Author: Doug Groves

dougplanet.com is his personal blog, which is withering on the vine. If you poke around it, you’ll find out that he’s an animator and broadcast designer by trade, usually pushing pixels in either After Effects or Lightwave 3D. If he absolutely had to pick a favourite all time writer, it would be Harlan Ellison more days than any other. If you don’t know who Ellison is, then Doug weeps for you. Doug also likes long walks on the beach, mainly to collect improperly discarded medical waste for an undisclosed project of epic proportions.

HandEye Society’s Arcadian Renaissance

July 6, 2010 Doug Groves arcade cabinet, classic arcade, Hand Eye Society, Nuit Blanche, Spooky Squid, TCAF 2010, TORONTRON4 Comments

The HandEye Society, the coalition of Toronto indie game designers and enthusiasts, has announced that their TORONTRON game cabinet will be appearing as part of Nuit Blanche this October 2nd, as well as offering up a full arcade of gaming goodness, under the name The Arcadian Renaissance. The TORONTRON is a classic arcade cabinet retro fitted to play video games from local developers, and has been touring around at various events, including the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. All of this will be presented as part of Nuit Blanche on Oct…

God2.0 002 – Next Week On Lost part 2

July 5, 2010July 30, 2014 Doug Groves Comic, dougplanet, god2.0, laroquod, rgbcomic, webcomic3 Comments

<<PREVIOUS – Click the image for the larger version! Nuff said!

Sony 3D Launch interview

July 3, 2010July 3, 2010 Doug Groves 3D, blu ray, Bravia, canada, Future Shop, Gaming, interview, Playstation, Playstation 3, Sony, TV2 Comments

A couple of weeks back, we had a chance to go hands on with Sony’s new line of 3D TVs and PS3 games. While at the launch, we also got a chance to talk with Karol Warminiec about some of their plans.

Fable III to be released as episodic downloads as well

July 2, 2010 Doug Groves Fable III, Lionhead Studios, PC gaming, Peter Molyneux, Xbox 3601 Comment

Although Fable III will be shipping physical copies, news via Co-Optimus has it that if you’re not so interested in having a pile of discs lying around taking up shelf space, you can opt to download the game in episodic format shortly after the release. Soon after the retail launch we’re doing episodic. We break it down in chapters. We give away the first chapter entirely free, the first hour. When you reach a certain point in the game it says ‘thank you for playing the pilot of Fable III,…

Microsoft Kin is dead

July 1, 2010 Doug Groves Kin, Microsoft, Windows Phone 7, Zune, Zune Marketplace3 Comments

Just a couple of months out of the gate, and Microsoft has killed it’s KIN line of no-so smart phones, before they even had a chance to get outside the US. This isn’t surprising on a number of levels. While the phones were well-spec’ed, with an interesting take on the UI, the target of younger social-media centric types (read: teens) were probably not ready to shell out real smartphone monthly fees. Not many teens (or their parents) were interested in paying $70 a month for a phone. The launch of…

Toronto Outdoor Summer Movie Nights

June 30, 2010 Doug Groves Casablanca, CN Tower, Outdoor Summer Movie Night, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, TIFF1 Comment

Tonight is the launch of 10 weeks of free movies in downtown Toronto. The Outdoor Summer Movie night event is a partnership between the Toronto International Film Festival, the CN Tower and the Toronto Entertainment District Business Improvement Area. Sure, it’s a mouthful of, but over the next couple of months, every Wednesday at 9pm you can go to Metro Square (map) and watch a pretty wide variety of films, from Casablanca to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and special menus from many local restaurants. The opening night events, featuring the…

Walking Dead blog: Robert Kirkman and Greg Nicotero interviews

June 29, 2010 Doug Groves AMC, Comic, Frank Darabont, Greg Nicotero, Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead, Zombies4 Comments

It’s pretty obvious why AMC is going all out on the official Walking Dead blog. It’s mainly publicity, and a dash of assauging the fear of some fans that an adaptation of the comic into TV format might water down the gruesome contents. On the latter, I think there’s little to fear now, as they’ve been pretty open that this isn’t going to be a PG show. Of course, fans of AMC’s other shows, Mad Men, and the absolutely brilliant Breaking Bad probably guessed this right out of the gate….

Acer Liquid E on Rogers review

June 25, 2010July 19, 2010 Doug Groves Acer, Android, Android 2.1, Doubletwist, google, Liquid E, Rogers, smartphone, Spinlets, superphone8 Comments

Before jumping into a review of the Acer Liquid E, let’s take a really brief look at the history of Acer… Back in the days when more PC users built their own machines, Acer was known for it’s computer component parts, such as motherboards, and branded graphics cards. Although they branched out into pre-built PCs and laptops over a decade ago, it’s really been the past few years, when they’ve capitalized on the decreasing costs of components, and made a series of acquisitions, that have propelled them into the worldwide…

TCAF 2010: Interview with Wondermark’s David Malki

June 24, 2010June 25, 2010 Doug Groves David Malki, interview, Show, TCAF, TCAF 2010, web comic, Wondermark9 Comments

In the latest of our TCAF interview series, Alex talks with David Malki about the Wondermark web comic, his vast collection of source images and much more. If you haven’t been to wondermark.com to check out the strip, I highly recommend it. At the end of the video we talk about beards…judge for yourself where in the Hierarchy of Beards chart Paul’s whiskers fall.

Toshiba mini museum of portable computing

June 23, 2010June 23, 2010 Doug Groves Dynapad, gallery, museum, NXNEi, Primer, Primer Party, tablet PC, Toshiba, Windows 3.11 Comment

At the Primer Party for NXNEi, we got more than a hands on with Toshiba’s Satellite A660-042 3D laptop. There was a mini Toshiba portable computing museum lined up against the wall, though it’s amazing how 20 years or so has really redefined the meaning of ‘portable’. Unfortunately, none of the pieces were powered up, we did have an opportunity to lift some of these beasts, including the Toshiba T5200C, the first 16 colour portable computer which back in it’s day was $17,000 and 18.7 lbs. Also on hand was…

Xbox LIVE Gold Family Subscription coming in November

June 22, 2010June 25, 2010 Doug Groves broccoli, family subscription, i like broccoli, Microsoft, Microsoft Points, MS Points, Xbox 360, Xbox Live1 Comment

Microsoft will be rolling out the new Xbox LIVE Gold Family subscription in November of 2010. The new plan, priced at $99 US, is about the same price as 2 regular 12 month subscriptions, but gives you four separate accounts. It’s obviously targeted at families, not friends pooling to save some money on their subscription, as there will be a primary (or parent) account that will be able to dole out the MS Points to the secondary (or children) accounts. The parent account will also be able to monitor the…

Toshiba 3D laptop hands on

June 22, 2010June 22, 2010 Doug Groves 3D laptop, A66-042, Arkham Asylum, Blur 3D, Nvidia, Nvidia 3D Vision, satellite, Toshiba3 Comments

If there’s one thing that’s almost inescapable in consumer electronics these days, it’s 3D in just about everything. We had a chance to give Toshiba’s new Satellite A660-042 3D laptop a run for it’s money at the Toshiba-sponsored Primer Party, as part of NXNEi, ahead of it’s public release. It’s the first major release of a 3D laptop in Canada, though others using the Nvidia 3D Vision technology are available at many independent and smaller chains. The Toshiba Satellite A660-042 is definitely the kind of rig that a gamer can…