Just a quick note that our book, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, is part of Amazon's "Game On: Featured Game Design Titles" promotion, as seen here. The best part? This means that you can presently get it for a low, low price of - as of this writing - just $14.56! Be sure to check it out. Also, be sure to check out a different, but similarly valuable promotion for Wii Fitness for Dummies, including a $5 mail-in rebate!

Elodie Dufroux sent along the following press release for their compilation of classics, SILMARILS COLLECTION PC, which sounds like an unbeatable value (click through to see additional information and images):

SILMARILS COLLECTION PC now available!

Paris, France – March 16, 2010: DotEmu, developer/ publisher dedicated to classics 80’s/90’s video games over new platforms is pleased to announce today’s launch of Silmarils Collection for PC. Initially published on Atari ST, Amiga and PC/DOS, the 16 Silmarils’ games of this collection, among others Deus, the Ishar trilogy, Robinson’s Requiem, will enable you to live or live again magic adventures taking place in mystic universes!

A large number of fans have already showed up their enthusiasm and interest for this collection and will be pleased to get these so acclaimed games. More information on www.silmarils-collection.com.

Wii Fitness for Dummies (aka, Fitness on the Wii), available from booksellers everywhere, as well as online discounters like Amazon.com, focuses on three of the top Wii fitness programs, Wii Fit Plus, EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer, and Jillian Michaels Fitness Utimatum 2010, as well as provides additional coverage of the entire Wii fitness phenomena and general exercise theory. As is always the case when writing a book, there is inevitably content that doesn't fit either due to subject matter, cost, or space constraints, which is where this regularly published bonus tips and content comes in. Each week, for an indeterminate number of weeks, Christina and I will be posting items that will both add to your enjoyment of the book and provide good fitness information in general.

This week, we're running the fifth in an eight part series of Classic Body Weight Exercises You Can Perform When You're Away From Your Wii* (*also great for warming up or cooling down, as discussed in book Chapter 1):

Back on November 23, 2009, the Awful Library Books blog featured a book entitled, I CAN BE A COMPUTER OPERATOR (1985, Childrens Press), by Catherine Matthias. After expressing interest in the book in the comments, I was contacted about and subsequently received the book through a generous anonymous donation. What immediately attracted me to the book were the wonderful period photos, particularly of home and education personal computer use. I have now taken photos of the entire book and made them available, here. The book is also available used on Amazon and via other resellers if you're interested. I posted a few of my favorite images of the book below. Can you name the systems (and when possible, the games on the screen) in each of the photos from the small selection of my favorites from the book below? (you may need to click through and select "All Sizes" and see the original resolution to make out the details)

Armchair Arcade TV is now in high definition (720p) and available at a wide range of locations, with a wide range of subscription options, and in a wide range of formats, including YouTube, iTunes, RSS, and many more via blip.tv!

Ciro Continisio of ENHANCED PRE$$ group has asked us to pass along the following press release for this interesting initiative for the iPhone and iPod Touch that needs English-speaking beta testers:

Wii Fitness for Dummies, available from booksellers everywhere, as well as online discounters like Amazon.com, focuses on three of the top Wii fitness programs, Wii Fit Plus, EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer, and Jillian Michaels Fitness Utimatum 2010, as well as provides additional coverage of the entire Wii fitness phenomena and general exercise theory. As is always the case when writing a book, there is inevitably content that doesn't fit either due to subject matter, cost, or space constraints, which is where this regularly published bonus tips and content comes in. Each week, for an indeterminate number of weeks, Christina and I will be posting items that will both add to your enjoyment of the book and provide good fitness information in general.

This week, we're running the fourth in an eight part series of Classic Body Weight Exercises You Can Perform When You're Away From Your Wii* (*also great for warming up or cooling down, as discussed in book Chapter 1):

Pigs VS Wolves (2010), featured on the iPho Game Development Website, is Digiarty Software's recently released tower defense game, available on iTunes, for the iPod Touch/iPhone. Pigs VS Wolves comes out hot on the heels of powerhouse PopCap Games strikingly similar, but higher profile, Plants vs Zombies, which, besides being available on the iPod Touch/iPhone, also has versions available for the PC, Mac, and Web. Not having played Plants vs Zombies, besides the obvious visual differences, the only other major distinction that I can see is the price. Plants vs Zombies runs $2.99, while Pigs VS Wolves is just $.99--at least for a limited time. Therefore, without a true basis for comparison, I will only review Pigs VS Wolves on its own merits, keeping in mind the existence of the prior product from a much larger developer/publisher.

Tower defense games are considered a sub-genre of real-time strategy games, with the most basic goal to stop enemies from reaching a particular point. Wikipedia points to Atari's Rampart, a 1990 arcade game from Atari, as forming the foundation of this sub-genre's roots. While I think that simplifies history a bit and minimizes the truly hybrid nature of Rampart - which I argue is part Tetris - it's ultimately a fair assertion. One of my personal favorites in this sub-genre is PixelJunk Monsters (Q-Games, 2008; Sony PlayStation 3 (PSN)), though I've certainly played my share of others, including South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! (Doublesix, 2009; Microsoft Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)), that I've tended to like much less. Major distinctions between the tower defense games include how much real-time elements there are and of course the overall imagination and cohesiveness that goes into all of the defensive and board designs. The vast majority of these games feature levels that start out simple but progressively add more playing pieces to the mix, requiring an increasing amount of thought in both defensive selection and asset allocation, as well as an increasing amount of trial and error to both learn new capabilities and properly utilize them to fight off the hoards of enemies.

The developer describes Pigs VS Wolves as follows (and we must at least partially forgive their non-native English):

While normally we shy away from posting about discounts and other deals, since our latest book, Wii Fitness for Dummies, is part of Dummies Month 2010 (all of March), we couldn't pass up sharing this information. Save $5 via mail-in rebate on any Dummies purchase of $6.99 and above, valid in the US and Canada. In addition, a wide range of stores are running various discount programs, listed here. Been holding off on that purchase of Wii Fitness for Dummies or other Dummies book? Now is your chance to stop waiting and save some extra money in the process!