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Games Entertainment

Gaming on the IMAX 186

Posted by CmdrTaco from the who-can-complain-about-that dept.
JavaTenor writes "The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA, is holding the 1st Annual MaxGames tournament on August 15, 2002. The final matches for each game will be held on the IMAX Dome screen, so if you've ever wanted to play Halo eight stories high, this is the event for you."
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Gaming on the IMAX More

Gaming on the IMAX

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  • finally it pays off! (Score:3)

    by edrugtrader ( 442064 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:29PM (#3905485) Homepage
    i knew i didn't pay $2000/month rent living a block away from this thing for nothing!

    personally, i would rather play a god type game with that perspective... GTA, Warcraft 3, etc.

  • Halo 8 Stories High (Score:5, Funny)

    by tealover ( 187148 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:29PM (#3905488)
    If you want to play Halo 8 stories high, all you have to do is stack up 8 Xboxes. ;)

    • Or get an apartment on the 8th floor
    • Hey, wouldn't that be a beowolf clust.... er, nm.
    • That's nothing. I play Halo on the 10th floor all the time
    • Screw Halo! Imagine playing PONG on this thing!

      • Screw Halo! Imagine playing PONG on this thing

        You may laugh, but that sure brought back a memory. Back in 1981 I was in college and working at the student union setting up for a concert later that evening when one of the building's directors wheels in this big, bulky thing and starts to roll down the 20-foot diagonal movie screen. Come to find out it was a new projection TV system. (Films were popular on campus, so the thinking was why not project videos, too?)

        A lightbulb went off and I asked "What does it use for inputs?"

        "Basically any NTSC source; there's antenna connections and RCA jacks."

        Within 15 minutes' time, I'd hooked up my Atari 800 (*) to the projector and to the concert sound system (1000 Watts!) and started Star Raiders(**). The explosions were deafening, and when I launched into hyperspace, it sounded like a jet was taking off in the student union! Got to play for almost an hour until some students complained they couldn't study.

        (*) That was a 6502 (8-bit) system. IIRC it ran at 2 MHz; had 8 KB of memory; display was in color and capable of 12 rows of 40 characters. It was pretty advanced at the time!

        (**) Star Raiders was a killer app of the time. Many people bought an Atari 800 (or 400) just so they could play it! It was certainly a big factor in my decision.

        • And you brought back my memory...

          Very similar, in High School, we had a projector that was in the Auditorium where we'd have study halls etc. Well, seeing as a few friends were going in over the weekend for play practice, we decided to show up early, and throw around some Street Fighter 2 on the big screen.

          I was definitely in awe. Even though it was pixellated, and a little dim (not the best equipment, even for it's day), having Ryu and Ken as tall as 2 humans was sweet!

  • :O! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    they ripped this off The Wizard!!

    • Re::O! (Score:3, Funny)

      by colmore ( 56499 )
      presenting.... MARIO 3!!!

      a new game, they can't do that!!!

      • Re::O! (Score:3, Funny)

        by IIRCAFAIKIANAL ( 572786 )
        The funny thing about the movie was when the girl was telling the kid what to do when he played - like she would really know where the damn warp whistle was ....

        shit, I can't believe I remember that movie
        • "Keep your Power Glove off of my girl" ...or something like that...
          • The only thing I remember was the guy actually using the glove and not sucking at the game (I think it was a racing game). That really impressed me because whenever I used the glove (my friend had it, so it wasn't very often) I completely sucked at the game. It just wasn't a very accurate controller for me.

        • The funny thing about the movie [The Wizard] was when the girl was telling the kid what to do when he played [a beta version of Super Mario Bros. 3]

          She says: "Find a warp!" There were warp zones in the first three Super Mario Bros. games (SMB 1, SMB 2: The Lost Levels, and SMB 2: Mario Madness).

          like she would really know where the damn warp whistle was ....

          She says: "Use the flute!" Jimmy played a metric buttload of NES games to prepare for the competition. The puzzles in those games typically fell into cliché patterns [everything2.com]. It's not likely that he never touched Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, which included warp whistles that even played the same tune.

