The 27th annual Golden Joysticks Awards were announced in London earlier today, giving props to the games that shaped the industry in the past year. Sitting on top of them is Fallout 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) receiving top honors as the Ultimate Game of the Year. Read up and find out who else made it big in the awards.

The Nintendo Wii port of the rail shooter OpenTyrian has received a new update courtesy of homebrew coder Molokai. Version 1.2.0 of OpenTyrianWii now includes a fully active on-screen keyboard. Read more to see new changes.


Download: OpenTyrianWii v1.2.0

Simon Kagstrom has just released another update for his Commodore 64 emulator for the Wii. After turning the Nunchuk and the Classic analog controllers into joysticks in the last version, he spent the cold weekend working on the Frodo/Wii networking support. He's made a few changes, and you can find the list after the link.


Download: Frodo v9 RC

Wiibrew dev Simon Kagstorm has released a new version of Frodo, the Commodore 64 emulator for the Wii. The major addition to this update is that the Nunchuk and Classic analogue controllers now work as joysticks for the emu.

Download: Frodo v8

Feel like kickin' it oldschool? Fuse is the Free Unix Spectrum Emulator made by Philip Kendall back in the 80s, which is an emulator for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It just got an update an it's yours for the downloading.


Download: Fuse Snapshot 3

Being a huge Neil Gaiman fan, I didn't want to pass up a chance to post new screens for the upcoming Coraline video game. Check out Coraline and her band of merry mice (I'm not kidding - they have instruments and everything) after the link.

There's a new bit of emulation currently being developed for the Wii, and this time, it's for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The name of the emulator is called FUSE, short for Free Unix Spectrum Emulator, and its being developed by Bg. Learn more about it after the jump!

Download: FUSE Preview Release

How does a classic compare to a classic? Interesting query, eh? We won't be giving you some philosophical take on that, but rather, we'll let you decide through these pictures we harvested from engadget.

These are images of the Wii Classic controller being compared to its forebear, the classic SNES controller. Apparently, the Wii controller is thicker than the SNES controller, and sports a more pristine design, with its all-white theme. While the SNES controller's purple buttons scream retro, the translucent ones of the Wii reeks of modern design.

Of course, with today's games having more demands in terms of control, there's now more than just the basic d-pad, select start, X, Y, A, B buttons. On the Wii controller, there are those joysticks added in, as well as those shoulder pads. More buttons equal to better functionalities? You tell us.

At the end of the day, it's not really about making comparisons to determine which is better. But actually, it's more of paying tribute to the history of gaming, and how it's evolved to the one we know now, by letting the controllers tell the story. Anyway, either way, they're still both classics.

More pics after the jump!

Computer pioneer and inventor Allan Kotok, has died of a heart attack at age 64 in his home in Cambridge Massachusetts. A native of Philadelphia, Kotok is an MIT alum and a W3C associate chairman.

Known for being "technically adept well beyond the norm," Kotok worked for a variety of high tech firms. While working at Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) Kotok designed a family of computers, did some consulting and went on to fulfill various leadership roles.

His background in creating the AI for chess computers was subsequently found to be indispensable in his capacity as a tech researcher and game inventor. Mr. Kotok's life was a catalyst for growth in the fledgling gaming and computing industries of his time, and he is someone all gamers should know about.

Credited with creating the first videogame, along with the joysticks used to play them, his role in the history of gaming and computing in general cannot be overstated. Who knows, without his contributions to the history of gaming, the gaming industry we see today could be drastically different.

Mr. Kotok is survived by two daughters, a son and two grandsons. Everyone who uses computers or enjoys gaming today should recognize Alan Kotok as an integral figure in the evolution of the videogame industry.