How emulation lets you play classic video games on your Android phone

With today?s smartphones being far more powerful than the games consoles of even just a few years ago, it?s little surprise that there?s a thriving scene of developers building software to reproduce the best of yesteryear?s gaming on that device in your pocket.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the open world of Android is the focus of many developers? attention. It?s possible to play everything from Tetris on the GameBoy and Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis right up to the 3D adventures of Super Mario 64 on the N64 using a reasonably specced Android handset.

A brief history of console emulation

Console emulation first entered popular consciousness in the late 1990s, when the likes of NESticleGenecyst and MAME brought the games from consoles like the Nintendo NES (Famicom) and Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), and even proper arcade cabinet games, to PC owners by way of retro-engineered software designed to replicate the chipsets of the original hardware.

The spread of home Internet connections around the same time meant that anyone who wanted to run old videos games on their computer could do so with ease. It was simply a case of installing the appropriate emulator and then downloading the ?ROM images? for individual games, easily found around the Web, to run with them.

In addition to running classic titles, emulation brought about the possibility for gamers to try games never officially released in their home territories. Expansive Japanese role-playing games Final Fantasy V and Seiken Densestu 3 (sequel to hit Super Nintendo game The Secret of Mana), never released in the West, were even translated in to English by fans so more people could enjoy them.

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Over time even games publishers themeselves turned to emulation to sell classic titles to new audiences. If you?ve ever played one of the classic Sega titles available in the PlayStation 3 Store, for example, you?re essentially running a MegaDrive/Genesis emulator for the PS3, packaged to run a specific game.

Emulation on Android

It was only natural that emulation would jump from the desktop to mobile phones when the right platform came along on which it could thrive, and Android certainly seems to be that platform.

Games journalist Damien McFerran is a fan of both emulation and Android, so the two together have particularly excited him. ?It?s a fantastic platform, largely because mobile phone technology is advancing so quickly. Most Android phones are capable of running 8-bit and 16-bit emulation flawlessly, and with the next generation of dual-core processors already upon us, you can expect the standard to rise. Emulation of more recent consoles ? such as the Sega Dreamcast ? is slowly but surely becoming possible.

?Another benefit is the wide selection of Android devices on the market; thanks to the diversity of the hardware, you can pick up phones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which has dedicated gaming controls ? perfect for emulation.?"

Indeed, this video shows just how perfect the Xperia Play in particular is for running emulators.

In terms of the emulators themselves, McFerran highlights SNES 9X EX (for the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom), MD.emu (for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) and PCE.emu (for the PC Engine) ? all from developer Robert Broglia ? as emulators with particularly good performance and interesting features. ?For example,? he says, ?you can use your phone?s Bluetooth connection to link up a Nintendo Wii remote, allowing for a higher degree of control.?

?FPse is a 32-bit PlayStation emulator with astonishing power, and Tiger Arcade (which is no longer available) allows you to replicate the performance of the SNK Neo Geo and Capcom CPS2 arcade systems. Yongzh?s selection of emulators ? which covers everything from the Game Boy to the Nintendo 64 ? is also solid.?

Is it legal?

Unfortunately, the thriving emulation scene has a problem ? it was on (at best) shaky legal ground. The generally accepted view amongst followers of the scene is that the emulators themselves, designed to replicate the workings of specific consoles using original code, are legal. However, the game ROM images, bundles of files created using actual source code, are not ? and there?s no point running an emulator unless you?ve got games to play on it.

That said, over the years examples of the games industry cracking down on the homegrown emulation scene have been few and far between. Even game ROMs have remained easy to find on the Web ?  the opposite to how unauthorised copies of music and video releases have generally retreated to the far less traceable world of BitTorrent.

It?s only where emulators have caught up to the present generation of consoles that there has ever been a notable problem. In 1999, a commercial Playstation emulator called Bleem was released, allowing Windows PCs and Sega?s Dreamcast console to play games from Sony?s first-generation console. Sony took Bleem to court and bitter ?David vs Goliath? fight ensued. The cost of its legal fees eventually drove Bleem out of business. In another case, Sony actually bought the Connectix Virtual Game Station emulator after losing a legal battle to have it removed from sale. That?s certainly one way of taking it off the market.

