Electronic Gaming Monthly – Holiday 2007

While EGM was one of the best and best selling game magazines of all time, it was getting pretty close to the end of its life by this time. The final original issue would be published in January 2009, about a year after this issue. The Holiday 2007 issue includes:

Press Start

• Letters - Some comments about Nintendo publishers' declining game quality, shorter games, video game testing, controller abuse, religion in games, and more.

• Holiday Buyers' Guide - A guide to the best gifts for 2007. Some of the items mentioned include a trip to Jules' Undersea Lodge ($475/night), VEXplorer Robot Kit ($200), Pipe Dream for the Game Boy ($12/used), Shock Ball ($20), Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp ($9000/5 days), Master Chief Mimobot USB stick (I have an R2D2 one of these), Zelda Animated Series DVD ($25), Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel ($130), Mushroom Lamp ($12), Atari Keychain ($45 for 3 different ones), 8-bit Tie ($20), and lots more.

• Foreign Object - A look at SNK's Doki Doki Majo Shinpan!...a game that teaches you to be a pervert.

• Ask the Pros: Halo 3 - Some of the best players and how they play the game.

• Preview: Unreal Tournament 3 - Coming soon for the PS3. But will it match up to the PC version?

• Online Game Trading - A comparison of five online sites that let you trade in your games.

• Preview: Lost Odyssey - An early look at an RPG exclusive to the Xbox 360.

• Rumor Mill - Bioshock coming (again) for the PS3, EA working on a live sports trivia game, Metal Gear game coming for the PSP, and EA working on a game based on the GI Joe movie.

Reviews

• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - Historic, perahsp, for teaming up Mario and Sonic for the first time but the game itself is a pretty mediocre sports game.

• Geometry Wars: Galaxies - A classic gaming inspired shooter for the Wii that is quite good but you need the classic controller to really enjoy it.

• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Another game in this strategy/RPG from Nintendo. The biggest change from the previous game in the series is being able to save during battle.

• Need for Speed: ProStreet - I solid entry in the Need for Speed series. What was this, like the 150th one?

• Tony Hawk's Proving Ground - This skateboarding game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is pretty average but if you like Tony Hawk and skateboarding and gaming then you will probably like it.

• Manhunt 2 - A murder/adventure game for the Wii and PS2 that isn't quite as good as the original (which wasn't spectacular or anything to begin with).

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Call of Duty...you love it or hate it I guess. Or both. But it gets a pretty good review here for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

• BlackSite: Area 51 - A pretty mediocre first person shooter. But hey, there's mutant alien things.

• Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - An FPS built for co-op play for the Xbox 360 though oddly you can't play online.

• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - This action game gets good reviews here. It doesn't seem like that long ago that this came out. But then the movie came out more recently I suppose. I thought it was pretty disappointing but what do you expect from a movie based on a game...

• Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - A platform game (featuring lots of fighting of course) featuring Naruto for the Xbox 360.

• TimeShift - Controlling time offers a unique twist in this first person shooter for the Xbox 360 (coming soon for the PS3) but it ends up being pretty average anyway.

• Mass Effect - Excellent action/RPG from BioWare for the Xbox 360. This is another game that seems like it came out more recently...

• Contra 4 - This review best sums this game up when it says that it "looks, plays, and sounds like some long-lost 16-bit sequel". If you loved the original Contra then chances are you will it least like this iteration for the DS.

• Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends - I could never get that excited about cooking games...

• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - Not the best sequel but if you are a Final Fantasy fan then you'll probably still want to play this iteration for the DS.

• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus - A decent iteration of Metal Gear Solid for the PSP.

Game Over

• Seanbaby's Rest of the Crap - Some of the um... less positive aspects of Christmas. Including The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause game for the Game Boy Advance, Elf Bowling: The Movie, Christmas Country for the CD-i, Santa Clause Saves the Earth for the GBA, and Elf: The Movie for the GBA, among other tidbits.

• Retro: WTFiction!? - A look back at Final Fantasy VII's convoluted and somewhat nonsensical story.

• Grudge Match - Assassin's Creed vs. Creed.

• Next Month - Coverage will include Metal Gear Solid 4, Wii Fit, Killzone 2, Halo Wars, Super Mario Galaxy, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Assassin's Creed, Rock Band and more.

and more!

