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Every couple of years, a core childhood memory resurfaces and sends me hunting for a bizarre PlayStation game my brother and I obsessed over but never actually played in its entirety. The internet search goes like this: game on red-and-black PS1 demo disk featuring feral child with pink hair tackling pigs and trees that look like butts. The results tell me the game Im looking for is the 1997 platformer Tomba!, and I giddily bask in the nostalgia. Then I forget all about it, and the cycle eventually repeats. You can imagine my surprise, then, when a trailer popped up earlier this summer announcing Limited Run Games rerelease of Tomba! in all its wacky glory for modern consoles. Tomba! Special Edition is now available digitally for PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. Physical editions, a line of plushies and a themed NEO S controller (pre-orders for which are sadly sold out) are also on the way. And in finally playing it all the way through almost 20 years after its original release, Ive discovered that Tomba! is even more unhinged than I remembered. Tomba, the player-character, is a wild boy who lives outside of society, hunting boars and sleeping under the stars. His peace is disrupted one day when a group of delinquent pigs swoops in and wreaks havoc, ultimately robbing him of a gold bracelet that belonged to his grandfather. To get it back, Tomba ventures into the nearby towns to find the Evil Pig ringleaders and take them down. Along the way, he meets a slew of strange characters who will help guide him on his mission, but only after he completes a bunch of tasks for them. Its a 2.5D platformer, meaning much of the game operates like a two-dimensional side-scroller, but you can occasionally move into the background or foreground to explore the map in more depth. Tomba! Special Edition doesnt change much about the original game. The graphics are still distinctly PS1 polygonal, and the controls can feel clunky. There are some quality of life additions, though namely a rewind feature that ends up being extremely handy because, as it turns out, this game is pretty tricky in some spots. I found myself needing to try certain maneuvers over and over again to get them right. Just about every part of the story and its environment carries a touch of absurdity. Tomba is able to scale walls, swing on branches, jump with inhuman ability and apparently store items (including living creatures) in his stomach, which he can regurgitate when theyre needed later on. There are the butt trees, as mentioned earlier, which are allegedly meant to depict peaches but when Tomba jumps onto them and squeezes, a cloud of magical gas comes pouring out. Youll encounter a village of dwarves, but can only communicate with them after leaping on the heads of several dwarves to learn their language. In another village, everyones been turned into mice, and for some reason, theyre all wound up about the disappearance of an actual, never-been-human baby mouse. Limited Run Games One of the most memorable areas is undoubtedly the Mushroom Forest, a bad trip of a location thats filled with creepy, clownish anthropomorphic flowers and mushrooms that inflict Tomba with certain ailments if he jumps onto them. One will have him laughing uncontrollably, while the other makes him wail and that cry is deeply unsettling. It kind of jump-scared me the first time it happened, if Im being real. With both mushroom illnesses, Tomba becomes unable to wield his weapons, instead flailing his arms and screaming if you try to do an attack. It is altogether a surprisingly complex game, and visually striking thanks to its loud color palette. But the quest can feel convoluted as you try to navigate the often confusing map layout and fulfill the many, many tasks thrown your way. Boss fights are uniquely frustrating, too. Instead of simply beating up or killing the Evil Pigs, you have to wrangle each one and throw it in a bag but the bag is floating and, in most cases, spinning. While frequently maddening, Tomba! was a joy to revisit. Its consistently silly, and the soundtrack gave me a welcome blast of nostalgia from the moment its steel drums started playing. (Tomba! Special Edition includes both the original soundtrack and a remastered version, and theyre both great.) If anything, the Special Edition release has made it clear why Tomba! has lingered so long in my memory I cant say Ive ever played another game quite like it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ps1-gem-tomba-is-still-a-wild-ride-nearly-20-years-later-163011449.html?src=rss
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The Polaris Dawn crew safely returned to Earth early Sunday morning, bringing the historic privately funded mission to a close. The Dragon capsule carrying the missions four astronauts Jared Isaacman, Scott Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico around 3:30AM ET. Splashdown of Dragon confirmed! Welcome back to Earth, @rookisaacman, @kiddpoteet, @Gillis_SarahE, @annawmenon pic.twitter.com/nILpMQh2sR SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024 On Thursday, Isaacman and Gillis completed the first commercial spacewalk, each taking a turn to exit the craft and perform a series of spacesuit mobility tests. And with this mission, Gillis and Menon have now traveled farther from Earth than any women before. Polaris reached a peak altitude of about 870 miles, which is also the farthest any humans have ventured since the Apollo program. The crew also performed a number of science experiments, and was able to complete a 40-minute video call to Earth and send files in a major test for Starlinks space communications capabilities. That included a video recorded during the mission of Gillis, an engineer and violinist, playing the violin in space. A new era of commercial spaceflight dawns, with much more to come, Polaris posted on X Sunday morning. HARMONY OF RESILIENCE: Recorded in space and sent to Earth via @SpaceXs @Starlink constellation, Polaris Dawn crewmember and violinist @Gillis_SarahE invites you to enjoy this music moment in support of @StJude & @ElSistemaUSA https://t.co/My8cUwAWzg pic.twitter.com/OoxTllCZNP Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 13, 2024 This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-polaris-dawn-crew-is-back-on-earth-after-a-historic-mission-142028997.html?src=rss