The Android emulation scene hasn?t been free of controversy either. Earlier this year, Google removed a number of emulators created by a developer going by the name of Yongzh from the Android Market. This was billed by some as the company ?cracking down on emulators?. However, a number emulators from other developers remain on the Market. We asked Google for clarity on this case and a spokesperson told us ?We suspend apps and developer accounts that violate our policies.? This indicates that it could have been something as simple as a trademark violation which got those particular apps removed, rather than an anti-emulation drive. Either way, Yongzh?s emulators live on via the third party SlideMe Android app store.

What about the iPhone?

While the open-ended nature of Android is often criticised for leading to a vast sea of low quality apps being available, emulation is one area where that openness is leading to a genuine benefit for consumers. The gated community that is the iOS app store means that iPhone owners have far fewer options available when it comes to emulation.

A handful of apps running pre-packaged sets of games for some 8-bit computers like the ZX Spectrum are available, but an NES emulator which was approved in late 2009 didn?t last long, and even if there were a wide range of emulators available, getting game ROMs onto the iPhone to use with such apps would be difficult due to the way iOS handles files. Things are a little more active in the jaibroken iPhone scene, with a number of emulators available on the Cydia app store.

The future of Android emulation

With Android-based emulation of a number of games consoles already impressively well developed, what?s on the horizon? ?Sega Dreamcast emulation is tantalizingly close now, and it?s possible we may see it in the next 12 months.? says Damien McFerran, ?I?d love to see Sega Saturn emulation happen on Android too, but the complex nature of the machine?s hardware makes it difficult. However, given the speed in which Android phones are evolving, I?d imagine that the sky is the limit. Who knows, we may even see PlayStation 2 emulation in the next few years.?

Whatever happens in the future, the fact that you can easily play just about any classic game from the early 1980s through to the late 1990s on an Android handset is definitely one point in the Google mobile OS? favour.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2011/07/30/how-emulation-lets-you-play-classic-video-games-on-your-android-phone/

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Rightward Tilt Leaves Obama With Party Rift

Entering a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash over the parties? divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate. Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans? language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.

That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Mr. Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his re-election could be threatened. Besides turning off independents, Mr. Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and his failure to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts and enact a government-run health insurance system.

?The activist liberal base will support Obama because they?re terrified of the right wing,? said Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal group Campaign for America?s Future.

But he said, ?I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party ? young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos ? are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.?

While Mr. Obama and Republicans have been unable to agree on a debt reduction plan for spending cuts and revenue increases to cut $4 trillion in the first decade, on Saturday they were negotiating a deal with fewer spending cuts that would ensure the government?s debt ceiling would be increased into 2013 to avoid another deadlock in the heat of campaign season.

No matter how the immediate issue is resolved, Mr. Obama, in his failed effort for greater deficit reduction, has put on the table far more in reductions for future years? spending, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, than he did in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations. He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of the chamber?s most conservative Republicans.

To win approval of the essential increase in the nation?s $14.3 trillion borrowing ceiling, Mr. Obama sought more in deficit reduction than Republicans did, and with fewer changes to the entitlement programs, because he was willing to raise additional revenue starting in 2013 and they were not. And despite unemployment lingering at its highest level in decades, Mr. Obama has not fought this year for a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have clamored for. Instead, he wants to extend a temporary payroll tax cut for everyone, since Republicans will support tax cuts, despite studies showing that spending programs are generally the more effective stimulus.

Even before last November?s election gave the Republicans control of the House, Mr. Obama had said he would pivot to deficit reduction after two years of stimulus measures intended first to rescue the economy and then to spur a recovery from the near collapse of the financial system. With Republicans? gains in the midterm elections, that pivot became a lurch. Yet Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama seeks a debt limit increase as ?a blank check? to keep spending.

?The Republicans won, and they don?t know how to accept victory,? said Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

In his budget proposal in January, Mr. Obama declined to suggest a plan along the lines proposed by a majority of his bipartisan fiscal commission, which in December recommended $4 trillion in savings over 10 years through cuts in military and domestic programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and a tax code overhaul to lower rates while also raising more revenue.

Even though Mr. Obama was widely criticized, administration officials said at the time that to have embraced that approach then would have put him too far to the right ? where he ultimately wanted to end up in any compromise with Republicans, not where he wanted to start.

But by this month, in ultimately unsuccessful talks with Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama tentatively agreed to a plan that was farther to the right than that of the majority of the fiscal commission and a bipartisan group of senators, the so-called Gang of Six. It also included a slow rise in the Medicare eligibility age to 67 from 65, and, after 2015, a change in the formula for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments long sought by economists.