          What ticked me off with respect to the final round of that movie was how Jimmy got points just for warping to world 4 Giant Land. None of the Super Mario Bros. games give you points for warping. And the game didn't seem to have the concentration game yet. SMB 3 gives the player a concentration game (called "N-spade" by some players) after every 80,000 points; Jimmy finished with 81,520. Yes, I'm sick enough to remember that.

          • If i remember right the game was not complete yet for the filiming of the movie. The movie was actually billed as providing a sneak peak at the newest mario game.

            I would not be surprised if the thing was still in beta when they filmed it.
    • What a great movie [imdb.com]. (Or, was it a sucky movie, viewed from the eyes of a 11 year old, who loved Nintendo? One or the other....)

  • I prefer PS/2 on my Sony 61" projection TV coupled with a serious surround sound system and a couple of blunts and bumps.... Nothing beat that ;-)
  • I want to play Dead or Alive 3 on this... nothing like seeing chicks in super high res ;-)
  • I saw an IMAX movie about Kilimanjaro in the Natural History museum.. it looked great when they were in the rain forests and stuff, but after a while it became so boring that I literally fell asleep.
    • Funny you should say that, I've never not fallen asleep in an IMAX film. To the best of my recollections, that's 4 times. I don't know what it is, but IMAX puts me to sleep every time. One would hope it's not boredom...

      -J

      • Only because the people making the iMAX films are so stuck on showing you the wonderful beauty of thier film technology they completly forget to make it interesting.

        The only good iMAX films I ever saw were ones made by NASA for the iMAX at KSC.
        • I used to work at the Ontario Place tourist trap and would spend lunch watching the movies in the first IMAX theatre in the world.

          Without a doubt the older movies are far better then the current efforts. The first IMAX filmmakers had a whole new canvas to draw on and used their abilities to the fullest.

          The very first IMAX film was basically a travalogue for Northern Ontario which isn't a place you'd normally go. (Too many mosquitos and not much else) But the makers of "North of Superior" made it visually spectacular with a great soundtrack and an eye for the small details of northern life that translated so well to the large screen.

          It was a big kick watching it in a retrospective years later and seeing the same gasping reaction from the audience to the opening sequence...

          The little opening titles transitioning to a small square in the middle of the screen with what looks like rushing water behind and a soft folksy acoustic guitar soundtrack that fades out.

          Then...

          BOOOM! The picture blasts out to fill your entire field of view and you find yourself in a plane skimming fast over a northern lake. Soaring up and banking to the left you fly towards sheer cliffs just missing the edge then violently bank to the right and dive down the other side of the ridge.

          Absolute fscking magic.

      • Re:IMAX... (Score:3, Funny)

        by caferace ( 442 )
        Perhaps it's because they're usually, on average only about an hour long. Even *I can stay awake for an hour of boredom.

        Heck, I proved that in a meeting just this morning.

  • Resolution... (Score:5, Informative)

    by sterno ( 16320 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:36PM (#3905517) Homepage
    WOW! What an amazing way to illustrate what low fidelity images are provided on your television than to blow them up onto the IMAX screen :)

    I think IMAX is really cool, but things not designed to play on an IMAX screen don't necessarily translate well. The IMAX screen over at Navy Pier in Chicago does showings of various non-imax movies during weekends at midnight. So, some friends of mine and I went to see the Matrix there.

    The problem is that it was filmed for being shown in a normal theater. So all of the quick cuts are just totally overwhelming on that screen. Furthermore, the images end up being rather grainy because the scale is so much bigger than is natual. And if you happen to see it on a dome IMAX, then you've got that as another impact on it. The sound was awesome, but man it's hard to watch.

