The Coin Dozer Gospel

Readers of a spiritual or elderly bent may be aware of the parable of the Deck Of Cards. (You can listen to a splendidly reverby take of Wink Martindale's definitive version by clicking this convenient link here.)

But you don't have to go back to the 1950s for a similarly instructive metaphor for the contemporary age. Because the iOS game Coin Dozer serves, if you don't want to carry around a bulky copy of Das Kapital, as a bible of the modern capitalist world. Shut up, it's not bollocks.

The ambassadors' reception (of lots of free games)

In all the hubbub about the 3DS price cut, little has been made of Nintendo's compensation package for "3DS Ambassadors", by which they'll all get 20 free Virtual Console titles, split equally between old NES and GBA games. Just a nice offer to make peace with people who might feel a bit ripped off, right?

The problem with the package, however, is that it might be a bit too good.

Panic on the streets of Kyoto

I get the feeling that Nintendo just don't understand what's happening to them any more. They're doing what they've always done, and what's made them swillions of dollars for the last half-decade, but the public just aren't biting this time. And now the gaming giant's nerve has cracked altogether.

Today's announcement that the company is to slash the trade price of the stumbling 3DS by a third, just four months after release, has taken everyone by surprise. But it really shouldn't have.

The turning tide

Admired WoSland acquaintance and slow reader John X has a piece today on the estimable Rock, Paper, Shotgun about gaming revenues. Obviously it's mostly focused on the PC and is therefore of limiSNNOOOORRRRRE.

Eh? What happened? Where am I? Oh yeah – the PC part of the story is of course epically uninteresting because it's about the PC, but there's a much more intriguing and zeitgeisty fact buried away in the passing.

WoSland predictions: wrong again

Back in June we forecast that it'd take about a month for the three-game downloadable content pack for Galaga 30th Collection to drop from a frankly optimistic £5.49 to an entirely more reasonable £2.99 price point.

In fact, I got it wrong yet again – it was six and a half weeks.

Everything you need to know about Apple

In one screenshot.

Norway killings – gamers react

Distant Assassin: Reload goes free.

And sniper game Contract Killer, without being the subject of any update or price cut or reviews, suddenly leaps out of nowhere up the popularity charts. Sigh. And no, I'm not making those links.

Cause and effect

On plugging in one of WoSland's many iThings for a sync this week, iTunes invited me to install a minor iOS update, iOS4.3.4. The only thing listed in the changelog was a bug fix to a "security issue with PDF files", which immediately made me think someone must have cracked 4.3.3 for jailbreaking.

Sure enough, not long afterwards I got a message from an alert viewer suggesting that I might like to check out some new unofficial apps available on Cydia, in particular one that removes Apple's ridiculous 11-page limit for displaying apps on Springboard, and confirming that 4.3.3 was now easily crackable on PC. And wow, they weren't kidding.

Who stole the Magic Equation?

The worlds of videogaming and science were equally stunned this week, when news broke of the disappearance of one of the former's most precious artefacts from the premises of Finnish developer Rovio. At this stage it's unknown whether the loss was the result of theft of accident, but in either event the consequences for gamers are likely to be serious.

That's because Rovio – producers of the iconic multiplatform mega-hit Angry Birds – have somehow contrived to lose the Magic Equation.

Just fine and something

Returning from the shops yesterday, I picked up an unexpected A4 envelope from the hallway by the door. Angry letters from debt collectors aren't usually A4, so I opened it. Inside was a short note from my mum saying "This isn't The Dandy as I know it", attached to something so odd that I instantly knew I had to scan it for posterity and share it with my beloved viewers.

Mums are always right about stuff.