?He?s accommodated himself to the new reality in Washington,? said Tom Davis, a former House Republican leader from Virginia. ?That?s what leaders do.?

But Congressional Democrats and liberal groups objected.

?The president?s proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare has the potential to sap the energy of the Democratic base ? among older voters because of Medicare and Medicaid and younger voters because of the lack of jobs,? said Damon A. Silvers, policy director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. ?And second, all these fiscal austerity proposals on the table will make the economy worse.?

Mr. Obama?s situation has parallels with the mid-1990s, when President Bill Clinton shifted to the center after Republicans took Congress and battled them on deficit reduction and a welfare overhaul. Many Democrats were angered by his concessions, by a sense of being left out of negotiations and by a fear of alienating Democratic voters. Mr. Clinton was re-elected in 1996.

But Mr. Obama is likely to face the voters with a weaker economy and higher unemployment than during Mr. Clinton?s era. Still, his advisers express confidence that voters will reward Mr. Obama either for winning a bipartisan deal, if that were to happen, or for at least having a more balanced approach that does not remake Medicare and Medicaid and asks for more revenue from the wealthy. And they suggest another potential parallel with the Clinton years of divided government: that Republicans risk a voter backlash with their uncompromising stands.

?Democrats created Social Security and Medicare, and we have fought for decades against Republican attempts to end these programs,? said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama?s communications director. ?And President Obama believes that now is the time for Democrats to be the ones to step up and save Social Security and Medicare.?

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said polling data showed that at this point in his term, Mr. Obama, compared with past Democratic presidents, was doing as well or better with Democratic voters. ?Whatever qualms or questions they may have about this policy or that policy, at the end of the day the one thing they?re absolutely certain of ? they?re going to hate these Republican candidates,? Mr. Mellman said. ?So I?m not honestly all that worried about a solid or enthusiastic base.?

Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting.

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Weekend Open Forum: Your favorite music and streaming sources

Music is among the most primitive forms of entertainment and self-expression, with the oldest confirmed musical instrument -- a bone flute -- dating back at least 35,000 years, and it's believed the human voice, hand clapping and other bodily-derived noises were used to produce rhythmic melodies long before then. Fast forward to the present day and we have instant access to millions of songs spanning thousands of genres and sub-genres containing everything from blue dudes wailing on PVC pipes to CGI pop stars (for better or for worse).

With the advent of smartphones and streaming services like Spotify and YouTube it's never been easier to drown out a boring conference with your preferred tunes. With that, we want to ask: what's your favorite music and how do you access it? Feel free to share your favorite genres, artists and songs (links must be legal). I can't say I have a particularly favorite genre, though I tend to favor music without vocals -- anything from classical to electronic. That said, I've probably listened to Pink Floyd's "Animals" album more than anything else in my collection.

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Weekend Open Forum: Your favorite music and streaming sources

Music is among the most primitive forms of entertainment and self-expression, with the oldest confirmed musical instrument -- a bone flute -- dating back at least 35,000 years, and it's believed the human voice, hand clapping and other bodily-derived noises were used to produce rhythmic melodies long before then. Fast forward to the present day and we have instant access to millions of songs spanning thousands of genres and sub-genres containing everything from blue dudes wailing on PVC pipes to CGI pop stars (for better or for worse).

With the advent of smartphones and streaming services like Spotify and YouTube it's never been easier to drown out a boring conference with your preferred tunes. With that, we want to ask: what's your favorite music and how do you access it? Feel free to share your favorite genres, artists and songs (links must be legal). I can't say I have a particularly favorite genre, though I tend to favor music without vocals -- anything from classical to electronic. That said, I've probably listened to Pink Floyd's "Animals" album more than anything else in my collection.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44880-weekend-open-forum-your-favorite-music-and-streaming-sources.html

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Blog - Magnets 'n' Mines

Top Republicans Say They?ve Begun New Talks With Democrats on Debt Limit

?We now have a level of seriousness with the right people at the table,? Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, said during a news conference he held with Speaker John A. Boehner. He said that Republicans were now ?fully engaged? in discussions with the White House and that he expected a deal soon.

Both men expressed confidence that they could find an acceptable resolution to a crisis that has left nerves frayed on Capitol Hill, a tension illustrated in a heated House debate where Republicans pre-emptively rejected the latest debt limit proposal from Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader.

Just how they would get a resolution remained unclear given the months of partisan fighting over the debt limit and the fact that any deal would have to clear a Senate controlled by Democrats and a House dominated by Republicans who as recently as last Thursday had rebelled against Mr. Boehner?s own proposal.