    • i wouldn't be surprised if these systems could be modded somehow or use additional anti-aliasing devices for the show to go to up to 2000px+ resolutions. roughly 3 or 4 megapixel, i think that could scale pretty well for a flat imax screen.... they really didn't describe the setup much, but i think its safe to say it will be playable.

      i have an 800x600 (might even be 640x480 i forget) projector at home and it scalls to 20' diagonal very playably...
      • (* i wouldn't be surprised if these systems could be modded somehow or use additional anti-aliasing devices for the show to go to up to 2000px+ resolutions. *)

        Anti-aliasing would probably make a notice-able blur, or whatever side-effects it has will be magnified. Anti-aliasing cannot tell the differences betwen lines that are supposed to be de-jaggied and those which really do represent sharp edges or angles. It takes a human do to that right.

        Why not just do it in a regular theater? Imax is overkill for real-time computer-generated images. Sounds like the size is about hype and not an experience-enhancer.

    • I think IMAX is really cool, but things not designed to play on an IMAX screen don't necessarily translate well. The IMAX screen over at Navy Pier in Chicago does showings of various non-imax movies during weekends at midnight. So, some friends of mine and I went to see the Matrix there.

      First "regular" movie I saw on an IMAX was Hannibal when they were showing it on the IMAX at the Metreon [metreon.com] in San Francisco (durring Hannibal's opening week). I was kinda surprised when the ticket ripping guy told us to go to the IMAX theater, and kinda wondered how it would work on the gigundo screen. Worked out pretty well IMHO. It didn't appear grainy or anything. The only problem was that since we got there late and had to sit near the front, it was difficult to focus on the whole screen. Also I noticed that they did only filled about 3/4ths of the screen. Still, when I went to see it again on a regular screen (what can I say, I liked Hannibal) it just didn't compare. I'm surprised that places with IMAXes don't show regular run movies more often.

      • It's more common than you think. Out here in the East Bay, there is a theater that pretty much always runs a couple of shows per week of the most popular movie on the IMAX screen. So far this year I've seen LOTR, Spiderman and AOTC in "IMAX".

        IIRC they scale the movie so that it spans the whole screen horizontally, leaving a black band at the top and bottom. Sort of like TV letterboxing.

      • Re:Resolution... (Score:3, Informative)

        by EvanED ( 569694 )
        IMAX has also devoloped a way (they call it DMR) to take scans of prints of 35mm movies and scale them to 70mm, guessing what's in between. Apollo 13 is the first to recieve this treatment.

    • you are right (Score:4, Informative)

      by lingqi ( 577227 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @07:51PM (#3905814) Journal
      IMAX uses special film to get the high res thing going.

      check it out here [howstuffworks.com].

      anyway -- playing games on that would be rediculously hard. the point of IMAX is so that your entire peripheral vision is occupied. except that in games etc, the part of the screen which is now at the far end of your p.vision actually conveys important information... so i would imagine this won't come out too well.

      but it's all about the bragging rights afterall, i guess.

      • Quake does some creative drawing with this as well. I was at a job and we had a Vision Dome (too lazy to pull link) that was a small scale imax style dome out in front.

        We loaded quake, and it has the 180 degree profile and we were very surprised to see objects that weren't displayed on screen being displayed. All we did was tweak the GL viewport to get the display going. So.. Quake wouldn't work. Never know.. Halo may have perspective ratios setup for that.
      • Precisely.
        I have a 23" viewable monitor, that due to my cramped computer area, is only about 18" from my nose while playing.
        Aside from giving me a nice tan, I get waxed in shooter games because it doesn't give me any MORE peripheral vision, it just puts the same FOV out the edges of my REAL FOV - arguably, this is more realistic, except that shooters are generally tunnel-vison 90 degree FOV anyway.
    • Yes, I too have found out the hard way that you must sit towards the BACK at IMAX flicks, but the sound can't be beat and there's no better way to immerse yourself completely in a flick.

      For folks in the LA area, the IMAX at Universal CityWalk shows visually spectacular movie releases on each weekend (so far I've seen the Matrix, Gladiator, Final Fantasy, Crouching Tiger, and Spiderman there) but don't go unless you are willing to deal with all the tourists and $6 parking fee.