How I Paid for My Haircut, and Much More, In Bitcoin

How I Paid for My Haircut, and Much More, In Bitcoin

How I Paid for My Haircut, and Much More, In Bitcoin

In the early days of Bitcoin, by which I mean only a few years ago, people would dismiss the new currency this way, “Can I use it to pay my local sandwich shop? If not, it is not a money.”

That’s true as stated but trivial. If you don’t have it, or if you have it and can’t find anyone to take it, it is not a money for you. In that same way, I don’t own any Birr, the currency of Ethiopia, and no one I know would take it if I did. Still, it’s a money somewhere.

In some prisons, mackerel cans serve as money. In others, It’s Ramen noodles. Indeed, anything you acquire not to consume but rather to use in future exchange is technically serving a monetary function (that is, it is used for indirect exchange).

It’s a Process

In that same way, Bitcoin has been a money for some people somewhere since October 5, 2009, the date that the first dollar exchange ratio was posted. That it took so long to get to you and me is not a surprise. Carl Menger wrote that this is the way money emerges in a market, gradually, in ever expanding circles based on access and success in doing what money is supposed to do.

Men have been led, with increasing knowledge of their individual interests, each by his own economic interests, without convention, without legal compulsion, nay, even without any regard to the common interest, to exchange goods destined for exchange (their “wares”) for other goods equally destined for exchange, but more saleable.

In other words, there is not some switch in the sky that transforms a non-money into a money. Discovering what goods are saleable is a matter of discovery. There is no obvious and immediate answer, and the answer is always changing. It’s a process that gradually unfolds, as human ingenuity comes up with solutions to practical problems.

It’s been this way with Bitcoin. It was a curiosity. Then an investment. Then a solution for the technically inclined. Then a thing to push harder for wider acceptance. More and more people got involved, and merchants began to accept it. Then the demand grew and grew. Some have proven that you can live off Bitcoin if you are enterprising enough.

Now, keep in mind that cryptocurrency’s main use is not in fact using it at the local sandwich shop. You can do that with dollars, which is probably why it has taken so long for the physical-world market to become friendly to it. There are rarified places that accept it (I have far less trouble spending this stuff abroad) but most places do not.You can get nearly anything with Bitcoin but you may not be able to use it as payment with everyone from whom you want to buy.

Innovation in Money

I’ve not known entirely what to make of these various objections to Bitcoin I’ve heard for years. Are they tossed out as a problem to be solved or as a suggestive proof that there is no such thing as computer-created money that is not based on an existing approved currency? If the point is to debunk it fundamentally, I’m confident that the incredulity will gradually die off.

If the point is to raise an existing limitation (“wallets are not user friendly” etc.), that only speaks to the early point in this period of history in which we find ourselves. The whole point of innovation is to solve problems, and, as we know from the block-size debate, Bitcoin is far from complete.

Let’s consider one problem in particular: allegedly, you can’t use it for a sandwich. Actually, that problem has been solved.

There are many vendors out there but I chose to experiment with BitPay’s Visa card. It’s relatively new and not in broad circulation. Only 24,000 have been issued in the US and foreign nations.

Still, I have to say that it is wonderful. It can do anything that a regular debit card can do. You can buy groceries. You can get a drink at a bar. You can pay for a haircut. You can buy fast food. You can use it to shop online, buying anything from Amazon or eBay. I’ve used it to do all these things without a hitch.

But why bother with this circuitous method when any old credit card will do? Here’s a story to explain. I was at the UPS store to mail a letter and used it. The clerk became really excited when he saw it. It turns out that he loves mining new coins with strange names in hopes that one of them will be a hit. We struck up a wonderful conversation and we both experienced a sense of camaraderie that otherwise would never have existed.

There’s another factor to it also: the sheer fun of it. My goodness, I’m paying for stuff with a money invented by a handful of code monkeys that only a few people on planet earth even believed was possible a decade ago. That factor – downplay it if you want to – is truly underappreciated.

How It Works

How does this thing work? You sign up and get your card and go to the website to fill it up with Bitcoin. That immediately transfers to your use. Now you can carry around spendable Bitcoin.

Now, astute readers will be asking the question: what happens when the value of Bitcoin changes. Does the purchasing power of the debit card change with it? The answer is no. Your dollar value is locked in the moment you pump crypto into the card. Technically, what happens is that you are transferring Bitcoin to BitPay in exchange for which you have dollars to spend at whatever the prevailing rate is. BitPay accepts the downside risk while the user loses the upside benefit. So, yes, technically, you are not exactly spending Bitcoin when you use it. You are spending dollars.

