A 'fit and healthy' 25-year-old man suddenly collapsed and died in front of his horrified girlfriend and best friend as he played a computer game.
Tim Eves was 'jogging' on a Wii Fit games console as Emma Tuck and Lewis Hickin looked on, when he slumped to the floor.
The tragedy happened just hours after Tim had flown home from celebrating his mother’s 50th birthday in Portugal.

Devastated Emma, 26, said last night: ‘Tim was the best boyfriend anyone could have and the best friend a girl could have.
‘I love him loads and will miss him so much.’
Paramedics dashed to the house and rushed Tim, who had been fit and well, to hospital but it was too late.
The family were told he could have been killed by Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
Also known as Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome, it is a disorder of the electrical system of the heart.

Those with the condition are vulnerable to an abnormal heart rhythm. During exercise the heart may stop pumping out blood, causing the brain to become deprived of blood and sudden death.

The condition is estimated to kill 500 people a year.

Tim's father, Alan, said: ‘He was just such a helpful, considerate and caring person.
‘He really threw himself into things and lived life to the absolute full.'

He added: 'Tim packed so much into the 25 years that even if he had lived another 25 years he couldn’t possibly have made any more friends.
'We all loved him so much.’
The tragedy occurred on March 4 at the home Tim shared with Lewis, 25, in Hopton-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
He had just returned to England after visiting his parents at their Portuguese home and had spoken to them on the phone just minutes before he collapsed.
His mother June said: 'We spoke to him on the phone when he was playing on the Wii machine.
‘But a little while after he had put the phone down, he collapsed for no reason. It was completely out of the blue.'
She added: ‘They still can’t come up with an answer why it happened, which is one of the reasons it is so hard to come to terms with - there was no reason for it.
‘It is just unbelievable. We keep waiting for him to walk round the corner, it’s awful. It’s still very raw.’
Tim was a labourer for Steel Services in Yarmouth with Mr Hickin and his father.
He helped to lead the First Belton Scout Group, played in a band called Distant Sun and loved cycling and fishing.
A post-mortem has been held but the cause of death is yet to be determined.
Tim’s brother, Michael, 28, of Hickling, said: ‘If he did something he was 100 per cent into it.
'He wanted to take my little boy fishing so I got a little rod and a little box for him, bearing in mind he is only seven and it was the first time he’d been.
'But Tim wanted to take a whole car full of fishing gear - I have never seen so much stuff for a couple of hours fishing.

‘He would give you his last pound, even if it was a borrowed pound, which in his case it probably was. But no-one could say no to him, he was very endearing.’
Best friend Lewis said: ‘I was privileged to have been Tim’s best mate for over 20 years, from pre-school through to adult life.
'He was the most enthusiastic, positive person you’ll ever meet, and I hope some of that has rubbed off on me over the years.’

Tim was buried with his favourite fishing rods and drumsticks at St Margaret’s Church in Hopton-on-Sea on March 20.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-Fit-game.html ...

What we heard: As the 2009 Game Developers Conference heated up last week, so too did the game-industry rumor mill. The spark was a report on GamesIndustry.biz bearing the seemingly unequivocal headline "Blizzard in talks with Microsoft for next Xbox."

The title alone stirred up a frenzy, given that Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft is the biggest massively multiplayer online game on the planet. Its nearly 12 million subscribers help Blizzard--one half of Activision Blizzzard--generate over $100 million in revenues each month. Were any console-maker to successfully woo the notoriously PC-focused developer-publisher, the resulting royalties and sales would give it a major leg up in the tooth-and-nail console wars.

Unfortunately, the body of GI.biz's story was much less sturdy than its head implied. "Speaking at the Luminaries Lunch today during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Pardo would only state that Blizzard is actively in discussions with Microsoft, seemingly confirming the development process of new console hardware is under way." (Emphasis added.) The Luminaries Lunch was a small event reportedly organized by Acclaim chief creative officer and industry insider David Perry.

The official story: When contacted by GameSpot, Blizzard reps shot down the GI.biz story outright, saying the outlet had not even followed up with any inquiries attempting to clarify Pardo's remarks.

"In the Lunch with Luminaries discussion, Rob said that Microsoft occasionally bounces ideas off of us, with no specific reference to any possible future consoles," said the rep. "This should come as no surprise, as our games run on Microsoft's PC operating system. We aren't in discussions with Microsoft regarding any future consoles." (Emphasis added.)

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus. That said, though, Blizzard has publicly stated that a console MMORPG is theoretically viable. Several real-time strategy games--Blizzard's other specialty--have already been on consoles, but the profitablity of the genre outside the PC realm remains unproven.

If the console market continues to expand at its current rate--and is not disrupted by an OnLive-type service--the publisher would be foolish not to expand into it. For the moment, though, any such move appears to be a ways off--officially, anyway.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/blogs/ru...20-rumors.html ...

XSeed has really been delivering the goods to Nintendo platforms lately with great games like Rune Factory: Frontier on Wii, and Avalon Code and Retro Game Challenge on DS. Today the publisher announced its first WiiWare game: Drill Sergeant Mindstrong. The downloadable title will be a party game where Mindstrong puts players through brain teaser basic training.

Looking at the screenshots, it seems up to four players can compete for Mindstrong's affection. One shot shows a shooting gallery game where players have to shoot numbered targets to rack up a specific score.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/967/967625p1.html ...

