Tag Archives: PS3

Some Monitors Are Actually Designed For Specific Video Games

IRVINE, Calif. – Waaaay back in Summer 2011, BenQ America Corp. announced that as the official gaming monitor sponsor of Major League Gaming (MLG), the world’s largest competitive video game league, it would be supplying monitors for the then upcoming 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Summer Championship that were held in Raleigh, North Carolina. At the tournament, hundreds of the top gamers from around the world competed using BenQ’s RL2450HT and GL2450HM monitors, designed specifically for professional gaming and engineered to meet the specific needs of eSports athletes. The GL2450HM was also featured in the Virtua Fighter(TM) 5 and Skullgirls(TM) Exhibition Tournaments, alongside the Pro Circuit competition.

At the 2012 MLG Pro Circuit Summer Championship, gamers — including BenQ-sponsored Team Dynamic and Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen — competed for their share of nearly $215,000 in prizes playing the real-time strategy (RTS) games StarCraft(R) II: Wings of Liberty and League of Legends(R) on PC, and fighting games Mortal Kombat(TM) and SoulCalibur(R) V on the PlayStation(R)3 (PS3(TM)).

[Then] 26 year old Dutch professional videogamer Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen and friend Cassandra. How good is he? Check out- http://www.sk-gaming.com/player/90-Grubby image:courtesy MechWarrior online
Thousands of spectators watched the tournament at the Raleigh Convention Center, and hundreds of thousands of fans watched the action online at www.majorleaguegaming.com/live.

For those retro system fans, there was even a Summer Championship that let fans get in on the action with Virtua Fighter 5 and Skullgirls Exhibition Tournaments, played on the good old PS3.

Anyone with a Raleigh Spectator or Competitor Pass could participate in these tournaments, which were sponsored by PlayStation. Winners of the best-of-three matches held the station until defeated and could re-enter as many times as they wished. The two players for each game with the longest winning streaks battled it out for $2,000 per tournament in the Finals on the
Fighting Games Main Stage.

Crowd shot from the MLG #gamerompfest

“The Summer Championship in Raleigh [was] sure to provide an exciting culmination to an amazing summer season, and we [were] honored to have our RL2450HT and GL2450HM in the middle of the action,” said Bob Wudeck, Director of Retail and e-Commerce at BenQ America Corp. “The fast response times of BenQ’s monitors result in high-action competition, while features such as the RL2450HT’s Black eQualizer help eSports athletes not just play the game, but conquer it. In addition, the incredibly low lag of the GL2450HM provides perfect timing in fighting and shooting games.”

Delivering a supreme RTS gaming experience, the RL2450HT was used for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and League of Legends PC games tournaments at the Summer Championship. The RL2450HT was engineered with input from the world-class StarCraft II professional gaming team, STARTALE, which is sponsored by BenQ. For top-level RTS gamers, the monitor features a 60-Hz refresh rate for smooth movement, an LED light engine for great color and low power consumption, and a 2-ms GtG response time with 12 million to 1 contrast ratio.

The RL Series RTS Mode maximizes StarCraft II visibility and optimizes color, while its Black eQualizer enables total visibility by allowing gamers to adjust the screen brightness without over-exposing white levels — revealing critical combat details with improved visibility in darkened areas. The RL Series Display Mode allows gamers to interchange between monitor screen sizes, while the Smart Scaling feature gives them the freedom to scale the screen manually to any custom size — from 17 to 24 inches — depending on their preferences. In addition, the unit’s adjustable height stand allows for optimal screen positioning.

The 24-inch-wide GL2450HM monitor is an ideal choice for console gaming platforms, featuring brilliant LED backlighting, a dynamic contrast ratio of 12 million to 1, and a 2-ms GtG response time that yields high dynamic videos without ghosting or other artifacts.

At a later MLG Summer Championship, console games Mortal Kombat and SoulCalibur V were played on the GL2450HM, in addition to Virtua Fighter 5 and Skullgirls in the Exhibition Tournaments sponsored by PlayStation.

Supporting competitive and competitive retro gaming, BenQ offered the monitors used in the tournament at special discount pricing available to all MLG tournament fans.

Videogames As Art Exhibit At NYC’s Museum Of Moving Image

Spacewar! Videogames Blast Off looks at the first 50 years of video games through the lens of Spacewar!, the first digital video game, its development, and the culture from which it sprang. In addition to a model of the original PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) computer running a playable simulation of Spacewar!, the exhibition presents 20 playable video games ranging in platform (arcade, console, handheld, PC), genre (shooters, platformers, action, arcade) and developer (commercial, independent, experimental). From Computer Space to Portal, the exhibition draws connections and contrasts between these games and Spacewar!, signaling the latter’s central place in the development of video games as a cultural form.

VideogamesAsArtPDP

Spacewar! was created by a group of students and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1961, conceived of as a demonstration for the new Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1 computer. The game premiered at the 1962 Science Open House at MIT, and was later shared and modified at computer labs around the United States. This “computer toy” influenced untold technological advances and gave rise to the cultural phenomenon now known as video games. Among other things, Spacewar! set the template for the game development industry and its relationship to technology, established shooting as a core game mechanic, and inspired space and science fiction themes for future games.

 

This exhibition was organized by guest curator John Sharp.

Full game list (subject to change):
Spacewar! (1961–62), PDP-1 model
Computer Space (1971), arcade
Space Wars (1977), arcade
Space Invaders(1978), arcade
Asteroids (1979), arcade
Battlezone (1980), arcade
Defender (1980), arcade
Missile Command (1980), arcade
Tempest (1981), arcade
Planet Zeon (1982), Tomytronic
Yars’ Revenge (1982), Atari Video Computer System
Star Wars (1983), arcade
Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), Game Boy
Galaxy Force II (1988), arcade
Galaga ‘91 (1991), Game Gear
Star Fox (1993), Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Vertical Force (1995), Virtual Boy
Portal (2007), PS3
Osmos (2009), iPad
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010), Wii
Child of Eden (2011), Xbox 360

VideogamesAsArt2

Each paid visitor will receive four complimentary arcade tokens (maximum ten per party). Additional tokens may be purchased in the gallery. Recommended for ages 8+. Support for Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off was provided by the Entertainment Software Association. Thanks to moving image for this article. http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2012/12/15/detail/spacewar-video-games-blast-off/

SupplementalDecember 1972 Rolling Stone article about Spacewar! and the then burgeoning field of personal computers.

Post featured image from Guild Wars 2 courtesy of wallpaperhi.com Is this art? The concept behind computer wallpaper certainly has an artistic focus. Many users view their desktops throughout the day and using stills from a videogame reminds me of the 19th century practice of scrapbooking. When today’s users ‘cut and paste’ images that they choose and arrange and modify, these stills become a decorative treatment.  CP

 

AmericanMuseumoftheMovingImage