Retro Games Find New Life

A sense of deja vu permeates this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo here, as video and PC game publishers show off titles that pay homage to the past.



That's not the ancient past, but rather more recent history. (Although Activision's sword-and-sandal-themed "Rome: Total War" does seem well timed with the debut of the film epic Troy.) Ubisoft, for example, is announcing "The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee," a game based on the hit 1980s TV series. Another new title is based on the Rocky film series.

And Vivendi-Universal's Sierra Entertainment is bringing back the old Leisure Suit Larry franchise for the first time in ten years with "Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude," which follows the hapless woman-chaser's nephew, an equally hapless college student, as he tries to score with animated chicks.

One of the stranger titles with a nostalgic feel is "Playboy Mansion," a Sims-like video game in which players get to be Hugh Hefner, living in the West Los Angeles mansion and creating a media empire. The game features a Hef-like character, complete with signature smoking jacket.



Although sequels are nothing new in the video game business, this year's show seems to be dominated by a bumper crop of them, including some long-awaited titles.

Id Software, the creators of such classic first-person shooters as "Castle Wolfenstein" and "Quake," is revisiting its Doom series for the first time in a decade. "Doom 3" takes advantage of improvements in PC graphics with sophisticated lighting and textures; the game will also make its debut onto Microsoft's Xbox. Activision, which distributes Id games, is also preparing "Shrek 2" and "Spiderman 2."

UbiSoft is showing "Myst 4," the latest installment in the popular adventure series. In addition to the signature beautiful surreal landscapes, the game introduces new features. For example, players can now keep journals with photographs of locations they've visited.

Electronic Arts' roster includes "The Sims 2," "Battlefield 2," "Black and White 2," "Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault," and the usual gaggle of film-sequel spinoffs including "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and two new "Lord of the Rings" games (one for PCs and one for consoles). Blizzard is continuing two of its popular lines with the release of "World of Warcraft" and "Starcraft: Ghost." UbiSoft showcased the sequel to "Prince of Persia" at the show.



"Gladius," a Sony PlayStation 2 game scheduled for release in September, is Konami's look back to the future. The 2D side-scrolling space shooting game looks and plays almost exactly like the classic 1980s and '90s "Gladius" arcade games. It offers a few concessions to modern times, such as two-player simultaneous combat and somewhat less pixelated graphics than you'd have seen in the mid-1990s.

In "Athens 2004," Sony has picked up the first Official Game of the 2004 Olympics honors and turned around a well-polished recreation of "Decathlon," the late-80s arcade classic. The nod to the future of both gaming and fitness is clear here: Instead of "running" by rapidly hitting buttons, you literally run in place on a 4-by-4-foot dance pad.

Surely all this nostalgia isn't attributable to Activision celebrating its 25th anniversary.

2007 and will stop production on behalf

According to the Main Board companies, Intel E1000 family in the Pentium was launched in early estimates for the first quarter, have been able to account for about 1% of the overall output of desktop processors. Pentium 4 was due to begin the first quarter of 2007 inventory, Pentium E1000 quarter is expected only time will be able to quickly replace the Pentium 4. and account for about 2% of total desktop processors shipped. In addition, the third quarter of 2007 Celeron 400 family will be introduced [Netburst micro-structure of the remaining 300 Celeron family. will be replaced before the end of 2007. Intel is expected before the end of 2007 and will stop production on behalf of all the micro-structure of products, Netburst times to come to an end.

Pentium 4 product line

In addition, The third quarter will be retained for the introduction of lower specifications Conroe-L also named 400 Celeron family. Intel desktop processor based on the latest development blueprint Conroe-L Core micro-structure of single-core processors using 65nm manufacturing process. E1000 Pentium family of the second quarter will be introduced to replace the existing 500 and 600 Pentium 4 product line. debut will have three different models, including the E1020 1.4 GHz wavelength. 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz E1040 of the E1040. core has 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB frequentness speed of maximum TDP of 65W. Conroe-L third quarter of the core will introduce a low-end version of Celeron 400 family, Though no details released product line, and I only know that the core L2 cache will be reduced to 512 KB full. frequentness 533MHz FSB has also been reduced, the maximum TDP of 65W.

Pentium brand name extension monocytes exposed version Rou

According to Taiwan's main board manufacturers pointed out that Intel's famous Pentium brand will continue, in the second quarter of 2007 Conroe-L releases new single-core processors. named Pentium E1000 series In addition Conroe-L core will be launched in the third quarter of 2007 more low-end version, Celeron 400 series models were named. According to the Main Board manufacturers said that the original intention of Intel's mobile platforms transplant method of naming to the table and plan Conroe-L named Core 2 Solo. But the growing popularity of the two core products, types of "Solo" might give many users have psychological resistance. Intel after careful thought, The decision continues known brands in the desktop Pentium single core product lines.

Empire try to pre-empt the report

"Stay cool! " MX440 into the 3-definition !3 generation chip strategies Empire" "RTS immortal role! Recalling the history of the "Empire" brilliant " Today, we will focus on the contents of the tests are old cards will be installed under the hot consumer market, AMD Sempron 2500 + was launched on the AGP-frequency service. MX400 and 9550 to see this as the "old guys" who can continue to play Heat!

Empire try to pre-empt the report

"Stay cool! " MX440 into the 3-definition !3 generation chip strategies Empire" "RTS immortal role! Recalling the history of the "Empire" brilliant " Today, we will focus on the contents of the tests are old cards will be installed under the hot consumer market, AMD Sempron 2500 + was launched on the AGP-frequency service. MX400 and 9550 to see this as the "old guys" who can continue to play Heat!

Old planes cool! 4, the distribution of new and old combat Empire 3

And all those who are concerned about the "imperialist era - 3 Like the players, POP House Xiaobian devoted to the greatest enthusiasm in the same game. Crown try in the second day after we launched the release version of the exquisite "Empire-3 thematic stalls To provide the most comprehensive, rich game-related content. Empire-3 hemosiderosis feature [click access to Empire-3 in the topic Taotie meal, we will continue to enjoy in the game-definition contrast, Recalling the game completely, display card performance test, CPU performance test, memory test performance, low-end analytic engine optimized distribution of the Guide and other content. Following is the content of the article has launched some new friends can be certain not to miss!