RELEASE: AUGUST
Real War
The Gist: Sim Teaches Combat, American-style
Four years ago, the Joint Chiefs of Staff enlisted military contractor OCI to develop an educational game based on Joint Doctrine, a protocol that coordinates the four branches of the US armed forces. The result, Joint Force Employment, became a curriculum staple in military colleges and a popular pastime. The same team created Real War, a new version of the sim that lets civilians take on war-room situations like the real brass.
Real War isn't an exact copy of JFE. Virginia-based OCI stepped up the action by increasing the number of solo missions, glossing over dry officer-training details, and removing the mandatory quizzes. It also scaled down the maps so you can see where you're shooting. A firing tank hits targets across the screen, rather than several screens away. And, of course, Real War had to be stripped of all classified information.
I fired up a beta version and became General Ashe. After completing a tutorial, I launched a "quadrennial" attack (which employs all four forces) in Southeast Asia against the game's perennial foe, the Independent Liberation Army, or ILA. Campaigns are waged in three realistically rendered locales: remote jungle, wind-swept desert, and snow-capped peaks. Vehicles and troops appear in believable 3-D. The two sides' arsenals are balanced but not identical: The ILA, for example, deploys chemical weapons, whereas the US troops, bound by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, do not.
Another plus is the one-click menu, a feature I've never seen in a real-time strategy game. In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, for instance, you have to toggle between the airfield and the front line. But when I stumbled across an enemy encampment in Real War, I didn't have to return to my base before attacking. I quickly clicked on the tank, helicopter, and troops icons and watched the carnage unfold. I later assigned hot keys to these choices and hid the menu completely to reveal more of the battlefield. And through it all, I got an extra charge from knowing that I was learning about national defense, not just deciphering another fictional universe.
Simon & Schuster Interactive: (888) 793 9972, www.ssinteractive.com.
RELEASE: SUMMER
AFS Trinity M3A
The Gist: The Latest Ups Flies In The Face Of Rolling Blackouts
Just in time for California's summer power crisis comes AFS Trinity's M3A. The 100-kilowatt flywheel UPS keeps juice flowing with a 70-pound weight that spins inside a vacuum chamber at 41,000 rpm. The $80,000 unit runs rings around comparable battery-based models: It takes up less floor space, recharges faster, and has no toxic cells to replace. In an outage, one M3A can give more than 300 PCs time to shut down gracefully or keep going until a diesel generator kicks in.
AFS Trinity Power Corporation: +1 (425) 454 2888, www.afstrinity.com.
RELEASE: JULY
Ocean Planet
The Gist: Flexible-mast Sailboat Is Poised To Blow Away The Competition
In the EDS Atlantic Challenge, Open 60-class sailboats cover nearly 300 miles a day at speeds of up to 35 knots (40 mph). This summer's most innovative entry, Ocean Planet, has an unstaid carbon-fiber mast that bends with the breeze, changing the shape of the mainsail to catch more wind. This automatic action will help skipper Bruce Schwab even more next year, when he attempts to race solo around the world.
Ocean Planet: +1 (510) 508 9491, www.oceanplanet.org.
RELEASE: JUNE
The Dream Is Alive and Blue Planet
The Gist: Imax Crosses The DVD Frontier
The Dream Is Alive and Blue Planet, two classic Imax films with some of the best near-Earth space footage ever, are available on DVD. Dream follows 14 NASA astronauts on three shuttle missions in 1984, showing launches and landings, satellite capture and repairs, space walks, and scenes of life in orbit. Blue Planet, with its enviro-subtext, surveys Earth spectacularly from space, on the ground, and under water. Enjoy the 40-minute documentaries on your big-screen TV, or put your chin on the F7 key and simulate the Imax experience on your laptop.
Warner Home Video: www.warnervideo.com.
RELEASE: JULY
JoeAuto
The Gist: Net-savvy Service Station Promises Hassle-free Repairs
Simply put, JoeAuto picks up your broken-down rig and brings it back fixed. You arrange the service via Web or telephone, get an electronic assessment and estimate, and can even rent a loaner and borrow a cell phone. Disagree with the diagnosis? Fire up Windows Media Player and watch the mechanics work on your vehicle; when you confer later, they'll show you what's up via handheld videocam in the shop. The company debuts with a 30-bay "big box" garage in Houston, then gradually rolls out nationwide. How long can your oil change wait?
JoeAuto: +1 (281) 367 8844, www.joeauto.com.
STREET CRED
Springboard: Exploring the Digital Age
Nestler Synthese CAD
Fab Force SK1 Fins
Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel, by James Fallows
Spaceman
Sharpeworld
ThinkPad TransNote
ReadMe
Music
Bizarro Comics
Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan
Memory Key, Q., and Thumbdrive
Just Outta Beta
Cosmonaut Keep, by Ken MacLeod
Postal Auction of Damaged and Unclaimed Goods
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