Nerds Amalgamated

Author and illustrator Rebecca Burgess has announced a new graphic novel about Autism, aimed at 8-12 year olds. She definitely seems to have a history of writing well rated books about neurodiversities, so this should be good for helping children learn about Autism. Operation Chicken Drumstick sounds like a name for a sneaky run to KFC, but it's actually a Chinese police sting against a major hack...

Professor has survived his man flu, and celebrates by derailing the conversation onto the bloodier aspects of everyone's favourite chocolate themed weekend. The Demoscene is now listed as national heritage in both Finland and Germany, bringing it one step closer to becoming UNESCO listed. Demoscene projects are about squeezing the most impressive graphics out of very limited software and hardware....

This is the last time DJ is ever allowed to talk to me about the Snyder Cut. It's finally out. Are you happy now? It's in 4:3 because Superman is vertical when he stands up, which is true for basically all bipedal creatures. It probably wouldn't have happened without lots of people complaining on Twitter, so go watch it if you like superheroes who don't lie down. To get all the characters you want...

Well, it's a bad week for Microsoft based businesses. Hackers have breached more than 30 000 businesses and it'll take a lot of fingers and toes to count up all the damage they've done. Luckily, we have a new Switch model to look forward to. The leak shows a model with an OLED screen. But will they finally fix the joycons? Ensign, Warp speed 10. We'll have to give him a few years for the drive to...

Now the robots are coming for the writers' jobs too. The first AI written play has been performed. And it gets dark and raunchy. BONK. Go to Hornybot jail. GPT is a really amazing piece of tech. Bethesda are being sued for advertising the season pass as containing ALL the Fallout DLC. Players are upset that it doesn't contain the Creation Club content. Does this look like a man who has had ALL the...

There's nothing funny about NVIDIA's ridiculous CMP cryptocurrency mining cards, from taking chips away from gamers to being single use electronics. Hopefully this goes better than anyone outside NVIDIA thinks it will, but we'll have to see. Maybe AMD will keep their cards competitive and keep out of trouble so we have one consumer neutral producer to buy from. NASA's Perseverance Mars Lander touc...

The Microsoft AI and Gaming summit is about to begin. How long until I get strap on a VR headset and go into a game perfectly designed to keep me interested forever and ever? Strange creatures living at the bottom of the ocean under a polar ice cap is probably not a big issue, but just in case we should be equipping Antarctic research sites with nukes. It's the only way to be sure. Facebook and th...

Last week we had some terrible ideas. And we are sorry, because we've had more. There's a reason none of us are allowed to work at CSIRO anymore. The Australian games industry grew last year, following worldwide trends. We've got some interesting statistics on the industry and why it isn't doing as well as it could be. Last week we spoke about your gut microbiome affecting your parenting skills. W...

The infamous Gearbox, creator of many mediocre licensed games, has now been bought by the former THQ Nordic, now Embracer Group, owned by Deep Silver, the publisher owned by the Koch Brothers. Yeah, this is why it's so hard to track down the correct owners of game IP. Before Minecraft and Roblox, there was Garry's Mod. And Garry's back, with a fully overhauled sequel on the Source 2 engine, curren...

What does thousands of dollars of VR tracking gear get you? A way to compete in fully virtual breakdancing battles. South Koreans are still at home, and are working hard on creating Ready Player One’s Oasis in order to show off their sick dance moves. And the tracking is surprisingly good. If you haven’t invested in GameStop, it’s probably too late. If you have, you already know what we’re talking...

If you're old enough, you might remember NBA Jam. This old basketball game has enough of a following that modders add new characters based on yearly rosters, and now there's going to be a documentary about NBA Jam and the start of sports video games. What would you write in 72 bits? Currently, that's the amount of data that can be stored in a self replicating colony of E. Coli. You can't quite fit...

We have another long one for you, but that's ok because LucasFilm is back to making games. EA's tyranny is over! Rejoice! 2020 was an interesting year for the games industry. It turns out people really like Animal Crossing when they can't go outside. Gamesindustry.biz have provided a detailed article of numbers from the year in review. Staying inside might make you crazy. It also makes you slightl...

This week we bring you the terrifying story of an AI that knows too much. It taught itself to count, which is pretty cool. Flash is dead, long live Flash. Now it's all gone, it's time to find out more from the people behind some of the big games on Flash Game History Should art be valid as evidence in court? Some courts think so. The nerds have a debate about art as criminal evidence. Apple leaks...

