Farewell to a Digital Bazaar: Lik-Sang Dies

Farewell to a Digital Bazaar: Lik-Sang Dies
By Karl Castaneda

I'll never forget my first import game. Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout - my brother bought it for my 11th birthday. I was totally obsessed with anything Goku at the time, and having seen an ad for the game in GameFan, my brother ordered it on the spot. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the region-lock on the PS1, so after some confusion, he turned to a small Hong-Kong-based website for a mod chip. A few weeks and some engineering ingenuity later, I was firing off kamehamehas like no tomorrow.

Sometime later, I found out that this small website was called Lik-Sang.

Founded in 1998, LS didn't exactly start out legitimately - their most popular products were mod chips (ask any console rep - they hate them with a passion) and flash carts that allowed ROMs to be played on retail Game Boy units. However, after a series of lawsuits in 2002, Lik-Sang was re-branded with a new owner, and since then, it's become the largest vendor of import games in the world.

Xbox Live market place. Are we getting everything we were promised?

At last year's E3, Microsoft put as much emphasis as they can into getting people into the new face of Xbox live. Chat with friends in private chat rooms, send text messages back and forth, watch downloadable videos, download old and new games from Xbox Live Arcade and get original downloadable content for games. Microsoft was really pushing the boundaries of community here. However it is the lack of true community support that I find substandard.

The Xbox 360 launch and launch-window games probably benefited the most from downloadable content. Download videos to preview games, new map packs at a reasonable price for games like Call of Duty 2 was expected but what about the other things Microsoft promised us? When is Dragon Lady going to be able to make her own things for others to download? When can I wear a t-shirt on my game characters that she made? I know I would certainly like to make stuff that everyone else can download. When can I create original gamer pictures? How about letting us create new and exciting dashboard backgrounds on our PC?

GVN sponsored tournament.

That's right we are sponsoring our first tournament. Hopefully if this one goes well, there will be many more to come.

Gaming Vision Network is proud to sponsor this tournament.

The DOA4 tournament will be held Friday, November 10th, 7pm at the Virtual Rush Cyber Cafe in Media, PA. In the Granite Run Mall Parking Lot.

Show up at least an hour early for registration.

Venue Information:

Virtual Rush
1145 W. Baltimore Pike
Media, PA 19063
www.virtualrush.net
610-545-9300

*Note* Virtual Rush is behind the AMC theatre in the granite Run Mall Parking. Not in the Mall itself.

Sponsor information:
http://gamingvisionnetwork.blogspot.com

There are 4 xbox 360's and 4 plasma high def tvs. Feel free to bring your copy of DOA4 just in case they don't have enough copies. I will be bringing mine just in case. You may also bring you HD if you wish to use an unlocked character.

Entry Fee: $25 ($10 for virtualrush hosting, $15 for prize money)

Rules:

-Best of 5 rounds (may change depending on attendence)
-Best of 3 matches (may change depending on attendence)
-Finals will be Best of 5 rounds/matches
-Double Elimanation
-DOA 4.1
-You are allowed to bring your own controller (please mark it)
-Programmable/macro controllers are not allowed.
-40 second time limit
-Random level select
-2 character limit: Winner of match must use same character, loser may change character before next match.
-Any character can be used
-Dangerzones allowed
-Normal life setting

Prize money will be divided:

1st place - 70%
2nd place - 20%
3rd place -10%

For more info please contact:

Hubbsdoctor@gmail.com
jeff@virtualrush.net