Topic: Episode 49: Rocket Man

[oksoda]

Have you ever listened to Connectivity... in zero G?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/connectivity/31508

Prepare to blast off with episode 49 of Connectivity!

First, we travel to a far and distant place called Australia, where Nicholas Bray and Andrew Brown probe the patrons of the Manifest anime convention to see how excited they are for Wii U. Unfortunately, Nick and Andrew's immune systems weren't used to the disgusting atmosphere of a convention, so both were defeated by the common cold. 

After that, Neal, Zach, and Scott receive cryptic messages from outer space in the form of listener mail. The signal seems to inquire about Nintendo picking up more western second party developers, what GBA and DS games a newcomer should play, and how more games can utilize asynchronous multiplayer. More importantly than all of that, though; the signal appears to be coming closer...

Next, Nicholas Bray emerges from the TARDIS, fully regenerated and ready to host another one of his N-Focus segments, focusing this week on GoldenEye 007. 15 years after the game's release, Nick talks about the legacy of the game and shares some of his and other staffers' memories. He can't stay long, though, because the Daleks are afoot.

After the outro, please stick around for a bonus segment all about space with Dr. Jonathan Metts. He answers a number of your questions, from the benefits of privatizing space flight to the effects of weightlessness on the body, before sharing an absolutely DELICIOUS recipe for his world (and beyond) famous moon cheese spread. The secret ingredient? Sage!

That's it for this week's show. Click here to send us listener mail. Oh, and not to spoil anything, but next week's episode is number 50, and you can expect a lot of fun things then. So be sure not to voyage into deep space and accidentally stumble upon a portal to Hell before then. Toodles!

[Tlon]

I'm loving the new scientific segment. Is there a programmer in staff who could explain video game development (programming) in a future episode. I still cant understand the difference between fixed function shaders and programmable shaders.
I have a couple of questions for Dr. Metts
Do you consider the ISS to be a success? Is the continuing collaboration between the worlds leading space agencies proving to be benificial with continuing economic hurdles?

[Traveller]

How about some Zero-G Love!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCe3MoOA4Kc

[ejamer]

Silly question for Dr. Metts: Have you seen or played Kerbal Space Program, and if so do you have any comments or reactions?  Seems engaging to the uninformed eye, and you'd think that anything that piques public interest in such matters would be beneficial for future support of the space program. How come NASA didn't fund something along these lines for publicity?

[Jonnyboy117]

I saw the Giant Bomb Quick Look of Kerbal Space Program, and it looks very educational (and hilarious). Of course, just randomly assembling things or iterating to test isn't really engineering, but if you start to identify patterns and and use those to inform design (or better yet, understand the underlying principles and use those to establish the baseline), that is real engineering methodology. The physics look pretty realistic from what I saw. Most people don't understand that you can reach space without going orbital -- actually staying in space requires a LOT more energy. And with any realistic chemical rocket, it's impossible to reach orbit on a single stage.

[Lithium]

I loved the Goldeneye segment, have any of you tried Goldeneye source? It's a remake of the multiplayer mode using the halflife 2 source engine, it's pretty fun. I guess this also fits in with the lastest RFN which their talk about fan mods but figured it fit here more

[Soren]

Loved the Goldeneye segment. The music on that game is incredible. It was so stealth and so epic at the same time.

[noname2200]

Loved the Goldeneye and space segments in particular. I already knew most of the info covered in the Goldeneye segment, but the fact that it had once been a lightgun game was new to me. That explains the hit detection!

Regarding the space segment, for some reason I thought we (the US) weren't signatories to the "no settling space!" treaty. Interesting to know I was wrong, even if the whole thing is largely academic at the moment.

Finally, I think you guys skipped a great DS RPG to recommend; the Etrian Oddysey series. They're fantastic, and challenging, dungeon crawlers. Highly recommended.

[TJ Spyke]

Regarding the space segment, for some reason I thought we (the US) weren't signatories to the "no settling space!" treaty. Interesting to know I was wrong, even if the whole thing is largely academic at the moment.

Maybe you are thinking of Antarctica? The US doesn't claim any land there (some countries do, though none recognize the claims) but said they reserve the right to do so.

[noname2200]

Regarding the space segment, for some reason I thought we (the US) weren't signatories to the "no settling space!" treaty. Interesting to know I was wrong, even if the whole thing is largely academic at the moment.

Maybe you are thinking of Antarctica? The US doesn't claim any land there (some countries do, though none recognize the claims) but said they reserve the right to do so.

Nah, I definitely had space in mind, but it looks like I was just flat out wrong.

A novelty, to be sure. >_>