This week we offered remembrance to all the victims of COVID-19. Rather than the 500 000 we quoted, there are more than 1.8 million COVID deaths. It's early days for 2021, and things seem to be going well. So far. I'll try not to jinx us. So we're taking a chill week to talk about some of the most significant things that happened last year. This week DJ watched a retro anime and Professor was plea...

Is it that time again, Mr Freeman? We hope you've all recovered from feasting, but if you haven't, sit back and relax for another episode of Nerds Amalgamated. First Nerds were uncool. Then they had their Revenge, then their Triumph, then their King was crowned. Now being a Nerd is cool, but now Seth McFarlane thinks it's time for another bout of Revenge. It's a dish best served cold, but when Ner...

It's episode 150! DJ thinks that's an important number for some reason. EA bought a Christmas present for itself. Now they own Codemasters. RIP racing games. If you stream copyrighted content you might soon go to jail. All games are technically copyrighted material, so it has been an honour streaming with you, gentlemen. The Hyabusa2 probe has successfully been retrieved and scientists are studyin...

Christopher Nolan is upset again. Not because we can't hear him, but because all Warner Brothers movies are going direct to streaming. DJ keeps trying to make a terrible nursery rhyme happen and we won't let him. Meanwhile, Damselfish farm algae with the help of their shrimp friends in the first example of a vertebrate species domesticating another species. Cyberpunk 2077 is out, but it's a bit bu...

THERE IS ONLY METRO. Dev-i and Professor are very excited for Metro 4, the movie, and 4A's continued projects. There's a lot of ground to cover, so hopefully Dimitry keeps writing. China now has the second best submarines in the world. The Fendouzhe has come just 20m short of the world record for submarine depth in the Mariner trench. That's pretty deep. Chris Claremont wants to focus on character...

Christopher Nolan, we need to talk. A group of fellow film workers have sent a letter to Christopher Nolan telling him nobody can understand his movies because of the poor audio mixing. He completely missed the point. If you ordered a Playstation 5, you might have gotten cat food instead. Which is going to be useful since you spent all your food money on a PS5. Nintendo have chosen to target The B...

It's time to vote for the 2020 Game Awards. There's a lot of categories and nominations and we'd probably stay here all night talking about them, but we picked some of our favourites including Best Multiplayer and Best VR/AR. If you have a gaming problem, EA's new tool might help. Yes, I feel just as bad as you do acknowledging that EA has done something at least a little right. FIFA Playtime will...

Our recurring guest Dev-i-Boy has returned from witness protection. It's time for the new consoles to be released, and on paper, they sound pretty powerful. The Nerds discuss the weaknesses of the hardware and why they might not be as powerful as they seem, including tiny hard drives and giant games. An atomic scale 3D printer has been used to create a model of the Voyager from Star Trek. It's tin...

Old games never die. They just get removed from storefronts and put on abandonware sites. But if you want to know the latest news on which games are staying and which are going, it would be helpful if someone kept track. Well they do. Professor and DJ discuss what delisted games actually mean for gamers, and why the industry takes them away. DC has a new series of comics for young teenagers. The N...

Bringing a fungus eating plant back from near extinction sounds like a bad idea. But it's actually pretty cool. The Bussells Spider Orchids has a special relationship with a fungus that it allows to grow then digests. And if you think mushrooms are gross you can fight me. HTC's FCC filings leaked a new Vive headset. It looks like a possible replacement for the Vive Focus line. More VR competition...

ALERT - THIS IS A DRILL. Tatiana Maslany is not She-Hulk. Or at least that's what she tells us. Wallenius Marine is building a sail ship to carry cars. The Oceanbird is predicted to produce less than 10% of the emissions of the Wallenius Wilhelmsen HERO class carrier, with only a small decrease in carrying capacity. Hopefully we'll see these sailing the seven seas soon. 2K have screwed up. Again....

The Osirix Rex mission is about to reach Bennu where it will pull samples from the surface to return to Earth in a few years. Nothing happens quickly in space, but landing on an asteroid, even momentarily, takes some serious skill. Alan Moore has joined the ranks of comic authors who take issue with the state of the industry. We can't blame him, but it would be nice for all the authors to make a s...