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Gaming History You Should Know – What Happens When Normal People Try VR Films For the First Time May 12, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Gaming History You Should Know, Uncategorized.
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Happy Mother’s Day everyone! Normally we’d focus our Sunday on featuring some great independently produced content on gaming history, but given it’s a special day, we decided to highlight this great video was recently released on gaming’s present, Virtual Reality!

Since becoming a VR Enthusiast, there have been few channels out there more useful to follow than BMFVR. His insight into recent tech releases, games, and hardware news has been a great asset for someone interested in learning quickly about the medium.

Recently, BMFVR posted a video where he demoed the Meta Quest 3 for a bunch of regular people with no VR experience. The results have to be seen to be believed. To someone who hasn’t decided to get a VR headset, let me remind you regardless of what platform you use, this is all possible in VR RIGHT NOW.

As someone who hasn’t stopped using the IMAX and Apple TV applications on their Vision Pro since getting the device, I can totally understand this is just the beginning of what is possible, the future is EVEN MORE exciting.

Mind of Maniac (and Wife) – Should You Wear Vision Pro To a Wedding May 8, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Mind of Maniac, Site Videos.
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We have a special treat for you all today! In today’s video, Maniac is joined by his wife, Princess Angel, to provide two very important thoughts about a recent public event. Since Apple released Vision Pro earlier this year, the world has not made adjustments in polite society for how people should use a wearable computer in public! Recently, a groom was photographed wearing his Vision Pro during his wedding, and the event immediately became an overnight sensation.

However, the people attacking the groom for wearing a Vision Pro during his wedding clearly had no experience with the Vision Pro or how it functioned. Because of that, their attacks on his character were (at best) surface level on his appearance. That’s not a problem for this website, as we actually have a Vision Pro, and can provide a unique insight into the event based upon the public photos that were posted. Due to some very minor naughty words, we’ve restricted this video to 18+.

Ed. Note – All opinions and conclusions shared in the video are protected under the First Amendment.

Japan Travel Tips – Tokyo’s Bookstore Suburb May 7, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Japan Travel Tips, Uncategorized.
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It’s Tuesday, and I’ve got a great Are you a heavy reader or a collector of paperbacks? I’ve got the town for you! Welcome back to Japan Travel Tips, where we highlight some of the biggest independently produced videos on the nation of Japan!

Today we’re going to be highlighting the work of seerasen, an adorable YouTube creator who visited the town of Jimbocho, which isn’t far from Tokyo. It’s a college town known for its bookstores and coffee shops. Using the word “quaint” to describe it seems insufficient. Honestly, it reminded me of the bookstore in one of my favorite films, “Fine, Totally Fine”. Let’s take a closer look:

Now that international travel has opened up we’ve cut back on featuring our travel tips as a major staple of the website, but we will likely continue to highlight unique or insightful videos about the country as time goes on. Please post a comment below if you have any thoughts about future videos we should be highlighting!

Gaming History You Should Know – The History of The Oregon Trail May 5, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Gaming History You Should Know, Uncategorized.
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Like most of my generation, my elementary school offered a computer lab full of Apple II and Mac computers. This would give me my first exposure to edutainment games like Super Solvers Outnumbered and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego. However, the school offered one more edutainment title only a few of us may remember, and it was called The Oregon Trail.

Named after the famous historical migration, The Oregon Trail was an early life simulator which put the player in control of a group of settlers eager to cross the untamed United States in search of a better life on the West Coast. The game was a lot different than others of the time, but the functions were easy enough to follow that my peers and I were able to pick up and play. We may have died…a lot, but we left irrecoverable landmarks of our progress for future players to find in the form of our player-scripted trail side tombstones.

How did such a strange game get made? Why do we remember it so many years later? In what may very well be the final episode of The Gaming Historian, they highlighted the history of this groundbreaking game. Take a look!

Did you make it to the end of the trail? Post a comment below with your memories.

