If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s “Rise of the Video Game” series, you’ll want to catch part 5 of 5 on tonight (Wednesday) at 8pm CST. I’ve seen parts 1-3, and have part 4 waiting for me on the DVR. So far it’s covered the beginning of electronic gaming (part 1 was a treat) and the harsh gaming business. It’s also talked about the cultural significance of the games, including how some major events in history (such as the Cold War) factored into game creation–and how games can also change war itself.

If you’ve missed parts 1-4, don’t fret. I’m sure Discovery will re-run the series. Or you could fire up bittorrent, but you didn’t hear that from me.

Edit: Oops, I meant 7pm CST. Bah. If you missed it, it’ll be on again later tonight and later in the week.

Apparently even 8 months after its release, the Nintendo DS Lite is sold out almost everywhere but ebay and price-inflated resellers. I’ve taken a look at most online and retail stores, and indeed the portable game systems are nowhere to be found. This comes at an inopportune time for a friend of mine, who wants to buy a Nintendo DS for her husband’s birthday.

Could the systems really be that popular? Or has Nintendo just focused production on the Wii (which, by the way, is also still completely sold out)? I All indications seem to point to hot sales. According to PunchJump, 35 million Nintendo DS units have been sold so far, and the Wii and DS games lead the top-ten list on Amazon. DS games have also been making a killing in Japan.

And the systems are apparently attractive to child molesters too. That’s a couple of million sales right there.

So if you were thinking about picking up one of these devices, good luck. My guess is they’ll probably be available sometime this summer.

(the image for this post was originally photographed by Havok on Wikipedia).

Well I’ve tried completing my Winter Games for 2007, believe me I’ve tried. But I’ve had waaay too many distractions that are keeping me from my goal. For instance, when given the choice of Parasite Eve for the PSOne (which is on my Winter Games list), or Zelda for the Wii (which is not on the list), guess which one I end up playing? Or as I start the final levels of Trauma Center for the DS (on the list), someone IM’s me and wants me to play WoW (which Brixtone has stricken from our lists), I can’t resist firing up my level 60.

There are just too many new great games I have that are keeping me from completing the old ones. Things look bleak for me—especially since I just bought WoW The Burning Crusade. Now excuse me while I hit the Outland.

It’s my Wii in a box! Booya!

That’s right, I have the Wii Component cables, an extra Wii remote, and Zelda, but no Wii console. Santa apparently made multiple trips to Target and Toys R Us, but wasn’t able to get one. I guess I’ll have to wait until the birthday fairy can find one.

Just watch the video. You won’t believe your eyes.

Thanks to some good timing, a store that didn’t quite realize what the release dates are, and Daedalus for pointing out the news to me, I’ve picked up the Nintendo DS Lite almost two weeks before it’s supposed to start selling. Woohoo! This picture is of the US version, obviously. Now it’s time to start picking up a few games for it, I have Super Mario Bros, but I’d like to get Brain Age, Mario Kart, Metroid, Tetris, the list goes on and on…

Nintendo has videos of Super Mario Bros. up on their site now. Check out the power-up you can get on the first video–you become large enough to tear up everything in your path, blocks, pipes, and all. If anything drives me to the DS, this will be it.

It’s too bad Nintendo never came out with a true Super Mario Bros. game for the GameCube. But perhaps they’ll redeem themselves with this DS release.