  • Halo 8 stories high (Score:3, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:36PM (#3905518) Homepage Journal
    Halo 8 stories high...a 30 foot soldier running around trying to figure out how to aim.
  • My experiences with IMAX movies have so far been a little disappointing. So far they come across as slow 20 minute documentaries intermixed with a few seconds of truly impressive, IMAX-exploiting, gut-wrenching fun. Show me the cool stuff! Mess with my head! Let me 'feel' like I'm doing something I wouldn't do in real life!

    Maybe if the IMAX theaters are opening up to allow such 'adolescent' activities such as a video game competition, they'll start to broaden their selection of movies and relax their conservative death grip.

    We can always hope anyway.

    • Re:A start.. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Buck2 ( 50253 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:53PM (#3905617) Homepage
      Having grown up near the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park in San Diego, I saw many movies filmed in IMAX ...

      Because of this I am absolutely positive that you could collect a full day's worth of complete "documentaries" that were not much more than a collection of helicopter/plane flights for no real reason other than to induce vertigo.

      One documentary I know my whole family jumped at the chance to see was entitled "Speed". If I remember correctly, the first five minutes or so were computer generated tunnels which, of course, got faster and faster until people were practically passing out in their seats. They had cockpit footage in formula racers, jets, land-speed-record type vehicles, etc.

      The most thrilling scene I ever saw in an IMAX documentary was the escape procedure taken by astronauts in case of a critical emergency on the launch pad. It involved strapping onto a line that's connected somewhere around the top of the shuttle and then zipping along into a net at ground level. It was completely unexpected in a fascinating documentary primarily dominated by shots of Earth from space.

      Of course, none of this tops when I got a little older and started going to watch the midnight Led Zeppelin laser shows baked out of my mind, though. So I wouldn't worry about at least that theater allowing more adolescent activities. I mean ... a midnight Led Zeppelin laser show, what do you expect?
      • I saw that IMAX film at the space center in Huntsville. The screen there was even bigger than a regular IMAX. It was great, it made you feel like you were actually going down that rope.

        The last IMAX film was kinda slow and boring. It was something about caves. Why can't they put interesting MOVIES in IMAX format? It would be cool if they had filmed like the Matrix 2 in 35mm AND the IMAX format.
      • I grew up in Toronto, home of IMAX.

        I saw the very first and subsequent 30+ IMAX films long before it became a common fixture at the local cineplex. (We're talking the 70's here)

        There may be a bit of nostalgia but I recall the earlier films being FAR more entertaining than the current product.

        "Siegfried and Roy"? Please.

        "North of Superior" the first, remains my favourite. A mix of dynamic plane and helicopter shots with slow, almost lyric scenes from the North. The kids playing hockey on a snow-coverted street at twilight. The view from a tugboat pulling away from an ice-covered laker.

        Last year we were able to watch "Silent Sky" which, while a bit repetitive, remains one of the most outstanding examples of aerial cinema ever produced.

        And, although I've seen most of the Shuttle-filmed features, it was the docking scene in "Mission to Mir" that had me sitting there with my mouth hanging open. I haven't seen "Space Station" yet, though...

        "If you live in the past, you are already repeating it." - Me.
    • I saw a cheesy ass Dino movie on an IMAX down in Australia. The writing was dumb and the computer animation was mediochre. However, what blew my mind was that they did it with stereoscopic vision.

      Let me tell you something: Stereo vision + high res 70 mm film + round screen that provides peripheral vision = wow!

      As I said, the movie visuals sucked. However, in the beginning (before they tried to get to the crappy plot) they had a camera dollying over an area of Canada where they were excavating fossils. The effect was startling because the stereo + high res film depicting a real place was ... cool! It was nearly as clear as my own memories of visiting places like that in Utah. For a moment I thought I was having a flashback. Heh. Too bad it wasn't a 20 minute movie about roaming around Canada instead of a poorly written Jurassic Park wannabee.
  • Even at HDTV resolution, each pixel will be several feet across, no? Won't this look kinda bad? People weren't real thrilled with AOTC in digital theaters because they could see the pixels. This will be worse.

