Quote:<b>Woman Who Stole Fuel Ordered to Wear Sign</b>

SALISBURY, Md. (July 30) - Sherelle Purnell's facial expression went from one of embarrassment to defiance as she puffed a cigarette and lugged a sandwich board sign that declared: "I was caught stealing gas."

The 18-year-old woman on Friday obeyed a court order that required her to stand for three hours in front of Gordy's Tiger Mart on Route 13, the store where surveillance tape recorded Purnell speeding away from a gas pump with $4.52 worth of fuel.

Purnell walked along the convenience shop's grassy storefront, as passing drivers honked car horns and made catcalls. She arrived 90 minutes late to her noon sentence, The (Salisbury) Daily Times reported.

By the time she showed up, the crowd of people that gathered to watch her had dispersed. "There were parents who came with their children, wanting to teach them a lesson," said Jan Phipps, Tiger Mart store manager.

But a new crowd soon assembled, including some supporters. Andrew Black, who stopped by the gas station on his lunch break, converted an old beer poster into a makeshift sign, protesting high gas prices.

"What is this, the Middle Ages?" said Black, who criticized Purnell's punishment.

Purnell declined to comment Friday on her unusual punishment.

On April 4, Purnell filled her car with 2.78 gallons of fuel, then went into the store and asked a cashier the cost of a pack of cigars, according to court records.

Purnell decided not to buy the cigars. She walked out of the store and drove away without paying for the gas.

Wicomico County District Court Judge D. William Simpson on July 16 ordered Purnell to carry the sign after Tiger Mart's store manager persuaded prosecutors to seek the unconventional punishment.

http://media.nintendo.com/streetteam/bio...t_cote.mov

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bmvj/movie.html

It looks awesome! Very good graphics for the GBA... :)

Quote:In a recent interview Ubisoft confirmed that there will be another two Beyond Good & Evil games, making the series into a trilogy.

Apparently the ending for the first game was left rather ambiguous because they had planned on carrying on the story, good news for all Beyond Good & Evil fans.

Quote:Nintendo have stated that their profits had risen to 22.6 billion yen for the period from April to June. For the same period, a year before, their profits were 11.5 billon yen. This comes due to the strong demand for the GameCube in the US. Also sales of software for the GBA remained firm. Nintendo stock had ended the day up 3.24% at 12,100 yen.

Quote:Electronic Art's purchase of Criterion means that Electronic Art's will be able to further expand the number of games they create with the help of the Guildford studio, which contains more then 60 developers.

The purchase also means that Electronic Arts now own the rights for the Burnout and Black franchises, which have been selling well recently. As with all purchases this will mean that Electronic Arts has a much wider library of staff and resources to create games for all consoles.

Along with Criterion Electronic Arts have essentially purchased their RenderWare technology, one that is used in about a quarter of games. The company will keep lending RenderWare to other companies but also work on RenderWare4 for the next generation consoles.

“This is a great fit,” said EA Chairman and CEO Larry Probst. “Criterion offers us studio talent and a proven management team, globally recognized intellectual property and technology infrastructure that will accelerate our readiness on the next generation of consoles.”

“Combining EA’s tools and technology libraries with the existing RenderWare technologies will create a superior platform for game development,” said Criterion CEO David Lau-Kee. “This system will provide the most powerful common technological framework for creating great games. Our work on RenderWare4, combined with EA’s next generation efforts, will also boost development efforts on the next generation of consoles which are expected to debut over the next two years.”

“Our mission has always been to create exciting new franchises that appeal to the widest possible audience,” said Fiona Sperry, Head of Criterion Games. “Within EA, we can now secure our future as one of the world’s leading development studios.”

From IGN:

Quote:July 28, 2004 - Nintendo this morning revealed that the Nintendo DS, the company's upcoming dual-screen handheld system set for release at the end of this year in the US and Japan, will retain the codename as its official name. The company also revealed the system's newer design that's been sleeked up since its debut at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo two months ago.

The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover. The face buttons and shoulder buttons are larger, and some have been reconfigured for optimum use. The unit includes a new storage slot for the touch screen's stylus, and the speakers now broadcast in stereo sound, with or without headphones.

Software companies worldwide have more than 120 Nintendo DS games in development. Nintendo alone is developing more than 20 titles, and in excess of 100 companies have signed on to create games for the new system. The company is expected to announce the launch date, price, and game line-up in the near future.

"The Nintendo DS will change the future of hand-held gaming," says Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. "Dual screens, chat functions, a touch screen, wireless capabilities, voice recognition - these abilities surpass anything attempted before, and consumers will benefit from the creativity and innovation the new features bring to the world of video games."

-- Craig Harris

It's not quite appropriate but it's the best I got!

Happy birthday #22, toots! I love you like a sister (in West Virginia)!

:kiss:

Quest for Glory Collection. $5. Same for QFGV, but that's a more common game. ... QFG Collection runs upwards of $50 on EBay... which would probably be worth it for this great series, but when you get a chance like this you take it immediately. And thank people in the community selling off their old games to game stores... :)