Fierce. Green. Dragon.It's the month of love. Nope, we're not sending you valentines and a heart-shaped box of assorted fine chocolates, but you do get a podcast sealed with a kiss! We have a humongous show clocking in at nearly three hours, with special guests Jay Barnson of Rampant Coyote, John Pio of MAMECADE, and Alex Layne of Not Your Mama's Gamer. We're also joined by almost all of the regular AA team, including Bill Loguidice, Christina Loguidice, Mark Vergeer, Rob Daviau, Chris Kennedy, and yours truly, Matt Barton.

Click here to download the show.

Segments and approximate times below:

• Jay Barnson (aka Rampant Coyote) and the fierce green dragon (4:44)
• John Pio (aka MAMECADE) on classic arcade machines (16:00)
• Bill Loguidice's third and final segment on motion gaming (45:15)
• Christina Loguidice on Plants vs. Zombies (1:00:06)
• Alex Layne on Samus Aran (1:08:51)
• Chris Kennedy and the results of AA Favorite Arcade Machine Poll (1:18:26)
• Rob Daviau on the Dreamcast (1:34:12)
• Mark Vergeer on the Commodore 64 (2:10:06)
• Matt Barton on Gerald Celente's Predictions of a Global (Gamer) Revolution

As always, we'd really appreciate any feedback you have to offer on the episode. You can leave comments here, email us, or review the show on iTunes. You can also subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Razer Hydra MotionI was reading on Gamasutra that Razer, the company famous for its gaming mice and keyboards (and recently in the news for its upcoming Switchblade Mobile PC Gaming PC) has announced that the upcoming Portal 2 game from Valve--pretty much a must play for anyone serious about PC gaming--will feature exclusive levels designed especially for its Hydra Motion Contoller. I must say, I'm really impressed with Razer's lately. They seem to be doing a lot more innovating on the PC platform than anyone else these days. See below for a demo video.

It's that time of the month again--Armchair Arcade Radio time, that is! Check out Episode 6, which features over 2 hours of retrogaming eggnog spiced with rum and boasting a nutty (as a fruitcake) aftertaste. This episode features exclusive content from Chip Hageman, Rob Daviau, Nathan Tolbert, Bill Loguidice, and yours truly, Matt Barton.

Click here for awesome.

Segments and approximate times below:

• Chip's Picks: Steel Storm Ep. 1, Space Chunks, Rocky Memphis, and more (00:04:09)
• Bill's Motion Gaming, continued: Sega Activator, XaviX XaviXPORT, and more (00:13:35)
• Rob's Collection Obsession (00:40:07)
• Nathan on the SSI Goldbox series (01:05:34)
• Matt on Unit Operations and Persuasive Games by Ian Bogost (01:18:48)

As always, we'd really appreciate any feedback you have to offer on the episode. You can leave comments here, email us, or review the show on iTunes. You can also subscribe to our RSS Feed.

We'd also really appreciate anything you can do to help spread the word about our podcast. Don't be a lamer. Post about us on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever dens of iniquity in which you lurk.

Enjoy the show!

Gamasutra has an article up concerning the top 5 major industry trends they see as we round out 2010. You could probably list most of them yourself: Facebook gaming, 3D, cloud gaming, digital distribution, and motion controls. I thought I would give my own thoughts on each below; feel free to add your own.

It's so bad!We're back again with a month's worth of audio content for retrogaming fans of all makes and models. Clocking in at two and a half hours, this episode features exclusive content from Bill Loguidice, Rob Daviau, Chris Kennedy, Matt Barton, Nathan Tolbert, Andre Faucher, Rebecca Tolbert, Max Shelton, and special guest Chip Hageman.

Download the episode here (128 K format).

Segments and approximate times below:

Well, chalk me up as surprised, but my first impression of Microsoft's new Kinect is that it's a rousing success for what it's intended for, much moreso than Sony's PlayStation Move or Nintendo's Wii Motion+. I had preordered the standard Kinect bundle, which comes with "Kinect Adventures", from Amazon, along with "Dance Central", as part of a special promotion. It arrived yesterday, which was the official street date when retailers were authorized to actually sell the thing (there were only a few cases of a broken street date). As is usual for a Microsoft product, it's a rather convoluted and bulky setup, but since it actually works, I can't be too critical of that aspect of the device. By the way, as a point of full disclosure up front, as luck would have it, we probably have the ideal family room setup for motion games, with a generous amount of space between the TV and any other obstacles, like our sofas, so, unless you want to move furniture to make the necessary 6 - 10 feet or so of clear space (you want a generous rectangle), know that your mileage will definitely vary from mine in terms of hassle-free play (you'll generally need a less space for Move and Motion+).

I have the old style white Xbox 360, and, as such, I was required to plug the Kinect into the rear USB port and then plug in yet another (albeit small) wall wart (this is necessary, because, among other things, the camera can turn on its own). If I had the new style Xbox 360 slim, it has an accessory port that the Kinect can draw power from directly. Anyway, for those of us with the old style Xbox 360's (which is probably most of us), they also give a small USB extension cable so the wireless networking card dongle can plug into the front USB port, since the rear USB port is a requirement for Kinect. Ugly. However, in my particular setup, both my 360's still have HD-DVD drives attached to them (yeah, I admitted it), which is where I have my wireless dongle attached to, so in fact I didn't need the extender as I could just plug the USB cord from my HD-DVD drive to the front USB port. Needless to say, with the old style white Xbox 360, a USB plug sticking out of one of the two front USB ports and the HD-DVD drive next to it (along with an old style memory card that keeps my sign-ins portable), it's hardly a sleek looking setup, though my launch ("fat") PS3 hardly looks much better since I have the PlayStation Eye camera always plugged into one of the front four USB ports. Looks aside, plugging it all in was logical and went smoothly.

Amidst all of the usual software-centric sequels and somewhat tired continuations of long running series at E3 was a clear, present and somewhat surprising focus on hardware accessories, and, more specifically and perhaps most exciting, next generation motion tracking and control systems. This wasn't just an attempt to copy Nintendo's almost-there original Wii Remote technology, but rather an attempt to redefine the technology once and for all and influence videogames and the technological world at large for generations to come (think integrated touch and motion controls in your 2015 laptop).