If you prefer to sell Bitcoin at the time of the spending, there are other options such as the Shift card. If you are clever, you can use one card to protect against a falling price and another card to capture a rising price. 

It’s also true that by using such a third-party intermediary, you are giving up a key feature of Bitcoin, which is its peer-to-peer network that allows instant trading between individuals. But don’t blame Bitcoin for this. Government regulations have made it extremely difficult to move between different monetary ecosystems. None of this would be happening if the US Treasury had permitted a free market in monetary exchange instead of imposing egregious regulations.

The beauty of this service is that it makes navigating between dollars and Bitcoin extremely easy and secure. For all the limitations, that alone makes it all worth it for me. Plus, as I mention, it is fun.

From the very beginning of public awareness of this new technology, there has been this expectation that it should be perfect in every way or else it is not valuable. That’s ridiculous. That didn’t happen with railroads, electricity, flight, or the world wide web. Everything has to go through a process of improvement through user feedback and entrepreneurial innovation.

Bitcoin is already money, just not yet a universal money. But you can feel it every day: the promise is there. It is just a matter of time and effort.


Jeffrey A. Tucker


Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also Chief Liberty Officer and founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to the blockchain application builder Factom, and author of five books. He has written 150 introductions to books and many thousands of articles appearing in the scholarly and popular press.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Governments Don’t Give People Rights

Governments Don't Give People Rights

Today’s Quotation of the Day is from pages 22-23 of Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett’s must-read 2016 book, Our Republican Constitution:

If one views We the People as a collection of individuals, a completely different constitutional picture emerges [from the one seen today by “Progressives”]. Because those in government are merely a small subset of the people who serve as their servants or agents, the “just powers” of these servants must be limited to the purpose for which they are delegated. That purpose is not to reflect the people’s will or desire – which in practice means the will or desires of the majority – but to secure the pre-existing rights of We the People, each and every one of us.

Each of us has, throughout our lives, many agents. Some are formal (such as lawyers and realtors) while others are informal (such as the friend who agrees to run an errand for you). These people serve us, and we, in turn and in various ways, serve them – for example, we pay them money for their services.

Importantly, the ‘power’ of each of these agents to act for us is confined to the purpose for which we hire that agent. I delegate to my real-estate agent the power to represent me in selling my home; I do not thereby delegate to her the power to sell my car, to decide how my children are to be educated, or what I may eat for lunch.

Under the American constitutional system, elected officials are agents of the citizens of the politically defined regions from which these officials are elected. These political agents are no more the originating sources of their own powers and duties to represent the citizens who are their principals than, say, is your realtor the originating source of her power and duties to represent you, the person who hired her to sell your house.

Rights pre-exist government. Therefore, even if – as most people believe – government is necessary to help to secure individuals’ rights, government does not create that which it itself is created to help to secure. Your real-estate agent might be necessary to sell your home, but this fact does not thereby make her the source of your home’s value or the owner of your home.

And just as no amount of agreement by other homeowners and realtors to the proposition that your home now belongs by right to your neighborhood makes your home belong by right to your neighborhood, no amount of agreement by fellow citizens and political representatives that your property now belongs by right to the collective makes your property belong by right to the collective.

When any such transfer of ownership occurs – wherever there is any such stripping away of rights from the individuals who possess them – what is really there is a brute exercise of raw power regardless of how gaudy is the philosophy that is used to portray this occurrence as something more profound.

Reprinted from Cafe Hayek.

Donald J. Boudreaux


Donald Boudreaux is a senior fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a Mercatus Center Board Member, a professor of economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University, and a former FEE president.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

The Isgur Portfolio System (DOS, Macintosh, Atari ST)

This ad for the Isgur Portfolio System appeared in the March 1987 issue of Antic. This software is for managing a portfolio and was available on DOS based systems, the Macintosh and the Atari ST. Antic was covering the Atari ST at this point, hence why the ad appeared there.

This kind of productivity software was not as common on the Atari ST or even on the Macintosh as it was on the PC. While each of those machines found their own niche (desktop publishing for the Mac and music and games for the Atari ST) other types of productivity, other than the basics (word processors, etc.) were not that common. It’s not that those machines weren’t capable, it just isn’t why people bought them.

I’m not really familiar with this particular software but Batteries Included, the publisher, was known for making fairly high quality word processors and other productivity software for Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64 and even the Commodore 128. Isgur Portfolio System itself also got good reviews but it just isn’t the sort of thing home users were buying for their Atari ST.