    Aside from the geek "because I can" aspect (which I totally respect, BTW ;-) why would you do this?

    • Re:Won't this look like crap? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:50PM (#3905597)
      "Won't this look kinda bad?"

      Quite possibly. IMAX movies use 70mm film because 35mm doesn't quite have enough resolution. IMAX movies also run up to 60 fps because at 24 strobing is far too distracting.

      However, there is a far bigger problem to playing games on the IMAX screen: They video card (or the software) has to warp the video so that it'll look correct on the screen. It doesn't look right if the regular image is projected on the screen.

      Why would anyone play this? I can think of a really good reason right now: peripheral vision. I depend on peripheral vision while I'm driving, I'd LOVE to have that capability in a video game. It'd definitely be an interesting experience. :)
      • However, there is a far bigger problem to playing games on the IMAX screen: They video card (or the software) has to warp the video so that it'll look correct on the screen. It doesn't look right if the regular image is projected on the screen.

        Although digital manipulation is always more fun, I suspect they have a lens that does this distortion for you. :-)

        • That's not enough. That'll give it the FoV, but the geometry still has to be transformed. I mean think about it, the human eye has an FOV of nearly 180. Quake runs at 90. Even if you stretched Quake to 180, it's a linear stretch and not a curved one like the surface of the screen is.

          Basically you'd need a 'fisheye' distortion filter for Quake. :)
          • Since the site is /.ed I can't look for details but there are several ways they can try to make this work:

            First use a high resolution digital film projector, like the ones Lucas thought were going to be so widespread that Episode II could be shown on them exclusively.

            Secondly, if Bungie is involved they could easily modify the game to change both the width of the field of view and the virtual lens size (if necessary). These two changes if possible would truly take advantage of the size and shape of the IMAX screen.

            Third, big hardware. I'm not talking about a GeForce4 4600, I'm talking a high end workstation card. Sure you might lose some of the more advanced effects but if the card supported the higher resolutions and good AA it would probably look better than trying to push a consumer grade card.

            Of course keep in mind that this is mostly - pull the ideas out of my ass conjecture.
  • When are we going to see some IMAX pron.
  • God, playing Gran Tourismo 3 on something that large would be larger then life!

    Too bad I live in Florida and don't have the money to fly over there to participate.

  • The link has been /. again
  • My friend and I have always wanted to do something like this (the big projection thing). Just borrow the projector and point it on the side of a building. If we hadn't been so fast to return the project after the senior (high school) banquet we would've had dreamcast unreal tounament on a screen 30 ft. diaginal. Although at a school dance I helped DJ we did have a 35 ft diagonal projection of Crazy Taxi 2, more people were watching the player play than dance.

  • OmniMax not IMAX (Score:5, Informative)

    by Traa ( 158207 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:40PM (#3905543) Homepage Journal
    This sounds a little better then it will be in reality. The San Jose 'IMAX' theatre is in fact an OmniMax or Dome theatre format. The 180 degree (ish) * 360 degree (ish) view giving you pretty much full periferal vision if you look straight at the center. Not the super resolution rectangular 5 story high IMAX format that would make for some awsome gaming! They will either display the games on a small awkwardly stretched rectangle or stretch it beyond recognition over the whole screen.

    The sound system on the other hand features 6 channel 13000 watts of quad-damage (to your ears as much as your avatar) coming from 44 speakers.
    • The sound system on the other hand features 6 channel 13000 watts of quad-damage (to your ears as much as your avatar) coming from 44 speakers.

      Well, around here, the quad damage powerup is also known as the "shake the fucking house" powerup, thanks to my Klipsch Promedia speakers. I imagine the folks in San Jose will soon discover just how earthquake-resistant their building is. :)
    • I'm not sure of the whens or whys... but for the past few years, most OmniMax installations are now called "IMAX Dome". The IMAX.com website has information on both formats.

