We just got a hands on with Nyko's Wii Party Station and we can safely say that it's crazy. Crazy awesome. It's got pretty much everything you want to have when you're having a Wii house party, and it's designed cheaply enough ($24.99) for every Wii-owning family to use as an accessory to enhance their gaming.

 

But the best part is, of course, the chip holder. Nyko told us that they were going to re-evaluate the design and increase the size (making it deeper and wider) to accommodate more chips. The amount in there is enough for one person, but as a party tray it's fairly under-stocked. But the idea is great.

 

There are LCD scoreboards (so you can keep track of which one of the four of you is winning), Wiimote holders, a drawer for Nunchucks, a fan (like the bowling alley) for sweaty gamers, four freezable soda cup holders (with built-in gels to maintain coldness), and a chip and dip holder for, obviously, chips and dip. We didn't eat any of their chips, because they were presumably sitting out all day getting poked at by sweaty journalists.

 

[...]

 

The current version's still just a prototype, but they plan to release a final version in the next couple months.

What do you guys think? Let us know by replying to this news post!

Source: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/e307/hands+on-w...some-277948.php

Arcade emulator for the DS

Version 4.0 of the 13/07/2007

 

* New Design (thank you still in Lobo) and new Logo (thank you still in DayDream)

* Addition of its SN76496 and AY-8910, many plays have the sound now.

* Solomon' S key does not have any more Pb of background.

* Addition of Video Hustler, The Billiards, DigDug (2 sets), Hexa, Bank Panic grass.

* Galaga (and clones) become playable.

* Pinball Action becomes playable.

* Pb of background in Phoenix (and clones) are solved.

* In the same way how Pb of background in 1942!

* Addition of compressed the Zip support.

* Addition of the check of the CRC of the files to avoid the pbs compatibility.

* Addition of the management of the high scores.

* SELECT to add corners to the place of A (A becomes the principal shooting).

* More mode “Player 2”.

* More clones (less plays but that originals;)).

* Mario becomes Masao to have the sound.

* Ms Pacman becomes ms Pacman (bootleg) and the file zip mspacmab.zip.

* Piranha becomes Piranha (hack) and the file zip piranhah.zip.

* Jr Pacman becomes playable.

* Pb of shooting in solved Arkanoid.

* Use of EFSLIB, thank you Noda;).

>> Get it HERE (bottom of page).

Update, again

Update 2: As you may have seen in this clip about 1:45 in, Kaz Hirai says "The $499 price adjustment that we did for the 60 GB version for the American market, we're no longer in production for that product. So once that product is gone from the retailers shelves, then we're back to the $599 SKU only, so it's not like we have a two price strategy here in the U.S. market, which we found early on consumers react most to just having one SKU as opposed to two." So, we're attempting to get some clarification. You'll know when we do.

Update 3: According to Karraker, "The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted. We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our hardware offerings in the North America at this time." In our opinion, it's a touch disingenuous for Sony to just now be bringing this information to light, even though Karraker goes on to insist that this is not a bait-and-switch. If that's the truth, why make it seem like the company was returning to a two-SKU strategy when that was clearly just temporary?

Update 4: We got this clarified statement from Karraker, who said "The 60GB PS3 will be available in North America for $499 until supplies of that unit are depleted. We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers in this territory for several months to come. We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated."

Previous edit:

Dave Karraker of Sony Computer Entertainment of America has contacted Joystiq to give us claification on the story that would have made us believe Sony had truly lost it's mind once and for all. The fun never ends, does it?

Karraker says the quotes from David Reeves are not accurate. He explains that if they had lowered the price in Europe, that territory would have run out of their current inventory by the end of July. He says in a statement, "As announced this week, SCEA's product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future."

Joystiq

Original post:

It's one step forward and a giant lurch back as Sony is poised to pull the plug on their 60GB PlayStation 3. You know, the same PlayStation 3 that they generously shaved $100 dollars from earlier this week.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, SCEE president David Reeves casually mentioned the end of the 60GB model when asked if they would offer the European market a lower priced model, as SCEA did here in the States.

"Well, they're not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD $599 version with one game."

Reeves goes on to say that SCEA marked it down to move and that once it's gone, it's gone. When asked for the dreaded confirmation as to if this was the end of the 60GB model, Reeves replied "In America, yes."

Now don't you feel silly for quitting that second job.

Joystiq

We just felt Europe's pain. Sony has announced that they will not be cutting the price of the European PlayStation 3 and they will not be offering the 80GB PS3 at this time either. To compensate, Sony will offer a "starter pack" at the respective countries current price. For example, in England, the £425 PS3 will allegedly have an extra £115 of content included as well. No word yet on what that will be.

So, um, yeah. There's speculation of a second price cut in the States before the end of the year and Europe just can't get any love. Hey, at least for this they've got universal healthcare, good cheese, cheap wine ... we're just trying to find the silver lining in this. Sorry.

Joystiq

BBC News