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Level-5: The Biggest Indie Game Developer in the World Invades America

Most stateside gamers have probably never heard of Level-5. If they have, it's more than likely due to the charming and maddening line of Nintendo DS puzzle games, Professor Layton. Some might even remember Dark Cloud and its sequel from the early days of the PlayStation 2, and all eight of you PSP owners in the U.S. might recognize the epic Jeanne d'Arc. These games alone make Level-5 a noteworthy company, but they've quietly surpassed "noteworthy" status to become one of the largest and gre...

News: Has SimCity Been Destroyed for Good?

Yesterday, Electronic Arts had a nice sale on Steam for 40-60 percent off some of their Sims titles, which included The Sims 3 (along with its DLCs) and SimCity 4. I've never been a big Sims fan, especially with the slew of virtual people games in the last decade, so I didn't realize until now that Maxis had stopped making their SimCity games; They haven't released any city building Sim games since SimCity 4 eight years ago. There was SimCity Societies in 2007, but it was made by a different ...

Altruistic Hacking: The Rise of the DIY Radiation Detector

Understandably, the tragedy in Japan has substantially risen the level of worldwide radiation-related hysteria. So much so, as an alternative to stampeding health food stores for iodine tablets, crafty individuals and organizations are hacking together personal radiation detectors. Rather than relying on the government, the creation and modification of handheld Geiger counters provides a self-sufficient solution to today's questions regarding radiation. Profiled below, three admirable organiz...

An App for Stalkers: "Creepy" Geo-Locates Based on Social Networking Activity

With the globally rampant use of such social networking platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, the issue of privacy has become a prevalent concern for many. And for good reason—there's the violation of Facebook employing user names in ads, the Etsy slip-up, and of course, the everyman act of recklessly sharing too much information via common social media outlets: a night of drinking results in morning after embarrassment, or worst case scenario, sloppy Facebook posts and tweets resul...

How To: Patent an Idea (Creating and Selling Your Concepts)

Want to know how to patent an idea, but you just don't know how to go about doing it? It doesn't take a lot of money to get a provisional patent. The real thing you want to know is the process of taking an idea that you have all the way up to getting it patent. I will take you through each step from the beginning when you have that great idea all the way to getting your invention marketed.You Need an Idea (Obviously)Your idea doesn't have to be earth changing. It just needs to be something pe...

How To: Encrypt your Skype Messages to Thwart Snooping Eyes Using Pidgin

Skype is a great service. It allows a free solution for VoIP to VoIP calls, and cheap VoIP to landline calling. However, a very disturbing, little known fact that might push you away from Skype does exist. If you closely read the terms of service agreement, it clearly says that Skype is allowed to decrypt your messages whenever they please. Here at Null Byte, we tend to enjoy our anonymity, don't we?

News: Will Games Ruin Google+ Like They Ruined Facebook?

Last week, Google+ took a crucial step towards becoming exactly like Facebook. As of now, there are games available for download within the service, most notably Angry Birds, which is already available on at least one of the devices owned by everyone in America today. Some of the other popular games include Bejeweled Blitz and Zynga Poker, and out of all of the available titles, all come from four companies that have come to form the four-headed dragon of U.S. casual gaming: EA, Zynga, PopCap...

News: The Brilliant Work of Zeboyd Games Highlights Some Hideous Flaws in XBLIG

Games like Minecraft and Braid have proven that there is money to be made in the indie game marketplace, which means more and more designers are following suit, one being Zeboyd Games. The two-man indie design team released two excellent JRPG spoofs on the Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) Marketplace in 2010: Breath of Death VII ($1) and Cthulhu Saves the World ($3). Both have been well-reviewed and spent time near the top of the XBLIG sales charts, but its success couldn't be rivaled by what wa...

Outland: A Polarizing Experience

Sticking with our theme of XBLA games with uninspiring names, we have Outland. This game shares its name with an unrelated sci-fi cult film from 1981, unrelated comic strip from the '90s, and unrelated region in World of Warcraft. Didn't exactly try hard to build name recognition. Other than that, Finnish developer Housemarque has created the best 2D platformer I've seen in years.

News: Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Microsoft SharePoint is a business management system introduced by MICROSOFT. It has many build in functions to work in web based environment easily. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is released on April 17, 2010. It is introduced with the promise of better performance than its predecessor version for both developers and IT professionals. It is entitled as “Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and The Web”.

How To: Install a drop-down attic stairway

Who needs more storage space? We all do! You may have an untapped gold mine of storage space just over your head, but it is probably too impractical to access. Of course we are referring to your attic, which unfortunately has only a small access door through one of your closets. Every time you need to get into your attic you have to clear out the clothes in the closet and find a stepladder. Maybe it is time to consider a disappearing stairway and put the attic space to good use. (If your atti...

News: Discover the Hidden Micro-Monsters in Your Neighborhood Creeks and Ponds

There is a secret world hidden just beneath the surface of every pond, lake, and stream. Those waters are filled with wails of hideous creates murdering other hideous creatures for food and sport. Beautiful animals like dragonflies and damselflies that you see in the light of day start their lives in this sparse spartan hellscape. Luckily, being giant mammals, we can pluck these creatures from the depths and look at all of their cool behaviors! All you need is a pond, net, and curiosity.

Arduino Air Force: DIY Robotic Cardboard Quadcopters

You're hellbent on taking over the world, but one race of robotic minions isn't enough for you. With your hexapod robots acting as your ground forces, it's only natural to take to the skies. These cardboard quadcopters are the perfect air force for you. Combined, you are mere steps away from starting your evil takeover. Now you just need some water bots. The cardboard flying quadcopters are built around the MultiWii platform with the twin power of Processing and Arduino, so they are actually ...

How To: Find the Minecraft Easter Egg in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This has got to be one of the most clever Easter Eggs I've seen in a long time, especially considering current relations between Mojang (makers of Minecraft), and Bethesda (makers of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout). As seen in the video below, if you go to a certain part of The Throat of the World, the highest point in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you'll find a Notched Pickaxe. For those who don't know, Markus "Notch" Persson is the lead designer of Minecraft, and the head of Mojang.

Fragment 3D: A 3D Point and Click Adventure Game for Android

From The Day of the Tentacle to Syberia, adventure games have come a long way. We now have games developed exclusively for the Google Android platform and iPhone. The newest game is the episodic Fragment 3D, a point and click adventure game focusing on the adventures of a robot who is left to rust in the underworld. You will have to help him escape and help him unearth secrets and conspiracies.

News: What Was the First Adventure Game?

Adventure gamers would love to know what was the first adventure game. Well, it was a 1970s computer game titled "Colossal Cave Adventure", also known as "Adventure". Designed by Will Crowther, the game was in FORTRAN and initially had 700 lines of code and data, which was later expanded to 3,000 lines of code and more than 1000 lines of data.

News: Minecraft, Meet Terraria

Minecraft was first released just a few years ago, but when a paradigm-shifting piece of media comes along the rest of the world is quick to take inspiration from it. The absolutely terrible XBLA knock-off FortressCraft was the first, and last month a much more interesting game called Terraria came out on Steam for $9.99. It is clearly inspired by Minecraft, and there is a long checklist of identical features. It is, nonetheless, a very different product, and just might be called the first in...