In another indication of some possible movement toward an agreement, Mr. Obama called Mr. Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader, to the White House on Saturday afternoon to confer over the situation. The burst of activity came as Senate Democrats struggled to round up Republican support for Mr. Reid?s plan, which is scheduled for a vote early Sunday morning.

The Senate Democrats? efforts were set back Saturday when 43 of the 47 Republican senators signed a letter to Mr. Reid saying they would not back his proposal that would allow a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling in two stages while establishing a new Congressional committee to explore deeper spending cuts. The numbers signaled that without changes in the plan, Mr. Reid would not be able to overcome a Republican filibuster, which requires 60 votes.

House Republicans signaled their disapproval of the Reid plan by holding a symbolic vote on Saturday, rejecting it by a 246 to 173 vote, in a move intended to show it had no chance of passing in that chamber. About a dozen Democrats joined Republicans in rejecting the Reid plan.

The pre-emptive vote could strengthen the hand of Mr. McConnell as he seeks additional concessions from Mr. Reid.

Mr. Reid, for his part, said Mr. McConnell was dragging his feet on beginning talks to find a compromise solution, and he called on Republicans to offer their plans to alter his measure.

?We have heard very little from the Republicans,? Mr. Reid said on the floor. ?My friend the Republican leader must generate some more action on the part of his Republicans.?

But Mr. McConnell, in a floor exchange with his Democratic counterpart, indicated that Republicans wanted to first have a chance to oppose Mr. Reid?s measure before entering new talks. He also demanded that the president take part in any final negotiations.

?We?ve got a couple of days to work this out and we can?t do it without the president,? Mr. McConnell said.

The unusual Saturday session came after a week of brinkmanship on Capitol Hill. On Friday, Mr. Boehner managed to pass his own House bill, along party lines, just a day after suspending the vote as the Republican leadership tried frantically to line up enough votes for passage. But that plan was swiftly rejected by the Senate late Friday.

While some of the back-and-forth between the House and Senate and the party leaders was typical of the late stages of a negotiation, the combative and unyielding tone in both chambers of Congress was creating more pessimism about the prospects that a final agreement could be struck and cleared before Tuesday.

Mr. Obama, who has warned that the government could run short of money as soon as Wednesday morning, laid the blame for the impasse squarely on House Republicans in his weekly address, which largely repeated remarks he made on Friday as the stalemate gripped Washington.

?Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been listening and have shown themselves willing to make compromises to solve this crisis,? he said. ?Now all of us ? including Republicans in the House of Representatives ? need to demonstrate the same kind of responsibility.?

In the Republican video response, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said that ?Republicans have tried to work with Democrats? to raise the debt ceiling, ?but we need them to work with us.?

Though the current Senate plan was in serious trouble, Democrats and the administration were exploring ways to adjust it to win some Republican backing and send it back to the House as a final offer to raise the debt limit and avert a default after Tuesday.

If a measure is able to win significant bipartisan endorsement in the Senate, the reception in the House could be different with the Treasury Department?s Aug. 2 deadline for increasing the debt limit imminent.

Jackie Calmes contributed reporting from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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PhoneGap is a Swiss Army knife for mobile app developers

When developers have the ability to craft applications for multiple platforms with little to no barrier, amazing things can happen. 6Wunderkinder is a prime example of this, as it managed to deliver its popular Wunderlist productivity app to additional platforms in short order thanks to a partnership with Appcelerator. But not every developer has the time (or resources) to forge such a relationship, and thanks to Friday?s release of Nitobi?s PhoneGap 1.0, they don?t have to.

PhoneGap is an HTML5 platform that allows developers to use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create native mobile applications. Now developers can write their app once and deploy it to six major mobile platforms and app stores, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, Bada and Symbian. With the open source code receiving contributions from a dedicated community of developers, PhoneGap has increased in both stability and durability ? which has played a large part in the project averaging approximately 40,000 downloads per month at the time of writing.

While PhoneGap 1.0 was officially released by Nitobi at PhoneGap Day in Portland, Oregon on Friday, the company is based in Vancouver, BC. In fact, The Next Web Canada covered PhoneGap?s initial launch late last year. But the building of PhoneGap has been an effort that goes well beyond the team at Nitobi, a fact that is not lost on company CEO Andre Charland.

?The community built up around PhoneGap is its greatest asset,? says Charland. ?The PhoneGap community identifies common pain points and works together to overcome them.?