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Apple's high-end earbuds will be able to be used a full-on hearing aids. Apple Could Apple really be teeing up a change that could save my elderly mother more than $1,500? Thats the promise of the companys newly announced initiative to add true hearing aid functionality to the AirPods Pro and why, with all due respect to the iPhone 16 and its fancy Camera Control button, it was the most promising section of Mondays keynote, to my eyes. The news couldnt have come at a better time for me. My 80-year-old mother has finally admitted that her hearing is, shall we say, subpar. And she just asked me to book her an appointment at the Miracle Ear clinic down the street (Theyre having a fall sale!). But before I went down that road, I decided to do some research. The frustrating world of hearing aids I knew that there was a burgeoning market for hearing aids since the US government opened the field to over-the-counter competition in 2022. But a bit of googling confirmed that those models even those with familiar names, like Jabra, Sony and Sennheiser start at $300 and go north from there, sometimes topping $2,000. And while thats certainly a lot, the crazy thing is that its downright cheap compared to clinical hearing aids. Those often start at $1,000, and can go as high as $5,000 or more. Yes, really. Some medical insurance may defer costs, but Medicare doesnt. While retired military personnel can get hearing aids through the VA, I remember my fathers journey down that path meant that his hearing aids arrived many months after the initial hearing exam. Jabra Enhance's OTC hearing aid options top out at almost $2,000. Jabra Enhance And heres the clincher: Many elderly folks seem to loathe their hearing aids, and for good reason: Theyre generally tedious and unintuitive to use, sometimes with a single microscopic button to control volume. Want to turn them off? Pop open the battery cover, for starters. (And many hearing aids still use disposable microbatteries.) Case in point: My mother got one of these expensive pair of hearing aids years ago, but found the challenge of wearing and maintaining them wasnt worth the so-so audio improvement they offered. They still power on, but they dont seem to work effectively any more and being out of warranty, the cause of our current hearing aid search. The competition from the OTC market has helped in that regard, as the Jabras and Sennheisers of the world push the traditional hearing aid providers to become a bit more tech-savvy. Some eschew the behind-the-ear battery pack and go for earbud-style simplicity. Bluetooth connectivity for calls and apps for sound adjustments are finally more common, as older people become accustomed to using their phones and tablets. But why go for whats essentially an AirPods knockoff when you can get the real thing at a fraction of the price? (And amazingly, in an age where everything has gone the subscription route free of any sort of recurring monthly fees.) Waiting for the software update and managing expectations So, when will the hearing aid features become available? What seemed to be weeks away may now be much closer. FDA regulatory signoff (in the US) is already a done deal, arriving just a few days after the initial announcement. That leaves the requisite software upgrade. Youll need an AirPods Pro paired with a compatible device running iOS 18, or the equivalent 2024 OS updates for iPad or Mac. On the iPhone side, thats pretty much every model sold after the 2018 model year (iPhone XS/XR and later). While those initial software updates hit on September 16, its unclear if the hearing aid functionality will arrive then, or sometime later perhaps alongside the first Apple Intelligence coming in October. (Apples site simply says coming this fall.) In the meantime, Ive started the upsell to my mother. I showed her the relevant portion of Apples video presentation, and I had her try out my AirPods Pro, just to gauge fit and comfort. The initial response wasnt enthusiastic. While she liked that they didnt fall out of my ears like the AirPods 2, shes put off by the penetration of the eartips into her ear canal. Countless other headphone fans agree, and thats why the design of the new AirPods 4 is more open. But Apple hasnt suggested the hearing aid functionality is coming to those headphones anytime soon if ever. Unlike traditional hearing aids, AirPods Pro are anything but discreet. (This shot is from Apple's keynote video.) Apple And lets be honest: This isnt envisioned as a miracle cure. Apple specifically says this feature is intended for people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. I wouldnt be surprised if my mother has graduated to the need for pro-level hearing assistance at this point, over-the-counter or otherwise. So we may end up opting for one of those Jabra Enhance models, which offer a 100-day no-hassle return policy. But now we have the AirPods Pro as a testable alternative. Going forward, anyone in the market for hearing aids can start their journey with the AirPods Pro and its companion free audio test. If you like the results, youre done or you at least have a stopgap solution. And if not, you can compare and contrast them against pricier OTC or clinical options in terms of comfort, battery life, ease of use and of course the respective efficacy of their actual hearing assistance. The very fact that Apple is in the hearing aid conversation with a $200-ish option feels like a win. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/why-the-airpods-pros-new-hearing-aid-features-are-a-bigger-deal-than-you-think-111543985.html?src=rss
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