Blog Posts by Mike Smith

Like you've never heard him beforeYeah, you've played Super Mario Bros. But we bet you've never played it quite like this before.

After months of work listening to the music over and over again,
isolating its various instruments, and cross-checking it against other,
simplified or interpreted transcriptions, it's ready for the public --
and freely available.

"All this hard work has paid off," creator Joseph Karam says on his
web site, "and today, as a tribute to the man who changed the face of
video game music forever, I can proudly present to you a superior,
premium, deluxe sheet music transcription of Koji Kondo's original Super
Mario Bros. compositions from 1985, along with the corresponding midi
sound files."

So if you're

PSP Go: cheaperSlammed by critics as too expensive at its October 2009 launch, the PSP Go just became a rather better deal. Sony announced today it'll trim $50 from the sleek handheld's pricetag, leaving it at just $199.

The new price brings it more into line with other handheld gaming systems: the standard PSP retails at around $170, as does the Nintendo DSi XL, although the regular DSi is cheaper at $150.

Launched as a premium alternative to Sony's aging PSP, the Go has no UMD drive, relying instead on 16 GB of internal memory to store its downloadable games. Despite sporting what is (subjectively) one of the best form factors portable gaming has to offer, it proved too expensive for new PSP owners --

Deathwing, yesterdayIn the six years since its 2004 launch, online role-playing game World of Warcraft
has reigned unopposed as the king of the massively-multiplayer market
-- but there's one thing that'll kill a long-running game quicker than
anything else: boredom.

Never a company to do things by halves, Warcraft creator Blizzard
plans to keep the game fresh by mixing things up a bit. This December,
it'll release a new expansion for the game -- its third so far -- in
which players will witness the release of a vast, ancient dragon from an
interdimensional prison. First on his agenda: ripping the game's
all-too-familiar world to pieces.

If you want to get an idea of how that might look, here's the game's

If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft -- or Starcraft, or Diablo, or
any of the other games of widely-loved developer Blizzard -- there’s
only one place to be this weekend: Anaheim, California, at the Blizzcon
expo that annually attracts tens of thousands of like-minded fanatics.

Starcraft tournaments, costume competitions, and a live performance
from nerd faves Tenacious D are all on this weekend's agenda -- but the
big news today comes from the conference’s opening address.

Yup, as is Blizzard’s habit, they took advantage of a
standing-room-only crowd of cheering fans to unveil more details about
their next big release, Diablo III. Specifically, they announced the
game’s fifth and final

Imation LinkIn the age of wireless mice, keyboards, networks, and netbooks, it's
quite possible your main computer system only relies on cables for
power -- and even then, only sometimes. But try to hook your laptop to
your HDTV, and you're plunged back into unsightly spahgetti-hell again.

Or you were until now, that is. Meet the Imation Link Wireless A/V
Extender, a neat piece of hardware which promises to stream high-def
video and audio from your laptop (or, indeed, any PC or Mac) to your
TV, with no intervening wires to trip you up.

The Link comes in two parts: one that looks like a USB storage
device, and another that resembles a 10-inch-long TV antenna and hooks
to your TV like any other video

Angry birds: still angryiPhone owners have downloaded over seven million copies of Angry
Birds, netting its developer Rovio over $5 million in cash -- but owners
of phones running rival OS Android have, thus far, been left out of the
birds-versus-pigs hit.

Not any more. Not only did Angry Birds
release for Android today, it's a darn sight cheaper than it is on the
iPhone -- in fact, it's free, via popular app store GetJar.

Angry Birds held a stranglehold on the iPhone's games charts for
months, but was knocked off the top spot recently by just-released
puzzler Cut the Rope.
Shifting a million copies in just ten days, Cut the Rope is the App
Store's fastest selling game ever -- and word is, it'll be heading for

Gran Turismo 5In news that's sure to depress any racing fan, the latest in Sony's
iconic (and hugely influential) Gran Turismo series has been delayed --
again.

Previously scheduled for the green flag on November 2, Gran Turismo 5
will now be released at some later point this year, according to the
official Playstation blog. It's been more than five years since the last fully-fledged installment in the immensely successful series.

"We sincerely apologize to [Gran Turismo] fans for the delay,"
producer Taku Imasaki said. "However, creator Kazunori Yamauchi and the
team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the
perfect racing experience, and we are confident that this ambitious game

Yes, it's quite expensiveEven the most mundane of Monopoly sets contains over $20,000 in fake
money -- but this custom-made, jewel-encrusted one-off is estimated to
be worth over $2 million, and it's headed, appropriately enough, for Wall Street.

San Francisco jeweler Sidney Mobell created the set in the 1980s
after he heard about a Monopoly tournament taking place in London. It
took a year to complete, and it's only been played once, in an
exhibition game between Mobell and former British Prime Minister Edward
Heath. Mobell donated it to the Smithsonian in 2003.

Why's it so expensive? It's made from 18-karat gold, for starters,
and the bling-heavy board is decorated with 165 gems. The two dice are
worth $10,000