Author: admin

Nintendo needs to get their act together: RELEASE the eStore catalog!

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This week Nintendo simultaneously lost Madden NFL 25 on the Wii U, saw prices slashed again at retailers in the UK, and sent a message to your custoemrs begging them to buy the Wii U. This is getting pathetic.

I had a stack of Wii U’s I was planning on making some money on. They didn’t sell. I’m still sitting on some of them. It seems good to know that in 15 years they’ll be a rare treasure that sells well on eBay, especially in a sealed box! Too bad I’m stuck with these pieces of crap for another 15 years.

I’m thrilled with New Super Mario Bros. U, it’s a fun game. But the system is failing, it’s not a secret. It’s Nintendo’s best online service yet and the eStore is just finally starting to take off. The video above shows games that will be launching on the Wii U’s Virtual Console service. But if Nintendo really wants to keep the Wii U on life support until larger publishers and triple-A title games return to the platform, I know how they can keep it going. Release more Virtual Console games!

Nintendo, I don’t want to import my games from my Wii U. It’s absolutely the right move to allow people to do that. And the upgrade process to Wii U sounds great. But where are the games!? If I could turn on my Wii U tonight, and download a bunch of games, I would jump right on it. Super Mario 64, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Street Fighter, even Gameboy games like Metroid II, or Donkey Kong Land II, and classic NES titles like Mega Man III (my favorite), or Darkwing Duck (also: insert obvious Metroid request) – give all of these games to me, and you’ll make a fortune in a day. It seems too much like they want to drag it out and slowly release more and more content, much the way Xbox Live Arcade works, or other online systems. But if the basic formula is to take an existing, old ROM file, drop it into a wrapper that lets me sett it on my TV and my Wii U Gamepad, and upload it to the eStore… then GET ON IT. Make a splash – give users a compelling users to have this console! You’re floundering too much, and it’s frustrating me to near insanity.

Combinator for Windows Phone

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Combinator for Windows Phone is a great app for getting your tech news. It’s not much more than a series of RSS feeds, and some articles can’t be read from within the app. Still, it gets me the headlines that I don’t see at most other websites. The feeds are selected based on the types of things and companies you would find at Y Combinator.

Y Combinator is a company that started in 2005 that often assists other startup companies with advice and investments. It’s kind of like an episode of Shark Tank, but not terrible. A lot of hackers and tech enthusiasts find their way in to mainstream business by going through Y Combinator, which makes all of these related news very interesting to geeks like me. Download Combinator for Windows Phone and see if it gives you the tech news fix you’re looking for!

How to add the Start Menu back in Windows 8

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People have asked for a while, how to put the Start Menu from Windows 7 back in to Windows 8. Now, if all you’re looking for is a “button” – you’re in luck. There are quite a few rumors that Microsoft’s Windows Blue will bring back the Start Button. But that button simply brings up the Start Screen, not the Start Menu. At least, that’s the going theory right now.

The idea seems to be that people can’t figure out how to get back to the tiles once they’re in the desktop, and finding the desktop in the first place can be kind of difficult. I can attest to that based on the number of searches and reads I get on articles on my website. Even simple things like Shutting Down Windows 8 actually get more than a few reads!

So, what if you want something like the Windows 7 Start Menu? I’ve avoided writing this article for a long time, because I like to force myself to get used to things I don’t like. In the early days of Windows XP, when I still preferred Windows 2000, I famously called the colorful Start Button Windows Crayola Edition. But eventually I get used to each interface. But for those of you who just won’t adjust to Windows 8, there are options. Start 8 from Stardock is an inexpensive ($5.00) program which gives you a full blown Start Menu and the ability to use apps in Windows, etc… Classic Shell by Ivo Beltchev is free, and offers the return of the classic Start Menu, the Windows XP Start Menu, or the Windows 7 Start Menu, as well as other “explorer” features, like showing the full folder path in the Windows Explorer address bar, etc…

I encourage you to check both out and see if something works for you. But me? I’ll be here… using the Start Screen, and waiting to see what Microsoft does with Windows 8.1.