Tech Olive

On this day, September 13th, the world changed. Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan, marking the beginning of a legacy. Who knew that such a character like Mario would be the face of video games? There really are no words to describe this monumental occasion, so to celebrate the 25th birthday of this awesome video game, we’re going to participate in a 25-minute round of applause, followed by a 25-minute moment of silence.

Happy 25th Birthday, Super Mario Bros.!

If you’re one of the many that were upset when EA decided to discontinue their Madden NFL series for the PC back in 2008 (raises hand), then this is for you! While we would’ve liked to see this launched a little earlier rather than on opening weekend, QuickHit Football has launched a new browser-based version of their game that initially released last year, but this time it’s equipped with an official NFL license. So now we get real teams and players rather than fictional ones.

While you can play the game completely for free, you can grab a Pro membership which gives you more in-game cash and coaching points and also eliminates those pesky ads. You can sign up for $5.95 on a monthly basis, $29.99 on a twice-a-year basis, or $47.99 on a yearly basis. Pro members also get support for full 3D graphics (compared to the boring default top-down 2D) thanks to the Unity engine. If you’re not a Pro member, you can still get the 3D version for a one-time fee of $14.95. (Screenshot sample above)

[QuickHit Blog]

The Bargain Bin is a weekly feature that helps out gamers in the tough economy. How does it help? Once a week, it offers a great and cheap game ($10 or less) to keep you going until your next paycheck.

This week, The Bargain Bin brings you a great indie game at an even better price. Crayon Physics Deluxe, while not a new game by any means, is still a fantastic and unique indie game that managed to win IGF 2008. Instead of our usual format here, I’ll just link you to our (almost two-year-old) review of the game and leave you to decide if it’s worth your $6.00 or not.

If you decide that it is worth your time and money, then head over to Direct2Drive and get the game!

The past week’s best news and featured content…

I Could Eat: Reese’s Fast Break
- BOOM! New feature, everybody! You may be asking, “why don’t you have a life?”, but that’s irrelevant. So instead, the question I’ll answer here is, “why do you waste your awesome skills on writing for us peasants?” Well, fair readers, I’ve found that Tech Olive is the perfect excuse to avoid any social situation by simply saying, “sorry, I’ve got writing to do.” This simply translates to, ”that party sounds like crap. I’d rather stay home and frag people online.”

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Via the official L4D blog, Valve has given us the release date for part one of four upcoming Left 4 Dead comics that will tie the two games’ survivors together and prepare the way for the upcoming DLC, The Sacrifice.

“This Tuesday [Sep. 14th] we will begin releasing the comic that leads up to the Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 DLC “The Sacrifice”. Tuesday will be the first of four parts.”

[L4D Blog]

BOOM! New feature, everybody! You may be asking, “why don’t you have a life?”, but that’s irrelevant. So instead, the question I’ll answer here is, “why do you waste your awesome skills on writing for us peasants?” Well, fair readers, I’ve found that Tech Olive is the perfect excuse to avoid any social situation by simply saying, “sorry, I’ve got writing to do.” This simply translates to, ”that party sounds like crap. I’d rather stay home and frag people online.”

Where am I going with this? Well, I was sitting in front of my PC the other day wondering how I could make my life more awesome as I took another bite of whatever sugary substance my hand was grasping. Then it hit me! If I write about food, then I’ve got solid excuses to play video games and eat snacks. Needless to say, “I Could Eat” was born.

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PC gamers get to play the waiting game once again thanks to Ubisoft. In a post on their official forums, Ubisoft confirmed that the PC release of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is being delayed into Q1 2011, while console release dates remain unchanged.

“Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is scheduled to release on November 18th 2010 on Xbox 360 and PS3. It will be available on PC in Q1 2011.”

However, there is a small glimmer of hope with a note at the end of the forum post stating that these release dates are for UK retailers and that other regions may vary. It’s unlikely, but perhaps the US’s PC release remains delay-free? We can only hope.

via [Shack News]

Flash Game Friday is a weekly feature that provides gamers with (uh…duh) a free, browser-based flash game. You may have played it before and you may have not, but it’s always worth checking out. We’ll be bringing you the latest, time-wasting, challenging, lose-sleep-into-the-wee-hours type of flash games.

After shamefully missing last week’s Flash Game Friday, we return this week with our tail between our legs. We would beg for your forgiveness, but we simply don’t care have an article to write! This week we bring you a truly fantastic experiment in creating a completely dynamic point-and-click adventure game.

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Reader Vinobrillo asks:

Edited so that you can understand and read it (we’re guessing he doesn’t speak much English or his grammar just isn’t there. Then again, this is the Internet. Nothing personal, dude!)

“Hello guys, I’d like to know a few details. Please help me with it. I have three 1TB and one 2TB external HDDs. I use them for movies and songs. I want a device in which I can connect all of these drives and access them via wireless with my laptop and to my Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ for my big screen. How can I do this? Is there any hardware available?”

Yes, there is hardware available. We’d recommend getting a PogoPlug device. They’ll run you around $100, but it’s dead simple to set up and just plain easy to use. It also has the four USB ports you’ll need for all of your external drives. Basically, the device plugs into your router via Ethernet. Then you simply mount the PogoPlug drive to all of your computers and you can access all of your external drives just like if they were plugged in right there.

As far as streaming to your FAT+ wirelessly, you’ll need the USB wireless adapter for the FAT+. Seagate features them on their website, but they don’t seem to be in stock at the moment. You might try eBay or some third-party vendors that might have them in stock.

Any of you guys have any suggestions? Add them in the comments!

Need for Speed World has been technically free-to-play since its release, but gamers that did not pay an extra $10 would be capped at level 10 while paying gamers could level all the way up to level 50. EA went on to explain that they’re also expanding the game ever further:

“In the next weeks and months we have some great new features coming including new cars, deep performance customization, a new world region and a co-op pursuit mode.”

If you’re one of the gamers that purchased a $10 “Starter Pack” then worry not, you’ve not been forgotten. Everyone that paid for the game will be getting three one-week rentals of special highly modified cars as a thank you. I don’t know about you guys, but this is good enough news to get me back into the game, for a little while at least.

[Blog Post]