When I was a lad, I wanted to take my Super Nintendo Entertainment System - or SNES as it’s more commonly known – everywhere I went. I remember when I packed it up for a holiday to France only to be told that I couldn’t bring it. Put it this way – that’s a journey my parents would love to forget.

If only I had the skillZ (that’s right, it deserves a ‘Z’) of one Ben Heck, who obviously had the same issue I had, because he’s only gone and put together a SNES-portable.

According to the man’s blog, Ben started the project at Christmas and has only just completed it. Stripping down the SNES’s parts and putting it all back together in a small handheld sized case, Ben added two internal lithium-polymer batteries, a purpose built cartridge slot, an original SNES D-pad and AV and headphone jacks.

Sure, its no DS but if only Nintendo had done this years ago, I would have made that trip to France better on my folks.

EA’s CEO John Riccitiello has branded most licensed games as “crappy” and says that his company will not publish any more in the future.

“I don’t actually believe EA is in the business of exploiting other people’s licenses with bad quality games,” he said, talking to MTV Multiplayer. “We’ve been there. Most of our competitors are there or have been there. That’s not what we do. We’re not really after that market.”

“My team and our developers know a good game when we see it. The products we’re putting out this year from Hasbro - I don’t know how they’re going to do with Metacritic, but they’re innovative, they’re different.

“We’ve got the first E-rated shooter with our Nerf game. What we’re doing with our Family Game Night, what we’re doing with Littlest Pet Shop - really cool stuff - what we’re doing with Sims really cool stuff.

“It feels like its demographically similar but it’s very highly innovative. I think what redeems our industry is quality, and I think we take a step back every time we take a license and exploit it with a crappy game. That’s not what we’re about.”

EA releases its Hasbro titles later this year, but only time will tell if he EA will stick to their guns.

Zeemote, the Wii Nunchuck style Bluetooth device for mobiles has signed its first handset deal, and will launch it in the Netherlands this week with Sony Ericsson.

Customers who buy Sony Ericssons W760i Walkman handset will get a voucher in the box that is for a free Zeemote. You need to post the voucher off to Holland – why they didn’t just put an online registration number in the box so you didn’t have to wait for ages is a bit odd.

Sony Ericsson have confirmed that two Zeemote-ready games will be embedded in the phone, with 19 more compatible games for sale via the company’s Fun & Downloads portal in Holland.

As you’ll see from the list below, big companies like EA Mobile, Glu and Gameloft are all jumping on the Zeemote bandwagon.

The launch games are:

Brick Breaker Revolution (Digital Chocolate)
Bubble Popper Deluxe (Digital Chocolate)
Burnout (EA Mobile)
Car Jack Streets (I-play)
Cars (Disney)
Ferrari World Championship (Gameloft)
Fight Night Round 3 (EA Mobile)
Galaxy on Fire (Fishlabs)
Gangstar: Crime City (Gameloft)
Heli Strike (Fishlabs)
Moto GP 2008 (I-play)
Need for Speed ProStreet (EA Mobile)
Pac-Man (Namco)
Planet Riders (Fishlabs)
Powerboat Challenge (Fishlabs)
Rally Master Pro (Fishlabs)
Roland Garros 2008 (Gameloft)
Sonic The Hedgehog Part 1 (Glu)
Tetris Blockout (EA Mobile)

Its happened to me before, I’ve put Mario Kart DS in my Nintendo handheld, went on to the WiFi, only to either have no pals, or to play the same guy who kicks my arse every time. Well thankfully, if you need to bolster your friends list somewhat, a new website might be able to help.

OneClick WiFi allows you to exchange your friend codes, so you can get the best out of your DS (and Wii). The site is the usual social networking community we’ve all got to know so it’s pretty accessible. The site’s matchmaking feature is excellent. If you press the ‘Play Now’ button on the site, it matches you up with other gamers online and opens a chatroom for you to discuss the game if you so wish.

Leaderboards are included so now I can see how much I suck, and a challenge system makes you feel even less of a gamer. Online tournaments are advertised so and there is flickr, YouTube and Twitter support, a blog function, groups to join and community forums.

If you are a bit of a billy-no-mates, its well worth a look.

Analyst Michael Pachter has started the Nintendo DS 2 rumour mill, claiming that Nintendo is set to launch a new handheld device at the end of this year.

The Wedbush Morgan executive’s claim follows the financial results from Nintendo released yesterday, which showed a 34 percent rise in profits, but also showed that sales have declined in Japan. He say’s the boom period is over now for DS.

As reported by GamesIndustryBiz, DS sales in the US and Europe still remain strong, and Pachter predicts the majority of the DS’s shipped during the rest of the fiscal year will go to these territories, while Nintendo prepare to launch new hardware in Japan.

“It is likely that DS demand will continue to decline in Japan, and we think that Nintendo has a new handheld device ready for launch in that territory before the end of the calendar year,” said Pachter.“We think that the lion’s share of the expected 28 million DS hardware units shipped during the fiscal year will land in the US and Europe, and we expect to see strong software sales in those territories.”

It has been speculated previously that Nintendo will need to release new hardware once sales of the DS reach their peak, following in the footsteps of Apple, who are always looking to upgrade the hardware of the iPod.

Pachter’s predictions sound feasible, but I’m afraid to say that now we have to play the waiting game

After Activision-Blizzard’s recent acquisition of Sierra/Vivendi, the developer has announced that the company’s assets are to be “realigned or divested”.

