|
Issue Date: April 8, 2007
GAMING
Play games online
Websites serve up fun for less.
Internet sites pack plenty of play for not much cash.
|
Don't have $600 to blow on a new console? No matter. If you own a fairly powerful PC and have a broadband Internet connection, you still can get some video-game satisfaction.
GameTap, an online gaming portal, lets you access 800-plus video games for as low as $6.95 per month. Register at gametap.com and download the software application. You can play with a keyboard or USB controller. New titles post every Thursday. Offerings range from vintage text adventures such as "Zork" to the PS2 blockbuster "Prince of Persia Warrior Within." Some titles are so old-school ("Super Street Fighter II," "Millipede") that you may find yourself reaching in your pockets for quarters when the game ends.
Tweens likely will prefer "Net Jet" (Tiger Electronics, $24.99), an online game system with titles by Hasbro, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Net Jet looks like a standard controller. To get started, plug the controller into your computer's USB port. You will be launched instantly to netjetgames.com to download the software. Net Jet requires the purchase of game "keys," which go for $14.99 apiece and snap directly into the controller. Each key comes with one featured game and three Flash-based games.
"The meta story here is the development of the Internet," says Alexis Madrigal, of DFC Intelligence, a company that tracks online games. "We've moved from a dial-up to a broadband world, and that's opened up possibilities."
-- Scott Jones
|