A team of senior software engineers at IBM have also been involved in the development of PhoneGap, and the assistance has been a major benefit to the community.

According to Nitobi, today?s major release puts the focus on accessing native device APIs, which is new ground for the web. Other improvements include overall API stability and ?pluggable? architecture, W3C DAP API compatibility, contacts API and remove debugging tools. Moreover, a new unifying bridge interface was added that makes adding platforms and platform extensions simpler, along with simplification of the plugin development process.

?Most of these new enhancements come from our community,? said Brian LeRoux, Senior Software Engineer at Nitobi and PhoneGap evangelist. ?For instance, PhoneGap developers were calling for a consistent way to make plugins that would run on all major smartphone platforms and this release does that.?

To learn more about what PhoneGap has to offer, check out the introductory video below.

With over 600,000 downloads of the PhoneGap code to date and thousands of apps built using PhoneGap available in mobile app stores and directories, the arrival of version 1.0 may just keep those numbers growing ? and spur further growth for the company behind the project as well.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/ca/2011/07/30/phonegap-is-a-swiss-army-knife-for-mobile-app-developers/

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AT&T to throttle unlimited data users starting October 1

What began as a rumor yesterday has been officially confirmed: AT&T will begin throttling mobile broadband speeds later this year. In an announcement today, the carrier said it is taking steps to cope with the exploding demand for mobile data and the resulting network congestion. At least a part of that plan will include the reduction of data throughput for the remaining subscribers of the companies unlimited data plan -- at least those who exceed a certain monthly bandwidth threshold, anyway.

AT&T explained that the change will only affect 5% of unlimited subscribers who consume "extraordinary" levels of data. Such users account for much of the company's traffic, using 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone customers. AT&T didn't say how much data the its heaviest users consume, but if it's any consolation, the company said you could receive thousands of emails, visit thousands of sites and stream hours of video each month without making the top 5%.

"Typically what puts someone in the top 5 percent is streaming very large amounts of video and music daily over the wireless network, not Wi-Fi. Streaming video apps, remote web camera apps, sending large data files (like video) and some online gaming are examples of applications that can use data quickly," the carrier explained. As you undoubtedly realize, Wi-Fi usage doesn't count against your mobile data consumption, and that includes the 26,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots AT&T offers.

It's unclear how much you'll be allowed to use before having your speeds reduced, nor has AT&T mentioned precisely how much they'll throttle data hogs. The change will go in effect starting October 1 and we assume the company will offer more details by then. It should be noted that customers on AT&T's tiered plans won't be affected. Subscribers of the company's $15 200MB DataPlus, $25 2GB DataPro or $45 4GB DataPro plans, you should still be able to pay for unthrottled overages.

This is yet another nail in the coffin of all-you-can-eat data plans. Besides Sprint, most major US carriers have implemented metered bandwidth of some form. AT&T introduced its tiered plans last summer and Verizon followed suit this month with capped plans and $10/GB overages. T-Mobile still offers unlimited consumption, but it does throttle speeds.

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Weekend game deals: 65% off Magicka Collection

GamersGate continues its summer sale this week with major discounts on Paradox Interactive titles, including 65% off the Magicka Collection (includes the base game and eight DLC packs), while Direct2Drive is taking its summer promo out with a bang, knocking 75% off Just Cause 2, two S.T.A.L.K.E.R. titles, Alpha Protocol and The Witcher. You'll also find 50% to 75% off Bulletstorm, Dragon Age: Origins, Battlefield 2: Complete, Mirror's Edge, and Command & Conquer 3. Meanwhile, folks with no cash to spare can slaughter some Nazi dinosaurs courtesy of Steam's free-to-play weekend of Dino D-Day.

Steam
Dino D-Day $4.99 (50% off -- free to play through Sunday)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines $4.99 (75% off)
Digital Combat Simulator: Black Shark $26.66 (33% off)
The Kings' Crusade: New Allies $2.49 (50% off)
Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising $14.99 (50% off)
Capsized $3.39 (66% off)
DCS A-10C Warthog $40.00 (33% off)

Impulse
Bulletstorm $14.99 (50% off)
Blood Bowl: Dark Elves Edition $4.99 (75% off)
Pe-2: Diver Bomb $11.97 (40% off)
Greed - Black Border $6.24 (75% off)
Trapped Dead $9.99 (50% off)
66% off Dawn of Magic 2 and Time of Shadows
More...

