Inspired by a love of retro gaming and a fair amount of booze, late one night a clever coder created Pac-Txt, an Infocom-style text adventure version of arcade classic Pac-Man.

Here’s how he explains the genesis of the project:

Well, I had just got back from a party where the concept of a Pac-Man + Zork hybrid came up as a joke. So, being 2am with a little alcohol in my system, I thought it’d be funny to code it up (as far as I could before collapsing).

So, a couple hours later it was looking complete-ish (minus the ghosts’ AIs and graphic assets).

The next morning [read: aftenoon] when I woke up, since I have an inability to realize sunk costs, I decided to throw some crappy AI in for the ghosts, put a few graphics on it (courtesy of FastIcon.com) and voila! A domain name purchase or two later, and here we go.

You just don’t find passion like that every day.

Though it’s good for a chuckle, the game actually isn’t all that fun, since your choices are pretty much limited to “forward,” “backward,” and “eat dot.”

Now, a text adventure version of Frogger, that would be exciting.

Source: Pac-Man, meet Zork via Cnet

Rockstar Games isn’t on the hook for the fact that hackers have removed the censorship filters from the PSP version of Manhunt 2, says Entertainment Software Ratings Board president Patricia Vance. What’s more, she doesn’t believe that the hack would change the game’s rating.

Contrary to some reports… we do not believe these modifications fully restore the product to the version that originally received an AO rating, nor is this a matter of unlocking content.

Well, hey. If restoring the game’s killing sequences to their original unretouched grossness doesn’t raise the game from an M to an AO, Rockstar should totally release a “Director’s Cut” version of the game, don’t you think?

At any rate, Vance says that because Rockstar was totally upfront with the board about the content in the game, they don’t believe that they omitted any required information from their submission.

Source: Ars Technica

When Xbox Live becomes available in India on November 5th, it will offer rentals of 360 games, and educational content, with Video Marketplace content soon to follow.

Thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with Seventymm (India’s version of Netflix), Live subscribers will also be able to rent the latest 360 titles for a set number of days.

“Education specific learning aids for grades 1-12” will also be available, though I’m not quite sure what that means just yet.

Once the Video Marketplace is up and running, users will be able to download pre-released UTV Bollywood films, as well as content related to upcoming films like Hanuman.

Given Microsoft’s spin that the 360 Arcade is for families, might we see educational material show up on Live in North America soon?

I’m personally more interested in that game rental service, though. The guarantee that the title you want would be available, 24/7, is really appealing.

For the last week I’ve been browsing gloomily though the new edition of Gerald North’s “Observing the Moon: The Modern Astronomer’s Guide.”

Gloomily not because the book itself is depressing, but because I don’t have a telescope or camera that will let me take advantage of its instructions. Yet.

For anyone with an inclination towards amateur astronomy, and a few dollars to spend, this book reads like a geeks’ dream.

It’s not light, but it has detailed, clear instructions and explanations covering everything from digital camera’s CCD chips to finding and understanding specific moon formations. A user’s manual to the moon, if you like.

My favorite bit so far is a plug for using sub-$200 webcams to get extraordinary clear lunar images. From the book:

A webcam costing less than a couple of hundred dollars and a computer of post-1998 vintage, perhaps most conveniently a modern laptop, fitted with a USB port, will be enough for you to potentially get nearly diffraction-limited images from your telescope… Add a bit of final image processing and voila: a picture of a planet or small part of the moon that could have astounded even the best amateur or professional astronomers of not that many years ago.

The book is hardcover and pricey, but beautifully illustrated with professional and amateur lunar photos. If you’re a moon buff, and don’t mind the dense style, it’s worth picking up.

If you missed the Nintendo conference because you’re not a member of the media and don’t live in Japan, never fear.

The ever-thoughtful folks at Nintendo have translated the whole thing into English and posted streaming video on their web site.

Tune in to hear Iwata speak as if he is in a bad old dub of a Godzilla movie, and watch videos of the Wii Ware games, Mario Kart, Monster Hunter 3, and everything in between.

It clocks in at about 45 minutes. You can even click through the slideshow that Iwata had behind him.

The largest Whole Foods Market in California opened literally just around the corner from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.

This is great news for CEO Steve Jobs, who is a famous health food nut of the pescetarian variety.

Here’s a little fun fact for my readers: Pescetarian is a vegetarian who will eat fish.

Source: San Jose Mercury News