In Part 1 we discussed such video game related patents as Crossings on Gamepad, Directional Arrows, Dialog Wheels, Running in Spiral, and the Gaming Console of EA. We are back with a few more Patented Game Inventions That Might Amaze You!

Passage Quests with Friends

Invention of: Zynga
Excerpt from the patent: “A team of friends is sent a request to join a team and participate in the performance of tasks. Each team member who answered the query derives his task.”
Significance: The patent of sometime a successful company Zynga describes the sinister social mechanism: “Invite your friends, so they gave you two boards and watered the beds, then you can pass the quest”. Despite the fact that the sent automatically requests from playing friends at least once enraged any Facebook user, Zynga today is suffering terrible losses. As they say, – ‘karma is a bitch’.

Protection from Second-Hand Games

Invention of: Sony
Excerpt from the patent: “The patent application provides that when a game is purchased, the medium itself (game disk) would contain a unique identification tag which would be read by the reproduction device of the gaming system (Playstation 3 for example). The first time the disk is inserted into the gaming system; the reproduction device would record the disk ID and player ID, and use an authentication process to confirm that the combination satisfies Sony’s terms of use. If the combination of IDs does not meet the terms of use on any subsequent use of the game, the game will not start. The effect of the technology would be similar to having a single license for the game and will not require internet access to work. This process nullifies any resale value of the game. ”
Significance: Among the gamers the Sony Corporation fixed a reputation of goodwill because it produces good games, supports independent developers, regularly lowers prices and releases the consoles without regional security. Notwithstanding, this fact does not stop Sony to invent technologies that will hit the players like a method of protection from second-hand console games. Obviously, that in the case of a mismatch of the disc identity and the player a mysterious handle rights usage will not allow you to run the game.

Episodic Content Delivery

Invention of: Electronic Arts
Excerpt from the patent: “The application module contains an initial episode of the game and a technology shell to allow future episodes to be downloaded over the Internet and executed. As new technology is developed, the new technology can be incorporated into the technology shell, independent of the content development. While the patent describes a lot of these features, the (single) claim is a little elusive. It’s interesting, though, that with Xbox Live we are seeing more games providing episodic content delivery after the game’s initial launch.”
Significance: The title of the patent speaks for itself. In 2001 Electronic Arts has already come up with that what in the age of Xbox 360 would be called downloadable content (DLC). However, in the 2000s company thought that the new episodes will include different technical innovations, but in fact it was much more boring as the current games only get new versions of the endings, characters and levels. Despite the presence of the patent, EA did not sue other companies that produce their games downloadable add-on.

Balls of Junk

Invention of: Namco
Excerpt from the patent: “A game performing method for executing a game by arranging a plurality of objects comprising a plurality of objects to be stuck and an operation object, in a virtual space, controlling rolling and movement of the operation object according to a player’s input, and rolling and moving the operation object while sticking the objects which the operation object comes in contact with, comprises: setting a plurality of first displacement points capable of displacing only in predetermined radial directions different from each other, from a reference point respectively; displacing the first displacement point adjacent to a contact position, in the predetermined radial direction when the operation object comes in contact with the object to be stuck; setting a second displacement point in a position which meets a predetermined distance condition; and controlling the rolling of the operation object based on rolling surface reference points comprising the first and second displacement points.. ”
Significance: Another incredible formulation, behind which hides one of the most successful game mechanism of the last decade. The text of the patent describes how the ball out of Katamari Damacy sticks to all kinds of things, growing in volume, but always remaining relatively round . The truth is, for a seemingly simple system there is a huge number of calculations. That is why Namco has decided that this invention will be for it.

It is dollars to doughnuts, that it is not a complete list of interesting patents that gaming companies own. Sometimes lawyers of publishers patent any small invention for simply “just in case” and then do not even remember it. The matter is that the progress cannot be stopped by patents. The most likely they spur other publishers and developers to come up with alternative solutions that are even more successful than patented ones by competitors.

Imagine a world with no rules where the human instincts seem to be more animal than human, a world of crime and reckless people. That is the world we get to see in the new movie called The Counsellor. It is written by Cormac McCarthy, well known for his masterpiece No Country for Old Men and directed by one of the legends of the filmmaking, Ridley Scott, famous for taking our breaths in movies like “Gladiator”, Prometheus and American Gangster.

