games

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

Ancient Greek Drinking Game Is Reborn

Kottabos involves hurling your wine at a target

(Newser) - What better place to re-create an ancient drinking game than a college campus? A teacher at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and her students kept up an ancient Greek tradition by playing kottabos, a game that involves hurling one's wine from a glass onto a target at the center...

New Bot Plays Perfect Poker: Researchers

Its strategy involves the ability to 'regret' past moves

(Newser) - The world's greatest poker players have a formidable new foe. Scientists have developed a computer program they say plays an effectively perfect game of Fixed-limit Heads-up Texas Hold 'em, the BBC reports. The Cepheus system "can't be beaten with statistical significance within a lifetime of human...

New Tourist Craze: Locked Rooms

From Budapest to New York, it's a bona fide craze

(Newser) - The latest tourist trend comes via Budapest, where visitors are flocking to locked rooms and struggling to get out. Sound weird? Maybe, but the city's 50-odd room-escape games are like video game puzzles where the clues—like a laminated stamp in a metal box, or numbers etched on wrench...

Hit Wedding Gift: A Super-Vulgar Card Game

Cards Against Humanity earns spot on Amazon's most-requested list

(Newser) - Many sample phrases from Cards Against Humanity are too disturbing to print here, yet it's become hugely popular—among couples getting married. The card game was the no. 7 most-requested wedding gift item on Amazon last year, the site has revealed. How does it work? Well, it's a...

Here's a Winning Strategy for Rock-Paper- Scissors

Study shows how you can predict opponents' actions

(Newser) - Thanks to researchers in China, you never have to leave a game of rock-paper-scissors up to chance again. They observed 360 students in 60 groups of six players each; the students played what must have been an exhausting 300 rounds. Perhaps unsurprisingly, players played each move—rock, paper, or scissors—...

1,200 Games Later, America Has New Marbles Champs

Emily Cavacini wins for the girls, Cooper Fisher for the boys

(Newser) - Yesterday saw the completion of the 90th National Marbles Tournament, and America has crowned two new winners. Emily Cavacini, 11, who hails from outside Pittsburgh, took home the title of girls' champion, while Cooper Fisher, 12, from Middletown Valley, Maryland, beat out the other boys, reports the AP . It was...

Angry Birds Won't Tick Off Nokia After All

Rovio will create a version for Windows Phone platform

(Newser) - Good news for Nokia and fans of Angry Birds who use their phones: Game-maker Rovio says it plans to make a version of the new Angry Birds Space for the Windows Phone 7 platform, despite earlier reports to the contrary, notes Mashable . The game sequel launched on iOS and Android...

Dungeons & Dragons Crowdsources New Rules

Wizards of the Coast tries to mend fences after divisive fourth edition

(Newser) - Nerds of the world, grab your d20s, because Dungeons and Dragons needs you. Wizards of the Coast is relaunching its original roleplaying game, and in a bid to win over disaffected fans, it plans to post the rules online for public play-testing, the New York Times reports. D&D has...

Angry Birds Get Happy Over Holidays: 6.5M Downloads

Rovio has a record day on Christmas

(Newser) - At this point, maybe phones should just come preloaded with those ubiquitous birds: Game-maker Rovio reports 6.5 million downloads of various Angry Birds versions on Christmas Day, reports All Things D . Which is impressive not just because it's a record and three times more than last year, notes...

Social Gaming Conquers US

 Social Gaming Conquers US 
56 million and counting

Social Gaming Conquers US

One in five Americans has played; majority are women

(Newser) - Americans love playing video games on social networks—one in five over the age of 6, or 56 million people, have played the likes of Farmville, Mafia Wars, or countless others at least once, says a new study. Like Nintendo's Wii, social game developers are cashing in on the casual...

FarmVille, Mafia Wars Coming to Yahoo

Virtual worlds get a huge new userbase

(Newser) - Fans of FarmVille and Mafia Wars will soon have a huge new virtual world to conquer. Zynga, creator of the Facebook sensations, has struck a deal to make the games available on Yahoo's homepage and games section, reports Mashable . That will give Zynga a new potential userbase of about 600...

10 Board Games Still Fun for Adults

 10 Board Games Still 
 Fun for Adults 
candyland = drinking game!

10 Board Games Still Fun for Adults

Let's be honest, Risk and Monopoly were never for kids anyway

(Newser) - You probably loved board games as a kid—and guess what? Some of them are still fun now. Ten of the best, courtesy of teagueb at LikeMe :
  1. Payday: It never got as popular as the similar LIFE, but it’s even cooler because it’s measured in real time—meaning
...

Iran Launches Islamic Video Games
Iran Launches Islamic
Video Games

Iran Launches Islamic Video Games

(Newser) - Video game developers are in Cologne for one of Europe's biggest gaming conventions, and one booth is standing out: the Iranian National Foundation for Computer Games, which is trying to get a foothold in the West. The games have a decidedly nationalist slant, reports the BBC. One game is a...

New Addictions for Election Junkies

Games and Google Trends, Webisodes and Weaving, there's lots to choose from

(Newser) - With the election finally over, Web-surfing news junkies are in need of a new fix. Slate offers a few ways to fritter away the hours:
  • Follow the financial crisis: Exciting, depressing, full of numbers—the best way to keep that election high going just a little longer. Sites such as
...

Terrible Toy Makeovers
 Terrible Toy Makeovers 
OPINION

Terrible Toy Makeovers

(Newser) - Toy companies keep reinventing our favorite childhood playthings, but the new versions almost never stack up. Babble lists 20 classic toys that didn't need facelifts:
  • Monopoly: Give us our thimble back! The game that taught us to handle money has become an ad for SpongeBob, American Idol and the like.
...

D&amp;D DNA Endures in Digital Era
D&D DNA Endures in Digital Era

D&D DNA Endures in Digital Era

Co-creator's death comes on eve of game's reinvention

(Newser) - Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax valued interaction and innovation above all. He devised the game with friends equally inspired by war games and bedtime stories, starting with tabletop battle re-enactments, then injecting magic and mythology into his creations. Wired visits Wisconsin for a lengthy profile that was in the...

Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dead at 69

Gary Gygax rocked the gaming world

(Newser) - Widely revered Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, regarded as the father of role-playing games, has died at his home in Wisconsin after years of health problems, AP reports. He was 69. Together with Dave Arneson, Gygax created the massively popular medieval fantasy Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 that struck...

'Pong' Inventor Muses on Gaming
'Pong' Inventor Muses on Gaming

'Pong' Inventor Muses on Gaming

(Newser) - Nolan Bushnell, often called the father of electronic games, is still masterminding new ways  to mix technology and entertainment, Electronic Design reports. Fusing his experiences as the inventor of Pong and founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, Bushnell has created uWink, a family restaurant where the tables...

5 Flash Games to Ease You Into the Workweek

Free online offerings get better at helping you waste time

(Newser) - Flash games aren’t just Tetris rip-offs anymore. Online freebies are more innovative and ambitious than ever, GigaOM says, and they include these five must-play distractions:
  • Grow Cube: A quirky, imaginative puzzler that forces you to think ahead and rewards you with nice animations.
  • Warbears: Lead a crack squad of
...

Computers Master Checkers
Computers Master Checkers

Computers Master Checkers

The best outcome human players can hope for against program is a draw

(Newser) - After 18 years of number-crunching, a checkers-playing computer program has conquered the game. Checkers is the most complicated game computers have mastered, Scientific American reports, beating Connect Four by a factor of a million. "I was a bit obsessed," says the lead researcher. "My wife would say...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser