I was looking around for a new tech toy, something to kick off the new year with an oooh and an aaah. With the Consumer Electronic Show launched, there was a lot of competition for the coveted Trickster award, let me tell you!
It's hard to say "this is the winner", but in the realm of something new - I had to talk about this little doohicky I found on Philips' website:
They've given it the unwieldy name of the "Entertaible"(shudder!) The concept is a tabletop gaming platform that marries traditional multi-player board and computer games in a uniquely simple and intuitive way. Entertaible comprises a 30-inch horizontal LCD, sophisticated touch screen-based multi-object position detection, and all supporting control electronics. It allows the players to engage in a new class of electronic games which combines the features of computer gaming, such as dynamic playing fields and gaming levels, with the social interaction and tangible playing pieces, such as pawns and dies, of traditional board games.
I'm seeing all kinds of potential for this. See, me - I'm a tabletop gamer. Scrabble, Monopoly; even the old-skoool Dungeons and Dragons stuff. I still occasionally get together with the boys for a round of Heroclix. It's fun, it's retro, it's simplistic.
With this...it's like those frosted mini-wheat commercial. The kid in me just wants to play with the little tokens, making fun of my friends while chasing them around the board. The tech-head in me likes bells, whistles, colored lights and - yes indeed - touch screens.
Now imagine a D&D session with this baby instead of a hex-map. Or, better yet, if they come out with a Neverwinter-style setup where you can program your own modules and maps! Oh the fun!
Plus, as someone looking to delve deeper into the worlds of tabletop and video game design...this is like getting to have my cake and eat it too!
2006 is looking like a fun year so far :)
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