In this farewell edition of the Wii-kly Update (more on that below*), we're pleased to announce a pair of excellent games based around completely opposite vocations. Newly available on the Virtual Console is Super Punch Out!!, the classic boxing title that pits players against tough pugilist rivals such as Bald Bull. Speaking of baldness, the unique new WiiWare game Bonsai Barber invites players to take off the gloves and work their clippers instead, giving new hairstyles to a colorful cast of fruits and vegetables. Both are yours for the downloading via the Wii Shop Channel.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

WiiWare

Bonsai Barber (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The village residents are hungry for the latest in foliage fashion, and it's up to you, the new barber, to fix them up. Use the tools of your trade: scissors, clippers, spray can, and more in this humorous, first-of-its-kind "first-person-groomer" game. Bonsai Barber features a colorful cast of 12 intriguing customers, including a temperamental shallot starlet (don't call her an onion), an oddball strawberry boffin, a cactus cowboy, a daredevil carrot, and a suave banana with top-secret clearance. Each day, five customers arrive to test your stylistic skill. If the customer requests a specific style, you'll plow that furrow, or you can rely on your expertise to pick from more than 30 popular fashions. Or, why not turn over a new leaf? Be creative and see how they react. They're a demanding bunch, so if you miss an appointment, you'll hear about it-on your Wii Message Board. If you do a good job, you may receive a gift or even a postcard from an exotic destination as your happy customers travel to distant lands and show off their exquisite coifs.

Virtual Console

Super Punch-Out!! (Super NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points): Featuring the tight game play and humor the series is known for, this sequel to the NES classic sees Little Mac return to the ring with the World Video Boxing Association belt once again at stake. Slug your way through the grueling, sweat-pounding matches of the Minor, Major and World Circuits as you face off against some of Little Mac's greatest rivals, such as Bear Hugger, Bald Bull and Super Macho Man. With a cast of new challengers waiting, do you have what it takes to identify their unique patterns and exploit their weaknesses? Go to your corner and come out fighting, but remember what Doc Louis would say: "It's not about brawling-it's about finesse!"

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

* - About that "farewell edition" stuff: Starting next week, the name of this newsletter will be changed from Wii-kly Update to Nintendo Download. Why? With the April 5 launch of the new Nintendo DSi portable game system comes the opening of the Nintendo DSi Shop. Like the Wii Shop Channel, the Nintendo DSi Shop will offer a growing library of downloadable games, with new titles added every week. Accordingly, we'll be using this space to tell you not only about new games for Wii but also for Nintendo DSi. Watch for the first edition of Nintendo Download on April 6.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/967/967590p1.html ...

The Codemii guys have released a new preview version of their upcoming v0.3 release

Download Here and Give feedback Via Comments ...

Commodore Free, issue 28, March 2009 (the free magazine dedicated to all things Commodore), is out now in its usual multiple guises including PDF, text, D64, htm, seq, and prg.

Content this issue includes:

Revamp D64 magazine
Megabit128 review
Simon Querhorst Cartridge
ByteBack review
Readers Code(c16/plus4) 0
Listing of “AATIMER.PRG”
In the beginning outro 1
Evolution of FORTH
Forth Interest Group
Interview with (S.V.F.I.G)
Alternate language FORTH

http://www.commodorefree.com/

http://www.retroactionmagazine.com/ ...

Retrogaming Times Monthly has a new website domain to go with the new current issue: retrogamingtimes.com. After existing for over ten years, the free on-line magazine finally gets its own home. The RTM archives and the original Retrogaming Times issues will be transferred over in the near future as well.

There are also plans to index every article written for the magazines, which will make it easy to look up certain reviews, articles, stories, etc. The new issue 58, March 2009, contains the usual mix of articles from the 1970s to the 1990s on various computers and consoles and is well worth a look.

Content includes:

Falling Arcade Prices
RTM Idiocy Part 3
Apple II Incider - Wheel of Fortune
The Thrill Of Defeat: Games for the 2K Timex Sinclair 1000
Old Wine in New Bottles: The Activision Anthology
National Center for the History of Electronic Games
Videological Dig - Christmas 1975

http://retrogamingtimes.com/

http://www.retroactionmagazine.com/ ...

News via emurussia

SNES emulator has been updated recently. Changes:
- Fixed a bug that was preventing BS-X carts from loading and mapping properly;
- Fixed a bug with mapping joypads after the first;
- Improved window centering code to reduce flickering, still a bit volatile on Linux due to Qt/X11 limitations;
- Minor cleanup work on S-PPU BG renderer;
- Improved mouse axis / button mapping;
- Added proper support for analog joypad inputs: both sticks and triggers are now fully supported;
- Windows: added RawInput support, allows up to 16 keyboards + mice to be mapped independently;
- Windows: added XInput support, allows Xbox 360 controller triggers to operate independently;
- Windows and Linux: Screen saver and monitor power saving disable re-added.

http://byuu.org/ ...

News via emurussia

NES emulator for Windows has been updated recently. Changes:
Major Bug / Crash Bug Fixes

*Fixed throttling problems that resulted on AMD Dualcore processors. (Caused FCEUX to appear to be in turbo mode).
*Fix major crash issue where NROM game (such as SMB) savestates were writing erroneous information if a non NROM game was loaded prior.
*Fixed a bug that caused a new sav file to not get created when loading a 2nd battery backed game.
*Fix Directory Overrides so to allow users to have no override. Also fixes directory override reset bug.

http://fceux.com/web/htdocs/ ...