In light of recent controversies related to Foxconn suicides and the working conditions in Apple’s supply chain, Conan’s latest sketch introducing a revolutionary suicide prevention net might be going too far…

Despite Foxconn factories assembling approximately 40 percent of all consumer electronics products worldwide (including Xbox, Wii, and PS3), lately Apple has received most of the attention over poor working conditions. Steve Jobs himself talked about the problems a couple years back when the controversy over worker suicides at Foxconn made mainstream news.

Most recently a lengthy report from The New York Times gave us an inside look at what some Foxconn employees have experienced at factories in China amid explosions and what some describe as poor working conditions. That report followed and was likely brought on by Apple’s own 2012 Supplier Responsibility report published days earlier, which found cases of child labor, late and held payments, and employees working over the maximum 60 hour workweek.

You’re probably wondering where Apple stands… and luckily CEO Tim Cook quickly responded saying he was “outraged” at recent reports and attempting to clear the air in a long email to Apple employees. It seems like most of the experts seem to agree Apple is for the most part doing the most it can to prevent and fix the issues taking place within its supply chain, but former Apple executives who chose to speak with NYT anonymously disagree. Here’s what one had to say:

“We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on. Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice. If half of iPhones were malfunctioning, do you think Apple would let it go on for four years? If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

You can check out Conan’s full sketch below. It’s not exactly addressing the most recent issues highlighted in the  New York Times articles, but it does make a joke out of attempted suicides at Foxconn, which Jobs pointed out back in 2010 occur at about the same rate as in the US by numbers of people. How do you feel about the sketch?:

According to VentureBeat who recently interviewed him, Blackley’s new company called Innovative Leisure has plucked the “creators of the best arcade experiences from the golden age of Atari in the 1970s and 1980s” in order to create new arcade experiences for iPhone and iPad.

The team currently has 7 games in the works with backing from THQ.

So who exactly is working on these games? Some of the more notables include creator of Atari classic Battlezone Ed Rotberg, Missile Command developer and Gravitar creator Rich Adam, co-creator of Centipede and Asteroids Ed Logg, and Owen Rubin, one of Atari’s first programmers joining the company in 1976.

After leaving Microsoft in 2002, VentureBeat explained Blackley built his “own arcade in a Los Angeles warehouse” holding tons of old arcade machines. Not only was the warehouse inspiration for the new company, but Blackley’s new team at Innovative Leisure will be able to work in the warehouse to get inspiration from the classics.

Blackley talked about the inspiration for the new startup saying, “the iPhone is the new arcade.“:

“We had that big collection of games, and we love the history of game design” Blackley said. “I’m lucky because I love games and following that love has always done me well. Once we figured out the iPhone is the new arcade, that games from the old days fit this new audience and their on-the-go lifestyle, we knew what to do. There is already a group of people who know how to operate and innovate in this space. They had the longest string of hit games in history. And they wanted to get back together again.”

Innovative Leisure team member Owen Rubin, one of Atari’s first programmers and creator of Space Duel and Major Havoc, talked about how he made Atari’s games in the old days:

“I did everything by hand…To make sound of a splat, I had to record the sound as I dropped wet towels into a shower. We were making it up as we went.”

Rich Adam, who first started working on Pinball machines at Atari and also did design on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, said “the Zyngas of the world want to throw out something quickly or copy it. We’ll take our time and work longer to do it right.”

You can expect to see some of Innovative Leisure’s games hitting the App Store this summer.

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Made in the over-the-top, super-colorful way so many of those cartoons were, ‘Stallions’ was cleverly crafted by a bunch of Danish film students at The Animation Workshop.Here’s the video, as well as an acid-trip back through time to the cartoons that inspired them.

Silverhawks – Other than just being a space version of Thundercats, this cartoon didn’t do much. Again, lots of potentially cool concepts ruined by annoying spice-mime kids and a country-pickin’ cowboy who disarmed evil with a flurry of Garth Brooks melodies.

Nevertheless, catch that rainbow the rocketship rides — the influence is pretty obvious.

BraveStarr -Taking place on the planet New Texas, BraveStarr was a sci-fi Western which featured an alien race of prairie dog-people and was otherwise pretty P.C. for its time, even if it did involve invoking exaggerated Native American powers (‘power of the Puma”, “Eyes of the Hawk” etc). The hero was American Indian and the doctor was black — not huge tropes for most 80s cartoons, as you can tell by watching the rest of these introductions — but there wasn’t a whole lot else really noteworthy here.

