its installed base has been very focused on Half Life and other games that are Valve's first-party IP, and we believe those survey results skew heavily towards those customers. I don't believe that any of their titles take advantage of Direct X 10 at this point, so it doesn't surprise me that they haven't seen a strong adoption rate among their core consumers. I think the (hardware) sales numbers speak for themselves as well as the numbers of titles that are shipping and the investment that the publishers continue to make.
Speaking with the game developer trade site Gamasutra, you said that Microsoft would be working to compete with Valve's Steam software by way of Games for Windows Live. You also pointed to a public development document on MSDN.com outlining the requirements for Games for Windows Live. We didn't find that, but we did find a PowerPoint presentation from this year's Game Developers Conference called Games for Windows Live: Just the Facts. That document outlines features like digital downloads, automatic game patching, and remotely storing saved games, all of which are currently available in Steam. What kind of time table does Microsoft have for adding those features to Games for Windows Live?
I don't recall the document that you're referring to, but I can speak in general that things like automatic updates are available in Games for Windows Live offered today. Those features are all part of the infrastructure that we built and it's something that we're going to build on over time. It's really been our focus to bring over as much of the platform as we can. And then build on top of that the unique experience we think Windows gamers and Windows developers are going to want. So you're going to see even more significant investment from us on Games for Windows Live. Digital distribution and things like that are certainly areas that we have talked about, that we're looking at how we build on the infrastructure and support. But today the focus is on having an identity, having a common friends list, and being able to offer in-game updates. We also have things that other services don't offer like cross-platform support with Xbox 360.
In some ways, over time, there will be competition there as we both continue to deliver on feature sets that we think developers and consumers are going to want. That said I think what Valve is doing for the PC is a great service. They're delivering great games, they're delivering an interesting set of digital content to millions of people. They've done great things for the Windows gaming ecosystem and we hope that they continue to do that.
