Fully Charged: Carnival’s cruise ship IMAX screen, The Bard’s Tale IV bringing back 1980s gaming bliss, and original Star Trek phaser for sale
Start the week off right with our morning collection of hot gadget and tech news
Carnival’s next ship has an IMAX screen
It’s easy to roll your eyes at the kind of opulence and extravagance put on display with cruise ships, and Carnival’s latest creation is no exception. That’s because the Carnival Vista, the company’s largest ship to date, will launch in spring 2016 with its very own IMAX theater aboard.
The IMAX screen will measure three decks high, and it plans to offer both recent Hollywood fare and also IMAX-centric documentaries. After all, there’s no better place than sitting indoors on a cruise ship to see pristine images of, say, sea life. We might advise against showing 3D features, however – motion sickness already comes standard with the voyage.
READ MORE: The best movies to watch in 2015
The Bard’s Tale IV revealed
Nearly anyone who grew up on ‘80s PC games probably has fond memories of Interplay’s The Bard’s Tale trilogy, and after 27 years, we’re finally getting a proper sequel.
The Bard’s Tale IV was just announced this weekend at the inaugural PAX South convention in Texas, and it’ll hail from InXile Entertainment – the studio started by Interplay founder Brian Fargo after he left. It aims to modernize the classic game design from three decades back, and promises to bring back familiar locations, player classes, and the like.
This won’t be InXile’s first experience with the series, either: it also developed 2004’s The Bard’s Tale, which was a comedic, non-canon side game that wasn’t connected to the original trilogy. But as the numbered title promises, this one’s going back to the source material. InXile will be launching a crowdfunding campaign in the near future to help fund the release, much as it successfully did for Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera.
[Source: Game Informer]
READ MORE: The 30 most anticipated games of 2015
Original Star Trek phaser to be auctioned
Big Star Trek fan? Got at least US$60,000 (£40,000) laying around? Well, you might have a shot at purchasing the phaser prop used in the original television series from 1968-9. It had previously been in a private collection, but now it’ll be put on auction to raise a pretty penny.
Propworx is apparently hoping to raise that US$60,000 figure, but it could go for quite a bit more when the auction begins on 21 February. After all, a phaser rifle sold for US$231,000 (about £154,000) in 2013. Better start searching your pockets and looking under car seats if you want a shot at this iconic item.
READ MORE: Behold the Star Trek phaser universal remote
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer