Bates Motel w/Jo Pincushion from Reel 9 Productions on Vimeo.

Halloween is my favorite time of year! The weather changes, the leaves turn, and a good horror movie is the only way to spend a Friday night. What I especially love about this season is the haunted houses. Pennsylvania is home to some of the industry’s top haunts. So, I decided to show Geekadelphia where they need to go to get a good scare!

My first stop is The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride in Gradyville PA. The Bates Motel has been running since 1991, and has been ranked the best Hayride in the United States numerous times. This Hayride has pyrotechnics, animatronics, and actors that actually jump into your wagon. This isn’t you’re mother’s hayride—this fully charged experience has been bringing thousands of people from the Philadelphia area for years.

Not only does this haunt have a killer hayride, but it also showcases a terrifying Corn Maze and Haunted House. The Corn Maze has a few new features this year—like a Circus Themed clown covered cavern, and a undead Saloon. The detail in these two elements of the Corn Maze are truly amazing, not to mention utterly petrifying! The Haunted House has some sweet features as well! If you want to really scream your head off –I suggest going through the Haunted House in the front of your group.

Some more helpful tips for enjoying your time at The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride

1. Don’t wait in line! Grab a VIP pass for only $60 on the weekdays, $75 on the weekends!
2. Wear comfortable footgear! This haunt is located on a farm, so don’t think you can show up to this thing in high heels and walk around like it’s nothing.
3. Wear layers! The later in October, the colder it gets. You want to shake from fear—not lack of circulation.

Have you ever been to The Bates Motel? Comment below with your favorite attraction and how is scared the ba-Jesus out of you. You could win a T-Shirt!

Go to the Bates Motel’s official website for more information and operation hours. Special thanks to Reel 9 Productions and LaSalle University for helping me put together this segment. Photography provided by Beth Salazar.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Spoiler Alert: None of these are on the list

Over the last ten years, we all have become vastly dependant upon technologies that are still considerably in their infancy. For some of you, staying “plugged in” to new technology is necessary to operate your businesses, communicate with friends and family or make your daily routine more convenient.

Could you fathom not being able to browse the web from the palm of your hand? What about relying on cassette tapes or CD walkmans for your portable music needs? Would you still use a VCR to record your favorite television programs?

Take a moment and imagine your life without things like MP3 players, DVR’s and smart phones. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there once was a time without these gadgets. Now that we are more than half way into 2010, I’m taking the time to take a look back at some of the gadgets that defined my decade.

Apple iPod (2001)

Released back in October 2001, Apple’s iPod revolutionized how the world would listen to music for the next decade. With it’s posh white casing, scrolling wheel and simple interface, it was a must have during the 2001 holiday season. Sure there were MP3 players on the market before the iPod but none were as easy to use or hip enough to carry around.

The iPod grabbed everyone’s attention and the age of the MP3 was upon us. Apple capitalized on this success monetizing it in the form of the iTunes Music Store. With extensive mobile functionality, prominent product placement and advertising, Apple had successfully redefined portable music for this generation and for years to come.

TiVo (2002)

It seemed like overnight that a little box known as TiVo made all of our VCR’s and television video recording devices obsolete.

TiVo’s first digital video recording (DVR) device was released in 1999 but really started gaining steam in 2002 with the release of the Series2 unit. It provided a way to allow a viewer to record television programming for viewing on demand. These programs were stored on a hard drive located inside the device and featured a user-friendly interface with reasonable pricing that appealed to the masses.

TiVo also pioneered a way to suggest television programming based on the viewing habits of its viewer. Satellite and cable providers have now jumped onto the DVR bandwagon and offer similar features with their monthly subscription based packages. However, we tend to forget that it all started with a little, charming device named TiVo.

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In today’s comic roundup, we take a look at Red Robin #18 (Fabian Nicieza and Marcus To), New Avengers #7 (Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen), and lastly the Octopus Pie collection, Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars In Brooklyn (Meredith Gran).

Enjoy!

Red Robin #18
By Fabian Nicieza and Marcus To

Red Robin was a series I initially didn’t care for. I bought the first three issues, was massively unimpressed and promptly dropped the book. But with a new creative team and all the attention the Batman family of books is getting with the launch of Batman Inc., I decided to give Tim Drake another shot, especially since the writer is Fabian Nicieza, one of my favorites.

See, Nicieza writes comics the way they should be written; as a single, long story. Sure, he breaks everything into neat, trade paperback ready bits, but there is an overall narrative there. If you read a Nicieza book, like Thunderbolts for example, from his first issue to his last, you get one complete story. Grant Morrison has a similar style, and it is one that has been sadly lost in recent years. But you can see that this is what Nicieza is doing with Red Robin. Tim is off to Russia, setting up another branch of his youth group The Neon Knights and has run in with not only Red Star but a new hero/villain named Promise. Within all of that we see small subplots begin to develop with his assistant Tam and his new super hacker ally MoneySpider. All in all, great stuff.

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Welcome to Dialog Tree, where we discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology and other issues your less geeky friends care not to talk about. So, let’s have a dialog, shall we? Have questions or something you’d like to see discussed? Let us know in the comments!

The joint CEOs of Bioware admitted this week that their claim to RPG fame, Baldur’s Gate, was dangerously close to being one of the first true MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games). Pitched to publishers as Battleground: Infinity, the game revolved around gods of all mythologies and was extremely ambitious, according to joint-CEO Ray Muzyka’s comment during a panel at GDC Europe.

It wasn’t until Muzyka and joint-CEO Greg Zeschuck brought the grandiose idea to Interplay that they were suggested to bring the game’s engine into the Dungeons and Dragons universe and forget that MMO nonsense. However, what if Bioware decided to keep the MMO elements within Baldur’s Gate?  (more…)

Welcome to Dialog Tree, where we still discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology and other issues you’re less geeky friends care not to talk about — we just decided upon a better fitting title. So, let’s have a dialog, shall we? Have questions or something you’d like to see discussed? Let us know in the comments!

Aggregame, a social platform for video games, released the results of a year-long study of gamer’s tweets in the form of a neat looking infograph. Clearly inspired by tag clouds that visualize the popularity of tags used in blog posts (the larger the word, the more frequent the tag), Aggregame’s infographic states some of the obvious while revealing some provocative information about what motivates us to play video games aside from the fact that they’re just plain fun. (more…)

Welcome to Dialog Tree (formerly known as Coffee Talk), where we still discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology and other issues you’re less geeky friends care not to talk about — we just decided upon a better fitting title. So, let’s have a dialog, shall we? Have questions or something you’d like to see discussed? Let us know in the comments!

Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma admitted to the existence of an official timeline for the Legend of Zelda series, but it’s a secret. Only Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto (we would hope he was involved) and the director of the title, Hidemaro Fujibayashi have seen the classified document. Surely this confirmation has sent  Zelda fans raving, not to mention that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will take place before Ocarina of Time. Considering the critically acclaimed title has been the chronological anchor to which every other Zelda release has been attached to, this is hug– wait, since when is all of this nonsense relevant? (more…)

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Coffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

The most promising future of video games isn’t on consoles anymore, says Bioware co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk to Eurogamer. This is somewhat odd considering the developer has created some of the greatest console and PC RPGs to date.

What Zeschuk seems to mean by this statement isn’t that consoles are doomed to irrelevance, but that new services like Facebook’s gaming platform and mobile gaming are where the expansion will take place. And I kind of agree. (more…)

… And we’re back (sorry folks, was busy with graduating)! Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Coffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

A recent study by UK media research firm Ipsos MORI claims that gamers still like their shinies. The study, which surveyed 1000 folks, shows that 64 percent of them prefer physical media over digital download when it comes to how they purchase games.

According to IGN, senior director of Ipsos MORI Ian Bramley attributes the majority vote to the used games industry. While I couldn’t agree more, aren’t we ignoring one major contributing factor? Join us behind the cut. (more…)

GOOD MORNING, GEEKADELPHIANS! How I’ve missed you, and I’m sure you’ve missed your science updates. Since we’re all fond of a good experiment around here, let’s try Geek Weekly on a Monday and see if anything explodes!

• Interesting read from New Scientist: Once upon a time, asteroids caused Antarctica to freeze.

• What the what?! I came across a scientific abstract discussing how cows are … magnetic?

• A personal favorite, and I swear it’s not because the seal is adorable: Sea animals sweep for mines when robots go rogue.

• How awesome is this? “Modeled after the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Solar Decathlon, the European Solar Decathlon is a competition for seventeen teams from different academic institutions to create the most efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly solar-powered house.”

• Dun, dun, dun: 6th great extinction announced.

• Italian scientists possibly being charged with manslaughter for not predicting earthquake? Exsqueeze me? Baking Powder?

• A little depressing, but sure– why not! Relationship failure algorithms. Not to Liz Lemon on your Monday, but somewhere along the line I’ve developed my own set of variables, and I’m certain these folks meant ‘he takes me for granted’ instead of  ‘sentimental equilibrium’…

• Concept car that acts like a plant. Why haven’t we thought if this sooner?

• My bets are still on Titan, but apparently not all water has life.

• Cool read on ”DNA being the backbone for new logic motherboards” (Thanks to reader @flyingjaco for the tip!)

She Blinded Me With Science is a weekly column for Geekadelphia.com, brought to you by The Letter B. To submit a science tip, email bianca@geekadelphia.com

First of all, yes, that is a Zombie Scuba Diver. I mean, they must take vacations from the eternal pursuit of brains sometime, no?

This whole game development process has been an absolute blast and I know people say it all the time, but I really do learn something new everyday. This is in large part due to the fact that I’m a total amateur. My inexperience has kept me open-minded and continually amazed at the different ways in which people leverage new technologies to fuel the creative process. In the past two weeks I have completely overhauled my workflow for creating artwork for our game.

The first major change came when Jake O’Brien introduced me to Zwoptex. I use their flash based web app to generate sprite sheets which is, oh, I don’t know, five trillion times faster than lining every image up in an illustrator document and manually entering all the coordinates into a spreadsheet. For any developers or game artists out there I highly recommend Zwoptex, unless of course you use something better, in which case I insit you to make a counter recommendation.

The next big change was our decision to use cocos2d to randomize certain animations, such as when a Zombie gets decapitated. I had originally created a set animation for this and the idea was to eventually create three or four, randomly choosing one when a Zombie got killed. This approach quickly became visually boring. What we are doing now is separating the Zombie so when you decapitate him his head will roll and blood will spray out in an endless number of ways. It’s just as delicious as it sounds, I promise.

We’re also toying with the idea of a boss for the first release. We know we want some eventually. Since it’s a path drawing game we want there to be multiple targets to attack. This means a boss would have little minions you’d have to take down, or projectiles to throw at you. If you have an idea for you a perfect boss mob you’d like to see in the game, by all means let me know. I should note, humor is a good thing.

The biggest balancing issue in this whole process is trying to decide between how awesome it would be to put something in the game, versus how much it delays the release. Jake and I aren’t making a dollar off this game until it’s in the App Store and even at that point, we don’t what what to expect. If any of you are in the development process right now, or have been through it before, you’ve no doubt faced this decision a thousand times. All I can say is we’re very excited to get it in people’s hands sooner rather than later and start getting some real reactions. Stay tuned for a giveaway.

My next production diary will no doubt be focused on sound effects and music. At the moment the game is completely silent and as a gamer I know that sound can make or break the experience. We have done this all ourselves and the sound will be no different. Look for some hilarious sound effects and some hopefully less hilarious music produced on my girlfriend’s old Casio. Cheers.

Welcome to our new Microsoft Student Insider feature series, Cracking Open the Design Toolbox. Each week (hopefully) we’ll follow my blunders progress through Microsoft’s new Silverlight powered, interactive and socially connected tutorial – that doubles as an achievement driven game – design.toolbox. Not to mention we’ll also provide you tips and tricks on how to access the Expression Studio and how to get started creating some super cool apps, projects and more!

Before even thinking about diving into the design.toolbox, you’re going to need to do two things. First, you’ll need to go here and create a Windows Live ID (if you don’t already have one). This is how you’ll access the design.toolbox, create your profile and avatar and get schooled in design. Second, you’ll need to download and install the Silverlight plug-in on whatever browser you’ll be accessing design.toolbox. As everything in the design.toolbox is running on Silverlight, this is pretty much crucial. Now that the essentials are over with, join us behind the cut as we get into the fun stuff! (more…)

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Coffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of social internet juggernaut Facebook, recently announced their updated approach to the web, Open Graph a little over a week ago. To avoid getting bogged down in the web jargon, this is essentially means that Zuckerberg wants Facebook and its user information to be accessible outside of the original website. Does this mean that users’ information will be visible from wherever without consent (you might want to find that tin foil)?

Well, sort of. Profiles will still have the option to be private, but if they wish to share their experiences of the internet outside of Facebook, Zuckerberg’s Open Graph policy will require them to be logged in and be public. How will this work exactly and what will it mean for the future of the web? Since we know you’re just itching to find out, we put it right behind that link down there. See you on the other side.

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