The story centers on a lawyer, whose name is not given, he can only be addressed as the Counsellor. His plans and goals of entering the underground world, in order to make some quick money, destroy the life he has, involving his fiancée, who he just asked to marry. The Counsellor is an arrogant man, who despite all the warnings he gets, keeps going further and further into the dirty world of crime and drugs. The lawyer character is played by the very talented Michael Fassbender. The handsome actor acts super natural and does its best to get under the skin of the main character. Also, we get to see some real divas of Hollywood, like Cameron Diaz who is the femme fatale of the movie and Penelope Cruz, who is the angelic cherry of The Counsellor.

It is not a typical thriller about drugs. The director and the writer are delivering special messages using baleful circumstances and no compunctions. This movie does not enter the confines of a traditional thriller, because of its star power and the excellent execution, which result in a tale of the crime world. It is a movie of virtuous and perfidious contrasts; it will surely make you feel the good and the evil of the modern life. The Counsellor is considered to be one of the most awaited drama thrillers of this year.

An ordinary story that evolves with a different and captivating twist that ends up not the way you expected will make you feel the spicy gangsta vibe. With metaphorical dialogues and fearless acts, this movie lights a superb mood. The Counsellor teaches us a serious morality tale. Decisions we make today can result terrifying consequences tomorrow.

There are many people, who believe that there is more than only one reality. There are at least two of them for every human, the one he lives in and the one he is dreaming about.

On 25^th of December, a new movie about different realities premieres. It is called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Does it seem familiar? It should be! This movie is another brilliant remake of one of the greatest short stories of America, named the same.

The film stands out of the crowd because of its really talented cast, including the funny Ben Stiller, who is also directing the movie, the nice Kristen Wiig, the real man Sean Penn and many others.

It is a story about Walter Mitty, a passionate day dreamer, whose dreams were cut because of his work in The Life Magazine and the daily routine of his life. The life was captivating only in his second reality, the one he was dreaming in. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty trailer we see how in real life he was sitting in the train station on the 125^th street, in his mind he was jumping into a window of a burning building.  In the real life he was in the office, looking at his crush, in his dreaming he was getting out of the poster with mountains and he started flirting to his crush. Isn’t the dreaming better?

As George Carlin said “Some people see things that are and ask, Why?  Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.” Walter is somewhere between the last two kinds of people, who has to work but somehow manages to dream, because his dreams are just another reality, that makes him happy. The fate gives Walter, an adventure that is even way crazier than his dreams are. He wished for it, never expected but he got it.

While reading this article you should turn on a song from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty trailer, called Bohemian Rhapsody, which, by the way was perfectly assigned to the story.

Watch this moony adventure and learn to choose your reality.

In recent years, the highest grossing films are often adaptations of best-selling books. When there’s a lack of good story to tell in Hollywood, they resort to literature for ideas. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is currently raking in the big dough by the minute. And who can forget two of the biggest film franchises ever: Harry Potter and Twilight? For the delight of science fiction junkies, Ender’s Game finally takes on the big screen this year, after decades of movie adaptation rumors.

If Hollywood needs more ideas on which books or series to bring to the theaters, they can take note of the following:

Vampire Academy (series) by Rachelle Mead
Please don’t relate it to Twilight, because Mead’s take on the vampire phenomenon is fresh, exciting and full of interesting characters. Teen vampires and half-humans take center stage in this series, and to make it even more interesting, an academy is the setting of this harrowing series.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
This is a Tim Burton film waiting to happen. Gaiman has always crafted rich worlds for his characters, and American Gods probably has the most diverse number of engaging characters. Where are the gods in this modern times? What are their roles in society? It’s an interesting look at mythology, and it will definitely make for an engaging and visually-stunning movie.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
There’s no more creative book than House of Leaves. A horror story that will make you turn your book upside-down and tilt your head every which way, Danielewski’s novel tells the plight of a family who moved into a house that’s bigger on the inside than the outside. Through the jumble of differently formatted pages, House of Leaves creates an eerie tale that can echo screams of terrors in cinemas worldwide.

