Nosce te ipsum

While perusing the February issue of MacWorld and inside Peter Cohen's Game Room column, he mentioned a new game from Japan called Torus Trooper. Anyone who grew up in the 1980's will take one look at the screen shot and immediately think Tempest! In fact, after we played a few rounds of Torus Trooper, we had to boot up good old MacMame and compare it to the original.

The simple yet elegant grid-like graphics reminded me very much of the opening sequence from Disney's original movie Tron. When you go the developers site below, be forewarned, it is in Japanese (there is also an English version) but we tip our hat out of respect to the developer for taking the time to make an English version as well.

I've always admired what little I know about the Japanese games, they are always so fresh and innovative with their designs. After awhile, so much of what we see here in the US is just more of the same. Besides that, most of us here have convinced ourselves that we are the sole center of the universe and the rest of the world revolves around us so few even bother to learn another language outside of our native English. I wouldn't know how to port my own software to another language if I had to (short of going to another firm who specializes in such a thing).

Anyway - perhaps the best part about Torus Trooper is that it's for Mac and PC, the game play is great and the price is perfect - free! I highly encourage you to check it out.

• Windows Version
• Macintosh OS X Version

Sometimes the most obvious truths are the ones we never see for ourselves. Kudos to our friends Nitrozack and Snaggy over at The Joy of Tech.

I first got tuned into JOT back in early 2002 and vividly remember waking up early the day after getting my TiBook just to spend some quality time getting to know my way around this strange new world. I happened upon a link to JOT from a posting over at Your Mac LIfe and was hooked from the start. i recall being literally glued to the screen as I plowed through their archives just taking it all in. I think I was mildly late for work that day and had to work late to catch up. Ah, good times!

I'm happy to see the success that these two are having doing what they love. I've got their book in my office and it never fails to bring a smile.