Wheeled Warriors - Yet another in a long list of 80s cartoons where the bad guys were more interesting than the good guys — if only because of those weird plant-like cars and tanks that could morph and stuff. Clever in design but short on original story, Warriors still managed to outlast a lot of its competitors.

M.A.S.K. - Mobile Army Strike Kommand –  M.A.S.K. was one of the better Transformers knock-offs, without being too Transformers-ish. Basically, it was full of vehicles that sort of half-transformed into other vehicles (i.e.,motorcycle to helicopter, helicopter to plane, etc.). Again, valuable for its nifty theme and the 1980s’ strange obsession with grids and glowing geometric shapes.

While Fourkiller wants the proceeds to be donated to bully prevention and promoting outdoor education for children, Ars Technica reported he cited unspecified studies to a local news station in Oklahoma claiming video games have been linked to bullying and obesity. He also referenced a 2003 case in Ohio saying “A gentleman shot a police officer and stole his car. He had been playing Grand Theft Auto.” Fourkiller continued:

“Not everybody is going to react the same, but I believe after hours and hours of watching the screen, playing the video game, being that person and taking on that role, people get desensitized.”

HB2696 would see a one percent excise tax on all violent video games rated Teen or higher. The good news is the Entertainment Software Association doesn’t seem interested in the legislation at all calling it an attack on video games. ESA VP Dan Hewitt gave a statement to Ars:

“We are disappointed that even in the wake of an overwhelming decision in the United States Supreme Court finding proposals such as this to be patently unconstitutional, there are those who still try to attack video game with outdated notions of our industry. Taxing First Amendment protected material based on its content is misguided.” 

The bill is, for some reason, listed as “emergency”, and claims it’s “immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety” (Really?). It will need to pass a vote in the Senate and Oklahoma House of Representatives, and if it doesn’t receive a three-fourths vote in both houses, Ars explained Oklahoma voters will have to vote in November ballot.

We’ll keep you updated.

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So how does it compare to the original?

Available for 800 Microsoft Points (free trial available) and free to PlayStation Plus subsribers, The Simpsons Arcade Game includes all 8 classic Springfield locations, includes a few new features, and by first impressions seems to be quite a faithful port. Some of the bonus content includes character art, soundtracks, promo art from the original game, and sound effects. A different one of these unlockables is rewarded each time you beat the game with one of its four characters.

One of the nice additions, as pointed out by our friends at IGN, is the ability to unlock a rare Japanese version of the game upon completion. In case you’re unfamiliar, IGN explained the differences in the Japanese ROM:

The Japanese version of the game makes some general changes to the gameplay, including a different point system that offers a different take on scoring (including bonuses for remaining life at the end of each level), some new items including atom bombs that you can use in stages, the ability to stack your health and power it beyond the maximum of your health bar, and a couple of other tweaks. 

There are also a few new game modes including two that limit you to 10 or 40 quarters, and a survival mode giving you one shot to play through the entire game. IGN also noticed the ability to use an arcade cabinet background rather than black edges, since the game doesn’t fill a widescreen HDTV.

If you’re too young to have experienced The Simpsons Arcade Game when it was first released in 1991, or have only played the not so great iPhone and Android spin-offs, this is your first chance to play the classic side-scrolling, beat ‘em up as it was meant to be. Oh, and that original filing that hinted at Backbone’s release only said “multi-platform”, so we might see it coming to the App Store, and other platforms in the near future.

While in the film community every sequel is greeted with at least some suspicion, its worth noting that even superheroes like Batman or The Hulk have seen countless reinventions by different writers and artists.

But the perfection of Watchmen and the fact that it has been untouched for about 25 years would be reason enough for people to be outraged by the recent turn of events. Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and recently in the news for bashing Frank Millers crude OWS statements, sure is pissed:

“I don’t want money. What I want is for this not to happen. As far as I know, there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to ‘Moby-Dick.’” 

Even there aren’t a terrible amount of similarities between superheroes and over-sized, white whales, Moore does have a point. Just imagine the reactions to a sequel to movie classics like Citizen Kane or Shawshank Redemption or Star War… never mind.

With that being said, the talent behind the Before Watchmen project is certainly considerable. The attached writers and artists have worked on projects like 100 Bullets, Batman, Justice League or even the original Watchmen. And Dave Gibbons, Watchmen co-creator in fact seems to have no problem with the prequels, at least not publicly:

“I appreciate […] the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work.”

The big question here is: Where does it end? Will it really be only those 7 new series? Or will this spawn a multitude of comics, movies, collectibles and questionable merchandise?