The Stand by Stephen King
Regarded as King’s best novel, it’s surprising that a movie adaptation of The Stand hasn’t materialized yet. The unapologetically thick novel covers a wide array of genre from post-apocalyptic to horror to fantasy. For years, there are reports of movie deals but nothing came after. Producers should make up their minds because they have the best sci-fi movie in their hands.

Looking For Alaska by John Green
It’s surprising how Green’s other novel Fault in Our Stars got to be adapted into a movie first. Looking For Alaska is another of Green’s famous works. Miles enters a preparatory school for his junior year and meets Alaska, the beautiful mess. No other character in young adult fiction has characterized the beautiful mess as well as Alaska, and I demand that we see it on the big screen soon.

What are the greatest creatures that have ever ruled the world? Dinosaurs of course! Not only because of their strength and volume of the roar, but also because they survived here for over 160 million of years, even if it was extremely cold or hot, or meteorites were falling down on the earth, they survived.

20^th Century Fox brings us a movie that is going to blow up your minds. Walking with Dinosaurs is a new animated film, based on the massively successful series with the same name, which is supposed to make you feel like you are next to the dinosaurs. A movie centered on a young Pachyrhinosaurus, named Patchi, that seems small, weak and inexperienced, who is going to live the adventure of his life. The Walking with Dinosaurs trailer gives us a little look at the aggressive and high roaring fight of a Gorgosaurus and a Pachyrhinosaurus. Gorgon is a representative of the Gorgosaurus type, he is the rapscallion of the movie, being fast and terrifying, he is always awaiting the next kill. Patchi’s father was killed by a dinosaur of this kind, so the presence of Gorgon is very pungent for our hero. Also the Walking with Dinosaurs trailer intrigues you with awesome graphics that make it all look authentic and full of life.

There are so many things we still do not know about dinosaurs and at the same time there are many discoveries made every year that push us closer to them. It is an interesting subject not only for the fan base, that was established years ago and keeps growing but also for people who do not know a thing about periods or types of dinosaurs. The movie characters connect somehow to humans, because of their behavior and thoughts that are largely seen in it.

Don’t miss the chance to watch the utmost movie about dinosaurs, because it will give you really cool knowledge of those amazing creatures, it will connect you with the prehistoric times and it will surely entertain you and your family.

A great amount of video games is protected by patents. As a rule, video games develop much faster than any other entertainment industry and each game invention has the author. Respectively, the author’s ideas are accepted in order to be protected by patents from competitors or at least to make good money (in case the idea is really successful). Among these patents sometimes can be found very unusual and funny. In Part 1 we will present 5 examples of such inventions.

Crossings on Gamepad

Invention of: Nintendo
Excerpt from the patent: “Multi switch which can be mechanically activated in different directions by the operator’s finger tip pressure. It has the shape of the cross.”
Significance: A crossing, or so called D-pad is presented on all console types of gamepad, including NES. But if you look closely, you will notice that the shape of a cross was taken only on controllers of Nintendo. Sega and Microsoft framed the “arrows” with a plastic circle and Sony preferred to separate all directional buttons. These creative solutions are the result of the patent obtained by Nintendo in 1983. It describes in detail the device of cross which could not be copied by the Japanese contenders. Nearer to the forbidden territory came Sega in 1998 when D-pad gamepad Dreamcast had the shape of a cross, but was significantly different of both look and mechanics of the work. The patent had been invalidated only in 2005, but the consequences of its departure we see just now: D-pad controller of Xbox One looks like a classic “cross”.

Directional Arrow

Invention of: Sega
Excerpt from the patent: “A method of displaying the direction for the object that is moving in the virtual space to a destination.”
Significance: The directional arrow for the first time appeared in the arcade racing Crazy Taxi. When a passenger was getting in your car, a green arrow displayed at the top of the screen that shows you where to go. This is a very simple and intuitive method of orientation, so Sega had arrogated it and even successfully sued the developers of The Simpsons: Road Rage (they decided that the replacement of the arrow with the index finger will not be a breach). However, this ban has given life to new solutions: GTA 3 introduced to the players a much more friendly minimap, so, the arrow is no longer needed.

