Xbox on Your Television

Who needs a stinking Xbox console...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hinted Thursday that Microsoft might license the software underlying its Xbox 360 to a variety of outside companies in an effort to expand the market share for the Xbox machine.

Looks to me like someone is trying to unseat the current #1 in the console market, the Sony Playstation.

Gates didn't offer any specifics about the kind of software or which companies could potentially be involved. He also hasn't said whether the arrangement will involve manufacturers making products other than game machines, such as digital consumer electronics that combine PC and Xbox functions with home appliances.

Discuss Xbox for Your Television in the forums.

CSGZ Server Down Due to Fire

The Counter Strike Game Zone Server has been down since 2:00 cst due a fire that severed the Internet connection to the datacenter where the server is located. We received the official word from our host this morning:

"The entire Chicago Equinix Facility went offline around 2:00AM last night. This was due to a large fire a few blocks from the facility that knocked out the power in the area. Now we have generators to run power to our equipment but they are temporary and only last a few hours because its not usual for something like this to happen.

Once the generators went down our servers went down which happened around 2AM. I have been talking with Equinix and have been told that everything should be backup shortly and we are near the end of this catastrophe. I do not have an exact eta on everything coming back online but we will stay on top of things and once humanly possibly we will have everything back online. "

Counter Strike Map Contest Extension

The CSGZ map contest will be extended until we have received 5 entries that meet the contest guidelines. Once we have 5 submissions, the contest will be open for two more weeks (in case anyone has a map in progress) then it will be closed so the voting by the admins can start. Voting will last 10 - 14 days.

Just hearing about the map contest? Here are the contest details.

Adding the www.csgamezone.com reference is easy - here's a good example from one of the contest entries so far.


$300 for the winner...and the runner up is going to get something too! We'll also be adding the best submissions to CSGZ server rotation for awhile too. It's a great opportunity to expose your map to a busy dedicated Counter Strike Source server.

cs_assault set in Chicago

The news is out today that the official remake of a classic Counter Strike map, cs_assault, in underway for Counter Strike Source. This time it will be set Chicago, IL...which is where the CSGZ server happens to reside.

Check out the screen shots:

Shot 1
Shot 2

From those screen shots the map looks bigger, and brighter, to me that the original assault. I like the changes though - should be a great addition to the server when it's released.

I wonder if it will still be a "T" sided map or if there will be new entry points into the house with this version? Should be exciting either way.

Porn for your PlayStation

Two video companies from Japan have announced that they plan to release porn that will play on Sony's PlayStation Portable Entertainment console. The video companies, H.M.P and GLAY'z, say 8 titles will be available at retail stores starting in July 2005.

Due to Japanese regulations the pornographic titles will be released using region 2 encoding. That means they will only work on Japanese and European PlayStations.

See more stories on porn and the PlayStation from Google News.

Video Games on Cell Phones

With every passing day we see more and more media being pushed down to the cell phone level. There's not much you can't do on a phone anymore - television, radio, Internet...even video games.

I don't get the buzz...video games are meant for a computer or console system, not a phone or other device with a 3 x 3 screen.

What do you think about video games on cell phones?