Like simulators? There are hundreds of independent game developers who developer excellent and very unique games you should really know about. Here are some of the picks.

Coffee Tycoon (Jamopolis)

Coffee Tycoon gives sim games a jolt of caffeine. It’s packed with awesome graphics, tons of features, and lots of fun. Start fresh with one store, customize your coffee business by giving it a name and choosing a logo and store design. From there, choose a city start your coffee empire, maybe New York or L.A., or if you are really daring, the coffee capital of the world: Seattle!

Coffee Tycoon is filled with dozens of charming characters who will offer up their opinions, good or bad, on the quality of your store. Choose from dozens of store upgrades and coffee recipes to customize your business. First, you’ll need to choose a name for your coffee company. It can be anything you like. Some examples of names are: “Sally’s Coffee”, “Cup of Joe” or “Cream and Sugar.” Adjust the percentage of each type of Employees to meet your daily need. If you need more Money, make more Employees Baristas. If you need more Customers, make more Employees Managers and so on.

Betty’s Beer Bar

Betty’s Beer Bar is a fast paced and addictive arcade game. Your task is to serve the customers as quickly as possible - keep them happy and they will give you huge tips. Serve them coffee when they’re about to get drunk, to keep them awake - drunk customers rarely pay. This nurse had one beer too many. With good reflexes and a sharp mind, Betty will earn enough money to leave her original work place and start progressing towards her own bar in the caribbean! Betty’s Beer Bar features four unique scenarios and over fifty original and fun animated characters in a beautiful hand-drawn, cartoonish style.

It also includes different soundtracks to keep you fully immersed in its world. Even bears come to Betty’s Beer Bar. You can choose your own difficulty level to keep the game challenging at any time. It also includes an in-game tutorial so you will be playing in no time. You can also play in several different modes - including Free Play, Time Challenge and Story Mode, complete with inter-level cutscenes. And ifyou feel like competing, post your score in our online scoreboard.

Smugglers 3

In the case of Smugglers 3, you are a pilot in a interstellar conflict. However, instead of spending your time in non-stop battle action sequences, Smugglers 3 is based more on text.
Smugglers 3 places you in one of four factions. Each of the factions has different objectives and weapons. Playing through the game, one of your main goals is to trade goods with the various planets that you visit. This will help you to build up your funds so that you can buy better weapons and a better ship. In addition you will undertake missions that will help to increase your standing within your faction and win you medals of honor.

You do in fact have action battles in the game. However, the battles consist of you and an enemy in a turn based conflict that shows you both ships, a proximity meter and the special weapons that you each have available. These battles work very well to put you in control of all the important factors of the battle without making you get too tied up with minute details.

Game Download Links:

Coffee Tycoon http://www.deprice.com/coffeetycoon.htm

Betty’s Beer Bar http://www.deprice.com/bettysbeerbar.htm

Smugglers 3 http://www.deprice.com/smugglers.htm

John Deprice loves simulators. His collection is publically available at http://www.deprice.com/games-6-1.htm

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The successor of Nintendo’s Gamecube is currently being dubbed a
revolution. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the next-gen
Nintendo console will be a ‘paradigm shift’, proving to be much more
innovative than even the DS. Several rumors floating around include
those which speak of being able to connect to a PC monitor, and
Valve’s Team Fortress 2 being added to the game line-up, just as it
might be added to the other next-gen consoles and the PC. Both those
rumors sound a little fishy, although it is confirmed that this
console will be able to play over 20 years of Nintendo Games. It is
unclear whether this will be accessed through purchasing them on a
disk or downloading through the new Internet-Accessible console (a bit
late there eh Nintendo?) but either way it is a treat for old school
gamers.

‘The concept behind our new console, tentatively named ‘Revolution,’
is the same as the DS. We want it to broaden the audience range, and
we don’t want it to be something that people will see as too
irrelevant to them, too difficult to use, or as something that wastes
space. It will most likely come out between this year [and] next year,
which is considered to be the transition period for home consoles,”
Iwata said, also noting that it will be released about the same time
as Sony and Microsoft’s efforts. This new console will also be more
geared towards women and older gamers, not the traditional gamer
audience although lately that has been the focus of many other game
organizations. I myself will be purchasing this console as I have been
a fan of Nintendo and their products my entire life, but I am very
tempted to stray off to the Xbox 360 as its graphics look oh-so-tasty.
I feel the competition from all three companies (Nintendo, Sony, and
Microsoft) will be very strong, but I sense Nintendo will be the
underdog like it was with the last generation of gaming consoles.

For more great gaming information, check out this great Video Game Forum or check out this great Nintendo Revolution resources

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Online games have become rapidly popular over the last few years. In fact, it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. These massive virtual worlds provide a realistic, engaging environment in which people can play and interact. It has been a fertile ground for gamers from all walks of life to come together. As a result, these games have produced large and vibrant online communities.

In these virtual worlds, you can choose an avatar or character that represents you. The latest games offer the ability to customize these characters in unlimited ways; you can change your character’s hairstyle, facial features, size, weight, and clothing. How about the ability to change your voice to match your online personality? That is currently not a standard feature in games. But I do see technology stepping in and providing a solution.

Think of the possibilities: gamers could now change their voice to sound like a troll, giant, dwarf or dark lord. They’ve spent many hours making their online character to look a certain way, why not change their voice to match? It is products like MorphVOX by Screaming Bee that can fill this need. MorphVOX is voice-changing software specifically designed for online games. This tool allows gamers to role-play more effectively. Not only can they look the part, they can also have a voice to match.

Voice communication in games has been around for quite some time, but only recently has gained popularity in online games. Much of this may have to do with the increase in the number of people who now have broadband Internet connections instead of dial-up. This provides the extra precious bandwidth to cover an additional voice channel. As voice chat is becoming increasingly prevalent in online game use, companies like Xfire, TeamSpeak, and Ventrillo have emerged to meet the needs.

One company, Xfire, demonstrates the popularity of voice chat. Xfire provides a free application that can be used by gamers to easily find friends online and communicate in game. Starting in 2004, the company’s market share has rapidly grown to almost four million users.

Many gamers are finding voice chat to be a superior way to communicate as opposed to the slower process of typing messages on a keyboard. If a monster jumps out, there is no need for fumbling with the keys when you need to shout for help. Voice chat also lets gamers coordinate large groups of people effectively in large raids.

What about role-playing and voice communication? There is some reluctance to use voice communication in online role-playing games. Much of this issue stems from the lack of good voice-changing tools in the past that can work effectively with games. In addition, there is less control of good content on voice chat. External noises, such as other people talking in the same room, are very distracting and can’t be easily masked over a microphone. Also, some less helpful gamers could use voice chat to taunt or annoy other people, who may be unable to turn off an in-game voice channel. And role-playing over live voice communication poses a challenge for most people of finding the right thing to say at the right time. Most of us aren’t very good at extemporaneous acting - improvising in real-time.

However, new online games such as Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) provide in-game voice capabilities that are adding a new life to role-playing. Many people are now starting to adopt voice chat as an important part of their in-game experience. As games like DDO become more common, I foresee brighter days ahead for voice communication. By providing a rich auditory experience, voice chat will improve realism for gamers. This is part of the never-ending process of adding more immersion to these virtual worlds.

Mark Ramirez is CEO and co-founder of Screaming Bee LLC, a leading provider of voice software and solutions for online games and messenger applications. For more information visit: http://www.screamingbee.com

Copyright and Trademark Information:
MorphVOX is a trademark of Screaming Bee LLC. Xfire is a trademark of Xfire, Inc. Dungeons & Dragons Online is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

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