The Oregon Trail is out on multiple platforms.

Super Nintendo World Revealed For Universal Studios Orlando’s Epic Universe May 2, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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The day I’ve waited nearly all my life felt a lot closer earlier this morning. Universal Studios Orlando Resort is planning to open its next major theme park next year. To anchor this new park is a complete adaptation of Super Nintendo World, a theme park land that made an enormous impact when it opened in Japan several years ago.

What can fans of Universal Studios Japan expect to see come to Epic Universe? Orlando is getting ALL of it and more! Let’s take a look:

Universal’s Epic Universe is opening in 2025 in Orlando, Florida.

Tales from IT – What Certified Refurbished REALLY Means April 30, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Site Videos, Tales from IT.
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Want to save five dollars and get a computer that could theoretically be a hundred times slower than its slightly more expensive counterpart? It’s a PC, they’re all the same aren’t they? Welcome to Tales From IT, where we share the occasional cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t listen to your IT (and the cost associated with it).

If you’re unfamiliar with “Certified Refurbished” PCs, they are PCs made up of older components that cost just a little bit less than a brand new one and are SOOO much slower! So why should you get one if you’re not planning to run legacy software on it? I don’t know. Here’s a story about a client of mine who wanted to save the five bucks. Decide for yourself if it was worth it.

A Gamer Reviews a Car – Toyota 2024 RAV4 Hybrid XLE Review April 25, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Reviews, Site Videos.
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In what is our first, and most likely ONLY review of an actual vehicle, today we’re going to take a look at the Toyota 2024 RAV4 XLE Hybrid. Now, as a gamer, our needs in a car goes way beyond what can be expected by the common man, especially since we expect to spend most of our time using it stuck in traffic. Because of that, we were more interested in the car’s technological features, such as charging capabilities and CarPlay support, instead of (to us) unimportant things like horsepower.

The video for the following review was recorded with a hands free camera. All driving was done by a licensed driver.

Meta Announces their Virtual Reality OS Will Come to Non-Quest Headsets April 22, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Huge announcement from Meta tonight and we don’t say that lightly. Meta has opened up the native operating system powering their Quest line of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets to outside hardware developers! They’re now calling the OS powering modern Quest headsets HorizonOS. This is a big deal as Third-Party Virtual Reality headsets powered by HorizonOS have already been announced by at least three major manufacturers including ROG.

As a Quest Pro owner I am very familiar with this platform’s OS and have been pleased by its development over the past two or so years. It will be interesting to see the VR market within the next year once HorizonOS powered headsets come out. We’ve always felt that for VR to work, it has to be able to do its functions and computing independently of a PC. The HorizonOS can deliver on that promise.

The question will remain, can these third-party headsets run the library of Quest 2/3/Pro games currently for sale on the Quest store once they launch? Time will have to tell!

Alan Wake 2 Behind the Scenes Stream – Episode 0 April 18, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Alan Wake 2 was one of our most anticipated multiplatform titles from last year. It was a sequel to one of the best games of the past decade, and was developed by Remedy, one of our favorite game studios. Remedy had always planned to make a follow-up to the game, but the major publishers of the time dragged their feet in allowing Remedy to produce a sequel, despite the fact there were multiple false starts.

Now, Remedy has started a multi-part streaming event highlighting Alan Wake 2’s development, and Remedy launched the first episode of that show earlier this week. If you missed the live event, the episode has been archived on YouTube, check it out below!

Another episode is expected to start soon.

Alan Wake 2 is out now for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

Nintendo Switch Indie World Showcase April 2024 April 18, 2024

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Nintendo hosted a new preview event yesterday where they showcased some of the upcoming third-party developed titles coming to the Nintendo Switch. As is traditional for these Indie World events, Nintendo didn’t show any of their upcoming first-party titles, but there were still plenty of high-quality upcoming games.

All games shown are coming to the Nintendo Switch.