      Perhaps the IMAX folks have their fingers in the OmniMax market now, too.
  • Haha, I hope that the IMAX has some backup projectors, just in case...

    Just wait until the Tech Museum tries to charge you after you burn in [ht101.com] your game images on their projector!
    • Burn in isn't a problem with LCD projectors. That article got it wrong. The rear-projection TVs I've seen use LCD projectors, not CRTs. Burn in is a problem with CRTs, but even then, only sometimes. New CRTs don't seem to have the problem as much.
      • Dunno.. we have an old 52" Zenith Rear Projection with a faint burnin from a badly designed VCR (no way to disable the display from the front panel; ALL functions should be available without the remote) and a broken remote.
  • It's a shame that there are no 1080i games out for XBox yet. This would be a good place to demo some of the Hi-res games tht XBox can do.
  • playing games on the IMAX Dome screen on weed|coke|acid!

    I always have to take it to the next level.

  • We all know that true 3l33t gamers will say something like "Screw Imax, monoscreen gaming sucks, I use a parhelia and I *need* 3 displays, does IMAX offers 3 screens gameplay? no! so it's already obsolete HA!".

  • Sure, the novelty aspect is fun, but having an 8-story screen means having a screen you have to move your eyes and head to see all of. Movement at what would be the edges of the monitor might not be noticed until well after that movement has shot you...

  • For best effect in Quake-based games... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cutriss ( 262920 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @06:47PM (#3905582) Homepage
    set fov reallyreallyreallyhigh
  • If they demo DOA3 they can also market it as the 'world's largest pr0n show'.
  • From the website:
    Xbox Games: Project Gotham Racing, Halo, Tony Hawk, DOA, NFL Fever
    GameCube Games: Super Monkey Ball, Soccer Slam, SSX Tricky
    PlayStation2 Games: Gran Turismo, Virtua Fighter 4
    I remember playing Doom on a projection screen at work years ago (okay so the training room was empty and I was supposed to be setting up the network, but you've gotta 'test' these things somehow) and it was great :)
    I agree with previous comments about how well these games will scale up tho. It will certainly be interesting to see which console (and game) ends up coming out on top in terms of eye-candy on screens this size...

  • It won't be full-screen (Score:4, Informative)

    by GlenRaphael ( 8539 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @07:01PM (#3905650) Homepage
    According to their FAQ, currently slashdotted:

    How Big is the IMAX Screen?

    A: The IMAX theater screen is a huge wrap around dome. We'll be able to project the games onto an image about 40' by 60'.

  • Games Listed Don't Exploit {I,Omni}MAX Format (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @07:01PM (#3905651) Homepage Journal

    Maybe it's just me, but aside from the resolution problems of blowing an NTSC display up to OmniMAX sizes, seeing Virtua Fighter $(N) on an OmniMAX screen just doesn't make me want to get up and check out the competition. NFL Fever? Please. The X-style games (Tony Hawk, SSX Tricky) and racing games (Gran Turismo) might possibly be interesting.

    OTOH, if you want to get me to claw my way to the head of the line, all you have to do is set up nearly any of the Star Wars spaceflight games (Star Wars Starfighter, XWing Alliance, etc.). Crank the resolution to 1280 * 1024 * 32bpp and even on an IMAX screen it would look stunning. Go the extra mile and compensate for the spherical projection surface, and you could have a major spectator attraction on your hands ("Come ride shotgun in an XWing fighter as some of the best gamers on the planet go after the Death Star").

    I've always wanted to experience a truly immersive space flight simulator. XWing Alliance on an OmniMAX screen would do it.

    Schwab

  • I'd like to see this [thatweasel.tv]on an imax screen

  • Halo eight stories high. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Surlyboi ( 96917 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @07:11PM (#3905692) Homepage Journal
    Cheezus, and I thought it gave you motion sickness
    on a regular TV.