GamersGate
Magicka Collection $8.73 (65% off)
Victoria II $14.98 (50% off)
Mount & Blade $9.98 (50% off)
Hearts of Iron III $9.98 (50% off)
Europa Universalis III $4.98 (50% off)
More...

Direct2Drive
Alpha Protocol $4.95 (75% off)
Just Cause $3.75 (75% off)
Just Cause 2 $4.95 (75% off)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky $4.95 (75% off)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl $4.95 (75% off)
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition $4.95 (75% off)

Games for Windows
Dragon Age: Origins $14.99 (50% off)

Origin
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames $4.99 (50% off)
Need for Speed: Undercover $4.99 (50% off)
Burnout: Paradise Ultimate $4.99 (75% off)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 $4.99 (50% off)
Mirror's Edge $4.99 (75% off)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam $4.99 (66% off)
Battlefield 2: Complete Collection $4.99 (75% off)
Medal of Honor: Airborne $4.99 (50% off)
Battlefield 2142 Deluxe $4.99 (66% off)
Spore $4.99 (75% off)

Good Old Games
50% off TopWare Interactive titles

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Taking a Closer Look at the Result of a Credit Downgrade

A downgrade to the nation?s credit would probably increase the cost of borrowing for the federal government and for everyone else. But the Obama administration, House Republicans, some economists and Wall Street strategists have concluded that the economic impact would be surprisingly modest, one reason that negotiations over a ?grand bargain? for debt reduction broke down.

The plans being debated instead by House Republicans and Senate Democrats would not reduce the federal debt to a level that most economists regard as manageable, and it seems likely that further efforts will await the results of the 2012 elections.

A compromise between the parties would avert the catastrophic consequences of default, but even if Congress agrees to pay its bills, one of the three credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor?s, has said it may remove the United States from its list of risk-free borrowers.

?A downgrade has lots of downsides, but they?re minor in comparison to not raising the debt ceiling on time, so I think the focus is correct at this point,? said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody?s Analytics, a sister company to the rating agency that rates debt securities.

?What?s most important is raising the debt ceiling. That?s the minimum that they need to do to make sure the recovery in fact remains a recovery.?

Asked Thursday whether his plan would avoid a downgrade, House Speaker John A. Boehner said, ?That is beyond my control.? He said the legislation, which the House passed Friday on a party-line vote, is ?as large a step as we?re able to take at this point in time.?

President Obama warned Friday morning that the government was at risk of a downgrade, ?Not because we didn?t have the capacity to pay our bills ? we do ? but because we didn?t have a AAA political system to match our AAA credit rating.? But administration officials say that the White House also regards the issue a secondary concern.

Earlier this month, there was widespread alarm in Washington when S & P, followed by Moody?s and Fitch, another credit rating concern, warned that the soaring federal debt, and the political standoff over raising the debt ceiling, had placed the nation?s credit rating at risk.

The federal government makes about $250 billion in interest payments a year. Even a small increase in the rates demanded by investors in United States debt could add tens of billions of dollars to those payments. And the credit rating agencies have said other downgrades would follow like dominoes.

For example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge mortgage companies that are backed by the federal government, would be downgraded, raising rates on home mortgage loans for borrowers. Maryland and Virginia, and many local governments near Washington, their economies tied to the government, would also be downgraded. So would New Mexico, because an unusually high proportion of residents depend on federal benefits.

?A default on our nation?s obligations, or a downgrade of America?s credit rating,? 13 financial company chief executives said on Thursday in a letter to the president and Congress, ?would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence ? raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets ? and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation?s already difficult economic circumstances.?

Still, Washington?s fears of a downgrade have eased for several reasons.

Standard & Poor?s warned that it might downgrade the United States in the next three months if the government did not agree on a credible plan to reduce its debts by about $4 trillion ? the number used in the talks between Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner.

But the other two agencies, Moody?s and Fitch, have shown greater patience, saying that progress toward paying down debts did not need to start immediately. That is significant, because a downgrade by a single rating agency matters less than a consensus. Investment managers, for example, may not be required to divest holdings like Treasury securities if they are downgraded only by S & P.

Moody?s said on Friday that it would maintain its Aaa rating for the United States so long as the Treasury keeps paying bondholders and Congress passes a long-term deal to extend the debt ceiling. The announcement said that failure to act by Tuesday night, or to meet other obligations, including Social Security payments, would not prompt a downgrade.

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