So far the Watchmen franchise has been very lucky with the inevitable movie adaptation done very well (The Batman & Robin movie, anyone?). Maybe Moore fears that as more and more crappy products with the label Watchmen pop out, ultimately his legacy will suffer from it?

Whatever the worst-case scenario may be, J.M. Straczynski, who will be involved as a writer in the Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl prequels, has a good point when he asks to separate emotions from solid common sense here:

“One could make the argument that Superman is the greatest comics character ever created. But neither Alan [Moore] nor anyone else has ever suggested that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should ever be allowed to write Superman.

Alan didn’t pass on being brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein, and he did a terrific job. He didn’t say ‘No, no, I can’t, that’s Len’s character.’ Nor should he have.“

Maybe Alan Moore and fans opposed to the prequels can find some relief in the thought that even though other people will definitely take on Watchmen – the original will always stand out as a milestone in the genre.

Both sides have their point, which do you agree more with?

“Aspyr has been a great partner, bringing id Software’s games to the Mac platform for years,” said Todd Hollenshead, President of id Software. “We’ve worked closely with them again to offer the amazing graphics and intense combat that RAGE is famous for to Mac gamers.”

In case you’re thinking the Campaign Edition is some type of scaled back version of the game, it’s actually the full campaign plus the bonus content included with the RAGE Anarchy Edition. The extra content includes: a Double Barrel Shotgun, the Rat Rod Buggy, Fists of RAGE and Crimson Elite Armor.

Another added bonus is access to the Wasteland Sewers Missions featuring “mutant blasting gameplay and looting opportunities.” If you haven’t yet got a chance to play RAGE, it’s definitely worth $39.99 for the title voted ‘Best Console Game’ by Game Critics at E3 and given a 9 out of 10 by Game Informer.

You can grab it from the Mac App Store now. It’s also available through various online Mac game retailers. If you pick it up from GameAgent.com, you’ll be able to get Doom 3 for $1 as a bonus! Screenshots from the Mac port below:

How the hell did this get made? Well, Credit Marky Mark himself with making the now infamous 9/11 comments that subsequently set a bunch of people off, and thus resulted in this video game.

“If I was on that plane with my kids,” said Wahlberg, “it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

That’s right, evil! Marky Mark wouldn’t have taken any sh*t from you, unlike those WUSSY PASSENGERS! 

If you hadn’t heard said quote, that’s understandable — he actually made the remark the same day SOPA and PIPA-related protests/comments overtook the Internet, thus pretty much drowning out everything else newsworthy.

Fortunately Wahlberg came forward a couple days later and apologized for saying it in the first place and thus, giving us this fine fake video game. 

If Wahlberg is still touchy about the whole Marky Mark nickname, this probably isn’t going to help too much…

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At a meeting yesterday at the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, it was hard to tell who’s more panicked – President Satoru Iwata or the stockholders. Iwata’s plans?

“The result (of lowing profit expectations) will mainly derive from the decision to mark down the price of the Nintendo 3DS and sell it below cost, sacrificing our profitability for this fiscal year, so that we can get it back on track to its originally-anticipated sales pace so as not to shrink our future business (of the Nintendo 3DS).”

Long story short: a huge part of the problem, according to Iwata, has been the steady depreciation in the value of yen over the past year.

So what to do?

When pressed on ways to steady the company, Iwata seemed to cave a bit on the subject of DLC – something he’s been pretty against for a while — but only a bit, hinting at the possibilities of ‘micro transactions’ available through upcoming games like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7.

Adding new stages to Mario games “will not only give us new profits but will lengthen the life of a product, in that it will never be out of fashion and can keep attracting public attention as long as many people play it.” As Attack of the Fanboy points out – rightfully – because of this lack of 3^rd party titles, as well as DLC, it’s a source of concern for others (especially shareholders).

According to some, part of the problem behind this is that Nintendo’s long-standing “Seal of Quality” has some awfully hard-to-meet standards, and that the wii U isn’t going to be the easiest platform to make games for.

Iwata seems to stonewall on certain issues, and DLC has been no exception — but with the stockholders pressuring him, could he be starting to cave? It’s a bit too early in the fiscal year to tell, but bottom line is that he needs to do something to make shareholders comfy and right a slowly sinking ship.

Thanks to GammaSquad for the link, especially since I hadn’t heard much from Andy Richter in a while — after Conan O’Brien, he managed to pop up in a few memorable TV appearances, including his own highly-rated (and somewhat underrated) Andy Richter Controls the Universe a few years back.

Laugh if you want; some of this is better than many of the game’s actual voices. See what you think: