Our first day back and we couldn’t ask for better news! Apogee has just announced that they are respawning from the dead. Their first creation will be a Duke Nukem Trilogy for handhelds! While we are still geek faithfuls who are still waiting for the Second Coming of DNfrom 3D Realms, mobilized versions of our favorite tactless FPS hero (and sidescrolling platform jumper, for those of us old enough to remember the original DOS game) is truly exciting.

Apogee claims to be the shareware pioneers who originally brought us episodic gaming and online distribution. I think they may be right. I remember waiting by the mailbox for my next levels of Duke Nukem and Commander Keen on 5.25″ floppies and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Then I remember when I first purchased Duke Nukem 3D, and was able to download the Plutonium Pack directly and connect for multiplayer action with my friends directly through my modem. When I was able to send Duke’s famous oneliners with a single function key after destroying my opponent, Apogee and 3D Realms gained a fan for life.

Now, Apogee is back and will deliver the new Duke Trilogy to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS platforms with three new episodes: Critical Mass™, Chain Reaction™, and Proving Grounds™. No launch date or screenshots announced yet, but when they do, you can bet we’ll let you know!

Dear Apogee,
Please release a Commander Keen game next, k? thnx.
-Jason

Apogee

Friday we had the iPhone, tomorrow we have E3, so it seemed sense to launch a new and improved Portagame.com this weekend. Well, it’s new as in we use Wordpress now. There’s still a lot of things I want to do to the site, and a custom design was in the works at one point. So, we’ll call this “Portagame 2.0 beta” (which should probably be Portagame 1.9 or something, right?). Anyway, welcome Portagamers! It’s been a while.

Hey everyone,

I’m finally migrating away from b2evolution and onto wordpress. In the process I have to kill the template (temporarily) and also disable comments (more permanent, at least until wordpress is up and running). Migrations are never easy, so wish me luck!

The fellas at the Giz have stumbled upon an interesting patent being developed by Sony Ericsson. Labeled as a “MOBILE INFORMATION TERMINAL APPARATUS” in order to, where guessing here, deter patent crawlers looking for a PSP/Gaming Phone application from Sony (HA! They got you!), the device includes a rotating screen for video playback and camera operation. Yes, there will be a camera built. Let’s just hope they can be more creative than Talkman for a killer app for it.

What’s missing? Well if they want to be an iPhone killer, a touch screen is missing. As lame as it sounds, “touch” is the new pink. iPhone wasn’t the first, but I can guarantee that you’ll see more and more consumer electronics, everything from phones to mp3 players to gaming systems, have touch screens. The DS is already on the bandwagon, will we see a touch-PSP in the future too?

They are also crowding the surface with too many buttons and this may be a fatal flaw for PSP purists. The shoulder buttons, if you could call them that are kinda lame and seem like an after thought. But this might on purpose since the shoulder buttons are very identifiable to the PSP and by showing the shoulder buttons in the patent app it would be a dead give away that this was indeed a PSPhone. Remember, it’s a “MOBILE INFORMATION TERMINAL APPARATUS”, ok?

I hope this isn’t a phantom application honestly. I would love to see the PSP, or PSP compatible mobile information terminal apparatuses, get into more peoples pockets no matter what form factor it is in. If the PSP installed userbase were to increase by double-digit percentages or more, it will catch they eyes and budgets of more game producers–which would hopefully mean a better selection of games for the PSP public!

So, Sony, I say let’s do it. Sign me up for your beta list, I want to be the first to test out the PSPhone!

There are only a few of the big name video sites (Google and GameTrailers yes, but no, not YouTube) that offer their video content in PSP and iPod compatible MP4 format. It’s something we definitely need more of. Have you ever been at a party, or a friends house, or even lunch with your coworkers talking about the latest viral video and wish you had it there, on your perfectly capable PSP or other portable player? Instead, you get to try to deliver the funny parts yourself. Only problem is, you’re not funny, you can’t sing whether in English or in Numa Numa, and definitely don’t sound like the voice of Leroy Jenkins. You’re friends are only laughing at you because you look like a dork as you act out Star Wars Kid.

Avoid the embarrassment. The boys at MP4point are collecting viral videos and making them available in that MP4 flavor you all know and love. What I like about the site is they seem to favor videos about the PSP. Remember that weird PSP commercial? How about the PSP smashers?

The site also features the TMNT LARPer. Which I’m still trying to determine that video is funny or just pathetically sad.

There’s a lot of other great viral vids that you just have to hunt for. The best thing to do, if you’re into mobile video and want lots of it, is to subscribe to their RSS feed.

OK, we know you need your daily YouTube habit but you haven’t figured out how to confert YT to your PSP yet. MP4Point provides us with a quick and dirty list of MP4 converters. They also have a few reviews of PSP movies services and sites.

I’m looking forward to using this site more and more. The fact that the MP4 videos they put out are already pre-formatted for your mobile device holds

If nothing else, at least visit for the Sexy Videos. That should be reason enough to justify a quick look.

Dear Current and Past Portagame Readers,

As we mentioned before, Portagame is in a flux of change at the moment. We have a single goal: to provide a site for handheld gaming news. We were off to a strong start, but with a series of life changes, the site came to a grinding halt. I’m in the process of purchasing the site back from the current owner and have already been authorized for complete control of everything but ad revenue. I still feel very strongly that a format change is necessary for the next version of PG. But the one thing I’ve been bouncing back and forth on what format to use. I know I want to switch off the B2E engine. It’s a great blogging platform, but it hasn’t evolved into what I was hoping. If we stick with a blog format, we’ll migrate to Wordpress and all its billions of useful plugins. But I also really like the idea of a community centered site. I think a Portagame forum would rock and make fanboys weep, as would a Portagame social site. Too many choices these days to use to make something of value. So, valued PG readers, I ask for your input. What would you like to see from a site dedicated to portables?

Here’s a permanent link for the polls for those of trapped in your little feed readers: http://www.polldaddy.com/p.asp?p=33529
This is the first of 3, maybe 4 polls to help shape the future of Portgame.

And just for the sake of sounding absolutely corny and lame at the same time on a Friday, I leave you with this last thought:

The future is in your hands! Huzzah!

Hey Portagame pondskippers! Now’s your chance to get in on a little bit of free action. Cell phones are a (evil?) necessity in today’s world, so why not buy in on a little fun while you are at it? The biggest online mobile phone shop in the U.K. is offering free game consoles and gadgets with the purchase of select phones. You can qualify for a free Nintendo Wii or DS, an Xbox 360, iPods, Tom Toms, Camcorders and Photo Printers when you purchase a phone and new plan. See the full list of free gifts when you buy a phone.

Too bad this offer only applys to U.K. residents. I’m seriously considering getting a Nokia N95 in the very near future (although I’m not sure if that phone qualifies for any gifts or not). Anyway, if you are a U.K. portagamer and ready to dropkick your old brick for a nice shiny new phone, why not go for the free goods? Get yourself a phone and a free system before they finish this promo.

[Disclaimer: Portagame is not associated with mobiles.co.uk in any way. This is a promotion run soley by them, solely on their site. But its a helluva deal if you ask me and you're Wii-less.]

WOW!

That’s pretty much all I have to say about this ad for the PSP. I work full time in the advertising industry and I’m still debating if this ad is 100% diabolical genius (look at the buzz it is getting) or if it is just plain tacky and distasteful.

Did it work? Well that depends on what the goal of the ad was. I really don’t think the aim is to increase sales of the handheld. And do you really want your brand associated with pedophilia and bladder control issues. What’s next, a packaged coupon with your brand new PSP for a free pack of Depends underwear?

Here’s the full video:

Sony: PLEASE get back in touch (but not in THAT way) with your user base. You seem to be missing the mark a lot lately.

[FOUND via WellWTF]

It’s news about media convergence like this that I LOVE to hear:

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) is in talks with Sky to allow PSP owners to download Sky content such as Lost and 24 onto their handheld devices.

See, who says that Sony hates the European market? If this service takes off, it could do Sony a lot of favors in the way of branding the PSP where they’ve previously received a lot of bad rep.

[via PSPworld]

Portagame.com has always had a soft spot in my heart. In the early days, I poured my heart and soul into this site and built it up to be a fairly successful portal for the portable gaming world. I loved to blog about new hardware, and loved to search for news related to my favorite past time.

Then a cross country move, a new job with a lot more responsibility and a pregnancy have all but kissed my free time goodbye. I actually ended up selling Portagame.com to another owner and remained on board to do the occasional editing. Well, that didn’t really work out as planned. No new writers were brought in as I was hoping and no new content was placed by myself either.

Well, it’s time for a kick in the pants.

I’ve personally hired someone to help me trick this place up. They won’t do content but they will do the design and software. I’m struggling to figure out whether I should continue using b2evolution as my software, or scrap all the archived data we built over the years (which is still getting a TON of traffic - about 1 to 2K uniques per day, not bad for a dead site) and start something new with a Drupal type CMS. Or we might just switch to another standard like Wordpress. Either way, we are going to switch it up. Our goal is to be relevant.

I’ll also be looking for writers in the near future as well. Paid and non-paid, whether through hard cash-money, AdSense impressions, or free reach-arounds, writers will get paid.

The current owner will remain owner of the domain and copyrights. I will retain editorial control of the site, but the advertisements and revenue that doesn’t go to pay writers will go to the owner.

And, I am hoping to develop a community. For those that recall, in the early early days of Portagame, we had a kickass forum. Our host at the time wasn’t able to run the forum because it had too much traffic and was too processor intensive, so we had to close it down. I’m sure this is one of the biggest mistakes of my life (should have found a new host, but this was through a friend), but live and let learn, right?

So, my goal is to make Portagame relevant. Again. I’m going to reach out to my industry contacts and PR firms and let them know when writers are ready for any news they send their way. I’ll be going back to my inside sources (some of which have remained good friends) and let them know that Portagame is stoking the fire once again. There are some BIG things happening in the handheld industry RIGHT NOW and out of our love for all things portable, we want to be there when it does.

Peace and love,
The once silent Jason.