Ok, so it doesn’t really tell the whole story, but you can rest assured that there is some serious sweating under the collar of Vivendi studios right now, not to mention that one of mobile gaming’s best developers could be going down the pan, which is a big loss to gamers.

“We are focused on improving efficiency across the combined organisation and are concentrating on businesses where we have leadership positions that are aligned with Activision Publishing’s long-term corporate objectives,” said Activision CEO Mike Griffith.

“We have conducted a thorough review of Vivendi’s brand portfolio and are retaining those franchises and titles that are a strong fit with our long-term product strategy. We are reviewing our options regarding those titles that we will not be publishing.”

Although Activision does great on the portable console front, they don’t seem to care too much about the mobile gaming market, and it looks likely that Vivendi could be up for the chop.

How this would affect the licenses and IP’s now owned by Activision-Blizzard, remains to be seen.

John carmack, founder of id Software, has spoken about his vision for the iPhones potential.

“The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox,” Carmack says. “The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can’t support that yet.”

Id Software has got itself in a good position recently, with id Mobile’s reputation of building system-pushing technologies; it’s an exciting prospect that Carmack sees the Phone as a solid gaming platform.

“We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone,” he continues. “I’m not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force.

“I want to go step by step, where we do a multiplayer game, then multiplayer with some persistence, then maybe further. We don’t want to be in a bet-the-company situation at this moment.”

President of id Mobile, Anna Kang, agrees with Carmack’s perception of the iPhone’s potential.

“If we had an infinite amount of time and budget, we could make an awesome massively multiplayer game,” she says. “But the whole idea of id Mobile is we can make something good, and we can make it quick.”

Nokia has quietly launched a dedicated mobile site to allow you to download the N-Gage client a little easier.

At present there are only two ways to download the client to your phone: either download it on to your PC and side-load it on to your handset, or buy the device with the app pre-installed.

Side-loading was always a pain in the backside, and put a lot of people off, but with this new option, Nokia have perhaps opened the doors a little further.

The new site can be found by typing http://n-gage.mobi/d into your mobile browser.

So, if you’ve got one of the five currently supported handsets - N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 or N95 8GB - head there now to download the client without a PC in sight.

The client is chunky 6.6MB, so you’ll probably want to be on a wi-fi network when downloading it direct to your phone - for both speed and cost reasons.

Brett Seyler from Middleware firm GarageGames has announced that its Torque engine now supports iPhone development for both 2D and 3D games along with other types of applications.

He says the company is responding to “enormous interest” from its existing developer community.

“Game developers want to make games for the iPhone and this is a natural step since we’re already a very good choice for developing OS X games,” says Seyler, who is VP of business development at GarageGames.

“Apple has been great to work with in the past and the very polished iTunes Store as a marketplace for games should encourage developers to continue pushing boundaries on the iPhone without worrying about the usual publishing and distribution difficulties involved in making a successful mobile game.”

With the huge buzz around iPhone apps at the moment, GarageGames certainly won’t be the last company to announce iPhone support, as developers seek to cash in on the popularity of the iPhone 3G and its App Store.

If you have purchased one of the new high-tech televisions then more than likely you are in need of a new TV stand. Whether you are remodeling the whole house, the living room, or just the entertainment center, there are numerous options for you to choose from. If your living room furniture is a very unique color and you want to reproduce that with your TV stand, then it might be best for you to choose a custom-made TV stand. This is also best if your television is larger than normal, or if you simply want to know who is behind the handy work of the piece.
Having a TV stand made to your exact specifications can be affordable, or very expensive. It is all determined by who you hire to make it, as well as the materials used, and the size of the stand. A hand-crafted piece of furniture also has a unique look to it, and will be a great addition to your home. Many people prefer a custom-made or handcrafted stand, so that they know that the quality of the product is superb and that it was made locally.
There are many websites that have free TV stand plans that you can download and give to the carpenter. Other people choose to let the carpenter do their magic and design it from scratch. Cedar is a great option because it does not need to be stained. It can always be stained with a semi-transparent gloss if you want a more modern look. Another benefit of cedar is that it will not attract any bugs and it smells great.
You can also purchase steel kits that will cost around $100. The stands associated with these types of kits are very strong and are available to fit almost any size television. It is easy to assemble the stand, and as long as you have a few simple tools, you can have the stand put together in no time at all. The higher quality kits will not only have a place on the stand for a television, but also a DVD player, a cable box, and DVDs. Some of the stands have glass shelving, depending on the price, which will add a much more modern look to your home. However, if your TV and other accessories are heavier, then shelves made of Plexiglas or another material will be more suitable.
If you decide that you cannot afford a carpenter or a steel kit, then it is very easy to make your own. The plans that were mentioned earlier that you can download off of the web were listed specifically for homeowner wanting a do-it-yourself project. Make sure that you sand the edges of the wood after cutting them so that they are very smooth. Most plans will require you to cut shelf grooves that are about one-half inch deep with a special router or you can do it by hand.
You can purchase shelves from most supply stores and they can be held in place with L-shaped supports. Drill holes in the two main side pieces so that you can stick in dowel pins. The wires from the TV and other accessories can be camouflaged by fastening them down the edges of the shelves and down the back. Make sure that you tack the wires down with a U-shaped tack so that the wires do not get damaged.
There are plenty of options for purchasing a custom-made TV shelf. There are also cheap TV stands out there that have been custom made. Building a custom-made stand will not only be a unique addition to your home, but it will give you relief in knowing where it was made and the quality of the product.