    I hope the theater has barf bags...
    • Someone modded the parent up as funny, but having played Quake on a 3 metres by 3 metres screen, from about 1.5m distance, I can assure you that the impact is far greater than from a normal TV screen. You can get nauseous really fast, especially if the room is darkened and all you have is this pixel-mass moving around, telling your brain that you're really moving even when your ear tells your brain that you're not... :-)
  • Each pixel should be a about an inch tall, assuming 800x600 resolution.

  • so if you've ever wanted to play Halo (Score:5, Funny)

    by isorox ( 205688 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2002 @07:17PM (#3905710) Homepage Journal
    so if you've ever wanted to play Halo eight stories high

    No, not really

    However imagine nethack at that size!
  • Remember to bring the barf bags. I once played Descent II using a 4'x6' projector screen. I damn near vomitted out my ears after that.
  • Fuck gaming, I'd rather see an orthoscope go somewhere fun on an Imax!

  • I want to play Tempest [lasers.org] on the side of Stone Mountain [stonemountainpark.com].
  • I've always dreamt of playing an FPS with one of them goggles that shines a laser beam directly onto the retina, thus making full use of the field of vision physiologically possible.
  • Pixels as big as my head! Can't wait!
  • Sounds like a good place to play LazerMAME [slashdot.org].
  • I used to run the network for a big architecture firm. We had a nice conference room with a 12-foot rear-projection glass screen, and an LCD projector in the room behind. On weekends we'd often have LAN parties, so one day I decided to drag my box into the room.

    Man, I lasted about 3 minutes, and I thought I was going to puke. Staying as far from the screen as possible, I still had to move my head side-to-side to see all the action, and I had bad-ass motion sickness.

    The resolution was actually pretty good, even for the 800x600 projector - no real pixelization. I wouldn't do it again, though. On an IMAX I bet it would be even worse.
  • GameCube Games: Super Monkey Ball, Soccer Slam, SSX Tricky

    What about Super Smash Brothers Melee? Easily the best multiplayer title for the GameCube.
  • While I'd imagine The Tech will be open late for the mature gamers (mature games start at around 5 PM) I find it odd that The Tech normally closes at 6 PM.

    I don't know how many times I've been in San Jose for a convention, usually less than a few blocks from The Tech, but have been unable to go because they close at 6.

    San Jose, the city that's alive way into the wee hours of the morning...

    *sigh*
  • Is this just a single person playing on one huge screen? Or would that be a bunch of smaller screens, one for each contestants?

    With a screen that large, they could easily project 9+ screens of gameplay. Might be interesting. I've always thought video/computer games should be available as a spectator sport. I guess that's one way to do it, although not the 'bring it to the masses' that I would hope to see one day.

    If I were to undertake a project such as this, I'd set up a central larger viewscreen run much like spectator sports are today - with a director choosing which feed to show (first person views to 3rd person cameras placed around the level) with each individual's play screen lining the sides.

  • Do it Yourself (Score:2, Interesting)

    by guamman ( 527778 )
    While not quite up to IMAX standard, most college students can use lecture halls after hours for their own purposes. It's actually quite easy to do. I started by calling the Union and getting the central reservation office number for the university. I admit, it's not eight stories tall, but Quake is quite cool on 30ft screen too. Most major lecture halls have projectors with VGA and RCA in for both computers and game systems. Just a thought if you can't compete in the contest yourself.

  • I used to do this all the time (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Timmeh ( 555676 ) on Thursday July 18, 2002 @12:14AM (#3906777)

    For my last year of high school I went to a charter school that was housed in St. Paul's (as in Minnesota) old science museum. And lo and behold, they use to have an imax screen. The old imax theatre was transformed into the audiotorium and once a week we held gaming contests. We played all the N64 classics (goldeneye, mario kart, etc. etc.) and all the new X-box games on the huge screen. It was seriously a lot of fun.

    The best though, was bringning in our own computers (the school's computers blew hard) and setting up Quake III tourney's, Counter-Strike tournmanets, TFC, and etc, on the school's network. The cool part was, if you weren't playing at any given time you could walk into the auditorium and watch the game spectator style on the huge screen.

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