Tag: games

Categories
General Microsoft

Games for Windows Marketplace Launches this November 15th

Microsoft Corp announced the Games for Windows Marketplace, a new online PC games store that combines the convenience of the Web with the power of Games on Demand online distribution. Launching Nov. 15, the Games for Windows Marketplace will offer PC gamers a robust lineup of games they love, easier navigation and purchase, and recurring specials such as Deal of the Week.

“With Games for Windows Marketplace, we set out to create a digital store built for PC gamers end-to-end,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director, PC and Mobile Gaming, at Microsoft. “And by integrating with our existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services, we’ve made it easier than ever for millions of gamers to see for themselves how easy buying PC games can be.”

A Streamlined Experience

Built from the ground up for convenience and performance, the Games for Windows Marketplace will remove the barriers between gamers and the games they love by offering the following:

  • Online access, anywhere. Optimized for speed, the store allows for ultra-fast downloads; this means fewer clicks to purchase and download, delivering faster turnaround for gameplay. And since the service lives on the Web, gamers can download games on a PC, anytime, and can easily redownload games they purchase if needed.
  • Deals and discounts galore. Gamers can check out screaming deals on select games every time they visit the Marketplace, as well as the Deal of The Week and other recurring and seasonal offers.
  • Game search functionality. Gamers can search by titles or genres to quickly find the games they want; they can even find new games from their favorite publishers with dedicated publisher pages.
  • Fresh design. The clean, intuitive look and feel makes browsing for games a simple, enjoyable experience. Gamers can easily navigate between pages as they search for the perfect game.

A Growing Portfolio

Games for Windows Marketplace will launch with a managed portfolio of 100 top-quality titles. The launch roster includes blockbuster games such as “Fable: The Lost Chapters” (Microsoft Game Studios) and “Grand Theft Auto III” (Rockstar Games Inc.) from some of the industry’s biggest developers, such as Capcom Entertainment Inc., 2K Games, Square Enix Co. Ltd. and more. In addition to top retail games, the portfolio will bring new indie titles to the forefront and continue to grow with many of the best games in the industry including titles such as “Lego Universe” (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) and “CarneyVale” (Microsoft Game Studios), which will hit the Games for Windows Marketplace and retail stores at the same time and date; recent hits such as “Dead Rising 2” and “Lost Planet 2” (both from Capcom); and perennial best-sellers such as “Max Payne” (Rockstar) and “Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition” (Square Enix).

“We plan to deliver some of our biggest and best PC franchises on Games for Windows Marketplace from day one,” said Christian Svensson, corporate officer and vice president of Strategic Planning and Business Development at Capcom. “Digital distribution continues to drive growth in PC gaming, and we’re excited to partner with Microsoft and bring amazing games to this growing marketplace.”

Games for Windows Marketplace will also be the place to find iconic franchises from Microsoft Game Studios, such as “Flight Simulator,” “Gears of War,” “Halo” and “Zoo Tycoon,” as well as upcoming blockbusters “Fable III,” “Age of Empires Online” and “Microsoft Flight.”

Easy Access to a Massive Gamer Community

Using the new marketplace is a breeze: anyone with a Windows Live ID (Windows Live, Xbox LIVE, Games for Windows – LIVE or Zune account) can login and immediately start shopping in the Games for Windows Marketplace. The new store also supports Microsoft Points (as well as credit card purchasing), allowing the more than 25 million users of Xbox LIVE, Zune Marketplace and Games for Windows – LIVE to use their Microsoft Points balance seamlessly across platforms.

The new Games for Windows Marketplace launches Nov. 15 at http://www.gamesforwindows.com.

You would also be interested to read – Play your Good Old DOS Games on Windows 7, Linux / Free BSD or Mac OS X using DOSBox

Categories
General Google

Google Doodle – Celebrating the 30th Birthday of Pac-Man

Check out the Google home page today. The Doodle celeberates the 30th Birthday of the Game Pac-man.

24th May 2010 Update: Due to popular demand, Google is making the game permanently available at www.google.com/pacman

Its not just an image, you can play a game of Pac-man there.

Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway. This game was first released in Japan. Immensely popular in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is universally considered as one of the classics!

Google Doodle Pacman

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, public houses, and video arcades. Thats the reason you see an Insert Coin Button on the homepage!

You would also be interested to read – Play your Good Old DOS Games

Categories
General How-to Microsoft Tools

Play your Good Old DOS Games on Windows 7, Linux / Free BSD or Mac OS X using DOSBox

DOSBox is an emulated x86 machine with integrated DOS for running old DOS games and applications. This emulated machine allows you to control the speed of old games and emulate old hardware like sound cards and video cards regardless of the host operating system. The integrated DOS also allows you to directly start games without first having to setup DOS in a virtual machine. This tool is mostly focused on running old games.

DosBoxThe new Windows OSs does not offer the ability to run the game in a command window, or improve the graphics with a scaler. That was one of the reason why DOSBox project was made. This tool is just 1.5 MB and it runs about 90% of old games.

People who want to play DOS games and preferably already have a familiarity with DOS will love this tool.  I am big fan of Prince of Persia, i remember playing this game almost 10 years back when I was in school. Till date, i would consider this to be the best game, i have ever played on a PC.  I am on a 64 bit Windows 7 Operating System and running this game is absolutely bliss.

Download the DOSBox here from the SourceForge website – http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/files/

DOSBox ShortcutOnce you download and run this installer, the DOSbox will put all the executables needed and create a shortcut in the start menu. Launch the shortcut DOSbox as shown in the figure.

On the first Launch, you will see the below DOS Dialog.

DOSBox First Launch

You need to mount a drive to load your games onto this DOS panel. In this example, i have already copied the prince game to my C:\ in my computer. Now,  lemme mount my c:\ to this application. Check this below dialog.

DOSBox Mount C:\

Just scroll through the directory(c:\Prince) and invoke the game executable (prince.exe).

DOSBox Invoke the Game executable

This will start the prince game and is giving me a similar experience which I had 10 years back.! Can i say., a better experience??

Running Price of Persia 2 on Windows 7

Running Price of Persia Windows 7

Running Dave on Windows 7

DOSBox emulates a full x86 pc with sound and dos. Its main use is to run old dosgames on platforms which don’t have DOS(win2K/XP/linux/FreeBSD/Mac OS X).