Dialog Wheel

Invention of: Electronic Arts
Excerpt from the patent: “A graphical interface is displayed during operation of the program that provides a choice indicator, wherein the choice indicator has a plurality of selectable slots, each associated with a dialog class. The graphical interface is consistent as to the position of dialog classes throughout at least a segment of the program.”
Significance: Dialogues in role-playing games had been giving for a long time an accurate representation of the consequences that would trigger this or that phrase in conversation. Thus, the half of the fun of Fallout I was the augury whether you get shot after another replica or not. Mass Effect previously explained the meaning of each phrase: the good answers are always located at the top right of the dialog wheels, the hostile ones are at the bottom right, and so on. Such a system has become a part of a series’ patented element. Other role-playing games still use simple lists of available responses.

Running in Spiral

Invention of: Sega
Excerpt from the patent: “A method is provided for controlling the appearance of a video game character, as the character traverses a path displayed on a display screen; wherein the method is used in a video game system which includes a graphics controller, digital memory and a display screen, the method comprises the steps of: displaying a banked path segment in which the game character is displayed upright at least one location on the banked path and is displayed upside down at at least one other location on this banked path…”
Significance: The complicated formulation of the patent conceals a simple idea. Do you remember blue Sonic the hedgehog who ran through the corkscrew loops? At that moment we have seen him upside down and at angles. Sega could not patent the idea of the loops, but completely does the method of displaying two-dimensional character that falls into them.

Gaming Console of EA

Invention of: Electronic Arts
Excerpt from the patent: “An electronic game system includes a game console, which accepts a game cartridge and runs the games stored therein, and a wireless controller for controlling actions in the game. The wireless controller includes a radio frequency transmitter for sending control signals to the console, and the console includes a receiver for receiving the control signals from the controller. Because the controller uses radio frequency signals instead of infrared signals to send information to the console, the controller may be operated at a large distance from the console. Thus, the game system of the invention may be used in long range applications wherein the console and the controller need to be separated by a relatively large distance.”
Significance: In early 1994, Electronic Arts applied for a patent of their own gaming console. It has been almost two decades and the patent will soon be over, but in reality such a controller does not exist yet. And, what makes things worse for EA, the company could not even sue anybody. Nintendo 64, released in 1996, had only wired gamepads. Though, the subsequent generation of consoles switched to wireless controllers, but they decisively abandoned cartridges at the same time. Fail.

In Part 2 we’ll be talking about 4 more Patented Game Inventions That Might Amaze You.

Win at all costs! The company DreamWorks has not made an exception on making a life-affirming, bright, touching cartoon about a dream, which seems so unachievable and impossible, but comes to life because the one who dreamt this dream refused to give up and surrender. So, here is the new creation DreamWorks, a brilliant and beautiful cartoon Turbo.

The story of Turbo is the life story of a small yet astonishing snail, which looked pretty ordinary at the first glance, but kept an immense dream in his heart. His name is Theo, and Turbo is his nickname, a sonorous alias which was based on his reckless dream to become fast. It must sound ridiculous, and even more than this. A fast snail, a joke of nature, a fruit of some craze fantasy.  From our early childhood we know that snails are ones of the slowest creatures in the Earth. But Turbo could not care less about the prejudices he was surrounded by, because he dreamed of racing, he dreamed of becoming a winner and indeed, he managed to make his dream come true. Of course, a miracle took place, and even as the Turbo trailer demonstrates, Turbo nearly died under the wheels of a racing car to acquire some supernatural powers of unimaginable speed. Despite the difficulties, he overcame his fears and doubts, defeated every trouble with a little help from his loyal friends, he made it to the race and he owned the race.

If you want something ardently, if you give your heart and soul to that, if your dedication is as profound as you desire, your dream is destined to come true.

So Turbo is a cartoon not about races, snails, or something just as concrete. Turbo’s dream of being fast is a metaphor for every single dreamer out there, who has some doubts about his dream, who is afraid or not dedicated enough to achieve it. Turbo is a story of unimaginable success, unconditional friendship, pure faith, incredible dedication and, of course, the strength of character. It does not matter, how many times you fail, how many times you become a laughing stock, how many times it seems that you have lost it all. As long as you have faith in your powers, a few faithful friends, who are there for you whatever happens and a dream, which keeps you breathing, you have every chance to success. Turbo took a reckless shot. He was carrying inside of his snaily soul a dream so big it made him strong enough to make to the finish of the race. And his example teaches us to never give up, because our dream should give us strength to achieve the greatest things.